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
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
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
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
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
he hath chosen him for his Portion his thoughts are on Eternity his desires there his dwelling there he cryes out O that I were there he takes that day for a time of imprisonment wherein he hath not taken one refreshing view of Eternity I had rather dye in this mans condition and have my soul in his souls case then in the case of him that hath the most eminent gifts and is most admired for parts and dutie whose heart is not thus taken up with God The man that Christ will finde out at the last day and condemn for want of a wedding Garment will be he that wants this frame of heart The question will not then be How much you have known or professed or talked but How much have you loved and where was your heart Why then Christians as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God and a sure proof of your title to Glory labor to get your hearts above God will acknowledg that you really love him and take you for faithful friends indeed when he sees your hearts are set upon him Get but your hearts once truly in Heaven and without all question your selves will follow If sin and Satan keep not thence your affections they will never be able to keep away your persons SECT IIII. 2. COnsider A heart in Heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here and the noblest part of your Christian disposition As there is not only a difference between men and beasts but also among men between the Noble and the Base so there is not only a common excellency whereby a Christian differs from the world but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit whereby the more excellent differ from the rest And this lyes especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit Only man of all inferior creatures is made with a face directed heaven-ward but other creatures have their faces to the earth As the Noblest of Creatures so the Noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for Heaven As Saul is called a choice and goodly man higher by the head then all the company so is he the most choice and goodly Christian whose head and heart is thus the highest Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs and not the smaller things of low poverty Their discourse is of the councels and matters of State of the Government of the Common-wealth and publike things and not of the Countrey-mans petty imployments O to hear such an heavenly Saint who hath fetcht a journey into heaven by faith and hath been wrapt up to God in his contemplations and is newly come down from the veiws of Christ what discoveries he will make of those Superior regions What ravishing expressions drop from his lips How high and sacred is his discourse Enough to make the ignorant world astonished and say Much study hath made them mad And enough to convince an understanding hearer that have seen the Lord and to make one say No man could speak such words as these except he had been with God this This is the noble Christian. As Bucholcers hearers concluded when he had preached his last Sermon being carried between two into the Church because of his weakness and there most admirably discoursed of the Blessedness of souls departed this life Caeteros concio naetores a Bucholcero semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum That Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers but that day he excelled himself so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian He ever excelleth the Rest of men but when he is neerest Heaven he excelleth himself As those are the most famous mountains that are highest and those the fairest trees that are talest and those the most glorious Pyramides and buildings whose tops do reach neerest to Heaven so is he the choisest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there If a man have lived neer the King or have travelled to see the Sultan of Persia or the great Turk he will make this a matter of boasting and thinks himself one step higher then his private neighbors that live at home What shall we then judg of him that daily travels as far as Heaven and there hath seen the King of Kings That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life For my part I value this man before the ablest the richest the most learned in the world SECT V. 3. COnsider A heavenly minde is a joyful minde This is the neerest and the truest way to live a life of comfort And without this you must needs be uncomfortable Can a man be at the fire and not be warm or in the Sun-shine and not have light Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort The countreys of Norway Island and all the Northward are cold and frozen because they are farther from the power of the Sun But in Egypt Arabia and the Southern parts it is far otherwise where they live more neer its powerful rayes What could make such frozen uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven And what makes some few others so warm in comforts but their living higher then others do and their frequent access so neer to God When the Sun in the Spring draws neer our part of the earth how do all things congratulate its approach The earth looks green casteth off her mourning habit the trees shoot forth the plants revive the pretty birds how sweetly sing they the face of all things smile upon us and all the creatures below reioyce Beloved friends if we would but try this life with God and would but keep these hearts above what a Spring of joy would be within us and all our graces be fresh and green How would the face of our souls be changed and all that is within us rejoyce How should we forget our winter sorrows and withdraw our souls from our sad retirements How early should we rise as those birds in the spring to sing the praise of our Great Creator O Christian get above Believe it that Region is warmer then this below Those that have been there have found it so and those that have come thence have told us so And I doubt not but that thou hast sometime tryed it thy self I dare appeal to thy own experience or to the experience of any soul that knows what the true Joys of a Christian are When is it that you have largest comforts Is it not after such an exercise as this when thou hast got up thy heart and converst with God and talkt with the inhabitants of the higher world and veiwed the mansions of the Saints and Angels and filled thy soul with the forethoughts of Glory If thou know by experience what this practice is I dare say thou knowest what spiritual Joy is David professeth that the light of Gods countenance would make his
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
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
Justin Martyr said He would not beleeve Christ himself if he had preached any other God besides him who is the Creator of all so may I say I would not beleeve the Spirit that should take me off my duty and obedience to God Vid. Nicephor Eccles histor tom 1. lib. 4. cap. 6. 1 Sam. 14.29 §. 3. ☜ §. 4. Rev. 1.10 §. 5. Joh. 15.5 As Gerson in the forecited place saith This Art or way of Meditation is not learned chiefly out of Books but the spirit of God bestoweth it as he pleaseth on some more plentifully on some more sparingly §. 6. Gen. 8.8 9. Joh. 16 21. §. 7. Deut. 32 49 50. Read Master Symmonds Deserted soul. p. 225 226 227. §. 8. Vide Gerson ubi infra cap. 24. * Dominus docet nos ut opera sua imitemur sicut ipse secit ita et nos saciamus Ecce oraturus erat asceâ—dit in montem Oportet etiam nos a negotijs otiosos orare non in medio multorum sed pernoctantes ne statim ut caeperimus cessemus The ophylact in Luc. c. 6. Yet the principal secrecie and silence must be in the soul within rather then without that is that the soul shut out of it self all humane worldly cares all vaine and hurtful thoughts and whatsoever may hinder it from reaching to the end which it doth intend For it oft falls out that a man is alone separated from the company of men and yet by fantasies thoughts and melancholies doth suffer the most grievous and burdensome company in himself Which fantasies do beget him various tumults and conferences and pratlings bringing before the eyes of his understanding sometime one thing sometime another leading him sometime into the Kitchin sometime into the Market bringing thence to him the unclean delights of the flesh shewing him dances and beauties and songs and such kinde of vanities drawing to sin As Saint Jerom humbly confesseth of himself That when he was in the wilderness without any company save wild beasts and Scorpions yet he was often in his thoughts in dances and in the company of the Ladyes at Rome So these fantasies will make the soul even when it is alone to be angry and quarrel with some one that is absent as if he were present To be counting money It will pass over the seas it will fly abroad the land sometime it will be in high dignities and so of innumerable fancies the like such a soul is not secret nor alone Nor is a devout soul in contemplation alone For it is never lesse alone It is in the best company even with God and Saints by holy desires and cogitations Gerson par 3. fol 382. De monte contemplationis cap. 23. §. 9. §. 10 Jer. 5.22 §. 1. Matth. 22.4 Luke 14.17 Luke 14.23 §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 1. * For I am 〈…〉 I call them diâ—stinct faculties because it is the common Judgment and not my own §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. John 4.32 §. 5. * He that doubteth whether the Philosophers themselves did acknowledg these Divine Excellencies Let him read Fernel De abditis Rerum causis cap 9. Plato in Epinom Deos asserit scire videre audireque omnia nihil ipsos fugere quod aut sensu aut mente percipi posset Eos omnia posse quaecunque mortales immortalesve possunt Bonos illos immo optimos esse Quicquid mortale est quicquid vivit spirat quicquid usquam est coelum terram maria ab iis omnia facta esse possideri Et in Parmenide Nullum nisi Deum supremam habere rerum scientiam neque illarum cognitione privandum Et in Epinomide Ego assero Deum causam omnium esse nec aliter peri posse Lege etiam Aristotel de caelo lib. 1. Jum nona Psal. 23.4 5. Isai. 9.6 Luke 24.36 37 38 39. Joh. 7.27 Isai. 59.1 Joh. 20.19.21.26 Lam. 1.12 Ezek. 16.6 7 8.9 Luke 10 30. c. If the Love of God in us were but as the love of the world in others it would make us wholly despise this world and forget it as worldly love maketh men forget God and it would be so strong and ardent and rooted a in mans heart that he would not be able voluntarily and freely to think of any thing else He would not fear contempt nor care for disgrace or the reproaches of persecutions nor would he be afraid of death it self because of this Love of God and all the things of this world which he seeth and heareth would bring God to his memory and themselves would seem to him but as a dream or a fable and he would esteem them as nothing in respect of God and his Glory And to be short in the judgment of the world he would be taken for a fool or a drunken man because he so little careth for the things of this world This is that Love of God to which we should aim to attain by this contemplative life Gerson de monte Contemplationis in parte operum tertia fol. 382. Melanc Epist. 457. Memini cum infantula mihi lacrimas a genis detergeret suo indusiolo quo uno aerat induta mane Hic gestus penetravit in animum meum c. Gen. 21.15 16 17 18 19. 1 Kings 19.9 2 Kings 6.16 17. Matth. 14.37 Luke 22.45 46. Matth. 26.41 Luke 22.61 Cant. 2 3 4 5. John 21.15 16 17. §. 6. * 〈…〉 Si in Cor hominis non ascendit Cor hominis illuc ascendat Cor ibi habeamus surfum Corda levemus ne putrescant in terra quoniam placet nobis quod ibi aguct angeâ—â— August â— 3 de Symb. c 11. Melch Adam in vitâ Zuingeri inter vitas Medicorum Germanorum Judg. 18.24 Beza in tit Calvin Luk. 8.20 21. §. 7. Ezek. 18.32 33.11 §. 8. 1 Tim. 6.12 19. 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 12.1 1 Cor. 9.24 Matth. 11.12 Rom. 8.31 §. 9. Gal. 4.1 Psal. 87.3 Psal. 46.4 §. 10. §. 1. Gen 49.6 Judg. 5.21 Psalm 16.2 Jer. 4.19 §. 2. 1 Explication 2 Confirmation 3 Application 1 Vse of Information 2 Vse of Instruction 3 Of Examination 4 Of Reproof §. 3. Object §. 4. LXX Legunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Ludendum se exercendum sed alienè inquit Paraeus §. 5. §. 1. 1 Fetch help from Sense * Quantalibet intentione se humana mens extenderit etiamsi phantasiaes imaginum corporalium a cognitione compescat si omnes circumscriptos spiritu ab oculis cordis admoveat adhuc tamen in carne mortali pasita videre gloriam Dei non valet sicut est Sed quicquid de illa quod in mente resplendet similitudo non ipsa est Greg. sup hom 8. * Aequum est meminisse mi qui disseram vos qui judicabitis homines esse ut si probabilia dicentur nihil ulterius requiratis Plato in Timaeo Idem in Epistola ad Dionys monet ut eos
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
with the way All Motion ends at the Center and all Means cease when we have the End Therefore prophecying ceaseth tongues fail and knowledg shall be done away that is so far as it had the nature of a Means and was imperfect And so faith may be said to cease not all faith for how shall we know all things past which we saw not but by beleeving how shall we know the last Judgment the resurrection of the body before hand but by beleeving how shall we know the life everlasting the Eternity of the joys we possess but by beleeving But all that faith which as a Means referred to the chief End shall cease There shall be no more prayer because no more necessity but the full enjoyment of what we pray'd for Whether the soul pray for the bodies resurrection for the last judgment c. or whether soul and body pray for the eternal continuance of their joys is to me yet unknown Otherwise we shall not need to pray for what we have and we shall have all that is desirable Neither shall we need to fast and weep and watch any more being out of the reach of sin and temptations Nor will there be use for Instructions and Exhortations Preaching is done The Ministry of man ceaseth Sacraments useless The Laborers called in because the harvest is gathered the tares burned and the work is done The Unregenerate past hope the Saints past fear for ever Much less shall there be any need of laboring for inferior ends as here we do seeing they will all devolve themselves into the Ocean of the ultimate End and the lesser good be wholy swallowed up of the Greatest SECT II. 2. THis Rest containeth a perfect freedom from all the Evils that accompanied us through our course and which necessarily follow our absence from the chief good Besides our freedom from those eternal flames and restless miseries which the neglecters of Christ and Grace must remedilesly endure an inheritance which both by birth and actual merit was due to us as well as to them As God will not know the wicked so as to own them so neither will Heaven know iniquity to receive it for there entereth nothing that defileth or is unclean all that Remains without And doubtless there is not such a thing as Grief and Sorrow known there Nor is there such a thing as a pale face a languid body feeble joynts unable infancy decrepit age peccant humors dolorous sickness griping fears consuming cares nor whatsoever deserves the name of evil Indeed a gale of Groans and Sighs a stream of Tears accompanyed us to the very Gates and there bid us farewel for ever We did weep and lament when the world did rejoyce but our Sorrow is turned into Joy and our Joy shall no man take from us God were not the chief and perfect good if the full fruition of him did not free us from all Evil. But we shall have occasion to speak more fully of this in that which follows SECT III. 3. THis Rest containeth the Highest Degree of the Saints personal perfection both of Soul and Body This necessarily qualifies them to enjoy the Glory and throughly to partake the sweetness of it Were the Glory never so great and themselves not made capable by a personal perfection suitable thereto it would be little to them There 's necessary a right disposition of the Recipient to a right enjoying and affecting This is one thing that makes the Saints Joys there so great Here Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor Heart conceived what God hath layd up for them that wait for him For the Eye of flesh is not capable of seeing it nor this Ear of hearing it nor this Heart of understanding it But there the Eye and Ear and Heart are made capable else how do they enjoy it The more perfect the sight is the more delightful the beautiful object The more perfect the Appetite the sweeter the Food The more musical the Ear the more pleasant the Melody The more perfect the Soul the more Joyous those Joys and the more Glorious to us is that Glory Nor is it onely our sinful imperfection that is here to be removed nor onely that which is the fruit of sin but that which adhered to us in our pure naturals Adams dressing the Garden was neither sin nor the fruit of sin Nor is either to be less Glorious then the Stars or the Sun â—n the Firmament of our Father Yet is this the dignity to which the Righteous shall be advanced There is far more procured by Christ then was lost by Adam It 's the misery of wicked men here that all without them is mercy excellent mercies but within them a heart full of sin shuts the door against all and makes them but the more miserable When all 's well within then all 's well indeed The neer Good is the best and the neer evil and enemy the worst Therefore will God as a special part of his Saints Happiness perfect themselves as well as their condition SECT IV. 4. THis Rest containeth as the principal part our nearest fruition of God the Chiefest Good And here Reader wonder not If I be at a loss and if my apprehensions receive but little of that which is in my expressions If to the beloved Disciple that durst speak and enquire into Christs secrets and was filled with his Revelations and saw the new Jerusalem in her Glory and had seen Christ Moses and Elias in part of theirs If it did not appear to him what we shall be but only in general that when Christ appears we shall be like him no wonder if I know little When I know so little of God I cannot know much what it is to enjoy him When it is so little I know of mine own soul either it's quiddity or quality while it 's here in this Tabernacle how little must I needs know of the Infinite Majesty or the state of this soul when it 's advanced to that enjoyment If I know so little of Spirits and Spirituals how little of the Father of Spirits Nay if I never saw that creature which contains not something unsearchable nor the worm so small which afforded not matter for Questions to puzzle the greatest Phylosopher that ever I met with no wonder then if mine eye fail when I would look at God my tongue fail me in speaking of him and my heart in conceiving As long as the Athenian Superscription doth so too well suite with my sacrifices To the unknown God and while I cannot contain the smallest rivelet It 's little I can contain of this immense Ocean We shall never be capable of clearly knowing till we are capable of fully enjoying nay nor till we do actually enjoy him What strange conceivings hath a man born blind of the Sun and its light or man born deaf of the nature of sounds and musick So do we yet
want that sense by which God must be clearly known I stand and look upon a heap of Ants and see them all with one view very busie to little purpose They know not me my being nature or thoughts though I am their fellow creature How little then must we know of the great Creator though he with one view continually beholds us all Yet a knowledg we have though imperfect and such as must be done away A Glimpse the Saints behold though but in a glass Which makes us capable of some poor general dark apprehensions of what we shall behold in Glory If I should tell a Worldling but what the holiness and Spiritual Joys of the Saints on earth are he cannot know it for grace cannot be clearly known without grace how much less could he conceive it Should I tell him of this Glory But to the Saints I may be somewhat more encouraged to speak for Grace giveth them a dark knowledg and slight taste of Glory As all Good whatsoever is comprised in God and all in the creature are but drops of this Ocean So all the Glory of the blessed is comprised in their enjoyment of God and if there be any mediate Joys there they are but drops from this If men and Angels should study to speak the blessedness of that estate in one word what can they say beyond this That it is the nearest enjoyment of God Say they have God and you say they have all that 's worth a having O the full Joys offered to a beleever in that one sentence of Christs I would not for all the world that one verse had been left out of the Bible Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory which thou hast given me John 17.24 Every word full of Life and Joy If the Queen of Sheba had cause to say of Solomons Glory Happy are thy men happy are these thy servants that stand continually before thee and that hear thy wisdom then sure they that stand continually before God and see his Glory and the Glory of the Lamb are somewhat more then happy To them will Christ give to eat of the Tree of Life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God Rev. 2.7 And to eat of the hidden Manna vers 17. Yea he will make them Pillars in the Temple of God and they shall go no more out and he will write upon them the Name of his God and the name of the City of his God New Jerusalem which cometh down out of heaven from his God and his own New Name Rev. 3.12 Yea more if more may be he will grant them to sit with him in his Throne Rev. 3.21 These are they who come out of great tribulation and have washed their robes and made them white in the blood of the Lamb Therefore are they before the Throne of God and serve him day and night in his Temple and he that sitteth on the Throne shall dwell among them And the Lamb which is in the midst of the Throne shall feed them and lead them unto living fountains of water and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes Rev. 7.14 15 17. And may we not now boast with the Spouse This is my Beloved O daughters of Jerusalem and this is the Glory of the Saints Oh blind deceived world Can you shew us such a Glory This is the City of our God where the Tabernacle of God is with men and he will dwell with them and they shall be his poople and God himself shall be with them and be their God Rev. 21.3 The Glory of God shall lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Vers. 24. And there shall be no more curse but the Throne of God and the Lamb shall be in it and his servants shall serve him and they shall see his face and his name shall be in their foreheads These sayings are faithful and true and these are the things that must shortly be done Rev. 22.3 4 6. And now we say as Mephihosheth Let the world take all besides if we may but see the face of our Lord in peace If the Lord lift up the light of his countenance on us here it puts more gladness in our hearts then the worlds encrease can do Psal. 4.6 7. How much more when in his light we shall have light without darkness and he shall make us full of Joy with his countenance Rejoyce therefore in the Lord O ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright of heart and say with his servant David The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance The Lines are fallen to me in pleasaent places yea I have a goodly heritage I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Therefore my heart is glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope For he will not leave me in the grave nor suffer me for ever to see Corruption He will shew me the path of life and bring me into his presence where is fulness of joy and at his right hand where are pleasures for evermore Psal. 16.5 6 8 9 10 11. Whom therefore have I in heaven but him or in earth that I desire besides him My flesh and my heart have failed and will fail me but God is the strength of my heart and will be my Portion for ever He shall guide me with his counsel and afterward receive me to glory And as they that are far from him perish so is it Good the chief Good for us to be near to God Psal. 73.24 25 26 27 28. The Advancement is exceeding high What unreverent damnable presumption would it have been once to have thought or spoke of such a thing if God had not spoke it before us I durst not have thought of the Saints preferment in this life as Scripture sets it forth had it not been the express truth of God What vile unmannerliness to talk of being sons of God speaking to him having fellowship and communion with him dwelling in him and he in us if this had not been Gods own Language How much less durst we have once thought of being brighter then the Sun in Glory of being coheirs with Christ of judging the world of sitting on Christs Throne of being one with him if we had not all this from the mouth and under the hand of God But hath he said it and shall it not come to pass Hath he spoken it and will he not do it Yes as true as the Lord God is true thus shall it be done to the man whom Christ delights to honour The eternal God is their Refuge and underneath are the everlasting Arms And the beloved of the Lord shall dwell in safety by him and the Lord shall cover them all the day long and he shall dwell between their shoulders Deut. 33 27 12. Surely goodness
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
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
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
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
they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
For no man can give this Rest to us and none can take our Joy from us Joh. 16.22 SECT V. 5. ANother Rule is this That is ever better or best which maketh the owner or possessor himself better or best And sure according to this Rule there 's no state like Heaven Riches honor and pleasure make a man neither better nor best Grace here makes us better but not best That is reserved as the Prerogative of Glory That 's our Good that doth us Good and that doth us Good which makes us Good Else it may be Good in it self but no good to us External Good is at too great a distance to be our Happiness It is not bread on our Tables but in our stomacks that must nourish nor blood upon our clothes or skin but in the Liver heart and veins which is our Life Nay the things of the world are so far from making the owners Good that they prove not the least impediments thereto and snares to the best of men Riches and honor do seldom help to humility but of pride they occasionally become most frequent fomentors The difficulty is so great of conjoyning Graciousness with Greatness that it's next to an impossibility And their conjunction so rare that they are next to inconsistent To have a heart taken up with Christ and Heaven when we have health and abundance in the world is neither easie nor ordinary Though Soul and Body compose but one man yet they seldom prosper both together Therfore that 's our chief Good which will do us Good at heart and that 's our true Glory that makes us all Glorious within and that the Blessed day which will make us holy and blessed men which will not onely beautifie our House but cleanse our Hearts nor onely give us new Habitations and new Relations but also new Souls and new Bodies The true knowing living Christian complains more frequently and more bitterly of the wants and woes within him then without him If you over-hear his prayers or see him in his tears and ask him what aileth him he will cry out more Oh my dark understanding Oh my hard my unbeleeving heart rather then Oh my dishonor or Oh my poverty Therefore it is his desired place and state which affords a relief suitable to his necessities and complaints And surely that is onely this Rest. SECT VI. 6. ANother Rule is That the Difficulty of obtaining shews the Excellency And surely if you consider but what it cost Christ to purchase it what it costs the Spirit to bring mens hearts to it what it costs Ministers to perswade to it what it costs Christians after all this to obtain it and what it costs many a half-Christian that after all goes without it You will say that here 's Difficulty and therefore Excellency Trifles may be had at a Trivial rate and men may have damnation far more easily It is but lie still and sleep out our days in careless laziness It is but take our pleasure and minde the world and cast away the thoughts of Sin and Grace and Christ and Heaven and Hell out of your mindes and do as the most do and never trouble our selves about these high things but venture our Souls upon our presumptuous conceits and hopes and let the vessel swim which way it will and then stream and wind and tyde will all help us apace to the gulph of perdition You may burn an hundred houses easier then build one and kill a thousand men easier then make one alive The descent is easie the ascent not so To bring diseases is but to cherish sloth please the appetite and take what most delights us but to cure them will cost bitter pills loathsom potions tedious gripings absteinious accurate living and perhaps all fall short too He that made the way and knows the way better then we hath told us it is narrow and strait and requires striving And they that have paced it more truly and observantly then we do tell us it lies through many tribulations and is with much ado passed through Conclude then it is sure somewhat worth that must cost all this SECT VII 7. ANother Rule is this That is Best which not onely supplieth necessity but affordeth abundance By necessity is meant here that which we cannot live without and by abundance is meant a more perfect supply a comfortable not a useless abundance Indeed it is suitable to a Christians state and use to be scanted here and to have onely from hand to mouth And that not onely in his corporal but in his spiritual comforts Here we must not be filled full that so our emptiness may cause hungering and our hungering cause seeking and craving and our craving testifie our dependance and occasion receiving and our receiving occasion thanks-returning and all advance the Glory of the Giver But when we shall be brought to the Well-head and united close to the overflowing Fountain we shall then thirst no more because we shall be empty no more Surely if those Blessed Souls did not abound in their Blessedness they would never so abound in praises Such Blessing and Honor and Glory and Praise to God would never accompany common mercies All those Alleluja's are not sure the language of needy men Now we are poor we speak supplications And our Beggars tone discovers our low condition All our Language almost is complaining and craving our breath sighing and our life a laboring But sure where all this is turned into eternal praising and rejoycing the case must needs be altered and all wants suppplied and forgotten I think their Hearts full of Joy and their mouthes full of thanks proves their estate abounding full of Blessedness SECT VIII 8. REason concludes that for the Best which is so in the Judgment of the Best and wisest men Though it 's true the Judgment of imperfect man can be no perfect Rule of Truth or Goodness Yet God revealeth this Good to all on whom he will bestow it and hides not from his people the end they should aim at and attain If the Holiest men are the Best and Wisest then their Lives tell you their Judgments and their unwearied labor and sufferings for this Rest shews you they take it for the perfection of their Happiness If men of greatest experience be the wisest men and they that have tryed both estates then surely it 's vanity and vexation that 's found below and solid Happiness and Rest above If dying men are wiser then others who by the worlds forsaking them and by the approach of Eternity begin to be undeceived then surely Happiness is hereafter and not here For though the deluded world in their flourishing prosperity can bless themselves in their fools paradise and merrily jest at the simplicity of the Saints yet scarce one of many even of the worst of them but are ready at last to cry out with Balaam Oh that I might dye the death of the righteous
rising of the Sun excludes the darkness yet is not the negative part to be slighted even our freedom from so many and great Calamities Let us therefore look over these more punctually and see what it is that we shall there Rest from In general It is from all evil Particularly First from the evil of Sin secondly and of suffering First It excludeth nothing more directly then sin whether original and of Nature or actual and of Conversation For there entereth nothing that defileth nor that worketh abomination nor that maketh a lie when they are there the Saints are Saints indeed He that will wash them with his heart blood rather then suffer them to enter unclean will now perfectly see to that he who hath undertaken to present them to his Father not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but perfectly holy and without blemish will now most certainly perform his undertaking What need Christ at all to have died if Heaven could have contained imperfect souls For to this end came he into the world that he might put away the works of the divel His Blood and Spirit have not done all this to leave us after all defiled For what communion hath light with darkness and what fellowship hath Christ with Belial He that hath prepared for sin the torments of Hell will never admit it into the Blessedness of Heaven Therefore Christian never fear this if thou be once in Heaven thou shalt sin no more Is not this glad news to thee who hast prayed and watched and labored against it so long I know if it were offered to thy choice thou wouldst rather chuse to be freed from sin then to be made heir of all the world VVhy wait till then and thou shalt have thy desire That hard heart those vile thoughts which did lie down and rise with thee which did accompany thee to every duty which thou couldst no more leave behinde thee then leave thy self behinde thee shall now be left behinde for ever They might accompany thee to death but they cannot proceed a step further Thy understanding shall never more be troubled with darkness Ignorance and Error are inconsistent with this Light Now thou walkest like a man in the twilight ever afraid of being out of the way Thou seest so many Religions in the VVorld that thou fearest thy one cannot be onely the right among all these Thou seest the Scripture so exceeding difficult and every one pleading it for his own cause and bringing such specious Arguments for so contrary Opinions that it intangleth thee in a Labarinth of perplexities Thou seest so many godly men on this side and so many on that and each zealous for his own way that thou art amazed not knowing which way to take And thus do doubtings and fears accompany darkness and we are ready to stumble at every thing in our way But then will all this darkness be dispelled and our blinde understandings fully opened and we shall have no more doubts of our way VVe shall know which was the right side and which the wrong which was the Truth and which the Error O what would we give to know cleerly all the profound Mysteries in the Doctrine of Decree of Redemption of Justification of the nature of Grace of the Covenants of the Divine Attributes c. VVhat would we not give to see all dark Scriptures made plain to see all seeming contradictions reconciled Why when Glory hath taken the vail from our eyes all this will be known in a moment we shall then see clearly into all the controversies about Doctrine or Discipline that now perplex us The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect Divine then any is here We are now through our Ignorance subject to such mutability that in points not fundamental we change as the Moon that it is cast as a just reproach upon us that we profess our Religion with Reserves and resolvedly settle upon almost nothing that we are to day of one opinion and within this week or moneth or yeer of another and yet alas we cannot help it The reproach may fall upon all mankinde as long as we have need of daily growth Would they have us beleeve before we understand or say we beleeve when indeed we do not shall we profess our selves resolved before we ever throughly studied or say we are certain when we are conscious that we are not But when once our Ignorance is perfectly healed then shall we be setled resolved men then shall our reproach be taken from us and we shall never change our judgment more then shall we be clear and certain in all and cease to be Scepticks any more Our Ignorance now doth lead us into Error to the grief of our more knowing Brethren to the disturbing of the Churches quiet and interrupting her desireable harmonious consent to the scandalizing of others and weakning of our selves How many an humble faithful Soul is seduced into Error and little knows it Loath they are to erre God knows and therefore read and pray and confer and yet erre still and confirmed in it more and more And in lesser and more difficult points how should it be otherwise He that is acquainted amongst men and knows the quality of Professors in England must needs know the generality of them are no great Scholars nor have much read or studied Controversies nor are men of profoundest natural parts nor have the Ministers of England much preached Controversies to them but were glad if their hearers were brought to Christ and got so much knowledg as might help to Salvation as knowing that to be their great work And can it be expected That men voyd of Learning and strength of parts unstudied and untaught should at the first on set know those Truths which they are almost uncapable of knowing at all when the greatest Divines of clearest Judgment acknowledg so much difficulty That they could almost finde in their hearts sometimes to profess them quite beyond their reach Except we will allow them to lay aside their divine Faith and take up an humane and see with other mens eyes the weight and weakness of Arguments and not with their own It cannot be thought That the most of Christians no nor the most Divines should be free from erring in those difficult points where we know they have not Head-peeces able to reach Indeed if it were the way of the Spirit to teach us miraculously as the Apostles were taught the knowledg of Tongues without the intervening use of Reason or if the Spirit infused the acts of Knowledg as he doth the immediate knowing Power then he that had most of the Spirit would not onely know best but also know most but we have enough to convince us of the contrary to this But O that happy approaching day when Error shall vanish away for ever VVhen our understandings shall be filled with God himself whose light will leave no darkness in
their hands of cruelty I am perswaded the next generation that knew them not will scarcely believe the fury of their rage Blessed be the Guardian of the Saints who hath not suffered the prevalency of that Wrath which would I believe have made the Gun-powder Treason the Turkish Slavery the Spanish Inquisition the French Massacres to have seemed acts of clemency But the Lord of Hosts hath brought them down and his Power and Justice hath abated their fury and raised to his Name an everlasting Trophee and set up a Monument of Remembrance in England which God forbid should ever be forgotten So let all thine uncurable enemies perish O Lord. When the Lord maketh inquisition for blood he will remember the precious blood which they have shed and the Earth shall not cover it any more Their hopes are that they shall yet again have a prevailing day It is possible though improbable If they should we know where their rage will stop They shall pursue but as Pharaoh to their own destruction and where they â—all there shall we pass over safely and escape them for ever For our Lord hath told them That whither he goes they cannot come When their flood of persecution is dryed up and the Church called out of the Wilderness and the new Jerusalem come down from Heaven and Mercy and Justice are fully glorified then shall we feel their fury no more There is no cruel mockings and scourgings no bonds or imprisonments no stoning or sawing asunder tempting or slaying with the sword wandring in Sheep-skins or Goat skins in Deserts or Mountains Dens or Caves of the Earth no more being destitute afflicted or tormented We leave all this behinde us when once we enter the City of our Rest the names of Lollard Hugonots Puritan Roundheads are not there used the Inquisition of Spain is there condemned the Statute of the six Articles is there Repealed and the Law De Haeretiâ—is comburendis more justly executed the date of the Interim is there expired Subscription and Conformity no more urged Silencing and Suspending are there more then suspended there are no Bishops or Chancelors Courts no Visitations nor High Commission Judgments no Censures to loss of Members perpetual Imprisonment or Banishment Christ is not there cloathed in a Gorgeous Robe and blindfolded nor do they smite him and say Read who struck thee Nor is truth clothed in the Robes of Error and smitten for that which it most directly contradicteth nor a Schismatick wounded and a Saint found bleeding nor our Friends smite us whilest they mistake us for their enemies There is none of all this blinde mad work there Dear Brethren you that now can attempt no work of God without resistance and finde you must either lose the love of the World and your outward comforts or else the Love of God and your eternal Salvation consider You shall in Heaven have no discouraging company nor any but who will further your work and gladly joyn heart and voyce with you in your everlasting joy and praises Till then possess your souls in patience Binde all reproaches as a crown to your heads Esteem them greater riches then the worlds treasures Account it matter of Joy when you fall into tribulation You have seen in these days that our God can deliver us but this is nothing to our final conquest He will recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with Christ. Onely see to this Brethren That none of you suffer as an evil doer as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ingrateful to those that have been Instruments of our good as evil-speakers against Dignities as opposers of the Discipline and Ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious judicious conscientious Ministry c. But if any of you suffer for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you And if any of you begin to shrink and draw back because of opposition and are ashamed either of your Work or your Master let such a one know to his face That he is but a base-spirited cowardly wretch and cursedly undervalueth the Saints Rest and most foolishly over-valueth the things below and he must learn to forsake all these or else he can never be Christs Disciple and that Christ will renounce him and be ashamed of him before his Father and the Angels of Heaven But for those that have held fast their integrity and gone through good report and evil report and undergone the violence of unreasonable men Let them hear the word of the Lord Your Brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified they had good words and godly pretences but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Isai 66.5 Your Redeemer is strong the Lord of Hosts is his Name he shall throughly plead your cause that he may give rest to his people and disquietness to their enemies Jere. 50.34 SECT XIIII 6. WE shall then Rest also from all our sad Divisions and unchristian like quarrels with one another As he said who saw the Carkasses lie together as if they had embraced each other who had been slain by each other in a Duel Quantâ se invicem amplectuntur amicitiâ qui mutuâ implacabili inimicitiâ periêre How lovingly do they embrace one another being dead who perished through their mutual implacable enmity So how lovingly do thousands live together in Heaven who lived in Divisions and Quarrels on Earth or as he said Who beheld how quietly and peaceably the bones and dust of mortal enemies did lie together Non tantâ vivi pace essetis conjuncti You did not live together so peaceably So we may say of multitudes in Heaven now all of one minde one heart and one imployment You lived not on Earth in so sweet familiarity There is no contention because none of this Pride Ignorance or other Corruption Paul and Barnabas are now fully reconciled There they are not every man conceited of his own understanding and in love with the issue of his own Brain but all admiring the Divine perfection and in love with God and one another As old Grynaeus wrote to his friend Si te non ampliùs in his terris videam ibi tamen conveniemus ubi Lutherus cum Zuinglio optimè jam convenit If I see you no more on Earth yet we shall there meet where Luther and Zuinglius are now well agreed There is a full reconciliation between Sacramentarians and Vbiquitarians Calvinists and Lutherans Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants Disciplinarians and Anti Disciplinarians Conformists and Non-Conformists Antinomians and Legalists are terms there not known Presbyterians and Independents are perfectly agreed There is no Discipline erected by State Policy nor any disordered popular
this in Heaven Our eyes shall then be filled no more nor our hearts pierced with such lights as at Worcester Edg-hil Newbury Nantwich Montgomery Horn Castle York Naseby Langport c. We shall then have the conquest without the calamity Mine eyes shall never more behold the Earth covered with the carkasses of the slain Our black Ribbands and mourning Attire will then be turned into the white Robes and Garments of gladness O how hardly can my heart now hold when I think of such and such and such a dear Christian Friend slain or departed O how glad must the same heart needs be when I see them all alive and glorified But a far greater grief it is to our Spirits to see the spiritual miseries of our Brethren To see such a one with whom we took sweet councel and who zealously joyned with us in Gods worship to be now fallen off to sensuality turned drunkard worldling or a persecutor of the Saints And these trying times have given us too large occasion for such sorrows To see our dearest and most intimate friends to be turned aside from the Truth of Christ and that either in or neer the Foundation and to be raging confident in the grossest Errors To see many neer us in the flesh continue their neglect of Christ and their souls and nothing will waken them out of their security To look an ungodly Father or Mother Brother or Sister in the face To look on a carnal Wife or Husband or Childe or Friend And to think how certainly they shall be in Hell for ever if they die in their present unregenerate estate O what continual dolors do all these sad sights and thoughts fill our hearts with from day to day And will it not be a blessed day when we shall rest from all these what Christian now is not in Pauls case and cannot speak in his Language 2 Cor. 11.28 29. Besides those things that are without that which cometh upon me daily the care of all the Churches Who is weak and I am not weak who is offended and I burn not What heart is not wounded to think on Germanies long desolations O the learned Universities The flourishing Churches there that now are left desolate Look on Englands four yeers blood a flourishing Land almost made ruined hear but the common voyce in most Cities Towns and Countreys through the Land and judg whether here be no cause of sorrow Especially look but to the sad effects and mens spirits grown more out of order when a most wonderful Reformation by such wonderful means might have been well expected And is not this cause of astonishing sorrows Look to Scotland look to Ireland look almost every where and tell me what you see Blessed that approaching day when our eyes shall behold no more such sights nor our ears hear any more such tidings How many hundred Pamphlets are Printed full of almost nothing but the common calamities So that its become a gainful trade to divulge the news of our Brethrens sufferings And the fears for the future that possessed our hearts were worse then all that we saw or suffered O the tidings that run from Edghil fight of York fight c. How many a face did they make pale and how many a heart did they astonish nay have not many died with the fears of that which if they had lived they had neither suffered nor seen It s said of Melancthon That the miseries of the Church made him almost neglect the death of his most beloved Children to think of the Gospel departing the Glory taken from Israel our Sun setting at Noon day poor souls left willingly dark and destitute and with great pains and hazard blowing out the Light that should guide them to salvation What sad thoughts must these be To think of Christ removing his Family taking away both worship and worshippers and to leave the Land to the rage of the merciless These were sad thoughts Who could then have taken the Harp in hand or sung the pleasant Songs of Zion But blessed be the Lord who hath frustrated our fears and who will hasten that rejoycing day when Sion shall be exalted above the Mountains and her Gates shall be open day and night and the glory of the Gentiles be brought into it and the Nation and Kingdom that will not serve her shall perish When the sons of them that afflicted her shall come bending unto her and all they that despised her shall bow themselves down at the soles of her feet and they shall call her The City of the Lord the Sion of the holy One of Israel When her people also shall be all Righteous even the Work of Gods hands the Branch of his planting who shall inherit the Land for ever that he may be glorified When that voice shall sound forth Rejoyce with Jerusalem and be glad with her all ye that love her Rejoyce for joy with her all ye that mourn for her That ye may suck and be satisfied with the brests of her consolation that ye may milk out and be delighted with the abundance of her glory Thus shall we Rest from our participation of our Brethrens sufferings SECT XVI 8. WE shall Rest also from all our own personal sufferings whether natural and ordinary or extraordinary from the afflicting hand of God And though this may seem a small thing to those that live in continual ease and abound in all kinde of prosperity yet me thinks to the daily afflicted soul it should make the fore-thoughts of Heaven delightful And I think we shall meet with few of the Saints but will say That this is their own case O the dying life that we now live As full of sufferings as of days and hours We are the Carkasses that all Calamities prey upon As various as they are each one will have a snatch at us and be sure to devour a morsel of our comforts When we bait our Bulls and Bears we do but represent our own condition whose lives are consumed under such assaults and spent in succession of fresh encounters All Creatures have an enmity against us ever since we made the Lord of all our enemy And though we are reconciled by the blood of the Covenant and the price is paid for our full deliverance yet our Redeemer sees it fit to leave this measure of misery upon us to make us know for what we are beholden and to minde us of what we would else forget to be serviceable to his wise and gracious designes and advantagious to our full and final Recovery He hath sent us as Lambs among Wolves and sure there is little Rest to be expected As all our Senses are the inlets of sin so are they become the inlets of our sorrow Grief creeps in at our eyes at our ears and almost every where It seiseth upon our head our hearts our flesh our Spirits and what part doth escape it Fears do devour us and
And seldom doth a Minister live to see the ripeness of his people but one soweth and planteth another watereth and a third reapeth and receiveth the increase Yet were all this Duty delightful had we but a due proportion of strength But to informe the old ignorant sinner to convince the stubborne and worldly wise to perswade a wilful resolved wretch to prick a stony heart to the quick to make a rock to weep and tremble to set forth Christ according to our necessity and his Excellency to comfort the soul whom God dejecteth to clear up dark and difficult Truths to oppose with convincing Arguments all gainsayers to credit the Gospel with exemplary Conversations when multitudes do but watch for our halting O who is sufficient for these things So that every Relation State Age hath variety of Duty Every conscientious Christian cryes out O the burden or O my weakness that makes it so burdensom But our remaining Rest will ease us of the burden Then will that be sound Doctrine which now is false that the Law hath no more to do with us that it becomes not a Christian to beg for pardon seeing all his sins are perfectly pardoned already that we need not fast nor mourn nor weep nor repent and that a sorrowful Countenance beseems not a Christian Then will all these become Truths SECT XVIII 10. ANd lastly we shall Rest from all those sad affections which necessarily accompany our absence from God The trouble that is mixt in our desires and hopes our longings and waitings shall then cease We shall no more look into our Cabinet and miss our Treasure look into our hearts and miss our Christ nor no more seek him from Ordinance to Ordinance and enquire for our God of those we meet our heart will not lie in our knee nor our souls be breathed out in our requests but all concluded in a most full and blessed Fruition But because this with the former are touched before I will say no more of them now So you have seen what we shall Rest from SECT XIX NInthly The ninth and last Jewel in our Crown and blessed Attribute of this Rest is That it is an Eternal Rest. This is the Crown of our Crown without which all were comparatively little or nothing The very thought of once leaving it would else imbitter all our joys and the more would it peirce us because of the singular excellencies which we must forsake It would be a Hell in Heaven to think of once loosing Heaven As it would be a kinde of Heaven to the damned had they but hopes of once escaping Mortality is the disgrace of all sublunary delights It makes our present life of little value were it not for the reference it hath to God and Eternity to think that we must shortly lay it down How can we take delight in any thing when we remember how short that delight would be That the sweetness of our Cups and Morsels is dead as soon as they are once but paâ—â— our taste Indeed if man were as the beast that knows not his suffering or death till he feel it and little thinks when the knife is whetting that it is making ready to cut his throat then might we be merry till death forbids us and enjoy our delights till they shall forsake us But alas we know both good and evil and evil foreknown is in part endured And thus our knowledg encreaseth our sorrows Eccles. 1.18 How can it chuse but spoil our pleasure while we see it dying in our hands how can I be as merry as the jovial World had I not mine eye fixed upon eternity when methinks I foresee my dying hour my friends waiting for my last gasp and closing mine eyes while tears forbid to close their own Methinks I hear them say He is dead Methinks I see my Coffin made my Grave in digging and my Friends there leaving me in the dust And where now is that we took delight in O but methinks I see at the same view that Grave opening and my dead revived Body rising Methinks I hear that blessed voyce Arise and live and die no more Surely were it not for eternity I should think man a silly piece and all his life and honor but contemptible I should call him with David A vain shadow and with the Prophet Nothing and less then nothing and altogether lighter then vanity it self It utterly disgraceth the greatest glory in mine eyes if you can but truly call it Mortal I can value nothing that shall have an end except as it leads to that which hath no end or as it comes from that love which neither hath beginning nor end I speak this of my deliberate thoughts And if some ignorant or forgetful soul have no such sad thoughts to disturb his pleasure I confess he may be merrier for the present But where is his mirth when he lieth dying Alas it s a poor happiness that consists onely in the Ignorance or Forgetfulness of approaching misery But O blessed eternity where our lives are perplexed with no such thoughts nor our joys interrupted with any such fears where we shall be pillars in Gods Temple and go out no more O what do I say when I talk of Eternity Can my shallow thoughts at all conceive what that most high expression doth contain To be eternally blessed and so blessed Why surely this if any thing is the resemblance of God Eternity is a piece of Infiniteness Then O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory Days and Nights and Yeers Time and End and Death are words which there have no signification nor are used except perhaps to extol eternity as the mention of Hell to extol Heaven No more use of our Calendars or Chronology All the yeers of our Lord and the yeers of our lives are lost and swallowed up in this Eternity While we were servants we held by lease and that but for the term of a transitory life but the Son abideth in the House for ever Our first and earthly Paradise in Eden had a way out but none that ever we could finde in again But this eternal paradise hath a way in a milky way to us but a bloody way to Christ but no way out again For they that would pass from hence to you saith Abraham cannot A strange phrase would any pass from such a place if they might Could they endure to be absent from God again one hour No but upon supposal that they would yet they could not O then my soul let go thy dreams of present pleasures And loose thy hold of Earth and Flesh. Fear not to enter that estate where thou shalt ever after cease thy Fears Sit down and sadly once a day bethink thy self of this Eternity Among all thine Arithmetical numbers study the value of this infinite Cypher which though it stand for nothing in the vulgar account doth yet contain all our Millions
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
Law of the most high God dishonorable to him and destructive to the sinner Now the sinner reads and hears no more the reproofs of sin as words of course as if the Minister wanted something to say to fill up his Sermon but when you mention his sin you stir in his wounds he feels you speak at his very heart and yet is contented you should shew him the worst and set it home though he bear the smart He was wont to marvel what made men keep such a stir against sin what harm it was for a man to take a little forbidden pleasure he saw no such hainousness in it that Christ must needs die for it and most of the world be eternally tormented in Hell He thought this was somewhat hard measure and greater punishment then could possibly be deserved by a little fleshly liberty or worldly delight neglect of Christ his Word or Worship yea by a wanton thought a vain word a dull duty or cold affection But now the case is altered God hath opened his eyes to see that unexpressable vileness in sin which satisfies him of the reason of all this 2. The Soul in this great work is convinced and sensible as of the evil of sin so of its own misery by reason of sin They who before read the threats of Gods Law as men do the old stories of forraign wars or as they behold the wounds and blood in a picture or piece of Arras which never makes them smart or fear Why now they finde it s their own story and they perceive they read their own doom as if they found their names written in the curse or heard the Law say as Nathan Thou are the man The wrath of God seemed to him before but as a storm to a man in the dry house or as the pains of the sick to the healthful stander-by or as the Torments of Hell to a childe that sees the story of Dives and Lazarus upon the wall But now he findes the disease is his own and feels the pain in his own bowels and the smart of the wounds in his own soul. In a word he findes himself a condemned man and that he is dead and damned in point of Law and that nothing was wanting but meer execution to make him most absolutely and irrecoverably miserable Whether you will call this a work of the Law or Gospel as in several senses it is of both the Law expressing and the Gospel intimating and implying our former condemnation Sure I am it is a work of the Spirit wrought in some measure in all the regenerate And though some do judg it an unnecessary bondage yet it is beyond my conceiving how he should come to Christ for pardon that first found not himself guilty and condemned or for life that never found himself dead The whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick Yet I deny not but the discovery of the Remedy as soon as the misery must needs prevent a great part of the trouble and make the distinct effects on the soul to be with much more difficulty discerned Nay the actings of the soul are so quick and oft so confused that the distinct order of these workings may not be apprehended or remembred at all And perhaps the joyful apprehensions of mercy may make the sense of misery the sooner forgotten 3. So doth the spirit also convince the soul of the creatures vanity and insufficiency Every man naturally is a flat Idolater our hearts turned from God in our first fall and ever since the Creature hath been our God This is the grand sin of Nature when we set up to our selves a wrong end we must needs erre in all the means The Creature is to every unregenerate man his God and his Christ. He ascribeth to it the Divine prerogatives and alloweth it the highest room in his soul Or if ever he come to be convinced of misery he flyeth to it as his Saviour and supply Indeed God and his Christ have usually the name and shall be still called both Lord and Saviour But the reall expectation is from the Creature and the work of God is laid upon it how well it will perform that work the sinner must know hereafter It is His Pleasure his profit and his Honour that is the natural mans Trinity and his Carnal self that is these in unity Indeed it is that Flesh that is the Principal Idol the other three are deified in their relation to our selves It was our first sin to aspire to be as Gods and it s the greatest sin that runs in our blood and is propagated in our nature from Generation to Generation When God should guide us we guide our selves when he should be our Soveraign we rule our selves The Laws which he gives us we would correct and finde fault with and if we had the making of them we would have made them otherwise When he should take care of us and must or we perish we will care for our selves when we should depend on him in daily receivings we had rather keep our stock our selves and have our portion in our own hands when we should stand to his disposal we would be at our own and when we should submit to his providence we usually quarrel at it as if we knew better what is good or fit for us then he or how to dispose of all things more wisely If we had the disposal of the events of Wars and the ordering of the affairs of Churches and States or the choice of our own outward condition it would be far otherwise then now it is and we think we could make a better disposal order and choice then God hath made This is the Language of a carnal heart though it do not always speak it out When we should study God we study our selves when we should minde God we minde our selves when we should love God we love our carnal selves when we should trust God we trust our selves when we should honor God we honor our selves and when we should ascribe to God and admire him we ascribe to and admire our selves And instead of God we would have all mens eyes and dependance on us and all mens thanks returned to us and would gladly be the onely men on Earth extolled and admired by all And thus we are naturally our own Idols But down falls this Dagon when God doth once renew the soul It is the great business of that great work to bring the heart back to God himself He convinceth the sinner 1. That the Creature or himself can neither be his God to make him happy 2. Nor yet his Christ to recover him from his misery and restore him to God who is his happiness This God doth not onely by Preaching but by Providence also Because words seem but winde and will hardly take off the raging senses therefore doth God make his Rod to speak and continue speaking till the
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
us which is unâ—evealed in the Word and that to be doubtful which is darkly â—evealed Then the Contentions of the Church about the Mysteâ—ies of the Divine Decrees the nature of Internal Grace and way â—nd maner of the Spirits working c. will be more calmly managed Two things have set fire on the Church and been the plagues of it his thousand yeers and more First Englarging our Creed and making more Fundamentals â—hen God hath done Master Parker and Ludovicus Crocius have fully proved That the Creed for a long time contained no more â—hen Christs words in Matth. 28. do teach To beleeve in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and no more were they baptized â—nto Secondly Delivering our Creeds and Confessions in our own Humane phrase When men have learned more maners and humility then to acâ—use the Language of God as too general and obscure and have more dread of God and compassion on themselves then to make those Fundamentals which God never made so And when they reduce their Creed and Confessions first To their due extent or length secondly And to Scripture phrase and take this onely for a Touchstone of the Orthodox then and not tell then shall the Church have peace about Doctrinals If my judgment much fail not It seems to me no hainous Socinian motion which is so cryed out against of Chillingworths making viz. That every man subscribe to the whole Scripture as Gods Word with a promise to do his best for the right understanding of it No doubt many a Heretick would so subscribe and lurk under a false interpretation and so he may do also by their Humane Canons But I forget my self in thus digressing Reader As thou lovest thy Comforts thy Faith thy Hope thy Safety thine Innocency thy Soul thy Christ thine Everlasting Rest Love Read Study Stick close to Scriptures Farewel Jan. 18. 1649. THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART II. CHAP. I. SECT I. WE are next to proceed to the confirmation of this Truth which though it may seem needless in regard of its own clearness and certainty yet in regard of our distance and infidelity nothing more necessary But you will say To whom will this endeavour be usefull They who believe the Scriptures are convinced already and for those who believe it not how will you convince them Answ. But sad experience tels us that those thaâ— believe do believe but in part and therefore have need of further confirmation and doubtless God hath left us Arguments sufficient to convince unbelievers themselves or else how should we preach to Pagans Or what should we say to the greatest part of the world that acknowledg not the Scriptures Doubtless the Gospel should be preacht to them and though we have not the gift of miracles to convince them of the truth as the Apostles had yet we have arguments demonstrative and clear or else our preaching to them would be vain we having nothing left but bare affirmations Though I have all along confirmed sufficiently by testimony of Scripture what I have said yet I will here briefly add thus much more That the Scripture doth clearly assert this Truth in these six wayes 1. It affirms That this Rest is fore-ordained for the Saints and the Saints also fore-ordained to it Heb. 11.16 God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what God hath prepared for them that love him which I conceive must be meant of these preparations in heaven for those on earth are both seen and conceived or else how are they enjoyed Mat. 20.23 To sit on Christs right and left hand in his Kingdom shall be given to them for whom it is prepared And themselves are called Vessels of mercy before prepared unto glory Rom 9.23 And in Christ we have obtained the inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after to the counsel of his own will Ephes. 1.11 And whom he thus predestinateth them he glorifieth Rom. 8.30 For he hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes. 2.13 And though the intentions of the vnwise and weak may be frustrated and without counsel purposes are disappointed Prov. 15.22 yet the thoughts of the Lord shall surely come to passe and as he hath purposed it shall stand The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Therefore blessed are they whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance Psal. 33.11 12. Who can bereave his people of that Rest which is designed them by Gods eternall purpose SECT II. SEcondly the Scripture tels us that this Rest is Purchased as well as Purposed for them or that they are redeemed to this Rest. In what sense this may be said to be purchased by Christ I have shewed before viz. Not as the immediate work of his sufferings which was the payment of our debt by satisfying the Law but as a more remote though most excellent fruit even the effect of that power which by his death he procured to himself He himself for the suffering of death was crowned with glory yet did he not properly die for himself nor was that the direct effect of his death Some of those Teachers who are gone forth of late do tell us as a piece of their new discoveries that Christ never purchased Life and Salvation for us but purchased us to Life and Salvation Not understanding that they affirm and deny the same thing in severall expressions What difference is there betwixt buying liberty to the prisoner and buying the prisoner to liberty betwixt buying life to a condemned malefactor and buying him to life Or betwixt purchasing Reconciliation to an enemy and purchasing an enemy to Reconciliation But in this last they have found a difference and tell us that God never was at enmity with man but man only at enmity with God and therefore need not be reconciled Directly contrary to Scripture which tels us that God hateth all the workers of iniquity and that he is their enemy And though there be no change in God nor any thing properly called Hatred yet it sufficeth that there is a change in the sinners relation and that there is something in God which cannot better be expressed or conceived then by these termes of enmity and hatred And the enmity of the Law against a sinner may well be called the enmity of God However this differenceth betwixt enmity in God and enmity in us but not betwixt the sense of the forementioned expressions So that whether you will call it purchasing life for us or purchasing us to life the sense is the same viz. By satisfying the Law and removing impediments to procure us Title to and Possession of this Life It is
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
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
thou shalt perish for ever except I had seen the Book of Life Why the Bible also is the Book of Life and it describeth plainly those that shall be saved and those that shall be condemned Though it do not name them yet it tels you all those signs and conditions by which they may be known Do I need to ascend up into heaven to know That without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 Or That it is the pure in heart who shall see God Matth. 5.8 Or That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Or That he that believeth not that is stoops not to Christ as his King and Saviour is condemned already and that he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.18.36 And that except you repent which includeth reformation you shall all perish Luke 13.3 5. With a hundred more such plain Scripture Expressions Cannot these be known without searching into Gods Counsels Why thou ignorant or wilful self-deluding Sot Hath thy Bible layn by thee in thy house so long and didst thou never read such words as these Or hast thou read it or heard it read so oft and yet dost thou not remember such passages as these Nay Didst thou not finde that the great drift of the Scripture is to shew men who they are that shall be saved and who not and let them see the conditions of both estates And yet dost thou ask me How I know who shall be saved what need I go up to heaven to inquire that of Christ which he came down to earth to tell us and sent his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to tell us and hath left upon Record to all the world And though I do not know the secrets of thy heart and therefore cannot tell thee by name whether it be thy state or no yet if thou art but willing and diligent thou maist know thy self whether thou be an heir of heaven or not And that is the main thing that I desire that if thou be yet miserable thou mayest discern it and escape it But canst thou possibly escape if thou neglect Christ and salvation Heb. 2.3 Is it not resolved on That if thou love father mother wife children house lands or thy own life better then Christ thou canst not be his disciple and consequently canst never be saved by him Is this the word of man or of God Is it not then an undoubted concluded case that in the case thou art now in thou hast not the least title to heaven Shall I tell thee from the Word of God It is as impossible for thee to be saved except thou be born again and made a new creature as it is for the devils themselves to be saved Nay God hath more plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture that such sinners as thou shall never be saved then he hath done that the devils shal never be saved And doth not this tidings go cold to thy heart Me thinks but that there is yet life and hope before thee and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered or else it should kill thy heart with terror and the sight of thy doleful discovered case should even strike thee dead with amazement and horror If old Ely fell from his seat and dyed to hear that the Ark of God was gone which was but an outward sign of his presence how then should thy heart be astonished with this tidings that thou hast lost the Lord God himself and all thy title to his eternal presence and delights If Rachel wept for children and would not be comforted because they were not How then shouldst thou now sit down and weep for the happiness and future life of thy soul because to thee it is not VVhen King Belshazzar saw but a piece of a hand sent from God writing over against him on the wall it made his countenance change his thoughts trouble him his loyns loosed in the joynts and his knees smite one against another Dan. 5.6 VVhy what trembling then should seaze on thee who hast the hand of God himself against thee not in a Sentence or two onely but in the very tenor and scope of the Scriptures not threatning thee with the loss of a Kingdom onely as he did Belshazzar but with the loss of thy part in the everlasting Kingdom But because I would fain have thee if it be possible to lay it close to thy heart I will here stay a little longer and shew thee first The greatness of thy loss and secondly The aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss thirdly And the Positive miseries that thou maist also endure with their aggravations SECT III. FIrst The ungodly in their loss of heaven do lose all that glorious personal perfection which the people of God do there injoy They lose that shining lustre of the body surpassing the brightness of the Sun at noon day Though perhaps even the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual incorruptible bodies then they were on earth yet that wil be so far from being a happiness to them that it onely makes them capable of the more exqâ—isite torments their understandings being now more capable of apprehending the greatness of their loss and their senses more capable of feelâ—ing their sufferings They would be glad then if every member were a dead member that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it and if the whole body were a rotten carkass or might again lye down in the dust and darkness The devil himself hath an Angelical and excellent nature but that onely honoreth his skilful Creator but is no honor or comfort at all to himself The glory the beauty the comfortable perfections they are deprived of much more do they want that morâ—all perfection which the Blessed do partake of Those holy dispositions and qualifications of minde That blessed conformity to the Holiness of God that chearful readiness to do his Will that perfect rectitude of all their actions In stead of these they have their old ulcerous deformed souls that perversness of Will that disorder in their faculties that loathing of good that love to evil that violence of passion which they haâ— on earth It is true their understandings will be much cleared both by the ceasing of their temptations and deluding obâ—ects which they had on earth as also by the sad experience which they will have in hell of the falshood of their former conceits and delusions But this proceeds not from the sanctifying of their natures And perhaps their experience and too late understanding may restrain much of the evil motions of their wils which they had formerly here on earth but the evil disposition is never the more changed so also wil the conversation of the damned in hel be voyd of many of those sins which they commit here on earth They will be drunk no more and whore no more and
of those forlorn wretches How they will even tear their own hearts and be Gods Executioners upon themselves I am perswaded as it was none but themselves that committed the sin and themselves that were the onely meritorious cause of their sufferings so themselves will be the chiefest executioners of those sufferings God will have it so for the clearing of Justice and the aggravating of their distress even Satan himself as he was not so great a cause of their sinning as themselves so will he not be so great an instrument as themselves of their torment And let them not think here that if they must torment themselves they will do well enough they shall have wit enough to ease and favor themselves and resolution enough to command down this violence of their passions Alas poor souls They little know what passions those will be and how much beyond the power of their resolutions to suppress Why have not lamenting pining self-consuming persons on earth so much wit or power as this Why do you not thus perswade despairing soul who lye as Spira in a kinde of Hell upon earth and dare not eat nor drink nor be merry but torment themselves with continual terrors Why do you not say to them Sir why will you be so mad as to be your own Executioner and to make your own life a continual misery which otherwise might be as joyful as other mens Cannot you turn your thoughts to other matters and never think of Heaven or Hell Alas how vain are all these perswasions to him how little do they ease him you may as well perswade him to remove a mountain as to remove these hellish thoughts that feed upon his spirit it is as easie to him to stop the stream of the Rivers or to bound the overflowing waves of the Ocean as to stop the stream of his violent passions or to restrain those sorrows that feed upon his soul. O how much less then can those condemned souls who see the Glory before them which they have lost restrain their heart-renting self-tormenting Passions So some direct to cure the Toothach Do not think of it and it will not grieve you and so these men think to ease their pains in Hell O but the loss and pain will make you think of it whether you will or no. You were as Stocks or Stones under the threatnings but you shall be most tenderly sensible under the execution O how happy would you think your selves then if you were turned into Rocks or any thing that had neither Passion nor Sense O now how happy were you if you could feel as lightly as you were wont to hear and if you could sleep out the time of Execution as you did the time of the Sermons that warned you of it But your stupidity is gone it will not be SECT V. 5. MOreover it will much increase the torment of the damned in that their Memories will be as large and strong as their Understandings and Affections which will cause those violent Passions to be still working Were their loss never so great and their sense of it never so passionate yet if they could but lose the use of their Memory those passions would dye and that loss being forgotten would little trouble them But as they cannot lay by their life and beeing though then they would account annihilation a singular mercy so neither can they lay aside any part of that beeing Understanding Conscience Affections Memory must all live to torment them which should have helped to their Happiness And as by these they should have fed upon the Love of God and drawn forth perpetually the Joys of his Presence so by these must they now feed upon the wrath of God and draw forth continually the dolours of his absence Therefore never think that when I say the hardness of their hearts and their blindness dulness and forgetfulness shall be removed that therefore they are more holy or more happy then before No but Morally more vile and hereby far more miserable O how many hundred times did God by his Messengers here call upon them Sinners consider whether you are going Do but make a stand a while and think where your way will end what is the offered Glory that you so carelesly reject will not this be bitterness in the end And yet these men would never be brought to consider But in the later days saith the Lord they shall perfectly consider it when they are ensnared in the work of their own hands when God hath Arrested them and Judgment is past upon them and Vengeance is poured out upon them to the full then they cannot chuse but consider it whether they will or no. Now they have no leasure to consider nor any room in their Memories for the things of another life Ah but then they shall have leasure enough they shall be where they have nothing else to do but consider it their Memories shall have no other imployment to hinder them it shall even be engraven upon the Tables of their Hearts God would have had the Doctrine of their eternal State to have been written on the posts of their doors on their houses on their hands and on their hearts He would have had them minde it and mention it as they rise and lye down as they sit at home and as they walk abroad that so it might have gone well with them at their latter end And seeing they rejected this counsel of the Lord therefore shall it be written always before them in the place of their thraldom that which way soever they look they may still behold it Among others I will briefly lay down here some of those Considerations which will thus feed the anguish of these damned wretches SECT VI. FIrst It will torment them to think of the greatness of the Glory which they have lost O if it had been that which they could have spared it had been a small matter or If it had been a losse repairable with any thing else If it had been health or wealth or friends or life it had been nothing But to lose that exceeding Eternall weight of Glory SECT VII SEcondly It will torment them also to think of the possibility that once they were in of obtaining it Though all things considered there was an impossibility of any other event then what did befall yet the thing in it self was possible and their will was left to act without constraint Then they will remember The time was when I was in as faire possibilitie of the Kingdome as others I was set up on the stage of the world If I had plaid my part wisely and faithfully now I might have had possession of the inheritance I might have been amongst yonder blessed Saints who am now tormented with these damned fiends The Lord did set before me life and death and having chosen death I deserve to suffer it The prize was once held out before me If I had run well I
might have obtained it If I had striven I might have had the mastery If I had fought valiantly I had been crowned SECT VIII THirdly It will yet more torment them to remember not only the possibility but the great Probability that once they were in to obtain the Crown and prevent the misery It will then wound them to think Why I had once the gales of the spirit ready to have assisted me I was fully purposed to have been another man to have cleaved to Christ and to have forsook the world I was almost resolved to have been wholly for God I was once even turning from my base seducing lusts I was purposed never to take them up again I had even cast off my old companions and was resolved to have associated my self with the godly And yet I turned back and lost my hold and broak my promises and slacked my purposes Almost God had perswaded me to be a reall Christian and yet I conquered those perswasions What workings were in my heart when a faithfull Minister pressed home the truth O how fair was I once for Heaven I had almost had it and yet I have lost it If I had but followed on to seek the Lord and brought those beginnings to maturity and blown up the spark of desires and purposes which were kindled in me I had now been blessed among the Saints Thus will it wound them to remember what hopes they once had and how a little more might have brought them over to Christ and have set their feet in the way of peace SECT IX FOurthly Furthermore it will exceedingly torment them to remember the fair opportunity that once they had but now have lost To look back upon an age spent in vanity when his salvation lay at the stake To think How many weeks and months and yeers did I lose which if I had improved I might now have been happy Wretch that I was Could I finde no time to study the work for which I had all my time Had I no time among all my labours to labour for eternity Had I time to eat and drink and sleep and work and none to seek the saving of my soul Had I time for sports and mirth and vain discourse and none for prayer or meditation on the life to come Could I take time to look to my estate in the world And none to try my title to Heaven and to make sure of my spirituall and everlasting state O pretious time whither art thou fled I had once time enough and now I must have no more I had so much that I knew not what to do with it I was fain to devise pastimes and to talk it away and trifle it away and now it is gone and cannot be recalled O the golden hours that I did enjoy Had I spent but one yeer of all those yeers or but one month of all those months in through examination and unfeigned conversion and earnest seeking God with my whole heart it had been happy for me that ever I was born But now its past my dayes are cut off my glass it run my Sun is set and will rise no more God himself did hold me the candle that I might do his work and I loitered till it was burnt out And now how fain would I have more but cannot O that I had but one of those yeers to live over again O that it were possible to recall one day one hour of that time Oh that God would turn me into the world and try me once again with another lives time How speedily would I repent How earnestly would I pray And lye on my knees day and night How diligently would I hear How carefully would I examine my spirituall state How watchfully would I walk How strictly would I live But it s now too late alas too late I abused my time to vanity whilest I had it and now I must suffer justly for that abuse Thus will the remembrance of the time which they lost on earth be a continuall torment to these condemned souls SECT X. FIfthly And yet more will it add to their calamity to remember how often they were perswaded to return both by the ministery in publike and in private by all their godly faithfull friends every request and exhortation of the Minister will now be as a fiery dart in his spirit How fresh will every Sermon come now into his minde even those that he had forgotten as soon as heard them He even seems to hear still the voice of the Minister and to see his tears O how fain would he have had me to have escaped these torments How earnestly did he intreat me With what love and tender compassion did he beseech me How did his bowels yearn over me And yet I did but make a jest of it and hardened my heart against all this How oft did he convince me that all was not well with me And yet I stifled all these convictions How plainly did he rip up my sores And open to me my very heart And shew me the unsoundness and deceitâ—fulness of it And yet I was loath to know the worst of my self and therefore shut mine eyes and would not see O how glad would he have been after all his study and prayers and pains if he could but have seen me cordially entertain the truth and turn to Christ He would have thought himself well recompenced for all his labors and sufferings in his work to have seen me converted and made happy by it And did I withstand and make light of all this Should any have been more willing of my happiness then my self Had not I more cause to desire it then he Did it not more neerly concern me It was not he but I that was to suffer for my obstinacie He would have laid his hands under my feet to have done me good he would have fallen down to me upon his knees to have begged my obedience to his message if that would have prevailed with my hardened heart O how deservedly do I now suffer these flames who was so forewarned of them and so intreated to escape them Nay my friends my parents my godly neighbours did admonish and exhort me They told me what would come of my wilfulness and negligence at last but I did neither believe them nor regard them Magistrates were fain to restrain me from sinning by Law and punishment Was not the foresight of this misery sufficient to restraine me Thus wil the Remembrance of all the means that ever they enjoyed be fuell to feed the flames in their consciences O that sinners would but think of this when they sit under the plain instruction and pressing exhortations of a faithfull Ministry How dear they must pay for all this if it do not prevaile with them And how they will wish a thousand times in the anguish of their souls that they had either obeyed his doctrine or had never heard him The melting words of
to stir against the Lord. O how the reviews of this vvill feed the flames of Hell With vvhat rage vvill these damned wretches curse themselves and say Was damâ—nation vvorth all my cost and pains vvas it not enough that I perished through my negligence and that I sit still vvhile Satan played his game but I must seek so diligently for my own perdiâ—tion Might I not have been damned on free-cost but I must purchase it so dearly I thought I could have been saved without so much ado and could I not have been destroyed without so much ado How wel is all my care and pains and violence now requited Must I work out so laboriously my own damnation vvhen God commanded me to vvork out my Salvation O if I had done as much for Heaven as I did for Hell I had surely had it I cried out of the tedious vvay of Godliness and of the painful course of Duty and Self-denial and yet I could be at a great deal more pains for Satan and for death If I had loved Christ as strongly as I did my pleasures and profits and honors and thought on him as often and sought him as painfully O how happy had I now been But justly do I suffer the flames of Hell who would rather rather buy them so dear then have Heaven on free cost when it was purchased to my hands Thus I have shewed you some of those thoughts which will aggravate the misery of these wretches for ever O that God would perswade thee who readest these words to take up these thoughts now seasonably and soberly for the preventing of that unconceivable calamity that so thou mayest not be forced in despite of thee to take them up in Hell as thy own Tormentor It may be some of these hardened wretches will jest at all this and say How know you what thoughts the damned in Hell will have Ans. First VVhy read but the 16 of Luke and you shall there finde some of their thoughts mentioned Secondly I know their understandings will not be taken from them nor their conscience nor Passions As the Joyes of Heaven are chiefly enjoyed by the Rationall soul in its Rationall actings so also must the pains of Hell be suffered As they will be men still so will they act as men Thirdly Beside Scripture hath plainly foretold us as much that their own thoughts shall accuse them Rom. 2.15 and their hearts condemn them And we see it begun in despairing persons here CHAP. III. They shall lose all things that are comfortable as well as Heaven SECT I. HAving shewed you those considerations which will then aggravate their misery I am next to shew you their Additonall losses which will aggravate it For as Godliness hath the promise both of this life and that which is to come and as God hath said that if we first seek his Kingdom and Righteousness all things else shall be added to us so also are the ungodly threated with the loss both of spiritual and of corporal blessings and because they sought not first Christs Kingdom and righteousness therefore shall they lose both it and that which they did seek and there shall be taken from them even that little which they have If they could but have kept their present enjoyments they would not much have cared for the loss of Heaven let them take it that have more minde of it But catching at the shadow and loosing the substance they now finde that they have lost both and that when they rejected Christ they rejected all things If they had lost and forsaken all for Christ they would have found all again in him for he would have been all in all to them But now they have forsaken Christ for other things they shall lose Christ and that also for which they did forsake him But I will particularly open to you some of their other losses SECT II. FIrst They shall lose their present presumptuous conceit and belief of their Interest in God and of his favour towards them and of their part in the merits and sufferings of Christ. This false Belief doth now support their spirits and defend them from the terrors that else would seiz upon them and fortifie them against the fears of the wrath to come Even as true Faith doth afford the soul a true and grounded support and consolation and enableth us to look to Eternity with undaunted courage So also a false ungrounded Faith doth afford a false ungrounded comfort and abates the trouble of the considerations of Judgment and damnation But alas this is but a palliat salve a deceitful comfort what will ease their trouble when this is gone VVhen they can Believe no longer they will be quieted in minde no longer and rejoyce no longer If a man be neer to the greatest mischief and yet strongly conceit that he is in safety his conceit may make him as cheerfull as if all were well indeed till his misery comes and then both his conceit and comforts vanish An ungrounded perswasion of happiness is a poor cure for reall misery VVhen the mischief comes it will cure the mis-belief but that belief can neither prevent nor cure the mischief If there were no more to make a man happy but to believe that he is so or shall be so happiness would be far commonner then now it is like to be It is a wonder that any man who is not a stranger both to Gospel and Reason should be of the Antinomian faith in this who tell us that faith is but the believing that God loveth us and that our sins are already pardoned through Christ that this is the cheif thing that Ministers should preach that our Ministers preach not Christ because they preach not this that every man ought thus to believe but no man to question his Faith whether he believe truly or not c. But if all men must believe that their sins are pardoned then most of the world must believe a lye And if no man ought to question the truth of his faith then most men shall rest deluded with an ungrounded belief The Scripture commandeth us first to believe for remission of sins before we believe that our sins are remitted If we believe in Christ that is accept him cordially for our Saviour and our King then we shall receive the pardon of sins The truth is we have more ado to Preach down this Antinomian faith then they have to Preach it up and to Preach our people from such a believing then they have to preach them to it I see no need to perswade people so to believe the generality are strong and confident in such a belief already Take a congregation of 5000. persons and how few among them all will you finde that do not believe that their sins are pardoned and that God loves them Especially of the vilest sinners who have least cause to believe it Indeed as it is all the work of those men to perswade
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
speak sense or reason But in a word our want of seriousness about the things of Heaven doth charme the souls of men into formality and hath brought them to this customary careless hearing which undoes them The Lord pardon the great sin of the Ministery in this thing and in particular my own And are the people any more serious then Magistrates and Ministers How can it be expected Reader look but to thy self and resolve the question Ask conscience and suffer it to tell thee truely Hast thou set thine Eternal Rest before thine eyes as the great business which thou hast to do in this world Hast thou studied and cared and watcht and labored and laid about thee with all thy might lest any should take thy Crown from thee Hast thou made hast lest thou shouldest come too late and dye before the work be done Hath thy very heart been set upon it and thy desires and thoughts run out this way Hast thou pressed on through crowdes of opposition towards the Mark for this price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus still reaching forth unto those things which are before When you have set your hand to the work of God have you done it with all your might Can conscience witness your secret cries and groans or teares Can your families witness that you have taught them the fear of the Lord and warned them all with earnestness and unweariedness to remember God and their souls and to provide for Everlasting Or that you have done but as much for them as that damned Glutton would have had Lazarus do for his brethren on earth to warn them that they come not to that place of Torment Can your Ministers witness that they have heard you cry out What shall we do to be saved and that you have followed them with complaints against your corruptions and with earnest enquiries after the Lord Can your neighbors about you witness that you are still learning of them that are able to instruct you and that you plainly and roundly reprove the ungodly and take pains for the saving of your brethrens souls Let all these witnesses Judg this day between God and you Whether you are in good sadness about the affaires of Eternall Rest. But if yet you cannot discern your neglects Look but to your selves within you without you to the work you have done you can tell by his work whether your servant have loytered though you did not see him so you may by your selves Is your love to Christ your faith your zeal and other graces strong or weak What are your joyes what is your Assurance Is all right and strong and in order within you Are you ready to dye if this should be the day Do the souls among whom you have conversed bless you Why Judg by this and it will quickly appear whether you have been Labourers or Loyterers O Blessed Rest how unworthily art thou neglected O glorious Kingdom how art thou undervalued Little know the careless sons of men what a state they set so light by If they once knew it they would sure be of another minde CHAP. VI. An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest. SECT I. I Hope Reader by this time thou art somewhat sensible what a desperate thing it is to trifle about our Eternal Rest and how deeply thou hast been guilty of this thy self And I hope also that thou darest not now suffer this Conviction to dye but art resolved to be another man for the time to come What sayst thou Is this thy Resolution If thou were sick of some desperate disease and the Physitian should tell thee If you will observe but one thing I doubt not to cure you wouldst thou not observe it Why if thou wilt observe but this one thing for thy Soul I make no doubt of thy Salvation If thou wilt now but shake off thy sloath and put to all thy strength and ply the work of God unweariedly and be a down-right Christian in good sadness I know not what can hinder thy Happiness As far as thou art gone from God if thou wouldst but now return and seek him with all thy heart no doubt but thou shalt find him As unkindly as thou hast dealt with Jesus Christ if thou didst but feel thy self sick and dead and seek him heartily and apply thy self in good earnest to the obedience of his Laws thy Salvation were as sure as if thou hadst it already But as full as the Satisfaction of Christ is as free as the Promise is as large as the Mercy of God is yet if thou do but look on these and talk of them when thou shouldst greedily entertain them thou wilt be never the better for them and if thou loiter when thou shouldst labour thou wilt lose the Crown Oh fall to work then speedily and seriously and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it and though that which is past cannot be recalled yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause I will here adjoyn a multitude of Considerations to Move thee yet do I not desire thee to take them by number but by waight Their intent and use is to drive thee from Delaying and from Loytering in seeking Rest And to all men do I propound them both Godly and ungodly Whoever thou art therefore I entreat thee to rouze up thy spirit and read them deliberately and give me a little while thy attention as to a message from God and as Moses said to the people Deut. 32.46 Set thy heart to all the words that I testifie to thee this day for it is not a vain thing but it is for thy Life Weigh what I here wright with the Judgment of a man and if I speak not Reason throw it back in my face but if I do see thou entertain and obey it accordingly and the Lord open thy heart and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee SECT II. 1. COnsider Our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the Ends to which they are intended Now the Ends of a Christians Desires and Endeavors are so Great that no humane understanding on earth can comprehend them whether you respect their proper Excellency their exceeding Importance or their absolute Necessity These Ends are The Glorifying of God The Salvation of our own and other mens Souls in our escaping the Torments of Hell and Possessing the Glory of Heaven And can a man be too much affected with things of such Moment Can he Desire them too Earnestly or Love them too Violently or Labour for them too Diligently When we know that if our prayers prevail not and our labour succeed not we are undone for ever I think it concerns us to seek and labour to the purpose When it is put to the Question Whether we shall live for ever in Heaven or in Hell and the Question must be resolved upon our Obeying
and Earth where we now are yea or Heaven which is offered us then certainly we have received Mercy Yea if the Blood of the Son of God be Mercy then are we engaged to God by Mercy for so much did it cost him to recover us to himself And should a people of such deep engagements be lazy in their returns Shall God think nothing too much nor too Good for us and shall we think all too much that we do for him Thou that art an observing sensible man who knowest how much thou art beholden to God I appeal to thee Is not a loytering performance of a few heartless duties an unworthy requital of such admirable kindness For my own part when I compare my slow and unprofitable life with the frequent and wonderful mercies received it shames me it silenceth me and leaves me unexcusable SECT VIII 7. A Gain consider All the Relations which we stand in toward God whether common or special do call upon us for our utmost diligence Should not the pot be wholly at the service of the Potter and the creature at the service of his great Creator Are we his Children and do we not owe him our most tender affections and dutiful obedience Are we the Spouse of Christ and do we not owe him our observance and our Love If he be our Father where is his honour and if he be our Master where is his fear Mal. 1.6 We call him Lord and Master and we do well but if our industry be not answerable to our assumed relations we condemn our selves in saying we are his children or his servants How will the hard labour and dayly toyl that servants undergo to please their Masters judg and condemn those men who will not labour so hard for their Great Master Surely there 's none have a better or more honourable Master then we nor can any expect such fruit of their labours 1 Cor. 15. ult SECT IX 8. COnsider What haste should they make who have such Rods at their backs as be at ours And how painfully should they work who are still driven on by such sharp Afflictions If either we wander out of the way or loyter in it how surely do we prepare for our own smart Every creature is ready to be Gods Rod to reduce us or to put us on Our sweetest mercies will become our sorrows Or rather then he will want a Rod the Lord will make us a scourge to our selves Our diseased bodies shall make us groan our perplexed minds shall make us restless our conscience shall be as a Scorpion in our bosom And is it not easier to endure the labour then the spur Had we rather be still thus afflicted then to be up and going Alas how like are we to tired horses that will lie down and groan or stand still and let you lay on them as long as you will rather then they will freely travel on their journey And thus we make our own lives miserable and necessitate God if he love us to chastiâ—e us It is true those that do most do meet with Afflictions also but surely according to the measure of their peace of Conscience and faithfulness to Christ so is the bitterness of their Cup for the most part abated SECT X. 9. HOw close should they ply their work who have such great preparations attending them as we have All the world are our servants that we may be the Servants of God The Sun and Moon and Stars attend us with their light and influence The Earth with all its furniture is at our service How many thousand plants and flowers and fruits and birds and beasts do all attend us The Sea with its inhabitants the Air the wind the frost and snow the heat and fire the clouds and rain all wait upon us while we do our work Yea the Angels are ministring Spirits for the Service of the Elect. And is it not an intolerable crime for us to trifle while all these are employed to assist us Nay more The Patience and Goodness of God doth wait upon us The Lord Jesus waiteth in the offers of his blood The Holy Ghost waiteth in striving with our backward hearts Besides all his Servants the Ministers of his Gospel who study and wait and preach and wait and pray and wait upon careless sinners And shall Angels and Men yea the Lord himself stand by and look on and as it were hold thee the Candle while thou dost nothing Oh Christians I beseech you when ever you are upon your knees in prayer or reproving the transgressors or exhorting the obstinate or upon any duty do but remember what attendance you have for this work and then Judg how it behoves you to perform it SECT XI 10. SHould not our Affections and Endeavors be answerable to the acknowledged Principles of our Christian Profession Sure if we are Christians indeed and mean as we speak when we profess the Faith of Christ we shall shew it in Affections and Actions as well as Expressions Why the very fundamental Doctrines of our Religion are That God is the chief Good and all our Happiness consists in his Love and therefore it should be valued and sought above all things That he is our only Lord and therefore chiefly to be served That we must Love him with all our heart and soul and strength That the very business that men have in the world and the only errand that God sent them about is to Glorifie God and to obtain Salvation c. And do mens duties and conversations second this profession Are these Doctrines seen in the painfulness of mens practise Or rather do not their works deny what their words do confess One would think by mens Actions that they did not believe a word of the Gospel to be true Oh sad day when mens own tongues and professions shall be brought in against them and condemn them SECT XII 11. HOw forward and painful should we be in that work where we are sure we can never do enough If there were any danger of over-doing then it might well cause men to moderate their endeavors But we know that if we could do all we were but unprofitable servants much more when we are sure to fail in all It is true a man may possibly pray too much or preach too much or hear or reprove too much though I have known few that ever did so but yet no man can obey or serve God too much For one duty may be said to be too long when it shuts out another and then it ceaseth indeed to be a duty So that though all Superstition or service of our devising may be called a Righteousness-over-much yet as long as you keep your service to the rule of the Word that so it may have the true nature of obedience you never need to fear being Righteous too much For else we should reproach the Lord and Law-giver of the Church as if he had commanded us
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
did not Christ dye to save sinners Never trouble your head with these thoughts but believe and you shall do well Thus do they follow the Soul that is escaping from Satan with restless cries till they have brought him back Oh how many thousands have such chaâ—ms kept a sleep in deceit and security till death and Hell have awaked and better informed them The Lord calls to the sinner and tells him The Gate is strait the way is narrow and few find it Try and examine whether thou be in the faith or no give all diligence to make sure in time And the world cries out clean contrary Never doubt Never trouble your selves with these thoughts I intreat the sinner that is in this strait to consider That it is Christ and not their fathers or mothers or neighbors or friends that must judge them at last and if Christ condemn them these cannot save them and therefore common Reason may tell them that it is not from the words of Ignorant men but from the word of God that they must fetch their comforts and hopes of Salvation When Ahab would enquire among the multitudes of flattering Prophets it was his death They can flatter men into the snare but they cannot tell how to bring them out Oh take the counsel of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 5.6 7. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them And Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation SECT VIII 3. BUT the greatest hinderances are in mens own hearâ—s 1. Some are so Ignorant that they know not what Self-Examination is nor what a Minister means when he perswadeth them to Try themselves Or they know not that there is any Necessity of it but think every man is bound to Believe that God is his Father and that his sins are pardoned whether it be true or false and that it were a great fault to make any Question of it Or they do not think that Assurance can be attained or that there is any such great differences betwixt one man and another but that we are all Christians and therefore need not to trouble our selves any further Or at least they know not wherein the difference lies nor how to set upon this searching of their hearts nor to find out its secret motions and to judge accordingly They have as gross Conceits of that Regeneration which they must search for as Nicodemus had John 3.5 And when they should Try whether the Spirit be in them they are like those in Act. 19.2 That knoew not whether there were a Holy Ghost to be received or no. 2. Some are such Infidels that they will not Believe that ever God wil make such a difference betwixt men in the life to come and therefore will not search themselves whether they differ here Though Judgment and Resurrection be in their Creed yet they are not in their Faith 3. Some are so Dead-hearted that they perceive not how neerly it doth concern them let us say what we can to them they lay it not to heart but give us the hearing and there 's an end 4. Some are so possessed with Self-love and Pride that they will not so much as suspect any such danger to themselves Like a proud Tradesman who scorns the motion when his friends desire him to cast up his Books because they are afraid he will Break. As some fond Parents that have an over-weening conceit of their own Children and therefore will not believe or hear any evil of them such a fond Self-love doth hinder men from suspecting and trying their states 5. Some are so guilty that they dare not try They are so fearful that they shallâ—find their estates unsound that they dare not search into them And yet they dare venture them to a more dreadful Tryal 6. Some are so far in love with their sin and so far in dislike with the way of God that they dare not fall on the Tryal of their ways least they be forced from the course which they love to that which they loath 7. Some are so Resolved already never to change their present state that they neglect Examination as a useless thing Before they will turn so precise and seek a new way when they have lived so long and gone so far they will put their Eâ—ernal state to the venture come of it what will And when a man is fully resolved to hold on his way and not to turn back be it right or wrong to what end should he enquire whether he bâ— right or no 8. Most men are so taken up with their worldly affairs and are so busie in driving the trade of providing for the flesh that they cannot set themselves to the Trying of their title to Heaven They have another kind of happiness in their eye which they are pursuing which will not suffer them to make sure of Heaven 9. Most men are so clogged with a Laziness and Slothfulness of Spirit that they will not be perswaded to be at the paines of an hours Examination of their own hearts It requireth some labour and diligence to accomplish it throughly and they will rather venture all then set about it 10. But the most common and dangerous impediment is that false Faith and Hope commonly called Presumption which bears up the hearts of the most of the world and so keeps them from suspecting their danger Thus you see what abundance of difficulties must be overcome before a man can closely set upon the Examining of his heart I do but name them for brevity sake SECT IX AND if a man do break through all these impediments and set upon the Duty yet assurance is not presently attained Of those few who do enquire after Marks and Means of Assurance and bestow some pains to learn the difference between the sound Christian and the unsound and look often into their own hearts yet divers are deceiv'd and do miscarry especially through these following causes 1. There is such a Confusion and darkness in the Soul of man especially of an unregenerate man that he can scarcely tell what he doth or what is in him As one can hardly finde any thing in a house where nothing keeps his place but all is cast on a heap together so is it in the heart where all things are in disorder â—specially when darkness is added to this disorder so that the heart is like an obscure Cave or Dungeon where there is but a little crevise of light and a man must rather grope then see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heart and so miscarry in judging of their estates 2. And the rather because most men do accustom themselves to be strangers at home and are little taken up with observing the temper and motions of their own hearts All their studies are imployed without them and they are no where less
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
would fill mens ears with the constant lamentations of their miserable state and despairing accusations against themselves as if they had been the most humble people in the world and yet be as passionate in the maintaining their innocency when another accuseth them and as intolerably peevish and tender of their own reputation in any thing they are blamed for as if they were the proudest persons on earth still denying or extenuating every disgraceful fault that they are charged with This cherishing of sin doth hinder Assurance these four ways 1. It doth abate the degree of our Graces and so makes them more undiscernable 2. It obscureth that which it destroyeth not for it beareth such sway that Grace is not in Action nor seen to stir nor scarce heard speak for the noise of this Corruption 3. It puteth out or dimmeth the eye of the Soul that it cannot see its own condition and it benummeth and stupifieth that he cannot feel its own case 4. But especially it provoketh God to withdraw himself his Comforts and the Assistance of the Spirit without which we may search long enough before we have Assurance God hath made a separation betwixt Sin and Peace Though they may consist together in remiss degrees yet so much as Sin prevaileth in the Soul so much will the Peace of that Soul be defective As long as thou dost favour or cherish thy Pride and Self-esteem thy aspiring projects and love of the world thy secret lusts and pleasing the desires of the flesh or any the like unchristian practise thou expectest Assurance and Comfort in Vain God will not encourage thee by his precious gifts in a course of sinning This worm will be crawling and gnawing upon thy Conscience It will be a freting devouring canker to thy Consolations Thou mayst steal a spark of false comfort from thy worldly prosperity or delights or thou mayst have it from some false Opinions or from the delusions of Satan But from God thou wilt have no more Comfort then thou makest Conscience of sinning However an Antinomian may tell thee That thy Comforts have no such dependance upon thy Obedience nor thy discomforts upon thy disobedience and therefore may speak as much Peace to thee in the course of thy sinning as in thy most conscionable walking yet thou shalt find by experience that God will not do so If any man set up his Idols in his Heart and put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a Minister or to God to enquire for Assurance and Comfort God will Answer that man by himself and in stead of comforting him he will set his Face against him he will Answer him According to the multitude of his Idols Read Ezek. 14.3 4 5 6 7 8 9. SECT XVIII 9. ANother very great and common Cause of want of Assurance and Comfort is When men grow Lazy in the spiritual part of duty and keep not up their Graces in constant and lively Action As Dr Sibbs saith truly It is the lazy Christian commonly that lacketh Assurance The way of painful duty is the way of fullest Comfort Christ carryeth all our Comforts in his hand If we are out of that way where Christ is to be met we are out of the way where Comfort is to be had These three ways doth this Laziness debar us of our Comforts 1. By stopping the Fountain and causing Christ to withhold this blessing from us Parents use not to smile upon children in their neglects and disobedience So far as the Spirit is Grieved he will suspend his Consolations Assurance and Peace are Christ's great Encouragements to faithfulness and obedience And therefore though our Obedience do not Merit them yet they usually rise and fall with our Diligence in duty They that have entertained the Antinomian dotages to cover their Idleness and Viciousness may talk their non-sence against this at pleasure but the laborious Christian knows it by experience As prayer must have Faith and Fervency to procure its success besides the Bloodshed and Intercession of Christ Jam. 5.15 16. so must all other parts of our Obedience He that will say to us in that Triumphing day Well Done Good and Faithful Servant c. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Will also clap his Servants upon the back in their most Affectionate and Spiritual Duties and say Well Done Good and Faithful Servant take this Fore-taste of thy Everlasting Joy If thou grow seldom and customary and cold in Duty especially in thy secret Prayers to God and yet findest no abatement in thy Joys I cannot but fear that thy Joys are either Carnal or Diabolical 2. Grace is never apparent and sensible to the Soul but while it is in Action Therefore want of Action must needs cause want of Assurance Habits are not felt immediately but by the freeness and facility of their Acts Of the very Being of the Soul it self nothing is felt or perceived if any more Be but only its Acts. The fire that lyeth still in the flint is neither seen nor felt but when you smite it and force it into Act it is easily discerned The greatest Action doth force the greatest Observation whereas the dead or unactive are not remembred or taken notice of Those that have long lain still in their graves are out of mens thoughts as well as their sight but those that walk their streets and bear Rule among them are noted by all It is so with our Graces That you have a Habit of Love or Faith you can no otherwise know but as a consequence by reasoning but that you may have the Acts you may know by Feeling If you see a man lie still in the way what will you do to know whether he be drunk or in a swoun or dead Will you not stir him or speak to him to see whether he can go Or feel his pulse or observe his breath Knowing that where there is life their is some kind of motion I earnestly beseech thee Christian observe and practise this excellent Rule Thou now knowest not whether thou have Repentance or Faith or Love or joy Why be more in the Acting of these and thou wilt easily know it Draw forth an Object for Godly sorrow or Faith or Love or Joy and lay thy heart flat unto it and take pains to provoke it into suitable action and then see whether thou have these Graces or no. As Doctor Sibbs observeth There is somtimes Griefe for sin in us when we think there is none it wants but stirâ—ing up by some quickening word The like he saith of Love and may be said of every other Grace You may go seeking for the Hare or Partridge many hours and never find them while they lie close and stir not but when once the Hare betakes him self to his legges and the bird to her wings then you see them presently So long as a Christian hath his Graces in lively Action so long for the most
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
to be sorrowful because of his departure When did he appear among them and say Peace be unto you but when they were shut up together for fear of the persecuting Jews When did the room shake where they were and the Holy Ghost come down upon them and they lift up their voyces in praising God but when they were imprisoned convented and threatened for the Name of Christ Acts 4.24 31. When did Stephen see Heaven opened but when he was giving up his life for the testimony of Jesus Acts 7.55 And though we be never put to the suffering of Martyrdom yet God knoweth that in our natural sufferings we need support Many a Christian that hath waited for Christ with Simeon in the Temple in duty and holiness all his days yet never finds him in his arms till he is dying though his Love was fixed in their hearts before and they that wondered that they tasted not of his comforts have then when it was needful received abundance And indeed in time of prosperity that comfort which we have is so mixed according to the mixt causes of it that we can very hardly discern what of it is carnal and what is spiritual But when all worldly comforts and hopes are gone then that which is left is most likely to be spiritual And the Spirit never worketh more sensibly and sweetly then when it worketh alone Seeing then that the time of Affliction is the time of our most pure spiritual heavenly Joy for the most part why should a Christian think it so sad a time Is not that our best estate wherein we have most of God Why else do we desire to come to Heaven If we look for a Heaven of fleshly delights we shall find our selves mistaken Conclude then that Affliction is not so bad a state for a Saint in his way to Rest as the flesh would make it Are we wiser then God Doth not he know what is good for us better then we Or is he not as careful of our Good as we are of our own Ah wo to us if he were not much more and if he did not love us better then we love either him or our selves SECT VIII BUT let us hear a little what it is that the flesh can object 1. Oh saith one I could bear any other Affliction save this If God had touched me in any thing else I could have undergone it patiently but it is my dearest friend or child or wife or my health it self c. I Answer It seemeth God hath hit the right vein where thy most inflamed distempered blood did lie It 's his constant course to pull down mens Idols and take away that which is dearer to them then himself There it is that his Jealousie is kindled and there it is that thy Soul is most endangered If God should have taken from thee that which thou canst let go for him and not that which thou canst not or have afflicted thee where thou canst bear it and not where thou canst not thy Idol would neither have been discovered nor removed this would neither have been a sufficient Tryal to thee nor a Cure but have confirmed thee in thy Soul-deceit and Idolatry Object 2. Oh but saith another if God would but deliver me out of it yet I could be content to bear it but I have an uncureable sickness or I am like to live and dye in poverty or disgrace or the like distress I answer 1. Is it nothing that he hath promised it shall work for thy Good Rom. 8.28 and that with the affliction he will make a way to escape that he will be with thee in it and deliver thee in the fittest manner and season 2. Is it not enough that thou art sure to be delivered at death and that with so full an advancing deliverance Oh what cursed Unbelief doth this discover in our hearts That we would be more thankful to be turned back again into the stormy tumultuous Sea of the World then to be safely and speedily landed at our Rest And would be gladder of a few years inferiour mercies at a distance then to enter upon the Eternal Inheritance with Christ Do we call God our chief Good and Heaven our Happiness and yet is it no Mercy or Deliverance to be taken hence and put into that possession Object 3. Oh but saith another if my Affliction did not disable me for Duty I could bear it but it maketh me useless and utterly unprofitable Answ. 1. For that Duty which tendeth to thy own personal benefit it doth not disable thee but is the greatest quickening help that thou canst expect Thou usest to complain of coldness and dulness and worldliness and security If affliction will not help thee against all these by warming quickening rouzing thy spirit I know not what will Sure thou wilt repent throughly and pray fervently and minde God and Heaven more seriously either now or never 2. And for Duty to others and for thy service to the Church it is not thy Duty when God doth disable thee He may call thee out of the Vineyard in this respect even before he call thee by death If he lay thee in the grave and put others in thy place to do the service is this any wrong to thee or doth it beseem thee to repine at it Why so if he call thee out before thy death and let thee stand by and see others do the work in thy stead shouldst thou not be as well content Must God do all the work by thee Hath he not many others as dear to him and as fit for the employment But alass what deceitfulness lieth in these hearts When we have time and health and opportunity to work then we loyter and do our Master but very poor service But when he layeth Affliction upon us then we complain that he disableth us for his work and yet perhaps we are still negligent in that part of the work which we can do So when we are in health and prosperity we forget the publique and are careless of other mens miseries and wants and minde almost nothing but our selves But when God Afflicteth us though he excite us more to Duty for our selves yet we complain that he disableth us for Duty to others As if on the sudden we were grown so charitable that we regard other mens Souls far more then our own But is not the hand of the flâ—sh in all this dissimulation Secretly thus pleading its own cause What pride of heart is this to think that other men cannot do the work as well as we Or that God cannot see to his Church and provide for his people without us Object 4 Oh but â—aith another It is the godly that are my afflictâ—rs they disclaim me and will scarce look at me they censure me and backbite me and slander me and look upon me with a disdainful eye If it were ungodly men I could bear it easily I look for no better at their hands but when
temper of the person All meats are not for all stomacks One man will vomit that up again in your face which another will digest 1. If it be a learned or ingenious rational man you must deal more by convincing Arguments and less by passionate perswasions 2. If it be one that is both ignorant and stupid there is need of both 3. If one that is convinced but yet is not converted you must use most those means that rouze up the affections 4. If they be obstinate and secure you must reprove them sharply 5. If they be of timorous tender natures and apt to dejections or distraction they must be tenderly dealt with All cannot bear that rough dealing as some can Love and Plainness and Seriousness takes with all but words of terror some can scarce bear This is as we say of stronger Physick Hellebore Colloquintida c. nec puero nec seni nec imbecillo sed robusto c. not fit for every complexion and state 3. You must be wise also in using the aptest expressions Many a Minister doth deliver most excellent necessary matter in such unsavory harsh and unseemly language that it makes the hearers loath the food that they should live by and laugh at a Sermon that might make them quake Especially if they be men of curious ears and carnal hearts and have more common wit and parts then the speaker And so it is in private Exhortation as well as publique If you cloath the most amiable beautiful Truth in the sordid rags of unbeseeming language you will make men disdain it as monstrous and deformed though it be the off-spring of God and of the highest nature SECT X. 7. LEt all your Reproofs and Exhortations be backed with the Authority of God Let the sinner be convinced that you speak not from your selves or of your own head Shew them the very words of Scripture for what you say Turn them to the very Chapter and Verse where their sin is condemned and where the duty is commanded Press them with the Truth and Authority of God Ask them whether they beleeve that this is his Word and that his Word is true So much of God as appeareth in our Words so much will they take The voyce of man is contemptible but the voyce of God is awful and terrible They can and may reject your words that cannot nor dare reject the words of the Almighty Be sure therefore to make them know that you speak nothing but what God hath spoken first SECT XI 8. YOu must also be Frequent with men in this Duty of Exhortation It is not once or twice that usually will prevail If God himself must be constantly solicited as if importunity could prevail with him when nothing else can and therefore require us always to pray and not to wax faint the same course no doubt will be most prevailing with men Therefore are we commanded to Exhort one another dayly and with all long-suffering As Lypsius saith The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke nor mens affections kindled at the first exhortation And if they were yet if they be not followed they will soon grow cold again Weary out sinners with your loving and earnest entreaties Follow them and give them no rest in their sin This is true Charity and this is the way to save mens Souls and a course that will afford you comfort upon review SECT XII 9. STrive to bring all your Exhortations to an Issue Stick not in the work done but look after the success and aim at that end in all your speeches I have long observed it in Ministers and private men that if they speak never so convincing powerful words and yet their hearts do not long after the success of them with the hearers but all their care is over when they have done their speech pretending that having done their duty they leave the Issue to God these men do seldom prosper in their labors But those whose very heart is set upon the work and that long to see it take for the hearers conversion and use to enquire how it speeds God usually blesseth their labors though more weak Labor therefore to drive all your speeches to the desired Issue If you are reproving a sin cease not till if it may be you have got the sinner to promise you to leave it and to avoyd the occasions of it If you are exhorting to a Duty urge the party to promise you presently to set upon it If you would draw them to Christ leave not till you have made them confess that their present unregenerate state is miserable and not to be rested in and till they have subscribed to the necessity of Christ and of a change and till they have promised you to fall close to the use of means O that all Christians would be perswaded to take this course with all their Neighbors that are yet in the flesh that are enslaved to sin and strangers to Christ SECT XIII 10. LAstly Be sure that your Examples may Exhort as well as your words Let them see you constant in all the Duties that you perswade them to Let them see in your lives that difference from sinners and that excellency above the world which you perswade them to in your speeches Let them see by your constant Labors for Heaven that you do indeed beleeve that which you would have them to beleeve If you tell others of the admirable Joys of Heaven and your selves do nothing but drudg for the world and are as much taken up in striving to be rich or as quarrelsom with your Neighbors in a case of commodity as any others who will then beleeve you or who will be perswaded by you to seek the everlasting riches Will they not rather think that you perswade them to look after another world and to neglect this that so you might have the more of it to your self Let not men see you proud while you exhort them to be humble nor to have a seared Conscience in one thing while you would have theirs tender in another An innocent life is a continual powerful reproof to the wicked And the constant practice of a holy and heavenly life is a constant disquietment to the Conscience of a Worldling and a constant solicitation of him to change his course And thus I have opened to you the first and great part of this Duty consisting in private familiar Exhortation for the helping of poor Souls to this Rest that are out of the way and have yet no Title to it and I have shewed you also the maner how to perform it that you may succeed I will now speak a little of the next part SECT XIV BEsides the duty of private admonition you must do your utmost endevors to help men to profit by the publique Ordinances And to that end you must do these things 1. Do your endevors for the procuring of Faithful Ministers where
they come to their reckoning One sumptuous feast or one costly suit of apparel would maintain a poor boy a year or two at the University who perhaps might come to have more true worth in him then many a glittering sensual Lord and to do God more service in his Church then ever they did with all their estates and power SECT XVI 3. ANd when you do enjoy the blessing of the Gospel you must yet use your utmost diligence to help poor Souls to receive the fruit of it To which end you must draw them constantly to hear and attend it Mind them often of what they have heard Draw them if it be possible to repeat it in their families If that cannot be then draw them to come to others that do repeat it that so it may not dye in the hearing The very drawing of men into the company and acquaintance of the godly besides the benefit they have by their endeavors is of singular use to the recovery of their Souls Association breedeth familiarity and familiarity breedeth love and familiarity and love to the godly doth lead to familiarity and love to God and godliness It is also a means to take off prejudice by confuting the worlds slanders of the ways and people of God Use therefore often to meet together besides the more publique meeting in the Congregation not to vent any unsound opinions nor yet in distaste of the publique meeting nor in opposition to it nor at the time of publique worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the essentials and there is hope of reforming it nor yet would I have you forward to vent your own supposed gifts and parts in teaching where there is no necessity of it nor to attempt that in the interpretation of difficult Scriptures or explication of difficult controversies which is beyond your ability though perhaps pride will tell you that you are as able as any But the work which I would have you meet about is this To repeat together the Word which you have heard in publique to pour out your joynt prayers for the Church and pour selves to joyn in chearful singing the praises of God to open your scruples and doubts and fears and get resolution to quicken each other in Love and Heavenliness and Holy walking and all this not as a separated Church but as a part of the Church more diligent then the rest in redeeming time and helping the Souls of each other Heaven-ward I know some careless ones think this course needless and I know some Formalists do think it Schismatical who have nothing of any moment to say against it Against both these if I durst so far digress I could easily prove it warrantable and useâ—ul I know also that many of late do abuse private meetings to Schism and to vilifie Gods Ordinances and vent the windy issue of their empty brains But betwixt these extreams I advise you to walk and neither to forsake the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another Heb. 10.25 Nor yet to be carryed about with divers and strange doctrines But let all your private meetings be in subordination to the publique and by the approbation and consent of your spiritual guides and not without them of your own heads where such guides are men of knowledg and godliness remembring them which have the Rule over you which speak to you the Word of God following their faith and as men whose hearts are stablished with grace considering the whole end of a Christians conversation Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.7 8 9 17. And I beseech you Brethren Mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and Avoyd them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.17 18. I would you would ponder every one of these words for they are the precious advice of the Spirit of God and necessary now as well as then SECT XVII 4. ONe thing more I advise you concerning this If you would have Souls converted and saved by the Ordinances Labour still to keep the Ordinances and Ministry in Esteem No man will be much wrought on by that which he despiseth The great causes of this contempt are a perverted Judgment and a Graceless heart It is no more wonder for a Soul to loath the Ordinances that savoureth not their spiritual nature nor seeth God in them nor is throughly wrought on by them then it is for a sick man to loath his food Nor is it any wonder for a perverted understanding to make a Jest of God himself much less to set light by his Ordinances Oh what a rare blessing is a clear sound sanctified Judgment Where this is wanting the most hellish vice may seem a vertue and the most sacred Ordinance of divine Institution may seem as the waters of Jordan to Naaman If any enemies to Gods Ordinances assault you I refer you to the reading of Mr Hen Lawrences late book for Ordinances The prophane Scorners of Ministry and Worship heretofore were the means of keeping many a Soul from Heaven but the late generation of proud ignorant Sectaries amongst us have quite out-stripped in this the vilest persecutors Oh how many Souls may curse these wretches in Hell for ever that have by them been brought to contemn the means that should save them By many years experience in my conversing with these men I can speak it knowingly that the chiefest of their zeal is let out against the faithful Ministers of Christ he is the ablest of their preachers that can rail at them in the most devillish language it is their most common discourse in all companies both godly and prophane to vilifie the Ministry and make them odious to all partly by slanders and partly by scorns Is this the way to win Souls Whereas formerly they thought that if a man were won to a love of the Ministry and Ordinances he was in a hopeful way of being won to God now these men are as diligent to bring all men to scorn them as if this were all that were necessary to the saving of their Souls and he only shall be happy that can deride at Ministers and Discipline If any doubt of the truth of what I say he is a stranger in England and for his satisfaction let him read all the books of Martin Marpriest and tell me whether the Devil ever spoke so with a tongue of flesh before For you my dear friends I acknowledg to Gods praise that you are as far from the contempt of Ordinances or Ministry as any people I know in the Land I shall confirm you herein not
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
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
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
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
yet remember the heart is deceitful God is oft pretended vvhen our selves are inâ—ended But if this be it that sticks vvith thee indeed consider VVilt thou pretend to be vviser then God doth not he knovv hovv â—o provide for his Church Cannot he do his vvork vvithout thee or finde out instruments enough besides thee Think not too highly of thy self because God hath made thee useful Must the Church needs fall when thou art gone Art thou the foundation on which its built Could God take away a Moses an Aaron David Elias c. and finde supply for all their places and cannot he also finde supply for thine This is to derogate from God too much and to arrogate too much unto thy self Neither art thou so merciful as God nor canst love the Church so well as he As his interest is infinitely beyond thine so is his tender care and bounty But of this before Yet mistake me not in all that I have said I deny not but that it is lawful and necessary for a Christian upon both the forementioned grounds to desire God to delay his death both for a further opportunity of gaining assurance and also to be further serviceable to the Church But first This is nothing to their case who are still delaying and never willing whose true discontents are at death it self more then at the unseasonableness of dying Secondly Though such desires are sometimes lawful yet must they be carefully bounded and moderated to which end are the former considerations We must not be too absolute and peremptory in our desires but cheerfully yield to Gods disposal The rightest temper is that of Pauls to be in a streight between two desiring to depart and be with Christ and yet to stay while God will have us to do the Church the utmost service But alas we are seldom in this streight Our desires run out all one way and that for the flesh and not the Church Our streights are onely for fear of dying and not betwixt the earnest desires of dying and of living SECT XXIV OBject But is not death a punishment of God for sin Doth not Scripture call it the King of fears And Nature above all other evils abhor it Answ. I le not meddle with that which is controversal in this Whether Death be properly a punishment or not But grant that in it self considered it may be called Evil as being naturally the dissolution of the Creature Yet being sanctified to us by Christ and being the season and occasion of so great a Good as is the present possession of God in Christ it may be welcomed with a glad submission if not with desire Christ affords us grounds enough to comfort us against this natural Evil And therefore endues us with the principle of Grace to raise us above the reach of nature For all those low and poor Objections as leaving House Goods and Friends leaving our children unprovided c. I pass them over as of lesser moment then to take much with men of Grace SECT XXV LAstly Understand me in this also That I have spoke all this to the faithful soul. I perswade not the ungodly from fearing death It s a wonder rather that they fear it no more and spend not their days in continual horror as is said before Truly but that we know a stone is insensible and a hard heart is dead and stupid or else a man would admire how poor souls can live in ease and quietness that must be turned out of these bodies into everlasting flames Or that be not sure at least if they should die this night whether they shall lodg in Heaven or Hell the next especially when so many are called and so few chosen and the Righteous themselves are scarcely saved One would think such men should eat their bread with trembling and the thoughts of their danger should keep them waking in the night and they should fall presently a searching themselves and enquiring of others and crying to God That if it were possible they might quickly be out of this danger and so their hearts be freed from horror For a man to quake at the thoughts of death that looks by it to be dispossessed of his happiness and knoweth not whether he is next to go this is no wonder But for the Saints to fear their passage by Death to Rest this is an unreasonable hurtful Fear CHAP. III. Motives to a Heavenly Life SECT I. WE have now by the guidance of the Word of the Lord and by the assistance of his Spirit shewed you the nature of the Rest of the Saints and acquainted you with some duties in relation thereto We come now to the close of all to press you to the great duty which I chiefly intended when I begun this subject and have here reserved it to the last place because I know hearers are usually of slippery memories yet apt to retain the last that is spoken though they forget all that went before Dear friends its pity that either you or I should forget any thing of that which doth so neerly concern us as this Eternal Rest of the Saints doth But if you must needs forget something let it be any thing else rather then this let it be rather all that I have hitherto said though I hope of better then this one ensuing Use. Is there a Rest and such a Rest remaining for us Why then are our thoughts no more upon it why are not our hearts continually there why dwell we not there in constant contemplation Sirs Ask your hearts in good earnest what is the cause of this neglect are we reasonable in this or are we not Hath the Eternal God provided us such a Glory and promised to take us up to dwell with himself and is not this worth the thinking on Should not the strongest desires of our hearts be after it and the daily delights of our souls be there Do we beleeve this and can we yet forget and neglect it What 's the matter will not God give us leave to approach this light or will he not suffer our souls to tast and see Why then what means all his earnest invitations why doth he so condemn our earthly-mindedness and command us to set our affections above Ah vile hearts If God were against it we were likelier to be for it When he would have us to keep our station then we are aspiring to be like God and are ready to invade the Divine Prerogatives But when he commands our hearts to Heaven then they will not stir an inch like our Predecessors the sinful Israelites When God would have them march for Canaan then they mutiny and will not stir either they fear the Gyants or the walled Cities or want necessaries or something hinders them but when God bids them not to go then will they needs be presently marching and fight they will though it be to their overthrow If the fore-thoughts of glory were forbidden
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
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
Reason then meerly to suspend it I will not now dispute But doubtless when the soul is not affected with good though the Understanding do never so clearly apprehend the Truth it is easie for Satan to entice that soul. Meer speculations be they never so true which sink not into the affections are poor preservatives against temptations He that loves most and not he that onely knows most will easilyest resist the motions of sin There is in a Christian a kinde of spiritual taste whereby he knows these things besides his meer discuisive reasoning power The Will doth as sweetly relish goodness as the Understanding doth Truth and here lyes much of a Christians strength If you should dispute with a simple man and labor to perswade him that Suger is not sweet oâ— that Wormwood is not bitter perhaps you might by Sophistry over-argue his meer Reason but yet could you not perswade him against his sense whereas a man that hath lost his taste is easilyer deceived for all his reason So is it here when thou hast had a fresh delightful taste of heaven thou wilt not be so easily perswaded from it you cannot perswade a very childe to part with his Apple while the taste of its sweetness is yet in his mouth O that you would be perswaded to try this course to be much in feeding on the hidden Manna and to be frequently tasting the delights of heaven It s true it is a great way off from our Sense but Faith can reach as far as that How would this raise the resolutions and make thee laugh at the fooleries of the world and scorn to be cheated with such childish toyes Reader I pray thee tell me in good sadness dost thou think if the devil had set upon Peter in the Mount when he saw Christ in his Transfiguration and Moses and Elias talking with him would he so â—asily have been drawn to deny his Lord what with all that glory in his eye No the devil took a greater advantage when he had him in the High Priests Hall in the midst of danger and evil company when he had forgotten the sight on the Mount and then he prevails So if he should set upon a believing soul when he is taken up in the Mount with Christ what would such a soul say Get thâ—e behinde me Satan wouldst thou perswade me from hence with trifling pleasures and steal my heart from this my Rest wouldst thou have me sell these joyes for nothing Is there any honor or delight like this or can that be profit which loseth me this some such answer would the soul return But alas Satan staies till we are come down and the taste of heaven is out of our mouthes and the glory we saw is even forgotten and then he easily deceives our hearts What if the devil had set upon Paul when he was in the third Heaven and seeing those unutterable things could he then do you think have perswaded his heart to the pleasures or profits or honors of the world If his prick in the flesh which he after received were not affliction but temptation sure it prevailed not but sent him to heaven again for preserving grace Though the Israelites below may be enticed to Idolatry and from eating and drinking to rise up to play yet Moses in the Mount with God will not do so and if they had been where he was and had but seen what he there saw perhaps they would not so easily have sinned If ye give a man Aloes after Honey or some loathsome thing when he hath been feeding on junkets will he not soon perceive and spit it out O if we could keep the taste of our soul continually delighted with the sweetness above with what disdain should we spit out the baits of sin Fourthly Besides whilst the heart is set on heaven a man is under Gods protection and therefore if Satan then assault him God is more engaged for his defence and will doubtless stand by us and say My grace is sufficient for thee when a man is in the way of Gods blessing he is in the less danger of sins enticing So that now upon all this let me intreat thee Christian Reader If thou be a man that is haunted with temptation as doubless thou art if thou be a man if thou perceive thy danger and wouldst fain escape it O use much this powerful remedy keep close with God by a heavenly minde learn this Art of diversion and when the temptation comes go straite to heaven and turn thy thoughts to higher things thou shalt finde this a surer help then any other resisting whatsoever As men will do with scolding women let them alone and follow their business as if they heard not what they said and this will sooner put them to silence then if they answered them word for word so do by Satans temptations it may be he can overtalk you and over-wit you in dispute but let him alone and study not his temptations but follow your business above with Christ and keep your thoughts to their Heavenly imployment and you will this way sooner vanquish the temptation then if you argued or talk'd it out with the Tempter not but that sometime its most convenient to over-reason him but in ordinary temptations to known sin you shall finde it far better to follow this your work and neglect the allurements and say as Grynaeus out of Chrysost. when he sent back Pistorius letters not so much as opening the Seal Inhonestum est honestam matronam cum meritrice litigare It s an unseemly thing for an honest Matrone to be scolding with a Whore so it s a dishonest thing for a Son of God in apparent cases to stand wrangling with the devil and to be so far at his beck as to dispute with him at his pleasure even as oft as he will be pleased to tempt us Christian If thou remember that of Solomon Prov. 15.24 thou hast the summ of what I intend The way of life is above to the wise to avoide the path of hell beneath and withall remember Noahs example Gen. 6.9 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and no wonder for Noah walked with God So I may say to thee even as God to Abraham Walk before God and thou wilt be upright Gen. 17.1 SECT VII 5. COnsider The diligent keeping of your hearts on heaven will preserve the vigor of all your graces and put life into all your duties It s the heavenly Christian that is the lively Christian It s our strangeness to Heaven that makes us so dull It s the end that quickeneth to all the means And the more frequently and clearly this end is beheld the more vigorous will all our motion be How doth it make men unweariedly labor and fearelesly venture when they do but think of the gainful prize How will the Souldier hazard his life and the Marriner pass through storms and waves how cheerfully do they compass
great deal of fervor in Affections and Duties and all prove but common and unsound when it is raised upon common Grounds and motives your zeal will partake of the nature of those things by which it is acted The zeal therefore which is kindled by your meditations on Heaven is most like to prove a heavenly zeal and the liveliness of the Spirit which you fetch from the face of God must needs be the Divinest and sincerest life Some mens fervency is drawn onely from their Books and some from the pricks of some stinging affliction and some from the mouth of a moving Minister and some from the encouragement of an attentive Auditory but he that knows this way to heaven and it derives it daily from the pure Fountain shall have his soul revived with the water of Life and enjoy that quickning which is the Saints peculiar By this Faith thou maist offer Abels Sacrifice more excellent then that of common men and by it obtain winess that thou art righteous God testifying of thy gifts that they are sincere Heb. 11.4 when others are ready as Baals Priests to beat themselves and cut their flesh because their sacrifice will not burn then if thou canst get but the spirit of Elias and in the chariot of Contemplation canst soar aloft till thou approachest neer to the quickning Spirit thy soul and sacrifice will gloriously flame though the flesh and the world should cast upon them the water of all their opposing enmity Say not now How shall we get so high or how can mortals ascend to heaven For Faith hath wings and Meditation is its chariot Its office is to make absent things as present Do you not see how a little piece of Glass if it do but rightly face the Sun will so contract its beames and heat as to set on fire that which is behinde it which without it would have received but little warmth Why thy Faith is as the Burning-glass to thy Sacrifice and Meditation sets it to face the Sun onely take it not away too soon but hold it there awhile and thy soul will feel the happy effect The slanderous Jews did raise a foolish tale of Christ that he got into the Holy of Holies and thence stole the true name of God and lest he should lose it cut a hole in his thigh and sewed it therein and by the vertue of this he raised the dead gave sight to the blinde cast out divels and performed all his Miracles Surely if we can get into the Holy of Holies and bring thence the Name and Image of God and get it closed up in our hearts this would enable us to work wonders every duty we performed would be a wonder and they that heard would be ready to say Never man spake as this man speaketh The Spirit would possess us as those flaming tongues and make us every one to speak not in the variety of the confounded Languagues but in the primitive pure Language of Canaan the wonderful Works of God We should then be in every duty whether Prayer Exhortation or brotherly reproof as Paul was at Athens his Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was stirred within him and should be ready to say as Jeremy did Jer. 20.9 His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Christian Reader Art thou not thinking when thou seest a lively beleever and hearest his soul-melting Prayers and soul-ravishing discourse O how happy a man is this O that my soul were in this blessed plight Why I here direct and advise thee from God Try this forementioned course and set thy soul conscionably to this work and thou shalt be in as good a case Wash thee frequently in this Jordan and thy Leprous dead soul will revive and thou shalt know that there is a God in Israel and that thou mayst live a vigorous and joyous life if thou wilfully cast not by this duty and so neglect thine own mercies If thou be not a lazy reserved hypocrite but dost truly value this strong and active frame of Spirit shew it then by thy present attempting this heavenly exercise Say not now but thou hast heard the way to obtain this life into thy soul and into thy duties If thou wilt yet neglect it blame thy self But alas the multitude of Professors come to a Minister just as Naaman came to Elias they ask us How shall I know I am a childe of God How shall I overcome a hard heart and get such strength and life of Grace But they expect that some easie means should do it and think we should cure them with the very Answer to their Question and teach them a way to be quickly well but when they hear of a daily trading in Heaven and the constant Meditation on the joyes above This is a greater task then they expected and they turn their backs as Naaman on Elias or the young man on Christ and few of the most conscionable will set upon the duty Will not Preaching and Praying and Conference serve say they without this dweling still in Heaven Just as Countrey people come to Physitians when they have opened their case and made their moan they look he should cure them in a day or two or with the use of some cheap and easie Simple but when they hear of a tedious Method of Physick and of costly Compositions and bitter Potions they will hazard their lives with some sotish Empirick who tells them an easier and cheaper way yea or venture on death it self before they will obey such difficult counsel Too many that we hope well of I fear will take this course here If we could give them life as God did with a word or could heal their souls as Charmers do their bodies with easie stroaking and a few good words then they would readily hear and obey I entreat thee Reader beware of this folly fall to the work the comfort of Spiritual Health will countervail all the trouble of the Duty It is but the flesh that repines and gain-sayes which thou knowest was never a friend to thy soul If God had set thee on some grievous work shouldst thou not have done it for the life of thy soul How much more when he doth but invite thee Heaven-ward to himself SECT VIII 6. COnsider The frequent believing views of Glory are the most precious cordial in all Afflictions First To sustain our spirits and make our sufferings far more easie Secondly To stay us from repining and make us bear with patience and joy And thirdly to strengthen our resolutions that we forsake not Christ for fear of trouble Our very Beast will carry us more chearfully in travel when he is coming homeward where he expecteth Rest. A man will more quietly endure the lancing of his sores the cutting out the Stone when he thinks on the ease that will afterwards follow What then will not a beleever endure when
thou walk without thy strength how long dost thou think thou art like to endure SECT IX 7. COnsider It is he that hath his conversation in heauen who is the profitable Christian to all about him with him you may take sweet counsel and go up to the celestial House of God When a man is in a strange Countrey far from home how glad is he of the company of one of his own Nation how delightful is it to them to talk of their Countrey of their acquaintance and the â—â—â—airs of their home why with a heavenly Christian thou maist have such discourse for he hath been there in the Spirit and can tell thee of the Glory and Rest above VVhat pleasant discourse was it to Joseph to talk with his Brethren in a strange Land and to enquire of his Father and his brother Benjamin Is it not so to a Christian to talk with his Brethren that have been above and enquire after his Father and Christ his Lord when a worldling will talk of nothing but the world and a Politician of nothing but the affairs of the State and a meer Scholar of Humane learning and a common Professor of Duties and of Christians the Heavenly man will be speaking of Heaven and the strange Glory which his Faith hath seen and our speedy and blessed meeting there I confess to discourse with able men of clear Understandings and piercing Wits about the controverted difficulties in Religion yea about some Criticisms in Languages and Sciences is both pleasant and profitable but nothing to this Heavenly discourse of a Beleever O how refreshing and savory are his expressions how his words do peirce and melt the heart how they transform the hearers into other men that they think they are in Heaven all the while How doth his Doctrine drop as the Rain and his Speech distil as the gentle Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the showers upon the Grass while his tongue is expressing the Name of the Lord and ascribing greatness to his God Deut. 32.2 3. Is not his feeling sweet discourse of Heaven even like that box of precious oyntment which being opened to pour on the head of Christ doth fill the house with the pleasure of its perfume All that are neer may be refreshed by it His words are like the precious oyntment on Aarons head that ran down upon his beard and the skirts of his Garments Even like the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descendeth from the Celestial Mount Zion where the Lord hath commanded the blessing even life for evermore Psal. 133.3 This is the man who is as Job When the Candle of God did shine upon his head and when by his light he walked through darkness When the secret of God was upon his Tabernacle and when the Almighty was yet with him Then the ear that heard him did bless him and the eye that saw him gave witness to him Job 29.3 4 5 11. Happy the people that have a Heavenly Minister Happy the children and servants that have a Heavenly Father or Master Happy the man that hath Heavenly Associates if they have but hearts to know their happiness This is the Companion who will watch over thy ways who will strengthen thee when thou art weak who will chear thee when thou art drooping and comfort thee with the same comforts wherewith he hath been so often comforted himself 2 Cor. 1.4 This is he that will be blowing at the spark of thy Spiritual Life and always drawing thy soul to God and will be saying to thee as the Samaritan woman Come and see one that hath told me all that ever I did one that hath ravished my heart with his beauty one that hath loved our souls to the death Is not this the Christ Is not the knowledg of God and Him Eternal life Is not it the glory of the Saints to see his Glory If thou come to this mans house and sit at his Table he will feast thy soul with the dainties of Heaven thou shalt meet with a better then Plato's Philosophical feast even a taste of that feast of fat things Of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Isai. 25.6 That thy soul may be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and thou maist praise the Lord with joyful lips Psal 63.5 If thou travel with this man on the way he will be directing and quickning thee in thy Journey to Heaven If thou be buying or selling or trading with him in the world he will be counselling thee to lay out for the inestimable Treasure If thou wrong him he can pardon thee remembring that Christ hath not onely pardoned greater offences to him but will also give him this unvaluable portion If thou be angry he is meek considering the meekness of his heavenly Pattern or if he fall out with thee he is soon reconciled when he remembreth that in heaven you must be everlasting friends This is the Christian of the right stamp this is the servant that is like his Lord these be the innocent that save the Iland and all about them are the better where they dwell O Sirs I fear the men I have described are very rare even among the Religious but were it not for our own shameful negligence such men we might all be What Families what Towns what Commonwealths what Churches should we have if they were but composed of such men but that is more desirable then hopeful till we come to that Land which hath no other inhabitants save what are incomparably beyond this Alas how empty are the speeches and how unprofitable the society of all other sorts of Christians in comparison of these A man might perceive by his Divine Song and high Expressions Deut. 32. and 33. that Moses had been oft with God and that God had shewed him part of his Glory Who could have composed such spiritual Psalms and poured out praises as David did but a man after Gods own heart and a man that was neer the heart of God and no doubt had God also neer his heart Who could have preached such spiritual Doctrine and dived into the precious mysteries of Salvation as Paul did but one who had been called with a light from heaven and had been rapt up into the third heavens in the Spirit and there had seen the unutterable things If a man should come down from heaven amongst us who had lived in the possession of that blessed State how would men be desirous to see or hear him and all the Countrey far and neer would leave their business and crowd about him happy would he think himself that could get a sight of him how would men long to hear what reports he would make of the other world and what he had seen and what the blessed there enjoy would they not think this man the best companion and his discourse to be of all most profitable Why sirs Every true
believing Saint shall be there in person and is frequently there in Spirit and hath seen it also in the Glass of the Gospel Why then do you value their company no more and why do you enquire no more of them and why do you relish their discourse no better Well for my part I had rather have the fellowship of a Heavenly minded Christian then of the most learned Disputers or Princely Commanders SECT X. 8. COnsider There is no man so highly honoreth God as he who hath his conversation in Heaven and without this we deeply dishonor him Is it not a disgrace to the Father when the Children do feed on Husks and are cloathed in rags and accompany with none but Rogues and Beggers Is it not so to our Father when we who call our selves his Children shall feed on Earth and the garb of our souls be but like that of the naked World and when our hearts shall make this clay and dust their more familiar and frequent company who should always stand in our Fathers presence and be taken up in his own Attendance Sure it beseems not the Spouse of Christ to live among his Scullions and Slaves when they may have daily admittance into his presence Chamber he holds forth the Scepter if they will but enter Sure we live below the rates of the Gospel and not as becometh the Children of a King even of the great King of all the World We live not according to the height of our Hopes nor according to the plenty that is in the Promises nor according to the provision of our Fathers house and the great preparations made for his Saints It is well we have a Father of tender Bowels who will own his Children even in dirt and rags It is well the foundation of God stands sure and that the Lord knoweth who are his or else he would hardly take us for his own so far do we live below the honor of Saints If he did not first challenge his interest in us neither our selves nor others could know us to be his people But O when a Christian can live above and rejoyce his soul in the things that are unseen how doth God take himself to be honored by such a one The Lord may say Why this man beleeves me I see he can trust me and take my Word He rejoyceth in my promise before he hath possession he can be glad and thankful for that which his bodily eyes did never see This mans rejoycing is not in the flesh I see he loves me because he mindes me his heart is with me he loves my presence and he shall surely enjoy it in my Kingdom for ever Because thou hast seen saith Christ to Thomas thou hast beleeved but blessed are they that have not seen and yet have beleeved John 20.29 How did God take himself honored by Caleb and Joshuah when they went into the promised Land and brought back to their Brethren a taste of the Fruits and gave it commendation and encouraged the people And what a promise and recompence do they receive Numb 14.24 30. For those that honor him he will honor 1 Sam. 2.30 SECT XI 9. COnsider If thou make not conscience of this duty of diligent keeping thy heart in Heaven First thou disobeyest the flat commands of God Secondly Thou losest the sweetest parts of Scripture Thirdly And dost frustrate the most gratious discoveries of God God hath not left it as a thing indifferent and at thy own choice whether thou wilt do it or not He hath made it thy duty as well as the means of thy comfort that so a double bond might tie thee not to forsake thy own mercies Col 3 1 2. If ye then be risen with Christ seek those things which are above set your affections on things above not on things on earth The same God that hath commanded thee to believe and to be a Christian hath commanded thee to set thy affections above The same God that hath forbidden thee to murder to steal to commit adultery incest or Idolatry hath forbidden thee the neglect of this great duty and darest thou wilfully disobey him Why makest thou not conscience of the one as well as of the other Secondly besides thou losest the most comfortable passages of the VVord All those most glorious descriptions of heaven all those discoveries of our future blessedness all Gods Revelations of his purposes towards us and his frequent and pretious promises of our Rest what are they all but lost to thee Are not these the stars in the Firmament of the Scripture and the most golden lines in that Book of God Of all the Bible Me thinks thou shouldest not part with one of those Promises or Predictions no not for a world As Heaven is the perfection of all our mercies so the Promises of it in the Gospel are the very soul of the Gospel That VVord whâ—ch was sweeter to David then the honey and the honey comb and to Jeremy the Joy and rejoycing of his heart Jer. 15.16 The most pleasant part of this thou losest Thirdly Yea thou dost frustrate the preparations of Christ for thy Joy and makest him to speak in vain Is a comfortable word from the mouth of God of so great worth that all the comforts of the world are nothing to it and dost thou neglect and overlook so many of them Reader I intreat thee to ponder it why God should reveal so much of his Counsel and tell us before hand of the Joyes we shall possess but onely that he would have us know it for our Joy If it had not been to make comfortable our present life and fill us with the delights of our foreknown blessedness he might have kept his purpose to himself and never have let us know it till we come to enjoy it nor have revealed it to us till death had discovered it what he meant to do with us in the world to come yea when we had got possession of our Rest he might still have concealed its Eternity from us and then the fears of losing it again would have bereaved us of much of the sweetness of our Joyes But it hath pleased our Father to open his Counsel and to let us know the very intent of his heart and to acquaint us with the eternal extent of his Love and all this that our Joy may be full and we might live as the heirs of such a Kingdom And shall we now over-look all as if he had revealed no such matter Shall we live in earthly cares and sorrows as if we knew of no such thing And rejoyce no more in these discoveries then if the Lord had never writ it If thy Prince had sealed thee but a Patent of some Lordship how oft wouldst thou be casting thine eye upon it and make it thy daily delight to study it till thou shouldst come to possess the dignity it self And hath God sealed thee a Patent of Heaven and dost thou let it
you were but banished into a strange Land how frequent thoughts would you have of home how oft would you think of your old companions which way ever you went or what company soever you came in you would still have your hearts and desires there you would even dream in the night that you were at home that you saw your Father or Mother or Friends that you were talking with Wife or Children or Neighbors And why is it not thus with us in respect of Heaven Is not that more truly and properly our home where we must take up our everlasting abode then this which we are looking every hour when we are separated from and shall see it no more VVe are strangers and that is our Countrey Heb. 11 14 15. VVe are heirs and that is our Inheritance even an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 VVe are here in continual distress and want and there lies our substance even that better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 VVe are here fain to be beholden to others and there lies our own perpetual Treasure Matth. 6.20 21. Yea the very Hope of our souls is there all our hope of relief from our distresses all our hope of happiness when we are here miserable all this hope is laid up for us in Heaven whereof we hear in the true VVord of the Gospel Col. 1.5 VVhy beloved Christians have we so much interest and so seldom thoughts have we so near relation and so little affection are we not ashamed of this Doth it become us to be delighted in the company of strangers so as to forget our Father and our Lord or to be so well pleased with those that hate and grieve us as to forget our best and dearest friends or to be so besotted with borrowed trifles as to forget our own possession and treasure or to be so taken up with a strange place as not once a day to look toward home or to fall so in love with tears and wants as to forget our eternal Joy and Rest Christians I pray you think whether this become us or whether this be the part of a wife or thankful man why here thou art like to other men as the heir under age who differs not from a servant but there it is that thou shalt be promoted and fully estated in all that was promised Surely God useth to plead his propriety in us and from thence to conclude to do us good even because we are his own people whom he hath chosen out of all the world And why then do we not plead our interest in him and thence fetch Arguments to raise up our hearts even because he is our own God and because the place is our own possession Men use in other things to over-love and over-value their own and too much to minde their own things O that we could minde our own inheritance and value it but half as it doth deserve SECT XIIII 12. LAstly consider There is nothing else that 's worth the seting our hearts on If God have them not who or what shall have them if thou minde not thy Rest what wilt thou minde As the Disciples said of Christ John 4.32 33. hath any man given him meat to eat that we know not of So say I to thee Hast thou found out some other God or Heaven that we know not of or something that will serve thee in stead of Rest Hast thou found on Earth an Eternal happiness where is it and what is it made of or who was the man that found it out or who was he that last enjoyed it where dwelt he and what was his name or art thou the first that hast found this treasure and that ever discovered Heaven on Earth Ah wretch trust not to thy discoveries boast not of thy gain till experience bid thee boast or rather take up with the experience of thy forefathers who are now in the dust and deprived of all though sometime they were as lusty and jovial as thou I would not advise thee to make experiments at so dear rates as all those do that seek after happiness below least when the substance is lost thou finde too late that thou didst catch but at a shadow least thou be like those men that will needs search out the Philosophers stone though none could effect it that went before them and so buy their experience with the loss of their own estates and time which they might have had at a cheaper rate if they would have taken up with the experience of their Predecessors So I would wish thee not to disquiet thy self in looking for that which is not on Earth least thou learn thy experience with the loss of thy soul◠which thou mightest have learned at easier terms even by the warnings of God in his VVord and loss of thousands of souls before thee It would pity a man to see that men will not beleeve God in this till they have lost their labor and Heaven and all Nay that many Christians who have taken Heaven for their resting place do lose so many thoughts needlesly on Earth and care not how much they oppress their spirits which should be kept nimble and free for higher things As Luther said to Melancthon when he over-pressed himself with the labors of his Ministery so may I much more say to thee who oppressest thy self with the cares of the world Vellem te adhuc decies plus obrui Adeo me nihil tui miseret qui toties monitus ne onerares teipsum tot oneribus nihil audis omnia benè monita contemnis Erit cum sero stultum tuum hunc zelum frustra damnabis quo jam ardes solus omnia portare quasi ferrum aut saxum sis it were no matter if thou wert oppressed ten times more so little do I pity thee who being so often warned that thou shouldst not load thy self with so many burdens dost no whit regard it but contemnest all these wholsom warnings Thou wilt shortly when it is too late condemn this thy foolish forwardness which makes thee so desirous to bear all this as if thou wert made of Iron or Stone Alas that a Christian should rather delight to have his heart among these thorns and bryars then in the bosom of his crucified glorified Lord Surely if Satan should take thee up to the Mountain of Temptation and shew thee the Kingdoms and glory of the world he could shew thee nothing that 's worthy thy thoughts much less to be preferred before thy Rest. Indeed so far as duty and necessity requires it we must be content to minde the things below but who is he that contains himself within the compass of those limits And yet if we bound our cares and thoughts as diligently as ever we can we shall finde the least to be bitter and burdensom even as the least VVasp hath a sting and the smallest Serpent hath his poyson As
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
of knowing right evidences to try by so much as for want of skil and diligence in using them so have I seldom known a Christian that wants the joyes of this heavenly Life for want of being told the means to get it but for want of a heart to set upon the work and painfully to use the means they are directed to It is the field of the slothful that is overgrown with weeds Pro. 24.30 31 32 33 34. And the desires of the slothful killeth his Joyes because his hands refuse to labor Prov. 21.25 whiles he lyes wishing his soul lyes starving He saith There is a Lyon there 's difficulty in the way and turneth himself on the bed of his ease as a nor turneth on the hinges he bideth his hand in his bosome and it grâ—â—veth him to bring it to his 〈◊〉 though it be â—o feed himself with the food of life Prov. 26â— 13 14 15 16. what 's this bâ—â— espising the feast prepared and setting light by the dearâ—bough pleasures and consequently by the pretious blood that bough them and throwing away our own consolations For the Sâ—rit hath told us That he also that is slothful in his work is broâ—â—â—r to him that is a great waster Prov. 18.9 Apply this to thâ— spiritual Work and study well the meaning of it SECT VII 7. IT s alo a dangerous and secret hinderance to content our selâ—es with the meer preparatives to this heavenly Life while we are â—tter strangers to the life it self when we take up with the meer studies of heavenly things and the notions and thoughts of theâ— in our brain or the talking of them with one another as if this were all that makes us heavenly people Ther 's none in more danger of this snare then those that are much in publike duty especially Preachers of the Gospel O how easily may they be deceived here while they do nothing more then read of heaven and study of heaven and preach of heaven and pray and talk of heaven what is not this the heavenly Life O that God would reveal to our hearts the danger of this snare Alas all this is but meer preparation This is not the life we speak of but it s indeed a necessary help thereto I intreat every one of my Brethren in the Ministry that they search and watch against this Temptation Alas this is but gathering the materials and not the erecting of the building it self this is but gathering our Manna for others and not eating and digesting our selves as he that sits at home may study Geography and draw most exact descriptions of Countreys and yet never see them nor travel toward them so may you describe to others the joyes of heaven and yet never come neer it in your own hearts as a man may tell others of the sweetness of meat which he never tasted or as a blinde man by learning may dispute of light and of colours so may you study and preach most heavenly matter which yâ—â— never sweetned your own spirits and set forth to others that heavenly Light wherewith your own souls were never illightened and bring that fire for the hearts of your people that never once warmed your own hearts If you should study of nothing but heaven while you lived and preach of nothing but heaven to your people yet might your own hearts be strangers to it What heavenly passages had Balaam in his Prophesies yet little of it its like in his spirit Nay we are under a more subtil temptation then any other men to draw us from this heavenly life If our imployments did lye at a greater distant from heaven and did take up our thoughts upon worldly things we should not be so apt to be so contented and deluded but when we finde our selves imployed upon nothing else we are easier drawn to take up here Studying and preaching of heaven is likes to an heavenly Life then thinking and talking of the world is and the likeness is it that is like to deceive us This is to dye the most miserable death even to famish our selves because we have bread on our tables which is worse then to famish when we cannot get it and to die for thirst while we draw water for others thinking it enough that we have daily to do with it though we never drink it to our souls refreshing All that I will say to you more of this shall be in the words of my godly and â—udicious friend Mr. George Aâ—â—ot which I will transcribe lest you have not the Book at hand in his Vindiciae Sabathi pag. 147 148 149. And here let me in a holy Jealousâ—e annex an Exhortation to some of the Ministers of this Land for blessed be God it needs not to all that they would carefully provide and look that they do not build the Tabernacle on the Lords Day I mean that they rest not in the Opus operatum of their holy imployments and busying themselves about the carnall part of holy things in putting off the studying of their Sermons or getting them by heart except it be to work them upon the heart and not barely commit them to memory till that day and so though they take care to build the Tabernacle of Gods Church yet they in the mean time neglect the Temple of their own hearts in serving God in the Spirit and not in the Letter or outward performance onely But it were well if they would gather and prepare their Manna seeth it and bake it the day before that when the Sabbath came they might have nothing to do but to chew and concoct it into their own spirits and so spiritually in the experience of their own hearts not heads dish it out to their hearers which would be a happy means to make them see better fruit of their labors for commonly that which is not â—oâ—ally delivered is notionally received and that which is spiritually and powerfully delivered in the evidence of the Spirit is spiritually and savingly received for spirit begets spirit as fire begets fire c. It is an easie thing to take great pains in the outward part or performance of holy things which oft proves a snare causing the neglect of the spirit of the inner man for many are great laborers in the Work of the Lord that are starvelings in the Spirit of the Lord satisfying themselves in a Popish peace of conscience in the deed doing in stead of Joy in the Holy Ghost bringing indeed meat to their Guests but through haste or laziness eating none themselves or like Taylors make cloathes for other men to weare so they never assaying their own points how they 〈…〉 may suit with their own spirits but think it is their duty to â—each and other mens duty to do So far the Author CHAP. V. Some general helps to a Heavenly Life SECT I. HAving thus shewed thee the blocks in thy way and told thee what hinderances will resist thee in the Work I
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
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
weary day and hour might make us long for our eternal rest That as the pulling down of one end of the ballance is the lifting up of the other so the pulling down of our bodies might be the lifting up of our souls that as our souls were usually at the worst when our bodies were at the best so now they might be at the best when our bodies are at the worst why should we not think thus with our selves why every one of these gripes that I feel are but the cutting of the stitches for the ripping off mine old attire that God may cloathe me with the glory of his Saints Had I rather live in these rotten raggs then be at the trouble and pains to shift me Should the Infant desire to stay in the womb because of the straitness and pains of the passage or because he knows not the world that he is to come into nor is acquainted with the fashions or inhabitants thereof Am I not neerer to my desired rest then ever I was If the remembrance of these griefs will increase my joy when I shall look back upon them from above why then should not the remembrance of that joy abate my griefs when I look upwards to it from below And why should the present feeling of these dolors so much diminish the foretasts of Glory when the remembrance of them will then increase it All these gripes and woes that I feel are but the farewell of sin and sorrows As Nature useth to struggle hard a little before death and as the devil cast the man to the ground and tore him when he was going out of him Mark 9.26 so this tearing and troubling which I now feel is but at the departure of sin and misery for as the effects of Grace are sweetest at last so the effects of sin are bitterest at the last and this is the last that ever I shall taste of it when once this whirlwind and earthquake is past the still voyce will next succeed and God onely will be in the voyce though sin also was in the earthquake and whirlwinde Thus Christian as every pang of sickness should minde the wicked of their eternal pangs and make them look into the bottom of hell so should all thy wo and weakness minde thee of thy neer approaching joy and make thee look as high as heaven and as a Ball the harder thou art smitten down to earth the higher shouldst thou rebound up to heaven If this be thy case who readest these lines and if it be not now it will be shortly if thou lye in consuming painful sickness if thou perceive thy dying time draw on O where should thy heart be now but with Christ Methinks thou shouldst even behold him as is were standing by thee and shouldst bespeak him as thy Father thy Husband thy Physitian thy Friend Methinks thou shouldst even see as it were the Angels about thee waiting to perform their last office to thy soul as thy friends wait to perform theirs to thy body Those Angels which disdained not to bring the soul of a scabbed Begger to heaven will not think much to conduct thee thither O look upon thy sickness as Jacob did on Josephs Chariots and let thy spirit revive within thee and say It is enough that Joseph that Christ is yet alive for because he lives I shall live also Joh. 14.19 As thou art sick and needest the daintiest food and choicest Cordials so here are choices then the world affords here is the food of Angels and glorified Saints here is all the joyes that heaven doth yield even the Vision of God the sight of Christ and whatsoever the blessed there possess This Table is spread for thee to feed on in thy sickness these dainties are offered thee by the hand of Christ He hath written thee the Receipt in the Promises of the Gospel He hath prepared thee all the ingredients in Heaven onely put forth the hand of Faith and feed upon them and rejoyce live The Lord saith to thee as he did to Elias Arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee 1 Kings 19.7 Though it be not long yet the way is foul I counsel thee therefore that thou obey his voyce and arise and eat and in the strength of that meat thou maist walk till thou come to the Mount of God Dye not in the ditch of horror or stupidity but as the Lord said to Moses Go up into the Mount and see the Land that the Lord hath promised and dye in the Mount And as old Simeon when he saw Christ in his infancy in the Temple so do thou behold him in the Temple of the New Jerusalem as in his Glory and take him in the arms of thy Faith and say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eye of Faith hath seen thy salvation As thou wast never so neer to Heaven as now so let thy spirit be neerer it now then ever So you have seen which is the fittest season for this duty I should here advise thee also of some times unseasonable but I shall onely add this one Caution The unseasonable urging of the most spiritual duty is more from the Tempter then from the Spirit of God When Satan sees a Christian in a condition wherein he is unable and unfit for a duty or wherein he may have more advantage against us by our performance of it then by our omitting it he will then drive on as earnestly to duty as if it were the very spirit of Holiness that so upon our omitting or ill performance he may have somewhat to cast in our teeth and to trouble us with And this is one of his wayes of deceiving when he transformes himself into an Angel of Light It may be when thou art on thy knees in prayer thou shalt have many good thoughts will come into thy minde or when thou art hearing the word or at such unseasonable times Resist these good thoughts as coming from the devil for they are formally evil though they are materially good Even good thoughts in themselves may be sinful to thee It may be when thou shouldst be diligent in thy necessary labors thou shalt be moved to cast aside all that thou mayest go to Meditation or to Prayer These motions are usually from the spirit of delusion The spirit of Christ doth nothing unseasonably God is not the God of confusion but of order SECT VIII THus much I thought necessary to advise thee concerning the time of this duty It now followes that I speak a word of the fittest place Though God is every where to be found by a faithful soul Yet some places are more convenient for a duty then others 1. As this is a Private and spiritual duty so it is most covenient that thou retire to some private place Our spirits had need of every help and to be freed from every hinderance in the work And the quality of these
deadness of thy heart doth hinder thy joyes even as a sick man is sorry that he wants a stomack when he sees a feast before him Therefore Reader seeing it is much in the capacity and frame of thy heart how much thou shalt enjoy of God in this contemplation be sure that all the room thou hast be empty and if ever seek him here with all thy soul Thrust noâ— Christ into the stable and the manger as if thou hadst better guests for the chiefest rooms Say to all thy worldly business and thoughts as Christ to his Disciples Sit you here while I go and pray yonder Matth. 26.36 Or as Abraham when he went to sacrifice Isaac left his servants and Ass below the Mount saying Stay you here and I and the Lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you So say thou to all thy worldly thoughts Abide you below while I go up to Christ and then I will return to you again Yea as God did terrifie the people with his threats of death if any one should dare to come to the Mount when Moses was to receive the Law from God so do thou terrifie thy own heart and use violence against thy intruding thoughts if they offer to accompany thee to the Mount of Contemplation Even as the Priests thrust Vzziah the King out of the Temple where he presumed to burn incense when they saw the Leprosie to arise upon him so do thou thrust these thoughts from the Temple of thy heart which have the badg of Gods prohibition upon them As you will beat back your dogs yea and leave your servants behinde you when your selves are admitted into the Princes presence so also do by these Your selves may be welcome but such followers may not SECT X. 2. BE sure thou set upon this work with the greatest seriousness that possibly thou canst Customariness here is a killing sin There is no trifling in holy things God will be sanctified of all that draw neer him These spiritual excellent soul-raising duties are the most dangerous if we miscarry in them of all The more they advance the soul being well used the more they destroy it being used unfaithfully As the best meats corrupted are the worst To help thee therefore to be serious when thou settest on this work First Labor to have the deepest apprehensions of the presence of God and of the incomprehensible Greatness of the Majesty which thou approachest If Rebecca vail her face at her approach to Isaac if Esther must not draw neer till the King hold forth the Scepter if dust and worms-meat must have such respect Think then with what reverence thou shouldst approach thy Maker think thou art addressing thy self to him that made the Worlds with the word of his mouth that upholds the Earth as in the palm of his hand that keeps the Sun and Moon and Heavens in their courses that bounds the raging Sea with the Sands and saith Hitherto go and no farther Thou art going about to converse with him before whom the Earth will quake and Devils tremble before whose bar thou must shortly stand and all the world with thee to receive their doom O think I shall then have lively apprehensions of his Majesty my drowsie spirits will then be wakened and my stupid unreverence be laid aside Why should I not now be rouzed with the sense of his Greatness and the dread of his Name possess my soul Secondly Labor to apprehend the greatness of the work which thou attemptest and to be deeply sensible both of its weight and height of its concernment and excellency If thou were pleading for thy life at the bar of a Judg thou wouldst be serious and yet that were but a trifle to this If thou were engaged in such a work as David was against Goliah whereon the Kingdoms deliverance did depend in it self considered it were nothing to this Suppose thou were going to such a wrestling as Jacobs suppose thou were going to see the sight which the three Disciples saw in the Mount How seriously how reverently wouldst thou both approach and behold If the Sun do suffer any notable Eclipse how seriously do all run out to see it If some Angel from Heaven should but appoint to meet thee at the same time and place of thy contemplations how dreadfully how apprehensively wouldst thou go to meet him Why consider then with what a Spirit thou shouldst meet the Lord and with what seriousness and dread thou shouldst daily converse with him When Manoah had seen but an Angel he cryes out We shall surely die because we have seen God Judg 13.22 Consider also the blessed Issue of the work if it do succeed it will be an admission of thee into the presence of God a begining of thy Eternal Glory on Earth a means to make thee live above the rate of other men and admit thee into the next room to the Angels themselves a means to make thee live and die both joyfully and blessedly So that the prize being so great thy preparations should be answerable There is none on Earth that live such a life of joy and blessedness as those that are acquainted with this Heavenly conversation The joyes of all other men are but like a childes play a fools laughter as a dream of health to the sick or as a fresh pasture to a hungry Beast It is he that trades at Heaven that is the onely gainer and he that neglecteth it that is the onely loser And therefore how seriously should this work be done CHAP. VIII Of Consideration the instrument of this Work and what force it hath to move the Soul SECT I. HAving shewed thee how thou must set upon this work I come now to direct thee in the work it self and to shew thee the way which thou must take to perform it All this hath been but to set the Instrument thy heart in tune and now we are come to the Musick it self All this hath been but to get thee an appetite it follows now That thou approach unto the Feast that thou sit down and take what is offered and delight thy soul as with marrow and fatness Whoever you are that are children of the Kingdom I have this message to you from the Lord Behold the dinner is prepared the Oxen and fatlings are killed Come for all things are now ready Heaven is before you Christ is before you the exceeding Eternal weight of Glory is before you Come therefore and feed upon it Do not make light of this invitation Matth. 22.5 nor put off your own mercies with excuses Luke 14.18 what ever thou art Rich or poor though in Alms-houses or Hospitals though in High-ways or Hedges my Commission is if possible to compel you to come in And blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God Luke 14.15 The Manna lyeth about your Tents walk forth into the Wilderness gather it up take it home and feed upon it so that
the remaining Work is onely to direct you how to use your hands and mouth to feed your stomack I mean how to use your â—nderstandings for the warming of your Affections and to fire your Hearts by the help of your Heads And herein it will be necessary that I observe this Method First to shew you what instrument it is that you must work by Secondly VVhy and how this way of working is like to succeed and attain its end Thirdly VVhat powers of the soul should here be acted and what are the particular Affections to be excited and what objective Considerations are necessary thereto and in what order you should proceed Fourthly By what acts you must advance to the height of the work Fifthly VVhat advantages you must take and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success Sixthly In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole And I will be the briefer in all left you should loâ—e my meaning in a crowd of words or your thoughts be carried from the VVork it self by an over-long and tedious Explication of it SECT II. 1. THe great Instrument that this Work is done by is Ratiocination Reasoning the case with your selves Discourse of minde Cogitation or Thinking or if you will call it Consideration I here suppose you to know the things to be considered and therefore shall wholly pass over thaâ— Meditation of Students which tends onely to Speculation or Knowing They are known Truths that I perswade you to consider for the grossly ignorant that know not the Doctrine of everlasting Life are for the present uncapable of this duty Mans soul as it receives and retains the Idea's or Shapes of things so hath it a power to chuse out any of these deposited Idea's and draw them forth and act upon them again and again even as a Sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it and so we should be somewhat below the Bruits This is the power that here you must use To this choice of Idea's or subjects for your Cogitation there must necessarily concur the act of the Will which indeed must go along in the whole Work for this must be a voluntary not a forced Cogitation Some men do consider whether they will or no and are not able to turn away their own thoughts so will God make the wicked consider of their sins when he shall set them all in order before them Psal. 50.21.22 And so shall the damned consider of Heaven and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised and of the eternal joyes which they have foolishly lost But this forced Consideration is not that I mean but that which thou dost willingly and purposely chose but though they will be here requisite yet still Consideration is the instrument of the Work SECT III. 2. NExt let us see what force Consideration hath for the moving of the affections and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart Why First Consideration doth as it were open the door between the Head and the Heart The Understanding having received Truths layes them up in the Memory now Consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the Affections There 's few men of so weak Understanding or Memory but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them and make great alterations in their spirits if they were not locked up in their brain and if they could but convey them down to their hearts Now this is the great work of Consideration O what rare men would they be who have strong heads and much learning and knowledge if the obstructions between the Head and the Heart were but opened and their Affections did but correspond to their Understandings why if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things as they bestow in studying the Truth and Falshood of Enunciations it were the readiest way to obtain this he is usually the best Scholar who hath the quick the clear and the tenacious apprehension but he is usually the best Christian who hath the deepest piercing and affecting Apprehension He is the best Scholar who hath the readiest passage from the Ear to the Brain but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the Brain to the Heart now Consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage though the Spirit open as the principal cause inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless SECT IV. 2. MAtter 's of great weight which do neerly concern us are aptest to work most effectually upon the Heart now Meditation draweth forth these working Objects and presents them to the Affections in their worth and weight The most delectable Object doth not please him that sees it not nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now Consideration presents before us those Objects that were as absent and brings them to the Eye and the Ear of the soul Are not Christ and Glory think you affecting Objects would not they work wonders upon the soul if they were but clearly discovered and strangely transport us if our apprehensions were any wâ—it answerable to their worth why by Consideration it is that they are presented to us This is the Prospective Glass of the Christian by which he can see from Earth to Heaven SECT V. 3. AS Consideration draweth forth the weightiest Objects so it presenteth them in the most affecting way and presseth them home with enforcing Arguments Man is a Rational Creature and apt to be moved in a Reasoning way especially when Reasons are evident and strong Now Consideration is a reasoning the case with a mans own heart and what a multitude of Reasons both clear and weighty are always at hand for to work upon the heart VVhen a Believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work how many Arguments do offer themselves from God from the Redeemer from every one of the Divine Attributes from our former Estate from our present Estate from Promises from Seals from Earnest from the Evil we now suffer from the Good we partake of from Hell from Heaven every thing doth offer it self to promote our joy now Meditation is the Hand to draw forth all these as when you are weighing a thing in the Ballance you lay on a little more and a little more till it weigh down so if your Affections do hang in a dull indifferency why due Meditation will add Reason after Reason till the scales do turn Or as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use you bid a little more and a little more till at last you come to the sellers price so when Meditation is perswading you to Joy it will first bring one Reason and then another till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows and your cause to rejoyce lyes plain before you If another mans reasons will
work so powerfully with us though we are uncertain whether his heart do concur with his speeches and whether his intention be to inform us or deceive us how much more should our own Reasons work with us when we are acquainted with the right intentions of our own hearts Nay how much more rather should Gods Reasons work with us which we are sure are neither fallacions in his intent nor in themselves seeing he did never yet deceive nor was ever deceived Why now Meditation is but the Reading over and repeating Gods reasons to our hearts and so disputing with our selves in his Arguments and terms And is not this then likely to be a prevailing way What Reasons doth the prodigal plead with himself why he should return to his fathers house And as many and strong have we to plead with our affections to perswade them to our Fathers Everlasting habitations And by Consideration it is that they must all be set a work SECT VI. 4. MEditation putteth reason in its Authority and preheminence It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent it is usually subject For when it is asleep the senses domineer Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep till it rowse up it self as Sampson and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered and then as a Gyant refreshed with wine it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep What is the King more then another man when he is once deposed from his throne and authority When men have no better Judg then the flesh or when the joyes of heaven go no further then their fantasie no wonder if they work but as common things sweet things to the eye and beautiful things to the ear will work no more then bitter and deformed every thing worketh in its own place and every sense hath its proper object Now it is spiritual reason excited by Meditation and not the fantasie or fleshly sense which must favor and judg of those superior Joyes Consideration exalteth the objects of faith and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men SECT VII 5. MEditation also putteth reason into his strength Reason is at the strongest when it is most in action Now Meditation produceth reason into Act. Before it was as a standing water which can move nothing else when it self moveth not but now it is as the speedy stream which violently bears down all before it Before it was as the still and silent air but now it is as the powerful motion of the wind and overthrows the opposition of the flesh and the devil Before it was as the stones which lay still in the brook but now when Meditation doth set it awork it is as the stone out of Davids sling which smites the Goliah of our unbelief in the forehead As wicked men continue wicked not because they have not reason in the principle but because they bring it not into Act and use so godly men are uncomfortable and sad not because they have no causes to rejoyce nor because they have not reason to discern those causes but because they let their reason and faith lye asleep and do not labor to set them a going nor stir them up to action by this work of Meditation You know that our very dreams will deeply affect What fears What sorrowes What Joy will they stir up How much more then would serious Meditation affect us SECT VIII 6. MEditation can continue this Discouâ—sive imployment That may be accomplished by a weaker motion continued which will not by a stronger at the first attempt A plaister that is never so effectual to cure must yet have time to do its work and not to be taken off as soon as it s on Now Meditation doth hold the plaister to the sore It holdeth Reason and Faith to their work and bloweth the fire till it throughly burn To run a few steps will not get a man heat but walking an hour together may So though a sudden occasional thought of Heaven will not raise our affections to any spiritual heat yet Meditation can continue our thoughts and lengthen our walk till our hearts grow warm And thus you see what force Meditation or consideration hath for the effecting of this great elevation of the soul whereto I have told you it must be the Instrument CHAP. IX What Affections must be Acted and by what Considerations and objests and in what order SECT I. THirdly To draw yet neerer the heart of the work The third thing to be discovered to you is What Powers of the soul must here be acted What affections excited What considerations of their objects are necessary thereto and in what order we must proceed I joyn all these together because though in themselves they are distinct things yet in the practice they all concurre to the same Action The matters of God which we are to think on have their various qualifications and are presented to the soul of man in divers relative and Modal considerations According to these several considerations of the objects the soul it self is distinguished into its several faculties powers and capacities That as God hath given man five senses to partake of the five distinct excellencies of the objects of sense so he hath diversifyed the soul of man either into faculties powers or ways of acting answerable to the various qualifications and considerations of himself and the inferior objects of this soul And as if there be more sensible excellencies in the creatures yet they are unknown to us who have but these five senses to discern them by so whatever other excellencies are in God and our happiness more then these faculties or powers of the soul can apprehend must needs remain wholly unknown to us till our souls have senses as it were suitable to those objects 〈◊〉 as it is unknown to a tree or a stone what sound and light 〈◊〉 sweetness are or that there are any such things in the world 〈◊〉 Now these matters of God are primarily diversifyed to our consideration under the Distinction of True and Good accordingly the primary Distinction concerning the soul is into the faculties of Understanding and Will the former having Truth for its object and the latter Goodness This Truth is sometime known by evident Demonstration and so it is the object of that we call knowledg which also admits of divers distinctions according to several ways of demonstration which I am loth here to puzzle you with Sometime it is received from the Testimony of others which receiving we call belief When any thing else would obscure it or stands up in competition with it then we weigh their several evidences and accordingly discover and vindicate the Truth and this we call Judgment Sometime by the strength the clearness
to superscribe my best services as the blinde Athenians To the unknown God when they are as well acquainted with him as men that live continually in his house and as familiar in their holy praises as if they were all one with him What a little of that God that Christ that spirit that life that love that joy have I and how soon doth it depart and leave me in sadder darkness Now and then a spark doth fall upon my heart and while I gaze upon it it strait goes out or rather my cold resisting heart doth quench it But they have their light in his light and live continually at the spring of Joyes Here are we vexing each other with quarrels and troubling our peace with discontents when they are one in heart and voice and daily sound forth their Hallelujah's to God with full delightful Harmony and concent O what a Feast hath my faith beheld and O what a famine is yet in my spirit I have seen a glympse into the Court of God but alas I stand but as a begger at the doors when the souls of my companions are admitted in O blessed souls I may not I dare not envye your happiness I rather rejoyce in my brethrens prosperity and am glad to think of the day when I shall be admitted into your fellowship But I cannot but look upon you as a childe doth on his brother who sits in the mothers lap while himself stands by and wish that I were so happy as to be in your place not to displace you but to Rest there with you Why must I stay and groan and weep and wait My Lord is gone he hath left this earth and is entered into his Glory my Brethren are gone my friends are there my house my hope my All is there and must I stay behinde to sojourn here what precious Saints have left this earth of whom I am ready to say as Amerbachius when he heard of the death of Zuingerus Piget me vivere post tantum virum cujus magna fuit doctrina sed exigua si cum pietate conferatur It is irksome to me to live after such a man whose learning was so great and yet compared with his godliness very small If the Saints were all here if Christ were here then it were no grief for me to stay if the bridegroom were present who could mourn But when my soul is so far distant from my God wonder not what aileth we if I now complain An ignorant Micah will do so for his idol and shall not then my soul do so for God And yet if I had no hope of enjoying I would go and hide my self in the deserts and lye and howl in some obscure wilderness and spend my days in fruitles wishes But seeing it is the promised land of my Rest and the state that I must be advanced to my self and my soul draws neer and is almost at it I will love and long I will look and desire I will breathe out blessed Calvins Motto Vsquequo Domine How long Lord How long How long Lord Holy and True wilt thou suffer this soul to pant and groan and wilt not open and let him in who waits and longs to be with Thee Thus Christian Reader let thy thoughts aspire Thus whet the desires of thy soul by these Meditations Till thy soul long as Davids for the waters of Bethlehem and say O that one would give me to drink of the wells of salvation 2 Sam. 23.15 and till thou canst say as he Psal. 119.174 I have longed for thy salvation O Lord. And as the mother and brethren of Christ when they could not come at him because of the press sent to him saying Thy mother and brethren stand without desiring to see thee send thou up the same message tell him thou standest here without desiring to see him he will own thee 〈…〉 neer relations for he hath said They that hear 〈…〉 and do it are his mother and brethren And thus I have â—neâ—ted you in the acting of your desire after your Rest. SECT VII 3. THe next Affection to be acted is Hope This is of singular use to the soul. It helpeth exceedingly to support it in sufferings it encourageth to adventure upon the greatest difficulties it firmly establisheth it in the most shaking tryals and it mightily enlivens the soul in duties and is the very spring that sets all the wheels a going Who would Preach if it were not in hope to prevail with poor sinners for their Conversion and Confirmation who would pray but for his hope to prevail with God who would beleeve or obey or strive or suffer or do any thing for Heaven if it were not for the hope that he hath to obtain it Would the Marriner sail and the Merchant adventure if they had not hope of safety and success would the Husbandman plough and sow and take pains if he had not hope of increase at Harvest would the Souldier fight if he hoped not for victory Sureâ—io man doth adventure upon known impossibilities Therefore it is that they who pray meerly from custom or meerly from conscience considering it as a duty onely but looking for no great matters from God by their prayers are generally formal and heartless therein whereas the Christian that hath observed the wonderful success of prayer and as verily looks for benefit by it and thriving to his soul in the use of it as he looks for benefit by his labors and thriving to his body in the use of his food how faithfully doth he follow it and how cheerfully go through it O how willingly do we Ministers study how cheerfully do we Preach What life doth it put into our instructions and exhortations when we have but hope that our labor will succeed when we discern a people attend to the Word and regard the Message and hear them inquire what they shall do as men that are willing to be ruled by God and as men that would fain have their souls to be saved you would not think how it helpeth us both for invention and expression O who can chuse but pray heartily for and preach heartily to such a people As the sucking of the young one doth draw forth the milk so will the peoples desire and obedience draw forth the Word So that a dull people make dull Preachers and a lively people make a lively Preacher So great a force hath hope in all our duties As hope of speeding encreaseth so doth diligence in seeking encrease besides the great conducement of it to our joy Even the false hope of the wicked doth much support and maintain a kinde of comfort answerable to their hope though its true their hope and joy will both die with them How much more will the Saints hopes refresh and support them All this I have said to shew you the excellency and necessity of this Grace and so to provoke you to the more constant acting of it If
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
to conceive And doubtless as the Spirit doth speak so we must hear and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings Those conceivings and expressions which we have of Spirits and things meerly Spiritual they are commonly but second Notions without the first but meer names that are put into our mouths without any true conceivings of the things which they signifie or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms are meerly negative what things are not rather then what they are As when we mention Spirits we mean they are not corporeal substances but what they are we cannot tell no more then we know what is Aristotles Materia Prima It is one reason of Christs assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead that we might know him the better when he is so much neerer to us and might have more positive conceivings of him and so our mindes might have familiarity with him who before was quite beyond their reach But what is my scope in all this is it that we might think Heaven to be made of Gold and Pearl or that we should Picture Christ as the Papists do in such a shape or that we should think Saints and Angels do indeed eat and drink No Not that we should take the Spirits figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety or have fleshly conceivings of Spiritual things so as to beleeve them to be such indeed But thus To think that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety is utterly beyond our reach and capacity and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections but not to pervert them and use these low notions as a Glass in which we must see the things themselves though the representation be exceeding imperfect till we come to an immeditae and perfect sight yet still concluding That these phrases though useful are but borrowed and improper The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of Creatures as anger repenting willing what shall not come to pass c. Though these be improper drawn from the maner of men yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet then in this glass and which we can no better conceive of then in such notions or else the Holy Ghost would have given us better I would the Judicious Reader would on the by well weigh also how much this conduceth to reconcile us and the Arminians in those ancient and like-to-be continuing Controversies SECT II. 1. GO too then When thou settest thy self to meditate on the joyes above think on them boldly as Scripture hath expressed them Bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense Excellency without familiarity doth more amaze then delight us Both Love and Joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance When we go about to think of God and Glory in proper conceivings without these Spectacles we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon We set God and Heaven so far from us that our thoughts are strange and we look at them as things beyond our reach and beyond our line and are ready to say That which is above us is nothing to us To conceive no more of God and Glory but that we cannot conceive them and to apprehend no more but that they are past our apprehension will produce no more love but this To acknowledg that they are so far above us that we cannot love them and no more joy but this That they are above our rejoycing And therefore put Christ no further from you then he hath put himself least the Divine Nature be again inaccessible Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified think of our fellow Saints as men there perfected think of the City and State as the Spirit hath expressed it onely with the Caution and Limitations before mentioned Suppose thou were now beholding this City of God and that thou hadst been companion with John in his Survey of its Glory and hadst seen the Thrones the Majesty the Heavenly Hosts the shining Splendor which he saw Draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present that which God hath in Prophecies revealed and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long Suppose therefore with thy self thou hadst been that Apostles fellow-traveller into the Celestial Kingdom and that thou hadst seen all the Saints in their White Robes with Palms in their hands Suppose thou hadst heard those Songs of Moses and of the Lamb or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the Living God If thou hadst seen these things indeed in what a rapture wouldst thou have been And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thy self the more will the Meditation elevate thy heart I would not have thee as the Papists draw them in Pictures nor use mysterious significant Ceremonies to represent them This as it is a course forbidden by God so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart But get the liveliest Picture of them in thy minde that possibly thou canst meditate of them as if thou were all the while beholding them and as if thou were even hearing the Hallelujahs while thou art thinking of them till thou canst say Methinks I see a glympse of the Glory methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise methinks I even stand by Abraham and David Peter and Paul and many more of these triumphing souls methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom methinks I even hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father and even see them go rejoycing into the Joy of their Lord My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me and should not these just suppositions affect me much more What if I had seen with Paul those unutterable things should I not have been exalted and that perhaps above measure as well as he What if I had stood in the room of Stephen and seen Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones O that I might but see what he did see though I also suffered what he did suffer What if I had seen such a sight as Michaiah saw The Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his left Why these men of God did see such things and I shall shortly see far more then ever they saw
be If I could see the Congregations provided with able Teachers and the people receiving and obeying the Gospel and longing for Reformation and for the Government of Christ O what a blessed place were England If I could see our Ignorance turned into Knowledg and Error turned into soundness of Understanding and shallow Professors into solid Believers and Brethren living in Amity and in the life of the Spirit O what a fortunate Iland were this Alas alas what 's all this to the Reformation in Heaven and to the blessed condition which we must live in there There 's another kinde of change and glory then this What great joy had the people and David himself to see them so willingly offer to the Service of the Lord And what an excellent Psalme of Praise doth David thereupon compose 1 Chro. 29.9 10 c. When Solomon was anointed King in Jerusalem the people rejoyced with so great joy that the earth rent at the sound of them 1 Kings 1.40 what a joyful shout will there be then at the appearing of the King of the Church If when the foundations of the earth were fastned and the corner stone thereof was laid the morning stars did sing together and all the sons of God did shout for joy Job 38 6 7. why then when our glorious world is both founded and finished and the corner stone appeareth to be the top stone also and the Holy City is adorned as the Bride of the Lamb O Sirs what a joyful shout will then be heard SECT XI 9 COmpare the joy which thou shalt have in heaven with that which the Saints of God have found in the way to it and in the foretastes of it when thou seest a heavenly man rejoyce think what it is that so affects him it is the property of fools to rejoyce in toyes and to laugh at nothing but the people of God are wiser then so they know what it is that makes them glad When did God ever reveal the least of himself to any of his Saints but the joy of their hearts were answerable to the Revelation Paul was so lifted up with what he saw that he was in danger of being exalted above measure and must have a prick in the flesh to keep him down when Peter had seen but Christ in his Transfiguration which was but a small glimpse of his glory and had seen Moses and Elias talking with him what a rapture and extasie is he cast into Master saith he it is good for us to be here let us here build three Tabernacles one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias as if he should say O let us not go down again to yonder persecuting rabble let us not go down again to yonder drossy dirty world let us not return to our mean and suffering state is it not better that we stay here now we are here is not here better company and sweeter pleasures but the Text saith He knew not what he said Matth. 17.4 When Moses had been talking with God in the Mount it made his Visage so shineing and glorious that the people could not endure to behold it but he was fain to put a vail upon it No wonder then if the face of God must be vailed till we are come to that state where we shall be more capable of beholding him when the vail shall be taken away and we all beholding him with open face shall be turned into the same Image from glory to glory Alas what is the backparts which Moses saw from the clefts of the Rock to that open face which we shall behold hereafter what is the Revelation to John in Patmos to this Revelation which we shall have in heaven How short doth Pauls Vision come of the Saints Vision above with God How small a part of the glory which we must see was that which so transported Peter in the Mount I confess these were all extraordinary foretastes but little to the full Beatifical Vision when David foresaw the Resurrection of Christ and of himself and the pleasures which he should have for ever at Gods right hand how doth it make him break forth and say Therefore my heart was glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope Psal. 16.9 Why think then If the foresight can raise such ravishing joy what will the actual possession do How oft have we read and heard of the dying Saints who when they had scarce strength and life enough to express them have been as full of joy as their hearts could hold And when their bodies have been under the extremities of their sickness yea ready to feel the pangs of death have yet had so much of heaven in their spirits that their joy hath far surpassed their sorrows and if a spark of this fire be so glorious and that in the midst of the sea of adversity what then is that Sun of Glory it self O the joy that the Martyrs of Christ have felt in the midst of the scorching flames sure they had life and sense as we and were flesh and blood as well as we therefore it must needs be some excellent thing that must so rejoyce their souls while their bodies were burning VVhen Bilney can burn his finger in the Candle and Cranmer can burn off his unworthy right Hand when Bainham can call the Papists to see a Miracle and tel them that he feels no more pain then in a bed of Down and that the fire was to him as a bed of Roses when Farrer can say If Istir believe not my Doctrine Think then Reader with thy self in thy Meditations sure it must be some wonderful foretasted glory that can do all this that can make the flames of fire easie and that can make the King of Fears so welcome O what then must this glory it self needs be when the very thoughts of it can bring Paul into such a streight that he desired to depart and to be with Christ as best of all when it can make men never think themselves well till they are dead O what a blessed Rest is this Shall Sanders so delightfully embrace the Stake and cry out Welcome Cross and shall not I more delightfully imbrace my blessedness and cry Welcome Crown Shall blessed Bradford kiss the Faggot and shall not I then kiss the Son himself Shall the poor Martyr rejoyce that she might have her foot in the same hole of the Stocks that Mr. Philpots foot had been in before her and shall not I rejoyce that my soul shall live in the same place of glory where Christ and his Apostles are gone before me Shall Fire and Faggot shall Prisons and Banishment shall Scorns and cruel Torments be more welcome to others then Christ and Glory shall be to me God forbid What thanks did Lucius the Martyr give them that they would send him to Christ from his ill masters on earth How desirously did Basil wish when his persecuters threatned his
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
dare to contend in love with thee or set my borrowed languid spark against the Element and Sun of Love Can I love as high as deep as broad as long as Love it self as much as he that made me and that made me love that gave me all that little which I have both the heart the hearth where it is kindled the bellows the fire the fuel and all were his As I cannot match thee in the works of thy Power nor make nor preserve nor guide the worlds so why should I think any moreof matching thee in Love No Lord I yield I am unable I am overcome O blessed conquest Go on victoriously and still prevail and triumph in thy love The Captive of Love shall proclaim thy victory when thou leadest me in triumph from Earth to Heaven from Death to Life from the Tribunal to the Throne my self and all that see it shall acknowledg that thou hast prevailed and all shall say Behold how he loved him Yet let me love thee in subjection to thy Love as thy redeemed Captive though not thy Peer shall I not love at all because I cannot reach thy measure or at least let me heartily wish to love thee O that I were able O that I could feelingly say I love thee even as I feel I love my friend and my self Lord that I could do it but alas I cannot fain I would but alas I cannot Would I not love thee if I were but able Though I cannot say as thy Apostle Thou knowest that I Love thee yet can I say Lord thou knowest that I would love thee but I speak not this to excuse my fault it is a crime that admits of no excuse and it is my own it dwelleth as neer me as my very heart if my heart be my own this sin is my own yea and more my own then my heart is Lord what shall this sinner do the fault is my own and yet I cannot help it I am angry with my heart that it doth not love thee and yet I feel it love thee never the more I frown up on it and yet it cares not I threaten it but it doth not feel I chide it and yet it doth not mend I reason with it and would fain perswade it and yet I do not perceive it stir I rear it up as a carkass upon its legs but it neither goes nor stands I rub and chafe it in the use of thine Ordinances and yet I feel it not warm within me O miserable man that I am unworthy soul is not thine eye now upon the onely lovely object and art thou not beholding the ravishing glory of the Saints and yet dost thou not love and yet dost thou not feel the fire break forth why art thou not a soul a living spirit and is not thy love the choicest piece of thy life Art thou not a rational soul and shouldst not thou love according to Reasons conduct and doth it not tell thee that all is dirt and dung to Christ that earth is a dungeon to the celestial glory Art thou not a spirit thy self and shoulst thou not love spiritually even God who is a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Doth not every creature love their like why my soul art thou like to fleshâ— or gold or stately buildings art thou like to meat and drink or cloathes wilt thou love no higher then thy horse or swine hast thou nothing better to love then they what is the beauty that thou hast so admired canst thou not even wink or think it all into darkness or deformity when the night comes it is nothing to thee while thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away a Botch or Scab the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age do make it as loathsom as it was before delightful suppose but that thou sawest that beautiful carcass lying on the Bier or rotting in the grave the skull dig'd up and the bones scattered where is now thy lovely object couldst thou sweetly embrace it when the soul is gone or take any pleasure in it when there is nothing left thats like thy self Ah why then dost thou love a skinful of dirt and canst love no more the heavenly Glory What thinkest thou shalt thou love when thou comest there when thou seest when thou dost enjoy when the Lord shall take thy carcass from the grave and make thee shine as the Sun in glory and when thou shalt everlastingly dwell in the blessed presence shalt thou then love or shalt thou not is not the place a meeting of lovers is not the life a state of love is it not the great marriage day of the Lamb when he will embrace and entertain his Spouse with love is not the imployment there the work of love where the souls with Christ do take their fill O then my soul begin it here be sick of love now that thou maist be well with love there keep thy self now in the love of God Jude 21. and let neither life nor death nor any thing separate thee from it and thou shalt be kept in the fulness of love for ever and nothing shalt imbitter or abate thy pleasure for the Lord hath prepared a city of love a place for the communicating of love to his chosen and those that love his Name shall dwell there Psal. 69.36 Awake then O my drowsie soul who but an Owl or Mole would love this worlds uncomfortable darkness when they are called forth to live in light to sleep under the light of Grace is unreasonable much more in the approach of the light of Glory The night of thy ignorance and misery is past the day of glorious Light is at hand this is the day-break betwixt them both Though thou see not yet the Sun it self appear methinks the twilight of a promise should revive thee Come forth then O my dull congealed spirits and leave these earthly Cels of dumpish sadness and hear thy Lord that bids thee Rejoyce and again Rejoyce thou hast lain here long enough in thy prison of flesh where Satan hath been thy Jaylor and the things of this world have been the Stocks for the feet of thy Affections where cares have been thy Trons and fears thy Scourge and the bread and water of Affliction thy food where sorrows have been thy lodging and thy sins and foes have made the bed and a carnal hard unbelieving heart have been the iron gates bars that have kept thee in that thou couldst scarce have leave to look through the Lattices and see one glimpse of the immortal light The Angel of the Covenant now calls thee and strikes thee and bids thee Arise and follow him up O my soul and cheerfully obey and thy bolts and bars shall all fly open do thou obey and all will obey follow the Lamb which way ever he leads thee Art thou afraid because thou knowst not whither Can the place be worse then where thou art Shouldst thou fear to follow
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
and suppress my joyes yet shalt thou not be able to conquer and destroy me There shall I and my joyes survive when thou art dead and though thou envy all my comforts yet some in despight of thee I shall even here receive But were it not for thee what abundance might I have The light of Heaven would shine into my heart and I might be as familiar there as I am on earth Come away my soul then stop thine ears to the ignorant language of infidelity Thou art able to answer all its Arguments Or if thou be not yet tread them under thy feet Come away stand not looking on that grave nor turning those bones nor reading thy lesson now in the dust Those lines will soon be wiped out But lift up thy head and look to heaven and read thy instructions in those fixed Stars Or yet look higher then those eyes can see into that foundation which standeth sure and see thy name in golden letters written before the foundations of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb. What if an Angel from Heaven should tell thee that there is a mansion prepared for thee that it shall certainly be thine own and thou shalt possess it for ever would not such a message make thee glad And dost thou make light of the infallible word of promises which were delivered by the spirit and by the Son himself Suppose thou hadst seen a fiery chariot come for thee and fetch thee up to Heaven like Elias would not this rejoyce thee Why my Lord hath acquainted me and assured me that the soul of a Lazarus a begger goes not forth of its corrupted flesh but a Convoy of Angels are ready to attend it and bring it to the comforts in Abrahams bosome Shall a drunkard be so merry among his cups and a glutton in his delicious fare and the proud in his bravery and dignity and the lustful wanton in the enjoyment of his mate And shall not I rejoyce who must shortly be in Heaven How glad is voluptuous youth of their playtimes and holydayes VVhy in Heaven I shall have an everlasting Holyday of Pleasure Can meat and drink delight me when I hunger and thirst Can I finde pleasure in walks and gardens and convenient dwellings Can beauteous sights delight mine eyes and odors my smell and melody mine ears And shall not the forethought of the Celestial bliss delight me my beast is glad of his fresh pasture and his liberty and his Rest And shall not I What delight have I found in my private studies especially when they have prospered to the increase of my knowledg me thinks I could bid the world farewel and immure my self among my books and look forth no more were it a lawful course but as Heinsius in his Library at Leyden shut the doors upon me and as in the lap of Eternity among those divine souls imploy my self in sweet content and pitty the rich and great ones that know not this happiness Sure then it is a high delight indeed which in the true lap of Eternity is enjoyed If Lipsius thought when he did but read Seneca that he was even upon Olympus top above mortality and humane things VVhat a case shall I be in when I am beholding Christ If Julius Scaliger thought twelve verses in Lucan better then the whole German Empire What shall I think mine inheritance worth If the Mathematicks alone are so delectable that their students do profess that they should think it sweet to live and dye in those studies How delectable then will my life be when I shall fully and clearly know those things which the most learned do now know but doubtfully and darkly In one hour shall I see all difficulties vanish and all my doubts in Physicks Metaphysicks Politicks Medicine c. shall be resolved so happy are the students of that University Yea all the depths in divinity will be uncovered to me and all the difficult knots untyed and the book unsealed and mine eyes opened For in knowing God I shall know all things that are fit or good for the creature to know There Commeni'us attempt is perfected and all the sciences reduced to one Seneca thought that he that lived without books was but buried alive But had he known what it is to enjoy God in glory he would have said indeed that to live without him is to be buried alive in hell If Apollonius travelled into Aethiopia and Persia to consult with the learned there And if Plato and Pythagoras left their country to see those wise Egyptian Priests And if as Hierom saith many travelled thousand miles to see and speak with eloquent Livy And if the queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to hear the wisdome of Solomon and see his glory O how gladly should I leave this Countrey how cheerfully should I pass from earth to Heaven to see the glory of that Eternal Majesty and to attain my self that height of wisdom in comparison of which the most learned on earth are but silly bruitish fools and Ideots If Bernard were so ravished with the delights of his Monastery where he lived in poverty without the common pleasures of the world because of its green banks and shady bowers and herbes and trees and various objects to feed the eyes and fragrant smels and sweet and various tunes of Birds together with the opportunity of devout contemplations that he cryes out in admiration Lord VVhat abundance of delights dost thou provide even for the poor How then should I be ravished with the description of the Court of Heaven where in stead of hearbs and trees and birds and bowers I shall enjoy God and my Redeemer Angels Saints and unexpressible pleasures and therefore should with more admiration cry out Lord what delights hast thou provided for us miserable and unworthy wretches that wait for thee If the heaven of glass which the Persian Emperor framed were so glorious a piece and the heaven of silver which the Emperor Ferdinand sent to the great Turk because of their rare artificial representations and motions VVhat will the Heaven of Heavens then be which is not formed by the Art of man nor beautified like these childish toyes but is the matchless Pallace of the great King built by himself for the residence of his glory and the perpetual entertainment of his beloved Saints Can a poor deluded Mahometan rejoyce in expectation of a feigned sensual Paradise And shall not I rejoyce in expectation of a certain Glory If the honor of the ambitious or the wealth of the covetous person do increase his heart is lifted up with his estate as a boate that riseth with the rising of the water If they have but a little more lands or money then their neighbors how easily may you see it in their countenance and carriage How high do they look how big do they speak how stately and loftily do they demean themselves And shall not the heavenly loftiness
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
and Groans How then should I long for my finall full recovery There is no sickness nor pain nor weeping nor complaints O when shall I arrive at that safe and quiet Harbor where is none of these storms and waves and dangers when I shall never more have a weary restless night or day Then shall not my life be such a medley or mixture of hope and fear of joy and sorrow as now it is nor shall Flesh and Spirit be combating within me nor my soul be still as a pitched Field or a Stage of contention where Faith and Unbelief Affiance and Distrust Humility and Pride do maintain a continual distracting conflict then shall I not live a dying life for fear of dying nor my life be made uncomfortable with the fears of losing it O when shall I be past these soul-tormenting fears and cares and griefs and passions When shall I be out of this frail this corruptible ruinous body This soul contradicting ensnaring deceiving flesh When shall I be out of this vain vexatious World Whose pleasures are meer deluding dreams and shadows whose miseries are real numerous and uncessant How long shall I see the Church of Christ lie trodden under the feet of persecutors or else as a ship in the hands of foolish guides though the supream Master doth moderate all for the best Alas that I must stand by and see the Church and Cause of Christ like a Footbal in the midst of a crowd of Boyes tost about in contention from one to another every one running and sweating with foolish violence and laboring the downfal of all that are in his way and all to get it into his own power that he may have the managing of the work himself and may drive it before him which way he pleaseth and when all is done the best usage it may expect from them is But to be spurned about in the dirt till they have driven it on to the Goal of their private interests or deluded fancies There is none of this disorder in the Heavenly Jerusalem there shall I finde a Government without imperfection and obedience without the least unwillingness or rebellion even a harmonious concent of perfected Spirits in obeying and praising their Everlasting King O how much better is it to be a Door-keeper there and the least in that Kingdom then to be the Conqueror or Commander of this tumultuous World there will our Lord govern all immediatly by himself and not put the Reins in the hands of such ignorant Riders nor govern by such foolish and sinful deputies as the best of the sons of men now are Dost thou so mourn for these inferior disorders O my soul and yet wouldst thou not be out of it How long hast thou desired to be a Member of a more perfect reformed Church and to joyn with more holy humble sincere souls in the purest and most Heavenly worship Why dost thou not see that on Earth thy desires flie from thee Art thou not as a childe that thinketh to travel to the Sun when he seeth it rising or setting as it were close to the Earth but as he travelleth toward it it seems to go from him and when he hath long wearied himself it is as far off as ever for the thing he seeketh is in another world Even such hath been thy labor in seeking for so holy so pure so peaceable a Society as might afford thee a contented settlement here Those that have gone as far as America for satisfaction have confessed themselves unsatisfied still When wars and the calamities attending them have been over I have said Return now my soul unto thy Rest But how restless a condition hath next succeeded When God had given me the enjoyment of Peace and Friends and Liberty of the Gospel and had settled me even as my own heart desired I have been ready to say Soul take thy ease and rest But how quickly hath Providence called me Fool and taught me to call my state by another name When did I ever begin to congratulate my flesh its felicity but God did quickly turn my tune and made almost the same breath to end in groaning which did begin in laughter I have thoughts oft-times in the folly of my prosperity Now I will have one sweet draught of Solace and Content but God hath dropped in the Gall while the Cup was at my mouth We are still weary of the present condition and desire a change and when we have it it doth not answer our expectation but our discontent and restlesness is still unchanged In time of peace we thought that war would deliver us from our disquietments and when we saw the Iron red hot we catched it inconsiderately thinking that it was Gold till it burned us to the very bone and so stuck to our fingers that we scarce know yet whether we are rid of it or not In this our misery we long for peace and so long were we strangers to it that we had forgot its name and begun to call it REST or HEAVEN But as soon as we are again grown acquainted with it we shall better bethink us and perceive our mistake O why am I then no more weary of this weariness and why do I so forget my resting place Up then O my soul in thy most raised and fervent desires Stay not till this Flesh can desire with thee its Appetite hath a lower and baser object Thy Appetite is not sensitive but rational distinct from its and therefore look not that Sense should apprehend thy blessed object and tell thee what and when to desire Believing Reason in the Glass of Scripture may discern enough to raise the flame And though Sense apprehend not that which must draw thy desires yet that which may drive them it doth easily apprehend It can tell thee that thy present life is filled with distress and sorrows though it cannot tell thee what is in the world to come Thou needest not Scripture to tell thee nor Faith to discern that thy head aketh and thy stomack is sick thy bowels griped and thy heart grieved and some of these or such like are thy daily case Thy friends about thee are grieved to see thy griefs and to hear thy dolorous groans and lamentations and yet art thou loth to leave this woful life is this a state to be preferred before the Celestial glory or is it better to be thus miserable from Christ then to be happy with him or canst thou possibly be so unbelieving as to doubt whether that life be any better then this O my soul do not the dulness of thy desires after Rest accuse thee of most detestable ingratitude and folly Must thy Lord procure thee a Rest at so dear a rate and dost thou no more value it Must he purchase thy Rest by a life of labor and sorrow and by the pangs of a bitter cursed death and when all is done hadst thou rather be here without it Must he
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
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
circumstances though to some they may seem small things doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty Mat. 6.4 6 18 If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us that our Father may hear us in secret so is it also requisite in this Meditation How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain or wilderness or other solitary place For occasional Meditation I give thee not this advise but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thy self from all society yea though it were the society of godly men that thou mayest a while enjoy the society of Christ If a student cannot study in a crowd who exerciseth only his invention and memory much lesse when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul and that upon an object so far above nature When thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men and thine ears with their discourse its hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty Though I would not perswade thee to Pythagoras his Cave nor to the Hermets Wilderness nor to the Monks Cell yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness that thou mayest sometimes confer with Christ and with thy self as well as with others We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion Friends use to converse most familiarly in private and to open their Secrets and let out their affections most freely Publike converse is but common converse Use therefore as Christ himself did Mark 1.35 to depart sometimes into a solitary place that thou maist be wholly vacant for this great employment See Mat. 14.23 Mark 6.47 Luke 9.18 36. John 6.15 16. We seldom read of Gods appearing by himself or his Angels to any of his Prophets or Saints in a throng but frequently when they were alone And as I advise thee to a place of retiredness so also that thou observe more particularly what place and posture best agreeth with thy spirit Whether within doors or without whether siting still or walking I beleeve Isaacs example in this also will direct us to the place and posture which will best suit with most as it doth with me viz. His walking forth to meditate in the field at the eventide And Christs own example in the places forecited gives us the like direction Christ was used to a solitary Garden that even Judas when he came to betray him knew where to finde him John 18.1 2. And though he took his Disciples thither with him yet did he separate himself from them for more Secret devotions Luke 22.41 And though his meditation be not directly named but onely his praying yet it is very clearly implied Matth. 26.38 39. His soul is first made sorrowful with the bitter meditations on his death and sufferings and then he poureth it out in prayer Mark 14.34 So that Christ had his accustomed place and consequently accustomed duty and so must we Christ hath a place that is solitary whither he retireth himself even from his own Disciples and so must we Christs meditations do go further then his thought they affect and pâ—erce his heart and soul and so must ours Onely there is a wide difference in the object Christ meditates on the suffering that our sins had deserved that the wrath of his Father even passed through his thoughts upon all his soul But the meditation that we speak of is on the glory he hath purchased that the love of the Father and the joy of the Spirit might enter at our thoughts and revive our affections and overflow our souls So that as Christs meditation was the sluce or flood-gate to let in Hell to overflow his Affections so our meditation should be the sluce to let in Heaven into our affections SECT IX SO much concerning the Time and Place of this duty I am next to advise thee somewhat concerning the preparations of thy heart The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart When mans heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker God did not quit his residence there till man did expel him by unworthy provocations There grew no strangeness till the heart grew sinful and too loathsom a dungeon for God to delight in And were this soul reduced to its former innocency God would quickly return to his former habitation yea so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit and purged of its lusts and beautified with his Image the Lord will yet acknowledg it his own and Christ will manifest himself unto it and the Spirit will take it for his Temple and Residence So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God so far it doth actually for the most part enjoy him Therefore with all diligence keep thy heart for from thence are the issues of life Prov 4.23 More particularly when thou fettest on this duty First Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business of thy troubles of thy enjoyments and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst that so it may be the more capable of being filled with God It is a work as I have said that will require all the powers of thy soul if they were a thousand times more capacious and active then they are and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections while you are busied here If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart while the other is absent yet this above all I am sure thou canst not Surely if thou once address thy self to the business indeed thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of Gold that when he might take as much as he could carry away lamented that he was able to bear no more So when thou shalt get into the Mount in contemplation thou wilt finde there as much of God and Glory as thy narrow heart is able to contain and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession but onely the uncapableness of thy own Spirit O then wilt thou think that this understanding were larger that I might conceive more that these affections were wider to contain more it is more my own unfitness then any thing else which is the cause that even this place is not my Heaven God is in this place and I know it not This Mount is full of the Angels of God but mine eyes are shut and cannot see them O the words of love that Christ hath to speak O the wonders of love that he hath to shew But alas I cannot bear them yet Heaven is here ready at hand for me but my uncapable heart is unready for Heaven Thus wouldst thou lament that the