he will have us live by faith and not by sight Oh fellow Christians what a day will that be when we who have been kept prisoners by sin by sinners by the grave shall be fetcht out by the Lord himself When Christ shall come from heaven to plead with his enemies and set his Captives free It will not be such a Coming as his first was in meanness and poverty and contempt He will not come to be spit upon and buffeted and scorned and crucified again He will not come oh careless world to be slighted and neglected by you any more And yet that coming which was necessarily in Infirmity and Reproach for our sakes wanted not its Glory If the Angels of heaven must be the messengers of that Coming as being tydings of Joy to all people And the Heavenly Hoast must go before or accompany for the Celebration of his Nativity and must praise God with that solemnity Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men Oh then with what shoutings will Angels and Saints at that day proclaim Glory to God and Peace and Good will toward men If the stars of heaven must lead men from Remote parts of the world to come to worship a child in a manger how will the Glory of his next appearing constrain all the world to acknowledg his Soveraignty If the King of Israel riding on an Ass be entertained into Jerusalem with Hossana's Blessed be the King that comes in the Name of the Lord Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest Oh with what Proclamations of blessings Peace and Glory will he come toward the New Jerusalem If when he was in the form of a Servant they cry out What manner of man is this that both wind and sea obey him What will they say when they shall see him Coming in his Glory and the Heavens and the Earth obey him Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory Oh Christians it was comfortable to you to hear from him to believe in him and hope for him What will it be thus to see him The promise of his coming and our deliverance was comfortable What will it be to see him with all the Glorious attendance of his Angels come in person to deliver us The mighty God the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the Rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Out of Sion the perfection of Beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him He shall call to the Heavens from above and to the Earth that he may judg his people Gather my Saints together to me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness for God is Judg himself Sclah Psal. 50. from vers 1. to 6. This Coming of Christ is frequently mentioned in the Promises as the great Support of his peoples spirits till then And when ever the Apostles would quicken â—o duty or comfort and encourage to patient waiting they usually do it by mentioning Christs Coming Why then do we not usâ— more this cordial consideration when ever we want support and comfort To think and speak of that Day with Horror doth well beseem the impenitent Sinner but ill the beleeving Saint Such may be the voyce of a Beleever but it 's not the voyce of Faith Christians what do we beleeve and hope and wait for but to see that Day This is Pauls encouragement to moderation to Rejoycing in the Lord alway The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.4 5. It is to all them that Love his Appearing that the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give the Crown of Righteousness at that Day 2 Tim. 4.8 Dost thou so long to have him come into thy Soul with comfort and life and takest thy self but for a forlorn Orphan while he seemeth absent And dost thou not much more long for that Coming which shall perfect thy Life and Joy and Glory Dost thou so rejoyce after some short and slender enjoyment of him in thy heart Oh how wilt thou then Rejoyce How full of Joy was that Blessed Martyr Mr Glover with the Discovery of Christ to his Soul after long doubting and waiting in sorrows so that he cryes out He is come He is come If thou have but a dear friend returned that hath been far and long absent how do all run out to meet him with Joy Oh saith the Childe My Father is come saith the Wife My Husband is come And shall not we when we behold our Lord in his majesty returning cry out He is come He is come Shall the wicked with unconceiveable horror behold him and cry out Oh yonder is he whose blood we neglected whose Grace we resisted whose counsels we refused whose Government we cast off And shall not then the Saints with unconceiveable gladness cry out Oh yonder is he whose Blood redeemed us whose Spirit cleansed us whose Law did Govern us Yonder comes he in whom we trusted and now we see he hath not deceived our Trust He for whom we long waited and now we see we have not waited in vain Oh cursed Corruption that would have had us turn to the world and present things and give up our hopes and say Why should we wait for the Lord any Longer Now we see that Blessed are all they that wait for him Beleeve it fellow Christians this Day is not far off For yet a little while and he that comes will come and will not tarry And though the unbeleeving world and the unbelief of thy heart may say as those Atheistical Scoffers Where is the Promise of his Coming Do not all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Yet let us know The Lord is not slack of his Promise as some men count slackness One day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day I have thought on it many a time as a small Emblem of that day when I have seen our prevailing Army drawing towards the Towns and Castles of the Enemy Oh with what glad hearts do all the poor prisoners within hear the news and behold our approach How do they run up to their prison windows and thence behold us with Joy How glad are they at the roaâ—ing report of that Cannon which is the Enemies terror How do they clap each other on the back and cry Deliverance Deliverance While in the mean time the late insulting scorning cruel Enemies begin to speak them fair and beg their favor But all in vain for they are not at the dispose of Prisoners but of the General Their fair usage may make their conditions somewhat the more easie but yet they
Now we are stupified with vile and sensless hearts that can hear all the story of this Bloody Love and read all the dolors and sufferings of Love and hear all his sad complaints and all with dulness and unaffected He cries to us Behold and see Is it nothing to you O all ye that pass by Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow Lamen 1.12 and we will scarce hear or regard the dolorous voyce nor scarce turn aside to view the wounds of him who turned aside and took us up to heal our wounds at this so dear a rate But Oh then our perfected Souls will feel as well as hear and with feeling apprehensions flame again in Love for Love Now we set his picture wounded and dying before our eyes but can get it no neerer our hearts then if we beleeved nothing of what we read But then when the obstructions between the eye and the understanding are taken away and the passage opened between the head and the heart surely our eyes will everlastingly affect our heart and while we view with one eye our slain-revived Lord and with the other eye our lost-recovered Souls and transcendent Glory these views will eternally pierce us and warm our very Souls And those eyes through which folly and lust hath so often stole into our hearts shall now be the Casements to let in the Love of our dearest Lord for ever Now though we should as some do travel to Jerusalem and view the Mount of Olives where he prayed and wept and see the Dolorons way by which he bare his Cross and enter the Temple of the Holy Grave yea if we should with Peter have stooped down and seen the place where he lay and behold his Relicts yet these Bolted doors of sin and flesh would have kept out the feeling of all that Love But Oh! that 's the Joy we shall then leave these hearts of stone and Rock behinde us and the sin that here so close besets us and the sottish unkindness that followed us so long shall not be able to follow us into that Glory But we shall behold as it were the wounds of Love with eyes and hearts of Love for ever Suppose a little to help our apprehensions that a Saint who hath partaked of the Joys of Heaven had been translated from as long an abode in Hell and after the experience of such a change should have stood with Mary and the rest by the Cross of Christ and have seen the Blood and heard the Groans of his Redeemer What think you Would love have stirred in his Brest or no Would the voyce of his dying Lord have melted his heart or no Oh that I were sensible of what I speak With what astonishing apprehensions then will Redeemed Saints everlastingly behold their Blessed Redeemer I will not meddle with their vain audacious Question who must needs know whether the glorified body of Christ do yet retain either the wounds or scars But this is most certain that the memory of it will be as fresh and the impressions of Love as deep and its workings as strong as if his wounds were still in our eyes and his complaints still in our ears and his blood still streaming afresh Now his heart is open to us and ours shut to him But when his heart shall be open and our Hearts open Oh the Blessed Congress that there will then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first sinful silly woman that he appears to How doth Love struggle for expressions and the straitned fire shut up in the brest strive to break forth Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his feet having her heart as neer to his heart as her hands were to his feet What a meeting of Love then will there be between the new glorified Saint and the Glorious Redeemer But I am here at a loss my apprehensions fail me and fall so short Onely this I know it will be the singular praise of our inheritance that it was bought with the price of that blood and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the purchaser and the price together with the possession Neither will the views of the wounds of Love renew our wounds of sorrow He whose first words after his Resurrection were to a great sinner Woman why weepest thou knows how to raise Love and Joy by all those views without raising any cloud of sorrow or storm of tears at all He that made the Sacramental Commemoration of his Death to be his Churches Feast will sure make the real enjoyment of its blessed purchase to be marrow and fatness And if it afforded Joy to hear from his mouth This is my Body which is given for you and This is my Blood which was shed for you What Joy will it afford to hear This Glory is the fruit of my Body and my Blood and what a merry feast will it be when we shall drink of the fruit of the Vine new with him in the Kingdom of his Father as the fruit of his own Blood David would not drink of the waters which he longed for because they were the blood of those men who jeoparded their lives for them and thought them fitter to offer to God then to please him But we shall value these waters more highly and yet drink them the more sweetly because they are the Blood of Christ not jeoparded onely but shed for them They will be the more sweet and dear to us because they were so bitter and Dear to him If the buyer be judicious we estimate things by the price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased with the life of our dearest friend how highly should we value it Nay if a Dying Friend deliver us but a token of his Love how carefully do we preserve it and still remember him when we behold it as if his own name were written on it And will not then the Death and Blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed Glory Methinks England should value the plenty of the Gospel with their Peace and Freedom at a higher rate when they remember what it hath cost How much precious blood How many of the Lives of Gods worthies and our most dear friends besides all other cost Methinks when I am with freedom preaching or hearing or living I see my dying friends before mine eyes whose blood was shâ—d for this and look the more respectively on them yet living whose frequent dangers did procure it Oh then when we are rejoycing in Glory how shall we think of the blood that revived our Souls and how shall we look upon him whose sufferings did put that Joy into our hearts How carefully preserve we those prizes which with greatest hazard we gained from the enemy Goliahs sword must be kept as a Trophie and layd up behinde the Ephod and in a time of need David says There 's none to that Surely when
review of which intire work there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort And it is not to be made so light of as most do nor put by with a wet finger That Scripture doth so ordinarily put Repentance before Faith and make them joyntly conditions of the Gospel Which Repentance contains those acts of the Wills aversion from sin and Creatures before exprest It is true if we take Faith in the largest sense of all then it contains Repentance in it but if we take it strictly no doubt there is some acts of it go before Repentance and some follow after Yet is it not of much moment which of the acts before mentioned we shall judg to precede Whether our aversion from sin and renouncing our Idols or our right receiving Christ seeing it all composeth but one work which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step and layeth but one stone in sincerity And the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts Yet though the disposition to all gracious acts be given at once I conceive in our Actual turning the term from which in order of nature is considerable before the term to which we turn If any object That every Grace is received from Christ and therefore must follow our receiving him by Faith I answer There be receivings from Christ before believing and before our receiving of Christ himself Such is all that work of the Spirit that brings the soul to Christ There is a passive receiving before the active Both power and act of Faith are in order of Nature before Christ actually received and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of Faith Though Christ give pardon and Salvation upon condition of believing yet he gives not a new heart a soft heart Faith it self nor the first true Repentance on that condition No more then he gives the Preaching of the Gospel the Spirits motions to believe c. upon a pre-requisite condition of believing SECT V. 4. ANd as the Will is thus averted from the fore-mentioned objects so at the same time doth it cleave to God the Father and to Christ. Its first acting in order of Nature is toward the whole Divine Essence and it consists especially in electing and desiring God for his portion and chief Good Having before been convinced That nothing else can be his happiness he now findes it is in God and there looks toward it But it is yet rather with desire then hope For alas the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God under the guilt of sin and curse of his Law and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered And therefore having before been convinced also That onely Christ is able and willing to do this and having heard this mercy in the Gospel freely offered his next act is Secondly to accept most affectionately of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended and the Divine Essence is principally that ultimate end yet not excluding the humane nature in the second person But Christ as Mediator is the way to that end and throughout the Gospel is offered to us in such terms as import his Being the means of making us happy in God And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead do not justifie as this last doth yet is it I think as proper to the people of God as this nor can any man unregenerate truly chuse God for his Lord his portion and chief good Therefore do they both mistake They who onely mention our turning to Christ and they who onely mention our turning to God in this work of Conversion as is touched before Pauls preaching was Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And life eternal consists first in knowing the onely true God and then Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 Though Repentance Assent Good works c. are required to our full Justification as subservient to or concurrent with Faith yet is the true nature of this justifying Faith it self contained in this most affectionate accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord. And I think it necessarily contains all this in it Some plead it is the Assenting act some a Fiducial adherence or recumbency I call it Accepting it being principally an act of the Will but yet also of the whole soul. This Accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to and calleth the receiving of Christ I call it an Affectionate accepting though Love seem another act quite distinct from Faith and if you take Faith for any one single act so it is yet I take it as essential to that Faith which justifies To accept Christ without Love is not justifying Faith Nor doth Love follow as a Fruit but immediately concur nor concur as a meer concomitant but essential to a true accepting For this Faith is the receiving of Christ either with the whole soul or with part â—â—t with part onely for that is but a partial receiving And 〈◊〉 clear Divines of late conclude That justifying Faith resides â—â—rn in the Understanding and the Will therefore in the whole soul and so cannot be one single act All those Affections that are for the receiving and entertainment of Good called the concupiscible must receive and entertain Christ. I adde it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ because he that loves Father Mother or any thing more then him is not worthy of him nor can be his Disciple and consequently not justified by him And the truth of this Affection is not to be judged so much by feeling the pulse of it as by comparing it with our affection to other things He that loveth nothing so much as Christ doth love him truly though he finde cause still to bewail the coldness of his Affections I make Christ himself the Object of this Accepting it being not any Theological Axiom concerning himself but himself in person I call it an Accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received or not at all It is not onely to acknowledg his sufferings and accept of pardon and glory but to acknowledg his soveraignty and submit to his Government and way of saving and I take all this to be contained in justifying Faith The work which Christ thus accepted of is to perform is to bring the sinners to God that they may be happy in him and this both really by his Spirit and relatively in reconciling them and making them sons and to present them perfect before him at last and to possess them of the Kingdom This will Christ perform and the obtaining of these are the sinners lawful ends in receiving Christ And to these uses doth he offer himself unto us 5. To this end doth
but to resolve our faith into some humane Testimony even to lay our foundation upon the sand where all will fall at the next assault It s strange to consider how we all abhor that piece of Popery as most injurious to God of all the rest which resolves our faith into the Authority of the Church And yet that we do for the generality of professors content our selves with the same kinde of faith Onely with this difference The Papists believe Scripture to be the Word of God because their Church saith so and we because our Church or our Leaders say so Yea and many Mininisters never yet gave their people better grounds but tell them which is true that it is damnable to deny it but help them not to the necessary Antecedents of Faith If any think that these words tend to the shaking of mens faith I answer First Onely of that which will fall of it self Secondly And that it may in time be built again more strongly Thirdly Or at least that the sound may be surer setled It s to be understood that many a thousand do profess Christianity and zealously hate the enemies thereof upon the same grounds to the same ends and from the same inward corrupt principles as the Jews did hate and kill Christ It is the Religion of the Countrey where every man is reproached that believes otherwise they were born and brought up in this belief and it hath increased in them upon the like occasions Had they been born and bred in the Religion of Mahomet they would have beeen as zealous for him The difference betwixt him and a Mahometan is more that he lives where better Laws and Religion dwell then that he hath more knowledg or soundness of apprehension Yet would I not drive into causless doubtings the soul of any true Believer or make them believe their faith is unsound because it is not so strong as some others Therefore I add some may perhaps have ground for their beliefe though they are not able to expresse it by argumentation and may have Arguments in their hearts to perswade themselves though they have none in their mouths to perswade another yea and those Arguments in themselves may be solid and convincing Some may be strengthened by some one sound Argument and yet be ignorant of all the rest without overthrowing the truth of their Faith Some also may have weaker apprehensions of the Divine authority of Scripture then others and as weaker grounds for their Faith so a lesse degree of assent And yet that assent may be sincere and saving so it have these two qualifications First If the Arguments which we have for believing the Scripture be in themselves more sufficient to convince of its truth then any Arguments of the enemies of Scripture can be to perswade a man of the contrary And do accordingly discover to us a high degree at least of probability Secondly And if being thus far convinced it prevailes with us to chuse this as the onely way of life and to adventure our souls upon this way denying all other and adhering though to the losse of estate and life to the Truth of Christ thus weakly apprehended This I think God will accept as a true Beliefe But though such a faith may serve to salvation yet when the Christian should use it for his consolation he will finde it much faile him even as leggs or arms of the weak or lame which when a man should use them do faile him according to the degrees of their weakness or lameness so much doubting as there remaines of the Truth of the word or so much weakness as there is in our believing or so much darkness or uncertainty as there is in the evidence which perswades us to believe so much will be wanting to our Love Desires Labors Adventures and especially to our joyes Therefore I think it necessary to speak a little and but a little to fortifie the believer against temptations and to confirme his faith in the certain Truth of that Scripture which containes the promises of his Rest. CHAP. III. SECT I. ANd here it is necessary that we first distinguish betwixt 1. The subject matter of Scripture or the doctrine which it contains 2. And the words or writings containing or expressing this doctrine The one is as the blood the other as the veins in which it runs Secondly We must distinguish betwixt 1. the substantiall and fundamentall part of Scriptureâ— doctrine without which there is no salvation and 2. the circumstantiall and less necessary part as Genealogies Successions Chronology c. Thirdly Of the substantiall fundamentall part 1. Some may be known and proved even without Scripture as being written in nature it self 2. some can be known onely by the assent of Faith to Divine Revelation Fourthly Of this last sort 1. some things are above Reason as it is without Divine Revelation both in respect of their Probability existence and futurity 2. others may be known by meer Reason without Divine Testimony in regard of their Possibility and Probability but not in regard of their existence or futurity Fifthly Again matter of Doctrine must be distinguished from matter of fact Sixthly Matter of fact is either 1. such as God produceth in an ordinary way or 2. extrordinary and miraculous Seventhly History and Phophesie must be distinguished Eighthly We must distinguish also the books and writings themselves 1. between the maine scope and those parts which express the chief contents and 2. particular words and phrases not expressing any substantialls Ninthly Also it s one question 1. whether there be a certain number of books which are Canonicall or of Divine Authority and 2. another question what number there is of these and which particular books they are Tenthly The direct expresse sense must be distinguished from that which is only implyed or consequentiall Eleventhly We must distinguish Revelation unwriten from that which is writen Twelfthly and Lastly We must distinguish that Scripture which was spoke or written by God immediatly from that which was spoke or writ immediatly by man and but mediatly by God And of this last sort 1. Some of the instruments or penmen are known 2. Some not known Of those known 1. Some that spoke much in Scripture were bad men 3. others were godly And of these some were 1. More eminent and extraordinary as Prophets and Apostles 2. Others were persons more inferiour and ordinary Again as we must distinguish of Scripture and Divine Testimony so must we also distinguish the apprehension or Faith by which we do receive it 1. There is a Divine Faith when we take the Testimony to be Gods own and so believe the thing testified as upon Gods word Secondly There is a Human Faith when we believe it meerly upon the credit of man 2. Faith is either first implicit when we believe the thing is true though we understand not what it is or secondly explicit when we believe and understand
it If in case of his bodily distress you must not bid him go and come again to morrow when you have it by you and he is in want Prov. 3.27 28. how much less may you delay the succor of his Soul If once death snatch him away he is then out of the reach of your Charity SECT VI. 3. LEt thy Exhortation proceed from Compassion and Love and let the manner of it clearly shew the person thou dealest with that it hence proceedeth It is not jeering or scorning or reproaching a man for his faults that is a likely way to work his reformation Nor is it the right way to convert him to God to rail at him and vilifie him with words of disgrace Men will take them for their enemies that thus deal with them And the words of an enemy are little perswading Lay by your Passion therefore and take up compassion and go to poor sinners with tears in your eyes that they may see you indeed believe them to be miserable and that you do unfeignedly pity their case Deal with them with earnest humble intreatings Let them see that your very bowels do yearn over them and that it is the very desire of your hearts to do them good Let them perceive that you have no other end but the procuring of their everlasting Happiness and that it is your sense of their danger and your love to their Souls that forceth you to speak even because you know the terrors of the Lord and for fear lest you should see them in eternal torments Say to them Why friend you know it is no advantage of my own that I seek The way to please you and to keep your friendship were to sooth you in your way or to speak well of you or to let you alone but Love will not suffer me to see you perish and be silent I seek nothing at your hands but that which is necessary to your own happiness It is your self that will have the gain and comfort if you come in to Christ c. If men should thus go to every ignorant wicked neighbor they have and thus deal with them Oh what blessed fruits should we quickly see I am ashamed to hear some lazy hypocritical wretches to revile their poor ignorant neighbors and separate from their company and communion and proudly to judg them unfit for their society before ever they once tryed with them this compassionate Exhortation Oh you little know what a prevailing course this were like to prove and how few of the vilest drunkards or swearers would prove so obstinate as wholy to reject or despise the Exhortations of Love I know it must be God that must change mens hearts But I know also that God worketh by means and when he meaneth to prevail with men he usually fitteth the means accordingly and stirreth up men to plead with them in a prevailing way and so setteth in with his grace and maketh it successful Certainly those that have tryed can tell you by experience that there is no way so prevailing with men as the way of Compassion and Love So much of these as they discern in your Exhortation usually so much doth it succeed with their hearts And therefore I beseech those that are faithful to practise this course SECT VII 4. ANother Direction I would give you is this Do it with all possible plainness and faithfulness Do not dawb with men and hide from them their misery or danger or any part of it Do not make their sins less then they are nor speak of them in an extenuating language Do not encourage them in a false hope or faith no more then you would discourage the sound hopes of the righteous If you see his case dangerous tell him plainly of it Neighbor I am afraid God hath not yet renewed your Soul and that it is yet a stranger to the great work of Regeneration and Sanctification I doubt you are not yet recovered from the power of Satan to God nor brought out of the state of wrath which you were born in and have lived in I doubt you have not chosen Christ above all nor set your heart upon him nor unfeignedly taken him for your Soveraign Lord. If you had sure you durst not so easily disobey him you could not so neglect him and his worship in your family and in publique you could not so eagerly follow the world and talk of almost nothing but the things of this world while Christ is seldom mentioned or sought after by you If you were in Christ you would be a new Creature old things would be passed away and all things would become new you would have new thoughts and new talk and new company and new endeavors and a new conversation Certainly without these you can never be saved You may think otherwise and hope better as long as you will but your hopes will all deceive you and perish with you Alas it is not as you will nor as I will who shall be saved but it is as God will and God hath told us That without holiness none shall see him and except we be born again we cannot enter into his Kingdom and that all that would not have Christ raign over them shall be brought forth and destroyed before him Oh therefore look to your state in time Thus must you deal roundly and faithfully with men if ever you intend to do them good It is not hovering at a distance in a general discourse that will serve the turn It is not in curing mens Souls as in curing their bodies where they must not know their danger lest it sadden them and hinder the cure They are here agents in their own cure and if they know not their misery they will never bewail it nor know how much need they have of a Saviour If they know not the worst they will not labour to prevent it but will sit still or loiter till they drop into perdition and will trifle out their time in delays till it be too late And therefore speak to men as Christ to the Pharisees till they knew that he meant them Deal plainly or you do but deceive and destroy them SECT VIII 5. ANd as you must do it Plainly so also Seriously Zealously and Effectually The exceeding stupidity and deadness of mens hearts is such that no other dealing will ordinarily work You must call loud to awake a man in a Swoun or Lethargy If you speak to the common sort of men of the evil of their sin of their need of Christ of the danger of their Souls and of the necessity of Regeneration they will wearily and unwillingly give you the hearing and put off all with a sigh or a few good wishes and say God forgive us we are all sinners and there 's an end If ever you will do them good therefore you must sharpen your exhortation and set it home and follow it with their hearts till you have rouzed them up and made
If God were not more willing of our company then we are of his how long should we remain thus distant from him And as we had never been sanctified if God had stayed till we were willing so if he should refer it wholly to our selves it would at least be long before we should be glorified I confesse that Death of it self is not desirable but the souls Rest with God is to which death is the common passage And because we are apt to make light of this sin and to plead our common nature for to patronize it let me here set before you its aggravations and also propound some further considerations which may be useful to you and my self against it SECT II. ANd first consider What a deal of gross infidelity doth lurk in the bowels of this sin Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness and of the truth of the Scripture which doth promise it to us or at least a doubting of our own interest or most usually somewhat of both these And though Christians are usually most sensible of the latter and therefore complain most against it yet I am apt to suspect the former to be the main radicall master sin and of greatest force in this business O if we did but verily believe that the promise of this glory is the word of God and that God doth truly mean as he speaks and is fully resolved to make it good if we did verily believe that there is indeed such blessedness prepared for believers as the Scripture mentioneth sure we should be as impatient of living as we are now fearful of dying and should think every day a yeer till our last day should come We should as hardly refrain from laying violent hands on our selvs or from the neglecting of the means of our health and life as we do now from overmuch carefulness and seeking of life by unlawful means If the eloquent oration of a Philosopher concerning the souls immortality and the life to come could make his affected hearer presently to cast himself head long from the rock as impatient of any longer delay what would a serious Christians belief do if Gods Law against self murder did not restrain Is it possible that we can truly believe that death will remove us from misery to such glory and yet be loth to dye If it were the doubts of our own interest which did fear us yet a true belief of the certainty and excellency of this Rest would make us restless till our interest be cleared If a man that is desperately sick to day did believe he should arise sound the next morning or a man to day in despicable poverty had assurance that he should to morrow arise a prince would they be afraid to go to bed Or rather think it the longest day of their lives till that desired night and morning come The truth is though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths yet there is much infidelity and paganisme in our hearts which is the maine cause that we are so loth to dye SECT III 3. ANd as the weakness of our Faith so also the coldness of our Love is exceedingly discovered by our unwillingness to dye Love doth desire the neerest conjunction the fullest fruition and closest communion Where these desires are absent there is only a naked pretence of Love He that ever felt such a thing as Love working in his brest hath also felt these desires attending it If we love our friend we love his company his presence is comfortable his absence is troublesome when he goes from us we desire his return when he comes to us we entertain him with welcome and gladness when he dyes we mourn and usually over-mourn to be separated from a faithful friend is to us as the renting of a member from our bodyes And would not our desires after God be such if we really loved him Nay should it not be much more then such as he is above all friends most lovely The Lord teach us to look closely to our hearts and take heed of self-deceit in this point For certainly what ever we pretend or conceit if we love either Father Mother Husband Wife Childe Friend Wealth or life more then Christ we are yet none of his sincere Disciples When it comes to the tryall the question will not be Who hath preached most or heard most or talked most but who hath loved most when our account is given in Christ will not take Sermons Prayers Fastings no nor the giving of our goods nor the burning of our bodies in stead of love 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4 8 13. 16.22 Ephes. 6.24 And do we love him and yet care not how long we are from him If I be deprived of my bosom friend me thinks I am as a man in a wilderness solitary and disconsolate And is my absence from God no part of my trouble and yet can I take him for my chiefest friend If I delight but in some Garden or Walk or Gallery I would be much in it If I love my Books I am much with them and almost unweariedly poaring on them The food which I love I would often feed on the clothes that I love I would often wear the recreations which I love I would often use them the business which I love I would be much employed in And can I love God and that above all these and yet have no desires to be with him Is it not a far likelier sign of hatred then of love when the thoughts of our appearing before God are our most grievous thoughts and when we take our selves as undone because we must die and come unto him Surely I should scarce take him for an unfeigned friend who were as well contented to be absent from me as we ordinarily are to be absent from God Was it such a joy to Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt and shall we so dread the sight of Christ in glory and yet say we love him I dare not conclude that we have no love at all when we are so loth to die But I dare say were our love more we should die more willingly Yea I dare say Did we love God but as strongly as a worldling loves his wealth or an ambitious man his honor or a voluptuous man his pleasure yea as a drunkard loves his swinish delight or an unclean person his bruitish lust We should not then be so exceeding loth to leave the world and go to God O if this holy flame of love were throughly kindled in our brests in stead of our pressing fears our dolorous complaints and earnest prayers against death we should joyn in Davids Wilderness-lamentations Psal. 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God The truth is As our knowledg of God is exceeding
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
such a guide Can the Sun lead thee to a state of darkness or can he mislead thee that is the light of every man that cometh into the world will he lead thee to death who died to save thee from it or can he do thee any hurt who for thy sake did suffer so much follow him and he will shew thee the Paradise of God he will give thee a sight of the New Jerusalem he will give thee a taste of the Tree of Life Sit no longer then by the fire of earthly common comforts whether the cold of carnal fears and sorrows did drive thee thy Winter is past and wilt thou house thy self still in earthly thoughts and confine thy self to drooping and dulness even the silly Flies will leave their holes when the Winter is over and the Sun draws neer them the Ants will stir the Fishes rise the Birds will sing the earth look green and all with joyful note will tell thee the Spring is come Come forth then O my drooping soul and lay aside thy Winter mourning Robes let it be seen in thy believing Joyes and Praise that the day is appearing and the Spring is come and as now thou seest thy comforts green thou shalt shortly see them white and ripe for Harvest and then thou who art now called forth to see and taste shalt be called forth to reap and gather and take possession Shall I suspend and delay my joyes till then should not the joyes of the Spring go before the joyes of Harvest Is Title nothing before possession Is the heir in no better a state then the slave My Lord hath taught me to rejoyce in hope of his glory and to see it thorow the bars of a Prison and even when I am persecuted for righteousness sake when I am reviled and all manner of evil sayings are said against me falsly for his sake then hath he commanded me to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because of this my great reward in Heaven How justly is an unbelieving heart possessed by sorrow and made a prey to cares and fears when it self doth create them and thrust away its offered peace and joy I know it is the pleasure of my bounteous Lord that none of his family should want for Comfort nor live such a poor and miserable life nor look with such a famished dejected face I know he would have my joyes exceed my sorrowes And as much as he delighteth in the humble and contrite yet doth he more delight in the soul as it delighteth in him I know he taketh no pleasure in my self-procured sadness nor would he call on me to weep or mourn but that it is the only way to these delights Would I spread the Table before my guest and bring him forth my best provision and bid him sit down and eat and welcome if I did not unfeignedly desire he should do so Hath my Lord spread me a table in this Wilderness and furnished it with the promises of Everlasting Glory and set before me Angels food and broched for me the side of his beloved Son that I might have a better wine then the blood of the Grape Doth he so frequently and importunately invite me to sit down and draw forth my faith and feed and spare not Nay hath he furnished me to that end with reason and faith and a rejoycing disposition And yet is it possible that he should be unwilling of my joyes Never think it O my unbelieving soul nor dare to charge him with thy uncomfortable heaviness who offereth thee the foretaste of the highest delights that heaven doth afford and God bestow Doth he not bid thee delight thy self in the Lord and promise to give thee then the desires of thy heart Hath he not charged thee to rejoyce evermore Yea to sing aloud and shout for joy Psal. 47.1 Why should I then draw back discouraged My God is willing if I were but willing He is delighted in my delights He would faine have it my constant frame and daily business to be neer to him in my believing Meditations and to live in the sweetest thoughts of his goodness and to be always delighting my soul in himself O blessed work Employment fit for the sons of God! But ah my Lord thy feast is nothing to me without an appetite Thou must give me a stomack as well as meat Thou hast set the dainties of heaven before me but alas I am blinde and cannot see them I am sick and cannot relish them I am so benummed that I cannot put forth a hand to take them What is the glory of Sun and Moon to a clod of earth Thou knowest I need thy subjective grace as well as thine objective and that thy works upon mine own distempered soul is not the smallest part of my salvation I therefore humbly beg this grace that as thou hast opened heaven unto me in thy blessed word so thou wouldest open mine eyes to see it and my heart to affect it else heaven will be no heaven to me Awake therefore O thou Spirit of Life and breath upon thy Graces in me blow upon the garden of my heart that the spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits Cant. 4.16 And take me by the hand and lift me up from earth to thy self 〈◊〉 I may fetch one walk in the garden of glory and see by Faith what thou hast laid up for them that love thee and wait for thee Away then you soul-tormenting cares and fears Away you importune heart-vexing sorrows At least forbear me a little while stand by and trouble not my aspiring soul stay here below whilest I go up and see my Rest. The way is strange to me but not to Christ. There was the eternal dwelling of his glorious deitie And thither hath he also brought his assumed glorified flesh It was his work to purchase it it is his work to prepare it and to prepare me for it and to bring me to it The Eternal God of truth hath given me his promise his seal and his oath to assure me that believing in Christ I shall not perish but have everlasting life Thither shall my soul be speedily removed and my body very shortly follow It is not so far but he that is every where can bring me thither nor so difficult and unlikely but Omnipotencie can effect it And though this unbelief may diminish my delights and much abate my joyes in the way Yet shall it not abate the love of my Redeemer nor make the promise of none effect And can my tongue say that I shall shortly and surely live with God and yet my heart not leap within me Can I say it believingly and not rejoycingly Ah faith how sensibly now do I perceive thy weakness Ah unbelief if I had never heard or known it before yet how sensibly now do I perceive thy malicious tyranny But though thou darken my light and dull my life
I have in my Books my friends and in thine Ordinances till thou hast given me a taste of something more sweet my soul will be loth to part with these The Traveller will hold his Cloak the faster when the windes do bluster and the storms assault him but when the Sun shines hot he will cast it off as a burthen so will my soul when thou frownest or art strange be lother to leave this garment of flesh but thy smiles would make me leave it as my prison but it is not thy ordinary discoveries that will here suffice as the work is greater so must be thy help O turn these fears into strong desires and this lothness to dye into longings after thee while I must be absent from thee let my soul as heartily groan under thine absence as my pained body doth under its want of health And let not those groans be counterfeit or constrained but let them come from a longing loving heart unfeignedly judging it best to depart and be with Christ And if I have any more time to spend on earth let me live as without the world in thee as I have sometime lived as without thee in the world O suffer me not to spend in strangeness to thee another day of this my Pilgrimage while I have a thought to think let me not forget thee while I have a tongue to move let me mention thee with delight while I have a breath to breathe let it be after thee and for thee while I have a knee to bend let it bow daily at thy Footstool and when by sickness thou confinest me to my Couch do thou make my bed and number my pains and put all my tears into thy Bottle And as when my spirit groaned for my sins the flesh would not second it but desired that which my spirit did abhor so now when my flesh doth groan under its pains let not my spirit second it but suffer the flesh to groan alone and let me desire that day which my flesh abhorreth that my friends may not with so much sorrow wait for the departure of my soul as my soul with joy shall wait for its own departure and then let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last end be as his even a removall to that Glory that shall never end Send forth thy Convoy of Angels for my departing soul and let them bring it among the perfected spirits of the Just and let me follow my dear friends that have died in Christ before me und when my friends are weeping over my Grave let my spirit be reposed with thee in Rest and when my Corps shall lye there rotting in the dark let my soul be in the Inheritance of the Saints in Light And O thou that numberest the very hairs of my head do thou number all the dayes that my body lyes in the dust and thou that writest all my members in thy Book do thou keep an account of all my scattered bones and hasten O my Saviour the time of thy return send forth thine Angels and let that dreadful joyful Trumpet sound delay not lest the living give up their hopes delay not lest earth should grow like hell and lest thy Church by division be crumbled all to dust and dissolved by being resolved into individual unites Delay not lest thine enemies get advantage of thy Flock and lest Pride and Hypocrisie and Sensuality and Unbelief should prevail against thy little Remnant and share among them thy whole Inheritance and when thou comest thou finde not Faith on the earth Delay not lest the Grave should boast of Victory and having learned Rebellion of its guest should plead prescription and refuse to deliver thee up thy due O hasten that great Resurrection Day when thy command shall go forth and none shall disobey when the Sea and Earth shall yield up their Hostages and all that slept in the Graves shall awake and the dead in Christ shall first arise when the seed that thou sowedst corruptible shall come forth incorruptible and Graves that received but rottenness and retained but dust shall return thee glorious Stars and Suns therefore dare I lay down my carcass in the dust entrusting it not to a Grave but to Thee and therefore my flesh shall rest in Hope till thou raise it to the possession of the Everlasting REST. Return O Lord how long O let thy Kingdom come Thy desolate Bride saith Come for thy Spirit within her saith Come who teacheth her thus to pray with groanings after thee which cannot be expressed The whole Creation saith Come waiting to be delivered from the bondage of Corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Thy Self hast said Surely I come quickly Amen Even so come LORD IESVS The Conclusion THus Reader I have given thee my best advice for the attaining and maintaining a Heavenly Conversation The maner is imperfect and too much mine own but for the main matter I dare say I received it from God From him I deliver it thee and his charge I lay upon thee That thou entertain and practise it If thou canst not do it methodically and fully yet do it as thou canst onely be sure thou do it seriously and frequently If thou wilt believe a man that hath made some small tryal of it thou shalt finde it will make thee another man and elevate thy soul and clear thine understanding and polish thy conversation and leave a pleasant savor upon thy heart so that thy own experience will make thee confess That one hour thus spent will more effectually revive thee then many in bare external duties and a day in these contemplations will afford thee truer content then all the glory and riches of the Earth Be acquainted with this work and thou wilt be in some remote sort acquainted with God Thy joyes will be spiritual and prevalent and lasting according to the nature of their Blessed Object thou wilt have comfort in life and comfort in death VVhen thou hast neither wealth nor health nor the pleasure of this world yet wilt thou have comfort Comfort without the presence or help of any Friend without a Minister without a Book when all means are denied thee or taken from thee yet maist thou have vigorous real comfort Thy graces will be mighty and active and victorious and the daily joy which is thus fetcht from Heaven will be thy strength Thou wilt be as one that standeth on the top of an exceeding high Mountain he looks down on the world as if it were quite below him How small do the Fields and VVoods and Countreys seem to him Cities and Towns seem but little spots Thus despicably wilt thou look on all things here below The greatest Princes will seem below thee but as Grashoppers and the busie contentious coveteous world but as a heap of Ants. Mens threatnings will be no terror to thee nor the honors of this world any strong enticement Temptations will be more harmless as
of this Rest proved by Scripture p. 167 Chap. 2. Perswasions to study and preach the divine authority of Scripture p. 174 Chap. 3 Certain distinctions concerning Scripture p. 184 Sixty Positions concerning Scriptures ibid. Chap. 4. The 1. Argument to prove Scripture the Word of God p. 191 That arguing from Miracles testified by man is no Popish resolving our faith into humane testimony p. 206 The excellency of this argument from Miracles p. 208 What the sin against the Holy Ghost is ibid. The necessity of using humane Testimony p. 210 The use of Church-governours and Teachers and how far they are to be obeyed p. 211 The excellent use of Antiquities for matter of fact p. 213 Chap. 5. The 2. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 214 Chap. 6. The 3. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 221 Chap. 7. The 4. Argument to prove Scripture Gods Word p. 235 Of extraordinary Temptations p. 237 Of Apparitions p. 238 Of Sateâ— is possessing and tormenting mens bodies p. 241 Of Witches and the devils compacts with them p. 243 The necessity of a written Word p. 245 Chap. 8. This Rest remaineth to none but the People of God p. 252 Chap. 9. Whether separated Souls enjoy Rest before the Resurrection Proved that they do in a great measure by 20. Arguments p. 257 The Contents of the Third Part. CHAP. I. THE first Vse Shewing the unconceivable misery of the wicked in their loss of this Rest. p. 265 The greatness of their loss 1. They lose all the personall perfection of Soul and Body which the Saints have p. 268 2. They lose God himself p. 270 3. They lose all those spirituall delightfull affections by which the blessed do feed on God p. 272 4. They lose the society of Angels and Saints p. 273 Chap. 2. The aggravations of the wickeds loss of Heaven p. 276 1. Their understandings will be cleared to know its worth p. 277 2. And also enlarged to have deeper apprehensions of it p. 279 3. Conscience will fully apply it to themselves ibid. 4. Their effections will be more lively and enlarged p 281 5. Their memories strong to feed their torment p. 283 Ten things concerning their loss of this Rest which it will for ever torment them to remember p. 285 to 298 Chap. 3. Aggravations from the losses which accompany the loss of Rest. p. 299 1. They shall lose their present presumptuous conceit of Gods favour to them and of their part in Christ. p. 300 2. They shall lose all their Hopes p. 303 3. They shall lose their present ease and peace p. 311 4. They shall lose all their carnall mirth p. 315 5. And all their sensuall contentments and delights p. 316 Chap. 4. The greatness of the damneds torments opened p. 319 By eight aggravations of them to p. 328 The certain truth of these torments ibid. The intollerableness of this loss and torment discovered by ten questions p. 332 Chap. 5. The second Vse Reproving the generall neglect of this Rest and exciting to the utmost diligence in seeking it p. 339 1. To the worldly minded that cannot spare time p. 340 2. To the prophane ungodly presumptuous multitude p. 343 3. To lazy formall self-deceiving Professors p. 344 And of these 1. To the opinionative hypocrite 2. And the worldly hypocrite ibid. p. 345 4. To the godly themselves for their great negligence Magistrates Ministers and People p. 35â— Chap. 6. An exhortation to the greatest seriousness in seeking Rest. p. 349 Twenty lively rationall considerations to quicken us up to the greatest diligence that is possible to p. 350 Ten more very quickening considerations p. 365 Ten more very quickening by way of question p. 369 Ten more peculiar to the godly to quicken them p. 374 Chap. 7. The third Vse Perswading all men to try their title to this Rest and directing them in this tryall p 380 Self-examination defined and explained p. 386 The nature of Assurance or certainty of Salvation opened How much and what the Spirit doth to the producing it And what Scripture what Knowledg what Faith what Holiness and Evidences what Conscience or internall sense and what Reason or discourse do in this work p. 388 What the seal of the Spirit is What the testimony of the Spirit and what the testimony of Conscience p. 391 Against the common distinction of certainty of Evidence and of adherence p. 392 That we are justified and beloved of God is not properly to be believed much less immediatly and by all men ibid. That Assurance may be here attained though not perfect Assurance p. 393 Hinderances that keep from examination 1. Satan p 39â— 2. Wicked men p 397 3. Hinderances in our own hearts p. 398 Hinderances of Assurance in those that do examine p. 400 Further causes of want of Assurance among the most of the godly themselves p. 402 1. Weakness and small measure of Grace p. 403 2. Looking more what they are then what they should do to be better ibid. 3. Mistaking or confounding Assurance and the joy of Assurance p. 405 4. Ignorant of Gods way of conveying Assurance p. 406 5. Expecting a greater measure then God usually giveth here p. 407 6. Taking up comfort in the beginning on unsound or uncertain grounds when yet perhaps they have better grounds and do not see them and then when the weakness of their grounds appear they cast away their comforts too as if all were nought p. 408 7. Imperfection of Reason and naturall parts p. 409 8. The secret maintaining some known sin p. 410 9. Growing lazy in the spirituall part of duty and not keeping graces in constant action p. 411 10. Prevalency of Melancholy in the body p. 414 Chap. 8. An Exhortation to examine our title to Rest. p. 415 Severall Motives to p. 428 Chap. 9. A direction how to manage the work of Self-examination throughly that it may succeed p. 428 Two marks whereby you may infallibly Judg. p. 434 Chap. 10. The fourth Vse The Reasons of the Saints afflictions in this life p. 439 Some Considerations to help us to bear them joyfully drawn from their reference to this Rest. p. 441 Some objections of the afflicted answered p. 452 Chap. 11. An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it to do all that possibly they can to help others to the like p. 458 Here is shewed 1. wherein the duty doth consist p. 459 Directions are added for right performance p. 464 Besides the great duty of private exhortation we must help them to enjoy use and improve the publique Ordinances p. 475 2. The common Hinderances of faithfull endeavours to save mens souls p. 482 Some objections against this duty answered p. 488 Motives to perswade all Christians to this duty p. 491 Chap. 12. An advice to some more especially to help others to this Rest Prest largely on Ministers and Parents p. 501 And 1. To men of ability 2. Or interest 3. Physitians 4. Rich men
work too He hath paid all the price and left us none to pay yet he never intended his purchase should put us into absolute immediate personal title to glory in point of Law much less into immediate possession What title we may have from his own and his Fathers secret counsel is nothing to the Question He hath purchased the Crown to bestow only on Condition of beleeving denying all for him suffering with him persevering and overcoming He hath purchased Justification to bestow only on condition of our beleeving yea repenting and beleeving That the first Grace hath any such Condition I will not Affirm but all following mercies have Though 't is Christ that enableth also to perform the Condition It is not a Saviour offered but received also that must save It is not the blood of Christ shed only but applyed also that must fully deliver Nor is it applyed to the Justification or Salvation of a sleepy Soul Nor doth Christ carry us to heaven in a chair of security Where he will pardon he will make you pray Forgive us our trespasses and where he will give Righteousness he will give hungering and thirsting It is not through any imperfection in Christ that the Righteous are scarcely saved no nor that the wicked perish as they shall be convinced one day In the same sence as the prayer of the faithful if fervent availeth for outward mercies in the same sence it prevaileth for Salvation also For Christ hath purchased both And as Baptism is said to save us so other duties too Therefore say not It is not duty but Christ For it is Christ in a way of duty As duty cannot do it without Christ so Christ will not without duty But of this enough before And as this motion must be strong so constant or it will fall short of Rest. To begin in the Spirit and end in the flesh will not bring to the end of the Saints The certainty of the Saints perseverance doth not make admonition to constancy unuseful Men as seemingly holy as the best of us have fallen off He that knew it unpossible in the foundation to deceive the Elect yet saw it necessary to warn us that he only that endureth to the end shall be saved Read but the promises Rev. 2. 3. to him that overcometh SECT XI 11. THere is presupposed also to the obtaining of this Rest a strong desire after it The Souls motion is not that which we call violent or constrained none can force it but natural viz. according to our new nature As every thing inclines to its proper Center so the Rational Creature is carryed on in all its motion with desires after its end This end is the first thing intended and chiefest desired though last obtained Observe it and beleeve it who ever thou art there was never Soul that made Christ and glory the principal end nor that obtained Rest with God whose desire was not set upon him and that above all things else in the world whatsoever Christ brings the heart to heaven first and then the person His own mouth spoke it Where your treasure is there will your heart be also Mat. 6.21 A sad conclusion to thousands of professed Christians He that had truly rather have the enjoyment of God in Christ then any thing in the world shall have it and he that had rather have any thing else shall not have this except God change him It 's true the Remainder of our old nature will much weaken and interrupt these desires but never overcome them SECT XII 12. LAstly here is presupposed painfulness and weariness in our motion This ariseth not from any evil in the work or way for Christs yoke is easie his burden light and his commands not grievous But 1. From the opposition we meet with 2. The contrary principles still remaining in our nature which will make us cry out O wretched men Rom. 7.24 3. The weakness of our graces and so of our motion Great labour where there is a suitable strength is a pleasure but to the weak how painful With what panting and weariness doth a feeble man ascend that hill which the sound man runs up with ease We are all even the best but feeble An easie dull profession of Religion that never encountereth with these difficulties and pains is a sad sign of an unsound heart Christ indeed hath freed us from the Impossibilities of the Covenant of Works and from the burden and yoke of Legal Ceremonies but not from the difficulties and pains of Gospel duties 4. Our continued distance from the End will raise some grief also for desire and hope implying the absence of the thing desired and hoped for do ever imply also some grief for that absence which all vanish when we come to possession All these twelve things are implyed in a Christians Motion and so presupposed to his Rest. CHAP. IV. What this Rest containeth SECT I. BUt all this is onely the outward Court or at least not the holiest of all Now we have ascended these steps may we look within the vail May we shew what this Rest containeth as well as what it presupposeth But alass how little know I of that whereof I am about to speak Shall I speak before I know But if I stay till I clearly know I shall not come again to speak That glimpse which Paul saw contained that which could not or must not be uttered or both And if Paul had had a tongue to have uttered it it would have done no good except his hearers had ears to hear it If Paul had spoke the things of Heaven in the language of Heaven and none understood that language what the better Therefore I 'l speak while I may that little very little which I do know of it rather then be wholy silent The Lord reveal it to me that I may reveal it to you and the Lord open some light and shew both you and me his Inheritance Not as to Balaam onely whose eyes the vision of God opened to see the goodliness of Jacobs tents and Israels tabernacles where he had no portion but from whence must come his own destruction Nor as to Moses who had onely a discovery in stead of possession and saw the Land which he never entered But as the pearl was revealed to the Merchant in the Gospel who rested not till he had sold all he had and bought it and as Heaven was opened to blessed Stephen which he was shortly to enter and the glory shewed him which should be his own possession SECT I. THere is Contained in this Rest. 1. A Cessation from Motion or Action not of all action but of that which hath the nature of a Means and implies the absence of the End When we have obtained the Haven we have done sailing When the workman hath his wages it is implyed he hath done his work When we are at our journeys end we have done
necessary That thy Lord had sweeter ends and meant thee better then thou wouldst believe And that thy Redeemer was saving thee as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them and as well when he broke thy Heart as when he bound it up Oh no thanks to thee unworthy Self but shame for this received Crown But to Jehovah and the Lamb be Glory for ever Thus as the memory of the wicked will eternally promote their torment to look back on the pleasures enjoyed the sin committed the Grace refused Christ neglected and time lost So will the Memory of the Saints for ever promote their Joys And as it 's said to the wicked Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst Thy good things So will it be said to the Christian Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thine evils but now thou art comforted as they are tormented And as here the Remembrance of former good is the occasion of encreasing our grief I remembred God and was troubled I called to Remembrance my Songs in the night Psal. 77.3 6. So there the Remembrance of our former sorrows addeth life to our Joys SECT VIII BUt Oh the full the near the sweet enjoyment is that of the Affections Love and Joy It 's near for Love is of the Essence of the Soul and Love is the Essence of God For God is Love 1 John 4.8 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure The Spirits phrase is God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever carryeth much delight along with it Especially when the object appears deserving and the Affection is strong But O what will it be when perfected Affections shall have the strongest perfect incessant actings upon the most perfect object the ever Blessed God Now the poor soul complains Oh that I could love Christ more but I cannot alas I cannot Yea but then thou canst not chuse but love him I had almost said forbear if thou canst Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness and therefore lovest little Then thine eye will affect thy heart and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love Now thy Salvation is not perfected nor all the mercies purchased yet given in But when the top stone is set on thou shalt with shouting cry Grace Grace Now thy Sanctification is imperfect and thy pardon and Justification not so compleat as then it shall be Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest and therefore lovest the less But when thou knowest much is forgiven and much bestowed thou wilt Love more Doth David after an imperfect deliverance sing forth his Love Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and supplications What think you will he do eternally And how will he love the Lord who hath lifted him up to that Glory Doth he cry out O how I love thy Law My delight is in the Saints on earth and the excellent Psal. 16.3 How will he say then O how I love the Lord and the King of Saints in whom is all my delight Christians doth it not now stir up your love to remember all the experiences of his Love To look back upon a life oâ— mercies Doth not kindness melt you and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts What will it do then when you shall live in Love and have All in him who is All O the high delights of Love of this Love The content that the heart findeth in it The satisfaction it brings along with it Surely Love is both work and wages And if this were all what a high favour that God will give us leave to love him That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms that have embraced Lust and Sin before him But this is not all He returneth Love for Love nay a thousand times more As perfect as we shall be we cannot reach his measure of Love Christian thou wilt be then brim full of Love yet love as much as thou canst thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved Dost thou think thou canst overlove him What! love more then Love it self Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory Did he begin to love before thou lovedst and will he not continue now Did he love thee an enemy thee a sinner thee who even loathedst thy self and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son thee a perfect Saint thee who returnest some love for Love Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love Doubt of it now if thou canst As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath who would never before believe it So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusalem in her Glory O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus till he force the Jews that stood by to say Behold how he loved him Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us and blessing us make all even the damned if they see it to say Behold how he loveth them Is his Spouse while black yet comely Is she his Love his Dove his undefiled Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes Is her Love better then wine O believing soul study a little and tell me What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel and the Love which these are but the earnest of Here O here is the Heaven of Heaven This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet mutual constant actings and embracements of Love doth it consist To Love and be beloved These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath Deut. 33.27 His left hand is under their heads and with his right hand doth he embrace them Cant. 2.6 Reader stop here and think a while what a state this is Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God to be the Son the Spouse the Love the delight of the King of Glory Christian believe this and think on it Thou shalt be eternally embraced in the Arms of that Love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting Of that Love which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth from Earth to the Cross from the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to Glory That Love which was weary hungry tempted scorned scourged buffetted spit upon crucified pierced which did fast pray teach heal weep sweat bleed dye That Love will eternally embrace thee When perfect created Love and most perfect uncreated love meet together O the blessed meeting It will
not be like Joseph and his Brethren who lay upon one anothers necks weeping It will break forth into a pure Joy and not such a mixture of joy and sorrow as their weeping argued It will be Loving and rejoycing not loving and sorrowing Yet will it make Pharoahs Satans court to ring with the News that Josephs Brethren are come that the Saints are arrived safe at the bosom of Christ out of the reach of hell for ever Neither is there any such love as Davids and Jonathans shutting up in sorrows and breathing out its last into sad lamentations for a forced separation No Christ is the powerful attractive the effectual Loadstone who draws to it all like it self All that the Father hath given him shall come unto him even the Lover as well as the Love doth he draw and they that come unto him he will in no wise cast out John chap. 6. vers 37 39. For know this Beleever to thy everlasting comfort that if these Arms have once embraced thee neither sin nor hell can get thee thence for ever The Sanctuary is inviolable and the Rock impregnable whither thou art fled and thou art safe lockt up to all Eternity Thou hast not now to deal with an unconstant creature but with him with whom is no varying nor shadow of change even the Immutable God If thy happiness were in thine own hand as Adams there were yet fear But it 's in the keeping of a faithful Creator Christ hath not bought thee so dear to trust thee with thy self any more His Love to thee will not be as thine was on earth to him seldom and cold up and down mixed as Aguish bodies with burning and quaking with a Good day and a bad No Christian he that would not be discouraged by thine enmity by thy loathsom hateful nature by all thy unwillingness unkinde Neglects and churlish resistances he that would neither cease nor abate his Love for all these Can he cease to love thee when he hath made thee truly Lovely He that keepeth thee so constant in thy love to him that thou canst challenge tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword to separate thy Love from Christ if they can Rom. 8.35 How much more will himself be constant Indeed he that produced these mutual embracing Affections will also produce such a mutual constancy in both that thou mayst confidently be perswaded as Paul was before thee That neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Vers. 38 39. And now are we not left in the Apostles admiration What shall we say to these things Infinite Love must needs be a mystery to a finite capacity No wonder if Angels desire to pry into this mystery And if it be the study of the Saints here to know the heighth and bredth and length and depth of this Love though it passeth knowledg This is the Saints Rest in the Fruition of God by Love SECT IX LAstly The Affection of Joy hath not the least share in this Fruition It 's that which all the rest lead to and conclude in even the unconceiveable Complacency which the Blessed feel in their seeing knowing loving and being beloved of God The delight of the Senses Here cannot be known by expressions as they are felt How much less this Joy This is the white stone which none knoweth but he that receiveth And if there be any Joy which the stranger medleth not with then surely this above all is it All Christs ways of mercy tend to and end in the Saints Joys He wept sorrowed suffered that they might rejoyce He sendeth the Spirit to be their Comforter He multiplieth promises he discovers their future happiness that their Joy may be full He aboundeth to them in mercies of all sorts he maketh them lie down in green pastures and leadeth them by the still waters yea openeth to them the fountain of Living Waters That their Joy may be full That they may thirst no more and that it may spring up in them to everlasting life Yea he causeth them to suffer that he may cause them to rejoyce and chasteneth them that he may give them Rest and maketh them as he did himself to drink of the brook in the way that they may lift up the head Psal. 110.7 And lest after all this they should neglect their own comforts he maketh it their duty and presseth it on them commanding them to rejoyce in him alway and again to rejoyce And he never brings them into so low a condition wherein he leaves them not more cause of Joy then of Sorrow And hath the Lord such a care of our comfort Here where the Bridegroom being from us we must mourn Oh what will that Joy be where the Soul being perfectly prepared for Joy and Joy prepared by Christ for the Soul it shall be our work our business eternally to rejoyce And it seems the Saints Joy shall be greater then the Damneds torment for their Torment is the torment of creatures prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our Joy is the Joy of our Lord even our Lords own Joy shall we enter And the same Glory which the Father giveth him doth the Son give to them Joh. 17.22 And to sit with him in his Throne even as he is sit down in his Fathers Throne Revel 3.21 What sayst thou to all this Oh thou sad and drooping Soul Thou that now spendest thy days in sorrow and thy breath in sighings and turnest all thy voyce into groanings who knowest no garments but sackcloth no food but the bread and water of Affliction who minglest thy bread with tears and drinkest the tears which thou weepest what sayest thou to this great change From All Sorrow to more then All Joy Thou poor Soul who prayest for Joy waitest for Joy complainest for want of Joy longest for Joy why then thou shalt have full Joy as much as thou canst hold and more then ever thou thoughtest on or thy heart desired And in the mean time walk carefully watch constantly and then let God measure out thy times and degrees of Joy It may be he keeps them till thou have more need Thou mayst better lose thy comfort then thy safety If thou shouldst dye full of fears and sorrows it will be but a moment and they are all gone and concluded in Joy unconceiveable As the Joy of the Hypocrite so the fears of the upright are but for a moment And as their hopes are but golden dreams which when death awakes them do all perish and their hopes dye with them so the Saints doubts and fears are but terrible dreams which when they dye do all vanish and they awake in Joyful Glory For Gods Anger endureth but a moment but in his favor is Life
weeping may endure for a night darkness and sadness go together but Joy cometh in the morning Psal. 30.5 Oh blessed morning thrice blessed morning Poor humble drooping Soul how would it fill thee with Joy now if a voyce from Heaven should tell thee of the Love of God of the pardon of thy sins and should assure thee of thy part in these Joys Oh what then will thy Joy be when thy actual Possession shall convince thee of thy Title and thou shalt be in Heaven before thou art well aware When the Angels shall bring thee to Christ and when Christ shall as it were take thee by the hand and lead thee into the purchased possession and bid thee welcom to his Rest and present thee unspotted before his Father and give thee thy place about his Throne Poor Sinner what sayest thou to such a day as this Wilt thou not be almost ready to draw back and to say What I Lord I the unworthy Neglecter of thy Grace I the unworthy dis-esteemer of thy blood and slighter of thy Love must I have this Glory Make me a hired servant I am no more worthy to be called a son But Love will have it so therefore must thou enter into his Joy SECT X. ANd it is not Thy Joy onely it is a Mutual Joy as well as a Mutual Love Is there such Joy in Heaven at thy Conversion and will there be none at thy Glorification Will not the Angels welcom thee thither and congratulate thy safe Arrival Yea it is the Joy of Jesus Christ For now he hath the end of his undertaking labor suffering dying when we have our Joys When he is Glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve We are his seed and the fruit of his Souls travel which when he seeth he will be satisfied Isa. 53.10 11. This is Christs Harvest when he shall reap the fruit of his labors and when he seeth it was not in vain it will not repent him concerning his sufferings but he will rejoyce over his purchased inheritance and his people shall rejoyce in him Yea the Father himself puts on Joy too in our Joy As we grieve his Spirit and weary him with our iniquities so is he rejoyced in our Good Oh how quickly Here doth he spy a Returning Prodigal even afar off how doth he run and meet him and with what compassion falls he on his neck and kisseth him and puts on him the best robe and ring on his hands and shoes on his feet and spares not to kill the fatted Calf that they may eat and be merry This is indeed a happy meeting But nothing to the Embracements and the Joy of that last and great Meeting Yea more yet as God doth mutually Love and Joy so he makes this His Rest as it is our Rest. Did he appoint a Sabbath because he rested from six days work and saw all Good and very Good What an eternal Sabbatism then when the work of Redemption Sanctification Preservation Glorification are all finished and his work more perfect then ever and very Good indeed Oh Christians write these words in letters of Gold Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty He will Save He will Rejoyce over thee with Joy He will Rest in his Love He will Joy over thee with Singing Oh well may we then Rejoyce in our God with Joy and Rest in our Love and Joy in him with Singing See Isai. 65.18 19. And now look back upon all this I say to thee as the Angel to John What hast thou seen Or if yet thou perceive not draw neerer Come up hither Come and see Dost thou fear thou hast been all this while in a Dream Why these are the true sayings of God Dost thou fear as the Disciples that thou hast seen but a Ghost in stead of Christ a Shadow in stead of Rest Why come neer and feel a Shadow contains not those Substantial Blessings nor rests upon the Basis of such Foundation-Truth and sure word of Promise as you have seen these do Go thy way now and tell the Disciples and tell the humble drooping Souls thou meetest with That thou hast in this glass seen Heaven That the Lord indeed is risen and hath here appeared to thee and behold he is gone before us into Rest and that he is now preparing a place for them and will come again and take them to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14.3 Yea go thy ways and tell the unbeleeving world and tell thy unbeleeving heart if they ask What is the hope thou boastest of and what will be thy Rest Why this is my Beloved and my Friend and this is my Hope and my Rest. Call them forth and say Behold what Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 and that we should enter into our Lords own Rest. SECT XI BUt alass my fearful heart dare scarce proceed Methinks I hear the Almighties voyce saying to me as Elihu Job 38.2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledg But pardon O Lord thy Servants sin I have not pryed into unrevealed things nor with audacious wits curiously searched into thy counsels but indeed I have dishonored thy Holiness wronged thine Excellency disgraced thy Saints Glory by my own exceeding disproportionable pourtraying I bewail from heart that my conceivings fall so short my Apprehensions are so dull my thoughts so mean my Affections so stupid and my expressions so low and unbeseeming such a Glory But I have onely heard by the hearing of the Ear Oh let thy Servant see thee and possess these Joys and then I shall have more suitable conceivings and shall give thee fuller Glory and abhor my present self and disclaim and renounce all these Imperfections I have now uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not Yet I beleeved and therefore spake Remember with whom thou hast to do what canst thou expect from dust but Levity or from corruption but defilement Our foul hands will leave where they touch the marks of their uncleanness and most on those things that are most pure I know thou wilt be sanctified in them that come nigh thee and before all the people thou wilt be glorified And if thy Jealousie excluded from that Land of Rest thy servants Moses and Aaron because they sanctified thee not in the midst of Israel what then may I expect But though the weakness and unreverence be the fruit of mine own corruption yet the fire is from thine Altar and the work of thy commanding I looked not into thine Ark nor put forth my hand unto it without thee Oh therefore wash away these stains also in the blood of the Lamb and let not Jealousie burn us up lest thou affright thy people away from thee and make them in their discouragement to cry out How
are used as Enemies still Oh when the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall appear with all the Hoasts of Heaven when he shall surprize the careless world as a thief in the Night When as the Lightening which appeareth in the East and shineth even to the West so they shall behold him coming What a change will the sight of this Appearance work both with the World and with the Saints Now poor deluded World where is your Mirth and your Jollity Now where is your Wealth and your Glory Where is that prophane and careless heart that slighted Christ and his Spirit and out-sate all the offers of Grace Now where is that tongue that mocked the Saints and jeered the holy ways of God and made merry with his peoples Imperfections and theâ— own Slanders What was it not you Deny it if you can your heart condemns you and God is greater then your heart and will condemn you much more Even when you say Peace and Safety then Destruction cometh upon you as Travel upon a woman with childe and you shall not escape 1 Thess. 5.3 Perhaps if you had known just the day and hour when the Son of God would have come then you would have been found praying or the like But you should have watched and been ready because you know not the hour But for that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Oh blessed is that servant Verily I say unto you for Christ hath said it he shall make him ruler over all his Goods And when the chief Shepherd shall appear he shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Oh how should it then be the character of a Christian to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the Dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 And with all faithful diligence to prepare to meet our Lord with joy And seeing his Coming is of purpose to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes. 1.10 Oh what thought should Glad our hearts more then the thought of that day A little while indeed we have not seen him but yet a little while and we shall see him For he hath said I will not leave you comfortless but will come unto you We were comfortless should he not come And while we dayly gaze and look up to Heaven after him let us remember what the Angels said This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven While he is now out of sight It is as a sword to our Souls while they dayly ask us Where is your God But then we shall be able to answer our enemies See O proud sinners yonder is our Lord. And now Christians should we not put up that Petition heartily Let thy Kingdom come for the Spirit and the Bride say Come and let every Christian that heareth and readeth say Come And our Lord himself saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.17 20. SECT II. THe second stream that leadeth to Paradise is that Great work of Jesus Christ in raising our Bodies from the dust and uniting them again unto the Soul A wonderful effect of infinite Power and Love Yea wonderful indeed saith Unbelief if it be True What saith the Atheist and Sadducee shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man A man drowned in the Sea is eaten by fishes and they by men again and these men by worms what is become of the body of that first man shall it rise again Thou fool for so Paul calls thee dost thou dispute against the power of the Almighty Wilt thou pose him with thy Sophistry Dost thou object difficulties to the Infinite Strength Thou blinde Mole Thou silly Worm Thou little piece of creeping breathing clay Thou dust Thou nothing Knowest thou who it is whose Power thou dost Question If thou shouldst see him thou wouldst presently dye If he should come and dispute his cause with thee couldst thou bear it Or if thou shouldst hear his voyce couldst thou endure But come thy way let me take thee by the hand and do thou a little follow me and let me with Reverence as Elihu plead for God and for that power whereby I hope to arise Seest thou this great massie body of the earth What beareth it and upon what foundation doth it stand Seest thou this vast Ocean of waters What Limits them and why do they not overflow and drown the Earth Whence is that constant Ebbing and Flowing of her Tides Wilt thou say from the Moon or other Planets and whence have they that power of effective influence Must thou not come to a Cause of Causes that can do all things and doth not Reason require thee to conceive of that cause as a perfect Intelligence and voluntary Agent and not such a blinde worker and empty notion as that Nothing is which thou callest Nature Look upward Seest thou that Glorious body of Light the Sun How many times bigger is it then all the Earth and yet how many thousand miles doth it run in one minute of an hour and that without weariness or failing a moment What thinkest thou Is not that power able to effect thy Resurrection which doth all this Dost thou not see as great works as a Resurrection every day before thine eyes but that the Commonness makes thee not admire them Read but the 37 38 39 40 41. Chapters of Job and take heed of disputing against God again for ever Know'st thou not that with him all things are possible Can he make a Camel go through the eye of a needle Can he make such a blinde Sinner as thou to see and such a proud heart as thine to stoop and such an Earthly minde as thine Heavenly And subdue all that thy fleshly foolish wisdom And is not this as great a work as to Raise thee from the Dust Wast thou any unlikelier to Be when thou wast Nothing then thou shalt be when thou art Dust Is it not as easie to raise the Dead as to make Heaven and Earth and all of Nothing But if thou be unperswadeable all I say to thee more is as the Prophet to the Prince of Samaria 2 King 7.20 Thou shalt see that day with thine Eyes but little to thy Comfort for that which is the day of relief to the Saints shall be a day of Revenge on thee There is a Rest prepared but thou canst not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3.19 But for thee O Beleeving Soul never think to comprehend in the narrow capacity of thy shallow brain the Counsels and ways of thy Maker No more then thou canst contain in thy fist the vast Ocean He never intended thee such a Capacity when he made thee and gave thee that measure thou
again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Can the Head live and the body or members remain Dead Oh write those sweet words upon thy heart Christian Because I Live Ye shall Live also As sure as Christ lives we shall live And as sure as he is risen we shall rise Else the Dead perish Else what is our Hope what advantageth all our duty or suffering Else the sensual Epicure were one of the wisest men and what better are we then our beasts Surely our knowledg more then theirs would but encrease our sorrows and our dominion over them is no great felicity The Servant hath oft-times a better life then his Master because he hath few of his Masters Cares And our dead Carcasses are no more comely nor yeeld a sweeter savour then theirs But we have a sure ground of Hope And besides this Life we have a Life that 's hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Oh let not us be as the purblinde world that cannot see afar off Let us never look at the Grave but let us see the Resurrection beyond it Faith is quick-sighted and can see as far as that is yea as far as Eternity Therefore let our hearts be glad and our Glory rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope for he will not leave us in the Grave nor suffer us still to see Corruption Yea therefore let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labor is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 It 's a Question much debated Whether a Resurrection be onely an effect of Christs Death and Resurrection And whether there should have been any Resurrection if Christ had not come Some that maintain the Negative of the last Question do also maintain That the Sin under the Covenant of Nature or Works did deserve onely the separation of Soul and Body and not Eternal Torments Whence also follows that the Soul is or at least then was Mortal or that it hath no Being or no Sense when it 's separated from the Body As also that Christ dyed to Redeem us onely from the Grave and not from Hell And so their Doctrine of Universal Redemption in this sence asserted doth neither so much honor the merits of Christ nor advance his mercy as they pretend For it maketh him to raise us onely from the Grave and bring all the world into a Capacity of Eternal Torment He fore-knowing the same time that most would certainly reject him and so perish But as I confess these of weight and difficulty so having professed in this Discourse to handle matters less controverted I pretermit them This sufficeth to the Saints Comfort That Resurrection to Glory is onely the fruit of Christs Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure All that are in the Graves shall hear his voyce and come forth Joh. 5.28 And this is the Fathers will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should Raise it up at the last Day Joh. 6.39 And that every one that beleeveth on the Son may have Everlasting Life and he will raise him up at the last Day Vers. 40. If the prayers of the Prophet could raise the Shunamites Dead Childe and if the dead Souldier revive at the touch of the Prophets bones How certainly shall the will of Christ and the power of his death raise us That voyce that said to Jairus Daughter Arise and to Lazarus Arise and come forth can do the like for us If his death immediately raised the dead bodies of many Saints in Jerusalem If he gave power to his Apostles to raise the Dead Then what doubt of our Resurrection And thus Christian thou seest that Christ having sanctified the Grave by his burial and conquered Death and broke the Ice for us a dead Body and a Grave is not now so horrid a spectacle to a beleeving Eye But as our Lord was neerest his Resurrection and Glory when he was in the Grave even so are we And he that hath promised to make our bed in sickness will make the dust as a bed of Roses Death shall not dissolve the Union betwixt him and us nor turn away his affections from us But in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the stone and unseal our Graves and reach us his hand and deliver us alive to our Father Why then doth the approach of Death so cast thee down O my Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me The Grave is not Hell if it were yet there is thy Lord present and thence should his Merit and Mercy fetch thee out Thy sickness is not unto death though I dye but for the Glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified thereby Say not then He lifteth me up to cast me down and hath raised me high that my fall may be the Lower But he casts me down that he may lift me up and layeth me low that I may rise the higher An hundred experiences have sealed this Truth unto thee That the greatest dejections are intended but for advantages to thy greatest dignity and thy Redeemers Glory SECT III. THe third part of this Prologue to the Saints Rest is the publick and solemn process at their Judgment where they shall first themselves be acquit and justified and then with Christ judg the World Publick I may well call it for all the world must there appear Young and old of all estates and Nations that ever were from the Creation to that day must here come and receive their doom The judgment shal be set and the books opened the book of Life produced and the Dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and whosoever is not found written in the book of Life is cast into the lake of fire O Terrible O Joyful Day Terrible to those that have let their Lamps go out and have not watched but forgot the coming of their Lord Joyful to the Saints whose waiting and hope was to see this day Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of the Lord on them who perish severity but to his chosen goodness When every one must give account of his stewardship And every Talent of Time Health Wit Mercies Afflictions Means Warnings must be reckoned for When the sins of youth and those which they had forgotten and their secret sins shall all be layd open before Angels and men When they shall see all their Friends wealth old delights all their confidence and false hopes of Heaven to forsake them When they shall see the Lord Jesus whom they neglected whose Word
as much less then a simple Unit Lay by thy perplexed and contradicting Chronological Tables and fix thine eye on this Eternity and the Lines which remote thou couldst not follow thou shalt see altogether here concentred Study less those tedious Volumns of History which contain but the silent Narration of Dreams and are but the pictures of the actions of shadows And in stead of all study frequently study throughly this one word Eternity and when thou hast learned throughly that one word thou wilt never loâ—k on Books again What! Live and Never die Rejoyce and Ever rejoyceâ— O what sweet words are those Never and Ever O happy souls in Hell should you but escape after millions of ages and if the Origenists Doctrine were but True O miserable Saints in Heaven should you be dispossessed after the age of a million of Worlds But O this word Everlasting contains the accomplished perfection of their Torment and our Glory O that the wicked sinner would but soundly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should startle him out of his deadest sleep O that the gracious soul would believingly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should revive him in his deepest Agony And must I Lord thus live for ever Then will I also love forâ—ever Must my Joyes be immortal And shall not my thanks be also immortal Surely if I shall never lose my glory I will also never cease thy praises Shouldst thou but renew my Lease of these first Fruits would I not renew thy Fine and Rent But if thou wilt both perfect and perpetuate me and my Glory as I shall be thine and not mine own so shall my Glory be thy Glory And as all did take their Spring from thee so all shall devolve into thee again and as thy glory was thine ultimate end in my glory so shall it also be mine end when thou hast crowned me with that Glory which hath no end And to thee O King Eternal Immortal Invisible the onely wise God shall be the Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.17 SECT XX. ANd thus I have endevored to shew you a glimpse of the approaching Glory But O how short are my expressions of its excellency Reader if thou be an humble sincere believer and waitest with longing and laboring for this Rest thou wilt shortly see and feel the truth of all this then wilt thou have so high an apprehension of this blessed state that will make thee pity the ignorance and distance of Mortals and will tell thee then all that is here said is spoken but in the dark and falls short of the truth a thousand fold In the mean time let this much kindle thy desires and quicken thine endevors Up and be doing run and strive and fight and hold on for thou hast a certain glorious prize before thee God will not mock thee do not mock thy self nor betray thy soul by delaying or dallying and all is thine own What kinde of men doest thou think Christians would be in their lives and duties if they had still this Glory fresh in their thoughts What frame would their spirits be in if their thoughts of Heaven were lively and believing Would their hearts be so heavy And their countenance so sad Or would they have need to take up their comforts from below Would they be so loath to suffer And afraid to die Or would they not think every day a yeer till they did enjoy it The Lord heal our carnal hearts lest we enter not into his REST because of our unbelief CHAP. VIII The People of God described SECT I. HAving thus performed my first task of Describing and explicating the Saints Rest it remains that now I proceed unto the second and shew you what these People of God are and why so called for whom this Blessed Rest remaineth And I shall suit my speech unto the quality of the subject While I was in the Mount I felt it was good being there and therefore tarried there the longer and were there not an extream disproportion between my conceivings and that Subject yet much longer had I been And could my capacity have contained what was there to be seen I could have been contented to have built me a Tabernacle there Can a prospect of that happy Land be tedious or a discourse of eternity be too long except it should detain us from actual possession and our absence move us to impatiency But now I am descended from Heaven to Earth from God to man and must discourse of a Worm not six foot long whose life is but a span and his yeers as a post that hasteth by my discourse also shall be but a span and in a brief touch I will post it over Having read of such a high and unspeakable Glory a stranger would wonder for what rare Creature this Mighty Preparation should be and expect some illustrious Sun should now break forth but behold onely a shell full of Dust animated with an invisible rational soul and that rectified with as unseen a restored power of Grace and this is the Creature that must possess such Glory You would think it must needs be some deserving piece or one that bringeth a valuable price But behold One that hath nothing and can deserve nothing and confesseth this yet cannot of himself confess it neither yea that deserveth the contrary misery and would if he might proceed in that deserving but being apprehended by Love he is brought to him that is All and hath done and deserved All and suffered for all that we deserved and most affectionately receiving him and resting on him he doth in and through him receive All this But let us see more particularly yet what these People of God are They are a small part of lost mankinde whom God hath from Eternity predestinated to this Rest for the Glory of his Mercy and given to his Son to be by him in a special maner Redeemed and fully recovered from their lost estate and advanced to this higher Glory all which Christ doth in due time accomplish accordingly by himself for them and by his Spirit upon them To open all the parts of this half-description to the full will take up more time and room then is allowed me therefore briefly thus 1. I meddle onely with Mankinde not with Angels nor will I curiously enquire whether there were any other World of men created and destroyed before this had Being nor whether there shall be any other when this is ended All this is quite above us and so nothing to us Nor say I the sons of Adam onely because Adam himself is one of them 2. And as it s no more excellent a creature then Man that must have this possession so is it that man who once was lost and had scarcely left himself so much as man The heirs of this Kingdom were taken even from the Tree of execution and rescued by the strong hand of love from the power of the
disproportionable to the justice of the Law but Christs doth extend to every title If he intercede there is no denial such is the dignity of his person and the value of his merits that the Father granteth all he desireth He tells us himself that the Father heareth him always His sufferings being a perfect satisfaction to the Law and all power in Heaven and Earth being given to him he is now able to supply every of our wants and to save to the uttermost all that come to him Quest. How can I know his death is sufficient for me if not for all And how is it sufficient for all if not suffered for all Answ. Because I will not interrupt my present discourse with controversie I will say something to this Question by it self in another Tract if God enable me 3. The Soul is also here convinced of the perfect excellency of Jesus Christ both as he is considered in himself and as considered in relation to us both as he is the onely way to the Father and as he is the end being one with the Father Before he knew Christs excellency as a blinde man knows the light of the Sun but now as one that beholdeth its glory And thus doth the Spirit convince the Soul SECT IIII. 3. AFter this sensible conviction the Will discovereth also its change and that in regard of all the four forementioned objects 1. The sin which the understanding pronounceth evil the will doth accordingly turn from with abhorrency Not that the sensitive appetite is changed or any way made to abhor its object but when it would prevail against the conclusions of Reason and carry us to sin against God when Scripture should be the rule and Reason the Master and Sense the Servant This disorder and evil the will abhorreth 2. The misery also which sin hath procured as he discerneth so he bewaileth It is impossible that the soul now living should look either on its trespass against God or yet on its own self-procured calamity without some compunction and contrition He that truly discerneth that he hath killed Christ and killed himself will surely in some measure be pricked to the heart If he cannot weep he can heartily groan and his heart feels what his understanding sees 3. The Creature he now renounceth as vain and turneth it out of his heart with disdain Not that he undervalueth it or disclaimeth its use but his idolatrous abuse and its unjust usurpation There is a twofold sin One against God himself as well as his Laws when he is cast out of the heart and something else doth take his place This is it that I intend in this place The other is when a man doth take the Lord for his God but yet swerveth in some things from his commands of this before It is a vain distinction that some make That the soul must be turned first from sin secondly from the Creature to God For the sin that is thus set up against God is the choice of something below in his stead and no Creature in it self is evil but the abuse of it is the sin Therefore to turn from the Creature is onely to turn from that sinful abuse Yet hath the Creature here a twofold consideration First As it is vain and insufficient to perform what the Idolater expecteth and so I handle it here Secondly As it is the object of such sinful abuse and the occasion of sin and so it falls under the former branch of our turning from sin and in this sense their division may be granted but this is onely a various respect for indeed it is still onely our sinful abuse of the Creature in our vain admirations undue estimations too strong affections and false expectations which we turn from There is a twofold Error very common in the descriptions of the work of Conversion The one of those who onely mention the sinners turning from sin to God without mentioning any receiving of Christ by Faith The other of those who on the contrary onely mention a sinners believing and then think they have said all Nay they blame them as Legalists who make any thing but the bare believing of the love of God in Christ to us to be part of this work and would perswade poor souls to question all their former comforts and conclude the work to have been onely legal and unsound because they have made their changes of heart and turning from sin and Creatures part of it and have taken up part of their comfort from the reviewing of these as evidences of a right work Indeed should they take up here without Christ or take such change in stead of Christ in whole or in part the reprehension were just and the danger great But can Christ be the way where the Creature is the end Is he not onely the way to the Father And must not a right end be intended before right means Can we seek to Christ for to reconcile us to God while in our hearts we prefer the Creature before him Or doth God dispossess the Creature and sincerely turn the heart therefrom when he will not bring the soul to Christ Is it a work that is ever wrought in an unrenewed soul You will say That without Faith it is impossible to please God True but what Faith doth the Apostle there speak of He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him The belief of the Godhead must needs precede the belief of the Mediatorship and the taking of the Lord for our God must in order precede the taking of Christ for our Saviour though our peace with God do follow this Therefore Paul when he was to deal with the Athenian Idolaters teacheth them the knowledg of the Godhead first and the Mediator afterwards But you will say May not an unregenerate man believe that there is a God True and so may he also believe there is a Christ But he can no more cordially accept of the Lord for his God then he can accept of Christ for his Saviour In the soul of every unregenerate man the Creature possesseth both places and is both God and Christ. Can Christ be believed in where our own Righteousness or any other thing is trusted as our Saviour Or doth God ever throughly discover sin and misery and clearly take the heart from all Creatures and Self-righteousness and yet leave the soul unrenewed The truth is where the work is sincere there it is intire and all these parts are truly wrought And as turning from the Creature to God and not by Christ is no true turning so believing in Christ while the Creature hath our hearts is no true believing And therefore in the work of Self-examination whoever would finde in himself a through-sincere work must finde an entire work even the one of these as well as the other In the
make its first entrance at the understanding which must be satisfied first of its Truth secondly and of its goodness before it finde any further admittance If this porter be negligent it will admit of any thing â—hat bears but the face or name of Truth and Goodness But if it be faithfull able and diligent in its office it will examine strictly and search to the 〈◊〉 what is found deceitfull it casteth out that it go no furthâ—◠〈…〉 what is found to be sincere and currant it letteth in to the very heart where the Will and Affections do with wellcome entertain it and by concoction as it were incorporate it into their own substance Accordingly I have been hitherto presenting to your understandings First the excellency of the Rest of the Saints in the first part of this book and then the verity in the second part I hope your understandings have now tasted this food and tryed what hath been expressed Truth fears not the light This perfect beauty abhorreth darkness Nothing but Ignorance of its worth can disparage it Therefore search and spare not Read and read again and then Judge What think you Is it good Or is it not Nay is it not the chiefest good And is there any thing in goodness to be compared with it And is it true or is it not Nay is there any thing in the world more certain then that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God Why if your understandings are convinced of both these I do here in the behalf of God and his Truth and in the behalf of your own souls and their Life require the further entertainment hereof and that you take this blessed subject of Rest and commend it as you have found it to your wills and affections Let your hearts now cheerfully embrace it and improve it as I shall present it to you in its respective Uses And though the Laws of Method do otherwise direct me yet because I conceive it most profitable I will lay close together in the first place all those uses that most concern the ungodly that they may know where to finde their lesson and not to pick it up and down intermixt with Uses of another straine And then I shall lay down those Uses that are more proper to the Godly by themselves in the end Use First Shewing the unconceivable misery of the ungodly in their losse of this Rest. SECT II. ANd first if this Rest be for none but this people of God What doleful tidings is this to the ungodly world That there is so much Glory but none for them so great joys for the Saints of God while they must consume in perpetuall sorrowes Such Rest for them that have obeyed the Gospel while they must be Restless in the flames of hell If thou who Readest these words art in thy soul a stranger to Christ and to the holy nature and life of his people and art not one of them who are before described and shalt live and dye in the same condition that thou art now in Let me tell thee I am a messenger of the saddest tidings to thee that ever yet thy ears did hear That thou shalt never partake of the joyes of Heaven nor have the least tast of the Saints eternall Rest I may say to thee as Eâ—ud to Eâ—gon I have a message to thee from God but it is a mortall message against the very life and hopes of thy soul That as true as the word of God is true thou shalt never see the face of God with comfort This sentence I am commanded to pass upon thee from the word Take it as thou wilt and scape it if thou canst I know thy humble and hearty subjection to Christ would procure thy escape and if thy heart and life were throughly changed thy relations to Christ and eternity would be changed also he would then â—â—â—nowledge thee for one of his people and justifie thee from all things that could be charged upon thee and give thee a portion in the inheritance of his chosen And if this might be the happy successe of my message I should be so faâ— from repining like Jonas that the threatnings of God are not executed upon thee that on the contrary I should bless the day that ever God made me so happy a Messenger and return him hearty thanks upon my knees that ever he blessed his Word in my mouth with such desired success But if thou end thy days in thy present condition whether thou be fully resolved never to change or whether thou spend thy days in fruitless purposing to be better hereafter all is one for that I say if thou live and die in thy unregenerate estate as sure as the heavens are over thy head and the earth under thy feet as sure as thou livest and breathest in this air so sure shalt thou be shut out of the Rest of the Saints and receive thy portion in everlasting fire I do here expect that thou shouldest in the pride and scorn of thy heart turn back upon me and shew thy teeth and say Who made you the door-keeper of heaven when were you there and when did God shew you the Book of Life or tell you who they are that shall be saved and who shut out I will not Answer thee according to thy folly but truly and plainly as I can discover this thy folly to thy self that if there be yet any hope thou mayest recover thy understanding and yet return to God and live First I do not name thee nor any other I do not conclude of the persons individually and say This man shall be shut out of heaven and that man shall be taken in I onely conclude it of the unregenerate in general and of thee conditionally if thou be such a one Secondly I do not go about to determine who shall repent and who shall not much less that thou shalt never repent and come in to Christ These things are unknown to me I had far rather shew thee what hopes thou hast before thee if thou wilt not sit still and lose them and by thy wilful carelesness cast away thy hopes And I would far rather perswade thee to hearken in time while there is hope and opportunity and offers of Grace and before the door is shut against thee that so thy soul may return and live then to tell thee that there is no hope of thy repenting and returning But if thou lye hoping that thou shalt return and never do it if thou talk of repenting and believing but still art the same if thou live and die with the world and thy credit or pleasure nearer thy heart then Jesus Christ In a word If the foregoing description of the people of God do not agree with the state of thy soul Is it then a hard question whether thou shalt ever be saved Even as hard a question as whether God be true or the Scripture be his Word Cannot I certainly tell that
his name there was scorning at his worship and swearing by his name And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their former impieties and blasphemies Can it probably be expcted that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth in deriding the persons and families of the godly for their frequent worshiping and praising God should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven and joyn with those Saints in those more perfect praises Surely without a sound change upon their hearts before they go hence it is utterly impossible It is too late then to say Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are out Let us now enter with you to the marriage feast let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody You should have joyned in it on earth if you would have joyned in Heaven As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts and your voices turned to another tune As the doors of heaven will be shut against you so will that joyous imployment be denied to you There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome Those that go down to the pit do not praise him Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows And who can be glad in the land of confusion God suits mens imployments to their natures The bent of your spirits was another way your hearts were never set upon God in your lives you were never admirers of his Attributes and works nor ever throughly warmed with his love you never longed after the enjoyment of him you had no delight to speak or to hear of him you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long you had rather have continued on earth if you had known how you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment or lands and lordships or a feast or sports or your cups or whores then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy or an Ass to build a City or govern a Kingdom or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise SECT VI. FOurthly They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels and glorified Saints Instead of being companions of those happy spirits and numbred with those Joyful and Triumphing Kings they must now be members of the corporation of hell where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality While they lived on earth they loathed the Saints they imprisoned banished them and cast them out of their societies or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings And therefore they shall not now be their companions in their Glory Scorning them and abusing them hating them and rejoycing in their calamities was not the way to obtain their blessedness If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father you should have joyned with them in their holiness and faith and painfulness and patience you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ the common stock and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members and walked with them in singleness of heart and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation in faithfull admonitions in conscionable reformation in prayer and in praise you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate through the Red Sea and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ as well as the name prefession of Christians and rejoyced with them in suffering persecution and tribulation All this if you had faithfully done you might now have been triumphing with them in glory and have possessed with them their masters joy But this you could not you would not endure your souls loathed it your flesh was against it and that flesh must be pleased though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly and endure but what you were foretold you must endure and are shut out of that company from which you first shut out your selves and are separated but from them whom you would not be joyned with You could not endure them in your houses nor in your Towns nor scarce in the Kingdom you took them as Ahab did Elias for the troublers of the land and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down If any thing fell out amiss you thought all was long of them When they were dead or banished you were glad they were gone and thought the Countrey was well rid of them They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences to see them so far excell your selves and to condemn your loosness by their strictness and your prophaness by their conscionable lives and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families but it was a vexation to you And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter I have heard of those that have said that if the Puritans were in Heaven and the good fellows in Hell they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven And can they think much to have their desires granted them The day is neer when they will trouble you no more betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set that those that would pass from thence to you if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water cannot neither can they pass to them who would go from you for if they could there would none be left behinde Luk. 16.26 Even in this life while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities cloathed with the same frail flesh as other men and were mocked destitute afflicted and tormented yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost they were such of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellowship in their Glory CHAP. II. The aggravations of the loss of Heaven to the ungodly SECT I. I Know many of the wicked will be ready to think If this be all they do not much care they can bear it well enough what care they for losing the perfections above What care they for losing God his favor or his presence they lived merrily without him on earth and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter And what care they for being deprived of that Love and Joy and
exhortation which they were wont to hear will be hot burning words to their hearts upon this sad review It cost the Minister dear even his daily study his earnest prayers his compassionate sorrows for their misery his care his sufferings his spending weakning killing pains But O how much dearer will it cost these rebellious sinners His lost tears will cost them blood his lost sighs will cost them eternall groans and his lost exhortations will cause their eternall lamentations For Christ hath said it that if any City or people receive not or welcome not the Gospel the very dust of the messengers feet who lost his travaile to bring them that glad tidings shall witness against them much more then his greater pains And it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for that City That Sodom which was the shame of the world for unnaturall wickedness the disgrace of mankind that would have committed wickedness with the Angels from Heaven that were not ashamed to prosecute their villany in the open street that proceeded in their rage against Lots admonitions yea under the very miraculous judgement of God and groped for the door when they were stricken blinde That Sodom which was consumed with fire from Heaven and turned to that deadly Sea of waters and suffers the vengeance of eternall fire Jud. 7. even that Sodome shall scape better in the day of Judgment then the neglecters of this so great Salvation It will somewhat abate the heat of their torment that they had not those full and plain offers of grace nor those constant Sermons nor pressing perswasions nor clear convictions as those under the sound of the Gospel have had I beseech thee who Readest these words stay here a while and sadly think of what I say I professe to thee from the Lord it is easier thinking of it now then it will be then What a dolefull aggravation of thy misery would this be that the food of thy soul should prove thy bane And that That should feed thy everlasting torment which is sent to save thee and prevent thy torments SECT XI SIxthly Yet further it will much add to the torment of these wretches to remember that God himself did condescend to intreat them That all the intreatings of the Minister were the intreatings God How long he did wait How freely he did offer how lovingly he did invite and how importunately he did solicite them How the spirit did continue striving with their hearts as if he were loath to take a denyall How Christ stood knocking at the door of their hearts Sermon after Sermon and one Sabbath after another crying out Open sinner open thy heart to thy Saviour and I will come in and sup with thee and thou with me Rev. 3.20 Why sinner â— Are thy lusts and carnall pleasures better then I Are thy worldly Commodities better then my everlasting Kingdom Why then dost thou resist me Why dost thou thus delay What dost thou mean that thou dost not open to me How long shall it be till thou attain to innocency How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Wo to thee O unworthy sinner wilt thou not be made clean Wilt thou not be pardoned and sanctified and made happy When shall it once be O that thou wouldst hearken to my word and obey my Gospel Then should thy peace be as the river and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea though thy sins were as red as the Crimson or Scarlet I would make them as white as the Snow or Wooll O that thou were but wise to consider this and that thou wouldest in time remember thy latter end before the evil dayes do come upon thee and the yeers draw nigh when thou shalt say of all thy vain delights I have no pleasure in them Why sinner Shall thy Maker thus bespeak thee in vain shall the God of all the world beseech thee to be happy and beseech thee to have pitty upon thy own soul and wilt thou not regard him Why did he make thy ears but to hear his voice VVhy did he make thy understanding but to consider Or thy heart but to entertain the Son in obedientiall Love Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider thy wayes O how all these passionate pleadings of Christ will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation That they will be ready to tear out their own hearts How fresh will the remembrance of them be still in their minds launcing their souls with renewed torments What self-condemning pangs will it raise within them to remember how often Christ would have gathered them to himself even as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but they would not Then will they cry out against themselves O how justly is all this befallen me Must I tire out the patience of Christ Must I make the God of Heaven to follow me in vain from home to the Assembly from thence to my Chamber from Alehouse to Alehouse Till I had wearied him with crying to me Repent Return Must the Lord of all the world thus wait upon me and all in vain O how justly is that Patience now turned into fury which falls upon my soul with irresistible violence when the Lord cryed out to me in his word How long will it be before thou wilt be made clean and holy My heart or at least my practice answered Never I will never be so precise And now when I cry out How long will it be till I be freed from this torment and saved with the Saints How justly do I receive the same answer Never Never O sinner I beseech thee for thy own sake think of this for prevention while the voice of mercy soundeth in thine ears Yet patience continueth waiting upon thee Canst thou think it will do so still yet the offers of Christ and life are made to thee in the Gospel and the hand of God is stretched out to thee But will it still be thus The spirit hath not yet done striving with thy heart But dost thou know how soon he may turn away and give thee over to a reprobate sense and let thee perish in the stubbornness and hardness of thy heart Thou hast yet life and time and strength and means But dost thou think this life will alwayes last O seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neer He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what Christ now speaketh to his soul. And to day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest he swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest. For ever blessed is he that hath a Hearing heart and ear while Christ hath a Calling voice SECT XII SEventhly Again it will be a most cutting consideration to these damned sinners to remember on what easie tearms they might have escaped their miserie and on what
more probable Arguments then our Baptism and common Profession and name of Christians they will stifly deny that ever they neglected Christ in hunger nakedness prison c. and if they did yet that is less then stripping imprisoning banishing or killing Christ in his Members till Christ confute them with the sentence of their condemnation Though the heart of their hopes will be broken at their death and particular Judgment yet it seems they would fain plead for some hope at the general Judgment But O the sad state of these men when they must bid farewell to all their Hopes when their Hopes shall all perish with them Reader if thou wilt not believe this it is because thou wilt not believe the Scriptures The holy Ghost hath spoke it as plain as can be spoken Prov. 11.7 When a wicked man dieth his expectation shall perish and the hope of unjust men perisheth Prov. 10.28 The hope of the righteous shall be gladness but the expectation of the wicked shall perish See Isai. 28.15 18. Job 27.8 9. For what is the hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Job 8.12 13 14. Can the Rush grow up without mire Can the Flag grow without water whilst it is yet in its greeness not cut down it withereth before any other herb So are the paths of all that forget God and the Hypocrites hope shall perish whose hope shall be cut off and whose trust shall be a Spiders Web He shall leane upon his house but it shall not stand he shall hold it fast but it shall not endure Job 11.20 But the eyes of the wicked shall fail and they shall not escape and their hope shall be as the giving up of the Ghost The giving up of the Ghost is a fit but terrible resemblance of a wicked mans giving up of his hopes For first As the soul departeth not from the body without the greatest terror and pain so also doth the hope of the wicked depart O the direful gripes and pangs of horror that seize upon the soul of the sinner at Death and Judgment when he is parting with all his former hopes Secondly The soul departeth from the body suddenly in a moment which hath there delightfully continued so many years Just so doth the hope of the wicked depart Thirdly The soul which then departeth will never return to live with the body in this world any more and the hope of the wicked when it departeth taketh an everlasting Farewel of his soul. A miracle of Resurrection shall again conjoyn the soul and body but there shall be no such miraculous Resurrection of the damned's hope Me thinks it is the most doleful Spectacle that this world affords to see such an ungodly person dying and to think of his soul and his hopes departing together and with what a sad change he presently appeares in another world Then if a man could but speak with that hopeless soul and ask it what are you now as confident of salvation as you were wont to be Do you now hope to be saved as soon as the most godly O what a sad answer would he return They are just like Corah Dathan and their Companions while they are confident in their Rebellion against the Lord and cry out Are not all the people holy They are suddenly swallowed up and their hopes with them Or like Ahah who hating and imprisoning the Prophet for foretelling his danger while he is in confident hopes to return in peace is suddenly smitten with that mortal Arrow which let out those hopes together with his soul Or like a Thief upon the Gallows who hath a strong conceit that he shall receive a Pardon and so hopes and hopes till the Ladder is turned Or like the unbelieving sinners of the world before the Flood who would not believe the threatnings of Noah but perhaps deride him for preparing his Ark so many years together when no danger appeared till suddenly the Flood came and swept them all away If a man had asked these men when they were climbing up into the tops of Trees and Mountains VVhere is now your hope of escaping Or your merry deriding at the painful preventing preparations of godly Noah Or your contemptuous unbelief of the warnings of God What do you think these men would then say when the waters still pursued them from place to place till it devoured their hopes and them together Or if one had asked Ahab when he had received his wound and turned out of the battel to die what think you now of the Prophesie of Micaiah will you release him out of prison do you now hope to return in peace Why such a sudden overthrow of their hopes will every unregenerate sinner receive While they were upon earth they frustrated the expectations as I may say of God and man God sent his messengers to tell them plainly of their danger and said It may be they will hear and return and escape but they stiffened their necks and hardened their hearts The Minister studied and instructed and perswaded in hope And when one Sermon prevailed not he laboured to speak more plainly and piercingly in the next in hope that at last they would be perswaded and return till their hopes were frustrate and their labor lost and they were fain to turn their exhortation to lamentation and to sit down in sorrow for mens wilful misery and take up the sad exclamation of the Prophet Isai. 53.1 Who hath believed our report And to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed So did godly parents also instruct their children in Hope and watch over them and pray for them hoping that at last their hearts would turn to Christ. And is it not meet that God should frustrate all their hopes who have frustrated the hopes of all that desired their welfare O that careless sinners would be awaked to think of this in time If thou be one of them who art reading these lines I do here as a friend advise thee from the word of the Lord that as thou wouldst not have all thy Hopes deceive thee when thou hast most need of them thou presently try them whether they will prove currant at the touchstone of the Scripture and if thou finde them unsound let them go what sorrow soever it cost thee Rest not till thou canst give a reason of all thy hopes till thou canst prove that they are the hopes which grace and not nature only hath wrought that they are grounded upon Scripture-promises and sound evidences that they purifie thy heart that they quicken and not cool thy endeavours in godliness that the more thou hopest the lesse thou sinnest and the more painful thou art in following on the work and not grow more loose and careless by the increasing of thy hopes that they make thee set lighter by all things on earth because thou hast such hopes of higher
and drinking marrying and giving in marriage till the day that Noah entered into the Ark and knew not till the Flood came and took them all away So will the coming of Christ be and so will the coming of their particular judgment be For saith the Apostle when they say peace and safety then sudden destruction cometh upon them as travel upon a woman with childe and they shall not escape 1 Thes. 5.3 O cruel Peace which ends in such a War Reader If this be thy own case if thou hast no other peace in thy Conscience then this ungrounded self-created peace I could heartily wish for thy own sake that thou wouldst cast it off As I would not have any humble gratious soul to vex their own consciences needlesly nor to disquiet and discompose their spirits by troubles of their own making nor to unfit themselves for duty nor interrupt their comfortable communion with God nor to weaken their bodies or cast themselves into Melancholy distempers to the scandal of Religion so would I not have a miserable wretch who lives in daily and hourly danger of dropping into Hell to be as merry and as quiet as if all were well with him It is both unseemly and unsafe more unseemly then to see a man go laughing to the Gallows and more unsafe then to favor the Gangren'd member which must be cut off or to be making merry when the enemy is entring our Habitations Mens first peace is usually a false peace it is a second peace which is brought into the soul upon the casting out of the first which will stand good and yet not alway that neither for where the change is by the halves the second or third peace may be unsound as well as the first as many a man that casteth away the peace of his Prophaness doth take up the peace of meer Civility and morality or if he yet discover the unsoundness of that and is cast into trouble then he healeth all with outward Religiousness or with a half Christianity and there he taketh up with peace This is but driving Satan out of one room into another but till he be cast out of possession the peace is unsound Hear what Christ saith Luke 11.21.22 When a strong man armed keepeth his palace his goods are in peace but when a stronger then he shall come upon him and overcome him he taketh from him all his Armour wherein he trusted and devideth his spoils The soul of every man by nature is Satans Garrison all is at peace in such a man till Christ comes when Christ storms this heart he breaks the peace he giveth it most terrible Alarms of Judgment and Hell he battereth it with the Ordnance of his Threatnings and Terrors he sets all in a combustion of Fear and Sorrow till he have forced it to yield to his meer mercy and take him for the Governor and Satan is cast out and then doth he establish a firm and lasting Peace If therefore thou art yet but in that first peace and thy heart was never yet either taken by storm or delivered up freely to Jesus Christ never think that thy peace will indure Can the soul have peace which is at enmity with Christ or stands out against him or thinks his Government too severe and his Conditions hard Can he have peace against whom God proclaimeth war I may say to thee as Jehu to Joram when he asked Is it peace What peace while the whordoms of thy mother Jezabel remain So thou art desirous to hear nothing from the mouth of a Minister but peace but what peace can there be till thou hast cast away thy wickedness and thy first peace and made thy peace with God through Christ Wilt thou believe God himself in this Case Why read then what he saith twice over Isai. 48.22 and 57.21 There is no peace saith my God to the wicked And hath he said it and shall it not stand Sinner Though thou maist now harden and fortifie thy heart against Fear and Grief and Trouble yet as true as God is true they will batter down thy proud and fortified spirit and seize upon it and drive thee to amazement This will be done either here or hereafter My counsel therefore to thee is that thou presently examine the grounds of thy peace and say I am now at ease and quiet in my minde but is it grounded and will it be lasting Is the danger of eternal Judgment over Am I sure my sins are pardoned and my soul shall be saved If not alas what cause of peace I may be in hell before the next day for ought I know Certainly a man that stands upon the Pinacle of a Steeple or that sleeps on the top of the main Mast or that is in the heat of the most bloody fight hath more cause of peace and carelesness then thou Why thou livest under the wrath of God continually thou art already sentenced to eternal death and maist every hour expect the execution till thou have sued out a pardon through Christ. I can shew thee a hundred threatnings in Scripture which are yet in force against thee but canst thou shew me one Promise for thy safety an hour What assurance hast thou when thou goest forth of thy doors that thou shalt ever come in again I should wonder but that I know the desperate hardness of the heart of man how a man that is not sure of his peace with God could eat or drink or sleep or live in peace That thou art not afraid when thou liest down lest thou shouldst awake in hell or when thou risest up lest thou shouldest be in hell before night or when thou sittest in thy house that thou still fearest not the approach of death or some fearful Judgment seizing upon thee and that the threats and sentence are not alwayes sounding in thy ears Well if thou were the nearest friend that I have in the world in this case that thou art in I could wish thee no greater good then that God would break in upon thy careless heart and shake thee out of thy false peace and cast thee into trouble that when thou feelest thy heart at ease thou wouldest remember thy misery that when thou art pleasing thy self with thy estate or business or labours thou wouldest still remember the approaching wo that thou wouldest cry out in the midst of thy pleasant discourse and merry company O how neer is the great and dreadful change that what ever thou art doing God would make thee read thy sentence as if it were still written before thine eyes and which way soever thou goest he would still meet thee full in the face with the sense of his wrath as the Angel did Balaam with a drawn sword till he had made thee cast away thy groundless peace and lye down at the feet of Christ whom thou hast resisted and say Lord what wouldest thou have me to do and so receive from him a surer and better peace
of their warning and they have not heard the voice of the rod which hath cryed up and down their streets Yet O England will ye not sanctifie my Sabbaths nor call upon my name nor regard my word nor turn from your worldliness and wickedness God hath given them a lash and a reproof a wound and a warning he hath as it were stood in their blood with the sword in his hand and among the heapes of the slain hath he pleaded with the living and said What say you Will you yet worship me and fear me and take me for your Lord And yet they will not Alas yet to this day England will not Let me here write it and leave it upon record that God may be justified and England may be shamed and posterity may know if God do deliver us how ill we deserved it or if he yet destroy us how wilfully we procured it And if they that passe by shall ask Why hath God done thus to a flourishing and prosperous land You may give them the true though sad answer They would not hear they would not regard He smit them down he wounded them he hewed them as wood and then he beseeched the remainder to consider and return but they never would do it They were weary of his wayes they polluted his Sabbaths they cast his word and worship out of their families they would not be at the pains to learn and obey his will nay they abhorred his Ministers and servants and holy paths and all this to the last breath When he had slain five thousand or eight thousand at a fight the rest did no more reform then if they had never heard of it Nay such a spirit of slumber is faln upon them that if God should proceed and kill them all save one man ask that one man Wilt thou yet seek me with all thy heart he would rather slight it Lord have mercy upon us What is gone with mens understanding and sense Have they renounced Reason as well as Faith Are they dead naturally as well as spiritually Can they not hear nor feel though they cannot believe That sad judgment is falâ— upon them mentioned in Isai. 42.24 25. Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel England to the robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned For they would not walk in his wayes neither were they obedient to his Laws Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set them on fire round about yet they knew it not it burned them yet they laid it not to heart Yea this much more let us leave upon Record against England They have been so far from Reforming and taking up the Worship of God with delight after all this that they have contrarily abhorred it at the very heart and fought against it as long as they could stand and when they have been wounded and overthrown in one Fight they have been as forward to the next and when they have been quite subdued in all parts of the Land they are as ready again for another war as if they had never felt the hand of God at all and to root out the sincere Worshippers and Worship of God they are ready to dye to the last man Lord how hast thou deserved so much ill at these mens hands what harm hath praying and reading and preaching painfully and sanctifying the Sabbath and fearing to offend done to England Have they suffered for these or for their enmity to these what evil do these wretches discern in the everlasting Kingdom that they do not only refuse to labor for it but so detest and resist the holy way that leads to it It is wel for them that they live in Gospel times when the patience of God doth wait on sinners and not in those severer days when fire from heaven destroyed the Captaines and their Companies that were commanded by the King to bring but one Prophet before him or when the Lyons destroyed fourty two children for calling a Prophet of God Bald-head Or rather it had bin better for these men to have lived in those times that though their temporal Judgments had been greater yet their eternal plagues might have bin the less Yet this much more let me leave upon Record to the shame of England That all this is not meerly through idleness because they will not be at the pains to serve God but it is out of a bitter enmity to his Word and wayes for they will be at more pains then this in any way that is evil or in any worship of mans devising They are as zealous for Crosses and Surplices Processions and Perambulations reading of a Gospel at a cross way the observation of Holidays and Fasting days the repeating of the Letany or the like forms in the Common Prayer the bowing at the naming of the word Jesus while they reject his Worship the receiving of the Sacrament when they have no right to it and that upon their knees as if they were more revererent and devout then the true laborious servants of Christ with a multitude of things which are onely the traditions of their Fathers I say they are as zealous for these as if eternal life consisted in them Where God forbids them there they are as forward as if they could never do enough and where God commands them they are as backward to it yea as much against it as if they were the commands of the Devil himself and for the discipline of Christ though all parts of the world have much opposed it yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted The Lord grant that this hardned wilful malicious Nation fall not under that heavy doom Luke 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me SECT IV. 3. THe third sort that fall under this Reproof are those self-couzening formal lazie Professors of Religion who will be brought to any outward duty and to take up the easier part of Christianity but to the inward work and more difficult part they will never be perswaded They will Preach or hear or read or talk of heaven or pray customarily and constantly in their Families and take part with the persons or causes that are good and desire to be esteemed among the godly but you can never bring them to the more spiritual and difficult duties as to be constant and fervent in secret Prayer to be conscionable in the duty of self-examination to be constant in that excellent duty of Meditation to be heavenly minded to watch constantly over his heart and words and wayes to deny his bodily senses their delights to mortifie the flesh and not make provision for it to fulfil its lusts to love and heartily forgive an enemy to prefer his brethren heartily before himself and to think meanly of his own gifts and worth and to take it well
and we play with our clothes and look upon them when we should put them on and wear them we hang upon Ordinances from day to day but we stir not up our selves to seek the Lord I see a great many very constant in hearing and Praying and give us some hopes that their hearts are honest but they do not hear and prâ—y as iâ— it were for their lives O what a frozen stupidity hath benummed us The judgment of Pharaoh is among us we are turned into Stones and Rocks that can neither feel nor stir The plague of Lots wife is upon us as if we were changed into liveless unmoveable Pillars we are dying and we know it and yet we stir not we are at the door of eternal Happiness or Misery and yet we perceive it not Death knocks and we hear not Christ calls and knocks and we hear not God cries to us To day if you will hear my voyce harden not your hearts work while it is day for the night cometh when none shall work Now ply your business now labour for your lives now lay out all your strength and time now do it now or never and yet we stir no more then if we were half asleep What haste doth Death and Judgment make how fast do they come on they are almost at us and yet what little haste make we what haste makes the Sword to devour from one part of the Land to another what haste doth Plague and Famine make and all because we will not make haste The Spur of God is in our sides we bleed we groan and yet we do not mend our pace The Rod is on our backs it speaks to the quick our lashes are heard through the Christian world and yet we stir no faster then before Lord what a sensless sottish earthly hellish thing is a hard heart that we will not go roundly and cheerfully toward heaven without all this ado no nor with it neither where is the man that is serious in his Christianity Methinks men do every where make but a trifle of their eternal state they look after it but a little upon the by they do not make it the taske and business of their lives To be plain with you I think nothing undoes men so much as complementing and jesting in Religion O if I were not sick my self of the same disease with what teares should I mixt this Ink and with what groans should I express these sad complaints and with what hearts-grief should I mourn over this universal deadness Do the Magistrates among us seriously perform their portion of the work Are they zealous for God Do they build up his House and are they tender of his Honor Do they second the Word and encourage the Godly and relieve the Oppressed and compassionate the Distressed and let fly at the face of sin and sinners as being the disturbers of our peace and the onely cause of all our miseries Do they study how to do the utmost that they can for God to improve their power and parts and wealth and honor and all their interests for the greatest advantage to the Kingdom of Christ as men that must shortly give account of their Stewardship or do they build their own houses and seek their advancements and stand upon and contest for their own honors and do no more for Christ then needs they must or then lyes in their way or then is put by others into their hands or then stands with the pleasing of their friends or with their worldy interests which of these two courses do they take and how thin are those Ministers that are serious in their work Nay how mightily do the very best fail in this above all things Do we cry out of mens disobedience to the Gospel in the evidence and power of the Spirit and deal with sin as that which is the fire in our Towns and houses and by force pull men out of this fire Do we perswade our people as those that know the terrors of the Lord should do Do we press Christ and Regeneration and Faith and Holiness as men that believe indeed that without these they shall never have Life Do our bowels yearn over the Ignorant and the Careless and the obstinate Multitude as men that believe their own Doctrine that our dear people must be eternally damned if they be not timely recovered When we look them in the faces do our hearts melt over them lest we should never see their faces in Rest Do we as Paul tell them weeping of their fleshly and earthly disposition and teach them publikely and from house to house night and day with tears And do vve intreate them as if it were indeed for their lives and salvation that vvhen vve speak of the Joys and Miseries of another world our people may see us affected accordingly and perceive that we do indeed mean as we speak Or rather do vve not study vvords and neat Expressions that vve may approve our selves able men in the judgment of critical Hearers and speak so formally and heartlesly of Eternity that our people can scarcely think that vve believe our selves or put our tongues into some affected pace and our language into some forced Oratorical strain as if a Ministers business were of no more weight but to tell them a smooth tale of an hour long and so look no more after them till the next Sermon Seldom do vve fit our Sermons either for Matter or Manner to the great end our peoples salvation but we sacrifice our studies to our own credit or our peoples content or some such base inferiour end Carnal discretion doth controll our fervency It maketh our Sermons like beautiful Pictures which have much pains and cost bestowed upon them to make them comely and desirable to the eye but life or heat or motion there is none Surely as such a conversation is an Hypocritical conversation so such a Sermon is as truly an hypocritical Sermon O the formal frozen lifeless Sermons which we daily hear preached upon the most weighty piercing Subjects in the world How gently do we handle those sins which will handle so cruelly our poor peoples souls And how tenderly do we deal with their careless hearts not speaking to them as to men that must be wakened or damned We tell them of heaven and hell in such a sleepy tone and sleighty way as if we were but acting a part in a Play so that we usually preach our people asleep with those subjects which one would think should rather endanger the driving of some besides themselves if they were faithfully delivered Not that I commend or excuse that reall indiscretion and unseemly language and nauseous repetitions and ridiculous gestures whereby many do disgrace the work of God and bring his ordinances in contempt with the people nor think it fit that he should be an Embassador from God on so weighty a business that is not able to
for ought thou knowest to the contrary thy case hereafter may be as bad as his I know not what thou thinkest of thy own state but for my part did I not know what a desperate blind dead piece a carnal heart is I should wonder how thou dost to forget thy misery and to keep off continual horrors from thy heart And especially in these cases following 1. I wonder how thou canst either think or speak of the dreadful God without exceeding terror and astonishment as long as thou art uncertain whether he be thy Father or thy Enemy and knowest not but all his Attributes may be imployed against thee If his Saints must rejoyce before him with trembling and serve him in fear If they that are sure to receive the unmoveable Kingdom must yet serve God with reverence and godly fear because he is a consuming fire How then should the remembrance of him be terrible to them that know not but this fire may for ever consume them 2. How dost thou think without trembling upon Jesus Christ when thou knowest not whether his blood hath purged thy Soul or not and whether he will condemn thee or acquit thee in Judgment nor whether he be set for thy rising or thy fall Luk. 2.34 nor whether he be the corner Stone and Foundation of thy happiness or a stone of stumbling to break thee and grind thee to powder Mat. 21.44 Methinks thou shouldst be still in that tune as Job 31.23 Destruction from God is a terror to me and by reason of his Highness I cannot endure 3. How canst thou open the Bible and read a Chapter or hear a Chapter read but it should terrifie thee Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzars writing upon the wall except only that which draws thee to try and reform If thou read the Promises thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition If thou read the Threatnings for any thing thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching and if thou say of it and of the Minister and Scripture it self as Ahab of the Prophet I hate him for he doth not prophecy good concerning me but evil 1 Kings 22.8 4. I wonder how thou canst without terror approach God in prayer or any duty When thou callest him thy Father thou knowest not whether thou speak true or false When thou needest him in thy sickness or other extremity thou knowest not whether thou hast a friend to go to or an enemy When thou receivest the Sacrament thou knowest not whether thou take thy blessing or thy bane And who would wilfully live such a life as this 5. What comfort canst thou find in any thing which thou possessest Methinks friends and honors and house and lands should do thee little good till thou know that thou hast the love of God with all and shalt have Rest with him when thou leavest these Offer to a prisoner before he know his sentence either musick or clothes or lands or preferment and what cares he for any of these till he know how he shall scape for his life and then he will look after these comforts of life and not before for he knows if he must dye the next day it will be small comfort to dye rich or honorable Methinks it should be so with thee till thou know thine eternal state Dost not thou as Ezek. 12.18 Eat thy bread with quaking and drink thy drink with trembling and carefulness and say Alas though I have these to refresh my body now yet I know not what I shall have hereafter Even when thou liest down to take thy rest methinks the uncertainty of thy Salvation should keep thee waking or amaze thee in thy dreams and trouble thy sleep and thou shouldst say as Job in a smaller distress then thine Job 7.13 14. When I say My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me through dreams and terrifiest me through visions 6. Doth it not grieve thee to see the people of God so comfortable when thou hast none thy self and to think of the Glory which they shall inherit when thou hast no assurance thy self of ever enjoying it 7. What shift dost thou make to think of thy dying hour Thou knowest it is hard by and there 's no avoyding it nor any medicine found out that can prevent it Thou knowest it is the King of terror Job 18.14 and the very inlet to thine unchangeable state The godly that have some assurance of their future welfare have yet much ado to submit to it willingly and find that to dye comfortably is a very difficult work How then canst thou think of it then without astonishment who hast got no assurance of the Rest to come If thou shouldst dye this day and who knows what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 thou dost not know whether thou shalt go straight to Heaven or to Hell And canst thou be merry till thou art got out of this dangerous state Methinks that in Deut. 28.25 26 27. should be the looking-glass of thy heart 8. What shift dost thou make to preserve thy heart from horror when thou remembrest the great Judgment day and the Everlasting flames Dost thou not tremble as Felix when thou hearest of it and as the Elders of the Town trembled when Samuel came in it saying Comest thou peaceably So methinks thou shouldst do when the Minister comes into the Pulpit And thy heart when ever thou meditatest of that day should meditate terror Isai. 33.18 And thou shouldst be even a terror to thy self and all thy friends Jer. 20.4 If the keepers trembled and became as dead men when they did but see the Angels Mat. 28.3 4. how canst thou think of living in Hell with Devils till thou hast got some sound assurance that thou shalt escape it Or if thou seldom think of these things the wonder is as great what shift thou makest to keep these thoughts from thy heart and to live so quietly in so doleful a state Thy bed is very soft or thy heart is very hard if thou canst sleep soundly in this uncertain case I have shewed thee the danger let me next proceed to shew thee the Remedy SECT II. IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it or exhort them from it But alas the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence Men will not be perswaded to use the Remedy though it be easie and at hand prescribed to them by God himself and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination or the Serious and diligent trying of a mans heart and state by the rule of Scripture This Scripture
that they may well be said to Witness Together Not one laying down the intire Conclusion of it self That we are the Children of God and then the other attesting the same entirely again of it self But as concurrent Causes to the same Numerical Conclusion But this with Submission to better Judgments and further Search By this also you may see that the common distinction of Certainty of Adherence and Certainty of Evidence must be taken with a grain or two of salt For there is no Certainty without Evidence no more then there is a Conclusion without a Medium A small degree of Certainty hath some small glimpse of Evidence Indeed 1. the Assent to the truth of the promise 2. and the Acceptation of Christ offered with his benefits are both before and without any sight or consideration of Evidence and are themselves our best Evidence being that Faith which is the Condition of our Justification But before any man can in the least Assurance conclude that he is the Child of God and Justified he must have some Assurance of that Mark or Evidence For who can conclude Absolutely that he shall receive the thing contained in a Conditional Promise till he know that he hath performed the Condition For those that say There is no Condition to the New Covenant I think them not worthy a word of confutation And for their Assertion That we are bound immediately to Believe that we are Justified and in special Favour with God It is such as no man of competent knowledg in the Scripture and belief of its truth can once imagine For if every man must believe this then most must believe a lye for they never shall be Justified yea all must at first believe a lye for they are not Justified till they believe and the believing that they are Justified is not the faith which Justifieth them If only some men must believe this how shall it be known who they be The truth is That we are Justified is not properly to be Believed at all For nothing is to be Believed which is not written but it is no where written that you or I are Justified only one of those premises is written from whence we may draw the Conclusion That we are Justified if so be that our own hearts do afford us the other of the Premises So that Our Actual Justification is not a matter of meer Faith but a Conclusion from Faith and Conscience together If God have no where promised to any man Justification immediately without Condition then no man can so believe it but God hath no where promised it Absolutely therefore c. Nor hath he declared to any man that is not first a Believer that he loveth him with any more then a common love Therefore no more can be believed but a common love to any such For the Eternal Love and Election is manifest to no man before he is a Believer SECT V. 2. HAving thus shewed you what Examination is and what Assurance is I come to the second thing promised To shew you That such an Infallible Certainty of Salvation may be attained and ought to be laboured for though a Perfect Certainty cannot here be attained And that Examination is the means to attain it In which I shall be the briefer because many writers against the Papists on this point have said enough already Yet somewhat I will say 1. because it is the common conceit of the Ignorant Vulgar That an Infallible Certainty cannot be attained 2. and many have taught and printed That it is only the Testimony of the Spirit that can assure us and that this proving our Justification by our Sanctification and searching after Marks and Signs in our selves for the procuring of Assurance is a dangerous and deceitful way Thus we have the Papists the Antinomians and the ignorant Vulgar conspiring against this doctrine of Assurance and Examination Which I maintain against them by these Arguments 1. Scripture tells us we may know that the Saints before us have known their Justification and future Salvation 2 Cor. 5.1 Rom. 8.36 Joh. 21.15 1 Joh. 5.19 4.13 3.14 24. 2.3 5. Rom. 8.15 16 36. Ephes. 3.12 I refer you to the places for brevity 2. If we may be certain of the Premises then may we also be certain of the undenyable Conclusion of them But here we may be certain of both the Premises For 1. That whosoever believeth in Christ shall not perish but shall have everlasting life is the voyce of the Gospel and therefore that we may be sure of That we are such Believers may be known by Conscience and internal Sense I know all the question is in this Whether the Moral Truth or Sincerity of our Faith and other Graces can be known thus or not And that it may I prove thus 1. From the natural use of this Conscience and internal Sense which is to acquaint us not only with the Being but the Qualifications of the Acts of our Souls All voluntary Motions are Sensible And though the heart is so deceitful that no man can certainly know the heart of another and with much difficulty clearly know their own yet by diligent observation and examination known they may be for though our inward Sense and Conscience may be depraved yet not extirpated or quite â—â—â—â—inguished 2. The Commands of Believing Repenting c. were in Vain especially as the Condition of the Covenant if we could not know whether we perform them or not 3. The Scripture would never make such a wide difference between the Godly and the Wicked the Children of God and the Children of the Devil and set forth the happiness of the one and the misery of the other so largely and make this Difference to run through all the veins of its doctrine if a man cannot know which of these two estates he is in 4. Much less would the Holy Ghost urge us to give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure if it could not be done 2 Pet. 1.10 And that this is not meant of Objective Certainty but of Subjective appeareth in this That the Apostle mentioneth not Salvation or any thing to come but Calling and Election which to Believers were Objectively Certain before as being both past 5. And to what purpose should we be so earnestly urged to examine and prove and try our selves Whether we be in the Faith and whether Christ be in us or we be Reprobates 1 Cor. 11.28 and 2 Cor. 13.5 Why should we search for that which cannot be found 6. How can we obey those precepts which require us to Rejoyce always 1 Thes. 5.16 to call God our Father Luk. 11.2 to live in his Praises Psal. 49.1 2 3 4 5. and to long for Christs Coming Rev. 22.17 20. 1 Thes. 1.10 and to comfort our selves with the mention of it 1 Thes. 4.18 which are all the Consequents of Assurance Who can do any of these heartily that is not
wilt not accept them Why dost thou therefore stand whining and complaining that thou art not Pardoned and Adopted when thou shouldst take them being offered thee Were he not mad that would lie weeping and wringing his hands because he is not pardoned when his Prince stands by all the while offering him a pardon and intreating and threatning and perswading and correcting him and all to make him take it What would you say to such a man Would you not chide him for his folly and say If thou wouldst have Pardon and Life why dost thou not take it Why then do you not say the like to your selves Know ye not that Pardon and Adoption are offered you only on the Condition of your Believing And this Believing is nothing else but the Accepting of Christ for thy Lord and Saviour as he is offered to thee with his benefits in the Gospel And this Accepting is principally if not only the Act of thy Will So that if thou be willing to have Christ upon his own terms that is to Save and Rule thee then thou art a Believer Thy willingness is thy Faith And if thou have Faith thou hast the surest of all Evidences Justifying Faith is not thy Perswasion of Gods special Love to thee or of thy Justification but thy Accepting Christ to make thee Just and Lovely It may be thou wilt say I cannot Believe It is not so easie a matter to Believe as you make it Answ. Indeed to those that are not willing it is not easie God only can make them willing But to him that is willing to have Christ for King and Saviour I will not say Believing is easie but it is already performed for this is Believing Let me therefore put this Question to every doubting complaining Soul What is it that thou art complaining and mourning for What makes thee walk so sadly as thou dost Because thou hast not Christ and his benefits Why art thou willing to have them on the forementioned Condition or art thou not If thou be Willing thou hast him Thy Accepting is thy Believing To as many as Receive him that is Accept him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God even to them that Believe on his Name Joh. 1.12 But if thou art not Willing why dost thou Complain Methinks the tongue should follow the bent of the heart or Will And they that would not have Christ should be speaking against him at least against his Laws and Ways and not complaining because they do not enjoy him Dost thou groan and make such moan for want of that which thou wouldst not have If indeed thou wouldst not have Christ for thy King and Saviour then have I nothing to say but to perswade thee to be Willing Is it not madness then to lie complaining that we have not Christ when we may have him if we will If thou have him not take him and cease thy complaints Thou canst not be so forward and willing as he is And if He be Willing and thou be Willing who shall break the Match I will not say as Mr Saltmarsh most horridly doth That we ought no more to Question our Faith which is our first and foundation Grace then we ought to Question Christ the Foundation of our Faith But this I say That it were a more wise and direct course to Accept Christ offered which is Believing then to spend so much time in doubting whether we have Christ and Faith or no. SECT XII 3. ANother Cause of many Christians trouble is Their mistaking Assurance for the Joy that sometime accompanieth it or at least confounding them together Therefore when they want the Joy of Assurance they are as much cast down as if they wanted Assurance it self Doctor Sibbs saith well That as we cannot have Grace but by the work of the Spirit so must there be a further Act to make us Know that we have that Grace and when we Know we have Grace yet must there be a further Act of the Spirit to give us Comfort in that Knowledg Some Knowledg or Assurance of our Regenerate and Justified Estate the Spirit gives more ordinarily but that sensible Joy is more seldom and extraordinary We have cause enough to keep off doubtings and distress of spirit upon the bare sight of our Evidences though we do not feel any further Joys This these complaining Souls understand not and therefore though they cannot deny their willingness to have Christ nor many other the like Graces which are infallible Signs of their Justification and Adoption yet because they do not feel their spirits replenished with comforts they throw away all as if they had nothing As if a Child should no longer take himself for a son then he sees the smiles of his Fathers face or heareth the comfortable expressions of his mouth And as if the Father did cease to be a Father when ever he ceaseth those smiles and speeches SECT XIII 4. ANd yet further is the trouble of these poor Souls increased in that They know not the ordinary way of Gods conveying these expected Comforts When they hear that they are the free gifts of the Spirit they presently conceive themselves to be meerly passive therein and that they have nothing to do but to wait when God will bestow them Not understanding that though these Comforts are Spiritual yet are they Rational raised upon the Understandings apprehension of the Excellency of God our Happiness and of our Interest in him and by the rolling of this blessed Object in our frequent Meditations The Spirit doth advance and not destroy our Reason It doth rectifie it and then use it as its ordinary instrument for the conveyance of things to our Affections and exciting them accordingly and not lay it aside and Affect us without it Therefore our Joys are raised discoursively and the Spirit first revealeth our Cause of Joy and then helpeth us to Rejoyce upon those revealed grounds So that he who Rejoyceth groundedly knoweth why he Rejoyceth ordinarily Now these mistaken Christians lie waiting when the Spirit doth cast in these Comforts into their hearts while they sit still and labour not to excite their own Affections Nay while they Reason against the Comforts which they wait for These men must be taught to know that the matter of their Comfort is in the Promises and thence they must fetch it as oft as they expect it And that if they set themselves dayly and diligently to Meditate of the Truth of those Promises and of the rare excellency contained in them and of their own title thereto in this way they may expect the Spirits assistance for the raising of holy Comfort in their Souls But if they lie still bewailing their want of Joy while the full and free Promises lie by them and never take them and rip them up and look into them and apply them to their hearts by Serious Meditation They may complain for want of Comfort long
part he is assured of them How can you doubt whether you love God in the Act of Loving Or whether you believe in the very Act of Believing If therefore you would be assured whether this Sacred Fire be kindled in your hearts blow it up get it into a flâ—me and then you will know Believe till you feel that you do believe and Love till you feel that you love 3. The Action of the Soul upon such excellent Objects doth naturally bring Consolation with it The very Act of Loving God in Christ doth bring unexpressible sweetness with it into the Soul The Soul that is best furnished with Grace when it is not in Action is like a Lute well string'd and tun'd which while it lieth still doth make no more Musick then a common piece of wood but when it is taken up and handled by a skilful Lutist the melody is most delightful Some degree of comfort saith that comfortable Doctor followes every good Action as heat accompanies fire and as beams and influences issue from the Sun which is so true that very heathens upon the discharge of a good Conscience have found comfort and peace answerable This is Praemium ante Praemium a Reward before the Reward As a man therefore that is cold should not stand still and say I am so cold that I have no minde to Labour but labour till â—is coldness be gone and heat excited So he that wants assurance of the truth of his graces and the comfort of Assurance must not stand still and say I am so doubtful and uncomfortable that I have no minde to duty but ply his duty and exercise his Graces till he finde his Doubts and Discomforts to vanish SECT XIX 10. LAstly another ordinary Nurse of Doubtings and Discomfort is The prevailing of Melancholly in the body whereby the brain is continually troubled and darkened the Fancy hindered and Reason perverted by the distempering of its instruments and the Soul is still clad in mourning weeds It is no more wonder for a Consciencious man that is overcome with Melancholly to doubt and fear and despair then it is for a sick man to groan or a child to cry when he is beater This is the case with most that I have known lie long in doubting and distress of Spirit With some their Melancholly being raised by Crosses or distemper of body or some other occasion doth afterwards bring in trouble of Conscience as its companion With others trouble of mind is their first trouble which long hanging on them at last doth bring the body also into a Melancholly habit And then trouble increaseth Melancholly and Melancholly again increaseth trouble and so round This is a most sad and pitiful state For as the disease of the body is chronical and obstinate and physick doth seldom succeed where it hath far prevailed so without the Physician the labours of the Divine are usually in vain You may silence them but you cannot comâ—fort them You may make them confess that they have some Grace and yet cannot bring them to the comfortable Conclusiâ—ons Or if you convince them of some work of the Spirit upon their souls and a little at present abate their sadness yet as soon as they are gone home and look again upon their souls through this perturbing humour all your convincing Arguments are forgotten and they are as far from comfort as ever they were All the good thoughts of their estate which you can possibly help them to are seldom above a day or two old As a man that looks through a black or blew or red glass doth think things which he sees to be of the same colour and if you would perswade him to the contrary he will not believe you but wonder that you should offer to perswade him against his eye-sight So a Melancholly man sees all things in a sad and fearful plight because his Reason looketh on them through this black humour with which his brain is darkened and distempered And as a mans eyes which can see all things about them yet cannot see any imperfection in themselves so is it almost impossible to make many of these men to know that they are Melancholly But as those who are troubled with the Ephialtes do cry out of some body that lyeth heavy upon them when the disease is in their own blood and humors so these poor men cry out of sin and the wrath of God when the main cause is in this bodily distemper The chief part of the cure of these men must be upon the body because there is the chief part of the disease And thus I have shewed you the chief causes why so many Christians do injoy so little Assurance and Consolation CHAP. VIII Containing an Exhortation and Motives to Examine SECT I. HAving thus discoverd the Impediments to Examination I would presently proceed to direct you to the performance of it but that I am yeâ— jealous whether I have fully prevailed with you wills and whether you are indeed Resolved to set upon the Duty I have found by long experience as well as from Scripture That the main difficulty lieth in bringing men to be willing and to set themselves in good earnest to the searching of their hearts Many love to hear and read of Marks and signs by which they may Try but few will be brought to spend an hour in using them when they have them They think they should have their Doubts resolved as soon as they do but hear a minister name some of these Signes and if that would do the work then Assurance would be more common But when they are informed that the work lies most upon their own hands and what pains it must cost them to search their hearts faithfully then they give up and will go no further This is not only the case of the ungodly who commonly perish through this neglect but multitudes of the godly themselves are like Idle Beggars who will rather make a practice of begging and bewailing their misery then they will set themselves to labour painfully for their relief So do many spend days and years in sad complaints and doubtings that will not be brought to spend a few hours in Examination I intreat all these persons what condition soever they are of to consider the weight of these following Arguments which I have propounded in hope to perswade them to this duty SECT II. 1. TO be deceived about your Title to Heaven is exceeding easie and not to be deceived is exceeding difficult This I make manifest to you thus 1. Multitudes that never suspected any falshood in their hearts have yet proved unsound in the day of Tryal and they that never feared any danger toward them have perished for ever Yea many that have been confident of their integrity and safety I shall adjoyn the proofes of what I say in the Margin for brevity sake How many poor souls are now in Hell that little thought of comming
Condition and to enlighten thee in thy whole progress in the work 3. Make choyce of the most convenient Time and Place I shall not stand upon the particular Directions about these because I shall mention them more largely when I come to direct you in the duty of Contemplation Only thus in brief 1. Let the Place be the most private that you may be free from distractions 2. For the Time thus 1. When you are most solitary and at leasure You cannot cast accounts especially of such a nature as these either in a croud of company or of imployments 2. Let it be a set and choâ—en Time when you have nothing to hinder you 3. But if it may be let it be the present Time especially if thou have been a stranger hitherto to the work There is no delaying in matters of such weight 4. Especially when you have a more special call to search your selves as in publique calamities in time of sickness before Sacrament c. 5. When God is Trying you by some Affliction and as Job saith is searching after your sin then set in with him and search after them your selves 6. Lastly You should specially take such a Time when you are most fit for the work when you are not secure and stupid on one hand nor yet under deep desertions or Melancholly on the other hand for else you will be unfit Judges of your own states 4. When you have thus chosen the fittest Time and Place then draw forth either from thy Memory or in writing the forementioned Marks or Gospel-Conditions or Descriptions of the Saints Try them by Scripture and convince thy Soul throughly of their infallible Truth 5. Proceed then to put the Question to thy self But be sure to state it right Let it not be Whether there be any Good in thee at all for so thou wilt err on the one hand Nor yet Whether thou have such or such a degree and measure of Grace for so thou wilt err on the other hand But Whether such or such a Saving Grace be in thee at all in sincerity or not 6. If thy heart draw back and be loath to the work suffer it not so to give thee the slip but force it on Lay thy command upon it let Reason interpose and use its authority Look over the fore-going Arguments and press them home Yea lay the Command of God upon it and charge it to obey upon pain of his displeasure Set Conscience a work also let it do its office till thy lazy heart be spurred up to the work For if thou suffer it to break away once and twice c. it will grow so head-strong that thou canst not master it 7. Let not thy Heart trifle away the Time when it should be diligently at the work Put the Question to it seriously Is it thus and tâ—us with me or no Force it here to an Answer suffer it not to be silent nor to jangle and think of other matters If the Question be hard through the darkness of thy Heart yet do not give it over so but search the closer and study the case the more exactly And if it be possible let not thy Heart give over till it have Resolved the Question and told thee off or on in what case thou art Ask it strictly as Joseph examined his Brethren Gen. 43.7 how it stands affected Do as David Psal. 77.6 My spirit made Diligent Search If thy Heart strive to break away before thou art resolved wrestle with it till thou hast prevailed and say I will not let thee go till thou hast Answered He that can prevail with his own Heart shall also be a prevailer with God 8. If thou finde the work beyond thy strength so that after all thy pains thou art never the more resolved then seek out for help Go to some that is Godly experienced able and faithful and tell him thy case and desire his best advice and help Not that any can know thy heart so well as thy self But if thou deal faithfully and tell him what thou knowest by thy self he can tell thee whether they be sound Evidences or not and shew thee Scripture how to prove them so and direct thee in the right use of such Evidences and shew thee how to conclude from them Yea when thou canst get no further the very Judgment of an able Godly man should take much with thee as a probable Argument as the Judgment of a Physician concerning the state of thy body Though this can afford thee no full certainty yet it may be a great help to stay and direct thee But be sure thou do not make this a pretence to put off thy own duty of Examining But onely use it as one of the last remedies when thou findest thy own endevors will not serve Neither be thou forward to open thy case to every one or to a carnal flattering unskilful person But to one that hath wisdom to conceal thy secrets and tenderness to compassionate thee and skill to direct thee and faithfulness to deal truly and plainly with thee 9. When by all this pains and means thou hast discovered the truth of thy state then pass the Sentence on thy self accordingly A meer examination will do thee little good if it proceed not to a Judgment Conclude as thou findest Either that thou art a true Beleever or that thou art not But pass not this Sentence rashly nor with self-flattery nor from Melancholly terrors and fears But do it groundedly and deliberately and truly as thou findest according to thy Conscience Do not conclude as some do I am a good Christian or as others do I am a Reprobate or a Hypocrite and shall be damned when thou hast no ground for what thou sayst but thy own fancy or hopes or fears nay when thou art convinced by Scripture and Reason of the contrary and hast nothing to say against the Arguments Let not thy Judgment be any way by assed or bribed and so fore-stalled from sentencing aright 10. Labor to get thy heart kindly Affected with its discovered condition according to the sentence passed on it Do not think it enough to know but labor to feel what God hath made thee see If thou finde thy self undoubtedly graceless Oh get this to thy heart and think what a doleful Condition it is To be an Enemy to God! to be unpardoned unsanctified and if thou shouldst so dye to be Eternally damned One would think such a thought should make a heart of stone to quake On the contrary If thou finde thy self renewed and sanctified indeed Oh get this warm and close to thy heart Bethink thy self What a blessed state the Lord hath brought thee into To be his Childe his Friend to be pardoned justified and sure to be saved Why what needest thou fear but sinning against him Come war or plague or sickness or death thou art sure they can but thrust thee into Heaven Thus follow these Meditations till they have left
their impression on thy heart 11. Be sure to Record this Sentence so passed write it down or at least write it in thy Memory At such a time upon through Examination I found my state to be thus or thus This Record will be very useful to thee hereafter If thou be ungodly what a damp will it be to thy presumption and security to go and read the Sentence of thy Misery under thy own hand If thou be godly what a help will it be against the next Temptation to doubting and fear to go and read under thy hand this Record Mayst thou not think If at such a time I found the Truth of Grace is it not likely to be now the same and these my doubts to come from the Enemy of my Peace 12. Yet would I not have thee so trust to once discovery as to Try no more Especially if thou have made any foul Defection from Christ and play'd the backslider See then that thou renew the Search again 13. Neither would I have this hinder thee in the dayly Search of thy ways or of thy increase in Grace and fellowship with Christ It is an ill sign and desperate vile sin for a man when he thinks he hath found himself Gracious and in a happy state to let down his watch and grow negligent of his heart and ways and scarce look after them any more 14. Neither would I have thee give over in discouragement if thou canst not at once or twice or ten times trying discover thy Case But follow it on till thou hast discovered If one hours labor will not serve take another If one day or moneth or year be too little follow it still If one Minâ—ster cannot direct thee sufficiently go to another The Issue will answer all thy pains There is no sitting down discouraged in a work that must be done 15. Lastly above all take heed if thou finde thy self to be yet unregenerate that thou do not conclude of thy Future estate by thy present nor say Because I am ungodly I shall dye so or because I am an Hypocrite I shall continue so No thou hast another work to do And that is To resolve presently to cleave to Christ and break off thy Hypocrisie and thy Wickedness If thou finde that thou hast been all this while out of the way do not sit down in despair but make so much the more haste to turn into it If thou have been an Hypocrite or ungodly person all thy life yet is the promise offered thee by Christ and he tendereth himself to be thy Lord and Saviour Neither canst thou possibly be so Willing to Accept of him as he is to Accept thee Nothing but thy own unwillingness can keep thy Soul from Christ though thou hast hitherto abused him and dissembled with him Object But if I have gone so far and been a professor so long and yet finde my self an Hypocrite now after all what hope is there that I should now become sincere Answ. Dost thou heartily Desire to be Sincere Thy Sincerity doth lie especially in thy Will As long as thou art unwilling I confess thy case is sad But if thou be willing to receive Christ as he is offered to thee and so to be a Christian indeed then thou art sincere Neither hath Christ restrained his Spirit or Promises to any set time or said to thee Thou shalt finde grace if thou sin but so much or so long But if thou be heartily Willing at any time I know not who can hinder thy happiness Yet is this no diminution of the sin or danger of delaying Thus I have given you these Directions for Examination which conscionably practised will be of singular advantage and use to discover your states But it is not the bare reading of them that will do it I fear of many that will approve of this advice there will but few be brought to use it However those that are willing may finde help by it and the rest will be left more unexcuseable in Judgment SECT III. I Will not digress further to warn you here of the false Rules and Marks of Tryal which you must beware having opened them to you fullier when I preached on that subject But I will briefly adjoyn some Marks to try thy Title to this Rest by referring you for a fuller discovery to the Description of the People of God in the first part of the Book But be sure you search throughly and deal plainly or else you will but lose your labor and deceive your selves 1. Every Soul that hath Title to this Rest doth place his chiefest Happiness in it and make it the chief and ultimate End of his Soul This is the first Mark which is so plain a Truth that I need not stand to prove it For this Rest consisteth in the full and glorious enjoyment of God And he that maketh not God his chief Good and ultimate End is in heart a Pagan and vile Idolater and doth not take the Lord for his God Let me ask thee then Dost thou truly in Judgment and Affection account it thy chiefest Happiness to enjoy the Lord in Glory or dost thou not Canst thou say with David Psal. 16.5 The Lord is my Portion And as Psa. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom in earth that I desire in comparison of thee If thou be an heir of Rest it is thus with thee Though the flesh will be pleading for its own delights and the world will be creeping into thine affections and thou canst not be quite freed from the Love of it Yet in thy ordinary setled prevailing Judgment and Affections thou preferrest God before all things in the world 1. Thou makest him the End of thy Desires and Endevors The very reason why thou hearest and prayest why thou desirest to live and breathe on earth is chiefly this That thou mayst seek the Lord and make sure of thy Rest. Thou seekest first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness Though thou dost not seek it so desirously and zealously as thou shouldst yet hath it the chief of thy desires and endevors and nothing else is desired or preferred before it Mat. 6.33 So that thy very heart is thus far set upon it Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 2 3. 2. Also thou wilt think no labor or suffering too great to obtain it And though the flesh may sometime shrink or draw back yet art thou resolved and content to go through all Mat. 7.13 2 Tim. 2.5 Rom. 8.17 Luk. 14.26 27. 2 Tim. 2.12 Luk. 14.24 3. Also if thou be an heir of Rest thy valuation of it will be so high and thy affection to it so great that thou wouldst not exchange thy Title to it and hopes of it for any worldly Good whatsoever Indeed when the Soul is in doubts of enjoying it perhaps it may possibly desire rather the continuance of an earthly happiness then to depart out of the body with fears of going to Hell But
then we do wilfully afflict it our selves Suppose thou be in poverty It is thy flesh only that is pinched If thou have sores or sicknesses it is but the flesh that they assault If thou dye it is but that flesh that must rot in the grave Indeed it useth also to reach our hearts and Souls when the body suffereth but that is because we pore upon our evils and too much pity and condole the flesh and so we open the door and let in the pain to the heart our selves which else could have gone no further then the flesh God smites the flesh and therefore we will grieve our spirits and so multiply our grief as if we had not enough before Oh if I could but have let my body have suffered alone in all the pining paining sicknesses which God laid upon it and not have foolishly added my own self-tormenting fears and cares and sorrows and discontents but have quieted and comforted my Soul in the Lord my Rock and Rest I had escaped the far greater part of the Afflictions Why is this flesh so precious in our eyes Why are we so tender of these dusty carcasses Is flesh so excellent a thing Is it not our prison and what if it be broken down Is it not our Enemy yea and the greatest that ever we had and are we so fearful lest it be overthrown Is it not it that hath so long hampered and clog'd our Souls and tyed them to earth and ticed them to forbidden lusts and pleasures and stoln away our hearts from God Was it not it that longed for the first forbidden fruit and must needs be tasting what ever it cost And still it is of the same temper It must be pleased though God be displeased by it and our selves destroyed It maketh all Gods mercies the occasion of our transgressing and draweth poyson from the most excellent objects If we behold our food it inticeth to gluttony if drink to drunkenness if apparel or any thing of worth to pride if we look upon beauty it ticeth to lust if upon money or possessions to Covetousness It causeth our very spiritual love to the godly to degenerate into carnal and our spiritual Zeal and Joy and other graces It would make all carnal like it self What are we beholden to this flesh for that we are so loath that any thing should ail it Indeed we must not wrong it our selves for that is forbidden us Nor may we deny it any thing that is fit for a Servant that so it may be useful to us while we are forced to make use of it But if God chastise it for rebelling against him and the Spirit and it begin to cry and complain under this chastisement shall we make the suffering greater then it is and take its part against God Indeed the Flesh is very near to us we cannot chuse but condole its sufferings and feel somewhat of that which it feeleth But is it so near as to be our chiefest part Or cannot it be sore but we must be so sorry or cannot it consume and pine away but our peace and comfort must consume with it What if it be undone are we therefore undone or if it perish and be destroyed do We therefore perish Oh fie upon this carnality and unbelief which is so contradictory to the principles of Christianity Surely God dealeth the worse with this Flesh because we so over-value and Idolize it We make it the greatest part of our care and labour to provide for it and to satisfie its desires and we would have God to be of our mind and to do so too But as he hath commanded us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the desires or lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 So will he follow the same rule himself in his dealings with us and will not much stick at the displeasing of the flesh when it may honour himself or profit our Souls The flesh is aware of this and perceives that the Word and Works of God are much against its desires and delights and therefore is it also against the Word and Works of God It saith of the Word as Ahab of Micaiah I hate it for it doth not speak good concerning me but evil There is such an Enmity betwixt this flesh and God That they that are in the flesh cannot please him and the carnal mind is Enmity against him for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can be So inconsistent is the pleasing of the flesh and the pleasing of GOD That he hath concluded That to minde the things of the flesh or to be carnally minded is Death and if we live after the flesh we shall dye but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8. vers 4 5 6 7 8 13. So that there is no likelihood that ever Gods dealings should be pleasing to the flesh no more then its works are pleasing to God Why then O my Soul dost thou side with this Flesh and say as it saith and complain as it complaineth It should be part of thine own work to keep it down and bring it in subjection and if God do it for thee shouldst thou be discontented Hath not the pleasing of it been the cause of almost all thy spiritual sorrows Why then may not the displeasing of it further thy Joys Should not Paul and Silas sing because their feet were in the stocks and their flesh yet sore with the last days scourgings Why their spirits were not imprisoned nor scourged Ah unworthy Soul Is this thy thanks to God for his tenderness oâ— Thy good and for his preferring thee so far before the body Art thou turned into flesh thy self by thy dwelling a few years in flesh That thy Joys and thy Sorrows are most of them so fleshly Art thou so much a debter to the flesh that thou shouldst so much live to it and value its prosperity Hath it been so good a friend to thee and to thy Peace Or is it not thy Enemy as well as Gods Why dost thou look so sadly on those withered limbs and on that pining body Do not so far mistake thy self as to think its Joys and thine are all one or that its prosperity and thine are all one or that thou must needs stand or fall together When it is rotting and consuming in the grave then shalt thou be a companion of the perfected Spirits of the Just And when those bones are scattered about the Church-yard then shalt thou be praising God in Rest. And in the mean time hast not thou food of consolation which the flesh knoweth not of and a Joy which this stranger meddleth not with And do not think that when thou art turned out of this body that thou shalt have no habitation Art thou afraid thou shalt wander destitute of a Resting place Is it better Resting in flesh then in God Dost thou not know that when this house of earth is dissolved
in my own words but in his that I know you dare not dis-regard 1 Thes. 5.11 12 13. Wherefore comfort your selves together and Edifie one another even as also ye do And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are Over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake and be at peace among your selves Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as those that must give an account that they may do it with Joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13.17 Thus you see part of your duty for the Salvation of others SECT XVIII ANd now Christian Reader seeing it is a Duty that God hath laid upon every man according to his ability thus to exhort and reprove and with all possible diligence to labour after the Salvation of all about him judg then whether this work be conscionably performed Where shall we find the man almost among us that setteth himself to it with all his might and that hath set his heart upon the Souls of his brethren that they may be saved Let us here therefore a little enquire What may be the Causes of the gross neglect of this Duty that the Hinderances being discovered may the more easily be overcome 1. One Hinderance is Mens own Gracelesness and Guiltiness They have not been ravished themselves with the heavenly delights how then should they draw others so earnestly to seek them They have not felt the wickedness of their own natures nor their lost condition nor their need of Christ nor felt the transforming renewing work of the Spirit How then can they discover these to others Ah that this were not the case of many a learned Preacher in England and the causes why they preach so frozenly and generally Men also are guilty themselves of the sins they should Reprove and this stops their mouth and maketh them ashamed to reprove 2. Another Hinderance is A Secret Infidelity prevailing in mens hearts Whereof even the best have so great a measure that causeth this duty to be done by the halves Alas Sirs we do not sure believe mens Misery We do not believe sure that the threatnings of God are true Did we verily believe that all the unregenerate and unholy shall be eternally tormented as God hath said Oh how could we hold our tongues when we are among the unregenerate How could we chuse but burst out into tears when we look them in the face as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael Especially when they are our kindred or friends that are near and dear to us Thus doth secret unbelief of the truth of Scripture consume the vigour of each grace and duty Oh Christians if you did verily believe that your poor carnal ungodly neighbors or wife or husband or child should certainly lie for ever in the flames of Hell except they be throughly recovered and changed and that quickly before death do snatch them hence Would not this make you cast off all discouragements and lie at them day and night till they were perswaded and give them no rest in their carnal state How could you hold your tongue or let them alone another day if this were soundly believed If you were sure that any of your dear friends that are dead were now in Hell and perswading to repentance would get him out again would you not perswade him day and night if you were in hearing And why should you not do as much then to prevent it while he is in your hearing but that you do not believe Gods Word that speaks the danger Why did Noah prepare an Ark so long before and perswade the world to save themselves but because he believed God that the flood should come and therefore saith the Holy Ghost By faith Noah prepared the Ark. And why did not the world hearken to his perswasion and seek to save themselves as well as Noah but because they did not believe there would be any such deluge They see all fair and well and therefore they thought that threatenings were but wind The rich man in Hell cries out Send to my brethren to warn them that they come not to this place of torment He felt it and therefore being convinced of its truth would have them prevent it But his brethren on earth they did not see and feel as he and therefore they did not believe nor would have been perswaded though one had risen from the dead I am afraid most of us do believe the predictions of Scripture but as we believe the predictions of an Almanack which telleth you that such a day will be rain and such a day wind you think it may come to pass and it may be not and so you think of the predictions of the damnation of the wicked Oh were it not for this cursed Unbelief our own Souls and our neighbors would gain more by us then they do 3. This faithful dealing with men for their Salvation is much Hindered also by our want of Charity and Compassion to mens Souls We are hard-hearted and cruel towards the miserable and therefore as the Priest and the Levite did by the wounded man we look on them and pass by Oh what tender heart could endure to look upon a poor blind forlorn sinner wounded by sin and captivated by Satan and never once open our mouths for his recovery What though he be silent and do not desire thy help himself yet his very misery cries aloud Misery is the most effectually suitor to one that is compassionate If God had not heard the cry of our Miseries before he heard the cry of our prayers and been moved by his own pity before he was moved by our importunity we might have long enough continued the slaves of Satan Is it not the strongest way of arguing that a poor Lazare hath to unlap his sores and shew them the passengers all his words will not move them so much as such a pitiful sight Alas what pitiful sights do we dayly see The Ignorant the prophane the neglecters of Christ and their Souls their sores are open and visible to all that know them and yet do we not pity them You will pray to God for them in customary duties that God would open the eyes and turn the hearts of your ignorant carnal friends and neighbors And why do you not endeavor their conversion if you desire it And if you do not desire it why do you ask it Doth not your negligence convince you of hypocrisie in your prayers and of abusing the high God with your deceitful words Your neighbors are neer you your friends are in the house with you you eat and drink and work and walk and talk with them and yet you say little or nothing to them Why do you not pray them to consider and return as well as pray God to convert and turn them
afford that solid comfort as the converting of a few sinners by our unwearied compassionate exhortations Two men in a frosty season come where a company of people are ready to starve the one of them laps himself and taketh shelter for fear lest he should perish with them the other in pity falls to rub them that he may recover heat in them and while he laboreth hard to help them he getteth far better heat to himself then his unprofitable companion doth 7. With many also pride is a great impediment If it were to speak to a great man they would do it so it would not displease him But to go among the poor multitude and to take pains with a company of ignorant beggars or mean persons and to sit with them in a smoaky nasty cottage and there to instruct them and exhort them from day to day where is the person almost that will do it Many will much rejoyce if they have been instruments of converting a Gentleman and they have good cause But for the common multitude they look not after them As if God were a respecter of the persons of the rich or the souls of all were not alike to him Alas these men little consider how low Christ did stoop to us When the God of Glory comes down in flesh to wormes and goeth Preaching up and down among them from City to City Not the sillyest woman that he thought too low to confer with Few rich and noble and wise are called It is the poor that receive the glad tidings of the Gospel 8. Lastly With some also their Ignorance of the duty doth hinder them from performing it Either they know it not to be a duty or at least not to be their duty Perhaps they have not considered much of it nor been prest to it by their teachers as they have been to hearing and praying and other duties If this be thy case who readest this that meer Ignorance or inconsiderateness hath kept thee from it then I am in hope now thou art acquainted with thy duty thou wilt set upon it Object O but saith one I am of so weak parts and gifts that I am unable to manage an exhortation especially to men of strong natural parts and understanding Answ. First Set those upon the work who are more able Secondly Yet do not think that thou art so excused thy self but use faithfully that ability which thou hast not in teaching those of whom thou shouldst learn but in instructing those that are more ignorant then thy self and in exhorting those that are negligent in the things which they do know If you cannot speak well your self yet you can tell them what God speaketh in his word It is not the excellency of speech that winneth souls but the authority of God manifested by that speech and the power of his word in the mouth of the instructer A weak woman may tell what God saith in the plain passages of the word as well as a learned man If you cannot preach to them yet you can turn to the place in your Bible or at least remember them of it and say Thus it is written One of mean parts may remember the wisest of their duty when they forget it David received seasonable advice from Abigail a woman When a mans eyes are blinded with passion or the deceits of the world or the lusts of the flesh a weak instructer may prove very profitable for in that case he hath as much need to hear of that he knoweth as of that which he doth not know Object It is my superiour that needeth advice and exhortation and is it fit for me to teach or reprove my betters must the wife teach the husband of whom the Scripture biddeth them learn or must the childe teach the parents whose duty it is to teach them Answ. First It is fit that husbands should be able to teach their wives and parents to teach their children and God expecteth they should be so and therefore commandeth the inferiours to learn of them But if they through their own negligence do disable themselves or through their own wickedness do bring their souls into such misery as that they have the greatest need of advice and reproof themselves and are objects of pity to all that know their case then it is themselves and not you that break Gods order by bringing themselves into disability and misery Matter of meer order and manners must be dispensed with in cases of flat necessity Though it were your Minister you must teach him in such a case It is the part of parents to provide for the children and not children for the parents and yet if the parents fall into want must not the children relieve them It is the part of the husband to dispose of the affaires of the family and estate and yet if he be sick or besides himself must not the wife do it The rich should relieve the poor but if the rich fall into beggery they must be relieved themselves It is the work of the Physitian to look to the health of others and yet if he fall sick some body must help him and look to him So must the meanest servant admonish his master and the childe his parents and the wife her husband and the people their Minister in cases of necessity Secondly yet let me give you these two cautions here 1. That you do not pretend necessity when there is none out of a meer desire of teaching There is scarce a more certain discovery of a proud heart then to be forwarder and more desirous to Teach then to Learn especially toward those that are fitter to Teach us 2. And when the Necessity of your superiors doth call for your advice yet do it with all possible humility and modesty and meekness Let them discern your reverence and submission to their superiority in the humble maner of your addresses to them Let them perceive that you do it not out of a meer teaching humor or proud self-conceitedness An Elder must be admonished but not rebuked If a wife should tell her husband of his sin in a masterly railing language or if a servant reprove his master or a childe his father in a sawcie disrespective way what good could be expected from such reproof But if they should meekly and humbly open to him his sin and danger and intreat him to bear with them in what God commandeth and his misery requireth and if they could by teares testifie their sense of his case What father or master or husband could take this ill Object But some may say This will make us all Preachers and cause all to break over the bounds of their callings every boy and woman then will turn preacher Ans. 1. This is not taking a Pastoral charge of souls nor making an office or calling of it as Preachers do 2. And in the way of our callings every good Christian is a Teacher and hath a charge of his neighbors soul. Let
him more eminently then in the saving of Souls He that will pronounce you blessed at the last day and sentence you to the Kingdom prepared for you because you fed him and clothed him and visited him c. in his Members will sure pronounce you blessed for so great a work as is the bringing over of souls to his Kingdom and helping to drive the match betwixt them and him He that saith The poor you have always with you hath left the ungodly always with you that you might still have matter to exercise your Charity upon O if you have the hearts of Christians 〈◊〉 or of men in you let them yearn towards your poor ignorant ungodly neighbors Alas there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seise on them and if they dye unregenerate they are lost for ever Have you hearts of Rock that cannot pitty men in such a case as this If you believe not the Word of God and the danger of Sinners why are you Christians your selves If you do believe it why do you not bestir you to the helping of others Do you not care who is damned so you be saved If so you have as much cause to pitty your selves for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with Grace should you not rather say as the Leapers of Samaria Is it not a day of glad tidings and do we sit still and hold your peace Hath God had so much mercy on you and will you have no mercy on your poor neighbours You need not go far to finde objects for your pitty Look but into your streets or into the next house to you and you will probably finde some Have you never an ignorant unregenerate neighbor that sets his heart below and neglecteth Eternity O what blessed place do you live in where there there is none such If there be not some of them in thine own Family it is well and yet art thou silent Dost thou live close by them or meet them in the streets or labor with them or travel with them or sit and talk with them and say nothing to them of their souls or the life to come If their houses were on fire thou wouldest run and help them and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of Hell If thou knewest but a Remedy for their Diseases thou wouldest tell it them or else thou wouldest judge thy self guilty of their death Cardan speaks of one that had a Receipt that would suddenly and certainly dissolve the stone in the Bladder and he concludes of him that he makes no doubt but that man is in hell because he never revealed it to any before he dyed What shall we say then of them that know of the remedy for curing souls and do not reveal it nor perswade men to make use of it Is it not Hypocrisie to pray daily for their Conversion and Salvation and never once endeavor to procure it And is it not Hypocrisie to pray That Gods Name may be Hallowed and never to endeavor to bring men to Hallow it nor hinder them from prophaning it And can you pray Let thy Kingdom come and yet never labor for the coming or increase of that Kingdom Is it no grief to your hearts to see the Kingdom of Satan so to flourish and to see him lead captive such a multitude of souls You take on you that you are Souldiers in Christs Army and will you do nothing against his prevailing enemies You pray also daily That his Will may be done and should you not daily then perswade men to do it and disswade them from sinning against it You pray That God would forgive them their sins and that he would not lead them into Temptation but deliver them from evil And yet will you not help them against Temptations nor help to deliver them from the greatest evil nor help them to Repent and Believe that they may be forgiven Alas that your Prayers and your Practice should so much disagree Look about you therefore Christians with an eye of compassion on the ignorant ungodly sinners about you be not like the Priest or Levite that saw the man wounded and passed by God did not so pass by you when it was your own case Are not the souls of your neighbors faln into the hands of Satan Doth not their misery cry out unto you Help help As you have any compassion towards men in the greatest misery Help As you have the hearts of men and not of Tygers in you Help Alas how forward are Hypocrites in their Sacrifice and how backward to shew mercy How much in Praying and duties of worship and how little in plain Reproof and Exhortation and other duties of compassion And yet God hath told them That he will have mercy and not sacrifice that is mercy before sacrifice And how forward are these Hypocrites to censure Ministers for neglecting their duties yea to expect more duty from one Minister then ten can perform and yet they make no conscience of neglecting their own Nay how forward are they to separate from those about them and how censorious against those that admit them to the Lords Supper or that joyn with them and yet will they not be brought to deale with them in Christs way for their recovery As if other men were to work and they only to sit by and Judge Because they know it is a work of trouble and will many times set men against them therefore no perswasion will bring them to it They are like men that see their neighbors sick of the plague or drowning in the water or taken captive by the enemy and they dare not venture to relieve him themselves but none so forward to put on others So are these men the greatest expecters of duty and the lest performers SECT II. BUt as this duty lyeth upon all in general so upon some more especially according as God hath called or qualified them thereto To them therefore more particularly I will address my exhortation Whether they be such as have more opportunity and advantages for this work or such as have better abilities to perform it or such as have both And these are of severall sorts 1. All you that God hath given more learning and knowledg to and endued with better parts for utterance then your neighbors God expecteth his duty especially at your hand The strong are made to help the weak and those that see must direct the blind God looketh for this faithfull improvement of your parts and gifts which if you neglect it were better for you that you never had received them for they will but further your condemnation and be as useless to your own Salvation as they were to others SECT III. 2. ALl those that have special familiarity with some ungodly men and that have interest in them God looks for this duty at their hands Christ himself did eat and
drink with Publicans and sinners but it was only to be their Physitian and not their companion Who knows but God gave you interest in them to this end that you might be means of their recovery They that will not regard the words of another will regard a brother or sister or husband or wife or neer friend Besides that the bond of friendship doth engage you to more kindness and compassion then ordinary SECT IV. 3. PHysitians that are much about dying men should in a special maner make conscience of this duty They have a treble advantage First They are at hand Secondly They are with men in sickness and dangers when the ear is more open and the heart less stubborn then in time of health He that made a scorn of godliness before well then be of another minde and hear counsel then if ever he will hear it Thirdly Besides they look upon their Physitian as a man in whose hand is their life or at least may do much to save them and therefore they will the more regardfully hear his advice O therefore you that are of this honourable profession do not think this a work besides your calling as if it belonged to none but Ministers except you think it besides your calling to be compassionate or to be Christians O help therefore to fit your patients for heaven and whether you see they are for Life or for Death teach them both how to live and to dye and give them some Physick for their souls as you do for their bodies Blessed be God that very many of the chief Physitians of this Age have by their eminent piety vindicated their profession from the common imputation of Atheism and prophaness SECT V. 4. ANother sort that have excellent advantages for this duty is men that have wealth and authority and are of great place and command in the world especially that have many that live in dependance on them O what a world of good might Gentlemen and Knights and Lords do that have a great many of Tenants and that are the leaders of the Country if they had but hearts to improve their interest and advantage Little do you that are such think of the duty that lies upon you in this Have you not all your honor and riches from God and is it not evident then that you must employ them for the best advantage of his service Do you not know who hath said that to whom men commit much from them they will expect the more You have the greatest opportunities to do good of most men in the world Your Tenants dare not contradict you lest you dispossess them or their children of their habitations They fear you more then they do God himself Your frown will do more with them then the threatnings of the Scripture They will sooner obey you then God If you speak to them for God and their souls you may be regarded when even a Minister that they fear not shall be despised If they do but see you favor the way of Godliness they will lightly counterfeit it at least to please you especially if they live within the reach of your observation O therefore as you value the honor of God your own comfort and the Salvation of souls improve your interest to the utmost for God Go visit your Tenants and neighbors houses and see whether they worship God in their families and take all opportunities to press them to their duties Do not despise them because they are poor or simple Remember God is no respecter of persons your flesh is of no better mettal then theirs nor wil the worms spare your faces or hearts any more then theirs nor will your bones or dust bear the badge of your Gentility you must all be equals when you stand in Judgment And therefore help the soul of a poor man as well as if he were a Gentleman And let men see that you excell others as much in piety heavenliness compassion and diligence in Gods work as you do in riches and honor in the world I confesse you are like to be singular if you take this course but then remember you shall be singular in glory for few great and mighty and noble are called SECT VI. 5. ANother sort that have special opportunity to this work of helping others to heaven is The Ministers of the Gospel As they have or should have more ability then others so it is the very work of their calling and every one expecteth it at their hands and will better submit to their teaching then to other mens I intend not these instructions so much to teachers as to others and therefore I shall say but little to them and if all or most Ministers among us were as faithfull and diligent as some I would say nothing But because it is otherwise let me give these two or three words of advice to my Brethren in this office 1. Be sure that the recovering and saving of souls be the main end of your studies preaching O do not propound any low and base ends to your selves This is the end of your calling let it be also the end of your endeavors God forbid that you should spend a weeks study to please the people or to seek the advancing of you own reputations Dare you appear in the Pulpit on such a business and speak for your selves when you are sent and pretend to speak for Christ Dare you spend that time and wit and parts for your selves And wast the Lords day in seeking applause which God hath set apart for himself O what notorious sacriledge is this Set out the work of God as skilfully and adornedly as you can But still let the winning of souls be your end and let all your studies and labors be serviceable thereto Let not the window be so painted as to keep out the light but alwayes Judg that the best means that most conduceth to the end Do not think that God is best served by a neat starched laced Oration But that he is the able skilful Minister that is best skilled in the art of instructing convincing perswading and so winning of souls and that is the best Sermon that is best in these When you once grow otherwise minded and seek not God but your selves God will make you the basest and most contemptible of men as you make your selves the most sinfull and wretched Hath not this brought down the Ministery of England once already It is true of your reputation as Christ saith of your lives They that will save them shall lose them O let the vigor also of your perswasions shew that you are sensible on how weighty a business you are sent O Preach with that seriousness and fervor as men that believe their own doctrine and that know their hearers must either be prevailed with or be damned What you would do to save them from Everlasting burning that do while you have the opportunity and price in your hand that
one with another and Calvins Exposition which is the summ of all I have said q. d. Danda est vobis opera non tantum ut salsi intus sitis sed etiam ut saliatis alios Quia tamen sal acrimoniâ suâ mordet ideo statim admonet sic temperandam esse condituram ut pax interim salva maneat SECT XI 6. THe last whom I would perswade to this great Work of helping others to the Heavenly Rest is Parents and Masters of Families All you that God hath intrusted with Children or Servants O consider what Duty lyeth on you for the furthering of their Salvation That this Exhortation may be the more effectual with you I will lay down these several Considerations for you seriously to think on 1. What plain and pressing commands of God are there that require this great Duty at your hands Deut. 6.6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up So Deut. 11. And how well is God pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord c. And it is Joshuaes Resolution That he and his Houshold will serve the Lord. Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Ephes 6.4 Bring up your children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Many the like Precepts especially in the Book of Proverbs you may finde So that you see it is a Work that the Lord of heaven and earth hath laid upon you and how then dare you neglect it and cast it off 2. It is a duty that you ow your children in point of Justice from you they received the defilement and misery of their natures and therefore you ow them all possible help for their recovery If you had but hurt a stranger yea though against your will you would think it duty to help to cure him 3. Consider how neer your children are to you and then you will perceive that from this Natural Relation also they have interest in your utmost help your children are as it were parts of your selves If they prosper when you are dead you take it almost as if you lived and prospered in them If you labor never so much you think it not ill bestowed nor your buildings or purchases too dear so that they may enjoy them when you are dead and should you not be of the same minde for their everlasting Rest 4. You will else be witnesses against your own souls your great care and pains and cost for their bodies will condemn you for your neglect of their pretious souls you can spend your selves in toyling and caring for their bodies and even neglect your own souls and venture them sometimes upon unwarrantable courses and all to provide for your Posterity and have you not as much reason to provide for their souls Do you not believe that your children must be everlastingly happy or miserable when this life is ended and should not that be fore-thought of in the first place 5. Yea All the very bruit creatures may condemn you Which of them is not tender of their young How long will the Hen sit to hatch her Chickens and how busily scrape for them and how carefully shelter and defend them and so will even the most vile and venemous Serpent and will you be more unnatural and hard-hearted then all these will you suffer your children to be ungodly and profane and run on in the undoubted way to damnation and let them alone to destroy themselves without controll 6. Consider God hath made your children to be your charge yea and your servants too Every one will confess they are the Ministers charge and what a dreadful thing it is for them to neglect them when God hath told them That if they tell not the wicked of their sin and danger their blood shall be required at that Ministers hands and is not your charge as great and as dreadful as theirs Have not you a greater charge of your own Families then any Minister hath Yea doubtless and your duty it is to reach and admonish and reprove them and watch over them and at your hands else will God require the bloud of their souls The greatest charge it is that ever you were entrusted with and we to you if you prove unfaithful and betray your trust and suffer them to be ignorant for want of your teaching or wicked for want of your admonition or correction O â—ad account that many parents will make 7. Look into the dispositions and lives of your children and see what a work there is for you to do First It is not one sin that you must help them against but thousands their name is Legion for they are many It is not one weed that must be pulled up but the field is overspread with them Secondly And how hard is it to prevail against any one of them They are Hereditary diseases bred in their Natures Naturam expellâ—s furea c. They are aâ— neer them as the very heart and how tenacious are all things of that which is natural how hard to teach a Hare not to be fearful or a Lyon or Tiger not to be fierce Besides the things you must teach them are quite above them yea clean contrary to the interest and desires of their Flesh how hard is it to teach a man to be willing to be poor and despised and destroyed here for Christ to deny themselves and displease the flesh to forgive an Enemy to love those that hate us to watch against temptations to avoid occasions and appearance of evil to believe in a crucified Saviour to rejoyce in tribulation to trust upon a bare word of Promise and let go all in hand if call'd to it for something in hope that they never saw nor ever spake with man that did see to make God their chief delight and love and to have their hearts in heaven while they live on earth I think none of this is easie they think otherwise let them try and Judg yet all this must be learned or they are undone for ever If you help them not to some Trade they cannot live in the world but if they be destitute of these things they shall not live in heaven If the Marriner be not skilful he may be drowned and if the Souldier be not skilful he may be slain but they that cannot do the things above mentioned will perish for ever For without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 O that the Lord would make all you that are Parents sensible what a work and charge
guilty of all the sin that he committeth in his drunkenness VVill you resolve therefore to set upon this duty and neglect it no longer Remember Eli your children are like Moses in the basket in the water ready to perish if they have not help As ever you would not be charged before God for murderers of their souls and as ever you would not have them cry out against you in everlasting fire see that you teach them how to escape it and bring them up in holiness and the fear of God You have heard that the God of heaven doth flatly command it you I charge every one of you therefore upon your allegiance to him and as you will very shortly answer the contrary at your peril that you neither refuse nor neglect this most necessary work If you are not willing now you know it to be so plain and so great a duty you are flat Rebels and no true subjects of Christ. If you are willing to do it but know not how I will adde a few words of direction to help you 1. Teach them by your own example as well as by your words Be your selves such as you would have them be practice is the most effectual teaching of children who are addicted to imitation especially of their parents Lead them the way to prayer and reading and other duties Be not like base Commanders that will put on their Soldiers but not go on themselves Can you expect your children should be wiser or better then you Let them not hear those words out of your mouths nor see those practices in your lives which you reprove in them No man shall be saved because his children are godly if he be ungodly himself Who should lead the way in holiness but the father and master of the family It is a sad time when he must be accounted a good master or father that will not hinder his family from serving God but will give them leave to go to heaven without him I will but name the rest for your direct dutie for your Family 1. You must help to inform their understandings 2. To store their memories 3. To rectifie their wills 4. To quicken their affections 5. To keep tender their consciences 6. To restrain their tongues and help them to skill in gracious Speech 7. And to reform and watch over their outward conversation To these ends First Be sure to keep them at least so long at School till they can read English It is a thousand pities that a reasonable Creature should look upon a Bible as upon a Stone or a piece of Wood. Secondly Get them Bibles and good Books and see that they read them Thirdly Examine them often what they learn Fourthly Especially bestow the Lords day in this work and see that they spend it not in sports or idleness Fiftly Shew them the meaning of what they read and learn Josh. 4 6 21 22. Psal. 78.4 5 6 34.11 Sixthly Acquaint them with the godly and keep them in good company where they may learn good and keep them out of that company that would teach them evil Seventhly Be sure to cause them to learn some Catechism containing the chief Heads of Divinity as those made by the Assembly of Divines or Master Balls SECT XVII THe Heads of Divinity which you must teach them first are these 1. That there is one onely God who is a Spirit invisible infinite eternal Almighty good merciful true just holy c. 2. That this God is one in three Father Son and holy Ghost 3. That he is the Maker Maintainer and Lord of all 4. That mans happiness consisteth in the enjoying of this God and not in fleshly pleasure profits or honors 5. That God made the first man upright and happy and gave him a Law to keep with Conditions that if he kept it perfectly he should live happy for ever but if he broke it he should die 6. That man broke this Law and so forfeited his welfare and became guilty of death as to himself and all his Posterity 7 That Christ the Son of God did here interpose and prevent the full execution undertaking to die in stead of man and so to Redeem him whereupon all things were delivered into his hands as the Redeemer and he is under that relation the Lord of all 8. That Christ hereupon did make with man a better Covenant or Law which proclaimed pardon of sin to all that did but repent and believe obey sincerely 9. That he revealed this Covenant and Mercy to the world by degrees first in darker Promises Prophecies and Sacrifices then in many Ceremonious Types and then by more plain foretellings by the Prophetâ— 10. That in the fulness of time Christ came and took our Nature into Union with his Godhead being conceived by the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary 11. That while he was on earth he lived a life of sorrows was crowned with Thorns and bore the pains that our sins deserved at last being Crucified to death and buried and so satisfied the Justice of God 12. That he also Preached himself to the Jews and by constant Miracles did prove the truth of his Doctrine and Mediatorship before thousands of Witnesses That he revealed more fully his New Law or Covenant That whosoever will believe in him and accept him for Saviour and Lord shall be pardoned and saved and have a far greater glory then they lost and they that will not shall lye under the curse and guilt and be condemned to the everlasting fire of hell 13. That he rose again from the dead having conquered death and took fuller possession of his Dominion over all and so ascended up into heaven and there reigneth in glory 14. That before his Ascention he gave charge to his Apostles to go Preach the foresaid Gospel to all Nations and persons and to offer Christ and Mercy and Life to every one without exception and to intreat and perswade them to receive him and that he gave them authority to send forth others on the same Message and to Baptise and to gather Churches and confirm and order them and to settle a course for a succeâ—â—â—on of Ministers and Ordinances to the end of the world 15. That he also gave them power to work frequent and evident Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine and the convincing of the world and to annex their writings to the rest of the Scriptures and so to finish and seal them up and deliver them to the world as his infallible Word and Laws which none must dare to alter and which all must observe 16. That for all this free Grace is offered to the world yet the heart is by Nature so desperately wicked that no man will believe and entertain Christ sincerely except by an Almighty power he be changed and born again and therefore doth Christ send forth his Spirâ—t with his Word which secretly and effectually worketh holiness in the hearts of the Elect drawing
certainly at least immediatly after yet do they labor with patience and rest themselves on these Expectations Or if God do take away both present injoyments and all hopes of ever recovering them how do we search about from creature to creature to finde out something to supply the room and to settle upon in stead thereof Yea if we can finde no supply but are sure we shall live in poverty in sickness in disgrace while we are on earth yet will we rather settle in this misery and make a Rest of a wretched Being then we will leave all and come to God A man would think that a multitude of poor people who beg their bread or can scarce with their hardest labor have sustenance for their lives should easily be driven from Resting here and willingly look to heaven for Rest and the sick who have not a day of ease nor any hope of recovery leâ—t them But O the cursed aversness of these souls from God We will rather account our misery our happiness yea that which we daily groan under as intolerable then we will take up our happiness in God If any place in hell were tolerable the soul would rather take up its Rest there then come to God Yea when he is bringing us over to him and hath convinced us of the worth of his wayes and service the last deceit of all is here we will rather settle upon those wayes that lead to him and those ordinances which speak of him and those gifts which flow from him then we will come clean over to himself Christian marvel not that I speak so much of Resting in these Beware least it should prove thy own case I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of Riches and Honor and carnal pleasure that thou canst more easily disclaim these and it s well if it be so but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession thou lookest on these with less suspicion and thinkest they are so neer to God that thou canst not delight in them too much especially seeing most of the world despise them or delight in them too little But do not the encrease of these mercies dull thy longings after heaven If all were according to thy desire in the Church wouldst thou not sit down and say I am well Soul take thy Rest and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God or if thou wouldst gladly leave the most happy condition on earth to be with God then art thou a rare man a Christian indeed Many a one of us were more willing to go to heaven in the former dayes of persecution when we had no hopes of seeing the Church reformed and the Kingdom delivered But now we are in hopes to have all things almost as we desire the case is altered and we begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly as if it would be to our loss to be removed to it Is this the right use of Reformation Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected should our deliverances draw our hearts from God O how much better were it in every trouble to fetch our chief arguments of comfort from the place where our chiefest Rest remains and when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth or the sick with hopes of health and life let us comfort our selves with the hopes of heaven So far rejoyce in the creature as it comes from God or leads to him or brings thee some report of his love So far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances as God doth accompany them with quickning or comfort or gives in himself unto thy soul by them Still remembring when thou hast even what thou dost desire yet this is not Heaven yet these are but the first fruits Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comforts of travellers and accordingly to rejoyce in all his mercies but we must set up our staff as if we were at home While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord and while we absent from him we are absent from our Rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us as we from him and if he were as loth to be our Rest as we are loth to Rest in him we should be left to an Eternal Restless seperation In a word as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents so be you also of your irregular contents and pray God to pardon them much more And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell see that you watch and pray against this Of settling any where short of Heaven or reposing your souls to Rest on any thing below God Or else when the bough which you tread on breaks and the things which you Rest upon deceive you you will perceive your labor all lost and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your wâ— and your highest hopes will make you ashamed Try if you can perswade Satan to leaâ—e tempting and the world to cease both troubling and seducing and sin to cease inhabiting and acting if you can bring the Glory of God from above or remove the Court from Heaven to earth and secure the continuance of this through Eternity then settle your selves below and say Soul take thy rest here But till then admit not such a thought CHAP. II. USE VII Reproving our unwillingness to Dye SECT I. IS there a Rest remaining for the people of God Why are we then so loth to dye and to depart from hence that we may possesse this Rest If I may judg of others hearts by my own we are exceeding guilty in this point We linger as Lot in Sodome till God being merciful to us doth pluck us away against our wills How rare is it to meet with a Christian though of strongest parts and longest profession that can dye with an unfeigned willingness Especially if worldly calamity constrain them not to be willing Indeed we sometime set a good face on it and pretend a willingness when we see there is no remedy and that our unwillingness is only a disgrace to us but will not help to prolong our lives But if God had enacted such a law for the continuance of our lives on earth as is enacted for the continuance of the Parliament that we should not be dissolved till our own pleasure and that no man should dye till he were truly willing I fear Heaven might be empty for the most of us and if our worldly prosperity did not fade our lives on earth would be very long if not eternal We pretend desires of being better preâ—aâ—eâ— and of doing God some greater service and to that end we beg on yeer more and another and another but still our promised preparation and service is as far to seek as ever before and we remain as unwilling to dye as we were when we begged our first Râ—pâ—â—vall
dark and our faith in him exceeding feeble so is our love to him but little and therefore are our desires after him so dull SECT IV. 3. IT appears we are little weary of sinning when we are so unwilling to be freed by dying Did we take sin for the greatest evil we should not be willing of its company so long did we look on sin as our cruellest enemy and on a sinful life as the most miserable life sure we should then be more willing of a change But O how far are our hearts from our doctrinal profession in this point also We preach and write and talk against sin and call it all that naught is and when we are called to leave it we are loth to depart We brand it with the most odious names that we can imagine and all far short of expressing its vileness but when the approach of death puts us to the tryal we chuse a continuance with these abominations before the presence and fruition of God But as Nemon smote his Souldier for railing against Alexander his enemy saying I hired thee to fight against him and not to rail against him So may God smite us also when he shall hear our tongues reviling that sin which we resist so slothfully and part with so unwillingly Christians seeing we are conscious that our hearts deserve a smiting for this let us joyn together to chide and smite our own hearts before God do judg and smite them O foolish sinful heart Hast thou been so long a sink of sin a cage of all unclean lusts a fountain uncessantly streaming forth the bitter and deadly waters of transgression and art thou not yet aweary Wretched Soul hast thou been so long wounded in all thy faculties so grievously languishing in all thy performances so fruitful a soyl for all iniquities and art thou not yet more weary Hast thou not yet transgressed long enough nor long enough provoked thy Lord nor long enough abused love wouldst thou yet grieve the Spirit more and sin against thy Saviours blood and more increase thine own wounds and still lie under thy grievous imperfections Hath thy sin proved so profit able a commodity so necessary a companion such a delightful employment that thou dost so much dread the parting day Hath thy Lord deserved this at thy hands that thou shouldst chuse to continue in the Suburbs of â—ell rather then live with him in light and rather stay and drudg in sin and abide with his and thy own professed enemy then come away and dwell with God May not God justly grant thee thy wishes and seal thee a lease of thy desired distance and nail thy ear to these doors of misery and exclude thee eternally from his glory Foolish sinner who hath wronged thee God or sin who hath wounded thee and caused thy groans who hath made thy life so woful and caused thee to spend thy days in dolor is it Christ or is it thy corruption and art thou yet so loth to think of parting shall God be willing to dwell with man and the Spirit to abide in thy peevish heart and that where sin doth straiten his room and a cursed inmate inhabit with him which is ever quarrelling and contriving against him and shall man be loth to come to God where is nothing but perfect Blessedness and Glory Is not this to judg our selves unworthy of everlasting Life If they in Acts 13.46 who put the Gospel from them did judg themselves unworthy do not we who flie from life and glory SECT V. 4. IT shews that we are insensible of the vanity of the Creature and of the vexation accompanying our residence here when we are so loth to hear or think of a removal VVhat ever we say against the world or how grievous soever our complaints may seem we either beleeve not or feel not what we say or else we should be answerably affected to it VVe call the world our enemy and cry out of the oppression of our Task-masters and groan under our sore bondage but either we speak not as we think or else we imagine some singular happiness to consist in the possession of worldly things for which all this should be endured Is any man loth to leave his prison or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies or to scape the hands of murderous robbers Do we take the world indeed for our prison our cruel spoyling murderous foe and yet are we loth to leave it Do we take this flesh for the clog of our spirits and a vail that 's drawn betwixt us and God and a continual in dwelling traitor to our souls and yet are we loth to lay it down Indeed Peter was smitten by the Angel before he arose and left his prison but it was more from his ignorance of his intended deliverance then any unwillingness to leave the place I have read of Josephs long imprisonment and Daniels casting into the Den of Lyons and Jeremies sticking fast in the Dungeon and Jonahs lying in the belly of the VVhale and David from the deep crying to God but I remember not that any were loth to be delivered I have read indeed That they suffered cheerfully and rejoyced in being afflicted destitute and tormented yea and that some of them would not accept of deliverance But not from any love to the suffering or any unwillingness to change their condition but because of the hard terms of their deliverance and from the hope they had of a better resurrection Though Paul and Sylas could sing in the stocks and comfortably bear their cruel scourgings yet I do not beleeve they were unwilling to go forth nor took it ill when God relieved them At foolish wretched soul Doth every prisoner groan for freedom and every Slave desire his Jubilee and every sick man long for health and every hungry man for food and dost thou alone abhor deliverance Doth the Seamen long to see the Land doth the Husbandman desire the Harvest and the laboring man to receive his pay doth the traveller long to be at home and the runner long to win the prize and the Souldier long to win the field And art thou loth to see thy labors finished and to receive the end of thy Faith and sufferings and to obtain the thing for which thou livest Are all thy sufferings onely seeming have thy gripes thy griefs and groans been onely dreams if they were yet methinks we should not be afraid of waking Fearful dreams are not delightful Or is it not rather the worlds delights that are all meer dreams and shadows Is not all its glory as the light of a Glow-worm a wandering fire yielding but small directing light and as little comforting heat in all our doubtful and sorrowful darkness or hath the world In these its latter days laid aside its ancient enmity Is it become of late more kinde hath it left its thorny renting nature who hath wrought this great change and who
hath made this reconciliation Surely not the great Reconciler He hath told us in the world we shall have trouble and in him onely we shall have peace VVe may reconcile our selves to the world at our peril but it will never reconcile it self to us O foolish unworthy soul who hadst rather dwell in this land of darkness and rather wander in this barren wilderness then be at rest with Jesus Christ who hadst rather stay among the VVolves and daily suffer the Scorpions stings then to praise the Lord with the Hosts of Heaven If thou didst well know what Heaven is and what Earth is it would not be so SECT VI. 5. THis unwillingness to dye doth actually impeach us of high Treason against the Lord Is it not a chusing of Earth before him and taking these present things for our happiness and consequently making them our very God If we did indeed make God our God that is our End our Rest our Portion our Treasure how is it possible but we should desire to enjoy him It behoves us the rather to be fearful of this it being utterly inconsistent with saving Grace to value any thing before God or to make the Creature our highest End Many other sins foul and great may possibly yet consist with sincerity but so I am certain cannot that But concerning this I have spoke before SECT VII 6. ANd all these defects being thus discovered what a deal of dissembling doth it more over shew We take on us to believe undoubtedly the exceeding eternal weight of Glory We call God our chiefest Good and say we love Him above all and for all this we fly from Him as if it were from Hell it self would you have any man believe you when you call the Lord your onely Hope and speak of Christ as All in All and talk of the Joy that is in Presence and yet would endure the hardest life rather then dye and come unto him What self-contradiction is this to talk so hardly of the world and flesh to groan and complain of sin and suffering and yet fear no day more then that which we expect should bring our finall freedom what shameless gross dissembling is this to spend so many hours and dayes in hearing Sermons reading Books conferring with others and all to learn the way to a place which we are loth to come to To take on us all our life-time to walk towards Heaven to run to strive to fight for Heaven which we are loth to come to What apparent palpable hypocrysie is this to lye upon our knees in publike and private and spend one hour after another in prayer for that which we would not have If one should over-hear thee in thy daily devotions crying out Lord deliver me from this body of death from this sin this sickness this poverty these cares and feares how long Lord shall I suffer these and withall should hear thee praying against death can he believe thy tongue agrees with thy heart except thou have so far lost thy reason as to expect all this here or except the Papists Doctrine were true that we are able to fulfil the Law of God or our late Perfectionists are truly enlightned who think they can live and not sin but if thou know these to be undoubtedly false how canst thou deny thy gross dissembling SECT VIII 7. COnsider how do we wrong the Lord and his Promises and disgrace his ways in the eyes of the world As if we would actually perswade them to question whether God be true of his Word or no whether there be any such glory as Scripture mentions when they see those who have professed to live by Faith and have boasted of their hopes in another world and perswaded others to let go all for these hopes and spoken disgracefully of all things below in comparison of these unexpressable things above I say when they see these very men so loth to leave their hold of present things and to go to that glory which they talked and boasted of how doth it make the weak to stagger and confirm the world in their unbelief and sensuality and make them conclude sure if these Professors did expect so much glory and make so light of the world as they seem they would not themselves be so loth of a change O how are we ever able to repaiâ— the wrong which we do to God and poor souls by this scandal And what an honor to God what a strengthning to Believers what a conviction to Unbelievers would it be if Christians in this did answer their professions and chearfully welcome the news of Rest SECT IX 8. IT evidently discovers that we have been careless loyterers that we have spent much time to little purpose and that we have neglected and lost a great many of warnings Have we not had all our life time to prepare to die So many years to make ready for one hour and are we so unready and unwilling yet VVhat have we done why have we lived that the business of our lives is so much undone Had we any greater matters to minde Have we not foolishly wronged our souls in this would we have wished more frequent warnings How oft hath death entered the habitations of our neighbors how oft hath it knockt at our own doors we have first heard that such a one is dead and then such a one and such a one till our Towns have changed most of their Inhabitants And was not all this a sufficient warning to tell us that we were also Mortals and our own turn would shortly come Nay we have seen death raging in Towns and Fields so many hundred a day dead of the Pestilence so many thousands slam of the Sword and did we not know it would reach to us at last How many distempers have vexed our bodies frequent Languishings consuming Weaknesses wasting Feavers here pain and there trouble that we have been forced to receive the sentence of death and what were all these but so many Messengers sent from God to tell us we must shortly dye as if we had heard a lively voyce bidding us Delay no more but make you ready And are we unready and unwilling after all this O careless dead hearted Sinners unworthy neglecters of Gods Warnings faithless betrayers of our own souls All these hainous aggravations do lye upon this sin of unwillingness to dye which I have laid down to make it hateful to my own soul which is too much guilty of it as well as yours And for a further help to our prevailing against it I shall adjoyn these following Considerations SECT X. 1. COnsider not to dye were never to be happy To escape death were to miss of blessedness Except God should translate us as Henoch and Elias which he never did before or since If our hopeth in Christ were in this life onely we were then of all men most miserable The Epicure hath more pleasure to his Flesh then
of health of honor and other things here so let us not be discontented with our allowed proportion of time O my Soul depart in peace Hast thou not here enjoyed a competent share As thou wouldst not desire an unlimited state in wealth and honor so desire it not in point of time Is it fit that God or thou should be the sharer If thou wert sensible how little thou deservest an hour of that patience which thou hast enjoyed thou wouldst think thou hast had a large part Wouldst thou have thy age called back again â—aâ—st thou eat thy bread and have it too Is it not Divine Wisdom that sets the bounds God will not let one have all the work nor all the suffering nor all the honor of the work He will honor himself by variety of instruments by various persons and several ages and not by one person or age Seeing thou hast acted thine own part and finished thine appointed course come down contentedly that others may succeed who must have their turns as well as thou As of all other outward things so also of thy time and life thou mayest as well have too much as too little Onely of God and eternal life thou canst never enjoy too much nor too long Great receivings will have great accounts where the lease is longer the fine and rent must be the greater Much time hath much duty Is it not as easie to answer for the receivings and the duties of thirty yeers as of an hundred Beg therefore for Grace to improve it better but be content with thy share of time SECT XIX 10. COnsider thou hast had a competency of the comforts of life and not of naked time alone God might have made thy life a misery till thou hadst been as weary of possessing it as thou art now afraid of loosing it If he had denyed thee the benefits and ends of living thy life would have been but a slender comfort They in Hell have life as well as we and longer far then they desire God might have suffered thee to have consumed thy days in ignorance or to have spent thy life to the last hour before he brought thee home to himself and given thee the saving Knowledg of Christ and then thy life had been short though thy time long But he hath opened thine eyes in the morning of thy days and acquainted thee betimes with the trade of thy life I know the best are but negligent loyterers and spend not their time according to its worth but yet he that hath an hundred yeers time and looseth it all lives not so long as he that hath but twenty and bestows it well It s too soon to go to Hell at an hundred yeers old and not too soon to go to Heaven at twenty The means are to be valued in reference to their end That 's the best means which speediliest and surest obtaineth the end He that hath enjoyed most of the ends of life hath had the best life and not he that hath lived longest You that are acquainted with the life of Grace what if you live but twenty or thirty yeers would you change it for a thousand yeers of wickedness God might have let you have lived like the ungodly world and then you would have had cause to be afraid of dying We have lived in a place and time of light in Europe not in Asia Africa or America in England not in Spain or Italy in the Age when Knowledg doth most abound and not in our forefathers days of darkness we have lived among Bibles Sermons Books and Christians As one Acâ—e of fruitful soyl is better then many of barren Commons as the possession of a Kingdom for one yeer is better then a lease of a Cottage for twenty so twenty or thirty yeers living in such a place or age as we is better then Methuselahs age in the case of most of the world besides And shall we not then be contented with our proportion If we who are Ministers of the Gospel have seen abundant fruit of our labors if God hath blessed our labors in seven yeers more then some others in twenty or thirty if God have made us the happy though unworthy means of converting and saving more souls at a Sermon then some better men in all their lives what cause have we to complain of the shortness of our time in the work of God would unprofitable unsuccessful preaching have been comfortable will it do us good to labor to little purpose so we may but labor long If our desires of living are for the service of the Church as our deceitful hearts are still pretending then 〈◊〉 if God honor us to do the more service though in the lesser time we have our desire God will have each to have his share when we have had ours let us rest contented Perswade then thy backward soul to its duty and argue down these dreadful thoughts Unworthy wretch Hath thy Father allowed thee so large a part and caused thy lot to fall so well and given thee thine abode in pleasant places and filled up all thy life with mercies and dost thou now think thy share too small is not that which thy life doth want in length made up in bredth and weight and sweetness Lay all together and look about thee and tell me how many of thy neighbors have more how many in all the Town or Countrey have had a better share then thou why mightest not thou have been one of the thousands whose carkasses thou hast seen scattered as Dung on the Earth or why mightest not thou have been one that 's useless in the Church and an unprofitable burden to the place thou livest in What a multitude of hours of consolation of delightful Sabbaths of pleasant studies of precious companions of wonderous deliverances of excellent opportunities of fruitful labors of joyful tidings of sweet experiences of astonishing providences hath thy life partaked of so that many a hundred who have each of them lived an hundred yeers have not altogether enjoyed so much And yet art thou not satisfied with thy lot Hath thy life been so sweet that thou art loth to leave it is that the thanks thou returnest to him who sweetned it to draw thee to his own sweetness Indeed if this had been all thy portion I could not blame thee to be discontented And yet let me tell thee too That of all these poor souls who have no other portion but receive all their good things in this life there is few or none even of them who ever had so full a share as thy self And hast thou not then had a fair proportion for one that must shortly have Heaven besides O foolish Soul would thou wert as covetous after eternity as thou art for a fading perishing life and after the blessed presence of God as thou art for continuance with Earth and Sin Then thou vvouldst rather look through the windows and cry through the lattises Why is
his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Hovv long Lord Hovv long SECT XX. 11. COnsider vvhat if God should grant thy desire and let thee live yet many yeers but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life and deny thee the mercies vvhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging for Might not God in judgment give thee life as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails or as he oft times gives men riches and honor when he sees them over-earnest for it Might he not justly say to thee Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth then come away and enjoy my presence seeing thou art so greedy of life take it and a curse with it never let fruit grow on it more nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it nor the dew of my blessing ever water it Let thy table be a snare let thy friends be thy sorrow let thy riches be corrupted and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt but let never Sermon do thee good more let all thou hearest make against thee and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit If thou love Preaching better then Heaven go and preach till thou be aweary but never profit soul more Sirs what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living were it not just and what good would our lives then do us Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning and some in begging by the high-way sides and others in seeking bread from door to door and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment and living onely that they may live and loosing the ends and benefits of life Why what good would such a life do thee were it never so long when thy soul shall serve thee onely in stead of Salt to keep thy body from stinking God might give thee life till thou art weary of living and as glad to be rid of it as Judas or Ahitophel and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves Be not therefore so importunate for life which may prove a judgment in stead of a blessing SECT XXI 12. COnsider how many of the precious Saints of God of all ages and places have gone before thee Thou art not to enter an untrodden path nor appointed first to break the Ice Except onely Henoch and Elias which of the Saints have scaped death And art thou better then they There are many millions of Saints dead more then do now remain on Earth What a number of thine own bosome friends and intimate acquaintance and companions in duty are now there and why shouldst thou be so loth to follow Nay hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way hath he not sanctified the grave to us and perfumed the dust with his own body And art thou loth to follow him too O rather let us say as Thomas Let us also go and die with him or rather let us suffer with him that we may be glorified together with him Many such like Considerations might be added as that Christ hath taken out the sting How light the Saints have made of it how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it c. But because all that 's hitherto spoken is also conducible to the same purpose I pass them by If what hath been said will not perswade Scripture and Reason have little force I have said the more on this subject finding it so needful to my self and others finding that among so many Christians who could do and suffer much for Christ there 's yet so few that can willingly die and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions so few have got the conquest of this This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture and spend them against it SECT XXII I Will onely yet Answer some Objections and so conclude this Use. 1. Object O If I were but certain of Heaven I should then never stick at dying Answ. 1. Search for all that whether some of the forementioned câ—uses may not be in fault as well as this 2. Didst thou not say so long ago Have you not been in this song this many yeers if you are yet uncertain whose fault is it you have had nothing else to do with your lives nor no greater matter then this to minde Were you not better presently fall to the tryal till you have put the Question out of doubt Must God stay while you trifle and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence If thou have played the loyterer do so no longer Go search thy soul and follow the search close till theâ— come to a clear discovery Begin to night stay not till the next morning Certainty comes not by length of time but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal You may linger out thus twenty yeers more and be still as uncertain as now you are 3. A perfect certainty may not be expected we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely and not comparatively of a perfect assurance in the very degree when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance I know no reason but they may expect perfection in all things else as well as this VVhen you have done all you will know this but in part If your belief of that Scripture which saith Beleeve and be saved be imperfect and if your knowledg whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not be imperfect or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect the result or conclusion must needs be so too If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain you may stay for ever if you have obtained assurance but in some degree or got but the grounds for assurance said it is then the speediest and surest vvay to desire rather to be quickly in Rest For then and never till then vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect 4. Both your assurance and the comfort thereof is the gift of the Spirit vvho is a free bestovver And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity A mercy in season is the svveetest mercy I could give you here abundance of late examples of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort some all their sickness and some most of their lives and vvhen they have been neer to death they have received in abundance Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance for that 's the most usual time of all vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it SECT XXIII OBject 2. O but the Churches necessities are great and God hath made me useful in my place so that the loss vvill be to many or else me thinks I could vvillingly die Answ. This may be the case of some but
fruit perhaps we should be sooner drawn unto them and we should itch as the Bethshemites to be looking into this Ark. Sure I am where God hath forbidden us to place our thoughts and our delights thither it is easâ—y enough to draw them If he say Love not the World nor the things of the World we dote upon it never the less We have love enough if the world require it and thoughts enough to pursue our profits How delightfully and unweariedly can we think of vanity and day after day imploy our mindes about the Creature And have we no thoughts of this our Rest How freely and how frequently can we think of our pleasures our friends our labors our flesh our lusts our common studies or news yea our very miseries our wrongs our sufferings and our seats But vvhere is the Christian vvhose heart is on his Rest Why Sirs vvhat is the matter vvhy are vve not taken up vvith the vievvs of Glory and our souls more accustomed to these delightful Meditations Are vve so full of joy that vve need no more or is there no matter in Heaven for our joyous thoughts or rather are not our hearts carnal and blockish Earth vvill to Earth Had vve more Spirit it vvould be othervvise with us As the Jews use to cast to the ground the Book of Esther before they read it because the Name of God is not in it And as Austin cast by Ciceroes writings because they contained not the Name of Jesus So let us humble and cast dovvn these sensual hearts that have in them no more of Christ and Glory As we should not own our duties any further then somewhat of Christ is in them so should we no further own our hearts And as we should delight in the creatures no further then they have reference to Christ and Eternity so should we no further approve of our own hearts If there were little of Christ and Heaven in our mouths but the world were the onely subject of our speeches then all would account us to be ungodly why then may we not call our hearts ungodly that have so little delight in Christ and Heaven A holy tongue will not excuse or secure a profane heart Why did Christ pronounce his Disciples eyes and eares so blessed but as they were the doors to let in Christ by his Works and Words into their hearts O blessed are the eyes that so see and the ears that so hear that the heart is thereby raised to this blessed heavenly frame Sirs so much of your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven let it befilled with shame and sorrow and not with ease SECT II. BUt let me turn my Reprehension to Exhortation That you would turn this Conviction into Reformation And I have the more hope because I here address my self to men of Conscience that dare not wilfully disobey God and to men whose Relations to God are many and neer and therefore methinks there should need the fewer words to perswade their hearts to him Yea because I speak to no other men but onely them whose portion is there whose hopes are there and who have forsaken all that they may enjoy this glory and shall I be discouraged from perswading such to be heavenly-minded why fellow Christians if you will not hear and obey who will well may we be discouraged to exhort the poor blinde ungodly world and may say as Moses Exod. 6.12 Behold the Children of Israel have not hearkned unto me how then shall Pharoah hear me Who ever thou art therefore that readest these lines I require thee as thou tendrest thine Allegiance to the God of Heaven as ever thou hopest for a part in this glory that thou presently take thy heart to task chide it for its wilful strangeness to God turn thy thoughts from the pursuit of Vanity bend thy soul to study Eternity busie it about the life to come habituate thy self to such contemplations and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory but settle upon them dwell here bathe thy soul in heavens Delights drench thine affections in these rivers of pleasure or rather in this sea of Consolation and if thy backward soul begin to flag and thy loose thoughts to fly abroad call them back hold them to their work put them on bear not with their lasiness do not connive at one neglect and when thou hast once in obedience to God tried this work and followed on till thou hast got acquainted with it and kept a close guard upon thy thoughts till they are accustomed to obey and till thou hast got some mastery over them thou wilt then finde thy self in the suburbs of Heaven and as it were in a new world thou wilt then finde indeed that there is sweetness in the work and way of God and that the life of Christianity is a life of Joy Thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed and panted and groaned after and which so few Christians do ever here obtain because they know not this way to them or else make not conscience of walking in it You see the work now before you This this is it that I would fain perswade your souls to practise Beloved friends and Christian neighbors who hear me this day let me bespeak your consciences in the name of Christ and command you by the Authority I have received from Christ that you faithfully set upon this weighty duty and fix your eye more stedfastly on your Rest and daily delight in the fore-thoughts thereof I have perswaded you to many other duties and I bless God many of you have obeyed and I hope never to finde you at that pass as to say when you perceive the command of the Lord that you will not be perswaded nor obey if I should it were high time to bewail your misery Why you may almost as well say we will not obey as sit still and not obey Christians I beseech you as you take me for your Teacher and have called me thereto so hearken to this Doctrine if ever I shall prevail with you in any thing let me prevail with you in this to set your heart where you expect a Rest and Treasure Do you not remember that when you called me to be your Teacher you promised me under your hands that you would faithfully and conscionably endeavor the receiving every truth and obeying every command which I should from the Word of God manifest to you I now charge your promise upon you I never delivered to you a more apparent Truth nor prest upon you a more apparent duty then this If I knew you would not obey what should I do here preaching Not that I desire you to receive it chiefly as from me but as from Christ on whose Message I come Me thinks if a childe should shew you Scripture and speak to you the Word of God you should not dare to disobey it Do not wonder that I perswade you so earnestly though
indeed if we were truly reasonable in spiritual things as we are in common it would be a real wonder that men should need so much perswasion to so sweet and plain a duty but I know the emplyment is high the heart is earthly and will still draw back the temptations and hinderances will be many and great and therefore I fear before we have done and laid open more fully the nature of the Duty that you will confess all these perswasions little enough The Lord grant they prove not so too little as to fail of success and leave you as they finde you Say not we are unable to set our own hearts on heaven this must be the work of God onely and therefore all your Exhortation is in vain for I tell you though God be the chief disposer of your hearts yet next under him you have the greatest command of them your selves and a great power in the ordering of your own thoughts and for determining your own wills in their choice though without Christ you can do nothing yet under him you may do much and must do much or else it will be undone and you undone through your neglect Do your own parts and you have no cause to distrust whether Christ will do his Do not your own consciences tell you when your thoughts fly abroad that you might do more then you do to restrain them and when your hearts lye flat and neglect Eternity and seldom minde the Joys before you that most of this neglect is wilful If you be to study a set Speech you can force your thoughts to the intended Subject if a Minister be to study a Sermon he can force his thoughts to the most saving Truths and that without any speciall grace might not a true Christian ther minde more the things of the life to come if he did not neglect to exerciâ—e that authority over his own thoughts which God hath given him especially in such a work as this where he may more confidently expect the assistance of Christ who useth not to forsake his people in the work he sets them on If a carnal Minister can make it his work to study about Christ and heaven through all his life time and all because it is the trade he lives by and knows not how to subsist without it why then me thinks a spiritual Christian should study as constantly the Joys of heaven because it is the very business he lives for and that the place he must be in for ever If the Cook can finde in his heart to labor and sweat about your meat because it is the trade that maintains him though perhaps he taste it not himself Me thinks then you for whom it is prepared should willingly bestow that daily pains to taste its sweetness and feed upon it and if it were about your bodily food you would think it no great pains neither a good stomack takes it for no great labor to eat and drink of the best till it be satisfied nor needs it any great invitation thereto Christians if your souls were sound and right they would perceive incomparably more delight and sweetness in Knowing Thinking Believing Loving and Rejoycing in your future Blessedness in the fruition of God then the soundest stomack findes in its food or the strongest senses in the enjoyment of their objects so little painful would this work be to you and so little should I need to press you to it it s no great pains to you to think of a friend or any thing else that you dearly love and as little would it be to think of Glory if your love and delight were truly there if you do but see some Jewel or Treasure you need not long exhortations to stir up your desires the very sight of it is motive enough if you see the fire when you are cold or see a house in a stormy day or see a safe harbor from the tempestuous seas you need not be told what use to make of it the sight doth presently direct your thoughts you think you look you long till you do obtain it Why should it not be so in the present case Sirs one would think to shew you this Crown and Glory of the Saints should be motive enough to make you desire it to shew you that Harbor where you may be safe from all dangers should soon teach you what use to make of it and should bend your daily studies towards it but because I know while we have flâ—sh about us and any remnants of that carnal minde which is enmity to God and to this noble work that all motives are little enough And because my own and others sad experiences tell me how hardly the best are drawn to a constancy and faithfulness in this duty I vvill here lay down some moving Considerations vvhich if you vvill but vouchsafe to ponder throughly and deliberately vveigh vvith an impartial judgment I doubt not but they vvill prove effectuall vvith your hearts and make you resolve upon this excellent duty I pray you friends let them not fall to the ground but take them up and try them and if you finde they concern you make much of them and obey them accordingly SECT III. 1. COnsider a heart set upon heaven will be one of the most unquestionable evidences of thy sincerity and a clear discovery of a true work of saving grace upon thy soul. You are much in enquiring after Marks of sincerity and I blame you not its dangerous mistaking when a mans salvation lies upon it You are oft asking How shall I know that I am truly sanctified Why here is a mark that will not deceive you if you can truly say that you are possessed of it Even a heart set upon Heaven Would you have a sign infallâ—ble not from me or from the mouth of any man but from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself which all the enemies of the use of Marks can lay no exception against Why here is such a one Mat. 6.21 Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Know once assuredly where your heart is and you may easily know that your treasure is there God is the Saints Treasure and happiness Heaven is the place where they must fully enjoy him A heart therefore set upon heaven is no more but a heart set upon God desiring after this full enjoyment And surely a heart set upon God through Christ is the truest evidence of saving grace External actions are easiest discovered but those of the heart are the surest evidences When thy learning will be no good proof of thy grace when thy knowledg thy duties and thy gifts will fail thee when Arguments from thy tongue and thy hand may be confuted yet then will this Argument from the bent of thy heart prove thee sincere Take a poor Christian that can scarce speak true English about Religion that hath a weak understanding a failing memory a stammering tongue yet his heart is set on God
same and if we took the right course for fetching in our comfort from these sure our comforts would be more setled and constant though not always the same Whoever thou art therefore that Readest these lines I intreat thee in the name of the Lord and as thou valuest the life of constant Joy and that good conscience which is a continual feast that thou wouldest but seriously set upon this work and learn this Art of Heavenly-mindedness and thou shalt finde the increase a hundred fold and the benefit abundantly exceed thy labor But this is the misery of mans Nature Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow and loves the most merry and joyful life yet few do love the way to Joy or will endure the pains by which it is obtained they will take the next that comes to hand and content themselves with earthly pleasures rather then they will ascend to heaven to seek it and yet when all is done they must have it there or be without it SECT VI. 4. COnsider A heart in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations a powerful means to kill thy corruptions and to save thy conscience from the wounds of sin God can prevent our sinning though we be careless and keep off the temptation which we would draw upon our selves and sometime doth so but this is not his usual course nor is this our safest way to escape When the minde is either idle or ill imployed the devil needs not a greater advantage when he finds the thoughts let out on Lust Revenge Ambition or Deceit what an opportunity hath he to move for Execution and to put on the Sinner to practise what he thinks on Nay if he finde the minde but empty there 's room for any thing that he will bring in but when he finds the heart in heaven what hope that any of his motions should take Let him entice to any forbidden course or shew us the baite of any pleasure the soul will return Nehemiaes Answer I am doing a great work and cannot come Neh. 6.3 Several ways will this preserve us against Temptations First By keeping the heart imployed Secondly By clearing the Understanding and so confirming the Will Thirdly By prepossessing the Affections with these highest delights Fourthly And by keeping us in the way of Gods blessing First By keeping the heart employed when we are idle we tempt the devil to tempt us as it is an encouragement to a Thief to see your doors open and no body within and as we use to say Careless persons make Theeves or as it will encourage an High-way Robber to see you unweaponed so may it encourage Sathan to find your hearts idle but when the heart is taken up with God it cannot have while to hearken to Temptations it cannot have while to be lustful and wanton ambitious or worldly If a poor man have a suit to any of you he will not come when you are taken up in some great mans company or discourse that 's but an ill time to speed If you were but busied in your lawful Callings you would not be so ready to hearken to Temptations much less if you were busied above with God Will you leave your Plow and Harvest in the Field or leave the quenching of a fire in your houses to run vvith children a hunting of Butterflies vvould a Judg be perswaded to rise from the Bench vvhen he is sitting upon life and death to go and play among the Boys in the streets No more will a Christian vvhen he is busie vvith God and taking a survey of his eternal Rest give ear to the alluring charms of Sathan Non vacat exiguis c. is a Character of the truly prudent man the children of that Kingdom should never have vvhile for trifles but especially vvhen they are imployed in the affairs of the Kingdom and this employment is one of the Saints chief preservatives against temptations For as Gregory saith Nunquam Dei amor otiosus est operatur enim magna si est Si verò operari renuit non est amor The Love of God is never idle it vvorketh great things vvhen it truly is and vvhen it vvill not vvork it is not love Therefore being still thus working it is still preserving Secondly A heavenly minde is the freest from sin because it is of clearest understanding in spiritual matters of greatest concernment A man that is much in conversing above hath truer and livelyer apprehensions of things concerning God and his soul then any reading or learning can beget Though perhaps he may be ignorant in divers controversies and matters that less concern salvation yet those truths vvhich must stablish his soul and preserve him from temptation he knows far better then the greatest Scholars he hath so deep an insight into the evil of sin the vanity of the creature the brutishness of fleshly sensual delights that temptations have little power on him for these earthly vanities are Satans baites which though they may take much with the undiscerning world yet with the clear-sighted they have lost their force In vain saith Salomon the net is spread in the sight of any bird Pro. 1.17 And usually in vain doth Satan lay his snares to entrap the soul that plainly sees them when a man is on high he may see the further we use to set our discovering Centinels on the highest place that 's neer unto us that he may discern all the motions of the Enemy In vain doth the Enemy lay his Ambuscado's when we stand over him on some high Mountain and clearly discover all he doth When the heavenly-minde is above with God he may far easier from thence discern every danger that lyes below and the whole method of the devil in deceiving Nay if he did not discover the snare yet were he likelier far to escape it then any others that converse below A net or baite that 's laid on the ground is unlikely to catch the bird that flyes in the Air while she keeps above she 's out 〈◊〉 of the danger and the higher the safer so is it with us Sathans temptations are laid on the earth earth is the place and earth the ordinary baite How shall these ensnare the Christian who hath left the earth and walks with God But alas we keep not long so high but down we must to the earth again and then we are taken If conversing with wise and learned men is the way to make one wise and learned then no wonder if he that converseth with God become wise If men that travel about the earth do think to return home with more experience and wisdom how much more he that travels to heaven As the very Air and Climate that we most abide in do work our bodies to their own temper no wonder if he that is much in that sublime and purer Region have a purer soul and quicker sight and if he have an understanding full of light who liveth with
lye by thee as if thou hadst forgot it O that our hearts were as high as our Hopes and our Hopes as high as these infallible Promises SECT XII 10. COnsider It is but equal that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is so much on us If the Lord of Glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust sure one would think we should easily be perswaded to set our hearts on Christ and Glory and to ascend to him in our daily affections who vouchsafeth to condescend to us O If Gods delight were no more in us then ours is in him what should we do what a case were we in Christian dost thou not perceive that the Heart of God is set upon thee and that he is still minding thee with tender Love even when thou forgettest both thy self and him Dost thou not finde him following thee with daily mercies moving upon thy soul providing for thy body preserving both Doth he not bear thee continually in the arms of Love and promise that all shall work together for thy good and suit all his dealings to thy greatest advantage and give his Angels charge over thee And canst thou finde in thy heart to cast him by and be taken up with the Joyes below and forget thy Lord who forgets not thee Fye upon this unkinde ingratitude Is not this the sin that Isaiah so solemnly doth call both heaven and earth to witness against The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider If the Ox or Ass do straggle in the day they likely come to their home at night but we will not so much as once a day by our serious thoughts ascend to God When he speaks of his own respects to us hear what he saith Isai. 15.16 When Zion saith The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me But when he speaks of our thoughts to him the case is otherwise Jer. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my People have forgotten me days without number As if he should say you would not forget the cloathes on your backs you will not forget your braveries and vanities you will not rise one morning but you will remember to cover your nakedness And are these of more worth then your God or of more concernment then your eternal life and yet you can forget these day after day O brethren give not God cause to expostulate with us as Isai. 65.11 Ye are they that have forsaken the Lord and that forget my holy Mountain But rather admire his minding of thee and let it draw thy minde again to him and say as Job 7.17 What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ver 18. So let thy soul get up to God and visit him every morning and thy heart be towards him every moment SECT XIII 11. COnsider Should not our interest in Heaven and our Relation to it continually keep our hearts upon it Besides that excellency which is spoken of before VVhy there our Father keeps his court Do we not call him our Father which art in Heaven Ah ungratious unworthy children that can be so taken up in their play below as to be mindless of such a Father Also there is Christ our Head our Husband our Life and shall we not look towards him and send to him as oft as we can till we come to see him face to face If he were by Transubstantiation in the Sacraments or other ordinances and that as gloriously as he is in Heaven then there were some reason for our lower thoughts But when the Heavens must receive him till the restitution of all things let them also receive our hearts with him There also is our Mother For Jerusalem which is above is that mother of us all Gal. 4.26 And there are multitudes of our elder Brethren There are our friends and our ancient acquaintance whose society in the flesh we so much delighted in and whose departure hence we so much lamented And is this no attractive to thy thoughts If they were within thy reach on earth thou wouldst go and visit them and why wilt thou not oftner visit them in Spirit and rejoyce beforehand to think of thy meeting them there again Saith old Bullinger Socrates gaudet sibi moriendū esse propterea quod Homerum Hesiodum alios praestantissimos viros se visurum crederet quanto magis ego gaudeo qui certus sum me visurum esse Christum servatorem meum aeternum Dei filium in assumtâ carne praeterea tot sanctissimos eximios Patriarchas c. Socrates rejoyced that he should die because he believed he should see Homer Hesiod and other excellent men how much more do I rejoyce who am sure to see Christ my Saviour the eternal Son of God in his assumed flesh and besides so many holy and excellent men When Luther desired to dye a Martyr and could not obtain it he comforted himself with these thoughts and thus did write to them in prison Vestra vincula mea sunt vestri carceres ignes mei sunt dum confiteor praedico vobisque simul compatior congratulor Yet this is my comfort your Bonds are mine your Prisons and Fires are mine while I confess and Preach the Doctrine for which you suffer and while I suffer and congratulate with you in your sufferings Even so should a Believer look to heaven and contemplate the blessed state of the Saints and think with himself Though I am not yet so happy as to be with you yet this is my daily comfort you are my Brethren and fellow Members in Christ and therefore your joyes are my joyes and your glory by this neer relation is my glory especially while I believe in the same Christ and hold fast the same Faith and Obedience by which you were thus dignified and also while I rejoyce in Spirit with you and in my daily meditations congratulate your happiness Moreover our house and home is above For we know if this earthly house of our Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why do we then look no oftner towards it and groan not earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Sure if our home were far meaner we should yet remember it because it is our home You use to say Home is homely be it never so poor and should such a home then be no more remembred If
known duties either publike private or secret Art thou a slave to thine appetite in eating or â—rinking or to any other commanding sense Art thou a proud Seeker of thine own esteem and a man that must needs have mens good opinion or else thy minde is all in a combustion Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person as if thou wert made of Tinder or Gun powder ready to take fire at every word or every wry look or every supposed sleighting of thee or every neglect of a complement or curtesie Art thou a knowing deceiver of others in thy dealing or one that hast set thy self to rise in the world not to speak of greater sins which all take notice of If this be thy case I dare say Heaven and thy Soul are very great strangers I dare say thou art seldom in Heart with God and there is little hope it should ever be better as long as thou continuest in these transgressions These beams in thine eyes will not suffer thee to look to Heaven these will be a cloud between thee and God When thou dost but attempt to study Eternity and to gather comforts from the life to come thy sin will presently look thee in the face and say These things belong not to thee How shouldst thou take comfort from Heaven who takest so much pleasure in the lusts of thy flesh O how this will damp thy joyes and make the thoughts of that day and state to become thy trouble and not thy delight Every wilful sin that thou livest in will be to thy comforts as water to the fire when thou thinkest to quicken them this will quench them when thy heart begins to draw neer to God this will presently come in thy minde and cover thee with shame and fill thee with doubting Besides which is most to the point in hand it doth utterly indispose thee and disable thee to this work When thou shouldst wind up thy heart to Heaven alas it s byassed another way it is intangled in the lusts of the flesh and can no more ascend in Divine Meditation then the bird can flie whose wings are clipt or that is intangled in the Lime-twigs or taken in the snare Sin doth cut the very sinews of the soul therefore I say of this heavenly life as Master Bolton saith of Prayer Either it will make thee leave sinning or sin will make thee leave it and that quickly too For these cannot continue together If thou be here guilty who readest this I require thee sadly to think of this folly O man what a life dost thou lose and what a life dost thou chuse what daily delights dost thou sell for the swinish pleasure of a stinking lust what a Christ what a glory dost thou turn thy back upon when thou art going to the embracements of thy hellish pleasures I have read of a Gallant addicted to uncleanness who at last meeting with a beautiful Dame and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly sinned with which had been acted by the devil all night and left dead again in the morning Surely all thy sinful pleasures are suche The devil doth animate them in the darkness of the night but when God awakes thee at the farther at death the deceit is vanished and nothing left but a carkass to amaze thee and be a spectacle of horror before thine eyes Thou thinkest thou hast hold of some choice delight but it will turn in thy hand as Moses rod into a Serpent and then thou wouldst fain be rid of it if thou knewest how and wilt â—â—ie from the face of it as thou dost now embrace it And shall this now dream thee from the high delights of the Saints If Heaven and Hell can meet together and if God can become a lover of sin theâ—â— maist them live in thy sin and in the tastes of glory and maist have a conversation in Heaven though thou cherish thy corruption If therefore thou finde thy self guilty never doubt on it but this is the cause that estrangeth thee from Heaven And take heed least it keep out thee as it keeps out thy heart and do not say but thou wast bid Take heed Yea if thou be a man that hitherto hast escaped and knowest no raigning sin in thy soul yet let this warning move thee to prevention and stir up a dread of this danger in thy spirit As Huâ—nius writes of himself That hearing the mention of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost it stirred up such fears in his spirit that made him cry out What if this should be my case and so rouzed him to prayer and tryal So think thou though thou yet be not guilty what a sad thing it were if ever this should prove thy case And therefore watch SECT II. 2. A Second hinderance carefully to be avoided is An Earthly minde For you may easily conceive that this cannot stand with an Heavenly minde God and Mammon Earth and Heaven cannot both have the delight of thy heart This makes thee like Anselmne's Bird with a stone tyed to the foot which as oft as she took flight did pluck her to the Earth again If thou be a man that hast fancied to thy self some content or happiness to be found on Earth and beginnest to taste a sweetness in gain and to aspire after a fuller and a higher estate and hast hatched some thriving projects in thy brain and art driving on thy rising design Beleeve it thou art marching with thy back upon Christ and art posting apace from this Heavenly life Why hath not the World that from thee which God hath from the Heavenly When he is blessing himself in his God and rejoycing in hope of the glory to come then thou art blessing thy self in thy prosperity and rejoycing in hope of thy thriving here When he is solacing his soul in the views of Christ of the Angels and Saints that he shall live with for ever then art thou comforting thy self with thy wealth in looking over thy Bills and Bonds in viewing thy Money thy Goods thy Cattel thy Buildings or large Possession and art recreating thy minde in thinking of thy hopes of the favor of some great ones on whom thou dependest of the pleasantness of a plentiful and commanding state of thy larger provision for thy children after thee of the rising of thy house or the obeisance of thine inferiors Are not these thy morning and evening thoughts when a gracious soul is above with Christ Dost thou not delight and please thy self with the daily rolling these thoughts in thy minde when a gracious soul should have higher delights If he were a fool by the sentence of Christ that said Soul take thy rest thou hast enough laid up for many yeers What a fool of fools art thou that knowing this yet takest not warning but in thy heart speakest the same words Look them over seriously and
that makes men Hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep such out among Infidels for fear of making Hypocrites but when the net is drawn unto the shore the fishes shall be separated and when the time of Harvest comes then the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that work iniquity Matth. 13.41 There are many Saints or sanctified men that yet shall never come to heaven who are onely Saints by their separation from Paganism into fellowship with the visible Church but not Saints in the strictest sense by separation from the ungodly into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ Heb. 10 29. Deut. 7.6 and 14 2 21. and 26.19 and 28.9 Exod. 19.6 1 Cor. 7.13 14. Rom. 11.16 Heb. 3.1 compared with ver 12. 1 Cor. 3.17 and 14.33 1 Cor. 1.2 compared with 11.20 21 c. Gal. 3.26 compared with Gal. 3.3 4. and 4.11 and 5.2 3 4. Joh. 15.2 Thus far I have digressed by way of Caution that you may not think that I disswade you from lawful converse but it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men and too much familiarity with unprofitable companions though they be not so apparently ungodly that I disswade you from There are many persons whom we may not avoid or excommunicate out of the Church no nor out of our private society judicially or by way of penalty to them whom yet we must exclude from our too much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of our selves It is not onely the open prophane the swearer the drunkard and the enemies of godliness that will prove hurtful companions to us though these indeed are chiefly to be avoided but too frequent society with dead-hearted Formalists or persons meerly civil and moral or whose conference is empty unsavory and barren may much divert our thoughts from heaven and do our selves a great deal of wrong as meer idleness and forgetting God will keep a soul as certainly from Heaven as a profane licentious fleshly life so also will the usuall company of such idle forgetful negligent persons as surely keep our hearts from heaven as the company of men more dissolute and profane Alas our dulness and backwardness is such that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps A clod or a stone that lyes on the earth is as prone to arise and fly in the Air as our hearts are naturally to move toward heaven you need not hold nor hinder the earth and Rocks to keep them from flying up to the skies it is sufficient that you do not help them And surely if our spirits have not great assistance they may easily be kept from flying aloft though they never should meet with the least impediment O think of this in the choice of your company when you spirits are so powerfully disposed for heaven that you need no help to lift them up but as the flames you are alwayes mounting upward and carrying with you all that 's in your way then you may indeed be less careful of our company but till then as you love the delights of a heavenly life be careful herein As it s reported of a Lord that was neer to his death and the Doctor that prayed with him read over the Letany For all women labouring with childe for all sick persons and young children c. From lightning and tempest from plague pestilence and famine from battel murder and sudden death c. Alas saith he what is this to me who must presently dye c. So maist thou say of such mens conference who can talk of nothing but their Callings and vanity Alas what 's this to me who must shortly be in Rest and should now be refreshing my soul with its foretastes what will it advantage thee to a life with God to hear where the Fair is such a day or how the Market goes or what weather is or is like to be or when the Moon changeth or what news is stirring why this is the discourse of earthly men What will it conduce to the raising of thy heart God-ward to hear that this is an able Minister or that an able Christian or that this was an excellent Sermon or that is an excellent book to hear a violent arguing or tedious discourse of Baptism Ceremonies the power of the Keyes the order of Gods Decrees or other such controversies of great difficulty and less importance Yet this for the most part is the sweetest discourse that thou art like to have of a formal speculative dead-hearted Professor Nay if thou hadst newly been warming thy heart in the contemplation of the blessed Joys above would not this discourse benum thine affections and quickly freez thy heart again I appeal to the Judgment of any man that hath tryed it and maketh observations on the frame of his spirit Men cannot well talk of one thing and minde another especially things of such differing natures You young men who are most lyable to this temptation think sadly of what I say Can you have your hearts in Heaven on an Ale-house bench among your roaring singing swaggering companions or when you work in your Shops with none but such whose ordinary language is oaths or filthiness or foolish talking or jesting Nay let me tell you thus much more that if you choose such company when you might have better and finde most delight and content in such you are so far from a Heavenly conversation that as yet you have no title to heaven at all and in that estate shall never come there For were your Treasure there your heart would not be on things so distant Mat. 6.21 In a word our company will be part of our happiness in heaven and its a singular part of our furtherance to it or hinderance from it And as the creatures living in the several Elements are commonly of the temperature of the Element they live in as the fishes cold and moist like the water the worms cold and dry as the earth and so the rest So are we usually like the society which we most converse in He that never found it hard to have a heavenly minde in earthly company it is certainly because he never tryed SECT IIII. 4. A Fourth hinderance to a heavenly conversation is Too frequent disputes about lesser truths and especially when a mans Religion lyes only in his opinions a sure sign of an unsanctified soul. If sad examples be doctrinal to you or the Judgments of God upon us be regarded I need to say the lesse upon this particular It s legibly written in the faces of thousands It is visible in the complexion of our diseased nation This facies Hypocritica is our facies Hipocratica He that hath the least skill in Physiognomy may see that this complexlon is mortal and this picture-like shaddow-like visage affordeth our state a sad prognostick You that have been my companions in Armies and Garrisons in Cities and Countreyes I know have been
my companions in this observation That they are usually men least acquainted with a Heavenly life who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of Religion He whose Religion is all in his opinions will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions And he whose Religion lyes in the Knowledg and love of God in Christ will be most delightfully speaking of that time when he shall enjoy God and Christ. As the body doth languish in consuming fevers when the native heat abates within and an unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds so when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of Religion and fly to ceremonials externals or inferior things the soul must needs consume and languish Yea though you were sure your opinions were true yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned thither and the chiefest of your conference there laid out the life of grace decays within your hearts are turned from this heavenly life Not that I would perswade you to undervalue the least truth of God nor that I do acknowledg the hot disputers of the times to have discovered the truth above their Brethren but in case we should grant them to have hit on the Truth yet let every Truth in our thoughts and speeches have their due proportion and I am confident the hundreth part of our time and our conference would not be spent upon the now common Theams For as there is an hundred truths of far greater consequence which do all challenge the precedencie before these so many of those Truths alone are of an hundred times neerer concernment to our souls and therefore should have an answerable proportion in our thoughts Neither is it any excuse for our casting by these great fundamental Truths because they are common and known already For the chief improvment is yet behind and the soul must be daily refreshed with the Truth of Scripture and the goodness of that which it offereth and promiseth as the body must be with its daily food or else the known Truths that lye Idle in your Heads will no more nourish or comfort or save you then the bread that lies still in your Cupboards will feed you Ah he is a rare and pretious Christian who is skilled in the improving of well known truths Therefore let me advise you that aspire after this Joyous Life spend not too much of your thoughts your time your zeal or your speeches upon quarrels that less concern your souls But when hypocrits are feeding on huskes or shels or on this heated food which will burn their lips far sooner then warm and strengthen their hearts then do you feed on the Joys above I could wish you were all understanding men able to defend every truth of God and to this end that you would read and study controversie more and your understanding and stability in these dayes of tryal is no small part of my comfort and encouragment But still I would have the chiefest to be chiefly studyed and none to shoulder out your thoughts of Eternity The least controverted points are usually most weighty and of most necessary frequent use to our souls For you my neighbors and friends in Christ I bless God that I have so little need to urge this hard upon you or to spend my time and speeches in the Pulpit on these quarrels as I have been necessitated to my discontent for to do elsewhere I rejoyce in the wisdome and goodness of our Lord who hath saved me much of this labor 1. Partly by his tempering of your spirits to sincerity 2. Partly by the doleful yet profitable example of those few that went out from us whose former and present condition of spirit makes them stand as the pillar of Salt for a continual terror and warning to you and so to be as useful as they were like to be hurtful 3. Partly by the confessions and bewailings of this sin that you have heard from the mouth of the Dying advising you to beware of changing your fruitful society for the company of deceivers I do unfeignedly rejoyce in these providences and bless the Lord who thus establisheth his Saints Study well those precepts of the Spirit Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations 2 Tim. 2.23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the servant of the Lord must not strive Tit. 3.9 But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thy self SECT V. 5. AS you value the comforts of a heavenly Life take heed of a proud and lofty spirit There is such an Antipathy between this sin and God that thou wilt never get thy heart neer him nor get him neer thy heart as long as this prevaileth in it If it cast the Angels from heaven that were in it it must needs keep thy heart estranged from it If it cast our first parents out of Paradise and separated between the Lord and us and brought his curse on all the creatures here below it must needs then keep our hearts from Paradise and increase the cursed seperation from our God Believe it hearers a proud heart and a Heavenly heart are exceeding contrary Entercourse with God will keep men low and that lowliness will further their entercourse when a man is used to be much with God and taken up in the study of his glorious attributes he abhors himself in dust and ashes and that self-abhorrance is his best preparative to obtain admittance to God again Therefore after a soul-humbling day or in times of trouble when the soul is lowest it useth to have freest access to God and savour most of the life above He will bring them into the wilderness and there he will speak comfortably to them Hos. 2.14 The delight of God is in a humble soul even him that is contrite and trembleth at his word and the delight of a Humble soul is in God and sure where there is mutual delight there will be freest admittance and heartiest welcome and most frequent converse Heaven would not hold God and the proud Angels together but a humble soul he makes his dwelling and surely if our dwelling be with him and in him and his dwelling also be with us and in us there must needs be a most neer and sweet familiarity But the soul that is proud cannot plead this priviledg God is so far from dwelling in it that he will not admit it to any neer access
carriage what exclaiming against pride what moanful self-accusing may stand with this divelish sin of pride O Christian if thou wouldest live continually in the presence of thy Lord lie in the dust and he will thence take thee up descend first with him into the grave and thence thou maist ascend with him to glory Learn of him to be meek and lowly and then thou maist taste of this Rest to thy soul. Thy soul else will be as the troubled Sea still casting out mire and dirt which cannot rest And in stead of these sweet delights in God thy pride will fill thee with perpetual disquietness It is the humble soul that forgets not God and God will not forget the humble Psal. 10.12 and 9.12 As he that humbleth himself as a little childe shall hereafter be greatest in the Kingdom of God Matth. 18.4 So shall he now be greatest in the forecastes of the Kingdom For as whosoever exalteth himself shall be abased so he that humbleth himself shall be in both these respects exalted Matth. 23.12 God therefore dwelleth with him that is humble and contrite to revive the Spirit of such with his presence Isai. 57.15 I conclude with that counsel of James and Peter Humble your selves therefore in the sight of the Lord and he shall now in the Spirit lift you up Jam. 4 10. and in due time shall perfectly exalt you 1 Pet. 5.6 And when others are cast down then shalt thou say There is lifting up and he shall save the humble person Job 22.29 SECT VI. 6. ANother impediment to this Heavenly Life is Wilful laziness and slothfulness of Spirit And I verily think for knowing men there is nothing hinders more then this O if it were onely the exercise of the Body the moving of the Lips the bending of the Knee then it were an easie work indeed and men would as commonly step to Heaven as they go a few miles to visit a friend yea if it were to spend most of our days in numbering Beads and repeating certain words and Prayers in voluntary humility and neglecting the body after the commandments and doctrines of men Col. 2.21 22 23. yea or in the outward part of duties commanded by God yet it were comparatively easie Further if it were onely in the exercise of parts and gifts though we made such performance our daily trade yet it were easie to be heavenly-minded But it is a work more difficult then all this To separate thoughts and affections from the world to force them to a work of so high a nature to draw forth all our graces in their order and exercise each on its proper object to hold them to this till they perceive success and till the work doth thrive and prosper in their hands This this is the difficult task Reader Heaven is above thee the way is upwards Dost thou think who art a feeble short-winded sinner to travel daily this steep ascent without a great deal of labor and resolution Canst thou get that earthly heart to Heaven and bring that backward minde to God while thou liest still and takest thine ease If lying down at the foot of the Hill and looking toward the top and wishing we were there would serve the turn then we should have daily travellers for Heaven But the Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force There must be violence used to get these first fruits as well as to get the full possession Dost thou not feel it so though I should not tell thee Will thy heart get upwards except thou drive it Is it not like a dull and jadish horse that will go no longer then he feels the spur Dost thou finde it easie to dwell in the delights above It s true the work is exceeding sweet and no condition on Earth so desireable but therefore it is that our hearts are so backward especially in the beginning till we are acquainted with it O how many hundred Professors of Religion who can easily bring their hearts to ordinary duties as Reading Hearing Praying Conferring could never yet in all their lives bring them and keep them to a heavenly contemplation one half hour together Consider here Reader as before the Lord whether this be not thine own case Thou hast known that Heaven is all thy hopes thou knowest thou must shortly be turned hence and that nothing below can yield thee rest thou knowest also that a strange heart a seldom and careless thinking of Heaven can fetch but little comfort thence and dost thou not yet for all this let slip thy opportunities and lie below in dust or meer duties when thou shouldst walk above and live with God Dost thou not commend the sweetness of heavenly life and judg those the excellentest Christians that use it and yet didst never once try it thy self But as the sluggard that stretched himself on his bed and cryed O that this were working So dost thou talk and trifle and live at thy ease and say O that I could get my heart to Heaven This is to lie a bed and wish when thou shouldst be up and doing How many a hundred do read Books and hear Sermons in expectation to hear of some easie course or to meet with a shorter cut to comforts then ever they are like to finde in the Word And if they can hear of none from the Preachers of Truth they will snatch it with rejoycing from the Teachers of Falshood and presently applaud the excellency of the doctrine because it hath fitted their lazy temper and think there is no other doctrine will comfort the soul because it will not comfort it with hearing and looking on They think their Venison is best though accompanied with a lie because it is the easiest catched and next at hand and they think will procure the chiefest blessing and so it may if God be as subject to mistake as blinde Isaac And while they pretend enmity onely to the impossibilities of the Law they oppose the easier conditions of the Gospel and cast off the burden that is light also and which all must bear that will finde rest to their souls and in my judgment may as fitly be stiled enemies to the Gospel as enemies to the Law from whence they receive their common title The Lord of light and Spirit of comfort shew these men in time a surer way for lasting comfort The delusions of many of them are strong and ungrounded comforts they seem to have store I can judg it to be of no better a kinde because it comes not in the Scripture way They will some of them profess That when they meditate and labor for comfort themselves they either have none or at least but humane and of a lower kinde but all the comforts that they own and value are immediatly injected without their pains So do I expect my comforts to come in in Heaven but till then I am glad if they will come with labor
and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the brests of the promise and to walk for them daily to the face of God It was an established Law among the Argi That if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy he must give an account before the Magistrate how he came by his victuals and maintenance And sure when I see these men lazy in the use of Gods appointed means for comfort I cannot but question how they come by their comforts I would they would examine it throughly themselves for God will require an account of it from them Idleness and not improving the Truth in painful duty is the common cause of mens seeking comfort from Error even as the people of Israel when they had no comfortable answer from God because of their own sin and neglect would run to seek it from the Idols of the Heathens So when men-were falshearted to the Truth and the Spirit of Truth did deny them comfort because they denied him sincere obedience therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit A multitude also of professors there are that come and enquire for Marks and signs How shall I know whether my heart be sincere and they think the bare naming of some mark is enough to discover but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear So here they ask for directions for a Heavenly Life and if the hearing and knowing of these directions will serve then they will be heavenly Christians But if we set them to task and shew them their work and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier tearmes then here they leave us as the young man left Christ with sorrow How our comforts are only in Christ and yet this labor of ours is necessary thereto I have shewed you already in the beginning of this book and therefore still refer you thither when any shall put in that objection My advice to such a lazie sinner is this As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living so resolvedly set upon it If thy heart draw back and be undisposed force it on with the command of Reason and if thy Reason begin to dispute the work force it with producing the command of God and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity and the other Motives before propounded And let the enforcements that brought thee to the work be still in thy minde to quicken thee in it Do not let such an incomparable treasure lye before thee while thou lyest still with thy hand in thy bosom Let not thy life be a continual vexation which might be a continual delightful feasting and all because thou wilt not be at the pains When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it and a little used thy heart to the work thou wilt finde the pains thou takest which thy backward flesh abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit Only â—it not still with a disconsolate spirit while comforts grow before thine eyes like a man in the midst of a Garden of Flowers or delightful Medow that will not rise to get them that he may partake of their sweetness Neither is it a few formal lazy running thoughts that will fetch thee this consolation from above No more then a few lazy formal words will prevail with God in stead of fervent prayer I know Christ is the fountain and I know this as every other gift is of God But yet if thou ask my advice How to obtain these waters of consolation I must tell thee There is something also for thee to do The Gospel hath its conditions and work though not such impossible ones as the Law Christ hath his yoak and his burden though easie and thou must come to him weary and take it up or thou wilt never finde Rest to thy soul. The well is deep and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it What answer would you give a man that stands by a Pump or draw-Well and should ask you How shall I do to get out the water Why you must draw it up or labor at the Pump and that not a motion or two but you must pump till it comes and then hold on till you have enough Or if a man were lifting at a heavy weight or would move a stone to the top of a mountain and should ask you How he should get it up Why what would you say but that he must put to his hands and put forth his strength And what else can I say to you in directâ—ing you to this Art of a Heavenly Life but this You must deal roundly with your hearts and drive them up and spur them on and follow them close till the work be done as a man will do a lazy unfaithful servant who will do nothing longer then your eye is on him or as you will your horse or ox at his labor who will not stir any longer then he is driven And if your heart lye down in the midst of the work force it up again till the work be done and let it not prevaile by its lazy polâ—â—es I know so far as you are spiritual you need not all this striving and violence but that is but in part and in part you are carnal and as long as it is so there is no talk of ease Though your renewed 〈◊〉 do delight in this work yea no delight on earth so great 〈…〉 so far as it is freshly and unrenewed will draw back and rest and necessitate your industry It was the Parthians custome the none must give their children any meat in the morning before thâ— saw the sweat on their faces with some labor And you shall finde this to be Gods most usual course not to give his children the tastes of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them Therefore lay them both together and judg whether a heavenly 〈◊〉 or thy carnal ease be better and as a wise man make thy choice accordingly Yet this let me say to encourage thee Thou needâ—st not expend thy thoughts more then thou now dost it is but only to employ them better I press thee not to busie thy minde much more then thou dost but to busie it upon better and more pleasant objects As Socratâ—s said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus but that it was so far off Why saith he walk but as far every day as thou dâ—st up and down about thy house and in so many dayes thou wilt be at Olympus So say I to thee Imploy but so many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life to come as thou now imployest on thy necessary affairs in the world nay as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short sâ—ace To conclude this As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts of their estate for want
shall now lay thee down some positive helps and conclude with a Directory to the 〈◊〉 in duty it self But first I expect that thou resolve against the forementioned impediments that thou read them seriously and avoid them faithfully or else thy labor will be all in vain thou dost but go about to reconcile Light and Darkness Christ and Belial and to conjoyn Heaven and Hel in thy spirit thou maist sooner bring down Heaven to earth then do this I must tell thee also that I here expect thy promise faithfully to set upon the helps which I shall prescribe thee and that the Reading of them will not bring heaven into thy heart but in their constant practice the Spirit will do it It were better for thee I had never written them and thou hadst never seen this Book nor read them if thou do not buckle thy self to the duty As thou valuest then the delights of these foretastes of Heaven make conscience of performing these following duties SECT II. 1. KNow Heaven to be the onely Treasure and labor to know also what a Treasure it is be convinced once that thou hast no other happiness and then he convinced what happiness is there If thou do not soundly believe it to be the chiefest good thou wilt never set thy heart upon it and this conviction must sinke into thy affections for if it be onely a notion it will have little operation And sure we have reason enough to be easily convinced of thiâ—â—s as you may see in what hath been spoken already Read over the Description and Nature of this Rest in the beginning of this Book and the Reasons against thy Resting below in Chapter First and conclude That this is the onely Happiness As long as your judgments do undervalue it your affections must needs be cold towards it If your judgments do mistake Blear-eyed Leah for Beautiful Rachel so will your affections also mistake them If Evah do once suppose she sees more worth in the forbidden fruit then in the love and fruition of God no wonder if it have more of her heart then God If your judgments once prefer the delights of the Flesh before the delights in the Presence of God its impossible then your hearts should be in heaven as it is the ignorance of the emptiness of things below that makes men so overvalue them so it is ignorance of the high delights above which is the cause that men so little minde them If you see a purse of gold and believe it to be but Stones or Counters it will not intice your affections to it it is not a things excellency in it self but it s an excellency known that provokes desire If an ignorant man see a Book containing the secrets of Arts or Sciences yet he values it no more then a common piece because he knows not what is in it but he that knows it doth highly value it his very minde is set upon it he can pore upon it day and night he can forbear his meat and drink and sleep to read it As the Jews enquired after Elias when Christ tells them that verily Elias is already come and ye knew him not but did unto him whatsoever ye listed so men enquire after Happiness and Delight when it is offered to them in the promise of Rest and they know it not but trample it under foot and as the Jews killed the Messiah while they waited for the Messiah and that because they did not know him For had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Acts 13.27 1 Cor. 2.8 So doth the world cry out for Rest and busily seek for Delight and Happiness even while they are neglecting and destroying their Rest and Happiness and this because they throughly know it not for did they know throughly what it is they could not so sleight the everlasting Treasure SECT II. 2. LAbor as to know Heaven to be the onely happiness so also to be thy happiness Though the knowledg of excellency and suitableness may stir up that love which worketh by desire yet there must be the knowledg of our interest or propriety to the setting awork of our love of complacency We may confess Heaven to be the best condition though we despair of enjoying it and we may desire and seek it if we see the obtainment to be but probable and hopeful But we can never delightfully rejoyce in it till we are somewhat perswaded of our title to it What comfort is it to a man that is naked to see the rich attire of others or to a man that hath not a bit to put in his mouth to see a feast which he must not taste of What delight hath a man that hath not a house to put his head in to see the sumptuous buildings of others Would not all this rather increase his anguish and make him more sensible of his own misery So for a man to know the excellencies of Heaven and not to know whether he shall ever enjoy them may well raise desire and provoke to seek it but it will raise but little joy and content Who will set his heart on another mans possessions If your houses your goods your cattel your children were not your own you would less minde them and delight less in them O therefore Christians rest not till you can call this Rest your own sit not down without assurance get alone and question with thy self bring thy heart to the bar of tryal force it to answer the interrogatories put to it set the conditions of the Gospel and qualifications of the Saints on one side and thy performance of those conditions and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side and then judg how neer they resemble Thou hast the same word before thee to judg thy self by now by which thou must be judged at the great day Thou art there before told the questions that must then be put to thee put these questions now to thy self Thou mayst there read the very Articles upon which thou shalt be tryed why try thy self by those Articles now Thou mayst there know beforehand on what terms men shall be then acquit and condemned why try now whether thou art possessed of that which will acquit thee or whether thou be upon the same terms with those that must be condemned and accordingly acquit or condemn thy self Yet be sure thou judg by a true touchstone and mistake not the Scriptures description of a Saint that thou neither acquit nor condemn thy self upon mistakes For as groundless hopes do tend to confusion and are the greatest cause of most mens damnation so groundless doubtings do tend to discomforts and are the great cause of the disquieting of the Saints Therefore lay thy grounds of tryal safely and advisedly proceed in the work deliberately and methodically follow it to an issue resolutely and industriously suffer not thy heart to give thee the â—lip and get away before a judgment
thou risest off thy knees when thou openest thy Bible or other Books let it be with this hope to meet with some passage of Divine truth and some such blessing of the Spirit with it as may raise thine affections neerer Heaven and give thee a fuller taste thereof when thou art setting thy foot out at thy door to go to the publike Ordinance and Worship say I hope to meet with somewhat from God that may raise my affections before I returne I hope the Spirit will give me the meeting and sweeten my heart with those celestial delights I hope that Christ will appear to me in that way and shine about me with light from heaven and let me hear his instructing and reviving voyce and causa the scales to fall from mine eyes that I may see more of that glory then I ever yet saw I hope before I return to my house my Lord will take my heart in hand and bring it within the view of Rest and set it before his Fathers presence that I may return as the Shepherds from the heavenly Vision glorifying and praising God for all the things that I have heard and seen Luke 2.20 and say as those that behold his Miracles We have seen strange things to day Luke 5.26 Remember also to pray for thy Teacher that God would put some Divine Message into his mouth which may leave a heavenly relish on thy spirit If these were our ends and this our course when we set to duty we should not be so strange as we are to heaven When the Indian first saw the use of Letters by our English they thought there was sure some spirit in them that men could so converse together by a paper If Christians would take this course in their duties they might come to such holy fellowship with God and see so much of the Mysteries of the Kingdom that it would make the standers by admire what is in those Lines what is in that Sermon what is in this praying that fils his heart so full of joy and that so transports him above himself Certainly God would not fail us in our duties if we did not fail our selves and then experience would make them sweeter to us SECT VI. 6. ANother help is this Make an advantage of every object thou seest and of every passage of Divine providence and of every thing that befals in thy labor and calling to minde thy soul of its approaching Rest. As all providences and creatures are means to our Rest so do they point us to that as their end Every creature hath the name of God and of our final Rest written upon it which a considerate believer may as truly discern as he can read upon a post or hand in a cross way the name of the Town or City which it points to This spiritual use of creatures and providences is Gods great End in bestowing them on man And he that overlooks this End must needs rob God of his chiefest praise and deny him the greatest part of his thanks The Relation that our present mercies have to our great Eternal mercies is the very quintessence and spirits of all these mercies Therefore do they loose the very spirits of their mercies and take nothing but the huskes and bran who do overlook this Relation and draw not forth the sweetness of it in their contemplations Gods sweetest dealings with us at the present would not be half so sweet as they are if they did not intimate some further sweetness As our selves have a fleshly and a spiritual substance so have our mercies a fleshly and spiritual use and are fitted to the nourishing of both our parts He that receives the carnal part and no more may have his body comforted by them but not his soul. It is not all one to receive six pence meerly as six pence and to receive it in earnest of a thousand pound though the sum be the same yet I trow the relation makes a wide difference Thou takest but the bear earnest and overlookest the maine sum when thou receivest thy mercies and forgettest thy crown O therefore that Christians were skilled in this Art You can open your Bibles and read there of God and of Glory O learn to open the creatures and to open the several passages of providence and to read of God and Glory there Certainly by such a skilful industrious improvement we might have a fuller tast of Christ and Heaven in every bit of bread that we eat and in every draught of Beer that we drink then most men have in the use of the Sacrament If thou prosper in the world and thy labor succeed let it make thee more sensible of thy perpetual prosperity If thou be weary of thy labors let it make thy thoughts of Rest more sweet If things go cross hard with thee in the world let it make thee the more earnestly desire that day when all thy sorrows and sufferings shall cease Is thy body refreshed with food or sleep Remember thy unconceivable refreshings with Christ. Dost thou hear any news that makes the glad Remember what glad tydings it will be to hear the sound of the trump of God and the absolving sentence of Christ our Judg. Art thou delighting thy self in the society of the Saints Remember the Everlasting amiable fraternity thou shalt have with perfected Saints in Rest. Is God communicating himself to thy spirit Why remember that time of thy highest advancement when thy Joy shall be full as thy communion is full Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the disorders of the vulgar and the confusions in the world like the noise in a crowd or the roaring of the waters Why think of the blessed agreement in Heaven and the melodious harmony in that Quire of God Dost thou hear or feel the tempest of wars or see any cloud of blood arising Remember the day when thou shalt be housed with Christ where there is nothing but calmness and amiable union and where we shall solace our selves in perfect Peace under the wings of the Prince of Peace for ever Thus you may see what advantages to a Heavenly Life every condition and creature doth afford us if we had but hearts to apprehend and improve them As it s said of the Turkes that they 'l make bridges of the dead bodyes of their men to passe over the trenches or ditches in their way So might Christians of the very ruines and calamities of the times and of every dead body or misery that they see make a bridge for the passage of their thoughts to their Rest. And as they have taught their Pigeons which they call carriers in divers places to bear letters of entercourse from friend to friend at a very great distance so might a wise industrious Christian get his thoughts carried into Heaven and receive as it were returns from thence again by creatures of slower wing then Doves by the assistance of the Spirit the Dove of God
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
make use of discovering Signs drawn from the Nature Properties Effects Adjuncts c. 4. So far as this Trial hath discovered thy neglect and other sins against this Rest proceed to the reprehension and censuring of thy self chide thy heart for its Omissions and Commissions and do it sharply till it feel the smart as Peter Preached Reproof to his Hearers till they were pricked to the heart and cried out And as a Father or Master will chide the childe till it begin to cry and be sensible of the fault so do thou in chiding thy own heart This is called a use of Reproof Here also it will be very necessary that thou bring forth all the aggravating Circumstances of the sin that thy heart may feel it in its weight bitterness and if thy heart do evade or deny the sin convince it by producing the several Discoveries 5. So far as thou discoverest that thou hast been faithful in the duty turn it to Incouragement to thy self and to Thanks to God where thou maist consider of the several aggravatiors of the mercy of the Spirits enabling thee thereto 6. So as it respects thy duty for the future consider how thou maist improve this comfortable Doctrine which must be by strong and effectual perswasion with thy heart First By way of Dehortation from the forementioned sins Secondly By way of Exhortation to the severall duties And these are either first Internal or secondly External First Therefore admonish thy heart of its own inward neglects and contempts Secondly And then of the neglects and trespasses in thy practice against this blessed state of Rest. Set home these severall Admonitions to the quick Take thy heart as to the brink of the bottomless pit force it to look in threaten thy self with the theatnings of the Word tell it of the torments that it draweth upon it self tell it what joyes it is madly rejecting force it to promise thee to do so no more and that not with a cold and heartless promise but earnestly with most solemn asseverations and engagements Secondly The next and last is to drive on thy soul to those positive duties which are required of thee in relation this to Rest As first to the inward duties of thy heart and there first To be diligent in making sure of this Rest secondly To Rejoyce in the expectation of it This is called a use of Consolation It is to be furthered by first laying open the excellency of the State and secondly the certainty of it in it self and thirdly our own interest in it by clearing and proving all these and confuting all sadning objections that may be brought against them thirdly So also for the provoking of Love of Hope and all other the Affections in the way before more largely opened And secondly press on thy heart also to all outward duties that are to be performed in thy way to Rest whether in worship or in civil conversation whether publike or private ordinary or extraordinary This is commonly called A use of Exhortation Here bring in all quickning Considerations either those that may drive thee or those that may draw which work by Fear or which work by Desire These are commonly called Motives but above all be sure that thou follow them home Ask thy heart what it can say against them Is there weight in them or is there not and then what it can say against the duty Is it necessary is it comfortable or is it not when thou hast silenced thy heart and brought it to a stand then drive it further and urge it to a Promise As suppose it were to the duty of Meditation which we are speaking of Force thy self beyond these lazy purposes resolve on the duty before thou stir Enter into a solemn Covenant to be faithful let not thy heart go till it have without all halting and reservations flatly promised thee That it will fall to the work write down this promise shew it to thy heart the next time it loiters then study also the Helps and Means the Hinderances and the Directions that concern thy duty And this is in brief the exercise of this Soliloquy or the Preaching of Heaven to thy own Heart SECT III. BUt perhaps thou wilt say Every man cannot understand this Method this is for Ministers and learned men every man is not able to play the Preacher I Answer thee First There is not that ability required to this as is to the work of publike Preaching here thy thoughts may serve the turn but there must be also the decent Ornaments of Language here is needful but an honest understanding heart but there must be a good pronunciation and a voluble tongue here if thou miss of the Method thou maist make up that in one piece of Application which thou hast neglected in another but there thy failings are injurious to many and a scandal and disgrace to the Work of God thou knowest what will fit thy own heart and what Arguments take best with thy own Affections but thou art not so well acquainted with the dispositions of others Secondly I answer further Every man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures as wel as Ministers Kings and Magistrates Deut. 17.18 19 20. Josh. 1.8 And the people also Deut. 6.6 7 8. Do you think if you did as is there commanded Write it upon thy heart lay them up in thy soul binde them upon thy hand and between thine eyes meditate in them day and night I say if you did thus would you not quickly understand as much as this See Psal. 1.3 Deut. 11.18 6.6 7. Doth not God command thee to teach them diligently to thy children and to talk of them when thou sittest in thy house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And if thou must be skilled to teach thy children much more to teach thy self and if thou canst talk of them to others why not also to thine own heart Certainly our unskilfulness and disability both in a Methodical and lively teaching of our Families and of our selves is for the most part meerly through our own negligence and a sin for which we have no excuse You that learn the skil of your Trades and Sciences might learn this also if you were but willing and painful And so I have done with this particular of Soliloquy SECT IV. 2. ANother step to arise by in our Contemplation is from this speaking to our selves to speak to God Prayer is not such a stranger to this duty but that ejaculatory requests may be intermixed or added and that as a very part of the duty it self How oft doth David intermix these in his Psalmes sometime pleading with his soul and sometime with God and that in the same Psalme and in the next verses The Apostle bids us speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and no doubt we may also speak to God in them this keeps the soul in minde of the Divine Presence
it tends also exceedingly to quicken and raise it so that as God is the highest Object of our Thoughts so our viewing of him and our speaking to him and pleading with him doth more elevate the soul and actuate the Affections then any other part of Meditation can do Men that are careless of their carriage and speeches among children and Ideots will be sober and serious with Princes or grave men so though while we do but plead the case with our selves we are careless and unaffected yet when we turn our speech to God it may strike us with awfulness and the holiness and Majesty of him whom we speak to may cause both the matter and words to pierce the deeper Isaac went forth to pray saith the former Translation To Meditate saith the latter The Hebrew Verb saith Paraeus in loc signifieth both ad Orandum Meditandum The men of God both former and later who have left their Meditations on Record for our view have thus intermixed Soliloquy and Prayer sometime speaking to their own hearts and sometime turning their speech to God And though this may seem an indifferent thing yet I conceive it very sutable and necessary and that it is the highest step that we can advance to in the Work Object But why then is it not as good take up with Prayer alone and so save all this tedious work that you prescribe us I Answer They are several duties and therefore must be performed both Secondly We have need of one as well as the other and therefore shall wrong our selves in the neglecting of either Thirdly The mixture as in Musick doth more affect the one helps on and puts life into the other Fourthly It is not the right order to begin at the top therefore Meditation and speaking to our selves should go before Prayer or speaking to God want of this makes Prayer with most to have little more then the name of Prayer and men to speak as lightly and as stupidly to the dreadful God as if it were to one of their companions and with far less reverence and affection then they would speak to an Angel if he should appear to them yea or to a Judg or Prince if they were speaking for their lives and consequently their success and answers are often like their prayers O speaking in the God of Heaven in prayer is a weightier duty then most are aware of SECT V. THe Ancients had a Custom by Apostrophe's and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak as it were to Angels and Saints departed 〈…〉 it was used by them I take to be lawful but what they spoke in Rhetorical Figures were interpreted by the succeeding Ages to be spoken in strict propriety and Doctrinal Conclusions for praying to Saints and Angels were raised from their speeches Therefore I will omit that course which is so little necessary and so subject to scandalize the less-judicious Readers And so much for the fourth part of the Direction by what steps or Acts we must advance to the height of this Work I should clear all this by some examples but that I intend shall follow in the end CHAP. XI Some Advantages and Helps for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation SECT I. FIfthly The fifth part of this Directory is To shew you what advantages you should take and what helps you should use to make your Meditations of Heaven more quickening and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein For that is the main work that I drive at through all that you may not stick in a bare thinking but may have the lively seâ—â—e of all upon your hearts And this you will finde to be the most difficult part of the work and that its easier barely to think of Heaven a whole day then to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done to make your thoughts of Heaven to be piercing affecting raising thoughts Here therefore you must understand That the meer pure work of Faith hath many disadvantages with us in comparison of the work of Sense Faith is imperfect for we are renewed but in part but Sense hath its strength according to the strength of the flesh Faith goes against a world of resistance but Sense doth not Faith is supernatural and therefore prone to declining and to languish both in the habit and exercise further then it is still renewed and excited but Sense is natural and therefore continueth while nature continueth The object of Faith is far off we must go as far as Heaven for our Joyes But the object of Sense is close at hand It is no easie matter to rejoyce at that which we never saw nor ever knew the man that did see it and this upon a meer promise which is written in the Bible and that when we have nothing else to rejoyce in but all our sensible comforts do fail us But to rejoyce in that which we see and feel in that which we have hold of and possession already this is not difficult Well then what should be done in this case Why sure it will be a point of our Spiritual Prudence and a singular help to the furthering of the work of Faith to call in our Sense to its assistance If we can make us friends of these usual enemies and make them instruments of raising us to God which are the usual means of drawing us from God I think we shall perform a very excellent work Sure it is both possible and lawful yea and necessary too to do something in this kinde for God would not have given us either our Senses themselves or their usual objects if they might not have been serviceable to his own praise and helps to raise us up to the apprehension of higher things And it is very considerable How the Holy Ghost doth condescend in the phrase of Scripture in bringing things down to the reach of Sense how he sets forth the excellencies of Spiritual things in words that are borrowed from the objects of Sense how he describeth the glory of the New Jerusalem in expressions that might take even with flesh it self As that the Streets and Buildings are pure Gold that the Gates are Pearl that a Throne doth stand in the midst of it c. Revel 21. and 22. That we shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in his Kingdom that he will drink with us the fruit of the Vine new that we shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament of our Father These with most other descriptions of our glory are expressed as if it were to the very flesh and sense which though they are all improper and figurative yet doubtless if such expressions had not been best and to us necessary the Holy Ghost would not have so frequently used them He that will speak to mans understanding must speak in mans language and speak that which he is capable
Glory VVhy think then with thy self If this grain of Mustard seed be so precious what is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God If a spark of life which will but strive against corruptions and flame out a few desires and groans be so much worth how glorious then is the Fountain and End of this life If we be said to be like God and to bear his Image and to be holy as he is holy when alas we are pressed down with a body of sin Sure we shall then be much liker God when we are perfectly holy and without blemish and have no such thing as sin within us Is the desire after Heaven so precious a thing what then is the thing it self which is desired Is the love so excellent what then is the beloved Is our joy in foreseeing and believing so sweet what will be the joy in the full possessing O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections VVhat good do's it to his very heart when he can feelingly say He loves his Lord what sweetness is there in the very act of loving yea even those troubling Passions of Sorrow and Fear are yet delightful when they are rightly exercised How glad is a poor Christian when he feeleth his heart begin to melt and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it Even this Sorrow doth yield him matter of Joy O what will it then be when we shall do nothing but know God and love and rejoyce and praise and all this in the highest perfection what a comfort is it to my doubting soul when I have a little assurance of the sincerity of my graces when upon examination I can but trace the Spirit in his sanctifying works How much more will it comfort me to finde that this Spirit hath safely conducted me and left me in the arms of Jesus Christ what a change was it that the Spirit made upon my soul when he first turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God To be taken from that horrid state of nature wherein my self and my actions were loathsom to God and the sentence of death was past upon me and the Almighty took me for his utter enemy and to be presently numbred among his Saints and called his Friend his Servant his Son and the sentence revoked which was gone forth O what a change was this To be taken from that state wherein I was born and had lived delightfully so many yeers and was rivetted in it by custom and engagements when thousands of sins did lie upon my score and if I had so died I had been damned for ever and to be justified from all these enormous crimes and freed from all these fearful plagues and put into the title of an Heir of Heaven O what an astonishing change was this Why then consider how much greater will that glorious change then be Beyond expressing beyond conceiving How oft when I have thought of this change in my Regeneration have I cryed out O blessed day and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it why how then shall I cry out in Heaven O blessed Eternity and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it Was the mercy of my conversion so exceeding great that the Angels of God did rejoyce to see it Sure then the mercy of my salvation will be so great that the same Angels will congratulate my felicity This Grace is but a spark that is raked up in the ashes it is covered with flesh from the sight of the world and covered with corruption sometime from mine-own sight But my Everlasting glory will not so be clouded nor my light be under a bushel but upon a hill even upon Sion the Mount of God SECT XIIII 12. LAstly compare the joyes which thou shalt have above with those foretastes of it which the Spirit hath given thee here Judg of the Lyon by the Paw and of the Ocean of Joy by that drop which thou hast tasted Thou hast here thy strongest refreshing comforts but as that man in Hell would have had the water to cool him a little upon the tip of the finger for thy tongue to taste yet by this little thou maist conjecture at the quality of the whole Hath not God sometime revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul and let a drop of glory fall upon it Hast thou not been ready to say O that it might be thus with my soul continually and that I might always feel what I feel sometimes Didst thou never cry out with the Martyr after thy long and doleful expectations He is come he is come Didst thou never in a lively Sermon of Heaven nor in thy retired contemplations on that blessed State perceive thy drooping spirits revive and thy dejected heart to lift up the head and the light of Heaven to break forth to thy soul as a morning Star or as the dawning of the day Didst thou never perceive thy heart in these duties to be as the childe that Elisha revived to wax warm within thee and to recover life VVhy think with thy self then what is this earnest to the full Inheritance Alas all this light that so amazeth and rejoyceth me is but a Candle lighted from Heaven to lead me thither through this world of darkness If the light of a Star in the night be such or the little glimmering at the break of the day what then is the light of the Sun at noontide If some godly men that we read of have been overwhelmed with joy till they have cryed out Hold Lord stay thy hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot endure too great a light O what will then be my joyes in Heaven when as the object of my joy shall be the most glorious God so my soul shall be made capable of seeing and enjoying him and though the light be ten thousand times greater then the Suns yet my eyes shall be able for ever to behold it Or if thou be one that hast not felt yet these sweet foretastes for every beleever hath not felt them then make use of the former delights which thou hast felt that thou maist the better discern what hereafter thou shalt feel And thus I have done with the fifth part of this Directory and shewed you on what grounds to advance your Meditations and how to get them to quicken your affections by comparing the unseen delights of Heaven with those smaller which you have seen and felt in the flesh CHAP. XII How to manage and watch over the Heart through the whole Work SECT 1. SIxthly The sixt and last part of this Directory is To guide you in the managing of your hearts through this work and to shew you wherein you have need to be exceeding watchful I have shewed before what must be done with your hearts in your preparations to the work and in your setting upon it I shall now shew
the duty When thou hast perhaps but an hours time for thy Meditation the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious This doing of duty as if we did it not doth undo as many as the flat omission of it To rub out the hour in a bare lazie thinking of Heaven is but to lose that hour and delude thy self Well what is to be done in this case why do here also as you do by a loitering servant keep thine eye always upon thy heart look not so much to the time it spendeth in the duty as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done You can tell by his work whether your servant hath been painful ask what affections have yet been acted how much am I yet got neerer Heaven Verily many a mans heart must be followed as close in this duty of Meditation as a Horse in a Mill or an Ox at the Plow that will go no longer then you are calling or scourging If you cease driving but a moment the heart will stand still and perhaps the best hearts have much of this temper I would not have thee of the judgment of those who think that while they are so backward it is better let it alone and that if meer love will not bring them to the duty but there must be all this violence used to compel it that then the service is worse then the omission These men understand not first That this Argument would certainly cashiere all Spiritual obedience because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified will still be resisting so far as they are carnal Secondly Nor do they understand well the corruptness of their own natures Thirdly Nor that their sinful undisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God Fourthly Nor one sin excuse another Fifthly Especially they little know the way of God to excite their Affections and that the love which should compel them must it self be first compelled in the same sense as it is said to compel Love I know is a most precious grace and should have the chief interest in all our duties But there be means appointed by God to procure this love and shall I not use those means till I can use them from love that were to neglect the means till I have the end Must I not seek to procure love till I have it already There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun and means for the exciting of it where it lieth dull And must I not use these means till it is increased and excited Why this reasoning considering-duty that we are in hand with is the most singular means both to stir up thy love and to increase it and therefore stay not from the duty till thou feel thy love constrain thee that were to stay from the fire till thou feel thy self warm but fall upon the work till thou art constrained to love and then love will constrain thee to further duty My jealously least thou shouldst miscarry by these sotish opinions hath made me more tedious in the opening of its error Let nothing therefore hinder thee while thou art upon the work from plying thy heart with constant watchfulness and constraint seeing thou hast such experience of its dulness and backwardness let the spur be never out of its side and when ever it slacks pace be sure to give it a remembrance SECT III. 3. AS thy heart will be loitering so will it be diverting It will be turning aside like a carless servant to talk with every one that passeth by When there should be nothing in thy minde but the work in hand it will be thinking of thy calling or thinking of thy afflictions or of every bird or tree or place thou seest or of any impertinency rather then of Heaven Thy heart in this also will be like the Husbandmans Ox or Horse if he drive not he will not go and if he guide not he will not keep the furrow and it is as good stand still as go out of the way Experience will tell thee thou wilt have much ado with thy heart in this point to keep it one hour to the work without many extravagancies and idle cogitations The cure here is the same with that before to use watchfulness and violence with your own imaginations and as soon as they step out to chide them in Say to thy heart What did I come hither to think of my business in the world to think of places and persons of news or vanity yea or of any thing but Heaven be it never so good what canst thou not watch one hour wouldst thou leave this world and dwell in Heaven with Christ for ever and canst thou not leave it one hour out of thy thoughts nor dwell with Christ in one hours close Meditation Ask thy heart as Absalom did Hushai Is this thy love to thy friend Dost thou love Christ and the place of thy Eternal Blessed abode no more then so When Pharaohs Butler dreamed That he pressed the ripe Grapes into Pharaohs Cup and delivered the Cup into the Kings hand it was a happy dream and signified his speedy access to the Kings presence But the dream of the Baker That the Birds did eat out of the Basket on his head the baked meats prepared for Pharaoh had an ill omen and signified his hanging and their eating of his flesh So when the ripened Grapes of Heavenly Meditation are pressed by thee into the Cup of Affection and this put into the hands of Christ by delightful praises if thou take me for skilful this is the interpretation That thou shalt shortly be taken from this prison where thou liest and be set before Christ in the Court of Heaven and there serve up to him that Cup of praise but much fuller and much sweeter for ever and for ever But if the ravenous fowls of wandring thoughts do devour the Meditations intended for Heaven I will not say flatly it signifieth thy death but this I will say That so far as these intrude they will be the death of that service and if thou ordinarily admit them That they devour the life and the joy of thy thoughts and if thou continue in such a way of duty to the end It signifies the death of thy soul as well as of thy service Drive away these birds of prey then from thy sacrifice and strictly keep thy heart to the work thou art upon SECT IV. 4. LAstly Be sure also to look to thy heart in this That it cut not off the work before the time and run not away through weariness before it have leave Thou shalt finde it will be exceeding prone to this like the Ox that would unyoke or the Horse that would be unburdened and perhaps cast off his burden and run away Thou maist easily perceive this in other duties If in secret thou set thy self to pray is not thy heart urging thee still to cut it short dost thou not
frequently finde a motion to have done art thou not ready to be up as soon almost as thou art down on thy knees Why so it will be also in thy contemplations of Heaven As fast as thou gettest up thy heart it will be down again it will be weary of the work it will be minding thee of other business to be done and stop thy Heavenly walk before thou art well warm Well what is to be done in this case also why the same authority and resolution which brought it to the work and observed it in the work must also hold it to it till the work be done Charge it in the Name of God to stay do not so great a work by the halves say to it VVhy foolish heart If thou beg a while and go away before thou hast thy alms dost thou not lose thy labor if thou stop before thou art at the end of thy journey is not very step of thy travel lost Thou camest hither to fetch a walk to Heaven in hope to have a sight of the glory which thou must inherit and wilt thou stop when thou art almost at the top of the Hill and turn again before thou hast taken thy survey Thou camest hither in hope to speak with God and wilt thou go before thou hast seen him Thou camest to bathe thy self in the streams of Consolation and to that end didst uncloath thy self of thy Earthly thoughts and wilt thou put a foot in and so be gone Thou camest to spie out the Land of Promise O go not back without the bunch of Grapes which thou maist shew to thy Brethren when thou comest home for their Confirmation and Encouragement till thou canst tell them by experience That it is a Land flowing with Wine and Oyl with Milk and Honey Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Wine by the gladness of thy heart and that thou hast been anointed with the Oyl by the cheerfulness of thy countenance Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Milk of the Land by thy feeding and by thy milde and gentle disposition and of the Honey by the sweetness of thy words and conversation The views of Heaven would heal thee of thy sinfulness and of thy sadness but thou must hold on the Plaister that it may have time to work This Heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart and refine it from the dross and take away the earthy part and leave the rest more spiritual and pure but then thou must not be presently gone before it have time either to burn or warm Stick therefore to the work till something be done till thy graces be acted thy affections raised and thy soul refreshed with the delights above or if thou canst not obtain these ends at once ply it the closer the next time and let it not go till thou feel the blessing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Matth. 24.46 CHAP. XIII The Abstract or Sum of all for the use of the weak SECT I. THus I have by the gracious assistance of the Spirit directed you in this work of Heavenly Contemplation and lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance and lead you into the path where you may walk with God But because I would bring it down to the capacity of the meanest and help their memories who are apt to let slip the former particulars and cannot well lay together the several branches of this method That they may reduce them to practice I shall here contract the whole into a brief sum and lay it all before you in a narrower compass But still Reader I wish thee to remember that it is the practice of a duty that I am directing thee in and therefore if thou wilt not practise it do not read it The sum is this As thou makest conscience of praying daily so do thou of the acting of thy Graces in Meditation and more especially in meditating on the joyes of Heaven To this end Set apart one hour or half hour every day wherein thou maist lay aside all worldly thoughts and with all possible seriousness and reverence as if thou were going to speak with God himself or to have a sight of Christ or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thy self into some secret place and set thy self wholly to the following work If thou canst take Isaacs time and place who went forth into the Field in the Evening to meditate But if thou be a servant or poor man that cannot have that leisure take the fittest time and place that thou canst though it be when thou art private about thy labors When thou setst to the work look up toward Heaven let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can remember that there is thine Everlasting Rest study its excellency study its reality till thy unbelief be silenced and thy Faith prevail If thy judgment be not yet drawn to admiration use those sensible helps and advantages which were even now laid down Compare thy heavenly joyes with the choicest on earth and so rise up from Sense to Faith If yet this meer consideration prevail not which yet hath much force as is before expressed then fall a pleading the case with thy heart Preach upon this Text of Heaven to thy self convince inform confute instruct reprove examine admonish encourage and comfort thy own soul from this Celestial Doctrine draw forth those several considerations of thy Rest on which thy several affections may work especially that Affection or Grace which thou intendest to act If it be Love which thou wouldst act shew it the loveliness of Heaven and how suitable it is to thy condition if it be Desire consider of thy absence from this lovely object if it be Hope consider the possibility and probability of obtaining it if it be Courage consider the singular assistance and encouragements which thou maist receive from God the weakness of the enemy and the necessity of prevailing if it be Joy consider of its excellent ravishing glory of thy interest in it and of its certainty and the neerness of the time when thou must possess it Urge these considerations home to thy heart whet them with all possible seriousness upon each affection If thy heart draw back force it to the work if it loyter spur it on if it step aside command it in again if it would slip away and leave the work use thine authority keep it close to the business till thou have obtained thine end Stir not away if it may be till thy Love do flame till thy Joy be raised or till thy Desire or other Graces be lively acted Call in assistance also from God mix Ejaculations with thy Cogitations and Soliloquies Till having seriously pleaded the case with thy heart and reverently pleaded the case with God thou have pleaded thy self from a clod to a flame from a forgetful sinner to a mindful lover from a lover of
tryal of this world Dost thou finde it agree with thy nature or desires are these common abominations these heavy sufferings these unsatisfying vanities suitable to thee or dost thou love for interest and neer relation Why where hast thou better interest then in heaven or where hast thou neerer relation then there Dost thou love for acquaintance and familiarity Why though thine eyes have never seen thy Lord yet he is never the further from thee If thy son were blinde yet he would love thee his father though he never saw thee Thou hast heard the voice of Christ to thy very heart thou hast received his benefits thou hast lived in his bosome and art thou not yet acquainted with him It is he that brought thee seasonably and safety into the world It is he that nursed thee up in thy tender infancy and helped thee when thou couldst not help thy self He taught thee to go to speak to read to understand He taught thee to know thy self and him he opened thee that first window whereby thou sawest into heaven Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he did quicken it and hard and stubborn and he did soften it and made it yeeld when it was at peace and he did trouble it and whole till he did break it and broken till he did heal it again Hast thou forgotten the time nay the many very many times when he found thee in secret all in tears when he heard thy dolorous sighes and groans and left all to come and comfort thee when he came in upon thee and took thee up as it were in his armes and asked thee Poor soul what doth aile thee dost thou weep when I have wept so much Be of good cheer thy wounds are saving and not deadly It is I that have made them who mean thee no hurt Though I let out thy blood I will not let out thy life O me thinks I remember yet his voice and feel those embracing armes that took me up How gently did he handle me how carefully did he dress my wounds and binde them up Me thinks I hear him still saying to me Poor sinner though thou hast dealt unkindly with me and cast me off yet will not I do so by thee though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies yet both I and All are thine what wouldst thou have that I can give thee and what dost thou want that I cannot give thee If any thing I have will pleasure thee thou shalt have it If any thing in heaven or earth will make the happy why it is all thine own Wouldst thou have pardon thou shalt have it I freely forgive thee all the debt wouldst thou have grace and peace thou shalt have them both wouldst thou have my self why behold I am thine thy friend thy Lord thy brother thy husband and thy head wouldst thou have the Father why I will bring thee to him and thou shalt have him in and by me These were my Lords reviving words These were the melting healing raising quickening passages of love After all this when I was doubtful of his love me thinks I yet remember his overcoming and convincing Arguments Why sinner have I done so much to testifie my Love and yet dost thou doubt Have I made thy believing it the condition of enjoying it and yet dost thou doubt Have I offered thee my self and love so long and yet dost thou question my willingness to be thine VVhy what could I have done more then I have done At what dearer rate should I tell thee that I love thee Read yet the story of my bitter passion wilt thou not believe that it proceeded from love Did I ever give thee cause to be so jealous of me Or to think so hardly of me as thou dost Have I made my self in the Gospel a Lyon to thine enemies and a Lamb to thee and dost thou so over-look my Lamb like nature Have I set mine arms and heart there open to thee and wilt thou not believe but they are shut why if I had been willing to let thee perish I could have done it at a cheaper rate what need I then have done and suffered so much what need I follow thee with so long patience and intreating what dost thou tell me of thy wants have I not enough for me and thee and why dost thou foolishly tell me of thy unworthiness and thy sin I had not died if man had not sinned if thou wert not a sinner thou wert not for me if thou wert worthy thy self what shouldst thou do with my worthiness Did I ever invite the worthy and the righteous or did I ever save or justifie such or is there any such on earth Hast thou nothing art thou lost and miserable art thou helpless and forlorn dost thou believe that I am a sufficient Saviour and wouldst thou have me why then take me Lo I am thine if thou be willing I am willing and neither sin nor devils shall break the match These O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his Gospel spoke unto me till he made me cast my self it his feet ye into his arms and to cry out My Saviour and my Lord Thou hast broke my heart thou hast revived my heart thou hast overcome thou hast wone my heart take it it is thine if such a heart can please thee take it if it cannot make it such as thou wouldst have it Thus O my soul maist thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ therefore if acquaintance will cause affection O then let out thy heart unto him it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness that hath cooled thy heats and eased thy pains and refreshed thy weariness and removed thy fears He hath been always ready when thou hast earnestly sought him He hath given thee the meeting in publike and in private He hath been found of thee in the Congregation in thy house in thy chamber in the field in the way as thou wast walking in thy waking nights in thy deepest dangers O if bounty and compassion be an attractive of Love how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him All the mercies that have filled up my life do tell me this all the places that ever I did abide in all the societies and persons that I have had to deal with every condition of life that I have passed through all my imployments and all my relations every change that hath befaln me all tell me That the Fountain is Overflowing Goodness Lord what a summ of love am I indebted to thee and how doth my debt continually increase how should I love again for so much love But what shall I dare to think of making thee requital or of recompencing all thy love with mine will my mite requite thee for thy golden Mines my seldom wishes for thy constant bounty or mine which is nothing or not mine for thine which is infinite and thine own shall I
my corruptions quite removed and my soul perfected and my body also raised to so high a state as I now can neither desire nor conceive Surely as health of body so health of soul doth carry an unexpressible sweetness along with it VVere there no reward besides yet every gracious act is a reward and comfort Never had I the least stirring of Love to God but I felt a heavenly sweetness accompanying it even the very act of loving was unexpressibly sweet VVhat a happy life should I here live could I but love as much as I would and as oft and as long as I would Could I be all love and always loving O my soul what wouldst thou give for such a life O had I such true and clear apprehensions of God and such a true understanding of his words as I desire Could I but trust him as fully in all my streights Could I have that life which I would have in every duty Could I make God my constant desire and delight I would not then envy the world their honors or pleasures nor change my happiness with a Caesar or Alexander O my soul what a blessed state wilt thou shortly be in when thou shalt have far more of these then thou canst now desire and shalt exercise all thy perfected graces upon God in presence and open sight and not in the dark and at a distance as now And as there is so much worth in one gracious soul so much more in a gracious society and most of all in the whole body of Christ on earth If there be any true beauty on earth where should it be so likely as in the Spouse of Christ It is her that he adorneth with his Jewels and feasteth at his table and keepeth for her always an open house and heart he revealeth to her his secrets and maintaineth constant converse with her he is her constant guardian and in every deluge incloseth her in his Ark He saith to her Thou art all beautiful my beloved And is his Spouse while black so comely Is the afflicted sinning weeping lamenting persecuted Church so excellent O what then will be the Church when it is fully gathered and glorified VVhen it is ascended from the valley of tears to Mount Sion VVhen it shall sin no more nor weep nor groan nor suffer any more The Stars or the smalest candle are not darkened so much by the brightness of the Sun as the excellencies of the first Temple will be by the celestial Temple The glory of the old Jerusalem will be darkness and deformity to the glory of the New It is said in Ezr. 3.12 that when the foundations of the second Temple were laid many of the ancient men who had seen the first house did weep i.e. because the second did come so far short of it what cause then shall we have to shout for joy when we shall see how glorious the heavenly Temple is and remember the meaness of the Church on earth But alas what a loss am I at in the midst of my contemplations I thought my heart had all this while followed after but I see it doth not And shall I let my Understanding go on alone or my tongue run on without Affections what life is in empty thoughts and words Neither God nor I finde pleasure in them Rather let me turn back again and look and finde and chide this lazy loytering heart that turneth off from such a pleasant work as this Where hast thou been unworthy heart while I was opening to thee the everlasting Treasures Didst thou sleep or wast thou minding something else or dost thou think that all this is but a Dream or Fable or as uncertain as the predictions of a presumptuâ—ous Astrologer Or hast thou lost thy life and rejoycing power Art thou not ashamed to complain so much of an uncomfortable life and to murmur at God for filling thee with sorrows when he offereth thee in vain the delights of Angels and when thou treadest under foot these transcendent pleasures Thou wilfully pinest away in grief and art ready to charge thy Father with unkindness for making thee onely a vessel of displeasure a sink of sadness a skinful of groans a snow ball of tears a channel for the waters of affliction to run in the fuell of fears and the carcass which cares do consume and prey upon when in the mean time thou mightest live a life of Joy Hadst thou now but followed me close and believingly applyed thy self to that which I have spoken and drunk in but half the comfort that those words hold forth it would have made thee revive and leap for joy and forget thy sorrows and diseases and pains of the flesh but seeing thou judgest thy self unworthy of comfort it is just that comfort should be taken from thee Lord what 's the matter that this work doth go on so heavily Did I think my heart had been so backward to rejoyce If it had been to mourn and fear and despair it were no wonder I have been lifting at this stone and it will not stir I have been pouring Aqua Vitae into the mouth of the dead I hope Lord by that time it comes to heaven this heart by thy Spirit will be quickned and mended or else even those Joyes will scarce rejoyce me But besides my darkness deadness and unbelief I perceive there is something else that forbids my full desired Joyes This is not the time and place where so much is given The time is our Winter and not our Harvest The place is called the Valley of tears there must be great difference betwit the Way and the End the Work and Wages the small foretastes and full fruition But Lord Though thou hast reserved our Joyes for Heaven yet hast thou not so suspended our Desires They are most suitable and seasonable in this present life therefore O help me to desire till I may possess and let me long when I cannot as I would rejoyce There is love in Desire as well as in Delight and if I be not empty of Love I know I shall not long be empty of Delight Rowse up thy self once more then O my soul and try and exercise thy spiritual Appetite though thou art ignorant and unbelieving yet art thou reasonable and therefore must needs desire a Happiness and Rest Nor canst thou sure be so unreasonable as to dream of attaining it here on earth Thou knowest to thy sorrow that thou art not yet at thy Rest and thy own feeling doth convince thee of thy present Unhappiness and dost thou know that thou art restless and yet art willing to continue so Art thou neither happy in deed nor in Desire Art thou neither well nor wouldest be well when my flesh is pained and languisheth under consuming sickness how heartily and frequenly do I cry out O when shall I be eased of this pain when shall my decaying strength be recovered Ther 's no dissembling nor formality in these Desires
Lightning without the Thunder which maketh it seem more dreadful then delightful And shouldst thou be loth then O my soul to leave this for the Eternal perfect Light and to change thy Candle for the glorious Sun and to change thy Studies and Preaching and Praying for the Harmonious Praises and fruition of the Blessed God Nor will thy loss be greater in the change of thy company then of thine imployment Thy friends here have been indeed thy delight And have they not been also thy vexation and thy grief They are gracious and are they not also sinful they are kinde and loving and are they not also peevish froward and soon displeased they are humble but withal alas how proud they will scarce endure to hear plainly of their disgraceful faults they cannot bear undervaluing or disrespect they itch after the good thoughts and applause of others they love those best that highliest esteem them The missing of a curtesie a supposed sleighting or disrepect the contradicting of their words or humors a difference in opinion yea the turning of a straw will quickly shew thee the pride and the uncertainty of thy friend Their graces are sweet to thee and their gifts are helpful but are not their corruptions bitter and their imperfections hurtful Though at a distance they seem to thee most Holy and Innocent yet when they come neerer thee and thou hast throughly tryed them alas what silly frail and froward pieces are the best of men Then the knowledg which thou didst admire appeareth clouded with ignorance and the vertues that so shined as a Glow-worm in the night are scarcely to be found when thou seekest them by day-light VVhen temptations are strong how quickly do they yield what wounds have they given to Religion by their shameful falls Those that have been famous for their Holiness have been as infamous for their notorious hainous wickedness those that have been thy dearest bosome friends that have prayed and conferred with thee and helped thee toward Heaven and by their fervor forwardness and heavenly lives have shamed thy coldness and earthliness and dulness whom thou hast singled out as the choicest from a world of professors whom thou madest the daily companions and delights of thy life are not some of them faln to Drunkenness and some to Whordome some to Pride Perfidiousness and Rebellion and some to the most damnable Heresies and Divisions And hath thy very heart received such wounds from thy friends and yet art thou so loth to go from them to thy God Thy friends that are weak are little useful or comfortable to thee and those that are strong are the abler to hurt thee and the best if not heedfully used will prove the worst The better and keener thy knife is the sooner and deeper will it cut thy fingers if thou take not heed Yea the very number of thy friends is a burden and trouble to thee every one supposeth he hath some interest in thee yea the interest of a friend which is not a little and how insufficient art thou to satisfie all their expectations When it is much if thou canst answer the expectations of one If thou were divided among so many as each could have but little of thee so thy self and God who should have most will have none And almost every one that hath not more of thee then thou canst spare for all is ready to censure thee as unfriendly and a neglecter of the duty or respects which thou owest them And shouldst thou please them all the gain will not be great nor art thou sure that they will again please thee Awake then O my drowsie soul and look above this world of sorrows Hast thou born the yoke of afflictions from thy youth and so long felt the smarting rod and yet canst no better understand its meaning Is not every stroke to drive thee hence and is not the voice of the rod like that to Elijah What dost thou here Up and away Dost thou forget that sure prediction of thy Lord In the world ye shall have trouble but in me ye shall have peace The first thou hast found true by long experience and of the later thou hast had a small foretaste but the perfect peace is yet before which till it be enjoyed cannot be clearly understood Ah my dear Lord I feel thy meaning it s written in my flesh it s engraven in my bones My heart thou aymest at thy rod doth drive thy silken cord of love doth draw and all to bring it to thy self And is that all Lord is that the worst Can such a heart be worth thy having Make it so Lord and then it is thine Take it to thy self and then take me I can but reach it toward thee and not unto thee I am too low and it is too dull This clod hath life to stir but not to rise Legs it hath but wings it wanteth As the feeble childe to the tender mother it looketh up to thee and stretcheth out the hands and faine would have thee take it up Though I cannot so freely say My heart is with thee my soul longeth after thee yet can I say I long for such a longing heart The twins are yet a striving in my bowels The spirit is willing the flesh is weak the spirit longs the flesh is loth The flesh is unwilling to lye rotting in the earth The soul desires to be with thee My spirit cryeth Let thy Kingdom come or else let me come unto thy Kingdom but the flesh is afraid least thou shouldest hear my prayer and take me at my word VVhat frequent contradictions dost thou finde in my requests because there is such contradiction in my self My prayers plead against my prayers and one part begs a denial to the other No wonder if thou give me such a dying life when I know not whether to ask for life or death With the same breath do I beg for a reprival and removal And the same groan doth utter my desires and my feares My soul would go my flesh would stay My soul would faine be out my flesh would have thee hold the door O blessed be thy Grace that makes advantage of my corruptions even to contradict and kill themselves For I fear my fears and sorrow for my sorrows and groan under my fleshly groans I loath my lothness and I long for greater longings And while my soul is thus tormented with fears and cares and with the tedious means for attaining my desires it addeth so much to the burden of my troubles that my wearyness thereby is much increased which makes me groan to be at Rest. Indeed Lord my soul it self also is in a straight and what to chuse I know not well but yet thou knowest what to give To depart and be with thee is Best but yet to be in the flesh seems needfull Thou knowest I am not weary of thy work but of sorrow and sin I must needs be weary I am willing to stay while
task of outward Duties Let men see in you what a Life they must aim at If ever a Christian be like himself and answerable to his Principles and Profession it is when he is most serious and lively in this Duty when as Moses before he died went up into Mount Nebo to take a survey of the Land of Canaan so the Christian doth ascend this Mount of Contemplation and take a survey by Faith of his Rest. He looks upon the glorious delectable Mansions and saith Glorious things are deservedly spoken of thee O thou City of God He heareth as it were the melody of the Heavenly Chore and beholdeth the excellent employment of those Spirits and saith Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are they that have the Lord for their God He next looketh to the glorified Inhabitants of that Region and saith Happy art thou O the Israel of God a people saved by the Lord the Shield of thy Strength the Sword of thine Excellency When he looketh upon the Lord himself who is their Glory he is ready with the rest to fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power When he looks on the Glorified Saviour of the Saints he is ready to say Amen to that new Song Blessing honor glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever for he hath redeemed us out of every Nation by his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld he blesseth the believing patient despised Saints he pitieth the ignorant obstinate miserable World and for himself he saith as Peter It is good to be here or as David It is good for me to draw neer to God for all those that are far from him shall perish Thus as Daniel in his captivity did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem though far out of sight when he went to God in his Devotions so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh look towards Jerusalem which is above And as Paul was to the Colossians so may he be with the Glorified Spirits Absent in the flesh but present in Spirit joying in beholding their Heavenly Order And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon before his death did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words John 3.16 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life That he raised and ravished the hearts of his otherwise sad hearers So may the Meditating Beleever do through the Spirits assistance by his own heart And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly and never cease her pleasant ditty while she hovereth aloft as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth So is the frame of the Soul most Delectable and Divine while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation But alas we make there too short a stay but down again we fall and lay by our musick But O thou the Merciful Father of Spirits the Attractive of Love and Ocean of Delights draw up these drossie hearts unto thy self and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined and second these thy Servants weak Endevors and perswade those that read these lines to the practice of this Delightful Heavenly Work And O suffer not the Soul of thy most unworthy Servant to be a stranger to those Joyes which he unfoldeth to thy people or to be seldom in that way which he hath here lined out to others But O keep me while I tarry on this Earth in daily serious Breathings after thee and in a Believing Affectionate Walking with thee And when thou comest O let me be found so doing not hiding my Talent nor serving my Flesh nor yet asleep with my Lamp unfurnished but waiting and longing for my Lords return That those who shall read these Heavenly Directions may not read onely the fruit of my Studies and the product of my fancy but the hearty breathings of my active Hope and Love That if my heart were open to their view they might there read the same most deeply engraven with a Beam from the Face of the Son of God and not finde Vanity or Lust or Pride within where the words of Life appear without That so these lines may not witness against me but proceeding from the heart of the Writer may be effectual through thy Grace upon the heart of the Reader and so be the savor of Life to both Amen Glory be to God in the highest On Earth Peace Good-wil towards Men. FINIS BROVGHTON In the Conclusion of His Concent of Scripture Concerning the New-Jerusalem and the Everlasting Sabbatism meant in my Text as begun here and perfected in Heaven THe Company of faithful Souls called to the blessed Marriage of the Lamb are a Jerusalem from Heaven Apoc. 3. and 21. Heb. 12. Though such glorious things are spoken concerning this City of God the perfection whereof cannot be seen in this Vale of Tears yet here God wipeth all tears from our eyes and each blessing is here begun The name of this City much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace for this is called Jerusalem and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed This Name should clearly have taught both the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan and Pseudo-Catholikes not to fight for special holiness there We live in this by Faith and not by Eye-sight and by Hope we behold the perfection Of this City Salvation is a Wall goodly as Jasper clear as Crystal the foundations are in number twelve of twelve pretious stones such as Aaron ware on his brest all the Work of the Lambs twelve Apostles the Gates are twelve each of Pearl upon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel of whose Faith all must be which enter in Twelve Angels are conductors from East West North and South even the Stars of the Churches The City is square of Burgesses setled for all turns Here God sitteth on a Throne like Jasper and Ruby Comfortable and Just The Lamb is the Temple that a third Temple should not be looked for to be built Thrones twice twelve are for all the Christians born of Israels twelve or taught by the Apostles who for dignity are Seniors for infinity are termed but four and twenty in regard of so many Tribes and Apostles Here the Majesty is Honorable as at the delivery of the Law from whose Throne Thunder Voyces and Lightnings do proceed Here oyl of Grace is never wanting but burning with seven Lamps the spirits of Messias of Wit and Wisdom of Counsel and Courage of Knowledg and Understanding and of the Fear due to the Eternal Here the Valiant Patient Witty and Speedy
hast no more then he intended to enable that worm or this post or stone fully to know thee Therefore when he speaks dispute not but beleeve As Abraham who considered not his own body now dead when he was about an hundred years old nor yet the deadness of Sarahs womb He staggered not at the Promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving Glory to God And being fully perswaded that what he had promised he was also able to perform And so against Hope beleeved in Hope Rom. 4.18 19 20 21. So look not thou on the dead bones and dust and difficulties but at the Promise Martha knew her Brother should rise again at the Resurrection But if Christ say he shall rise before it must be beleeved Come then fellow Christians let us contentedly commit these Carcasses to the dust That prison shall not long contain them Let us lie down in peace and take our Rest It will not be an Everlasting Night nor endless sleep What if we go out of the troubles and stirs of the world and enter into those Chambers of Dust and the doors be shut upon us and we hide our selves as it were for a little moment until the indignation be over-past Yet behold the Lord cometh out of his place to punish the Inhabitants of the Earth for their iniquity and then the Earth shall disclose us and the Dust shal hide us no more As sure as we awake in the Morning when we have slept out the Night so sure shall we then awake And what if in the mean time we must be loathsom Lumps cast out of the sight of men as not fit to be endured among the Living What if our Carcasses become as vile as those of the Beasts that perish What if our bones be digged up and scattered about the pit brink and worms consume our flesh Yet we know our Redeemer liveth and shall stand the last on earth and we shall see him with these eyes And withal it is but this flesh that suffers all this which hath been a Clog to our Souls so long And what is this comely piece of flesh which thou art loath should come to so base a state It is not an hundred years since it was either Nothing or an invisible Something And is not most of it for the present if not an Appearing Nothing seeming something to an imperfect sense yet at best a Condensation of Invisibles which that they may become sensible are become more gross and so more vile Where is all that fair mass of flesh and blood which thou hadst before sickness consumed thee Annihilated it is not onely resolved into its Principles shew it me if thou canst Into how small a handful of dust or ashes will that whole mass if buried or burnt return And into how much smaller can a Chymist reduce that little and leave thee all the rest Invisible What if God prick the Bladder and let out the wind that puffs thee up to such a substance and resolve thee into thy Principles Doth not the seed thou sowest dye before it spring and what cause have we to be tender of this body Oh what care what labor what grief and sorrow hath it cost us How many a weary painful tedious hour Oh my Soul Grudg not that God should disburden thee of all this Fear not lest he should free thee from thy fetters Be not so loath that he should break down thy prison and let thee go What though some terrible Earthquake go before It is but that the foundations of the prison may be shaken and so the doors fly open The terror will be to thy Jaylor but to thee Deliverance Oh therefore at what hour of the night soever thy Lord come let him finde thee though with thy feet in these stocks yet singing praises to him and not fearing the time of thy deliverance If unclothing be the thing thou fearest Why it is that thou mayst have better clothing put on If to be turned out of doors be the thing thou fearest Why remember that when this Earthly house of thy Tabernacle is dissolved thou hast a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens How willingly do our Souldiers burn their Huts when the siege is ended being glad that their work is done that they may go home and dwell in houses Lay down then cheerfully this bag of loathsom filth this Lump of Corruption thou shalt undoubtedly receive it again in Incorruption Lay down freely this terrestrial this natural body beleeve it thou shalt receive it again a celestial a spiritual body And though thou lay it down into the dirt with great dishonor thou shalt recieve it into Glory with honor And though thou art separated from it through weakness it shall be raised again and joyned to thee in mighty power When the Trumpet of God shall sound the Call Come away arise ye Dead Who shall then stay behinde Who can resist the powerful Command of our Lord When he shall call to the Earth and Sea O Earth give up thy Dead O Sea give up thy Dead Then shall our Sampson break for us the bonds of Death And as the Ungodly shall like Toads from their holes be drawn forth whether they will or no so shall the Godly as prisoners of hope awake out of sleep and come with Joy to meet their Lord. The first that shall be called are the Saints that sleep and then the Saints that are then alive shall be changed For Paul hath told us by the Word of the Lord That they which are alive and remain to the Coming of the Lord shall not prevent them which are asleep For the Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with a shout with the voyce of the Archangel and with the Trump of God and the Dead in Christ shall rise first Then they which are alive and remain shall be caught up together with them in the Clouds to meet the Lord in the air and so shall we ever be with the Lord. Wherefore O Christians comfort one another with these words This is one of the Gospel Mysteries That we shall all be changed in a moment in the twinkling of an Eye at the last Trump for the Trumpet shall sound and the dead shall be raised incorruptible and we shall be changed For this Corruptible must put on Incorruption and this Mortal Immortality Then is Death swallowed up in victory O Death where is thy sting O Grave where is thy victory Thanks be to God which giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. Triumph now O Christian in these Promises thou shalt shortly Triumph in their Performance For this is the Day that the Lord will make we shall be glad and rejoyce therein The Grave that could not keep our Lord cannot keep us He arose for us and by the same Power will cause us to arise For if we beleeve that Jesus dyed and rose
them begin to look about them Let them know that thou speak not to them of indifferent things not about childrens games or worldlings vanities or matters of a few days or years continuance nor yet about matters of uncertainty which perhaps may never come to pass But it is about the saving or damning of their Souls and bodies and whether they shall be Blessed with Christ or tormented with Devils and that for ever and ever without any change It is how to stand before God in Judgment and what answer to give and how they are like to speed And this Judgment and eternal state they shall very shortly see they are almost at it yet a few more nights and days and they shall presently be at that last day a few more breathes they have to breathe and they shall breathe out their last and then as certainly shall they see that mighty change as the Heaven is over their heads and the earth under their feet Oh labour to make men know that it is mad jesting about Salvation or Damnation and that Heaven and Hell be not matters to be playd with or passed over with a few careless thoughts Is it most certain that one of these days thou shalt be either in everlasting unchangeable Joy or Torments and doth it not awake thee Is there so few that find the way of life so many that go the way of death so hard to escape so easie to miscarry and that while we fear nothing but think all is well and yet do you fit still and trifle Why what do you mean what do you think on The world is passing away its pleasures are fading its honours are leaving you its profits will prove unprofitable to you Heaven or Hell are a little before you God is Just and Jealous his Threatenings are true the great day of his Judgment will be terrible your time runs on your lives are uncertain you are far behind hand you have loitered long your case is dangerous your Souls are far gone in sin you are strange to God you are hardened in evil customs you have no assurance of pardon to shew if you dye to morrow how unready are you and with what terror will your Souls go out of your bodies And do you yet loiter for all this Why consider with your selves God standeth all this while waiting your leasure his patience beareth his Justice forbeareth his Mercy intreateth you Christ standeth offering you his blood and merits you may have him freely and life with him the Spirit is perswading you Conscience is accusing and urging you Ministers are praying for you and calling upon you Satan stands waiting when Justice will cut off your lives that he may have you This is your time Now or Never What! had you rather lose Heaven then your profits or pleasures had you rather burn in Hell then repent on Earth had you rather howl and roar there then pray day and night for mercy here or to have Devils your Tormentors then to have Christ your Governor Will you renounce your part in God and Glory rather then renounce your cursed sins Do you think a holy life too much for Heaven or too dear a course to prevent an endless misery Oh friends What do you think of these things God hath made you men and endued you with Reason do not renounce your Reason where you should chiefly use it In this manner you must deal roundly and seriously with men Alas it is not a few dull words between Jest and earnest between sleep and waking as it were that will waken an ignorant dead-hearted sinner When a dull hearer and a dull speaker meet together a dead heart and a dead exhortation it is far unlike to have a lively effect If a man fall down in a Swoun you will not stand trifling with him but lay hands on him presently and snatch him up and rub him and call loud to him If a house be on fire you will not in a cold affected strain go tell your neighbor of it nor go make an oration of the nature and danger of fire but you will run out and cry Fire Fire Matters of moment must be seriously dealt with To tell a man of his sins so softly as Eli did his sons or reprove him so gently as Jehosaphat did Ahab Let not the King say so doth usually as much harm as good I am perswaded the very manner of some mens reproof and exhortations hath hardened many a sinner in the way of destruction To tell them of Sin or of Heaven or Hell in a dull easie careless language doth make men think you are not in good sadness nor do mean as you speak but either you scarce think your selves such things are true or else you take them for small indifferent matters or else sure you would never speak of them in such a slight indifferent manner Oh Sirs deal with Sin as Sin and speak of Heaven and Hell as they are and not as if you were in Jest. I confess I have failed much in this my self the Lord lay it not to my charge Loathness to displease men makes us undo them SECT IX 6. YEt lest you run into extreams I advise you to do it with Prudence and discretion Be as serious as you can but yet with Wisdom And especially you must be wise in these things following 1. In choosing the fittest season for your Exhortation not to deal with men when they are in passion or drunk or in publique where they will take it for a disgrace Mâ—n should observe when sinners are fittest to hear instructions Physick must not be given at all times but in season Opportunity advantageth every work It is an excellent example that Paul giveth us Gal. 2. â— He communicated the Gospel to them yet privately to them of reputation lest he should run in vain Some men would take this to be a sinful complying with their Corruption to yield so far to their pride and bashfulness as to teach them only in private because they would be ashamed to own the Truth in Publique But PAVL knew how great a hinderance mens reputation is to their entertaining of the Truth and that the remedy must not only be fitted to the disease but also to the strength of the Patient and that in so doing the Physician is not guilty of favoring the disease but is praise-worthy for taking the right way to cure and that learners and young-beginners must not be dealt with as open professors Moreover means will work easily if you take the opportunity when the Earth is soft the Plow will enter Take a man when he is under affliction or in the house of mourning or newly stirred by some moving Sermon and then set it home and you may do him good Christian Faithfulness doth require us not onely to do good when it falls in our way but to watch for opportunities of doing good 2 Be wise also in suiting your Exhortation to the quality and
clay to totter Look on thy glass and see how it runs Look on thy watch how fast it getteth what a short moment is between us and our Rest what a step is it from hence to Everlastingness While I am thinking and writing of it it hasteth neer and I am even entring into it before I am aware While thou art reading this it pâ—steth on and thy life will be gone as a tale that is told Mayst thou not easily foresee thy dying time and look upon thy self as ready to depart It s but a few dayes till thy friends shall lay thee in the grave and others do the like for them If you verily believed you should dye to morrow how seriously would you think of Heaven to night The condemned prisoner knew before that he 〈◊〉 dye and yet he was then as Jovial as any but when he hears the sentence and knows he hath not a week to live then how it sinkes his heart within him So that the true apprehensions of the neerness of Eternity doth make mens thoughts of it to be quick and piercing and put life into their fears and sorrowes if they are unfitted and into their desires and Joyes if they have assurance of its glory When the Witches Samuel had told Saul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this quickly worked to his very heart and laid him down as dead on the earth And if Christ should say to a believing soul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this would be a working word indeed and would bring him in spirit to Heaven before As Melanchton was wont to say of his uncertain station because of the persecution of his enemies Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio 40. annos et nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse i. e. I have now been here this fourty yeers and yet could never say or be sure that I shall tarry here for one week so may we all say of our abode on earth As long as thou hast continued out of heaven thou canst not say thou shalt be out of it one week longer Do but suppose that you are still entring in it and you shall finde it will much help you more seriously to minde it SECT IV. 4. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is To be much in serious discoursing of it especially with those that can speak from their hearts and are seasoned themselves with an heavenly nature It s pitty saith Mr. Bolton that Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in Heaven or the way to it before they part Its pitty so much pretious time is spent among Christians in vain discourses foolish janglings and useless disputes and not a sober word of Heaven among them Methinks we should meet together of purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our Rest. To hear a Minister or private Christian set forth that blessed Glorious State with power and life from the Promises of the Gospel Methinks should make us say as the two Disciples Did not our hearts burn within us while he was opening to us the Scripture while he was opening to us the windows of Heaven If a Felix or wicked wretch will tremble when he hears his judgment powerfully denounced why should not the believing soul be revived when he hears his Eternal Rest revealed Get then together fellow Christians and talk of the affairs of your Country and Kingdom and comfort one another with such words 1 Thess. 4.18 If Worldlings get together they will be talking of the World when Wantons are together they will be talking of their Lusts and wicked men can be delighted in talking of wickedness and should not Christians then delight themselves in talking of Christ and the heirs of heaven in talking of their Inheritance This may make our hearts revive within us as it did Jacobs to hear the Message that called him to Goshen and to see the Chariots that should bring him to Joseph O that we were furnished with skil and resolution to turn the stream of mens common discourse to these more sublime and pretious things And when men begin to talk of things unprofitable that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven and say as Peter of his bodily food Not so for I eat not that which is common and unclean this is nothing to my eternal Rest O the good that we might both do and receive by this course If it had not been needful to deter us from unfruitful conference Christ would not have talked of giving an account of every idle word at judgment say then as David when you are in conference Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest mirth And then you shall finde the truth of that Prov. 15.4 A wholsom tongue is a Tree of Life SECT V. 5. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is this Make it thy business in every duty to winde up thy affections neerer Heaven A mans attainments and receivings from God are answerable to his own desires and ends that which he sincerely seeks he findes Gods end in the institution of his Ordinances was that they be as so many stepping stones to our Rest and as the staires by which in subordination to Christ we may daily ascend unto it in our affections Let this be thy end in using them as it was Gods end in ordaining them and doubtless they will not be unsuccessful though men be personally far asunder yet they may even by Letters have a great deal of entercourse How have men been rejoyced by a few lines from a friend though they could not see him face to face what gladness have we when we do but read the expressions of his Love or if we read of our friends prosperity and welfare Many a one that never saw the fight hath triumphed and shouted made Bonefires and rung Bels when he hath but heard and read of the Victory and may not we have entercourse with God in his Ordinances though our persons be yet so far remote May not our spirits rejoyce in the reading those lines which contain our Legacy and Charter for heaven with what Gladness may we read the expressions of Love and hear of the state of our Celestial Country with what triumphant shoutings may we applaud our Inheritance though yet we have not the happiness to behold it Men that are separated by sea and land can yet by the meer entercourse of Letters carry on both great and gainful trades even to the value of their whole estate and may not a Christian in the wise improvement of duties drive on this happy trade for Rest Come not therefore with any lower ends to duties Renounce Formality Customariness and Applause When thou kneelest down in secret or publike prayer let it be in hope to get thy heart neerer God before
it you in respect of the time of performance Our chief work will here be to discover to you the danger and that will direct you to the fittest remedy Let me therefore here acquaint you beforehand That when ever you set upon this Heavenly employment you shall finde your own hearts your greatest hinderer and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees First They will hold off that you will hardly get them to the work secondly or else they will betray you by their idleness in the work pretending to do it when they do it not or thirdly they will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions and turning aside to every object or fourthly they will spoil the work by cutting it short and be gone before you have done any good on it Therefore I here forewarn you as you value the unvaluable comfort of this work that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils or else all that I have said hitherto is in vain 1. Thou shalt finde thy heart as backward to this I think as to any work in the world O what excuses it will make what evasions it will finde out and what delays and demurs when it is never so much convinced Either it will question whether it be a duty or not or if it be so to others yet whether it be so to thee It will rake up any thing like reason to plead against it it will tell thee That this is a work for Ministers that have nothing else to study on or for Cloysterers or persons that have more leisure then thou hast If thou be a Minister it will tell thee This is the duty of the people it is enough for thee to meditate for the instructing of them and let them meditate on what they have heard as if it were thy duty onely to cook their meat and serve it up and perhaps a little to taste the sweetness by licking thy fingers while thou art dressing it for others but it is they onely that must eat it digest it and live upon it Indeed the smell may a little refresh thee but it must be digesting it that must maintain thy strength and life If all this will not serve thy heart will tell thee of other business thou hast this company stayes for thee or that business must be done It may be it will set thee upon some other duty and so make one duty shut out another for it had rather go to any duty then to this Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater and therefore this must give place to them because thou hast not time for both Publike business is of more concernment to study to preach for the saving of souls must be preferred before these private contemplations As if thou hadst not time to see to the saving of thy own soul for looking after others or thy charity to others were so great that it draws thee to neglect thy comfort and salvation or as if there were any better way to fit us to be useful to others then to make this experience of our doctrine our selves Certainly Heaven where is the Father of Lights is the best fire to light our candle at and the best book for a Preacher to study and if they would be perswaded to study that more the Church would be provided of more heavenly lights And when their Studies are Divine and their Spirits Divine their preaching will then be also Divine and they may be fitly called Divines indeed Or if thy heart have nothing to say against the work then it will trifle away the time in delayes and promise this day and the next but still keep off from the doing of the business Or lastly If thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses or delayes thy heart will give thee a flat denial and oppose its own unwillingness to thy Reason Thou shalt finde it come to the work as a Bear to the stake and draw back with all the strength it hath I speak all this of the heart so far as it is carnal which in too great a measure is in the best for I know so far as the heart is Spiritual it will judg this work the sweetest in the world Well then what is to be done in the forementioned case wilt thou do it if I tell thee Why what wouldst thou do with a servant that were thus backward to his work or to thy beast that should draw back when thou wouldst have him go forward Wouldst thou not first perswade and then chide and then spur him and force him on and take no denial nor let him alone till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work Wouldst thou not say Why what should I do with a servant that will not work or with an Ox or Horse that will not travel or labor Shall I keep them to look on Wilt thou then faithfully deal thus with thy heart If thou be not a lazie self deluding Hypocrite say I will by the help of God I will Set upon thy heart roundly perswade it to the work take no denial chide it for its backwardness use violence with it bring it to the service willing or not willing Art thou master of thy flesh or art thou a servant to it hast thou no command of thy own thoughts cannot thy will chuse the subject of thy Meditations especially when thy judgment thus directeth thy will I am sure God once gave thee mastery over thy flesh and some power to govern thy own thoughts Hast thou lost thy authority art thou become a slave to thy depraved nature Take up the authority again which God hath given thee command thy heart if it rebel use violence with it if thou be too weak call in the Spirit of Christ to thine assistance He is never backward to so good a work nor will deny his help in so just a cause God will be ready to help thee if thou be not unwilling to help thy self Say to him Why Lord thou gavest my Reason the command of my Thoughts and Affections the authority I have received over them is from thee and now behold they refuse to obey thine authority Thou commandest me to set them to the work of Heavenly Meditation but they rebel and stubbornly refuse the duty Wilt thou not assist me to execute that authority which thou hast given me O send me down thy Spirit and Power that I may enforce thy commands and effectually compel them to obey thy Will And thus doing thou shalt see thy heart will submit its resistance will be brought under and its backwardness will be turned to a yielding compliance SECT II. 2. WHen thou hast got thy heart to the work beware least it delude thee by a loitering formality Least it say I go and go not least it trifle out the time while it should be effectually meditating Certainly the heart is as likely to betray thee in this as in any one particular about