great deal of evil and misery and wrath in being suffered to go on with delight and pleasure in a sinful way Bernard says when God spares men in a sinful way it is because God is not onely angry with men but hates them he calls his mercy more cruel then all indignation Origen in his Sermon upon Ex. 20. quotes that place Hos 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom and he hath this pathetical expression upon it God chastiseth every soul whom he loveth but would you hear the terrible voyce of Gods indignation hear him by the Prophet Hosea when he had reckoned up many wicked things which the people had committed and he adds this I will not visit your daughters when they commit whoredom this is terrible this is in the height And Bernard speaking of the same thing in the 42 Sermon upon the Canticles At the hearing onely of this says he I tremble then God is most angry when he shews no anger God keep me from this mercy this kinde of mercy is worse then all anger Luther hath an expression much like upon the 37. of Genesis O unhappy and miserable men whom God leaves to themselves not resisting their lusts wo to them whose sins God seems to wink at And Jerome writing to a sick friend hath this expression I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity I judge you to be miserable because you have not been miserable Bernard in his Book de consolat cap. 3. Freedom from punishment is the mother of security the step-mother of vertue the poyson of Religion the moth of holiness Yea this was seen by the purblinde eyes of the Heathen Seneca in his fourth Chapter of his Book of Providence hath the same words that before was said of Jerome I judge him miserable that was never miserable And Demetrius Nothing seems more unhappy to me then he to whom no adversity hath happened It were easie to multiply abundance in this kinde it may be testimonies of men may have some force to prevail with such who are given up by God to their pleasures to the enjoyment of earthly prosperity and sensual delights certainly they are not so happy as they judge themselves to be that which God denies to another in mercy he may give thee in wrath And thus much for this I come to that which is a main thing in Moses choyce CHAP. XI Afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness NOtwithstanding both these though Gods people are afflicted and the wicked have pleasure yet afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness It is better to joyn with Gods people in a way of godliness in all afflictions then to enjoy all the pleasures that possibly any man in the world can have in any way of sin the tears of the godly are better then all the jollities of the wicked it is an expression of an Ancient The very tears of those that are seeking of God are more sweet then the joys that any have in the world the worst part of godliness is better then the best part of any way of sin though Christ be a crucified Christ and bring never such afflictions hard things to his people yet he is more delightful to them then all the pleasures that are in the earth and delightful in another way It is a notable speech Luther hath I had rather fall with Christ then stand with Caesar rather suffer any thing in the world with Christ then stand and enjoy all the pleasure of Caesars Court. Thus a godly man a gracious heart considering and musing of things and laying one thing with another had rather have affliction with the people of God then enjoy all the pleasures of the world for a season Now the main work in this point is to shew unto you how a godly heart doth reason with its self and cast about its self as it were to bring himself and his thoughts to this issue to choose rather afflicted godliness then all the pleasure of sin First it casts about what the ways of godliness are Secondly what those afflictions are that do attend the ways of godliness Thirdly it casts about what the ways of sin are and what the afflictions and pleasures are that do attend upon them and puts them into a ballance and compares them both together and so makes its choyce First a gracious heart considers the ways of godliness If I walk in them then I walk with God I live to the honor of the blessed God who is infinitely worthy of all honor and praise from his Creature those ways are the ways of infinite wisdom they are the ways of holiness of righteousness in those ways I attain to that end for which I was made Secondly in those ways I enjoy peace peace of conscience to my soul whatsoever trouble I meet withal abroad I am sure I shall have peace within a little with outward peace is better then a great deal where outward peace is wanting Eccles 4. 6. Better is a handful with quietness then both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit A little with outward quiet is better then a great deal with vexation if a man be in a quiet family a little there is better then to be where there is a great deal with frowardness and vexation surely a little is better with inward peace with peace of conscience then a great deal without wherefore these ways wherein I walk with Gods people though the world may rage and persecute I shall have joy in my own spirit A good conscience will be a continual feast while they rail conscience will encourage Thirdly again when I walk in these ways my soul shall enjoy the love of God and that little I have I shall have it in love and from the love of God Now thy love O Lord is better then wine better then all the comforts of the world The Lord satisfies his people with love as with marrow and fatness a little that the soul hath that comes from the love of God by vertue of a promise how sweet is it how sweet is sleep when it comes from that promise Thou wilt give thy beloved sleep and all comes this way I have all in the love of God though I have but a little in the world and though I be in affliction am short of that which others have Fourthly and in those ways my soul shall enjoy communion with God God will let out himself to me in a gracious maner he will reveal the secrets of heavenly joys to my soul and one beam of the light of his face is more worth then all the world and is able to carry through all the hardships of the world My soul shal have communion with Jesus Christ and Cursed is that man says that noble Marquess Galeacius that counts all the world comparable to one days enjoyment of communion with
bearing one anothers burthens As the curtains of the Tabernacle were joyned together by loops so should the members of the Church be joyned one to another by love In the Primitive times we finde the Heathens and enemies of the Church did acknowledge there were no people in the world did love one another so as Christians did The Church of Philadelphia is blamed for nothing Philadelphia signifies brotherly love when brotherly love rules in Churches they grow to a blameless conversation before God and man Sixthly be bountiful and liberal The men of the world having skill in these things and they seeing no eminency of these in you they say Let them make what profession they will in those things we have no skill in we believe them not they are a company of false hearted people Fifthly if you would walk so as to draw others in love to communion with you labor to manifest the power of godliness by doing such things as the men of the world cannot do if the men of the world can see that men that make profession of Religion are able to do that they cannot do they see now there is some reality in Religion You know how it was with Pharaoh and his Magicians all the while Moses wrought such things that Pharaohs Magicians could do Pharaoh was not convinced but when Moses did such things that the Magicians could not do this convinced them and so for you to do that the men of the world do or can do this does not convince them says Christ If I had not done such things as no man did you had had no sin What is it to do those things which the men of the world cannot do First the resisting of strong temptations every slight temptation overcomes them but when they shall see you stand out against powerful temptations they see you have a power beyond theirs When Nebuchadnezzar saw the three Children in the fiery furnace and they were not touched by the fire he was convinced so when the men of the world shall see you in the midst of prevailing temptations and you keep your selves untouched they will be convinced and say Surely there is a power with these that we have not Secondly the overcoming of strong passions this convinces them When as those you live withal shall know there was a time you were outragious and forward at every thing that did displease you and since God hath wrought on your hearts you can be meek and patient and those passions and temptations cannot overcome you now that did before When Christ commanded the winds and seas and they were still at his word they wondred and said Who is this that the winds and seas obey him And so when you have storms and passions arise in you and you by the word of God can make all quiet men will wonder and say Who is this Thirdly if you be able to deny your selves in your wills and ends this is a thing they cannot do but now the godly if there come any word of God to shew their wills are not right they do not only change the thing their will is upon but their will is bowed to Gods word And as it was with David when he had Saul at an advantage and might have had his own will upon Saul and yet spared him how did this convince Saul Who having his Enemy would have spared him As if he had said If I had had thee at an advantage at my own will I must have had my ends And so is there any thing that the men of the world can see you may have your ends in you should rather deny your selves in them Brethren Gods people are to strive and contend with the world above all people and that for God now then that we may manifest unto the world that when we do contend with them that it is meerly-for God when it comes to our selves and our own causes we should be the most yieldable people in the world There is a time when we must contend with the world our consciences put us upon it and the cause of God puts us upon it and then they say we are stubborn proud spirits now to take off this reproach and to convince them it is not self-will therefore when it is onely your own cause yield to the utmost you can and this will convince them when you do not yield that it is not for self but for God and conscience Fourthly do good for evil this is that which the men of the world cannot do We must labor to do some singular thing for God if you onely do good for good the Publicans can do so but we must do good for evil As it is reported of Bishop Cranmer they used to say of him If they would have Bishop Cranmer their friend let them do him some ill turn Do you not think how you may be even with them that have done you an ill turn but rather go home and all the way you are going be musing and studying how you may return some good to that man that hath done you wrong and so you shall not be even with him but above him by this you shall heap coals of fire upon his head This beseems the people of God that are the peculiar of God It was a notable speech that Balaam had in Numbers 23. 9. Lo the people shall dwell alone and shall not be reckoned among the Nations They are a people peculiar amongst themselves if they be such a people as are so peculiar as they must not be reckoned amongst the Nations then they must do such things as cannot be reckoned amongst the ways and works of the Nations If we should read all Authors of the Heathens yet we may finde such things in Gods people as we cannot finde in all the Authors Fifthly be joyful in affliction rejoycing in God and Christ then when all outward delight fails in very convincing If people speak so much of faith and living by faith on the promises and yet if they be crost in any thing in the world their hearts are as low and sinking as the hearts of any when men of the world see this they say Where is all their faith But if they see when affliction comes even such as would make their hearts sink and the people of God carry them out chearfully they will say Surely there is some real principle in them that we cannot see As Justin Martyr when he saw the Christians suffer such great things so chearfully says he Surely these men have more then the men of the world they have other principles and so he enquired what maner of people they were and so came to embrace the truth It is not so much to be merry and joyful over their cups the people of God cannot be merry and joyful in sensual delights but put them into afflictions and hardships and they can be chearful more then you they are not so dumpish
the end of things that are but for a season were present they could not satisfie Now a gracious heart makes the end of all things that are but for a season to be really present If grace enables a man to make the things of God and eternal things to be present much more will grace in the heart make the end of all worldly things to be really present Now a gracious heart being wise and considering and looking upon these things that are but for a season as if the end now were hence it is that it hath the same judgement of things that are but for a season now as it shall have when the end of all shall be Now when the end of all things we enjoy for a season is come then every man will see the vanity of them and cry out of them and say they will not satisfie Yea we shall not onely see the vanity of them but in some respect see it a greater misery then if we had never enjoyed them now that thing which will not onely fail us but when it shall fail us it will be a greater vexation to us that we had them then if we had never enjoyed it certainly they which know this cannot be satisfied with it Eighthly a gracious heart makes use of all the experiences that it hath had of the vanity of the creature of all things that are but for a season when God in the way of his providence gives to one that is gracious experience of things he will treasure up his experience vain light hearts though God do give them experience of the vanity of the creature and of things that are but for a season they do not treasure up their experiences but though they cry out of the vanity of the creature at some time yet they run out again as greedily in their desires after it as before but a gracious heart findes when God takes away the creature wherein it had placed a great deal of confidence God hath shewed it how fading it was and the setled condition of it is nothing but vanity and so the experience of the vanity of former things does take off his heart from any thing that it looks upon as abiding for a season Lastly that which is but for a season does want an especial ingredient in it which is required for satisfaction the special ingredient unto satisfaction is security that there may be soul-safe security Augustine says The soul cannot enjoy any thing freely with satisfaction unless it can enjoy it with security Now when the soul enjoys a thing for a season it cannot be satisfied because it must be solicitous to provide something when that is gone which it hath for the present So that these arguments being put together you may see evidently Nothing that is for a season can give satisfaction to a gracious heart Having laid these things in the explication of the point all that we have to do is to apply it Hence we may see the excellency of a true gracious spirit where there is grace in the soul it puts a wonderful excellency upon the soul as in many other respects so this one does wonderfully declare the excellency of a gracious heart that it is so raised so enlarged so greatned that nothing that is for a season can satisfie it but it looks for things beyond a season Let all the world the things that are in Heaven and Earth present themselves to the soul to satisfie it the soul will say What are you temporal or eternal If the answer be given temporal the soul rejects them and puts them off as too mean things to be satisfaction for it If you had brought eternity with you says the soul I could have embraced you and closed with you and have been satisfied in the enjoyment of you but if the inscription of eternity be not in you you are too mean for me my happiness is not here I must look higher I am lost for ever if I do not look higher then these things When Basil was offered money and preferment to tempt him he answers Give money that may last for ever and glory that may eternally flourish CHAP. XXVI Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things SEcondly hence let us all make use of this Argument to take off our spirits from all earthly things that are here below Let us look upon all things in the world as under this notion that they are but for a season and let us improve this argument to the utmost that possibly we can for the working our hearts off from the things of this world The beauty of all worldly things is but as a fair picture drawn upon the Ice that melts away with it The fashion of this world passeth away When Alexander saw himself wounded and in danger of death he then saw the vanity of those flatterers that would have perswaded him he was a God So when we see those things upon which we set our hearts as if our chief good as if a Deity were in them to be wounded and ready to perish let us learn to alter our thoughts of them to take off our hearts from them Much may be done in the improving of this argument of the fading vanishing nature of creature-comforts the Scripture makes much use of it to take off the hearts of People from them Why wilt thou set thy heart upon that which is not Riches have wings and will fly away It charges them that have riches that they trust not in uncertain riches Man that is made in honor abides not They sing to the Tabret and Harp and make merry and in a moment they go down to hell This Moses argument is the strong Scripture argument there is nothing but uncertainty mutability vanity upon every creature that is here below The fashion of the world passeth away and the lustre of it there is no enduring substance here Those in the Hebrews were content to part with any thing that endured but for a season so they might have an enduring substance and so Abraham looked for a City that had foundations Heb. 11. 10. these cities have no foundations All earthly things are like the earth it self it hangs upon nothing Job 26. 7. and therefore there can be no certainty in them no continuance in the enjoyment of them neither will the things of this world abide they perish in the using of them and that which perishes in the using we must not set our hearts upon It s the expression of Gregory Nyssen The things of the world are as if a man were writing upon the water with his finger as any thing is written the impression vanishes and nothing appears not as one were writing upon the sand or dust which although any little wind blows smooth yet it stays a while till the wind riseth So the creature is not vain onely because it leaves us after a while but the comfort of the creature
things not seen so that the work of faith is there seen Whosoever speaks of the reward that is in heaven if the glory of the world be not darkned in their eyes it argues there is no true saving faith A second difference is a gracious heart looks upon the reward by some experimental sweet and good that he findes in himself as the beginning of that eternal good he expects whereas others look upon the reward as a thing onely to come unto them hereafter He reads in the word and hears Preachers say so and so he can speak of them but it is not from any experimental sweetness that he findes of the beginning of eternal life wrought in him That place is very remarkable for this in Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Other men may know in others in books that there is a reward but a gracious heart knows in himself by that experimental sweetness of the beginning of eternal life that he findes in himself A third difference is The eye that a gracious heart hath unto the recompence of reward is a fixed eye a setled constant eye Another man that is an hypocrite may have a flash of lightning even from heaven it self that may discover something unto him of the glorious condition of the people of God as Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was more then natural I may call it a supernatural work that was upon Balaam yet not saving and gracious It appeared not to be saving because it had not a saving power went with it and it was not constant and so many hypocrites that are unfound when they have enlargement in prayer they may have some flashes of lightning let into their hearts they may have some glimmerings of the glorious things of heaven and as the Holy Ghost speaks in Heb. 6. 5. they may have a taste of the powers of the world to come but a gracious heart hath it not as a flash of lightning but as a constant light that is set up in his soul and as that light which does transform his spirit into light and makes him to be a childe of light Fourthly there is a great deal of difference in this the eye that a gracious heart hath is truly spiritual the other is but carnal A spiritual eye what is that that is he looks at the reward as a spiritual thing a carnal heart looks at it carnally O the flashes of joy to have a crown and a kingdom but a spiritual heart looks at the reward spiritually time is coming when I shall be wholly free from the body of sin and death time is coming when as the image of God shall be made perfect in my soul time is coming when I shall behold the blessed face of God and live to the praise of that blessed God without any intermission joyning with those blessed creatures that are eternally blessing God Now the heart that looks at it thus spiritually and looks at the top of it to be a spiritual good such an one sees the reward after another maner then any carnal heart doth The last difference is the eye of the gracious heart is a believing eye such an eye as he looks upon the glorious and blessed things of heaven as the things that his soul hath an interest in as the things wherein his riches and happiness does consist another may look upon them as glorious things that may be desired but for an eye to be fixed upon the promise so as to be content to venture all upon the bare word of God for such great things so as to count his riches to consist in these things that he hath but a bare word for such a believing eye as this is not the eye of a carnal heart CHAP. XLI What is this recompence of reward NOw the third thing that we are to come to is to shew what this reward is we can but give you a little glimpse of it Whatsoever will be said it will rather even darken it then otherwise in regard of the wonderful excellency of it all the stars in heaven if they were all Suns they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known but yet because the Lord hath been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course having respect with a discerning experimental spiritual fixed believing eye unto the glorious recompence of reward First take all the beauty excellency the sweet and good that there is in all the world if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good in all creature in this world and all to be communicated to one man yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed Secondly this reward certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it Great things are spoken in the word but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed then is yet revealed in all the Book of God Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And therefore in 2 Thess 1. 10. it is said Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Now the cause of admiration it is the sight of something more then was known before that was not thought of and was not understood even then at the first coming of Christ he shall appear in so much glory as he shall be admired as if the Saints should say We heard much concerning Christ and his glory but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ as now we finde and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ Thirdly all those consolations those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of Fourthly then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter As the infant in the womb knows not what the light the glory and beauty of the world is so we while we are in this darkness know little of the beauty and glory of heaven St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it says It is
such a glorious reward such blessed things as these reserved for the people of God hence then let us dwell a little in admiring at the goodness of God at the infinite treasures of the riches of the glory of the grace of God towards the children of men Certainly Brethren great are the thoughts of God towards mankinde wonderful are his ways to this poor creature of his What is man says the Psalmist nay what is man indeed when as we consider what God hath done for him In Rom. 8. 31. after the Apostle had spoke of glorification and of the blessed estate of Gods people hereafter says the Apostle What shall we say to these things So seeing these things are so that are revealed What shall we say to these things O the heighth and length and depth and breadth of the loving kindeness of the Lord how unsearchable are his judgements shall we say How unsearchable are his mercies and his mercies past finding out O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee which thou hast wrought before the sons of men Psal 31. 19. If ever God wrought about any thing it was about the communication of his goodness to mankinde yea how great is it before the sons of men before us that have but a little made known to us How great is it before Angels then and before God himself In Psal 113. 6. it is said God humbleth to behold things that are done in heaven It is much that God should vouchsafe to behold any thing in heaven but now that God should vouchsafe to behold such a poor wretched creature as man is here upon earth and not to behold him onely but to work thus gloriously for him and that from all eternity to make it his great work to communicate himself to man O how does God humble himself here and how is his mercy and goodness to be admired and adored by the sons of men God is to be praised for the least of his mercies here but he is to be admired in the glory of his rich grace in heaven We read Psal 136. God is praised twenty five times for his mercies but the conclusion of all is Praise the God of Heaven for his mercies endure for ever his mercies as he is the God of heaven they are the glorious mercies indeed When the Scripture would set forth the excellency of a thing it expresseth it by heaven as the excellency of Christ He is the Lord from heaven 1 Cor. 15. 47. The excellency of God the God of heaven Jonah 1. 9. It is made the top of Christs glory that he is made higher then the heavens Heb. 7. 26. When Christ would shew the excellency of the bread of life he says It is bread from heaven the excellency of spiritual blessings is set out in this that they are blessings in heavenly places Eph. 1. Because gold is the most precious mettal therefore we lay it over other things not onely wood and cloth but silver it self so because heaven is so excellent the Lord gilds as it were his choicest blessings with this adjunct and all to shew the wonderful excellency there is in heaven it self Brethren God hath therefore revealed these things to us to that end that the glory of his grace might be great in the world God would have us have high and honorable and glorious thoughts of his goodness God would have the high praises of his grace to be in the hearts and in the mouthes of his Saints it is a great evil to have low and mean apprehensions of the glorious grace of God to mankinde you do not know what dishonor you bring to God in it If your hearts be not raised on high and enlarged in the thoughts of the free and glorious grace of God to mankinde it is an exceeding dishonor to him To see the riches of Gods glorious grace to the children of men it is a mighty work of faith and such a work as the soul is enabled to do onely by a mighty and glorious work of the holy Ghost in it indeed there is in the world a base and poor and mean apprehension of the grace of God in Christ such as does not work at all to raise and enlarge and glorifie the heart of a man but the true sight of the riches of Gods glorious grace it hath a mighty power to raise and enlarge and glorifie the hearts of the children of men while they are here as mark the expressions of the Apostle in his Prayer for the Ephesians 1 Ephes 17. 18. That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him The eyes of your understanding being enlightned that ye may know what is the hope of his calling and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the Saints not the inheritance of the Saints but the inheritance in the Saints and the glory of the inheritance and the riches of the glory and they must not onely have understanding to know this but the eyes of their understanding must be enlightened and this must come from the knowledge of Christ from the Spirit of wisdom and Revelation and from the Father of glory the God of our Lord Jesus Christ The sight of the excellency and riches of Gods grace here it is that that is the work of God shining into the heart 2 Cor. 4. 6. For God who commanded the light to shine out of darkness hath shined in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ The unsearchable truths of the Gospel are in that which hath been revealed so far as we are able to wade into them The sight of Gods rich glory is that which the Princes of the world have not known it is that which requires a work of the Spirit of God Of that Spirit which searcheth the deep things of God O brethren if you had a true spiritual sight of the richness of the goodness of God in the way of his communication of happiness and glory to the children of men then you see into the great design of God into the deep counsels of his wisdom then God hath laid open his heart unto you God hath brought you into the treasures of his riches and given you a view of them the very secrets of Gods soul are imparted to you and blessed are your eyes that have seen these things if the sight of Gods glory in his grace towards mankinde be seen in true beauty and height and glory indeed there is no fear that they should do hurt to any soul it is true the apprehension of the grace of God in a natural way is the cause of security or presumption in many but there was never any in the world that was furthered in a way of security and presumption upon the spiritual sight and view they
are glorious indeed and therefore high and honorable thoughts you ought to have of the Saints It is a great argument to shew Gods greatness that all the creatures in the world are his and for him What an argument then is it to set forth the greatness of a Christian that Heaven and God and Christ and all are his and for him and this hath been shewn in this glorious recompence of reward How great and honorable then should they be in our eyes Eighthly if there be such a glorious reward and great things prepared for Gods people then what love is due to Christ and to the Gospel and to the ways of godliness First love to the Lord Christ who is the cause of all this Secondly to the Gospel that reveals these things to us Thirdly to the ways of godliness that leads to all this great and blessed are the things of the Kingdom of Heaven from whence is all this It is the Lord Jesus Christ from whom all this comes another reward was due to us we were wretched guilty creatures fire-brands of hell children of perdition cast out unto an eternal curse but the Lord Christ who was the wisdom of the Father set his heart upon us and spake for us from all eternity and would not satisfie himself in delivering of mankinde from that miserable and lost condition in which they were but so set his heart upon them as he intended to make it his great work for the manifestation of the riches of his grace to raise this poor wretched creature to a height of happiness and glory that it might appear to Angels to the world yea to the blessed Trinity it self what the Son of God is able to do to raise a creature from misery unto glory and so his heart was set upon mankinde that though it must cost him the eclipsing of his own glory though he must come to be made a prey to the world and if a man a man of sorrows yea made a curse it self in the abstract that man might have this glory and happiness and yet he was content with all and at last this is all he prays for as a fruit of his sufferings and merits Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me as if he should say If I can but have this I am well I have enough for all the sufferings that I did endure This indeed is called a reward but it is the reward of another maner of righteousness then our own were it that there were no other righteousness but our own though our own should be true righteousness the reward would never come to this height but this is first the reward of the merit of the death of the blood and of the perfect righteousness of the Son of God and so in him it comes to be our reward therefore it is Christ that is our life and happiness and glory O let us joyn with those blessed Elders in Rev. 5. 8 9. that fell down before the Lamb having all harps in their hands and golden vials full of odours and sung Worthy art thou who wast slain and hast redeemed us unto God by thy blood to receive honor and blessing and glory and that we might joyn in that blessed melody that St. John heard in that Chapter in Verse 13. He heard all creatures in heaven and on earth and under the earth and in the Sea saying Blessing honor glory and power be unto him that sitteth upon the Throne and unto the Lamb for ever and ever that we might say Amen to this If any man wish good to us we count it worthy of love but the Lord Christ having wrought such infinite good for us as this how should our hearts be enflamed to him and that none should be dear to us and prized of us in comparison of Christ Let us cry out with that blessed Martyr None but Christ none but Christ Again how should our souls love the Gospel and prize the Gospel that hath revealed all this to us In 2 Tim. 1. 10. it is said Life and immortality is brought to light by the Gospel These are the things that in comparison were kept hid from the beginning of the world before the manifestation of the Gospel but now they are revealed O blessed be God that we had the preaching of the Gospel amongst us to open the treasures of grace to us in this maner What poor low thoughts should we have had of the happiness of mankinde had not God made known these glorious things in the Ministery of the Gospel Many wise men by the light of nature have risen high in the contemplations of happiness that mans nature is capable of but how far beneath these things have their highest thoughts been It is a great part of the glory of the Gospel that it sets out unto us these high and glorious things And then the ways of godliness those we should love because those are the ways that lead and tend to all this godliness hath the promise of the life to come as well as the promise of this life annexed to it Were the ways of godliness never so hard and rough never so difficult yet they are glorious ways and to be loved because of the glorious end they tend unto Great is the gain of godliness if these things be believed You that are Merchants love and prize trading and merchandizing that brings in great gain as some in a way of trading and merchandizing by a bargain in a morning will bring in a hundred pounds when as many other poor people are fain to work hard to get a shilling or eighteen pence a day now you prize that trade that with a few words can get in so much O prize the trade of godliness then there is gain to be had I may compare all the works of morality and common grace to the poor mean trade of the laboring man that is fain to work hard for a shilling or eight pence a day they work and get but some few outward blessings from God but godliness is the trade of merchandising that brings in hundreds together and that our hearts should be upon God would have our hearts to be after great and glorious things It is an expression of Cleopatra to Marcus Antonius It is not for you to be fishing for Gudgeons but for Towns and Forts and Castles And so those that are acquainted with the ways of godliness it is not for them to be trading for poor things but for eternal life glory and immortality The ninth Use is an Use of Examination to know who those are that have interest in these glorious things to the answering of that question in Psalm 15. Who shall abide in thy Tabernable who shall dwell in thy holy hill I confess that Psalm does principally aim at communion with the Church of God such as are fit
follow it on with all your might let no opportunity slip do to the utmost you can for God and when you see his minde to lay you aside and to use you in another way although it be of affliction and grievous sufferings yet be as willing to yield to God in this as in the former way and thereby First you shall shew the most glorious work of self-denial that may be it is more to deny ones self here then in outward things there is nothing goes more near to a true generous heart then to be laid aside and to be denyed to be used in service Secondly it may be if you bring your hearts to lie at Gods dispose in this he will use you the rather and you shall not be taken off this may be the means of continuance of you in his work Thirdly if you go on with such a disposition as this it is more like that God will bless your service while he does use you Fourthly or if you shall be taken off for a while and put into an afflicted condition wherein it shall not appear that you are of any great use although sometimes sufferings are the greatest services yet your afflictions shall but prepare you for higher service afterwards as it did in Moses How did God use him afterwards in great and high employments few men that ever lived upon the earth were employed more for God then he was The Magdeburgenses Centuriatores think that Barnabas the Apostle was the same that Joseph was who was one of the two upon whom the lot was cast for the Apostleship when it fell upon Matthias and he was refused Acts 1. which Joseph was afterwards called Barnabas by the Apostles Acts 4. 36. in stead of Barsabas they making Joses to be the same with Joseph Joseph was a gracious man and when he saw it was Gods minde not to use him in that work he was content to go on in that way which God would have him although it were in a far lower condition then in the work of an Apostle and therefore afterwards God called him to that high and honorable work Fifthly howsoever your reward shall be as great as if you were used in the greatest service in the highest highest work you could have desired to be used in But if you shall not be willing to lay down all when God calls you thereunto and to be put into any low suffering condition that he shall please to put you into it is an evident sign that you went on before in your way with self-confidence that you aymed at your self that you did not give God the glory of your service and if so although God might use you for the good of others yet there will come no blessing of it upon your selves This in the general CHAP. II. The opening of the words with the several doctrines in this Text. BUt for a more particular handling this verse I shall first give a short paraphrase of it secondly shew the several doctrinal conclusions contained in it He chose Choyce notes a comparing of one thing with another and the deliberating of the minde about the things compared and at the last a free determination of the will which way to go Thus Moses compares the estate of Gods people and the pleasures of sin one with another he deliberates in his minde which is the safest and the best way for him to go and at last freely yet throughly and fully determines the case He chose rather to suffer affliction he did not choose affliction absolutely for affliction in it self is an evil but rather then the pleasures of sin afflictions are to be chosen Job 36. 21. Elihu charges Job that he chose sin rather then affliction this choyce is an ill choyce Moses his choice was a wise and gracious choice he chooses affliction rather then sin Affliction that is any affliction not this or that affliction but whatsoever affliction God should think fit Many think themselves willing to suffer affliction in the general until they be called unto some particular affliction and then they think Oh if it were any other we could bear it but this we know not how to bear whereas the true subjection of the heart to God is to bear what God himself shall appoint He chose to suffer affliction not to bring affliction upon himself Religion teaches no man rashly and headily to bring himself into misery To suffer affliction with the people of God That is either in joyning with the people of God in the ways of godliness in which they were or in appearing for them or in joyning in communion with them Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin The words are in the Original Then the enjoyment of sin The pleasures of sin that is either such pleasures as are in themselves sinful or secondly such as cannot be enjoyed or maintained but in a way of sin or thirdly such us would be means to draw the heart unto sin The pleasures of sin for a season that is either for a short season or for an uncertain season The doctrinal Conclusions in the words are these First the usual condition of Gods people in the world it is an afflicted condition Secondly when Gods people in Gods way are under grievous afflictions wicked men in the way of sin have much pleasure Thirdly afflicted godliness is to be chosen rather then pleasant wickedness Fourthly a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though they be in never such a low afflicted condition Fifthly a gracious heart is willing to appear for Gods people to be on their side although it be with much hazard to its self Sixthly there is so much good to be had with Gods people that it is worth the enduring hard things to be with them Seventhly nothing that is but for a season can satisfie a gracious heart that which must satisfie it must be beyond any temporary thing it must be an eternal good CHAP. III. Gods people though dear to God yet usually have been in an afflicted estate FOr the first Gods people although dear and precious in his eyes yet they have usually been an afflicted people in all generations unto this day When God was making his Covenant with Abraham Gen. 15. 12. at the going down of the Sun a deep sleep fell upon him and lo a horror of great darkness was on him and ver 17. a smoking furnace and a burning lamp passed between his sacrifice and the Lord tells him of the bondage of his seed in Egypt The afflicted condition of Gods people who were to come from Abraham was shewn by the horror of darkness and the smoking furnace And this is observable As at the first great Promise that was made for Gods choosing of a people to himself out of Abrahams loyns their afflicted estate was set out so where we have the great promise of the Gospel the largest of any in the Gospel
they bear them hard weather tryes what soundness and health there is in the body so afflictions and troubles what soundness the Spirit hath Wooden or earthen vessels if they be set to the fire empty they are soon riven and break but not when they are filled with liquor so empty hearts when they feel the heat of afflictions they soon break but if filled with grace and the comforts of the holy Ghost they hold sound When a mans cloaths are on the deformities of his body cannot be seen but when he is stripped naked then all appears In Summer time when the trees are covered with leaves you cannot see the knots and rifts and mossiness of the tree but in winter when the leaves are gone then you may see all Hence the Hebrew word that is used for Winter comes from a word that signifies disgrace and shame because winter takes away the glory and beauty of the earth and puts a kinde of shame and disgrace upon it The deformities and distempers of mens hearts are much discovered in the winters of their affliction although there was much glory and beauty on their profession before yet now they appear most vile and base We read Luke 2. 35. That Christ was appointed for the fall of many and for a rock of offence that is in regard of the sufferings that should follow upon the profession of the Gospel and mark what God ayms at in this it is that the thoughts of mens hearts might be revealed there are many secret thoughts secret haunts of evil in mens hearts secret windings and turnings of mens spirits that are not revealed until then when the cause of God and our own ends come in competition when they must part one from the other then is the tryal what we are as when a serving-man follows two Gentlemen you know not whose he is until they part one from the other as we read Ezek. 21. 21. the King of Babylon stood at the parting way at the head of the two ways to use divination the best divining of men is at the parting way although the times of afflictions in regard of the darkness of them one way be called the night of afflictions yet they have light in them and may be called a day in regard of the discovery they make of a man what he is In prosperity a man is apt to judge amiss of himself not onely because ignorance deceiveth the minde but because of the present contentment he hath he is unwilling to be disquieted with any thoughts of disparagement Adversity though it be a hard Tyrant yet it is a true Judge though it speaketh roughly yet it speaketh truly We read Deut. 8. 2. that God led his people through the wilderness to humble them and to prove them and to know what was in their hearts God knew before but he would make themselves and others to know I read of Nazianzen walking by the Sea shore seeing how the sea wrought in a storm that it cast up light and empty things but not things solid and heavy he applies this to afflictions and says that light and empty spirits are tossed up and down by them and keep not their constancy but solid spirits are like the rock that stands firm and abides the same men do not know their own hearts they finde their hearts otherwise when troubles come then ever they thought before they never thought they had had so much pride so much impatience so much unbelief they thought before they could have submitted to the hand of God that they could have born more then is now upon them with patience and meekness but now they finde their wretched hearts murmure repine fret vex now they finde corruptions stir exceedingly they had thought they could have depended upon God in straits but now they finde their hearts sinking they finde they have base shifting hearts When the fire comes to green wood there comes out abundance of watery stuff that was not discerned before so when the fire of affliction comes much evil runs out that you saw not that neither you nor others thought to be in your hearts before When a Pond is empty then appears the mud and the filth and Toads in the bottom so when God empties men when he takes from them his blessings then much filth many crawling lusts appear that did not before sometimes more grace appears in afflictions then did before some of Gods people are low in their own eyes they suspect and fear themselves they think their graces will fail them in trouble that their peace is false yet when it pleases God to bring them into trouble they finde more peace more assurance more strength then ever they did before or then they thought they should have done never such sweet joy never such full assurance never such use of faith and patience and love as in the sorest and strongest afflictions This indeed is very rare there are few that finde more good in their hearts in afflictions then they thought they had before but where this is it may be a sweet seal to the soul of the sincerity of it ever after When Corn stands in the field we may guess what it may yield but we cannot know fully till it come to the flail and then it yields sometime more though often less then we made account of When grapes come to be pressed then is discerned what is in them Fourthly an afflicted condition gives opportunity for much exercise of grace it calls forth whatsoever grace there is in the heart to the exercise of it Rev. 13. 10. St. John speaking of the sufferings of the Saints Here says he is the faith and the patience of the Saints here is matter for their faith and patience to be exercised about this calls for the working of their faith and patience and so for other graces as humility self-denyal love to God Physick stirs up natural heat and makes it active so afflictions the souls Physick What mighty prayers and lively stirrings of spirit are there many times in afflictions Esay 26. 16. They pour out a prayer when thy chastening was upon them our prayers do but drop out before now they are poured out and one work of heart do's so follow another that there is no intermission it is all but one prayer they have poured out not prayers but a prayer and it is observable the word that here is translated prayer is a word that is used for inchantment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 because such words were conceived to be full of efficacy containing much in a little room So the prayer now is not an empty thing but full of efficacy containing much in a few words The graces of Gods Spirit are the most lovely things in the world in Gods eyes and therefore God delights much to see the exercise of them When spices are beaten then they send forth their fragrant smell so when Gods servants are in afflictions then their graces send forth their
poor afflicted estate And surely the Papists could not always plead this argument time hath been when the Goths Vandals Hunnes and Turks have been more prosperous then they The Emperor Henry the fourth was much hated by the Bishop of Rome and yet he was not unprosperous in his way when the Pope cursed him and made another Emperor namely Rodulphus King of Swevia yet this Emperor of his setting up prospered not at all but was overcome and slain by Henry The Pope after set up another and he was slain by a woman yea he set up a third after him against Henry the fourth he likewise was taken in a Mill and slain by the Emperor at the last the Pope himself was cast out of his Seat and cast into Prison and dyed in extreme dolours of minde for that he had so wronged the Emperor and as it is reported he asked pardon of him And as outward prosperity hath not been always an argument that they could make use of so we hope that time will come when they shall make use of it no more when their judgements shall be altered and this argument wherein now they boast shall for ever fail them but for the present though now she be crowned with Diamonds and cloathed with Scarlet yet still she is the mother of Harlots and the abominations of the earth I have not says Luther a stronger argument against the Papal Kingdom then this that it is without the cross Let none amongst us deceive themselves by resting upon outward prosperity as an argument of Gods love for their everlasting estates Many have no other hold to lean upon for their salvation but this all those solemn protestations of God against this in his word all the works of Gods providence towards his own people in leading them on in an afflicted condition and towards the wicked in giving them the fat of the earth will not take mens hearts off from this false reasoning but still they will think if God did not love them surely he would not let them prosper so as he doth A painted face is as certain an argument of a good complexion as this is of a good condition When God shall come hereafter to take up his own to himsef he will not look so much amongst the great ones of the earth the rich the gorgious attires sumptuous houses furnished tables as amongst the the persecuted contemned scorned company out of them he will finde his own Mal. 3. 17. In that day when I make up my jewels saith the Lord the phrase notes that Gods jewels now do lie scattered in the dirt and God hath his time to make them up God passes by Pallaces and looks in at cottages he passes by the rich and takes the poor he passes by the honorable and takes the despised ones Thirdly hence we have a confirmation of another life after this certainly these things cannot always continue it is impossible that the godly should always be in this poor afflicted distressed condition it is not against the rule of justice to suffer this for a while that way may be made to other of Gods intentions but that there never should be any righting of their cause that there should never be seen a difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not that God should never appear to judge in the Earth that there should never be a reward for the righteous this cannot be The souls that are under the Altar which were of those who were put to death for the Testimony of Christ they cry How long O Lord holy and true will it be before thou avengest thy self for the blood of thy Saints S. Paul reasons strongly from this argument 1 Cor. 15. 19. to prove the resurrection For saith he if in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable When therefore we see the godly to be wronged and persecuted when we see iniquity to be in the place of righteousness and wickednes in the place of judgement let us not be offended but say in our hearts God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every purpose and every work And as Chap. 5. 8. When thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgement marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth If God should always prosper his servants in this life then it would be thought he intended no other for them but he withdraws his hand here that we might be taught to look for another In the times under the Law God did usually more prosper his people in outward things then now he does and the reason may be because then Christ was but darkly revealed the riches of spiritual mercies were not much made known there was but little mention made of that eternal life which is to come hereafter we have very few texts of Scripture in the Old Testament wherein there is any clear mention made of eternal life but in the times of the Gospel God calls his people to a more suffering condition then he did then and therefore the mystery of Christ the glorious promises of the Gospel the Doctrine of the resurrection and the ways of God in that eternity which is to come hereafter are more clearly and fully revealed It is an excellent expression that Luther hath to this purpose Bodily promises says he is as the shell or husk that covers the nut which is Christ and eternal life wherefore Christ coming the shell the husk is broken and taken off that is temporal promises cease and the spiritual succeed he means in comparison of that it was under the Law The Reason why the Pharisees scorned at Christ preaching against seeking the things of the world Luke 13. 14. was because the promises were so large for temporal things Wherefore when Christ would teach them not to seek those which they conceived the chief blessings of God contained in the promises they deride him hence Christ tells them ver 16. The Law and the Prophets were till Iohn till then the promises ran much upon temporal things but now the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence there is now another maner of kingdom revealed sought after in another way then ever formerly I dare appeal to thy conscience whosoever thou art canst thou think otherwise in thy conscience but that those who walk close with God subjecting their hearts and lives unto his fear must be most beloved of him they must needs be nearer that eternal good and fountain of all happiness then vile wretched sinners who walk according to their lusts who are vile and abominable in their ways When thou seest Gods people to be so low so distressed so afflicted either thou must be convinced strongly that there is a time wherein all shall be called over again or else thou art an Atheist God will convince thee another day by this argument Did you
befal me there save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me It is our wisdom thus to make an account of afflictions that when they come they may be no other then were expected before As is reported of Anaxagoras that when news came to him of the death of his Son and it was thought he would have been much troubled at it he answered I begat him mortal so when any troubles befal us we should entertain them with these thoughts I knew my condition was to be an afflicted condition I entred upon the ways of godlines upon these terms to be willing to be in an afflicted condition this is Gods ordinary way towards his people it is Gods mercy it is no worse I expect yet greater tryals then these If we make use of the Scriptures foretelling troubles beforehand we cannot for shame complain when we meet with those we acknowledge we were foretold of It is a good expression Augustine hath in one of his Epistles to Victorianus We must not be so contrary to our selves as to believe what we read and yet to complain when the same things are fulfilled If we make account of evils aforehand we may have time to gather together the forces of our mindes which being united are strong otherwise they will come upon us when our strength is scattered and so be very grievous unto us and likely to prevail against us Those evils says Seneca that others overcome by a long time suffering as being used to them the wise man overcomes by thinking before hand Secondly the rule of Christ that we have Matt. 16. 26. is of great use If any will follow me let him deny himself and so take up his cross Where self is renounced the cross is easily born it is self that makes the cross pinch things puft up with wind break when they come to the fire so those who are puft up and filled with self the soul emptied of its self is onely fit to suffer there is a six fold self that must be denyed First self-opinion We must be willing to lie quietly under the truth to be convinced and to be guided by it Secondly self-counsels and self reasonings must be denyed we must take heed of conferring with flesh and blood as it was the care of Saint Paul Gal. 1. 16. immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood if he had begun to do it he had been in danger Thirdly self-excellencies our parts our priviledges our credits and all those things that are great in our own eyes and that make us great in the eyes of the world Fourthly self-will We must not think it so grievous a thing to have our wills crossed we must not expect to have our conditions brought to our wills and therefore it is our wisdom whatsoever our condition be that we bring our wills unto them As it is reported of Socrates that when the Tyrant threatned death unto him he answered He was willing nay then says he You shall live against your will he answers again Nay whatsoever you do with me it shall be my will How much more ought Christians to have their wills bow to the holy and blessed will of God in every thing the providence of God discovers his will as well as his word Fifthly self-comforts Those who give liberty to themselves to satisfie themselves to the utmost although in lawful comforts will be unfit to suffer hardship when God shall call thereunto Tertullian hath such an expression in his Treatise de cultu foeminarum I fear that neck that is used to pearl chains that it will not give it self to the sword Sixthly self-ends must be denied we must aim at God and not at our selves in all our ways and then how easie will it be for us to bear crosses considering that Gods ends do go on though our ends be crossed Thirdly be sure to lay a good foundation in a through work of humiliation the more thou art willing to bear Gods hand in the work of humiliation for sin the lighter will all the burthens of afflictions be unto thee the seed that fell upon the stony ground withered and although for a while it was received with joy yet when tribulation and persecution ariseth by and by he is offended Mat. 13. 21. Mark the expression of the Holy Ghost there by and by he is presently offended and all because there was not depth of earth there was not a through work of humiliation We read Acts 9. 16. that God would shew S. Paul what great things he must suffer for his Names sake and how did God prepare his heart You shal finde in the former part of the Chapter that God smote him down to the ground his heart was smote lower then his body he comes trembling and astonished before the Lord saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do He was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink this was a great preparation of his heart to those great things he suffered afterwards You think the burthens of afflictions great because you never felt what the weight and burthen of sin meant I dare pawn my life for that soul who constantly exerciseth it self in the work of humiliation for sin who burthens it self with the weight of its sins and is willing to lie under it for the further breaking of spirit that it shall be able to endure crosses and stand under strong afflictions and this must needs be so First because the soul is acquainted with the sense of an evil infinitely greater then any evil it can meet withal in afflictions the sense whereof must needs swallow up the sense of lesser evils as those who are acquainted with the pains of the stone and strangury and other dreadful diseases account lesser pains which yet are very grievous unto others as nothing Secondly a soul exercised in the work of humiliation by it is put under the power of Gods soveraignty dreadful authority and infinite majesty it is not man that can terrifie that soul from duty that lies under the power of these Thirdly this burthen of sin felt in the work of humiliation mortifies those inward lusts puls down the strength of them which are so ready to rise against and withdraw the heart from the truths and ways of God Fourthly this soul knows how dear comfort is if it hath any comfort it cost dear before it was got and therefore it will not easily be parted withal Fiftly where conscience by this is throughly wounded and deeply struck it cannot easily gather any such film upon it as not to remain tender but it soon feels the evil yea it is sensible of the danger of the least sin Sixthly if ever God hath manifested any love in Christ unto it the souls love to God and Christ must needs be exceeding great Fourthly be careful to preserve your inward peace
wil go far in quieting and calming of the heart under afflictions but grace surely where it is true will go farther It is the most unseemly sight in the world to see a murmuring fretting Christian if thy God if Christ if Heaven were lost it were not much to see wringing of hands and sinking of heart but to see this upon loss of a few outward comforts upon enduring of a few outward afflictions this is a most unseemly a vile and an abominable thing in thee S. Augustine upon the 12. Psalm brings in God rebuking a discontented Christian thus What is thy faith have I promised thee these things what wert thou made a Christian that thou shouldest flourish here in this world Well may God and Conscience and all the Saints upbraid a murmuring fretting Christian What didst thou expect in the entrance upon profession of Christianity what was thy aim what didst thou make account to live at ease to have no trouble to the flesh Where there is not quiet of spirit in passive obedience the sincerity of active obedience may be suspected How far art thou from rejoycing in tribulations who hast not a quiet contented spirit in tribulations I will not enlarge my self in this argument now intending a Treatise by its self of Christian contentation onely for the present take this one argument which surely hath much strength in it to quiet the heart under any affliction It is this God is willing to accept of thy service that thou tendrest up to him though it be mixed with much sin why shouldst not thou accept of his ways towards thee though there be a mixture of much affliction The sin of our service should be a greater cause for God to be displeased with what comes from us then the sorrow and affliction that comes in the ways of his providence can be to cause us to be displeased with what comes from him that surely is worse that is mixed with sin then that which is mixed with sorrow yet as the one is accepted by God from us let then the other be accepted by us from God Lastly let us not onely be contented under Gods afflicting hand but labour to thrive under it to improve all our afflictions that befal us Certainly there is a blessing in every Ordinance of God if we have wisdom and care to draw it forth to make it our own and so in this way of God towards his people it is indeed a gracious work to get our hearts lye quietly under affliction but it is too low a work for a Christian to rest there he must look to improve every affliction for his advantage By improving them we make our Benonies our Benjamins that is the sons of our sorrow the sons of our right hand Although waters in the Sea be salt yet if they be raised up to the Heavens and sent down again then they are sweet so though afflictions be brackish yea brine-salt yet a spiritual heart can spiritualize them and make them sweet and wholesom Afflictions are great opportunities for spiritual advantage if we have hearts to improve them and the loss of an affliction is a great loss S. Augustine in his second book of the City of God cries out against such who did not profit by Gods judgement You says he have lost the profit of the calamity he speaks of it as a great loss to them that it was over and they had got nothing by it As it is a sign of great wickedness to turn blessings into curses so it is a sign of great grace to turn curses into blessings By this improvement we shall not onely get water but honey out of the rock But how should we improve afflictions First be jealous of your selves lest it should pass away unsanctified be more afraid of the affliction leaving of you thus then of the continuing of it upon you and therefore lay out your strength more for a sanctified use of it then for deliverance from it Secondly labor to know Gods minde in your afflictions The man of wisdom sees Gods name upon this rod and understands what God intends First whether he sends them for sin or for other ends and if for sin for what particular For the first it is true God sends affliction sometimes for trial and other ends rather then for sin yet it is sin that makes us capable of such a way of trial were we not sinful God would not deal with us that way he would bring about his purposes by us some other way therefore it is good in all to be humbled for sin you may be helped in the knowledge of Gods end First if the affliction be extraordinary and come in an extraordinary way and upon examination you finde your self not guilty of any special evil besides daily incursions then you may comfortably hope Gods intentions are not specially for sin but for some other end so it was in Job and Joseph Secondly you may know from the work of the affliction which way it tends and how God follows it whether in it God settles not sin upon your heart for humiliation more then ordinary or whether the work of Gods spirit be not rather for the stirring up of the exercise of some other grace for God in his dealings with his people will work for the attaining the ends he aims at Thirdly much may be learned from the issue of an affliction when God comes chiefly for trial in the issue his grace does much abound towards his servants as it did in Joseph and in Job what honor was Joseph advanced unto and Job had given him twice as much as he had before chap. ult ver 10. In all the land there were no women so fair as the daughters Iob ver 15. but when the afflictions is for sin it doth not use to have such an issue it is well if the sinner may be restored into such a comfortable condition as he was in before When David was afflicted for his sin some scars stuck by him after his deliverance he scarce ever was brought into that comfortable condition he was in before But how may we finde out the particular sin First look what sins and afflictions the word hath coupled together although every sin deserves all kinde of affliction yet the word joyns some special correction to special transgressions as God sorts several promises to several graces so he sorts several afflictions to several sins Secondly consider what sins and afflictions providence couples in respect of similitude God often stamps the likeness of the sin upon the judgement Iudges 1. 7 8. Thirdly enquire at the mouth of God by prayer and humiliation as David did 2 Sam. 21. and Job cap. 10. 2. and those in Jeremy cap. 16. 10 11. Fourthly hearken to the voice of conscience that is Gods officer in your soul especially in time of affliction conscience will deal impartially and take this
rule for your help herein After much humiliation and seeking of God then listen to the voice of conscience for as it is with an Officer whom you would have search the Records if you would have him diligent indeed in the search you must give him his fee else he will do the work but slightly so you must give conscience Gods Register his fee that is let conscience have much prayer and humiliation which it calls for and then it will tell you Gods minde more fully Fifthly consider what truths have been most pressed upon your hearts before the affliction for afflictions do use to come as seals to instructions as Iob 33. 16. A writing hath not that authority with it before it be sealed as it hath after but when the seal is set on then it comes with authority so it is in regard of Gods instructions before they did not come with power to your hearts now God seals them that they may prevail and by considering what those instructions were you may be helped to finde out what God aims at in your afflictions A third Rule is when you have found out your sin stir up your heart against it with indignation This is that which hath caused me all this wo that hath brought all this trouble and smart As Acts 21. 28. the Jews took hold on Paul crying Men of Israel help This is the man that teacheth every where against the people So should we take hold on our sin that we have found out and cry to the Lord Help O Lord this is that sin that hath made the breach this is that sin that hath been the cause of so much evil unto me As we read of Antonius after Julius Caesar was murthered he brought forth his coat all bloody and cut and laid it before the people Look here says he you have your Emperors coat thus bloody and torn whereupon the people were presently in an uproar and cryed out to slay those murtherers and they took their tables and stools that were in the place and set them on fire and ran to the houses of those who had slain Caesar and burnt them Thus the looking upon our afflictions and considering what mischief sin hath done us our hearts should be raised to flye upon our sin with indignation and not to be satisfied without the destruction of that which would have destroyed us A fourth rule is when God stirs your heart in affliction to promise and covenant reformation begin the work while the affliction is upon you do something now presently do not put off all till you be well till you be recovered and think then I will do it there is much deceit of the heart this way many miscarry in their vows to God upon this ground because they put off all till they be out of their affliction and by that time the impression that was upon their spirits is abated their hearts are cooled and so the duty is neglected wherefore do something presently and be always in doing till that which is vowed be fully performed Fifthly let every affliction drive you much to God in prayer Is any man afflicted let him pray says S. James It is a similitude of Chrysostom As clouds darken the heavens cause lowring weather but being distilled into drops then sweet Sun-shine and fair weather follows so sorrows and cares in the soul cloud the soul till they be distilled in prayer into tears and poured forth before the Lord then the sweet beams of Gods grace come in and much blessing follows Sixthly treasure up all the experiences you have had of God and your own heart in the time of your affliction keep them fresh in your heart and work them upon your spirit and make use of them as God offers occasion Seventhly what you wished you had done then be sure now to set about and never rest till it be done that when affliction comes again it may not finde it undone if it does it will make the affliction very bitter unto you It was the advice of one Theodoricus to Segismund the Emperor who asked him how he should be happy Do says he that now which when you have been tormented with a fit of the stone or the gout you would wish you had done that which he said of that particular afflictions is true of others We should have glorious reformations if this rule were well observed surely that which is true in times of affliction is true out of it and that which conscience upon ground judges to be right and good then is right and good now Eighthly take heed of trusting to your own promises that you have made to God for obedience rather then to his promises that he hath made to you for assistance Ninthly often call your self to account after the affliction is over What is become of it how was it with me then and how is it now have I more peace now then I had then and how comes it about Hath my peace grown upon good grounds so as it may-hold I had workings of Spirit then what are become of them have I been faithful to God and to mine own soul And thus we have finished this doctrine of affliction which by Gods ordinance is the portion of his people in this world They have been are and shall be an afflicted people CHAP. X. Wicked men have pleasures in ways of sin while Gods people endure much hardship in ways of holiness THe second point is that God sometimes gives wicked men pleasure in the ways of sin whilest he suffers his own people to endure much affliction The Israelites make the brick and are under sore bondage and the Egyptians dwell in houses living in jollity and mirth Thus it was with Elijah he must flye for his life and live in caves and be fed by ravens whilest four hundred false prophets are fed deliciously at Jezabels table While the King and Haman sits drinking in the city Shushan is in perplexity Esther 3. 15. Job says of the wicked That they take the timbrel and harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ they spend their time in wealth but of himself he saith that his calamity was heavier then the sand of the sea that the arrows of the Almighty were within him that the poyson of them drank up his spirit that the terrors of God did set themselves in battle array against him Chap. 6. 1 2 3. And David says of the wicked that they are not in trouble as other men their eyes stands out with fatness they have more then their heart could wish but for himself all the day long he was plagued and chastened every morning Psal 73. Christ tells his Disciples the world shall rejoyce but they shall have trouble But why does God thus suffer wicked men to enjoy their pleasure thus in the ways of sin First here is their portion they are never like to have any other consolation but
if they lived the onely brave lives but 2 Pet. 2. 13. they are called spots and blemishes for they are indeed base the most base spirited men that live These do most vilely lowre mans nature they are infinitely beneath the happiness of an immortal soul The Heathen accounted a life of pleasure a life of beasts What man would not rather dye says Tully cited by Lactantius then to be turned into the form of a beast though he should retain the minde of a man How much more miserable is it for one to be in the form of a man and to have the minde of a beast yea of a wilde beast Guliel Parisiensis calls luxury a scab and says the salt-water of tribulation must purge it and he brings in Augustine giving the same name unto it confessing that he was wont to delight in the scab of his lusts This scab says Parisiensis makes the minde of man ulcerous running with filthy putrified stuff and abominable to God above that that any man would think which no bodily filth does Sixthly The evil of nourishing of all maner of wickedness All sin in Scripture is called flesh and the work of the flesh because the pleasure of the flesh is the cause of so much sin in us When Christ spake of the servant who gave himself to riotousness in his Masters absence he calls him the evil servant There are swarms of all maner of evils in sensual hearts they are the fennish grounds that breed filthy poysonsom creatures so all venemous-lusts are bred and nourished by these Job 40. 21. it is said the Behemoth lieth in the fens which Guliel Parisiensis applies to the Devil in sensual hearts he lies in moist places says he that is in those whose spirits are moistened by their lusts Wherefore it is said of the unclean spirit That he walks in dry places seeking rest and found none But says he men giving themselves to pleasures they seek what they can to give the Devil rest in their hearts and to keep off all that may hinder his quiet Flies and Wasps use to come to honey and sugar and such sweet things The Devil who is called Beelzebub that is the God of flyes loves to be in souls glutted with sensual pleasures yea swarms of Devils love to follow such Hence such as these are most desperate enemies unto godliness contemners and scorners of all Religion That which is honest is vile and contemptible to him who makes too much of his body says a Heathen Where pleasures reign vertue connot be says another When the Jews accuse Christ of the worst their malice could devise they call him a Wine-bibber Seventhly they likewise harden in all maner of evil when men are heat in sensual delights their hearts are so glutted that they never think of their pain It is observed that when the people of Israel had got Aaron to make the Calf and they set down to drink and rose up to play they offered burnt-offerings but no sin-offerings were thought of These beset the heart and make it even uncapable of any spiritual good St. Paul says of the Widows that live in pleasures they are dead while they live 1 Tim. 5. 6. Let us eat and drink to morrow we shall dye Why do you say to morrow says Chrysostom ye are dead already We read Ezek. 47. 11. that when the waters of the sanctuary flowed the miry places could not be healed How seldom does the waters of the Sanctuary heal miry souls Augustine says of such As the earth by too much rain becomes nothing but mire and dirt so as it is made unfit for tillage so these Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart Hos 4. 11. Who are the most desperate enemies to the Cross of Christ but such whose God is their belly Phil. 3. 18 19. Who are they that cannot cease from sin but such as sport themselves with their own deceivings while they feast amongst you having eyes full of adultery 2 Pet. 2. 13 14. Who are those that are wholly void of the Spirit and even uncapable of it such as walk after their own ungodly lusts and sensual Jude 18 19. Who are they that say to God Depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways but such as take the Timbrel and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organ and spend their days in wealth Job 21. 11 12 13. Pleasures do not so much delight the flesh as they endanger the soul therefore better it is a great deal to be preserved in brine then to rot in honey to be fed upon the salt marshes and short commons and to live then to be glutted in rank pastures and so fatted up for destruction And thus you see the evil of them whereupon Chrysostom in one of his Sermons concerning the Martyrs The joys of this present world are to be feared by Christians and certainly so they are rather then to be desired Sixthly if there were not so much evil yet they are vain flashy things there is no reality in them they are all res nihili things of nought The Heathen could say Believe me true joy is no light thing but what windy frothy contents are these pleasures to the flesh do they leave any sweetness behinde them after they are over as it was wont to be said of Plato's feast his discourse of Phylosophy at the table though the chear was mean was sweet divers days after soul-delights leave a sweet relish in the spirit after their acts are past but the day after fleshly pleasures what is left but bitter humors in the body and a sting in conscience what wise man can please his thoughts after his pleasures are over in thinking what pleasures he hath had much less will any man of wisdom glory in what he hath eat or drunk or that he hath filled his sensual appetite with all the delights he could Who can at night after a day of sports and fulness of delights to the flesh bless God from his soul that he hath had a day so full of pleasure in his flesh Plutarch in his Morals hath an excellent discourse upon this argument to prove that according to the Rules of Epicurus No man can live a true pleasurable life not that by his Rules no man can live a vertuous life that perhaps would be granted by many but that no man can have a life of pleasure by those Rules that is the thing that he undertakes to prove and amongst other arguments he hath these First That it is not probable for any modest and temperate men to give way to let their thoughts abide upon any such pleasures he accounts them so vain and slight for the pleasures of the minde men that are wise and sober delight in the thoughts of such A second argument that he useth is That never as he says to this day were known any that would offer sacrifice to
ways in affliction if there were always prosperity in the ways of God it were nothing but when it is with affliction it is so much the more an argument of thy love to God and thy sincerity and therefore he takes it so kindely Bless God for it and bless him the rather because he hath begun with you betimes If the Lord hath given you a heart when you are yong to make this choice what a great mercy is this what abundance of sin does such a one prevent If one that is yong goes on in the ways of Religion though he suffers much in the family wherein he lives his brethren scorn at him and his Parents hate him yet he hath cause to rejoyce and bless himself in the goodness of the Lord. 4. Again thou hast further cause to bless God because he hath given thee such encouragements since thou hast made thy choice thou madest thy choice many years ago I ask thee Hast thou not had encouragement in thy choice Hast any cause to repent thee O no! blessed be God I have found more good then I looked for 5. And know within a while the end of thy choice will be attained and then it shall appear before men and Angels thou madest a good choice and all the world shall bless thee for thy choice Blessed be that man or woman that ever they were born to make such a choice and thou shalt be honored of all those that do despise thee now and they shall wish they had made thy choice It is reported of a yong man who loved his pleasures standing by St. Ambrose and seeing his excellent death he turned to other yong men by him and said O that I might live with you and dye with him Thou hast little cause to envy them that will choose vanities for their portion let them have them though thou hast lost something of thy bravery of thy carnal delight for this choice be content it is made up infinitely here and shall be made up more hereafter And seeing God hath thus enclined your heart to himself be for ever established in your choice seeing God hath shewn to you his ways say as Pilate in another case That I have written I have written so That I have chosen I have chosen If any temptation come to tempt you from your choice as flesh and blood would be ready to mutter and think I might have lived as brave a life as such a one might have had as much pleasure as such a one I have lost so many friends and so much means and brought my self into a great many straights indeed they spake much of Gods Ordinances and I was taken with it and I ventured and I have brought my self into troubles and upon the mutterings of flesh and blood you are beginning to bethink your selves again and examine things again and think whether you did wisely or no O take heed of that first degree of Apostacy namely that suspition of your choice Many in their yong time are very zealous in the ways of Religion while all is well with them and now they meet with other things then they looked for and they begin to think they were too forward and wish they were not so far engaged as they are they begin to repent as chapmen who have out-bid themselves Many go on in a profession and suffer much because they are engaged in that way and they know not how to get off if they could get off they would take heed of repentings of your choice lest God lead you out with the workers of iniquity do not listen to the reasonings of flesh and blood Cassianus reports of a yong man that had given himself up to a Christian life and his Parents misliked that way and they wrote Letters to him to perswade him from it and when he knew they were Letters come from them he would not open them but threw them into the fire and so flesh and blood will come and say Do thus and thus you may do well enough at last throw away these letters these suggestions of flesh and blood and do not answer them but be resolved in thine own heart I know in whom I have believed I know whom I have chosen I did not choose rashly but I felt the power of God upon my heart before I made my choice and I had grounds and arguments of my choice and what shall I by such an argument as this be perswaded to the contrary Therefore go on and be established in your choice and the Lord confirm you in it and give my soul part with you in that choice you have made let flesh and the world and temptations say what they will peace will be in the end You have found some good already that might make you say with David Surely it is good for me to draw near to God and though I do meet with some troubles and temptations that do cry down this way yet let my soul say It is good for me to draw near to God it is good for me that I left such and such things it is good for me that I have these Ordinances though it be with the loss of some outward comforts and my estate be abated and my trading less say as David in the 73. Psalm Truly God is good to Israel however it be yet God is good to Israel though many things seem to the contrary and therefore conclude with thine own heart Though I should never see good day in the world yet that comfort I have received in the ways of God it is enough to make me prize them for ever if now I should dye and be annihilated if God should deprive me of the joys of Heaven and turn me into nothing yet that good that I have had already in Gods ways should be enough to countervail all the troubles that I have met withal in the world or ever shall meet withal though God should withdraw himself in all the course of my life and I should be in darkness and have nothing but trouble yet I have had enough in God already to countervail all Hath God thus spoken peace to thy soul remember that text in Psal 85. 8. Return not again to folly the Lord hath spoken peace already to thy soul in afflictions and therefore God forbid that thou shouldst return to folly but continue in thy way and go on constantly in thy way to the end and the Lord bless thee in thy way And this is for the encouragement of the hearts of Gods people that have with Moses made this choice Rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season CHAP. XIII The evil of an ill choice discovered IN the third place hence those are justly rebuked who have made an ill choice this was a blessed choice of Moses and whosoever makes this choice are blessed of the Lord but how few have we of Moses his minde it
humor in the spittle meeting with a humor in meat and drink suitable to it what pleasure must needs be in the exercising and acting of a creature that is of the highest nature that ever God made creature and these creatures raised with the highest principles for the kinde that any creature is capable of and exercised about the highest objects that it is possible for a creature to be exercised about for the kinde God and Christ and Eternity if we see pleasure in the other that is so low and not in this certainly we must pull out our eyes and willingly besot our own hearts if we yield not that the pleasure herein is abundantly more and more glorious So the pleasure of the eye what is it but the visive spirit that is in the eye meeting with colour abroad it hath pleasure therein If the visive spirit in the eye which is a poor mean thing that brute beasts have as well as our selves meeting with such a poor thing as the colour is becomes such delight what delight must be in exercising the highest faculties about the highest objects And so the smell is nothing but that humor in the nostrils meeting with another humor that is without And so of the ear and of the touch we might instance there the delight comes from nothing but the exercise of the faculty about mean things but if godliness exercises such glorious faculties so elevated about such glorious objects there must needs be a great deal of pleasantness Fourthly the ways of wisdom must needs be ways of pleasantness because they are the life of God himself the soul in the ways of wisdom does live the very life of God The Scripture speaks of the Life of Grace it is the life of God Now all pleasure and comfort is according to the life that a creature lives comfort is nothing else but the feeding of such a kinde of life Sensitive comforts is the feeding of that life rational comforts the feeding of that life and the life of God being a higher life then any other then sense or reason that must have its comforts too and there must be delight and pleasure for the filling up of this now the work of Grace in the hearts of Gods people in their lives it is the life of God and therefore there must needs be a great deal of comfort in the exercise of such a life Fifthly much pleasantness there is in the ways of godliness because in them the people of God do communicate unto God their souls in all that they have or do by a letting out of the soul into God that is the fountain of all good Now there is an infinite delight in this All the delight that there is in God or in the creature is in communication In God himself because God would have delight in himself therefore he would have that that he might communicate himself to and because he would have infinite delight according to his infinite nature therefore he would have that that he might infinitely communicate himself unto and therefore the Son of God the second Person of the Trinity is the infinite delight of his Father because the Father does infinitely communicate himself unto him And now because God would have further delight though there be nothing that he can infinitely communicate himself unto but his Son yet that he may have such delight as his creature may understand he makes a world and the special end why God made the world is that he might have creatures to communicate himself unto in his wisdom and goodness and glory and therefore those creatures that are most capable of Gods communicating himself unto are called Gods delight God rejoyces in the habitable parts of the earth because there are creatures that he can communicate himself unto and especially his pleasure is among his people because there are creatures that are capable of communicating of himself Thus you see that the delight of Gods is communicating himself And so the delight of the creature is in communicating themselves and therefore of all natural delights that of marriage is the most because there is the greatest communication of one creature to another Now when as Gods delight is in communication and our delight is in natural communication then much more when we come to communicate our selves spiritually to God There is a delight in the life of friendship because one friend communicates himself to another but in marriage greater because that communication is greater and according to the degrees of communication the degrees of delight are then the delight in the ways of God must be the greatest because there is the greatest and highest and most glorious communication of a creature it communicates it self and le ts out it self fully into the infinite Ocean of all good If there were nothing but a letting out of it self into an ordinary good it were delight but to let out it self into an infinite Ocean of all delight this is pleasure and this is a mystery this is a ground why no hypocrite hath the delight of the ways of godliness because he does not communicate himself fully unto God but when the heart comes off fully to communicate it self to God there is infinite delight in them The ways of godliness surely are ways of pleasure if this be in them as it is Sixthly the ways of godliness are ways of pleasure because in them the soul hath the presence of God and walks with God walks up and down in the light of his face There is a blessed shine of Gods countenance and of his love upon the soul and influences of his graces unto the soul in those ways as the soul hath delight in the communication of its self unto God so they are ways of pleasantness because in them there is a communication of God unto the soul That place in Psal 89. 19. hath a notable expression of the sweetness of the ways of godliness and the delight that Gods people have in those ways Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance God is in them and le ts out himself unto them now the quintessence of all good put together is in every beam of Gods face and therefore when God shall let out himself and be thus the portion of a soul it must needs be a great deal of delight Seventhly ways of godliness are the ways of pleasure because the principles of them all is love whatsoever comes from love hath much delight and pleasure and the principle of every way of God is love God would have nothing from us but out of love and that may carry us unto love of God himself and that love by which the heart is carried unto God is the chariot of love There is a sweet expression for this that we have in Cant. 3. 9 10. the estate of the Church is set out by Solomons making himself a Chariot of
acknowledge we do not know what the ways of wisdom mean if we do not subscribe to this truth that her ways are ways of pleasantness Ways of pleasantness they are and this pleasantness that is in her ways hath abundance of excellencies in it Very many I thought to have spoken of and enlarged take onely the very mention of them because I must not be too long and then we will answer to some quaeres and apply all and so conclude For the excellent properties of this pleasantness it is that which is the sweetest soul-satisfying pleasantness the very rule it self is sweet sweeter then honey oh how sweet is the souls acting by it it hath the very quintessence of all other delights extracted in it it is the most solid such as hath not vanity and froth in it as other delights have it is such a delight as ennobles the soul it spiritualizeth the heart it is immixt not dangerous as others are it is abiding not vanishing it is continually virid and fresh though there is a fulness in it yet it grows not to satiety by use but grows more and more sweet for it raiseth and enlargeth the faculty it is Heavenly it is divine it is independent in regard of the creature there needs no sharking out to the creature for the upholding it all other delights depend on this there is no pleasure had but in the ways of godliness Una guttula malae conscientiae totum marae mundani gaudii absorbet One drop of an evil conscience swallows up the whole Sea of worldly joy says Luther but one drop of this delight is enough to sweeten all sorrows one drop of gall will imbitter much sweet but one drop of sweet cannot sweeten much gall but here it is otherwise one drop of this sweet sweetens all bitterness of afflictions but all the bitter of afflictions cannot imbitter one drop of this delight Yea this pleasure is the rule of all pleasure and the end of all pleasure whatsoever pleasure is not regulated by this and subordinate to this is evil But how are the ways of wisdom the ways of pleasantness It appears otherwise for the ways of godliness do abridge men of abundance of pleasure and delight in many things in the world What is so great an enemy to the pleasures of men and women as Religion It causeth them to be cut short of abundance of delightful things that others rejoyce in To that I answer first Suppose it were so you heard in the commendation that the pleasantness of the ways of godliness was exceeding great that it hath that excellency in it to make up whatsoever pleasure it wants Though it should cut you short of abundance of pleasure if it shall put a principle that shall enable you to stand in no need of that pleasure it cuts you short of what have you lost As suppose a man that is weak and hath little blood or spirits in him and is chill and cold and puts on many clothes to keep himself warm if these clothes should be al taken away save only his inward garment if there could be put into him spirits and blood and marrow and that which should make him not to be sensible of the want of his clothes it is a great deal better What man that is weak and sickly and is fain to have abundance of clothes to keep him warm would not be willing to part with his clothes if he might have spirits and blood put into him not to feel the want of those clothes So why is it that your hearts are set upon the delight of the creature because you want a principle within to satisfie your souls withal and therefore you are fain to seek the cloathing of the creature and to keep your selves warm with the cloathing of the creature but if Religion take away those things and give you a principle not to feel the want of them but have them made up another way and better you have no cause to complain of the want of pleasantness Secondly I answer that godliness abridges us of no lawful pleasure if it abridges of any it is delightfulness to want those delights that godliness abridges us of What hast thou delight in that which is sinful if it be not sinful Religion does not abridge thee of it onely such delights in which thou dishonorest God and provokest him against thee But secondly How are the ways of God ways of pleasantness when they require abundance of humiliation trouble for sin and is not that bitter and grievous To that I answer First there is more sweetness in that which thou callest bitterness then in all the delightfulness of the world besides those waters Christ does turn into wine And to convince you that these are not bitter waters but that the tears of repentance and humiliation are sweet refreshing waters of life consider from what fountain they come First the work of humiliation if it be right the principle of it is the melting work of the Gospel in the soul the sweetness of the goodness and mercy of God in Jesus Christ melting the heart and causing it to dissolve and fall down under the hand of God certainly that which comes from such a sweet principle cannot have much bitterness in it Secondly the soul in the work of humiliation melting before the Lord eases it self in that melting of abundance of sin and much sweetness there must needs be in those tears that ease the soul of and deliver the soul from much sin Thirdly in the work of humiliation there is much delight because the soul hath much delight in looking back to that sorrow it hath had and if godliness makes mourning to be delightful what does it make rejoycing to be But if it be said in the third place But there are many hardthings that Gods people do meet withal in the ways of godliness and the ways of godliness put them upon such things as cause them to meet with sore temptations and trials here in the world how then can the ways of godliness be so pleasant To that I answer Here is a mighty commendation to the pleasantness of the ways of Religion notwithstanding the hardest and sorest things a godly heart meets with there is that delight in the ways of godliness as upholds the heart under all and carries the heart sweetly on What commendation was it to the grace in the hearts of the Martyrs that did uphold their hearts and carry their hearts sweetly in the enduring of such hard things Secondly these being hard to flesh and blood hinder not the pleasure of a gracious heart it is the highest improvement of all our estates that can be the highest testimony of giving your respect to God whereby the soul enjoys most of God all times The Spirit of God and glory resteth upon the soul while it is enduring such things And how opposite is thy heart and
pleasantly First be sure to keep the heart right within be sure to keep all at peace within thy soul you know according to the temper within so there is the relishing of things without He that hath peace within can easily go through the duties that are required without with joy Further exercise faith in the work and office of the holy Ghost that office that the holy Ghost is designed unto by the Father and the Son to be the Comforter of his people to bring joy and comfort to them look upon the holy Ghost as designed by the Father and the Son to bring joy and delight to the souls of his people What an infinite difference there is between the comforts of a carnal heart and the comforts of the godly The one come from a little meat and drink and the other come from the exercise of faith about the office of the holy Ghost that is designed to this work Thirdly in all that thou doest be sure to be upright Though thou beest able to do but a little in any way of God if thou beest upright God accepts of it and and thou wilt finde comfort Thou sayest thy duties are mean it may be so but if thou beest upright thou mayest have comfort it becomes the upright to be joyful whereas the most glorious performances if they be not in uprightness are but abominable Again sweeten all your duties by spiritual meditation a Christian that treasures up spiritual meditation and every duty that he performs brings it in by meditation and hath a great many meditations to rowl his duty up and down in this is delight To go to duty and to have a barren heart to act there is no delight but to go to a duty and to exercise spiritual meditation this is sweet Again labor to principle thy heart aright in the ways of godliness to understand what they are if thou understoodest what they are they would be delightful and the reason why many do not go on delightfully is because they do not understand what is in the ways of God to cause delight You will say What is there in the ways of God to cause delight First every work of godliness and that ability that grace hath to exercise is a beam of that infinite choice eternal electing love of God upon thy soul if thou lookest upon it so it will be wonderfully delightful Secondly look upon every duty of godliness as having more of the glory of God in it then the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Take all Gods works in the Creation in Providence in the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars in the Earth and the Seas there is not so much of the glory of God in them all as in one gracious action that a Christian performs and if you looked at it thus it could not but have pleasure in it Thirdly look at that action of grace as that in which God attains his end in creating heaven and earth more then in other things besides as there is more of God in it so God attains more in it the end of God in his counsels is more attained by any gracious act then by any thing else that can be done save of the same nature How delightful should we be in the ways of godliness if we looked thus at them Fourthly look upon every gracious act as the seed of glory and eternal life Every work of grace in the heart and life of Gods people is a seed of glory and eternal life And these four considerations being put upon every gracious act do confirm that which was said in the opening of the point they must needs be full of pleasantness Be not satisfied in doing any thing in the ways of God till you do it pleasantly I hear the ways of God are pleasant I have gone on being haled by conscience but little have I understood of the pleasantness of them there is more to be looked after then I have attained to By this thou shalt come to be mightily strengthened and it wil be a marvellous help to make thee continue in the ways of godliness And as I said in handling that argument of the easiness of the ways of godliness those that are continually thinking of the hardness of Gods ways will fall off but by having them pleasant it will carry thee on against temptations and the current of all arguments The last Use of all is If the ways of wisdom be ways of pleasantness what is the end of wisdom If the neather springs be so sweet what will the upper be If the lower Jerusalem be paved with gold surely that upper Jerusalem is paved with pearls It is an excellent speech of Bernard Good art thou O Lord to the soul that seeks thee what art thou then to the soul that findes thee How sweet and pleasant are the ways of wisdom then How sweet and delightful is the end of wisdom If grace be pleasant how pleasant is glory therefore the Saints dye so pleasantly because there is a meeting of grace and glory Grace is delightful glory more delightful but when these both meet together what delight will there then be It is a speech of Jerome speaking of carnal delights None can go from delight to delight but it is not so spiritually the more delight we have here the more we shall have hereafter and therefore let this be all our prayer Lord give us evermore this pleasure satisfie our souls with this pleasure if the drops be sweet the rivers of pleasure and joy that are at Christs right hand how sweet are they Moses his Choice The second Part. CHAP. XVI A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction THe fourth Doctrinal Conclusion that was raised from the words was That a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under never so great affliction Moses chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God Who were this people A despised people an afflicted people Yet Moses could see an excellency in them while they were making their brick while they were whipped by their task-masters and contemptible in the eyes of all the Egyptians yet by the eye of faith Moses could look upon them as the most excellent of the earth as the most glorious people that lived in the world and desires rather to joyn with them though in the greatest afflictions then to abide Pharaoh's Court in the enjoyment of all worldly delights let the world cast what dirt they will upon them and darken their glory what they can yet they are precious and honorable in the Saints eyes The excellent of the earth and the glory of the world Job scraping his sores upon the dunghil and Jeremy sinking into the mire in the dungeon are more beautiful and glorious then the great men of the earth when they are crowned upon their Thrones Though you have lien
they will esteem of them but when the esteem of the world is taken away their esteem is taken away As it is with the Deer that is hunted when the Huntsman goes into the Park he stirs up all and all run together but if one be shot and they see the blood run down they will all push him out of their company so while Gods people go on and are in credit and esteem with the world others that are slight professors of Religion will esteem them and they shall be welcom into their company till they be shot and they see disgrace put upon them then they look upon them with a lowry countenance If a man be travelling and there be a Sun-dial by the high-way if the Sun shine he will go out of his way to take notice of it but if the Sun do not shine he may go a hundred times by and never regard it and so when the Sun shines upon Gods people they are much made of but if a cloudy day do come and take away the Sunshine they are not esteemed and many people instead of helping them in their affliction will adde to their affliction and say You needed not to have been so forward and to have appeared so much It was your want of wisdom brought you into this trouble and the like If you had a gracious heart if you saw one of Gods Servants go on in the way of God and suffer in that way though he had failed in some particulars you would pass them by and not be ready to take advantage to speak against him for them If a man do plead for the King every circumstance is not taken up and aggravated against him and so for those that are for God every circumstance should not be aggravated against them It is better for one to be forward in Gods cause though he should fail in some circumstances then to be lukewarm If a man be going earnestly and do fall forward there is not so much danger in that as to fall backward so a man that is forward in that which is good though he may carry some things indiscreerly and suffer somewhat that way yet his fall is but forward and there is not so much danger in that as in a time-server and apostate that falls backward he may break his neck And therefore we should not aggravate the afflictions of the Saints if they be right in the main we should countenance them and appear for them though we venture something as Moses here he might have saved himself and yet he had such a high esteem of Gods people as he would venture all for them but of this in the next Point Thirdly If God does move the hearts of any preciously to esteem of his people though afflicted outwardly hearken to a word of encouragement Certainly thou art blessed of God It is a note of a wonderful strong eye-sight that thou hast that thou canst see Spiritual excellency through outward meanness there is more skill in being able to see the preciousness of a thing then to see the glory and lustre of it that which is not true pearl may have as much lustre as the true but the skill of the Lapidary is to know that is not precious but the other although it be fullied with dirt It is a note of sincerity of grace that thou lovest grace for grace It is a note of the power of grace that thou canst pass by that which is a stumbling to so many Certainly God will know thy soul in adversity and will look through all thy infirmities upon thee that canst look with an honorable esteem upon his people through all afflictions And in that time when thou suspectest the work of grace in thee this may be one argument to uphold thee though thou canst not discern the work of grace in thine own heart yet thou canst prize it in another it is an argument it is in thy soul though now thou canst not see it though people want other notes yet this many have Fourthly You that are the Servants of God and God hath so ordered it as you are mean in the world mean in your parts and estates and mean in regard of your friends be not discouraged do not think I am a poor contemptible man or woman no body looks at me or regards me God hath a high esteem of you the Angels have a high esteem of you the Saints have a high esteem of you and therefore be not discouraged As you have it in Isaiah 56. 3 4. Let not the Eunuch say I am a dry tree for if he will take hold of my name and keep my Sabbath I will give him an everlasting name better then of sons and daughters Many because they are outwardly mean do go on discouraged and say of themselves We are dry trees If thou didst but see the thoughts of Gods people and see the thoughts of wicked men as if thou couldst but unfold the consciences of wicked men they do reverence thee and wish they were in thy condition if they were to dye though you have not that respect from the godly which they seem to shew to others that they have more use of and are more serviceable to them to do their business and so there is a shew of more outward familiarity yet do not think but that you are more highly esteemed then they are But suppose no man should regard you it is enough that God does regard you It is a notable speech of Salvian Such as are truly blessed in their own consciences cannot be miserable by the false judgements of other men But I say though that were enough yet you have more you have God and his Angels and Saints and the consciences of wicked men though we should not regard the esteem of the men of the world but go on in our way onely be careful that they may not speak ill of our Religion but the esteem of the Saints is not slightly to be esteemed for it is a blessing of God and therefore St. Paul was earnest with the Romans to pray to God for him that his service might be accepted of by the Saints On the other side for one to be in such a condition as those that are godly wise and humble shall call their estates into question and be suspitious of them such need look to themselves many that are truly godly may be very guilty of censuring and so do much wrong both to those that are godly and to Religion but take those that are wise and humble and I say if such should be jealous of me I should have great cause to be suspitious of my self for such have the Spirit of God and do know the things of God A spiritual man judgeth all things and therefore we should make good use of their opinions of us If they be afraid of us we should fear our selves as Isaiah says There is no peace to the wicked says my God that God that my
therefore when any was converted it is said they were added to the Church And S. Paul Heb. 10. 25. lays a charge upon them though it were at such a time as they hazarded their lives Not to forsake the assembly of the Saints as the maner of some is And Mr. Calvin in a Sermon upon that Text Seek ye my face interpreting it thus The face of God is Gods Ordinances as a man is known by his face so God maketh himself known in his Ordinances and so he urges that place Seek my face that all Christians in conscience are bound to go where Gods Ordinances may be enjoyed if possibly they can And he says further It is better they should scrape the ground with their nails then to be any where else where they should not ioyn with Gods people in the ways of his Ordinances Certainly it is a great blessing to be with them though upon never such hard terms in regard of afflictions That is observable that we read of Jacob blessing his sons Gen. 49. 28. it is said He blessed every one of them How was that for you shall finde he rather seemed to curse three of them Reuben Simeon and Levi he speaks onely of evil to them but because they were not rejected from being amongst Gods people although they were to be under great and sore afflictions yet they are said to be blessed Well but why should we suffer much affliction for the joyning with Gods people What is there in them or amongst them that makes joyning with them to be so desireable First that point we handled before might be enough to shew the reason of this they are the excellent of the earth Isaiah 43. 4. I do not now speak of them particularly though every Saint is honorable but especially they are honorable in a way of Church communion Now we know it is a credit and priviledge to have society with those that are honorable Gods people are so they are the glory of the world as for others God speaks of them as dirt and dross Psal 119. 118 119. but now Gods people are called the glory of God himself Isaiah 4. 5. now it is good being with such as those are Peter when he saw but two of Gods servants together with Christ Moses and Elias says It is good being here let us make three Tabernacles one for thee one for Moses and one for Elias he never thought of himself it is good being here though he should lye in the field and in the rain and so says a gracious heart It is good being here with Gods people for they are precious whatsoever hardship we suffer amongst them Secondly there is no such comfortable communion in the world as with Gods people It is comfortable First in the very beholding of the shining of the graces of Gods Spirit in them says Heathen Seneca The very look of a good man delights me What is the glory of God himself but to see his own glory shining in the world in the works of creation and providence If God delights so much to see the resplendency of that glory that shines in his works surely it must be a great delight to those that have any work of grace to see grace shining in others Besides there is a blessed fragrancy of graces in Gods people as the eye is satisfied in beholding the beauty of them so the heart is satisfied in the sweetness of them Cant. 6. 2. My beloved is gone down into his garden to the beds of spices the Catholike Church is as the garden and every particular Church if it be as it should be is as a bed of spices that gives forth a very fragrant smell It is reported of Alexander his body was of such an exact constitution that it gave a sweet scent where it went and so a Church is of so good a constitution that it gives forth a wonderful sweet fragrant smell to those that have their right senses Again no such comfort as in communion with Gods people in regard of the nearness of their union one with another their hearts joyn and are one if they be truly spiritual other societies are but as the iron and the clay in the toes of Nebuchadnezzars Image they may cleave together but they will not incorporate one into another The more spiritual any thing is the more it does unite with that which is spiritual spiritual things are more unitive then such things as are bodily as if you have a heap of stones they do not joyn so close together but now a thousand beams of the Sun will unite together in one point because they are spiritual things in comparison and this is the reason why there is such a full union between God and a spiritual heart because God is so spiritual and the more spiritual the heart is the more union and so Christians having grace and grace being spiritual the more grace the more spiritual and the more spiritual the more union and the reason why in Church-fellowship there is so little union is because they are so carnal and therefore the Apostle says the contentions that were in the Church of Corinth were because they were carnal If you were more spiritual there would not be such division between you As it is in wicked communion those who are more spiritually wicked for there is a kinde of spiritual wickedness they do more unite together those that are more fleshly wicked do not so closely unite as your drunkards and prophane fellows though they call good fellows yet upon every cross word they are ready to fall out but others that are wicked in a malicious way against the godly and wicked in a way of policy to work to undermine the way of godliness such as those joyn together a great deal more strongly then those that joyn together in an outward fleshly way Now because Gods people are spiritual in a gracious way therefore they have such near union and union causes abundance of comfort We read Exodus 26. of two sorts of Curtains for the Tabernacle the one verse 1. of fine twined linen blew purple and scarlet and the tatches were of gold to couple them the other were of goats hair ver 7. and the tatches to couple them were of brass ver 11. Which may set forth the several sorts of people in the Church some are of a finer make then others more spiritual and the bonds of their union are golden others are more course and the bonds of their union are not so glorious but this is a truth for ever the more spiritual the more union the more pure the souls of men are and of the more excellent temper the more close sweet excellent in their union Again no such comfort as with Gods people because of the suitableness of that disposition that is in their spirits one with another having but one spirit and but one divine nature led by the same principles
in this communion labor to satisfie your selves in it so as to take heed of breaking from it the forsaking the assemblies of the Saints is made by the Apostle an argument of Apostacy Heb. 10. 25. Not forsaking the assembling our selves together as the maner of some is Do not think to go and make up your comfort with going and joyning with the world Certainly when men that are members of a Church shall for form come and joyn with Gods people but their consciences tell them when they are in the world their hearts are more content and satisfied this is an argument of a carnal heart that hath dallied with God It is a dishonor to godly men as men that are raised to high priviledges count it a dishonor to company with those that are mean Those who were free of the City of Rome were not to be free of any other place It is enough that we are Citizens of the new Jerusalem let us satisfie our selves in this Godly men though never so poor are to look upon those who are carnal as base and vile especially to think to take satisfaction in eating and drinking and playing with them when as there are such holy Ordinances and high priviledges with Gods people to satisfie your selves in and in those your hearts withdraw from them Certainly your hearts must needs be very carnal and sensual Can God take it well at thy hands to go and shake hands with his enemies Job 8. 20. God will not take the wicked by the hand so it is in some of your books Why then will you Canst thou be in any place where thou seest God dishonored and be merry Certainly the sight of sin wheresoever it is committed should cause horror in the heart thus it was with David Psalm 119. 53. Horror hath taken hold upon me because of the wicked that forsake thy Law It should make men forbear to come into such company where they see sin committed It is reported of Mezentius the Hetrurian Tyrant that he devised this torment to chain a live man and a dead man together and so wheresoever he went he should have the dead man to rot before him and stink in his nostrils till he was poysoned with it Surely this was a great misery a most grievous death And Gods people should count it as great an evil to have filthy dead wretches that are unsavoury in any thing that is good to be joyned with them David prays in Psal 26. 9. Gather not my soul with sinners Would you not have your souls gathered with sinners hereafter for the present take heed of joyning with them It was the prayer once that I have heard of a good Gentlewoman when she was to dye being in much trouble of conscience O Lord let me not go to hell where the wicked are for Lord thou knowest I never loved their company here She prayed with David Lord gather not my soul with sinners If you would have evidence that God will not gather your souls to sinners but that he will gather them to the godly labor to satisfie your souls with Gods people Seventhly if there be so much good in this way labor to improve it to the utmost Wherefore is there a price in the hand of a fool This is a great price if many had seen the days that we have seen how would they have blessed God what use would they have made of them Seeing God therefore hath given you this opportunity improve it if you have any advantage in your trading you will improve it Take heed of such things as may hinder that good you may have in communion with the Saints What are they The first thing that I would forewarn Christians of it is sullenness of spirit that makes them love solitariness rather then communion and this is amongst many that have true grace and certainly it comes sometimes from abundance of pride for if they come among others they think they shall discover their weakness and rather then they will discover their weakness they will deprive themselves of all that good which they might have Consider how unfaithfully you deal with God God hath given you a talent and you are not to wrap it up in a napkin but to use it for God Again it is a wrong to the Church for your gifts are not your own but the Church hath an interest in them and therefore you are to use them for their good Again you do much wrong to the Ordinance of God when you do prefer the contenting of a pettish humor before the Ordinance of God God threatens it as a judgement Hosea 4. 16. To feed his people as a Lamb in a large place that is to scatter them from the fold that they should go one and one as a Lamb bleating alone in the wilde wilderness take heed you do not bring it upon your selves Again there is a great deal of danger in this solitariness of spirit First there will soon grow a wonderful driness and barrenness of spirit It is just with God to deprive men of gifts that have not hearts to improve the gifts that God hath given them Again you will be ready to run into error and strange conceits for if you observe the workings of your hearts you have strange opinions of things and think you are sure of them and when you come amongst others though you could not see the weakness of your opinions others can quickly see them whereas if you will not come amongst them but be stiff in your opinions you may run into errors Again you will be lyable to the temptations of Satan immoderate solitariness is joyned with immoderate melancholy which is the common shop of the Devil for to forge his temptations in and it is a great evil to keep the Devils temptations close and therefore come into communion with the Saints And secondly when you do come into communion take heed of pride pride sometimes keeps away from communion and pride is a great hinderance to the benefit of communion As round things do not joyn but onely in one point but take flat things and they joyn in every point and so hearts swoln with pride cannot joyn with others but onely in such particulars as will serve their turns but if we have plain hearts we will close in all things If a bladder be blown with wind when you touch it or handle it it goes away but when it is pricked it falls and you may handle it so hearts that are swoln with pride will not close as low humble hearts will A swoln member is fit for nothing but all members must serve that As a gouty leg all the members must tend that but it is unfit to be serviceable to any and so a proud heart it expects every one should attend it but when it comes to be serviceable to any it is unfit Thirdly take heed of envying at the gifts and graces of one another the wicked men
know what an eternal God is and what an eternal crown is and an eternal inheritance when it knows that God does intend to communicate himself eternally to his creature it cannot be satisfied unless it knows it shall live to enjoy those things that God shall communicate eternally Thirdly a gracious spirit hath received an eternal principle within it that does work the heart beyond things for a season that works the heart all to eternity for the work of Grace that is in the soul it is begotten of the immortal seed of the Word and it is an eternal principle that is infused by God into it and therefore it works beyond things that are for a season every creature works according to the nature of its principles as sensitive creatures according unto sensitive principles and rational creatures according unto rational principles but grace is beyond reason and is of an everlasting nature and therefore it works the heart beyond all that is but for a season Fourthly a gracious heart cannot be satisfied with things that are but for a season because God hath loved such a heart with an eternal love and there is the impression of the same love in the soul that carries the soul to God in some measure with that love wherewith it is loved that causes the soul to love God with an eternal love and not to be satisfied with any work of love that it can work in time and therefore grace must have eternity for to manifest the love again that it hath to God or else it hath not a love proportionable in its measure to the love wherewith God hath loved it but that is in every gracious heart Fifthly there is a kinde of image of Gods infiniteness in the souls of men and according to this print of Gods infiniteness the enjoyment of God is desired where the heart is gracious though it is true our souls are not infinite creatures in themselves yet having a print of Gods infiniteness upon them they manifest this in their infinite desires and because they cannot enjoy an actual infinite good in themselves therefore they desire an infinite good in duration at least let there be never so much good yea as much as an infinite power can let out for present good yet this does not satisfie the soul unless it can have it infinitely for duration for an enlightned soul knows that it is not capable to hold that good that an infinite God can and hath a purpose to communicate to his creature if it should come all together therefore it desires to enjoy communication of what good it is capable of to all eternity To receive good from God is not sufficient except it be received in an infinite way now it cannot receive any thing infinite for the present and therefore it must have it in an infinite way in regard of duration Sixthly there is nothing that is but for a season can satisfie a gracious heart but it must be some eternal thing because such a one hath received light from God to understand the infinite consequence of eternity to make any good to be infinite or any evil to be infinite When as one enjoys any good and knows it shall continue infinitely it makes that present good to have a kinde of infiniteness in it and and so for evil if there be any evil upon the heart though the evil should be never so little yet if it be an evil and the soul knows it must continue infinitely it puts a kinde of infiniteness to every moment and that is the principal thing that makes the misery of the damned to be so miserable and the happiness of the godly so happy they are not onely happy and miserable because they shall be happy and miserable for ever but because they know there is continance in happiness and in misery their knowledge of this is that which puts infinite weight upon every moment Suppose a beast should have happiness suitable to its nature for eternity that would come infinitely short of the happiness of a rational creature that knows wherein happiness consists and what eternity is for the beast enjoys nothing but the present happiness but a reasonable creature it hath happiness for the present and it can by the thoughts of the minde fetch in the infiniteness of the duration and put it upon the present content it receives and so have infinite satisfaction every moment And so for misery it were not so much if God by his power should hold a brute beast in the fire eternally as if a man were in misery because though it hath pains yet it hath no thought of future pains but what it now feels But if a rational creature be in misery by the thoughts of his minde he can fetch all the pains that shall be in hundred thousands of years and put them upon that instant and this makes it to be miserable indeed in a kinde of infiniteness beyond that which any other creature is capable of You think to be tortured with fire is miserable and to be so eternally is miserable but there is something more every instant you shall be in misery there shall be a kinde of infiniteness because you shall by your thoughts bring whatsoever is to come and put it upon the present moment and nothing can swallow up a mans spirit so much as this if he understands eternity Now then a gracious heart that knows this that knows what the consequence of eternity is cannot be satisfied except it hath made good provision for eternity whatsoever it enjoys for the present cannot satisfie the soul unless it hath made good provision for that which it understands to be of such infinite consequence as it is A soul that understands the consequence of eternity sees it as an infinite Ocean that it is lanching into and must for ever swim in Now if a man were to go a voyage in the vast Ocean that he must go thousands of miles could he be content that he had made provision of such a Vessel that he could make shift to get over some narrow water with so it is here yea this similitude comes short of the expression of the folly of any that knows any thing concerning eternity to think to satisfie themselves in any thing that is but for a season for any thing that is but for a season let it be for as long a season as you will if it were for Methuselahs season that is but as some small Brook and what is this to the going of many thousand miles in the infinite vast Ocean and therefore a gracious heart knowing the vastness of it except it hath made some provision for it can never be quieted with what it can enjoy for a season Seventhly a gracious heart cannot be satisfied in any thing that is but for a season because there is nothing that is but for a season but it can make the end of it as really present If so be that
leaves us in the using Seneca says We live amongst things that are perishing We hear much of the vanity of the creature and we can speak much of it but how is it improved how if you perish eternally for setting your hearts upon these things and notwithstanding all your talk this dreadful noise shall be heard from you We have lost eternity for setting our hearts upon things that were for a season It is a notable speech that Ambrose hath Why will you make that which cannot be eternal for use eternal for punishment It is fading in regard of the use but it proves to be eternal in regard of the punishment Therefore when any temptation comes to draw your hearts to any thing that gives content to the flesh for a season O that you might improve this Argument to resist the temptation What shall I while away that time I have to improve for eternity to seek after you and take content and pleasure in you you are not onely temporal your selves but you do hazard the loss of eternal things and hazard the bringing of eternal evils And therefore do not think it much that I press this argument because it is ordinary all that perish perish because they set their hearts upon that which is for a season and therefore though the knowledge of this in some general notion be ordinary yet the truth is to know it powerfully indeed and effectually it is a riddle to the world It is a notable place we have in Psalm 49. 3 4. The whole scope of the Psalm is to shew the happy secure estate of the godly in all troubles and the vanishing condition of all ungodly in prosperity now mark how he calls to us in the beginning of this Psalm to hearken to this argument We might say this is an argument we have heard a hundred times and know what it is Why should we hearken so Though you think this is an ordinary Theam yet this is the great wisdom and understanding of a gracious heart to know this is the dark saying that I will open so says the Psalmist My mouth shall speak of wisdom and the meditation of my heart shall be of understanding I will open my dark saying So when you hear us speaking of this argument you say This is an ordinary argument but the true knowledge of it is a dark hidden thing to the men of the world and it is the work of the Spirit of God to make men know this truly and when God works any saving work upon the soul he begins in this way to settle upon the soul this truth That all the things that it hath satisfied it self in are fading and what is a year or two to enjoy all the contentments my heart can desire if then I must be gone and bid farewel to all have not I an immortal soul and when shall be the time that I shall provide for eternity And therefore I beseech you look into this argument and ponder it a little more There are three worms that are in every thing of the world to eat out the strength of it and make it fading First the worm that is bred in the natural principles the things that we set our hearts upon are made of fading principles Secondly there is the worm of the general curse that is come upon them by mans sin Thirdly there is another worm and that is the particular curse that we bring upon the creatures by our own proper sins as especially when we set our hearts upon any fading transitory things below all things in the world are subject to vanity by the general curse but the particular curse makes them more vain and shall we think to satisfie our selves in the things of the world that have these three worms feeding upon them continually to eat out the strength of them What are your hearts upon I urge it upon you as in the name of God and answer in your secret thoughts What are your hearts upon either upon things that are for a season or eternal Things that are eternal you look upon them as high notional things that never took up your thoughts much but to go into company and eat and drink and laugh and get money these are the things that are but for a season and these your hearts close with and bless themselves in What are become of all those that have had as great dealings and as many merry meetings as you and have satisfied the flesh as much as you they are gone rotten in their graves and their souls it may be crying under the wrath of an infinite God and all their bravery and delight at an end would you be in their condition It is a good observation of Abulensis to shew to us the vanity of all worldly excellency that those who have been the most glorious in what man accounts glorious and excellent have had inglorious ends by which their glory hath been stained and thereby our hearts might be taken off from such things and set upon those things which are so glorious as they will make us for ever glorious He instances in Sampson for strength and yet what a contemptible end had he So Absolom for beauty Achitophel for policy Asael for swiftness Alexander for great conquests and yet after twelve years poysoned He instances likewise in Kingdoms the Chaldaean Persian Graecian Roman how soon were they gone It is a notable speech Augustine hath Go says he and mark and attend the Sepulchres of rich men and when you see their rotten bones consider who they once were and know they do cry unto you O you men why do you seek so much to satisfie your selves in these fading things and heap upon your selves vexation to attain happiness for your selves in these things Consider our bones here and be struck with astonishment to abhor your luxury and covetousness for says he they cry thus to you You now are and we were and time will be when you shall be what we are And then consider with your selves what a doleful condition that man is in that hath set his heart upon things that are for a season When those are at an end he may say Now the thoughts of my heart and all my hopes are at an end now I must bid an eternal farewel to all my comforts to husband and wife and neighbors and friends and companions I shall never meet with you more and never have mirth and jollity and sporting and gaming any more but I must bid farewel to all the Sun is set and the season is at an end for all my comfort and before me I see an infinite vast Ocean and I must lanch into it Lord what provision have I for it What a dreadful shreek will that soul give that sees an infinite Ocean it must lanch into and sees no provision that it hath made for it Indeed those that dye and are besotted and know nothing of this infinite Ocean that they must lanch into
you still go on in your way and those who reproached you before will after admire you But if you fall off after you have begun not being able to bear reproach This says he deserves a double reproach Your reproachers will reproach you much more they will say Here is a time-server who will do any thing as the times serve for his turn None so much contemned as Apostates Those that opposed Nehemiah and sought to hinder his work did it to reproach him if he had left his work for reproaching they would have reproached him much more How would this cut you to the heart that those that did reproach you if you go out of the way should reproach you much more Consider does this beseem the spirit of a Christian Had you ever any experimental knowledge of the evil of sin or any good in the ways of God Will this be an answer before God when you come to give an account why you went out of your way Lord I suffered so much reproach I could not bear it And again will it not be just with God for to suffer you to fall into some vile scandalous sin to be reproached for after another maner because that you would not suffer reproach for his name you should suffer reproach for your sin These are the things we are to be warned of CHAP. XXXI How we are to bear Reproaches BUt how are we to bear reproaches We are to bear our reproaches wisely patiently fruitfully joyfully and to return good for evil First we are to bear them wisely there is a great deal of wisdom required in bearing of reproaches and evils that men are accused of the exercise of wisdom does appear much in the bearing of reproaches though we should not be insensible yet not to take too much notice of every reproach that is castp on us It was the speech of a Philosopher when one was reproaching of him some told him they deride thee but says he I am not derided I will not take to my self that which is cast upon me It is wisdom for people to go away and take but little notice of any thing that is cast upon them and therefore when upon every idle reproach there come a company tatling and say Such a one says thus and thus such should be sent away with an angry countenance it is a dishonor to you to receive them as if you would take notice of every word and as if you had no other things to take up your thoughts Dionysius having not very well used Plato at the Court when he was gone he feared lest he should write against him therefore he sent after him to bid him not to write against him says he Tell Dionysius I have not so much leisure as to think of him so we should let those that reproach us to know that we have not leisure to think of them as S. Paul when the Viper came upon his hand he shaked it off some would have swelled and almost dyed at the very sight of such a thing but he did but shake it off And so should we do by our reproaches when reproaches are opposed they do grow as hair the more it is cut the more it grows when they are despised they will vanish away there is a great deal of evil comes by making much ado about reproaches First by this means they are kept up in the mouthes of people and so the evil is worse as a dunghil stirred stinks the worse Again it may occasion those that reproach us to raise up things that were dead a great while ago and adde that to our reproach Again it may occasion abundance of new matter though false to make our reproaches greater If a man should undertake to answer every reproachful speech there would be no end for the Devils breast says Luther is very fruitful with lyes Again our making much stir does but stir them the more that do reproach us and by making ado and stir it comes to be more divulged Lastly when we do stir if we do not clear every little minute to the utmost it will be a means to make us suspected of all and therefore do not take much notice of reproaches It is a notable example that we finde of one Pericles as he was sitting before others in a meeting a foul-mouthed fellow railed upon him all the day long at night when it was dark and the meeting broke up the fellow followed him and railed at him even to his door and he took no notice of him what he said but when he came at home this is all he said It is dark I pray let my man light you home But men will take me for guilty if I let it pass quietly Not so we know many times Christ himself took no notice of a great deal of evil that was said against him so that the Rulers wondred How is it that they lay these things to your charge and you answer nothing Again rather the other will shew us guilty it was a speech of Ambrose concerning those that cannot suffer reproach while they clear themselves guilty they approve themselves to be more guilty of that evil which is said against them Obj. But we shall hearten them more in accusing of us Answ No it will rather be a means to hearten them by keeping a stir for then they have something to feed upon Obj. How shall we stop their mouthes Ans First walk innocently innocency wil clear all and overcome in time hence David saith that thou mayest be clear when thou judgest St. Paul quoting this Rom. 3. 4. he hath it That thou mayest overcome when thou judgest he puts overcome for clear because those who are clear will overcome But more then this in the second place you must labor to be eminent in that which is quite contrary to that which you are reproached for Perhaps he reproaches you for one that is a dissembler labor for the greatest eminency of plainness of heart and sincerity If it be for covetousness labor to be eminent in liberality doing good wisely not where they would have you but in a gracious way ordering your affairs by discretion If it be for pride clear your selves not by yielding to their humor but labor for an eminency of humility another way that those that can judge right may see there is humility in you thus labor to entertain reproaches with wisdom Secondly labor to bear reproaches patiently And therein first I shall labor to take away those pleas whereby men are hindred in their patience Secondly I will shew what powerful arguments there are for bearing reproaches Thirdly give some means how to bear them patiently First to take away the pleas and objections that people have against patience Some will say if it were not wrongfully I could bear it it would never grieve me One would wonder that ever there should come
further consider what a great deal of good there is in bearing reproaches patiently First there is a great deal of honor in it There is more honor in bearing reproaches patiently then there is disgrace in having them cast wrongfully upon you now what do you lose then Suppose there be hot water and I put so much cold to it it loses its warmth but if I put more warm then cold to it then the water hath lost nothing of its warmness So suppose you be reproached and God brings more honor then the reproach did scandal then you have lost nothing Every fool can cast reproach but it is the part of a wise man to bear it well Again if we can bear reproaches patiently what a quiet will it be to our hearts otherwise we should never be quiet for we live amongst those that will cast reproaches and unless we can get power this way we shall never have comfortable lives and we should think it much that the comfort and quiet of our lives should lie at the mercy of others Thirdly the bearing of reproaches patiently is a mighty help to the progress of godliness in us As those that have overcome the evil of shame in a way of sin grow mightily hardned in their sins so those that have got that strength to go on in the ways of God so as not much to regard any reproach that is cast upon them in that way they will mightily grow in those ways Lastly consider there is much danger in being honored by men and in many regards the honors of men are as much if not more to be feared then their contempts and dishonors Luther writing to a friend of his says He would not have the glory and fame of Erasmus my greatest fear is the praises of men but my joy is in their reproaches and evil speeches CHAP. XXXIII What we should do that we may be able to bear reproach BUt you will say these arguments may move us to do it and convince us we should do it but how shall we do it First be sure to keep conscience clear that that do not upbraid thee be careful of what you do and then you need not be much careful of what men say if conscience do not reproach you reproach without will not much move you consciences testimony for thee is more then ten thousand slanders against thee As the storms and winds without do not move the earth but vapors within that causes earthquakes As Ambrose says of David he was not much troubled with Shimei's railing because his conscience did abound with good works If thou canst say with Job Chap. 27. 6. My heart shall not reproach me as long as I live thou art safe enough from the evil of reproach Secondly if you be failing in any thing begin with your selves before any begin with you accuse your selves before God first so some interpret that place in Psal 119. I am wiser then my enemies though my enemies are witty and do plot and their malice do help them with invention yet I am wiser I can finde out the ways of my own heart and my own evils better then all my enemies Thirdly Christians should exercise themselves in great things in the things of God and Christ and eternity and labor to greaten their spirits in a holy maner and be above reproach It was a speech of Seneca Men that know their greatness are not troubled with reproaches he will think himself above reproach And therefore if our spirits be truly greatned not with pride but with the exercising of our spirits in things that are above the world reproaches would be nothing in our eyes It is a notable expression that St. John hath against the evil tongue of Diotrephes Ep. 3. ver 10. He prates against us with malicious words in the Original it is he trifles although his words were malicious and Diotrephes a great man yet all was but trifles so high was St. Johns spirit above them Aquinas gives two figns of a weak spirited man one that he delights in light and foolish words a second that he cannot endure contempt such a man says he although he should work miracles yet he is beneath the perfection of vertue his spirit hath no true greatness in it The sinking of the heart under reproaches or to be put out of the way by them argues too vile a pusillanimity such a poor low spirit as is not consistent with the true magnanimity of a Christian Gulielmus Parisiensis in his Treatise De virtutibus hath notable Expressions to this purpose Little things saith he yea meer nothings cast down poor weak spirited men The words of vain men are small things whosoever fears such words so as to do evil or to leave off good are the weakest of men these are like unto Soldiers who are cast down and overcome not with some violent strong tempest but with some small weak puff of winde these are the more ridiculous and not to be reckoned amongst Warriers nay they are not to be reckoned amongst men who fall off for fear of words which yet have not been spoken as if a man should fall for fear of the wind which yet blows not such are those who dare not do good or leave evil for fear of reproaches Fourthly another means is to make your moan to God and lay your case before him as Hezekiah when Rabshekah came and reviled God and the people of God he went and spread the letter before God and made his moan before God If we can do so there will be that satisfaction to our souls that is unspeakable and that will be a great argument of our innocency Many will say Oh they are innocent and God knows their hearts but can you go and make your moan before God when you are reproached and acquaint God with the cause and receive refreshment that way as Job 16. 20. My friends scorn me but mine eyes pour out tears to God And David Psal 109. 1 2. Hold not thy peace O God of my praise for the mouth of the wicked and the mouth of the deceitfal are opened against me they have spoken against me with a lying tongue they have compassed me about with words of hatred they are mine adversaries but I prayer for so the words are in the Original not I give my self but onely thus but I prayer as if he should say as for my part all that I do to help my self withal is to pray to God and make my moan Others have their evil tongues to help them and run to this witness and that witness to seek to help themselves but I prayer Psal 57. 2 3. I cry unto God most high he shall send from heaven and save me from reproach of him that would swallow me up Selah God shall send forth his mercy and truth A carnal heart hath no way to deliver it self but by reproaches again by
reproaches are the reproaches of Christ and we shall not need to depend upon any outward comfort for to comfort us much less have we need to help our selves by reviling again The comfort of a Christian is this That his reproaches are the reproaches of Christ this is enough to quiet his heart you need not comfort your selves in your parts or estates this is enough alone do but answer all your distractions and troublesome workings of your hearts with this and this will quiet them Quest But how shall I know that my reproaches are the reproaches of Christ Answ First if you be reproached for the sake of Christ though you be not a member of Christ yet if your adversaries reproach you because they take you for a member of Christ there is some comfort in this Secondly if you can under all reproaches bring your hearts in subjection unto Christ and quiet your hearts under reproaches in obedience unto him Thirdly if you finde the rule by which you are guided and acted in that condition to be the rule of Christ Fourthly if you finde the chiefest comfort that you gather in to help you to be the comfort of Christ Fifthly if you finde the end you do aim at in your bearing them is the honor of Christ and that you do desire rather that Christ may be in the conclusion honored then your selves cleared Sixthly take this as a special note if you make those reproaches that Christ suffers in his cause his truth his people yours then he makes yours his how does your hearts stand affected to the reproaches Christ suffers in others Zeph. 3. 17 18. God promises much mercy to such to whom the reproach of the solemn assemblies were a burthen That heart that is burthened with the reproaches of Gods ways shall finde ease in the comforts of Gods Spirit If these things be in you certainly these come from the Spirit of Christ and if from the Spirit of Christ then you are Christs and if you be Christs then your reproaches are Christs A third Use is this Seeing Christ suffers for us and all our reproaches are the reproaches of Christ Let us take heed that he do not suffer by us Now Christ may come to suffer by us two ways First if so be that we cause the name of Christ to be spoken evil of Secondly when we come to be actors our selves in speaking evil of Christ or of his people First if we cause Christ or his people to be spoken evil of by any sinful way of ours this is the reproach of Christ but not in that sense I spoke of before Christ does not onely suffer in you but he suffers by you This is the charge that the Apostles lays upon the Romans For your sake is the name of God blasphemed we had need look to our selves in this Mark what charge the Apostle lays upon women 1 Tim. 5. 13 14. that they should take heed of tatling and carrying themselves unchristianly and that they give none occasion to the adversary to speak reproachfully That was the reason why Nehemiah was so careful in his business in Neh. 5. 9. Because of the reproach of the Heathen And so I say to you that are Gods people Is it not enough that Christ hath suffered for you and in you but must he suffer by you O that the fear of God might be upon you because of the reproach of your adversaries Is Christ dear to you did Christ ever do any thing for you Is it not better a thousand times that you were crost and your lives were taken away and you laid rotting in the grave if your names could wash away any stain that is upon the name of Christ know there are many that Christ have fuffered reproach by and you cannot clear your selves of it and know what an evil and bitter thing it is that after all the goodness and mercy of Christ to you and the near relation that he hath taken you into will you abuse all this mercy and this near relation if Christ had never taken you for his own had you been never so vile Christ had not suffered reproach by you but now in regard of your near relation to him he suffers reproach by you and is this the use you make of your near relation When therefore you finde your hearts begin to stir and corruption boil consider the name of Christ lies prostrate before you and will you trample upon the name of Jesus Christ if one were set upon going to a place to do mischief and his Father and Mother should throw themselves in the path that if he goes on he must tread upon them and they should say You shall tread upon the bowels out of which you came upon the loyns that begat you this would be a great stop and so you that are Professors of the Gospel if you have a temptation to a lust the name of Christ calls Stay and says If you go you shall trample upon me and my blood and bring reproach upon me will not this stop you Never think that gain that you get by the reproach of Christ It is true indeed if we be going on in our duty and do that we should though men say the name of Christ shall be reproached we are to go on and do our duty and let Christ vindicate his name if he will but if it be any thing that concern out selves and the satisfaction of our own wills and desires whereby Christ may be reproached this is a mighty argument to keep us from it the word hath scarce a stronger argument to keep us from an evil way then this The name of Christ shal suffer by it for the people of God to suffer reproach by you is an evil thing for a man to have but his kindred ashamed of him what an evil thing is it but that it may be said of one that is a Professor of Religion that he is not onely a reproach to the Church of God but a reproach to Jesus Christ if you have any ingenuity in you this might strike to your hearts It is reported of Alexander having a Soldier of his name and his Soldier being a coward he came to him and said Either leave off the name of Alexander or be a Soldier and so we have the name of Christians but when we are vile in our lives Christ says Either leave off your profession your name or be a Christian indeed do not come in amongst the number of Professors to let profession suffer by you And so Alexander Severus the Emperor seeing a company of Christians fighting together he commanded them to leave off the name of Christians for says he You profess your selves to be Christians and yet you are thus contending this is not the spirit of him whom you do profess It is a lamentable thing that we should profess such a glorious name as we do and that we should handle the
of the Martyrs in a way of honor to them Basil speaking of the forty Martyrs breaks out into this expression O blessed tongues which put forth such a confession as the ayr receiving it was even made holy by it You must suppose the expression to be hyperbolical yet so as shews how honorable the Martyrs were in their professions of Christ Thirdly it is a greater dignity in some degree then God puts upon the Angels in Heaven the Angels glorified God in a way of service but the Angels and Saints in Heaven have not this way to glorifie God they are not called to suffer in the cause of God Thirdly the reproaches we suffer for Christ are riches of imployment in this they are called to be imployed in the greatest work that God hath to do in the world there are no people in the world imployed so to set out Gods praise as they are that are called to suffer this is the lowest subjection that can be to God but the highest honor And they are called to be maintainers of the truth of God Says Calvin upon this argument What are we poor worms full of vanities and lyes that we should be called to be maintainers of the truth The great cause of Gods truth is maintained especially in Gods peoples suffering for the truth Here is a glorious contending for the faith of God that is delivered to the Saints Those who are in Prison says Cyprian Confess God with a glorious voyce Again they are imployed in bringing credit to the Church of God Gods people that suffer are a great honor to the Church of God whereas Apostates do disgrace the Church of God those that stand out in the defence of the truth in suffering make up that honor that the Church hath lost these are great employments A gracious heart accounts it as great riches to bring honor to the Church as to have honor himself of which before It is a notable expression that Cyprian hath to set out the honor the Church hath by such who suffer for the truth O blessed Church which in our times is made glorious by the glorious blood of the Martyrs it was white by the works of the brethren now it is purple by the blood of Martyrs there are neither Lillies nor Roses wanting in her flowers white garlands from their works and purple from their sufferings Fourthly they are riches of improvement First grace is improved grace is never so improved as it is at that time when a soul suffers for Christ they most profit me says Luther who speak worst of me as opposition of sin in the wicked improves their sin so opposition of grace in the godly improves their grace Lutherus pascitur convitiis Luther made reproaches his food he was nourished by them virtutem intelligo animosam excelsam quam incitat quicquid infestat Sen. Ep. 72. Secondly here is improved whatsoever Gods people do enjoy that they are willing to lose no such improvement of a mans credit or estate as the loss of it for Christ if we would devise how we should improve and lay out all our talents for God we cannot lay them out better we shall quickly gain from five to ten here If men know how to improve their stocks to the utmost they count the knowledge of that way more then if a man had given them many hundred pounds we come to improve all that we have in a glorious maner when God calls unto suffering Thirdly by suffering Gods people come to improve the malice and wickedness that is in the Devil and men that is a great improvement when I can turn the malice of the Devil and wicked men into my riches It is a notable speech that one Vincentius had of his Persecutors Never any man did serve me better then you serve me and he told them what a great deal he did get by their malice in persecuting of him if a man were able to turn dirt into riches how would that enrich a man but to have that which can turn the dirt of wicked men and the Devil into our riches that must be a rich thing Again a childe of God never improves his time so wel as when he is suffering for God when he is a doing good he is improving his time but when he is suffering he does as much in a little time as he was doing a great while before God does much reckon upon the time of his people in suffering Fifthly sufferings and reproaches are riches of experiences As first when they are called to suffer for Christ to be reproached for Christ they have experience of Gods power in upholding them Secondly experience of the ways and many passages of the providence of God towards them in all their sufferings Thirdly they come to have experience of the working of their own hearts And lastly they come to have experience what it is to be in a suffering condition men have another apprehension of a suffering condition before they are called unto it then when they are called to it and therefore they are ready to say I never knew what a prison meant and what reproaches meant till now I do not finde that in them that I was afraid of and these experiences are great riches Sixthly reproaches and sufferings bring in rich promises and they bring in a great deal O that Christians did but know their riches in regard of the precious promises 2 Pet. 1. 4. Every promise is a pearl to enrich Gods people withal and where there is true grace that soul does count it self more enriched by the promises then by any trading Now the promises that are so rich unto a gracious heart they are of divers sorts As first the promise of Gods presence with them and they count those promises to be rich things as the promise of Gods gracious presence and the promise of his glorious presence and the promise of his abiding presence For his gracious promise in Isa 43. 2. When thou passest thorow the waters I will be with thee and thorow the rivers they shall not overflow thee when thou walkest thorow the fire thou shalt not be burnt neither shall the flame kindle upon thee Again his glorious presence and his abiding presence for that you have one promise take in both together 1 Pet. 4. 14. If you be reproached for the name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of glory and of God resteth upon you there is the Spirit of God in all the Saints but there is the Spirit of God and the Spirit of glory on those that are reproached for Christ that is The glorious Spirit of God the Spirit of God in a glorious maner Secondly the Spirit of God and of glory rests upon you it does not pass away but rests upon you now what a rich promise is here and what is in all the world that may be named with this promise Secondly
of grace be to take the hearts of the Saints from the things of the world and to settle them upon higher and better things then certainly there are glorious things to come The last demonstration is this because there are such glorious first fruits of that which is to come that Gods people do finde for the present those blessed rays of heavenly consolations and those beginnings of Heaven that they finde here if there were a thousand worlds filled with that glory that this is filled with they would not take it for one ray one beam that is made known unto them as the first fruits of that glory they shall have hereafter now put all these together and we may conclude Verily there is a reward for the righteous verily there is a glorious condition for Gods servants happy are they that shall be made partakers of these things certainly there are great things to come Before we go any further me thinks the thoughts of these should raise our hearts what do we here minding such poor empty things are these the things that God hath made us for are not the thoughrs of God concerning the children of men higher and more glorious then these outward things surely there is something else that God hath made mans immortal soul for above any thing that it hath seen in the world men do live for the present as if there were no other condition for them no greater good but onely to cat and drink and have money and brave cloathes and the like O know there are better things for us to look after but thus we pass from the first thing that there are blessed things for the children of men hereafter CHAP. XL. How far we may aym at the recompence of reward in what we do IT is true will some say there are glorious things prepared for some of the children of men but whether may we look after them may we have a respect to the reward Is not this a mercenary thing and hypocrisie we are not to serve God for reward but for himself and therefore how is this that Moses had a respect unto the recompence of reward and how is this a thing that should help us on in our way First this is granted that we are bound to serve the Lord and to walk with him and obey him if there were no reward to be expected hereafter God is infinitely worthy of himself of all our services of all that we are able to do in this world and whatsoever we have the Lord hath more interest in it then we have in it our selves and therefore we owe all that we are or have unto him and righteousness it self is sufficient to cause us to perform the works of it In the keeping of thy Commandments there is great reward Psalm 19. 11. Not onely for keeping them but in keeping them there is great reward and the excellency of our work would be sufficient reward for our work though there were no reward that were to come hereafter we are bound to do all we do But yet secondly notwithstanding this God is pleased to give leave unto us his poor creatures to help and encourage our selves in the expectation of that reward that is to come yea to make it our aim though I will not say the highest aim for so the word signifies in 2 Cor. 4. 18. While we look not at things which are seen but at the things which are not seen the word signifies While we make things that are not seen our scope and aym so that God gives us leave to have such respect unto them as to make them our aym and so the people of God have looked at the recompence of reward as a great encouragement to them in their way Psal 119. 112. I have enclined my heart to perform thy statutes alway even to the end the same word that signifies end signifies reward also because reward is to come at the end of all our works and therefore the same word is translated reward in Psal 19. 11. and so the word seems to carry more then to the end as if David should say I have enclined my heart to perform thy Statutes alway looking unto the reward In Heb. 12. 3. it is said of Christ himself That for the joy that was set before him he endured the Cross and despised the shame Now if Christ made use of the joy that was set before him and that was a help to him to endure the Cross and despise the shame much more may we make use of it and it may be a help to us so that we have leave to look at it Yea thirdly we have not onely leave to look at it but it is our duty to seek to help our selves in eying the reward we sin against God if we do it not and the reason is because we are bound to make use of the word in that way that God hath revealed it to us now God hath revealed the glorious things of the recompence of the reward in a way of encouragement and therefore we sin against God if we do not encourage our selves in it Some think why should we look at the reward we must look to the rule and see that our obedience be accordingly but know if you do not look to the reward you do not only hinder your selves of the good you might have but do sin against God in it Here you deceive your selves as Ahaz did deceive himself in Isaiah 7. 11. where God bid him ask a sign he was modest and bashful and would not ask a sign he would not tempt God he would believe the Lord without a sign see how the Lord is angry Is it a small thing to weary man but will you weary God also When as the Lord in favor towards you will vouchsafe you a sign and you refuse it as if you had no need why will you weary God so as when God for the help of our weakness will grant us an argument to help us in our way and we think it is modesty or what you will to leave it in this we sin against the Lord our God Fourthly I never finde that the Scripture does accuse any of Hypocrisie of unsoundness and not to have truth of grace meerly for this because that they did aym at the reward which is in Heaven for that they did you shall finde in Scripture many are discovered for hypocrites for looking at the glory of the world as their aym for seeking of riches and credit but give me an instance where any is accused for unsoundness for seeking of immortallity and eternity and happiness this is that which troubles many Christians that which they do is out of self-love and they aym at themselves God did never discover any to be unsound upon this ground and therefore we should be cautious in accusing our selves of this as many do because for the present they cannot see how they go further then seeking of
themselves though we cannot see how we do go further yet it is an argument we do go further if we get up to this Paul made it a mighty work of grace in him that he could have his heart taken off from all temporal things that are seen and to look at eternal things that were not seen Fifthly yet we ought to look at God and to lift up God beyond our selves or any thing that concerns our selves and not to aym at God more then any worldly thing onely but to aym at God more then at the glory of Heaven But yet further though we are to aym at God beyond our own good any way yet it is the will of God that he would not have us to part with any of our spiritual good no not for any glory to his own name if you look at your reward in Heaven as spiritual you may so far look at it as not to be willing to part with it for any glory that you conceive may come to God by spiritual good I mean grace Now if it could be supposed that God should have never so much glory by my abating the least degree in grace yet I am so bound to the work of grace as I must not abate the least degree for the highest glory that can come to God yea though it is true I am to desire the glory of God and that others should glorifie God yet I should more desire the furtherance of grace in my own soul so as I should not be willing to part with the least degree of grace though thereby all the world should glorifie God But here lies one objection Paul seems to go otherwise for he wished himself accursed or anathamized from Christ for his brethren his kinsmen after the flesh so that it seems St. Paul did wish the glory of God in others more then any grace in himself To this I answer That separation from Christ we must understand rightly we are not to understand by separation that he should be separated from the Spirit and grace of Christ but that he might be separated from the comforts of Christ that he might not have that comfort and that happiness that comes in by Christ If he had desired to be separated from the grace of Christ he should have sinned in it Gods glory and our good are so annexed together that though we may suffer much for the good of others yet we are not to desire to be in any sinful condition though it could save all the world If it could be conceived unless I sin the least sin in thought all the men of the world should be damned I should suffer them all to be damned rather then to sin the least sin I remember St. Augustine hath a tractate about an officious lye to tell a lye for no hurt but for good says he We are not to tell such a lye though it were to save all the world Christ had rather all the world should have been damned then that he should have committed the least sin In the next place whosoever does understand what the true reward is that is in heaven it is impossible if he desire heaven aright but he must desire the glory of God above himself What is the heighth and top of heaven it is not any carnal good any carnal content that is the heighth and top of the glory of heaven It is that our souls being in the perfection of them might live to the praise of God for ever Now if this be the end of all we shall receive from God in heaven that we might live for ever to reflect the glory upon God again in our praise then it is impossible to desire heaven but in our desires of heaven we do desire God above our selves Surely we may freely aym at our reward in heaven for if we aym at our reward and know it aright it is such as we cannot but aym at God above our selves yea further so near is Gods glory and our reward joyned together that we cannot aym at God above our selves but we shall by that means in the best maner provide for our selves and the more we strive to aym at God above our selves we come in the best maner that possibly can be to provide for our selves And yet lastly there is a great difference between a gracious heart looking to the reward and a carnal heart looking to the reward As First the difference lies here a gracious heart does love the reward for the works sake a carnal heart does onely love the work for the rewards sake As a gracious heart loves heaven and loves the glory of heaven but it loves heaven and the glory of heaven the better because there is such a blessed way to it If a man were to go home and had an ill way he would love his home but if he have a fair smooth way home he loves his home the better for the ways sake therefore many men are at great cost to have a fair going to their houses And so a gracious heart loves the way that God does reveal to come to heaven by and loves heaven the better because of the way A carnal heart may love heaven but he does not love heaven the better for the way but wishes the way to heaven were otherwise he looks upon the way to heaven as a necessary burthen to him As a man that is going out a journey and must go through a dirty lane he goes through it but complaining and so though they desire heaven yet all the while they are complaining of the way Certainly there is a great deal of difference between the desires of heaven in a carnal heart and the desires of it in a gracious heart Secondly the eye that a gracious heaat hath to the recompence of reward is another maner of eye then any carnal heart can have What kinde of eye is it First the eye that a gracious heart hath to the reward it is a clear discerning eye he does not take the things of heaven as guesses and imaginary things but looks upon them as certain substantial realties For my own part I much doubt whether any man in the world be able to see the glorious things in heaven as certain substantial things that hath not the truth of grace The truth of grace it is partly in this thing in having that principle in the soul that makes the soul able to look at the things of heaven as the onely real substantial excellent things so as to darken all the glory of the things of the world so that when you come thus far whereas before you heard something of heaven and they were but imaginary things and now there is such a light set up in your souls as you see the things of heaven as the onely real substantial glorious things certainly there is the work of grace The ground of it is that of Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the evidence of
but as a little drop of the sea and a little spark of the great furnace Those good things of eternal life are so many that they exceed number so great that they exceed measure so precious that they are above all estimation Augustine in one of his Epistles hath this relation That the very same day wherein Jerome dyed he was in his study and had got pen ink and paper to write something of the glory of heaven to Jerome suddenly he saw a light breaking into his study and a sweet swell that came unto him and this voyce he thought he heard O Augustine what doest thou doest think to put the sea into a little vessel when the heavens shall cease from their continual motion then shalt thou be able to understand what the glory of heaven is and not before except you come to feel it as I now do this therefore is beyond the expression of man Fifthly all the desires of all the souls of Gods Saints in the world they come infinitely short of that which shall be hereafter We are straightned here in our spirits in our desires if we could enlarge our desires in a spiritual way it would hereafter adde much to our glory our desires are not onely straighter then that we shall have but the straightness of our desires here hinders much the capacity of the good that hereafter is to be revealed and communicated and therefore Christians should labor in a spiritual way to enlarge their desires to the utmost to get their hearts to be working after great things here so that they may by them engreaten their hearts and extend their hearts to prepare them for the great things that are to be revealed I may say concerning our straight desires as the Prophet did to Joash 2 Kings 13. 18 19. where the Prophet bade him strike upon the earth and he struck thrice the Prophet was angry and said You should have struck five or six times and so often shouldst thou have smitten thy enemies So according to the truth and spiritual working of our desires here shall we be made capable of glory hereafter but now if we be straightened in our hearts and we desire to be in heaven and to have some good thing there but our hearts are not after great things not enlarged in our desires it will be in some measure in some proportion according to our desires and therefore it is an evil thing for Christians to have their desires straightned here There are glorious things to be had in God and therefore our desires should be more enlarged then they are It is an excellent expression of Basil It grieves it irks it is tedious to our most munificent great glorious King he hath one word that expresses as much as all these if we ask any thing little of him he would have us ask great things of him Again they are beyond all our hopes It is said of Abraham He believed above hope we cannot believe above hope in this sense that is above the great things that are hoped for and yet God loves to have his people raise their hopes high Yea lastly it is beyond all imagination if men and Angels should set themselves to imagine what they would have they would think if such and such things were that would be a glorious condition this reward shall be beyond imagination we may imagine that which we could not almost desire but whatsoever you can invent or imagine you shall have that happiness or that which is beyond it sometime we think what a sweet thing will it be in Heaven to meet our Father our Mother our Brother or Sister our Husband or Wife these relations shall cease there but we may conclude though we have not that there we shall have that which shall be better and that which we would rather chuse But then if it be thus that all the world be but a dark shadow if that which is revealed in the word be but a glimpse if all the comforts of the Saints here be but the first-fruits if all the expressions of men come beneath if all our desires come short if all our hopes reach not to it if all be above the imagination of men and Angels what is it then what is that which is thus great we can tell you somewhat of this recompence of reward negatively and somewhat comparatively but very little of it positively yet somewhat that way too First negatively There shall be no evil there shall be such an estate of Gods people wherein they shall be fully absolutely everlastingly free from all kinde of evil in this world evil sticks to every Christian but there they shall be in an estate beyond all evil When the Sun is got to the heighth there is no shadow so when Gods people come to the top of their blessedness there shall be no shadow of any evil at all that God that is infinite in good certainly will not suffer evil to be always in his people Freed from all evil of sin and that is the greatest evil of all never troubled with any hard heart any more never pestered with an unbelieving straightned heart any more never dull and heavy in Gods service any more there shall never be any more blindeness and ignorances any unconstancy any mistake any weariness in Gods service delivered wholly from sin yea delivered not onely from the sin that we have but from the very savor of sin and from all the remainders of sin A man may be delivered out of prison but he may smell of the prison men may be healed of a wound and yet have a scar remain so it is with Gods people here they are delivered from the guilt and power of their sin but they smell of their prison garments and there are some scars upon them but all the smells and scars of our sin shall be taken from us yea delivered from the very possibility of sin To be in an estate without sin is a blessed estate but to be in an estate wherein there shall be no possibility to sin that is a blessed condition indeed It is a kinde of misery that a godly man counts himself to be in not onely that he does sin but that he may sin that he hath a possibility to sin but to be free from that that is a blessed condition And this is the happiness of God himself that there is no possibility that he should do any thing in the least degree to sin And as they are delivered from sin so from sorrow for that is the immediate consequent of sin All tears shall be wiped from their eyes And as from moral evil so from natural evil from external and internal evil from all weakness of parts and from all pains and sickness and deformities from all labors all incumbrances here in the world freed from the company and madness and opposition and tyranny and injustice of wicked men they shall be above Satan and above
and so the melodious sound to the ear first we are ravished with it but when we are used to it it is nothing and so for the taste the taste of sweet things is mightily pleasant to us at first but afterward it is no more pleasing to us then the taste of ordinary mean fare is to poor people who have as much content in their mean fare as rich men in their delicious fare because rich men are used to such delicious things but this is the excellency of Gods maner of communication of himself to his people hereafter they shall be to all eternity as exactly and fully sensible of the glory of heaven as they were in the first moment they came into it The sixth difference between Gods communication of himself to us here and hereafter is here we have much good from God but much good is in the habits and is not always in action there are many habits of grace that are not always acting fully but sometime the act of one habit is called forth and sometime the act of another but here is the blessedness of Gods people there shall be no habits lying still no instant but every minute to all eternity they shall act to the utmost of them so far as may any way conduce to their happiness for the end of the habit it is action and in the enjoyment of our happiness we shall ever be enjoying to the full the highest and last ends and therefore there shall always be the utmost activity of the habits of grace There is a necessity here of cessation of actions because we grow weary quickly of any action though it be a gracious action we must unstring our bows and cease that some actions may give way to others for the heart to be always up it is not able to bear it but then there shall be no need of any cessation any moment Again here we are not able to exercise our selves in the works of God without some difficulty there is difficulty in raising our hearts unto any thing that is good and to keep our hearts up but hereafter there shall be that communication of God unto his people that they shall be exercised about the highest things in the highest maner without any difficulty but as freely and readily and fully as the Sun shines the Sun does shine without any difficulty and the fish draws in water without difficulty so there shall be that perfect working of the soul about the highest object without any difficulty or labor Again here in this world there cannot be an intention in one faculty but it does hinder the intention in another as if man speak to me and I be intent in looking upon an object I do not hear him that speaketh and so in all faculties the intention of one faculty does hinder the intention of another but in Heaven all the faculties of the soul shall be intens'd to the highest intention and the intention of the one shall not hinder the intention of the other Again the good we receive here is in the root in the promise in election in great part but that we shall have hereafter shall be in the fruit in the actual communication of God as before all our actings shall be acted upon God so all the good shall not be contained in the root of his electing love or in the promise but shall be in actual communication Again here we receive many mercies from God that we do not understand our selves that we know but little of we do not see into the large extent of the mercy that we have from God but there we shall have no mercy from God but we shall know it fully in all the circumstances of it in all the principles of it and in all the appertainances that do any way concern the mercy we have and we shall know the issue of it and the like Again here we receive great mercies from God and we know not how to manage them Gods mercies lie and sowre in us we turn our mercies many times into afflictions for want of skill but hereafter we shall have the full improvement of all mercy that we receive from God Again here we see and desire many good things that we do not enjoy and possess but hereafter we shall see no good nor desire any good nor will any good but we shall have it And as God said concerning the Land of Canaan unto the children of Israel in Deut. 11. 24. Every place whereon the soles of your feet shall tread shall be yours so in heaven whatsoever the Saints see they shall have Here we may will a thing and will it lawfully and yet it may be cross unto Gods secret will and it shall never come to pass the reason is because the rule of our wills is Gods Commandment and not his secret will as David did will to build God a house and God commends him for it and yet God did not will it And a childe may will the life of his parent and yet God may will his parent shall not live and yet he is not to be blamed because he wills according to the rule but hereafter God shall so far reveal his will to us and our wills shall be so fully united to God that there shall not be the least crossing between any thing that we will and that God wills Again here it is one especial excellency of the work of grace for us to keep in our hearts and affections to restrain them that they be not let out too far in that we do enjoy but hereafter when we come to the recompence of reward we shall not need keep in our hearts we shall have liberty to let them out Object But we may not let out our hearts too much upon the Saints to love them above God Ans Then we shall love nothing but in God all shall be swallowed up in God himself that we shal not need fear the letting out of our hearts to the utmost Though I may love the creature yet I may let out my heart fully upon it because I love it onely in God Here many times a thing is more prized before we have it and when we come to enjoy it we do not see so much excellency upon it and so do less prize it but though we may set a prize upon Heaven and say O the blessed time when we come there we shall infinitely more prize it and rejoyce in it then we can here Yet further here we can enjoy nothing that we can be so certain of but that we can lose it wholly or in some part but the Saints of God hereafter shall be so certain of that they have in enjoyment that they shall not lose any thing of it in the least degree Lastly that we have from God here is mediately conveyed through many Channels through the Pipes of Creatures and Ordinances but that we shall have hereafter shall be
speak of the Triumphant Church The Angels shall admire at it O that these poor worms should be raised from this low estate to such a glorious condition they pry into the mystery of Salvation Then the love of Christ shall be enflamed to his people that love which caused him to plead with God for his people from all eternity that caused him to undertake this great work for his people from this love there will be most glorious embracements If at one salutation of the mother of our Lord John Baptist springs in the Womb for joy how shall the heart of a glorified Saint spring at the glorious embracements of Christ himself when he is in his glory And when we shall be in such a condition as we shall be fitted for communion with him we shall be able to understand Christ in another way we shall know the hypostatical union of his two natures and know Christ fully and be fitter to entertain the manifestation of his love whereas here we are not able to entertain much Christ looks through the lattess and we have but some few drops of his love but then when his love shall be enflamed and fully let out we shall be fitted for it And it shall be such a communion with Christ as we shall never leave but follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes There shall be no moment to all eternity wherein Christ shall be out of the sight of so many thousand thousands of Saints And though that Text in the Revelations be meant of the Church in this world and the following of Christ wheresoever he goeth here following of him in the ordinances but if it be an happiness here to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes much more in heaven You that are willing to suffer any thing to follow the Lamb in his ordinances here know there is enough to pay for all you shall be always following the Lamb in heaven and you shall always be in the company of Christ and this is the fifth particular namely The communion that the souls of Gods people shall have with Christ There are yet two things to be opened in this branch to shew what the recompence of reward of Gods people is and they are the enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints and the keeping a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven The enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints The Angels and Saints are joyned together under one head the Angels rejoyce here in being ministring spirits unto the Saints O what rejoycing will there be then in communion with them the Saints of God shall enjoy communion with the Angels in a familiar way they shall be fitted for communion with God and Christ himself much more fitted for communion with Angels yea the Angels shall account it part of their happiness to have communion with the Saints The sight of an Angel to us now in the flesh though he comes to bring good tidings is a great amazement but then the sight of the Angels shall be no amazement but we shall look upon them as our fellow creatures to have communion with them Heb. 12. 23. Ye are come vnto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels This is spoken of the priviledge of the Gospel before by the Law there was nothing but terror that made Moses to fear and quake now we are not to come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God Before without Christ we were vagabonds wandring up and down in the wilderness of the Word but by Christ we are gathered unto the City of the living God and the heavenly Ierusalem there were nothing but troubles before but now they are gathered to Ierusalem into peace and to an innumerable company of Angels Before the Angels were as Gods Host ready to revenge the quarrel of God upon us but now we are come to the innumerable company of Angels who are ministring spirits to us here and we shall enjoy communion with them The Angels are full of wisdom and therefore when the Scripture would set forth the excellency of wisdom it sets it forth by the wisdom of the Angels Doctor Taylor the Martyr rejoyced that he came into prison with Master Bradford that Angel Bradford though he was but one that had the likeness of an Angel and in prison yet he rejoyced in being with him What rejoycing will there be to be with all the Angels that are Angels indeed and that in our Fathers house The way and maner of the converse of Saints with Angels is very obscure how spirits do converse one with another we know but little we converse one with another by speaking there can be no such way of converse with Spirits The Schoolmen say By the act of their wills they come to make known what is in their mindes but we shall know more of the maner of converse with them afterwards CHAP. LI. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory BUt it is more familiar to us to know our excellency in the converse with the Saints Heb. 12. 23. To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven c. To enjoy communion with the Saints here is sweet to enjoy communion with all the Saints with all the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob and Moses and Aaron and Ioshua and all the good Prophets and the good Kings and all Martyrs and Worthies of the Lord If to have communion with one or two be sweet then to have communion with all at once must needs be sweet it is worth the enduring much to get to heaven if it were onely to have communion with the Saints Secondly to have communion with none but them to have communion with the Saints is sweet though we are forced to have communion with the world but to have communion with the choicest of Gods servants with none else that is sweet indeed Thirdly to have communion with them made perfect The best now have many weaknesses and many frampold moods and offensive carriages that there must be a great deal born in communion with the best but then we shall be delivered from imperfections there shall be no ignorance but we shall have communion with those that are knowing and perfectly glorified The life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life it is the blessing of Abigail to David Now Interpreters expound it thus It is a Metaphor taken from binding up of yong plants that are removed from one place to be set in another Now there is a great deal of difference between a bundle of plants laid in the water to preserve them till they be set in the garden and those plants growing and flourishing in the garden It is a great blessing to be bound up amongst Gods people here that are plants that have life but we are here but as plants bound up and
to see my childe in heaven and the childe shall think what an happiness were it for me to see my Parents in Heaven you think so here We guess at things thus childishly but yet either this shall be or that which is as good or better then this As suppose I should think how glad should I be if such a one would give me a shilling if after I come to know he will give me this or a Twenty shilling piece I do not trouble my self to know whether he will give me a shilling or no. And so much for Communion with the Angels and Saints CHAP. LII The happiness of Gods people in the Perpetual Sabbath that they shall enjoy NOw the last thing in the Explication is to shew wherein the happiness of the Saints consists is that Perpetual Sabbath that they shall keep with God whereof this Sabbath is but a Type Heb. 4. 9. Sabbaths here are comfortable and we have felt some sweet and some comfort in some Sabbaths but take all the comfort that ever you had in all the Sabbaths you have had here and put all into one that would be a comfortable Sabbath but that perpetual Sabbath that shall be hereafter will be the accomplishment of all those Sabbaths and that will be sweet Now I shall express my self in these six or seven particulars to shew the happiness of Gods people in that perpetual Sabbath First they shall be exercised in the highest employments that any creature can be exercised in or that they are capable to be exercised in The happiness of a creature consists much in that which it is exercised in as there is a great deal of difference between the happiness of a Noble-man in Court and the happiness of one that is employed onely in cleansing channels and the meanest employment that is because their exercise is different the one is exercised about business that concerns a King and a State and the other is imployed about mean things therefore according as the exercise is that any creature is raised to so is the dignity and excellency of that creature Now we are exercised in mean things here in comparison of what we shall be hereafter and yet our business here in making provision for the flesh in getting meat and drink and clothes and money is sweet but though out of obedience to God we ought to go on comfortably in our callings and places wherein God hath set us because God calls us to these low mean things yet we are to account them a mean condition in regard of that which our natures are capable of it is but a sore travel that is laid upon man and this shall not satisfie us as if we were capable of no higher things but when we shall be raised to be busied about the highest employments that a created substance is capable to be busied about that must be comfortable as the Psalmist speaks The high praises of God shall be in their mouthes They shall be always busied in the high contemplations of God and of the Trinity and they shall be always singing praises to God and to him that sits upon the throne and to every Verse of the Song that they shall sing to the Lamb there shall be a Selah put to it it must be glorious because this is the highest glory that God hath not onely from his works here but from all the counsels of his wisdom about the great mystery of redemption from all his works in Heaven and the highest glory that he hath from all the communications of himself to the Saints in Heaven in his praises that they shall be exercised in all the happiness that we have from God here is a way of subserviency unto the actual praising of God there whatsoever God communicates to his creature the top of all is not that the creature should have it but that it should reflect the praise of all upon God The end of all that God does in the world is his glory that he shall have in Heaven and the end of all he does in Heaven is the actual working of the souls of his Saints upon himself Secondly the happiness of the perpetual Sabbath may be expressed in this in that the souls of Gods people shall be always up and fit for these high works God calls us many times to most excellent things to be exercised about himself but our hearts are not fit for these exercises sometimes we finde our hearts enlarged and when our hearts are up we take delight in holy exercises but at other times how hardly are we drawn to them and we are weary in obedience and count it a slavery those exercises are heavy to us but there is a time coming when our hearts shall be always up never to seek but shall be always upon the highest pin enflamed with heat continually as it is an heavy curse for a mans heart to be suitable and fitted for temptation when a temptation shall come so it is a wonderful blessing to be fitted for any holy employment when we are called to it this there shal be always in the Saints in heaven in keeping this their perpetual Sabbath It is reported of Anselm as he was walking out of his house he saw a bird that was fluttering to fly up and could not get up but fell down and looking upon it wishly he saw a string tyed to the leg and a stone at the end upon this his heart broke and he bemoaned himself This is my condition says he though sometimes I would fain get up in holy exercises with God O but this burthen of sin and weight of sin is like a stone and presses me down when I am got up a little way I am pull'd down again my heart is seldom fitted for holy exercises So it is with us usually though through Gods grace there are some wings to move up a little yet this weight and burthen of sins presses us down and makes us unfit for holy duties let us go humbly a while under that sore burthen but know we shall be freed from it ere long Thirdly the happiness of the Sabbath consists in this there shall be no intermission but they shall continue day and night though there shall be no night then we shall not go to duty and break off again and go again and break off again no there shall be no other imployment though the duties of Gods worship here be of an excellent nature yet we are not to spend all our time in them but then there shall be nothing else to spend one moment of time in to all eternity Fourthly there shall be no weariness though we do spend some time in holy exercises here we are quickly weary before we have done Though the spirit be willing the flesh is weak but when we shall have been praising of God millions of years we shall be as fresh at the end of them as at the first moment when we are
and Jesus Christ it seeing that the bottom and ground of all this glorious recompence of reward is in the free and eternal love of God in Jesus Christ that did work about this before the foundation of the world was laid this does mightily enflame the heart with love to God and therefore it wishes as that Martyr did O that I had as many lives as I have hairs on my head to lay down for Christ And it is sorry that it hath no other opportunity to testifie its love to God the soul says I have but this little time to testifie my love to God and I can but testifie little in doing O what a happiness is it that that which I want of testifying my love in doing I have it in testifying my love in suffering Shall a dog that hath but a few crums or bones from his Master be willing to venture his life in defence of his Master and shall not a gracious heart that expects not crums and bones but Crowns and unconceiveable glory in Heaven be willing to venture life for God in the cause of God Ninthly there is a great deal of power in having respect to the recompence of reward to carry on a soul in suffering because according to the things that are apprehended there is the like impression left upon the spirit As a gracious heart apprehending holy things is made holy and apprehending spiritual things is made spiritual and apprehending great things is made great thee is a holy gracious magnanimity put into the heart A man that is lift up on high upon a high Tower or a high Mountain he looks upon things below as little things The apprehension of this glory lifts the soul on high and puts an impression of greatness and glory upon the heart and so causeth an heroical spirit in the heart to look upon all things below as small as the Martyrs though they were weak spirits by nature even women and children yet apprehending such great things they had heroical magnanimious spirits and looked upon their sufferings as small things because they had an impression of the object they beheld left upon their spirits and in some measure were made like it Lastly there is a mighty deal of power in looking to the recompence of reward to help in sufferings because it hath much power to cleanse the heart every one that hath this hope purgeth himself 1 Iohn 3. And hence the Christians in the Primitive times fering Those that write the stories of Egypt report that there is no country in which there are more venemous Creatures then in Egypt and also they write there is no Country hath so many Antidotes to help against poyson so godliness brings with it many troubles and sufferings but then godliness hath much in it to help against troubles and sufferings Thirdly hence we come to see the reason why so many are overcome in a way of suffering and do yield and so basely Apostatize rather then they will go on in a way of suffering for God they have not an eye to look up to Heaven and to see all the glory that is revealed they do not know within themselves that there are such things as it is said of those in Heb. 10. 34. They knew within themselves what they had in Heaven they look upon these things as conceits and imaginations In Phil. 3. 18. the Apostle speaks of some that were enemies to the Cross of Christ but what were they They were men that minded earthly things but says the Apostle Our conversation is in Heaven What was the reason that Demas forsook Paul It was for this present world he was not acquainted with the powers of the world to come and therefore he forsook Paul rather then he would suffer in the cause of God with Paul Certainly those that fall off in the time of suffering are such as never had a taste of the powers to come or have lost it this dew of Heaven hath not faln upon their hearts to moisten them and therefore every suffering does scorch up the root If the root be kept moist though scorching heat come it does not dry up the plant but it is green and flouwere so able to suffer because they had their hearts so purged by faith Acts 15. 9. Take a man that was strong if he have many ill humors in his body all his strength is gone but if the Phisitian gives him something to purge out his ill humors though hee have no Cordials given him to strengthen him yet he is strong and he is able to endure and to do more then before So those spirits that are full of distempered humors that are unsound they can bear nothing undergo no difficulty but when there is any thing to purge the heart and make it clean then it is able to do or suffer more sin lies rotting at the heart and by rotting does weaken a rotten rag hath no strength to bear any thing so those that have old sins lie rotting they can bear nothing The spirit of power and of a sound minde is put together 2 Tim. 1. 7. now the hope of this glorious reward purges the heart and makes it sound and so carries it on in power Now put all these together and no marvel that Moses by having an eye to the recompence of reward could suffer so much many are afraid of suffering hard things in the cause of Christ but you see what will enable you to endure all Now I should apply this in many particulars First If there be such power in this to help to suffering then surely there is power in this to help to service you that know what these things mean be ashamed to complain of any difficulty in any service Secondly hence we see cause much to bless God that reveals such things to us to carry us through sufferings though godliness brings much suffering yet it brings that which will strengthen against sufrishing still It is the dew of Heaven the hope of the glory of Heaven that keeps our root moist and so we shall hold out in the time of suffering It is given as the cause of the seed in the stony ground not come to perfection Luke 8. 6. Because it wanted moisture many froward people in Religion prove like the stony ground they have not moisture this dew of Heaven lies not at their hearts And the reason why many do not hold out is because they want the Anchor of hope In a tempest if there be not an Anchor well fastened the ship will be carried upon the rocks or the sands Now Hope is the Anchor that must hold the soul in all affliction if that hold let storms and winds be never so loud yet the heart will be kept from being split upon the rocks and swallowed up in the sands but many have but a paper Anchor a conceited hope not a strong hope fastned upon the infallibility of God in his word and promises and
have had of the heighth and depth of the riches of the glory of the grace of God in the face of Jesus Christ That sight of Gods grace that is the cause of security in people is that which is grounded meerly upon a natural light which hath no efficacy to raise and enlarge and to purge the heart But this true spiritual sight of Gods grace it hath a mighty efficacy and nothing more to raise and enlarge and purge the heart In 2 Corinth 3. 18. says the Apostle We beholding the glory of the Lord as in a mirror What then are we secure and presumptuous upon this No We are changed into the same image from glory to glory What was that glory that the Apostle did behold the glory of God in the mirror of the Gospel the glory of God in the riches of his grace towards the Saints Now says he While we behold as in a mirror this glory of God this is the fruit of it We are changed from glory to glory People talk of Gods mercy but how few ever had a spiritual sight of Gods mercy they would have Ministers preach much of Gods mercy but if people had eyes to behold it in the glory of it how would it change their hearts wherefore then I beseech you labor to have more then a natural sight of Gods mercy and goodness towards mankinde A man by a low apprehension of Gods mercy and goodness may think thus So long as I serve God it shall be well with me God will bless me and be merciful to me but that spiritual and supernatural sight of the riches of the glory of Gods mercy is this for a soul though it sees it self a base vile wretched worm a lump of filth and sees it self standing guilty before the Lord and God seems to look with an angry face upon it and conscience within it accuses it and the threats of the fiery Law come out against it yet for a soul to be able to look into the deep bowels of Gods infinite compassion that are in Christ and in them to look upon it self for all this as an heir of glory and eternal life so as to have the soul raised and enlarged and devoted to the magnifying praising and adoring the riches of Gods grace and to venture all upon this this is more then a natural sight of Gods grace and of his mercy towards mankinde You will say We could admire Gods grace and mercy towards mankinde and praise him and bless him for it and our hearts would be enlarged If we were sure these things did belong to us and that we had any interest in them there is enough in them to enlarge and raise our hearts but this is that which hinders We do not know that we have an interest therein To that I answer That this very work of God it self that gives this sight of his grace to raise up the heart to close with it and to make the soul venture all upon it that does bring the soul to devote it self to the praise and honor of it this very work of it self does interest your souls in it therefore do not say If I were interested in these things then I could praise and magnifie God for them If you can do this you are interested in them for this is an immediate work of faith and it is from a divine principle to be able to do this and therefore though you know no good at all in your selves before and you had no arguments to encourage you before and you had no preparation in your own apprehensions before yet if you have but this work of grace it does interest your souls in all that which hath been revealed concerning the recompence of reward of the Saints of God But may we not presume to think that such great things belong to us To that I answer Where ever presumption is it is built upon a natural sight of Gods grace and that is a poor low flat dead thing that hath no such efficacy to raise the heart to such a glorious work as this is and therefore if the heart be raised to such a glorious work as this by the appprehension of the riches of the grace and goodness of God towards mankinde that is not presumption And this is the sixth Use CHAP. LIV. Gods people to be highly honored SEventhly if there be such blessed things reserved for the people of God Hence let us look upon all the servants of God as honorable in our eyes and let them be honored in our thoughts for great are the thoughts of God upon them and towards them and therefore great and honorable should be our thoughts of them though they be never so poor and mean in the world We use to look upon great heirs with admiring thoughts and blessing of them every time we look upon them Do you see one walking in the ways of God whatsoever he be for his outwards let your hearts bless him and say Here is one indeed born to great things other maner of things then any the world affords Did we know what were the things that the people of God should be possessed of within a while we would say in our hearts O blessed that ever they were born blessed is the womb that bare them and blessed are the paps that gave them suck Did we with a spiritual believing eye behold what things they should have and saw them as now possessed of them we would see cause to fall down and kiss the ground upon which they tread The blessed Angels look upon them as great ones as the glory of the world and therefore do joyfully minister unto them because they know they are the great heirs of Heaven for whom such great things are prepared Great things are spoken of thee O thou City of God says the Psalmist Great things are spoken of you O ye Saints of God If Heaven must be so glorious to entertain the Saints how glorious are those for whom heaven is prepared Says Ahasuerus What shall be done to the man whom the King will honor O what shall be done to those whom an infinite God hath set his heart upon to raise to honor and to manifest to Angels and to all the world what his infinite power is able to do in raising of a creature to glory In the Saints there is a meeting as it were of the beams of Gods grace and goodness as in a center and that must needs be very warm and hot indeed The beams of the Sun in the circumference scattered in the ayr are warm but in a glass where they are united together as it were in a center there they warm after another maner there they burn so all the works of Gods grace abroad in the world they are as the beams of the Sun in the circumference that are scattered abroad but in his people there is the center where they are united together and there they burn and
for communion with a Church are fit for heaven and therefore the question may be true Who shall dwell in thy holy hill who shall be partakers of these things Blessed are they that shall eat bread in the Kingdom of God But who are they It is necessary you should labor to make this sure because it is a matter so great and so glorious and not to lay the weight of that which is of infinite consequence upon poor weak slight and sandy foundations certainly we do not know what the grace of God towards mankinde is if we content our selves with slight hopes but if God hath enlightned your souls to know the reality and glory of them they wil never be at rest till you have got certain and infallible grounds for them In things of small consequence we are content with slight evidences but if a man have to deal in any business upon which his whole estate depends he would not have any man think it ill if he does make sure if he will have bonds and seals so we should make sure of heaven and of glory because it is such a great matter Some I suppose that meerly upon the hearing of the greatness of these things cannot but have some misgiving thoughts If these things be so great surely they concern not me they belong not to me Can I think in my conscience that I am that man or woman that God should have such great thoughts upon and should look upon me so as to make it the greatest design that he hath to glorifie the riches of his mercy upon me What work of Gods grace have I ever had upon me I would not have those that are affected with the greatness of Gods grace to mankinde think that these things do not belong to them because they are great But those that never had their hearts affected with the excellency and glory of Gods grace toward man when they hear of the greatness and glory of those things that are reserved for the Saints they may justly have their consciences misgive them and think surely they do not belong to them Canst thou that art a base drunkard that prizest nothing but a little drink and some outward things think that God should make it the greatest work that he hath in the world for to communicate the riches of his grace and goodness unto thee The greatness of these things may be enough to cast thee off As it is with a Beggar a Beggar comes and asks an alms if a man put his hand in his pocket and take out a peny or two pence he hath hope to have that but if he take out a piece of gold he hath no hope of that because it is so much So when men have but natural thoughts of heaven and happiness hereafter you think you might have that but when you come to have heaven opened to you and you see it is such a great and glorious thing your hearts may justly think it is not for us Cast a bone to a Dog he falls to it presently but set a joynt of meat before him well drest in a large dish and he goes away he dares not venture upon that So for these things in the world the ordinary favors of God these bones that God casts to Dogs you may fall upon them and think these are for you but when you come to the dainties and infinite treasures of God can such a swinish heart such a base filthy unclean spirit as yours is that never minded nothing but the satisfying of your base lusts think that these are for you you cannot but have misgiving thoughts and think either these things are but notions or else I have no part in them CHAP. LV. To whom the Recompence of reward appertains BUt how may any know that they shall have this glorious reward Carnal and sensual hearts because they have no principles of Gods grace to shew them the great things of God and the minde of God they think no man can know we must have hopes and hope well but who can know what God hath in heaven for us Those that are acquainted with the mysteries of God in the Gospel they know what Gods minde hath been from all eternity concerning them and what God will do for them to all eternity How do they know First would you know whether you shall have this Recompence of reward Have you made Moses Choice Certainly those that have made Moses Choice shall have Moses Reward What Moses Choice was you have heard Moses chose rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season Moses might have had honor and esteem enough in Egypt but he accounted afflictions with the people of God in Gods ways a great deal better He esteemed the reproach of Christ greater riches then all so I may have Christ and communion with his people let me be reproached and contemned and despised I care not Now do you finde this Though there was a time my heart was taken with the glittering shews of things here and I saw no excellency in the ways of God they were but notions to me at length God wrought mightily upon my soul and shewed me the vanity of all things that I accounted for glorious things and shewed me a beauty in Gods people and began to knit my heart to them so as I was willing to part with any thing to have communion with them and to venture all upon the bare word and promise of God for those glorious things that are revealed in it and this choice I have made and my soul is setled in it whatsoever befals me in this world hath there been such a work upon your souls that you have made Moses Choice then you shall have Moses Reward Secondly are you begotten unto the hope of these glorious things Whosoever shall be partaker of this glorious reward must be one that is born to it There are some dignities in the world that are got no way except they be born to them so if you have this reward you must be born to it 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ who according to his abundant mercy hath begotten us unto a lively hope Whosoever hath the true hope of Heaven it is one that is begotten to it that is There must be a mighty work of God upon your hearts a new birth a regeneration in you otherwise there is nothing you have done or can do that can get this reward In Mat. 19. 28. says Christ unto his Disciples after Peter had spoken what they had left for him Ye that have followed me in the Regeneration when the Son of man shall sit in the throne of his glory ye shall also sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel As if Christ should say Peter you have forsaken all and followed me but know the bare forsaking is not enough but you who
have felt the work of God regenerating your souls upon which you have followed me you shall sit upon twelve thrones Some do interpret this place Regeneration the estate of the Gospel and so make it not to be the work of God upon the soul but the work of God upon the world to make a new world as the glorious estate of the Church under the Gospel is called a new heaven and a new earth and so take it Ye that have followed me in this new world ye shall sit upon twelve thrones c. but I rather take it the other way not wholly excluding this they are onely those that follow Christ in the Regeneration that shall have this reward It is called the new birth because there is such a strange change there is a new spirit and a new life put into a man Suppose a rational soul were put into a beast what a change would be in that creature Suppose an Angelical nature were put upon us what a change would there be By the change that is wrought in regeneration there is a greater difference the highest degree of glory in heaven is not so different from the lowest degree of grace here as the lowest degree of grace here is different from the highest excellency of nature because the difference between the highest degree of the glory of heaven from the lowest degree of grace is but a gradual difference but the difference that is between the lowest degree of grace and the highest excellency of nature is a specifical difference Therefore you that hope for glory know there must be a regeneration that work of God upon your souls that must cause a greater difference in you from that you were by nature then there is in the glorified Saints that have the highest degree of glory from the meanest Saint in the world as the reward is a mighty glorious thing so the work of God in preparing a soul for this reward is a mighty glorious work And therefore do not content your selves in every poor slight thought of heaven know heaven lies upon that which is a mighty work of God in you Thirdly if you ever come to Heaven there is a principle of heaven put into your souls here that is a heavenly principle that carries you heavenward I mean the work of God causing you to have heavenly mindes and heavenly hearts Our conversation is in heaven says the Apostle In Cant. 3. 6. the Church is compared to pillars of smoke that ascend upward to heaven Though the Church be black and dark in regard of her infirmities yet it hath a principle to carry it upward to heaven The Saints are compared to Eagles that fly aloft towards heaven though their bodies are not there their hearts and souls are there if our treasures be in heaven our hearts are there already I read of Edward the first who had a mighty desire to go to the holy Land to Ierusalem and because he was hindred and could not get thither he gave his Son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and he prepared Two and thirty thousand pound to carry his heart thither So the Saints though they have not their bodies in heaven their hearts are there and they take much pains and are at great charges to get their hearts thither All things in nature have a principle to carry them to their proper place because the place of fire is on high therefore fire hath a principle to carry it on high and because the place of earth is below therefore earth hath a principle to carry it downward So if the place and center of the heart be in Heaven then certainly it hath a principle to move naturally thither to move upward to heaven and therefore that soul that hath nothing but a principle to carry it downward to the earth and to the lusts of it to these things below heaven is not the proper place for such a soul and when the soul goes out of the body it wil not go to Heaven Take earth and close it in a vessel and take fire and put into a vessel open the vessels and let them out and they go both to their places so the souls of men when they are gone out of the body they go to the place whither they had a principle to carry them therefore do not think the principle shall be put into them when you dye but you must have a principle before if your hearts be prest down by earthly things when you dye they will fall down and therefore observe which way your souls work Can you say as in the presence of God My soul works heavenward though I have weights of corruption that would weigh me down yet I have a principle that does work to Heaven But the consciences of many tell them their souls work downward to vanity and sensuality and you have no other principle and therefore when your souls depart they fall downward Fourthly what soul soever hath an interest in heaven heaven is in that soul already The kingdom of God is in them and they have taken hold of eternal life now eternal life abides in them Whom he hath justified he hath glorified already they have the glory of heaven begun you heard what that was In heaven there is the perfection of our natures the image of God shall be renewed now is the image of God begun hath God marked you and set the stamp of his image upon you There is no soul that God does intend to put glory upon but he marks that soul and stamps his image upon it in the work of conversion and says Here is a soul I set the stamp of my image upon because I mark it out to glory if ever you come to Heaven God must see his own Image and Superscription upon you As the Beast set his mark upon men and would suffer none to trade but those that had his mark so God will set his mark upon his people and none shall come into his Kingdom but those that have his mark now a mans Image is upon a thing when by beholding of it I am put in minde of him that it is an Image of so if you have this Image and stamp of God a man that knows God as soon as he looks upon you as soon as he beholds your conversation he is put in minde of God and he says I have heard and read much of God of the holiness and righteousness of God and by this mans conversation I am put in minde of that holiness and righteousness of God the brightness of which I see shining here Again in Heaven you know God himself is the portion of the Saints they have the presence of God What presence of God do you enjoy here Were your souls ever acquainted with the presence of God in the Ordinances What blessed vision have you of God here Those who come to Heaven God gives a sight of himself here
And what union have you with God What union of grace What mystical union between God and your souls And what fruition have you of God Is it God that you enjoy in the creature and God in all things God in the Ordinances and what rest do your souls finde in God though you be tost up and down in regard of the uncertainty of the creature yet is God your rest yea do you enjoy your selves in God the beginning of all these are now for the present And likewise for communion with Jesus Christ what communion and converse is there between your souls and Jesus Christ Is it not a riddle to you Are you delighted in the communion of the Saints Are the Sabbaths your delight as a beginning of the eternal Sabbath you shall keep in Heaven Therefore now do you ask Who shall have Heaven and Who shall ascend into the Mount Those whom the Mount now comes down unto Many hope they shall have God when they dye but surely if God be not so merciful as to give you spiritual mercies for the present he will not be so merciful as to give you eternal mercies hereafter if he do not give you mercies of grace here he will not give you mercies of glory hereafter Fifthly what are the apprehensions that you have of this reward there may be a special note drawn from thence whereby you may see whether this reward shall be yours or no. What is it that you apprehend to be the heighth and excellency of that reward and glory that you expect Is it that spiritual and supernatural good that is in Heaven Do you not apprehend Heaven after a carnal and natural way when you hear speaking of Crowns and dignity and happiness and glory and the like but hath God shewed you that the heighth and top of all consists in those spiritual and supernatural things in the image of God and in communion with God and those things that have been opened are your hearts more after these then after any thing else then it is like that Heaven is for you for these things are kept hid from those that Heaven is not for Sixthly consider what your hopes are for this recompence of reward First where hopes are true they are such as are wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes First they are such hopes as are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. Certainly hopes of such great things as these must be raised by a great power they are hopes that could never be raised by any natural apprehensions by any work of Reason you have hopes of Heaven and of the glorious reward How came you by them What almighty power of the holy Ghost have you felt that hath raised these hopes If you have no other hopes but those that may spring out of nature natural conceits and apprehensions you are far short of this recompence of reward but this recompence of reward being glorious it hath a glorious principle to raise hopes such hopes as can bear down strong difficulties that shall oppose them the holy Ghost does stretch out the hopes of the soul beyond that which nature can do In the Hebrew that word that signifies hope signifies a line because by hope the heart is stretched out as in a line to the thing it hopes for now the hopes that nature raises is but in a short line and they stretch out the heart but a little way but the hopes that are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost are such hopes as the heart is stretched out very far by them and there must be a mighty stretching out of the heart and that by a mighty power to make it hope for such great things as these that God should bring such a poor worm to such high things as these are Ordinary base drossie hopes that have nothing in them they are not stretched out to these things they have some confused apprehensions and slight opinions about heaven they are loth to think they should be damned for ever and cast from God and therefore they will have some conceits it shall be well with them and they hope well but to have their hearts stretched out to expect these blessed things as the happiness of their souls and as the real substantial and onely good this is by the mighty power of the holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes 1 John 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure It is a lively working hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be God who hath begotten us again to a lively hope As a fountain that hath dirt cast into it it being a living fountain it works and works and never leaves till it hath got the dirt out cast dirt into a puddle and it lies there and putrifies And this is the difference between the sin of one that is natural and one that hath hope of eternal life When sin comes into a carnal natural heart it lies there and putrifies but where sin comes into a gracious heart that hath hope of eternal life such a heart by these hopes are as a living fountain that will never leave working till it be pure again Such a soul as apprehends it self a vessel of such rich and glorious mercies as these do labor to cleanse it self to the utmost if you have a vessel that you put ordinary water into you care not though there be some dust in the bottom but if you will put in some precious liquor you will cleanse it again and again and will not suffer any dust to be there So carnal hearts that do not know what great things God hath laid up for his people that are not vessels of mercy but onely look for some common things they can suffer their hearts to filled with noysom lusts but where the soul does apprehend it self a vessel of mercy such a one as God will fill with these glorious things it would not have any filth and corruption abiding in it In 2 Tim. 2. 21. The Apostle speaks of two sorts of vessels that are in Gods House that is in the Church Vessels of honor and Vessels of dishonor But how shall we know we are vessels of honor or of dishonor if therefore a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel of honor a vessel of dishonor is an unclean vessel a vessel of honor is a clean vessel If therefore your hopes be such as can stand with any beloved sin against knowledge you are vessels of dishonor And here is the liveliness of this hope if thou hast a hope to be a vessel of honor it purges you from filth and by that purging from filth there comes to be a readiness and preparation to every good work here is such a one as shall ascend up into the holy Hill of God This is the sixth note Seventhly examine what thy claim is whether thy
claim to Heaven and eternal life and this recompence of reward do lie right in the point of Justification or no If you look at nothing but the works that you do though they be never so glorious and good do not lay your claim first right in the point of Justification you will mistake and miscarry and be disappointed of all this recompence of reward Therefore Paul in Rom. 8. 30. says Whom he hath justified them he also glorified so that Glorification does depend upon Justification Now then the first thing that a soul is to look after for the assurance of its portion in this recompence of reward is to make sure in the point of Justification for there lies the claim to heaven and all the rest comes but as a consequent of this Now the laying our claim right in the point of Justification consists in this When a soul comes to apprehend the infinite need it hath of a perfect righteousness of a Mediator and looks upon that righteousness of the Mediator as well pleasing to God as sufficient to absolve it from former sins and to discharge it from former guiltiness whereby another reward was due to it and by faith applies this righteousness whereby it comes to be perfect before God and lays the weight of all its confidence of Heaven and of glory upon this then you may hope to have interest in this recompence of reward but if your claim come in any other way then this it does not give you any interest to heaven and therefore look much to the point of Justification and be sure that your hearts have laid the claim and interest it hath to heaven and eternal life right there and then there may be great hope of the recompence of reward though afterward there be many failings in your works and services And if you will look at any work whereby you should have the reward especially look at the work of believing closing with the righteousness of Christ in the apprehension of your own unworthiness This is the greatest work that any man is able to do that shall have the greatest reward in heaven You think if you were able to perform duties and do such and such things to keep your hearts up for God you should have this reward but the greatest work of God that ever any creature did is when it apprehends its own unworthiness to venture upon the righteousness of Christ if you were able to perform full obedience to every particular of the Moral Law it were not so great a work not so accepted of God not so well pleasing in his eyes nor should not be so gloriously rewarded in Heaven as this one work of believing in his Son God takes such infinite delight in his Son as he looks more at that work of the souls believing in his Son and venturing it self and its eternal estate upon his Son then he does upon all works besides and therefore look upon the point of Justification by faith first and if that be right the assurance of the reward will come in divers objections will rise that can never be answered till the heart be setled in the point of Justification All the Objections that rise from our weakness and sinful infirmity comes from this because we do not settle our selves well in the claim we make to the recompence of reward in the point of Justification in the righteousness of Christ by faith Eighthly examine what your works are see whether they be such as shall attain to this recompence of reward If all the excellencies of all the moralities of all the men in the world were put into one these could never reach to this reward it is a supernatural thing and therefore if you would know whether you shall have it there must be something supernatural in you But when is a work supernatural so as I must have some comfortable hope that it shall reach unto this supernatural reward A supernatural work hath First supernatural Principles Secondly it hath supernatural ends Thirdly it is performed in a supernatural maner First the principles are supernatural first they are above nature and secondly they are fetched from a fountain that nature hath no skill of For the first there is something above nature that puts you upon duties you do not onely go on in the ways of godliness because you know you are bound to them you cannot be saved else but because you finde a new light let out by God from heaven that shews an infinite excellency and beauty that is in the way of godliness And you finde a principle of Divine nature put into you that makes the ways of godliness agreeable to you and the more Spiritual and Divine they are the more suitableness you finde between your souls and those ways And secondly do you finde that you draw your principles that enables you to any good work from a Mediator The natural principles come at highest but from reason it sees reason for such and such things to be done but a supernatural principle is drawn from a Mediator from God-Man from God in Christ and by vertue of the promise and so it comes to be an Evangelical obedience And it hath supernatural ends beyond self and all self and creature respects That work that is natural rises no higher then nature in its ends as the water ascends no higher then from the place it descends so all natural works have some self or creature respects but when you finde your hearts are raised above self and creature respects in your obedience to God there is a supernatural end And then they are performed in a supernatural maner Seneca hath this expression of desires You may know it is not a natural desire when it rises beyond bounds He applies it to evil desires when a man desires things without bounds that is no natural desire Now that which he applyes to the corruption of nature we may rather apply to the perfection of nature All the desires of nature are such as are limited in a narrow compass no natural man in the world does go on in the ways of obedience with an infinite desire to dilate himself infinitely as far as he is capable but is always limited in a little narrow compass so far he will go and no further but when the soul comes to walk with God in a way of supernatural obedience it comes to be without bounds all those bounds that did limit the soul are taken away and there is a letting out of the heart to God in the ways of godliness in an infinite maner and this is a most clear evidence of a supernatural work that will go for currant in Heaven and shall be rewarded there there is the impression of Gods infiniteness upon the heart in every work that is performed examine whether your works be not like those that the Apostle speaks of in 1 Cor. 3. 15. where he speaks of the works that shall burn
here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
loth to leave these things because he did not know whither he went but a soul that knows what inheritance it shall have hereafter it is not loth to go hence Many are loth to dye because they have treasures in the world as those ten men said in Isa 41. 8. Slay us not for we have treasures in the field of wheat and of barley and of oyl but a godly man is willing to dye because he hath treasures in Heaven Keep open the eye of faith exercise faith to see God that is now sending for his childe home And look upon Christ as having that prayer granted Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am by faith you shall see Heaven opened and the crown prepared and see God in his glory that you may express chearfulness of heart in going to take possession of that glorious recompence of reward behold the Angels of God coming to take you up into Heaven It was an expression of the honor of one Hugh Bishop of Lincoln that King John and his Nobles would carry him to the grave more honor shall the Saints have for God to send his Angels to convey them to that place of glory And further let you spirits work mightily after Heaven now when they draw near to it as the nearer any thing is to the center the more strongly and swiftly it moves As a stone that falls down from a high place it moves more swiftly when it is nearer the ground then when it was higher so at death the soul is nearer its center grace is changing to glory and when grace and glory is to meet there must need be a mighty working of heart and mighty shouts As it is reported of the Duke of Bulloin and his company when they went to Jerusalem as soon as his company saw the high Turrets they gave a mighty shout that the earth rang and so when the soul sees the turrets of this heavenly Jerusalem and when you see your selves ready to go and possess it what mighty workings and shoutings of your heart will there be And when you are to dye speak well of God and of the ways of godliness to all that are about you Christians should now labor so to live as there may appear a mighty difference between their deaths and the death of others whereas ordinarily such is the vanity and drossiness of the hearts of Christians in their lives as when they come to dye they are so heavy and sad as if no such things were prepared for them In 2 Pet. 1. 11. the Apostle having exhorted them before to adde one grace to another and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure says he So an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Christians should labor so to live as when they come to dye they may not onely have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord administred unto them but that they may have an entrance administred unto them abundantly Many make shift to get to heaven but they have not an entrance administred abundantly As a Ship may make shift to get into harbor but with the Anchors lost and Cables rent and Sayls torn and the Masts broke another Ship comes in with the Sayls up and the Flags up and Trumpets sounding and comes bravely into Haven so much difference is sometime between true Christians some through carelesness and unbelief and sadness and sullenness of Spirit although they make shift with much ado to get into Heaven yet so as their anchor of hope was even gone and they had little or no comfort at all but those that have added one vertue to another and have been diligent to make their calling and election sure they come to Heaven with much glory and joy and that should be our care so to live in adding one grace to another that when we dye our deaths may be glorious Yet further from the consideration of this glory revealed which God hath prepared for his Saints we are to draw this meditation If Heaven be so glorious then we had need fill up the comfort of our lives by doing and getting as much good as we can while we live here that we may as much as possibly we can recompence that which we suffer in the staying from the possession of such glorious things reserved for us when we hear of such things as these are we cannot but think in our selves it were better for us many ways to be in Heaven this life is but a bondage to us while we are absent from such things and therefore we had need have something to recompence this bondage we had need do much good and get much good while we live to pay the charges of our lives what a tedious thing is it to us to live so much to sense as we must necessarily do here when we are heirs of such glorious things if we do not do much good and get much good here what have we to sweeten and recompence this tediousness If a man be from home and by his absence suffers much loss of what he might have had at home he is the more diligent and careful in his journey to get something that may recompence this loss so it should be with us It costs us dear as I may so speak to live in the world for it costs us the forbearance of such glorious things if we fill not up our lives with service for God what have we to pay our charges to countervail this that our lives here cost us CHAP. LVII The great things of eternity to be much sought after THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation to all now to set your hearts to seek after these great and blessed things of eternal life that have been opened O that now the hearts of people that have been wandring after other things might be brought in and set upon eternal life and Heaven Let every soul reason with it self Are there indeed such things to be had hath God such intentions to communicate himself thus to mankinde And am I the man or woman that shall lose all this that shall never be partaker of this O wo unto me that ever I was born In Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets says Christ were till John but since that time the kingdom of God suffereth violence The Law and the Prophets did but darkly reveal the things of the Kingdom of God but St. John he did more clearly reveal the things of that Kingdom and since that time the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence O that it might be said concerning any man or woman that have heard this argument opened since that time that the recompence of reward was opened the kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence Surely there is strength enough in that which hath been said to draw forth the heart with violence after it I remember Plutarch reports in
such kinde of things as if there were no higher things that concerned the souls of men Heathens were mighty inquisitive what should be the true happiness of man they did think surely man was made for higher things then those that are here and there were mighty disputes about it what it should be there were fourscore Opinions that were amongst them about the happiness of man they did but beat the bush God hath given us Christians the bird and we have the Gospel that reveals glory and immortality and happiness unto us The Heathens would have counted it a great good to have known wherein the true happiness of man did consist And those who had most wisdom did come near that wherein we seek happiness and yet wavered in their thoughts but we are assured of it we have God himself revealing from Heaven wherein our true and utmost high good consists and therefore if we should not seek after that happiness which God tells us is happiness but should follow our own ways still how just will our condemnation be Again this is not the time that God will communicate much of himself in and therefore we must look beyond this life It is a witty elegant speech Bernard hath God reserves his new and best wine until afterward Amongst the Latins they call prosperous things second things because they are to be had hereafter they are not the first things So true prosperity is not to be expected here in the first way of Gods communication of himself to the creature but in the second way in the life that is to come If a man have good wine he reserves it till the last so God reserves the riches of his grace and the treasures of his goodness his best wine till they shall come and drink with him in his own presence before him continually And know further that Christ hath wrought hard to provide happiness for mankinde and shall we neglect it In his working for the glory of mankinde and this happiness of the children of men he sweat at it and so sweat as clods of blood trickled down his flesh in the garden though it were in the winter time and a cold night and he lay upon the ground and shall it now be neglected by us You that have neglected this all this while who might justly have had your reward amongst those creatures that are cast out from the presence of God yet know there is a possibility for that tongue of thine that hath been guilty of so many blasphemies to be singing Allelujahs to the Lord and to the Lamb that sits upon the throne for ever Who knows but that body of thine that hath been so intemperate and but a sink of filthy lusts may be made glorious like the body of Christ and what is it that God requires of you for all this Nothing but onely to work his own work in you and it is not a dishonorable work but a glorious work that in which there is more excellency then in any thing in the world were it that there were no reward of godliness the very excellency of godliness it self hath more in it then the whole world but take godliness with that excellency which it hath in its own nature and take it with its glorious end and who would not come into this way Many men care not what base thing they do so they may be a little regarded but now to have the highest reward that ever God will communicate to any creature and that for doing those things which are the highest honor for the present this would encourage any living to come into this way Alexander inviting many to a supper he provided a Crown of a hundred and eighty pound to be given to those that did drink most and in that he did like a Heathen but though it was such a base work and so dangerous to themselves yet there was one and forty that killed themselves with drinking to get that Crown Thus we may see the baseness of mens hearts that to get a little honor in the world will not onely do somewhat that is base but the basest things of all and that although they be dangerous too What shame and confusion will this be that any should do more for the things of the world yea more for a lust then we shall do for Heaven How shall we ever think to get Heaven when this may be said You do not so much for Heaven and Glory as many will do for their lusts for their filthy sins I have read of the Panther that it does love the dung of man so much as if it be hanged a height from it it will skip and leap up and never leave till it have burst it self in pieces for to get it and that is the way they get that creature we may apply it to the filthy base lusts of mens hearts which are like dung yet so are many men set upon them that they wil venture all for them and labor after them though they burst themselves and damn themselves eternally for them what an infinite shame is this that men should be content to labor and suffer so much for their lusts and that we should do no more for glory If men do so much for the things of the world why should we be backward in doing for Heaven How will men endure the cutting off the members and much pain for health and life and yet for this reward and this inheritance how little is done in the world Sorun says the Apostle that you may obtain not a corruptible but an incorruptible crown Those that run a race for a corruptible crown will be temperate and deny themselves in their diet But we says the Apostle strive for an incorruptible crown therefore let all our ways be such as it may appear to all the world that we are striving for an incorruptible crown and that God hath shewn us glory and salvation to draw our hearts more then any thing in the world and strive for now by striving you may come to the reward but if you stay but a while you must be eternally receiving the reward of sin then though you would do a thousand times more God will not care for it if then you should say Now Lord I will seek thy face and do any thing thou wilt have me to do God will not then regard it As one Lamachus a Commander said to one of his Soldiers that was brought before him for a misbehavior who pleaded He would do so no more says he No man must offend twice in war So God will not suffer men twice to neglect the day of grace if it be neglected once it is neglected for ever if you lose this reward here you lose it eternally and therefore now look about you to attain this here that you may not cry out in the anguish of your spirits hereafter That God and Christ and Heaven are eternally gone CHAP. LVIII How the
efferato Lact. l. 5. c. 11. Tribulatio est aqua salsa quae scabiem purgat abstergit Haecscabies luxurla est delectabar scalpi scabiem libidinum mearum Facit animam humanam ulcerosam sanie abominabili defluentem propter hoc Deo Deo incred i biliter abominabilem In locis dormit humentibus hoc est in omnibus lelitiis madentibus propter quod Luc. 11. dicitur quòd immundus spiritus ambulans per loca aridâ— inaquosa quaerens requiem non invenit G. Par. de morribus p. 129. Honestum ci vile cui corpus nimis carum est Senecop 14. Kegno voluptatis virtus non potest consistere Cicero de senectute 7. Aug. de vitanda ebriet Vae v. e tibt Clerice mors in olla mors in ollis carniam mors in hujusmodi delitiis est Bern. Declamat Ecce Reliquimus omnia Timenda sunt Christianis praesentis seculi gaulia Chrys de Martyr Serm. 7. 6. Crede mihi res severa est gaudiuÌ„ veruÌ„ Sen. Quid nobis cuÌ„ fabulis cum risu non solum profusos sel etiam omnes jocos arbitror declinandos Ber. de Ordin vitae 7. The vaniâ—y of sensuâ—l delighâ—s 1. 2. 8. 9. 10. Honestum ei vile est eui corpus nimis carum est Sen. ep 4. Contemnite ridete si libet nobis enim stultitia nostra prodest non invid emus sapientiae vestrae hanc stultitiam malumus hanc amplectimur Lact. lib. 5. c. 12. Illic potissimum esse quaerendum ubi stultitiae titulus apparet cujus velamento Deus thesaurum sapientiae veritatis abscondit Lact. lib. 4. c. 2. Omnis sapientia hominis in hoc uno est ut Deum cognoscat colat hoc nostrum dogma hoec sententia est quanta itaquae voce possum testificor proclamo denuntio Lact. lib. 4. c. 30. 1. The happiness of a gracious soul 2. 3. 4. 5. Use 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aut jucundè aut non omnino Si nunc Adam resurgeret videret hanc insaniam omnium ordinuÌ„ profectâ—â— credo quòd prae stupore tanquaÌ„ lapis staret Luth. in Gen c. 3 Syonoâ— Patrich p 21. Church-Story Arist Eth l. 1. c. 5. Plebii maÌ„cipiorum prorsus simules dum pâ—cuduÌ„ vitam praecliguÌ„t habent autem hanc causaÌ„ quòd multi ex iis qui reruÌ„ haberi potestatem simili modo afficiantur Cl. Al l. 2 Paed. c. 1. Non ut vivat sed ut bibat natus suit Totus orbis ventri nirâ—is angustus est Vae illi qui tunc babuit â—erminum luxuriae quando vitae Bern. de ord vit Divers sorts of evil choosers 1. Omnium aliarum artium peccata artificibus pudori sunt offenduntque de errantem vitae peccata delectaÌ„t Sen. ep 98 2. Chr. Hom. contra luxuÌ„ crapulam Omnibus gravius est inquit quòd ex alienis calamitatibus collecta sunt 3. Licitis perimus omnes 4. 5. 1. Misery of a sinful choice Who are haters of God 3. 4. Use 4. Non Isaac sed Arics morietur non peribit tibi laetitia sed contumacia non mactabitur Isaac sed vivet si vocem Domini audicris ut offeras Isaac id est ut gaudium immoles constauter obedire ne timeas Ipsa est beata vita gaudere ad te de te propter te Domine ipsa est et non altera Aug Conf. c. 21. Non nego indulgenduÌ„ corpori servienduÌ„ nego Sen. Ep. 14. QuaÌ„ suave mihi subito factum est carctib suavitatibus nugarum quas amittere metas fuit dimittere gaudiuÌ„ erat cjiciebas enim à ne vera tu summa sua vitas cjiciebas et intrabas pro tis omni voluptate dulcior sed non carni et sanguini omni luce clarior sed non jam sedenti in tenebris c. Aug. Con l. 9. c. 1. Quest. Answ Mercy to be had for the greatest sinners Quest. Answ The pleasantness of Gods ways 1. 2. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 3. 4. 6. 7. 8. 10. 9. Quest 1. Answ 1. How the ways of wisdom ar ways of pleasantness 2. Quest 2. Answ 1. 2. 3. Si adeò dulce flere prote quà m dulce erit gaudere de te Ber. Quest 3. Answ 2. Quest. 4. Answ 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Use 1. Use 3. Use 5. Vis nunquam esse tristis bene vive Bern. de intern dom c. 45 Quest Answ Difference between natural pleasantness and spiritual pleasantness 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. Si quid boni tristis feceris fit de te potius quam facis Prosper Quest. Answ How to carry on the work of God pleasantly 3. 4. 5. Quest Ans 1. 2. What there is in the ways to cause delight 3. 4. Bonus es Domine animae quaerenti quid invenienti Doct. 4. Why a gracious heart sees so mueh excellency in Gods people under outward meanness 1. 2. Quest. Answ 1. The saints likeness to God 2. The saints near relation to God 3. The saints Priviledges 4. Nemo potest bona opera satis magnificè coÌ„mendare Quis vel unius operis quod Christianus ex fide in fide faeit utilitatem fructuÌ„ satis praedicare potest Est enim pretiofius quam coelum terra Luth Tom. 4. 109. And again in Gen. c. 30. in c. 31. Sint exilia servilia muliebria opera nostra tamen idscribâ—mus hunc titulum Verbum Domini quo fiunt gloriosa omnia in eternum mansura Sancti quantumvis exiguum sordidum faciunt magnum est gloriosum quia omnia factunt in side And in Gen. 29. Si darctur mihi ottio eligerem Christiani rustici aut ancillae sordidissimum maximè agreste opus praeomnibus victoriis triumphis Alexandria Magni Iulii Caesaris 5. The usefulness of Gods people in the world 6. The excellency of Gods people in regard of their ends Use 1. 2. 3. Non ex personis fidem sed ex fide personas Jam. 2. 4. Quest Answ 1. 2. How to manifest our respect to gracious persons that are outwardly mean 3. 3. 4. Doct. 5. Why we should own the Saints in their sufferings 2. 3. 4. Ad aras Jovis aut Veneris adorare ac sub Antichristo fidem occulture Zuingl ep 3. 5. 6. Chrys l. 2. de Sacerd. Ego aliter amare non didici 7. 8. Joseph Antiq. l. 18. c. 8. Quest Answ How to â—pâ—eâ—r for Gods people in their sufferings Inveniar sane superbus avarus adulter homicida Antipapa omnium vitiorum reus modo impii silentii non arguar dum dominus patitur Luth. ep ad Staupitium 2. Tameâ— si multis terroribus minis periculis interdictuÌ„ crat Chr. in â—uvâ—ntinum Maximum Orat. 3. 4. Theod. l. 4. bist eccl c. 32. 5. Euseb l. 4 c. 4. Cent. Magd. Cent. 2. c. 3. p. 16. 6. Use Obadiah 12. 13. Doct. 6. Quest. Answ 1. 2. The excellency of the Communion of Saints 1.
to be sad and evil by the conceits thou hast put upon them In the fifth place by that which hath been said let all be drawn to the love of the ways of godliness I have often hinted upon such an argument as this and therefore will pass lightly over it Fear not pleasure trust God with it thou shalt finde enough Wouldst thou never be sad live well says Bernard Tell me wouldst thou embrace the ways of Religion if thou wert sure of pleasure I call Heaven and Earth to record this day that which I have spoken of the ways of wisdom are truths of God they are not notions not conceits but certain realities God hath engaged himself to make this good and abundantly more Oh come and taste how sweet the Lord is do not stand aloof off they may seem to be unpleasant ways a great way off but when you come near you will see delight Wherefore all you that have been acquainted with the ways of wisdom manifest this that God hath brought you into blessed paths that these things are true Religion does mightily suffer by the Professors of it when those that look on see no such things manifested It is our duty to rejoyce in the Lord and to walk in the ways of wisdom as it may appear they are ways of pleasantness to carry ous selves delightfully in these delightful ways Delightfulness in the ways of godliness puts a beauty upon them It is an excellent similitude that Chrysostom hath to express this As says he a beautiful face at all times is pleasing to the eye but then especially when there is joy manifested in the countenance joy in the face puts a new beauty and makes that which before was beautiful to be exceeding beautiful it puts a lustre upon beauty so though the ways of Religion be in themselves beautiful yet when there is spiritual joy added they appear then beautiful with a double beauty We have a sweet promise Isa 65. 18. Oh that we could see it fulfilled I will create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy a joy even in the abstract not onely joyful but a joy and God will create this it must be Gods work and though to the eye of flesh and blood there be no matter of joy yet God will create her people a joy You know what charges the Prophet lays upon this what a comely thing it is and see that in any case you rejoyce Onely take heed you do not mistake in pleasantness many that are godly may be pleasant in their way upon that ground because Christians must be pleasant but do not mistake natural pleasantness for spiritual pleasantness How shall we know the difference between natural pleasantness in a Christian and spiritual pleasantness There may be a great many of temporal pleasures that God gives forth to Christians in its place but you must rise higher then that and put another maner of lustre upon the ways of Religion then natural pleasantness First if it be a spiritual pleasantness it will be serious such as becomes Christian gravity Yea not onely seriousness and gravity is to be mixed with pleasantness but if it be spiritual pleasantness Secondly it is such as can stand with fear and the work of repentance and humiliation these do not hinder a spiritual pleasantness though it hinders that which is natural You know the Scripture that says Rejoyce with trembling and Blessed is the man that feareth the Lord and greatly delights in his Commandments That is a spiritual pleasantness which hath a gracious mixture of seriousness and other graces of Gods Spirit with it Thirdly Again if it be a gracious pleasantness it is a delight in all the ways of wisdom many can delight in some ways of wisdom the stony ground received some truths with joy but others they cannot close with but when the pleasantness is spiritual there is rejoycing in all Fourthly Again if the pleasantness be spiritual it is our strength it carries on the soul in the ways of God more fully it is oyl that causes the wheels of thy soul to go on more freely in the ways of Religion I appeal to thee Does thy pleasantness carry thee on more sweetly in the ways of Religion Thou hast been merry in company but does this carry thee on more fully in the ways of God If you have had pleasure in natural things and when you come to spiritual things your hearts are dead certainly you went beyond your bounds Fifthly Again if it be spiritual pleasantness it will bear up the heart in the want of all outward pleasantness and though all outward content be taken away Habbak 3. 17 18. Although the fig-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines the labor of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls Yet I will rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation When all is dark abroad in the world the soul does rejoyce in God alone A soul that hath but natural pleasantness of spirit is all amort and down when any affliction befals him You that have the most delightful spirits when you have friends and all that you like you are jocund and merry but when affliction comes how quickly are your spirits down and how are you vext and troubled whereas if there were this spring of pleasantness in the heatt it would bear up the heart joyful in affliction though servants and friends should cross this delightfulness of spirit within would carry the heart on chearfully But those that are delightful when they are well pleased yet every little thing that crosses them makes them dumpish This is another argument it is not spiritual pleasantness their hearts are filled with it is not from the delight they have found in the ways of God that makes them so merry This by way of Caution But if we be sure that our pleasantness is spiritual let us expatiate our selves to the utmost It is a work of grace to moderate all carnal pleasures and to keep them down but it is the special work of grace to expatiate the soul to the utmost in all spiritual pleasure Therefore if God hath given thee this spring of delight and pleasure expatiate it to the glory and praise of God Blessed is the man that greatly delights in the ways of Gods Commandments And if God takes pleasure in thee how much more shouldst thou take pleasure in him God gives out his pleasure to be joyned to our pleasantness and if we should not carry on the ways of Religion pleasantly it will be a dishonor to God and a disgrace to our selves and we cannot expect that acceptance from God of what we do as otherwise we might for as God loves a chearful Giver so a chearful Server How shall we carry on the work of God