as an end Religion doth not brutify men but make them more rational It s business is to guide them to blessedness It must therefore pitch their eyes upon it as the mark and 〈◊〉 they are to aim at and hold them intent there 'T is ingenuous and honourable to God that we should expresly avow it we come to Him for satisfaction to our Spirits not knowing whether else to apply our selves We turn our eyes upon Him we lay open our souls to receive impressions from Him for this very end This is an explicit acknowledment of Him as God our highest Soveraign good 2. Actually apply and accommodate divine visions and communications to this purpose Say O my Soul now come solace thy self in this appearance of God come take thy allowed pleasure in such exertions of God as thou dost now experience in thy self Recount thy happiness think how great it is how rich thou art on purpose that thy Spirit may grow more daily into a satisfied contented frame Often bethink thy self What is the great God doing for me that he thus reveals and imparts himself to my soul O how great things do those present pledges presignisie to me That thou may'st still more and more like thy portion and account it faln in pleasant places so as never to seek satisfaction in things of another kind though thou must still continue expecting and desiring more of the same kind And remember to this purpose there cannot be a greater participation of the misery of hell before-hand than a discontented Spirit perpetually restless and weary of it self nor of the blessedness of heaven than in a well-pleased satisfied contented frame of Spirit CHAP. XIX Rule 5. Directing to raise our desires above the actual or possible attainments of this our present and terminate them upon the future consummate state of Blessedness The Rule explained and pressed by sundry considerations Rule 6. That we add to a desirous pursuit a joyful expectation of this blessedness which is pursued in certain subordinate directions 5. THat notwithstanding all our present or possible attainments in this imperfect state on earth We direct fervent vigorous desires towards the perfect and consummate state of glory it self Not designing to our selves a plenary satisfaction and rest in any thing on this side of it That is that forgetting what is behind we reach forth not only to what is immediately before us the next step to be taken but that our eye and desire aim forward at the ultimate period of our race terminate upon the eternal glory it self and that not only as a measure according to which we would some way proportion our present attainments but at the very mark which it self we would fain hit and reach home to And that this be not only the habitual bent and tendency of our Spirits but that we keep up such desires in frequent and as much as is possible continual exercise Yea and that such actual desires be not only faint and sluggish wishes but full of lively efficacy and vigour in some measure proportionable to our last end and highest good beyond and above which we neither esteem nor expect any other enjoyment Whatsoever we may possibly attain to here we should still be far from projecting to our selves a state of rest on this side consummate glory but still urge our selves to a continual ascent so as to mount above not onely all enjoyments of any other kind but all degrees of enjoyment in this kind that are beneath perfection Still it must be remembred this is not the state of our final rest The Mass of Glory is yet in reserve we are not yet so high as the highest Heavens If we gain but the top of Mount Tabor we are apt to say 't is good to be here and forget the longer journey yet before us loath to think of a further advance when were our spirits right how far so ever we may suppose our selves to have attained it would be matter of continual joy to us to think high perfections are still attainable that we are yet capable of greater things then what we have hitherto compast our souls can yet comprehend more Nature intends what is most perfect in every Creature methinks the Divine Nature in the New Creature should not design lower or cease aspiring till it have attained its ultimate perfection its culminating point till Grace turn into Glory Let us therefore Christians bestir our selves let us open and turn our eyes upon the eternal glory Le ts view it well and then demand of our own souls why are our desires so faint and slothful why do they so seldom pierce through the interveining distance and reach home to what they prefessedly level at so rarely touch this blessed mark How can we forbear to be angry with our selves that so glorious an end should not more powerfully attract that our hearts should not more sensibly find themselves drawn and all the powers of the soul beset on work by the attractive power of that glory It certainly concerns us not to sit still under so manifest a distemper But if the proposal of the object the discourse all this while of this blessed state do not move us to make some further trials with our selves see what urging and reasoning with our souls what rubbing and chasing our hearts will do And there is a two fold trial we may in this kind make upon our spirits What the sense of shame will work with us whether our hearts cannot be made sensible to suppose how vile and wretched a temper it is to be undesirous of glory And then what sense of praise can effect or what impression it may make upon us to consider the excellency and worth the high reasonableness of that temper posture of soul which I am now perswading to a continual desirousness of that blessed glorious state 1. As to the former Let us bethink our selves can we answer it to God or to our own souls that we should indulge our selves in a continual negligence of our eternal blessedness A blessedness consisting in the Vision and Participation of the Divine Glory Have we been dreaming all this while that God hath been revealing to us this glorious state and setting this lovely prospect before our eyes Did it become us not to open our eyes while he was opening Heaven to us and representing the state which he designed to bring us to or will we say we have seen it and yet desire it not Have we been deaf and dead while he hath been calling us into eternal glory have all our senses been bound up all this while Hath he been speaking all along to sensless Statues to Stocks and Stones while he expected reasonable living souls should have received the voice and have returned an obedient complying answer And what answer could be expected to such a call a call to his Glory below this We desire it Lord we would fain be there And if we say we have not
to imbrace as the true Religion But such I find the Christian Religion to be to me Therefore c. The Proposition here is manifestly false for it contains grounds common to all Religioâ—s publiquely owned and profest throughout the world and sure all cannot be true And hence the conclusion though materially considered it be true yet formâ—lly considered as a conclusion issuing from such premises must needs be false and what then is become of thy Orthodoxie when as to the formal object of thy Faith thou believest but as M hometanâ— and Pâ—gans do when thou art of this Faith by Fate or Chance only not Choice or rational Inducement Next as to the effects of thy Faith Let them be inquired into also and they will certainly bear proportion to the grounds of it The Gospel is the power of God to salvation to every one thâ—t 〈◊〉 to them that believe it noâ— it â—â—gnifies nothing The Word of God received with a Divine Faith as the Word of God 〈◊〉 works â—â—â—ttually upon all that so receive 〈◊〉 i. e. all that believe what such efficacioâ—s workings of it hast thou felt upon thy soul Certainly it s most connaturural effect is that very change of heart and inclinations God-ward of which we have been speaking What is so sutable to the Gospel Revelation as a good temper of heart Godward and how absurd it is to introduce the cause on purpose to exclude its genuine inseparable effect But evident it is though true Faith cannot that superficial irrational â—ssent in which alone many glory may too well consist with a disaffected heart towards God and can it then signifie any thing towards thy blessedness sure to be so a solifidian is to be a nullâ—fidian Faith not working by love is not Faith at least profits nothing For thy outward conformity in the solemnities of worship 't is imputable to so corrupâ—â— motâ—ves and principles that the thing it self abâ—â—actively considered can never be thought characteristical and distinguishing of the heirs of blessedness The worst of men 〈◊〉 perform the best of outward duties Thy most glorious loasted vertues if they grow not from the proper root love to 〈◊〉 they are but splendid sins as above appears and hath been truly said of old Thy repentance is either true or false if true it is that very change of mind and heart I speak of and is therefore eminently signaliz'd by that note 't is repentance towards God If false God will not be mocked For thy Regeneration in 〈◊〉 what can it avail thee as to this blessedness if the present All worldly evils are willingly endured and all such good things quitted and forsaken for Christs sake and his Elects And if the question be ask't as it was once of Alexander when so frankly distributing his treasures among his followers what do you reserve for your self The resolved Christian makes with him that short and brave reply HOPE He lives upon things future and unseen The objects any one converses with most and in which his life is as it were bound up are suitable to the ruling principle of life in him They that are after the flesh do savour the things of the flesh they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit The Principle of the fleshly life is Sense The principle of the Spiritual life is Faith Sense is a mean low narrow incomprehensive principle limited to a point This Center of Earth and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this now of time It can reach no higher then terrene things nor further then present things So bruitish is the life of him that is led by it wholly confined to matter and time But the righteous live by Faith Their Faith governs and maintains the life They stear not their course according to what they see but according to what they believe And their daily sustenance is by the same kind of things Their Faith influences not their actions only but their comforts and enjoyments They subsist by the things they believe even invisible and eternal things But it is by the intervening exercise of hope whose object is the same The Apostle having told us from the Prophet that the just shall live by Faith presently subjoyns a description ' of that Faith they live by viz. that it is the sustance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen it substantiates and reallizes evidences and demonstrates those glorious objects so far above the reach and Sphere of sense It is constantly sent out to forage in the invisible Regions for the maintenance of this life And thence fetches in the provisions upon which hope feeds to the strengthening of the heart the renewing of life and spirits Our inward man saith the Apostle is renewed day by day while we look or take aime which is next in the series of the discourse for the intervening verse is manifestly parenthetical not at the things that are seen but at the things that are not seen for the things that are seen are temporal but the things that are not seen are eternal And the word here rendred look doth plainly signifie the act of hope as well as that of faith for it doth not import a meer intuition or beholding a taking notice or assenting onely that there is such things but a designing or scoping at them which is the very word with an appropriative eye as things that notwithstanding their distance or whatsoever imaginable difficultie are hoped to be attained to and enjoyed And here are evidenly the distinct parts of Faith and Hope in this business Faith upon the Authority and credit of the Divine Word and Promise perswades the heart that there is such a glorious state of Nor is that aversation the lesse culpable for that it is so hardly overcome but the more 'T is an aversation of will and who sees not that every man is more wicked ac-according as his will is more wickedly bent Hence his impotencie or inability to turn to God is not such as that he cannot turn if he would but it consists in this that he is not willing He affects a distance from God Which shews therefore the necessity still of this change For the possibility of it and the incouragement according to the Methods wherein God is wont to dispense his Grace the Sinner hath to hope and indeavour it will more â—itly fall into consideration else where CHAP. XIII Fourth Inference That the Soul in which such a change is wrought restlesly pursues it till it be attain'd Fifth Inference That the knowing of God and conformity to him are satisfying things and do now in a degree satisfie according to the measure wherein they are attained Sixth Inference That the love of God towards his people is great that hath designed for them so great and even a satisfying good 4. 'T Is further to be inferr'd that a soul wherein such a change is wrought pursues this blessedness with restless
THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS Discoursed from Psal. 17 15. By John Howe M. A. When he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 John 3. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plat. in 〈◊〉 LODON Printed by Sarah Griffin for Samuel Thomson and are to be sold at the sign of the Bishops-head in Duck-lane 1668. To the Reader I Am not at all solicitous that the World should know the History of the conception of this Treatise If there be any thing that shall recompence the pains of such as may think fit to give themselves the trouble of perusing it in the work it self I should yet think it too much an under-valuing of them if I did reckon the minuter circumstances relating thereto fit matter for their entertainment Nor am I more concern'd to have it known what were the inducements to the publication of it Earnest protestations and remonstrances of our good intentions in such undâ—rtakings as they leave men still at liberty to believe or doubt at their pleasure so they gain us little if they be believed It is no easie matter to â—arry one even constant tenour of Spirit â—hrough a work of time Nor is it more easie â—o passe a setled invariable judgement conâ—erning so variable a subject when an heart â—hat may seem wholly framed and set for God â—is hour shall lâ—ok so quite like another thing 〈◊〉 next and change figures and postures alâ—ost as often as it doth thoughts And if a man should be mistaken in judging himself it would little mend the matter to have deceived others also into a good opinion of him But if he can approve himself to God in the simplicity of an honest and undeceived heart The peace that ensues is a secret between God and him They are Theatre enough to one another as he said to his friend 'T is an inclosed pleasure A joy which the stranger cannot intermiddle with 'T is therefore any mans concernment herein rather to satisfie himself then the world And the world rather to understand the design of the work then the Author and whither it tends rather then whereto he meant it And 't is obvious enough to what good purposes discourses of this nature may serve This is in the design of it wholly practical Hath little or nothing to do with disputation If there be any whose business it is to promote a private divided interest or who place the sum of their Religion in an inconsiderable and doubtful opinion It doth not unhallow their altars nor offer any to affront their idol It intends nâ— quarrel to any contending angry party But deals upon things in the substance whereof Christians are at a professed agreement And hath therefore the greater probability of doâ—â—g goâ—d to some without the offence of any 'T is indeed equally matter of complaint and wonder that men can find so much leasure to direct from such things wherein there is so much both of importance and pleasure unto what one would think should have little of temptation or allurement in it contentions jangling It might rather be thought its visible fruits and tendencies should render it the most dreadful thing to every serious beholder What Tragedies hath it wrought in the Christian Church Into how weak and languishing a condition hath it brought the Religion of professed Christians Hence have risen the intemperate preternatural heats and angers that have spent its strength and spirits and make it look with so Meagre and Pale a face We have had a greater mind to dispute then live and to contend about what we know not then to practice the far greater things we know and which more directly tend to nourish and maintain the Divine Life The Authour of that ingenious sentence whoever he were hath sitly exprest what is the noisome product of the itch of disputing It hath begot the ulcerous tumors which besides their own offencive soreness drain the body and turn what should nourish that into nutriment to themselves And it effects are not more grievous then the pleasures which it affects and pursues are uncouth and unnatural The rough touch of an ungentle hand That onely pleases which exasperates as the morallist aptly expresseâ— sâ—me like disaffection of diseased minds Toyl and vexation is their only delight what to a sâ—und spirit would be a pain is to these a pleasure Which is indeed the triumph of the disease that it addes unto torment reprâ—ach and mockery and imposes upon men by so ridiculous a delusion whâ—le they are made to take pleasure in punishing themselves that even the most sober can scarce look on in a fitter posture then with a compassionate smile All which were yet somen hat more tollerable if that imagined vanishing pleasure were not the whole of their gain or if it were to be hoped that so great a present real pain and smart should be recompensed with as real aâ— consequent fruit and advantage But we know that generalâ—y by how much any thing is more disputable the lesse it is necessary or conducible to the Christian life God hath graciously provided that what we are to live by should not cost us so dear And possibly as there is lesse occasion of disputing about the more momentous things of Religion so there may be somewhat more of modesty and awe in reference to what is so confessedly venerable and sacred though too maâ—y are over-bold even here also then so foolishly to trifle with such things Therefore more commonly where that humour prevails men divert from thâ—se plainer things with some slighter and superficial reverence to them but more heartily esteeming them insipid and jejune because they have less in them to gratiâ—ie that appetite And betake themselves to such things about which they may more plausibly contend and then what pitiful trifles oftentimes take up their time and thoughts Questions and Problems of like weighty importance very often with those which the abovenamed Authour tells us this disease among the Greeks prompted them to trouble themselves about as what number of Rowers Ulisses had Which was written first the Iliad or the Odysses c. So that as he saith they spent their lives very operously doing nothing Their conceits being such that if they kept them to themselves they could yield them no fruit and if they published them to others they should not seem thereby the more learned but the more troublesome To this purpose he truely speaks And is it not to be resented that men should â—ell away the solid strength and vitals joy which a serious Soul would find in substantial Religion for such toyes Yea and not only famish themselves but trouble the world and imbroil the Church with their impertinencies If a man be drawn forth to defend an important truth against an injurious assault it were treacherous self-love to purchase his own peace by declining it Or if he did sometimes turne his thoughts to some of our
compose the soul and reduce it to so quiet a consistency in the midst of storms and tempests how perfect and contentful a repose will the immediate vision and injoyment of God afford it in that serene and peaceful region where it shall dwell for ever free from any molestation from without or principle of dis-rest within CHAP. IX The Pleasure arising from knowing or considering our selves to be like God from considering it 1. Absolutely 2. Comparatively or respectively to the former state of the soul. To the state of lost souls To its pattern To the way of accomplishment To the souls own expectations To what it secures The Pleasure whereto it disposes of union communion A comparison of this Righteousness with this Blessedness 2. HEre is also to be considered the pleasure and satisfaction involv'd in this assimilation to God as it is known or reflâ—cted on or that arises from the cognosci of this likeness We have hitherto discoursed of the pleasure of being like God as that is apprehended by a spiritual sensation a feeling of that inward rectitude that happy pleasure of souls now perfectly restored We have yet to consider a further pleasure which acrews from the souls animadversion upon it self its contemplating its self thus happily transformed And though that very sensation be not without some animadversion as indeed no sensible perception can be performed without it yet we must conceive a consequent animadversion which is much more explicite and distinct and which therefore yields a very great addition of Satisfaction and delight As when the blessed soul shall turn its eye upon it self and designedly compose and set it self to consider its present state and frame the consideration it shall now have of it self and this likeness imprest upon it may be either Absolute or Comparative respective 1. Absolute How pleasing a spectacle will this be when the glorified soul shall now intentively behold its own glorious frame When it shall dwell in the contemplation of it self view it self round on every part turn its eye from glory to glory from beauty to beauty from one excellency to another and trace over the whole draught of this image this so exquisite piece of divine workmanship drawn out in its full perfection upon it self When the glorified eye and divinely enlightned and inspirited mind shall apply it self to criticize and make a judgment upon every several lineament every touch and stroke shall stay it self and scrupulously insist upon every part view at leisure every character of glory the blessed God hath instamp't upon it how will this likeness now satisfie And that expression of the blessed Apostle taken notice of upon some other occasion formerly The glory to be revealed in us seems to import in it a reference to such a self intuition What serves revelation for but in order to vision What is it but an exposing things to view and what is revealed in us is chiefly exposed to our own view All the time from the the Souls first conversion till now God hath been as it were at work upon it He that wrought us to c. hath been labouring it shaping it polishing it spreading his own glory upon it inlaying inameling it with glory now at last the whole work is revealed the Curtain is drawn aside the blessed Soul awakes Come now saith God behold my work see what I have done upon thee Let my work now see the light I dare expose it to the censure of the most curious eye let thine own have the pleasure of beholding it It was a work carried on in a Mystery secretly wrought as in the lower parts of the earth as we alluded before by a Spirit that came and went no man could tell how Besides that in the general only we knew we should be like him it did not yet appear what we should be now it appears There is a revelation of this glory O the ravishing pleasure of its first appearance and it will be a glory always fresh and flourishing as Job's expression is my glory was fresh in me and will afford a fresh undecaying pleasure for ever 2. The blessed soul may also be supposed to have a comparative and respective consideration of this impressed glory That is so as to compare it with and refer it to several things that may come into consideration with it and may so heighten its own delight in the contemplation thereof 1. If we consider this impression of glory in reference to its former loathsâ—me deformities that were upon it and which are now vanished and gone How unconceivable a pleasure will arise from this comparison when the soul shall consider at once what it is and what once it was and thus bethink it self I that did sometimes bear the accursed image of the Prince of darkness do now represent and partake of the holy pure nature of the Father of lights I was a meer Chaos an hideous heap of Deformity Confusion and Darkness But he that made light to shine out of darkness shined into me to give the knowledge of the light of his own glory in the face of Jesus Christ and since made my way as the shining light shining brighter and brighter unto this perfect day I was an habitation of Dragons a Cage of noisom lusts that as Serpents and Vipers were winding to and fro through all my faculties and powers and preying upon my very vitals Then was I hateful to God and an hater of him sin and vanity had all my heart The charming invitations and allurements of grace were as musick to a dead man to think a serious thought of God or breath forth an affectionate desire after him was as much against my heart as to pluck out mine own eyes or offer violence to mine own life After I began to live the Spiritual new life how slow and faint was my progress and tendency towards perfection how indisposed did I find my self to the proper actions of that life To go about any holy spiritual work was too often as to climb an Hill or strive against the stream or as an attempt to fly without wings I have sometime said to my heart Come now le ts go pray love God think of heaven but O how listless to these things how lifeless in them Impressions made how quickly lost gracious frames how soon wrought of and gone characters of glory rac'd out and overspread with earth and dirt Divine comeliness hath now at length made me perfect The glory of God doth now incloath me they are his ornaments I now wear He hath made me that lately lay among the pots as the wings of a dove covered with silver and her feathers with yellow gold he hath put another nature into me the true likeness of his own holy divine nature He hath now perfectly master'd and wrought out the enmity of my heart against him Now to be with God is my very element Loving admiring praising him are as natural as breathing once
satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it may do so is not altogether unapprehensible Admit that a Spirit had it never been imbodied might be as well without a body or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials 't is no unreasonable supposition that a connate aptitude to a body should render humane souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations And how much doth relation and propriety endear things otherwise mean and inconsiderable or why should it be thought strange that a soul connaturallized tâ— matter should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof So as that it should appropriate such a part and say 't is mine And will it not be a pleasure to have a vitalitâ— diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me to have every thing belonging to the Supposition perfectly vindicated from the Tyrannous dominion of death The returnâ—ing of the Spirits into a benumb'd or sleeping toe or finger adds a contentment to a maâ— which he wanted before Nor is it hence neâ—cessary the Soul should covet a re-union wiâ—â— every effluvious particle of its former body A desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient not whâ— shall be cumbersome or monstrous And how pleasant will it be to comtemplatâ— and admire the wisdom and power of thâ— great Creatour in this so glorious a change when I shall find a Clod of Earth an Heaâ— of Dâ—st refined into a Celestial purity anâ— brightness when what was sown in corruptiâ—â— shall be raised in incorruption what was sown 〈◊〉 dishonour is raised in glory what was sown in weakness is raised in power what was sown a natural body is raised a Spiritual body When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal an immortality and death be wholly swallowed up in victory So that this awaking may well be understood to carry that in it which may bespeak it the proper season of the Saints consummate satisfaction and blessedness But besides what it carries in it self there are other more extrinsical concurrents that do further signalize this season and import a great increase of blessedness then to Gods holy ones The body of Christ is now compleated the fulness of him that filleth all in all and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in perfection and reflected glory of the whole There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner though he have a troublesome Scene yet to pass over afterwards in a tempting wicked unquiet world how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together The designes are all now accomplished and wound up into the most glorious result and issue whereof the Divine Providence had been as in travel for so many thousand years 'T is now seen how exquisite wisdom govern'd the world and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed Methods of Providence had to one stated and most worthy end Specially the constitution administration and ends of the Mediatours Kingdom are now beheld in the exact aptitudes order and conspicuous glory when so blessed an issue and success shall commend and crown the whole undertaking The Divine Authority is now universally acknowledged and adored his Justice is vindicated and satisfied his Grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost The whole assembly of Saints solemnly acquitted by publique sentence presented spotless and without blemish to God and adjudged to eternal blessedness 'T is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation upon the finishing of all Gods works from the creation of the world wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe Upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediatours Kingdome all the ends being now attained that the Father â—imself may be immediately all in all How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God the more glorious display of all his Attributes the larger and more abundant Effusions of himself reserv'd as the best Wine to the last unto this joyful day Created perfections couldnot have been before so absolute but they might admit of improvement Their capacities not so large but they might be extended further and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so CHAP. XI An Introduction to the use of the Doctrine hitherto proposed The Use divided into Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty 1. Inference That Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment 2. Inference The Spirit of man since 't is capable of so high a Blessedness a Being of high excellency AND now is our greatest work yet behind the improvement of so momentous a truth to the affecting and transforming of hearts That if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing they may taste the sweetness feel the power and bear the impresse and image of it This is the work both of greatest necessity difficulty and excellency and unto which all that hath been done hitherto is but subservient and introductive Give me leave therefore Reader to stop thee here and demand of thee ere thou go further hast thou any design in turning over these leaves of bettering thy Spirit of getting a more refined heavenly temper of soul art thou weary of thy dross and earth and longing for the first fruits the beginnings of glory dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described What is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton rolling eye hunting for novelties or what may gratifie a prurient wit a coy and squeamish fancy Go read a Romance or some piece of Drollery know here 's nothing for thy turn and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious Spirit read not another line till thou have sighed out this request Lord keep me from trifling with the things of Eternity Charge thy soul to consider that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day 'T is amazing to think with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of Religion are entertained amongst Christians Things that should swallow up our souls drink up our Spirits are heard as a tale that is told disregarded by most scorned by too many What can be spoken so important or of so tremendous consequence or of so confessed truth or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection and this by persons avowing themselves Christians We seem to have little or no advantage in urging men upon their own principles and with things they most readily and professedly assent to Their hearts are as much untouch't and void of impression by the
Christian Doctrine as if they were of another Religion How unlike is the Christian world to the Christian Doctrine The seal is fair and excellent but the impression is languid or not visible Where is that serious godliness that heavenliness that purity that spirituality that righteousness that peace unto which the Christian Religion is most aptly designed to work and form the Spirits of men we think to be saved by an empty name and glory in the shew and appearance of that the life and power whereof we hate and deride 'T is a reproach with us not to be called a Christian and a greater reproach to be one If such and such Doctrines obtain not in our professed Belief we are Hereticks or Infidels if they do in our practice we are precisians and fools To be so serious and circumspect and strict and holy to make the practice of godliness so much our business as the known and avowed principles of our Religion do plainly exact from us yea though we come as we cannot but do unspeakably short of that required measure is to make ones self a common derision and scorn Not to be professedly religious is barbarous to be so in good earnest ridiculous In other things men are wont to act and practise according to the known Rules of their several Callings and Professions and he would be reckon'd the common fool of the neighbour-hood that should not do so The Husbandman that should sow when others reap or contrive his Harvest into the depth of Winter or sow Fitches and expect to reap Wheat The Merchant that should venture abroad his most precious Commodities in a leaky bottom without Pilot or Compass or to places not likely to afford him any valuable return In Religion only it must be counted absurd to be and do according to it s known agreed Principles and he a fool that shall but practise as all about him professe to believe Lord whence is this apprehended inconsistency between the profession and practise of Religion what hath thus stupify'd and unman'd the world that seriousness in Religion should be thought the character of a fool that men must visibly make a mockery of the most Fundamental Articles of Faith onely to save their reputation and be afraid to be serious least they should be thought mad Were the Doctrine here opened believed in earnest were the due proper impresse of it upon our Spirits or as the Pagan Moralists expression is were our mind transfigured into it what manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness But 't is thought enough to have it in our Creed though never in our hearts and such as will not deride the holiness it should produce yet indeavour it not nor go about to apply and urge truths upon their own souls to any such purpose What should turn into Grace and Spirit and Life turns all into Notion and Talk and men think all is well if their head be fill'd and their tongues tipt with what should transform their souls and govern their lives How are the most awful Truths and that should have greatest power upon mens Spirits trifled with as matters only of speculation and discourse They are heard but as empty airy words and presently evaporate pass away into words again like food as Seneca speaks that comes up presently the same that it was taken in which as he saith profits not nor makes any accession to the body at all A like case as another ingeniously speaks as if sheep when they have been feeding should present their Shepherds with the very grass it self which they have cropt and shew how much they had eaten No saith he they concoct it and so yield them Wool and Milk And so saith he do not you viz. when you have been instructed presently go and utter words among the more ignorant meaning they should not do so in a way of ostentation to shew how much they knew more than others but works that follow upon the concoction of what hath been by words made known to them Let Christians be ashamed that they need this instruction from heathen Teachers Thy words were found and I did eat them saith the Prophet and thy word was to me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Divine truth is only so far at present grateful or useful for future as 't is received by faith and consideration and in the love thereof into the very heart and there turned in succum sanguinem into real nutriment to the soul So shall man live by the word of God Hence is the application of it both personal and ministerial of so great necessity If the Truths of the Gospel were of the same alloy with some parts of Philosophy whose end is attained as soon as they are known If the Scripture Doctrine the whole entire System of it were not a Doctrine after godliness if it were not designed to sanctifie and make men holy or if the hearts of men did not reluctate were easily receptive of its impressions our work were as soon done as such a Doctrine were nakedly proposed But the state of the case in these respects is known and evident The tenour and aspect of Gospel truth speaks its end and experience too plainly speaks the oppositeness of mens Spirits All therefore we read and hear is lost if it be not urgently apply'd The Lord grant it be not then too Therefore Reader let thy mind and heart concur in the following improvement of this Doctrine which will be wholly comprehended under these Two heads Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty that are consequent and connatural thereto 1. Inferences of Truth educible from it 1. True Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment The blessedness of a man can be but one Most onely one He can have but one highest and best good And its proper character is that it finally satisfies and gives rest to his Spirit This the face and likeness of God doth his glory beheld and participated Here then alone his full blessedness must be understood to lye Therefore as this might many other wayes be evinced to be true so it evidently appears to be the proper issue of the present truth and is plainly proved by it But alas it needs a great deal more to be pressed than proved O that it were but as much considered as it is known The experience of almost 6000. years hath one would think sufficiently testified the incompetency of every worldly thing to make men happy that the present pleasing of our senses and the gratification of our animal part is not blessedness that men are still left unsatisfied notwithstanding But the practice and course of the world is such as if this were some late and rare experiment which for curiosity every one must be trying over again Every age renews the inquiry after an earthly felicity the design is intail'd as the Spanish designs are said to be and reinforc'd with as great a confidence and vigor
correctioâ—s what awakenings and terrours what remorses what purposes what tasts and relishes do some find in their own hearts that yet are blasted and come to nothing How many miserable abortions after travailing pangs and throwes and fair hopes of an happy birth of the new Creature Often somewhat is produced that much resembles it but is not it No gracious principle but may have its counterfeit in an ungracious heart whence they deceive not others only but themselves and think verily they are true converts while they are yet in their sins How many wretched souls that lie dubiously strugling a long time under the contrary alternate impressions of the Gospel on the one hand and the present evil world on the other and give the day to their own sensual inclinations at last In some degree escape the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but are again intangled and overcome so as their latter end is worse then their beginning Such a man is so far from being advantaged by his former faint inclinations towards God that he will be found at last under this aggravated wickedness beyond all other men that when others wandred from God through inadvertency and inconsideration this man will be found to have been his enemy upon deliberation and again the various strivings of his convinced heart to the contrary This is more eminently victorious and raigning enmity such a one takes great pains to perish Alas 't is not a slight touch an overly superficial tincture some evaned sentiments of piety a few good thoughts or wishes that bespeak a new man a new creature 'T is a thorough prevailing change that quite alters the habitual posture of a mans soul and determines it towards God so as that the after course of this life may be capable of that denomination a living to God a living after the Spirit That exalts the love of God into that Supremacy in him that it becomes the governing principle of his life and the reason and measure of his actioâ—s that as he loves him above all things else better then his own life so he can truly though possibly sometimes with a doubtful trembling heart resolve the ordinary course of his daily walking and practice into that love as the directive principle of it I pray I read I hear because I love God I desire to be just sober charitable meek patient because I love God This is the perfection and end of the love of God therefore that must needs be the principle hereof obedience to his will Herein appears that power of godliness denied God knowes by too many that have the form The Spirit of love power and of a sound mind That onely is a sound mind in which such love rules in such power Is not love to God often pretended by such that when ever it comes to an actual competitioâ— discover they love their own flesh a gâ—eat deal more that seldom ever cross their own wills to do his or hazard their own fleshly interest to promote his interest we may justly say as the Apostle in a case fitly enough reducible hiâ—her how dwells the love of God 〈◊〉 that man Notwithstanding such a subdued ineffectual love to God such a one shall be denominated and dealt with as an enemy 'T is not likely any man on earth hates God so perfectly as those in Hell And is not every quality not yet perfect in its kind and that is yet growing more and more intense in the mean time allayed by some degree of its contrary Yet that over-mastered degree denominates not its subject nor ought a man from such a supposed love to God have the name of a â—over of him That principle only is capable of denominating the man that is prevalent and practical that hath a governing influence on his heart and life He in whom the love of God hath not such power and rule whatever his fainter inclinations may be is an ungodly man And now methinks these several considerations compared and weighed together should contribute something to the settling of right thoughts in the minds of secure sinners touching the nature and necessity of this heart-change and do surely leave no place for the forementioned vain pretences that occasioned them For to give you a summary view of what hath been propounded in those foregoing considerations It now plainly appears that the holy Scripture requires in him that shall injoy this blessedness a mighty change of the very temper of his soul as that which must dispose him thereto and which must therefore chiefly consist iâ— the right framing of his heart towards God towards whom it is most fixed averse and therefore not easily susceptible of such a change And that any slighter or more feeble inclination toward God will not serve the turn but such onely whereby the soul is prevalently and habitually turned to him And then what can be more absurd or unsavory what more contrary to Christian Doctrine or common Reason then instead of this necessary heart-change to insist upon so poor a Plea as that mentioned above as the onely ground of so great a hope How empty and frivolous will it appear in comparison of this great Soul-transforming change if we severally consider the particulars of it As for Orthodoxie indoctrinals 't is in its self an highly laudible thing and in respect of the Fundamentals for therefore are they so called indispensibly necessary to the blessedness As that cannot be without holiness so nor holiness without truth But Besides that this is that which every one pretends to is every thing which is necessary sufficient As to natural necessity which is that we now speak to reason an intellectual nature are also necessary shall therefore all men yea and Devils too be saved Besides are you sure you believe the grand Articles of the Christian Religion consider a little The Grounds Effects of that petended Faith First its grounds every assent is as the grounds of it are Deal truly here with thy soul. Can you tell wherefore you are a Christian what are thy inducements to be of this Religion are they not such as are common to thee with them that are of a false Religion I am here happily prevented by a worthy Author to which I recommend thee but at the present a little bethink thy self Is it not possible thou may'st be a Christian for the same reasons for which one may be a Jew or a Mahometan or a meer Pâ—gâ—â— as viz. Education Custome Law Example Outward advantage c. Now consider if thou â—ind this upon enquiry to be thy case the Motives of thy being a Christian admit of being cast together into this form of reasoning That Religion which a Mans Forefathers were of which is established by Law or generally obtains in the Country where he lives The Profession whereof most conduces to or best consists with his credit and other outward advantages that Religion he is
Title to thy Estate would'st thou not think it reasonable to inquire into thy case and is it not much more desirable in a matter of this consequence to be at some certainty and prudent to indeavour it if it may possibly be attain'd Whence let me further ask Fourthly Canst thou pretend it to be impossible Hath God left thee under a necessitated ignorance in this matter or denied thee sufficient means of knowing how 't is with thee in respect of thy Spiritual Estate Though he have not given thee a List or told thee the Number or Names of his Sanctified ones yet hath he not sufficiently described the persons and given thee characters by which they may be known And hath he not furnish't thee with a self reflecting power by which thou art inabled to look into thy self and discern whether thou be of them or no Doth he not offer and afford to serious diligent souls the assisting light of his blessed Spirit to guide and succeed the inquirie And if thou find it difficult to come to a speedy clear issue to make a present certain judgment of thy case ought not that to ingage thee to a patient continued diligence rather then a rash despairing madness to desist and cast off all In as much as the difficultie though great is not insuperable and the necessity and advantage incomparably greater And though divers other things do confessedly fall in the principal difficultie lies in thy aversation and unwillingness Thou art not put to traverse the Creation to climb Heaven or dig through the Earth but thy work lies nigh thee in thy own heart and Spirit and what is so nigh or should be so familiar to thee as thy self 'T is but casting thy eye upon thy own soul to discern which way 't is inclin'd and bent thou art urged to Which is that we propounded next to discover Viz. 2. That we are to judge of the hopefulness of our enjoying this blessedness by the present habitude or disposedness of our spirits thereto For what is that righteousness which qualifies for it but the impress of the Gospel upon the minds and hearts of men The Gospel-revelation is the onely Rule and Measure of that righteousness It must therefore consist in conformity thereto And look to the frame and design of the Gospel-revelation and what doth so directly correspond to it as that very habitude and disposedness of spirit for this blessednesse whereof we speak Nothing so answers the Gospel as a propension of heart towards God gratifi'd in part now and increasing till it find a full satisfaction a desire of knowing him and of being like him 'T is the whole design of the Gospel which reveals his glory in the face of Jesus Christ to work and form the spirits of men to this They therefore whose spirits are thus wrought and framed are righteous by the Gospel-measure and by thâ—t righteousness are evidently entituled and fitted for this blessedness Yea that righteousness hath in it or rather is the elements the first Principles the seed of this blessedness There can therefore be no surer Rule or Mark whereby to judge our states whether we have to do with this blessedness may expect it yea or no than this How stand we affected towards it in what disposition are our hearts thereto Those fruits of righteousnesse by which the soul is qualified to appear without offence in the day of Christ the several graces of the Sanctifying Spirit are nothing else but so many holy Principles all disposing the soul towards this blessednesse and the way to it Mortification Self-denial and godly sorrow take it off from other objects the World Self and Sin Repentance â—that part of it which respects God turns the course of its motion towards God the end Faith directs it through Christ the way Love makes it more freely desire earnestly joy pleasantly hope confidently humility evenly fear circumspectly patience constantly and perseveringly All conspire to give the Soul aright disposition towards this blessedness The result of them all is heavenliness an heavenly temper of spirit For they all one way or other as so many Lines and Rayes have respect to a blessedness in God which is heaven as the point at which they aim and the cuspis the point in which they meet in order to the touching of that objective point is heavenliness This is the ultemate and immediate disposition of heart for this blessedness the result the terminus productus of the whole work of righteousness in the Soul by which 't is said to be as it were gnota ad gloriam begotten to the eternal inheritance Concerning this therefore chiefly institute thy inquiry Demand of thy self is my soul yet made heavenly bent upon eternal blessednesse or no And here thou mayest easily apprehend of how great concernment it is to have the right notion of heaven or future blessedness as was urged under the foregoing Rule For if thou take for it another thing thou missest thy mark and art quite beside thy business But if thou retain a right and scriptural state and notion of it the Rule thou art to judge by is sure They shall have heaven whose hearts are intent upon it and framed to it Scripture is every where pregnant and full of this The Apostle plainly intimates this will be the rule of Gods final judgment Certainly it cannot be unsafe for us to judge our selves by the same Rule He tells us when God shall judge every one according to his works the great business of the judgment day eternal life shall be the portion of them who by patient continuance in well doing sought glory and honour and immortality which are but other expressions of the same thing what can be more plain They shall have eternal life and glory that seek it whose hearts are towards it Again speaking of true Christians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i. e. in a way of contradiction from Pseudo-Christians such as he saith were enemies of the Crosse he gives us among other this brand of these latter that they did mind earthly things and tells us their end would be destruction but gives us this opposite character of the other our conversation is in heaven our trade and business our daily negotiations as well as the priviledges of our Citizen-ship lie there as his expression imports and thence intimates the opposite end of such whence we look for a Saviour not destruction but salvation And in the same Context of Scripture where they that are risen with Christ and who shall appear with him in glory are requir'd to fet their mind on things above not on things on the earth That we may understand this not to be their duty onely but their character we are immediately told they who do not so mortifie not their earthly members those lusts that dispose men towards the earth and to grovel in the dust as the graces of the Spirit dispose them heaven-ward and to converse with glory
are the children of disobedience upon whom the wrath of God cometh The Faith the just live by is the substance of things hoped for c. Such believers are confessed avowed strangers on earth seekers of the better the heavenly Country whence 't is said God will not be ashamed to be called their God plainly implying that as for low terrene spirits that love to creep on the earth and imbrace Dunghills God will be ashamed of them he will for ever disdain a relation to them while and as such And if we will be determined by the express word of our great Redeemer to whom we owe all the hopes of this blessedness When he had been advising not to lay up treasure on earth but in heaven he presently adds where your treasure is there will your hearts be also If thy treasure thy great interests thy precious and most valuable good be above that will attract thy heart it will certainly be disposed thitherward Yet here it must carefully be considered that in as much as this blessednesse is thy end i. e. thy Supream good as the notion of treasure also imports Thy heart must be set upon it above any other injoyment else all is to no purpose 'T is not a faint slight overmastered inclination that will serve the turn but as all the forementioned Scriptures import such as will bespeak it a mans business to seek heaven his main work and give ground to say of him his heart is there If two lovers solicit the same person and speaking of them in comparisons she say this hath my heart is it tolerable to understand her as meaning him she loves less so absurd would it be to understand Scriptures that speak of such an intention of heart heaven-ward as if the faintest desire or coldest wish or most lazie inconstant indeavour were all they meant No 't is a steady prevalent victorious direction of heart towards the future glory in comparison whereof thou despisest all things else all temporal terrene things that must be the evidential ground of thy hope to enjoy it And therefore in this deal faithfully with thy own soul and demand of it Dost thou esteem this blessednesse above all things else Do the thoughts of it continually return upon thee and thy mind and heart as it were naturally run out to it Are thy chieâ—est solicitudes and cares taken up about it least thou should'st fall short and suffer a disappointment Dost thou savour it with pleasure hath it a sweet and grateful relish to thy Soul dost thou bend all thy powers to pursue and presse on towards it Urge thy self to give answer truly to such enquiries and to consider them seriously that thou may'st do so Such whose Spirits are either most highly raised and lift up to heaven or most deeply deprest and sunk into the earth may make the clearest judgment of themselves With them that are of a middle temper the trial will be more difficult yet not fruitless if it be managed with serious diligence though no certain conclusion or judgment be made thereupon For the true design and use of all such enquiries and reflections upon our selves which let it be duly considered is not to bring us into a state of cessation from further indeavours as if we had nothing more to do suppose we judge the best of our state that can be thought but to keep us in a wakeful temper of Spirit that we may not forget our selves in the great business we have yet before us but go on with renewed vigour through the whole course of renewed indeavours wherein we are to be still conversant till we have attained our utmost mark and end Therefore is this present enquiry directed as introductive to the further duty that in the following Rules is yet to be recommended CHAP. XVII Rule 3d. Directing such as upon enquirie find or see cause to suspect a total aversation in themselves to this blessednesse to be speedy and restlesse in their indeavours to have the temper of their Spirits altered and made suitable to it Doubts and Objections conconcerning the use of such indeavours in such a case answered Some Considerations to enforce this Direction propounded and pressed 3. THat if upon such reflection we find or suspect our selves wholly diseffected and unsuitable to this blessedness we apply our selves to speedy incessant indeavours to get the temper of our Spirits changed and fitted thereto The state of the case speaks it self that there is no sitting still here This is no condition Soul to be rested in unless thou art provided to encounter the terrours of eternal darkness and endure the torture of everlasting burnings Yet am I not unapprehensive how great a difficulty a carnal heart will make of it to bestir itself in order to any redresse of so deplorable a case And how real a difficulty it is to say any thing that will be thought regardable to such a one Our sad experience tells us that our most efficacious words are commonly wont to be entertained as neglected puffs of wind our most convictive reasonings and perswasive exhortations lost yea and though they are managed too in the name of the great God as upon the deaf and dead Which is too often apt to tempt into that resolution of speaking no more in that name And were it not that the dread of that great Majesty retains us how hard were it to forbear such expostulations Lord why are we commonly sent upon so vain an errand Why are we required to speak to them that will not hear and expose thy sacred truths and counsels to the contempt of sinful worms to labour day by day in vain and spend our strength for nought Yea we cannot forbear to complain None so labour in vain as we Of all men none so generally improsperous and unsuccessful Others are wont to see the fruit of their labours in proportion to the expence of strength in them But our strength is labour and sorrow for the most part without the return of a joyfull fruit The Husbandman ploughs in hope and sowes in hope and is commonly partaker of his hope we are sent to plough and sow among Rocks and Thorns and in the high Way how seldom fall we upon good ground where we have any increase Yea Lord how often are men the harder for all our labours with them the deader for all indeavours to quicken them Our breath kills them whom thou sendest us to speak life to and we often become to them a a deadly savour Sometime when we think somewhat is done to purpose our labour all returns and we are to begin again and when the duties we perswade to come directly to cross mens interests and carnal inclinations they revolt and start back as if we were urging them upon flames or the swords point and their own souls and the eternal glory are regarded as a thing of naught Then Heaven and Hell become with them Phancies and Dreams and all
made knâ—â—â— inâ—ers upon thee a necessitie of obeying unless thou think the â—reâ—ch between God and thee is better to be healed by Rebellion And that the onely way to expiate wickedness were to continue and multiply them Is it a needless thing to comply with the will of him that gave thee breath and being and whose power is so absolute over thee as to all thy concernments both of time and eternity Again while thou pretendest these things are needless come now speak out freely what are the more necessary affairs wherein thou art so deeply ingaged that thou can'st not suffer a diversion what is the service and gratification of thy flesh and sense so important a business that thou can'st be at no leasure for that more needless work of saving thy soul where is thy reason and thy modesty Dost thou mind none other from day to day but necessary affairs Dost thou use when thou art tempted to vain dalliances empty discourses intemperate indulgence to thy appetite so to answer the temptation It is not necessary or art thou so destitute of all Conscience and shame to think it unnecessary to work out thy salvation to strive to enter in at the strait gate that leads to life but most indispensably necessary to be very critically curious about what thou shalt eat and drink and put on and how to spend thy time with greatest ease and pleasure to thy flesh that it may not have the least cause to complain it is neglected Thy pretence That God is wont to be found of them that sought him not to the purpose thou intendest it is a most ignorant or malicious abuse of Scripture The Prophet is in that Text foretelling the calling of the Gentiles who while they remained such did not 't is true enquire after God but then he expresly first tells us personating God I am sought of them that asked not for me that is after the Gospel came among them and then 't is added I am found upon this seeking plainly of 〈◊〉 that sought me not i. e. who once in their former darkness before I revealed my self in the Gospel-dispensation to them that sought me not q. d. I am now sought of a people that lately sought me not nor asked after me and I am found of them But what 's this to thy case whom God hath been in Gospel earnestly inviting to seek after him and thou all this while refusest to comply with the invitation And suppose thou hear of some rare instances of persons suddenly snatch't by the hand of Grace out of the mid'st of their wickedness as fire-brands out of the fire Is it therefore the safest course to go on in a manifest rebellion against God till possibly he may do so by thee also how many thousand may have dropt into Hell since thou heard'st of such an instance as a worthy person speaks to that purpose If thou hast heard of one Elijah fed by Ravens and of some thousands by our Saviours miracles canst thou thence plead a repeal of that law to the world they that will not labour shall not eat or is it a safer or wiser course to wait till food drop into thy mouth from Heaven then to use a prudent care for the maintenance of thy life If thou say thou hearest but of few that are wrought upon in this way of their own foregoing expectation and indeavour Remember and let the thought of â—t startle thee that there are but few that are â—aved And therefore are so few wrought upon in this way because so few will be perswaded to it But can'st thou say though God hath not bound himself to the meer natural endeavours of his creature neither that ever any took this course and persisted with faithful diligence but they suceeded in it What thou talkest of the freeness of Gods grace looks like an hypocritical pretence Is there no way to honour his grace but by affronting his authourity but to sin that grace may abound Sure grace will be better pleased by obedience than by such sacrifice For a miserable perishing wretch to use Gods means to help it self doth that look like merit Is the Beggar afraid thou should'st interpret his coming to thy door and seeking thy alms to signifie as if he thought he had deserved them I hope thou wilt acknowledge thy self less then the least of all Gods mercies and that thou canst not deserve from him a morsel of bread may'st thou not therefore in thy necessity labour for thy living least thou should'st intrench upon the freeness of Divine bounty With as much wisdome and reason mightest thou decline the use of all other means to preserve thy life which thou must owe always to free mercy to eat when thou art hungry to take physick when thou art sick least thou should'st intimate thy self to have merited the strength and health sought thereby Nor can I think of any rational pretence that can more plausibly be insisted on then these that have been thus briefly discust And it must needs be difficult to bring any appearance of reason for the patronage of so ill a cause as the careless giving up of a mans soul to perish eternally that is visibly capable of eternal blessedness And certainly were we once apprehensive of the case the attempt of disputing a man into such a resolution would appear much more ridiculous then if one should gravely urge arguments to all the neighbourhood to perswade them to burn their houses to put out their eyes to kill their children or cut their own Throats And sure let all imaginable pretences be debated to the uttermost and it will appear that nothing with-holds men from putting forth all their might in the indeavour of getting a Spirit Suitable to this blessedness but an obstinately perverse and sluggish heart dispoil'd and naked of all shew of reason and excuse And though that be a hard task to reason against meer will yet that being the way to make men willing and the latter part of the work proposed in pursuance of this direction I shall recommend only some such considerations as the Text it self will suggest for the stirring up and perswading of slothful reluctant hearts chusing those as the most proper limits and not being willing to be infinite herein as amidst so great a variety of considerations to that purpose one might That in general which I shall propose shall be onely the misery of the unrighteous whereof we may take a view in the opposite blessedness here described The contradictories whereto will afford a Negative The Contraries apositive description of this misery So that each consideration will be double which I shall now rather glance at then insist upon 1. Consider then if thou be found at last unqualified for this blessedness How wilt thou bear it to be banish't eternally from the blessed face of God There will be those that shall behold that face in righteousness so shalt not thou The wicked is
of spirit 't is only their infelicity not their fault and apprehend not the obligation that is upon them by a divine Law otherwise to mannage and order their spirits But what then are such words thought to be spoken at random Her ways are ways of pleasantness The Lord is the portion of mine Inheritance The Lines are fal'n to me in pleasant places or in the midst of pleasantnesses as the expression hath been noted to signifie Do such precepts carry no sense with them Delight thy self in the Lord. Rejoyce in the Lord always and again I say rejoyce with many more Do all passages of this kind in Scripture stand for cyphers or were they put in them by chance Is there such a thing as an aptitude to delectation in our natures and doth the Sanctification thereof intitle the joy of Saints to a place among the fruits of the Spirit and yet is the exercise of it to have no place in their hearts and practise Do not think you are permitted so to extinguish or frustrate so considerable a principle of the Divine Life Know that the due exercise of it is a part of the order and discipline of Gods Family That it is a constitution of the divine Goodness and Wisdom both to cherish his own and invite in strangers to him yea that is the scope and aim of the whole Gospel-revelation that the word of life was purposely written to draw souls into fellowship with the Father and the Son that their joy might be full That the Mâ—nisters of this Gospel are therefore stiled the helpers of their joy Therefore though here it be not required nor allowed that you should indulge a vain trifling levity or a sensual joy or that you should rejoyce you know not why imitating the laughter of a fool or inopportunely why your State admits it not or when the Lord calls to mourning yet settle however this perswasion in your hearts that the serious rational regular seasonable exercise of delight and joy is matter of duty to be charged upon conscience from the authority of God and is an integral part in the religion of Christians And then sure you will not think any object more proper and suitable for it to be exercised upon than the foreseen state of blessedness which is in it self a fulness of joy The joy of our Lord. and is in the pre-apprehensions of it a more considerable matter of joy than our present state affords us besides and without relation whereto we have no matter of rational joy at all 2. Keep Faith in exercise Both in that act of it which pâ—rswades the soul of the truth of the Gospel-revelation and that act of it which unites it to God through the mediator The Apostle prays on the behalf of his Roman Christians that they might be filled with joy and peace in believing and we are told how effectually as to this it supply'd the place of sight Such as had not seen Christ which was the priviledge of many other Christians of that time yet believing did rejoyce with joy unspeakable and glorious Faith directly tends in that double office before mentioned to excite and foment this joy As it assents to the truth of the Gospel-revelation it reallizes the object is the substance and evidence of the invisible glory As it unites the soul with God through Christ in a siducial and obediential closure it ascertains our interest therein and is our actual acceptance of our blessedness it self for when we take God through Christ to be our God what is it but to accept him as our eternal and satisfying portion whom we are after fully to enjoy in the vision and participation of his glorious excellencies and infinite fulness Which two acts of faith we have mentioned together in one text They were perswaded of the promises and embraced them the former respecting the truth of the promise the latter the goodness of the thing promised And hereupon they confessed themselves as it follows Pilgrims and Strangers on earth which abdication of the earth as none of their country could not be but that through their faith they had a joyous pre-apprehension of that better state That confession did manifestly involve in it a lively joy springing from the sight and embrace of that more taking distant good which the promise presented them with whence they could not think it enough to be such to themselves in their own thoughts and the temper of their minds but they cannot forbear so overcoming were their sights and tasts to give it out to speak and look and live as those that were carried up in their spirits above this earth and who did even disdain to own themselves in any other relation to it then that of Forraigners and Strangers Set thy Faith on work Soul and keep it a work and thou wilt find this no riddle it will be so with thee too we have much talk of Faith among us and have the name often in our mouths but how few are the real lively believers Is it to be thought that such blessedness should not more affect our hearts nay would it not ravish away our very souls did we throughly believe it And were it our present daily work to renew the bonds of a vital union with the blessed God in whom we expect to be blessed forever could that be without previous gusts of pleasure T is not talking of faith but living by it that will give us the experience of heavenly delights and joyes 3. Take heed of going in thy practice against thy light of persisting in a course of known or suspected sin that states thee in a direct hostility and rebellion against heaven and can never suffer thee to think of eternity and the other world with comfort will fill thy mind with frightful apprehensions of God render the sight of his face the most terrible thing to thy thoughts thou canst imagine and satisfaction with his likeness the most impossible thing Let a good understanding and correspondence be continued between God and thee which is not possible if thou disobeyest the dictates of thy conscience and takest the liberty to do what thou judgest God hath forbidden thee that this may be thy rejoycing the testimony of a good conscience that in simplicity and godly sincerity not according to fleshly wisdom but the grace of God thou hast had thy conversation Take God for a witness of thy ways and walking approve thy self to his jealous eye study to carry thy self acceptably towards him and unto all well pleasing Let that be thy ambition to stand right in his thoughts to appear gracious in his eyes Hold fast thine integrity that thy heart may not reproach thee as long as thou livest If iniquity be in thy hand put it away then shalt thou lift up thy face without spot and without fear Be a faithful subject of that kingdom of God and here conscience rules under him which
consists first in righteousness and then in peace and joy in the holy Ghost Thou wilt so daily behold the face of God in righteousness and with pleasure but wilt most of all please thy self to think of thy final appearance before him and the blessedness that shall ensue 4. Watch and arm thy self against the too forcible strokes and impressions of sensible objects Let not the favor of such low vile things corrupt the pallate of thy soul. A sensual earthly mind and heart cannot tast heavenly delights They that are after the flesh do savor the things of the Flesh they that are after the Spirit the things of the Spirit Labor to be throughly mortified towards this world and the present state of things Look upon this scheme pageant as passing away keep natural appetites under restraint the world and the lusts of it pass away together sensuality is an impure thing Heavenly refined joy cannot live amid'st so much filth Yea and if thou give thy flesh liberty too far in things that are in specie lawful it will soon get advantage to domineer and keep thy soul in a depressing servitude Abridge it then and cut it short That thy mind may be enlarged and at liberty may not be throng'd and prepossest with carnal imaginations and affections Let thy soul if thou wilt take this instruction from a Heathen look with a constant erect mind into the undefiled light neither darkened nor born down towards the Earth but stopping its Ears and turning its Eyes and all other Senses back upon it self and quite abolishing out of it self all Earthly Sighs and Groans and Pleasures and Glories and Honours and disgrace and having forsaken all these choose for the Guides of its way true Reason and strong Love the one whereof will shew it the way the other make it easie and pleasant 5. Having voided thy mind of what is earthly and carnal apply and turn it to this blessed Theam The most excellent and the vilest objects are alike to thee while thou mindest them not Thy thoughts possibly bring thee in nothing but vexation and trouble which would bring in assoon joy and pleasure didst thou turn them to proper objects A thought of the heavenly glory is assoon thought as of an earthly Cross. We complain the world troubles us then what do we there why get we not up in our spirits into the quieter Region what trouble would the thoughts of future glory be to us How are the thoughts and wits set on work for this flesh but we would have our Souls flourish as the Lilies without any thing of their own care Yea we make them toyl for torture and not for joy revolve an affliction a thousand times before and after it comes and have never done with it when eternal blessedness gains not a thought 6. Plead earnestly with God for his Spirit This is joy in the Holy Ghost or whereof he is the Author Many Christians as they must be called are such strangers to this work of imploring and calling in the blessed Spirit as if they were capable of adopting these words We have not so much as heard whether there be an Holy Ghost That name is with them as an empty sound How hardly are we convinc't of our necessary dependance on that free Spirit as to all our truly Spiritual operations This Spirit is the very earnest of our inheritance The foretasts and first fruits we have here of the future blessedness The joy and pleasure the complacential relishes we have of it before hand are by the gracious vouchsafement and work of this blessed Spirit The things that eye hath not seen nor ear heard and which have not entred into the heart of man are revealed by this Spirit Therefore doth the Apostle direct his Prayer on the behalf of the Ephesians to the Father of this glory that he would give them this Spirit of wisdom and revelation to enlighten the eyes of their understanding that they might know the hope of his calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance in or among the Saints And its revelation is such as begets an impression in respect whereof 't is said also to seal up to the day of redemption Therefore pray earnestly for this Spirit not in idle dreaming words of course but as being really apprehensive of the necessitie of prevailing And give not over till thou find that sacred fire diffusing it self through thy mind and heart to enlighten the one and refine the other and so prepossess both of this glory that thy soul may be all turned into joy and praise And then let me adde here without the formality of a distinct head That it concerns thee to take heed of quenching that Spirit by either resisting or neglecting its holy dictates or as the same precept is otherwise given of grieving the Spirit he is by Name and Office the Comforter The Primitive Christians 't is said walked in the fear of God and in the comfort of the Holy Ghost Is it equal dealing to grieve him whose business it is to comfort thee or canst thou expect joy where thou causest grief Walk in the Spirit adore its power Let thy Soul do it homage within thee Wait for its holy influences yield thy self to its ducture and guidance so wilt thou go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon thy head till thou enter that presence where is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Nor do thou think it improper or strange that thou should'st be called upon to rejoyce in what thou dost not yet possess Thy hope is in stead of fruition 't is an anticipated enjoyment We are commanded to rejoyce in hope and Saints have profest to do so to rejoyce even in the hope the hope of the glory of God Nor is it unreasonable that should be thy present highest joy For though yet it be a distinct thing and indistinctly revealed the excellency of the object makes compensation for both with an abundant surplusage As any one would much more rejoyce to be assured by a great person of ample possessions he would make him his heir to though he knew not distinctly what they should be then to see a shilling already his own with his own eyes CHAP. XXX The addition of two Rules that more specially respect the yet future season of this blessedness after this life viz. Rule 7. That we patiently wait for it until death Rule 8. That we love not too much this present life THere are yet two more Rules to be superadded that respect the season of this blessedness when we awake i. e. not till we go out of time into eternity not till we pass out of the drowsie darkness of our present state till the night be over with us and the vigorous light of the everlasting day do shine upon us Hence therefore it will be further necessary 7. That while the appointed proper season of this blessedness
and that their end was without honour but now how are they numbred among the sons of God and their lot is among the Saints They that were too wise before to mind so mean a thing as Religion the world through wâ—sdâ—m knew not God strange wisdom that could so wisely baffle Conscience and put fallacies upon their own souls that had so ingenious shifts to elude a conviction and direct any serious thought from fastening upon their spirits that were wont so slily to jeere holiness seemed as they meant to laugh Religion out of countenance they will now know that a circumspect walking a faithful redeeming of time and improving it in order to eternity was to do not as fools but as wise and begin to think of themselves now as lost as all wise and sober men thought of them before CHAP. XVI The second general Head of the improvement or use of the Doctrine propounded from the Text containing certain Rules or prescriptions of duty connatural thereto Rule 1. That we settle in our minds the true notion of this blessedness Rule 2. That we compare the temper of our own spirits with it and labour thence to discern whether we may lay claim to it or no. THus far we have the the account of the Truths to be considered and weigh'd that have dependence on the Doctrine of the Text. Next follows the duties to be practis'd and done in reference thereto which I shall lay down in the ensuing Rules or Prescriptions That we admit and settle the distinct notion of this blessedness in our minds and judgements That we fix in our own souls apprehensions agreeable to the account this Scripture hath given us of it This is a counsel leading and introductive to the rest and which if it obtain with us will have a general influence upon the whole course of that practice which the Doctrine already opened calls for As our apprehensions of this blessedness are more distinct and clear it may be expected more powerfully to command our hearts and lives Hence it is in great part the Spirits and conversations of Christians have so little savour and appearance of heaven in them We rest in some general and confused notion of it in which there is little either of efficacy or pleasure we descend not into a particular inquiry and consideration what it is Our thoughts of it are gloomy and obscure and hence is our Spirit naturally listless and indifferent towards it and rather contents it self to sit still in a Region all lightsome round about and among objects it hath some present acquaintance with then venture it self forth as into a new world which it knows but little of And hence our lives are low and carnal they look not as though we were seeking the heavenly Country and indeed who can be in good earnest in seeking after an unknown state This is owing to our negligence an infidelity The blessed God hath not been shy and reserv'd hath not hidden or concealed from us the glory of the other world nor lock't up Heaven to us nor left us to the uncertain guesses of our own imagination the wild fictions of an unguided phansie which would have created us a poetical heaven only and have mock't us with false Elysiums But though much be yet within the vail he hath been liberal in his discoveries to us Life and Immortality are brought to light in the Gospel The future blessedness though some refined Heathens have had near guesses at it is certainly apprehensible by the measure onely of Gods revelation of it For who can determine with certainty of the effects of Divine good pleasure 'T is your Fathers good pleasure to give you a Kingdom Who can tell before hand what so free and boundless goodness will do further then as he himself discovers it The discoverâ— is as free as the donation The things that eye hath not seen and ear not heard and which hâ—ve not entred into the heart of man God hath revealed to us by his Spirit and it follows v. 12. We hâ—ve received the Spirit of God that we might know the things freely given us of God The Spirit is both the principle of the external revelation as having inspired the Scriptures which foreshew this glory and of the internal revelation also to enlighten blind minds that would otherwise 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 never be able to discover things at so great a distance see afâ—r off Therefore called the Spirit of wisdom and revelation by which the eyes of the understanding are inlightned to know the hope of that calling and the riches of the glory of his inheritance among the Saints as the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there is most fitly to be rendred But this internal discovery is made by the mediation and interveniencie of the external Therefore having that before our eyes we are to apply our minds to the study and consideration of it and in that way to expect the free illumination of the holy Spirit In the mean time we must charge our ignorance and the darkness of our cloudy thoughts touching these things upon our carelesness that we do not attend or our incredulity that we will not believe what God hath revealed concerning them 't is therefore a dutiful attention and reverential Faith that must settle and fix the notion of this blessedness If we will not regard nor give credit to what God hath discovered concerning it we may sit still in a torpid disconsolate darkness which we our selves are the authors of or which is no less pernicious compass our selves with sparks beaten out of our own Forge walk in the light of our own fire cheat our souls with the fond dream of an imagined Heaven no where to be found till we at length lye down in sorrow How perverse are the imaginations of men in this as in reference to the way so in respect of the end also For as they take upon them to fancy another way to happâ—ness quite besides and against the plain word of God so do they imagine to themselves another kind of happiness such as shall gratâ—fie onely the sensual desires a Mahometâ—n indeed a Fools Paradise or at best 't is but a negative Heaven they many times enâ—ertain in their thoughts of which their sense too is the onely measure a state wherein nothing shall offend or incommodate the flesh in which they shall not hunger or 〈◊〉 or feel want and when they have thus stated the matter in their own thoughts we cannot beat them out of it but that they desire to go to heaven viz. the heaven of their own making when did they conceive it truly and fully they would find their hearts to abhor from it even as hell it self Therefore here we should exercise an authority over our selves and awaken conscience to its proper work and business and demand of it Is it not reasonable these divine discoveries should take place with me hath not God spoken plainly enough
why should my heart any longer hang in doubt within me or look wishly towards future glory as if it were an uncouth thing or is it reasonable to confront my own imaginations to his discoveries Charge conscience with the duty it owes to God in such a case and let his revelations be received with the reverence and resignation which they challenge and in them study and contemplate the blessedness of awakened souls till you have agreed with your self fully how to conceive it Run over every part of it in your thoughts view the several divine excellencies which you are hereafter to see and imitate and think what every thing will contribute to the satisfaction and contentment of your Spirits This is a matter of unspeakable consequence Therefore to be as clear as is possible you may digest what is recommended to you in this Rule into these more particular directions 1. Resolve with your selves to make the divine revelation of this blessedness the prime measure â—nd reason of all your apprehensions concerning it Fix that purpose in your own hearts so to order all your conceptions about it that when you demand of your selves What do I conceive of the future blessedness and why do I conceive so the divine revelation may answer both the questions I apprehend what God hath revealed and because he hath so revealed The Lord of heaven sure best understands it and can best help us to the understanding of it If it be said of the origen of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may much more be said of the stâ—â—e of the other we understand it by faith That must inform and perfect our intellectuals in this matter 2. Therefore reject and sever from the notion of this blessedness whatsoever is alien to the account Scripture gives us of it Think not that sensual pleasure that a liberty of sinning that an exemption from the divine dominion distance and estrangedness from God which by nature you wickedlâ— affect can have any ingrediency into or consistency with this state of blessedness 3. Gather up into it whatsoever you can find by the Scripture-discovery to appertain or belong thereto Let your notion of it be to your uttermost not only true but comprehensive and full and as particular and positive as Gods revelation will warrant Especially remember 't is a spiritual blessedness that consists in the refining and perfecting of your Spirits by the vision and likeness of the holy God and the satisfying of them thereby for ever 4. Get the notion of this blessedness deeply imprinted in your minds so as to abide with you that you may not be alwayes at a loss and change you apprehensions every time you come to think of it Let a once-well formed Idaea a clear full state of it be preserv'd entire and be as a lively image alwayes before your eyes which you may readily view upon all occasions 2. That having well fixed the notion of this blessedness in your minds you seriously reflect upon yourself and compare the temper of your Spirit with it that you may find out how it is affected thereto and thence judge in what likelihood you are of enjoying it The general aversion of mens Spirits to this so necessary work of self-reflection is one of the most deplorable Symptoms of lapsed degenerate humanity The wickedness that hath overspread the nature of man and a secret consciousness and misgiving hath made men afraid of themselves and studiously to decline all acquaintance with their own souls to shun themselves as Ghosts and Spectives they cannot indure to appear to themselves You can hardly impose a severer task upon a wicked man than to go retire an hour or two and commune with himself he knows not how to face his own thoughts His own soul is a Devil to him as indeed it will be in hell the most frightful tormenting Devil Yet what power is there in man more excellent more appropriate to reasonable nature than that of reflecting of turning his thoughts upon himself Sense must here confess it self out done The eye that sees other objects cannot see it self But the mind a rational Sun can not only project its beams but revert them make its thoughts turn inward It can see its own face contemplate it self And how useful an indowment is this to the nature of man If he err he might perpetuate his error and wander infinitely if he had not this self-reflecting power and if he do well never know without it the comfort of a rational self-approbation Which comfort Paganish morality hath valued so highly as to account it did associate a man with the inhabitants of heaven and make him lead his life as among the gods as their Pagan language is Though the name of this reflecting power Conscience they were less acquainted with the thing it self they reckon'd as a kind of indwelling Deity as may be seen at large in those Discourses of Maximus Tyrius and Apuleius both upon the same subject concerning the god of Socrates And another giving this precept Familiarize thy self with the gods adds and this shalt thou do if thou bear thy mind becomingly towards them being well pleased with the things they give and doing the things that may please thy Daemon or Genius whom saith he the most high God which they mean by Jupiter hath put into every man as as a derivation or extraction from himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be his president and guide viz. every ones own mind and reason And this mind or reason in that notion of it as we approve our selves to it and study to please it is the same thing we intend by the name of Conscience And how high account they had of this work of self-reflection may appear in that they entituled the Oracle to that document Know thy self esteeming it above humane discovery and that it could have no lower than a divine Original therefore consecrating and writing it up in golden Characters in their Delphick Temple as Pliny informs us for an heavenly-inspired dictate Among Christians that enjoy the benefit of the Gospel-revelation in which men may behold themselves as one may his natural face in a glass how highly should this self-knowledge be prized and how fully attained The Gospel discovers at the same time the ugly deformities of a mans soul and the means of attaining a true spiritual comliness Yea it is it self the instrument of impressing the divine image and glory upon mens Spirits which when it is in any measure done they become most sociable and conversable with themselves and when 't is but in doing it so convincingly and with so piercing energy layes open the very thoughts of mens hearts so thoroughly rips up and diffects the soul so directly turns and strictly holds a mans eye intent upon himself so powerfully urges and obliges the sinner to mind and study his own soul that where it hath affected any thing been any way operative