soul He cuts out the heart with a Hae sedes livoris erant jam pascua vermis you next tread on his interred corps that 's honoured but with a Hic jacet Here lyeth the body of such a one And if he have the honour to be magnified by fame or history it 's a fool-trap to ensnare the living but easeth not the soul in Hell And shall we envy men such a happiness as this what if they be able to command mens lives and to hurt those that they hate for a little while Is this a matter of honour or of delight A Pestilence is more honourable if destroying be an honour The Devil is more powerful if God permit him to do men hurt than the greatest Tyrant in the world And yet I hope you envy not his happiness nor are ambitious to partake of it If Witches were not kin to Devils they would never sell their souls for a power to do hurt And how little do tyrannical worldlings consider that under a mask of Government and Honour they do the same Let the world then rejoyce while we lament and weep Our sorrow shall be speedily turned into joy and our joy shall no man â—hen take from us Joh. 16.20 22. Envy not a dying man â—he happiness of a feather-bed or a merry dream You think â—t hard in them to deny you the liberties and comforts of this â—â—fe though you look for Heaven And will you be more cruel than the ungodly Will you envy the trifling commodities or delights of earth to those that are like to have no more but to lye in Hell when the sport is ended It is unreasonable impatience that cannot endure to see them in silks and gallantry a few daies that must be so extreamly miserable for ever Your crums and leavings and overplus is their All. And will you grudge them this much In this you are unlike your heavenly Father that doth good to the just and unjust would you change cases with them would you change the fruit of your adversity for the fruit of their prosperity Affliction maketh you somewhat more calm and wise and sober and cautelous and considerate and preventeth as well as cureth sin Prosperity makes them through their abuse inconsiderate rash insensible foolish proud unperswadable And the turning away of the simple slayeth them and the prosperity of fools destroyeth them Prov. 1.32 It 's long since Lazarus's sores were healed and his wants relieved and long since Dives feast was ended O let me rather be afflicted than rejected and be a door-keeper in the house of God than dwell in the tents of wickedness and rather be under the rod than turned out of doors Look with a serious Faith upon Eternity and then make a great matter of enjoyments or sufferings here if you can Great joyes and sorrows forbid men to complain of the biting of a Flea Thunder-claps drown a whispering voice O what unbelief our impatiency and disquietness in sufferings do discover Is this living by faith and conversing in another world and taking God for All and the world for Nothing What! make such a do of pâ—verty imprisonment injuries disgrace with Heaven and Hell before our eyes The Lord vouchsafe me that condition in which I shall be nearest to himself and have most communion with Heaven be it what it will be for the things of earth These are the desires to which I 'le stand To thank God for the fruit of past afflictions as the most necessary mercies of our lives as some of us have daily cause and at the same time to be impatient under present afflictions or inordinately afraid of those to come is an irrational as well as unbelieving incongruity Are we derided slandered abused by the ungodly If we repine that we have enemies and must fight we repine that we are Christs souldires and that is that we are Christians Quomodo potest imperator militum suorum virtutem probare nisi habuerit hostem saith Lactantius Enemies of God do not use to fight professedly against himself but against his souldiers Non qui contra ipsum Deum pugnent sed contra milites ejus inquit idem If the remnants of goodness had not been a derision among the Heathens themselves in the more sober sort a Heathen would not have said Nondum faelix es si non te turba deriferit si beatus vis esse cogita hoc primum contemnere ab aliis contemni Sen. Thou art not yet happy if the rabble deride thee not If thou wilt be blessed learn first to contemn this and to be contemned of others No body will deride or persecute us in Heaven 5. Improve your talents and opportunities in your callings as Believers especially you that are Governours God is the original and end of Government The highest are but his ministers Rom. 13.6 This world is but the way unto another Things seen are for things unseen And Government is to order them to that end Especially by terrifying evil doers and by promoting holiness in the earth The Moral as well as the Natural motion of inferiour agents must proceed from the influence of the superiour The spring and the end of every action truly good are out of fight Where these are not discerned or are ignorantly or maliciously opposed the action is vitiated and tendeth to confusion and ruine God is the end of all holy actions and carnal self is the end of sin If God and self are infinitely distinct you may easily see that the actions materialâ—y the same that are intended to such distant ends must needs be very distant Nothing but saving Faith and Holiness can conquer selfishness in the lowest of the people But where the flesh hath more plentiful provision and self is accommodated with the fullest contents of honour and pleasure that the world affords how difficult a work then is self-denyal And the reign of the flesh is contrary to the reign of Christ Where the flesh and visible things bear sway the enemy of Christ bears sway The carnal mind is enmity against God for it is not subject to his Law nor can be Rom. 8.7 And how Christs enemies will receive his Laws and use his Messengers and regard his waies and servants the most of the world have experience to their cost The interest of the flesh being contrary to Christs interest the competition maintaineth a continual conflict The Word of God doth seem to be against them The faithful Ministers that would save them from their sins do seem to wrong them and deal too boldly with them Were it an Elijah he would be called The troubler of Israel and met with an Hast thou found me O mine enemy No measure of prudence knowledge piety innocency meekness or self-denyal will serve to appease the wrath and displeasure of this carnal enmity If it would the Apostles had escaped it or at least it would not have fallen so furiously upon Christ hâ—mself Nay these are the oyl that
these things and to expound all these Solemnities Laws and Ceremonies to them so that the frame of Church and State and Families was a preservative hereof 5. But to pass by all the rest in the Old Testament the Incarnation of Christ was such a work of Omnipotent Love as caâ—not by us be comprehended That God should be united to humanity in person that humanity should thus be advanced into union with the Deity and Man be set above the Angels that a Virgin should conceive that men from the East should be led thither to worship an Infant by the conduct of a Star which Caesarius thinketh was one of those Angels or Spirits which are called a flame of fire Psal 104.4 That Angels from Heaven should declare his nativity to the Shepherds and celebrate it with their praises that John Baptist should be so called to be his forerunner and Elizabeth Zachary Simeon and Anna should so prophesie of him That the Spirit should be seen descending on him at his Baptism and the voice be heard from Heaven which owned him that he should fast forty daies and nights and that he should be transfigured before his three Disciples on the Mount and Moses and Elias seen with him in that glory and the voice from Heaven again bear witness to him These and many such like were the attestations of Divine Omnipotency to the truth of Christ 6. To these may be next joyned the whole course of miracles performed by Christ in healing the sick and raising the dead and in many other miraculous acts which are most of the substance of the Gospel-history and which I have recited together in my Reasons of the Christian Religion see Heb. 2.2 3 4. 7. And to these may be added the Power which was given over all the creatures to Christ our Mediatour All power in Heaven and Earth was given him Joh. 17.2 13.3 Mat. 28.19 Rom. 14.9 Ephes 1.22 23. He was made Head over all things to the Church and all principalities and powers were put under him And this was not barely asserted by him but demonstrated He shewed his power over the Devils in casting them out and his power over Angels by their attendance and his power of life and death by raising the dead and his power over all diseases by healing them and his power over the winds and waters by appeasing them and his power over our food and natures by turning water into wine and by feeding many thousands miraculously yea and his power over them into whose hands he was resolved to yield himself by restraining them till his hour was come and by making them all fall to the ground at his name and his power over Sun and Heaven and Earth by the darkening of the Sun and the trembling of the Earth and the rending of the Rocks and of the Vail of the Temple Mat. 27.45 51. And his power over the dead by the rising of the bodies of many Mat. 27.52 And his power over the Saints in Heaven by the attendance of Moses and Elias and his power to forgive sins by taking away the penal maladies and his power to change hearts and save souls by causing his Disciples to leave all and follow him at a word and Zacheus to receive him and believe and the thief on the cross to be converted and to enter that day into Paradise 8. And his own Resurrection is an undoubted attestation of Divine Omnipotency If God gave him such a victory over death and raised him to life when men had killed him and rolled a stone upon his Sepulchre and sealed and guarded it there needeth no further evidence of the Power of God impressing and attesting the Christian Religion than that which ascertaineth to us the truth of Christs Resurrection For he was declared to be the Son of God by POWER by resurrection from the dead Rom. 1.4 9. And his bodily appearance to his congregated Disciples when the doors were shut his miracle at their fishing his walking on the Sea his vanishing out of their sight Luke 24. when he had discoursed with the two Disciples his opening their hearts to understand his Word c. do all shew this part of Gods Image on our Religion even his Power 10. And so doth his bodily ascending into Heaven before the face of his Disciples Acts 1. 11. But especially the sending down the Holy Ghost upon his Disciples according as he promised To cause them that were before so low in knowledge to be suddenly inspired with languages and with the full understanding of his own will and with unanimity and concord herein this made his Disciples the living monuments and effects of his own Omnipotency Acts 2. 12. And accordingly all the miracles which they did by this power recorded partly in the Acts of the Apostles or rather the Acts of Paul by Luke who was his companion which you may there read and no doubt but other Apostles in their measures did the like as Paul though they are not recorded for they had all the same Promise and Spirit This is another impression of POWER 13. Whereto must be added the great and wonderful gifts of communicating the same Spirit or doing that upon which God would give it to those converted Believers on whom they laid their hands which Simon Magus would fain have bought with money Acts 8. To enable them to speak with tongues to heal diseases to prophesie c. as they themselves had done which is a great attestation of Omnipotency 14. And the lamentable destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans foretold by Christ was an attestation of Gods POWER in the revenge or punishment of their unbelief and putting Christ to death 15. And so was the great fortitude and constancy of Believers who underwent all persecutions so joyfully as they did for the sake of Christ which was the effect of the corroborating Power of the Almighty 16. And so was the Power which the Apostles had to execute present judgements upon the enemies of the Gospel as Elimas and Simon Magus and on the abusers of Religion as Ananias and Saphyra and on many whom they excommunicated and delivered up to Satan 17. The same evidence is found in Christs Legislation as an universal Soveraign making Laws for heart and life for all the world Taking down the Laws of the Jewish Polity and Ceremonies which God by Moses had for a time set up Commanding his Ministers to proclaim his Laws to all the world and Princes and people to obey them And by these Laws conferring on Believers no less than forgiveness and salvation and binding over the impenitent to everlasting punishment 18. But the great and continued impress of Gods Power is that which together with his Wisdom and Love is made and shewed in the conveâ—sion of mens souls to God by Christ You may here first consider the numbers which were suddenly converted by the preaching of the Apostles at the first And in how little time there were Churches planted
by a Redeemer as we must do They had their too great selfishness Phil. 2.21 They had their pusillanimity and fears of men as Peter and the Apostles They had their sinful controversies as Paul and Barnabas and sinful separations in complyance with the censorious as Peter and Barnabas had Gal. 2.16 17. They had their carnal sidings factions and divisions in the Church 1 Cor. 1. 3. Many a time have they been put to groan O wretched man who shall deliver me from this body of death Rom. 7 c. 11. They had as difficult duties to go through as any of us They were put upon as many tears and troubles watchings and travels fastings and self-denyal as the most laborious and suffering Christians now 12. They had as long delayes of the accomplishment of their desires as any of us 13. And lastly they past through death it self as we must do They lay gasping on their beds of languâ—shing and death broke in upon every part and they underwent that separation of soul and body as we must do Their flesh was turned to rottenness and dust and laid out of the sight of man in darkness and remaineth to this day as common earth All this the Saints in Heaven have undergone This was their case a while ago who are now in glory And this was not only the case of some few but of thousands and millions and that in the most of these particulars even of all that are gone before us unto blessedness It is not we that are tempted first that are persecuted or afflicted first that have sinned first that must die first but all this host hath broke the Ice and are safely past through this Red Sea and are now triumphing in felicity with their Saviour Direct 3. Let Faith next look back and see by what way these Saints have come to this felicity I mean by what means they did overcome and win the Crown And briefly you will find 1. That they all came to Heaven by the Mediation the Sacrifice the meritorious Righteousness of a Redeemer Jesus Christ either as promised or as incarnate none of them were justified by the works of the Law or the Covenant of Innocency 2. That their common way was by Faith Repentance Love and Obedience Not by works of Righteousness which we have done but according to his mercy he saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed oâ— us abundently through Christ Titus 3.5 Even by the triple Image of the Divine perfections Power Love and Wisdom 2 Tim. 1.7 They lived soberly righteously and godly in the world and were zealous of good works looking for the blessed hope which they have attained Titus 2.14 15. Knowing that Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ are the summ of saving doctrine and duty Acts 20.21 And that to fear God and keep his Commandments is the whole duty of man Eccles 12.13 And that the end of the Commandment is Charity out of a pure heart and a good conscience and of faith unfeigned 1 Tim. 1.5 and that Love is the fulfilling of the Law 3. They studied the Word of God or such means of knowing him as God afforded them in order to the attaining and maintaining of these graces Psal 1.2 and sought the Lord with all their hearts while he might be found and called upon him while he was near Isa 55.6 10. And did not presumptuously neglect Gods helps and despise his Word while they trusted for his mercy 4. They lived in a continual conflict against the temptations of the Devil the world and the flesh and in the main did conquer as well as strive They made it their work to mortifie those fleshly lusts which others make it their interest and work to please Gal. 5.17.21 22. 6.14 5. They suffered afflictions and persecutions patiently and being reviled they did not revile They loved their enemies and blest those that curse them and prayed for those that despitefully used and persecuted them Matth. 5.44 45. 1 Cor. 4.11 12 13. 2 Cor. 1.6 7. Heb. 11. They would not accept of deliverance from imprisonment torments and death upon sinning terms 6. They endured to the end and did not fall off and forsake the Covenant of their God Rev. 2. 3. 7. Lastly They did all this by the motive of their hopes of Heaven and by a confidence in the promises of it and in a heavenly mind and conversation as knowing that they did not labour or suffer in vain 1 Cor. 15.58 2 Cor. 4.17 1 Tim. 4.10 Rom. 8.18 Matth. 5.11 2 Thes 1.6 7. Heb. 12.2 This was the way by which the Saints have gone to Heaven the only true successful way Direct 4. Consider next what helps and means God gave them for this work and compare our own with them and see whether ours be not as great 1. We have the same natural capacity as they we are intellectual free agents made for another world and capable of all that they attained There is no difference in our natural faculties 2. We have the same God to shew us mercy 1 Cor. 12.5 There are divers operations but the same God Ephes 4.4 5. There is one God one Lord c. even the Lord over all good to all that call upon him Rom. 10.12 The same mercy which called them and waited on them calleth us even a God who hath no respect of persons but in every Nation he that feareth him and worketh righteousness is accepted of him Acts 10.37 Though he be a free benefactor he is a righteous Judge and he is good to all and the Father of every member of his Son 3. They had the same Saviour as we have the same sacrifice for their sins the same Teacher and the same example the same intercessor with the Father For though there be divers administrations there is the same Lord 1 Cor. 12.5 Ephes 4.4 For other foundation can no man lay than him who is the chief corner stone 1 Cor. 3.11 They all did eat of the same spiritual meat and drank of the same rock as we do which is Christ 1 Cor. 10.3 4. It was the reproach of Christ which Moses in Egypt esteemed better than their treasures Heb. 11.26 The same Physician of souls who hath us in cure did cure all them The same Captain who is conducting us to salvation is he that saved them The same Prince of the Covenant and Lord of life who conquered death and all their enemies hath conquered them for us and is preparing us for life with them They had no greater or better High Priest and Mediator with God than we have 4. They had the same Rule to walk by and the same way to go as all we have Gal. 1.7 8. 6.16 Phil. 3.14 15. The same Gospel and Word of God in the main though under various promulgations and administrations Those before the flood were under the Covenant of the promised seed
can lay out your love and care and labour on nothing else that will answer your expectations nor make any other bargain whatsoever but what you are sure to be utterly undone by Psal 73.25 4.6 7. Mat. 6.20 21. 13.45 46. Luke 18.33 3. A sound belief of things invisible will be so far an effectual spring of a holy life as that you will seek first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness Mat. 6.33 and not in your Resolutions only but in your Practices the bent of your lives will be for God and your invisible felicity It is not possible that you should see by faith the wonders of the world to come and yet prefer this world before it A dead opinionative belief may stand with a worldly fleshly life but a working faith will make you stir and make the things of God your business and the labour and industry of your lives will shew whether you soundly believe the things unseen 4. If you savingly believe the invisible things you will purchase them at any rate and hold them faster than your worldly accommodations and will suffer the loss of all things visible rather than you will cast away your hopes of the glory which you never saw A humane faith and bare opinion will not hold fast when trial comes For such men take Heaven but for a reserve because they must leave earth against their wills and are loth to go to Hell but they are resolved to hold the world as long as they can because their faith apprehendeth no such satisfying certainty of the things unseen as will encourage them to let go all that they see and have in sensible possession But the weakest faith that 's true and saving doth habitually dispose the soul to let go all the hopes and happiness of this world when they are inconsistent with our spiritual hopes and happiness Luke 14.33 And now I have gone before you with the light and shewed you what a Believer is will you presently consider how 〈◊〉 your hearts and lives agree to this description To know Whether you live by faith or not is consequentially to know whether God or the world be your portion and felicity and so whether you are the heirs of Heaven or Hell And is not this a question that you are most nearly concerned in O therefore for your souls sakes and as ever you love your everlasting peace Examine your selves whether you are in the faith or not Know you not that Christ is in you by faith except you be reprobates 2 Cor. 13.5 will you hearken now as long to your consciences as you have done to me As you have heard me telling you what is the nature of a living saving faith will you hearken to your consciences while they impartially tell you whether you have this life of faith or not It may be known if you are willing and diligent and impartial Iâ— you search on purpose as men that would know whether they are alive or dead and whether they shall live or die for ever and not as men that would be flattered and deceived and are resolved to think well of their state be it true or false Let conscience tell you What eyes do you see by for the conduct of the chief imployment of your lives Is it by the eye of sense or faith I take it for granted that it 's by the eye of Reason But is it by Reason corrupted and byâ—ssed by sense or is it by Reason elevated by faith What Countrey is it that your hearts converse in Is it in Heaven or Earth What company is it that you solace your selves with Is it with Angels and Saints Do you walk with them in the Spirit and joyn your eccho's to their triumphant praises and say Amen when by faith you hear them ascribing honour and praise and glory to the ancient of daies the Omnipotent Jehovah that is and that was and is to come Do you fetch your Joyes from Heaven or Earth from things unseen or seen things future or present things hoped for or things possessed What Garden yieldeth you your sweetest flowers Whence is the food that your hopes and comforts live upon Whence are the spirits and cordials that revive you when a frowning world doth cast you into a fainting fit or swoun Where is it that you repose your souls for Rest when sin or sufferings have made you weary Deal truly Is it in Heaven or Earth Which world do you take for your pilgrimage and which for your home I do not ask you where you are but where you dwell not where are your persons but where are your hearts In a word Are you in good earnest when you say you believe a Heaven and Hell And do you think and speak and pray and live as those that do indeed believe it Do you spend your time and chuse your condition of life and dispose of your affairs and answer temptations to worldly things as those that are serious in their belief Speak out do you live the life of faith upon things unseen or the life of sense on things that you behold Deal truly for your endless â—oy or sorrow doth much depend on it The life of faith is the certain passage to the life of glory The fleshly life on things here seen is the certain way to endless misery If you live after the flesh ye shall die but if ye by the spirit do mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live Rom. 8.13 Be not dâ—ceived God is not mocked â— for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption but he that soweth to the spirit shall of the spirit reap everlasting life Gal. 6.7 8. If you would know where you must live for ever know how and for what and upon what it is that you live here Vse 4. Having enquired whether you are Believers I am next to ask you what you will be for the time to come will you live upon things seen or unseen While you arrogate the name and honour of being Christians will you bethink you what Christianity is and will you be indeed what you say you are and would be thought to be Oh that you would give credit to the Word of God that the God of Heaven might be but heartily believed by you And that you would but take his Word to be as sure as sense and what he hath told you is or will be to be as certain as if you saw it with your eyes Oh what manner of persons would you then be how carefully and fruitfully would you speak and live How impossible were it then that you should be careless and prophane And here that I may by seriousness bring you to be serious in so serious a business I shall first put a few suppositions to you about the invisible objects of faith and then I shall put some applicatory questions to you concerning your own resolutions and
his body is a little weary his mind is so too and suffereth the weariness of the body to prevail Because the flesh is King within them Nay a slothful mind doth oft begin and they are weary to look upon their work or to think of it before it hath wearyed the body at all And what they do they do unwillingly because they are in love with idleness Mal. 1.13 But the lowly and laborious are in love with diligence and work and therefore though they cannot avoid the wearyness of the body their willing minds will carry on the body as far as it can well go The diligent woman worketh willingly with her hands her candle goeth not out by night c. Prov. 31.13 c. Servants must do service with good will as to the Lord Ephes 6.7 If Ministers preach and labour willingly they have a reward 1 Cor. 9.17 But not if they are only driven on by necessity and the fear of woe 1 Pet. 5.2 What shall we do willingly if not our duties He that sineth willingly and serveth God and followeth his labour unwilingly shall be rewarded according to his will 6. The idle Sodomite doth love and chuse that kind of life which is easiest and hath least work to be done This is the chief provision by which he fulfilleth his fleshly lust An idle servant thinketh that the best place in which he shall have most ease and fulness An idle Parent will cast all the burden of his childrens teaching upon the Schoolmaster and the Pastor An idle Minister thinketh himself best where he may have no more labour than what tendeth to his publick applause and when he hath the most wealth and honour and least to do he taketh that to be the flourishing prosperity of the Church And indeed if our calling were like the souldiers to kill men and not liker the Surgeons to cure them we might think it is the best time when we have least employment But the faithful servant will be most thankful for that state of life in which he doth most good And as he taketh doing good to be the surest way of getting and receiving so he taketh the good of another as his own and anothers necessity is his necessity He knoweth that he is best who is likest unto God and that is he that is the most abundant in love and doing good Like the Sun that never resteth from moving or giving light and heat The running spring is pure when the standing water is muddy and corrupt The cessation of motion quickly mortifieth the blood He that said as to works of charity Be not weary of well doing for in due time you shall reap if you faint not Gal. 6.9 hath said so too as to our bodily labour in our common callings in the world 2 Thes 3.13 I know that a servant may be glad of a place where he is not oppressed with unreasonable labour and where he hath competent time for the learning of Gods Word And a poor man may be glad when he is freed from necessity of doing that which is to his hurt But otherwise no man but a fleshly bruit will wish or contrive for a life of idleness Object Is it not said Blessed are the dead for they rest from their labours Rev. 14.13 Ans True but mark that their works follow them And what are the works which follow you And note that it is not work or duty that they shall rest from For they rest not crying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty c. But it is only their labours that is the painful sort of work and suffering proper to this sinful life The blessed indeed are freed in Heaven from this because they were not freed 〈◊〉 it on earth as the ungodly and slothful servant are 7. Lastly Idleness is seen by the work that is undone Pro. 24.30 The sluggards Vineyard is overgrown with weeds If your souls be unrenewed and your assurance of salvation and evidences yet to get and few the better for you in the world and you are yet unready for death and judgment you give too full a proof of idleness The diligent woman Prov. 31.16 c. could shew her labours in her treasures her Vineyard the cloathing and provisions of her family c. shew yours by the good which you have done in the world and by the preparation of your souls for a better world Let every man prove his own work that he may have rejoycing in himself alone and not in another Gal. 6.3 4. What case are your children in Are they taught or untaught What case is your soul in your fruit must judge you III. The mischiefs of this Sodomitical Idleness and the reasons against it are briefly these 1. It is contrary to the active nature of mans soul which in activity exceedeth the fire it self It is as natural for a soul to be active as for a stone or clod of earth to lie still And this active nature animateth the passive body to move it and use it in it's proper work And should this heavenly fire be imprisoned in the body which it should command and move Psal 104.23 Man goeth forth to his work and to his labour till the evening 2. It is contrary to the common course of nature Doth the Sun shine for you as well as for others or doth it not Doth all the frame of nature continue in its course the air the waters the summer and winter for you as well as for others or not If not then you take not your selves beholden to God for them And if you have no use for the Sun and other creatures you have no use for life for by them you live But if yea then what is it that they serve you for Did God ever frame you so glorious a retinuue to attend you only to sleep and laugh and play and to be idle what is all this for no higher an end or rather do you not by your idleness forfeit life and all these helps and maintainers of your lives 3. It is an unthankful reproach and blasphemy against the God of Nature yea and against the Lord your Redeemer to think that the wise Almighty God did make so noble a thing as a soul and place it in so curious an engine as the body where spirits and blood and heart and lungs are never idle but in constant motion and that he hath appointed us so glorious a retinue as aforesaid and all this to do nothing with or worse than nothing To sleep and rise and dress your selves and talk and eat and drink to tell men only that you are not dead lest they should mistake and bury you alive what is it but to put a scorn on your Creator and Redeemer to live as if he had created and redeemed you for no better and nobler ends than these 4. You do as it were pray for death or provoke God to take away your lives For if they be good for nothing else but idleness
those in Heaven you will quite misunderstand the providences of God in the prosperity of the wicked and the sufferings of the Saints and the changes that are usually made on Earth You will begin to think that sin is safe and the wicked are not so miserable as they are nor godly diligence so profitable a thing you will not know the reasons of providence unless you can see unto the end And the ultimate end is not on Earth But go into the Sanctuary and take the prospective of the promise and look to the blessed souls with Christ and all the riddle will be expounded to you and you will be reconciled to all the providences of God You are strange to truth if you are strange to the triumphing Saints in Heaven 8. The progressive nature of your faith and godliness requireth it You are travelling to Heaven where the blessed are and are nearer to them than when you first believed And the nearer you are to them the more you should mind them and by Faith and Love be familiar with them And when you are almost at home you should be even ready to embrace your friends at the meeting 9. Your Relation to the blessed Spirits doth require it and your Christian and ingenuous disposition towards them 1. Are they not such as were latety near you in the flesh some of them your dearest companions and friends and should you causlesly forget them 2. Are they not not now your friends who love you better than they could do on earth Doubtless their knowledge and memory is not grown less to forget you if once they knew you but they are like to know much more And their Goodness being increased their Love is increased and not diminished 3. And you belong to the same Society with them even to the Body or Church of Christ whose nobler part above and inferiour part on Earth do make up the whole Is it not expresly said Heb. 12.22 23. that we are come unto Mount Zion and unto the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels and to the general Assembly and Church of the first born which are written in Heaven that is to those which as the first born are most noble and possessed of the heavenly inheritance and are there entered inhabitants already And to God the Judge of all and to the spirits of just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediatour of the New Covenant c. And what is it to come to them but to come or be joyned to that Society of which they are the nobler part Will you be Fellow-Citizens with them and have no communion with them nor seriously remember them How can you remember God himself and not remember those that are his Courtiers and nearer to him than you are And how can you think of Christ and not think of his Body Or how can you think of his Body and forget the most excellent and honourable parts Or how can you remember your selves and forget your chiefest Friends and Lovers 10. The very nature of the Life of Faith requireth us to look much to the departed Saints The Life of Faith consisteth in our conversing with the things unseen as the life of sight or sense is our conversing with things seen If you love and think on none of the Saints but those that are within your sight you live so far but as by sight Though Faith live not upon Saints properly but on God and our Redeemer yet it liveth and converseth with the Saints If it work aright it will as it were set you among them and make you live on Earth as if you heard their songs of praise and saw their Thrones of Glory 11. The present necessities of your condition in this world do require you to look much to the Saints above as is before shewed in the benefits recited We live here among such persons and things as are objects of continual sorrow to us And have we not need of some more comfortable company If you had nothing at home but chiding and discontent and poverty you will be willing of so much recreation as to be invited to feast sometimes where there is plenty pleasure and content If you lived among groaning sick or melancholy persons in an Hospital you would be glad sometimes of merryer company a little to refresh your minds Alas what a deal of sin do we daily see or hear of and what a deal of sorrow is round about us What are our News-books filled with or the daily reports which come to our ears but sin and sorrow vanity and vexation what is the employment of most of the world what is it that Court and Country City and all Societies ring of but vanity and vexation sin and sorrow And is not a walk in Heaven with better company a pleasure desirable in such a case What grief must needs dwell on the minds of sober Catholick Christians to see the Church on earth so torn so worryed so reproached as it is throughout the earth so torn in pieces by its zealous ignorant self-conceited Pastors and Members so worryed by its open and secret enemies even by the usurping tyrannizing Wolves in Sheeps cloathing who spare not the flock Matth. 7.15 10.16 Acts 20.29 so reproached by the world of Infidels and Heathens who fly from it as from an infected City and say Christians are drunkards and deceivers and lyars they are all in pieces among themselves they revile and persecute one another we will therefore be no Christians How sad is it to see the one part of the world professing Christianity to make it odious by their wickedness and their divisions and the rest of the world abhorring it because these have made it seem odious to them How sad is it to hear all Christians speak of love and Concord Unity and Peace while few of them know the way of Peace or how to hold their own hands from tearing the Church into more pieces while these peaceable words are in their mouths To see the Pastors and People as if it were for Unity and Peace contriving the ruine of all that are not of their Party and Way and studying how to extirpate one another and multiplyjng snares and stumbling blocks as necessary means to heal the Church How sad is it to see so great a faction as the Roman Kingdom for it is more properly a Kingdom than a Church to lay the necessary Vnity and Communion of all the Churches upon so many forgeries of their own upon the supposed certainty of the falseness of all mens senses in the point of Transubstantiation and upon the subjection of the Church to an universal usurpes and to keep up ignorance lest knowledge by reading the translated Scriptures and such Books as do detect their frauds should mart their markets and spoil their trade To see their Prelates take their own domination wealth and greatness to be really the prosperity of the Church and
of the soul in God and the highest praises and thanksgivings with the readiest and chearfullest obedience And what kind of Religious performances are most excellent which we must principally intend Groans and tears and penitent confessions and moans are very suitable to our present state while we have sin and suffering But surely they are duties of the lower rank For Heaven more aboundeth with praises and thanksgiving and therefore we must labour to be fitter for them and more abundant in them not casting off any needful humiliations and penitent complaints but growing as fast as we can above the necessity of them by conquering the sin which is the cause So ask what is it that would make the Church on Earth to be likest to that part which is in Heaven Is it striving what Pastors shall be greatest or have precedency or be called gracious Lords or Benefactors Luke 22.24 25 26. 1 Pet. 5.3 4 5. Or is it in making the flock of Christ to dread the secular power of the Shepherds and tremble before them as they do before the Wolf Or is it in a proud conceit of the peoples power to ordain their Pastors and to rule them and themselves by a major vote Or in a supercilious condemning the members of Christ and a proud contempt of others as too unholy for our communion when we never had authority to try or judge them Is it in the multitude of Sects and divisions every one saying Our party and our way is best Surely all this is unlike to Heaven It is rather in the Wisdom and Holiness and Vnity of all the members When they all know God especially in his Love and Goodness and when they fervently love him and chearfully and universally obey him and when they love each other fervently and with a pure heart and without divisions do hold the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace and with one heart and mind and mouth do glorifie God and our Redeemer Leaving that Church-Judgment to the Pastors which Christ hath put into their hands and leaving Gods part of Judgment unto himself This is to be like to our heavenly exemplar and to do Gods Will on Earth as it is done in Heaven Ephes 4.2 3 4 11 12 16. 9. And we must also look back to the examples of their lives while they were on earth and see wherein they are to be imitated as the imitators of Jesus Christ which way went they to Heaven before us 10. Lastly We must give God thanks on their behalf for making them so perfect and bringing them so near him and saving them from sin and Satan and the world and bringing them safe to Heaven through so many temptations difficulties and sufferings For making them such instruments of his glory in their times and shewing his glory upon them and to them in the Heavens For making them such blessings to the world in their generations and for giving us in them such patterns of faith obedience and patience and making them so great encouragements to us who may the more boldly follow them in faith duty and sufferings who have conquered all and sped so well For shewing us by faith their present state of glory with Christ for our confirmation and consolation Thus far in all these ten particulars we must have a heavenly conversation with the glorified by Faith Direct 8. Consider next wherein your imitation of the example of their lives on earth consisteth And it is 1. Not in committing any of their sins nor indulging any such weaknesses in our selves as any of them were guilty of 2. Nor in extenuating a sin or thinking ever the better of it because it was theirs 3. Nor in doing as they did in exempted cases wherein their Law and ours differed as in the marriage of Adams children in the Jews Polygamy c. 4. Nor in imitating them in things indifferent or accidental that were never intended for imitation nor done as morally good or evil 5. Nor in pretending to or expecting of their extraordinary Revelations Inspirations or Miracles 6. Nor in pretending the high attainments of the more excellent to be the necessary measure of all that shall be saved or the Rule of our Church-Communion Our imitation of them consisteth in no such things as these But it consisteth in these 1. That you fix upon the same ultimate Ends as they did That you aim at the same Glory of God and chuse the same everlasting felicity 2. That you chuse the same Guide and Captain of your salvation the same Mediator between God and man the same Teacher and Ruler of the Church and the same sacrifice for sin and Intercessor with the Father 3. That you believe the same Gospel and build upon the same Promises and live by the same Rule the Word of God 4. That you obey the same Spirit and trust to the same Sanctifier and Comforter and Illuminater to illuminate sanctifie and comfort your souls 5. That you exercise all the same graces of Faith Hope Love Repentance Obedience Patience as they did 6. That you live upon the same Truths and be moved by the same Motives as they lived upon and were moved by 7. That you avoid the same sins as they avoided and see what they feared and fled from and made conscience of that you may do the same 8. That you chuse and use the same kind of company helps and means of grace so far as yours and theirs are the same as they have done And think not to find a nearer or another way to that state of happiness which they are come â—o Phil. 3.16 Walk by the same Rule and mind the same things and if in any thing ye be otherwise minded God shall reveal even this unto you If any preach another Gospel let him be accursed Gal. 1.7 8. Mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and avoid them Rom. 16.17 Heb. 6.11 We desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope to the end that you be not slothful but followers of them c. 9. That you avoid resist and overcome the same temptations as they did who now are crowned 10. That you bear the same cross and exercise the same faith and hope and patience unto the end 1 Pet. 4.1 Arm your selves with the same mind c. In brief this is the true imitation of the Saints Direct 9. Never suffer your life of sense to engage you so deeply in sensible converse with men on earth as to forget your heavenly relations and society but live as men that unfeignedly believe that you have a more high and noble converse every day to mind If you are Believers indeed let your faith go along with the souls of your departed friends into glory And if you have forgot them by an unfriendly negligence renew your acquaintance with them Think not that those only that live on earth are fit for our
those things that are not seen Or you may take the sense in this Proposition which I am next to open further and apply viz. That the nature and use of faith is to be as it were instead of presence possession and sight or to make the things that will be as if they were already in existence and the things unseen which God revealeth as if our bodily eyes beheld them 1. Not that faith doth really change its object 2. Nor doth it give the same degree of apprehensions and affections as the sight of present things would do But 1. Things invisible are the objects of our faith 2. And Faith is effectual instead of sight to all these uses 1. The apprehension is as infallible because of the objective certainty though not so satisfactory to our imperfect souls as if the things themselves were seen 2. The will is determined by it in its necessary consent and choice 3. The affections are moved in the necessary dâ—gree 4. It ruleth in our lives and bringeth us through duty and suffering for the sake of the happiness which we believe 3. This Faith is a grounded wise and justifiable act an infallible knowlâ—dge and often called so in Scripture John 6.69 1 Cor. 15.58 Rom. 8.28 c. And the constitutive and efficient causes will justifie the Name We know and are infallibly sure of the truth of God which we believe As it 's said John 6.69 We believe and are sure that thou art that Christ the Son of the living God 2 Cor. 5.1 We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Hâ—avens Rom. 8.28 We know that all things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 15.58 You know that your labour is nâ—t in vain in the Lord Joh. 9.29 We knâ—w God spake to Moses c. 31. We know God heareth not sinners John 3.2 We know thou art a Teacher come from God So 1 John 3.5 15. 1 Pet. 3.17 and many other Scriptures tell you that Believing God is a certain infallible sort of knowledge I shall in justification of the work of Faith acquaint you briefly with 1. That in the Nature of it 2. And that in the causing of it which advanceth it to be an infallible knowledge 1. The Believer knows as sure as he knows there is a God that God is true and his Word is true it being impossible for God to lie Hâ—b 6.18 God that cannot lie hath promised Titus 1.2 2. He knows that the holy Scripture is the Word of God by his Image which it beareth and the many evidences of Divinity which it containeth and the many Miracles certainly proved which Christ and his Spirit in his servants wrought to confirm the truth 3. And therefore he knoweth assuredly the conclusion that all this Word of God is true And for the surer effecting of this knowledge God doth not only set before us the ascertaining Evidence of his own veracity and the Scriptures Divinity but moreover 1. He giveth us to believe Phil. 1.29 2 Pet. 1.3 For it is not of our selves but is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 Faith is one of the fruits of the Spirit Gal. 5.22 By the drawing of the Father we come to the Son And he that hath knowledge given from Heaven will certainly know and he that hath Faith given him from Heaven will certainly believe The heavenly Light will dissipate our darkness and infallibly illuminate Whilest God sets before us the glass of the Gospel in which the things invisible are revealed and also gives us eye sight to behold them Believers must needs be a heavenly people as walking in that light which proceedeth from and leadeth to the celestial everlasting Light 2. And that Faith may be so powerful as to serve instead of sight and presence Believers have the Spirit of Christ within them to excite and actuate it and help them against all temptations to unbelief and to work in them all other graces that concur to promote the works of Faith and to mortifie those sins that hinder our believing and are contrary to a heavenly life So that as the exercise of our sight and taste and hearing and feeling is caused by our natural life so the exercise of Faith and Hope and Love upon things unseen is caused by the holy Spirit which is the principle of our new life 1 Cor. 2.12 We have received the Spirit that we might know the things that are given us of God This Spirit of God acquainteth us with God with his veracity and his Word Heb. 10.30 We know him that hath said I will never fail thee nor forsake thee This Spirit of Christ acquainteth us with Christ and with his grace and will 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12. This heavenly Spirit acquainteth us with Heaven so that We know that when Christ appeareth we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is 1 Joh. 3.2 And we know that he was manifested to take away sin 1 Joh. 3.5 And will perfect his work and present us spotless to his Father Eph. 5.26 27. This heavenly Spirit possesseth the Saints with such heavenly dispositions and desires as much facilitate the work of Faith It bringeth us to a heavenly conversation and maketh us live as fellow-citizens of the Saints and in the houshold of God Phil. 3.20 Eph. 2.19 It is within us a Spirit of supplication breathing heaven-ward with sighs and groans which cannot be expressed and as God knoweth the meaning of the Spirit so the Spirit knows the mind of God Rom. 8.37 1 Cor. 2.11 3. And the work of Faith is much promoted by the spiritual experiences of Believers When they find a considerable part of the holy Scriptures verified on themselves it much confirmeth their Faith as to the whole They are really possessed of that heavenly disposition called The Divine Nature and have felt the power of the Word upon their hearts renewing them to the Image of God mortifying their most dear and strong corruptions shewing them a greater beauty and desirableness in the Objects of Faith than is to be found in sensible things They have found many of the Promises made good upon themselves in the answers of prayers and in great deliverances which strongly perswadeth them to believe the rest that are yet to be accomplished And experience is a very powerful and satisfying way of conviction He that feeleth as it were the first fruits the earnest and the beginnings of Heaven already in his soul will more easily and assuredly believe that there is a Heaven hereafter We know that the Son of God iâ— come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is true and we are in him that is true even in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal life 1 Joh. 5.20 He that believeth on the Son hath the witness in himself Vers 10. There is so
great a likeness of the holy and heavenly nature in the Saints to the heavenly life that God hath promised that makes it the more easily believed 4. And it exceedingly helpeth our Belief of the life that 's yet unseen to find that Nature affordeth us undeniable Arguments to prove a future Happiness and Misery Reward and Punishment in the general yea and in special that the Love and Fruition of God is this Reward and that the effects of his displeasure are this Punishment Nothing more clear and certain than that there is a God He must be a fool indeed that dare deny it Psal 14.1 as also that this God is the Creatour of the rational nature and hath the absolute right of Soveraign Government and therefore that the rational Creature oweth him the most full and absolute obedience and deserveth punishment if he disobey And it 's most clear that infinite goodness should be loved above all finite imperfect created good And it 's clear that the rational nature is so formed that without the hopes and fears of another life the world neither is nor ever was nor by ordinary visible means can be well governed supposing God to work on man according to his nature And it is most certain that it consisteth not with infinite wisdom power and goodness to be put to rule the world in all ages by fraud and falshood And it is certain that Heathens do for the most part through the world by the light of nature acknowledge a life of joy or misery to come And the most hardened Atheists or Infidels must confess that for ought they know there may be such a life it being impossible they should know or prove the contrary And it is most certain that the meer probability or possibility of a Heaven and Hell being matters of such unspeakable concernment should in reason command our utmost diligence to the hazard or loss of the transitory vanities below and consequently that a holy diligent preparation for another life is naturally the duty of the reasonable creature And it 's a sure that God hath not made our nature in vain nor set us on a life of vain imployments nor made it our business in the world to seek after that which can never be attained These things and much more do shew that nature affordeth us so full a testimony of the life to come that 's yet invisible that it exceedingly helpeth us in believing the supernatural revelation of it which is more full 5. And though we have not seen the objects of our faith yet those that have given us their infallible testimony by infallible means have seen what they testified Though no man hath seen God at any time yet the only begotten Son which is in the bosom of the Father hath declared him Joh 1.18 Verily verily saith our Lord we speak that we know and testifie that we have seen Joh. 3.11 Vers 31 32. He that cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifieth Christ that hath told us saw the things that we have not seen and you will believe honest men that speak to you of what they were eye-witnesses of And the Disciples saw the person the transfiguration and the miracles of Christ Insomuch that John thus beginneth his Epistle 1 Cor. 1.1 2 3. That which was from the beginning which we have heard which we have seen with our eyes which we have looked upon and our hands have handled of the Word of life for the life was manifested and we have seen it and bear witness and shew it to you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you So Paul 1 Cor. 9.1 Am I not an Apostle have have I not seen Jesus Christ our Lord 1 Cor. 15.5.6 7. He was seen of Cephas then of the twelve after that he was seen of above five hundred brethren at once of whom the greater part remain unto this present Heb. 2.3 4. This great salvation at first began to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that heard him God also bearing them witness both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts of the holy Ghost according to his own will 2 Pet. 1.16 17. For we have not followed cunningly devised fables when we made known unto you the power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were eye-witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father honour and glory when there came such a voice to him from the excellent glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the holy Mount And therefore when the Apostles were commanded by their persecutors not to speak at all or teach in the name of Jesus they answered We cannot but speak the things which we have seen and heard Acts 4.18 20. So that much of the objâ—cts of our faith to us invisible have yet been sâ—en by those that have instrumentally revealed them and the glory of Heaven it self is seen by many millions of souls that are now possessing it And the tradition of the Testimony of the Apostles unto us is more full and satisfactory than the tradition of any Laws of the Land or History of the most unquestionable affairs that have been done among the people of the earth as I have manifested elsewhere So that faith hath the infallible Testimony of God and of them that have seen and therefore is to us instead of sight 6. Lastly Even the enemy of faith himself doth against his will confirm our faith by the violence and rage of malice that he stirreth up in the ungodly against the life of faith and holiness and by the importunity of his oppositions and temptations discovering that it is not for nothing that he is so maliciously solicitous industrious and violent And thus you see how much faith hath that should fully satisfie a rational man instead of presence possession and â—ight If any shall here say But why would not God let us have a sight of Heaven or Hell when he could not but know that it would more generally and certainly have prevailed for the conversion and salvation of the world Doth he envy us the most â—ffâ—ctuaâ— means I answer 1. Who art thou O man that disputest against God shall the thing formed say to him that formed it Why hast thou made me thus Mâ—st God come down to the bar of man to render an account of the reason of his works Why do ye not also ask him a reason of the nature situation magnitude order influences c. of all the Stars and Superiour Orbs and call him to an account for all his works when yet there are so many things in your own bodies of which you little understand the reason Is it not intollerable impudency for such worms as we so
low so dark to question the eternal God concerning the reason of his Laws and dispensations Do we not shamefully forget our ignorance and our distance 2. But if you must have a reason let this suffice you It is fit that the Government of God be suited to the nature of the reasonable subject And Reason is made to apprehend more than we see and by reaching beyond sense to carry us to seek things higher and better than sense can reach If you would have a man understand no more than he sees you would almost equalize a wise man and a fool and make a man too like a beast Even in worldly matters you will venture upon the greatest cost and pains for the things that you see not nor ever saw He that hath a journey to go to a place that he never saw will not think that a sufficient reason to stay at home The Merchant will sail 1000 miles to a Land and for a Commodity that he never saw Must the Husbandman see the Harvest before he plow his Land and sow his seed Must the sick man feel that he hath health before he use the means to get it Must the Souldier see that he hath the victory before he fight You would take such conceits in worldly matters to be the symptoms of distraction And will you cherish them where they are most pernicious Hath God made man for any end or for none If none he is made in vain If for any no reason can expect that he should see his end before he use the means and see his home before he begin to travel towards it When children first go to School they do not see or enjoy the learning and wisdom which by time and labour they must attain You will provide for the children which you are like to have before you see them To look that sight which is our fruition it self should go before a holy life is to expect the end before we will use the necessary means You see here in the government of the world that it is things unseen that are the instruments of rule and motives of obedience Shall no man be restrained from felony or murders but he that seeth the Assizes or the Gallows It is enough that he foreseeth them as being made known by the Laws It would be no discrimination of the good and bad the wise and foolish if the reward and punishment must be seen what thief so mad as to steal at the Gallows or before the Judge The basest habits would be restrained from acting if the reward and punishment were in fight The most beastly drunkard would not be drunk the filthy fornicator would forbear his lust the malicious enemy of godliness would forbear their calumnies and persecutions if Heaven and Hell were open to their sight No man will play the adulterer in the face of the Assembly The chast and unchast seem there alike And so they would do if they saw the face of the most dreadful God No thanks to any of you all to be godly if Heaven were to be presently seen or to forbear your sin if you saw Hell fire God will have a meeter way of tryal You shall believe his promises if ever you will have the benefit and believe his threatnings if ever you will escape the threatned evil CHAP. 2. Some Uses Vse 1. THis being the nature and use of Faith to apprehend things absent as if they were present and things unseen as if they were visible before our eyes you may hence understand the nature of Christianity and what it is to be a true Believer Verily it is another matter than the dreaming self-deceiving world imagineth Hypocrites think that they are Christians indeed because they have entertained a superficial opinion that there is a Christ an immortality of souls a Resurrection a Heaven and a Hell though their lives bear witness that this is not a living and effectual faith but it is their sensitive faculties and interest that are predominant and are the byas of their hearts Alas a little observation may tell them that notwithstanding their most confident pretentions to Christianity they are utterly unacquainted with the Christian life Would they live as they do in worldly cares and pampering of the flesh and neglect of God and the life to come if they saw the things which they say they do believe Could they be sensual ungodly and secure if they had a faith that serv'd instead of sight Would you know who it is that is the Christian indeed 1. He is one that liveth in some measure as if he saw the Lord Believing in that God that dwelleth in the inaccessible light that cannot be seen by mortal eyes he liveth as before his face He speaks he prayes he thinks he deals with men as if he saw the Lord stand by No wonder therefore if he do it with reverence and holy fear No wonder if he make lighter of the smiles or frowns of mortal man than others do that see none higher and if he observe not the lustre of worldly dignity or flâ—shly beauty wisdom or vain-glory before the transcendent incomprehensible light to which the Sun it self is darkness When he awaketh he is still with God Psal 134.8 He sets the Lord alwaies before him because he is at his right hand he is not moved Psal 16.8 And therefore the life of Believers is oft called a walking with God and a walking befâ—re God as Gen. 5.22 24. 6.9 17.1 in the case of Henoch Noah and Abraham All the day doth he wait on God Psal 25 5. Imagine your selves what manner of person he must be that sees the Lord and conclude that such in his measure is the true believer For by faith he seeth him that is invisible to the eye of sense and therefore can forsake the glory and pleasures of the world and feareth not the wrath of Princes as it 's said of Moses Heb. 11.27 2. The Believer is one that liveth on a Christ whom he never saw and trusteth in him adhereth to him acknowledgeth his benefits loveth him and râ—joyceth in him as if he had seen him with his eyes This is the faith which Peter calls more precious than perishing gold that maketh us love him whom we have not seen and in whom thâ—ugh now we see him not yet believing we rejoyce with unspeakable and glorious joy 1 Pet. 1.8 Christ dwelleth in hâ—s heart by faith not only by his Spirit but objectively as our dearest absent friend doth dwell in our estimation and affection Ephes 3.17 O that the miserable Infidels of the world had the eyes the hearts the experiences of the true believer Then they that with Thomas tell those that have seen him Except I may see and feel I will not believe will be forced to cry out My Lord and my God Joh. 20.25 c. 3. A Believer is one that judgeth of the man by his invisible inside and not by outward appearances with a fleshly
they become the heirs of that Righteousness which is by faith and condemn the unbelieving careless world that take not the warning and use not the remedy By this time you may see that the Life of Faith is quite another thing than the lifeless opinion of multitudes that call themselves believers To say I believe there is a God a Christ a Heaven a Hell is as easie as it is common But the faith of the ungodly is but an uneffectual dream To dream that you are fighting wins no victories To dream that you are eating gets no strength To dream that you are running ridâ— no ground To dream that you are plowing or sowing or reaping procureth but a fruitless harvest And to dream that you are Princes may consist with beggery If you do any more than dream of Heaven and Hell how is it that you stir not and make it not appear by the diligence of your lives and the fervour of your duties and the seriousness of your endeavours that such wonderful unexpressible over-powering things are indeed the matters of your belief As you love your souls take heed lest you take an image of faith to be the thing it self Faith sets on work the powers of the soul for the obtaining of that joy and the escaping of that misery which you believe But the image of faith in self-deceivers neither warms nor works it conquereth no difficulties it stirs not up to faithful duty It 's blind and therefore seeth not God and how then should he be feared and loved Iâ— seeth not Hell and therefore the senseless soul goes on as fearlesly and merrily to the unquenchable fire as if he were in the safest way This image of faith annihilateth the most potent objects as to any due impression on the soul God is as no God and Heaven as no Hâ—aven to these imaginary Christians If a Prince be in the room an image reverenceth him not If musick and feasting be there an image finds no pleasure in them If fire and sword be there an image fears them not You may perceive by the senseless neglectful carriage of ungodly men that they see not by faith the God that they should love and fear the Heaven that they should seek and wait for or the Hell that they should with all possible care avoid He is indeed the true Believer that allowing the difference of degrees doth pray as if he saw the Lord and speak and live as alwaies in his presence and redeem his time as if he were to die to morrow or as one that seeth death approach and ready to lay hands upon him that begs and cries to God in prayer as one that foreseeth the day of judgement and the endless joy or misery that followeth that bestirreth him for everlasting life as one that seeth Heaven and Hell by the eye of faith Faith is a serious apprehension and causeth a serious conversation for it is instead of sight and presence From all this you may easily and certainly infer 1. That true faith is a Jewel rare and precious and not so common as nominal careless Christians think What say they Are we not all believers will you make Infidels of all that are not Saints are none Christians but those that live so strictly Answer I know they are not Infidels by profession but what they are indeed and what God will take them for you may soon perceive by comparing the description of faith with the inscription legible on their lives It 's common to say I do believe but is it common to find men pray and live as those that do believe indeed It is both in works of charity and of piety that a living faith will shew it self I will not therefore contend about the name If you are ungodly unjust or uncharitable and yet will call your selves Believers you may keep the name and see whether it will save you Have you forgotten how this case is determined by the holy Ghost himself James 2.14 c. What doth it profit my Brethren if a man say he hath faith and hath not works Can faith save him Faith if it hath not works is dead being alone Thou believest that there is one God thou dost well the Devils also believe and tremble If such a belief be it that thou gloriest in it 's not denyed thee But wilt thou know oh vain man that faith without works is dead c. Is there life where there is no motion Had you that Faith that is instead of sight it would make you more solicitous for the things unseen than you are for the visible trifles of this world 2. And hence you may observe that most true Believers are weak in Faith Alas how far do we all fall short of the love and zeal and care and diligence which we should have if we had but once beheld the things which we do believe Alas how dead are our affections how flat are our duties how cold and how slow are our endeavours how unprofitable are our lives in comparison of what one hours sight of Heaven and Hell would make them be O what a comfortable converse would it be if I might but joyn in prayer praise and holy conference one day or hour with a person that had seen the Lord and been in Heaven and born a part in the Angelical Praises Were our Congregations composed of such persons what manner of worship would they perform to God How unlike would their heavenly ravishing expressions be to these our sleepy heartless duties Were Heaven open to the view of all this Congregation while I am speaking to you or when we are speaking in prayer and praise to God imagine your selves what a change it would make upon the best of us in our services What apprehensions what affections what resolutions it would raise and what a posture it would cast us all into And do we not all profess to believe these things as revealed from Heaven by the infallible God Do we not say that such a Divine Revelation is as sure as if the things were in themselves laid open to our sight Why then are we no more affected with them Why are we no more transported by them Why do they no more command our souls and stir up our faculties to the most vigorous and lively exercise and call them off from things that are not to us considerable nor fit to have one glance of the eye of our observation nor a regardful thought nor the least affection unless as they subserve these greater things When you observe how much in your selves and others the frame of your souls in holy duty and the tenour of your lives towards God and man do differ from what they would be if you had seen the things that you believe let it mind you of the great imperfection of faith and humble us all in the sense of our imbâ—cility For though I know that the most perfect Faith is not apt to raise such high affections in
degree as shall be raised by the beatifical vision in the glorified and as present intuition now would raise if we could attain it yet seeing Faith hath as sure an Object and Revelation as sight it self though the manner of apprehension be less affecting it should do much more with us than it doth and bring us nearer to such affections and resolutions as sight would cause Vse 2. If Faith be given us to make things to come as if they were at hand and things unseen as if we saw them you may see from hence 1. The reason of that holy seriousness of Believers which the ungodly want 2. And the reason why the ungodly want it 3. And why they wonder at and distaste and deride this serious diligence of the Saints 1. Would you make it any matter of wonder for men to be more careful of their souls more fervent in their requests to God more fearful of offending him and more laborious in all holy preparation for eternal life than the holiest and precisest person that you know in all the world if so be that Heaven and Hell were seen to them Would you not rather wonder at the dulness and coldness and negligence of the best and that they are not far more holy and diligent than they are if you and they did see these things Why then do you not cease your wondering at their diligence Do you not know that they are men that have seen the Lord whom they daily serve and seen the glory which they daily seek and seen the place of torments which they fly from By Faith in the glass of Divine Revelations they have seen them 2. And the reason why the careless world are not as diligent and holy as Believers is because they have not this eye of Faith and never saw those powerful objects that Believers see Had you their eyes you would have their hearts and lives O that the Lord would but illuminate you and give you such a sight of the things unseen as every true Believer hath What a happy change would it make upon you Then instead of your deriding or opposing it we should have your company in the holy path You would then be such your selves as you now deride If you saw what they see you would do as they do When the heavenly light had appeared unto Saul he ceaseth persecuting and enquires what Christ would have him to do that he might be such a one as he had persecuted And when the scales fell from his eyes he falls to prayer and gets among the Believers whom he had persecuted and laboureth and suffereth more than they 3. But till this light appear to your darkned souls you cannot see the reasons of a holy heavenly life and therefore you will think it hypocrisie or pride or fancy and imagination or the foolishness of cracktâ—brain'd self-conceited men If you see a man do reverence to a Prince and the Prince himself were invisible to you would you not take him for a mad man and say that he cringed to the stools or chairs or bowed to a post or complemented with his shadow If you saw a mans action in eating and drinking and see not the meat and drink it self would you not think him mad If you heard men laugh and hear not so much as the voice of him that gives the jeast would you not imagine them to be brain-sick If you see men dance and hear not the musick if you see a Labourer threshing or reaping or mowing and see no corn or grass before him if you see a Souldier fighting for his life and see no enemy that he spends his stroaks upon will you not take all these for men distracted Why this is the case between you and the true Believers You see them reverently worship God but you see not the Majesty which they worship as they do You see them as busie for the saving of their souls as if an hundred lives lay on it but you see not the Hell from which they fly nor the Heaven they seek and therefore you marvel why they make so much ado about the matters of their salvation and why they cannot do as others and make as light of Christ and Heaven as they that desire to be excused and think they have more needful things to mind But did you see with the eyes of a true Believer and were the amazing things that God hath revealed to us but open to your sight how quickly would you be satisfied and sooner mock at the diligence of a drowning man that is striving for his life or at the labour of the City when they are busily quenching the flames in their habitations than mock at them that are striving for the everlasting life and praying and labouring against the ever-burning flames How soon would you turn your admiration against the stupidity of the careless world and wonder more that ever men that hear the Scriptures and see with their eyes the works of God can make so light of matters of such unspeakable eternal consequence Did you but see Heaven and Hell it would amaze you to think that ever many yea so many and so seeming wise should wilfully run into everlasting fire and sell their souls at so low a rate as if it were as easie to be in Hell as in an Ale-house and Heaven were no better than a beastly lust O then with what astonishment would you think Is this the fire that sinners do so little fear Is this the glory that is so neglected You would then see that the madness of the ungodly is the wonder Vse 3. By this time I should think that some of your own Consciences have prevented me in the Vse of Examination which I am next to call you to I hope while I have been holding you the glass you have not turned away your faces nor shut your eyes But that you have been judging your selves by the light which hath been set up before you Have not some of your consciences said by this time If this be the nature and use of Faith to make things unseen as if we saw them what a desolate case then is my soul in how void of Faith how full of Infidelity how far from the truth and power of Christianity How dangerously have I long deceived my self in calling my self a true Christian and pretending to be a true Believer When I never knew the life of Faith but took a dead opinion bred only by education and the custom of the Countrey instead of it little did I think that I had been an Infidel at the heart while I so confidently laid claim to the name of a Believer Alas how far have I been from living as one that seeth the things that he professeth to Believe If some of your consciences be not thus convinced and perceive not yet your want of faith I fear it is because they are seared or asleep But if yet conscience have not begun to plead this cause against you
let me begin to plead it with your consciences Are you Believers Do you live the life of Faith or not Do you live upon things that are unseen or upon the present visible baits of sensuality That you may not turn away your ears or hear me with a sluggish sensless mind let me tell you first how nearly it concerneth you to get this Question soundly answered and then that you may not be deceived let me help you toward the true resolution 1. And for the first you may perceive by what is said that saving Faith is not so common as those that know not the nature of it do imagine All men have not faith 2 Thes 3.2 O what abundance do deceive themselves with Names and shews and a dead Opinion and customary Religion and take these for the life of faith 2. Till you have this faith you have no special interest in Christ It is only Believers that are united to him and are his living Members and it is by faith that he dwelleth in our hearts and that we live in him Ephes 3.17 Gal. 2.20 In vain do you boast of Christ if you are not true Believers You have no part or portion in him None of his special Benefits are yours till you have this living working Faith 3. You are still in the state of enmity to God and unreconciled to him while you are unbelievers For you can have no peace with God nor aâ—â—ess unto his favour but by Christ Rom. 5.1 2 3 4. Ephes 2.14 15 17. And therefore you must come by faith to Christ before you can come by Christ unto the Father as those that have a special interest in his love 4. Till you have this Faith you are under the guilt and load of all your sins and under the curse and condemnation of the Law For there is no Justification or forgiveness but by Faith Act. 26.18 Rom. 4 5 c. 5. Till you have this sound Belief of things unseen you will be carnal minded and have a carnal end to all your actions which will make those to be evil that materially are good and those to be fleshly that materially are holy Without Faith it is impossible to please God Rom. 8.5 8 9. Prov. 28.9 Heb. 11.6 6. Lastly Till you have this living Faith you have no right to Heaven nor could be saved if you die this hour Whoever believeth shall not perish but have everlasting life He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not iâ— condemned already He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life and he that bâ—lieveth not the Son shall not see life but the wrath of God abidâ—th on him Joh. 3.16 18 36. You see if you love your selves it concerneth you to try whether you are true Believers Unless you take it for an indifferent thing whether you live for ever in Heaven or Hell it 's best for you to put the question close to your consciences betimes Have you that Faith that serves instead of sight Do you carry within you the evidence of things unseen and the substance of the things which you say you hope for Did you know in what manner this question must be put and determined at judgement and how all your comfort will then depend upon the answer and how near that day is when you must all be sentenced to Heaven or Hell as you are found to be Believers or Vnbelievers it would make you hearken to my counsel and presently try whether you have a saving Faith 2. But lest you be deceived in your trial and lest you mistake me as if I tryed the weak by the measure of the strong and laid all your comfort upon such strong affections and high degrees as fight it self would work within you I shall briefly tell you how you may know whether you have any faith that 's true and saving though in the least degree Though none of us are affected to that height as we should be if we had the sight of all that we do believe yet all that have any saving belief of invisible things will have these four signs of faith within them 1. A sound belief of things unseen will cause a practical estimation of them and that above all earthly things A glimpse of the heavenly glory as in a glass will cause the soul deliberately to say This is the chief desirable felicity this is the Crown the Pearl the Treasure nothing but this can serve my turn It will debase the greatest pleasures or riches or honours of the world in your esteem How contemptible will they seem while you see God stand by and Heaven as it were set open to your view you 'l see there 's little cause to envy the prosperous servants of the world you will pitty them as miserable in their mirth and bound in the fetters of their folly and concupiscence and as strangers to all solid joy and honour You will be moved with some compassion to them in their misery when they are braving it among men and domineering for a little while and you will think alas poor man Is this all thy glory Hast thou no better wealth no higher honour no sweeter pleasures than these husks With such a practical judgement as you value gold above dirt and jewels above common stones you will value Heaven above all the riches and pleasures of this world if you have indeed a living saving faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. 2. A sound belief of the things unseen will habitually incline your wills to embrace them with consent and complacence and resolution above and against those worldly things that would be set above them and preferred before them If you are true believers you have made your choice you have fixâ— your hopes you have taken up your resolutions that God must be your portion or you can have none that 's worth the having that Christ must be your Saviour or you cannot be saved and therefore you are at a point with all things else they may be your Helps but not your Happiness you are resolved on what Rock to build and where to cast anchor and at what port and prize your life shall aim You are resolved what to seek and trust to God or none Heaven or nothing Christ or none is the voice of your rooted stable resolutions Though you are full of fears sometimes whether you shall be accepted and have a part in Christ or no and whether ever you shall attain the Glory which you aim at yet you are off all other hopes having seen an end of all perfections and read vanity and vexation written upon all creatures even on the most flattering state on earth and are unchangeably resolved not to change your Master and your hopes and your holy course for any other life or hopes Whatever come of it you are resolved that here you will venture all Knowing that you have no other game to play at which you are not sure to lose and that you
practice thereupon 1. Suppose you saw the Lord in glory continually before you When you are hearing praying talking jâ—sting eating drinking and when you are tempted to any wilful sin Suppose you saw the Lord stand over you as verily as you see a man As you might do if your eyes could see him for it 's most certain that he is still present with you suppose you saw but such a glimpse of his back parts as Moses did Exod. 34. when God put him into a cleft of the Rock and covered him while he passed by Chap. 33.23 when the face of Moses shined with the sight that he was fain to vail it from the people Exod. 34.33 34 35. Or if you had seen but what the Prophet saw Isa 6.1 2 3 4 5 6. when he beheld the Lord upon a Throne high and lifted up c. and heard the Seraphim cry Holy Holy Holy is the Lord of Hosts the whole earth is full of his glory When he said Woe is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes haue seen the King the Lord of Hosts Or if you had seen but what Job saw Job 42.5 6. when he said I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear but now mine eye seeth thee wherefore I abhor my self and repent in dust and ashes What course would you take what manner of persons would you be after such a sight as this If you had seen but Christ appâ—â—ring in his glory as the Disciples on the holy Mount Matth. 17. or as Paul saw him at his conversion when he was smitten to the earth Acts 9. or as John saw him Rev. 1.13 where he saith He was cloathed with a garment down to the fooâ— and girt with a golden girdle his head and his hairs were white like Wooll or 〈◊〉 and his eyes were as a flame of fire and his feet like unto fine brass as if they burned in a furnace and his voice as the sound of many waters and he had in his right hand seven Stars and out of his mouth went a sharp two edged Sword and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength and when I saw him I fell at his feet as dead and he laid his right hand upon me saying unto me fear not I am the first and the last I am â—e that liveth and was dead and behold I am alive for evermore Amen and have the keyes of hell and death What do you think you should be and do if you had seen but such a sight as this Would you be godly or ungodly after it As sure as you live and see one another God alwaies seeth you He seeth your secret filthiness and deceit and malice which you think is hid he seeth you in the dark the locking of your doors the dâ—aâ—ing of your curtains the setting of the Sun or the putting out of the Candle doth hide nothing from him that is Omniscient Psal 94.8 9. Vnderstand oh ye brutish among the people and ye fools when will ye be wise He that planted the ear shall be not hear he that formed the eye shall he not see The lust and filthiness and covetousness and envy and vanity of your very thoughts are as open to his view as the Sun at noon And therefore you may well suppose him present that cannot be absent and you may suppose you saw him that still seeth you and whom you must see Oh what a change a glympse of the glory of his Majesty would make in this Assembly Oh what amazements what passionate workings of soul would it excite Were it but an Angel that did thus appear to you what manner of hearers would you be how serious how affectionate how sensible And yet are you Believers and have none of this when faith makes unseen things to be as seen If thou have faith indeed thou seest him that is invisible thou speakest to him thou hearest him in his Word thou seest him in his Works thou walkest with him he is the life of thy comforts thy converse and thy life 2. Suppose you had seen the matters revealed in the Gospel to your faith as to what is past and done already If you had seen the deluge and the Ark and preservation of one righteous family the burning of Sodom and Gomorrah with fire from Heaven and the saving of Lot whose righteâ—â—â— soul was grieved at their sins and hunted after as a prey to their ungodly rage because he would have hindered them from transgressing Suppose you had seen the opening of the Red Sea the passage of the Israelites the drowning of Pharaoh and his Aegyptians the Manna and the Qâ—ails that fell from Heaven the flaming Mount with the terrible Thunder when God delivered the Law to Moses what manner of people would you have been what lives would you have led after such sights as all or any one of these Suppose you had seen Christ in his state of Incarnation in his examples of lowliness meekness contempt of all the glory and vanities of this world and had heard him speak his heavenly Doctrine with power and authority as never man spake Suppose you had seen him heal the blind the lame the sick and raise the dead and seen him after all this made the scorn of sinners buffeted spit upon when they had crowned him with thorns and arrayed him gorgeously in scorn and then nailed between malefactors on a Cross and pierced and die a shameful death and this for such as you and I. Suppose you had seen the Sun darkned without any ecclipse the Vail of the Temple rent the Earth tremble the Angels terrifying the Keepers and Christ rise again Suppose you had been among the Disciples when he appeared in the midst of them and with Thomas had put your fingers into his wounded side and had seen him walking on the waters and at last seen him ascending up to Heaven Suppose you had seen when the Holy Ghost came down on the Disciples in the similitude of cloven tongues and had heard them speak in the various languages of the Nations and seen the variety of Miraclâ—s by which they convinced the unbelieving world What persons would you have been what lives would you have led if you had been eye-witnesses of all these things And do you not profess to believe all this and that these things are as certain truths as if you had seen them why then doth not your belief affect you or command you more why doth it not do what sight would do in some good measure if it were but a lively saving faith indeed that serveth instead of sense Yea I must tell you Faith must do more with you in this case than the sight of Christ alone could do or the sight of his Miracles did on most For many that saw him and saw his works heard his Word yet perished in their unbelief 3. Suppose
you saw the everlasting Glory which Christ hath purchased and prepared for his Saints That you had been once with Paul rapt up into the third Heavens and seen the things that are unutterable would you not after that have rather lived like Paul and undergone his sufferings and contempt than to have lived like the brain-sick brutish world If you had seen what Stephen saw before his death Acts 7.55 56. the Glory of God and Christ standing at his right hand If you had seen the thousands and millions of holy glorious spirits that are continually attending the Majesty of the Lord If you had seen the glorified spirits of the just that were once in flesh despised by the blind ungodly world while they waited on God in faith and holiness and hope for that blessed Crown which now they were If you had felt one moment of their joyes if you had seen them shine as the Sun in glory and made like unto the Angels of God if you had heard them sing the song of the Lamb and the joyful Hallelujahs and praise to their eternal King what would you be and what would you resolve on after such a sight as this If the rich man Luke 16. had seen Lazarus in Abrahams bosom in the midst of his bravery and honour and feasting and other sensual delights as afterwards he saw it when he was tormented in the flames of Hell do you think such a sight would not have cooled his mirth and jollity and helpt him to understand the nature and value of his earthly felicity and have proved a more effectual argument than a despised Preachers words at least to have brought him to a freer exercise of his Reason in a sober consideration of his state and waies Had you seen one hour what Abraham David Paul and all the Saints now see while sin and flesh doth keep us here in the dark what work do you think your selves it would make upon your hearts and lives 4 Suppose you saw the face of Death and that you were now lying under the power of some mortal sickness Physicians having forsaken you and said There is no hope Your friends weeping over you and preparing your winding sheet and coffin digging your graves and casting up the skulls and bones and earth that must again be cast in to be your covering and company Suppose you saw a Messenger from God to tell you that you must die to morrow or heard but what one of your predecessors heard Luke 12.20 Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee then whose shall these things be that thou hast provided How would such a Message work with you would it leave you as you are If you heard a voice from God this night in your chamber in the dark telling you that this iâ— the last night that you shall live on earth and before to morrow your souls must be in another world and come before the dreadful God what would be the effect of such a Message And do you not verily believe that all this will very shortly be Nay do you not know without believing that you must die and leave your worldly glory and that all your pleasures and contents on earth will be as if they had never been and much worse O wonderful that a change so sure so great so near should no more affect you and no more be fore-thought on and no more prepared for and that you be not awakened by so full and certain a fore-knowledge to be in good sadness for eternal life as you seem to be when death is at hand 5. Suppose you saw the great and dreadful day of Judgement as it iâ— described by Christ himself in Matth. 25. When the Son of man shall come in his glory and all his holy Angels with him and shall sit upon his glorious Throne and all Nations shall be gathered before him and he shall separate them one from another as a Shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and shall set the sheep on his right hand and the goats on his left v. 31 32 33. and shall sentence the righteous to eternal life and the rest into everlasting punishment If you did now behold the glory and terrour of that great appearance how the Saints will be magnified and rejoyce and be justified against all the accusations of Satan and calumnies of wicked men and how the ungodly then would fain deny the words and deeds that now they glory in and what horrour and confusion will then overwhelm those wretched souls that now out-face the Messengers of the Lord Had you seen them trembling before the Lord that now are braving it out in the pride and arrogancy of their hearts Had you heard how then they will change their tune and wish they had never known their sins and wish they had lived in greater holiness than those whom they derided for it What would you say and do and be after such an amazing fight as this Would you sport it out in sin as you have done Would you take no better care for your salvation If you had seen those sayings out of the holy Ghost fulfilled Jude 14 15.2 Thes 1.7 8 9. When the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power What mind do you think you should be of What course would you take if you had but seen this dreadful day Could you go on to think and speak and live as sensually stupidly and negligently as now you do 2 Pet. 3.10 11 12. The day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night in the which the bravens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent beat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Is it possible soundly to believe such a day so sure so near and no more regard it nor make ready for it than the carelâ—ss and ungodly do 6. Suppose at that day you had heard the Devil accusing you of all the sins that you have committed and set them out in the most odious aggravations and call for justice against you to your Judge If you heard him pleading all those sins against you that now he daily tempts you to commit and now maketh you believe are harmless or small inconsiderable things If you heard him saying At such a time this sinner refused grace neglected Christ despised Heaven and preferred Earth at such a time he derided godliness and made a mock of the holy Word and Counsels of the Lord at such a time he prophaned the name of God he coveted his neighbours wealth he cherished thoughts of envy or of lust he was drunk or gluttonous or committed fornication and he was never thorowly converted by renewing
grace and therefore he is an heir of Hâ—ll and belongs to me I ruled him and I must have him What would you think of a life of sin if once you had heard such accusations as these How would you deal by the next temptation if you had heard what use the tempter will hereafter make of all your sins 7. What if you had seen the damned in their misery and heard them cry out of the folly of their â—mpenitent careless lives and wishing as Dives Luke 16. that their friends on earth might have one sent from the dead to warn them that they come not to that place of torment I speak to men that say they are believers what would you do upon such a fight If you had heard them there torment themselves in the remembrance of the time they lost the mercy they neglected the grace resisted and wish it were all to do again and that they might once more be tried with another life If you saw how the world is altered with those that once were as proud and confident as others what do you think such a sight would do with you And why then doth the believing of it do no more when the â—hâ—ng is certain 8. Once more suppose that in your temptations you saw the tempter appearing to you and pleading with you as he doth by his inward suggestions or by the mouths of his instruments If you saw him and heard him hâ—ssing you on to sin perswading you to gluttony drunkenness or uncleanâ—ess If the Devil appeared to you and led you to the place of lust and offered you the harlot or the cup of excess and urged you to swear or curse or raâ—l or scorn at a holy life would not the sight of the Angler maâ— his gâ—me and 〈◊〉 your courage and spoil your sport and turn your stomâ—chs would you be drunk or filthy if you saw him stand by you Think on it the next tâ—me you are tempted Stout men have been apaled by such a sight And do you not believe that it 's he indeed that tempteth you As sure as if your eyes behâ—ld hâ—m â—t's he that prompteth men to â—â—er at godâ—iness and puts your wanton ribbald speeches and oaths and curses into yoâ—r mouths He is the Tutor of the enemies of grace that teacheth them docâ—è delâ—rare ingeniosè insanire ingeniously to quarrel with the way of life and learnedly to confute the arguments that would have saved them and subtilly to dispute themselves out of the hands of mercy and gallantly to scorn to stoop to Christ till there be no remedy and with plausible eloquence to commend the plague and sickness of their souls and irrefragâ—bly maintain it that the way to Hell will lead to Heaven and to justifie the sins that will condemn them and honourably and triumphantly to overcome their friends and to serve the Devil in mood and figâ—â—re and valiantly to cast themselves into Hell in despite of all the laws and reproofs of God or man that would have hindered them It being most certain that this is the Dâ—vils work and you durst not do it if he moved you to it with open face how dare you do it when faith would assure you that it 's as veriâ—y he as if you saw him More distinctly answâ—r these following Questions upon the foregoing suppositions Qâ—est 1. If you saw but what you say you do believe would you not be convinced that the most pleasant gainful sin is worse than madness and would you not spit at the very name of it and openly cry out of your open folly and beg for prayers and love reprovers and resolve to turn without delay Quest 2. What would you think of the most serious holy life if you had seen the things that you say you do believe would you ever again reproach it as preciseness or count it more ado than needs and think your time were better spent in playing than in praying in drinking and sports and filthy lusts than in the holy services of the Lord would you think then that one day in seven were too much for the work for which you live and that an hour on this holy day were enough to be spent in instructing you for eternity Or would you not believe that he is the blessed man whose delight is in the Law of God and meditateth in it day and night Could you plead for sensuality or ungodly negligence or open your mouths against the most serious holiness of life if Heaven and Hell stood open to your view Quest 3. If you saw but what you say you do believe would you ever again be offended with the Ministers of Christ for the plainest reproofs and closest exhortations and strictest precepts and discipline that now are disrelished so much Or rather would you not desire them to help you presently to try your states and to search you to the quick and to be more solicitous to save you than to please you The patient that will take no bitter medicine in time when he sees he must die would then take any thing When you see the things that now you hear of then you would do any thing O then might you have these daies again Sermons would not be too plain or long In season and out of season would then be allowed of Then you would understand what moved Ministers to be so importunate with you for conversion and whether trifling or serious preaching was the best Quest 4. Had you seen the things that you say you do believe what effect would Sermons have upon you after such a sight â—s this O what a change it would make upon our preaching and your hearing if we saw the things that we speak and hear of How fervently should we importune you in the name of Christ How attentively would you hear and carefully consider and obey we should then have no such sleepy preaching and hearing as now we have Could I but shew to all this Congregation while I am preaching the invisible world of which we preach and did you hear with Heaven and Hell in your eye sight how confident should I be though not of the saving change of all that I should this hour teach you to plead for sin and against a holy life no more and send you home another people than you came hither I durst then ask the worst that heareth me Dare you now be drunk or gluttonous or worldly dare you be voluptuous proud or fornicators any more Dare you go home and make a jest at piety and neglect your souls as you have done And why then should not the believed truth prevail if indeed you did believe it when the thing is as sure as if you saw it Quest 5. If you had seen what you say you do believe would you hunt as eagerly for wealth or honour and regard the thoughts or words of men as you did before Though it 's only the Believer that truly honoureth his Rulers for none else honour
them for God but use them for themselves yet wonder not if he fear not much the face of man and be no admirer of worldly greatness when he seeth what they will be as well as what they are Would not usurpers have been less feared if all could have foreseen their fall Even common reason can foresee that shortly you will all be dust Methinks I foresee your ghastly paleness your loathsome blackness and your habitation in the dark And who can much envy or desire the advancements that have such an end One sight of God would blast all the glory of the world that 's now the bâ—â—t for mans perdition Quest 6. Would temptations be as powerful as now they are if you did but see the things you bear of Could all the beauty or pleasures in the world entice you to filthiness or sensuality if you saw God over you and judgement before you and saw what damned souls now suffer and what believers now enjoy Could you be perswaded by any company or recreation to waste your precious time in vain with such things in your eye I am confident you would abhor the motion and entertertain temptations to the most honoured gainful pleasant sin as now you would do a motion to cut your own throats or leap into a coal-pit or thrust your head into a burning-oven Why then doth not faith thus shame temptations if indeed you do believe these things Will you say It is your weakness you cannot â—husâ— or that it is your nature to be lustful revengeful sensual and you cannot overcome it But if you had a sight of Heaven and Hell you could then resist you cannot now bâ—cause you will not But did you see that which would make you willing your power would appear The sight of a Judge or Gallows can restrain mâ—n The sight of a person whom you reverence can restrain the exercise of your disgraceful sins much more would the sight of Heaven and Hell If you were but dying you would shake the head at him that would then tempt you to the committing of your former sins And is not a lively foreseeing faith as effectual Quest 7. Had you seen what you say you do believe you would not so much stick aâ— sufferings nor make so great a matter of it to be reproached slandered imprisoned or condemned by man when God and your salvation command your patience A sight of Hell would make you think it worse than madness to run thither to escape the wrath of man or any sufferings on earth Rom. 8.18 Quest 8. And O how such a sight would advance the Redeemer and his Grace and Promises and Word and Ordinances in your esteem It would quicken your desires and make you fly to Christ for life as a drowning man to that which may support him How sweetly then would you relish the name the word the waies of Christ which now seem dry and common things Qâ—est 9. Could you live as merrily and sleep as quietly in a negligent uncertainty of your salvation if you had seen these things as now you do Could you live at hearts ease while you know not where you shall be to morrow or must live for ever Oh no Were Heaven and Hell but seen before you your Consciences would be more busie in putting such questions Am I regenerate sanctified reconciled justified or not Then any the most zealous Minister is now Quest 10. I will put to you but one Quâ—stion more If we saw God and Heaven and Hell before us do you think it would not effectually reconcile our differences and heal our unbrotherly exasperâ—tions and divisions would it not hold the hands that itch to be using violence against those that are not in all things of their minds what abundance of vain controversies would it reconcile As the coming in of the Master doth part the fray among the School-boyes so the sight of God would frâ—ghten us from contentions or uncharitable violence This would teach us how to preach and pray better than a storm at Sea can do which yet doth it better than some in prosperity wâ—ll learn Did we see what we preach of it would drive us out of our man pleasing self-seeking sleepy strain as the cudgel drives the beggar from his canting and the breaking loose of the Bear did teach the affected cripple to find his legs and câ—st away his câ—utchâ—s I would desire no better outward help to end our controversies about indifferent modes of worship than a sight of the things of which we speak This would excite such a serious â—rame of soul as would not suffer Religion to evaporate into formality nor dwindle into affectation complement and ceremony nor should we dare to beat our fellow-servants and thrust them out of the vineyard and say you shall not preach or pray or live but upon these or those unnecessary terms But the sense of our own frailty and fear of a severe disquisition of our failings would make us compassionate to others and content that necessaries be the matter of our unity unnecessaries of our liberty and both of charity If sight in all these ten particulars would do so much should not faith do much if you verily believe the things you see not Alas corrupted reason is asleep with men that seem wise in other things till it be awakt by faith or sight And sleeping reason is as unserviceable as folly Iâ— doth no work it avoids no danger A Doctor that 's asleep can defend the truth no better than a waking child But reason will be reason and conscience will be conscience when the dust is blown out of mens eyes and sight and feeling have awakened and so recovered their understandings or Faith more seasonably and happily awaked them AND O that now we might all consent to addict ourâ—selves to the Life of Faith And 1. That we live not too much on visibles 2. That we live on the things invisible 1. One would think that worldliness is a disease that carryeth with it a cure for it self and that the rational nature should be loth to love at so dear a rate and to labour for so poor a recompence It is pitty that Gehezi's leprosie and Judas's death should no more prevent a succession of Gehezi's and Judas's in all generations Our Lord went before us most eminently in a contempt of earth His Kingdom was not of this world No men are more unlike him than the worldlings I know necessity is the pretence But it is the dropsie of Covetousness that causeth the thirst which they call Nâ—câ—ssity And therefore the cure is non addere opiâ—us sed imminuere cupiditatem The disease must not be fed but healed Saâ—s est divitiarum non amplius velle It hath lately been a controversie whether this be not the golden age that it is aetas ferrea we have felt our demonstrations are undeniable that it is aetas aurata we have sufficient proof and while gold is the god that rules
Wisdom and that parts with Heaven for a few merry hours and hath not wit to save his soul When they see the end and are arrived at eternity let them boast of their Wisdom as they find cause We will take them then for more competent Judges Let the Eternal God be the portion of my soul let Heaven be my inheritance and hope let Christ be my Head and the promise my security let Faith be my Wisdom and Love be my very heart and will and patient persevering Obedience be my life and then I can spare the wisdom of the world because I can spare the trifles that it seeks and all that they are like to get by it What abundance of complaints and calamity would foresight prevent Had the events of this one year been conditionally foreseen the actions of thousands would have bâ—en otherwise ordered and much sin and shame have been prevented What a change would it make on the judgements of the world how many words would be otherwise spoken and how many deeds would be otherwise done and how many hours would be otherwise spent if the change that will be made by Judgement and Execution were well foreseen And why is it not foreseen when it is foreshewn When the omniscient God that will certainly perform his Word hath so plainly revealed it and so frequently and loudly warns you of it Is he wise that after all these warnings will lie down in everlasting woe and say I little thought of such a day I did not believe I should ever have seen so great a change Would the servants of Christ be used as they are if the malicious world foresaw the day when Christ shall come with ten thousands of his Saints to execute Judgement on all that are ungodly Jude 14 15. When he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe 2 Thes 1.10 When the Saâ—nts shall judge the world 1 Cor. 6.2 3. and when the ungodly seeing them on Christs right-hand must hear their sentence on this account Verily I say unto you in as mâ—ch as you did it or did it not to one of the least of these my Brethren you did it unto me Matth. 25. Yet a few daies and all this will be done before your eyes but the unbelieving world will not foresee it Would malignant Cain have slain his brother if he had foreseen the punishment which he calleth afterward intollerable Gen. 4.13 Would the world have despised the preaching of Noah if they had believed the deluge Would Sodom have been Sodom if they had foreseen that an Hell from Heaven would have consumed them Would Achan have medled with his prey if he had foreseen the stones that were his Executioners and his Tomb Would Gehezi have obeyed his covetous desire if he had foreseen the leprosie Or Judas have betrayed Christ if he had foreseen the hanging himself in his despair It is fore-seeing Faith that saves those that are saved and blind unbelief that causeth mens perdition Yea present things as well as future are unknown to foolish Unbelievers Do they know who seeth them in their sin and what many thousands are suffering for the like while they see no danger Whatever their tongues say the hearts and lives of fools deny that there is a God that seeth them and will be their Judge Psalm 14.1 You see then that you must live by Faith or perish by folly 4. Consider that things visible are so transitory and of so short continuance that they do but deserve the name of things being nothings and less than nothing and lighter than vanity it self compared to the necessary eternal Being whose name is IAM There is but a few daies difference between a Prince and no Prince a Lord and no Lord a man and no man a world and no world And if this be all let the time that is past inform you how small a difference this is Rational foresight may teach a Xerxes to weep over his numerous Army as knowing how soon they were all to be dead men Can you forget that death is ready to undress you and tell you that your sport and mirth is done and that now you have had all that the world can do for those that serve it and take it for their part How quickly can a feaver or the choice of an hundred Messengers of death beâ—eave you of all that earth afforded you and turn your sweetest pleasures into gall and turn a Lord into a lump of clay It is but as a wink an inch of time till you must quit the stage and speak and breath and see the face of man no more If you foresee this O live as men that do foresee it I never heard of any that stole his winding-sheet or fought for a Coffiâ— or went to Law for his grave And if you did but see as wise men should how near your Honours and Wealth and Pleasures do stand unto Eternity as well as your Winding sheets your Coffins and your Graves you would then value and desire and seek them regularly and moderately as you do these Oh what a fading flower is your strength How soon will all your gallantry shrink into the shell Si vestra sunt tollite â—a vobiscum Bern. Buâ— yet this is not the great part of the change The terminus ad quem doth make it greater It is great for persons of renown and honour to change their Palaces for graves and turn to noisom rottenness and dirt and their Power and Command into silent impotency unable to rebuke the poorest worm that sawcily feedeth on their hearts or faces But if you are Believers you can look further and foresee much more The largest and most capacious heart alive is unable fully to conceive what a change the stroak of death will make For the holy soul so suddenly to pass from prayer to Angelical praise from sorrow unto boundless joyes from the slanders and contempt and violence of men to the bosom of eternal Love from the clamours of a tumultuous world to the universal harmony and perfect uninterrupted Love and Peace O what a blessed change is this which believing now we shall shortly feel For an unholy unrenewed soul that yesterday was drowned in flesh and laught at threatnings and scorned reproofs to be suddenly snaâ—cht into another world and see the Heaven that he hath lost and feel the Hell which he would not believe to fall into the gulf of bottomless eternity and at once to find that Joy and Hope are both departed that horrour and grief must be his company and Desperation hath lockt up the door O what an amazing change is this If you think me troublesom for mentioning such ungrateful things what a trouble wil it be to feel them May it teach you to prevent that greater trouble you may well bear this Find but a medicine against death or any security for your continuance here or any prevention of the Change and I have
wonder that such men can believe themselves when they say they do indeed believe the Gospel And shews what a monster the blind deceitful heart of an impenitent sinner is In good sadness can they think that they truly believe that God is God and yet so wilfully disobey him that Heaven is Heaven and yet prefer the world before it that Hell is Hell and yet will venture upon it for a lust or a thing of nought What! believe that there is at hand a life of endless joy and no more mind it but hate them that set their hearts upon it Do they believe that except a man be converted and new born he shall not enter into the Kingdom of Heaven as Christ hath told them Matth. 18.3 John 3.3 5. and yet never trouble their minds about it to try whether they are converted and new born or not Do they believe God that no man shall see him without holiness Heb. 12.14 and yet dare they be unholy and perhaps deride it Do they believe that Christ will come in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 2.8 9. and yet dare they disobey the Gospel Do they take God for their absolute Lord and Governour while they will not so much as meditate on his Laws but care more what a mortal man saith or what their flesh and carnal reason saith than what he saith to them in his holy Word Do they take Christ for their Saviour and yet would not be saved by him from their sins but had rather keep them Do they take the Holy Ghost for their Sanctifier while they will not have a sanctified heart or life and love it not in those that have it Do they take Heaven for their endless home and happiness while they neither mind nor seek it in comparison of the world And do they take the world for vanity and vexation while they mind and seek it more than Heaven Do they believe the communion of Saints while they fly from it and perhaps detest and persecute it Is light and darkness more contrary than their words and deeds And is not HYPOCRISIE as visible in their practice as Christianity in their profession It is the complexion of their Religion HYPOCRITE is legibly written in the forehead of it They proclaim their shame to all that they converse with When they have said they believe the life to come they tell men by your ungodly worldly lives that they are dissemblers When their tongue hath loudly said that they are Christians their tongue and hand more loudly say that they are Hypocrites And when they profess their Faith but now and then in a lifeless outside piece of worship they profess their Hypocrisie all the day long in their impious neglect of God and their salvation in their carnal speeches in their worldly lives and in their enmity to the practice of the same Religion which they profess Their Hypocrisie is a web so thin and so transparent that it leaves their nakedness open to their shame They have not Profession enough to make a considerable cover for their unbelief They hide but their tongues the rest even heart and all is bare O the stupendious power of self love the wonderful blindness and stupidity of the ungodly the dreadfulness of the judgement of God in thus dâ—serting the wâ—lful resisters of his grace That ever men in other things of seeming wisdom should be such strangers to themselves and so deceived by themselves as to think they love the thing they hate and to think that their hearts are set upon Heaven when they neither love it nor the way that leadeth to it but are principally bent another way that when they arâ— strangers or enemies to a holy life they can yet make themselves believe that they are holy and that they seek that first which they never seek and make that the drift and business of their lives which was never the serious business of an hour O Hypocrites ask any impartial man of reason that sees your lives and hears your prayers whether you pray and live like men that believe that Heaven or Hell must be their reward Ask your families whether they perceive by your constant prayer and diligent endeavours and holy conversations that your hearts are set on a life to come It was a cutting answer of a late Apostate to one that told him of the unreasonableness of Infidels that denyed the life to come saith he There 's none in the world so unreasonable as you Christians that believe that there is an endless life of joy or misery to come and do no more to obtain the one and escape the other Did I believe such a life as this I would think all too little that I could do or suffer to make it sure Who sees the certainty greatness and eternity of the Crown of Life in the resolvedness fervency and constancy of your holy labour You take up with the picture of Sermons and Prayers and with the name of Christianity and holy obedience A little more Religion you will admit than a Parrot may learn or a Poppet may exercise Compare your care and labour and cost for Heaven and for this world That you believe the flattering deceitful world we see by your daily solicitousness about it You seek it you strive for it you fall out with all that stand in your way you are at it daily and have never done But who can see that you seriously believe another world you talk idly and wantonly and proudly by the hours but you talk of Heaven and holiness but by the minutes You do not turn the glass when you go to your unnecessary recreations or your vain discourse or at least you can stay when the glass is run But in hearing the most necessary truths of God or in praying for everlasting life the hour seems long to you and the tedious Preacher is your weariness and molestation You do not feast and play by the glass but if we do not preach and pray by it exactly but exceed our hour though in speaking of and for eternity we are your burden and put your languid patience to it as if we were doing you some intollerable wrong In worldly matters you are weary of giving but seldom of receiving you grudge at the asker but seldom at the giver But if the gift be spiritual and heavenly you are a weary to hear talk of it and expostulate the case with him that offereth it and he must shew by what authority he would do you good If by serious holy conference he would further your preparations for the life to come or help you to make sure of life eternal he is examined what power he hath to meddle with you and promote your salvation And perhaps he is snappâ—shly told he is a
your honours and attendance Is a day that is spent or a life that is â—xtinct any thing or nothing Is there any sweetness in a feast that was eaten or drink that was drunk or time that was spent in sports and mirth a year ago Certainly a known vanity should not be preferred before a probable endless joy But when we have certainty as well as excellency and eternity to set against certain transitory vanity what room is left for further deliberation whether we should prefer the Sun before a squib or a flash of lightening that suddenly leaves us in the dark one would think should be an easie question to resolve Up then and work while it is day and let us run and strive with all our might Heaven is at hand as sure as if you saw it You are certain you can be no losers by the choice You part with nothing for all things you escape the tearing of your heart by submitting to the scratching of a bryer You that will bear the opening of a vein for the cure of a Feaver and will not forbear a necessary Journey for the barking of a Dog or the blowing of the wind O leap not into Hell to scape the stinking breath of a scorner Part not with God with Conscience and with Heaven to save your purses or your flesh Chuse not a merry way to misery before a prudent sober preparation for a perfect everlasting joy You would not prefer a merry cup before a Kingdom You would let go a lâ—sser delight or commodity for a greater here Thus a greater sin can forbid the exercise of a less And shall not endless joy weigh down a brutish lust or pleasure If you love pleasure take that which is true and full and durable For all that he calleth you to Repentance and Mortification and necessary strictness there is none that 's more for your pleasure and delight than God or else he would not offer you the rivers of pleasure that are at his right hand nor himself to be your perpetual delight If you come into a room where are variety of pictures and one is gravely reading or meditating and another with a cup or harlot in his hand is profusely laughing with a gaping grining mouth would you take the latter or the former to be the picture of a wise and happy man Do you approve of the state of those in Heaven and do you like the way that brought them thither If not why speak you of them so honourably and why would you keep holy-daies in remembrance of them If you do examine the sacred records and see whether the Apostles and others that are now honoured as glorified Saints did live as you do or rather as those that you think are too precise Did they spend the day in feasting and sports and idle talk Did they swagger it out in pride and wealth hate their brethren that were not in all things of their conceits Did they come to Heaven by a worldly formal hypocritical ceremonious Religion or by faith and love and self-denial and unwearied labouring for their own and other mens salvation while they became the wonder and the scorn of the ungodly and as the off-scouring and refuse of the world Do you like holiness when it is for from you in a dead man that never troubled you with his presence or reproofs or in a Saint in Heaven that comes not near you Why then do you not like it for your selves If it be good the nearer the better Your own health and your own wealth do comfort you more than another mans And so would your own holiness if you had it If you would speed as they that are now beholding the face of God believe and live and wait as they did And as the righteous God did not forget their work and labour of love for his Name so he will remember you with the same reward if you shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6.10 11 12. O did you but see what they now enjoy and what they see and what they are and what they do you would never sure scorn or persecute a Saint more If you believe you see though not as they with open face If you believe not yet it is not your unbelief that shall make Gods Word of none effect Rom. 3.3 God will be God if you be Atheists Christ will be Christ if you be Infidels Heaven will be Heaven if you by despising it go to Hell Judgement sleepeth not when you sleep I'ts coming as fast when you laugh at it or question it as if your eyes were open to foresee it If you would not believe that you must die do you think that this would delay your death one year or hour If ten or twenty years time more be allotted you it passeth as swiftly and death and judgement come as surely if you spend it in voluptuousness and unbelief as if you watcht and waited for your change We preach not to you Ifs and And 's It is not perhaps there is a Heaven and Hell But as sure as you are here and must anon go hence you must as shortly quit this world and take up your abode in the world that 's now to us invisible And no tongue can express how sensible you will then be of the things that you will not now be made sensible of O then with what a dreadful view will you look before you and behind you Behind you upon Time and say It is gone and never will return and hear conscience ask you How you spent it and what you did with it Before you upon Eternâ—ty and say It is come and to the ungodly will be an Eternity of woe What a peal will conscience then ring in the unbelievers ears Now the day is come that I was forewarned of the day and change which I would not believe whither must I now go what must I now do what shall I say before the Lord for all the sin that I have wilfully committed for all the time of mercy which I lost How shall I answer my contempt of Christ my neglect of means and enmity to a holy serious life What a distracted wretch was I to condemn and dislike them that spent their lives in preparation for this day when now I would give a thousand worlds to be but one of the meanest of them O that the Church doors and the door of grace were open to me now as once they were when I refused to enter Many a time did I hear of this day and would not believe or soberly consider of it Many a time was I intreated to prepare and I thought an hypocritical trifling shew would have been taken for a sufficient prepâ—â—â—tion Now who must be my companions How long must I dwell with woe and horrour God by his Ministers was wont to call to
me How long O scorner wilt thou delight in scorning How long wilt thou go on impenitently in thy folly And now I must cry out How long How long must I feel the wrath of the Almighty the unquenchable fire the immortal worm Alas for ever When shall I receive one moments ease when shall I see one glimpse of hope O never never never Now I perceive what Satan meant in his temptations what â—in intended what God meant in the threatnings of his Law what grace was good for what Christ was sent for and what was the design and meaning of the Gospel and how I should have valued the offers and promises of life Now I understand what Ministers meant to be so importunate with me for my conversion and what was the cause that they would even have kneeled to me to have procured my return to God in time Now I understand that holiness was not a needless thing that Christ and Grace deserved better entertainment than contempt that precious time was worth more than to be wasted idly that an immortal soul and life eternal should have been more regarded and not cast away for so short so base a fleshly pleasure Now all these things are plain and open to my understanding But alas it 's now too late I know that now to my woe and torment which I might have known in time to my recovery and joy For the Lords sake and for your souls sake open your eyes and foresee the things that are even at hand and prevent these fruitless lamentations Judge but as you will all shortly judge and live but as you will wish that you had lived and I desire no more Be serious as if you saw the things that you say you do believe I know this serious discourse of another life is usually ungrateful to men that are conscious of their strangeness to it and taking up their portion here are loth to be tormented before the time This is not the smoothing pleasing way But remember that we have flesh as well as you which longs not to be accounted troublesome or precise which loves not to displease or be displeased And had we no higher light and life we should â—aâ—k as men that saw and felt no more than fight and flesh can reach But when we are preaching and dying and you are hearing and dying and we believe and know that you are nâ—w going to see the things we speak of and death will straightway draw aside the veil and shew you the great amazing sight it 's time for us to speak and you to hear with all our hearts It 's time for us to be serious when we are so near the place where all are serious There are none that are in jest in Heaven or Hell pardon us therefore if we jest not at the door and in the way to such a serious state All that see and feel are serious and therefore all that truly believe must be so too Were your eyes all opened this hour to see what we believe we appeal to your own consciences whether it would not make you more serious than we Marvel not if you see Believers make another matter of their salvation than those that have hired their understandings in service to their sense and think the world is no bigger or better than their globe or map and reacheth no further than they can kennâ— As long as we see you serious about Lands and Lordships and titles and honours the rattles and tarrying Irons of the cheating world you must give us leave whether you will or no to be serious about the life eternal They that scramble so eagerly for the bonds of worldly riches and devour so greedily the drâ—ffe of sensual delights methinks should blush if such animals had the blushing property to blame or deride us for being a little alas too little earnest in the matters of God and our salvation Can you not pardon us if we love God a little more than you love your lusts and if we run as fast for the Crown of Life as you run after a feather or a fly or if we breath as hard after Christ in holy desires as you do in blowing the bubble of vain-glory If a thousand pound a year in passage to a grave and the chains of darkness be worth your labour give us leave to belieâ—â— that mercy in order to everlasting mercy grace in order to glory and glory as the end of grace is worth our labour and infinitely more Your end is narrow though your way be broad and our end is broad though our way be narrow You build as Miners in Cole-pits do by digging downwards into the dark and yet you are laborious Though we begin on earth we build towards Heaven where an attractive loadstone draws up the workmen and the work and shall we loiter under so great encouragements Have you considered that Faith is the beholding grace the evidence of things not seen and yet have you the hearts to blame Believers for doing all that they can do in a case of such unspeakable everlasting consequence If we are Believers Heaven and Hell are as iâ— were open to our sight And would you wish us to trifle in the sight of Heaven or to leap into Hell when we see it as before us what name can express the inhumane cruelty of such a wish oâ— motion or the unchristian folly of those that will obey you O give us leave to be serious for a Kingdom which by Faith we see Blame us for this and blame us that we are not beside our selves Pardon us that we are awake when the thunder of Jehovah's voice doth call to us denouncing everlasting wrath to all that are sensual and ungodly Were we asleep as you are we would lie still and take no heed what God or man said to us Pardon us that we are Christians and believe these things seeing you profess the same your selves Disclaim not the practice till you dare disclaim the profession If we were Infidels we would do as the ungodly world we would pursue our present pleasures and commodity and say that things above us are nothing to us and would take Religion to be the Troubler of the world But till we are Infidels or Atheists at the heart we cannot do so Forgive us that we are men if you take it to be pardonable Were we bruits we would eat and drink and play and never trouble our selves or others with the care of our salvation or the fears of any death but one or with resisting sensual inclinations and meditating on the life to come but would take our ease and pleasure while we may At least forgive us that we are not blocks or stones that we have life and feeling Were we insensate clods we would not see the light of Heaven nor hear the roaring of the Lion nor fear the threats of God himself we would not complain or sigh or groan because we feel not If therefore we may
have leave to be awake and to be in our wiâ—s to be Christians to be men to be creatures that have life and sense forgive us that we believe the living God that we cannot laugh at Heaven and Hell nor jest at the threatned wrath of the Almighty If these things must make us the object of the worlds reproach and malice let me rather be a reproached man than an honoured beast and a hated Christian than a beloved Infidel and rather let me live in the midst of malice and contempt than pass through honour unto shame through mirth to misery and a sensless to a feeling death Hate us when we are in Heaven and see who will be the sufferer by it If ever we should begin to nod and relapse towards your hypocritical formality and sensless indifferency our lively sight of the world invisible by a serious faith would presently awake us and force us confidently to conclude AVT SANCTVS AVT BRVTVS There is practically and predominantly no Mean He 'l prove a BRVIT that is not a SAINT CHAP. III. HAving done with this general conviction and exhortation to unbelieving Hypocrites I proceed to acquaint Believers with their Duty in several particulars 1. Worship God as Believers serve him with reverence and godly fear for our God is a consuming fire Heb. 12.28 29. A seeing faith if well excited would kindle love desire fear and all praying graces No man prayes well that doth not well know what he prayes for When it comes to seeing all men can cry loud and pray when praying will do no good They will not then speak sleepily or by rote Fides intuendo amorem recipit amorem susâ—â—tat Cor flagrans amore desideria gemitus orationes spirat Faith is the burning-glass which beholding God receiveth the beams of his communicated love and inflameth the heart with love to him again which mounteth up by groans and prayers till it reach its original and love for ever rest in love 2. Desire and use the creature as Believers Interpret all things as they receive their meaning from the things unseen understand them in no other sense It 's only God and the life to come that can tell you what 's good or bad for you in the world And therefore the ungodly that cannot go to Heaven for counsel are carryed about by meer deceits Take heed what you love and take heed of that you love God is very jealous of our love He sheds abroad his own love in our hearts that our hearts may be fruitful in love to him which is his chief delight By love he commandeth love that we may suitably move toward him and center in him He communicateth so much for the procuring of a little that we should endeavour to give him all that little and shed none of it inordinately upon the creature by the way Nothing is great or greatly to be admired while the great God is in sight And it is unsuitable for little things to have great affections and for low matters to have a high esteem It is the corruption and folly of the mind and the delusion of the affections to exalt a Shrub above a Cedar and magnifie a Mole-hill above a Mountain to embrace a shadow or spectrum of felicity which vanisheth into Nothing when you bring in the light The creature is nihil nullipotens Nothing should have no interest in us and be able to do Nothing with us as to the motions that are under the dominion of the will God is All and Almighty And he that is All should have All and command All And the Omnipotent should do All things with us by his Interest in Morals as he will do by his force in Naturals I deny not but we may love a friend One soul in two bodies will have one mind and will and love But as it is not the body of my friend that I love or converse with principally but the soul and therefore should have no mind of the case the corps the empty nest if the bird were flown so is it not the person but Christ in him or that of God which appeareth on him that must be the principal object of our love The man is mutable and must be loved as Plato did commend his friend to Dionysius Haec tibi scribo de homine viz. animante naturâ mutabili and therefore must be loved with a reserve But God is unchangeable and must be absolutely and unchangeably loved That life is best that 's likest Heaven There God will be All and yet even there it will be no dishonour or displeasure to the Deity that the glorified humanity of Christ and the New Jerusalem and our holy society are loved more dearly than we can love any creature here on earth So here God taketh not that affection as stoln from him that 's given to his servants for his sake but accepts it as sent to him by them Let the creature have it so God have it finally in and by the creature and then it is not so properly the creature that hath it as God If you chuse and love your friends for God you will use them for God not flattering them or desiring to be flattered by them but to kindle in each other the holy flame which will aspire and mount and know no bounds till it reach the boundless element of love You will not value them as friends qui omnia dicta facta vestra laudant sed qui errata delicta amice reprehendunt Not them that call you good but them that would make you better And you will let them know as Phocian did Antipater that they can never use you amiciâ— adulatoribus as friends and flatterers that differ as a wife and a harlot It 's hard to love the imperfect creature without mistakes and inordinacy in our love And therefore usually where we love most we sin most and our sin finds us out and then we suffer most and too much affection is the forerunner of much affliction which will be much prevented if Faith might be the guide of Love and Humane Love might be made Divine and all to be referred to the things unseen and animated by them Love where you can never love too much where you are sure to have no disappointments where there is no unkindness to ecclipse or interrupt where the only errour is that God hath not all and the only grief that we love no more Especially in the midst of your entising pleasures or entising employments and profits in the world foresee the end do all in Faith which telleth you The time is short it remaineth therefore that both they that have wives be as though they had none and they that weep as though they wept not and they that rejoyce as though they rejoyced not and they that buy as though they possessed not and they that use this world as through they used it not or not abusing it for the fashion of this
increase the flame And Satan hath still the bellows in his hand He knoweth that if he can corrupt or win the Commander he can rout the Army and ruine them with the greatest ease It hath been Satans grand design since the Christian name was known on earth to advance the selfish interest of men against the interest of Christ and to entangle the Rulers of the world in some cause that Christ and his Word and Servants cannot favour and so to make them believe that there is a necessity on them to watch against and subdue the interest of Christ As if it were necessary that the shore be brought to the boat and not the boat to the shore And that the Physician be brought to the Patients mind or else destroyed or used as his enemy I am afraid to speak out the terrible words of God in Scripture that are against such persons lest you should misunderstand me and think I misapply them But Christ feareth no man and hath not spoken his Word in vain and his Messengers must be faithful for he will bear them out and preventive cautions are easier and safer than reprehensive corrasives I will but refer you to the texts that you may peruse them Matth. 21.44 Matth. 18.3.6 Matth. 25.40 45. Luke 18.7 Psal 2. Luke 19.27 Acts 9.4 5. 1 Thess 2.15 16. Read them with fear as the Words of God Blessed are those Rulers and Nations of the Earth that perceive and escape this pernicious snare of the grand deceiver that with all his subtilty and industry endeavoureth to breed quarrels and sow dissentions between them and the universal King The more God giveth to the carnal and unwise the more they think themselves engaged against him because by his commands he seems to take it from them again by crossing the flesh which would use it only to fulfil its lusts Like a Dog that fawneth on you till he have his bone and then snarleth at you lest you take it from him and will fly in your face if you offer to meddle with it Men readily confess that they have their wealth from God because it cannot be denyed and because they would use the name of God as a cover to hide their covetousness and unlawful waies of getting But if you judge by their usage of it and their returns to God you would think that they believed that they had nothing at all from God but some injuries and that all their benefits and good were from themselves The Turkish and Tartarian Emperour will say that all his grandeur and power is from God that by making it most Divine he may procure the more reverence and obedience to himself But when he hath said so for his own interest he useth the same power against God and his interest to the banishing of his Word and holy Worship and the forbidding the preaching of the Gospel of salvation and to the cherishing of tyranny pride and lust As if God had armed them against himself and made his Officers to be his enemies and gave them power that they might powerfully hinder mens salvation and made great to be great oppressors As a believing Pastor is a Priest that standeth between God and the people to mediate under the great Mediatour to receive from God his Word and Ordinances and deliver them to the flocks and to offer up supplications in their names to God So believing Governours of civil Societies or Families receive from God a power to rule the subjects for their good and they use it to make the subjects good that God may be pleased and honoured by all And the obedience which they require is such as may be given to God in them They take power from God to use it for God and are so much more excellent than the greatest of ambitious carnal Princes as the pleasing and honouring of God is a more excellent design and work than the gratifying of fleshly lust and the advancement of a lump of clay The Kingdoms of the world would all be used as the Kingdoms of the Lord if the everlasting Kingdom were well believed The families of men would be sanctified as Churches unto God if the eternal house not made with hands were truly taken for their home and their trade were to lay up a treasure in Heaven In Cities and Countries Brethren would dwell in holy peace and all concur in honouring God if once they were made fellow Citizens with the Saints and their Burgeship and conversation were in Heaven Ephes 2.19 Phil. 3.20 21. 6. Resist Temptations as Believers If you live by Faith then fight against the world and flesh by Faith Faith must be your helmet and the Word of Faith must be your shield Eph. 6.16 And your victory it self must be by Faith 1 Joh. 5.4 If Satan tell the flesh of the preferment riches or the pleasures of lust answer him with a believing foresight of Gods Judgement and the life to come Never look on the baits of sin alone but still look at once on God and on Eternity As a just Judge will hear both parties speak or see their evidences before he will determine So tell the Tempter that as you have heard what fleshly allurements can say you will see also what the Word of God saith and take a view of Heaven and Hell and then you will answer him 7. Rejoyce as Believers Can Faith set open the windows of the soul and no light of heavenly pleasures enter Can it peruse the Map of the Land of Promise or see and taste the bunch of Grapes without any sweetness to the soul That is the truest Belief of Heaven which maketh men likest those that are in Heaven And what is their character work and portion but the Joyes of Heavenly Light and Love Can we believe that we shall live in Heaven for ever Can we believe that very shortly we shall be there and not rejoyce in such believing I know we commonly say that the uncertainty of our proper title is the cause of all our want of joy But if that were all if that were the first and greatest cause and our belief of the promise it self were lively we should at least set our hearts on Heaven as the most delightful and desirable state and Love would work by more eager desires and diligent seekings till it had reacht assurance and cast out the hinderances of our joy How much would a meer Philosopher rejoyce if he could find out natural evidence of so much as we know by Faith You may perceive what their content in finding it would be by their excâ—eding pains in seeking The unwearied studies by day and night which many of them used with the contempt of the riches and greatness of the world do tell us how glad they would have been to have seen but half so far as we may If they could but discover more clearly and certainly the principles and elements and forms of Beings the nature of spirits the causes of motion
so that the godly Christians are in their power 6. That all the Hypocrites that are among our selves have the same sinful nature and enmity against holiness and are usually as bitter against the power and practice of their own profession as open Infidels are 7. That Christianity is not a fruit of nature Non nati sed facti sumus Christiani said Tertullian And therefore if Gods Power preserved not Religion the degenerating of the Christians children from their Parents mind and way would hasten its extinction in the world 8. And as it is a Religion which must be taught us so it requireth or consisteth in so much wisdom and willingness and fortitude of mind that few are naturally apt to receive it because folly and badness and feebleness of mind are so common in the world And as we see that Learning will never be common but in the possession of a very few because a natural ingenuity is necessary thereto which few are born with so would it be with Christianity if Divine Power maintained it not 9. And it is a Religion which requireth much time and contemplation in the learning and in the practising of it whereas the world are taken up with so much business for the body and are so slothful to those exercises of the mind which bring them no present sensible commodity that this also would quickly wear it out 10. And then the terms of it being so contrary to all mens fleshly interest and sense in self-denyal and forsaking all for Christ and in mortifying the most beloved sins and the world putting us to it so ordinarily by persecution this also would deter the most and weary out the rest if the Power of God did not uphold them That which is done by exceeding industry against the inclinations and interest of nature will have no considerable number of practisers As we see in horses and dogs which are capable with great labour of being taught extraordinary things in the semblance of reason And yet because it must cost so much labour there is but one in a Country that is brought to it But though the truly religious are but few in comparison of the wicked yet godly persons are not so few as they would be if it were the work of industry alone God maketh it as a new nature to them and which is very much to be observed the main change is oft-times wrought in an hour and that after all exhortations and the labours of Parents and Teachers have failed and left the sinner as seemingly hopeless And thus I have shewed you 1. That our Religion objectively taken is the Image of Gods WISDOM GOODNESS and POWER and thereby fully proved to be from GOD. 2. And that our Religion subjectively taken is answerably the Spirit or impress of POWER and of LOVE and of SOVND VNDERSTANDING and is in us a constant seal and witness to the truth of Christ CHAP. VII The means of making known all this infallibly to us I Suppose the evidence of divine attestation is so clear in this Image of God on the Christian Religion which I have been opening that few can doubt of it who are satisfied of the historical truth of the facts and therefore this is next to be considered How the certain knowledge of all these things cometh down to us The first question is whether this Doctrine and Religion indeed be the impress of Gods WISDOM and his GOODNESS and POWER supposing the truth of the historical part This is it which I think that few reasonable persons wil deny For the doctrine is legible and sheweth it self But the next question is it which I am now to resolve How we shall know that this Doctrine was indeed delivered by Christ and his Apostles and these things done by them which the Scriptures mention And here the first question shall be How the Apostles and all other the first witnesses knew it themselves For it is by every reasonable man to be supposed that they who were present and we who are 1668 years distance could not receive the knowledge of the matters of fact in the very same manner It is certain that their knowledge was by their present sense and reason They saw Christ and his miracles They heard his words They saw him risen from the dead They discoursed with him and eat and drunk with him They saw him ascending up bodily to Heaven They need no other Revelation to tell them what they saw and heard and felt If you had asked them then Hâ—w know you that all these things were said and done they would have answered you Because we saw and heard them But we were not then present we did not see and hear what they did Nor did we see or hear them who were the eye-witnesses And therefore as their senses told it them so the natural way for our knowledge must be by derivation from their sense to ours For when they themselves received it in a way so natural though not without the help of Gods Spirit in the remembring recording and attesting it we that can less pretend to inspiration or immediate revelation have small reason to think that we must know the same facts by either of those supernatural waies Nor can our knowledge of a history carryed down through so many ages be so clearly satisfactory to our selves as sight and hearing was to them And yet we have a certainty not only infallible but so far satisfactory as is sufficient to warrant all our faith and duty and sufferings for the reward which Christ hath set before us Let us next then enquire How did the first Churches know that the Apostles and other Preachers of the Gospel did not deceive them in the matter of fact I answer They had their degrees of assurance or knowledge in this part of their belief 1. They had the most credible humane testimony of men that were not like to deceive them But this was not infallible 2. They had in their testimony the evidence of a natural certainty It being naturally impossible that so many persons should agree together to deceive the world in such matters of fact at so dear a rate in the very place and age when the things were pretended to be done and said when any one might have presently evinced the falshood if they had been lyars about the twice feeding of many thousands miraculously and the raising of the dead and many other publick miracles and the darkness at his death and the rending of the Rocks and Vail of the Temple and the Earth-quake and the coming down of the Holy Ghost upon themselves with many the like they would have been detected and confuted to their confusion And we should have read what Apologies they made against such detections and confutations And some of them at least at their death would have been forced by conscience to confess the plot 3. But to leave no room for doubting God gave those first Churches the addition of his own supernatural
3. And this guilt and fear and unwillingness together will all keep down your thoughts from Heaven so that seldom thinking of it will increase your unbelief and they will make you unfit to see the evidences of truth in the Gospel when you do think of them or hear them For he that would not kâ—â—w cannot learn Obâ—y therefore according to the knowledge which you have if ever you would have more and would not be given up to the blindness of Infidelity Direct 11. Trust not only to your understandings and think not that study is all which is necessary to faith But remember that faith is the gift of God and therefore pray as well as study Prov. 3.5 Trust in the Lord with all thy heart and lean not to thy own understanding It is a precept as necessary in this point as in any In all things God abhorreth the proud and looketh at them afar off as with disowning and disdain But in no case more than when a blind ungodly sinner shall so overvalue his own understanding as to think that if there be evidence of truth in the mystery of faith he is able presently to discern it before or without any heavenly illumination to cure his dark distempered mind Remember that as the Sun is seen only by his own light so is God our Creatour and Redeemer Faith is the gift of God as well as Repentance Ephes 2.8 2 Tim. 2.25 26. Apply your selves therefore to God by earnest prayer for it As he Mark 9.24 Lord I believe help thou my unbelief And as the Disciples Luke 17.5 Increase our faith A humble soul that waiteth on God in fervent prayer and yet neglecteth not to study and search for truth is much liker to become a confirmed Believer than ungodly Students who trust and seek no further than to their Books and their perverted minds For as God will be sought to for his grace so those that draw near him do draw near unto the Light and therefore are like as children of Light to be delivered from the power of darkness For in his light we shall see the light that must acquaint us with him Direct 12. Lastly What measure of Light soever God vouchsafeth you labour to turn it all into Love and make it your serious care and business to know God that you may love him and to love God so far as you know him For he that desireth satisfaction in his doubts to no better end than to please his mind by knowing and to free it from the disquiet of uncertainty hath an end so low in all his studies that he cannot expect that God and his grace should be called down to serve such a low and base design That faith which is not employed in beholding the love of God in the face of Christ on purpose to increase and exercise our love is not indeed the true Christian Faith but a dead opinion And he that hath never so weak a faith and useth it to this end to know Gods amiableness and to love him doth take the most certain way for the confirmation of his faith For Love is the closest adherence of the soul to God and therefore will set it in the clearest light and will teach it by the sweet convincing way of experience and spiritual taste Believing alone is like the knowledge of our meat by seeing it And Love is as the knowledge of our meat by eating and digesting it And he that hath tasted that it is sweet hath a stronger kind of perswasion that it is sweet than he that only seeth it and will much more tenaciously hold his apprehension It is more possible to dispute him out of his belief who only seeth than him that also tasteth and concocteth A Parent and child will not so easily believe any false reports of one another as strangers or enemies will because Love is a powerful resister of such hard conceits And though this be delusory and blinding partiality where Love is guided by mistake yet when a sound understanding leadeth it and Love hath chosen the truest object it is the naturally perfective motion of the soul And Love keepeth us under the fullest influences of Gods Love and therefore in the reception of that grace which will increase our faith For Love is that act which the ancient Doctors were wont to call the principle of merit or first meritorious act of the soul and which we call the principle of rewardable acts God beginneth and loveth us first partly with a Love of complacency only as his creatures and also as in esse cognito he foreseeth how amiable his grace will make us and partly with a Love of benevolence intending to give us that grace which shall make us really the objects of his further Love And having received this grace it causeth us to love God And when we love God we are really the objects of his complacential Love and when we perceive this it still increaseth our Love And thus the mutual Love of God and Man is the true perpetual motion which hath an everlasting cause and therefore must have an everlasting duration And so the faith which hath once kindled Love even sincere Love to God in Christ hath taken rooting in the heart and lyeth deeper than the head and will hold fast and increase as Love increaseth And this is the true reason of the stedfastness and happiness of many weak unlearned Christians who have not the distinct conceptions and reasonings of learned men and yet because their Faith is turned into Love their Love doth help to confirm their Faith And as they love more heartily so they believe more stedfastly and perseveringly than many who can say more for their faith And so much for the strengthening of your faith CHAP. IX General Directions for exercising the Life of Faith HAving told you how Faith must be confirmed I am next to tell you how it must be used And in this I shall begin with some General Directions and then proceed to such particular cases in which we have the greatest use for Faith Direct 1. Remember the necessity of Faith in all the business of your hearts and lives that nothing can be done well without it There is no sin to be conquered no grace to be exercised no worship to be performed nor no acts of mercy or justice or worldly business to be well done without it in any manner acceptable to God Without Faith it is impossible to please God Heb. 11.6 You may as well go about your bodily work without your eye-sight as about your spiritual work without Faith Direct 2. Make it therefore your care and work to get Faith and to use it and think not that God must reveal his mind to you as in visions while you idly neglect your proper work Believing is the first part of your trade of life and the practice of it must be your constant business It is not living ordinarily by sense and looking when God will
cast in the light of Faith extraordinarily which is indeed the life of Faith Nor is it seeming to stir up Faith in a Prayer or Sermon and looking no more after it all the day This is but to give God a salutation and not to dwell and walk with him And to give Heaven a complemental visit sometimes but not to have your conversation there 2 Cor. 5.7 8. Direct 3. Be not too seldom in solitary meditation Though it be a duty which melancholy persons are disabled to perform in any set and long and orderly manner yet it is so needful to those who are able that the greatest works of Faith are to be managed by it How should things unseen be apprehended so as to affect our hearts without any serious exercise of our thoughts How should we search into mysteries of the Gospel or converse with God or walk in Heaven or fetch either joyes or motives thence without any retired studious contemplation If you cannot meditate or think you cannot believe Meditation abstracteth the mind from vanity and lifteth it up above the world and setteth it about the work of Faith which by a mindless thoughtless or worldly soul can never be performed 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. Phil. 3.20 Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 3. Direct 4. Let the Image of the Life of Christ and his Martyrs and holiest servants be deeply printed on your minds That you may know what the way is which you have to go and what patterns they be which you have to imitate think how much they were above things sensitive and how light they set by all the pleasures wealth and glory of this world Therefore the Holy Ghost doth set before us that cloud of witnesses and catalogue of Martyrs in Heb. 11. that example may help us and we may see with how good company we go in the life of Faith Paul had well studied the example of Christ when he took pleasure in infirmities and gloryed only in the Cross to be base and afflicted in this world for the hopes of endless glory 2 Cor. 11.30 12.5 9 10. And when he could say I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I may win Christ that I may know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 9 10. No man will well militate in the life of Faith but he that followeth the Captain of his salvation Heb. 2.10 who for the bringing of many Sons to glory even those whom he is not ashamed to call his Brethren was made perfect as to perfection of action or performance by suffering thereby to shew us how little the best of these visible and sensible corporeal things are to be valued in comparison of the things invisible and therefore as the General and the souldiers make up one army and militate in one militia so he that sanctifieth and they who are sanctified are all of one Heb. 2.10 11 12. Though that which is called the life of Faith in us deserved a higher title in Christ and his faith in his Father and ours do much differ and he had not many of the objects acts and uses of Faith as we have who are sinners yet in this we must follow him as our great example in valuing things invisible and vilifying things visible in comparison of them And therefore Paul saith I am crucified with Christ Nevertheless I live yet not I but Christ liveth in me and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me Gal. 2.20 Direct 5. Remember therefore that God and Heaven the unseen things are the final object of true Faith and that the final object is the noblest and that the principal use of Faith is to carry up the whole heart and life from things visible and temporal to things invisible and eternal and not only to comfort us in the assurance of our own forgiveness and salvation It is an exceeding common and dangerous deceit to overlook both this principal object and principal use of the Christian Faith 1. Many think of no other object of it but the death and righteousness of Christ and the pardon of sin and the promise of that pardon And God and Heaven they look at as the objects of some other common kind of Faith 2. And they think of little other use of it than to comfort them against the guilt of sin with the assurance of their Justification But the great and principal work of Faith is that which is about its final object to carry up the soul to God and Heaven where the world and things sensible are the terminus à quo and God and things invisible the terminus ad quem And thus it is put in contradistinction to living by fight in 2 Cor. 5.6 7. And thus mortification is made one part of this great effect in Rom. 6. throughout and many other places and thus it is that Heb. 11. doth set before us those numerous examples of a life of Faith as it was expressed in valuing things unseen upon the belief of the Word of God and the vilifying of things seen which stand against them And thus Christ tryed the Rich man Luke 18.22 whether he would be his Disciple by calling him to sell all and give to the poâ—r for the hopes of a treasure in Heaven And thus Christ maketh bearing the Cross and denying our selves and forsaking all for him to be necessary in all that are his Disciples And thus Paul describeth the life of Faith 2 Cor. 4.17 18. by the contempt of the world and suffering afflictions for the hopes of Heaven For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal Our Faith is our victory over the world even in the very nature of it and not only in the remote effect for its aspect and believing approaches to God and the things unseen and a proportionable recess from the things which are seen is one and the same motion of the soul denominated variously from its various respects to the terminus ad quem and à quo Direct 6. Remember that as God to be believed in is the principal and final object of Faith so the kindling of love to God in the soul is the principal use and effect of Faith And to live by Faith is but to love obey and suffer by Faith Faith working by Love is the description of our Christianity Gal. 5.6 As Christ is the Way to the Father Joh. 14.6 and came into the world to recover Apostate
all the same thing equally to duty and sin without it Direct 15. Consider well how much all humane converse is maintained by the necessary belief of one another and what the world would be without it and how much you expect your selves to be believed And then think how much more belief is due to God Though sin hath made the world so bad that we may say that all men are lyars that is deceitful vanity and little to be trusted yet the honesty of those that are more vertuous doth help so far to keep up the honour of veracity and the shamefulness of lying that throughout the world a lye is in disgrace and truth in speech and dealing is well spoken of And the remnants of natural honesty in the worst do so far second the true honesty of the best that no man is so well spoken of commonly in the world as a man of truth and trustiness whose Word is his Law and Master and never speaketh deceitfully to any Nor no man is so commonly ill spoken of as a knave as he that will lye and is not to be trusted In so much that even those debauched Ruffians who live as if they said in their hearts There is no God will yet venture their lives in revenge against him that shall give them the lye Perhaps you will say that this is not from any vertue or natural Law or honesty but from common interest there being nothing more the interest of mankind than that men be trusty to each other To which I answer that you oppose things which are conjunct It is both For all Gods natural Laws are for the interest of mankind and that which is truly most for our good is made most our duty and that which is most our duty is most for our good And that which is so much for the interest of mankind must needs be good If it were not for credibility and trustiness in men there were no living in families but Masters and Servants Parents and Children Husbands and Wives would live together as enemies And neigbours would be as so many thieves to one another There could be no Society or Common-wealth when Prince and people could put no trust in one another Nay thieves themselves that are not to be trusted by any others do yet strengthen themselves by confederacies and oaths of secrecy and gather into troops and armies and there put trust in one another And can we think that GOD is not much more to be trusted and is not a greater hater of a lye and is not the fountain of all fidelity and hath not a greater care of the interest of his creatures Surely he that thinketh that God is a lyar and not to be trusted will think no better of any mortal man or Angel and therefore trusteth no one and is very censorious and would be thought no better of himself and therefore would have none believe or trust him For who would be better than his God Direct 16. Consider also that Veracity in God is his nature or essence and cannot be denyed without denying him to be God For it is nothing but his three Essentialities or Principles Power Wisdom and Goodness as they are expressed in his Word or Revelations as congruous to his mind and to the matter expressed He that neither wanteth knowledge to know what to say and do nor Goodness to love truth and hate all evil nor Power to do what he please and to make good his word cannot possibly lye because every lye is for want of one or more of these Heb. 6.18 Titus 1.12 And there as it is said that he cannot lye and that it is impossible so it is called a denying of himself if he could be unfaithfull 2 Tim. 2.13 If we believe not yet be abideth faithful and cannot deny himself Direct 17. Exercise Faith much in those proper works in which self and sense are most denyed and overcome Bodily motions and labours which we are not used to are done both unskilfully and with pain If Faith be not much exercised in its warfare and victorious acts you will neither know its strength nor find it to be strong when you come to use it It is not the easie and common acts of Faith which will serve turn to try and strengthen it As the life of sense is the adversary which Faith must conquer so use it much in such conflicts and conquests if you would find it strong and usefull Use it in such acts of mortification and self-denyal as will plainly shew that it over ruleth sense Use it in patience and rejoycing in such sufferings and in contentment in so low and cross a state where you are sure that sight and sense do not contribute to your peace and joy Use it not only in giving some little of your superfluities but in giving your whole two mites even all your substance and selling all and giving to the poor when indeed God maketh it your duty At least in forsaking all for his sake in a day of tryal Faith never doth work so like it self so clearly so powerfully and so comfortably as in these self-denying and overcoming acts when it doth not work alone without the help of sense to comfort us but also against sense which would discourage us Luke 18.22 23. 14.26 33. 2 Cor. 5.7 Direct 18. Keep a constant observation of Gods converse with your hearts and workings on them For as I said before there are within us such demonstrations of a Kingdom of God in precepts mercies rewards and punishments that he which well worketh them will have much help in the maintaining and exercising his belief of the everlasting Kingdom Especially the godly who have that Spirit there working which is indeed the very seal and pledge and earnest of life eternal 2 Cor. 1.22 5.5 Ephes 1.13 14. Gal. 4.5 6. Rom. 8.16 17. There is so much of God and Heaven in a true Believers heart that as we see the Moon and Stars when we look down into the water so we may see much of God and Heaven within us if the heart it self be throughly studied And I must add that Experiences here must be carefully recorded and when God fulfilleth promises to us it must not be forgotten Direct 19. Converse much with them that live by Faith and fetch their motives and comforts from the things unseen Converse hath a transforming power To converse with them that live all by sense and shew no other desires or joyes or sorrows but what are fetched from fleshly sensible things is a great means to draw us downwards with them And to converse with them who converse in Heaven and speak of nothing else so comfortably or so seriously who shew us that Heaven is the place they travel to and the state that all their life doth aim and who make little of all the wants or plenty pains or pleasures of the flesh this much conduceth to make us heavenly As men are apt to learn
the first so it is the Goodness of God which must be more studied by a Believer than his Power or his Wisdom because the impress of it is more necessary to us in our lapsed state 2. They have false thoughts of Gods Goodness who make it to consist only or chiefly in a communicative inclination ad extra which we call Benignity For he was as Good from Eternity before he made any creature as he is since And his Goodness considered as essential in himself and as his own perfection is infinitely higher than the consideration of it as terminated on any Creature Man is denominated good from his adaptation to the will of God and not God chiefly from his adaptation to the commodity or will of man And they do therefore debase God and deifie his creature who make the creature the ultimate end of GOD and it self and not God the ultimate end of the creature And they might as well make the creature the Beginning also of it self and God And yet this sottish notion taketh much with many half-witted Novelists in this Age who account themselves the men of ingenuity And they have also false thoughts of the Goodness of God who think that there is nothing of communicative Benignity in it at all For all the good which God doth he doth it from the Goodness of his Nature Thou art good and doest good Psal 119.68 And his doing good is usually expressed by the phrase of being good to them The Lord is good to all Psal 145.9 Psal 25 8 86.5 Object But if communicative Benignity be natural to God as his Essential Goodness is then he must do good per modum naturae ad ultimum potentiae and then the world was from Eternity and as good as God could make it Answ 1. Those Christian Divines who do hold that the Vniverse was from Eternity and that it is as good as God can make it do not yet hold that it was its own original but an eternal emanation from God and therefore that God who is the beginning of it is the ultimate end and eternally and voluntarily though naturally and necessarily produced it for himself even for the pleasure of his will And therefore that Gods Essential Goodness as it is in it self is much higher than the same as terminated in or productive of the Universe And that no mixt bodies which do oriri interire are generated and corrupted were from eternity and consequently that this present systeme called the world which is within our sight was not from eternity But that as spring and fall doth revive the plants and end their transitory life so it hath been with these particular systemes the simpler and nobler parts of the Universe continuing the same And they held that the world is next to infinitely good and as good as it is possible to be without being God and that for God to produce another God or an infinite good is a contradiction And that all the baser and pained and miserable parts of the world are best respectively to the perfection of the whole though not best in and to themselves As every nuck and pin in a watch is necessary as well as the chief parts And that all things set together it is best that all things be as they are and will be But of this the infinite Wisdom who seeth not only some little parts but the whole Universe at one perfect view is the fittest Judge 2. But the generality of Divines do hold the contrary and say that it is natural to God to be the Alsufficient pregnant good not only able to communicate goodness but inclined to it as far as his perfection doth require but not inclined to communicate in a way of natural constant necessity as the Sun shineth but in a way of liberty when and in what degrees he pleaseth which pleasure is guided by his infinite Vnderstanding which no mortal man can comprehend and therefore must not ask any further reason of the first reason and will but stop here and be satisfied to find that it is indeed Gods Will and Reason which causeth all things when and what they are and not otherwise And that God hath not made the Universe as good in it self as by his absolute Power he could have made it But that it is best to be as it is and will be because it is most suitable to his perfect Will and Wisdom And this answer seemeth most agreeable to Gods Word And as you must see that your thoughts of Gods Goodness be not false so also that they be not diminutive and low As no knowledge is more useful and necessary to us so nothing is more wonderfully revealed by God than is his amiable Goodness For this end he sent his Son into flesh to declare his Love to the forelorn world and to call them to behold it and admire it John 1 8 9 10. 3.16 1 John 3.1 Rev. 21.3 And as Christ is the chief glass of the Fathers Love on this side Heaven so it is the chief part of the office of Faith to see Gods Love and Goodness in the face of Christ Let him not reveal his Love in vain at so dear a rate and in a way of such wonderful condescension Think of his Goodness as equal to his greatness And as you see his greatness in the frame of the world so his goodness in the wonderful work of mans Redemption and Salvation Let Faith beholding God in Christ and daily thus gazing on his goodness or rather tasting it and feasting on it be the very summ of all your Religion and your lives This is indeed to live by Faith when it worketh by that Love which is our holiness and life Direct 13. Let not Faith overlook the Books of the Creation and the wonderful demonstrations of Gods Attributes therein Even such revelations of Gods goodness and fidelity as are made in Nature or the works of Creation are sometimes in Scriptures made the objects of faith At least we who by the belief of the Scriptures do know how the worlds were made Heb. 11.2 3. must believingly study this glorious work of our great Creator All those admirations and praises of God as appearing in his works which David useth were not without the use of faith Thus faith can use the world as a sanctified thing and as a glass to see the glory of God in while sensual sinners use it against God to their own perdition and make it an enemy to God and them so contrary is the life of Faith and of Sense He hath not the heart of a man within him who is not stricken with admiration of the Power and Wisdom and Goodness of the incomprehensible Creator when he seriously looketh to the Sun and Stars to Sea and Land to the course of all things and to the wonderful variety and natures of the particular creatures And he hath not the heart of a Believer in him who doth not think O what
not by Faith chosen and used by us under the notion of a Mâ—diatour or Means to our first act of love and consent but is a Means to that of the Fathers chusing only but is in that first consent chosen by us for the standing means of our Justification and Glory and of all our following exercise and increase of love to God and our sanctification so that it is only the assenting act of faith and not the electing act which is the efficient cause of oâ— very first act of Love to God and of our first degree of sanctification and thus it is that Faith is called the seed and mother grace But it is not that saving Faith which is our Christianity and the condition of Justification and of Glory till it come up to a covenant-consent of heart and take in the foresaid acts of Repentance and Love to God as our God and ultimate end The observation of many written mistakes about the order of the work of grace and the ill and contentious consequents that have followed them hath made me think that this true and accurate decision of this case is not unuseful or unnecessary Direct 12. The Holy Ghost so far concurred with the eternal Word in our Redemption that he was the perfecting Operator in the Conception the Holiness the Miracles the Resurrection of Jesus Christ Of his Conception it is said Mat. 1.20 For that which is conceived in her is of the Holy Ghost And vers 18. She was found with child of the Holy Ghost And of his holy perfection as it is said Luke 2.52 that he increased in wisdom and stature and favour with God and men meaning those positive perfections of his humane nature which were to grow up with nature it self and not the supply of any culpable or privative defects so when he was baptized the Holy Ghost descended in a bodily shape like a Dove upon him Luke 3.22 And Luke 4.1 it is said Jesus being full of the Holy Ghost c. Isa 11.2 And the Spirit of the Lord shall rest upon him the Spirit of wisdom and understanding the Spirit of counsel and might the Spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord and shall make him quick of understanding in the fear of the Lord c. Joh. 3.34 For God giveth not the Spirit by measure to him Acts 1.2 After that he through the Holy Ghost had given commandments to the Apostles whom he had chosen Rom. 1.4 And was declared to be the Son of God with power according to the Spirit of Holiness that is the Holy Spirit by the resurrection from the dead Mat. 12.28 If I cast out Devils by the Spirit of God c. Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal c. Isa 61.1 In all this you see how great the work of the Holy Spirit was upon Christ himself to fit his humane nature for the work of our redemption and actuate him in it though it was the Word only which was made flesh and dwelt among us John 1.3 Direct 13. Christ was thus filled with the Spirit to be the Head or quickening Spirit to his body and accordingly to fit each member for its peculiar office And therefore the Spirit now given is called the Spirit of Christ as communicated by him Rom. 8.9 If any man have not the Spirit of Christ the same is none of hiâ— Joh. 7.37 This spake he of the Spirit which they that believe should receive viz. it is the water of life which Christ will give them 1 Cor. 15.45 The last Adam was made a quickening Spirit Gal. 4.6 God hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts whereby we cry Abba Father Phil. 1.19 Through the supply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ See also Ephes 1.22 23. 3.17 18 19. 2.18 22. 4.3 12 16. 1 Cor. 12 c. Direct 14. The greatest extraordinary measure of the Spirit was given by him to his Apostles and the Primitive Christians to be the seal of his own truth and power and to fit them to found the first Churches and to convince unbelievers and to deliver his will on record in the Scriptures infallibly to the Church for future times It would be tedious to cite the proofs of this they are so numerous take but a few Matth. 28.20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you that 's the commission Mark 16.17 And these signs shall follow them that believe c. Joh. 20.22 Receive ye the Holy Ghost c. 14.26 But the Comforter the Holy Ghost whom the Father will send in my name he will teach you all things and bring all things to your remembrance whatsoever I have said unto you Joh. 16.13 When the Spirit of Truth is come he will guide you into all Truth c. Heb. 2.4 God also bearing them witness both with signs and wâ—nders and with divers miracles and gifts of the Holy Ghost according to his own will Direct 15. And as such gifts of the Spirit was given to the Apostles as their â—ffice required so thâ—se sanctifying graces or that spiritual Life Light and Love are given by it to all true Christians which their calling and salvation doth require John 3.5 6. Except a man be born of Water and of the Spirit he cannot enter into the Kingdom of Heaven That which is born of the flâ—sh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit Heb. 12.14 Without holiness none shall see God Rom. 8.8 9 10 14. They that are in the flesh cannot please God But ye are not in the flesh but in the Spirit if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his See also v. 1 3 4 5 6 7 c. Titus 3.5 6 7. He saved us by the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy Ghost which he shed on us abundantly through Jesus Christ our Saviour that being justified by his grace we should be made heirs according to the hope of eternal life But the testimonies of thâ—s truth are more numerous than I may recite Direct 16. By all this it appeareth that the Holy Ghost is both Christs great witness objectively in the world by which it is that he is owned of God and proved to be true and also his Advocate or great Agent in the Church both to indite the Scriptures and to sanctifie souls So that no man can be a Christian indeed without these three 1. The objective witness of the Spirit to the truth of Christ 2. The Gospel taught by the Spirit in the Apostles 3. And the quickening illuminating and sanctifying work of the Spirit upon their souls Direct 17. It is therefore in these respects that we are baptizâ—d into the Name of the Holy Ghost as well as of the Father and the Son
Tim. 6.17 4.10 Psal 49.6 52.7 But yet because the hypocrite knoweth that he cannot live here alwaies but must die and his riches must be parted with at last and heareth of a life of glory afterwards he would fain have his part in that too when he can keep the world no longer And so he taketh both together for his part and hope viz. as much bodily happiness as he can get in this world and Heaven at last when he must die not knowing that God will be all our portion and felicity or none and that the world must be valued and used but for his sake and in subordination to him and a better world 5. Yet some hypocrites seem to go further though they do not for they will seem even to themselves to resign goods and life and all things absolutely to the will of God But the reason is because they are secretly perswaded in their hearts that their resignation shall no whit deprive them of them and that God will never the more take it from them but that they may possess as much present corporal felicity in a life of Religion as if they lived in the dangerous case of the ungodly or at least that they may keep so much as not to be undone or left to any great sufferings in the world or at least their lives may not be called for For they live in a time when few suffer for Christ and therefore they see little cause to â—eâ—r that they should be of that smaller number and it is but being a little the more wise and cautelous and they hope they may scape well enough And if they had not this hope they would never give up all to Christ But like persons that will be liberal to their Physician they will offer a great deal when they think he will not take it but if they thought he would take all that is offered they would offer less Or as if a sick person should hear that such a Physician will give him no very strong or loathsome Physick and therefore when the Physician telleth him I will be none of your Physician unless you will absolutely promise to take every thing which I shall give you He promiseth that he will do it but it is only because he supposeth that he will give him nothing which is troublesome And if he find his expectation crost he breaketh his promise and â—aith If I had known that he would have used me thus I would never have promised it him So hypocrites by promise give up themselves absolutely to God and to bâ— wholly at his will without excepting life it self But their hearts do secretly except it For all this is because they doubt not but they may save their earthly prosperity and lives and be Christians too And if once Christ call them to suffer death for him they shew then what was the meaning of their hearts To reassume the former similitude If Christ on earth should offer to convey you to a Kingdom at the Antipodes where men live for ever in glorious holiness if you will but trust him and go in his Ship and take him for your Pilot Here one saith I do not believe him that there is such a place and therefore I will not go that is the Infidel Another saith I like my merry life at home better than his glorious holiness that 's the open worldling and prophane Another saith I will live in my own Country and on my own estate as long as I can and when I find that I am dying and can stay here no longer that I may be sure to lose nothing by him I will take his offer Another saith I will go with him but I will turn back again if I find any dangerous storms and gulfs in the passage Another saith I will take another Ship and Pilot along with me lest he should fail me that I may not be deceived Another saith I am told that the Seas are calm and there is no danger in the passage and therefore I will absolutely trust him and venture all but when he meets with storms and hideous waves he saith This is not as I expected and so he turneth back again But another the true Christian saith I will venture all and wholly trust him And so though he is oft afraid in dangers when he seeth the devouring gulfs yet not so fearful as to turn back but on he goeth come on it what will because he knoweth that the place which he goeth to is most desirable and mortality will soon end his old prosperity and he hath great reason to believe his Pilot to be trusty By all this you may see how it cometh to pass that Christ who promiseth life to Believers doth yet make self-denyal and forsaking all that we have even life it self to be also necessary and what relation self-denyal hath to faith Luke 14.26 3â— Nearer by far than most consider You may see here the reason why Christ tryed the rich man Luke 18.22 with selling all and following him in hope of a reward in Heaven And why he bid his Diciples Luke 12.33 Sell that ye have and give alms provide your selves bags which wax not old a treasure in the Heavens which faileth not And why the first Christians were made a pattern of entire Christianity by selling all and laying down at the Apostles feet And Ananias and Saphira were the instances of Hypocrisie who secretly and lyingly kept back part You see here how it comes to pass that all true Christians must be heart-martyrs or prepared to die for Christ and Heaven rather than forsake him You may plainly perceive that Faith it self is an Affiance or Trusting in God by Christ even a Trusting in God in Heaven as our felicity and in Christ as the Mediator and the Way and that this Trust is a venturing all upon him and a forsaking all for God and his promises in Christ And that it is one and the same Motion which from the terminus à quo is called Repentance and forsaking all and from the terminus ad quem is called Trust and Love They that are willing to see may profit much by this observation and they that are not may quarrel at it and talk against that which their prejudice will not allow them to understand And by all this you may see also wherein the strength of Faith consisteth And that is 1. In so clear a sight of the evidences of truth as shall leave no considerable doubtings Mat. 21.21 So Abraham staggered not at the promise of God through unbelief but was strong in faith giving glory to God Rom. 4. 2. In so confirmed a Resolution to cleave to God and Christ alone as leaveth no wavering or looking back that we may say groundedly with Peter Though I die I will not deny thee which doubtless signified then some strength of faith And as Paul I am ready not only to be bound but to die for the Name of the Lord
Jesus Acts 21.13 3. In so strong a fortitude of soul as to venture and give up our selves our lives and all our comforts and hopes into the hand of Christ without any trouble or sinful fears and to pass through all difficulties and tryals in the way without any distrust or anxiety of mind These be the characters of a strong and great degree of faith And you may note how Heb. 11. describeth Faith commonly by this venturing and forsaking all upon the belief of God As in Noah's case verse 7. And in Abraham's leaving his Countrey v. 8. And in his sacrificing Isaac v. 17. And in Moses forsaking Pharaoh's Court and chusing the reproach of Christ rather than the pleasures of sin for a season v. 24 25 26. And in the Israelites venturing into the Red Sea v. 29. And in Rebab's hiding the spies which must needs be her danger in her own Countrey And in all those who by faith subdued Kingdoms wrought Righteousness obtained Promises stopped the mouths of Lions quenched the violence of fire escaped the edge of the sword out of weakness were made strong O hers were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might obtain a better resurrection and others had tryal of cruel mockings and scourgings yea moreover of bonds and imprisonments they were stoned they were sawn asunder were tempted were slain with the sword they wandered about in Sheep skins and Goat skins being destitute afflicted tormented of whom the world was not worthy They wandered in Desarts and Mountains and in Deus and Caves of the earth And in Heb. 10.32 33 c. They endured a great fight of affliction partly whilst they were made a gazing flock both by reproaches and afflictions and partly whilst they became companions of them that were so used And took joyfully the spoiling of their goods knowing in themselves that they had in Heaven a better and an enduring substance And thus the just do live by faith but if any man draw back my soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. See also Rom. 8.33 36 37 c. These are the Spirits descriptions of faith but if you will rather take a whimsical ignorant mans description who can only toss in his mouth the name of FREE GRACE and knoweth not of what he speaketh or what he affirmeth or what that name signifieth which he cheateth his own soul with instead of true Free Grace it self you must suffer the bitter fruits of your own delusion For my part I shall say thus much more to tell you why I say so much to help you to a right understanding of the nature of true Christian Faith 1. If you understand not truly what Faith is you understand not what Religion it is that you profess And so you call your selves Christians and know not what it is It seems those that said Lord we have eaten and drunken in thy presence and prophesied in thy Name did think they had been true Believers Matth. 7.21 22. 2. To erre about the nature of true Faith will engage you in abundance of other errours which will necessarily arise from that as it did them against whom James disputeth James 2.14 15 c. about Justification by Faith and by Works 3. It will damnably delude your souls about your own state and draw you to think that you have saving Faith because you have that fancy which you thought was it One comes boldly to Christ Mat. 8.19 Master I will follow thee whithersoever thou goest But when he heard The Foxes have holes and the Birds have nests but the Son of man hath not where to lay his head we hear no more of him And another came with a Good Master what shall I do to inherit eternal life Luke 18.18 as if he would have been one of Christs Disciples and have done any thing for Heaven And it 's like that he would have been a Christian if Free Grace had been as large and as little grace as some now imagine But when he heard Yet lackest thou one thing sell all that thou hast and distribute to the poor and thou shalt have treasure in Heaven Come follow me he was then very sorrowful for he was very rich Luke 18.21 22 23. Thousands cheat their souls with a conceit that they are Believers because they believe that they shall be saved by Free Grace without the faith and grace which Christ hath made necessary to salvation 4. And this will take off all those needful thoughts and means which should help you to the faith which yet you have not 5. And it will engage you in perverse disputes against that true faith which you understand not And you will think that you are contending for Free Grace and for the Faith when you are proud knowing nothing but sick or doting about questions which engender no better birth than strifes railings evil surmisings perverse disputings c. 1 Tim. 6.4 5. 6. Lastly You can scarce more dishonour the Christian Religion nor injure God and our Mediatour or harden men in Infidelity than by fathering your ill-shapen fictions on Christ and calling them the Christian or Justifying Faith Direct 29. Take not all doubts and fears of your salvation to be the proper effects and signs of unbelief Seeing that in many they arise from the misunderstanding of the meaning of Gods Promise and in more from the doubtfulness of their own qualifications rather than from any unbelief of the Promise or distrust of Christ It is ordinary with ignorant Christians to say that they cannot believe because they doubt of their own sincerity and salvation as thinking that it is the nature of true faith to believe that they themselves are justified and shall be saved and that to doubt of this is to doubt of the Promises because they doubtingly apply it Such distresses have false principles bought many to But there are two other things besides the weakness of faith which are usually the causes of all this 1. Many mistake the meaning of Christs Covenant and think that it hath no universality in it and that he died only for the Elect and promiseth pardon to none but the Elect no not on the condition of believing And therefore thinking that they can have no assurance that they are Elect they doubt of the conclusion And many of them think that the Promise extendeth not to such as they because of some sin or great unworthiness which they are guilty of And others think that they have not that Faith and Repentance which are the condition of the promise of pardon and salvation And in some of these the thing it self may be so obscure as to be indeed the matter of rational doubtfulness And in others of them the cause may be either a mistake about the true nature and signs of Faith and Repentance or else a timerous melancholy causeless suspition of themselves But which of all these soever be the cause it is something different from proper unbelief or distrust of God
your ear and come unto me hear and your soul shall live and I will make an everlasting covenant with you v. 6. Seek ye the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near Rev. 22.17 Let him that is athirst come and whosoever will let him take the water of life freely 7. Promises of Gods giving us all that we pray for according to his promises and will Mat. 7.7 8 11. Ask and it shall be given you seek and ye shall find knock and it shall be opened to you for every one that asketh receiveth and he that seeketh findeth and to him that knocketh it shall be opened If ye being evil know how to give good gifts unto your children how much more shall your Father which is in Heaven give good things to them that ask him Matth. 6.6 Pray to thy Father which is in secret and thy Father which seeth in secret shall reward thee openly John 14.13 14. 15.16 16.23 John 15.7 If ye abide in me and my words abide in you ye shall ask what ye will and it shall be done unto you 1 John 5.14 15. And this is the confidence which we have in him that if we ask any thing according to his will he heareth us And if we know that he heareth us whatsoever we ask we know that we have the petitions which we desired of him 1 John 3.22 And whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things which are pleasing in his sight Prov. 15.8 29. The prayer of the upright is his delight He heareth the prayer of the righteous 1 Pet. 3.12 The eyes of the Lord are over the righteous and his ears are open to their prayers 8. That God will accept weak prayers and groans which want expressions if they be sincere Rom. 8.26 27. The Spirit helpeth our infirmities The Spirit it self maketh intercession for us with groanings which cannot be uttered And he that searcheth the hearts knoweth what is the mind of the spirit Gal. 4.6 Crying Abba Father Psal 77.3 I remembred God and was troubled and my spirit was overwhelmed Psal 38.9 Lord all my desire is before thee and my groaning is not hid from thee Luke 18.14 God be merciful to me a sinner 9. Promises of all things in general which we want and which are truly for our good Psal 84.11 For the Lord God is a Sun and Shield the Lord will give grace and glory no good thing will he withhold from them that walk uprightly Psal 34.9 10. O fear the Lord ye his Saints for there is no want to them that fear him They that seek the Lord shall not want any good thing Rom. 8 28 32 All things work together for good to them that love God He that spared not his own Son but gave him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you 2 Pet. 1.3 According as his divine power hath given us all things that pertain to life and godliness 1 Tim. 4.8 But godliness is profitable to all things having the promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come 10 Promises of a blâ—ssing on them that sincerely hear and read Gods Word and use his Sacraments and other means Isa 55.3 Encline your ear and come unto me hear and your souls shall live Read the Eunuchs conversion in Acts 8. who was reading the Scripture in his Chariot 1 Pet. 2.1 Laying aside all malice and all guile and hypocrisie and envies and evil speakings as new born babes desire the sincere milk of the word that ye may grow thereby Rev. 1.3 Blessed is he that readeth and they that hear the words of this Prophecy and keep those things that are written therein Psal 1.1 2. Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly But his delight is in the Law of the Lord and in his Law doth he meditate day and night Matth. 7.24 25. Whosoever heareth these sayings of mine and doth them I will liken him to a wise man that built his house upon a rock c. Luke 8.21 Rather blessed are they that hear the Word of God and do it Luke 10.42 Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken from her Mark 4.23 24. If any man have ears to hear let him hear And unto you that hear shall more be given Acts 11.14 Who shall tell thee words whereby thou and all thy houshold shall be saved 1 Tim. 4.16 Take heed to thy self and unto the doctrine and continue therein for in doing this thou shalt both save thy self and them that hear thee Psal 89.15 Blessed is the people that know the joyful sound they shall walk O Lord in the light of thy countenance in thy Name shall they rejoyce all the day Heb. 4.12 The Word of God is quick and powerful c. 1 Cor. 10.16 The cup of blessing which we bless is it not the communion of the blood of Christ The bread which we break is it not the communion of the body of Christ Matth. 18.20 For where two or three are gathered together in my Name there am I in the midst of them Isa 4.5 And the Lord will create upon every dwelling place of Mount Zion and upon her Assemblies a cloud and smoke by day and the shining of a flaming fire by night for upon all the glory shall be a defence 11. Promises to the humble meek and lowly Matth. 5.3 4 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth Matth. 11.28 29. Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden and I will give you rest Take my yoak upon you and learn of me for I am meek and lowly in heart and ye shall find rest unto your souls for my yoak is easie and my burden is light Psal 34.18 The Lord is nigh to them that are of a broken heart and saveth such as be of a contrite spirit Psal 51.17 The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit a broken and a contrite heart O God thou wilt not despise Isa 57.15 For thus faith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity whose Name is holy I dwell in height and holiness or in the high and holy place with him also that is of a contrite spirit to revive the spirit of the humble and to revive the heart of the contrite ones Isa 66.2 To this man will I look even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit and trembleth at my Word Luke 4.18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me he hath anointed me to preach the Gospel to the poor he hath sent me to heal the broken hearted to preach deliverance to the captives and recovering
of sight to the blind and to set at liberty them that are bruised James 4.6 He giveth grace to the humble Matth. 18.4 Whosoever shall humble himself as this little child the same is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven Matth. 23.12 He that shall humble himself shall be exalted James 4.10 Humble your selves in the sight of the Lord and he shall lift you up Prov. 3.34 He giveth grace to the lowly 12. Promises to the peaceable and peace-makers Matth. 5.9 Blessed are the peace-makers for they shall be called the children of God James 3.17 18. The wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated And the fruit of righteousness is sown in peace of them that make peace 2 Cor. 13.11 Be perfect be of good comfort be of one mind live in peace and the God of Love and Peace shall be with you Prov. 12.20 To the councellours of peace is joy Rom. 15.33 16.20 Phil. 4.9 The God of peace shall be with you c. shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly Grace and Peace are the blessing of Saints 13. Promises to the diligent and laborious Christian Heb. 11.6 He that cometh to God must believe that God is and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him Prov. 13.4 The soul of the diligent shall be made fat 1 Cor. 15.58 Be stedfast unmoveable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord. 2 Pet. 1.10 Give diligence to make your calling and election sure for if ye do these things ye shall never fail 2 Pet. 1.5 8. Giving all diligence add to your faith vertue and to vertue knowledge c. For if these things be in you and abound they make you that you shall neither be barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of Jesus Christ 2 Cor. 5.9 Wherefore we labour that whether present or absent we may be accepted of him Matth. 6.33 Seek first the Kingdom of God and his righteousness and all these things shall be added to you 1 Cor. 3.8 Every man shall receive his own reward according to his own labour Matth. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force See Prov. 3.13 c. 4. to 14. 6.20 c. 7.1 c. 8 9. throughout 14. Promises to the patient waiting Christian Heb. 6.11 12. And we desire that every one of you do shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end that ye be not slothful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the promises James 1.3 4. Knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience but let patience have its perfect work that ye may be perfect and entire wanting nothing Psal 27.14 Wait on the Lord be of good courage and he shall strengthen thine heart wait I say on the Lord. Psal 37.7 9 34. Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Those that wait on the Lord shall inherit the earth Wait on the Lord and keep his way and he shall exaâ—â— thee to inherit the Land Prov. 20 22. Wait on the Lord and he shall save thee Isa 30.18 Blessed are all they that wait for him Isa 40.31 They that wait on the 〈…〉 renew their strength they shall mount up with wings as Eagles they shall run and not be weary they shall walk and not be faint Isa 49.23 They shall not be ashamed that wait for me Lam. 3.25 The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him 26. It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. Rom. 8.25 But if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Gal. 5.5 For we through the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith 2 Thes 3.5 The Lord direct your hearts into the Love of God and the patient waiting for Christ Rom. 2.7 To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory honour and immortality eternal life Heb. 10.36 Ye have need of patience that after ye have done the will of God ye may inherit the promise 15. Promises to sincere Obedience Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in by the gate into the City John 3.22 Whatsoever we ask we receive of him because we keep his Commandments and do those things that are pleasing in his sight v. 24. He that keepeth his Commandments dwelleth in him and he in him John 14.21 He that hath my Commandments and keepeth them he it is that loveth me and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self to him John 15.10 If ye keep my Commandments ye shall abide in my love even as I have kept my Fathers Commandments and abide in his love 1 Cor. 7.19 Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but the Commandments of God See Psal 112.1 119.6 Prov. 1.20 21 22 c. Isa 48.18 Psal 19.8 9 c. Heb. 5.9 He became the Author of eternal salvation to all them that obey him Rev. 14.12 Here are they that keep the Commandments of God and the 〈◊〉 of Jesus 1 John 5.3 For this is the Love of God that we keep his Commandments Eccles 12.13 14. Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter Fear God and keep his Commandments for this is the whole duty of man for God shall bring every work unto judgement c. Matth. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God James 2.24 You see then how that by works a man is justified and not by faith only Rom. 2.6 7 10. Who will render to every man according to his deeds To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for glory and honour and immortality eternal life Glory honour and peace to every man that worketh good Acts 10.35 In every Nation he that feareth God and worketh righteousness is accepted with him Rom. 6.16 Of obedience unto righteousness 1 John 3.7 He that doth righteousness is righteous even as he is righteous James 3.18 The fruit of righteousness is sown in peace Gal. 6.8 He that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit â—â—ap life everlasting Rom. 8.13 If by the Spirit ye mortifie the deeds of the body ye shall live 16. Promises to them that love God Rom. 8.28 All things work together for good to them that love God 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor hath it entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him James 1.12 He shall receive the Crown of life which God hath promised to them that love him James 2.5 Rich in faith and heirs of the Kingdom which God hath promised to them that love him John 14.21 He that loveth me shall
he that readeth Law-books or Philosophy or Medicine it is to learn Law Philosophy or Physick so whenever you read the Gospel meditate on Christ or hear his Word if you are askt why you do it be able to say I do it to learn the Love of God which is no where else in the world to be learnt so well No wonder if Hypocrites have learned to mortifie Scripture Sermons Prayers and all other means of grace yea all the world which should teach them God and to learn the letters and not the sense But it is most pittiful that they should thus mortifie Christ himself to them and should gaze on the glass and never take much notice of the face even of the Love of God which he is set up to declare Direct 4. Therefore congest all the great discoveries of this Love and set them all together in order and make them your daily study and abhor all doctrines or suggestions from men or devils which tend to disgrace diminish or hide this revealed Love of God in Christ Think of the grand design it self the reconciling and saving of lost mankind Think of the gracious nature of Christ of his wonderful condescention in his incarnation in his life and doctrine in his sufferings and death in his miracles and gifts Think of his merciful Covenant and Promises of all his benefits given to his Church and all the priviledges of his Saints of pardon and peace of his Spirit of Holiness of preservation and provision of resurrection and justification and of the life of glory which we shall live for ever And if the Faith which looketh on all these cannot yet warm your hearts with love nor engage them in thankful obedience to your Redeemer certainly it is no true and lively Faith But you must not think narrowly and seldom of these mercies not hearken to the Devil or the doctrine of any mistaken Teachers that would represent Gods Love as vailed or ecclipsed or shew you nothing but wrath and flames That which Christ principally came to reveal the Devil principally striveth to conceal even the Love of God to sinners that so that which Christ principally came to work in us the Devil might principally labour to destroy and that is our love to him that hath so loved us Direct 5. Take heed of all the Antinomian Doctrines before recited which to extol the empty Name and Image of Free Grace do destroy the true principles and motives of holiness and obedience Direct 6. Exercise your Faith upon all the holy Scriptures Precepts Promises and Threatnings and not on one of them alone For when God hath appointed all conjunctly for this work you are unlike to have his blessing or the effect if you will lay by most of his remedies Direct 7. Take not that for Holiness and Good Works which is no such thing but either mans inventions or some common gifts of God It greatly deludeth the world to take up a wrong description or character of Holiness in their minds As 1. The Papists take it for Holiness to be very observant in their adoration of the supposed transubstantiated Host to use their reliques pilgrimages crossings prayers to Saints and Angels anointings Candles Images observation of meats and daies penance auricular confession praying by numbers and hours on their beads c. They think their idle ceremonies are holiness and that their hurtful austerities and self-afflictings by rising in the night when they might pray as long before they go to bed and by whipping themselves to be very meritorious parts of Religion And their vows of renouncing marriage and propriety and of absolute obedience to be a state of perfection 2. Others think that Holiness consisteth much in being rebaptized and in censuring the Parish-Churches and Ministers as Null and in withdrawing from their communion and in avoiding forms of prayer c. 3. And others or the same think that more of it consisteth in the gifts of utterance in praying and preaching than indeed it doth and that those only are godly that can pray without book in their families or at other times and that are most in private meetings and none but they 4. And some think that the greatest parts of Godliness are the spirit of bondage to fear and the shedding of tears for sin or finding that they were under terrour before they had any spiritual peace and comfort or being able to tell at what Sermon or time or in what order and by what means they were converted It is of exceeding great consequence to have a right apprehension of the Nature of Holiness and to escape all false conceits thereof But I shall not now stand further to describe it because I have done it in many Books especially in my Reasons of the Christian Religion and in my A Saint or a Bruit and in a Treatise only of the subject called The character of a sound Christian Direct 8. Let all Gods Attributes be orderly and deeply printed in your minds as I have directed in my book called The Divine Life For it is that which must most immediately form his Image on you To know God in Christ is life eternal John 17.3 Direct 9. Never separate reward from duty but in every religious or obedient action still see it as connext with Heaven The means is no means but for the end and must never be used but with special respect unto the end Remember in reading hearing praying meditating in the duties of your callings and relations and in all acts of charity and obedience that All this is for Heaven It will make you mend your pace if you think believingly whither you are going Heb. 11. Direct 10. Yet watch most carefully against all proud self-esteeming thoughts of proper merit as obliging God or as if you were better than indeed you are For Pride is the most pernicious vermine that can breed in gifts or in good works And the better you are indeed the more humble you will be and apt to think others better than your self Direct 11. So also in every temptation to sin let Faith see Heaven open and take the temptation in its proper sense q. d. Take this pleasure instead of God sell thy part in Heaven for this preferment or commodity cast away thy soul for this sensual delight This is the true meaning of every temptation to sin and only Faith can understand it The Devil easily prevaileth when Heaven is forgotten and out of sight and pleasure commodity credit and preferment seem a great matter and can do much till Heaven be set in the ballance against them and there they are nothing and can do nothing Phil. 3.7 8 9. Heb. 12.1 2 3. 2 Cor. 4.16 17. Direct 12. Let Faith also see God alwaies present Men dare do any thing when they think they are behind his back even truants and eye-servants will do well under the Masters eye Faith seeing him that is invisible Heb. 11. is it that sanctifieth heart and life As
would you be in the same condition again Would you be unsanctified and unjustified and unpardoned and unsaved Every wilful sin is a turning backward toward the state of your former captivity and misery Direct 5. When Satan sets the bait before you let Faith alwaies set Heaven and Hell before you and take all together the end with the beginning And think when you are tempted to lye to steal to deceive to lust to pride to gulosity or drunkenness c. what men are now suffering for these same sins and what all that are in Hell and in Heaven do think of them Suppose a man offered you a cup of wine and a friend telleth you I saw him put poison into it and therefore take heed what you do If the offerer were an enemy you would hardly take it The world and the flâ—sh and the devil are enemies when they offer you the delights of sin hear Faith and it will tell you there is poison in it there is sin and hell and Gods displeasure in it Direct 6. Let Faith keep you under the continual apprehensions of the Divine Authority and Rule that as a child a servant a scholar a subject doth still know that he is not masterless but one that must be ruled by the will or Law of his superiour so may you alwaies live with the yoâ—k of Christ upon your necks and his bridle in your mouths Remembring also that you are still in your Masters eye Direct 7. Remember still that it is the work of Faith to overcome the world and the flesh and to over-rule your sense and appetite and to make nothing of all that would stand up against your heavenly interest and to crucifie it by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 5.24 Rom. 8.1 9 10 13. Set Faith therefore upon its proper work and when you live by Faith and walk after the Spirit you will not live by sight nor walk after the flesh 2 Cor. 5.7 Direct 8. It is also the work of Faith to take off all the masks of sin and open its nakedness and shame and cast by all shifts pretences and excuses When Satan saith It is a little one and the danger is not great and it will serve thy pleasure profit or preferment Faith should say Doth not God forbid it There is no dallying with the fire of God Be not deceived man God will not be mocked Whatsoever a man soweth that shall be also reap If you sow to the flesh of the flâ—sh you shall reap corruption Gal 6. When Satan saith Ye shall not die and when the sinner with Adam hideth himself Faith will call him out to Judgment and say What hast thou done Hast thou eaten of the fruit which God forbade Direct 9. Let Faith still keep you busied in your Masters work Nothing breedeth and feedeth sin so much as idleness of mind and life Sins of omission have this double mischief that they are the first part of Satans game themselves and they also bring in sins of commission When men are not taken up with good they are at leisure for temptations to intice them and they set open their doors to the tempter and tell him he may speak with then when he will Wanton thoughts and covetous thoughts may dwell there when better thoughts are absent But when you are so wholly taken up with your duty spiritual or corporal and so constantly and industriously busie in your proper work sin cannot enter nor Satan find you at leisure for his service Direct 10. Let Faith make Gods service pleasant to you and lose not your delight in Gâ—d and godliness and then you will not rellish sinful pleasures You will find no need of such base delights when you live on the foretast of Angelical pleasures You will not be easily drawn to steal a morsel of dung or poison from the Devils table while you daily feast your souls on Christ or to steal the Onions of Egypt when you dwell in a Land that floweth with milk and hony But while you keep your selves in the wilderness you will be tempted to look back again to Egypt The great cause of mens sinning and yielding to the temptations of forbidden pleasures is because they are negligent to live upon the pleasures of Believers Direct 11. Take heed of the beginnings if ever you would escape the sin No man becometh stark nought at the first step He that beginneth to take one pleasing unprofitable cup or bit intendeth not drunkenness and gluttony in the grossest sense But he hath set fire in the thatch though he did not intend to burn his house and it will be harder to quench it than to have forborn at first He that beginneth but with lascivious dalliance speeches or embraces thinketh not to proceed to filthy fornication But he might better have secured his conscience if he had never medled so far with sin Few ruinating damning sins began any otherwise than with such small approaches as seemed to have little harm or danger Direct 12. If ever you will scape sin keep off from strong temptations and opportunities He that will be still neer the fire or water may be burnt or drowned at last No man is long safe in the midst of danger and at the next step to ruine He that liveth in a Tavern or Ale-house had need to be very averse to tipling And he that sitteth at Dives table had need to be very averse to gulosity And he that is in the least danger of the fire of lust must keep at a sufficient distance not only from the bed and from immodest actions but from secret company and opportunities of sin and from a licentious ungoverned eye and imagination This caused Christ to say How hard it is for the Rich to be saved because they have a stronger fleshly interest to keep them from Christ and godliness which must be denyed and because their sin hath plentiful provision and the fire of concupiscence wanteth no fewel and it is a very easie thing to them still to sin and alwaies a hard thing to avoid it And mans sluggish nature will hardly long either hold on in that which is hardly done or forbear that which is still hard to forbear Good must be made sweet and easie to us or else we shall never be constant in it Direct 13. If you find any difficulty in forsaking any disgraceful sin cherish it not by secrecy but 1. Plainly confess it to your bosom friend And 2. If that will not serve to others also that you may have the greater engagements to forbear I know wisdom must be used in such confessions and they must be avoided when the hurt will prove greater than the good But fleshly wisdom must be no councellor and fleshly interest must not prevail Secrecy is the nest of sin where it is kept warm and hidden from disgrace Turn it out of this nest and it will thd sooner perish Gods eye and knowledge should serve turn but when it
they are the sins of those faculties over which the will hath not a despotical power As a man may be truly willing to have no sluggishness heaviness sleepiness at prayer no forgetfulness no wandering thoughts no inordinate appetite or lust at all stirring in him no sudden passions of anger grief or fear he may be willing to love God perfectly to fear him and obey him perfectly but cannot These latter are the ordinary infirmities of the godly The former sort are if at all his extraordinary falls Rom. 7.14 to the end 6. Lastly The true Christian riseth by unfeigned Repentance when his conscience hath but leisure and helps to deliberate and to bethink him what he hath done And his Repentance much better resolveth and strengtheneth him against his sin for the time to come To summ up all 1. Sin more loved than hated 2. Sin wilfully lived in which might be avoided by the sincerely willing 3. Sin made light of and not truly repented of when it is committed 4. And any sin inconsistent with habitual Love to God in predominancy is mortal or a sign of spiritual death and none of the sins of sanctified Believers CHAP. XIV How to live by Faith in Prosperity THE work of Faith in respect of Prosperity is twofold 1. To save us from the danger of it 2. To help us to a sanctified improvement of it 1. And for the first that which Faith doth is especially 1. To see deeper and further into the nature of all things in the world than sense can do 2 Cor. 4.17 18. 1 Cor. 7.29 30 31. To see that they were never intended for our Rest or portion but to be our wilderness provision in our way To foresee just how the world will use us and leave us at the last and to have the very same thoughts of it now as we foresee that we shall have when the end is come and when we have had all that ever the world will do for us It is the work of Faith to cause a man to judge of the world and all its glory as we shall do when death and judgment come and have taken off the mask of splendid names and shews and flatteries that we may use the world as if we used it not and possess it as if we possest it not because its fashion doth pass away It is the work of Faith to crucifie the world to us and us to the world by the Cross of Christ Gal. 6.14 that we may look on it as disdainfully as the world looked upon Christ when he hanged as forsaken on the Cross That when it is dead it may have no power on us and when we are dead to it we may have no inordinate love or care or thoughts or fears or grief or labour to lay out upon it It is the work of Faithâ—o â—o make all worldly pomp and glory to be to us but loss and dross and dung in comparison of Christ and the righteousness of Faith Phil. 3.7 8 9. And then no man will part with Heaven for dung nor set his God below his dung nor further from his heart nor will he feel any great power in temptations to honour wealth or pleasure if really he count them all but dung nor will he wound his conscience or betray his peace or cast away his innocency for them 2. Faith sheweth the soul those sure and great and glorious things which are infinitely more worthy of our love and labour And this is its highest and most proper work Heb. 11. it conquereth Earth by opening Heaven and shewing it us as sure and clear and near And no man will dote on this deceitful world till he have turned away his eyes from God and till Heaven be out of his sight and heart Faith saith I must shortly be with Christ and what then are these dying things to me I have better things which God that cannot lye hath promised me with Christ Titus 1.2 Heb. 6.18 I look every day when I am called in The Judge standeth before the door James 5.9 The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.5 And the end of all these things is at hand 1 Pet. 4.7 And shall I set my heart on that which is not Therefore when the world doth smile and flatter faith setteth Heaven against all that it can say or offer And what is the world when Heaven stands by Faith seeth what the blessed souls above possess at the same time while the world is alluring us to forsake it Luke 16. Heb. 11. 12.1 2. c. Faith setteth the heart upon the things above as our concernment oâ—r only hope and happiness It kindleth that Love of God in the soul and that delight in higher things which powerfully quencheth worldly love and mortifieth all our carnal pleasures Matth. 6.20.21 Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Rom. 8.5 6 7. Phil. 30.20 21. 3. Faith sheweth the soul those wants and miseries in it self which nothing in the world is able to supply and cure Nay such as the world is apter to increase It is not gold that will quench his thirst who longs for pardon grace and glory A guilâ—y conscience a sinful and condemned soul will never be cured by riches or high places by pride or flâ—shly sports and pleasures James 5.1 2 3. This humbling work is not in vain 4. Faith looketh to Christ who hath overcome the world and carefully treadeth in his stâ—ps John 16.33 Heb. 12.2 3 4 5. It looketh to his person his birth his life his cross his grave and his resurrection to all that strange example of contempt of worldly things which he gave us from his manger to his shameful kind of death And he that studieth the Life of Christ will either despise the world or him He will either vilifie the world in imitation of his Lord or vilifie Christ for the pleasures of the world Faith hath in this warfare the surest and most onourable guide the ablest Captain and the most powerful example in all the world And it hath with Christian unerring Rule which furnisheth him with armour for every use Yea it hath through him a promise of Victory before it be aâ—tained so that in the beginning of the fight it knows the end Rom. 16.20 John 16.33 It goeth to Christ for that Spirit which is our strengâ—h Ephes 6.10 Câ—l 2.7 And by that it mortifieth the desires of the flesh and when â—he flesh is mortified the world is conquered for it is loved only as it is the provision of the flâ—sh 5. Moreover Faith doth observe Gods particular Providence who distributeth his talents to every man as he pleaseth and disposeth of their estates and comforts so that the Race is not to the swift nor the Victory to the strong nor Riches to men of understanding Eccles 9.11 Therefore it convinceth us that our lives and all being in his hand it is our wisdom to make it our chiefest care to use all so as is most pleasing unto him 2 Cor. 5.8
one his own Answ Whether you have necessity or not you ought to labour faithfully in your callings But no necessity will excuse your worldly love and cares What will the love of the world do towards the supply of your necessities or what will your eager desires and your cares do more than the labours and quiet forecast of one that hath a contented patient mind Surely in reason the less you have in the world and the harder your condiâ—ion is the less you should love it and the more you should abound in care and diligence to make sure of a better world hereafter Object 3. I covet no mans but my own Answ 1. Why then are you so glad of good bargains or of gifts 2. But what if you do not You covet to have more to be your own than God allotteth you Perhaps you have already as much as your flesh knoweth what to do with and therefore need not covet more But will this excuse you for loving your riches more than God The question is not now what you covet but what you love If the world hath your hearts the Devil hath your lives for it is by the world that he deceiveth souls And do you think then that you are fit to dwell with God Know ye not that the love of the world is enmity to God And that if ye will be friends of the world you are Gods enemies James 4.4 Object 4. It is not by any unlawful means that I desire to grâ—w rich I wait on God in my lawful labour and crave his blessing Answ It is not now your getting but your loving the world that I am speaking of If your hearts be more set on your riches or prosperity than on God and the world by loving it be made your Idol you do but turn prayer and labour into sin though they be good in themselves while you abuse them to your ungodly worldly ends What wretched muck-worm would not pray if he believed that praying would make him rich I warrant you then their tune would be turned They would not cry out what needeth all this praying If God would give them money for the asking they would quickly learn to pray without Book and long prayers would come into request upon the Pharisees old account Can any thing in the world be more unlawful and abominable than to love the flesh and the world above God and Heaven And yet do you say that you get not your wealth by any thing that is unlawful Object 5. But I am contented with my condition and desire no more Answ So is a Swine when his bâ—lly is full But the question is Whether Heaven and Holiness or that worldly condition which you are in seem more lovely to you Oâ—ject 6. I give God thanks for all I have Answ So would every beggar in the Country give God thanks if he would make them rich Some drunkards and gluttons and some malicious people do give God thanks for satisfying their sinful lusts This is but adding hypocrisie to your sin and to aggravate it by prophaning the Name of God by thanking him as a cherisher of your lusts But the question is whether you love God for himself and as your sanctifier better than you do the gratifying of your flesh Obj. 7. But I give something to the poor and I mean to leave them something at my death Ans So it is like the miserable Gentleman did in Luke 16. Or else why would Lazarus lie at his gates if he used not to give something to the poor What worldling or hypocrite is there that will not drop now and then an Alms while he pampereth his flesh and satisfieth its desires Do you look to be saved for doing as a Swine will do in leaving that which he can neither eat nor carry away with him The question is whether God or the world have your hearts and what it is that you most delight in as your treasure Object 8. I am fully satisfied that Heaven is better than Earth and God than the creature and holiness than the prosperity or pleasure of the flesh Answ Thousands of miserable worldlings are satisfied in opinion that this is true They can say the same words that a true Believer doth And in dispute they can defend them and call the contrary opinion blasphemy But all this is but a dreaming speculation Their hearts never practically preferred God and Holiness and Heaven as most suitable and best for them Mark what you love best and most long after and most delight in and what it is that you are lothest to leave and what it is that you most eagerly labour for and there you may see what it is that hath your hearts Object 9. Worldliness is indeed a heinous sin and of all people I most hate the covetous and I use to preach or talk against it more than against any sin Answ So do many thousands that are slaves to it themselves and shall be damned for it It is easier to talk against it than to forsake it And it is easie to hate covetousness in another because it will cost you nothing for another to forsake his sin and perhaps the more covetous he is the more he standeth in your way and hindereth you from that which you would have your selves Of all the multitude of covetous Preachers that be in the world is there any one that will not preach against covetousness Read but the Lives of Cardinals and Popes and Popish Prelates and you will see the most odious worldliness set forth without any kind of cloak or shame How such a one laid his design at Court and among the great ones for preferment How studiously he prosecuted it and conformed himself to the humours interest of those from whom he did seek it How they first got this Living and then got that Prebendary and then got that Denary and then got such a Bishoprick and then got a better that is a richer and then got to be Archbishops and then to be Cardinals c. O happy progress if they might never die They blush not openly before Angels and men to own this worldly ambitious course as their design and trade of life And the Devil is grown so impudent as if he were now the confessed Master of the world as to set Divines themselves at work to write the history of such cursed ambitious worldly lives with open applause and great commendations yea to make Saints of them that have a character far worse than Christ gave of him in Luke 16. that wanteth a drop of water to cool his tongue He openly now saith All this will I give thee and they as impudently boast All this I have gotten but they forget or know not how much they have lost A Judaâ— kiss is thought sufficient to prove him a true Christian and Pastor of the Church though it be but the fruit of what will you give me Instead of a scourge to whip out these buyers
blessed way in which Christ and all the heavenly Army have passed hence unto their Crown You would say Is the servant greater than his Lord If thus the innocent Lord of life and Master of the house was injured and afflicted am I better than he Though he suffered to save me from Hell yet not to save me from the purifying tryals here on earth Doubtless you would count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Jesus Christ and count them but dung that you might win him and that you might know him and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of his sufferings being made conformable to his death Phil. 3.8 10. Direct 8. Keep the eye of Faith still fixed on the eternal glory that you may understand what affliction is when you take it with its end Remember what eternal Joyes it leadeth to and what thoughts you will have of all your pain when you find your selves in the everlasting rest Remember where all tearâ— shall be wiped from your eyes and who dare blame that way as narrow or soul which bringeth us to such an end Psal 126.5 6. They that sâ—w in tears shall reap in joy He that goeth forth and weepeth bearing precious seed shall doubtless come again with rejoycing bringing his sheaves with him Mat. 5.4 Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Is not eternal joy sufficient for you When you are suffering with the Church militant look up to the Church triumphant and remember that they were lately as low as sad as sorrowful as you and you shall shortly be as high as glad as joyful as they Look into Heaven and see what you suffer for and think whether that be not worthy of harder terms than any you can undergo Rom. 8.17 18. If we suffer with him that we may be also glorified together For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us 2 Cor. 4 16 17 18. For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward man is renewed day by day For our light afflâ—ction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Heaven well believed will enable us patiently and chearfully to bear all things He will account the very reproach of Christ to be greater riches than the treasures of the world who looketh believingly to the recompence of reward Heb. 11.26 Direct 9. Learn to die and then you have learned to suffer He that can bear death by the power of faith can bear almost any thing And he that is well prepared to die is prepared for any affliction and he that is not is unprepared for prosperity Direct 10. Remember still that life being so very short the afflictions of Believers are as short We have so little a time to live that we have but a little while to suffer And if thou faint in the day of adversity when it is so little a while to night thy strength is small Prov. 24.10 Direct 11. Remember that thou bearest but the common burden of the Sons of Adam who are born to sorrow as the sparks fly upward And that thou in like to all the members of Christ who must take up their cross and suffer with him if they will reign with him And that thou art but going the common way to Heaven which that heavenly society hath trod before thee And canst thou expect to be exempted both from the lot of humane lapsed nature and from the lot of all the Saints If thou wouldest be carryed to Heaven in the Chariot of Elias and couldest expect to escape the jaws of death yet must thou endure the persecution weariness and hunger of Elias before such a change Direct 12. Think also how unreasonable it is for one that must have eternal glory to grudge at a little suffering in the way and for one that is saved from the torments of Hell to think it much to be duly chastened on earth For a Lazarus that must be comforted in Abraham's bosom to murmure that he waiteth a while in poverty at the rich mans doors Shall a wicked worldling venture into endless pains and put himself out of the hopes of Heaven and all this for a short and foolish pleasure And will you grudge to suffer so small and short a chastisement in the way to an endless rest and joy Direct 13. Think why it is that Christ hath so largely commended and blest a suffering state and chosen such a life for those that he will save And why he so often pronounceth a woe to the prosperous world It is not for want of love to his Disciples nor for want of power to secure their peace Matth. 5. Blessed are the poor in spirit for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Blessed are they that mourn for they shall be comforted Blessed are they that are persecuted for righteousness sake for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven Luke 6.24 25 26. Woe to you that are rich for you have received your consolation Woe to you that are full for ye shall hunger Woe unto you that laugh now for ye shall mourn and weep Woe unto you when all men shall speak well of you for so did their Fathers to the false Prophets James 1.2 3. My Brethren count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations that is trying afflictions knowing that the trying of your faith worketh patience James 5.1 2. Go too now ye 〈◊〉 men weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon you All these words are not for nothing And judge how he should think of adversity who believeth them Direct 14. Mark well whether you find not that your selves and others are usually much better in affliction than in prosperity And whether there be not something in the one to make you better and in the other to delude men and make them worse O look and tremble at the dangers and dolâ—ful miseries of most that are lifted high how they are blinded flattered captivated in sin and are the shame of nature and the calamity of the world And mark when they come to die or lie in sickness how inlightened how penitent how humble how mortified and reformed they then seem to be and how much they condemn all sin and justifie a holy life And observe your selves whether you be not wiser and better more penitent and less worldly in an afflicted state And will you think that intollerable which so much bettereth almost all the world Alas were it not for affliction
words which are apt and orderly and moving and to do all with such skill and reverence and seriousness as tendeth not to encrease but to cure the dulness hypocrisie and unreverence of others Eccles 5.1 2. Matth. 6.7 8 9 10 c. Direct 11. Pray as earnestly as if God himself were to be moved with your prayers Yet so as to remember that the change is not to be made upon him but upon you As when the Boat-man layeth hold upon the bank he draweth the Boat to it and not the bank unto the Boat Prayer fitteth you to receive the mercy both naturally as it exciteth your desires after it and morally as it is a condition on which God hath promised to give it when you pray you tell God nothing which before he knew not better than you But you tell him that in confession and petition which he will hear from your own mouths before he will judge you meet for the mercies which you are to pray for In summ pray because you believe that praying Believers shall have the promised blessing And believe particularly and absolutely that you shall have that promised blessing through Christ because you are praying Believers and therefore the persons to whom it is promised CHAP. XXIII How to live by Faith towards Children and other Relations Direct 1. BElieve Gods Promises made to Believers and their seed of which I have written at large in my treatise of Infant-baptism And labour to understand how far thoâ—e promises extend both as to the persons and the blessings There was never an age of the world in which God did not distinguish the holy seed even Believers and their Children from the rest of the world and take them as those that were specially in his Covenant Direct 2. Let not your conceits of the bare birth-priviledge make you omit your serious solemn and believing Dedication of them unto God and entering them into his Covenant For the reason why your seed is called Holy and in a better case than the seed of Infidels is not meerly because they are the off-spring of your bodies and have their natures from you much less as deriving any grace or vertue from you by generation But because you are persons your selves who have dedicated your selves with all that you have absolutely to God by Christ And they being your own and therefore at your disposal your wills are taken for their wills so far as you act in their names and on their behalf And therefore when you dedicate them to God you do but that which you have both power and command to do And therefore God accepteth what you so dedicate to him And Baptism is the regular way in which this dedication should be solemnly made But if through the want of a Minister or water or time this be not done your believing dedication of your child to God without Baptism shall be accepted For it is the substance and not the sign the will and not the water which God requireth in this case Quest But what then shall we think of the children of godly Anabaptists whose Judgement is against such dedication Answ Many whose Judgement is against baptizing them is not against an offering or dedicating them to God And those who think that they are not allowed solemnly to enter them into Covenant with God yet really do that which is the same thing For they cannot be imagined to be unwilling to dedicate them to God to the utmost of that interest and power which they understand that God hath given them and doubtless they most earnestly desire that according to their capacity they may be the children of God and God will be their God in Christ And this vertual dedication seemeth to be the principal requisite condition But yet as the unbaptized are ordinarily without the visible Church and its priviledges so if any be so blind as neither explicitely nor vertually to dedicate their seed to God I know no promise of their childrens salvation any more than of the seed of Infidels Direct 3. If the children of true Christians dedicated by the Parents will to God through Christ shall die before they come to the use of reason the Parents have no cause to doubt of their salvation It is the conclusion of the Synod of Dort in Artic. 1. And the reason is this If the Parent and child be in the same Covenant then if that Covenant pardon and adopt the Parent it doth pardon and adopt the child But the Parent and child are in the same Covenant Therefore c. God hath but one Covenant on his part which is sealed by baptism as I have proved at large to Mr. Blake Indeed some are only externally in Covenant with him on their part that is they did covenant only with the tongue and not the heart And consequently God is no further in covenant with them than to allow and command his Ministers to receive them into the Visible Church and give them its priviledges and is not as a Promiser in Covenant with them at all himself either for inward or for outward blessings He hath not one Covenant which giveth outward and another which giveth inward blessings And it is here supposed that the only condition prerequisite on the Infants part that he may have right to this Covenant and its blessings is that he be the seed of a true Believer and dedicated in Covenant to God by the Parents will or act Actual Faith is not prerequired Seminal grace may be inherent but 1. Not known to the Baptizer 2. Nor prerequired as a condition but liker to be given by vertue of the Covenant Nothing else therefore being prerequisite as a condition it followeth that as the Parents dedicating themselves to God if baptized at age is the condition of their certain title to the present blessings of the Covenant viz. that God be their Father Christ their Saviour and the Spirit in Covenant to operate in them to sanctification and their sins are all pardoned and they are heirs of Heaven even so upon the Parents dedication of their children to God they have right to the same blessings else why do we baptize them seeing Baptism in the true nature and use of it is a solemn dedicating them to God in that same Covenant and a solemn investing them in the relations and rights of that same pardoning Covenant and not in any other I do not say that all baptized Infants so dying are saved be they the children of Infidels or Heathens and remaining their true propriety nor those that are offered and baptized never so wrongfully or hypocritically nor will I stay to dispute for what I have asserted But 1. I exhort Christians believingly to dedicate their children in Covenant with God in Christ And 2. To believe that if they so dye that Covenant of Christ forbiddeth them to doubt of their salvation Direct 4. Let your Duty be answerable to your hope And do not only pray for your childrens
them as to all others or as to the most Direct 9. Love is our spiritual health and Selfishness is our sickness sin and death When we fell from the Love of God to our selves we fell also from the Love of others to our selves The individuate creature was contracted in himself and all together set upon Propriety and forgot his relations to God and man And when grace destroyeth this selfish privateness of spirit it setteth us again in love with God and man together and the better any man is the more publick spirit he is of and the less dâ—fference he maketh between his neighbours interest and his own when God and his interest make not a difference And this is to Love our neighbour as our selves that is without the vice of partial selfishness not setting up our own interest against his but equally measuring both by Gods and referring them thereunto Levit. 19.18 34. Matth. 19.19 Gal. 15.4 Direct 10. Remember that loving others as our selves is our own interest and benefit as well as our duty And a notable instance it is how much our duty is our own interest and good and how merciful God is in his strictest Laws As the Love of God is Heaven it self and sinners that love him not do damn themselves and put themselves from Heaven and happiness and to pardon them is to sanctifie them even so it is an unspeakable loss and misery which sinners draw upon themselves by not loving their neighbours as themselves but only in a subordination to themselves and for their proper private ends I pray you mark but these few particular instances 1. If I love my neighbour as my self my very love is my delight and ease The form of Love consisteth in complacency or pleasedness and therefore it must needs be pleasant to every one that useth it However bad Love hath bitter fruits And whenever wrath or envy or hatred comes instead of Love it is my sickness I feel my self diseased by it 2. If I love others others will love me They are scarce free to do otherwise You may almost constrain any man to love you if you love him heartily and shew it plainly and were within his view to make him see it All men love a loving nature but especially if they be loved by such themselves 3. If I love my neighbour as my self to do good to him will be as easie and pleasant as to my self I can ride and run and labour contentedly for my self I can sloop to the most sordid employment for my self And so I should as easily do for others Whereas want of Love doth make all tedious that I do and maketh my duty a continual burden and too often tempts me to omit it Love made both Christ and his Apostles to do so much for souls with ease and pleasure which else they could not have undergone John 15.13.9 2 Cor. 12.15 Ephes 3.17 5.2 Col. 2.2 4. If I love my neighbour as my self I can as easily suffer any thing from him as from my self I can easily bear that in my self as to sight or smell the loathsomest sores or ulcers which others cannot bear I am easily brought to forgive my self and to forbear self-hurting and self-revenge and so should I do to others if I thus loved them And then how easie would my life be among all the injuries of the world 5. If I loved my neighbour as my self if my flesh did want my mind which is my self could never be in want Because all that my neighbours have is mine as to my comfort and content My house is homely but my neighbours is comely and convenient and to my mind that is as comfortable as if it were my own My Land is small but my neighbours is large my grounds are barren but my neighbours fruitful my corn is bad but his proves good my cattel die or prosper not but his do well I am low and despicable and no man careth for me but others are Lords and Princes and honourable and if I love them as my self their corn their cattel their houses and lands their Kingdoms and honours are as much my comfort as if they were my own I know these are Paradoxes to dapraved selfish nature but thus it would be if Love were perfect and thus it is in that measure that we love And should that duty be taken for a burden which as to my comfort maketh all the wealth and honour and Kingdoms of others to be my own Obj. If you love your neighbours as your selves you must mourn with them that mourn and all the calamities and sorrows of the world must be yours which will overcome your joyes Ans 1. I am not to sorrow as much as they do sorrow but as much as they rationally ought to do And men are not to think that a loving correction which worketh for their good and salvation is worse than the snares of prosperity The brother of high degree must rejoyce when he is made low as well as the brother of low degree must rejoyce when he is exalted Jam 19.10 And why should that be my sorrow which is his benefit and should be his joy If Paul and Silas sing in the stocks why should not I sing with them Patience and rejoycing are the duty of all Believers in affliction 2. The mercies and happiness of every one that feareth God is far more than his misery Therefore his joy and gratitude should be more than his sorrows and complaints If a mans tooth do ach and all the rest of his body be well should not he and I be more thankful for the health of all the rest than troubled for a tooth A Believer hath alwaies the Spirit of God and a part in Christ and the pardon of sin and a right to Heaven And then how much greater should his joy be than his sorrows and mine also on his behalf 3. The Goodness and Love of God is manifested to the world more abundantly than his justice and severity We know of no afflicted Saints but on this spot of earth And we know of no damned ones but Devils and wicked men But we know that the worlds above us are incomparably more vast than this and that the glory of the celestial Spirits is far greater than our sufferings and sorrows here Therefore our joy which Love procureth should be a thousand-fold greater than our sorrows 4. And as for the wicked as the consequent Will of God layeth by compassion so consequently considering them as the obstinate final refusers of grace they are not those neighbours whom we are bound to love as our selves For they are enemies to God and deprived of his Image and therefore our obligations to mourn for them are abated as Samuels for Saul when he knew that God had rejected him 1 Sam. 15.35 16.1 And we are obliged to rejoyce in the declarations of the Justice and Holiness of God and the universal benefit which redoundeth from his Judgments Rev. 18.20
fully shew so also shall the Saints And it is not likely that this is wholly deferred till the resurrection but as they have a Glory before that with Christ and his Angels so they have now their part in this Superintendency before though both will be greater at the Resurrection If any say what use will there be of our superiority after the world is destroyed I answer 1. The Apostle Peter plainly telleth us though some would force his words into the dark that we according to his promise expect a new Heaven and a new Earth in which dwelleth righteousness And the Creation groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God Rom. 8.21 And the Heavens must contain Christ till the times of Restitution of all things which God hath spoken by the mouth of all his holy Prophets since the world began Acts 3.21 2. And he that said the Saints shall judge the Angels seemeth so intimate that the Devils with the wicked will be in a state of subjection or servitude to them hereafter Certain it is that Michael and his Angels shall be the conquerours of the Dragon and his Angels Rev. 12.7 9. And that the Serpents head shall be bruised by all the womans seed though chiefly by the Captain of our salvation But this shall now suffice concerning their employment 3. Behold also by Faith what the departed Saints are now enjoying And what is said of their place and work will tell you that They enjoy the fight of their glorified Head Joh. 17.24 They are with him in Paradise and therefore also enjoy the sight of the Glory of God Being absent from the body they are present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5.8 They see not as in a glass as here they did but with open face They enjoy the pleasures of a more perfect knowledge of God and all his wondrous works than this world affords They are happy in their works in the perfect Love and Praises of God and they are filled with the pleasures of his Love to them This is their fruition 4. Let Faith also behold what evils they are delivered from 1. From a heavy drossy body which since the fall hath been an enemy a prison and fetters to the soul and therefore they here groaned to be better cloathed 2 Cor. 5.4 5. Rom. 8.21 2. From the worlds temptations 3. From wicked mens malice and persecutions 4. From sickness pain necessities labours weariness and all the troublesome effects of sin 5. From all troublesome passions desires anger discontent disappointments griefs and cares and fears of evil 6. Specially from the fears of Hell and the doubts of their own sincerity and salvation and from the desertions of God and the terrible sense of his displeasure 7. From the troubles and errours of ignorance and all our natural imperfection 8. From the fears of death which now is more painful than death it self 9. From the suggestions of Satan and his malicious vexing disquieting temptations and from his flattering allurements which are much worse 10. From the company and the tempting or grieving examples of ungodly men 11. From all sin it self and all our moral imperfections and defects 12. And finally from all danger and fear of ever losing the felicity they possess These are the immunities of the blessed 2. When Faith hath seen the Saints in Glory look back and think next what they were lately here on earth that it may help you to compare your state and theirs And here you will see 1. That they were lately in flesh as we now are They had bodies as drossie as vile as frail as burdensome as ours are It cost them as dear not as it doth the sensual but as it doth the temperate person now to keep them up a while for the service to which they were appointed 2. They had pains and sicknesses as we have The souls in Heaven have escaped thither from bodies which have lain as long tormented with the Stone with Stranguries Collicks Gripes Convulsions Consumptions Feavers and other the most tedious painful and lothsome diseases as sober men on earth now feel 3. Satan was as malicious to them as he is to us and to many of them as troublesome he haunted them with as ugly temptations to the greatest sins to unbelief and pride and despair and self-murder and horrid blasphemy as he doth any of us Yea he did so by Christ himself Matth. 4. 4. They met with as many allurements to worldliness sensuality pride and lust in the worlds deceiving baits and flatteries as now we do and were fain to proceed every step towards Heaven by conflict and conquest as we must do 5. They were in as many wants and straits in as poor and low and despised a state as we are now They were tempted to cares and murmurings and discontents through their wants and crosses as well as we 6. They have been in dangers and in fears and many a time at the brink of death before it came and put to cry to God for deliverance in the terrours and anguish of their hearts Their flesh and heart and friends have failed them and all the creatures cast them off 7. They have gone through far greater persecutions for the sake of Christ and righteousness than ever we did So persecuted they the Prophets before you Mat. 5.11 12. Which of the Prophets did not your Fathers kill and persecute even of them for whom their posterity erected Monuments Matth. 23.36 37 38. We have not resisted unto blood as many of them did Heb. 11. The same and greater afflictions which we have undergone were accomplished on our brethren in this world 1 Pet. 5.9 We go through the same conflict as they did Phil. 1.30 We are no more falsly nor odiously slandered in any of our sufferings than they were Mat. 5.11 12. 8. They were men of like passions as we are for so James saith even of Elias that was carryed to Heaven without our kind of death They had their ignorances uncertainties doubts mistakes their dark thoughts of God and that world where they now are Many of them knew as little of it till they saw it as we do now Many a fearful trembling hour many a thought that God had forsaken them and that the day of grace was past have many of them had as well as we 9. Yea they were imperfect in all their graces they had an imperfect faith an imperfect hope an imperfect Love to God and man and many an hour in such groans as ours now are O when shall we be saved from our darkness and unbelief when shall we better love the Lord 10. They had their actual sins also Though none that were regnant after conversion their obedience was imperfect as ours now is Many of their faults and falls are left on record for our warning There is not one humane soul in Heaven besides our Saviours that was not once a sinner They all came thither
sins and miseries in the presence of their Lord. Direct 5. When you have made these comparisons think next what an excellent benefit it will be to you to look thus believingly and frequently to the Saints that are gone before you into glory All these unspeakable benefits will follow it 1. It will much quicken and confirm our faith As we do the more easily trust the boat and boat-man when we see many thousand passengers safely landed by him And we easily trust the Physician when we see many thousands cured by him who were once in our case so it will greatly satisfie the soul against the suspicions and fears of unbelief when faith seeth all the glorified Saints that are actually saved by Christ already and have obtained all that we believe and seek Methinks I hear Henoch Joshua Abraham Peter Paul John Cyprian Macarius Augustine Melancthon Calvin Zanchius Rogers Bradford Hooper Jewel Grindal Vsher Hildersham Ames Dod Baines Bolton Gataker with thousands such as men standing on the further side of the river and calling to us that must come after them Fear not the depths or storms or streams trust boldly that vessel and that faithful Pilot we trusted him and none of us have miscarried but all of us are here landed safe We were once in storms and doubts and fears as you now are but it is our diffidence and not our confidence which proved our infirmity and shame Who would not boldly follow such a multitude of excellent persons who have sped so well 2. It will also much confirm our hope that is our glad expectation of the Crown when our apprehensions of it grow dull and slack and our feare do grow upon us and we are ready to question whether ever such a happiness will be our lot the sight of these that are now triumphing in the actual possession will banish despair and much revive us We cannot but think they were once as low and bad as I and had as many difficulties to overcome and why may not I then be as holy and as happy as they 3. Such a sight will greatly quicken our desires to attain their happiness and to go their way As when worldlings see the grandeur and honours and power of Great men as they are yet called it maketh them think how brave a life is this And as the sensual when they see their companions in the Tavern or Gaming-house or Play-house or the merry fool-house as Solomon accounteth it Eccles 7.4 do long to be with them and to partake of their beloved pleasure so when by faith we see the departed Saints in glory and think where our old acquaintance are and the multitudes of wise and holy souls that are gone before it will greatly stir up our sluggish desires and make us long for the same felicity and to be as near to God as they are 4. And it will do much to direct us in the way For we must follow them as they followed Christ As the history of the Wars of Alexander Caesar Tamerlane c. will teach men how to fight for temporal tyrannical domination so the history of the Saints do teach us how to fight against spiritual wickednesses and powers and how to take the prospering way It is easie there to find whether laziness or labour whether sensuality or spirituality hath alwaies been the way to Heaven Whether Saints were gluttons drunkards whoremongers riotous licentious and proud or temporate chaste mortified and humble whether the Saints were the scorners or the scorned the oppressors or the oppressed the persecutors or the persecuted the burdens or the blessings of the times they lived in When the world is divided about matters of Religion and every Party hath a several way for the Unity and the Reformation and the Communion of the Churches and the right Government Discipline and Worshiping of God how easie and safe is it in the main and in all things of necessity to look back and see which way it was that Peter and Paul did go to Heaven by and what terms they were on which their Union Communion Government Discipline and Worship were performed 5. The sight of blessed souls by faith will also increase the Resolution and Fortitude of the mind Faintness and pusilanimity seize upon us when we look only on the difficulties and dangers But when we see the thousands that have overcome them all by the same means which we are called to use it steeleth our courage and maketh us resolve to break through all When we think only how mortal our diseases are our hearts do fail us But when all that were cured of the very same do call to us and say Never fear there is no disease too hard for your Physician he hath cured us of the very same and cureth all that ever trust him and use his remedies This will embolden a fainting mind Therefore in the fore-cited text Heb. 6.12 It is said Be not slothful which there meaneth such as faint with despondency despair or fears but followers of them who by faith and patience inherit the promises When we look on the Saints tribulations for the faith we are apt to faint as some do that stand by another that is under the Surgeons hands Ephes 3.13 But when we see them in triumph it cureth our cowardize and it is they only that labour and faint not that are crowned and that reap in due season c. Rev. 2.3 Gal. 6.9 that is who faint not into cessation or so as to be overcome Do you think when the Israelites passed through the Red Sea that the Leaders had not the greatest tryal and that it was not an exceeding increase of their courage who came after in the rear when they saw most of their brethren safely passed through Look believingly upon the souls in Heaven and you will do or suffer any thing to follow them 6. And it will greatly provoke us to diligence in well doing Look up to your Brethren and you will mend your pace If a horse be going towards his Pasture he will go chearfully especially when he seeth his companions there It will make us pray hard and meditate studiously and work laboriously and watch diligently that we may be with Christ where our Brethren are and receive the end of our faith and labour 7. And to see our Brethren in Heaven before us will greatly help us to suffer for Christ and to be patient in any tribulation which befalleth us When we see them in glory we shall source stay to complain of the soulness or narrowness of the way but look before us and go on through all Or if the flesh do repine and our hearts begin to fail us it will make us lift up the hands which hang down and the feeble knees and make strait paths for our feet Heb. 12.12 13. and to gird up the loins of our minds and be sober and hope to the end 1 Pet. 1.13 When we look forward to the end of former
sufferers it will cause us to possess our souls in patience and to let it have its perfect work 8. It will much overcome the fears of death It is no small abatement of them that Cicero and such honest Heathens had to think of the thousands of their worthiest Ancestors and that they were to go the common way of all mankind But how much more may it encourage a Believer to think that he is not only to go the way of all the world through the gate of mortality but the way also which all Gods Saints have gone save Henoch and Elias who are now in Heaven Thus died all the Prophets and the holy men of God yea Jesus Christ himself before us that death might be conquered when it seemed to have conquered Heb. 2.14 9. It will do much to raise us from hypocritical reserves and temporizings and from lukewarmness and resting in low degrees When our conversation is with the holy ones above we shall have upon our minds an ambition to attain to their degrees and to do Gods will on Earth as it is done in Heaven It will much encline us to the highest and noblest sort of duty which the spirits of the just made perfect do perform He that converseth only with his own sad tempted sinful heart and with tempted faulty mourning Christians may learn to confess and mourn and weep and pray But he that also converseth with glorified spirits will be so rapt up with their heavenly melody that he will learn and long to love God more fervently to praise him more chearfully and to give him thanks more abundantly for his mercies Heaven-work is learnt by a heavenly mind in the use of a heavenly conversation 10. And to look much at our Brethren that are now in glory will also fill our lives with pleasures and make our Religion our continual joy and will help us to a foretaste of Heaven on Earth For we shall as it were take our selves to be almost with then and their melodies will be our delight and love to them will make their joyes to be our own And though it is the sight of God and our Mediatour by faith which must be our chiefest hope and joy yet while we are here men in flesh yea more when we have laid by flesh and blood the presence of all the blessed spirits and heavenly host will be a great though subordinate part of our heavenly felicity and delight Direct 6. When you have gone thus far consider what obligations lie upon you to converse by Faith with your Brethren in Heaven and to look up frequently to their state and work 1. Your necessary Love to God requireth it For as your Love to him must be shewed by your loving his Image in your Brethren so it requireth you to love them most that are likest God or else you love them not for his likeness And it requireth you to love them most whom God loveth most and that is those that are likest him and nearest him And he that loveth God in his creatures and loveth any one truly for God must love the Angels and perfected Spirits best because they love him best and are nearest him and likest to him and are also most beloved by him 2. The common nature of Love and Humanity requireth it For it requireth us to love that best which is best as is said But the blessed ones in Heaven are better than any here on Earth and therefore should be better loved 3. The nature of our Love to the Saints requireth it For if we love them as Saints and Godly we shall love those most that are most holy and that is the blessed ones above And if we love them most we shall certainly mind them and converse with them by Faith and not be voluntary strangers to them 4. It is part of that heavenly conversation which is commended to us Phil. 3.20 21. When it is said that our conversation is in Heaven it signifieth that our Burgeship is there and our interest and great concerns are there and our dwelling is there and our trading and thriving business is there and for it and our friends and fellow-citizens and those that we daily trade and converse with in love and familiarity are there even as our God and our Head and our Inheritance is there He never knew a heavenly conversation that pretending there to know God alone hath no converse with his holy ones that attend him and doth not live as a member of their society in the City of God that doth not with some delight behold their holiness unity and order c. 5. The honouring of God and our Redeemer doth require it that we daily converse with the Saints in Heaven Because it is in them that God is seen in the greatest glory of his Love and it is in them that the Power and Efficacy and Love of our dear Redeemer most appeareth You judge now of the Father by his Children and of the Physician by his Patients and of the Builder by the House and of the Captain by his Victories And if you see no better children of God than such childish crying feeble froward diseased burdensome ones as we are you will rob him of the chief of this his honour And if you look at none of the Patients of our Saviour but such lame and languid pained groaning diseased half-cured ones as we you will rob him of the glory of his skill and cures And if you look but to such an imperfect broken fabrick as the Church on Earth you will dishonour the Builder And if you look to no other Victories of Christ and his Spirit but what is made in this confused dark and bedlam world you will be tempted to dishonour his conduct and his conquests But if you will look to his Children in Heaven who are perfected in his Love and Likeness and to Christs Patients which are there perfectly cured and to his Building in the heavenly unity and glory and to all his Victories as there compleat then you will give him the glory which is his due Rev. 21. 22. 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. 6. So also you will dishonour Religion and the Church if you converse not with the Saints above For the reasons last given For you will judge of the Church and of Religion by such imperfect things as here you see where men turn Religion to the service of their worldly interests and ends and fight for ambition faction tyranny usurpation and worldly lusts under the sacred names of Religion and the Church and for the pretended Love of Christ and one another do tear the Church into shreds and worry and hunt and devour one another You will be tempted to be Infidels if you do not here converse with the sincere humble holy charitable Christians and look up to Heaven to perfect souls And then you will see a Church that is truly amiable holy unanimous and glorious in perfect Love 7. If you look not up to
with very tenderly and cautelously 1. Our Praises of them must be sober and wary and such as are in a plain tendency to the praises of God and godliness lest before we are aware we kindle superstition in the minds of the auditors Praise them we may but with a care of the manner measure and consequents and with a due respect to the praise of God 2. Our Prayers for the Resurrection of their bodies and their solemn Justification at the day of Judgment though lawful in it self yet must be done with very great caution And it is fitter that we pray together in general for the Resurrection of All the members of Christ both those that are dead and those that will be than to fix upon the dead distinctly because as we have no precept or example for it in the Scriptures so the minds of the hearers if it be publick may easily abuse our example to errour and excess 3. Our thankfulness to them for their love and benefits must be very cautelously expressed Not by a verbal thanksgiving to them of whom we are uncertain when they hear us Nor yet in any such language as tendeth to encroach upon the honour of our great Benefactor nor to acknowledge any more as from them than as the Ministers of Christ 4. And in our acknowledgements of their general prayers for the Church we must take heed of feigning them to be more particular than we can prove that they are 5. And we must take heed of all such Rhetorical Prosopopeia's as tend to delude the hearers or the readers as if we would draw them to believe the presence and audience of those spirits which we intend not to express 6. And our honouring of the memory of their Martyrdom or Holiness must be so cautelous that it tend not to Idolatry or Superstition It is lawful in it self to keep the relicks of a Saint or a Friend and to keep a solemn thankful memorial of Gods mercy to his Church in her most excellent helpers and successfullest instruments of her good But in a time when these are commonly abused to superstition the consequents may make that evil which in other circumstances might be good When the Primitive Pastors led their people sometimes to the places where their neighbours suffered Martyrdom for Christ and there praised God for their praised constancy to encourage the people and engage themselves to be true to Christ and die as constantly as others did this then had good effects and if it had been used more cautelously had been laudable But they did not foresee the great inconveniencies of relicks pilgrimages prayers to Saints c. which in after-ages it introduced And now it must be with very great caution indeed if we will imitate them 7. To pray to God to hear their general prayers for the Church such as those mentioned Rev. 6.9 10. doth intimate no false doctrine that I know of But it is a practice that hath danger and no Scripture precept or example to encourage it nor solid reason that I remember And if God would have had us used it it 's like he would have made it known II. Affirmatively Our converse with those in Heaven consisteth in all these parts 1. We must acknowledge our Relation to them and not think that they are nothing to us 2. We must not forget them but see them by faith and take it as part of our daily business to have some daily conversation with them 3. We must love them with a peculiar love even better than we love the godly upon earth because they are better and liker unto God and love him more and are more beloved by him 4. We must specially rejoyce that God is glorified in and by them and look often to them as the more illustrious representers of the Divine Perfections than any of the Saints on Earth 5. We must greatly rejoyce in their own felicity and glory even as if it were our own If we did see with our eyes our old dear friend as Lazarus in Abraham's bosome triumphing now in the glory of the blessed we could not chuse but be daily very glad on their behalf to see and think O what felicity do my friends enjoy And faith should make it in some measure to you as if you saw it 6. We must have a grateful sense in our minds of their love to us and must give God thanks for his Angels ministrations for us For doubtless as they are wiser and better than any of our friends on earth so they have a better a purer and diviner kind of Love to us than these below have And the Angels disdain not to be Christs servants for our good yea for our salvation Heb. 1.14 For are they not all ministring spirits sent forth to minister for them who shall be heirs of salvation Matth. 18.10 Their Angels alwaies behold the face of my Father in Heaven Psal 34.7 The Angel of the Lord campeth round about them that fear him and delivereth them Psal 91.11 He shall give his Angels charge over thee to keep thee in all thy waies They shall bear thee up in their hands lest thou dash thy foot against a stone Luke 15.10 There is joy in the presence of the Angels of God over one sinner that repenteth Luke 16.22 The beggar dyed and was carryed by Angels into Abrahams bosome Though the great Love is that of God our Creator Redeemer and Sanctifier and our chiefest gratitude is due to him even for the benefit which we have by any of his creatures yet love and mental thankfulness is due to the rational creatures which are his voluntary instruments because they do what they do out of real love to us otherwise we should owe thankfulness to none either benefactor friend or parents 7. And our believing converse with the blessed spirits must make us earnestly desire to be like them even to be as like them here as possibly we may and to be with them that we may be perfect as they are perfect We must long to be near God as they are and to know him and love him as they do and this holy ambition is well pleasing to God Though we must not desire to be as God we must desire to know and love him perfectly 8. And hence we must proceed to a sober imitation of them as they are now employed in Heaven Not in those particulars wherein their case and ours differ as to thank God for that conquest which they have made and that glory which they do possess c. But in all those duties which in some degree belong to us as well as them For instance Ask what kind of Religion is likest to that which is in Heaven Is it studying bare words and disputing about things unprofitable or contending and quarrelling about precedency preheminence or domination Or is it not rather the clearest knowledge and the ferventest Love of God and all his holy ones and the fullest content delight and rest
converse and our comfort Will you converse with none but ignorant selfish worldly sinners Are you more contemptuous of the heavenly inhabitants than the Gentleman in hell torments was Luke 16.26 27. that thought one from the dead though it had been but a beggar would have been reverenced even by his sensual brethren on earth so far as to have perswaded them unto saving Repentance I tell you a dead mans skull is oft-times a more profitable companion than most that you shall converse with in the common world The dust of your departed friends and the clay that corps are turned into is a good medicine for those eyes that are blinded with the dust of worldly vanities Much more should you keep your acquaintance with the soul which may for all the distance be perhaps more useful to you than it was in the flesh Alas how carnally and coldly or seldom do most Professors look at their Brethren and at the Angelical hosts that are above They long for our conversion and mind our great concernments and rejoyce in our felicity and shall we be so swinishly ungrateful as seldom to look up and remember their high and blessed state Many think that they have no more business with their deceased friends than to see them decently interred and to mourn over them as if their removal were their loss or to grieve for our own loss when we perceive their places empty but we scarce look up after them with an eye of faith much less do we daily maintain our communion with them in Heaven When Christ was taken up his Disciples gazed after him Act. 1.10 Stephen looked up stedfastly into Heaven and saw Christ sitting at the right hand of God Acts 7.55 And how seldome how slightly do we look up either to Jesus his Angels or his Saints I tell you Sirs you have not done with your friends when you have buryed their flesh They have left you their holy examples They are entered before you into rest You are hastening after them and must be quickly with them if you are true Believers You must see them every day by faith When you look to Christ you must look to them as his beloved friends entertained by him in his family of glory When you look up to Heaven remember that they are there When you think of coming thither remember that you must there meet them You must honour their memories more than you did on earth because they are more honourable being more honoured of God You must love them better than you did when they were on earth because they are better and so more lovely You must rejoyce much more for their felicity than you did whilest they were on earth because they are incomparably more happy than they were Either you believe this or you do not If you do not believe that the dead are blessed that die in the Lord and rest from their labours and are with Christ in Paradise why do you seem Christians If you do believe it why do you not more rejoyce with your glorified friends than you would have done if they had been advanced to the greatest honours in the world It is the natural duty of friends to mourn with them that mourn and to rejoyce with them that rejoyce and if one member be honoured or dishonoured the rest of the body are accordingly affected Do not your sorrows then instead of joyes tell all men that you believe that your friends are gone to sorrow and not to joy If not you are very selfish or inconsiderate Direct 10. Lastly Let not your aversation to Popery turn to a factiâ—us partial forsaking of Gods Truth and your own duty and consolation in this point Abundance of Christians have taken up opinions in Religion upon the love and honour of the parties that they took them of and being possessed with a just dislike of Popery in the main they suspect and cast away not a few great truths and duties upon a false information that they are parts of Popery It hath grieved 〈…〉 â—han once to hear religious persons come from heariâ—g 〈◊〉 Ministers with disdain and censure saying that they prayed for the dead and all their proof was that Thanksgiving is a part of prayer but they gave God thanks for the glorification of the spirits of the Just therefore they prayed for them And so have they argued because they have read the 1 Cor. 15. at the grave or because they have preached a Funeral Sermon while the Corpse was present or because they prayed then for themselves or for the Church Alas for the childish ignorance and pievishness and foolish wranglings of many Christians who think they are better than their neighbours How much is Christs family dishonoured by his silly froward children And they will not be instructed by their friends and therefore they are posted up and openly reproached by their enemies Have Angels or heavenly Saints deserved so ill of God or us that we should be so shy of their communion Are they nothing to us Have we nothing to do with them Have we cause to be ashamed of them Is their honour any dishonour to God or us if it be no more than what is their due Can we give so much love respect and honour to Magistrates Ministers and Friends on earth imperfect sinful troublesome mortals and shall we think that all is idolatrous or cast away which is given to them that so far excel us Is it your design to make Heaven either contemptible or strange to men on earth Or would you perswade the world that the souls of the Saints are not immortal but perish as the bruits Or that there is no Heaven Or that God is there alone without any company Are so many fond of the opinion of a Personal Reign on Earth for Christ with his holy ones and yet is it Popery so much as to speak honourably and joyfully of the Saints in Heaven My Brethren these things declare you yet to be too dark too factious and too carnal and to hold the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ with respect to parties sides and persons Christ taketh not his Saints as strangers to him He that judgeth men as they love and use him in the least of his Brethren upon Earth will not so soon censure and quarrel with us as the Sectary will do for loving and honouring him in his Saints in Heaven for it is his will and prayer that they be with him where he is to behold his glory John 12.26 17.24 And he will come with his holy Angels to be glorified in his Saints who shall judge the world and Angels and to be admired in all them that do now believe 2 Thes 1.10 11 12. CHAP. XXVII How to receive the Sentence of Death and how to die by Faith HAving said so much of this elsewhere in my Books called A Believers last work The last Enemy My Christian Directory Treatise of Self-denyal c. I shall be here but
very brief I. For the first Case before sickness cometh Direct 1. Be sure that you settle your Belief of the life to come that your Faith may not fail Direct 2. Expect Death as seriously all your life as wise Believers are obliged to do That is as men that are alwaies sure to die as men that are never sure to live a moment longer as men that are sure that life will be short and death is not far off and as foreseeing what it is to die of what eternal consequence and what will then appear to be necessary to your safe and to your comfortable change Direct 3. All your daies habituate your souls to believing sweet enlarged thoughts of the infinite Goodness and Love of God to whom you go and with whom you hope to live for ever Direct 4. Dwell in the studies of a crucified and glorified Christ who is the way the truth and life who must be your hope in life and death Ephes 3.17 18 19. Direct 5. Keep clear your evidences of your right to Christ and all his Promises by keeping grace or the heavenly nature in life activity and increase 2 Pet. 1.10 2 Cor. 13.5 John 15 1 c. 1 John 3. Direct 6. Consider often of the possession which your nature in Christ hath already of Heaven and how highly it is advanced and how near his relation is and how dear his love is to his weakest members upon earth And that as souls in Heaven have an inclination and desire to communicate their own felicity to their bodies so hath Christ as to his body the Church John 17.24 Ephes 5.25 27 c. Direct 7. Look to the Heavenly Host and those who have lived before you or with you in the flesh to make the thoughts of Heaven the more familiar to you as in the former chapter Direct 8. Improve all Afflictions yea the plague of sin it self to make you weary of this world and willing to be gone to Christ Rom. 7. Direct 9. Be much with God in Prayer Meditation and other heart-raising duties that you may not by strangeness to him be dismayed Direct 10. Live not in the guilt of any wilful sin nor in any slothful neglect of duty lest guilt breed terrour and make you fly from God your Judge But especially study to redeem your time and to do all the good you can iâ— the world and to live as totally devoted to God as conscious that you live to no carnal interest but desire to serve him with all you have and your consciences testimony of this will abundantly take off the terrours of death whatever any erroneous ones may say to the contrary for fear of being guilty of conceits of merit A fruitful life is a great preparative for death 2 Tim. 4.8 2 Cor. 1.12 c. Direct 11. Fetch from Heaven the comforts which you live upon through all your life And when you have truly learned to live more upon the comforts of believed glory than upon any pictures or hopes below then you will be able to die in and for those comforts Matth. 6.20 21. Col. 3.1 4. Phil. 3.20 21. 1 Thes 4.18 Phil. 1.21 23. Direct 12. The Knowledge and Love of God in Christ is the beginning or foretaste of Heaven John 17.3 1 Cor. 13. c. and the foretastes are excellent preparations Therefore still remember that all that you do in the world for the getting and exercising the true Knowledge and Love of God in Christ so much you do for the foretastes and best preparations for Heaven 1 Cor. 8.3 If any man love God the same is known of him with approbation and love II. In the time of sickness and near to death Direct 1. Let your first work when God seemeth to call you away be to renew a diligent search of your hearts and lives and to see lest in either of them there should be any sin which is not truly hated and repented of Though this must be done through all your lives yet with an extraordinary care and diligence when you are like to come so speedily to your tryal For it is only to Repenting Believers that the Covenant of Grace doth pardon sin And the impenitent have no right to pardon Though for ordinary failings which are forgotten and for sins which you are willing to know and remember but cannot a general Repentance will be accepted as when you pray God to shew you the sins which you see not and to forgive those which you cannot remember or find out Yet those which you know must be particularly repented of And Repentance is a remembring duty and will hardly forget any great and heinous sins which are known to be sins indeed If your Repentance be then to begin alas it is high time to begin it And though if it be sound it will be saving that is If it be such as would settle you in a truly godly life if you should recover yet you will hardly have any assurance of salvation or such comfort in it as is desirable to dying man Because you will very hardly know whether it come from true conversion and contain a Love to God and Godliness or whether it be only the fruit of fear and would come to nothing if you were restored to health But he that hath truly repented heretofore and lived in uprightness towards God and man and hath nothing to do but to discern his sincerity and to exercise a special Repentance for some late or special sins or to do that again which he hath done unfeignedly before will much more easily get the assurance and comfort of his forgiveness and salvation Direct 2. Renew your sense of the Vanity of this world Which at such a time one would think should be very easie to do When you see that you are near an end of all your pleasures and have had all except a grave to rot in that ever this world willd o for you may you not easily then see whether the godly or the worldly be the wiser and the happier man And what it is that the life of man should be spent in seeeking after Matth. 6.33 Isa 55.1 2 3. Eccles 7.3 4 5 6. Direct 3. Remember what Flesh is and what it hath been to you that you may not be too loth to lay it down Of the dust it was made and to the dust it must return Corruption is your Father and the Worm is your Mother and your Sister Job 17.14 Drought and beat consume the Snow-waters so doth the grave those which have sinned The womb shall forget him the Worm shall feed sweetly on him Job 24.20 Flesh and blood shall not inherit the Kingdom of God but this mortal must put on immortality by being made a spiritual body 1 Cor. 15. And this flesh hath cost you so dear to carry it about so much care and labour to provide it food to repair that which daily vanisheth away and so many weary painful hours and so many fearful
thoughts of dying that methinks you should quietly resign it to the grave which hath been so long calling for it Especially considering what it hath done by the temptations of a vitiated appetite and sense against your souls into how many sins it hath drawn you and what grief and shame it hath procured you and what assurance and heavenly pleasures it hath hindered and how many repentings and purposes and promises it hath frustrated or undone Methinks we should conceive that we have long enough dwelt in such an habitation Direct 4. Foresee by Faith the resurrection of the body when it shall be raised a spiritual body unto Glory and shall be no more an enemy to the soul Direct 5. Renew your familiarity with the blessed ones above Remember that the great Army of God the souls of the just from Adam till now are all got safe through this Red Sea and are triumphing in Heaven already and that it is but a few straglers in the end of the world that are left behind And which part then should you desire to be with And remember how ready those Angels which rejoyced at your conversion are to be your Convoy unto Christ Luke 16.23 Direct 6. But especially think with greatest confidence and delight that Jesus your Head is entred into the Heavens before you and is making intercession for you and is preparing you a place and loveth your company and will not lose it You shall find him ready to receive your souls and present them spotless unto God as the fruit of his mediation He will have you be with him to behold his glory and none shall take you out of his hands Let his Love therefore draw up your desires and stablish your hearts in confidence and rest Direct 7. Remember that all that are living must come after you and how quickly their turn will come and would you wish to be exempt from death alone which the whole world below must needs submit to Direct 8. Think still of the Resurrection of Christ your Head that you may see that death is a conquered thing and what a pledge you have of a life to come Direct 9. Dwell still in the believing fore thoughts of the blessedness of the life to which you go as it is your personal perfection and the perfect Love and fruition of God with his perfect joyous praise Remember still what it is to see and know the Lord and all things else in him which are fit for us to know And labour to revive your Love to God and then you revive your desires and preparations Direct 10. Give up your selves wholly to the Will of God and think how much better it is for upright Souls to be in Gods hand than in your own The Will of God is the first and last the Original and End of all the creatures Besides the Will of Infinite Goodness there is no final Rest for humane souls But mans will is the Alpha and Omega the beginning or first efficient and the ultimate end of all obliquity and sin Be bold then and thankful in your approach to God remembring how much more safe and comfortable it is to be for life and death at Gods disposal than our own Bâ—sides these read the Directions against the fear of death in my Book of Self-denyal and what is said in my Saints Rest and other the Treatises before mentioned CHAP. XXVIII How by Faith to look aright to the Coming of Jesus Christ in Glory BEcause I have said so much of this also in my Saints Rest and in many other Treatises I will now pass it over with these brief Directions Direct 1. Delude not your souls nor corrupt your faith and hope by placing Christs Kingdom in things too low or that are utterly uncertain Think not so carnally of the second coming of Christ as the Jews did of the first who looked for an earthly Kingdom and despised the spiritual and heavenly And make not the unknown time or other circumstances of his coming to be to you as the certain and necessary things lest you do as many of those called Millenaries or Fifth-Monarchy men among us who have turned the doctrine of Christian hope into an outragious fury to bring Christ down before his time and to make themselves Rulers in the world that they might presently reign under the name of the Reign of Christ and have by seditious rebellious railing at Christs Ministers and hating those that are not of their mind done much to promote the Kingdom of Satan while they cryed up nothing but the Kingdom of Christ Direct 2. Do all that you can in this day of grace to promote Christs present Kingdom in the world and that will prove your best preparation for his glorious coming To that end labour with all your might to set up Life and Light and Love abhorring Hypocrisie Ignorance and Vncharitableness turn not Religion into a ceremony carkass or dead Imagery or Form Nor yet into Darkness Errour or a humane wandering distracting maze Nor into selfish proud censorious faction Build not Christs Kingdom as the Devil would do by hypocritical dead shews or by putting out his Lights or by schism division hatred and strife Read James 3. Direct 3. Yet leave not out of your faith and hope any certain part of Christs glorious Kingdom We know that we shall for ever be with the Lord and in the presence of the Father in heavenly glory and withall that we shall be in the New Jerusalem and that there shall be a new Heaven and a new Earth in which shall dwell righteousness and that we shall judge the Angels and the world And if we know not the circumstances of all these parts let not therefore any of them be denyed 1 Thes 4.11 2 Cor. 5.1 3 8. Rev. 20. 22. 2 Pet. 3.13 Direct 4. Think what a day of Glory it will be to Jesus Christ Matth. 25.31 O how different from his state of humiliation He will not come again to be despised spit on buffeted blasphemed and crucified Pilate and Herod must be arraigned at his bar it is the marriage-day of the Lamb a day appointed for his glory Rev. 21 22. Direct 5. Think what a day of honour it will be to God the Father how his Truth will be vindicated his Love and Justice gloriously demonstrated Matth. 25. 2 Thes 1.8 9. Direct 6. Think what a day it will be to all the children of God to see their Lord when he purposely cometh to be admired and glorified in them 2 Thes 1.11 12. To see him in whom they have believed whom they loved and longed for 2 Pet. 3.11 12 13. 1 Pet. 1.8 To see him who is their dearest Head and Lord who will justifie them before all the world and sentence them to life eternal To see the day in which they must receive the end of all their faith and hope their prayers labours and patience to the full 1 Pet. 1.8 9. Rev. 2 3.
to joyn in consort with all these in those seraphick praises which are harmoniously sounded forth continually through all the intellectual world in the greatest fervours of perfect Love and the constant raptures of perfect Joy in the fullest intuition of the glory of the Eternal God and the glorified humanity of your Redeemer and the glory of the celestial world and society and under the streams of Infinite Life and Light and Love poured forth upon you to feed all this to all Eternity And all this in so near and sweet an union with the glorified ones who are the body and Spouse of Christ that it shall be all as one Praise one Love one Joy in all O for a more lively and quick-sighted faith to foresee this day in some measure as affectingly as we shall then see it Alas my Lord is this dark prospect all that I must here hope for Is this dull and dreaming and amazing apprehension all that I shall reach to here Is this sensless heart this despondent mind these drowsie desires the best that I must here employ in the contemplation of so high a glory Must I come in such a sleepy state to God and go as in a dream to the beatifical vision I am ashamed and confounded to find my soul alas so dark so dead so low so unsuitable to such a day and state even whilest I am daily looking towards it and whilest I am daily talking of it and perswading others to higher apprehensions than I can reach my self and even whilest I am writing of it and attempting to draw a Map of Heaven for the consolation of my self and fellow-believers Thou hast convinced my Reason of the truth of thy predictions and of the certain futurity of that glorious day And yet how little do my affections stir and how unanswerable are my joyes and my desires to those convictions when the light of my understanding should cure the deadness of my heart alas this deadness rather extinguisheth that light and cherisheth temptations to unbelief and my faith and reason and knowledge are as it were asleep and useless for want of that Life which should awaken them unto exercise and use Awakened Reason serveth Faith and is alwaies on thy side But sleepy Reason in the gleams of prosperity is ready to give place to flesh and fancy and hath a thousand distracted incoherent dreams O now reveal thy Power thy Truth thy Love and Goodness effectually to my soul and then I shall wait with love and longing for the revelation of thy Glory Thy inward heavenly powerful Light is kin to the glorious brightness of thy coming and will shew me that which books and talk only without thy Spirit cannot shew Thy Kingdom in me and my daily faithful subjection to thy Government there must prepare me for the glorious endless Kingdom If now thou wouldest pour out thy Love upon my soul it would flame up towards thee and long to meet thee and think with daily pleasure on that day And my perfect Love would cast out that fear which maketh the thoughts of thy coming to be a torment O meet me now when my soul doth seek thee and secretly cry after thee that I may know thou wilt meet me with love and pitty at the last O turn not now thine ears from my requests For if thou receive me not now as thy humble supplicant how shall I hope that thou wilt receive me then And if thou wilt not hear me in the day of grace and visitation and in this time when thou mayest be found how can I hope that thou wilt hear me then when the door is shut and the seeking and finding time is past If thou cast me out of thy presence now and turn away thy face from my soul and my supplication as a loathed thing how can I then expect thy smiles or the vital embracements of thy glorifying Love or to be owned by thee before all the world with that cordial and consolatory Justification which may keep my conscience from becoming my Hell If thou permit my flesh and sense to conquer my faith and to turn away my love and desire from thee how shall I then expect that Joy that Heaven which consisteth in thy Love And if thou suffer this unstedfast heart to depart from thee now will it not be the forerunner of that dreadful doom Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not And if for the love of transitory vanity I now deny thee what can I then expect but to be finally denyed by thee Come Lord and dwell by thy Spirit in my soul that I may have something in me to take my part and may know that I shall dwell with thee for ever If now thou wilt make me thy temple and habitatâ—on and wilt dwell by faith and love within me I shall know thee by more than the hearing of the ear and thy last appearing will be less terrible to my thoughts Thou wilt be health to my soul when my body lyeth languishing in pain And when flesh and heart fail my failing heart will find reviving strength in thee And when the portion of worldlings is spent and at an end I shall find thee a never-ending portion Why wouldest thou come down from Heaven to Earth in the daies of thy voluntary humiliation but to bring down grace to dwell where God himself hath dwelt If the Eternal Word will dwell in flesh the Eternal Spirit will not disdain it whose dwelling is not by so close an union but by sweet unexpressible inoperations This world hath had the pledge of thy bodily presence when thou broughtest life and immortality to light O let my dark and fearful soul have the pledge of thy illuminating quickening comforting Spirit that life and immortality may be begun within me Thy word of promise is certain in it self but knowing our weakness thou wilt give us more Thy seal thy pledge thy earnest will not only confirm my faith as settling my doubting mind but it will also draw up my love and desire as suited to my intellectual appetite and will be a true foretaste of Heaven How oft have I gazed in the glass and yet overlookt or not been taken with the beauty of thy face But one drop of thy Love if it fall into my soul will fill it with the most fragrant and delectable odour and will be its life and joy and vigour I shall never know effectually what Heaven is till I know what it is to love thee and to be beloved by thee For what but Love will tell me what a life of Love is If I could love thee more ardently more absolutely more operatively I should quickly know and feel thy Love And O when I shall know that prosperous life and live in in the delicious entertainments of thy love and in the sweet and vigorous exercise of mine then I shall know the nature of Heaven the wisdom of believers and the happiness of enjoyers And then
foretaste will do more than foresight alone and will make me love the day of thy appearing and long to see thy glorious Love But alas this feeble sleeping Love doth threaten if not the thrusting of me out of doors for none but friends and hearty Lovers dwell with thee at least that I shall be set behind the door and be one of the lowest in thy Kingdom as I was in thy Love For if I have the least degree of Love I must needs have the least degree of Glory seeing that blessedness is Love it self And if I have the least in this life how can I hope to have proportionably with others the most in that I know that it is better to be a door-keeper in thy house than to reign in the Palaces of earthly sordid and polluting pleasures And that the least in thy Kingdom is greater than Emperours in the Kingdoms of darkness But how can I have faith indeed and not desire intuition or grace and not desire glory Or who can love thee truly and yet be contented to love thee but a little Or who ever tasted truly of thy Love that desired not the fulness of it If sincerity consist in the desire of Perfection and if mutual Love be heaven it self I am not sincere then if I desire not the highest place in Heaven which is suited to the measure of my natural capacity and with the freedom and wisdom of thy bounteous Will Did I grudge at my natural capacity and my rank among my fellow-creatures and aspired after the Divine Prerogatives or a Greatness without Goodness or any prohibited station or degree I might then expect the reward of Pride and to fall into Satans condemnation for falling into his sin But when wast thou ever offended at the ambition of loving thee with the most perfect Love Thou forbiddest our carnal Pride as our self-abasing folly Not thinking preferments Lordships and domination to be things too high for us but too low Thou allowest and commandest the poorest Lazarus to seek and hope for things ten thousand times more high in comparison with which these pleasures are pain these Lordships are losses this wealth is dung these Courts are deâ—â— of uncleanness wild and ravenous beasts and all this earthly pomp is shame Thou forbiddest not the pleasures and glory of the world as too good for thy servants but as too bad and base and hurtful O therefore encourage in my drooping soul that holy ambition which thou commandest Disappoint not the desires which thy self by thy Precept and thy Spirit hast excited I know thou hast promised to satisfie them that hunger and thirst after Righteousness And if my soul be acquainted with it self it is Righteousness which I desire Though the solliciting calls of vanity have drawn me too often to look aside it is the Knowledge and Love of my Creatour and Redeemer and Sanctifier which I pursue and my prayer is that thou wilt turn away mine eyes from beholding vanity and quicken me in thy way But it is the dulness of my desires which I fear lest they are not the hungring and thirsting which have thy promise and lest they should prove but as the desires of the slothful which kill him because his hands refuse to labour But thou knowest that I hate the sluggishness and indifferency of my soul and the coldness and interruptions of my desires And what is there in this world which I desire more than more desires after thee even more of that Desiring Seeking Love which is the way to enjoying and delighting Love O breath upon my soul by thy quickening Spirit that it may pant and gasp and breath after thy presence The most dolorous motions of Life and Love have more contenting sweetness in them than my dead insensibility and sleep When I can but long to love thee or when I lie in tears for want of love or when I am hating and reviling this sluggish carnal disaffected heart even in my very doubts and fears and moans I find my self nearer to content and pleasure than when I neglect thee with a dead and drowsie heart If therefore my vileness make me unfit to enjoy that pleasure in the daily prospect of thy Kingdom which reason it self adjudgeth to a serious lively faith O yet keep up the constant fervour of desire that I may never grow in love with vanity and deceit nor never be indifferent whether I stay on earth or come to thee And that in my greatest health I may never think of Thee without desire nor never kneel in prayer to thee with such an unbelieving and unprayer-like heart which doth not unfeignedly say Let thy glorious Kingdom come That so when on the bed of languishing I am waiting for the dissolution of this frame I may not draw back as flying from thy presence nor look at Heaven as less desirable than Earth nor be driven unwillingly from a more beloved habitation but with that Faith Hope and Love which animateth all thy living members I may in consort with thy Saints to the last sincerely break forth our common suit Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen FINIS A Catalogue of Books written and published by the same Author 1. THE Aphorisms 2. The Saints Everlasting rest in quarto 3. Plain Scripture proof of Infant Church-membership and Baptism in quarto 4. The right Method for a settled Peace of Conscience and Spiritual Comforts in thirty two Directions in octavo 5. Christian Concord or the Agreement of the Associated Pastors and Churches of Worcester-shire in quarto 6. True Christianity or Christs Absolute Dominion c. in two Assize Sermons preacht at Worcester in twelves 7. A Sermon of Judgement preacht at Pauls London Decemb. 17. 1654. and now enlarged in twelves 8. Making light of Christ and Salvation too oft the Issue of Gospel-Invitations manifested in a Sermon preached at Lawrence Jury in London in octavo 9. The Agreement of divers Ministers of Christ in the County of Worcester for Catechizing or Personal Instructing all in their several Parishes that will consent thereunto containing 1. The Articles of our Agreement 2. An Exhortation to the People to submit to this necessary work 3. The Profession of Faith and Catechism in octavo 10. Guildas Salvianus The Reformed Pastor shewing the nature of the Pastoral work especially in private Instruction and Catechizing in octavo 11. Certain Disputations of Right to Sacraments and the True Nature of Visible Christianity in quarto 12. Of Justification four Disputations clearing and amicably defending the Truth against the unnecessary Oppositions of divers Learned and Reverend Brethren in quarto 13. A Treatise of Conversion preached and now published for the use of those that are strangers to a true Conversion c. in quarto 14. One sheet for the Ministry against the Malignants of all sorts 15. A Winding-sheet for Popery 16. One Sheet against the Quakers 17. A second Sheet for the Ministry c. 18. Directions to Justices of Peace