Scarce an Eye can come within the reach and view of it but more or less it doth attract it how much more comâ—tiâ— then must it's attractions 〈…〉 compleat in Heaven Through the corruption and depraviâ— of 〈◊〉 nature how fatal and pernic◠〈…〉 been to mankind in this lower 〈◊〉 by it's effascinations and 〈…〉 hath wofully and miserably 〈◊〉 many thousands What an 〈…〉 and Queen is she in the Wâ—ld 〈◊〉 â—iâ—ions and Soveraignty â—ding as far as there are any reason◠〈…〉 the Earth And with 〈◊〉 â—ness and great authority 〈◊〉 she command To fulfil her pleasure 〈◊〉 sometimes makes wise Men Fools couragious Men Cowards and Cowards sometimes couragious to their own destruction while their Rivals lay the Foundation of their supposed but mistaken honour in their blood Rich men she makes poor what vast Estates and Treasures hath she devoured Patrimonies Inheritances and Lordships in abundance hath she swallowed up Millions of Silver Gold and Jewels have been Sacrificed to her And all the Riches both of Land and Sea are not too much to maintain her so boundless is the cost and charges of her insolent Pride How unkind is she to and tyrannizeth over them most that are her greatest Admirers and Adorers and ruines them unmercifully and cruelly that do the greatest Homage to her How many Nobles hath she degraded and debased How many crowned Heads hath she conquered How many Kings and Princes hath she made her Servants and Vassals to Lackey after her How many flourishing Kingdomes and goodly Politick Bodies as ere the Earth bore or the Sun shined upon hath She laid waste and destroyed How many thousands hath She given to the devouring Sword the mortal Dagger and the ignominious Halter How often hath She fill'd the World with Blood or made it a Sanguineous Stage and Theatre How frequently hath She made the strictest Bonds of Nature to be broken to make her Commands to take place and her Laws to be kept inviolable by her Captives She hath made the nearest and dearest Relations cruel unto and to embrew their hands in the Blood of each other How contrary to all Justice Equity and Reason are her Edicts and yet her power is so great and absolute that but few Hero's can be found that with a daring boldness are resolute to disobey and resist them And this is the greatest mischeif of all that she doth to the world that as she hath a power to effect it so She sports and delights her self in nothing more then in brutifying and yet with their own consent which with some bewitching charm She strangly gains her Devotees and turning them into Beasts But because this is so is therefore deformity to be desired chosen and preferred before Beauty certainly no for that were to dispise and contemn one of the most excellent outward gifts of God and Nature it were to besmear and cast Dirt upon that which is the greatest glory next to Reason of humane Nature and to disparage that which is to be the smile of nature the excellency and gloss of the whole Creation yea a more dark and imperfect resemblance of God himself Let but the noble Reason of man keep it's Throne in the Soul and hold the Reins of Government over the same in its hands exercising like a King it 's Regiment over the inferiour faculties curbing and restraining a bruitish extravagant appetite and then a due and right improvement will be made of it which is to admire the wisdome and power of it's Original and Creator and to celebrate him for the same And thus shall the glorified do in Heaven they will always celebrate that infinite wisdom and omnipotent power which could cloath so many Myraids of bodies with this white Raiment that could advance Dust and Clay to such high perfection Rev. 3.4 5 7 10. How do we praise and commend a Limner when he draws but an inanimate and liveless Picture to the life when every Limb Member Muscle and Feature with all the smallest visible Parts of the original shadow are exactly represented in it we highly applaud the Wisdom and Art that shines forth in it and guided tke Pencil to the perfection of the Draught How much more shall God be prais'd and magnified by hiâ— Saints in Heaven that hath made their Bodies in some sense living and immortal Pictures of himself which hath made them fairer then the Moon which hath her spots and clearer then the Sun To know and consider their Beauty to be the effect of so many of Gods glorious attributes will makt it infinitely more delightful and ravishing Here Beauty shall do no hurt but good where the Fire and Flames of Lust shall be for ever extinguished Do we hang up Pictures in our Rooms because they are so ornamental and do they afford so much delight to the curious Eye and critical beholder when drawn most dexterously by that curious Pencil which was managed and guided with the steddy hand of some rare and most ingenious Apelles Certainly then to see constantly so many Millions of Bodies beautified by all that wisdom skill and power that is in the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth must make this Heaven where the Saints substance is a place of admirable Delectability The Firmament when most bespangled with innumerable sparkling Stars is but a dull deformed and unpleasant object in comparison of the same and could we suppose the whole Earth to be one Garden full of odoriferous beautiful Flowers yet the delectableness of their object would fall infinitely short of the other yea if all the Beauty diffused through so great a variety were concentring in one Flower yet would it not match or equalize the pulcritude of one Saints Body in Heaven Therefore as our Saviour tell us that Solomon in all his glory was not cloathed like one Lilly so all Lillies and other Flowers are not in all their glory cloathed like one Saint in Heaven We may not without good reason also conceive that the sense of Hearing shall have it's delights in Heaven as well as that of seeing For the speaking Tongue that is the glory of man above a Beast while upon Earth methinks should not be useless in Heaven and there all the Saints be Dumb Psal 16.9.57.8 * Some conceive that the Saints probably shall speak in the Hebrew Tongue Nothing hinders but that we may believe that they shall speak not only mentally in an Angelicall manner but also vocally when they please after the manner of humane Locution here though their Tongues and Voice and Language may not in all respects be there what they are here but in some inconceavable manner undergo a change likewise And the sacred Scriptures seem to affirm that there shall be audable Halelujahs and Songs of Thankfulness in Heaven which the Tongues of the Saints shall be employed to sing forth to God Re.v. 19.1 3 4 6. besides the high and constant inward Admirations and Adorations of their Souls Which things with all
content And that Doctrine of the Apostles in 1 Timoth. chap. 6. vers 8. And having food and rayment let us be therewith content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies let us have enough though we have neither delicates nor ornaments but any thing that may be called food and rayment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coverings any garments that will cover our nakedness and shelter us from the cold though but hair covering though but such as those Worthies had in Heb. 11.37 They wandred about in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins c. yet let us count this enough and sufficient Those that â—annot deny their sensitive appetites their flesh and senses whether outward or the fancy and imagination which deservedly comes under the same denomination their gratifications and satisfactions that cannot live without full Tables Silks and Sattins and a large confluence of more inferiour comforts and drossy pleasures whose souls are not the Cabinet where this rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is to be found will never do as the Hebrews did i. e. take joyfully the spoiling of their goods 6ly A low esteem of these worldly goods especially compared with this Heavenly Substance What a man estimates very highly it 's very ungrateful to him to part with it he cannot do it with any joy Mens value of terrene Treasures must be brought to a very low ebb and that by an exceeding high appretiation of unseen immortal treasures before they can take joyfully the spoiling the same The reason why so many Professors stick at this is because Earth out-weighs in the ballance of their esteem Heaven Those Saints that have their conversations in Heaven that are frequently taken up into the Mount of Contemplation to view and behold their most excellent Inheritance there that often revolve in their minds the cogitations and thoughts of its inestimable pleasures and delights the whole world with all its glories is no more to them when compared therewith than a drop is to the Ocean a beam to the whole body of the Sun or the smallest punct or point to the vast expanded and encompassing Heavens After they have looked upwards a while and pierced into eternity and then cast their eyes upon the things of this lower world which are admired so much by those that never beheld better they all seem to vanish and disappear as blushing and being ashamed from a consciousness of their vileness and imperfections to stand before those very mental Idea's that they have of what they have seen in the other world and become very contemptible to them It s from want of a superlative esteem of this better and abiding substance in Heaven that men reluctate so much to part with for God and Christ the vacuous and flaccescous things here upon Earth things that are so empty and therefore cannot fill things that are so transitory and therefore must leave an immortal soul 7ly The weaning of our affections from worldly good from estates and riches a considerable mortification and crucifixion to them in respect of love and desire for them and delight in them What a man intensly loves vehemently desires and abundantly delights in that he cannot joyfully part with for that is a rending of the thing from the soul which puts it to grievous pain Every mans sorrow in losing any earthly good is proportionable to the love he had for it and delight he took in it And when these affections are in excess and acted beyond those due bounds and limits that reason should and which Divine Laws have prescribed and set unto them they make their darling objects at last the most smarting Rods to correct and lash them with for their folly And sometimes they become sharp swords cruelly and deeply to wound them that had too kindly entertained them before All that violent and unbounded sorrow that we see in many when some finite good flies away from them out of sight and returns no more proceeds from the deep possession it had in the soul by a no less imperious and commanding love before This is so universally an experimented truth that it clearly demonstrates and proves another viz. That no man will or can take joyfully the spoiling of his goods till such affections be moderated towards them or in a considerable degree be withdrawn from them Could we that profess our selves Christians but follow and put in practice the Psalmists advice Psal 62.10 If riches increase set not thy heart upon them And the Apostles in Heb. 13.5 to have our conversation without covetousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the love of money as that Greek word signifies and that counsel of his which we have in Colos 3.2 Set your affections upon things that are above And were we but as the Apostle was in the 6th chap. of the Galatians v. 14. crucified to the world c. had the world crucified unto us then would it be easily attainable for us to do what the Hebrews did and the present Doctrine should not be judged so impracticable or so little practised as it is Let us but close and shut our hearts against the world while we have it in our hands and then we shall neither sigh nor sob to let it go for the Gospel and the great concerns and interest of Jesus Christ But if this world be profoundly radicated and riveted in mens hearts and have the prevailing interest in their affections to speak to them to use all the swasion and counsel that we can to make them lose and leave it thus joyfully for the same is an attempt as vain as to command Mountains to remove out of their places and flie up into the Air or the Sun to forbear shining and the Sea flowing at their stated times 8ly And lastly An act of deliberate Judgment not a precipitous and rash act for that would cause repentance and sorrow for our folly afterwards Mens timerarious actions are usually erroneous and terminate in some angry or pensive reflection upon their incogitant hastiness which they find hath discommoded them So that to suffer joyfully for Christ that such joy may not be turned into sorrow after from an apprehended mistake must suppose some deep cogitancy and consideration a weighing in the judgment what the loss and gain will be thereby This therefore results from a comparison made between these two and a sober pondering judgment passed thereupon which will prevent all after repentance for the ruminating soul finding that the disproportion is so vast between what it shall lose and what it shall gain and that the former is so unworthy to be compared with the latter it shall never befool it self for suffering and learn to be wiser thereby for the future to verifie that old Proverb That bought Wit is best and that saying of the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod A fool is wise after he hath suffered When the Apostle tells the Hebrews what they had suffered and what joy they had therein he makes
rest and happiness whatsoever If Divine Grace in its imperfect measures and degrees give so great and solid satisfaction to an immortal spirit that is principled with it in this world that it shall never thirst more John 4.14 neither through Necessity not for variety as one saith S. S. in his Immanuel after any other thing shall not rove and rang up and down in the world in unfixedness and suspence to seek for satisfaction and rest if such a soul never be uncertain or unsatisfied more as to its supreme object and main happiness if hereby all its restless fluctuations and aestuations all its tossings and ragings for want of a chief Good shall cease so much How sedate and calm must it be to what a complacential rest must it be brought when it 's put into the full enjoyment of this Substance which a perfection of Grace is so great a part of This is that it shall ultimately and unchangeably acquiesce in 2. It 's a Substance in Heaven This is not any visible Heaven whose influences reach our bodies and other creatures here upon earth but the Heaven that 's invisible to a corporeal eye though assisted with the help of all Mathematical Telescopes It 's the Heaven where God is most eminenntly present where there is the most conspicuous effulgency of his Glory where as it were he keeps his Imperial Court and hath his special Favourites about him Isa 66.1 Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my foot-stool It 's that Heaven where Christ Reigneth The Angels shine in Glory and all the Saints are Crowned and Enthron'd Such a Heaven there is where God more especially dwells though in respect of the Immensity of his Essence he is present in all places and bounded or circumscribed with none and where all the Saints shall be congregated together to receive the reward of their faithful service to God and all their sufferings for him It is called in 1 King 8.27 the Heaven of Heavens the most vast expanded Heaven which environs and compasseth about all the other Heavens and is the most spacious place that ever was Created It s called therefore the Heaven of Heavens for amplification sake and to set forth the Imensity of God which it cannot contain * The Third Heaven is a simple and shining body Created immediately of God to be the Tâ—â—one of his special Presence and of the gracious manifestations of his Peâ—â—â—tions and the Habitation of the Blessed both Angels and Men. It 's called the Third Heaven in 2 Cor. 12.2 which is the * Not from its heat but from its resplendency and most pleasant light The Third Heaven we have only from the Scripture Heathenish Philosophers were ignorant of it Empyreal Heaven far above the Aereal in which the Fowls flying are called the Fowls of Heaven Mat. 6.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and above the Siderial in which the Lights are called Stars of Heaven Gen. 15.5 It 's that which is uppermost of all in which the Angels residing are called the Angels in Heaven Mat. 24.36 This is that then which in Scripture is called the Highest Heaven Luke 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Coelis Altissimis as Eeza translates it or rather interprets it the Highest Heavens Mat. 21.9 We have the same for it 's usual with the Greeks to put Adjectives without their Substantives as one shall find in the most elegant Authors among them Xenephon and others and this is frequent in the New Testament Mat. 10.42 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Heaven signifies that which is above us when it 's Local and carries in it a Notation of Altitude so this Heaven is not inferior to any but superior to all other Heavens Although God be Omnipotent and cannot be said to be in a place either Definitive as finite incorporeal Substances may or Circumscriptive as all corporeal Substances are yet seeing both according to reason and his own most sacred Revelations which are all most highly Rational though some of them be superior to our Reason there must be some peculiar place where there are most admirable ravishing Emications and beamings forth of his most bright shining Excellencies and absolute Perfection which are the great part of that Objective Glory the Angels behold and are united to and which all the Saints shall by the completion and perfection of Holiness be fitted to bear and also made capable of an union with and which is the ineffable and incomprehensible Beatifical Vision Mat. 5.8 1 John 3.2 Psal 17.15 And this place must have a Superiority to all other places which seeing it is called Heaven it must be above all other Heavens else it would hold no congruity nor sutableness to the Grandeur of his own Majesty inferior and subject to which is all other Majesty that 's but a very dark resemblance of the same We find that according to all Political order and Oeconomical disposure those persons that are of greatest Eminency and worth either by birth or discent or by true Virtue Education which doth most really nobilitate and dignify a person and Offices relating to their distinct and proper objects have still the highest places assigned them and deservedly challenge a precedency before and superiority to others And this is only Analogical unto and derivative from that God who is supereminent and likewise clearly demonstrative what is due to him as his most just Right and Prerogative Height is that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by way of eminency is approprietated to God Isa 57.15 and therefore every finite created being the higher it is the more in that respect it resembles God and is denominated and accounted more excellent from thence than another creature or being of the same species and kind Hence in Scripture tall Trees and high Mountains are called Mountains of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Psal 36.6 Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains Heb. Mountains of God Psal 104.16 The Trees of the Lord are full of Sap that is the goodly and tall Trees such as the Cedars are that he immediately after speaks of The very Heathens by the light of Nature had a knowledg of this Truth so agreeable is it to the reason of Man as they did distinguish between their Gods as Majores and Minores so their greater Gods were supposed to inhabit an higher place or Court and the other to be below them And as Jupiter was their chiefest God so the highest Palace and Heaven was made proper and peculiar to him Thus he is spoken of by the Latine Poet * Ovid. lib. 1 Metamorph fab 6. Olympus by the Pâ—ets it being a very high hill was taken for Heaven vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanta ejus altitudine ut pedes ascendentium non possunt conspâ—ci vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod illic oculi frigore vitiuntur vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore What sensitive Pleasures shall be in Heaven is very dubious and more Questions may be put concerning them than can be easily and readily resolved yet it 's certain external senses shall not be delighted as they are here upon earth All coitive and venereal pleasures shall cease and such as are in a grosser sense fleshly and some of the senses shall cease likewise whose Being implyeth their Use and whose Use supposeth our present state of Imperfection For seeing in Heaven the Saints Beings shall not be maintained in the use of means as eating and drinking the Taste must cease but if there continue any use of some other external senses in Heaven which must have objects to delight them they will differ vastly from what they are now in our mortal state while we dwell in these houses of clay and earthly tottering tabernacles whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.19 2 Cor. 5.1 For the change that our Bodies and so our Senses proportionably thereunto shall undergo is inconceivable and unexpressible Flesh and blood as now it is cannot be capable of an Hâ—avenly state in which sense are those words to be understood Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 It must first be refined and made spiritual incorruptible and immortal 1 Cor. 15.52 53. Such a Qualitative though not a substantial mutation it shall undergo for at the Resurrection all the infirm qualities of the Saints bodies by which they are incapable of bearing the Majesty and Glory of God in Heaven shall be removed Phil. 3. ver 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est transfiguâ—are in aliam figuram sormam Converterè Cornel. a Lap. Who shall change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to transfigurate shall convert them into another figure or form our vile body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this body of vileness baseness and abjection an Hebraism which is very emphatical and very frequent in the New Testament it may supply the superlative degree for our most vile and abject body as it may be translated our body of misery and afflictions this body that all Calamities prey upon gradually consume and waste and at last resolve into the Dust for the word in this sense is used by the Sep. Gen. 29.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psa 25.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 K. 14.26 that it may be fashioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may be made conformable unto like unto his glorious body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his body of glory another Heb. that is his most glorious or glorified body So then their Bodies shall not be those fraile diseased socord and sluggish lumps of Flesh Dirt those Bags of Phlegm that they continually carry about with them here upon Earth But as the Ore that 's cast into the Fire a Stone comes forth a very bright and pure Metal which is called Gold between which two there is an exceeding great difference so shall the Bodies of the Saints rise out of their Graves and enter Heaven with such impassibility and clarity with such agility and subtilty as is not now to be comprehended by us And if the Saints Bodies be thus changed we may rationally conclude the change of the senses shall be commensurate and equal to the same And as they shall hereby be advanc'd and their capacity and vivacity be amplified and enlarged so shall they have an happiness and delights adequate thereunto And though we know not what these senses shall be yet we call them seeing and hearing but what shall be seen and heard as beautiful and delightful that we cannot tell But certainly the pulchritude and fairness the beauty and brightness of Sun Moon and Stars and all the Lamps of Heaven with all the formose objects in the world yea could we suppose all the admired and adored beauties that have been are or shall be seen collected and united into one body or made to concenter in one person and sparkle forth in one face and whatever amiableness is diffused through the whole creation were made to meet and become all visible at one view in any one single object and our eyes dazled and over-power'd at the emission and efflux of its beams yet all would be but a very dark representation a very imperfect miserable glimmering of that bright shining Sun of immortal glory and the incomprehensiâ—le Beauty of the Face of God that the Eyes of the glorified Saints shall be strengthened to behold It 's true a full proper and immediate sight of the immense divine essence there cannot be for that being infinite cannot be comprehended by a visine faculty 1 Tim. 6.16 Col. 1.15 1 Tim. 17. which is but finite as finite objects may whose splendor doth not over power its strength and it being likewise an increated immaterial and spiritual object so it must be invisible to a corporeal Eye for it's sight being united to the object by the help of the sensible Species i. e. the similitudes or Image of the object the divine Essence cannot be visible to it because it 's impossible for a thing created to represent that which is increated as a created Species to represent an increated object or a material Species an immaterial object and to assert the contrary would be to make the divine Essence a created being for then there would be some other similitude of it something as could represent it as the proper likeness thereof This is the Reason why that clear sight of God which is called the Beatifical Vision because it makes the Seer blessed is principally intellectual and thus the Saints in glory are said to see the divine Essence according to Matt. 5.7 1 Joh. 3.1 We shall see him as he is 1 Cor. 13.12 but now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face that is now we see immediately but then we shall see immediately so that the great object seen now and then is the same Psal 17.15 As for me I will behold thy Face c. Rev. 22.4 Mat. 18.10 In Heaven the Angels do always behold the Face of my Father This beatifical Vision is such a sight of God as is opposite to the sight of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 that sight then being immediate the sight of him in the state of blessedness as the Antithesis in that respect to the other will be immediate By this shall the Soul see divine the Essence apprehensively according to it's finite created but then enlarged and perfected capacity of the understanding so as it cannot proceed further in point of knowledge concerning God or that great Question What God is But though this felicitating Vision be principally that of the Soul yet the Scripture seems to hold forth that so much of the divine glory shall beam forth to the glorified corporeal Eye to behold as such a Creature is capable of for delighting it in a most wonderful ravishing manner for the
Divine essence being an Arbitrary and voluntary Glass he may according to his good pleasure manifest more or less of such a visible glory to the Eyes of Saints in Heaven And why may there not be such a corporeal Vision or ocular Veiw of the Face of God in this sense seeing Jacob had it though in a lower degree because his mortal state would not bear such a sight as is proper to a state immortal upon Earth Gen. 33.30 I have seen saith he God Face to Face though it was not God's Essence that was discernable at that time yet besides that humane form and shape that God appeared in and which at first might make him think it was but a man before he left Jacob besides his solemn blessing him it 's very probable he gave some demonstration of his Divinity which it's likely was by some glorious appearance or resplendent and bright manifestation of himself so much as he was then capable of bearing to his Eye sight this made him say I have seen God Face to Face and yet my life is preserved Such a sight Moses and Aaron c had of God in the Exod. 24. v. 10. And they saw the God of Israel how by the effulgency and shining forth of some glory and brightness which was obvious to their sense by which they might perceive that God was present in an especial and extraordinary manner this appears by what follows And there was under his Feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir Stone which is a Stone of a very clear Sky colour and as it were the body of Heaven in it's clearness or in it's brightness Exod. 33.18 Moses supplicates God that he would shew him his glory shew me thy glory which is not to be understood of God's essence which no doubt he knew to be invisible but his divine glory While God was speaking with him by a sensible Voice his presence was over-shadowed with some Cloud or darkness so that this glory did not appear and therefore now he desired either the removal of the interposing Cloud or that his glory might break through it to be objected to his sense God in the 19. verse replies to this Petition thus I will make my goodness pass before thee that is I my self will pass before thee and with my self all my goodness and glory but seeing it is too much for thee to comprehend it shall therefore pass and not stay for thee to gaze upon it shall pass before or by thee that thou mayest see a shadow of it behind That which Moses was so desirous to see was the Divine glory fully manifested and displayed now God tells him that this state of defiled infirmity and mortallity was not capable of 〈◊〉 therefore God promiseth to help the imperfection and dimness of sight by the â—tion of his Ear as followeth I will proclaim my name i. e. my nature Now that Moses might know that God was not unkind to him while he denied to gratify his request he tells him plainly in the 20. v. He could not see his Face without the peril and hazard of his life And he said thou canst not see my Face which is not only to be understood of God's spiritual Majesty which is altogether invisible but likewise if not principally in this place of that brightness and glory which accompanieth his presence and that he is cloathed with as with a Garment For there shall none see me and live From these words the principal objection may be raised against any ocular views or corporeal Visions of God in Heaven For seeing in Heaven the Saints shall have their humane nature and not cease to be men how can they see any thing of him there more than here and live To which it may be replied that either such a Vision of God is not in this life but in the other that if a man would see God he must first die and then he shall see as it were face to face and so the sence of the words is this No man while he lives in a mortal condition here upon earth can see my face which interpretation I do not approve of because it contradicts other Scriptures already spoken to and explain'd without another which is That the full manifestations of my glory are too much for mans infirmity to bear and apprehend Thus for man to see me would so astonish him as to make him a dead man Rev. 1.16 17. Dan. 10.8 9. This is that glory which Moses desired to see which God tells him he was not capable of beholding as he was a meer mortal man But yet it 's clear from vers 23. that God did manifest so much of his glory to him as was sufficient for his discerning and for his desire When he saith thou shalt see my back-parts he speaks here as if he appeared in humane shape at this time who though he hid his glory from Moses his eyes as if an hand had been spread over his face to cover him while he passed before him yet was he priviledged with a glimpse of his glory coming after behind he might see him as in a shadow And it 's probable when Moses came down from Mount Sinai where he had been forty days and forty nights without food with God with a shining lustre upon his face it was from a reflexion of a divine glory and splendor upon it which he was in some considerable degree enabled and strengthened to behold Exod. 34.28 29 30. We find that in the Mount when Christ was transfigur'd Matth. 17.2.9.2 and his face and countenance irradiated with coelestial glory yet those Disciples which were with him had ocular views of it though in respect of their mortal condition they could scarce bear and endure the sparkling rayes thereof but seem to be astonished while wonderfully ravished and delighted with the same Now if the eye of God's Saints have had such glympses of Divine Glory upon earth what clearer and fuller view will they have thereof in heaven when their visible faculty and organ of sight shall be unspeakably invigorated and made a thousand degrees more pure and piercing more acute and quick than now it is And if a small beam or glympse thereof was so delectable to Peter John and James that were with Christ in the Mount that they were loath to leave it but were very desirous to take up their abode there how infinitely more pleasant and ravishing will those more open and ample manifestations of Glory be and though we cannot determine what the measures thereof will be yet we may conclude it will infinitely more surpass the most amiable and Loves-most powerful attractive objects upon earth than either the Morning or Meridian Sun that minute and little light that acts the part of an Hypocrite in a Glow-worm We may rationally suppose likewise that the sight of Christ as he is man with all the inherent coelestial qualities of his most glorious body will render heaven a place full
erat Julianus ille Apostata qum hunc locuÌ„ exagitans quaerereâ—num centum etiam Uxores habiturâ— essent Christiani Beza in Loc. As that grand Apostate Julian said to the Primitive Christians as a dishonorable reflexion upon Mat. 19.29 Have you an hundred Wives c. when he had deprived them of those outward comforts Let them see and know that you can do it What you have suffered which God in his infinite Mercies pardon them for from those that boast themselves to be of the Church of England and glory in that denomination exclusively of all others to whom that Scripture may be most aptly and properly applyed Isa 66.5 Your Brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorifyed but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed you know but what you may suffer frow those that are of the Church of Rome you know not Expect and prepare for fiery trials from them endure and conquer them all from the fore-views of the future immortal Glory from the prospect of this Heavenly Substance Let it encourage to take jayfully not only the spoiling of your Goods but your Lives also if God call you to it I never expect that those that are such incompassionate and mercyless Persecutors of you now whatever Sphere they move in whether Magestratical or Sacerdotal or have a much lower station will be persecuted with you for Divine Truth It 's very probable that persecuting Protestants will when it's conducive and subservient to their Interest prove persecuting Papists But yet I hope that many of the Church of England whose laudable Calmness and Moderation is known and whom I believe to be seriously Religious and principally mind and intend the Salvation of their Souls will suffer the loss of all things with you rather than comply with the Romish Superstitions and Heretical Doctrines The ensuing Discourse is not Calculated only for these present days wherein you suffer but for the future wherein both you who are dissenters in some things from them and they may equally be concern'd Though the immediate and direct intention of this Treatise is for those that are or may be impoverished for Religions sake yet it may be of use likewise to all Gods Children who by some cross afflicting Providences and not by their wickedness are reduced to a low condition in the World That as the Prophet Habbakkuk saith ch 3.17 Although in respect of them the Fig-tree shall not blossome neither shall fruit be in the Vines the Labour of the Olive shall fail and the Fields shall yield no meat the Flock shall be cut off from the Fold and there shall be no Herds in the Stalls Yet their hearts may be supported and comforted from the expectation of this Better and Enduring Substance Poverty like an Armed Man comes both into the City and Countrey and many of the Heirs of Heaven are involved in this Common Calamity God teacheth them by his Providences every day that Riches are uncertain things as his sacred Word tells us 1 Tim 6.17 and shews them good reason for that expostulation of his Prov. 25.5 Wilt thou set thine eyes upon that which is not for Riches certainly make themselves wings and fly away as an Eagle towards Heaven And seeing this is become such a Common and General Experience how strongly and powerfully should it invite and perswade all that hope for the Treasures of Eternity to advance and raise up their Souls to a fixed view and frequently to revolve the serious thoughts thereof in them that they may be solaced and refreshed therewith I earnestly wish that the ensuing Discourse may be a Spring of Joy a Breast of Consolation a pregnant Honey-comb of Sweetness to all your Souls and mine which hath I bless God in some measure often been relieved by it for which he shall pray to Almighty God who hath suffer'd in various kinds and to high degrees and who am still your Fellow-Sufferer for that which I do not in the least doubt in the most Terrible-joyful-day of the last Judgment will appear to be the verity of Heaven frr that Truth which is the Off-srring of the most Veracious God even the Truth as it is in Jesus Christ Eph. 4.21 I have not the Confidence to recommend this Treatise to the reading and perusal of men that are of refined Reason of Sublimated Intellect of Acute Wits and Profound Judgments of Enlarged and Comprehensive Capacities It 's only fitted and accommodated to the Vulgar and Common yet I desire such would seriously study the Text that is the Foundation of it out of the teeming Womb whereof this weak imperfect Infant is taken that they would penetrate into its Bowels that they would by a most serious and industrious investigation and search find out the Heavenly Mine and Rich Treasure that is in it that hereby they may be brought to disesteem all Earthly Treasure in Comparison thereof and may get their Affectiens weaned from all mertal and earthly Good-things and may live as those that are Mortifyed and Crucified to this dying deceitful World I know there are many Ministers in these Nations who have suffered the loss of their Goods not for a sullen peevish humor as many are pleased to charg them severely with and caluminate them for but for Conscience sake I acknowledg these men much more Worthy and Learned than my self and that their Parts and Abilities would have fabriated a much more curious and amiable Piece for the honor of that Cause for which they suffer than this is and I heartily wish some one of them had seasonably done that so it might have come abroad into the world in a better dress with fewer defects imperfections less crude immature and so might have been food suited to the most Critical Curious and Generous Palates That it is not embellished and enriched with the Gold of Learned Mens Mines renderd delectable and pleasant with many of their Flowers that it is not beautified with the Ornaments of various Readings out of Fathers and Schoolmen and Classick Authors the many Avocations that I have had from my Studies to my great grief must make an Apologie and plead excuse having not known for above ten years by reason of almost constant and uncessant storms I have been tost and hurried up and down with though blessed be God not for Wickedness scarse what it is to converse with my Books and yet I am scarce arrived at declining years or come to withering and wrinkling Old-age But however if any of these faithful Servants of Jesus Christ shall honor me so far as to cast an eye upon my imbecil Labours or read them thorow I earnestly wish God Almighty may bless the same to them and make as many times he doth weak means effectual to accomplish a most high and noble end subordinate to the Glory of himself viz. their steddy invariable and uninterrupted course and motions in the
their bruitish flesh and gratifie their senses while they neglect are unconcern'd and insolicitous for the happiness of their immortal spirits they indeed eagerly pursue shadows that fly from them and fly from a real substance even the supream good that doth pursue them and would gladly be elected and chosen by them But Heaven-born-souls have not their reason so debilitated and dethron'd nor can be guilty of such monstrous madness and prodigious folly Those that are divinely illuminated cannot ly under such gross mistakes concerning their true and adaequate happiness or conceive false and delusive Idea's of the same 2. Comparatively a better Substance As always good either real or apparent is the object of a mans love desire and choice so it is an apprehended at least if not a certainly known Meliority of good either under a specifick or gradual consideration that induceth and prevails with us to choose it before another and to shew our preference of it by parting with the other in corrivalship for the same When two good things are judged exactly to be equal and a preponderation when they are weighed in the ballance of our judgments can be ascribed to neither of them then the same right reason that doth dictate to us at first and bring us under its regal and powerful commands to choose good before evil tells us likewise it 's as good and convenient for us to keep and adhere to what we are for present in possession of as to part with it for that which doth no way excel or can challeng a superiority to it Had not then these goods that the Hebrews suffered a rapacious direption and plundering of beâ—n inferior to this heavenly Substance they might justly and deservedly been stigmatized and branded eternally with the most infamous folly Yea and had not the latter as far surmounted and surpassed the former as the bright and beautiful heavens do the dull-complexion'd and melancholy-look'd earth with all opacous terrestrial bodies they might with good reason have been made the objects of all mens scorn derision for what wise man will leave his present Substance and Comfort in his Native Country for any in a forreign and far remote one unless there be a very great disproportion betwixt them as to all excellency and worth and it be very much for his advantage But saith the Text they knew they had a better Substance 3. Locally by an an Hypotyposis is this substance described it 's in the Heavens that we may know certainly where it is and what its matchless worth and excellency is When our Saviour would recommend to our choice the best Treasure that we are capable of possessing he tells us it 's in Heaven Mat. 6.20 and these intense desires of the Soul are rightly terminated when the supream object thereof is a Country that 's heavenly Heb. 11.16 of which more hereafter This likewise highly commends their wisdom that they would let go and part with terrene treasures for heavenly and indeed no man is truly wise but he that doth it Mat. 13.45 46. saith Piscator upon the very words in the text to this very purpose Quibus verbis simul eorum sapientiam collaudat ut qui majoris boni consequendi causa aequo animo jacturam fecerint minoris Etenim bona coelestia terrenis longe potiora sunt Men that embrace and are most strongly tenacious of an earthly substance when they should with disdain and contempt cast it away for the heavenly make themselves no wiser than Ixion who according to the Poetical fiction instead of formose and beautiful Juno embrac'd and hugg'd a deformed and ill-favoured Cloud And discover no more true wisdom than Children whose Reason moves but in the lowest Sphere while they prefer some Pebble-stones or Painted-glass before the most bright Orient Pearls the richest Jewels and purest Gold 4. By a most noble and peculiar Property enduring or abiding Such is the quality of this Celestial Substance that this is an adjunct inseparable from it which is farther demonstrated what a highly rational Act this of the Hebrews was This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be understood of a constant eternal duration of the immercessibility and never-fading nature of this Substance not being subject to moth nor rust nor thieves nor hands of violence nor any such consuming devouring and wasting things It 's a Substance from its own Nature and essential constitution incapable of corruption it 's always flouring and flourishing it 's verdure and greenness never fades It 's enduring is to everlasting life like the me at that our Saviour speaks of in John 6.27 It 's the same with the Crown of life Rev. 2.10 the incorruptible inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 the house not made with hands eternally in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.16 This stands opposed to those other goods which they lost and all earthly goods whatsoever that are fluxous and evanid that have a mortal dying nature and disposition in them and which the worm of vanity doth so quickly wear and wast away 3. The Assurance that they had of a right and title to this Object to this better and permanent heavenly Substance Knowing in your selves that you have c. It 's not knowing simply and speculatively that there was such a Substance but knowing in themselves that they had it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Dutch Annot Translate more exactly knowing that you have in your selves that is to say in the hope which is in you Calvin with some others Translate the words only knowing that you have Scientes vos habere following some Greek Copies which have only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the accusative case ut quisciatis vos habere Quam posteriorem lectionem secutus est vetus Latinus Interpres nec ego improbo quamvis duorum codicum Authoritate nitatur saith Beza Some Greek Copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Proposition and with this doth the Translation of Junius and Tremel seem to accord and correspond which is this Quoniam scitis quod est vobis Possessio in Coelis c. But Piscator adheres to our Greek and translates it Vt qui sciretis vos habere apud vos c. Beza in his Commentary upon the place speaks thus Neque redundat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est apud vos quasi intra vos cum fide ac spe jam nunc possideamus quod in Coelis est nobis repositum Read the words what way we please and they prove some assurance that the Hebrews had a full right to this more excellent heavenly Substance But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aptly translated knowing in your selves or that you have in your selves carries the greatest Emphasis and more important signification in it For the production of such a triumphant joy as is here spoken of either some measure and degree of assurance that they had a right to a higher
thinking even by ratiocination and argumentation to conclude and determine that all sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be laid in the ballance with it they could not possibly have rejoyced as they did when they were so cruelly and injuriously spoiled of their Goods Most men in the Christian world lose this eternal Substance this future immortal Glory for not being seriously and fixedly considerate how far all their present gain can be from compensating such a loss And very few if any would they but weigh aright the vast disproportion that is betwixt their present earthly shadows and this most substantial blessedness would ever turn their backs on Christ or Naufragate and make Shipwrack of the Faith to secure the former and hereby deprive themselves to eternity of the latter Most men that live within the call of the Gospel and the offers and tenders of Grace by it perish for ever by reason of their incogitancy and inconsiderations It 's Consideration that makes the â—eepest impression upon the Soul that 's most influential and persuasive unto practâ—ce Whatever knowledg therefore men have of God his Laws the Revelations of his Will the future Glory the Gospel Terms and Conditions upon which they must be saved if this be wanting it never prevents their precipitatious into sin and the gulph of guilt their Apostacies from God and his truth and so consequentially neither their eternal ruine and damnation To be wise therefore to understand and consider are concatenated and â—ink'd together as a soveraign Remedy and Antidote against a mans mis-spending his most precious time and his Souls everlasting death and destruction Deut. 32.29 O that they were wise that they understood this that they would consider their latter end Had the Hebrews known never so much of this better Substance and had not been brought thereby to a steddy consideration of its worth they would have been far from rejoycing when impoverished and devested of their present Comforts for the sake of Christ 3. A firm Belief that this Heavenly Substance is what the Soul knows and considers it to be such a Belief as is most strong and invincible notwithstanding all the Arguments the World the Flesh and the Devil can bring against it Thus to believe and know are terms synonimous in Scripture and signify one and the same thing John 11.24 I know that is I believe If the Hebrews had wanted such a Faith they could not have so rejoyced for no man is farther made glad with any good than he believes what its reality worth and excellency is For men then to know this Substance in Heaven is insuperably to believe not only what it is that it exists there but that it's what God hath reveal'd and reported it to be and without such a Belief there can neither be a right rejoycing when we suffer nor a perseverance approv'd of and acceptable to God in our suffering for him If once Faith be foyl'd and conquer'd a Christian quickly gives over fighting and suffering then instead of forsaking the world there will be a forsaking of God and Christ All Defections and Apostacies result from unbelief as the root Heb. 7.12 Take heed brethren lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in turning Apostates or forsaking and quitting the ways of God that our motions heavenwards and to the full fruition of God himself should be invariable and progressive in Had all Professors that Faith which doth most firmly and invincibly believe the reality of the future Glory and that penetrates and pierceth into Heaven and Eternity through all dark interposing clouds here below giving the soul a view and prospect of the same realizing and substantiating it as present to it Heb. 11.1 I say had all Professors such a Faith not one of them to save an Estate an Inheritance a Treasure in this world although it consisted of all Imperial Crowns and Kingdoms would ever deny the Truth I mean totally and finally and disown the pure Worship and Doctrine of Jesus Christ or turn away from that most absolute and perfect Rule of Righteousness which Divine Laws do Constitute 1 Iohn 5.4 Heb. 11.24 25 26. but would rejoycingly and triumphantly persevere to suffer for these high and precious things that the eternal salvation of his soul depends upon 4. To know is to be assured if not fully yet in some degree and measure that this better and permanent Substance shall be ours The Hebrews knew that is as was shewed in the opening of the words before they were assured that they had such a Substance A well grounded assurance of Heaven though it be not absolutly perfect will make those Souls where it is very cheerfully and joyfully to suffer And to know and to be assured in Scripture sometimes for sense and signification are the same 2 Cor. 5.2 For we know i. e. we have an assurance that if our earthly house of this Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternally in the Heavens and this the Hebrews knew i. e. of this they had an assurance when their earthly habitations were taken from them but having spoken something to this already I will not ampliate and enlarge the discourse here any farther 5. What is it that we must know in our selves this as hath been shewed in the opening of the words is not without its Emphasis two things then it seems to import the one whereof hath been in part spoken to 1. A lively hope of possessing this Substance according to such a knowledg consideration belief and assurance 1 Pet. 1.3 By knowledg Christians reflect upon their hope from whence springs their joy There is a natural connection betwixt these two as betwixt the Streams and the Fountain the Beams and the Sun which flow from the same Rom. 5.8 Rom. 12.12 Rejoycing in the hope of the glory of God Though Good be not in actual possession yet so long as it 's an object of hope proportionably to the apprehended worth of that good and the strength of that hope is still our joy Hope is unexpressibly useful to a religious soul in respect of comfort when she grounds her self upon Eternity and upon an Assured futurity which we are promised in the holy Scriptures and not upon that uncertain futurity which amuseth most men and at last deceives all They that thus know in themselves know experimentally and believingly what the sweet benign influences of hope while it hath this enduring Substance for its objects are upon their Souls 2. Something inherent and wrought in them upon which all the other are grounded To know in our selves is to have or find in our selves that which may be a sure ground for us infallibly to conclude from that we have this Substance which is better and abiding in Heaven As a vital Principle of Grace or a Principle of spiritual lite ruling and governing
mind Say within themselves this is He Whom we sometimes had in derision and in a Parable of Reproach We Fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is He counted among the Children of God and his Portion is among the Saints Therefore we have erred from the way of Truth and the light of Righteousness hath not shined in us and the Son of understanding rose not upon us We wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction yea we have gone thorow Desarts where there lay no way But as for the way of the Lord we have not known it What hath Pride profited us or what good hath Riches with our vanting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a Post that hasted by And as a Ship that passeth over the Waves of the Water which when it is gone by the trace thereof cannot be found Neither the Path way of the Keel in the Waves Or as when a Bird hath flown thorow the Air there is no token of her way to be found but the light Air being beaten with the stroke of her Wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them is passed thorow and therein afterwards no sign where she went is to be found Or like as when an Arrow is shot at a Mark it parteth the Air which immediately cometh together again So that a Man cannot know where it went thorow Even so in like manner as soon as we were born began to draw to our end and had no sign of vertue to shew but were consumed in our own wickedness 4. The Security and safety of it It 's that which neither force nor fraud power nor policy can deprive them of the hands of violence cannot reach it it 's said to be in Heaven so 1 Pet. c. 4. to be reserved there The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes sollicitously to keep something lest it should be lost and taken away by others Matth. 23.3 John 8.55 1 John 5.18 Thus is this heavenly substance kept that it cannot be taken away by the most mortal and immortal enemies the Saints have Heaven is a place that neither humane nor Diabolical power can besiege and storm Matth. 6. v. 20. It 's never liable to violence nor spoil and in that respect stands opposed to and far surpasseth all terrene treasures Many are born and have a real right to an earthly substance but never come to possess it being either defrauded or by oppressing power most injuriously deprived of the same But this substance is obnoxious to no such thing Although many times Persecutors with prodigious voraciousness and greediness and with the greatest barbarity and ferocity swallow up as their prey the estates and all the outward comforts of Gods children Yet however in this they may rejoyce and it may be sufficient to put their pious souls into an exulting posture to consider how they have a substance in Heaven Suppose plundering Sabeans and spoiling Caldeans come to a mans house and by violence take away his Lumber stuff and some less considerable goods yet this begets scarce any discomposure of mind so long as his Jewels his Silver and Gold his principal Treasure is safe and secure So when persevering Saints are spoil'd of their earthly Goods it should produce no commotions nor disquietudes in their souls seeing their principal and chief substance their choicest treasure is in safe custody guarded by all the heavenly host and encompass'd with the omnipotent Power of God which is more for it's security than the highest and strongest walls of brass and marble Who will be dejected or drownd in sorrow to lose the streams when he hath the fountain or who will be pensive and sad to lose the Candle-light or lesser Lamps when he hath the light of the Sun the principal Lamp of Heaven 5. The delectability of it It must be a substance affording the most incomparably delicious pleasures For what delights can be wanting to a substance in Heaven which is a notation of all absolute perfection Bartons and Manors and all earthly Inheritances are highly commended and are the more valuable from their pleasant situations How pleasantly situated then must this substance and inheritance be which is in Heaven It 's neither in the pleasant plain of Jordan Gen. 13.10 nor in the Land of Goshen Gen. 47 6. nor in the Land of Canaan that overflowed with milk and honey Lev. 20.24 nor in the Garden of Eden nor in any earthly Paradise but in Heaven where the most blessed God shines forth in his Glory What then can be wanting to make it most delectable to the glorified Saints who must be the eternal inhabitants of Heaven But here let no man mistake me as if I meant Mahometan amaenities and delights which I fear too many professed Christians have corresponding and agreeing Notions with the Turks of which differs not spicifically but gradually from what they enjoy here upon earth and so make it nothing else but a plenitude of sensual pleasures or flesh-pleasing good and delights in a higher measure I might quote much out of Mahomets Alchoran to this purpose but one passage shall serve for all which is this I will cause those that have believed in God and have performed good works to enter into Gardens wherein flow many Rivers where they shall dwell eternally with most beautiful Women I will give them the shade of Paradise Pag. 52. in the Chapter of Women written at Medina Thus here and in other places also we find the Beatitude which Mahomet promiseth to the faithful keepers of his Laws is accommodated to their flesh and senses which I forbear to mention because it would be too far a digression For I intend no other but what are Intellectual and spiritual which are the noblest and sweetest Pleasures most exactly accommodated to the understanding and all the powers and capacities of an Immortal Soul The nearer the streams are to the Fountain the purer and sweeter they are In Heaven the Saints shall have all their joys or most of them immediately from the fullest fountain God himself which will make them infinitely more recreating to their minds ravishing and reviving to their souls and spirits See Mr. Baxters Saints Rest Pag. 84 85. more largely treating of this particular Their pleasures shal not be conveyed to them through any unclean Channels nor shall they in the use of means and ordinances be brought to them neither shall they have them at the first second or third hand c. as they have in this world whereby they become more mixt and less delicious but they shall be as that pure River of Water of Life clear as Crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1.2 They shall see God face to face and stand continually in his presence and so their comforts must flow more immediately from himself Psal 16. In thy presence there is fulness of joy and at
of delectableness This must be the next object to the Beatifical Vision it self To have the fulness of the Godhead that which dwelleth in him bodily Col. 2.9 radiating as it were through his transparent body must afford excessive delights to the beholder That Glory of the Manhood which is out of measure that is respectively in regard of us who are unable to measure it must be a most lovely object to behold To see that Christ whose visage was marred more than any man and his form more than the Sons of men Isa 52.14 whom the Jews could see no beauty in that they should desire him Isa 53.2 Who was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and who was not esteemed by men Isa 53.3 Who hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities upon whom was the chastisement of our peace and with whose stripes we are healed Isa 53.4 5. Him who was spit upon and buffited Matth. 26.67 Who endured an eructation of all obloquies and evomition of all blasphemies upon him who was every way most opprobriously and contumiliously used Who was scourged and whipt Matth. 27.26 Who when he was in the prime and flower of his youth had his beauty so much withered and decayed and his body so much maceraâ—ed through want and poverty and variety of sorrows as if wrinckling and surrowing old age had overtaken and seized upon him or did very nearly approach him Joh. 8.57 Whose innocent and pure soul was put into so great an agony that he swear as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground Luk. 22.44 which made him say his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death Matth. 26.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 encompassed and besieged round about beset with sorrows And to conclude this to see him after that most low state of his Humiliation having when he was born a Manger for his Cradle crown'd with thorns as a sign of the greatest contempt and after all this condemned and executed upon the Cross crucified for the greater contempt between two Thieves most scornfully there insulted over having his sides pierced with the spear to let forth a pure stream of his most precious blood and not only to endure that most shameful ignominious tormenting death of the Cross but the whole weight and burden of his Fathers wrath and displeasure and the severe strokes and lashes of vindictive punitive justice and the very pains of Hell to take hold of his soul I say after all this to see him exalted in glory and majesty at the right hand of his Father a sparkling Crown upon his head sitting upon a magnificent Throne to see his countenance as the Sun shineth in his strength Rev. 1.16 to see him exceeding all the glory of Angels to see him infinitely more beautiful in his whole body than his Spouse the Church when enamour'd of him most passionately and Rhetorically describes him to be Cant. 5.10 11 12 13 14 15 16. To see as much of the Creator and the Divine Nature in Christ as is possibly visible in the nature of man and not only to see Christ in all that eminency of his glory but if we be Saints to see Christ in it as ours as we are interested in this object will make it most delectable Joh. 17.24 We find this is the great happiness honour and priviledg that Christ Wills for all true Believers Father This proves his Divinity I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Certainly Christ would never have Will'd this would it not afford ineffable joy to the beholder and fully prove that as much contentation as the creature can be made partaker of by the sight of any one visible object will be the portion of the Beholders of Christ as he is man The wise man tells us The eye is never satisfied with seeing Eccl. 1.8 Although it may be wearied with looking upon various objects yet it is not satisfied but still desires new ones and can drink them in without surfeiting so that though the acts of the eye be scant and finite yet the lusts of the eye seem to have a kind of infinity in them Now all this ariseth from the imperfection of all conspicable glory and beauty in this world for the sight cannot be quieted except in the most excellent of visible objects and this it only meets with in heaven Melancthon desired death for this very end that he might see Christ in glory Cupio ex hac vita migrare propter duas causas primum ut fruar desiderato conspectu filii Dei Coelestis Ecclesiae c. And if death be desirable by the Saints for this end certainly the object will be proportionably delightful We may likewise rationally conceive the glorified bodies of the Saints will be very delightful objects whose constantly flowring and radiant beauty shall never be incentives and baits to lust shall not beget unchast thoughts nor allure and tempt to unclean embraces There shall be no need of Ornaments to cover any deformities of the body or to add a grace and comliness to any of i'ts parts all meretricious Painting and Patching all the clouding Tooers as an addition to that sufficiency of hair which God and nature hath given to the female Sex shall be quite out of fashion and of no use Had man continued in the state of Innocency that beauty which is now composed of the most exact symmetry and complexion falls inconceivably short of what it would then have been and even that before sin darkned it's lustre and stain'd it's glory or in the least withered it's flower was not to be compared with this Then saith our Saviour shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father Which may very well be understood as one sense if not the chief of their corporeal brightness and it 's probable had there been a more splended creature in the whole visible Creation than the Sun our Saviour would have made use of it to express the formosity of the Saints bodies by in heaven To see then Heaven full of those bodies which perhaps were once cloathed with ulcerous soars with loathsome and nauceating deformities and liable to so great variety of diseases and though many of them were freed from these unamiable things yet at last their rarest Beauties were exposed to blasting Old age which planted deep Furrows in their smooth Brows shrunk and shriveld up their plump and comely Checks and causing their most straight and upright Bodies to bow themselves and uncomelily to stoop I say to see Heaven so full of those Bodies and every Body so perfectly beautiful that no addition can be made and al supplements are excluded what delight must this afford what a strange magnetick vertue is there in imperfect Beauty upon earth
their other vocal converse together though no doubt there shall be likewise the Speech of their blessed Souls which is a power whereby they can make known one unto another what they know themselves by spiritual insinuations and instillations shall be a far more pleasant and ravishing Melody and infinite more delightful to the Ear then any Instrumental and vocal Musick upon Earth that hath the sweetest Air. But though it may be above the grasp of our capacities now inffallible to determine how their Tongues shall every way be employed to please and delight their Ears yet we certainly know they shall never be used to grate and molest them All Tongues sins there shall cease Heaven knows not what swearing nor blaspheming what obscene nor filthy talking railing nor reproaching slandering nor backbiting lying nor perjuring yea nor what idle nor vain prate means all those are excluded and shut out for ever there Bue are these the grandest and highest things to express the Delectability of this substance by as it 's in Heaven No for the accomplishment of all shall be the advancement of the perfectly sanctified soul to the fullest fruition of the nearest and closest union and conjunction the most intimate and bosome communion with the infinitely blessed God that it 's capable of This doth far surpass all other delightful objects that can be named This is that which certainly will afford the highest complacencies to the soul for now it's powers and capacities being exceeding great it's actions exceeding vigorous and strong it's enjoyments must be most sweet The pleasant knowledg the soul shall have of God will be unconceivably delectable and complacential What sweeter embraces are there in the world than between the Intellect and Truth which makes the delights of a Philosopher though perhaps poor so far to exceed the pleasures of all gluttonous unclean Sensualists filthy Voluptuists rich and illiterate Clowns and covetous Misers in the world But when this most noble faculty of the soul is matcht with and hath for it's unchangeable object the prime Truth God himself how unspeakably ravishing must it's delights then be It is impossible for the understanding to acquiesce except it be in the highest Being for as Being and Truth are convertible so is the highest Being and the highest Truth The understanding then having arrived at this all it 's restless search and enquiries after truth must be terminated and concluded and when it hath found this most comprehensive truth who can conceive how generous and delicious its pleasures will be It 's by this visive power of the soul that it sees the divine Essence it self which beatifical object in an incomprehensible manner applyeth it self to the same This is expressed by Schoolmen various ways some saying that it is an actual illustration that is a supernatural influx elivating the understanding unto the vision of the Divine Essence others that it is the supernatural concourse of the beatical object whereby the object immediately manifests it self to the understanding together with the understanding causing a most blessed vision and when others call the light of glory a perfection super-added to the understanding whereby it 's made able to see God the sence is the same and this is that which will be the joy of joys and afford the most quintescential delights and elixorated pleasures to the soul for in the perfect knowledg of God the glorified understanding shall know all other things cognoscible for then shall all Philosophical as well as Theological doubts be resolved such as we have in Job 38.16 17 18 19 20. For the will of God representing the creature is that eternal Idea where as in a glass the Works of God are more perfectly seen than in themselves God is an infinite Essence and containeth eminently the perfection of the whole Creation or every creature from the first to the last and therefore as effects are visible and legible in their causes and conclusions in their principles so is every creature to be seen in God for they are all eminentially contained in him and so may be seen in him in a more excellent manner than in themselves As a Building or a Watch or any other piece of Mechanism could we see it clearly in the perfect conception of the Artificer we should see it in a more excellent manner than in the Edifice or work it self When once the perfected understanding fully knows the first cause and original truth it shall be liable to no mistakes nor errors more which do so much perplex and torment the mind Hence Simplicius in his Commentary in Epict. Enchir. speaking of the gradual progressions of the Intellect in the investigation and prosecution of truth asserts that when it reacheth God its attainments are the best and most perfect 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vnae enim haec quae ad Deum sit contentio est optima emnis quantum fieri potest erroris expers To all that hath been said this may be added to demonstrate the Heavenly Delectabilities that is the constant uninterrupted profusions of the perfected Divine Love upon God which includes the perfect rectitude and conformity of the souls wills to the Soveraign Supreme Will of God and its attain'd rest in its utmost and perfecting end for as Love is the Essence of God 1 Joh. 4.8 16. so Love is the Essence of the Soul and the noblest pleasures and purest joys are fetcht in and conveyed by love into it every man by sense and feeling knows what a secret emanation of sweetness there is from a good that 's loved It s by Love that every good communicates it self to our souls and they are made capable of a participation thereof by and the greater the good is provided the actings of love be proportion'd thereunto the greater and sweeter are the pleasures that spring from it God then being the supreme Good and that Good which for its perfection comprehends all other good what plentiful delights must result and be derived from it when supremely and perfectly lov'd in Heaven This it that which will make the joys of glorified Saints to flower and spring up for ever When love is not mutual and reciprocal when it is not reflected back again and the soul cannot hear the pleasant and earnestly expected Eccho I love thee from the amorated object And when no alternate exercises of this passion can be perceived then many times it produceth strange inquietudes and perturbations of mind excess of grief besotting Melancholy restless commotions of spirit and sometimes weariness of ones present life and being and then it s so far from being the cause of the Amorists felicity that it creates his greatest misery and when all its hopes of a sutable response and answer from its object are exspired then it turns into loathing and the highest disdain of and revengeful fury against the same And not only so but exceedingly tortures and proves prodigiously and monstruously unkind to the soul that first conceived it
and brought it forth and having obtained too great a Masterdome over the soul enfeebled and consumed with its flames Nero-like it would rip up the womb and tear out the bowels of its own Mother And under this miserable frustration and deplorable disappointment it s like an enrag'd man who when he cannot be revenged upon the person that hath highly affronted and offered great indignities to him he will tear his own hair and flesh and execute his fury upon his nearest relation or the man that is next to him But Heaven admits of no such thing for there the glorified Saints shall not yea cannot possibly love God so much as they shall be loved by him for they love him but according to their perfect finite goodness but he loves them according to his perfect infinite goodness they love him so far as they are made good and he loves them so far as he is good and therefore look how far his goodness exceeds theirs so far must his love surpass theirs When God therefore and they meet together in heaven there will be nothing but the highest endearments of love betwixt them nothing but the mutual constant actings and embracements of Love in the very bosom of God's Love shal their pure and holy souls be lodged for ever O how sweet and pleasant will that Heaven be where perfect created and perfect intreated love shall meet together were the Saints shall never doubt more whether or no they do love God sincerely that is prevalently and supremely which occasions many perplexing thoughts many inquiries into and much deep searching of their hearts here least after all their highest pretences and professions they should prove and perish as hypocrites for ever And then shall all their perplexing doubts and disquieting fears that they are not loved by God cease No such complaints as we read of in Psal 77.7 8 9. and in Psal 88.3 4 5 6 7 14 15 16. shall be heard in heaven There shall be no need of that counsel which we have in Isa 50.10 Who is there among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voyce of his servants that sitteth in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the Lord and stay himself upon his God That text shall never be preach'd upon in heaven for the comforting of drooping dejected though holy souls And as there shall be nothing but Love betwixt God and his Saints so there shall be nothing but love among themselves Peevishness and Passion Mis-judgings Mis-constuctions Hard-censures of each others Actions Quarrelling about Property too much Self-love Difference in Judgments Pride and Emulation Imbetter their Converse and breed too great an estrangedness among them here upon earth but as all these things proceed from the weakness of Christian and Brotherly Love so when that Love is perfected towards each other as well as God himself none of these things shall be found in heaven to render it a place and their society unpleasant to them We find that too often a few days or hours converse in this world makes them weary of each others company and they desire to draw of and retire though there be none of those former things to occasion it And such a Seclusion in solitude they find after converse very Recreating and delightful to them But as this ariseth from the Languidness and imperfection of their Love so when there is a Consummation of it in Heaven then a whole Eternity will not make their Fellowship ingrateful and burdensome nor their uninterrupted Converses Nauseous and glutting all desires shall then cease to Sequester themselves each from other .. And as there shall be such perfect exercises of love among all the Saints so shall there be betwixt them and the Holy Angels No doubt the love of Angels is now very strong towards the Saints which is not apprehended by them because their Nature is so little known to them But when they come to Heaven they shall have such a clear knowledge thereof that it shall strongly Elicit and powerfully draw forth their love to them again The Scriptures discovers to us the co-habitation of Angels and Saints in the same Heaven Rev. 4.8.5.8.7.9 and as they do dwell together so we may rationally suppose they converse and love together for the Soul of the Saints being of a spiritual substance they and the Angels are capable of speaking one to another that is mentally though not vocally in a heavenly spiritual manner communicating their minds notions meanings and conceptions as they see cause and as they please each to other But though we cannot absolutely and certainly determine either how Angels speak among themselves or how they and humane Souls speak each to other yet we may not in the least doubt or question the most delightful reciprocations of love and highest Carasses between them Now how pleasant is every place that is full of Love how comfortable is it to live in a Family of Love what a complacential co-habitation is that which Love is the Cementation of where it conglutinates and joyns all hearts together When conjugal Love is kept up in it's truth and strength How delightful and unwearied a converse is there betwixt Man and Wife And if uniting and knitting Love according to Psal 133.3 render all Communities and Societies so sweet how incomparably pleasant then must Heaven be which is perfumed throughout with Love where Love is most immixt and pure where the Love both of God Angels and Saints meet together Where Love is not only compleat but perpetual which shall never be shut up and buried in the depths of sorrows nor breath out its last by violent and forced separations as the Love of the nearest Friends and the dearest Relations soon-or later doth And hath Love such a vertue in it that if Friends be cast into a loathsome Prison together it can turn it into a pleasant Palace if into a dark disconsolate Dungeon it can supply the want of Light if in a Wilderness it can change it into a Paradise How can delights then be wanting in Heaven what perfection of all dilectabilities must be there where there is such a perfect plenitude and fulness of Love 5. Superlative Excellency this I have spoken to before and therefore shall not dwell long upon it now but seeing its a a substance in Heaven it must be most excellent 1. Specifically and in respect of kind This substance being in Heaven it must be distinct from any substance here upon Earth and as far as the Coelestial Bodies excel Terrestrial so far must this surpass the other And being Essentially the very glory and blessedness of God himself what can compare with it Not Gold nor Pearls nor Princes Crowns though they could be heaped up as high as the highest Mountains or could be made to reach the Sun and Stars yea the highest Heavens 2. Gradually for measure here is nothing wanting Heaven imports most absolute Perefection All earthly Substances are defective and
imperfect and therefore usually they that have most of them would have more and seldome sit down and say they have enough This makes Kings so desirous and industrious to enlarge their Dominions and Empiers to add to their weight of or multiply their Crowns This makes many Rich men so thirsty to increase their Bags and their fields These and many other things demonstrate an intrinsick deficiency in all Earthly Substances which renders them mean and inconsiderable what ever esteem men may have of them that know no better for of what little worth is that Drink which will not quench the thirst or that Meat which cannot fill and satisfie the stomach and so what little value is to be put upon all these worldly substances that can never fill and satisfie the soul But when the soul is possest of this celestial substance it shall say I need no more nor no other According to that Axiome desiderium boni imperfectioris cessat acquisito perfectiori The supream excellency of this substance is Rhetorically set forth and displayed by the Apostle in 2 Cor. 4.17 where it s called a weight of glory to shew the abundance and greatness of it and such an one as is far more exceeding 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is the Original and its such an emphatical Graecism that other tongues cannot word by word express it to the full therefore they are necessitated to use other words and phrases which exceeds all comparison as Mire supra modum Erasmus supra modum in sublimitate Vulg. Lat. Excellenter Excellens Beza Exceedingly excelling a most excellent the Dutch Annot. and as our translation hath it a far more exceeding the Greek most properly is A weight of glory according to excellency unto excellency It s as much as if the Apostle had said that all Hyperbolical expressions fall far short of this glory such is the transcendent excellency of it Much might be spoken of it but when all is said that the most Florid and Rhetorical Tongues of Men or Angels can it will but disparage it And when the Saints come to possess it they will say as the Queen of Sheba did concerning Solomons glory The half of it was not told them Finite created good is usually better in the expectation then fruition but infinite increated good is infinitely better in the fruition than it can be in the expectation 6. This shews that the happiness of the Soul is local It is not every where not any where but limited and confined to a particular place and that this happiness is distinct from Heaven it self as much as a Treasure is from the place where it is laid up or a man from the Room where he lodgeth There are a Generation of men as hath been already said and spoken to in part that would possess the World with a beleif that all the Heaven or Hell there is is within a man that is all happiness or all misery that he shall either enjoy or suffer is in his Soul and where ever he is and goes he carries his Heaven or Hell about with him This is indeed a truth in a sense but as it 's opposed to a place where the righteous shall be felicitated and to that which the wicked shall be tormented in for ever or where more of God shall be enjoyed and a deep sense of the loss of him and pain shall be felt is a most gross Error And hereby they carry on a most pernicious design destructive to all Religion endeavouring thereby to vacate Gods rational and mortal Government of rational Creatures that is his ruling and governing them in a way consisting with promises and threats and so opening a passage to all Licentiousness and Prophaness to the most Nefarious Courses and profligated flagitious Practises in the World Those that do read and believe the Holy Scripture Rom. 3.2 Those Oracles of God which give clear and certain Answers to all that do consult with them about their future state and do not pervert the proper sense and meaning thereof nor wrest them to their own destruction do know that besides the Hell which every awakened enraged guilty Conscience is even the Hell of Hells called therefore the Worm that never dieth Mark 9.44 like the Vulture that the Poets fain'd was alwayes gnawing and preying upon Prometheus his Liver while chain'd to the Mountain Caveasus and the Heaven within a man which every one hath to whom the Love of God through Jesus Christ is manifested and the Remission of his Sins is Seal'd up in his most precious Blood there is a Local Hell where as in a peculiar place the wicked shall be for ever tormented and a Local Heaven where they shall be for ever blessed And this substance may be said to be there as to be in no place else The light of nature doth so much attest this truth that none but such as imprison and extinguish the same will deny it 3. It 's a Substance that 's better that is bettter than any Goods the Saints can be be robbed and bereaved of or the hands of violence can tear from them But because I have spoken to and explained in part this already I shall onely add these two things which it involves in it 1. What encouragement Saints have and how reasonable a thing it is that they let go and part with their Goods for pure Gospel Religion and the sake of Christ seeing they have that which is better They have it in hope and if they do this they shalt certainly have it in fruition Who will not part with a less perfect for a more perfect good this every mans Reason will consent and agree to Who will not part with Brass for Gold with pebble-Stones or painted Glass for Orient Pearls with Rags for Robes with a poor Cottage for a Crown and Court with Puddle for Fountain waters Much more highly rational is it to part with all earthly Treasures for that which is heavenly seeing the disproportion is infinitely greater And how much do many Professors of the Christian Religion discover an imbecillity and impotency of Reason as well as a want of Faith and Religion it self to stick at this and make it a Stone of stumbling when called thereunto seeing the possession of the one is depending upon the other 2. How rational the Saints joys are when they do thus take joyfully the spoiling of their Goods A Beast hath no reason to guide him in his choice or rather pursuit of any good sutable to his own Nature hee 's only conducted and led by sense hence that which ariseth from the good proper to such unreasonoble nature may rather as some say be called delight then joy this being thought more appropriate to reasonable nature and intelligent beings And though all men as men have a Principle of Reason inhereut in their Souls yet are they not directed and guided thereby but by sense in the prosecution of good To its dictates they hearken and by them are
place like ponderous bodies that stand fast with their own weight like as the great hills or mountains It s therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal this is the accomplished perfection of their Glory of this their substance How admirably wise then are those believing souls that will adventure and chearfully part with that substance which is measured with a few moments of time for that which is coextended with Eternity And oh what folly possesseth them and what 's their debility of reason who will not do it Having now dispatcht this third and most considerable particular in the proposition I shall proceed to the next in order as they were at first laid down to be spoken to Therefore 4. How comes this substance to be known to the Saints or how come they to know they have such a substance in Heaven Answ 1. By Divine Revelation Had not God first made it known to them it could never have been known by them but it s clearly discovered in the sacred Scriptures in the writings both of the Prophets and Apostles though more plainly and fully in the latter It s true the dim twi-light of Nature helps most men to some very low imperfect and confused Notions and obscure glimmerings of a future happiness in another world when they depart this but it can make no such discovery of an Heavenly Glory and Blessedness what it is and wherein it consists as the word of God doth The Heathens had their Elysium a place as they conceiv'd of all pleasures whither they thought the souls of all the virtuous went after death The Mahometans have their pleasant Paradise whither they believe their great Prophet Mahomet will convey the souls of all those that live agreable to his Laws but still are grosly ignorant of the true happiness in Heaven All the most profound Philosophers in the world by their most diligent and laborious investigation and seach cannot discover and find out this Mystery though they can so many rare secrets of Nature It s the Gospel that brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Res ipsas occultas in lucem proferre seu reddere visibiles illuminare ipsos homines ut qui in tenebris non poterant ad presentiam Lucis ipsi etiam illustrati possint videre Zanch. That is to bring occult and hidden things into light or render them visible and to illuminate men themselves so that they who could not be seen at the presence of the light they themselves also being illustrated might see So that until the Gospel like the Sun shine unto men this immortal blessedness and eternal life is hid and kept secret and all men are in darkness and cannot possibly search and seek it out no more than a man in the darkest night can distinctly see those objects that the light of the Sun only can clearly manifest Hence till the Gospel be sent among a people they are said to fit in darkness and in the Region of the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Matth. 4.15 even deathful ignorance This is the light that springs up among those involv'd and envelop'd in dreadful darkness which they see the beatitude of Heaven by 2. By divine illumination of the Soul For any man to know this Heavenly substance it is not sufficient that there be a light without to manifest it but there must be a light within like an eye to the soul to behold it Let the Sun shine never so brightly let all Clouds be chas'd and driven away and the Heavens most serene and clear yet a man that hath no eyes can neither behold the Sun nor any objects it doth discover So let the light of the Gospel shine round about us yet unless its bright and blessed beams break into our souls for their illustration and illumination we see nothing by it And therefore as the Gospel doth enlighten the object so God must enlighten the Intellect which is the faculty the soul sees by He must give the seeing eye and actually enable to discern the illustrated object Let the Gospel be preached unto an Heathen or an Heathenish Congregation yet they will not understand what the blessedness of another world is till God in some measure shine into their souls which is the opening of the blind eyes and turning from darkness to light that the Apostle speaks of in Acts 26.18 which fully proves this truth This is the reason why so many in the Christian world who have lived many years under the preaching of the Gospel yet know so little of the life and immortality it brings to light Alas their souls are not from Heaven enlightned and though the light doth shine yet their souls are wrapt up in Clouds and darkness and that darkness cannot comprehend that light 1 Joh. 5. Every man according to the measure and degree of divine light that shines into his soul forms his Notions and conceives Idea's of the future blessedness If his light be but common or of a low degree then his Notions are less clear more languid and feeble less powerful and impressive upon the soul for its change and renovation and rise no higher or proceed no farther than some jejune and unaffectionate speculations and indeed this is the reason why we have so many speculative but so few practical Christians But when this light is more special and saving when it so irradiates the understanding that it efficatiously works on the will to cause a choice of this object and becomes transformative of the soul into the nature thereof then are its Notions profund and vigorous and produce a firm belief thereof with a frame of spirit and conversation sutable thereunto and no more than you can make a man that hath his eyes in his head and his sight clear believe that the Sun shines not at Noon-day or that he sees not Trees and Men distinct from Mountains can you make a soul thus specially enlightned believe he is under a mistake as to his future happiness or that he sees and knows not such a substantial Glory in the other world 3. By Divine Promission or the Promise of God Had not the faithful and true God promised it to them had they not the word of a God for it they could not know it should be theirs yea it were sinful presumption for such finite crawling worms and mortal defiled dust without this so much as to hope for it but they have the Promises of God those sure Rocks of Eternity to be the basis and foundation of such high expectations Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began Rev. 2.10 Rev. 3.21 If we firmly believe a man to be just and honest when he promiseth to lend or give us so much money or leave us such an estate and treasure when he dies then we have a strong confidence that it shall be ours and say we know it shall be so So
they are these Promises of God that cannot lie nor deceive his Saints that give birth and life and strength to all their hope and makes them thus to know they have in Heaven a better and enduring substance 4. They know they have this substance in heaven by the purchase that Christ hath made thereof for them As when a man hath purchased an estate he knows then it is his or if it be by any other purchased for him All men as the Apostle saith Eph. 2.3 are by nature the children of wrath that is their proper portion they are heirs of Hell by Adams Covenant-breaking Fall and so by their very original sin are they deprived of all right to the Heavenly inheritance all is forfeited into the hands of Justice who is the disseisor and therefore that must be satisfied and the debt of the sinner payed before there can be either seisin in Law a right to it or seisin in fact an actual possession taken And this is that which none can or could ever do but he that hath done it the Lord Jesus Christ by his most precious blood the effusion whereof was to satisfie the Law whereby their title to this most blessed inheritance is renewed and regain'd and actual possession shall certainly follow for all those that believe in him This is the sweet fruit of his sufferings the chief fruit of his blood And so far as they know by the testimony of the spirit and have an assurance or though they have not that but a well grounded hope that Christ died for them and their sins for his sake by the infinite freest mercies of God are pardoned so that all the strictest demands of vindictive justice are answer'd by him so far they know they have this purchased possession in Heaven and this knowledg shall never prove fallacious it shall never deceive them and indeed there is nothing in Heaven will make the Inheritance more sweet and fill the souls of the glorified Saints more with perpetual ravishments than to see clearly and know perfectly that unmatchable Love that engaged and prevail'd with the Father to give his Son and with the Son so freely and readily to lay down his life to purchase this immortal substance for them 5. And lastly What is it to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods upon such a knowledg this must imply these following particulars 1. An act of our Wills and a prevailing act the strongest bent thereof must be for it No man can rejoyce in doing or suffering any thing that his will especially prevalently is averse to such reluctancy and repugnancy always hinders and prevents joy for that always springs from an actual free choice which supposeth a predominant inclination and propension of the Will towards the chosen Object Hence it comes to pass that no man can be happy against or without the consent of his Will What 's the reason that many Professors of the Christian Religion sinfully comply with the Adversaries thereof when there is danger to own it when they do but hazard their Estates for so doing It s because it haâ— not so great an interest in their Wills aâ— it ought to have for the preponderating byass of their Wills is towards the world and not God nor Religion No man caâ— stick at the parting with his Wealth foâ— this but for want of Will for the Wilâ— hath potentiam executriceâ— and an imperative force and commanding power over the man Men know not what they say but deceive themselves and put the grossest cheat upon their own souls when they tell us their hearts are as much for religion and truth though they cannot suffer so much for it and so resolutely own it as others do as the hearts of any Christians are and it 's the heart that God looks to and accepts for if they have any heart or will at all it 's but remiss and in a low degree it 's but a weaker inclination of the Will some little faint and feeble velliety at the best some motions of the Will that never come to the countenanced prevailing choice and resolution for where this is the imperate acts follow and are performed if there be an outward ability and power to do it and when the defect is a cannot then the not doing it is excusable As far example If a rich man have a heart for acts of Charity and to relieve the distressed and poor he will proportionably do it still his charity is answerable to his heart and if he have an Estate and do not give he hath no heart at all or gives not proportionably though he give something to them he hath but very little his Wills is remiss this is his great sin before God and shall not excuse him from Soul-damning guilt to say he had a Will and Heart and that Will God accepts of for such good Works while he did nothing of them are very little but a man that hath no Estate to relieve the necessitous or but a little one and his charity is co-equal with and proportioned to it and he hath a a Heart to do more which is known to the Sercher of Hearts but cannot then is he not culpable or inexcusable but God accepts thereof If the Heart lead all that have no impediment and obstruction follow All the Members and Powers and faculties of a man say to the heart and will as the People to Joshuah chap. 1.16 All that thou commandest us We will do and whither soever thou sendest us we will go onely the Lord be with thee Though a remiss and inferiour Will under a Physical and Natural consideration is really a Will and may be so called yet morally it is no Will for it 's neither to denominate not being the prevailing choice neither is it that God by his Law requireth and is made the condition of our Salvation onely in thy sense qui mavult vult he that rather wills that wills most strongly wills aright Let us apply this to the Case in hand There are many men of Estates and some very considerable who will own pure and undefiled Religion and the instituted worship of God and pretend much Love and Zeal for the same till their Estates be in danger by a Rivality and Competitorship between them when they must either lose their Estates wholly or in part or they must lose their Religion and worship God in a way less pure or that is false When it comes to this pinch they part and shake hands with their Religion and do the latter to secure and preserve the former When this is done that they may have something to plead for themselves and quiet their Consciences with and prevent for their shameful Cowardice and Apostacy their grumbling or raging they say their Hearts are for the truth the best Religion the purest way of worshiping God and for the most profitable way of Preaching And God accepts the Heart and the Will for the Deed. O prodigious Hypocrite be
it an argument why they should persevere and be constant in suffering which implies they had not declared any repentance or sorrow for their former folly Such praeconsideration there was to part with their goods for the pure Doctrine of the Gospel The reason of many mens inconstancy and instability in suffering for Christ but after perhaps they have endured a little they flinch is the want of a thorow deliberate judgment before they engage in such a sight So much those words of our Saviour import in Luke 14.26 27 28 30 31 32. But when Christians to use the Apostles words in James 1.2 Count it all joy which is an act free from all temerity and the doing this in their choicest deliberation when they shall fall into divers temptations And with the Apostle Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is not to be referred to Opinion which is uncertain and doubtful but to assuredness certainty and is a metaphor taken from such as Casting Account find the true total summe as if he should say I have cast up the cross with all the incumbrances of it Par. in Loc. Rom. 8.8 Reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them I say when they do this then is their joy durable and abiding a joy that suffers no ecclipse a Sun that never sets in a Sea of sorrow And such counting and reckoning there must be to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods The Application of the Doctrine thus explained The first Use may be by way of Information 1. Infer FIRST from hence infer that the joy which springs from an Heavenly Substance that 's a sweet stream from that upper fountain can subsist live in the soul in the want of outward earthly comforts It s not depending upon sensible things and present enjoyments upon a great estate and a copiousness of wealth dignities and honours or such foeculent and drossy things here below This is too noble and sweet a Lamp in the soul to be maintained and fed with such impure Oyle This is the reason why Paul and Silas could sing in a prison and in the stocks Acts 16.25 why Paul was so filled with joy and exceeding joyful in all his tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 why he could say he with others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it notes the most exuiting Joy did glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 why the Prophet Habakkuk could say chap. 3.17 18. Although the Figg-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines The labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation And this is the reason why the Heroick and blessed Martyrs had such a redundancy of joy in the midst of torturing flames and under the most exquisite torments And no less doth that great emboldening and encouraging promise hold forth in Matth. 19.29 And every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands that is the nearest and dearest relations and all possessions for my Name sake shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting life The hundred-fold promised concerns not another world but this or not eternity but time as we may see by comparing this Scripture with Luke 18.30 Mark 10.30 And yet though this may and is sometimes made good in the plain literal sense a certain number being put for an uncertain an hundred-fold for manifold as the other Evangelists explain it and in specie yet it is not alwaies so And though the former sense according to the judgment of some may be true in part yet it s not in the whole only so far as the nature of the thing will ordinarily admit of it for an hundred Wives and Fathers and Mothers c. are not to be expected though a far greater estate may than that which is forsaken for the Name-sake of Christ Therefore the performance of the promise is to be understood eminenter that though God doth not give those things formally and specifically yet he will do it eminently What are relations and possessions for but comfort Now when there is by any a dereliction and forsaking of these for Christ they shall have that in God and receive such exuberant consolations from him which all the creatures would be to him yea and far more if they were multiplied an hundred times Did all that profess the Christian Religion firmly believe this or did they but feel and taste before they are called to suffer for their Religion those sweet and pure joyes that are an effluence from God and Heaven did they not really think their principal if not all their comforts to be wrapt and bound up in their present enjoyments and possessions and all because Sense is the great Dictator to them and their souls lye so much under the dominion thereof so many of them would not desert in the day of tryal their most noble Religion as they do The enemies of the Saints when they drag them to prisons and shut them up in dungeons and spoil them of their goods they conclude they have hereby made them miserable and revenged themselves upon them not knowing nor considering what an effectual course they have taken to make them more happy How they have taken away puddle waters that they may more freely and plentifully drink of fountain waters that they have removed their Candle-light that they may enjoy more of the Sun that they have deprived them of the Earth and the creature to make way for their possessing more of God and Heaven Sensual souls and worldly-minded men wonder often at the Saints comforts when they seem to be denuded and devested of all not knowing as our Saviour said in another case that they have meat to eat which they know not of John 4.32 The sweet effluvium's of these joyes and their secret illapses into holy souls cannot by all humane or diabolical malice and power be obstructed or intercepted they have their occult conveyances and communications to the souls of suffering Saints else the Hebrews had not taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods 2. Infer Secondly How wise a choice they make that leave and abandon this world for the sake of Christ seeing they do not deprive themselves of present joy and comfort and likewise render themselves capable of a better and more excellent substance by it It matters not what hypocritical Professors censure them for who think it their greatest wisdom to secure what they have whatever becomes of the Gospel the pure Christian Religion and the Interest of Christ in the world They may secretly deride them for imprudence rashness inconsiderateness and perhaps worse with the openly profest and declared enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ but when
these children of the Kingdom are cast out into utter darkness Matth. 8.12 and see these now judged fools inheriting everlasting life and light then when it s too late will they be convinced of and justifie their wisdom It s an amazing and confounding thing to consider how strong and unto how high a pitch mens reason is raised when it 's exercised about earthly things and is to pass a judgment upon them and how enervated and enfeebled and at what a low ebb it is when it comes to be acted about heavenly things and is to pass a true judgment upon them It s rare respectively to this to find a man that 's compos mentis that hath his right wits but most men here are like to some mad-men who will discourse soberly and rationally till that be the subject which was the first occasion and cause of their madness and then they quickly discover their distemper And as such phrenetical persons think all men so but themselves and judge the most sage discourses to be but folly Even so world-minded Hypocrites with the large generation of Sensualists in the world think the wise traffick and trade of a few Saints for Heaven and Eternity while they adventure and sometimes lose all their worldly enjoyments for the same to be a most unadvised undertaking to bewray much debility of reason if not some phrensie to have seized upon them And though perhaps they will not alwaies or all of them will not thus explicitly and openly brand them with folly and madness yet they will do it implicitly and tacitly either by ascribing what they do to some sullen obstinate humour for they who will so gratifie this hazard and lose their estates and outward comforts are most egregious and enormous fools do I say fools yea highly insanous and sit for Bedlam or to too much niceness and and over-scrupleness of conscience which doth sufficiently put the fool upon them while it asserts the exility and almost nothingness of ther reason But true Believers can live above all these reproaches and patiently wait till their wisdom in another world be avoucht justified by Christ or their visible and most glorious enthronement there do clearly demonstrate not only the verity but the supereminency thereof and what it 's most noble origin and discent was James 3.17 when so much unknown unto disdained and vilisied by the World 3. Infer Thirdly That Assurance of Heaven is attainable here upon Earth it may be had though all the children of God have it not it 's no impossible thing to be obtained for if it were that counsel and command which makes it a duty were vain which we have 1 Pet. 1.10 Wherefore the rather Brethren give diligence to make your Calling and Election sure Which words are not to be understood of an objective but subjective certainty sure to our selves in our own hearts and consciences When the Hebrews knew in themselves that they had in Heaven this better and enduring substance it implyes as hath been noted that they had some assurance of a right to it and a possession of it But this was not proper and peculiar as a priviledge to them but it 's that which Saints now and to the end of the world may have likewise It must indeed be acknowledged that assurance of our salvation is not with facility and ease but with arduousness and difficulty as usually the choicest and most excellent things are obtained This bright and precious Jewel cannot be brought into the soul but by the greatest assiduousness painful laboriousness highest and constant solicitude and care as the Apostolical Exhortation imports Give diligence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifies all manner of studiousness seriousness and intention in doing It requires a close walking with God an observant watchfulness over our own hearts a frequent impartial sedulous exploration and examination of them 2 Cor. 13.5 Examine your selves whether ye be in the faith Prove your own selves Which things too many Christians being too often omissive and negligent of they possess it not And whatever assurance any man pretends to and boasts of that he obtains not in this way it will prove false and deluding and leave him short of Heaven and all his hopes of an eternal happiness under a most miserable abortion and frustration If the generality of Christians want assurance the fault is their own The sloth and laziness the torpor and sluggishness of their souls their oscitancy and carelesness their inactivity insedulity and inconstancy in the performance of all those holy duties which are the vital parts of Christian piety is too frequently the cause hereof The want hereof likewise in many is to be ascribed to the not exercising of their reason vigorously and enough for its usually if not alwaies wrought in a rational way for as the soul of man hath the power of ratiocination so hereby Gods Children must argue themselves into this joyful Assurance which is done by inferring one truth from another and drawing true conclusions from right premises which are two propositions that help them to syllogize The first of these is Scriptutural such a Proposition as is infallibly true because it is founded in the Word of God As for example let it be that He that believeth on Christ hath everlasting life Joh. 3.13 The other Proposition is experimental But I believe on Christ now if after a serious laborious disquisition and thorow examination of our faith we find it exactly to correspond and square with that description and those characters which God gives of a true and saving faith in his Word which is not impossible to find and know else that exhortation and command in the 2 Cor. 13.5 were very futilous and frivolous then may the conclusion be rightly and confidently drawn therefore I have everlasting life Much in such a way as this that requires the exercise of our reason is Assurance wrought which many sincere Saints not taking but waiting for and expecting some immediate testimony and witness from Heaven are longer clouded with fears and doubts as to their eternal estate It s true when all this is done such may want Assurance both because they may not after a diligent search experience such a Proposition there being requisite hereunto besides reason the special help of the Spirit which may not alwaies be afforded and though they may yet may they hasitate and demurre and not have the confidence to draw the conclusion which must be done likewise by the assistance of the same Spirit which is sometimes though for most wise ends denyed them But yet notwithstanding this concession its most probable if not an indubitable truth a comfortable Assurance by such means the Spirit concurring therewith is attained unto though still it must be confessed it admits of several degrees and durations and so is not equally in all that have it neither for measure nor for time I might discourse much more largely of this Doctrine of Assurance but
that would not be pertinent here I only speak so much of it as shall make a clear way to the ensuing particular 4. Infer Fourthly Then that this Assurance of an Heavenly Substance renders it very facil and easie to part with our earthly goods The soul that can once say I know in my self that I have in Heaven a better and an abiding Substance an immortal Treasure Its never put to any hard struglings and conflicts to forsake all the treasures in the world when the glory of God the interest of Christ and Religion calls him to do it but with the greatest promptitude and readiness with the highest alacrity and chearfulness he parts with all Let the world court and complement the soul never so much make the largest promises to it use all its blandishments and allurements with the utmost of its craft and skill and never so earnestly solicit the same to hold and keep it fast to adhere and stick to it it is inflexible it will not yield no conquest can be made of it its hardned against them all It can be no more moved herewith than a man would be with importunate intreaties and solicitations to continue in some petite and contemptible Cottage and little spot of ground when some magnificent Seraglio some most illustrious Palace and mighty Empire were offered to him and he had a full and infrustrable assurance alwaies to possess the same If a man were the Absolute Lord of all the East and West-Indies and had as many Pearls as there are Pebble-stones could accumulate and heap up the Gold of O hir as high as the highest Mountain or Pyramides could he possess as many millions of the purest Gold and Silver as there are grains of sand piles of grass upon the earth drops of water in the Ocean Stars in the Firmament and moments from the beginning to the end of time Had he at once as many bright orient Gems and Jewels with Imperial Crowns as there are Atoms as have or shall be hairs upon all mens heads in the world Or were he the possessor of as many Kingdoms yea worlds as there are fishes in the Sea fowls of the Air beasts reptiles and insects upon earth yet would his Assurance of this one Celestial Substance though it were but of the lowest degree and no pleropherie and full perswasion that doth exclude and will not admit of the least doubt it would make him abandon Phil. 3.8 and reject all as dung and dross for Christ for his Gospel and any truth that hath the stamp of his Authority upon it Yea and all this it would do without grudging and murmuring much more without absorping sorrow if not without one pensive thought The reason of this is evident and plain because there is not so great a disproportion between a mite and all these numberless millions as is between them and this one Substance this one Inheritance in Heaven And besides this Assurance is never wrought in or obtained by any soul before the prevailing bent and strongest byass of its will be unto and its actual choice be made of this immortal treasure which conquers the difficulty of parting with what is earthly 5. Infer Fifthly Then as connective with the former and a further amplification of it that they who will not chearfully part with and take joyfully the spoiling of their goods for the sake of Christ cannot have any Assurance of this better Substance or any real right and title to the same It s true such men may be and many of them usually are the greatest pretenders to Assurance and to the most confident Hopes of possessing Heaven But alas all will prove but a vain and vanishing dream in the end and ere long they shall awake and find it to be so if not in this world to retrive the mistake and errour yet in another covered with horrours and clothed with consternations when eternal flames shall thorowly awaken and effectually convince them of that most gross delusion they layd under while they thought their right and title secured to the treasures of eternity yet to honour and glorifie God and so answer the supreme and higest ends of their lives and beings and to maintain the Interest of their Redeemer in the world they will not part with those trifling treasures that are circumscrib'd and bounded with a few moments of time beyond which by the decree and determination of the Eternal God they shall not pass And when they thus awake and their eyes are thorowly opened they shall see and know that the Assurance and hope which they had a firm and fixed dependence upon were but like golden Chains and so more pleasing that Satan detained and held them as his prisoners in till with himself he had brought them down into the most tremendous Chains of everlasting darkness These persons are like to a poor wretched man that I once saw in Bedlam who did stronly fancy himself and was fully assured that he was a King and had a real right to a Crown and Kingdom But alas while none could convince him of the contrary all the while he was in Bedlam a most miserable Palace for this fanciful Prince to live in and a very disconsolate Throne to sit and reign upon And though he would assume Imperial Grandeur and with much state and majesty deport himself yet he possessed nothing to maintain it but in his own imagination Such a Heaven such a Crown of life and Glory shall these one day find after all their Assurance they are the possessors of who would not subordinate all their earthly interests and possessions to Jesus Christ and who would rather part with his pure Doctrine and Worship than these should suffer the least impairment and diminution much less would they suffer the loss of all for the same And though these men do think they are the only Sophies the only Oracles for wisdom in the world and that the Systeme of the best Politicks and the Epitomy of all true prudence is in their brains and apprehending themselves to move in the highest sphere of reason to be Stars of the first magnitude for understanding and admiring their own Intellects as elevated to the highest Zeninth and sublimated to the most lofty pitch they judge themselves most worthy of the Chair to be perpetual and dogmatical Dictators unto all others Yet it is not long before it will appear both to themselves and all others how much they were void of all true reason what its tenuity and slenderness was and how much more mad they were than any of those sent to Bedlam to be made sober to recover their lost wits to consolidate their crackt brains and redintegrate their crazy and shattered reason Oh! you that are so tenacious of a little guilded earth and glittering clay as if it were your God and Supreme Good that will sin against your very light debauch your own consciences giving them many a deadly stab and mortal wound and
shall cease Masters and Servants Parents and Children the High and the Low the Rich and the Poor the Noble and the Ignoble Kings and their Subjects shall stand upon equal ground therefore they shall be all Kings Rev. 1.6 What those different degrees of Glory are that some assert shall be in Heaven proportioned to the attained degrees of Grace upon Earth and which some places of Scripture seem to point at is something difficult to understand and to give satisfactory Answers to those Objections which might be raised against the same The essential blessedness and glory of the Saints is the same it s one Substance but something accidental there may be to increase and heighten the joy as there will be in Hell to increase the Sorrows and Misery of the damned and to make the damnation of some greater than others Matt. 23.14 This truth I thought fit to infer to comfort those that are the Children of God but whose condition is low and mean and exposeth them to the slights and contempt of the World And to make them contented therewith for a few dayes notwithstanding all the affronts and indignities they meet with from the Strutting Gallants upon Earth and while perhaps they meet with too disdainful and disrespectful a carriage from their fellow Christians and Brethren who are Superiour to them for wealth It likewise may administer abundant consolation to those that have but a very little lose for to Christ whose Estates are so exigious and small that it s perhaps their grief and trouble they have no more to adventure and part with for him Let all such know they shall be as well rewarded in Heaven as those who forsake the greatest Treasures for him for it s their All and so demonstrates their sincerity and the supremacy of Gods interest in their Souls Therefore as our Saviour saith whosoever shall give to drink a Cup of cold Water that is when he hath no better Liquor to give in his Name to his Disciples and because they belong to Christ shall not lose their reward Matt. 10.42 Mark 9.40 And as when the poor Widdow cast her two Mites into the Treasury it was highly applauded and approved by Christ and as acceptable to him as the much which was thrown in by the rich and no doubt as highly rewarded by him in Heaven Mark 9.41 42 43 44. so those that lose their Mites for Christ and have no more shall be compensated with as massie a Crown of immortal glory as they that lose their Millions if any such can be found And as our Saviour saith concerning that poor Widdow that she threw more in then all the rich that cast into the Treasury ver 43. For saith he all they did cast in of their abundance what they might well spare but she of her want did cast in all that she had 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 all her life even all her living so those Christians that leave and lose that which in it self is most contemptibly minute for Christ when it s their living that is all their means that have to live on or to maintain their Lives it s of greater value and more in the account of Christ then that which is lost by the rich when it s not their All not the total of their Estates but still a sufficiency is reserved to live upon VVhat is translated the VViddows living properly signifies her Life VVhen a poor Christian therefore offers and sacrificeth his petite substance his tenuous and small pittance to Christ to advance his glory and Kingdom in the VVorld he seem to offer and sacrifice his life and it s as greatful and acceptable to Christ as if it were the same And I think that Christian who will lose his whole Estate be it more or less for Christ will lose his life too But this is certain that he who will not adventure and forsake the one will not hazard nor lay down the other Tenthly From hence infer that the possession of this Heavenly Substance will not admit of nor consist with any grief and sorrow If sincere Christians can joyfully suffer from the very foreviews of this substance and the praebibations and foretasts of its effluent sweetnesses and pleasures certainly no mortal can declare what joy the full possession of it will afford The hope that Princes have of Crowns and Kingdoms raiseth their joy above an ordinary pitch but when the day of actual Coronation and Inthronization comes then their triumphs surpass Thus Gods children rejoyce in hope of a future Crown Rom. 5.2 and their joy surmounts the joy of Princes but when they hear those words Matth. 25.34 Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world And when they shall be crown'd by their dearest Redeemer in the presence of all the holy Angels And he shall further say unto them Seeing you have overcome the world and the flesh now boldly ascend my Throne and sit with me thereon even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Rev. 3.21 What shouting for joy will there then be All Triumphs and Exultations at Inaugurations and Instalments here are but dark resemblances of what will then be Certainly sighs and groans and tears they shall know no more To use those words of the Prophet Isaiah Chap. 51. ver 11. The redeemed of the Lord shall return and come with singing into heaven instead of Zion and everlasting joy shall be upon their head They shall obtain gladness and joy and sorrow and mourning shall flee away How inconceivably sweet must their solace then be What voluptuousness and delectations can be like to theirs who can imbibe and drink in fresh pleasures from the fountain like to them But in the explicatory part of the Proposition having said so much to this already I will extend the discourse no further yet I thought fit to add this little it being a rational deduction from the Doctrine to renew the Gusto and taste of the former and to refresh the Readers memory of what hath been spoken of the Delectability of this Substance as it 's in Heaven Vse 2. The second Use Secondly Then it may be useful by way of Counsel and Exhortation unto all that profess the true and pure Christian Religion and Apostolick Faith that they would put this Doctrine in practice when call'd to it that they would never betray nor renounce it nor in the least recede from it to have an Estate though never so great or that they may proceed in the coacervation and heaping up of their riches and treasures If we acknowledg and believe the Sacred Scriptures to be the only directive and conductive Rule to our supreme and ultimate End our everlasting and future Blessedness and that nothing can be constitutive of Gods Worship but his own Commands and Institutions and that whosoever would mix any thing therewith or add any thing thereunto as parts of that
the soul and acting it towards God the through change of our Natures and regeneration of our Spirits the transforming energy and vertue of the spirit of God to have past upon our souls the deep impressions of a divine nature thereupon whereby we are assimulated and made like to God Whosoever hath not his hope and expectation of an heavenly blessedness built and bottom'd upon this doth but deceive himself and will find his hope to prove abortive and his expectation most miserably and deplorably frustrated in the end Mat. 5.8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God Col. 1.27 Which is Christ in you the hope of Glory This is that we must know and find in our selves before we can challeng a right and title unto and conclude that this immortal Substance belongs to us and shall certainly be possessed by us To know in our selves seems consonant to that 1 Iohn 5.10 He that believeth in the Son of God hath the witness in himself Which is not only if there be any such thing that witness and testimony of the Holy Ghost in a more immediate way but an inherent Principle of Grace and Holiness first powerfully planted and wrought by the spirit of God in the soul and then halping and enabling the soul to reflect upon it and find it out and after this to draw right and comfortable conclusions from the same which stand as a witness and evidence in our souls that we have a right to all that future Glory and felicity that such a changing renewing Principle doth adapt and qualify us for and render us capable of And if I may allude to that which is spoken of our Saviour in the very same words Iohn 6.61 thereby expressing his omnisciency knowing in himself it will illustrate this to be the sense thereof for how did Christ know in himself Col. 2.9 but by that fulness of the Godhead that dwelt in him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bodily that is personally or substantially As he was God he had Omnisciency in him and so he knew in himself by his own in-dwelling Divinity or Godhead So to know in our selves is to know by some in-dwelling Purity and Holiness in our Souls that we have this better Substance Yet I will not possitively determine this to be the proper signification of the words I only declare my own apprehension and sentiment thereof without imposing upon any but shall leave every one to their own judgment 3. I proceed now to discourse and distinctly to treat of the thing known A Substance with those other things it is amplyfied by which have been already in part explain'd but I shall now give a more particular account of them And 1. I shall begin with the Substance spoken of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word is used by most Greek Authors in the same leâ—sâ— The word in the Original signifies Bona Facultates Wealth Goods Possessions which we frequently call Substance and hence a Rich Man is called a Substantial Man Substance is sometimes taken for the essence or being of any thing is no more than Ens subsisting of it self but then it is not expressed by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 though in some Authors this word also signifies Riches sometimes Substance signifies persona a person endowed with reason is the same with that which the Schoolmen call Suppositum and is used by Theologists in the explication of the Holy Trinity the two Natures of the Lord Jesus Christ in one Person then it s set forth by the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Heb. 1.3 which is translated subsistentia one that doth subsist of himself but this Substance is of another Nature and otherwise to be considered even as something that stands opposed to the Goods that Believers may be and often are spoiled of in this world Therefore must be Goods of an higher and more excellent Nature It 's some Substance that 's not a simple Ens or naked being but that which can greatly enrich the Soul and become its Wealth and Treasure In it then we have an involution of two things 1. Reality It shall not prove a fools Paradise a dream'd enjoyment As a poor man that dreams he wallows and tumbles in wealth and is accumulating the treasures of the earth or as an hungry man that dreams he is feasted and fed with luxurious dainties hath Sardanapalus's sumptuous fare is eating the most delicious meats and drinking the most generous pure and sparkling Wines or like an ignoble and base person that dreams he wears a Princes Crown that he is set upon a Regal Throne sways an Imperial Scepter Commands and Governs Kingdoms and is advanced to the highest pitch and pinacle of worldly Power and Pomp But when all these awake Alas they find all those things are but lusorious dreams there 's no reality in them and so they vanish leaving them all pensive and sad at so miserable a disappointment But this is a Substance a real thing or Good indeed that the suffering Saints know they have Vain toyes and trifles froth and foam bubbles and shadows and such deluding dreams do not constitute the same the Joys and Pleasures the Saints shall have such an exuberancy of the Honor and the Glory they shall be crowned with to Eternity shall not be pageant and umbratil but most substantial God promiseth nothing unto them but what is real 2. Satiâ—ly and the fullest Satisfaction it doth afford Wind may fill the belly or stomach of a man but it is substantial Meat that must satisfie them and make their constant cravings and painful gnawings to cease This then being Substance it 's that which shall fully satisfie their souls being an edaequate commensurate happiness both to their Nature as immaterial and immortal and also to their capacity which is so immense and vastly larg It is that which God hath so exactly accommodated hereunto that it shall be their central felicity for ever which in the full fruition and possession thereof shall afford such plenary satisfaction to their Souls that their volitions and desires for any other earthly Substance Good and Comfort shall not only be allayed and moderated but totally extinguished This is that indeed which supersedes the souls chase after all other delights and felicities The substantial joy in Heaven Vt plenam illam laetitiam exprimat Propheta utitur plurali numero Laetitiarum ut una sit iustar omnium in se comprehendat veram omnem laetandi materiam omne laetiâ—iarum genus earum copiosissimam abundantiam Rivet in Locum therefore is called a plenitude a fulness Psal 16.11 When once the Soul comes to swim and bath it self in that immense immeasurable Sea of sweetest celestial pleasures and everlasting consolations and to be swallowed up in the infinite unbounded Ocean of the supreme Good then certainly it shall know no more what it is to pant after to thirst and long for any