'T is fictioned by the Poets in their Mythology of Prometheus that he did work and fashion the Bodies of Men out of Clay but he was fain to steal Fire from Heaven for the informing and quickning of them with living Souls (a) Psal 139.1 When the Body is curiously formed and admirably organized in the lower Parts of the Earth yet still it would remain a lifeless and unspirited piece of Clay did not God animate and quicken it with a living Soul with a celestial Spark lighted by his own Breath from Heaven THE Body of Man is but a Flower springing out of the Earth that will quickly wither and return to its Dust but his Soul hath Immortality written upon it it s a Bud of Eternity that can never be blasted nor wither away into nothing The Body indeed is nothing but a Compound of Death and Mortality it will quickly crumble away into dust and rottenness but the Soul having no Principles of Death and Corruption bound up in it will run a Line parallel to aâ—l Eternity it can never be confined by time but will for ever be launching forth in the boundless Ocean of an endless Duration †Matth. 10.28 The Body is obnoxious to the stroke of Death and by the Hand of Violence may before its time be matriculated amongst those that sleep in the Dust but the Soul being an immaterial Substance is above that fatal blow and hath from the spirituality of its own Nature everlasting impregnable security against every Hand of Violence written upon it so that Death itself is not able to touch the Life of the Soul THE Soul therefore being thus Divine in its Original and Eternal in its Being and Duration there is no Man unless he will renounce his own Understanding and apostatize from his own essence but must acknowledge it a point of the most important and masculine reason in all the World to consult the Salvation of our Immortal Souls providing above all things for their Eternal Welfare Should we prefer the Casket before the Jewel a frail Mansion of Mortality before an heavenly Inhabitant or the dark Lanthorn of the Body before the Soul that Divine Lamp which if fed by the Oyl of Grace would always shine forth with most radiant dazling beams of Brightness The excellency of our Souls is so transcendently Great and Glorious that it justly lays claim to our principal care and because they will never be raked up with our Bodies in the cold Embers of Death why therefore hath the Lord made it the great end of our Lives to work out Salvation for them giving diligence to make them meet through Grace for everlasting Mansions of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But how can we thus take care of them or design their Eternal Happiness as the great end of our Lives in case we may not have respect to the recompence of the reward seeking Life and Eternal Glory by patient continuance in well-doing to Crown them withal Can the Salvation of our Souls be the object of our principal care next to Gods own Glory when out of a pretended Zeal for that we would seem altogether careless and unsolicitous about the saving of our own Souls How can we say we make salvation the great end of our lives endeavouring that our Souls may be happy when we hold it unlawful to bend and level all our desires for the hitting of that fair mark Believe it Christians they that would perswade you 't is unlawful to have respect in our obedience to Heaven and Glory do in effect go about to argue your Souls into the careless neglect of their own everlasting welfare But can you be regardless of your own Salvation Can you sleight the great end of your lives and turn your back upon your own happiness Can you indeed neglect your immortal Souls that must either be happy or miserable either imparadised Souls in Heaven or damned Spirits in Hell to all eternity Do you know what Salvation is how everlastingly blessed those Souls will be that may approach the presence of their God that may see his Face that may rest in his eternal embraces that may enter into the joy of their Lord and drink freely of those Rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore Oh then make not light of so great Salvation but give all diligence to get an interest therein for your immortal Souls To make sure of eternal happiness was the great errand upon which God sent us into the World oh therefore take heed that you do not leave it upon uncertainties seeking after the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof as if you were loth to find it 10 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because the very nature and proper genius of true Grace is to make a blessed divorce betwixt the world and the heart wherein it is resident and so to carry out the heart in strong desires and unsatisfiable breathings after Heaven and Glory True Grace is an Heaven-born Spark and therefore it doth naturally ascend upward aspiring after Heaven and Glory as its proper region As all the Lines meet in the Center and as all the Rivers do run into the Sea uniting themselves in the vast Ocean so all the desires of a gracious Soul they meet in Heaven uniting all their forces in one continued and insatiate anhâ—lation after fulness of Communion with God in Glory The Sun though seen in the Water yet hath his Tabernacle fixed in Heaven (a) Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. so though a Christian hath his commoration upon Earth yet his Conversation his Trade his Commerce is daily in Heaven the place of his Eternal Abode The Men of this World are ever inveloping themselves in thick Clay they are not soaring Eagles but crawling Muck-worms but now all those that are truly gracious they are Men of another Spirit they live in the highest Region and are compared to Eagles in regard of their Heavenly-mindedness (b) Isa 40.31 Life enables Men to lift up their Body from the Earth and to tread upon it with their Feet (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. Thus whoever have the Life of Grace begun in them they tread upon all earthly Enjoyments and are carried upon the Wing of desire quite above all sublunary Comforts into Heaven itself The heart that is seasoned with saving Grace is restless till it come to be fixed in a sure State of Glory and Happiness just like the Needle that is touched with a Load-stone upon which there is nothing but unquiet agitations and tremblings till it be firmly fixed and settle immovably in the North Point We read of Noah's Dove that she found no place whereupon to rest the sole of her Foot but only in the Ark so the People of God they find no place but in Heaven whereupon to rest themselves and therefore all their breathings
the Prodigal be feeding upon Husks when there is Bread enough to spare in your Fathers House Will you still be building Tabernacles for your selves on Earth when the Lord shews you such Mansions of Glory prepared in Heaven Foolish Children When such an eternally glorious Reward is held out to you by the Hand of your heavenly Father how can you with any patience behold the World or think it worthy that you should spend so much as one thought upon it You should live Christians in the highest Region of an heavenly Conversation leaving those to scramble for the World that have nothing else to live upon (g) Sua sibi habeant regna reges suas divitias divites suam verò prudentiam prudentes relinquant nobis stultitiam nostram Lact. de Just lib. 5. cap. 12. pag. 493. That of Lactantius was a brave heroick Spirit which if throughly imbibed would make you all say with him let the Kings of the Earth have their Kindoms let â—â—e Rich Men have their Riches and the Prudent of this World let them have their Prudence to themselves so that they will only leave us the folly of seeking by patient continuance in well-doing Glory and Honour and Immortality and Eternal Life Get your Hearts fixed upon your Treasure in Heaven and I dare say it will never grudge you to see the Lord filling the Bellies of the Wicked with his hidden Treasure on Earth It matters not much what they have in hand so long as God allows you to have always an immarcessible Crown of Glory in you to Eye Oh this is the Happiness of Gods People even in this present World that having gotten their Hearts once weaned from earthly Comforts they live in the suburbs of the heavenly Jerusalem When once they leave off to feed with delight upon the Garlick and Onions of Aegypt they shall then sit down under the shadow of Gods dearest Love in Canaan and there find his Fruit sweet to their tast When once they turn away their Eyes from beholding worldly Vanities they may behold with delight the promised reward and have their Eyes continually feasted with the bright entrancing beams of Heavenly Glory (h) Quis non illius vitae desiderio praesentem vitum despierat Quis non illius abundantiae delectamento divitias temporis labentis exhorreat Quis non illius regni dilectione omnia terrena Regna contemnat Fulgent ad Theodor. epist 6. pag. 551. Who then for the desire of such a Life would not despise this present World Who for the delight of that abundance would not even fear the Riches of gliding time Who for the Love of that glorious Kingdom would not contemn as things of no value all earthly Kingdoms Oh believe it Christians you will have Meat to eat which the World knows not of living Heavenly-minded The World can never feast her greatest Favourites with those redundancies of Joy and Comfort which you may expect getting weaned affections to things below and living above Let therefore the Price of earthly Commodities fall and the price of heavenly Commodities rise in your thoughts And tho you be absent from your Treasure in Body yet see that you be always present therewith in Spirit In vain doth God afford you a prospect of Glory on Earth if it prove not a spiritual Load-stone to attract and draw up your Hearts as high as Heaven 8 WALK patiently as well satisfied to suffer and bear the worst of Afflictions that at length you may come to Heaven the best of Rewards Their Hearts may well be established with divine Patience in every condition whose Eyes God allows to be fixed in every Duty upon heavenly Glory And truly the condition of God's People in this present World doth evince the great necessity of Divine Patience to all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus Luther makes it the very definition of a Christian to be a Crucian who denying himself must take up his Cross and follow Christ The Lord Jesus hath two Crowns the one of Thorns the other of Glory They that would enjoy the latter and be crowned with Glory they must first undergo the former and be crowned with Thorns What the Holy Ghost said of Christ that it behoved him to suffer and so to enter into his Glory the very same holds true of all his People (i) Acts. 14.22 who through many afflictions must enter into the Kingdom of God The stones in Solomon's Temple were first hewen and polished and then set up into a stately Building So God's People first they must be hewen and carved by sufferings before they can be fit to build the Temple of God in the heavenly Jerusalem To all the People of God this World is a Wilderness not a Canaan an Egypt not a Paradise a troublesome Sea not an Harbour of Rest The day that is without clouds the light that is without Darkness the Joy that hath no sorrow is reserved for Heaven So then the misery of our present condition may well let us see the necessity of Christian Patience to suffer and wait upon God in it Without Patience every burden will seem too heavy every Cup that our heavenly Father puts into our Hand too bitter and every affliction too long But get Patience and that will lighten every burden have Patience and that will sweeten the bitterest potion lengthen Patience and that will make the time of all your afflictions seem short There is â— passive obedience required of all Christians that they may quietly suffer and 't is patience must help them If we bring evil upon our selves then we should afflict our Souls with Godly Sorrow but if the Lord bring evil upon us then we must exercise Patience both quietly hoping (k) Lam 3.26 and waiting for his salvation Christian Patience is not only a comely Grace making misery it self by a pious deportment under it seem amiable but 't is also a necessary Grace making the very worst of Miseries seem tolerable by framing a Mans mind to his present condition when his condition is not to his mind There are many Men professing the Christian Faith who if deliverance come not at their own Time they presently grow impatient of waiting God's time resolving to trade for it in their own way But were their Hearts established with divine Patience they would never thus precipitate their Mercies nor think that deliverance worth the having which only springs up out of the ruines of Faith and a good Conscience 'T is the nature of Christian Patience to make a Man tenacious of his integrity working in him a strong resolution not to purchase the greatest good with the commission of any the least evil This makes a Man the same in Prison as at Liberty the same in Poverty as when abounding with Riches the same when under reproach persecution and sorest calamities in the World as when the Sun of outward prosperity shone bright upon him Let what Storms will bluster abroad in the
Fourth Whether he had not Observed the Ecclipses He answered the King No I have so much to do upon Earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven Thus the Generality of Men have so much to do upon Earth and are so deeply engaged in their Secular Affairs that they have no leisure to spend their Thoughts upon Heaven and it's Glory Lactantius * Hinc utique Graeci 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 appellarunt quod sursum spectet Ipsi ergo sibi renunciant seque Hominum Nomine abdicant qui non Sursum aspiciunt sed deorsum Lact. lib. 2. Instit Cap. 1. p. 140. will have those guilty of Degrading themselves into the Shapes of Brutes and unworthy the Names of Men who lye Grovelling here below never fixing their Thoughts on Eternal Concernments nor setting their Affections on Things above And yet how are Multitudes every where Grovelling in the Dust of Earthly Vanities never sending up a Look a Desire a Thought no nor so much as one Hearty Groan after Heaven Natural Bodies they follow the tendency of that Element which is Predominant in them a Stone moves down-ward it would be at the Center Thus those in whom the Love of the World is Predominant they cannot but move Downward the Earth is their Center and that they will make towards let come of Heaven and Glory what will come Possibly whilst Religion is in Credit and the way to Heaven lyes through the Fortunate Islands the Arabia Foelix or through the Golden Streams of the Lydian Pactolus these Men may have their Faces that way and seem to Steer their Course Heaven-ward But if once Religion be under Hatches in the World if once a Life of serious Scripture Holiness be counted Faction and all things are at such a pass that there is no getting to Canaan but through a Barren Wilderness no coming at the fair Havens of True Happiness but through the Straits of Poverty Reproach and Affliction they have Wit enough such as it is to set Sails for another Wind and will think Heaven it self for a Golden-Mine a very easy Morgage Many there be who whilst Religion walks in Stately Equipage will be Reteiners to her But if at any time the Watch-men Wound her and the Keepers of the Walls take away her Veil you may presently see them very Shy of if not Ashamed to wear so much as her Livery What * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clemens saith of a certain Friend That he was not his but his Riches Kinsman This is true of many Professors who if Religion had not Riches in her Left-hand would never pretend neither Kindness or Kin to her Such Men who thus design their own Profit Honour and Promotion in the World by that pitiful Religion which they have they are just like the Lapis Chelidonius which say Naturalists will retain it's Virtue no longer than whilst you keep it inclos'd in Gold The Upper Springs of Grace and Glory which God always gives in Dowry with his Daughter Achsah True Godliness cannot make a Worldly Heart fall in Love with Her unless God will give him the Nether Springs also such as Riches Honours and earthly Possessions he will never be brought to Match with her nor is the Match ever made so sure upon this Account but if at any time God dry up these Nether Springs now the Stream of this Muck Worm's Affections will wholly fail such a Nabal will God's own Daughter Religion I mean find him that he will be sure to turn her upon her Father not forbearing so much as one Night to thrust her out of Doors When the Ark came into the House of Obed-Edom and they saw that it brought a Blessing upon him and his whole House then every one no doubt could think it worth their Entertainment But when Judgments attended the Ark of God almost every Man thought it a Burden and by all means would turn it off so that in such a time the Ark of God finds no Rest they send it from Gath to Ekron from Ekron to Askalon 1 Sam. 5. counting him the Happy Man that could well rid his hands of it Thus every Man will own Religion Prospering a Blessing Ark But where is he that will own Religion under Worldly Disadvantages that will entertain the Ark of God when Persecuted when Banished when Dangerous and Un-doing to those that meddle with it However the Love of the World do thus eat out the Heart of Religion with those who have their Portion in this World yet certainly it becomes not you Christians whose Treasure is in Heaven thus to have the Wayes of God in Admiration for Advantage sake Thus to Morgage your eternal Inheritance to keep the poor Cottage of an earthly Estate wherein you are but Tenants at Will Their Condition of all Mens is most Miserable who go from Heaven to Hell From the Heaven I mean of Wordly Prosperity to the Hell of Endless Destruction in the World to come The very Life of every Worldling is wrapt up in the Bundle of his outward Enjoyments And therefore not having made sure of Heaven they must needs as it was once said to a great Lord be great Losers when they Dye AND shall such miserable Caitives as these Christians be the Men to Tread out the Way for your Feet to Walk in when every Step alas that they take sinks as low as Hell Have you no other Copy to Write after but that which is Written in Blood Will no other Path serve the turn but that of Men Selling the Riches of Heaven and Glory for a little thick Clay which inevitably leads to Destruction Such an Errour ¶ Versatque nos praecipitat Traditus per manus Error alienisque perimus exemplis Sen. de vit Beat. Cap. 1 pag. mihi 628. though Received by Tradition is enough to throw you head-long into Tophet nor can you chuse but Perish Eternally if you will make the Examples of such Misers the Rule of your Living Why cannot you as †{inverted †}†Sinite sapientes hujus saeculi alia sapientes et terram lingentes sapienter descendere in Infernum Bernard de vit solit Bernard hath it suffer the Wise Men of this World who like the Serpent lick the Dust of the Earth to go Wisely down to Hell Is it not better as a Divine of ours wittily that we choose to Arrive at Heaven with Tatter'd Sails than to Ruffle towards Hell with Cleopatra's Silken Tacklings Let others Admire the Gaudy Tulip which closeth with every approaching Night and cold Blast that comes yet Christians they should be like the Herb Semper-vivum retaining their Verdure and Greeness in the hardest Winter What thô others will not have the Golden Apples of Glory if not placed in the Silver Pictures of Worldly Contentments will you therefore Throw away those Apples of Gold because the Silver Pictures of your Secular Enjoyments may get a Crack and are Broken in pieces Heaven it self is a
of his Wife what she thought of him truly said she I cannot tell for I did not so much as look on him whom then said he wondring did you then look upon On whom should I replied she but on him that would have redeemed my Life with his own Liberty Thus Christians you should so much be taken up with Love to Christ and the delightful contemplation of that Happiness and glorious Liberty which he by his own preciouâ— Blood hath purchased for you as not to think the whole World with all the Glory thereof worth the looking after much less to spend your Thoughts your Time your Affections your Strength upon it The Reward which God sets before you it 's an heavenly Reward and therefore do not like Men under the curse of the Serpent lie crawling-upon the Ground and licking the dust of the Earth but let all your Thoughts your Desires your insatiate breathings of Soul be continually running Heaven-ward 'T is enough for Heathens who know not God never had any glimpse of his Glory nor any tenders of an eternal Reward made to them to consult of their own Profit Pleasure and Honour in the World suffering all their affections to run out that way But for you that have seen the Back-part of Jehovah that have been upon the Mount with Christ that have Heaven with all its Royalties and Glory lying before you as thâ—â—â—â—ard of all your obedience for you to be Earthly-minded seeking great things in the World for your selves is the most dreadful miscarriage that can be What is Earth to Heaven What are the Riches of the World to the Riches of Glory What is the Mammon of Unrighteousness to that immarcessible Crown of Righteousness which the Lord sets before you for your better encouragement to all holy Self-denying and upright walking before him (c) Confundere igitur quod ita abutaris desideriis tuis adhaerendo foetidis mundi stercoribus cum possis recreari odoriferis rosis coelestibus Stella de contemnendis mundi vanitatibus lib. 1. cap. 31. Oh methinks Christians you should even blush and be ashamed to let the World get possession of your Hearts having no less than an Eternity of Life and heavenly Glory in your Eye 'T is said of the Loadstone that it cannot draw Iron so long as the Diamond is in presence And shall earthly Vanities draw out your affections after them when a Crown of Life all set with sparkling Diamonds of Glory is in presence Are you cloathed with the Sun as with a garmeâ—â— and cannot you now trample the Moon with all the Sublunaries under your Feet Have you Heaven in hope and will not that content you unless you may have the Earth with the fulness thereoâ— in your Hand Do you not know what * Fortunae malè creditur magno viatico breve vitae iter non instruitur sed oneratur Minut. Foel Oct. 122. Enemy the World is to the progress in Heavens way denying Men if once they go about to court it a quiet passage through its Territories as the King of Edom did the Israelites to the promised Canaan Esau by hunting too long after Venison he lost his Fathers Blessing Thus whilst hunting after Honours Riches and Promotions in the World you will lose with out a speedy return the Blessing of an Eternal Life A Man with a Mote in his Eye cannot see clearly nor with any delight behold the Sun Thus if you suffer your Eyes to be filled with the dust of the World you can never clearly see much less look upon with delight that glorious Reward which God sets before you (e) Dulces sunt divitae amantibus sed mors in olla cum et enim reddant hominem insolentem superbum trahunt secum ad mortem aeternam Idem lib. 1. cap. 18. Luke 10.41 The Riches Honours Glory and all the accomodations of his World are but sugared Poysons that will then most certainly destroy us when we delight to be feeding upon them Impossible it is for Men inordinately affecting the World not to be mortally infected by it Whilst Martha was much cumbred about many things she forgot to look after the one thing necessary And so whilst Men are troubled in the World pursuing with eagerness the enjoyments thereof they do easily forget to look after the Reward of Eternal Glory 'T is a rare thing for Men not to lose in Spirituals when they gain much in Temporals not to be impoverished in Grace by their Riches not to starve their Souls when their Bodies prosper and not to fall in their desires after God and Heaven and Glory when raised a few steps higher in this present World Crates Thâ—â—anus was a huge despiser of all worldly enjoyments as judging them prejudicial to the serious study of Philosophy and shall we then drown our selves in worldly cares who pretend to be studying Heaven and Eternal Glory (f) Igitur ut qui viam terit eò felicior quo levior incedit ita beatior in hoc intinere vivendi qui paupertate se sublevat quanòn sub divitiarum onere suspirat Minut. Foel Oct. 118. Qui plus habet minori gaudet libertate nec tam facilè eor suum attollere potest ad Dominum Idem lib. 1. cap. 12. Non potes vel per terram iter facere ferens onus adhuc speras te iturum ad coelum cum sis onustus Idem ibidem Believe it Christians the more you love the World the less Liberty you enjoy for Heaven Neither can you so easily meditate Eternal Glory and lift up your Hearts to God when burdened with the cares of this present Life How many wither in Spirit whilst they flourish in the Flesh growing the more cold in their devotion the more warm they find themselves in their worldly possessions The better some feather their Nests the more unfit they are to soar aloft and fly to God upon the wing of Divine Meditation And to tell you the truth what an holy Divine of our own once thought many might have gotten well to Heaven had not the World gon so well on their side as to make them believe there was no better Heaven to be found Consult then if you love your Souls their Eternal Welfare and do not go about to undo your selves for ever by your Earthly-mindedness Where the Carcase is there let the Eagles be gathered together Your Reward your Treasure your Happiness they are all laid up in Heaven let therefore your Heart and your Affections be there also 'T is not for such Eagles as you to stoop at Flies for those whose Eye should be fixed upon an Eternally glorious Reward in Heaven to be always moving towards the Earth as their proper Center Doth God take you up into the Mount giving you a prospect thence of Heavenly Glory and cannot you think it good to be there but you must be going down in Worldly-mindedness to your earthly Comforts Will you still like
way as thou dreamest of or if there be why yet in that very Lyon thou mayst find Hony The way to Heaven is not so dark and gloomy as most imagine though indeed it be strait and tedious to Flesh and Blood yet there stands a bright Crown of eternal Glory at the end which makes it comfortable Be ashamed then having such encouragement to walk disconsolate in Heavens way There are not so many Thorns to prick you as Roses to refresh you Nor half so much cause of Sorrow â—s there is of Comfort and rejoycing of Spirit Christians walking in Heaven's Way they may meet I confess with a fiery Tryal but then there is some Light for their Comfort as well as Heat to Torment them And let me tell you the more your Hearts are melted and softned in such a Flame the deeper will be the Impression of divine Love Consolation and Sweetness upon them A sight of Glory from Heaven is then most Cordial when we can see nothing but Bonds and Imprisonments and forest Afflictions to abide us on Earth (a) Acts 7.55 How sweetly did Stephen that blessed Proto-martyr fall asleep under a Shower of Stones as if he had gone to Heaven in a Bed of Down The Reason of all was this he saw Heaven open and Jesus standing at the right Hand of God ready to turn every Stone that was thrown at him into an orient Pearl and to Crown him so soon as ever he had passed the Straits of Death with eternal Life Thiâ— made him forget his Sorrow and walk on with Comfort through the Valley of Death that at length he might come to that Glory in Heaven which he found such a Cordial to his Soul when ready to leave her earthly Tabernacle And why is it that we having the same Recompence of Reward set before us cannot endure the like Hardships with the same Comfort Must there be so much ado to make us live upon those Cordials which Heaven it self hath provided for us Are the Consolations of God grown small with us that we resolve thus to walk with sorrowful Hearts whilst he shews us Heaven as in a Glass and sets Glory in our Eye Shall every light Affliction eat â—ut the Heart of our Comfort when we see there lies before us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory Either Christian let thy Heart feel more or thy Eye see less of Heaven And do not go to bring up an ill Report upon the celestial Canaan by walking disconsolate in the way thither For you that have Heaven before you to come weeping after for you that have Glory in your Eye to be filled with Sorrow for you that may hope to live with God for ever in the Mount to go mourning from day to day like Doves of the Valley how unseemly were this If the World be bitter yet sweet is Paradise If the Earth cast you out yet Heaven will receive you If here you be tossed with Storms like a Ship at Sea yet arriving at the wished Shoar of Eternity you will find rest If in this (b) Mat. World Men Revile you and Persecute you saying all manner of Evil of you falsly for Christ's sake yet still you should walk rejoycing and be exceeding glad because great is your Reward in Heaven And what so great Matters are all our Afflictions on Earth that they should be able to imbitter Heaven Pray you (c) 2 Cor. 4.16 what is Affliction to Glory What is light Affliction to a weight of Glory What is a short momentary Affliction that like a little Cloud will soon be blown over to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory beyond all possible Hyperbole that will never be over That Man sure never looked by Faith so far as Heaven whom any Affliction on earth can make to go weeping â—ike Rachel refusing to be Comforted 11 WALK purely endeavouring to cleanse your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and to mortifie every Lust â—hat would spoyl you of your Reward It becomes not those that have the Recompence of eternal Life before them to love the Wages of Unrighteousness Nor those that have Glory in their Eye to make themselves by the Polâ—utions that are in the World through Lust like one of the base Fellows The Inheritance of the Saints in Light â—ts a pure and an undefiled Inheritance And therefore beholding it we must labour to be changed into the â—ame undefiled Purity and Holiness with it would we ever come to the full Enjoyment of it The Lord alows us a sight of Heaven in all our Obedience that beholding from day to day we might at length receive a Tincture of Purity and unspotted Holiness from it He gives us a prospect of our future Happiness that be (d) 2 Cor. 3.18 holding with open face the Glory of the Lord we might be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory The difference betwixt Grace and Glory is not as some observe from these words specifical but gradual They differ not in Kind but only in Degree Grace is Glory inchoate and Glory is Grace consummate Grace is Glory Militant and Glory is Grace Triumphant Grace is Glory dawning and Glory is Grace shining forth in its noon-dayâ— brightness And I know no better way to ripen Grace into Glory than for Grace to behold and continually sun it self in the warm Beams of eternal Glory The Hope of future Happiness is the strongest Inducement to present Holiness Every Man (e) 1 John 3.3 that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Hope to be like Christ hereafter Glorious as he is Glorious and Blessed as he is Blessed will work in us a desire to be as like him as we can here Pure as he is Pure and Holy as he is Holy He that hath most hope of being saved will give most diligence of all others to be sanctified We never cleanse our Hands so much as when we have Glory in Hope Nor do we ever Purify our Hearts so throughly as when we have Heaven in our Eye When Moses had been with God upon the Mount he came down with his Face shining Thus if at any time God calls us up into the Mount with himself giving us a sight of that Glory which shall shortly be revealed in us we should be sure to come down having not only our Faces but our Hearts likewise shining with unspotted Purity It were the most unbecoming thing in the World for those to Dâ—file themselves with any Unrighteousness who have their Eye continually fixed upon an undefiled Inheritance expecting as the full Reward of all their Labours a Crown of Righteousness What shall not Heaven's Brightness expel the Darkness of Hell Shall not the Hope of eternal Happiness promote in our Hearts and Lives the Work of Holiness Is there a Crown of Glory at the end of our Christian Course and shall not that make us walk Pure
of God! If Sirs you think â—an Honour to appear Good (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat epist ad Magnes pag. 52. Omnino enim nihil prodest nomen sanctum habere sine moribus quia vita à professione discordans abrogat illustris tituli honorem per indignorum actuum vilitatem Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. pag. mihi 94. is it not much morâ—â—n Honour to be so indeed What alas is the Name of Christian worth if you will goâ— put on the Nature of a Christian To think I was well reputed of amongst God's People I was called a good and had the Name of a Christian can this be a Cordial when you come to die Or will it comfort your Hearts when appearing before the Judgment-seat of (c) Quid est in quo nobis de Christiano nomine blandiamur cum utique hoc ipso magis per nomen sacratissimum rei simus qui à sancto nomine discrepamus Nam ideo plus sub religionis titulo Deum ludimus quia positi in religione peccamus Idem paulo post the great God where all your Paint and Varnish being washed off you must now be punished as Hypocrites with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of God and from the Glory of his Power To be counted Rich and yet turn Bankrupt to be judged healthful and yet sick unto Death would but aggravate in such cases a Man's Misery So to be counted Holy and yet Profane to have a Name to live and yet after all be found dead in Trespasses and Sins oh this will most dreadfully aggravate the Hypocrites Misery another day this will sink them deeper in Hell than the notoriously ungodly this will prepare flaming Ingredients for the Cup of Wrath and put new Stiâ—gs into those fiery Scorpions that will vex and torment them for ever If then you love your Souls give diligence now to have the best side inward doing every thing from the Heart sâ—â—cerely as unto God! Strive you must to make clean the inside as well as the outside of the Platter and to have pure Hearts as well aâ—â—lean Hands would you ever (d) 2 Tim. 2.21 be Vessels of Honour 〈◊〉 for the Master's use The foolish Virgins they had Lamps in their Hands a Profession of Godliness (e) Mat. 25.3 adorned with many glorious Performances But these were not animated with an upright Heart they wanted the Oyl of Grace within and therefore depart from me saith Christ I never knew you Christ will know those well he will know them to be Men of pure Minds and upright Hearts whom he receives to dwell with himself in eternal Mansions of Glory Otherwise if a Work of Grace be wanting within if the Heart be unsound and not inwardly Holy they must look to depart accursed into everlasting burnings where the painted fire of all their pretended zeal shall most surely be punished with the true fire of God's heavy wrath and sore displeasure Thus you may possibly appear Holy before Men and have your Christian Profession adorned with many seemingly glorious Performances But in case your Hearts be not upright before God now he throws you down for ever into Hellish-torments now he punisheth your Souls with everlasting Destruction from his own Presence now he commands you to depart accursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and you must obey him Oh then what a woful thing is a rotten Heart and how much doth it concern us all to be that indeed which we are in shew He that is seemingly good but really bad though die he may with seeming hopes for Heaven and Glory yet fall he must into a real Hell of Misery and eternal endless Torments 7 SEE that you mortify through the Spirit the Deeds of the Body That which thou sowest saith the Apostle (f) 1 Cor. 15.36 is not quickned except it die so except first you die to Sin you can never be quickned nor raised to enjoy the Reward of eternal Life The way to die hereafter is to live here And the way to live hereafter is to die here They that now live in Sin must hereafter expect Death and eternal Misery as the just Reward and Punishment of their Sins But they that now die to Sin crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts shall hereafter live with God in eternal Mansions of Glory For saith the Apostle if ye live after the (h) Rom. 8.13 Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Here you see are described two ways the one leading to Death the other to Life the one to Hell the other to Heaven the one to endless Torments the other to all fulness of Joy in God's own presence So then he that will save the Life of his Sins shall lose his Soul But he that will mortifie himself his beloved Lusts and Sins and dearest Corruptions he shall live for ever Though then you cannot totally kill (g) Gal. 5.24 your Corruptions in this Life yet see that you be daily mortifying them Though you cannot wholly cast them out from remaining yet be sure to keep them under from reigning in your mortal Bodies that you should obey them All Sins are meritoriously Mortal but none save those which are left unmortified do eventually prove so (i) Rom. 6. Though it be true that every Sin deserveth Death even the Motus primò primi concerning which the Schoolmen write the very first risings and ebullitions of Lust in the Soul which do prevent all use of Reason though standing in her highest Watch-tower of Vigilancy to descry and with all curiosity to make observation of every approaching Enemy Yet there is no Sin though aggravated by supervening Circumstances to an equality of Guilt and heinousness with the most prodigious and horrid â—mpieties that were ever yet perpetrated by any Offender that doth actually infer Death exposing a Man to the Vengeance of eternal Fire unless suffered to go unmortified The least Sin when allowed of is enough for thy Damnation and the greatest when mortified can by no means hinder thy eternal Salvation The Life of Sin and the Life of a Sinner are like two Buckets at a Well if the one go up the other must go down Thus if your Pride your Hypocrisie your Covetousness your Carnality your vile Affections live in you you must die eternally but if through the Spirit you mortify them you shall live for ever Behold then I now set before you Life and Death Mount Ebal and Mount Gerrizzim Blessings and Cursings the Pleasures of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and oh that you would choose not Death but Life not Ebal but Gerizzim not Cursings but Blessings not hellish intolerable Torments but heavenly Glory There are but two Estates of Men in this present Life and but two proportionate to them in the Life to come Some here live after the Flesh and they must die
Actions of praying repenting and believing these are good as to the matter of them But our remisness our negligence our weakness in the exerting of them this is sinful and argues the most perfect in all the World to be yet imperfect falling short in all that do (c) Job 1.22 Neither doth that Scripture so much triumphed (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Omnes justitiae nostrae sunt sicut panniculus remotionum id est faeminarum quo ob menses suos seponuntur Exod. 28.38 in by a Pontificianizing Doctor of our own where 't is said that in all this Job sinned not at all incommodate this too sadly experimented Truth For the Negation there is only of acts sinful in the matter of them which Satan tempted that Holy Man to commit and into which he expected Job would through impatience and the sharpness of his Afflictions have been transported Nor doth it any thing at all advantage the cause of the Perfectionits which this Doctor hath taken upon him to assert that the good Works and Graces of God's People are wrought by the holy Spirit of God in them (d) Deus quidem primus boni operis est author sed ejus ductu homo est actor For though the Spirit work these things in us yet that 's only by way of efficiency as the Author of them and not formally as one Person with us (e) Opera fidelium si simpliciter omnino Dei essent omnino pura et perfecta essent at non sunt sed simul fidelium qui impuri perfecti ex parte sunt ideoque opera ex parte perfecta sunt The Spirit of God doth not believe and repent for us but enableth us thereto As it is not God that eateth drinketh or walketh but we ourselves by ability received from him Though then that which proceeds from the Spirit of God as the sole immediate cause thereof without the intervention of any other subordinate cause can never be impreached of the least defect Yet Grace being subjectively in us and good Works formally wrought by us as the Spirits Instruments do admit without any reflexion upon him of much imperfection and defilements Here our Graces are mingled with Corruption our best Duties with some undutifulness (f) Gal. 5.17 and all our religious undertakings with the sad counterlustings and countermotions of the Flesh against the Spirit in them Oh but Christians such is the pure Nature of this glorious Reward that it will perfectly change you into the spotless Purity and Holiness of itself Truth is the great Reward of Grace is Grace itself a Christian being never compleatly happy till crowned with an absolute perfection in Grace and Holiness But oh how happy will this Reward make thee when all thy defects and weaknesses shall be done away when all thy Graces that are now in their minority and as so many Undergraduates shall grow up to their full stature in Christ commencing Doctors as it were and taking their highest degree of Blessed Perfection in Glory Here Grace is like Gold in the Oar having much dross of Sin and indwelling Corruption mingled with it but in Heaven it will be fined into an absolute and unmixt purity This Reward indeed for a little Time dissolves the frame of Nature parting Soul and Body asunder But it easily makes amends for that perfecting that frame of Grace and at length brings both Soul and Body together again in fulness of Glory You must never think to be so gracious so pure and holy as you would be Christians till you come to Heaven Where only the Law in our members struggling against the Law of our Minds shall have an end where all decays and languishings of Grace shall be removed where all deficiencies of Grace shall be filled up and the first Fruits of the Spirit which here we receive as an earnest of Glory shall be turned into a full Vintage Your Graces are now like smoaking Flax in which there is most Vapour and but little light or like a broken Reed that is easily shattered with every blast But in Heaven it shall be turned into purest Glory and made a stately Pillar to stand unshaken for ever in the Temple of God Like the Sun wrapt up in a thick Cloud such are the Graces of God's People now But when once the Reward of Eternal Glory shall be given them then their Graces shall be like the Sun shining for in its strength with most radiant sparkling beams of Brightness You then that go languishing all the day long that your knowledge of heavenly Mysteries is so dark and confused your desires after God so faint your Love to Christ so cold your zeal for his Glory so remiss your delight in his Ways so small and all your Graces so full of Weaknesses and Imperfections Oh lift up your Heads with Joy and take Comfort in the hope of this glorious Reward which will quite do away all your present defects crowning all your Graces with fulness and most heavenly perfection Grace in the Heart of God's People here is like a Plant that grows in a barren Soil which thrives but slowly and bears little Fruit But when once it shall be transplanted into the heavenly Canaan there it meets with that proper and fertile Soil which will bring it on to perfection causing every Grace like a flourishing Vine to be laden with full Clusters of most sweet delicious Grapes for ever Oh then what manner of Reward is this and how much to be desired which will thus change Grace into Glory and our morning Twilight into a Noonday brightness making all Gods People as perfectly pure as perfectly holy and gracious as their Heart can now wish to be if not much more This Reward must needs make Grace perfect because Perfection in Grace is the principal part of this blessed Reward Needs must this Reward perfect Grace into heavenly Glory because the greatest Glory of Heaven next to God himself is Grace perfected and blossoming into the Flower of unspotted purity 9 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience it 's a most safe Reward and such as can never be lost nor taken from them They are not only sure to have this Reward as we shewed in another particular but they are sure to hold it so as never to be deprived of it Other Rewards may be lost and a Man may be cheated of them he knows not how But the Reward of Eternal Glory it s a safe Reward out of this all the cheats in Hell are not able to rook you (g) Luke 10.42 as being indeed that better part which shall never be taken from you This Reward is our Treasure laid up in Heaven and therefore it can neither be corrupted by the Mâ—th nor be taken by the Hand of violence (h) Mat. 6.20 Here though we lay up Treasure under Lock and Key in Chests of Adamant and make it never so
Gladness for mourning this will change the bitter Waters of Marah into Wine this will soften the hardest Gridiron that you can be broyled upon and turn the scorching Flames of a fiery Tryal into a Bed of Roses (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Let a Man be brought up at the Breasts of everlasting Consolation and good hope through Christ and there is nothing in all the World that can take away his Joy from him If Men take from him his Monies yet still he hath a Treasure in Heaven to rejoice in If they banish him yet still he hath a City whose Builder and Maker is God to rejoice in If they shut him up in Prison yet still he hath a right to the glorious Liberty of God's Children to rejoice in If they cruelly mangle Torment and afflict his Body yet still he hath a building of God to rejoice in even an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens Oh this is that which comforts the Hearts and makes glad the Spirits of God's People under all their sufferings that they lead to Glory to a Kingdom which cannot be moved When the Souls Eye is stedfastly fixed upon the Joy of her dearest Lord then the Heart will easily rejoice in reproaches in persecutions in fiery Tryals and in what cruelties soever else the Body may suffer for the Lord 11 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will discover much of Heaven to you giving you that sweet foretast of Heavens Glory whereby you may well conjecture what will be the fulness of that Joy the splendor of that Crown the surpassing sweetness of those good things which God hath prepared for you An Eye fixed upon this Eternal Recompence is like St. Paul's rapture carrying the Soul into the third Heaven and giving it a branch or two of those delicious Grapes of which the Soul shall have her fill so soon as she takes possession of the celestial Canaan Though here we be in a barren Wilderness yet a respect to this Reward it will furnish us with much Minatur Antichristus sed Christus tuetur Mors infertur sed immortalitas sequitur Mundus eripitur sed Paradisus exhibetur Vita temporalis extinguitur sed aeterna reparatur Cyprian de Exhart Marty pag. 386. heavenly Manna to feed upon Here though we dwell in an earthly Tabernacle yet eying our Eternal Reward it shews us everlasting habitations Here though we sit by the Waters of Babylon yet eying this our Eternal Reward it will give us Songs in the Night and fill our Hearts with Sion's Joy before we come to the full enjoyment of that glorious Inheritance Faith eying the Reward of Eternal Life it draws aside the Curtains of Mortality and lets the Soul look with the Veil it carries the Soul up into the Mount and there shews her the heavenly Canaan in all its Glory it antedates the Book of Life and puts the Soul in the very Suburbs of the supernal Jerusalem though yet she be shut up in a clay Cottage Wast thou never Christian upon the top of Nebâ— beholding with Joy of Heart the promised Canaan Did Christ never take thee up into the Mount causing the Glory of Heaven to shine round about thee Canst thou not remember the time when looking by an Eye of Faith upon unseen Glory that thy Soul was filled as with Marrow and Fatness sweetly anticipating those divine Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore What then is the Happiness the rejoicing the Felicity of all those who not only look upon but most intimately enjoy these eternal good things Eulgentius beholding the City of Rome in her Splendour cried out if this earthly City be so glorious what is the City of the great King that City which hath Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God Thus Christian if eying thy Eternal Reward be so sweet and full of Glory how sweet will the full enjoyment of it be Is there such pleasantness in a Pisgah-sight of the heavenly Canaan what Pleasure will it then be to have possession of it Are the first Fruits of Glory so good then what will be the goodness of a ripe and full Harvest of Glory 'T is the work of every Christian to have his Eye upon Glory and if the work be so delightful oh then what Spirits of delight what surpassing Paradisical Pleasures will there be in his Eternal Reward If a drop or two of Heaven falling down into the Soul afford such happiness how happy must they be who enjoy the Fountain drinking their fills of Pleasure at God's right Hand for evermore Doubtless if the outward Court be so stately and magnificent we must needs conclude glorious things concerning the Holy of Holies If the Back-parts of Jehovah do so ravish and transport the Soul with Joy what less will the beatifical Vision the seeing of God face to face do than throw her into an everlasting glorious Rapture (n) Quod si haec quae ad bona gratiae pertinent eum in modum oftendant amplificentque magnitudinem tuae bonitatis Domine quid facient bona gloriae Si sic tractes amicos tuos in hac lacrymarum valle quomodo eos in Paradiso tuarum voluptatum tractabis Si sic exhilares illos in vidà quid facies in patria Si sic consoleris illos in loco servitutis quid facies in illo libertatis Si tam suaviter dormiant et requiescant in sinu tuo dum adhuc armati incedunt ut pugnent quid facient cum armis abjectis partâque victoriâ triumphabunt Granat Memor vit Christ cap. 28. pag. mihi 334. If the good things of Grace have so much to satisfie in them what fulness of Soul-satisfying Happiness will the good things of Glory bring with them Doubtless the Lord who entertains his Friends in this Vally of Tears with a Feast of fat things and full of Marrow will much more feast them to their everlasting coâ—â—ntment in the sweetest Paradise of his own Pleasures He that doth so make glad the Hearts of his People by the Way will certainly make much of them beyond all that Heart can conceive at their Journeys end If the Lord give so much Comfort in a place of hard bondage to his People oh then how great will their Comfort be when brought into the glorious Liberty of the Sons of God! If the conflict have Glory in it how glorious will the triumph be If Heaven masked and only in expectation have so much Lustre and Beauty upon it what will be the glorious Lustre and unspotted Beauty of Heaven when unveiled and had in full fruition If Christians on the top of Mount Pisgah you can discover so much Glory and Pleasantness in the celestial Canaan while yet you are at a great distance from it oh what Glory what Delight and fulness of divine Pleasure will you find in that holy Land when possessed of it a Land of Peace and Sweetness
or Field by Night where he would furrow his Cheaks with Tears solemnly vow and covenant with God and yet break through all again into his former course till at last he apprehended this covenanting and unfaithfulness in it did but bind a far more exceeding and eternal weight of wrath upon him with this he was so terrified that he durst covenant no more This course lasted from about seven to seventeen Years of Age in what manner Corruption acted before he remembers not After this time living an idle Life and being travelled with bad Company he cast off his allegiance to Parents and took a Wife before nineteen Years of Age for which his Father justly cast him off and he wonders the holy God did not also cast him into Hell But contrary to his demerit and to manifest that our heavenly Father can pardâ—n what earthly Parents cannot God took him in provided a comfortable subsistence for him and without any seeking of his fed this wretched Prodigal with Food convenient that was ready to perish upon a Dunghil This kindness of Divine Providence considered he could no longer resist this brake his Heart in pieces like a Potsheard dissolved him like Snow melted him like wax before the Sun Now his old Resolutions revived with more strength than ever and as a piece of pennance whereby to escape Hell and purchase Heaven he could be content to leave his Sins though still the remembrance of them was grateful to his Nature and he thought them a pleasant Morsel but that Hell stood at the farther end of them But he could have no admission upon these unworthy terms the Spirit of God falls to work with his Conscience as in a voice of Thunder and with terrors more dreadful than all that ever were solemnized upon Mount Sinai singles out his delicate darling corruption swallows him up into the confounding thoughts of it reads the Law charges Guilt and Wrath upon him and thereby slew him so that now he lies bleeding under reprobate astonishment dreading every moment when the Hand the avenging Hand of God would cast him into Hell And so violent was the Agony that he thinks that had not a gleam of Gospel Light come in offering relief and redemption through the free Grace of God in Christ that either Soul and Body had been torn asunder through the great violence of the storm or else he fears he should have destroyed himself to avoid it This notwithstanding he thinks he had some worse corruptions than what the Spirit of God now fastned upon his Conscience as many a bad Lord hath Slaves worse than himself though they all pay suit and service to him as his other Lusts did to this peccatum in deliciis Against this therefore he bent his whole strength little considering for some Years the state of his Soul as to other corruptions which lay dormant their General being so watcht that he could not command them out upon their devilish Service as he was wont Yet the great thing minded was Pardon for a long time with a resolution not to gratifie it though every denyal were a present Death Having thus in time obtained some rest from his hard bondage under it and guilty fears gendred by it he began to consider the great happiness of victory over corruption and to judge that what Poyson what Plague what Death and loathsome Ulcers are to the Body Sin is that to the Soul and infinitely worse which was all now set home upon him both by rational conviction and his own doleful experience This engaged him wholly to attend the business of mortification but chiefly of this Lust to cut off all provisions from it to deny its importunate cravings and to maintain a constant watch against it all which notwithstanding he often received wounds and bruises by it But having a little respite to examine himself as to other Corruptions Death comes upon him again he finds all manner of concupiscence working in him thinks himself a Babel a Sodom an Hell for all confounding and raging Lusts So that had he not by this time better understood whence to fetch Sanctifying Grace as them formerly he must have despaired But he had now learnt to go to the Lord Jesus not only as giving Remission of Sins through Faith in his Blood but likewise saving from Sin by the efficacy of his own Almighty Spirit Hither he never applied himself in believing manner but he obtained help from God through whose help â—he now saith that what was his darling Sin is dead to him and hath no power to command any entertainment in so much as one indulgent Thought though as for natural abilities he is as capable of Pleasure in it as ever His other Sins â—he finds daily to be dying and doth now find the like inclinations to spiritual things that he was wont to find to fleshly things and as strong aversations and eluctances against the lust of the Eyes c. as ever â—he found against the Holy ways of God so that were there no Hell to punish a Life of Flesh-pleasing but what is shut up in the very Nature of it he could not but hate it and fly from it as Men do from the Plague though there be no Law provided that Jesus is his Saviour that he hath saved him out of spiritual Darkness and out of Bondage under Sin given him a new Nature and made him to center wholly upon the blessed God to dwell with him to delight above all things in him and cleave to him as his Life Happiness and resting place Since brought thus far he hath found it with himself as followeth 1 He dare build his confidence for salvation upon nothing but the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus apprehended by Faith his Anchor is upon this Rock of Ages his Life is bound up with this Prince of Life and though through the Corruption of his own Heart and prepossessions of Errour about the Nature of Redeeming Grace he find it aâ— hard thing to believe yet his Heart is now possessed with Good and Honourable apprehensions of God He in good measure is freâ— from all imbittered thoughts of him hâ— believes that God hath given him Eternaâ— Life in his Son and that the Son is ablâ— to save to the utmost all that come to Goâ— through him in this and not in any workâ— of Righteousness which he hath done is hiâ— whole Hope Living and Dying and he believeâ— such Hope will not make him ashamed 2 He hath a regard to all Righteousness so far as his present imperfections will permit it to fulfil it and this from such â— Principle as he eats and drinks a new Nature within him which is not gratified with any thing more than Holy and Righteouâ— Actions In particular whereas when â— Boy he had injured several Persons in robbing their Orchards he hath confessed hiâ— Sin begged their Pardon with Shame anâ— Tears and made restitution this he waâ— often urged to before he performed it
a fiery Chariot Thus Holy Meditation it would carry us above the Clouds it would give us Possession of Heaven before we come there and set us in the midst of all the Glory and Royalties of Eternal Life as if they were already present Heavenly thoughts are as so many steps towards our Eternal Rest When by these therefore we Travel every day to the City of God and delightfully walk therein when every day we take as it were a turn or two in Paradise seriously Meditating Heaven together with the glory that shall shortly be revealed in us then we have Respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 4. EARNESTLY to desire and long for it When we see so much of the Excellency Worth and Glory of the World to come that we groan within ourselves desiring with all our hearts to get out of these Houses of Clay and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven then we have respect to the Recompence of the Reward 2. Cor. 5.2 When Paul had once been wrapt up into the Third Heaven and seen the Paradise of God his Note was ever after I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus the Soul that hath a respect to the Recompence of the Reward he hath been in the Heavenly Paradise he hath tasted some Clusters of Canaan and therefore he cannot but long for more he can never be soon enough with Christ he can never soon enough get above the World and Sin and Temptations he can never be soon enough with God in Glory Oh! when shall it be They that have the first Fruits of the Spirit cannot chuse but have their eyes always fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward earnestly desiring the time of Harvest when they shall Reap a full Crop of Eternal Happiness and Glory in the Heavenly Canaan AS Noah's Dove was restless finding no place whereupon to set the sole of her foot till she came into the Ark so Christians if your eyes are rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward you will find your selves carried out after Heaven and Glory in a restless manner and will never sit down satisfyed till you come to rest in the Bosome of God's Eternal Love Never Christians did Rachel more long for Children nor David for the Waters of Bethlehem nor Absalom to see the King's Face than your Souls will long for the glorious Liberty of the Children of God to be drinking the Waters of Life in the Heavenly Paradise and to come to the Beatifical Vision of God in Glory where you shall see him Face to Face in case you have an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward THE Language of every Soul whose eye is rightly fixed upon Heaven and Glory it is like unto that of Job speaking forth his desires after God Oh that I knew where to find him that I might come even to his seat Job 23.3 Such a Soul is impregnated with holy desires and longings after God in Glory and with these the Soul travels all the day long crying out with the Church in the Revelations as in pain to be delivered from under the bondage of Sin and Corruption into Heavenly Glory GIVE the Soul Riches give it Honours give it all the Pleasures that can be thought of to ravish the heart of a Carnal Man yet having an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward in vain shall you seek by these to bribe it out of its holy desires and longings after God in Glory For scorning and trampling upon them all as unworthy to come in competition with God it even breaketh through desire after him and can truly say of God with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 'T IS just with the Soul as with some Women in the time of their Impregnature who if they see any thing when they are with Child that they have a mind to they must have it or else they will long and dye for it Thus the Soul that by Faith hath got a sight of Heavenly Enjoyments now the heart of such a Soul it is set upon Heaven and he must have Heaven upon a Crown of Life and he must have a Crown of Life upon God and Christ and Eternal Glory and he must have them all together or else give him what you can he will long and die unsatisfied THERE is so much of the Beauty Loveliness and Glory of Christ revealed to the Soul in looking upon the Recompence of Reward that now it grows impatient of living any longer without him crying out as she did in another case Why are his Chariots so long in coming and Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots When will my beloved make haste and be like a young Roe upon the Mountains of Spices When will the day break and the shadows fly away that I may see my beloved in his Glory When will he come to put an end to these days of Sin and Sorrow that I may rest for ever in the Bosome of his Eternal Love When will he take me by the hand and lead me out of the Wilderness of this World into the Heavenly Canaan When will he rebuke the Winds and the Seas that will give me no rest in this Troublesome World and set me safe on the Shoar of Eternal Happiness When will he deliver me from this Body of Death and gather my Soul to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect When will he take from me these Rags of Mortality and cause me to be cloathed upon with an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens When will he make me return and come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon my head When will he cause me to obtain fulness of Joy and Gladness with him in Eternal Mansions of Glory that Sorrow and Sin and Sighing being done away I may be with the Lord for ever Oh when shall I once see that blessed day NOW What is it I beseech you after which your hearts do thus strongly breathe thus insatiably thirst thus impatiently long If Riches will not satisfy but you must have a Treasure in Heaven if Worldly Honour will not satisfy but you must have a Crown of Righteousness from Christ himself if Carnal Pleasures will not satisfy but you must have that fulness of Joy which is in God's Presence and those Pleasures which are at his Right Hand for evermore if in a word the Life that now is will not satisfy but you must though you dye for it go live for ever with Christ in Glory why then there is no doubt Christians but with Moses you have an eye to the Recompence of Reward For then our eye is rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward when our Souls are carried out in strong desires after God and Christ and Eternal Glory as our only Happiness 5. TO be by the consideration of it exceedingly encouraged to diligence and
patient waiting upon God in all the ways of Obedience that whatsoever the Lord shall call us out to do or suffer we may with chearfulness undergo it all This is that I confess which some will not endure telling us that as we are to give looking for nothing again so we are to walk in all dutiful Obedience before God doing and suffering Whatever he calls us out to without taking any incouragement at all thereto from the Recompence of Reward But certainly the Holy Ghost hath given us in Holy Writ such abundant satisfaction concerning the lawfulness of taking incouragement from the Recompence of Reward to follow hard after God in all the ways of Obedience that no Christian need perplex himself upon that account (g) Justitiae operanti dabitur Corona Ne qui justitiam operatur segnescens oneri laboris succumbat For is not this the great design of God in making Promises of Life Happiness and Eternal Glory to those that obey him thereby to incourage us to all dutiful and obedient walking before him God hath tyed our Work and our Wages together that expecting to receive from him at death the Wages of Eternal Glory we might work the more chearfully for him all our life And that we may not look upon the way of Duty as tedious nor count his Commandments grievous he hath set up a Crown of Life at the end of Duty and assured us That in keeping his Commandments there is great Reward Psal 19.11 GOD is not so austere a Task-master as to envy his People their Comforts in a way of Duty nor will he ever impute it to them as their ruin that in keeping his Commandments they had an eye for their own incouragement to the Recompence of the Reward And truly if to be incouraged in a way of Obedience by the Recompence of Reward may be construed a just forfeiture of a Mans ingenuity as some would bear us in hand I see not for my part how we shall be able to excuse any of God's dearest Children no nor our Blessed Lord himself but must confess them to have been acted by a slavish and servile Spirit which yet to do were the first-born of all horrid Blasphemies For though it should have been written in Capital Letters with a Pen pluckt from the wing of a glorious Seraphim yet it could not have been more plain and legible than the Holy Ghost hath already expressed it that the most holy of all God's Children our Blessed Redeemer himself not accepted had an eye for their incouragement in all the ways of Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward WHAT else did holy Moses but incourage himself to suffer Affliction with God's People by the consideration of Life and eternal Glory in Heaven prepared of God from Eternity for all that Love him Was not this also the Paradice of those Primitive Martyrs who took joyfully the spoiling of their Goods having this as their great Incouragement thereto that they knew themselves to have in Heaven a better and more enduring Substance Heb. 10.34 THE like we may say of those other Worthies who scorned all earthly Injoyments that their Persecutors could offer as Allurements to insnare them not accepting Deliverance from them upon any base and unrighteous Terms but were endued with such a Gallantry and Christian Resolution that rather than dishonour God in the least rather than cast a little Incense upon the Altar in honour of the Idol for the saving of their Lives they would dye the Death they would be Slain with the Edge of the Sword they would be Stoned they would be Burned and Sawn asunder having this strong and everlasting Consolation incouraging them with Patience to undergo all this barbarous and inhumane Cruelty that they hoped to obtain a better Resurrection even a Resurrection to Life and eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven Heb. 11. BUT waving these and the like Instances I shall give you an Instance against which none can except but those whose proud Spirits would make them seem more Holy than Holiness it self and that is of Our blessed Redeemer concerning whom it is thus Written That for the Joy which was set before him he endured the Cross despising the Shame Heb. 12.2 I shall not hence take occasion to determine whether the Sorrow the Cross and the Humiliation of Christ were the Meritorious Cause or only the Antecedent of his Joy his Crown and his Exaltation at the Right Hand of God in Glory as being wholly Excentrick to my present Design But let the decision of that famous Controversy from this Text be what it will yet I think the Apostle's words do concludingly Evince thus much That Christ having an eye to his Mediatory Glory and Exaltation at God's Right Hand in Heaven was incouraged thereby with Patience to undergo that most execrable painful and ignominious Death of the Cross for our Sakes DO not then Question the Lawfulness of this holy Practice any longer but having an Eye stedfastly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward be incouraged thereby to all diligent and upright walking before God in wayes of Obedience whatever it cost you IF the Men of the World for your Integrity Frown upon you and hate you let this incourage you to hold it fast that God himself will Smile upon you and afford you his Loving-kindness which is better than Life (h) Affecit te aliquis ignominia Quiu tu ad eam suspice gloriam quae reposita est in coelis Jactura rerum tuarum adijsti Oculos imprime fixius coelestibus divitijs Patrione solo exclusus es At patriam habes coelestem Hierusalem If because you cannot comply with the Men of the World in their sinful and ungodly Practises they should cast you into Prison yet let this incourage you still to keep close with God that he will shortly knock off your Fetters and take you up into Mansions of eternal Glory If you meet with any Cross in Heaven's way let this incourage you with Patience to undergo it that e'er long you shall receive from Christ a Crown of Righteousness If in a word any subtil Persecutors should promise you injoyment of Life and Liberty on condition that you will but comply with them and do as they do why let the Hopes of obtaining a better Resurrection that is to say a Resurrection to eternal Life and Glory in the Kingdom of God let this incourage you to scorn the motion not accepting Deliverance from them upon any such dishonourable and unrighteous Terms For when for the Joy which is set before us we can do any thing part with any thing and suffer any thing with Patience that God calls us to chosing rather to indure the most exquisite Torments than in the least to Dishonour our God why then we have an Eye indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 6. TO design in all your Obedience the Salvation of your own Souls making this the great end of your Lives that at
length you may attain to the full injoyment of God in Glory Here also I confess the Truth meets with some Adversaries who do tell us That to make Heaven the end of our Duties seeking in all our Obedience our own Happiness our own Glory our own Salvation is Mercenary and utterly inconsistent with the free Spirit of a Christian But the truth is if we consult holy Scripture we shall find this Practice so far from being Mercenary and inconsistent with the free Spirit of a Christian that he is unworthy the Name of a Christian who in all his Obedience and Performances is not found so doing For if Christ himself hath Commanded us That we should seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof in the first place That we should lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven not labouring for the Meats that Perish but for the Meat which shall endure to eternal Life How can we then count that Man a Christian who despising the Authority of Christ cares for none of these things but carelesly goes on in a way of Duty as if Heaven and Glory were not worth the looking after YOU may Believe it Sirs the main Errand upon which God sent you into the World was to work out not only his Glory but your own Salvation with fear and trembling And let me tell you so inseparably is the Glory of God and your own Salvation joined together that you never Dishonour God more than when Salvation-work is neglected by you and you begin to be unmindful of your own Happiness GOD's Glory I must confess must be the Ultimate and Highest End of all our Obedience as will farther be shewed you But yet this hinders not but that in all our Obedience we may design our own Happiness making the eternal Salvation of our immortal Souls the great End next unto God's Glory of our Lives For Subordinata non Pugnant is a sure Maxim We do never Oppose God's Glory when we only make Heaven our End and seek the Salvation of our own Souls with a due Respect had unto his Glory THERE is indeed a Two-fold End Fine Operis Finis Operantis the End of the Work and the End of him that Worketh And though in some cases they are diverse if not contrary to one another yet in the Case now spoken of they are co incident and both of them materially the same thing (l) Nam quis alius noster est finis nisi pervenire ad regnum cujus nullus est finis August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 70. For not only doth the Scripture make Salvation the end of Faith and Obedience but also of Christians themselves Believing and Obeying the Lord when it teaches them to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling 1. Pet. 1.9 Phil. 2.12 BE not therefore such enemies to your own Souls as to neglect that Happiness which God in all your Obedience would have you to look after but now see that you make Heaven and eternal Glory the great end of your Life Whilst others are designing to make themselves Rich and Great and Honourable in the World Oh! let it be the grand design of your Souls to surprize Heaven and to take by an Holy Violence the Kingdom of God Mat. 11.12 IF Christians you would make again of Godliness be sure then that by all holy and godly Conversation you gain for yourselves in Heaven a Crown of Life Rest not satisfied with the low and beggarly injoyments of this World but now see that you set your Affections on things above endeavouring to lay hold on eternal Life Your present life is a flitting shadow a vanishing bubble a day which though never so pleasant must yet have the dark Curtains of death drawn over it and cannot be long but the life which is to come is a leaf never fading a light ever shining and such a day as shall know no evening Tell me then which is most rational to seek after that life and those Pleasures which are lost almost as soon as found or after that Life and those unfadable Pleasures which being once found can never be lost nor taken away from us Luke 10.42 (k) Praeferantur vera falsis aeterna brevibus utilia jucundis Lactant. de vero Cult c. 21. p. 123. LEARN now to prefer true Happiness before deceitful Riches eternal Comforts before short injoyments and those things that will prove everlastingly advantageous to your Souls before the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a Season God doth not grudge that you would seek your selves in his Service only he would have you to seek after your selves not in the Meat that perisheth but in the Meat which shall endure to eternal Life John 6.27 There is a kind of holy Ambition which our Blessed Lord hath not only allowed but also exhorted us to and that is that we should aim at and seek after a Kingdom Not an earthly Kingdom from which we may soon fall but an Heavenly Kingdom which connot be shaken wherein we shall reign with Christ for ever and ever Revel 22.5 Here then is a whet-stone to diligence and matter for our ambitious thoughts with warrant to be working upon Earthly Princes if under pretence of serving them you seek to possess your selves of their Crowns and Kingdoms will deal with you as Traytors but the King of eternal Glory he is never better pleased with you than when in serving him you aim at a Crown of Life indeavouring to get Possession of the Kingdom of Heaven For then you have respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward when by patient continuance in well-doing you seek for Glory Honour and Immortality and therefore you need not to doubt but God will shortly render unto you eternal Life Rom. 2. (l) Nullus labor durus nullum tempus longum quo aeternitatis gloria comparatur THINK we therefore no Labour too much no time too long for the gaining of eternal Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven If upon uncertain hopes of a fading Kingdom whose foundation is in the dust Men will take such pains laying all at stake and hazarding not only Liberty but Life it self What should we do then but contemn the World run the hazard of greatest Sufferings and move chearfully forward in all the ways of Obedience towards the Crown of eternal Life towards a Kingdom that cannot be moved towards a City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God For (m) Quisquis corruptelas terrae virtute calcaverit arbiter iâ—â—o summus et verax ad lucem vitam quae perpetuam suscitabet Lact. de vit Beat. ad finem who ever contemning the corruptible Enjoyments of this Life shall aspire in the ways of Obedience after Heavenly Glory why God the Righteous Judge of all the World will make such an one meet to be a partaker of the Inheritance of Saints in light and will honour him at length with a Crown of Eternal
they will never be able to reach the Price thereof Besides Christians whatever we do or suffer for God Luke 17.10 it 's no more than what we are obliged unto and surely in doing our duty we can never lay the (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad Rom. Homil. 7. Foundation of Merit for Eternal Glory Nor may we think to make a Purchase of the New Jerusalem by paying an old Score WOULD we ever Merit Heaven and Eternal Glory of God we must present him with some acceptable (d) Debemus enim deo et nos ipsos et nostra omnia Cha. n. Tom. 3. lib 14. cap. 20. pag. 497. Services which we owe him not but how shall we give him any thing wherein he hath not already a full propriety when there is nothing that we are or have there is nothing that we can do or suffer in a way of Obedience but is due unto God from us by every kind of Right Had we any thing of our own wherewith to come before the Lord there might then be some ground of pretence for the Merit of good Works (e) Ex gratia enim datur non solum justificatis vita bona sed etiam glorificatis vita aeterna Fulgent ad Monim l. 1. p. 18. But since all that we have is due to God because it came from him and bears his Image and Superscription upon it we cannot rationally think it possible for us to Merit any thing thereby of God unless we can think it rational that God should be obliged in point of Justice by giving us one Mercy to give us another by giving us Grace to put us at length in Possession of Eternal Glory That whereby Christians you differ from others from the vilest of Sinners from the Damned themselves that are now roaring out in Hell is not of Merit but of Grace not of Debt but a free Donative 't is nothing in your selves but the free distinguishing love of God dropping the Pearl of Grace into your hearts whilst others are left to perish in their Sins that hath made the difference And surely by those graces which you freely receive from God you may not think to Merit Life and Eternity of Glory at the hands of God For certainly whatever grace you have it obligeth you to Duty so that your Graces and your Obligations of Obedience to God they grow up together and the more grace you receive from God the more deeply do you stand engaged to abound in the fruits of Righteousness towards God How then can you once have a thought that that Grace and Holiness which God hath freely wrought in you and whereby he hath laid you under the strongest engagements to all holy and upright walking before him should make God your Debtor obliging him in point of Justice to render you the Reward of eternal Glory Indeed to whomsoever the Lord gives Grace he will also give Glory and whomsoever he now makes Holy he will Crown them at length with Eternal Happiness But this you must know not an act of Justice founded upon Man's Merit but an act of free Grace bottomed upon the Remunerative goodness of God in the Blood of Christ Rom. 6.23 (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost 'T is an act of Justice in God to punish Sin which is wholly our own and purely Evil and therefore Death is here called the Wages of Sin But to Reward the good Works of Believers which are neither their own nor purely good is an act of free Grace and therefore we find the Apostle to exclude all opinion of Merit calling Life Eternal in this place the gift of God (g) Non dixit similiter stipendia justitiae quia non est antequam remuneratur in nobis non enim nostro labore quaesita est Jerom. So that we see though it be of Justice that the Wicked are Punished yet it is of Grace that the Righteous are Crowned (h) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost And if it be of Grace then not of any Merit in our own good Works otherwise grace were no more grace if not every way free and gratuitous Rom. 4.4 For how can we count it a point of grace to give a Man his due Or what need he sue for Mercy who requireth no more than his own at the hands of God Admit but of Merit and you leave no place of entrance for the grace of God (i) Non est quo gratia intret ubi jam meritum occuparit Bernard Cant. 67. So likewise the grace of God in Christ it leaves no place for the Merit of our good Works For Grace and Merit are altogether inconsistent and mutually destructive one of another Rom. 11.6 So that if you pull down the Merit of good Works you set up Grace and if you go about to establish Merit you do utterly destroy the Grace of God and make it of none effect Let us not then Christians look in our Obedience to have that of Debt which God hath decreed to be of Grace nor go about to seek Heaven and Glory by way of Purchase which the Lord hath intended to be a Donative and of free Gift Whilst others trust to the Merit of their own good Works let us wholly rely upon the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus looking for the Recompence of Eternal Life not from the Justice of a Judge but from the Mercy of a Father not from the worth and dignity of our own Performances but from the free Bounty and Remunerative Goodness of the Lord our Redeemer You may do good Works and walk in ways of Obedience with an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward But yet none of these things must be done with respect to the Meriting of Eternal Life by them For though as (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost Tom. 8. Serm. 15. Chrysostome sweetly saith we had done ten thousand good deeds yet it is of Grace that we must look to be saved and of Loving-kindness not of any desert in ourselves that we must seek to obtain Eternal Glory (l) Totis licet animae et corporis laboribus desudemus totis licet obedientiae viribus exerceamur nihil tamen condignum merito pro coelestibus bonis compensare et offerre valebimus Euseb Emissen homil 3. ad Monarch We stand so infinitely indebted to the God of Heaven that though we should with all the strength of Body and Mind exercise ourselves in Obedience to God all our Life long though with bitterness and anguish of Spirit we should bewail our own Sins mourn in some Wilderness till Doom's-day and dissolve our Souls with weeping into (m) Flaccescant licet membra vigilijs pallescant licet ora jejunijs non erunt tamen condignae passiones hujus temporis ad futuram gloriam Idem Rivers of Tears though we should live like Angels of Light shine like the Sun in it's Noon-day Brightness and exercise ourselves unto Godliness continually with all
our might though we should give our Bodies to be burnt die ten thousand deaths and lye frying as Firebrands in Hell upon the Grid-iron of God's displeasure so many Millions of Imaginary Ages as there be Stars in the Firmament of Heaven Yet by all this we could not possibly oblige the God of Heaven to render us the Reward of Eternal Life nor bring forth any thing that by way of condign Merit could purchase that Crown of Righteousness that Kingdom of Eternal Glory that fulness of Joy and everlasting Happiness which abides us in the World to come So then though we may look at Heaven in our Obedience yet it 's utterly in vain to think of Meriting Heaven by our Obedience Though the Reward of Eternal Life may encourage us to Well-doing yet in vain shall we look to Purchase that glorious Reward by our well-doing Though we may assure ourselves of the Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory from God in keeping his Commandments Psal 19.11 yet if for keeping his Commandments we expect that God should bless us with so glorious a Reward we are sure everlastingly to fall short of it For if you think to Merit with God expecting upon Terms of Justice the Reward of Eternal Glory from him do but cast up your Reckonings aright and you will find that there is nothing but an Eternal (n) Quanto labore digna est requies quae non hâ—bet finem Si verum vis computare et verum judicare aeterna requies aeterno labore emituor Aug. in Ps 93. Travail which can Merit an Eternal Rest nothing but an everlasting Conflict that can deserve to be Crowned with an everlasting Triumph nothing but Infinite Labour that can Purchase that Infinitely Glorious and Soul-satisfying Reward which the Lord for our encouragement hath set before us Why then should we put ourselves upon such a Prince as we shall never be able to discharge seeking Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life by the Merit of our own scanty and imperfect Obedience when we know that the Glory Honour and comfort of Eternal Life can only be obtained through the Riches of God's free Grace and divine Indulgence LOOK you may Christians having fought the good fight having finished your course and kept the Faith to receive from Christ the Righteous Judge and Immarcessible Crown of Glory 2 Tim. 8. But take heed that you never think by your Fighting for God Running the Race he hath set before you and Believing him in all his Promises to Purchase that glorious Crown which is not the Wages of an hiâ—â—ling but an Inheritance prepared of God for all his Children If you think Christians to spin Salvation out of the Bowels of your own good Works and to raise up the Seed of Eternal Life to yourselves out of the dead and barren Womb of your own Righteousness why let me tell you then all your Hope 't is but as a Spider's Web which will quite be swept down by the Besome of Death You never think to live and Purchase Eternal Glory by your own Righteousness but you forfeit that Crown of Righteousness which Christ hath laid up with himself for all that love his appearance Col. 3.3.4 Whilst therefore you look at the Recompence of Eternal Life remember 't is the free gift of God and not the Purchase of your own Obedience (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marcus Heremita For to be sure their life was never hid with Christ in God who think to find Life and Happiness amongst the rubbish of their own ruinous Performances Nor shall they ever appear with Christ in Glory who make a Christ of their own good Works thereby thinking to Merit at God's hands the Reward of Eternal Happiness For to put confidence in our Holiness will as certainly shut us out of God's Heavenly Kingdom as if we were altogether unholy 4. WE are to have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward not carnally looking for a Sensual Happiness but Spiritually as longing for an Happiness that shall consist in the adequate Perfection of all our Graces together with the full enjoyment of God in Glory We are not to look for a Turkish Paradise to gratify the Flesh but for a Sinless state of Holiness where Grace shall be perfected into Glory We may not think of bathing our Souls in Worldly Delights and Carnal Pleasures but of coming to the full injoyment of God himself whom to see without end love without loathing and praise without ever being weary is the only complement of all our Happiness There are multitudes of Men and Women in the world who having imbibed some gross Conceits and carnal Notions of Heaven would be glad when they can live no longer here to take up there as conceiting it to be a place accomodate to the desires of their own carnal Hearts But we never have any due respect to the recompence of the Reward till we look upon Heaven as a place where Sin shall be wholly abolished Grace perfectly glorified the World trampled upon and God over all blessed for ever enjoy'd as the Center of perfect Rest and everlasting Satisfaction As Balaam desired to dye the death of the righteous which he knew would be Crowned with Peace but had no care at all to conform himself to the life of the righteous so many there be who desire Heaven as a place of Happiness but not as a place of perfect Holiness Such is the Malignity of a carnal Heart that it will assimulate whatever it meets with and turn it into the likeness of it's own brutish Lusts So that whenever a carnal heart desires Heaven it 's not an Heaven of God's preparing but an Heaven of it's own fancying not an Heaven to make it perfectly Holy but an Heaven that will make it sensually Happy As a little Leaven turns the whole Lump into it's own Sourness or as the Salt Sea turns the Fresh Rivers and the Sweet Showers of Heaven into Salt Waters So the Heart which is Unsanctified it turns Bethel into Bethaven the holy City of Sion into a filthy Sodom and the heavenly Jerusalem it self into Babylon looking only for the Wages of Unrighteousness and for Heaven as a place of Sensual Pleasure but not as a place of Spiritual Injoyments As some Jews Acts 1.6 had carnal Notions of Christ and his Kingdom looking for a carnal Messiah who should come in Worldly Pomp and Splendour to restore the Kingdom to Israel So many that profess themselves to be Christians they have carnal Notions about the Recompence of the Reward looking after a Turkish Paradice after an Heaven that is wholly Carnal like their own hearts abounding with nothing but Fleshly Delights and Sensual Contentments They conceive indeed of Heaven as a place where there is Freedom from all Misery and as a place wherein all Fulness of Joy of Delights and everlasting Pleasures dwells But yet both these the Misery removed and the Pleasures indulged both Freedom
all degrees of Comparison better The Quiet Haven is better than the Wreckful Sea the Victorious Triumph is better than the Doubtful Battel the Joy of Harvest is much better than the Toil of Seed-time But to be with Christ enjoying everlasting Communion with him and the Beatifical Vision of God in him this is best of all this indeed is the Heaven of Heaven and the very life of that Happiness which in all our Obedience we should look after 5. WE are to have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward not Servilely as Persons that are meerly acted by a Spirit of Bondage but Ingenuously and out of a principal of Love to that God who hath prepared it for us A Christian by patient continuance in Well doing should seek after Heaven and Glory not for fear of Wrath and Hell but for the Love-that he beareth to the God of Heaven Whilst we look at the Recompence of the Reward we should be drawn to walk in Obedience before God not with Cords of Fear but with the Baâ—ds of Love As the Love of God to us was the Spring of all his gracious Dispensations towards us so our Love to God should be the rise of all that we do in Obedience to him making us Serve the Lord rather out of Choyce than of Constraint The Obedience of those that have an eye to Heaven and Glory should not be a Legal Debt but a Free Will-Offering It should not be a Necessitated Service extorted by fear of Hell and Wrath but an Eucharistical Sacrifice drawn out by the Love of God shed abroad in our hearts The motion of all wicked Men in the Service of God is Compulsory and Violent nor will they act any further therein than they are driven by the Spirit of Bondage and the dreadful Estuations of their own accusing Consciences But you that ever look to get the Reward of Eternal Life your Souls must be acted in the Service of Gâ—d by the Spirit of Adoration the Chariot wherein you move towards Heaven ¶ Psal 110. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ortum ducit significans donum oblationem Eucharisticam et inde Metaphoricâ—â— de eo dicitur quem ultro suus animus invitat de excitat ad aliquid prompte agendum vel conferendum should be all Paved with Love you must shew yourselves to be a Willing People indeavouring to be chearful unconstrained and ingenuous in the Service of God 'T is the Property of Hypocrites to serve the Lord as of Constraint and not Willingly their Obedience is Forced like Water out of a Still by the Fire and whatever they do in the Service of God 't is wholly for Fear as the Parthians Worship the Devil that he may not hurt them So that if you take away all conceits of Danger all Workings of the Spirit of Bondage the terrours of a troubled Conscience together with the Fears and Pre-occupations of Hell why now the Chariot wheels of their Souls are taken off neither will they any longer run the ways of God's Commandments because that which was the Spring of all their Endeavours is now taken away But with you Christians whose Eye is rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward it must not be thus The Spring of your Obedience must not be the slavish Fear of Wrath and Hell but sincere and unfeigned Love to the God of Heaven ¶ Rarissime accidit imo vero nunquam ut quisquam veniat volens fieri Christianus qui non sit aliquo Dei timore perculsus Austin de Catechiz and Rudik cap. 5. INDEED when first we begin to set out in the ways of Grace we are then rather acted by the Terrours of Sinai than by the Comforts of Sion by the Curses from Mount Ebal than by the Blessings from Mount Gerizim by Fear than by Love and by the Spirit of Bondage than by the Spirit of Adoption But having tasted that the Lord is gracious we must now learn to serve him with a more free and ingenuous Spirit Our Obedience must now no longer be Compulsory and as of Necessity but Spontaneous ¶ Psalm 40.8 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Quicunque musae Hebraicas salutarunt vel a limine sciunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 esse non simpliciter velle sed cum affectu ut proprie judicetur beneplacitum Cham. and Voluntary as a matter of greatest Delight and Complacency to us Heaven and Hell display'd and drawn out before our Eyes in their lively Colours do usually most work upon us and leave the deepest Impression behind them when first we go about to reform our ways then Hell is the great Inducement to shun Sin and Heaven is the grand Incentive to an Holy Life and Conversation But yet our Obedience must afterwards be more free and spontaneous running sweetly in the smooth Channel of Love to God and his Glory and not in the rugged Channel of the slavish Fear of Wrath and Hell and everlasting Burnings Those workings upon the Soul which come from Fear they do usually prove Abortive When that Obedience which proceeds from a Principle of Love is never blasted but grows up into the Flower of eternal Glory There is in Fear a debilitating Power making the motions of the Soul like those of the Paralitick Weak and Trembling it contracts and freezes up the motions of the Soul it clips the Wings and takes off the Chariot Wheels But now Love it 's a vigorous active Grace * Aggreditur amor divinus ardua labores non recusat obdurat in periculis confortat animos debiles addit calcaria ignavis audere facit pusilanimes difficultates enim non ratione metitur sed desiderio Granateusis de Amore Dei p. 15. putting not only Strength but a kind of Omnipotency into the Soul the motions of Love are unresistible it despiseth Dangers tramples upon greatest Difficulties facilitates the hardest Province and maketh the Work of Obedience how displeasing soever to Flesh and Blood come off with delight ¶ Sectamini Fratres Charitatem inquit Bernardus quae expellit timorem quae non sentit laborem quae noti spectat merita quae non quaerit praemium et tamen plus ad virtutem allicit quam reliqua omnia Whatever Sacrifice of Obedience proceeds from the fear of Wrath and Hell why 't is offered up to God grudgingly and with a sparing hand But that Obedience which flows from a Principle of Love to God it must needs be performed without Murmuring and that with much Cheerfulness Delight and Gladness of Soul A Man that is acted by nothing but the fear of Wrath and eternal Misery cannot choose but move slowly in Heaven's way But when once the Soul is steeped in the Love of God this now is like Oyl to the Joynts like Sails to the Ship like Wings to the Bird or like a Spring within that sets all the Wheels of Obedience on Work for God Yet mistake me not neither as if I thought all
yet we must neither serve nor love him so much for the Reward that he will Crown us with as for his own sake 'T is Storied of (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide Plutarch in Vit. Alex. Alexander that he was wont to say of his two Friends Ephestion and Craterus Ephestion loves me because I am Alexander but Craterus loves me because I am King Alexander implying that the one loved his Person and the other nothing else but his Princely Gifts Many there are in the World who Craterus-like have a good mind to God's gifts and benefits that he bestoweth on them and for these they would seem to love him But (m) Cum Deus sit ipsa essentia bonitatis per se et ultimus finis omnium propter seipsum quoque diligendus est Aquinas 2ª 2 ae Q. 27. a. 11. Christians should be so many Spiritual Ephestions obeying the God of Heaven and loving him for himself and all other things in the World Heaven and Glory it self not excepted for his sâ—ke If there be any subordination betwixt God and Heaven surely then we should rather love and by patient continuance in well doing seek after the Reward of Eternal Happiness in Heaven for God's sake than love and seek after God for Heaven's sake 'T is hard I confess to distinguish betwixt God and the Recompence of the Reward (n) Nec deum debemus amare propter praemia sed praemia propter deum Pet. Mart. in Sam. But if any such distinction may be made we must rather love and obey God for his own sake than for the sake of that Eternal Reward how glorious soever For as Austin well saith (o) Deus gratis se vult coli gratis se vult diligi hoc est castè amari Non pterea se amari vult quia dat aliquid praeter se sed quia dat se Aust in Ps 52. God will not be loved and served because he gives us any Reward besides himself but because he gives us himself as our exceeding great Reward Gen. 15.1 The Wife that intirely loves her Husband she looks for no other Reward of her Love and Obedience to him but only to enjoy him as her Husband So we must not be acted in our Obedience by a Mercenary Spirit looking more at our own Reward than at God himself but must think it a sufficient Reward of all our Love and Obedience to God that we shall at length enjoy him as our God in Christ Jesus When we are acted more in ways of Obedience by the Fear of Hell and by the desire of Heaven than by Love to God this argues a servile mercenary frame of Spirit clearly evincing that our respect to the Recompence of the Reward is not such as it ought to be For though we may lawfully have respect to them both looking upon the Torments of the one to deter us from Sinning against God and upon the Comforts of the other to encourage us to all holy walking before him yet that which ought to be the main Spring of all our Obedience setting all on work for God that which should be the very Soul of all our Religious undertakings especially deriving Life and the purest quint-essence of Holiness into them why 't is the Love of God shed abroad in our hearts Oh therefore see to it that in all your Obedience to God you be acted not by the Spirit of Bondage but by the Spirit of Adoption not by Fear but by Love not by servile and mercenary but by filial and ingenuous Principles You may set the Joys of Heaven on the Right Hand and the Torments of Hell on the Left having an eye to them both as strong incentives to quicken you in your motion But the Love of God in Christ this must be the spring and main ground of your moving in Heaven's way (p) Deum non colimus nisi propter deum ut deus quem colimus ipse sit merces Nam qui deum ideo colit ut aliquid aliud promereatur quam ipsum non quem colit diligit quia non ipsum sed aliud concupiscit Prosper in Psal 119. For we never Worship the Lord in a right way we never serve God as we should till we can serve him for himself Nor do we consult God's Glory at all but our own security when 't is only the fear of Hellish Torments and not the love that we should bear to the Lord that makes us walk in Obedience before him An heart rightly affected in the Services of God is so ingenuous and so throughly steeped in the Christal Stream of Divine Love that though there were no Heaven no Hell no Reward nor Punishment yet it would constrain a Man to do his Duty making him to shun Sin and to walk in all upright Obedience before the Lord. (q) Ipse Christianus vere est qui proficiendo perveniet ad talem animum ut plus amet dominum quam timeat Gehennam ut etiamsi dicat illi deus utere delicijs carnalibus sempiternis et quantum potes pecca nec morieris nec in Gehennam mitteris sed mecum tantum modo non eris Exhorrescat et omnino non peccet non jam ut in illud quod timebat non incidat sed ne illum quem sic amat offendat in quo uno est requies quam oculus non vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit August de Catechiezâ—nd Rudik cap. 17. Let God say to such an one Crown yourselves with all Earthly Delights and take your fill of all Mundane Pleasures Cloathe yourselves in Purple and fare Deliciously every day Sin as much as you will and deny yourselves in nothing that a Carnal heart can desire yet you shall never die for it nor be cast into Hell only this shall be your Punishment that you shall never see my Face nor enjoy my Favour Why such is the strength of the Love which he bears to the God of Heaven that he would tremble at such an offer and not much be tempted with it to sin against the Lord not so much because he is afraid of falling into Hell as because he is unwilling to offend that God whom his Soul loveth and whose Favour he looks upon as better than Life it self A true Christian though he may fear Hell and eschew it with a fear of flight and aversation yet this is not the Spring of his Motion but as the Primum Mobile sets all the other Spheres a going and as the Soul informing the Body gives Life and Motion to the whole Man so the Love of God shed abroad in the heart this is the Spring of a Christian's Obedience setting all the Faculties of his Soul as so many Heavenly Orbs a going for God and putting Life into all it's Performances The Sparks do not more Naturally fly upward than the Love of God doth actuate draw forth and carry a Christian in ways of Obedience to God
(r) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Catech. 6. He serves God because he loves him and he loves him because he will love him looking upon this as a sufficient reward of all that he hath a God to serve and love in whom he cannot but rest and delight according to the Notation of the Word for Love in the (ſ) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as some conjecture is derived of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which signifieth much and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to Rest the Nature of the affection expressed by this word being such that it makes a Man acquiess and rest fully satisfied with what he loves And for the Hebrew word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat as Grammarians observes aliquid tenerum et affectione plenum ut sit is diligens dominum qui in eo sibi placet et acquiescit Psal 116.1 Greek and the Nature of the Letters making up the word for Love in the Hebrew Tongue which are all of them quiescent as in his proper Centre Love to God winds up a Christian's Affections to that intention of Zeal and Fervency that he undergoes a kind of compulsion and hath an holy necessity within himself constraining him to walk before God in all dutiful Obedience The hope of Heaven before may draw him and the fear of Hell behind may drive him But Love is that vital Principle within whereby he is acted and which like the very Soul of Obedience teacheth him a natural Motion So that in a Christians Obedience Force and Freedom Violent and Voluntary Necessity and Liberty yea the most pure Liberty and the most powerful Necessity they meet together (t) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 For though the Love of Christ doth constrain them yet 't is not by any forcible but by a loving necessity (u) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Truly Love alone is the greatest Tyrant over-powering all other Powers as Chrysostom well observes and yet there are none that do perform such spontaneous and willing Obedience to God as those that have the commands of this Heavenly Tyrant upon them lying under the sweet constraints of Divine Love 6. AND Lastly We are to have an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward not Preposterously neglecting to use the means appointed by God for the attaining thereof but Regularly giving all diligence to become holy and to work out our own Salvation in a way of all upright and holy walking before the Lord. We may lawfully have respect to the Recompence of Reward but remember it must be in the ways of Obedience that we may not deceive ourselves expecting a Crown of Happiness when we never take care to follow after Holiness God cloathes indeed the Lilies of the field though they neither Toyl nor Spin Mat. 6.26 29. But unless we toil and give diligence to put on the Lord Jesus Christ for Sanctification God will never cloathe our Souls with the Robes of blessed Immortality He feeds the Fowls of the Air though they neither Sow nor Reap or gather into Barns But if we should neglect to Sow Righteousness not endeavouring to gather the Fruits of his holy Spirit into our own Souls to be sure we shall never be suffered to feed upon the Tree of Life in the Paradise of God The Lord hath stiled himself a plentiful Rewarder but it 's only of those who diligently seek him Heb. 11.6 And because he is an Holy God we must therefore seek him in a way of Holiness would we ever find him rewarding us with a Crown of Righteousness If a Man saith the Apostle strive for Masteries yet is he not Crowned except he strive lawfully 2 Tim. 2.5 The only lawful striving for Heaven and Glory is against the Corruptions of our own Nature to cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit labouring to perfect Holiness in the fear of God to mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the Body and to enter in at the strait Gate of Regeneration and except we thus strive look we may at the Recompence of Reward but God will never Crown us with it For certainly God makes none happy hereafter but whom first he makes holy here Nor will he put any thing in Possession of Eternal Glory but those in whom he first puts his holy Spirit to make them Gracious The only way amongst the Romans to the Temple of Honour was through the Temple of Virtue Thus the Lord hath made Virtue the way to Honour amongst Christians calling them first to Virtue 2 Pet. 1.3 and then to (w) Natura mentis humanae quantumcunque perfecta naturalibus donis obsque gratia non est susceptibilis gloriae Parisiensis lib. de Virt. c. 11. Glory so that Virtue must be sought by way of Preparation before ever a state of Glory can be their Fruition Heaven must first be brought down into our Souls by Sanctification before our Souls can possibly be taken up into Heaven for their Glorification The Kingdom of Heaven it 's a pure place it 's an Inheritance that is Incorruptible and undefiled Whatsoever therefore is unclean and defileth can never enter into it Rev. 21.27 In Ireland the Soil is so pure that no venemous Creature will live there To be sure such is the infinite purity of that Soil in the Land of Promise the heavenly Canaan that those who are infected with the Venome and Poyson of Sin not labouring to cleanse themselves from it cannot possibly live there Foolish Sinners are apt to please themselves with some pleasant dreams about going to Heaven when they dye not considering how vexatious and contrary that holy habitation would be to them should they come thither with their Natures unsanctified For the accomplishment of true delight there must be an harmonious conformity and correspondency betwixt the faculty and the object about which it is conversant So that if the faculty be not duely prepared let the object be never so pleasant yet it will afford nothing of true delight but a deal of vexation and weariness The Sun is a pleasant object affording much delight and satisfaction to one that hath no impediment in his sight and yet to sore Eyes there is nothing more afflicting and tedious than to behold it Thus though Heaven be a place of unspeakable Pleasure adorned with all glorious Objects that a gracious heart can desire yet should a Man unsanctified come there he would think himself in the very Suburbs of Hell and instead of meeting with happiness therein he would find it a place of his greatest disquietment If our first Parents were by one Sin so far indisposed for Communion with God that they were not able to bear his Presence nor so much as able to look upon the back parts of God in the Earthly Paradice but sought through the dread of his Presence seizing upon them to hide themselves from the Eyes of Omnisciency How then will unsanctified Sinners whose Souls are become a very Sodom of all Unrighteousness be able to
runneth not the Race hath no hope of the Garland he that Fighteth not the Battel hath no hope to obtain the Crown Why thus my Friends if you sit down satisfied without Grace not labouring to become pure and holy and unblameable before God in love you can never have any good hope to enjoy the Harvest the Garland the Crown of Eternal Life Ephes 2.12 PROMISE yourselves what happiness you please and be as confident of your own good condition as you will Yet believe it Sirs unless now with the Wise Virgins you get Oyl in your Lamps and Grace in your Souls you must never sit down with Christ in the Kingdom of God to the Marriage-Supper For to presume of Life and Happiness without (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Grace and Holiness is the next way to lose them both and to plunge yourselves deeper in Eternal Misery Presumption being still the Preface to Damnation And are you grown so secure indeed that you can sit down satisfied without that which alone can make you meet for Heaven and Eternal Glory Oh methinks that unmarcescible Crown of Life that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory whereof you must everlastingly fall short if you keep it not in the way of serious Practical Holiness should make you give all diligence to get Grace into your hearts and to become holy Is it nothing do you think to miss of Eternal Glory to be eternally shut out of God's heavenly Kingdom and for ever to lose that Crown of Righteousness that fulness of Joy and those Pleasures which are at God's Right Hand for evermore Oh what everlasting hellish horrour will fill your Souls at Death and Judgment should you spend your lives in Vanity not striving to perfect holiness in the fear of God! Oh that you would look upon a graceless condition and negligence in the ways of God now as you will look upon it when for want of grace and diligence in Heaven's way the Lord shall throw you down for ever into hellish Torments the Lord shall punish you with everlasting destruction from his own blessed Presence and bid you depart accursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels Oh the unspeakable horrour Oh the everlasting dreadful confusion that will then fall upon you Oh what Worlds would you not give to be saved when for want of sanctifying grace you must of necessity be damned for ever Oh what would you not now do to come to Heaven when for want of Holiness you are sure to be thrown down into hellish Torments and there shut up amongst damned Spirits in everlasting Chains under darkness In the fear of God Sirs and out of tender compassion to your own Immortal Souls do not rest a moment longer in a graceless condition but as ever you desire to be saved now labour to be throughly sanctified and as ever you would see the face of God in Glory now labour to walk before him in all holy Conversation and Godliness Never think to be Mercenarij if you will not be Operarij You can never receive the Reward of Eternal Glory when you dye if you work not hard in God's Vineyard so long as you live The Lord will give you both the upper and the nether Springs both Grace and Glory But on this condition that you espouse Achsah his Daughter that you devote yourselves to the practice of Piety endeavouring to perfect holiness in the fear of God Heb. 12.28 There is a Kingdom that cannot be moved there is a (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Crown of Life more glorious than the (c) 1 Cor. 9.25 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sun in it's Noon day Brightness there is fulness of Joy in God's Presence together with Soul-satisfying (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Words signify such Pleasures as shall never end but will run Parallel with Eternity it self Pleasures at his Right Hand for evermore and all this you may have for your Portion and to make you everlastingly happy but then you must seek it in God's own way by patient continuance in (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyrill Hier. Cateches 1. Pag. 2. Well-doing and by a life of Serious Practical Holiness He that would have a good Harvest must diligently Till and Sow his Ground So you must break up the fallow Ground of your Hearts endeavouring to Sow to the Spirit would you ever obtain a blessed Harvest in which you may reap a full Crop of Eternal Joy God hath tyed Grace and Glory Holiness and Happiness together So that no Grace no Glory no Holiness here no Happiness hereafter Whosoever leads a lewd unsanctified life on Earth shall never lead a blessed and glorified life in Heaven As no Man might be in the Wedding-house not having on a Wedding-garment Mat. 22.11 12. So whoever is not found cloathed with the garments of Righteousness he shall never enter into a Mansion of glory into an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens 2 Thes 2.13 The Image of God must first be renewed upon you in the Beauties of Holiness before ever you can be capable of seeing the face of God in Sion or be counted meet to be Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem Look at Heaven and Glory as much as you will and let your eye be still fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward Yet if you seek it not by patient continuance in well doing endeavouring to cleanse yourselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit you are never like to be Crowned with it In vain do we look at Heaven and Eternal Glory so long as we live in Sin never striving to be holy which is nothing but to walk in the way that leads to Hell and everlasting Misery For then only have we due respect to the Recompence of the Reward when we seek it in a way of Obedience endeavouring to be changed into the likeness purity and holiness of that God who hath promised that so doing he will Crown us with it CHAP. V. The Doctrin Proved evincing the lawfulness of having a Respect to the Recompence of the Reward in Twelve Particulars III. HAVING thus shewed you What it is to have Respect to the Recompence of the Reward and how you may do so we are in the next place to evince it for your better satisfaction by some Scriptural Demonstrations That you are allowed of God to have respect to the Recompence of the Reward and may lawfully do so in all your Obedience 1. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because God himself hath commanded us that we should do so Had not the Lord by his own Authority enjoyning us by Patient continuance in Well-doing to seek after Heaven and Glory made it our duty to do so we might well have questioned the Legality of such a practise But now there is not the least ground of Hesitancy nor any colour of Reason why we should question Whether
deum ordinata est For God himself is the Centre of all Good and Holiness from which the Lines of all Moral Rectitudes and Divine Virtues are drawn according to which they are regulated in which they are conserved and into which returning they must ultimately resolve themselves SINCE Holiness then is nothing else but an harmonious Conformity with and a Transcript of his righteous Will concerning us Why should we count our having a Respect to eternal Glory any Forfeiture of our Holiness ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catech. Mystag 5. pag. 244. or go about to censure that Practice as Unlawful for which we have God's own Fiat Were not this to make more Sins than God ever made and to go about by a kind of Interpretative Blasphemy to impeach the infinitely Holy God of giving not only his Imprimator but his Fiat also to unholy Practises commanding Men to seek after Heaven and Glory from the beholding whereof they should according to what some †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Cat. 6. p. 55. â— Dogmatize turn away their eyes as the greatest Vanity But dare we say That Mens walking in the Light of the Sun is Darkness to them Or That Conformity with God's Righteous Will is the cause of any unrighteous Practise Sirs to question the Legality and Holiness of Duties commanded is to question his Holiness and the Lawfulness of his Authority who commanded them How dare we then say that is Bitter in the Fruit which we know to be Sweet in the Root How can we count that Impure in the Streams which we dare not but confess to be Pure in the Fountain How dare we traduce that as Sinful in the Practise which we know to be Holy and Just and Good in the Precept How dare we to be short look upon Christians as Disingenuous and Transgressing in that which they purely Act in Obedience to God's Commands If God Christian bid thee by patient continuance in well-doing seâ—k for Heaven and Glory do not doubt but his Command will sufficiently secure thee from the Censure of a Legalist or Mercenary in so doing before Men and Angels For Who shall lay any thing to the Charge of God's Elect in those Precepts which are justified by the Holy Precepts and Commandments of God himself injoyning them Rom. 8.33 2. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because the most Eminent of God's faithful Servants have done so before us We have not only Precept but President to warrant our Practise in this case there being none of the People of God but by striving to enter in at the strait Gate by laying up for themselves a Treasure in Heaven by Suffering with Christ that they might be Glorified together with him have clearly Commented and Paraphrased upon those and the like Portions of Holy Scripture that we knowing thus the mind of God therein may go and do likewise Thus David a Man after God's own Heart Psalm 119.112 and therefore surely no Mercenary he inclin'd his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes alway as expecting in the end the Reward of eternal Glory In the Original it is even to the end 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Fructus praemium eò quod fructus postremum et finis laboris est and so our own Translation renders it But yet the same Word doth also signify a Reward which is not usually given before the end of our Works clearly implying That David having an Eye to the Recompence of the Reward did more Cheerfully run the way of God's Commandments David was willing to take pains in God's Vineyard spontaneously inclining his Heart to perform God's holy Statutes all his dayes as expecting at the evening of his Death to receive the Penny of eternal Life and Glory in God's heavenly Kingdom This also we find to be the Practice of holy Paul a man so Ambitiously desirous to promote God's Glory that through an holy Transport of Love thereto he once wished himself suspended and put apart from the Comforts of Christ in the Jews stead that God might but be glorified thereby Rom. 9.3 And yet he hath an Eye in all his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward putting forth himself with the greatest Intenseness of Zeal and Diligence imaginable for the Price of his High-calling 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graece quod magnam habet Emphasim significat enim manus totumque Corpus protendere ad scopum ut eum apprehendas ante quam pedibus eum attigeris A lapide in locum He did not grudge to Spend and be Spent in the Service of but stretching forward and extending himself usque ad extremum virium he pursues 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to the Aim which he had taken the Reward set before him so the Original Word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifieth as impatiently desiring to be seized of God's Kingdom and Glory to which he was called And though he was a man daily exposed to Reproach Persecutions and greatest Dificulties in Heaven's way for the cause of Christ 2 Cor. 4.18 yet whilst he looked at the things which are not seen making Heaven and Glory the scope and end of his Life as the Original may well import he was incouraged thereby with cheerfulness and alacrity of Spirit to encounter them all not thinking his Life dear if by any means he might win the Crown and be landed safe at the Haven of eternal Rest So that the Respect which this holy Apostle had to the Recompence of Reward it was instead of a Cordial to comfort him amidst all his Afflictions it was a strong Incentive with him to Obedience putting Life and Vigour into all his Endeavours and from this he took Incouragement most gladly to Spend and be Spent in the Service of God Heb. 10.32 The like we may say of those Primitive Christians mentioned in the Epistle to the Hebrews who though they were encountred with a whole Army of Afflictions though they were spoiled in their Goods by wicked men as so many Harpies preying upon them at their pleasure though they were Theatriz'd and brought forth upon the Stage not only as Spectacles of Scorn and Reproach but also as Objects of Persecution for wicked men to exercise their Malice and Cruelty upon from whom they received not only bitter Words but also hard Blows Yet they joyfully underwent it all enduring the Cross and despising the Shame as Christ their Redeemer had done before them and all this because they had an Eye to the Recompence of Reward believing themseves to have in Heaven an induring Substance a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that would abundantly make amends for all their Sufferings So that the grand Reason inducing these Primitive Christians to indure Afflictions and take joyfully the spoyling of their Goods on Earth was their Hope of a better and more induring Substance when they came to Heaven Besides these many pregnant Instances might be given
out of Ecclesiastical History of Christians incouraging themselves by the Recompence of Reward to run the hazard of Reproach Persecution and sorest Afflictions in the World for the sake of Christ and his Cause I shall not lose my Life saith one Martyr being led out to suffer but change it for a better instead of Coals I shall have Pearls And with this Consideration he died comfortably Another Dr. Taylor by name being asked by the Sheriff as he drew nigh to the place of Execution How do you Sir Never better reply'd that holy Man for now I know I am almost at home Meaning Heaven where he should be with the Lord for ever With this also Athanasius incouraged the Christians to perseverance in the Faith under the Arrian Persecution That Affliction was but Nubeculo citò transitura a Storm or rather a little Cloud that being quickly blown over would end in a glorious Sun-shine Like unto him was the Practice of holy Mr. Bradford who taking up a Fagot at the Stake and kissing it turned his Head to the Young Man that suffered with him and said Be of good Comfort Brother for we shall have a merry Supper with the Lord this Night Justin Martyr also tells us of the Christians in his Day That they who before their Conversion had pleasure in Uncleanness did now wholly imbrace Chastity they that had sometimes used Magical Arts did now dedicate themselves to the good and eternal God they that e'er-while set an higher Estimate upon their Money and earthly Possessions than upon any thing else did now bring all into the common Treasury that distribution might be made according to every one's Necessity they who formerly hated each other and betwixt whom there were Heart-burnings and deadly Animosities did now Lovingly live together and familiarly converse with one another praying for their very Enemies and beseeching those that were their most cruel Persecutors to break off their Sins by Repentance and live holy And he gives in this as the reason of all that they together with such as had sometimes despitefully used them living holy might have good Hope and everlasting Consolation thrô Christ receiving from God at length the reward of eternal †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Apol. 2. pag. 47. 20. 30. Glory Much to the same purpose I find a Speech in ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Catechis 18. pag. 223. A. Cyril who tells us That true Christians did all of them by all holy Conversation and Godliness seek the Kingdom of God not making the empty and unsatisfying Injoyments of the world their End but indeavouring to lay hold upon eternal Life BUT waving these and the like Examples as being not altogether so Cogent and Authentical we shall conclude the Argument with holy Moses from whose Practice the Doctrine it self was deduced Moses though as we said of Paul a man so ambitiously desirous of and passionately zealous for God's Glory that rather than the least Dishonour should reflect upon him he could wish himself blotted out of God's Book of Life in respect of whose Glory he seems careless of his own Salvation Yet thought it no impeachment of his Ingenuity to steal a look from Glory to peep within the Vail to cast an eye upon the Recompence of Reward for his incouragement to all upright self-denying and holy walking before the God of Heaven * Fidei suae oculos attollebat ad bona coelestia quae deus cultoribus suis pro mercede ac praemio piorum laborum se redditurum promisit Estius He had Heaven in his eye expecting a Crown of Glory after all his Sufferings and that made him walk on so cheerfully in Heaven's way Being therefore compassed about with so great a Cloud of Witnesses why should we any longer count it unlawful or think it a forfeiture of our uprightness and ingenuity to have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward If persons so eminently Holy have gone before us without contracting either spot or blemish or any such thing in having an eye to the Recompence of the Reward why should we Hesitate about or scruple the Lawfulness of following after them To be sure Christians if respect to Heaven and Glory did not forfeit the Sincerity of a David of a Moses of Paul it can never prove any forfeiture of your Integrity For where the Pattern it self is Holy and Just and Good conformity therewith will never make any man Disingenuous and Unholy If the Spirit of God record it as Praise worthy in others that in keeping God's Commandments they had Respect to the Recompence of Reward he will never upbraid us as Persons Disingenuous and Mercenary for the like holy Practise For certainly whatever incouragements to Obedience the Lord formerly afforded his People to this day he allows them the same or greater So that whenever we have Respect in our Obedience to Heaven and Glory we do no more forfeit our Integrity nor prove ourselves Mercenary and Disingenuous by so doing than Self-denying Moses Upright David Zealous Paul and all God's Faithful People have done before us 3. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because not only the Children of God but our blessed Lord himself had an eye thereunto We may imitate the People of God so far as their Actions run parallel with and do clearly paraphrase upon his holy Will But now the Life of Christ it 's an authentick Copy of Holiness it 's an ¶ Deus in carne se manifestans exemplar sanctae nobis vitae proposuit ne quis sanctam vitam detrectans ad carnis confugeret excusationem Gerh. Med. 30. unblottable Draught of perfect Piety it 's nothing else but the Wilt of God incarnate and made manifest in our mortal Flesh So that if Christ had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we need no longer stand Questioning the Lawfulness of such a Practise but are bound to look upon it as Holy and Just and Good For every one will acknowledge the Actions of a Deity to be Indeficient and confess it a thing Praise-worthy in all men to Write after so fair a Copy Now that Christ himself had Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward we find written in legible Characters by the unerring Hand of that blessed Apostle where he tells us That for the Joy which was set before him Christ indured the Cross and despised the Shame Heb. 12.2 As Christ in the dayes of his Flesh did truly and properly obey God the Father notwithstanding the Hypostatical Union and the Absolute Perfection of his inward habitual Holiness wholly determing all indifferency and undeterminateness which some Schoolmen would have to be constitutive of Liberty Why so if we consider him as Man He was to have Rational Comforts and Humane Incouragements in all his Obedience that the Frailties of his Humane Nature being relieved with such Spiritual
Cordials he might the more Cheerfully go through with the great work of our Redemption which the Father had given him to finish Isa 53.10 Hence we find God the Father in that Federal Transaction that was betwixt Him and God the Son from all Eternity concerning the Redemption of Lost Man Indenting with the Lord Jesus Christ and promising him in case he would undertake the Work both a blessed Success therein and also to Crown him afterward with an everlastingly Glorious Reward In case he would make his Soul an Offering for Sin then the Lord promises That he shall see his Seed and prolong his dayes and the pleasure of the Lord shall prosper in his hand He shall not Labour in vain nor spend his Strength for naught and in vain but shall be so gloriously successful in the discharge of his Mediatory Function that we shall obtain thereby an everlasting Kingdom and find his Sufferings like a fruitful womb bringing forth many Sons and Daughters unto God In case he would bear the Iniquities of the People then the Lord promises that he shall see of the Travail of his Soul and be satisfied and shall be abundantly well pleased with all his Sufferings and all his bitter Agonies they shall turn to most sweet Satisfaction when the Lord being reconciled to lost Sinners and their Souls everlastingly Saved he himself shall sit down on the right hand of God in glory In case to be short he shall pour out his Soul unto Death and make Intercession for Transgressors then the Lord promises to divide him a portion with the great and that he will cause him to divide the Spoil with the Strong Christ shall not always be held a Captive of Death but having satisfied divine Justice he had the Promise for his incouragement of a glorious Victory and of an everlasting joyful Triumph over all his Enemies So that that which made the Lord Jesus Christ Psal 110. drink so cheerfully of the Brook in the way was the Assurance he had to lift up his Head with everlasting Rejoycing That which made him so cheerfully humble himself and become of no Reputation amongst men Phil. 2.7 was the Assurance which he had that God at length would most highly exalt him and give him a name above every name That in a word which made him so cheerfully Suffer induring the Cross and despising the Shame was the Assurance which he had that having once suffered in the Flesh he should enter into Heaven and there sit down upon a Throne of Glory Luke 24.26 And shall we then that are the Members of his Body be afraid to imitate Christ our Head thinking it unlawful to have Respect in our Obedience to Heaven and Glory when the Lord Jesus himself that indeficient Pattern of all Righteousness hath done the same before us leaving us an Example that we should follow his Steps 1. Pet. 2.22 Sancta Christi vita est perfectissima virtutum idea omnis Christi actio est etiam nostra institutio Gerha Med. 30. Jesus Christ is the Rule according to which we must Walk He is the Copy according to which we are to Write He is the grand Pattern according to which we must indeavour to Live God's People they must never be followed without a Quatenus any further than they follow Christ But now Christ must be followed without any such Proviso we may follow him ad caecam obedientiam and yet never miscarry so long as we walk as He walked we are still taking Steps towards Heaven and Glory The best of God's People they are like the Pillar of Cloud that went along with the Israelites in which there was a dark side and a light side the light side of the Cloud we may follow but not the dark side But now Christ is a Sun of Righteousness always shining with such spotless and unblemishable Splendor that walking in his Light we need never be afraid of enveloping ourselves in the darkness of any Sin The Works of Christ are our Rule as well as his Word his Actions were a living Decalogue clearly Paraphrasing upon the whole Mind of God therein his Life was a constant Exercitation of the Power of Godliness and all his Performances they were nothing else but Religion exemplified and adorned in her own native colours Since then Christ is thus the fixed Center of all Righteousness the Abstract of all Virtue a full though compendious Praxis of Divinity and the only unerring Rule of an Holy Life why should we scruple to Walk as he Walk or think we Forfeit our Ingenuity in looking for our Incouragement to all holy and upright walking before God at Heaven and Glory as he also did Tota vita Christi in terris per hominem quem gessit disciplina morum fuit Aust de vera Religione The whole Life of Christ was and is a perfect Pattern of Holiness to all Christians So that we shall be so far from sinning in following Christ that we never sin more dangerously than when we cease to follow him not labouring to Transcribe his Actions into our Lives and Conversations Incassum laborat in acquisitione virtutum qui eas alibi quam in Christo quaerit Bern. There is no way in the World for us to attain unto any Goodness but only through Christ Nor to learn any true Virtue but only from the Example of Christ in his holy Conversation which we stand obliged to follow INDEED we are to know That though all those things which are recorded of Christ were written for our Instruction yet they were not all of them written for our Imitation For some Acts of Christ were Instances of divine Sovereignty and Prerogative as his sending for the Colt without asking the Owner's leave Mat. 21.2 Some were Acts of divine Power and Omnipotency as his turning Water into Wine John 2.7 Walking upon the Sea Luk. 7.21 dispossessing of Devils and raising the Dead to Life these were miraculous Works which are the Legible but unimitable Characters of a Deity so that though men can best read them yet they can worst write after them Some were Works of Merit and Mediation done by him as Prophet Priest and King of his Church John 10.22 Acts 20.28 such were his giving of the Spirit redeeming his Church with his own Blood 1 John 2.1 and interceeding for his People at the Right Hand of God in Glory which whatever the Church of Rome Blasphemously dogmatize to the contrary is no less incommunicable than the work of our Redemption since none may take up the Censer to offer Incense who have not a right at the Altar to offer Sacrifice Some in a word of Christ's Acts were Moral Mat. 11.29 and ordinary pertaining to the common nature of Holiness which they had written upon them to the Lord in capital Letters as being nothing but a visible Commentary upon the whole Law of God The Three first are for our Instruction But the last comprizing the acts of Christ's ordinary Obedience
And this is your Husband said he and bringing forth his Staff and Scrip Why this adds he is like to be your Dowrey But now the Lord doth what in him lyes to Incourage us telling us what Treasures of Love and Sweetness 1 Cor. 2.9 what heaps of Joy and fulness of Glory what unseen unheard of unconceivable and Soul-ravishing Pleasures are prepared for us in case we will but love him and walk in Obedience before him 'T was one of the Devil's Master pieces when he Tempted Christ hoping to draw him to his impious Desires that he carried him up into an exceeding high Mountain shewing him from thence all the Kingdoms of the World and then promised him saying All these things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and worship me Why thus with holy reverence be it spoken what the Devil did to Christ Wickedly the Lord doth Graciously to his own People He takes them up into Mount Nebo from thence shewing them thrô the Perspective of his Promises not the Kingdom of this World but the Kingdom of Heaven with all the Royalties and Glory thereof assuring them Mat. 5.3 that all shall be their own if they will but walk humbly before him indeavouring to worship him in Spirit and Truth The Lord understands full well the Frailties of our Nature and what great Discouragements we are like to meet with in Heaven's way And therefore he is pleased most Graciously to draw us on the wayes of Holiness by the proposal of such Rewards as may incourage us to go on therein whatever it cost us Our Condition in this World is like that of the Israelites passing towards the Land of Canaan we must go through the Red Sea of Persecutions and through an howling Wilderness where we shall often be Stung with fiery Serpents before ever we can get to the heavenly Canaan and therefore the Lord he allures us by all sorts of Promises and sweet Inticements I will allure her saith God Hos 2.14 speaking of his Church and bring her into the Wilderness The word in the Original which we Translate Allure doth also signify to Deceive Seduce or to Beguile But here it 's taken in a good Sense implying with much Emphasis That God doth sweetly till men on in ways of Holiness and by an heavenly Artifice wrapt up in Promises of Life graciously seduce them into the Obedience of his own Commandments In the Precept he acquaints us with our Duty and in the Promise he shews us what shall be our Reward By that he appoints us our Work and by this he would incourage us Cheerfully to go through with it that having the Promise of an eternal Recompence we may never grow weary in well-doing 2 Thess 3.13 Gal. 6.9 Such is the goodness of God that he sweetens all his Commandments with Promises And whenever he calls us out to any Duty he incourageth us to the Performance thereof by the Proposal of some glorious Recompence Rom. 8.13 He bid us through the Spirit mortify the deeds of the Body and that we may not want Incouragement to so difficult a Work he tells us that so doing our Souls shall live He bids us to take up our Cross not detrecting to suffer for Christ And he gives us this incouragement thereto That if we suffer with him we shall also reign with him 2 Tim. 2.12 He bids us in a word Sow to the Spirit indeavouring to be fruitful in every good word and work And for our incouragement to that holy practise he tells us that so doing we shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting Gal. 6.8 So then since God himself is graciously pleased to allure and draw us on in wayes of Obedience by the proposal of an eternal Recompence we may lawfully sure having Respect thereunto take Incouragement from it For to what end should God sweeten his Commandments with Promises but to make us more Cheerful in the way of Duty when we know how transcendently great and glorious our Reward shall be Promissiones nullas dedisset deus pijs de beatitudine nisi vellet ut inter bene agendum easdem respiceremus Daven Col. c. 1. v. 5 p. 46. Those men do begrudge the Lord's Bounty and would seem wiser than God himself who deny us a Liberty to make use of the Spirit 's Motives Pietas habet promissiones vitae praesentis et futurae at frustrà si non licet intuitu illarum excitari ad bene agendum Dav. ubi sup In vain hath God made Promises of Life to such as keep his Commandments if in keeping thereof we may have no respect to that Life that Happiness that Glory which is held forth in the Promises to us Doubtless Christians 't is not Ingenuity but Ingratitude to deprive ourselves of those Incouragements to Obedience and of that Comfort in a way of Duty which the Lord himself hath graciously allowed us to make use of And thô possibly you may think that you highly please the Lord whilst you walk on in a way of Duty without any respect to your own Happiness yet the Truth is you do Presumptuously tempt him as Ahaz did when refusing to ask a Sign which God promised to give them Isa 7.11.12 The Lord knew the necessity of giving a Sign to his People in that Exigence in order whereunto he bids Ahaz ask a Sign but he 's Modest he 's ashamed that God should be put upon the working of a Miracle to confirm his Faith far be it from him so to Tempt the Lord and to question his Faithfulness he will believe him without a Sign that he will However here were specious Pretences yet the Lord was no little displeased that his Favour should be made so light of and a Sign under a pretence of Modesty refused as if they better knew what was needful for themselves than the God of Heaven Hear ye me now O House of David it 's a small thing for you to weary men but will ye weary my God also Thus Christians when we refuse to take Incouragements from the Promises of Life to walk in Obedience before the God of Heaven when under a pretence of Ingenuity and a Gospel Frame of Spirit we take on us to serve God for himself He bids us seek for Glory and Honour for Immortality and eternal Life by patient continuance in well doing but far be it from us to be Mercenary or to seek ourselves we will serve God and run the way of his Commandments without any Respect at all to Heaven and Glory that we will why now we weary the Lord and making light of his Favour to us we Tempt him as if we knew better what Motives to make use of and what to seek in our Obedience than God himself For to be sure we do no less Tempt the Lord in not seeking after what he hath Commanded than we do in expecting what he never Promised We do no less Tempt the Lord in creating occasions of Desperation than in
indeavouring above all things in the world to Gâ—ther them The Happiness of a Christian 't is Grace glorified 't is Holiness arrived at it's highest 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and pitch of heavenly Perfection Heb. 12.14 which surely we are all of us bound to follow after pursuing it with all our might as that without which we can never see the Lord. ¶ Gen. 15.1 Ipse Deus est merces promissa fidelibus ergo dum aeternam mercedem expectant et intuentur non aliud a Deo intuentur Dav. in Coloss cap. 1. ver 5. Praemium virtutis erit ipse qui virtutem dedit et qui seipsum quo melius et majus nihil possit esse promisit August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. pag. 738. And as for the Reward of a Christian it is God himself 't is to be with the Lord for ever to see his Face and enjoy his Favour for ever which surely we are also bound to seek after giving all diligence to make God our Portion and the strength of our Heart for ever Psal 73.26 And shall we say that a Christian Sins or is Disingenuous for Obeying with an eye to Holiness and with respect to the God of Heaven who alone is the fixed Centre of Rest and Happiness Or Dare we say That Christians are not to regard Holiness on Earth but to live as they list nor to long for the full injoyment of God in Heaven but to be the centre of their own Happiness Surely God never intended that we should sit down satisfied without Him and be Happy by reflexion upon our own Excellencies as if Life and Happiness could be found where nothing but remorseless Death and Misery keep their walk As God never rested till he had made Man in his own Likeness leaving a Tincture of his own Purity and Holiness upon him so he hath put Emptiness and Dissatisfaction into all our Creature Enjoyments Psalm 17.15 that we may never rest till returning to God that made us we shall behold his Face in Righteousness and be satisfied with his Likeness Whatever Grace whatever Holiness God's people have it 's wholly derivative from him So that whatever Felicity whatever Happiness they may look to enjoy it stands wholly in reduction to God himself as the Original and Fountain-Cause The motion of every gracious Soul it 's like that of Coelestial Bodies purely Circular so that it can never rest but will still be rolling and breathing and panting after God unsatiably till returning back unto him it hath fixed it self in the Sabbatical centre of everlasting Communion with him Such a Soul is touched with the true Loadstone of Grace so that now it sees such an attractive magnetical Beauty in a Deity that it cannot possibly settle upon any thing below God himself That 's the language of every gracious Soul and the proper Idiom of its more sublime and clarified Affections wherein we find the Sweet Singer of Israel make expression of his Love to God saying Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 As the Moon and Stars those glorious Lamps of heaven are not able to supply the absence of the Sun nor will their united Light amount to so much as to make up one Day or one Moment of a Day though they should knit and concentricate all their Beams So David he knew full well that thô in Heaven there be the Moon-light of glorious Angels and the Star-light of those imparadised Souls the Spirits of â—ust men made Perfect yet without the bright Irradiations of a Deity and the Light of God's Countenance tâ—ey could never make up the least shadow of Glory the least Ray of Soul â—atisfying Happiness which makes him look beyond them all desiring neither Saints nor Angels nor Heaven it self with all its Glory Royalties and Paradisical Pleasures in comparison of the God of Heaven Thus also it is with every one of God's People they look upon him as their Happiness so that Heaven it self would not be Heaven to them this Goshen would prove an Egypt this Canaan would be turned into a Wilderness if the Lord should withdraw his glorious Presence The presence of the King is that we say which makes the Court and as it was told Commodus Ibi Roma ubi Augustus that where the Emperor is there was Rome So that which God's People do count their Heaven that which they look upon as a Garden of Flowry Pleasures as a Paradice of all Delights and spiritual Contentments is the full and immediate Injoyment of God himself 'T is not so much the Society of Saints and Angels in Heaven as the Beatifical Vision as the Downey Bosome of a Deity as eternal Communion with the God of Heaven that they desire and make their Happiness All other Lines meet in this Centre all other Stars borrow their Light from this glorious Sun and all other Comforts do empty themselves into this vast Ocean wherein Rivers of purest Pleasures do meet and everlastingly concentricate themselves to make glad the City of God Et ipsa est beata vita gaudere ad te de te propter te ipsa est et non est altera August Conf. The injoyment of God in Glory this is the Apogaeuâ— of heavenly Joy this is the highest Zenith of true Blessedness this is the coâ—pleat Volumn of perfect Felicity wherein all the Particulars of Happiness are not Epitomized but so amplified inlarged and paraphrased upon that the Heart of Man cannot possibly desire any more For whatever can be desired to mâ—ke one Happy is richly treasured up in God as the indeficient and over-flowing Fountain of all Goodness So that all the Glory and Happiness whereof God's people look to be made partakers when they come to Heaven is reductively and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 summed up in this that they shall be with the Lord for ever 1 Thess 4.17 If then Holiness may be desired or God himself loved by us and sought after why then doubtless we may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward as being co-incident therewith and nothing else He may well have Respect in his Obedience to the Recompence of Reward and fix his eye upon heavenly Glory who makes God his Portion and his exceeding great Reward desiring no other Heaven than for ever to be with the Lord beholding his Face in Righteousness loving him without loathing and praising him without ever being weary Deus finis erit desideriorum nostrorum qui sine fine videbitur sine fastidio amabitur sine defatigatione laudabitur Ubi supra 6. WE may lawfully have Respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of the Reward because to such and to such only is the promise of eternal Life made Thô the Promise of eternal Life were conceived in the Womb of Free Grace and brought forth by the auspicious Midwifery of God's riâ—â— Mercy in Christ Jesus and so is eveâ—y
rational Creatures we must needs owe thus much Kindness and Courtesie to ourselves as to consult the Welfare of our own Beeings seeking nothing more than to land them safe at that which we take to be the Haven of Rest and Happiness THOSE that are the greatest Patrons of Free-will who make an undistinguishable Aequipoise Undeterminateness and Indifferency in the Will to Good or Evil to be essential to all Liberty so that take away this 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and with them you take off the Chariot Wheels of the Soul and wholly destroy the nature of Free-will Why yet these grand Adiaphorists are so strangely Conquered by the Invincible Evidence of this triumphant Truth that they suffer it to pass without any Contradiction ¶ Voluntas de necessitate movetur ab objecto illo quod est universale bonum ab ipsa scilicet beatitudine Aq. 1a 2 ae acknowledging that this Indifferency and Freedom of Will is not express concerning Happiness a man is not Free whether he will desire Happiness or not but his Will is determined that way †Quotquot sunt homines necessario et libere volunt esse beati Nec circa expetitionem ultimi finis est hasitatio Macco there is a natural Pondus from God upon him by which he doth poise towards his own Welfare and cannot but Will the Prosperity of his own Beeing together with all such means as he judgeth necessary for the accomplishment of it As the Elements have their proper Principles of Motion whereby they never rest till they come to their Center wherein they do wholly Acquiess So not much like thereto is the Heart of Man which by an natural desire of Happiness is restless still seeking with unquiet Agitations Rovings and anxious Disquisitions in what Center to Acquiess and take up its Repose Did you never behold a Needle touched with a Load-stone quivering and trembling and with much curiosity directing its Point towards the North as the place of its peculiar Rest and magnetick Fixation Thus every Man hath his Soul touched with an innate Appetite after Happiness as with a Spiritual Load-stone so that no man can choose but desire his own Welfare directing all his unquiet Agitations Quiverings and curious Endeavours for the hitting and attaining so fair a Mark. YOU may possibly call to mind an Aristotle Sacrificing his Life to his own Curiosity in the strange Heats and irregular Estuations of inconstant Euripus Possibly you may have read of a Cleopatra unnaturally craving the help of two Poysonous Asps to suck forth her Life and her Blood together At least you cannot but remember Achitophel dispatching himself for very Madness that his Oracle was not received Zimri King of Israel burning himself in his own Palace 1 Kings 16 18. Judas ridding himself from the Horrors of black Dispair by committing a Rape upon Hell it self as persons that seem practically to have Enervated the Strength of my Reason and sufficiently to have proved that all men desire not their own Happiness BUT however these and the like Instances may be look'd upon by a vulgar eye as so many anomalous Individiums and Exceptions from this general Rule yet indeed they do most strongly confirm it giving us a full Certificate written in their own Blood that all men desire Happiness whilst they would venture to purchase a bare Appearance thereof at so Dear a Rate taking Sanctuary in the Grave and indeavouring to hide themselves in the most abhorred Estate of Annihilation that they might be at Rest Though then we should search the Records of all Ages taking a rise from these low descended times of ours ‖ Omnes igitur homines boni pariter ac mali indiscretâ ad bonum intentione pervenire nituntur Böeth de Consol Philos lib. 4. pros 2. pag. 111. to those Primordial Seasons that first began the World yet we could not find any one particular amongst all the Sons and Daughters of Mankind how eminently Virtuous or prodigiously Vicious soever that could so play the Heteroclite in Nature as not to breathe after a state of Blessedness desiring a share therein As in all Nations there is an exact Likeness and Agreement in the Situation and Composure of Mens Faces so that every one hath his Face set Heaven ward Why thus there is the same Likeness and Agreement also in the bent and byass of all mens Spirits so that every one whether Good or Bad whether Wicked or Godly doth desire his own Welfare ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Aristot For whatever is Natural as this innate desire of Happiness is must needs be Universal Immoveable and perpetually Energetical communicating its Virtue Strength and Power to the whole Kind So that amongst all the Sons of Men you shall not find one whose Heart is not touched with this Load-stone who doth not Love his own Welfare who doth not seek after his own Happiness moving towards that as his proper Center INDEED all Men are agreed about their Summum Bonum nor do they all seek to be happy the same way some you may see digging in the Mines to see if they could spy any Vein of happiness there you may see others ambitiously seeking after Honours to see if they could find any happiness there some you may see torturing Nature and setting her upon the Rack to extract the finest and quintessence of the Creature to see if they could meet with the Spirit of happiness in such pleasurable Distillations and others again you may see trimming their Lamps with the Oyl of Humane Learning to see if their intellectual endowments their choice discoveries and speculations would afford them any happiness * Quanquam non omnes id appetant in quo beatitudo vera conâ—â—stit in omnes tamen universale perfectum bonum naturaliter appetere certum est in quo consistit communis ratio beatitudinis Aq. 1a 2ae q. 5 8. Omnis mortalium cura quam multiplicium studiorum labor exercet diverso quidem calle procedit sed ad unum tamen beatitudinis finem nititur venire id autem est bonum quo quis adepto nihil ulterius desiderare queat Boët de Cons Philos lib. 3. pros 2. pag. 63. But yet though they were thus divided in the Branches they were notwithstanding closely united in the root though they could not agree upon the way of happiness yet they did all of them agree and conspire in this to make Happiness their end this is the blessed Harbour for which they are all bound although embarked in several Vessels and affecting different Winds to sail by this is the Mark at which they all shoot though many of them take their aim amiss however in a word Mens perswasions of what is that Good which will make them happy may be diversified according to their Inclinations yet Blessedness is the Center wherein all their desires meet Observe we then our own Genius let us diligently consider what Nature doth prompt
will you censure them as perverse zealous Fanatiques and Sons of violence because they willingly spend and are spent in the service of so bountiful a Master when their Eye is continually fixed upon so glorious a Prize The Men of the World how freely do they spend their †Isa 55.2 mony for that which is not Bread and their labour for that which cannot satisfy And will you then wonder at God's people and think it strange that having set before them the Bread of Life together with that Fountain of living Water which yields all fullness of satisfaction to those who drink of it they should proportionate their endeavours to the worth and dignity of such transcendently desirable and beatifical objects Have you never observed with what unweariedness the Husbandman undergoes the labours of his calling in hope of a plentiful Harvest Did you never see with what undaunted courage the Souldier will endure the hostile incursions the fierce onsets the cruel encounter of an Enemy in hope of uncertain victory And what shall I say of those that run in a Race have you not seen them rallying up all their strength putting forth themselves to the utmost of their ability and contending with an ambitious uncontrouled violence towards the Goal for the Crown that was set before them Wonder not then if God's People be unwearied in the work of the Lord will encounter the greatest difficulties and contend with a sacred violence towards the mark of their high Calling when their Eye is always fixed upon a full harvest of Eternal Glory upon an everlasting victorious triumph upon a far more pearly and incorruptible Crown of Life f IF as Tertullian speaks Men purchase Glass the brittle enjoyments of this Life at so dear a rate will you count it an unreasonable nimiety in Religion indescretion and an excess of superfluous Zeal in Gods People that they are willing with the like expense of Time labour and strength to purchase the rich Jewel the enchasing orient Pearl of Eternal Glory What is not Heaven more worthy of our Care and utmost Diligence than Earth Is not a Crown of Righteousness more worth than a Crown of Rose-buds and therefore with a greater proportion of Zeal and Carefulness to be sought after Is it Reason that we should more earnestly pursue the uncertain perishable comforts of this present World from which we must erelong be eternally divorced than Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life in the World to come Doubtless Sirs if Life and that Eternal If a Crown and that of Glory if an inheritance and that of a Kingdom incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away be worth seeking after then we need not be much solicitous about vindicating God's People in the zealous Passages severe Endeavours circumspectious Deportments and sanctified Singularities of their Christian course from the Imputations of Indiscretion misguided Zeal and Fanaticism which Men of corrupt Minds carnal Gospellers and such as have nothing but a bare Profession to shew for themselves are apt to lay them under For having that Crown that Kingdom that glorious Inheritance continually in their eye should not their care their diligence their endeavours be in some measure answerable and proportionate thereto You deceive your own Souls and do most sordidly undervalue (a) Tanti vitreum Quanti verum margaritum Tertul. lib. ad Martyr cap. 4o. Si pro terrenis bonis tantos labores tam gravia pericula homines aequo animo patiuntur quare pro fide pro constantia pro integritate pro thesauro aeterno pigri sumus Quare sumus timidi pro illis divitiis quas nec naufragia nobis possunt auferre August Serm. 105. de Temp. the recompence of the reward when you think upon easier terms to have Heaven than Earth and the Meat that will endure to Eternal Life than the Meat which perisheth yielding no satisfaction Oh brutish and unreasonable Sinners what are all your Riches and Honours what are all your Profits and Pleasures but as Weeds to Flowers or as Dross to the purest Gold if compared with that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory which abideth God's People in another World And shall we then think you have reason to censure them as guilty of too great severity superfluous Zeal and unnecessary Preciseness for giving diligence to make sure of such a glorious Reward when you yourselves think no time too long no diligence excessive no pains too great which you are at in pursuance of those fading Vanities Judge all you blessed Saints that stand already possessed of this eternal heavenly Glory yea let those among you that have had but the least foretasts prelibations and gleanings thereof if this be not an unreasonable censure judge freely Shall the covetous Worldling rise early go to bed late eat the Bread of carefulness macerate his own Body and wholly exhaust his strength in pursuit of that which in the judgment of the wisest of Kings (a) Ecclesiast 1.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Depastio animi consumitur enim animus aum in re nihili inani occupatus est Buxt is nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit like a Moth eating up and consuming it as the original sounds And shall not the People of God having such a glorious Crown in their eye much more lay hold upon all opportunities walk closely with him that hath called them to his Kingdom and Glory and gladly spend and be spent in all holy Exercises that at length they may partake of that fulness of Joy which is in God's presence together with those super-celestial Soul-satisfying Pleasures which are at his right Hand for evermore (b) 2 Pet. 1.5 10. Doth not the Lord in his sacred Oracles of truth require that we should give all diligence to make our Calling and Election sure Are we not commanded to work out with greatest †Phil. 2.12 Non dicit Apostolus nude 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sed 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est accuratè magnoque cum studio operamini cum multa diligentia solicitudine pergite vestram operari salutem A Lapide Labour and Industry as the Original hath it our own Salvation Hath not our blessed Lord commanded that we should earnestly contend striving as in an Agony to * Luke 13.24 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contendite agonizate quasi in agone agonia contendite extremas summasque vires velut agonizantes exerite quasi pro vita si vincitis vel morte si vincimini luctaturi A Lapide enter in at the strait Gate of Eternal Life And must we not also storm the Kingdom of Heaven assaulting it with a kind of Holy Violence and forcing our way thither through all difficulties would we ever enter into it What then is the Blasphemy of all those who in opposition to the holy Spirit of Truth calling us out thus to spend and be spent in the service of God do take upon them a cursed
neutrality indifferency and insipid formality in the ways of God censuring all those that will not be formal outsided and negligent like themselves as persons of furious Spirits perverse Zealots and humoursome Fanaticks as if they were afraid of too much Holiness Believe it Sirs these and the like Scripture Injunctions do concludingly evince that Christianity is no idle speculation but a business of greatest activity requiring the quintessence and vigour of the Spirit the very strength and sinews of the Soul together with the greatest intensness of all the affections There is such an attractive magnetique virtue in that eternally glorious reward which Religion proposeth to all them that do cordially embrace it that their Hearts are so inflamed with desire after it that it turns all difficulties into fuel for their Zeal to feed upon Impossible it is for such as are truly gracious to be remiss and negligent in Heavens way as being transformed by a prospect of Heavenly Glory into so many incarnate Seraphims whose proper nature it is to have their affections boyled up to the highest consistency of uncurbed Zeal for Gods Glory (c) Rom. 12.11 making them fervent in Spirit serving the Lord. Would you therefore approve your selves to be true Nathaniels Israelites indeed in whom there is no guile Then see that ye willingly spend and be spent in the service of God contending with an holy Violence that you may enter through the strait Gate into the Kingdom of Heaven 'T is no heartless wish nor languishing endeavour no still-born Prayer nor abortive resolution which will argue your Souls to be sound and of the right Complexion Many there are amongst us who taking up the form and denying the Power of Godliness are all for a moderation in Goodness So that with them lukewarmness though it speak the Soul in the saddest temper shall be graced with the name of Discretion and Christian Prudence The truth is as that holy Man now with God whom before I quoted saith all unregenerate Men in a manner do usually cast unto themselves in the mould of their own worldly Wisdom a religious Mediocrity and they pitch with resolution and security upon a degree of Zeal compatible with their own secular concernments and this must be a competent sufficiency of Holiness for Heaven and serve their turn for Salvation This glorious formality if God's People out of a consciousness of their duty and from the strength of desire which they have to the recompence of Eternal Life transgress why now the Wicked to prevent the estuations of a troubled Conscience and the dreadful pre-occupations of Eternal Flames which would otherwise seize upon them they are forced to censure God's People as guilty of too much preciseness circumspection and affected singularity For should they not fancy an easier way to Heaven than that of striving and running contending and wrestling wherein God's People walk they must needs cast away the confidence I say not of their Hope but of their groundless presumption and sit down in despair as Persons for whom it is impossible that they should come to Heaven or ever escape the damnation of Hell But believe it Christians whatever short Cut carnal Gospellers fancy to Heaven you must resolve to serve the Lord with fervency of Spirit excellency of Zeal and enflamed affections together with a supernatural singularity above all ordinary and moral perfections would you ever come there Fair and softly saith the Proverb goes fair But as one wittily observes it never goes so far as Heaven (a) Non dormientibus provenit regnum coelorum nec otio desidia torpentibus beatitudo aeternitatis ingeritur Prosp Omnis qui ad Paradisum redire desiderat oportet transire per ignem Aust God prepared a Wife for Adam in Paradise sleeping But there are no preparations of Happiness Life and Eternal Glory made for sleepers in the Paradise of God Our first Parents sinning were cast out of Paradise and therefore we can never return thither to feed upon the Tree of Life unless we return with undaunted resolution upon the Cherubims flaming Sword We must not only take up the form but also embrace the power of Godliness we must not be almost (b) Acts 26.28 but altogether Christians would we ever receive the Crown of Eternal Glory For to be sure they that have only an appearance of Holiness shall go to a real Hell and they that are but almost Christians shall but almost be saved which indeed will be the emphasis of Damnation to have been within a step of Heaven and Eternal Glory Let then Christians the blind World entertain you with what malicious invectives and approbrious Sarcasms it will censuring you for Phanticks perverse Zealots and dissembling Hypocrites Yet see that you abate not one scruple of your former Zeal either taking up with a slothful oscitancy in the ways of God or leaving your selves at a profane liberty to comply in any sinful practices but having always an Eye to the recompence of the reward give diligence to be still as precise circumspect and accurate in all your walkings as ever Remember when ever the Men of the World ask you what need you be so strict and accurate so precise and circumspect not contenting your selves to do as others do Why it is in plain language and to paraphrase a little upon those profane Queries as if they should ask you what need you make matter of Heaven and Glory what need you so much to regard Life and Eternal Salvation in the Kingdom of God not contenting your selves to go to Hell and be damned for ever as the Wicked must And can you indeed make light of Heaven and Eternal Glory can you Christians be willing to fall short of Gods beatifical presence in Heaven and for ever to lie under his frowns in Hell that such ungodly questionings as these should make you ashamed to own Christianity in the Life eminency and power of it As they Christians have little reason to censure you for your Diligence Zeal and circumspection in Heavens way So little reason have you to be ashamed thereof being come within ken of your Rest already and may with Moses from Mount Nebo take a clear Prospect of the Holy Land of the Celestial Canaan CHAP. VII The Doctrine improved by way of Reprehension reproving all such as do inordinately love and pursue the World and discovering the vanity of all Secular Enjoyments in Six Particulars 1 BY way of reprehension this Doctrine affords just matter of Reproof against and may smite as with a mighty Scourge two sors of Persons 1 Since God allows us to seek Glory Honour and Immortality for our selves by patient continuance in well-doing (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost in Mat. 22. how justly are all those reproved who making light of these eternal concernments do wholly spend their time and exhaust their strength in pursuit of the profits Emoluments and comforts of this present World The Lord makes
them tenders of a Crown of Life But they chose to deck themselves with Rose-buds preferring Earth before Heaven and troubling themselves about many things (c) Luke 10.42 whilst that better part is neglected which if chosen should never be taken from them Like Esau they sell their Birth-right for a mess of Pottage Like Judas they betray the Lord of Life who would save their Souls for thirty pieces of Silver Or like our first Parents to get the forbidden Fruit they let go their Happiness in Paradise preferring one deadly Apple from the Tree of Knowledge before all the delicious Apples on the Tree of Life What pains do we see Men take What hazards do they daily run to satisfie their unsatiate desires after Creature-enjoyments whilst Heaven with all the Glory and Royalties of it are neglected as the pleasing fictions of some devout Fancies rather than matters of reality With what wracking of Brain with what strength of endeavour with what Conflicts of Passions with what vehemency of desire and remorse of Consciences do Men resolving to be rich pursue their Earth-born vanities making that pitiful Religion they have serve turn and Christianity it self become Handmaid to wait upon their gain and secular advantage (d) Boni quippe ad hoc utuntur mundo ut fruantur Deo mali autem contra ut fruantur mundo uti volunt Deo Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 15. cap. 7. Whereas the truly gracious do improve their Earthly Treasures for high and Heavenly ends using them in a subserviency to their Christian devotion that they more freely enjoy God Why on the contrary carnal Hearts they subordinate every thing to their own sordid ends using God his Name his Worship his Ordinances that they may more plausibly prosecute and enjoy the World Doth not daily sad experience let us see how Men will hazard their own lives in desperate undertakings make themselves perpetual Drudges to the Times comply with every prevailing Faction throw away their own Mercies make shipwrack of Faith dissemble conscience and exchange their salvation together with all Hopes of Heaven and Glory for Earth and Earthly enjoyments Oh that I could but speak to the Heart of such amongst you who thus inordinately pursue the World grasping continually with adulterous embraces Was this the end of your being in the World to Idolize the Creature loving prizing and serving that above God your Creator Have you not things of greater consequence and that more nearly concern you to look after than the profits emoluments and perishable comforts of this present Life Is it not an immortal Soul more worthy your care than a sinful Body the Riches of Heaven and Glory than your Earthly Treasure and the recompence of Eternal Life is not that more worthy your care than the confluence of all Creature-enjoyments Your approaching Death your Eternal Judgment before Gods Tribunal your everlasting condition in the world to come should not these things be seriously minded and much rather regarded of you than the husky enjoyments of a dying Life What alass Poor brutish Muck-worm will thy full Garners thy Bags of Gold thy sumptuous Buildings thy long Leases thy gorgeous Apparel or thy dainty Dishes and sweet Morsels avail thee when the great God calls to Judgment when Death as God's inexorable Serjeant shall arrest thee and thou must now breath out thy Life and thy Hope together Will your Deeds and Leases be evidences for Heaven Will your Riches Honours and Pleasurable enjoyments be able to comfort your Hearts when now breaking through the bitter pangs and dying groans that will shortly take hold of you Will your Coffers or your Bags of Gold be accepted as a ransom for your lost Souls or can they purchase your pardon when now tryed for your Lives for your everlasting unchangable State before the righteous Judge of all the World To bring you off from the over eager pursuit of these perishable enjoyments and to beget in your cheeks an holy blush that ever you should neglect Heaven to seek them dwell a little on these things 1 (a) Vacuum quodcunque est si nullam nobis affert utilitatem CONSIDER all Creature-enjoyments they are vain and unprofitable The very choycest of your Worldly comforts they have nothing in them but that which is unprofitable and good for nothing There is always most vanity where there is the least profit And where there is no profit at all there is nothing at all but vanity And yet this is the Character which Solomon hath given us of all our Creature-enjoyments Every Creature in his Diary hath vanity written upon it and (b) Eccles 1.2 therefore since the whole cannot exceed the particulars when added together he gives us in this as the total Sum of all sublunary comforts Vanity of vanities all is vanity Add a thousand Cyphers together and yet without a figure they signify just nothing So though a Man had the whole confluence and universal aggregation of all Creature-comforts yet such is the vanity bound up in them that without the figure of Divine favour they are altogether insignificant and stand for just nothing in the Register of true profit And therefore (c) Prov. 23.5 Solomon endeavouring to call off Men from the too eager pursuit of Riches will not vouchsafe them any station amongst things really existing but thrusting them down into the bottomless Abyss of a non-entity he thus queries with the insatiate Mammonist Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not and make them to flie as 't is in the original upon a meer nothing The generality of Men they idolize Riches and look upon them as some great matters But the comfort the benefit the profit accrewing to us by them is so small that if you count them any thing at all you do quite over-prize them and do count them a great deal more than what they are ever like to amount unto We can hardly form up a conception of our Creature-enjoyments so diminutive and small as indeed they are Nor can we be able to reach so low in our thoughts as the bottom of that vanity and unprofitableness which is written upon them Most Men look upon their Riches Honours and Worldly accommodations through a Multiplying-glass which doth swell them up far above the proportion of their own magnitude and quite stretcheth them beyond the line of their proper dimensions But would they look upon these things as they are in themselves how would their tall gigantine stature shrink up into a Pygmey-dwarfishness and what a line of unprofitableness and vanity would they find stretched out upon them all * Psal 4.2 How long then ye Sons of Men will ye love vanity and go on to set your Hearts upon that which is not Oh turn not aside from seeking after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life (d) 1 Sam. 12.20 21. For why as Samuel said in another case should you go after vain things after
Carrion of bestial Delights you will thus renounce the Communion of Heavenly Joys Is this your Wisdom your Prudence to make Sin the object of your Joy the Theatre of your Delight the Centre of your Desires and the Element wherein you would continually chuse to live when God by a Miracle of rich Grace calls upon you to seek after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven Can you think to maintain the comfort of your Life by Sin which is nothing but the fuel of Death and Misery Will you make that the sole object of your Joy which alone is the inlet to an ocean of Sorrow and perplexing disquietments The truth is we have many amongst us who wear Christ's Livery and are called Christians but yet they live as Persons resolved to chuse Epicurus that grand Sensualist for the Master oâ— their licentious Faction making Pleasure with him the Alpha and Omega of all their Happiness Seneca though an Heathen had a far more noble â—â—d heroick Spirit than such esteeming it the greatest Pleasure to contemn all carnal Pleasures whilst these reckon it for the highest accent of â—â—licity to live in them Such voluptuous Wantons walk directly antipodes to the end of their own being living in nothing but carnal Delights as if God sent them into the World to be therein like the Leviathan sporting themselves and feasting their Souls in an Ocean of sensual Pleasures They begin to anticipate here that Paradise of swinish Delights which Mahomet promised his own naâ—â—y Herd at leastwise to take an earnest of it continually soaking themselves in their own intemperance and brutish luxury They look after no other Heaven than only to go singing to Hell and though you give them the greatest variety of delightful objects yet they cannot be Merry unless they may have Treason against Heaven it self for the game and the Devil for their playfellow But be ashamed oh carnal Gospellers thus to give up the strength of your Souls in the service of sensual Pleasures making light in the mean time of Heaven and Glory together with those unsullied Paradisical Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore Oh let not that be matter of Pleasure and Delight to you which lay so heavy upon the Soul of your blessed Redeemer Did Christ bleed and groan and die to save you from your Sins and yet will you live with delight in the Pleasures of Sin How ever can you have a good thought of Sin when you look upon it as that which brought down the Son of God from Heaven and that murthered the Lord of Life and Glory Must the beloved Son of God undergo the curse due to your Sins and must he also humble himself unto Death to purchase for you the reward of Life everlasting that after all this you should undervalue his Love and make light of so great Salvation preferring the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a season before it Will you see I beseech you your folly in the glass of these ensuing considerations 1 CONSIDER thus to delight in carnal Pleasures it argues your Souls to be utterly void of Grace and dead in sin Where ever Grace comes with power it mortifies all vile affections and quite alienates the Heart from all sinful delights so that whoever delights in the Pleasures of Sin to be sure he is yet in a state of Nature and was never brought under the Power of converting Grace (a) Quâ—madmodum impossibile est ut ignis flammam concipiat in aquâ ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est voluptates mundi cum poenitentia Christiana manere Otho Casman A voluptuous Man cannot be a gracious Man Nor is it possible for the Dove of true Piety to find any place whereon to rest the sole of her foot in a deluge of carnal Pleasures Our first Parents by eating of the forbidden fruit they lost their right to the Tree of Life and were shut out of Paradise (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ait Xenophon By feeding with delight upon the forbidden fruit of Sin Men forfeit their right to all saving Grace and must need be shut out of Gods presence which is better than life it self as that alone which can quicken and revive a dead Soul T is the dead Fish only and not the living that are carried away with the stream Thus when Men are carried away with a deluge of Sin and swim willingly down the stream of carnal delights it s a sign they were never alive unto God but that still they are dead in trespasses and Sins Hence the Widow who indulges a sensual appetite living in Pleasure (c) 1 Tim. 5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand Paedag. lib. 3. cap. 7. pag. 172. is said to be dead whilst she lives Who ever hath Pleasure in unrighteousness delighting in that as his proper element he hath no principle of Life and Grace abiding in him but is spiritually dead whilst he lives in the Body When Wickedness is sweet to our taste and we delight our selves in it here is the reigning power of Sin separating betwixt us and the God of Heaven and that indeed is not only the Death but the Hell of every graceless Soul A Life of sensuality speaks that Man to be spiritually dead who in such a manner lives after the Flesh (d) Rom. 8.13 For if you live after the Flesh saith St. Paul ye shall die When Men give their full consent to sinful desires not only committing iniquity but having Pleasure therein Not only esteeming a sinful Life to be happy but also counting it their Wisdom with profane Esau to sell their Eternal Birth-right for one mess of such pottage why this now is to live after the Flesh and whoever thus lives he is dead whilst he lives Doth then thy fancy run in a way of Sinful objects with delight taking thought for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof Dost thou make thy self the standard and thy sensual appetite the rule of all thy actions Hast thou an Heart carried out continually after sinful objects if absent desiring and grieving for them but if present rejoicing and delighting in them How dreadful oh brutish Sinner is thy present condition If thus to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin be the Life of thy Soul it s estranged from the Life of God and thou art dead though thou livest (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Leg. Alleg. lib. There is a Death saith Philo of the Man and there is a Death of the Soul The first which he calls the Death of the Man that 's the separation of the Soul from the Body the second which he calls the Death of the Soul that stands in the want of Grace and the presence of Sin Tho then thy Soul be not separated from thy Body yet what will all this avail so long as thou livest in Sin which is the most dreadful Death and wantest the Grace of God
have Heaven with all the Glory and royalties thereof continually in our Eye before us Can any Man having fixed his Eyes upon and expecting an Eternal reward of Glory in Heaven indulge himself in the dead and powerless performance of holy duties not â—â—bouring to be carried on in the Work of the Lord with a mighty violence and holy activity of Spirit That Man is certainly unworthy the Glory of Heaven who thinks it not well worth his utmost diligence and labour of Love on Earth (a) Non enim dormientibus provenit regnum coelorum sed in Dei mandatis laborantibus Leo Serm. 2. de Epiphan pag. 25. The Kingdom of Heaven is prepared not for loyterers but for labourers Not for those that stand idle all the Day in Gods Vineyard but for those that make hast to run the Way of his Commandments * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. This Kingdom though not meritable by the endeavours of any mortal but the free gift of God yet is never to be taken but by an holy Storm Nor must any Man ever think to come there that is not willing to gain it in the sweat of his brows How then should this fill our Hearts with great thoughts and our Hands with all opportunities sending us forth to meet all advantages and engaging us to use all possible diligence in Heavens way And can you be content to lose Heaven rather than Labour for it To be shut our of the Paradise of God for ever rather than force your selves into it by an holy violence through the strait Gate Can you do too much for a Crown of Glory or expend more strength in the service of God than what the recompence of reward will make amends for Oh believe it Christians you can never put your time your strength your diligence to better usury than by laying forth all in the service of God! There is not a prayer not a sigh not a tear not the least struggle of the Spirit against the Flesh herein that shall ever be lost (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Polyc. But as your diligence for Christ doth abound in the work of the Lord so the reward of Eternal Life by Christ shall much more abound unto you Your weak â—â—â—eavours shall be crowned with strong consolationâ— For your temporal obedience on earth you shall receive the recompence of Eternal Glory in Heaven And for your labour of love here you shall rest for ever hereafter in the sweet and delicious embraces of your best beloved the dear Lord Jesus whom to see without end will be endless happiness Oh then what diligence in the service of God what labour in the work of the Lord what exactness in all our Duties can be sufficient for that God who hath prepared such transcendently glorious and Soul-raping felicity for those that faithfully serve him Hast thou Christian such a Crown and yet run no faster Hast thou such an eternal Triumph and yet fight the Battels of the Lord with no more courage and activity Hast thou such a blessed and transcendently glorious Reward and yet no more diligent zealous and abounding in the Work of the Lord Oh take a prospect by the Eye of Faith of the Land of Promise view the Glory observe the royalties take notice of the many choyce immunities of that Heavenly Canaan let the recompence of Eternal Life be always in your Eye and then forbear to be fervent in spirit when serving the Lord if you can Their labour their Zeal their diligence for God should never be small to whom he vouchsafes a prospect of so transcendently great and glorious a Reward The endeavours of a Christian for God should always bear some proportion with what encouragements he receives from God Having therefore so clear a sight of what God hath layd up for us with himself in Heaven we should never think we can do enough for God on earth So long as God holds out a Crown of Glory we should never withhold our labour our pains our diligence in a way of duty Thou art unworthy Christian the least glympse of Heavens happiness if such a sight do not presently transform thee into 〈◊〉 incarnate Seraphim making thee burn with Heavenly Zeal in the service of God like Coles of Juniper as willing to undergo the greatest labour for so glorious a recompence Let us therefore with all intention of mind with all vigour of Soul with all due preparation of Heart run the way of God's Commandments remembring it is all for the life of our own Souls and that the recompence of Eternal Glory is still before us as the reward of all our Christian endeavours 7 WALK Heavenly-mindedly not loving the World nor the things of the World but wholy setting your Hearts upon things above In this case if any where your Eye should affect your Hearts so that the sight which God affords you of an eternal Reward in Heaven may attract and draw up your affections thither wholly divorcing them from the Love of all Creature-enjoyments The Lapwing is made an Emblem of infelicity by some because having a little Coronet upon her head she yet feeds upon the worst of excrements Well you that have a Crown of Glory though not already upon your head yet in your Eye take heed that you be not such Enemies to your own Happiness as to feed with delight upon the sordid enjoyments of this present World Themistocles that gallant Athenian Captain bid his Friend take up those Bracelets which he espied on the ground for saith he thou art not †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plut. Themist Themistocles implying that it was below a Person of his Place and Renown to be affected with such Vanities So Christians let the Worlds Friends stoop down and embrace her Profits Honours and outward Accomodations it 's below you that have Heaven in your Eye to be taken with them 'T is a thing unbecoming all you whose Reward is laid up in the highest Heavens to stoop so far below your selves as to lay out your affections upon Earth and earthly enjoyments If Alexander would not exercise at the Olympicks as thinking such Pedantick recreations too far below him (i) Nos contemnere malumus quà m continere opes innocentiam magis cupimus magis patientiam flagitamus malumus nos bonos esse quà m prodigos Min. Foel Oct. 118. how much more should a Christian scorn having Heaven and Glory in his Eye to be found like one of the base Fellows eagerly pursuing the lying Vanities of a dunghil World 'T is storiâ—â—â—â—â—one Tigranes that coming to redeem his Father and Friends with his Wife who were all taken Prisoners by Cyrus he was asked in particular what ransom he would give for his Wife To which he readily answered that he would purchase her Liberty with his own Life But prevailing upon easier terms as they returned every one commended Cyrus for a goodly Person and Tigranes would needs know
nor could Mary Magdalen refrain her weeping by Christ's (b) John 20.14 15. Sepulchre because though Christ was present with her yet she did not know him So though the Well of Life Everlasting be before us and Christ having the Reward of eternal Glory in his Hand be present with us to Crown us yet if we know not all this we may well be filled with Sorrow and go weeping as Men without Hope from day to day For it is not so much Heaven as the Assurance of Heaven nor so much an Interest in eternal Life as the Knowledg of our Interest in that glorious reward that can wipe away all Tears from our Eyes and make our Hearts rejoyce with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory The Safety of your Souls depends indeed upon your Interest in the Recompence of eternal Glory that gives them the strongest Security against an everlasting Shipwrack so that let what Storms and Tempests will be abroad in the World yet having an Interest in heavenly Glory they shall never miscarry but be landed safe upon the wished Shoar of eternal Rest But yet the Comfort of your Souls and Hearts and Lives doth mainly depend upon the Knowledg and Assurance of that blessed Interest You may be safe with a bare Interest in Heaven but you can never be Comfortable nor free from Heart-perplexing Thoughts all the day long without knowing your Interest without some Assurance of Heaven as your eternal Inheritance The Sun when hid in a Cloud doth not yield those comfortable Irradiations and guilded Beams of Brightness to refresh us as at other times when shining forth in its Noon-day Splendour So neither must you expect the like Comfort from Heaven and eternal Glory to solace your Hearts your Interest therein being hid from your Eyes as otherwise they would afford did you but know Heaven to be your home and eternal Glory to be entailed upon you as your Portion in another World You then that would live Comfortable and die Triumphing give diligence to know what Right you have to the Recompence of Reward 'T will afford you little Comfort to have Heaven in your Eye so long as you want the Assurance of Heaven in your Hearts not knowing but you may eternally fall short of it A prospect of eternal Glory without a known Interest in eternal Glory will prove but a dull Cordial Be thy Right to eternal Life never so good yet thou losest the Comfort thereof so long as thy Evidences for eternal Life are not cleared up And had you rather dwell in the Tents of Kedar invelop'd in thick Darkness than to live and die assured of the heavenly Jerusalem as your own Inheritance Had you rather walk under the Fears of Death and be filled every day with the dreadful Apprehensions of eternal Burnings than to know that your Names are written in the Book of Life Had you rather be wandring in the Wilderness not knowing whether ever you shall come to Canaan than to be upon sure ground for that holy Land Had you rather be shut up in a black Cloud than solace your Souls in the bright Sun-shine of God's Love and Favour Had you ratheâ— be under continual Tossings at Sea and live at the Mercy of every enraged Wave than to come with full Sails into the peaceful Harbour of a divine Plerophory Had you rather be upon Uncertainties for an heavenly Mansion than to know that if your earthly House of this Tabernacle were dissolved you have a Building of God an House not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens In one word had you rather barely look upon heavenly Glory than to behold it with an Eye of Faith as that which shall infallibly be the Reward of all your Obedience to Crown you with What alas are all the Royalties of Heaven and Glory to me if I may not know them to be mine Were all the Beams of heavenly Glory collected and gathered together in one Sun yet what were all this to me if still I be left to sit in Darkness not seeing any ground of Claim to one beam of that Glory Let all the Clusters of Canaan let all the Grapes of that Holy Land be pressed and strained into one Cup yet what Comfort can my Soul have thence when seeing them I know not but I may want them for ever God allows us in all our Obedience to look at Heaven and Glory and eternal Happiness but wherewith shall I clear up my Heart and make glad my Soul if I cannot look upon Heaven as my Heaven upon Glory as my Glory upon eternal Happiness as my own Happiness and exceeding great Reward What sweetness can a Christian draw from the Promise of eternal Life if he know not himself to have an Interest in it and be not sure to live eternally by it Lose not therefore the Comfort of your Souls in an heap of Uncertainties do not cast away through your Unbelief those Cordials which God hath provided for you oh sit not down satisfied any longer without the assurance of Heaven if you would not live and die without the Joys of Heaven Many there are I confess that cry down Assurance under the reproachful Nick-names of carnal Confidence Presumption and Security as if this heavenly Manna like that in the Wilderness were subject to Corruption and would breed Worms making Men turn Libertines grow careless and cease to work out their own Salvation with Fear and Trembling But the truth is there are none that ever walk so chearful so upright so circumspect in Heavens way as those that know they shall infallibly come there Amongst all Men in the World those are always most stedfast most immoveable most abounding in the Work of the Lord that know their Labour shall never be in vain but be Crowned at length with eternal Rest Whoever expects to receive much from God and hath the Hope of eternal Life abiding in him such an one will most willingly spend and be spent in the Service of God giving diligence above all others to purify himself as (c) 1 John 3.3 he is pure As well you may say that the Fire will make a Man freeze with cold as that the Assurance of eternal Life will make God's People grow secure sloathful and negligent in their Christian Course taking boldness to live as they list What doth the Assurance of future Glory dispose those that have it to turn the Grace of God into Wantonness Shall a known Interest in the Reward of eternal Life be thought to make Men love the Wages of Unrighteousness Must the knowing that we have an Inheritance amongst the Saints in Light incline us to have the more Fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness Can you think that the Souls Evidences for Heaven should encourage it to walk the way which leads to Hell Men that are yet unacquainted with the Spirit of Adoption not knowing what it is to have the hope of eternal Life abiding in them may tell you so
you could never obtain you might well in such case make light of it But when thus you have a Crown a Kingdom an eternal Wâ—â—ght of Glory set before you together with this Encouragement that in seeking you shall be sure to find them how inexcusable must you needs be if still you should go on in the careless neglect of them Because the Recompence of eternal Life is possible to be obtained therefore impossible will it be for those that seek it not that ever they should escape the Vengeance of eternal Death 3 CONSIDER how unable all your Creature-enjoyments will be to afford you any solid Comfort at Death and Judgment not having an Interest in the Recompence of eternal Life What the Holy Ghost saith of Riches may truly be affirmed of all Creature-enjoyments and worldly Accommodations they profit not in a Day of Wrath. The Night approaching we lose the benefit of the Sun for a time and can no longer we enjoy the Light of his beauteous Beams So the darksom Night of Death and Judgment approaching you can now no longer enjoy the Comfort of Riches Honours and the like worldly Accommodations but must lose them for ever You may cry Brethren to your Riches and cry to your Honours and cry to your Friends and cry bitterly to your dearest Relations but not having an Interest in the Recompence of Reward all these will then answer you as the King of Israel (e) Kings 6.26.27 sometime answered the poor Woman of Samaria if God do not help you whence shall we help you The good things of this Life they are only calculated for the Meridian of Time and do only shine with a borrowed light So that when Death shall seize upon you and Judgment overtake you they will then be gone and like a Shadow disappear for ever And will you not labour all this considered that you may not be comfortless when all your Creature-comforts fail you not without good ground of rejoycing when all your Enjoyments will avail you nothing Oh that you were but wise to consider this that you would but remember your latter end Will your Health and your Strength and your Life endure for ever or have you any thing in this present World that can deliver you from Death and the Jaws of Hell Boast you may for a while of your worldly Enjoyments without an Interest in heavenly Glory but when you come Sirs to look pale Death in the Face and must hold up thy Hand to be judged at the Bar of Christ the Righteous Judge of all the World though now you had the very Quintessence and most refined Spirits of all Creatures mingled in one Cup for your Comfort yet assuredly you would find them but a cold Cordial Though Sirs you were Cloathed in Scarlet faring deliciously every day though you were all bespangled with the Pearls of Heaven enjoying the whole Empire of the World as your own Yet what alas were all this against the fatal Stroak of impartial Death or against the Judgment of the great God now Sentencing your Soul and Body to the Vengeance of eternal Fire Never think that your Riches Honours and the like earthly Comforts will avail you any thing against the Thunder and Fire of Heaven in such a day An Interest in heavenly Glory this indeed will be able to comfort you But have all the Riches Honours and Pleasures that the World can afford and yet without this your condition is equally helpless with the Damned in Hell And shall not all this constrain you to seek the Kingdom of God endeavouring to get an Interest in eternal Glory Since Earth cannot relieve you why will you not resolve to look after Heaven 4 CONSIDER how small the number is of such as shall ever obtain the reward of Eternal Life and let that make you labour the more for an interest in it The Lord hath indeed prepared a Kingdom yet not for the reception of all promiscuously whatever good or bad (a) Luke 12.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But only for the housing of that twice little diminutive Flock for whose sake the good Shepherd hath laid down his Life This glorious recompence of the reward will be given but to very few because so many refuse to work in God's Vineyard for it Of those many that are called (b) Matth. 20.16 there are but few that are chosen to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ And yet how few are all those that are called in comparison of such as never yet had any call from Christ in the Gospel If the learned Brerewood compute right who divideth the whole World into thirty parts assigning nineteen of those thirty to idolatrous Pagans six to Mahumetans and but five to Christians within how narrow a compass will salvation be confined Salvation to be sure is no plant of India nor is it any commodity to be found in Turkey Such Goats and Swine as inhabit there whether Idolaters worshipping false Gods or Infidels worshipping the true God out of Christ they must never think to enter into Paradise nor to gather fruit from the Tree of Life So that if any where Salvation may be found 't is only amongst those that are Christians And yet even here such is the number of seduced erroneous Papists on the one hand and of profane formal Protestants on the other that undoubtedly there are not many of them that shall ever be saved (c) Luke 8. Of the four sorts of grounds that we read of in the Parable of the Sower there is not three good and one only bad nor two good and two bad but only one good and all the rest bad to teach us how small the number is of sincere Christians who receive the blessing of Eternal Life in comparison of those impenitent fruitless and ungodly Christians who are nigh unto cursing (d) Heb. 6.8 and whose end is to be burned Amongst all the inhabitants of the Earth there are but few to be found that will ever find the right way to Heaven and Glory (e) Matth. 7.14 For strait is the gate saith Christ and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Though all Men desire and many seek yet few they be that find the Way to true Blessedness This is the mark that all Men aim at but so many take their aim amiss that but few hit it This is that wished Harbour for which all Men are bound but so many sail by a false Compass that small is the number of those who steer a right course thither There are multitudes of Men and Women that perish in the Broad Way which leadeth to Destruction But few that walk in the narrow Way which leadeth unto Happiness and blessed immortality in the Kingdom of God And what will make you cast off Presumption and offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven if not this consideration that there is but a very few who have either part or lot in
that Glorious Inheritance Were there but few damned and many saved yet in that case it would much concern us to look to our selves lest we should be some of those few that must go to Hell How much more should we look to our selves laying hold upon Eternal Life when so few shall be saved and go to Heaven when so many walk on in the Way of Destruction and must go to Hell Oh deceive not your own Souls expecting to go to Heaven in a croud but give diligence to be found of that little Flock upon whom it is the Fathers good Pleasure to bestow a Kingdom Whilst multitudes of Men and Women go crouding into Hell strive you to walk in that narrow Way which will bring you to Glory Be not discouraged by the paucity of those that shall be saved but because they are so few resolve to be found in that blessed Number that they may be the more Remembring this still for your encouragement that though there be but few yet some there are who shall receive the reward of Eternal Life and you as soon as any if by patient continuance in well-doing you will but seek it Be they never so few that shall find the Way which leads to Glory yet no Man can ever lose the Way thither but through his own negligence 5 CONSIDER you have yet an opportunity wherein to seek the recompence of Eternal Life and let that make you to give all possible diligence in labouring for it When God affords us an opportunity of Grace he then expects that by patient continuance in Well-doing we should seek for Glory When he holds open the Gate of Mercy then if ever he calls us to enter in When in a word he makes reports of Life and Salvation to us in an acceptable time then oh then above all things in the World it concerneth us to work out our own Salvation with fear and trembling Well yet the fair-day of God's Grace is not over and therefore deal wisely in your Heavenly Merchandise now buying of him Gold tried in the Fire that you may be rich and purchasing for your selves that one Pearl of great price Yet your seed-time is not past be sure therefore to sow in tears that hereafter ye may reap in Joy now sow to the Spirit that of the Spirit ye may reap Life Everlasting Yet Christians the six Days of the Week are not all of them gone see therefore that you gather Manna now labouring to make provision for an everlasting Sabbath of Rest in God's Heavenly Kingdom Though the damned in Hell be shut up in an Everlasting Night under Darkness yet still it is Day with you Work therefore while you have the Day because the Night cometh wherein you cannot work If ever you would be able to go through with the work of your Salvation you must be sure to set about it in the Day of Salvation And if you ever would find the Reward of Eternal Life you must be sure to seek it before the glass of your Life be run out and your strength exhausted Pray therefore to Day repent to Day seek Heaven to Day thou art not sure of to morrow And he that is not fit to Day will be less fit to seek after Heaven when to morrow comes How vainly then do Men talk of working for Heaven when they are just going to the place of Reward and of doing the greatest Work to repent believe and seek the Kingdom of God when their strength is at the lowest ebb (f) Poenitentia quae ab infirmo petitur infirma est poenitentia quae à moriente tantum petitur timeo ne ipsa moriatur August Serm. 57. de temp But believe it Sinners you will find it too much for one to look after a sick Soul and a sick Body together too much to get a lively faith when he lieth a dying too much to mount up as on Eagles wings to Heaven when his feet are going down to the Grave and his steps take hold of Hell If ever you would have your works in the full and Eternal Reward of them to follow you when dead you must be sure to follow your work close while you live now seeking by patient continuance in well-doing for Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life Now therefore delay not the doing of that which must be once done or your Souls are undone for ever What do you not yet know the certainty of an approaching Death together with the Vanity and shortness of your own Life which according to the just estimate of Truth is no more than a span which is soon measured a Vapour that quickly vanisheth a Flower that presently fadeth or a little spot of time betwixt too vast Eternities Do you not know that upon this short moment of time dependeth your Eternal condition of Happiness if improved well but of Misery if ill-improved (g) Quippe ex voluntate perversa facta est libido dum servitur libidini facta est consuetudo dum consuetudini non resistitur facta est necessitas Aug. Confes lib. 8. cap. 5. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Arest Eth. lib. 2. cap. 6. Natura consuetudo robustissimam faciunt invictissimam cupiditatem Aug. ad Simpl. lib. 1. q. 1. Non pudet te reliquias vitae tibi reservare id solum tempus bonae menti destinare quod in nullam rem conferri possit Sen. de brevit vit cap. 4. Juventutem tuam in peccatis traducis ubi verò labore fracta fuerint instrumenta tunc ipsa ad Deum adducis eum jam illorum nullus sit usus Basil Orat. 4. Do you not know that the longer you delay to seek after this Eternal Reward the more unfit you will be for it and the less able to go through with so difficult a province it being impossible that your Hearts thro' procrastination should not grow harder your corruptions stronger whilst custom converted into a second Nature produceth without a miracle of Mercy an irrecoverableness in a course of Sin Do you not know it 's a point of the greatest disingenuity that can be to exhaust the Spirits of your strength in the service of Sin consecrating the first fruits of your Time to such a cruel Aegyptian Taskmaster and to reserve no better for the service of the great God than the very ruins of your strength nor any other than the dregs of your time wherein to seek the Kingdom of Heaven (h) Sicut dormiens in navi vehitur ad portum ita tu dormis sed tempus tuum ambulat Ambr. in Psal 1. Do you not know how fast your lives unravel being not of a permanent but transient nature continually wasting like the Oyl in the lamp whether you work or stand idle in God's Vineyard whether you will seek for a Crown of Life or not seek it Do you not know that be the time of your lives never so short yet the term allotted for us of God
wherein to seek after Heaven and Glory is never extended beyond it (i) Exod. 16.26 Qui promisit poenitenti veniam non promisit poenitendi horam qui poenitenti misericordiam premisit peccanti crastinum non promisit Aug. de verb. Dom. Serm. 59. as the Israelites might gather Manna on any of the six days in the Week but not on the seventh Do you not know but if you neglect the present opportunity refusing now to seek after the reward of Eternal Life God may seal you up in your impenitency for ever denying you all further advantages for your Souls as not having promised a Day of Repentance to any though he have promised to all that are truly penitent a Crown of Glory (k) Cor. 6.2 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epic. Stob. cap. 16. Oh then to Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts neglecting the reward of Eternal Life till tomorrow when the present time is the only Day of Salvation If the Day of Salvation be neglected your hope of Salvation will for ever be frustrated If now you let slip the Day of Grace you cannot chuse but fall short hereafter of the Crown of Glory Time and opportunity in this case do vastly differ Time is the continuation of Hours Days and Years successively coming after each other But opportunity is the universal concurrence of all other helps and advantages to give birth by their auspicious Midwifery to your wished ends So that you may have time and yet lose your opportunity You may have in the Glass of your time many sands when there is not a sand left in the Glass of your opportunity You may have the Moon-light of time when the Sun of opportunity is gon down in an everlasting Night of Darkness upon you And to be sure Sirs if you lose the Sun-light of opportunity you will never be able by the Moon-light of time to find out and walk in that narrow Way which leads to Glory (l) Matth. 25.10 11 12. The five foolish Virgins came too late and for that cause were everlastingly shut out from the marriage Supper (m) Luke 19.42 Si eo ipso die resipuisset quo Christus urbem ingressus est haec sententia lata non fuisset quod quia neglexit in posterum nullus misericordiae locus ex quo liquet quantum interest resipiscentiam non dico in annum sed in diem differre Cart. in loc Heb. Jerusalem had the things belonging to her peace hid from her Eyes because in the Day of her visitation she would not know them And Esau having lost through delays his Fathers Blessing he found no place of Repentance nor opportunity to recover it though he sought it with Tears So that you see the least of opportunity to get Heaven once fallen never springeth again The Market-day of Grace once over we must never expect a second wherein to purchase for our selves that one Pearl of great price The swift tide of God's mercy in the strivings of his Spirit once returned we must never look to see it high water again nor think by the reflowings thereof to have our Souls landed safe upon the wished shore of Eternal Rest And this dear Friends I tell you not to plunge you in despair but to beget in you desires after the lively hope of Eternal Life not to shut you up under a sentence of wrath and unpreventable Misery in Hell but to hasten you in your pursuit of Heaven and Eternal Glory Though you have formerly made light of Salvation yet if now you will prize it though you have heretofore turned your backs upon Heaven yet will you but now seek after it though hitherto you have undervalued all those inestimable tenders of Life and Eternal Glory which God hath made you yet if now you will close with them seeking diligently by patient continuance in well-doing for Glory Honour and Immortality you need not doubt but Salvation shall be your Crown Heaven shall be your home and the full enjoyment of God in Glory that shall be your portion and your exceeding great reward Yet the Golden Scepter of God's Grace is stretched out now therefore be sure to lay hold upon it Yet there is a door of Mercy stands open be sure now to enter in thereat Yet you are not sealed up under an irreversible Sentence of Wrath in Hell give diligence therefore this day this hour this present moment to lay up for your selves a Treasure in Heaven Now oh now my beloved is your Term-time wherein to plead with God for the lives of your Immortal Souls shortly comes an everlasting Vacation of Happiness or Misery where you cannot be heard pleading for your selves though with Tears of Blood ¶ In morte cheu nec vel semel quidem peccare licet nam hoc tale peccatum est irrevocabile Semel mortuus es semper mortuus es semel male mortuus es semper damnatus es Hanc mortem corrigere hanc damnationem excutere per omnem aeternitatem non poteris As in War so in this case we are not permitted to err twice now Heaven and Eternal Glory lie before you either speedily get an interest in them or together with your present opportunity you will lose them for ever When Death begins to make his arrest upon thee it s not then a time to sow but to reap the fruit of our doings not to labour for Eternal Rest but to rest from our labours not by works of Righteousness to seek a Crown but to receive a Crown of Righteousness not to lay up for our selves a Treasure in Heaven but to go to Heaven where our Comfort our Treasure our Happiness are all laid up That Seed of Grace must be sown in season from which we would ever reap a crop of Eternal Glory Now therefore while the Lord waits to be gracious while his Spirit strives and calls you to break off your Sins by Repentance be sure to work out your own Salvation with fear and trembling providing for your selves everlasting Heavenly Mansions against the Time that your Earthly Tabernacles will be dissolved Oh remember if while God affords you the auspicious gales of his own Spirit you shall not now hoyst up your Sails setting forward in your Voyage for the holy land you must never expect to arrive safe at the shore of blessed Eternity CHAP. XI A Sixth Consideration added to move Sinners to seek an Interest in Heaven and Glory taken from that everlasting Misery that will otherwise befall them where also the Horror of that Hellish Misery is set out in Six Particulars 6 AND lastly consider if you get not an interest in Heavenly Glory the reward of Eternal Misery must be your portion It hath by some been fiction'd that what every Man affected in this Life with that he should be solaced in the Elisian fields The Moral carrieth in it a certain truth that look what Men set their Hearts most upon here such shall
swoln like an impostume with all wicked Plots and treasonable designs against Heaven shall in Hell feel the ach of Gods heavy Displeasure and break into an Eternal Agony of unsufferable Pain The Face that was here the deadly Bait of Bestial desire exercising a lustful Tyranny over and commanding a secret adoration from the amorous Lover shall have no such sweetness now as to move any pity no such attractive Beauty now as to captivate any Eye nor any such silent Rhetorick as to draw a Sigh a Tear a Groan from any beholder but must now gather blackness for ever and instead of the garish paint of comely Features which will all melt away under the hot scorching Beams of Gods sore displeasure be filled with the confounding blushes of Eternal Flames (c) Gen. 6.5 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plus est dicere figmentum cogitationum quam cogitationes simpliciter Jetzer ipsas etiam incompletas cogitationes videtur includere quicquid homo in animo concipit format fingit Amama Antibar Bibl. lib. 2. pag. 395. Luke 16.24 The Heart that was here the Minthouse of all inordinate affections shall now meditate Terror for ever be shot through with ten Thousand invenomed Arrows of the Almighty and now every Sin every Lust it hath harboured shall be turned into so many Scorpions and Furies to sting and torment and rend it for ever Thus if like a skilful Anatomist I should go through the Whole Body of Man criticize upon every part I might shew you how their Eyes will start out for very anguish their Tongues be scorched with thirst their Lips quiver their Flesh tremble their Sinews be dreadfully wracked their Bones are all shatter'd in pieces their Moisture and Marrow dried up their Bowels shudder for Horrour (d) Matth. 22.13 their Hands and Feet bound fast in fiery Chains of Eternal Wrath the Joints of their Loyns loosed (e) Dan. 5.6 and their Knees like Belshazzars smite one against another for that Eternal Wrath and Misery which must come upon them But waving the several Parts of the Body as capable of no more than the Body and mere outside of Hellish Torments I must tell you that all the faculties and Powers of the Soul shall have their share in all the unsufferable endless Torments of Hell which indeed will be the Soul the Emphasis the sting of those Hellish Torments Here the Understanding shall be dreadfully perplexed when the Soul shall see how for a little sugared Poyson a little sensual delight and wanton dalliance it hath lost a Crown of Life lost the enjoyment of the ever Blessed God and Eternal Glory and plunged it self irrecoverably in everlasting unpreventable Misery (f) Revel 6.15 16 17. Here the Will shall also be filled with all the ingredients of Wrath and Misery obfirmed in Wickedness captivated for ever in the Labyrinth of Horrour and Heart-rending despair without any thread of escape desiring nothing more than for ever to be swallowed up and lie hid in the most abhorred estate of annihilation from the Wrath to come Here the various affections of the Soul which however distant if not contrary in the circumference of their differing objects did yet all of them accord to meet and concenter themselves in this Life upon nothing but Lust and Sin and Creature-Vanities will wage an everlasting intestine War begetting such tumultuary Jars (g) Isa 57.20 pernicious Schisms unquiet agitations Heart-rending conflicts and Boyling estuations within that now the damned in Hell will be like the troubled Sea indeed having no rest Night nor Day for ever Here in a word the Memory that faithful remembrancer of all opportunities lost all Mercies slighted all Sins committed and of all favours abused shall now be an everlasting Fury bringing all those things to mind (h) Mark 9.48 and reflecting them continually to the Conscience which awakned through the scorching heat of Gods heavy displeasure shall now become not only a Thousand Witnesses but a thousand ragâ—ful Devils to throw the Soul into an Everlasting Agony to excruciate sting and torment it as with Scorpions for ever And if this must be the Lot of the damned in Hell so that no Member of Body no Faculty of Soul shall be free from such exquisite unsufferable Torments what a prodigy of madness is it then for Men by neglecting Heaven and Eternal Glory to expose themselves Body and Soul to all this Wrath and Horrour and universal unpreventable Misery Think of it seriously and consider if now you cannot endure the ach of our Member how ever you will be able to suffer when all of them must be most dreadfully tortured together in one common destruction What will you do when all the Senses of your Body which here you have studied so much to gratify shall have all their pleasing objects turned into matter of Horrour and Everlasting anguish Nay what will you do in what abyss will you hide your selves from your selves from your Sins from the Wrath of God when your poor Souls that were chief in sinning shall now be chief in suffering and shall be turned into so many living Hells full of nothing but the Wine of astonishment together with the Fury and indignation of the Lord for ever 4 CONSIDER the immutability of Hell Torments which makes the condition of all those remediless upon whom soever they have once taken hold Every condition in this Life is a Compound of mutability vicissitudes and various changes Health and Sickness Ease and Pain Joy and Sorrow mutually succeeding one another Nor is there any Man so miserable through Sin and the Hand of God upon him for Sin but breaking off his Sins by Repentance he may find Mercy (i) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. Epist ad Smyrn pag. 122. the Lord being always ready in this Life to crown with Glory all those that by patient continuance in well-doing seek after him as willing to touch by Faith the Golden Scepter of his Grace But Wo and alass if letting slip the Day of Grace you be once condemned at Christ's Tribunal now you must inevitably be banished his Glorious Presence and shut up for ever amongst the damned in the Prison of Hell without either Bail or Main-prize there being now no more any Day of Grace any calling to Repentance any Heavenly Manna falling any Angel descending into the Pool any Jacob's Ladder let down from Heaven by the climbing whereof you might escape out of the bottomless fiery Dungeon of Tophet where the Prisoners would not live yet can neither die nor evade their Torments (k) Luke 16.26 Quemadmodum in ejusmodi hiatu in quo urbes vel terrarum tractus absorbentur non potest transiri ab uno hiatus labro ad alterum cum as non sit compressum sed hiatus maneat ita significavit Dominus fieri non posse ut ullo modo transeatur ab eorum statu qui sunt tormentis adjudicati ad statum quietis
veris modis etiam spiritus incorporeus posse paena corporalis ignis affiigi Aug. de Civit. lib. 21. cap. 10. of my shallow Understanding I cannot comprehend as always thinking better to suspend our Judgment in things that are Occult than Uncharitably to litigate about Uncertainties Whether then the Fire of Hell be Corporeal or only Metaphorical is of no great Consequence as affording no hope of any the least Ease or mitigation of the Damned torments which way ever the Decision of the Controversy goeth For if it be taken properly for a corporeal Fire yet there are in it those Ingredients of fiery Rage and Impetuosity which make it as far surpass in Degrees of Heat and fierceness of Burning our most furious ordinary Fire as that exceedeth the Fire Painted upon the Wall Our common culinary Fire is easily quenched But the Fire of Hell is Unextinguishable so that though the Damned in Hell should weep a whole Ocean of Tears yet they could never quench the least spark thereof Our Fire consumes the Body upon which it seizeth causing Life to evaporate with its own Smoak But the Fire of Hell though it burn the Reprobate there yet it never befriends them so far as to consume them though it dreadfully torments them yet it will never Annihilate them Our Fire with its burning Power can only burn Corporeals and make impression upon bodily Substances But such is the Penetrativeness of Hell Fire that its able to torment a spiritual Being so that here the very Soul of a Man for (i) Anima per culpam se corpori subjicit per pravam concupiscentiam ergo justum est ut in poenam rei corporeae subjiciatur per passionem Aq. Sup. 3. part q. 70. a. 3. Subjecting it self willingly to a brutish Sensuality shall be unwillingly Subjected to a sensual Pain beyond all that the Heart of Men and Angels can conceive of But in case the Fire of Hell be Metaphorical yet this argues not the Punishment of the Damned to be one thought the less dreadful and terrible because whatever terrible things the Holy Ghost makes use of whereby to represent unto us the Pains of the Damned they do as far come short of that which is indeed the Torment of the Damned in Hell as the Sting of a little Bee comes short of the Sting of a Scorpion if not infinitely more For betwixt a Finite and an Infinite a Temporal and an eternal Punishment a Punishment Inflicted by a weak Man and a Punishment prepared by the utmost reach of God's Wisdom with all fiery torturing Ingredients and so set home upon every Faculty of Soul and Member of Body by the Almighty Power of his omnipotent revengeful Arm there is no Comparison So that (k) Cogita homo quoslibet mundi cruciatus quasque seculi poenas intende animo quosque tormentorum dolores quascunque dolorum acerbitatés compara hoc totum Gehennae leve Isid though by our general Citation you should call in all those prodigeous unheard of Ways and Methods of Cruelty invented by the deepest reach of Policy and most exquisite Malice of implacable Devils in Hell and executed upon the Faithful Servants of God by the most bloody and merciless Tyrants such as Nebuchadnezzar's fiery Furnace the Prophet Isaiah's grating Saw Lawrence's Grid-iron the Impaling used for the Torturing of Christians amongst the unpitying Turks together with the many execrable ways of Torture Inspired by Hell it self into the most Inhuman Blood-thirsty Managers of the Spanish Inquisition Yet in them all could they pour out the very Dregs and Poison of their torturing Power into one Cup you would not be able to find any such Gall and Bitterness such Horrour and Exquisiteness of Torment as were worthy to make so much as an Emblem or dark Shadow of the least gripe of Conscience wherewith the Soul or the least spark wherewith the Body of the Damned in Hell must be tortured for ever Be therefore the Fire of Hell material or only Metaphorical yet you see it will be infinitely dreadful and tormenting beyond all the Terror and Extremity of unsufferable Anguish which heart can meditate Leaving off therefore all needless Disputes about the Nature of Hell Fire how should we all give diligence to set the Blood of Christ as a Skreen betwixt our selves and the Flames thereof endeavouring to quench it by the Shield of Faith that by woful Experience we may never come to know what manner of Fire it is It were a dreadful uncomfortable thing for a Man to lie naked upon the hard Ribs of a Grid-iron But oh how much more dreadful and intollerable for a poor naked Sinner to lie boiling upon the fiery Grid-iron of God's Wrath night and day with ceasing for ever If the disjoynting of one only Member doth afflict us with more Pain than with Patience we are able to undergo Oh then how unsufferable a thing will it be when the whole Soul shall be Tormented and the whole Body plunged in a Lake of Fire and Brimstone There was dreadful howling and hideous outcries no doubt in Sâ—dom and the Cities round about when first they felt a Tempest of fiery Wrath and Brimstone Rained down from God out of Heaven upon them How think you did the poor scalded Creatures run up and down in that Deluge of Brimstone skreeking and roaring for the Misery that was come upon them Oh but what will be the Gnawings of the never dying Worm what the furious Heart-rendring Reflexions of guilty Consciences upon mis-spent Time what bloody Agonies of Soul what wringing of Hands and gnashing of Teeth in Hell beyond all possibility of Belief or Imagination to the most frightful-working Fancy when a fiery Stream of Wrath shall go out from the Throne of God and poor damned Creatures shall wallow hither and thither in the hot Fiery Lake of Tophet without all hope of End Ease or the least mitigation of their Torments Oh then if you have any Reason as Men any Faith and Wisdom of Christians any Bowels of Compassion to pity your own Souls give diligence now to lay up for your selves a Treasure in Heaven and so sly from Wrath to come that you may never come into this place of Torments the Pains whereof for the Extremity of them are endless and past Imagination Oh let not all these Warnings be in vain that tell you of an approaching Storm to drive you out of the Sodom of your sinful Life that so Fire and Brimstone in Hell may never be your Portion Oh let not the seeming Pleasures of Sin still bewitch thy Heart when so sure to end in intollerable hellish Torments Remember Sirs Sin is the Flint out of which the Fire of Hell is strucken 't is the Fuel whereby the Flames of Hell are everlastingly fed and nourished 't is the Womb wherein all the Miseries of poor damned Creatures are conceived yea 't is Sin that is the very Sting and Emphasis of Hell making the Fire
interest in this Glorious Reward than a dead Man is capable of being made the Monarch of the whole Universe The Tree must first take root and be filled with sap before any precious Fruit can grow upon it So you must first have the Root of the matter within you and be filled with the Sap of Sanctifying Grace before ever you can be Trees of Righteousness bearing Fruit to Eternal Life A Man must first be born into the World before he can have any Dignities Honour on Preferment conferred upon him in the World Thus a Man also must first be born again from Heaven by the Holy Ghost before ever he can be preferred to the full enjoyment of Life and Eternal Glory in the Kingdom of God (c) John 3.3 For except a Man be born again from above saith Christ he cannot see the Kingdom of God d A Man must first be a Member of the Church militant on Earth by Sanctification before he can possibly be made a Member of the Church triumphant in Heaven by eternal glorification (e) Rom. 5.21 The Grace of God in Christ Jesus is that alone which must Crown us with Glory if ever we have it And yet know you must that the Grace of God itself will never reign but through Righteousness unto Eternal Life The grand Reward of a Christian is the beatifical Vision of God in Glory But because he is an infinitely pure and holy God (f) Heb. 12.14 why therefore without Holiness you must never look to see him as your Happiness and Reward What should they do with an Holy God who are not themselves sanctified Or how can they behold with Comfort the Holy one of Israel who have not a pure Eye but are all over polluted and stained with Sin Never think to be a Vessel of Glory if first thou be not seasoned throughout in Body Soul and Spirit with renewing Grace But oh how long shall these things be Paradoxes and hidden Mysteries amongst you Where is the Man in our Congregations that knows by his (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alex. own experience what it is to be made a new Creature to be born of the Spirit from above to have his Heart washed in the Laver of Regeneration from all uncleaness and in a Word to be â—aised by the Almighty irresistable power of God from the Death of Sin to the Life of Grace Are not most Men pleasing themselves with external performances making their Prayers their Alms their good Works a fufficient Qualification for Heaven whilst they never think of getting sanctified Hearts and renewed Natures (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 30. Oh that all such amongst you would now consider how impossible it is for any Man to obtain the Reward of Eternal Glory not being first born again from above and made a new Creature Poor self destroying Sinners if here you become not Men of a pure Heart you must never see the Face of God in the Kingdom of Heaven but the Furnace of Hell is heating for you and a Night of Eternal Darkness abides you in the World to come And is it nothing do you think to be shut out of Heaven and to fall into Hell irrecoverably Is it nothing to miss of Eternal Life and for ever to lose the Reward of Eternal Glory that you can live and die so well satisfied in a carnal unregenerate Condition True it is while we are in this World living by sense little do we conceive what it is to be saved to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God what it is to have full and Everlasting Communion with God in Glory nor can we so prize these things now as we ought to do Oh but we shall come to breath out our Souls into Eternity and must stand trembling at God's Tribunal to receive our everlasting doom then to be sure Life Happiness and Eternal Glory will be in request Oh then that in such a Day when all the World cannot comfort you Life may be yours and Salvation yours and the full enjoyment â—f God in Heaven yours give diligence now to have the Truth and Life of Grace in your inward Parts endeavouring to find a through sanctifying Change wrought upon you Remember if you die in a carnal Condition you are undone for ever damned for ever But if sanctified through the Spirit and made new Creatures the Reward of Eternal Glory shall be your Portion 4 Lay hold upon Jesus Christ by a lively Faith above all things labouring to get an interest in him Christ hath purchased by his own Death the reward of Eternal Life But it s not for all promiscuously whether good or bad but only for those that by Faith receive him making him their Saviour Though Christ were as universal a cause of Salvation as the Arminians dogmatize Yet till by Faith you embrace him as willing to receive him in all his Offices as a Prophet to instruct and teach you as a Priest to intercede and die for you as a King to command sanctifie and govern you to be sure he will never profit you to Life and Salvation * John 5.12 He that hath the Son hath Life but he that hath not the Son hath no Life Both the Life of Grace and the Life of Glory come in by Christ he alone is the Tree from whence you may gather this Fruit of Paradise And therefore of necessity you must close with Christ would you either have the Life of Grace to make you holy or the Life of eternal Glory to make you happy Salvation for lost Sinners could no otherwise be purchased but by the precious Blood of the Lord Jesus And though now the purchase be thus made yet the Blood of Christ cannot save you unless you receive him to dwell in your Hearts by Faith Communion is never to be found but where first some kind of union went before to usher it in So that though Christ came into the World to repair our lost condition to cleanse us from all unrighteousness to deliver our Souls from the Wrath to come and to make us meet by â—his Spirit working in us for the full enjoyment of God in Glory Yet if first we be not united to Christ we can never have the Happiness of Communion with him in these and the like glorious Priviledges but notwithstanding the Blood the Death the Sufferings of Christ must for ever fall short of Eternal Glory How dreadful then is the condition of every Christless Sinner There is an All-sufficiency of Merit in Christ but it shall never procure their Pardon There is a redundancy of Grace in Christ But it shall never sanctify nor make them holy There is a Soveraignity in the Blood of Christ but it shall never cleanse their Souls from Sin a There is an indeficient Fountain of Life in Christ But refusing him they must inevitably die the Death and suffer the
their delight is present but momentany their pain is future but Eternal some do here by the Spirit mortify their beloved corruptions their present Work is difficult but short their Reward is future but Eternal and Glorious Oh therefore above all things see to it that every Lust every Sin every vile Affection in your Souls be subdued mortified and abstained from with the most religious Solicitude If with Jehu you will still have your Calves at Dan and Bethel notwithstanding your pretended Zeal for the Lord if with Herod you must still keep your Herodias notwithstanding your readiness to hear John Baptist to be sure you will lose your Souls and fall short of Glory But if making it your great care to mortify through the Spirit the deeds of the Body you shall keep your selves from your own iniquity hewing in pieces your delicate Agag and giving an Eternal Divorce to every Delilah that pleaseth you then doubt not but Heaven shall bâ—â—our home and the God of Heaven himself your â—â—fe your Portion your exceeding great Reward For a Life of Mortification on Earth is the sure way to a state of Glorification in Heaven 8 BE careful that you have an impartial respect to the whole Law of God endeavouring with Zachary and Elizabeth (a) Luke 1.6 to walk in all the Commandments and ordinances of God blameless A partial respect to Gods Commandments will be sure to expose you to a fatal Destruction from God's blissful Presence But an universal Love and Obedience to Gods holy Will this will set you above the reach of Hell and Misery crowning your Souls with an universal Confluence of all Joy and Happiness and purest Pleasures in the Kingdom of God (b) Psal 119.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Verbum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Piel ubi geminata litera intendit significationem respondet 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecorum quod actum quasi fixis oculis exacto intuitu aliquid contemplantis denotat Then saith Holy David that spiritual Orpheus shall I never be ashamed when I have respect unto all thy Commandments When our Obedience is not universal but partial it will end in shame and â—ause us to lie down in Eternal Confusion But when with all Religious Exactness and Godly curiosity as the original Word implies we have a respect to the whole Will of God endeavouring that all our Obedience may be adequate thereto now Glory Honour and Life Everlasting will be your Portion See therefore that you go not about to indent and capitulate with God in matters of Obedience as if the universal Respect of all his Commands were not a Duty incumbent upon you (c) Acts 14.16 But give Diligence now to have a Conscience universally void of offence both towards God and towards Men (d) Heb. 13.18 in all things willing to live honestly Like Moses would you ever enter into the heavenly Canaan you must have both your Handâ—â—â—d with the two Tables of the Law respecting both 〈◊〉 and Man God in each Duty of Piety walking purely before him and Man in each Duty of Equity deporting your selves Righteously towards him To make conscience of one Duty and not of another is indeed to make Conscience neither of one nor other Every Command of the Decalogue hath the same Image the same Superscription the same Divine Authority stamped upon it (e) Jam. 2.10 So that a Man allowing himself in the disobservation of any one quoad vinculum formale doth violate all reflecting contempt upon the Authority of the whole Law though he do not actually violate it in every part And yet how many are there who answer the Lord with an half-obedience just like the Eccho which makes not a Perfect respondence of the Voice but of some part thereof (f) Mark 10.21.22 We read of a certain young Gentleman who came in a sad and serious manner to learn of Christ the Way to Heaven But yet one thing was lacking his desires of Heaven and Glory they were bounded with secret Reservations Proviso's and Conditions of his own upon the discovery whereof by Christ he went away discouraged as not able to accept of Glory upon Terms of universal obedience Thus frequently a deceitful Heart turns Men aside entring Caveats against an universal devotedness to Christ and causing them to stand upon abatements with him in the bargain of Salvation not considering that a due respect to all the Commandments of God is necessary in those that shall be saved albeit that the Covenant of Grace never intended to make the perfect Observation of God's Commandments any Condition of our obtaining Salvation So then if you would not fall short of Glory be sure that the Obedience of your Heart and Life be of equal extent and latitude with the whole Law of God (g) Quando enim servus ex domini jussis ea facit tantummodo quae vult facere jam non dominicam voluntatem implet sed suam Sal. He that stands upon abatements with God keeping only such Commandments as will stand with his carnal Interest his Worldly credit his Safety and his secular Projects doth not serve the Will of God but his own choice The Will of God revealed that 's the grand motive to obedience So that because the whole Law is but a Transcript of Gods holy Will there is the same reason why you should perform obedience to all as to any one of his Commandments (h) Jam. 2.11 Neque enim justa causatio est cur praeferantur aliqua ubi facienda sunt omnia Salvian de Gub. Dei lib. 3. pag. 80. Shame therefore your selves into the universal Obedience of God's Commandments when ever you find your Hearts to make shy of any Duty with this pressing Consideration that he who commanded one hath commanded all Every Christian he must be a through-paced Conformist to the Will of God not speaking both Hebrew and Ashdod not swearing by God and Malchom not taking one step straight and another crooked not keeping a covetous Heart for the World nor a proud Heart for Hell nor a sensual Heart for the Flesh But endeavouring to observe all things whatsoever Christ hath commanded us giving Diligence to walk before the Lord in all holy Conversation and Godliness (i) Numb 32.12 That for which we find Caleb and Joshua so highly renowned was because they fulfilled it after the Lord Thus would you ever have the highest Renown of heavenly Glory you must follow the Lord fully resolving that though you cannot fulfil all Righteousness yet you will neglect none Thy failing in every Duty shall never keep thee out of Heaven if there be no Duty in the careless neglect whereof thou allowest thyâ—elf Where the Eye of a Christian is upon the whole Law of God and his Heart open to do it (k) 2 Cor. 8.12 there the Goodness of God will accept the Desire for the Deed of the Purpose for the Performance and of the Will for the Work
as he had it what then will be the end of every wicked Servant who hath embezelled his Lords Talent spending it riotously upon Harlots This Man must certainly expect more dreadful aggravations of Punishment than the other That slothful Servant shall have a milder Cup of Wrath when this wicked Servant shall drink up the dregs of Divine Fury If the unprofitable Servant be avenged seven-fold surely then the rebellious Servant must be avenged seventy times Seven-fold (a) Quòd si sterilitas in ignem mittitur rapacitas quid meretur Aut quid recipiet qui alienum tucerit si semper ardebit qui de suo non dederit Et si judicium sine misericordia erit illi qui non facit misericordiam quale judicium erit illi qui fecerit rapinam Fulgent Serm. de dispens Dom. p. 615. If Divine Justice whip the one with Rods 't will certainly whip the other with Scorpions If sterility be cast into the Fire who can tell the Wrath the fiery Flames of Tophet into which rapacity shall be thrown If he that relieved not others with what was his own must burn for ever what Vengeance of Eternal Fire may those look for who have extorted from others what was not their own What will be the end of the cruel who grind the Faces of the Poor if he shall have judgment without mercy who shewed no mercy If not doing the thing which is good will shut out of heavenly Glory doubtless then working that which is evil and abominable in the sight of God will for ever sink Men in unsufferabl hellish Torments 10 AND lastly be much upon your knees at the throne of Grace imploring with all earnestness and holy Importunity the help of Heaven whereby you may be duly qualified and fitted for it Our endeavours after Life and Glory they must ever be succeeded with the Grace of God effectually working in us or else we must lose our Reward Nothing of ours will ever bring us to God as the end and quietative Centre of our Souls except we first receive it from God as the Author of every good and perfect Gift (a) Jam. 1.17 If ever we come to Canaan 't is the God of Israel that must lead us by the Hand and by the Arm of his Omnipotency put us in full possession of it (b) Col. 1.12 There is an Inheritance of Saints in Light but unless God the Father of Lights by a sufficiency of discriminating Grace do first qualify and meeten us for it we are like to abide in everlasting Darkness The Stone hath no power to mount upward but what it wholly receives from the strength and impress of the Arm throwing it Nor have we whose Hearts by Nature are as Stones any Power to move Heaven-ward but what we do wholly receive from the irresistible Strength and Divine Energy of God's holy Spirit carrying us that Way Free will to what is spiritually good is a plain Soloecism in the School of free Grace So that whoever by the good use hereof thinks to get the Reward to be sure he shall never enjoy any fellowship in Christ's Colledge nor have the least degree of preferment in the University of Heaven Our Estate by (c) Rom. 5.6 Nature is without any strength So that we are no more able to do the Works of a Spiritual than a dead Man to do the Works of a natural Life (d) Ephes 2.1 By Nature we are blind and cannot therefore see the things of the Spirit of God unless he first gives us a (z) 1 Cor. 2.14 spiritual Eye We are alienated from the Life of Christ and must never look to have any saving acquaintance with him if the Father draw us not The Lord 's drawing is not by destroying the Will but by Sanctifying of it and inclining it to what is good He puts forth the Arm of his Grace to apprehend us and that creates in us an Arm of Faith to apprehend him They do but flatter and miserably comply with sinful corrupt Nature against Grace who assert any such Power in Man whereby he may prepare himself for special Grace So prodigeous is our Impotency by Nature that we have not the power of a good Thought of a Sigh of one hearty Groan after God and Christ and eternal Glory in our own hands To talk of an universal Grace that is only determined and made effectual by the good improvement of our own free will antecedently consenting thereto before any effectual change wrought upon us by the Spirit of Regeneration is indeed to deny God's discriminating Love and instead of that to set up an Idol of our own If so be that the same Grace be granted to all then 't is not God but every Man (a) 1 Cor. 4.7 that improves this Grace who makes himself to differ from another contrary to the true intent of the Apostle's Question For that which is common to all Men doth never make a difference betwixt any You must know then that we do not difference our selves from others by improving the same Talent better than others did But 't is God alone who doth difference us from others from the vilest of Sinners from the damned in Hell by giving us that Talent of Grace to Trade with and a Will to improve it which he never gave to them He is (b) Heb. 12.2 no less the Author than the Finisher of our Faith And he alone must work (c) Sicut sancti viri se post primi parentis lapsum de corruptibili stirpe editos non virtute propriâ sed praeveniente gratiâ supernâ ad meliora se vota vel opera commutatos Greg. lib. Mor. 22. c. 10. Grace in us to make us Holy as well as bestow Glory upon us to make us happy We do not prevent God loving him first but he prevents us first Circumcising our Heart that we may love him Were the Grace of God merely suasory and by moral Arguments making Tenders of Life and Glory to us but giving us no (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. epist ad Rom. pag. mihi 84. power to accept of them nor renewed Hearts to close with them well we might hear the glad Tidings of eternal Life but most certainly for all that we must die in our Sins and be damned for ever For as a learned Divine of our own hath it there is so much Perverseness and devilish Antipathy in our Hearts by Nature that neither the Promises of Heaven can allure us nor the Blood and Passions of Christ perswade nor all the flames of Hell affright us out of our Sins till the Lord by the sweet and glorious Power of his holy Spirit subdue and conquer the Will to himself The Apostle therefore speaking to this purpose contents not himself to say it is God that commands you that exhorts and persuades you both to will and to do But saith he 't is God that works in you both to will
and to do of his (e) Phil. 2.13 own good pleasure implying clearly that nothing less than the almighty Power of God's own Grace exciting inclining and determining the Will can suffice unto any good Work The Assertours of free Will those grand Parasites of Nature do count it indeed the first born of Absurdities to teach that the Grace of God hath any such determining Influence upon the Will as shall effectually work it to a closure with what is good Hence they affirm that God himself cannot without wrong to the proper Crasis and Constitution of the Will without committing a Rape upon her Virgin-freedom act otherwise upon it than after all he hath done or can do to leave her the precious priviledge of resisting his Grace rejecting the Tenders of his Love and destroying himself Thus whilst they would seem tender of the Creatures Liberty they proclaim themselves Traytors to Heaven encroaching upon God's Prerogative-royal while they would make the World believe that the essential and characteristical Property of the Will must be destroyed unless we give her a Power to bafflâ— nonplus and conquer the Almighty Spirit and Grace of God at her pleasure But we must know God doth so accommodate his Concourse with the Will of Man in his Conversion that no Violence is offered to the Will 's intrinsique Frame nothing done inconsistent with her essential Constitution Necessitate God doth but never compel the Will to what is good he doth determine but not force hâ—r he doth not destroy but give her liberty rescuing her from under the Bondage of Sin that she may be free to choose to embrace to delight greatly in himself As when Water which naturally descendeth inclining downward is transelemented and changed into Air then it doth naturally ascend contending upward So when the Will of Man which by Nature moves downward is graciously changed and freed from her native Viciousness then she readily moves upward and is wonderfully carried out after God after Christ after Heaven and Glory taking a sweet Complacency in every good Word and Work So that to consent to the Grace of God â—o accept of his graciouâ— help and to long for it this is wholly from God himself (f) Ut ergo desideremus adjutorium gratiae hoc ipsum quoque opus est gratiae ipsa namque incipit infundi ut incipiat posci ipsa quoque amplius infunditur cum poscentibus datur Quis verò potest gratiam poscere nisi velit Sed nisi Deus in eo ipsam voluntatem operetur velle null◠〈◊〉 poterit Fulg. ad Theod. ep 6. p. 555. invincibly sanctifying the Will and by an act of â—lmighty Power determining it to what is supernaturally good It is not enough to provide the means but God himself must strongly apply them he must afford the blessed Operation and powerful Concurrence of his own Spirit the Revelation of his own Arm and Might upon the Soul or he will never consent no not to her own Happiness upon Terms of Grace And truly if in Nature Man cannot determin himself nor exert any vital Actions unless premoved and determined thereunto by the immediate Influx of God upon him as the first cause how much less in things Spiritual 'T is much controverted I know whether Men have not a Sufficiency of Power within themselves to act move and do all things agreeable to their Nature which God hath given them without any further help from him to actuate that Power to premove and determine them to every physical Action that proceedeth from them The dependance of all Creatures upon God for the Support and Continuation of their Beings is by most acknowledged But that there should be the same necessity of dependance upon God for their Workings there are many Men both of great Learning and of singular Holiness who deny it those especially who side with the Jesuites against the Domâ—nâ—eans in this Controversy making an active indifferency to Good or Evil at (g) Deus non est causa liberi arbitrii nisi quia liberum arbitrium abâ— ipso est conservetur Durand in 2. Sent. d. 1. q. 5. d. 37. q. 1. least an undeterminateness in the Will to be of the Essence of Liberty Durandus his Opinion in this Case is sufficiently known who would not have God to concur otherwise with his Creatures in any of their Actions which they exert than by way of Conservation so as to continue their several respective Beings and energetical Powers to them Austin speaks of some in his Time that were of the same Mind (h) Sunt qui arbitrantur tantummodo mundum ipsum factum à Deo caetâ—ra fieri â—â—mundo sicut â—â—â—e ordinavit jussit Deum autem nihil operari Aug. lib. 5. de Gen. ad lit cap. 20. Magna Dei conditoris fuit impotentia imprudentia qui naturam ita condere non potuit ut sola quod suum esset facere non possit officium Taur de rer aetern part 2. p. 461. Voluntas autem creata non est purus actus sed habet libertatem participatam quae includit aliquid potentialitatis ideo ut exeâ—t in actum necesse est ut pramoveatur Alvar. Disp 9â— n. 13. referente Amesio affirming that God having Created the great Organ of the World did forthwith leave it to play upon it self and to make all sweet and harmonious melody not by any further powerful touch from God but by virtue of its first Composure Above all others Taurellus is most dogmatical averring that it would degrade the great God from that Wisdom Dignity and Power which of right doth belong to him to think that he should so make his Creatures as not to be able to discharge their respective Offices without being prompted thereto by his almighty Help and immediate praedetermining Influence But to speak my Thoughts in one word I see not how the Will of Man which is not a Power simply and absolutely active as Bellarmin would have it but a mixed having much of Potentiality in it should be reduced into act otherwise than â—y some powerful impress of God upon it who is a most pure Act. Besides shall we give the Will of Man a creative Power in reference to its own elicite Acts which have surely some physical Being Or acknowledging him the Author and first cause of all Actions as such shall we deny him to praedetermine Man's Will in the producing of them when every Cause is always before the Effect at least in order of Nature Are not all things below God owned for second Causes not because they had their Being (i) Omnes res creatae dicuntur causae secundae unde verò hoc nisi quod in agendo dependeant à primâ quae Deus est Maccov from him for so as a learned Man observeth they are dependeant Beings not Causes but because in their Operations they wholly depend upon him and are predetermined by an immediate Influx of his Power
Tongue of a poor Mortal than to compass the whole Heaven with a Span or to contain the vast Ocean in Cockle-shell (d) Vicit officium linguae sceleris magnitudo Lactant. lib. 6. de ver Cultu pag. mihi 626. Sed quis dicere vel cogiture sufficiat qualis sit in conspectu Domini Dei illa beatorum spirituum calestium que â—irtutum innumerabilis multitudo Quae sit in eis sine fine festivitas visionis Dei Quae laetitia sine defectu Quis amoris ardor non crucians sed delectans Quod sit in ei desiderium visionis Dei cum satietate satietas cum desiderio Aug. Medit. cap. 27. pap 61. What Lactanctus saith of a certain Vice the same may I say of this glorious Reward It 's greatness doth far exceed the largest significancy of the Tongues expression For who tho exhausting the whole Exchequer of good Language and Rhetoricating it the utmost emphasis of all daring Hyperboles can tell how incorruptible the Crown how sweet the Rest how glorious the Kingdom how full and satisfactory the Joy of Eternal Reward will be What Tongue of Man or Angel can fully express how soft the Bosom of God's eternal Love is wherein his People shall rest themselves for ever What Tongue can say how entrancing the light of God's Countenance how pleasant the embraces of a blessed Redeemer how delightful those Soul extasying Rivers of Pleasure are which run out at the Right Hand of God for evermore Truth is we can no more tell the excellency of a Christians Reward and the Powers of the World to come by those descriptions thereof that we meet with in Holy Writ than one who had never seen the Sun could give you a full account of all it's Splendour Brightness and Glory by the twinkling of a little Star in a Dark Night (e) 2 Cor. 12.4 St. Paul though he saw not all yet he saw more than what the Tongue of any Mortal Wight is able to utter And truly as Austin hath it we can better say what there is not than what there is in a Christian's Reward so unspeakably great is the Glory of it Let not therefore my dark amd muddy expressions occasion in you any low contemptible Thoughts of this Glorious Recompence But know that whatever through Grace I shall be enabled to speak of it will be but a little glimpse of light breaking in at some small crany in comparison of the Sun in it's Noon-day brightness So that what the Queen of Sheba said of Solomon's Glory the like will you when you come to Heaven say of this It was a true report that I had in the Land of the living concerning the Greatness and Glory of a Christian's Reward howbeit I believed not the words till now that my Eyes have seen it and behold the one half was not told me of what by sweet experience I do now find THIS to prevent all low and unworthy Thoughts of that Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their obedience I now come to tell you as I can what manner of Reward it is which I shall do in these ensuing particulars CHAP. XIV Makes Further Improvement of the Doctrin by way of Consolation shewing what manner of Reward it is whereunto God allows his People to have a Respect in all their Obedience 1 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a pure sincere and unmixed Reward Here every Rose hath its Thorn and our choicest Comforts they have something of Vexation in them But this Reward is a sweet Ambrosian Handkerchief to wipe away all Tears from your Eyes so that when once you come to enjoy it then you shall sorrow no more nor suffer any more nor have any more sad Thoughts any more heavy Hearts (a) Revel 21.4 any more afflicted Spirits to all Eternity Now God brings you to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon your Heads wiping away all Tears from your Eyes Now there (b) Nulla erit ibi tristitia nulla angustia nullus dolor nullus timor nullus ibi labor nulla mors sed perpetua sanitas semper ibi perseverat Bern. Medit. cap. 14. pag. mihi 332. is no more pain for ever Heaven is situated in so wholsom an Air that whoever have the happiness to be made free Denizens of that new Jerusalem they obtain forthwith such an admirable 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and Temperament both of Soul and Body that they are never troubled again with any peccant Humour to beget either Grief of Soul or Aches Pains and Distempers of Body Here every one of God's Children hath his Mouth filled with one Complaint or other this Man cries out of his Losses and that Man of his Sufferings I was full saith one but now I am empty I did lately abound saith another but am now in wants e'rewhile saith a third I was blessed with a loving Husband with a dear Wife with indulgent Parents with many sweet Babes and choicest Comforts but now Providence hath separated betwixt me and them and left me alone to out-live all my Enjoyments call not me Naomi call me no longer Pleasant but call me Marah (c) Ruth 1.20 for the Lord hath dealt bitterly with me These daily are the sad Complaints and thus we may frequently hear the best of God's People crying out in this Life Stay but a while though and the Reward of eternal Life will silence them all so that there shall be no crying out in the Streets of the new Jerusalem no Voice shall be heard there but that of Joy unspeakable of sweetest Melody of eternal Triumph Oh the infinite blessed difference betwixt our condition now and what is like to be when we come to Heaven Now weeping then rejoycing now groaning then triumphing Now filled with Gall and Wormwood then overflowing with Rivers of Pleasure Now labouring as in the Brick-kilns of Egypt under a sad Heart a diseased Body a wounded Spirit under Reproach Persecution and sorest Afflictions But then resting (d) Revel 14.13 from our Labours from all our Toyl or Tears our sad Thoughts our dying Groans our grievous fiery Tryals and so crowned with Life Immortality and unmixed purest Pleasures at God's right Hand for evermore Thou may'st possibly think it strange Christian to find so much Dross in the purest Gold so much Gall in thy Hony-comb such a mortal Sting in every Comfort so dark a Cloud upon thee when enjoying the fairest Sun-shine so much occasion of Sorrow and heart-breaking Sadness so much Vanity disappointment and vexation of Spirit in all worldly Enjoyments But remember the Rose that hath no Thorn the Honey that hath no Gall the Day that hath no Cloud the Crown that is lined with no perplexing Cares the Wine that is dash'd with no bitter Waters of Marah the Joy that hath no Grief no Sadness no Affliction to allay it is reserved for Heaven as the only
ever as much unsatisfied as ever (l) Ibi non gustabunt quam suavis sit Deus sed implebuntur saturabuntur dulcedine mirificâ nihil ets deerit nihil oberit omne desiderium eorum Christus praesens implebit Et paucis interjectis erit denique Deus omma in omnibus illius praesentia omnes animae corporis implebit appetitus Cyprian de Ascent § 9. pag. 526. But yet when once the Soul comes to Heaven seeing God as he is feeding upon the good things of his House and drinking of the River of his Pleasures now the Soul wants no more now she hath enough to fill up all her desires to supply all her needs and to answer all her longings now she is satisfied to the full now she is got to her Journeys end she is safely arrived at the Harbour of perfect rest she is come like a Stone to her proper Center and can go no further can desire no greater Happiness no better God nor Christ nor Comforter no better Heaven no greater Glory no fuller Joy than now she hath and shall have to all Eternity In this Life God's People indeed have those glimpses of heavenly Glory those divine Communications of Grace and Goodness those sweet illapses of the Spirit those foretasts of Heavens Chear those delicious sips of Canaan's Wine that are enough to imbitter all secular enjoyments to them and soundly to inflame though not fully to satisfy their spiritual thirst But in Heaven they sit down to a full Meal they bath themselves in Rivers of purest Pleasure (m) Isa 25.6 they have now a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wines on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined here Chri bids them welcome beyond expectation (n) Cant. 5.1 entertaining them in his own words to the Spouse I am come into my Garden my Sister my Spouse I have gathered my myrrhe with my Spices I have eaten my Honycomb with my Hony I have drunk my Wine with my Milk eat O Friends and drink yea drink abundantly O beloved And surely the Soul that is entertained with such a Feast of Love as this cannot choose but be fully satisfied Here is the Hony and the Hony-comb here is Wine and Milk Here is abundance o satisfy Hunger and abundance to quench the Thirst and what can any Man desire more I tell you Christians if all the Glory of Heaven can satisfy your Souls you shall have it if all the fulness of God can satisfy you◠Souls you shall have it if all the redemption purchased by the Blood of Christ can satisfy your Souls you shall have it if all the Comforts of the Holy Ghost if fulness of Joy in God's Presence and Pleasures at his right Hand for evermore can satisfy your Souls you shall have them all to content you when you come to Heaven Now when we find Peter under a dark glimpse of this Glory crying out in the Mount of Transfiguration as a Man in some Measure satisfied it is good to be here How can we reckon of any thing less than fulness of satisfaction when we come to mount Sion and unto the City of the living God to the heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of glorious Angels to the general Assembly and Church of the First-born which are written in Heaven to the Spirits of just Men made perfect and to the full enjoyment of God himself whom to see and love will be perfect Happiness Never fear Christian that thy Soul though enlarged to the utmost of all created Capacities and crying out for the present like the Horse-leeches Daughters give give will want any good thing when once crowned with this glorious Soul satisfying Reward The Soul that hath God blessed for ever to be his Reward and Portion need never complain of want any more than a Man standing at the Fountain Head or enjoying the glorious Sun need complain of Thirst or Darkness One Sun is sufficient to give light to the whole World To be sure one God in Christ when fully enjoyed is a sufficient Portion to quiet the Heart and satisfie the most enlarged Desires of every gracious Soul in the World If Jacob could say it is enough hearing that his Son Joseph was yet alive oh how much more may a Soul safely lodged in the downy Bosom of eternal Blessedness and living with God in Mansions of Glory say now it is enough I desire no more When the Sun beholdeth the Moon with a full Aspect then the Moon is at the full and no further capable of any the least Accession of Light So when God shall lift up the Light of his Countenance casting a full and propitious Aspect upon his People now shining as so many glorious Stars in the heavenly Orb why then they will be in the full of their Happiness enjoying whatever good (a) Quicquid desiderabimus totum habebimus nihil amplius desiderantes Bern. Medit. cap. 4. pag. 105. thing they can desire and uncapable of desiring any thing more than what they do enjoy Oh then what manner of Reward is this that we who with Noah's Dove have been long hovering over the troubled Waters of Creature-enjoyments and yet found no place of Repose should at length be admitted into such an Ark as will give rest from all Labou◠and Toyl and from every Storm entertaining our Souls with all fulness of Delight and Satisfaction To be happy yea and so happy as not to desire any greater Happiness to be glorious yea and so glorious as not to desire any further Glory to be full of all divine Comforts yea and so full that there is no room to pour in the least drop of Consolation more oh how transcendently blessed is such a Reward and into what Extasies into what heavenly Raptures and Trances of Admiration may it throw us whilst but a little contemplating about it And yet thus it shall certainly be done to the People of God and this shall be the Reward of all such as the King of Glory hath a delight to honour They have now that satisfaction in Communion with God which makes them count one day so spent better than a thousand elsewhere But when crowned with this glorious Reward they will then have that fulness of divine Content and Satisfaction in Communion with God which will make them count Eternity it self but as one day 7 That Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their Obedience its Simultaneous and Insuccessive such a Reward as they shall enjoy altogether and at once Here in this Life (b) Heb. 1.1 the Lord Communicates of his Grace and Goodness to his People 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 at sundry times and in divers manners by peace-meal as the Apostle speaks concerning the Revelation of God's Will to the Fathers of old But in Heaven he gives them their Reward their Happiness their Glory by Wholesale pouring out the full Vials of
Goodness Not but that I think as one Star differs from another in Glory So one Saint may differ from another in the Measure of his Joy (k) 2 Cor. 9.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Cyril Hier. Cateches 1. Quanto plus aliquis hic Deo obediens fuerit tanto ampliorem ab eo mercedem sibi recipiet quantoque amplius Deum amabit tanto propius videbit quam ceruere cupit Bern. Med. cap. 14. They shall all of them be thrown as Vessels of Honour into the same River of God's Pleasures But shall not all have the same bore nor be all of the same size though every one of them according to their capacity shall be filled up to the brim Proportionate to our improvements of Grace in this Life shall be our enjoyments of Glory in the next He that makes the best use of his Talent God will give him the best use for his Talent l So that the more we lay out ourselves for God here the more Joy God will lay up for our Souls against hereafter m He that now sows to the Spirit with the most liberal Hand shall then reap of the Spirit the most plentiful crop of Life and Eternal Happiness He that is now most careful and diligent in trimming his Lamp shall shine most brightly in the heavenly Orb. And according to what any Mans preparations of Grace are whilst now militant such shall be his Mansions of Glory when once triumphant Nor is there any just Ground hereby given to the Romanists whereupon to build there Doctrine of condign Merit Neither have they any advantage hence offered them to assert any such thing as a redundancy of Merit in Doctors Virgins and Martyrs intitling them each one to an additional Coronet Mat. 25.14 23. Luke 19.16 19. or surplusage of Glory For the Ground of all this we make to be the remunerative Goodness of God in Christ so that both Glory and the measure of Glory both Joy and the degrees of heavenly Joy must wholly be resolved into the free Grace of God from which they spring And if Gods rewarding his People Secundum opera according to the Works for the kind of them do nothing advantage the Doctrin of Merits why should his rewarding them Secundum opera according to their Works for the degree and eminency of them be thought to do for it If God where Grace may also give Glory without any Merit on the Souls part What reason can be given why where he gives more Grace he may not also give more Glory with the same freeness If any Man be made to sit down upon a more glorious Throne of Happiness in Heaven we do wholly ascribe it to the redundancy of God's Love to such a Soul putting him up into an higher Form of Grace here on Earth and so preparing him as it were for a more honorable Seat when he shall come to sit down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets to the Marriage-supper of the Lamb. However it go there shall be that fulness of Joy and Glory in Heaven that none shall be able to complain of want nor to desire the least degree of Happiness and contentment imaginable more than what he hath (l) Atque id etiam beata civitas illa magnum in se bonum videbit quòd nulli superiori ullus inferior in videbit Aug. de civit Dei lib. 22. cap. 30. pag. 738. Nor shall any amongst the Saints envy the Happiness of each other when they shall every one participate of anothers Joy and count themselves so much the more happy by how much God communicates more of heavenly Glory to any of them So that whether we be Stars of the first or of the Second magnitude we shall all shine bright in the Firmament of heavenly Glory Whether the Vessels of our Souls be little or great they shall all of them if Vessels of Honour be full fraught with the rich Merchandise of Comfort Joy and everlasting delights Let your Hearts be never so sad for the present yet the Reward of Eternal Glory will comfort them Let them now be never so disconsolate and sorrowful yet this Reward will scatter all Clouds of Sorrow turning your Hearts into highest raptures of Joy Delight and everlasting Triumph 13 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect n all their obedience it 's an unfading Reward and such as will never end in loathing and sariety This Reward is a glorious Sun that always shines with the same unspotted brightness 'T is a Tree of Life that always yields Fruit of the same delicious relish and sweetness so that though it satisfie you yet it will never fade you and though it will infinitely delight you yet it will never glut you nor make you weary of it The Manna which God gave his People in the Wilderness though at first they admired it yet afterward they grew to loath it But this heavenly Manna you will as much admire it and be as far from loathing of it after you shall have been feeding upon it for Millions and Millions of Ages as when first you gathered it with extasies of Joy and Delight passing all understanding in the Kingdom of God! What the Philosopher saith of the matter of Caelestial Bodies is nothing but what may be accomodated to the present Truth Though matter in Sublunary things be always burning with lustful appetite like a second Messalina after variety of new shapes yet such is the actuality and perfection of the form in heavenly Bodies that the matter thereof can desire no new form So likewise it is with the Saints of Heaven though whilst on Earth they were easily cloyed and tired out with their Creature-enjoyments yet now they have that fulness of Joy that perfection of Glory that surpassing delight and Soul-ravishing contentment of which they can never be weary and beyond which they can desire no greater Happiness Perpetuity neither takes off from the bitterness of Hell nor the sweetness of Heaven But as that will most exquisitely torment so this will infinitely delight for ever without any abatement The Sinners restless groans shall no less furiously tear his Woful Heart nor the Saints triumphant Hallelujahs any less sweetly rejoice his Soul after infinite Ages than what they did the first moment Long accustomedness whether to Heavens Joys or to Hells Torments will neither make the one less grievous and Wearisome nor the other less pleasant and delightful As the damned must expect the same Wrath the same Flames the same weeping hideous schrieching and gnashing of Teeth through the extremity of their Torments for ever without any mitigation So let the People of God expect when they come to Heaven the same fulness of Joy the same highest degree of Blessedness the same Paradise of sweetest delights Divine contentments and surpassing matchless Pleasures to all Eternity without any the least diminution (m) Qui satietati occurrit satietatem incurrit 'T is not
thus indeed with any of our secular fruitions where a Man is usually satiated with what he took as a remedy against satiety There is that imperfection emptiness and disappointment in all Creature-enjoyments that if as Amnon and Tamar we get a little sensual delight in one moments fruition of them yet the next moment discovers all confuting by sad experience our overwhelming Thoughts of them and so make us loath them now more than ever we loved them before Being hungry we eat being thirsty we drink being weary we take our rest with delight But are we not in a few moments as weary of our fulness as of our fasting as weary of our Drink as of our thirst and as weary of our Rest as before we were of our weariness itself That which we eagerly pursue for the attaining of it we can as easily nauseate and despise it when once enjoyed (n) Vident semper videre desiderant sine auxietate desiderant sine fastidio satiantur Aug. cap. 7. p. mihi 117. But in heavenly Glory there is that Blessed and Immarcessible sweetness that once enjoyed it is alwayes desired This Glory is satisfying but not satiating 't is filling but not glutting There is in it this admirable Virtue that at once it excites and satisfies the Souls Appetite Creature-comforts are all of them such fading Flowers that the more we smell to them the less they have in them both of Beauty and Sweetness But is far otherwise with this Eternal Reward which never fades away nor can it ever cloy us whilst both the desire obtaineth sweetness and that sweetness like Oyl to the Lamp maintains an everlasting delight in the full fruition of it In Heaven there is no dying Gourd no withering Leaf no fading Flower but there all things keep that Original Beauty Splendour and sweetness which at first they had So that Eternity itself shall not be able to discover any the least flaw of decay in the richest Jewel of the Saints delights Happiness and full Reward to make them nauseat and be out of Love with Here as the Flower often sheds before the Leaf fall so the beauty of Creature-enjoyments is gone whilst themselves abide with us But in Heaven as their Reward endures for ever so their delight in it will never fade whilst there they enjoy a perpetual Spring and have no other Season but what maintains an uninterrupted fresh supply of all full and Soul-raping Pleasures O then what manner of Reward is this where their Happiness shall never fail nor their Pleasures after millions of Ages grow less pleasant to their tast But their Joy their Happiness their Glory their matchless Delights shall keep them for ever in an Extasy of Heart-ravishing Admiration This Glory is not only attractive but also retentive so that it gives delight without loathing and full draughts of heavenly Joys without Satiety 14 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a divine beatifical Reward such as putting you in the full Enjoyment of God himself will be sure to make you compleatly blessed As God swears by himself because he can swear by no greater So being willing to give his People the best Reward he gives them himself because a greater and a better Reward than himself he cannot give them The Fruition of the ever blessed God must needs be truly Beatifical So that the Heart of Man cannot desire any fuller Happiness than what the full Enjoyment of God in Glory will be Greater Love than this hath no Man saith Christ that a Man lay down his Life for his Friend So greater Reward hath no Man than this that God will be the strength of his Heart and his Portion for ever So great is the Happiness of a Man enjoying God beholding the brightness of his Glory and drinking in that fulness of Joy which will flow (a) Quod Deus praeparavit diligentibus fide non accipitur spe non attingitur charitate non comprehenditur acquiri potest stimari non potest Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 4. everlastingly from Communion with him that the Heart of Man is too narrow to conceive of it his Faith too short-sighted to see to the bottom of it his Hope too scanty to expect so much Glory as is in it and his Charity so far uncharitable that he cannot think it possible that ever the great God should provide such Riches of Mercy and Goodness for a poor sinful Worm such as every one is by Nature But yet thus it is they that now work for God as willing to spend and be spent in his Service God himself will become their Happiness their Portion their Heaven their exceeding great Reward There is much in Heaven besides God and yet all this World signifies nothing to a gracious Soul without God Such is the fulness of Blessing in God that he alone could make Heaven without all other Enjoyments All other Enjoyments without God would be so far from making an Heaven for the Soul that they would leave it everlastingly crying out like the Horse-leeches Daughters in the Hell of Dissatisfaction give give Other things they afford us some drops of Sweetness but at God's right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore The Place Heaven the Society Angels and the Spirits of just Men made Perfect with the like Additaments of Glory these may be as so many Stars bespangling the Roof of our eternal Mansion But the glorious Sun of our Happiness the greatest Emphasis of heavenly Glory the most orient Pearl in all the Crown of Life and which if once taken out would turn it into a Crown of Thorns is the full Enjoyment of God over all blessed for ever Such was the Amiableness of Titus the Emperor that they called him the Delight of Mankind (b) Omnes deliciae Deus erit societas sanctae civitatis in illo de illo sapienter beateque viventis Aug. de catechis rudib cap. 25. to be sure there is that surpassing Loveliness that unparallel'd matchless Beauty in a glorious God that he cannot but be the Delight the Joy the Glory of his Saints in Heaven whose Happiness was never compleated till God in Christ was thus fully enjoyed 'T is the Inchoation of the Saints Happiness here the Preludium of their future Glory a glimpse of Heaven before they come to Heaven that the Lord is not with them But that which is the full Consummation of their Happiness the brightness of their Glory and the very Bosom of the heavenly Paradise is that when (c) 1 Thes 4. ult they shall be with the Lord for ever and be ravished for ever with the sweetness of his Love (d) Cant. 1.2 a Love that is full of nothing but Loves and therefore much better more sweet and (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Boni 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 amires tui prae vino ubi numerus pluralis pro singulari ponitur ob multiplicia
so dark and gloomy could they ever expect a Day-break of Comfort to bring them out of that fiery Furnace Nor would the Day of the Saints Glory and Eternal Triumph be so unconceivably bright and gladsome to them were it possible for this glorious Day to be overtaken with the ghastly shadows of the Night and to end at length in the most hideous Darkness of annihilation But the Lord hath so ordered it that both the Wicked and the Godly having quit the Shoar of Time (f) Mat. 25.46 Shall go away those into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels but the Righteous into Life everlasting So that here you see the Lord keeping his best Wine to the last writing Eternity upon his Peoples Reward as that which is the Top-stone of their future Happiness the very Heart the very Kernel and quintessence of heavenly Glory (g) 2 Cor. 12.4 If Heaven be a goodly Paradise to be sure the Eternity of it is the sweetest Flower in it deriving unperishable fragrancy into all the rest (h) 2 Tim. 4.9 If the Reward of God's People be a Crown of Righteousness this Eternity is the richest Jewel that hangeth upon it the Pearl of greatest worth If Glory be a Bright Constellation made up of all good things yet everlastingness is in it as a Star of the first magnitude that shines upon all the godly with most clarified Beams of Light and Heart enchearing refreshment (i) Revel 22.1 If the recompence of the Saints in Heaven be a River of Life clear as Chrystal the perennity of it is doubtless the sweetest Stream flowing from it and that which above all the rest will everlastingly make glad the City of our God For as the damned in Hell are more horribly tormented to think that they must always lie burning in Hell Fire but never be consumed always be filled with Heart-breaking Groans for the Wrath of God poured out upon them but never be so happy as to groan out their Sorrow and their Lives together always be kept in everlasting Chains of Darkness without any hope that a Day of Mercy will ever dawn upon them (k) Plus cruciabit eos cogitatio de continuatione doloris quam sensus tormenti exterioris Gerh. Med. 50. as for this I say that their Torments still never end poor damned Creatures are more horribly tormented than they can be with the Sense of their present Misery So that which above all other the Royalties of Heaven will replenish the Hearts of Gods People with Joy unspeakable and full Glory is to think (l) Rev. 3.12 now we are made Pillars in the Temple of God and shall go no more out for ever now we are in the Arms of our blessed Lord and shall never be let fall more now we are cloathed upon with our House Eternal in the Heavens and shall never more be found naked now we are set down with Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in God's Kingdom to an Eternal Banquet of Loves and from which we shall never rise up to hunger and thirst any more now we have the smiles of a glorious God abounding in sweetness towards us and shall never see him frown any more now we are got above Sin and Sorrow and Temptations and shall be troubled with them no more (m) Psal 73.26 now God is our Portion and will be our Portion for ever now we are in the Bosom of our heavenly Father and there we shall rest ourselves with fulness of delight for ever now the Holy Ghost is our Comforter indeed and shall comfort our Hearts with richest redundances of Joy and unspeakable Gladness for ever now our Sorrow our Grief (n) John 16.22 our Heart perplexing Trouble it 's all turned into fullest Joy and our Joy no Man taketh away from us to all Eternity Oh my Friends no Heart is able to conjecture with what Pleonasms what Diffusions what overflowings of Joy God's People will be filled when they shall see themselves possessed of that glorious Inheritance (o) 1 Pet. 1.4 which is incorruptible undefiled and that shall never fade away reserved for them Eternal in the Heavens Hear all our Comforts are like a small Candle whilst it gives us light is still wasting and spending itself till all be consumed But the Reward laid up for God's People in Heaven that 's an everlasting Reward that 's a Kingdom which can never be shaken that 's a far more exceeding and an Eternal weight of Glory Though Christian thy Riches thy Honours thy Friends thy dearest Comforts in the World cannot always abide with thee Yet the recompence of the Reward that 's for everlasting the enjoyment of God in Christ that 's for everlasting the Joy the Happiness the Glory of Heaven these are all for everlasting and will never leave thee This Reward it 's the free Gift of God in Christ (p) Rom. 6.23 and can therefore be no less than Eternal Life We think it 's a great matter to be free from changes enjoying our Estates our Liberty our Relations for some twenty or forty Years together But to compare this short time of Health Relations and other Comforts of this Life with blessed Immortality with that boundless Eternity which is put into the lease of heavenly Glory and what is it but as a small Drop to the whole Ocean O Sirs when you shall have passed through Millions of Years in Heaven with a blessed God with a glorious Christ with the sweetest Spirit of all divine Comfort and shall find upon tryal that no Millions of Years though able to out-vie the very Sands upon the Sea-shore for number can either shorten or diminish your Joy what high admiring Thoughts will you then have of this glorious Reward this fulness of Joy these Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore (q) Psal 16.11 surpassing for the Eternity of them the utmost reach the most curious Search of all finite capacities O dreadful O blessed Eternity 'T is Eternity that gives Life both to the Torments of Hell and to the Joys of Heaven This will make every moment of hellish Torments seem a long Eternity And this will make the longest Day of heavenly Glory seem no more than one pleasant moment Oh this is that which is most accumulative 't is the Heaven of Heavens this is Glory swelling out into a boundless Ocean of Joy unspeakable that knows neither banks nor bottom Oh this is that immarcessible Flower which no Time can crop or make to wither Time itself being now swallowed up in the vast Ocean of Eternity Oh this is the highest Pisgah of the Saints Blessedness that having once put on the Robes of Glory and being cloathed with the Garments of Salvation they shall never put them off again 'T is this that makes them transcendently Happy beyond what Eye hath seen or Ear heard or the Heart of Man can conceive that they shall be with
the Lord for ever and shall have the Light of his Countenance as an Eternal Sun-shine that shall never be eclipsed nor go down any more for ever CHAP. XV. The whole Discourse concluded and taking further Improvement of the Doctrine for the Comfort of God's People and shewing what everlasting glorious advantage will accrew to them by a due respect had to the recompence of reward in 12 Particulars 2 HITHERTO I have been drawing for you a Map of Heaven and giving you as from the top of Mount Nebo a Prospect of the Celestial Canaan The next thing wherewith I shall close this use and shut up my whole discourse upon this Subject is to let you know what a due respect had to the recompence of the Reward will do for you what precious Fruit you may gather by the Hand of Faith from this Tree of Life 1 A due Respect had to the Recompence of the Reward will derive much strength into your Souls furnishing them with all suitable Abilities for every Duty God's People though weak in themselves yet they are never without strength in God But when by Faith they look within the Vail observing what Riches es of Grace and Glory are laid up for them there then they are strengthned more than ever then they are assisted more powerfully than ever then they have Ability for the Work of the Lord more than ever St. Paul though a weak Vessel not having Ability as he sadly complains for any Duty in himself Yet having his Eye fixed continually upon Heaven the Grace of God is so mightily with him that now he can go through every Duty labouring more abundantly than all the rest Through Faith it was that those Worthies mentioned by our Apostle (a) Heb. 11.34 were made strong To be sure Faith eying the Reward of eternal Life will put strength into you There is nothing that can facilitate your Duty on Earth but an Eye to Heaven nor can any thing make you able for the Work of the Lord but the serious Meditation of that Reward which you shall have from the Lord. Dost thou complain sweet Babe in Christ of thy own weakness Is it thy daily Affliction that thy Soul is so dull so indisposed so unable for the Work of God Art thou daily troubled to think what a Child thou art at every holy Exercise how unable to Pray to Meditate to work out thy own Salvation Fix thy Thoughts upon Heaven eye stedfastly the Reward of eternal Glory Not doubting but that will shed such an enlivening Dew of Grace upon thy Soul as will effectually lift up the Hands that hang down (b) Heb. 12.12 and strengthen the Knees of thy Soul how weak and feeble soever Understand then ye Blessed of the Lord where your strength lies and how easily you may be furnished with strength for every holy Undertaking A Man eying the Prize set before him through an ambitious desire of it gathers strength to run the Race Thus Christians eying this glorious Reward will be sure to gather spiritual Strength to run the way of God's Commandments O Christians had you but more serious fixed Thoughts of heavenly Glory how would this rally together all the Powers of your Souls in Duty how would this enliven your Hearts renew your Strength and make you mount up with Wings as Eagles make you run and not be weary make you walk (c) Isaiah 40.31 and never grow faint through Weakness in the Work of the Lord Oh what greater Encouragement can any Man have to strengthen his Heart and Hands in every Duty than to think having fixed his Eye upon this glorious Reward yonder is the Crown the Kingdom the Glory prepared for me Sampson being ready to faint through Drought the Lord clave a place in the Jaw causing Water (d) Judges 15.19 to come out of which when Sampson had drunk his Spirit his Strength came again and the Man revived So Christians if at any time through Weakness you be ready to faint be sure that you go to this Fountain of Life drink in something of Heaven this will be a spiritual En-hakkore to you cause a Spirit of Might of Strength to come upon you You complain you cannot pray you cannot perform Duty you have no Life no Power no Hearts in any holy Undertaking But how much is the Fault your own Did you stedfastly look up to Heaven you could not always like Children be troubled with such Weakness When ever therefore you find Indisposition Weakness Inability lying heavy upon you so that you cannot do the things that you would I 'le tell you if indeed you do desire to be eased of this Burden what you shall do Sit down for a little moment and steep your Thoughts in this River of Life remember in every Duty it is to Heaven that you are walking 't is to the ever blessed God to a precious Christ to all fulness of Joy to a Crown of Life that shall never be taken from you 2 A due Respect had to the Recompence of the Reward will make you to esteem of all worldly Reproach that you suffer for Righteousness sake as a light matter Though no Child of God dare glory in his Shame yet every Child of God having respect to this eternal Reward can glory in that which the World counts his Shame Though there be nothing that lies more heavy upon an ingenuous Spirit than the Reproaches reviling Language opprobrious Nick-names put upon God's People by the scurrilous multitude yet the weight of Glory when seriously eyed will make all this light and easie to be born Though God's People would not for all the World give any just occasion to those without to speak evil of their holy Profession yet if all the World should revile them maliciously traduce them and say all manner of evil of them falsly for the sake of Christ (e) Mat. 5.10 11 12. in this they could not but rejoyce and be exceeding glad knowing how transcendently great and glorious their Reward is in Heaven Heaven is so glorious an Inheritance that whoever beholds it with an Eye of Faith cannot choose but glory in all those Reproaches as Matter of greatest Honour and highest Dignity which he suffers for Christ Hence Moses he esteems the Reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt as having an Eye to this glorious Reward which he knew would follow after Observe it Moses did not only endure with patience these Reproaches but he glories in them counting them matter of Honour to him (f) Acts 5.40 So the Primitive Christians they go away from before the Council when ignominiously scourged rejoyce that they were so far honoured of God as to be counted worthy to suffer Dishonour for the Name of Christ How happy did Cyprian Judge the Church of God in his Days when under Reproach and Persecution that it was made glorious through the sprinkling of the Martyrs Blood 'T was saith he formerly cloathed in
are none that walk so chearfully in Heaven's Way as those who have thus seen and tasted that the Lord is Gracious (e) Psal 110.3 In the Day of God's Power the Soul must needs be willing devoting herself to him as a Free-will offering And doubtless greater power did God never shew than when opening the Eyes of a poor lost Sinner and giving him a clear prospect of heavenly Glory Oh now the Soul can mount up with Wings as an Eagle now she can run and not be weary now she can walk on with delight in Heaven's Way and never grow faint when thus beholding as with open Face the Glory that is set before her Holy Duties to a Man eying by Faith the Reward of them are accompanied with such Manna and spiritual Nectar with such fulness of delight and heavenly contentment that now he can willingly spend and be spent in them With a carnal heart who neither sees nor hopes for this glorious Reward all holy exercises are but as Songs to a sorrowful Heart or as good food to a dead Man or as the Red-sea to Pharoah's Chariots wherein he drives on heavily finds no Pleasure can take no delight But it 's far otherwise with those who like Moses have respect to this Eternal Recompence their Meat and Drink is to do God's Will this is that heavenly Manna whereupon they would always be feeding this is that Mount of Transfiguration upon which they could always delight to dwell Oh! there is never such chearful obedience such diligence and vigour of Spirit in holy Duties as when the Soul from the highest Pisgah of Faith can behold the Glory prepared for it that heavenly Canaan towards which every Duty every Sigh every Groan every penitential Tear is an happy Step. The Fire doth not more easily dissolve Ice nor the Sun in its Noon-day brightness expel Darkness than a glimpse of heavenly Glory doth expel Sloth and make a Man delight in the Beauties of Holiness Who would not be quickned by such a Glory shining upon him What Heart would not be warmed and freed from its natural coldness in the Ways of God before such a Flame What Vigour and Liveliness what holy Activity for God in every Duty may the sight of this Eternal Reward put into us You complain Christians of your Dead-heartedness your Formality your indisposition and great aversness to Duty but would you steep your Hearts in the serious Thoughts of this Eternal Reward that would cure you of all your Distempers that would warm your cold Hearts that would quicken your dull Spirits that would make you to serve the Lord with a willing Mind counting every Duty as an heavenly Gale sent on purpose to wast you over to the wished shore of blessed Immortality Oh then if whilst others count Duty their Burden you would count it your Delight your Priviledge if whilst others stand idle in God's Vineyard counting it a weariness to serve the Lord you would willingly have Hearts lively and chearful Hearts prepared for every good word and work be sure that you look within the Veil endeavouring to perswade your Hearts of the Glory that is set before you This Eternal Weight of Glory if well considered will be sure to make the Yoke of obedience seem light and easy You shall not long need to cry out of your own drowsiness negligence and unwillingness in Duty will you but carefully fix your Eye before you go about the work of Duty upon that eternally glorious Reward that follows after Oh what will be able to revive you to fill you with Spirits of delight activity and chearfulness in the work of the Lord if not a clear prospect of that heavenly Canaan towards which you are going Whenever Christian thy Spirit begins to grow flat and thy Heart to fall in Duty Oh then look up by Faith to this glorious Reward not doubting but like Aqua vitae it will revive thee enabling thee to serve the Lord with a willing Mind 6 A due respect had to this glorious Reward will much ease you of all worldly Thoughts and Heart-dividing Cares He cannot be much distracted about earthly goods whose Heart is holy united to meditate Heaven which is best of all When the Eye is once fixed upon things above it begets in the Soul an holy carelesness about all things here below let them go how they will her Treasure is laid up in Heaven and with this she can sit down satisfied Oh little would you think what a Writ of ease what a Sabbath of Rest from all carking cares and distracting Thoughts it would give you had you but a due respect with Mosâ—s to this recompence of Reward The grand reason why most Men look so much after Earth and spend their Thoughts so much about the Meat that perisheth is indeed because they look so little after Heaven and spend their Thoughts so seldom about the Meat which will endure to Eternal Life (f) Mat. 6.33 Hence our blessed Lord observing the Hearts and Minds the Cares and Thoughts of most Men to be carried out with much anxiousness after the things of this World he endeavours to cure them of this dangerous Distemper by diverting the stream of them another way advising them to seek the Kingdom of God and the Righteousness thereof as the most sure expedient to supersede their Heart-rending Cares and to ease them of all their worldly distractions And doubtless would God's People when almost distracted with Cares about what they shall eat and drink and wherewith in necessitous Times they shall be cloathed turn their Thoughts Heaven-ward taking care to make sure of that to prepare for a Crown of Glory to be made meet for the inheritance of Saints in Light this would prove a very Sovereign Remedy against all their distractions What need he much take Thought for the Meat that perisheth who sees the Table spread in his Father's House where sitting down he shall feed upon the Meat that will endure to life everlasting What need he much trouble himself for Drink who sees a River of purest Pleasures running by the right Hand of God for evermore whereof he shall drink deep to all Eternity What need he distract himself for Cloaths who sees the Ward-robe of Heaven all hung with the Garments of Salvation to make him at last more beautiful than Solomon in all his Glory What need he in a word be much careful about earthly Possessions who knows himself provided before-hand of an Inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for him Oh Sirs the Dagon of worldly Thoughts and distracting Cares could never stand had you but such an Ark as a prospect of Heavens Glory to set up against it If then Christians you would get from off the Rack of carking Cares and be able to trust God with your Bodies give diligence to get your Hearts to meditate on Heaven endeavoring to provide for your Souls everlasting Mansions of Glory If
Fruit. Do you not see multitudes every where forfeiting by Sin their Right to this blessed Reward Mortgaging Paradise for an Apple selling Christ together with all the Riches of this Kingdom and Glory for thirty pieces of Silver Oh 't is a Miracle of discriminating Grace to you that ever you saw so much of Heaven as to make you prize it at an higher rate Well if still you would keep at a distance from all appearance of Evil daily purifying your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit let the hope of this eternal Reward be abiding in you Oh let your Eye be always upon this Crown and remember if you would not Sin that the least Sin is enough to rob you of it Look within the Veil observe this heavenly Kingdom and the Glory of it and remember that the least Sin is enough to shut you our of it for ever For saith Christ (b) Matth. 5.19 whoever shall break the least of these Commandments and shall teach Men so he shall be called least in the Kingdom of God He that thinks to rhetoricate Sin into current Coyn amongst the Citizens of the new Jerusalem may well please a carnal Heart that loves to bow in the House of Rimmon cum privilegio but will doubtless prove himself if our blessed Lord may be judge such reprobate Silver as without the Philosopher's Stone of true Grace to change him by a spiritual Transmetallation into pure Gold shall never be Treasured up in the Exchequer of Heaven To talk of small Sins that a Man for his own safety may venture upon and not prejudice his Salvation some little Zoar that a Man may live in and his Soul not die is the most damnable Solecism in Christianity that can be There is that Treason against the God of Heaven in the least Sin which none but a Child of Hell and Wrath dare be found in 'T is no less treasonable and Death-worthy to Coyn Pence than to Coyn twenty Shilling-pieces because the Royal (c) Quia Deo nos totos omnia nostra debemus certè in infinitam ejus majestatem injurii sunt aeternam mortem merentur qui vel in mimina re sanctissimam ejus voluntatem transgrediuntur Authority is as much violated by the one as by the other Thus how little soever your Sins be though but as Pence and Farthings yet because committed against the great God they are damnable and such as may for ever deprive you of this glorious Reward It was but one Wedge of Gold that destroyed Achan cleaving him from amongst God's People So if thou suffer thy self to be drawn away by any one Sin it may undo thee to Eternity The Sin which in its own Nature is little may yet be made great by thy Allowance The Money for which Judas sold the Lord of Glory was not much but yet being the Wages of Unrighteousness it quickly kindled in his Conscience the Fire of Hell throwing him down headlong into that place of Torments O then be not found fingering any of Satan's Coyn whether little or great whether more or less For be your Sins never so small in themselves yet when lived in with allowance they are nothing but the earnest of Hell whereby you make sale of all your Interest in Heaven and Glory And who but a Mad-man would sell this one Pearl of great Price for such reprobate Silver Do not think Sirs by falling the Rate and Valuation of your Sins that you shall ever the more escape an Arrest◠from divine Justice which will certainly Commence a Suit against you for the least allowed Iniquity and cast you Prisoners into Hell (d) Mat. 5.26 out of which you shall never come till you have paid the last Farthing Oh then what a dreadful thing were it for any Man to forfeit Heaven and drop into Hell irrecoverably through indulgence to himself in any the least Iniquity Should a Prince sell his Crown and Dignity for a draught of cold Water as Lysimachus did it were a most happy Bargain in comparison of what they make who let go their Right to this glorious Reward for a little sensual Pleasure What for Sin to throw thee out of Heaven to keep thee for ever entring into the Joy of thy Lord to take away thy Crown hiding from thee the Light of God's Countenance that thou shalt never see it more nor be comforted any more with it for ever oh think of this my Soul and think often what a woful bargain is made where thy God thy Portion thy Life thy dearest Lord thy heavenly Treasure are all made away for a Lust that ere-long will be turned into the Fire of Hell Oh would you Christians but observe what a glorious Kingdom what fulness of Joy what Rivers of Pleasure Sin comes to rob you of this would sour all the Pleasures of Sin this would break in pieces the Dagon of every Lust this would make you as fearful to meddle with any Temptation as to burn and lie scorching in Hell for ever The allurements of Hell can never ensnare us where our Hearts are fixed upon Heaven's Glory When therefore you feel Christians Corruption stirring in your Hearts be sure to get Glory in your Eye such motions can never hurt us when struggling against the Temptation we keep our Mind fixed upon the Crown that will follow after (a) Ad portam voluntatis in qua solent manere carnalia desideria statuatur Ostarius qui vocatur recordatio calestis patriae hic enim potest pravum desiderium quasi cuneus cuneum pellere Bernard Let the mindful Sense of our heavenly Country stand as Door-keeper at the Door of the Will wherein carnal Desires are wont to dwell and as one wedge drives out another so this will drive out all carnal and brutish desires If ever we desire to thrust evil Desires out of our Hearts we must plant spiritual ones in their stead (b) Si carnales concupiscentias è cordibus nostris desideramus extrudere spirituales earum locis plantemus voluntates ut his noster animus semper in nixus habeat quibus illecebras carnalium respuat gaudiorum Cassian that our minds being fixed upon them may always dwell upon them and so refuse the Snares of present and sensual delights Keep Heaven Christians still in your Eye steep your Hearts at all Times in the sweet contemplations of heavenly Bliss and then if Temptations come if the Pleasures of Sin be offered as a bait to ensnare you you will certainly shun them with the like abhorrency and godly trembling as you would shun Hell Those allurements of Sin come too late and will never be able to fasten upon the Soul which never assault her till got upon the Mount of Transfiguration and looking by Faith into the heavenly Canaan A sight of God in Heaven makes it impossible for the Saints to sin and a sight of Heaven on Earth this makes it impossible for the Saints to
delight in Sin or take pleasure in it 10 A due respect had to this glorious Reward it will comfort your Hearts in all your Afflictions and make you greatly rejoice under them how many and grievous soever An Eye stedfastly fixed upon heavenly Glory this will bring down Heaven inro your Souls causing your consolations to abound by Christ (c) 2 Cor. 1. when ever your sufferings abound for him A bright prospect of the celestial Canaan as it bears up the Spirits of God's People with invincible patience under all their Pressures and Calamities which befal them in the Wilderness of this present World So it anoynts their Head with Oyl causeth their Cup to overflow with Gladness and makes their Hearts to rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory (d) 2 Cor. 7.4 Thus we find Paul professing of himself I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do overflow saith he with Joy I have more than Heart can hold (e) Acts. 16.25 Nor is this profession of his any hyperbolical strain but an experimented Truth whereof we have full assurance from Paul and Silas his Prison vouches when in bonds together then brim full of Joy so full that their Hearts could not hold it from breaking out and running over at their Mouths into Psalms of Praise Like the Tree cast into the bitter Waters of Marah Faith eying the recompence of the Reward it sweetens all Afflictions enabling the Soul not only to stand it out in a fiery tryal but to glory for Gladness of Heart under the Cross at the Stake in the Flames of Martyrdom The Soul that can rejoice in hope of the Glory of God will easily glory in all the tribulations that it suffers for God (f) Rom. 5.3 So saith the Apostle we glory in tribulation also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that word implieth the triumphant act of Joy a Joy expressed with holy Boasting and exultation of Spirit such a Joy as the Soul is not ashamed to own and make her boast of let Earth and Hell let the Devil and wicked Men do their worst This Truth I might give you subscribed by all the holy Martyrs and confessors of Christ who thought Famine dainty fare for Christ that complemented wild Beasts to devour them that snatcht at Torments as if they had been rich Treasures that laid down their Bodies as a Man would lay off an old Garment to put on a new that went as gladly to their Flames as a labouring Man to his Bed and embraced the most cruel Martyrdom as an holy stratagem to escape the stroak of Death (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass from Life to Life as Basil hath it (h) Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 5. cap. 1. Hence when Juliâ—n the Apostate had caused Marcus Bishop of Arethusa to be tormented one of his Nobles admiring that holy Man's Joy cries out we are ashamed oh Emperour the Christians laught at your Cruelty growing more resolute thereby so that these things are more fearful to the Tormentors than to the sufferers (i) Acts and Mon. vol. 3. pag. 177. Were it needful I might tell you of Dr. Tayler Martyr in the Marian persecution who drawing nigh to the place of Execution leapt for Joy as Men do in dancing professing himself never better in all his Life for now I know saith he I am almost at home I have but two Stiles to go over and then I am at my Father's House With like holy Joy was Cicely Ormes Martress filled (k) Acts and Mon. vol. 3. pag. 853. who when brought to the Stake came and kissed it saying Welcome the sweet Cross of Christ and when now the Flames were kindled upon her my Soul quoth she doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Orat. in 40. Martyr After the same manner we find certain Martyrs that were cast out naked in a Winters night and to suffer the next Day comforting one another from this Recompence of Reward in these Words sharp is the Cold but sweet is Paradise troublesome is the way but pleasant will be the end of our Journey let us endure cold a little and the Patriarchs Bosom shall refresh us for ever Nor is the story of Theodoret unworthy our remembrance who found so much sweetness in this even when he was upon the Rack in the midst of his grievous Torments that he found not the least anguish in his torture but a great deal of Pleasure Insomuch that when they took him off from the Rack he complained that they had done him much wrong in ceasing to torment him For said he all the while I was tortured upon the Rack me thought there was a young Man in white an Angel from the Lord stood by me who wiped off the sweat wherein I found much sweetness which now I have lost In these and many the like instances which might be given we see how an Eye fixed upon Heaven's Glory in our sufferings brings down much of that Glory into them making the cruel Tortures of God's People infinitely more sweet than their ease and more desirable to them Let Faith but reallize the Glory of Heaven behold the Reward of Eternal Life and observe the infinite Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore and then the Soul cannot choose but rejoice taking Pleasure in Reproaches in Persecutions in Exile in Imprisonments in Death itself for the sake of Christ This good Mr. Glover found true who going to the stake though before he were a Man of Sorrows yet now he is a Man of Joys and so filled with divine Consolations that he can no longer contain but crieth out speaking of the Comforter making his Heart to rejoice in hope of this glorious Reward he is come he is come Oh little can you now conceive what Comfort what Gladness of Soul what Joy in the Holy Ghost God's People have in their sufferings when stedfastly eying the Glory that shall be revealed in them NOW they find an Hony-comb in the Lyon's Carcass they suck sweetness out of the bitterness of Herbs now they gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles now they have a warm Sunshine of Comfort from God to make glad their Hearts Would you therefore have Comfort Christians and be able to smile when the World frowns upon you Would you have your Prison be turned into a Paradise Would you if banished into a strange Land find a spiritual Eden a Garden of all heavenly delights in every howling Wilderness through which you may wander When reproached when fawn asunder when cruelly scourged tormented and dying in the hottest Flames of Martyrdom would you then triumph rejoicing with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh see then see that you look within the veil fixing your Eye upon that Crown of Life which is set before you This will turn your Sorrow into Joy this will give you the Oyl of
a Land all whose Rivers run heavenly Nectar and all whose Trees are ever laden with the sweet delicious Grapes of Paradise (o) Si tanta nobis tribuis in careere quid dabis in patria Aug. de civit Dei If here in the Land of your Pilgrimage so much of Heavens Glory be revealed to you what Tongue of Man or Angel can tell the Happiness the Glory to be revealed in you when at home in your own Country The Crown of Life if now so bright and orient to an Eye of Faith beholding it Oh then what a far more excâ—â—ding and Eternal Weight os Glory will be found in it when a glorious Christ shall set it upon your Head with his own remunerative Hands 12 AND lastly a due respect had to this glorious Reward will bring you safe to it never leaving you till your Souls be crowned with fulness of Glory The Loadstone will draw Iron to itself when intra Spheram activitatis suae within the reach of its own attractive influence Thus the Reward of Eternal Life as an heavenly Loadstone hath that magnetick Virtue in it that if you put yourselves by a due respect had thereto under it it will draw you home to itself The wise Men keeping their Eye upon the Star which went before them were at length brought to Christ Thus keeping your Eye Christians upon this Eternal Reward as a glorious Star it will bring you at length to Christ in Glory whom fully to enjoy is our Life our Comfort our Happiness yea the Heaven of Heavens 'T is true Christians we must be uncloathed of this Body of Death before we can enter into the Joy of our Lord and be cloathed upon with the white Robes of Blessed Immortality Death must break down the Prison Walls of a Mortal Body before our Souls can ever come to the glorious Liberty of God's Children (a) 2 Cor. 5.1 Till our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved there is no having of a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens And why should we not be willing that God should pull down these Cottages of Clay who hath promised to raise us up a more glorious Temple The Loadstone cannot draw Iron as some say whilst the Diamond is in Presence Doubtless were it not for a Body of Death that is still present with us an Eye fixed upon Heaven's Glory would immediately draw us into Heaven For besides the interposition of an earthly gross Body together with those corruptions whose Foundation is in that Dust there is nothing as one well observes that hinders a Christian from the full enjoyment of God in Glory So that Death's peculiar Office is to break down this Wall of separation that the Soul may the better come to her God her beloved Redeemer her Eternal Habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven The Soul when once loosed from this dying Body then she hath the Crown of Life set upon her Head then she sees God no longer through a Glass darkly but Face to Face then she is ravished with the unconceivable sweetness of the beatifical Vision (b) Mori plane timeat sed qui ex aqua spiritu non renatus Gehennae ignibus mancipatur mori timeat qui non Christi cruce passione censetur mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit quem de seculo recedentem perennibus poenis aeterna torquebit flamma Cyp. de Mortalit pag. 344. Let those therefore tremble at the knocking and approaches of Death who know not what will become of their immortal Souls who not being born again from above are every moment liable to infernal Flames who have no interest in the Glory purchased by Christ who must pass from Death to Death from short momentany Pleasures to everlasting hellish Torments Death to the Wicked is the Trap-door that opening lets them fall down irrecoverably into the dark vault of Eternal Misery But to the Gracious Soul there is no cause of Terrour in Death no Fear in the Grave no Sting to perplex in a bodily dissolution as that which only ushers in her everlastingly Blessed and Glorious Coronation Death comes to a Man dying the recompence of Reward like Moses to the Israelites to deliver him as the Angel to Peter in Prison to set him free as God's fiery Chariot to carry him like Elias into heavenly Glory And are you Christians afraid of entring upon your own Blessedness are you afraid to be cloathed upon with your House from Heaven Get a right notion of Death which as Bernard calls it is nothing but the Gate of Life the Portal of eternal security Though Death look upon thee with a grim Countenance yet it comes upon a good errand to God's People to fetch them out of their Wilderness-condition and to bring them to an everlasting estate of Happiness By Death we go from Earth to Heaven from conversing with Sinful Men to converse with Millions of glorious Angels and what makes us so loath to remove Who would not leave a Cottage to gain a Kingdom Who would not leave an Egypt to inherit Canaan Who would not leave gladly an oppressive Babylon to be made a Citizen of Sion of the heavenly Jerusalem OUR greatest Misery lies not in Death but in Life 'T is the Veil of Flesh that keeps us from entring into the holiest of all c Death gives us a pasport from corruptible Joys to an incorruptible Crown from a Mortal Life to a Life of blessed Immortality from a troublesome condition to a State of perfect tranquillity So that the name of Death should not offend us But the Happiness and Glory to which it leads should delight us The Moon never comes to the full til after her change Thus through the change of Death a Christian comes to all fulness of Joy and hath the white Robes of Glory given him Now the Bridegroom comes to meet the Soul in Happiness now all Tears are wiped away and Heaven Gates are set wide open to give her everlasting glorious entertainment Now the Reward of life everlasting now the Joy of Eternal Salvation now the full possession of the heavenly Paradise comes Now heavenly Mansions instead of earthly Tabernacles now greatest Glory instead of small and Eternal Happiness instead of poor temporal enjoyments are bestowed upon every Child of God What Man that is well in his Wits woâ—ld not part with Life and bid Death welcome upon terms of such everlasting blessed and glorious advantage (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad pop Ant. hom 7. Death in the true notion (c) Mors haec transitus universorum est transitur à corruptione ad incorruptionem à mortalitate ad immortalitatem à perturbatione ad tranquillitatem Non igitur nomen mortis te offendat sed boni transitûs beneficia delectent Ambros lib. de Bono mort cap. 4. Proemium vitae gaudium salutis aeternae perpetua laetitia possessio Paradisi
Cognation and Family too But there is a great day of Separation coming when being sorted and set one upon God's right Hand and the other upon his left the Wicked with the Devil and his Angels shall be hurried away together as so many Swine and Goats from the Presence of God into the Vengeance of eternal Fire And oh what a dreadful Aggravation of your Torments in Hell will this be when the Devil who instigated you through his Subtilty to commit Sin and those that were your Companions in the Contrivances Pleasures and Profits thereof must for ever become your Associates in that Wrath that Misery that endless unpreventable Destruction that will follow after Many Fool-hardy Sinners there are who think it will be some Allay to their Misery in Hell that they shall not go thither alone But to be sure the more Vessels of Wrath the more Vials of God's Wrath will be poured out upon them (o) Luke 16.27 28. and if the concurrent Judgment of Expositours upon the Parable of Dives and Lazarus (p) Damnatus ista petivit non ex charitate quam nec in morte nec postea habuit sed ex servili timore ne sui ipsius damnatio augeretur ex fratrum suorum damnatione cum quibus consors fuit in vitiis quibus vitiosae vitae reliquit exempla Carthus in loc that which made the rich Man so passionately desirous to have his five Brethren premonished by the Herald from the Dead was not any Compassion which he bore to them but a certain fearful looking for of an Aggravation of his own Misery by the Association of them with himself in those Hellish Torments Howl and tremble then all ye that neglect Glory striking Hands with the Works of Iniquity for the Misery that will shortly come upon you when Chained up by the Almighty Hand of God amongst Devils and damned Spirits in the dark Chaos of eternal Confusion In this World the Wicked love not to Associate themselves with God's People but shun their religious Society abhor their devout Exercises exclaiming of them as the only Troublers of the State Subverters of good Order (q) Luke 22.2 Enemies to Coesar the very Pests of the (r) Acts 17.6 7. Country where they live (s) Acts 24.5 and Men that turn the World upside down But oh what everlasting horrid Confusion what Trembling what fearful Astonishment what furious Heart-rending Reflexions will this fill them with to see the Righteous called up into eternal Soul-entrancing Communion with God in Glory and themselves carried headlong with grisly Devils and damned Spirits into hellish Torments If David complains so bitterly of the (t) Psal 120.5 Society of contentious Neighbours saying Woe is me (u) Apud inferoes singularissimum erit tormentum perpetim audire tot centenorum millium horribilissimos mugitus planctus rugitus perinde si mille boves assentur vivi that I dwell in Mesech and that I sojourn in the Tents Kedar What cause then of sad complaint will all the damned have in Hell where they shall by their bitter out-cries horrid execrations and doleful schrietchings mutually aggravate each others Torments and never envy any other Company than that of enraged Devils insulting over them with hellish spite ¶ Diabolus super eos ministerium accipiet justae damnationis qui sponte se tradiderunt pravae actioni Haymo in Dom. 7. post Pent. pag. 308. and torturing them as the Instruments of God's eternal Vengeance with variety of exquisite Torments for ever Should a poor damned Soul break out of Hell with the Flames and Wrath of God upon him and attended with Legions of furious Devils shew himself in our Streets filling the Air with his doleful Out-cries and hideous Roarings how dreadful would it be to all Beholders How would Mens Hair stand an end and their Knees smite one against another Think then with your selves and let it make you serious in seeking Heaven How dreadful it will be to have your Portion with the Damned in Hell to dwell with Millions of snaky Devils and to be filled for ever with the hideous Out-cries and doleful Lamentations of such everlastingly tortured and torturing Caitifs 3 CONSIDER the universality of Hell torments which will so diffuse themselves through the whole Man that not any faculty of Soul nor any member of Body shall be free from anguish Here Diseases have their particular place of residence assigned them in the Body so that some parts are free while others are full of Pain Or if any Distemper exercise such an universal Tyranny over the whole Body as to afflict and torture it in every Part and Member yet the Spirit of a Man doth often escape the malignity of his affliction sustaining him under it But in Hell the whole Man must undergo an universal Misery (a) Paenae damnatis secundum corpus secundum animam infligentur Corpus poenis vartis quoad omnes sensus afficietur Anima secundum omnes suas potentias cruci abitur Gerson So that every Vein and Artery in the Body every Power and Faculty of Soul shall be filled up to the brim with the invenomed bitter Water of Gods enraged jealousie to torture and perplex them for ever Here the Body is tortured in all parts not a Vein nor an Artery not a Muscle goes free And in every Sense it is terrified and beset with some prodigy of Horrour and dreadful astonishment There shall be Tears in the Eyes for there is weeping and wailing Horrour in the Ears proceeding from those hideous outcries doleful complaints and horrid execrations which the damned will breath forth for ever in Hellish Torments (b) Si damnatus vel exiguo tempore versaretur in terra foetido suo ore ita aerem inficeret ut induceret magnam pestem contagionem in universum mundum Stella de Cont. Mundi lib. 3. cap. 3◠pag. mihi 358. the smell which was here so choice in singling out its fragrances shall there be everlastingly offended with the noysom fume of Brimstone and with those poysonous favours that proceed from damned Reprobates which if breathed into the Air were enough to infect the whole World with a mortal Plague the curious Palate which here must be entertained with variety of delicious Fare not well knowing through niceness which dish at a Feast to feed upon shall there tast nothing but the Poyson Asps and the Wine of Everlasting astonishment the Touch which here must be gratified with all softness and effeminacy as impatient through the delicacy of it to endure so much as the injury of one cold blast shall there be everlastingly afflicted with most exquisite Tortures lying under the fierce Storm of Gods Wrath which like a Tempest of Fire and Brimstone shall excruciate and beat upon it for ever And as all the Senses so every Member of the Body shall have its peculiar pain to wrack and torment it for ever The Head that was here
Reward of those who having finished their Coursâ— are now gathered to the Spirits of just Men made perfect As God is light and in him there is no darkness at all So the Inheritance of (e) Col. 1.12 God's People is light and in that there is no darkness no night of Sorrow no Trouble at all There is all Joy and nothing but Joy all Comfort and nothing but Comfort all Glory and nothing but Glory there is all fulness of Pleasure a Cup of divine Consolation brimful and not any the least distastful Ingredient to imbitter it Here indeed Job hath his Botches and Hezekiah his Boyl David hath his ulcering Wound and Lazarus his noisom Sores this Man spends his Days in Pain and that Man in Sorrow in this Man the Keepers of the House tremble by reason of a Palsie and in that Man those that look out at the Windows are Darkness by reason of Blindness in one Man the Daughters of Musick are brought low through deafness and in every Man here Sin reigneth unto Death But the rewarded of God in Heaven they feel none of these things they groan under none of these Burdens no Sickness no Sorrow no Viper of Reproach of Persecution of stinging Grief and Heart-rending Vexation can fasten upon them As the upper Region of the Air hath no Meteors no Storms nor Tempests engendred in it So God's People dwelling in the highest Region of heavenly Glory they are quite above the reach of every Storm no Wind of Persecution Trouble or of any the â—east Grief shall ever blow upon them to disturb their rest When Christians you come to (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 26. pag. 349. Heaven then look you may for solace without sighing for Comfort without Grief for Ease without any Pain for rest without ever being weary and for all fulness of Joy and Glory without any Devil to tempt you any Enemy to â—rouble you or any the least Disappointment to afflict and make sad your Spirits to all Eternity 2 The Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in â—ll their Obedience it 's a sinless Reward cleansing them perfectly from all the reliquâ—s of indwelling Corruption When â—his Sun riseth all the Clouds of Sin will be scattered â—nd dissipated for ever When once you get this Crown upon your Heads you shall feel no more strugling of Sin and Corruption in your Hearts for ever And (g) Non erit concupiscentia in membris non ultrà ulla exâ—rget rebellio carnis sed totus hominis status pudicus â—acificus sana ex integro natura sine omni maculâ â—uga permanebit Cyprian de Ascent Christi §. 9. pag. mihi 526. b. is not â—his Christians a blessed Reward that brings with it a State of simple Perfection so that being once possessed of â—t now you shall never have cause to complain more of â— Body h of Death of an unbelieving Heart of an earthly Mind of a drowsy Spirit of a Law in your (i) Rom. 7.23 Members warring against the Law of your Mind of the Flesh lusting against the Spirit so that you cannot do the things that you would nor of an importunate croud of vain sinful and worldly Thoughts breaking in upon you to damp your Devotion to disquiet your Souls and to interrupt your Peace your Fellowship your sweetest Communion with God over all blessed for ever Here the best of God's People are troubled with Sin dogging them wherever they go and disturbing them in every Duty But in Heaven the whole Body of Corruption shall wholly be laid aside and their Sins never trouble them more Even in this Life God's People have the strength of indwelling Corruption broken that it cannot have any plenary and total Dominion over them But yet till they loose from the Shoar of Time and are landed safe at the Harbour of blessed Eternity like a combersome Inmate it will abide with them (k) Aliud est habere peccatum aliud non obedire desideriis ejus Aug. de Nat. grat c. 62. Habitat sed non regnat manet sed non dominatur aut praevalet evulsum quodammodo necdum tamen expulsum dejectum sed non prorsus ejectum tamen Bern. Is 90. Ser. 10. Yet one thing you must know it is to have Sin abiding in us and another thing not to obey it in the Lust thereof Sin cannot Reign over any of God's People But it will remain in them for the whole time of this mortal Life It is mortally wounded in the weakest yet not wholly slain in the strongest 'T is dejected and thrown down from the Throne of its Regency in the least Babe of Grace But yet not ejected or wholly cast out from the strong hold of its Inherency in those that have most Grace 'T is subdued in all yet not wholly abolished in any of God's People whilst cloathed with Mortality The whitest Swan hath her black feet the fairest Summers-day (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. lib 2. Const cap. 18. hath some misty Clouds the purest Gold its Grains of Allowance the clearest Fire its smoaky Vapours So the holiest Saint hath the Reliques (m) Nemo esse sine delicto potest quamdiu indumento carnis oneratus est cujus infirmitas triplici modo subjacet dominio peccati factis dictis cogitationibus Lactant. lib. 6. cap. 13. 593. of Sin and indwelling Corruption during the whole interim of this mortal Life The Lord hath left these Canaanites and Perizites the Remainders I mean of Sin and indwelling Corruption in us to be as Thorns in our Sides and Pricks in our Eyes to keep us low that we may not be exalted above measure Hereby the Lord hides Pride from our Eyes and so keeps us humble in the sense of our own Vileness The Reliques of Indwelling Corruption are those stinging Corrosives which eat down that Pride of Heart and Self-admiration to which the best of God's People are here Obnoxious Our black Feet those are left that we may not be proud of our fair Feathers For as that holy Father well saith (n) Multum autem nobis in hac carne tribueremus nisi usque ad ejus de positionem sub vâ—niâ viverâ—mus Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 11. p. 604. we should be apt to grow high ascribing overmuch to our selves whilst cloathed upon with this mortal Flesh did we not daily live under and accordingly stâ—nd in need of pardoning Mercy like the very time that this earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved As therefore Gravel and Dirt is good to ballast a Ship making it go steadily and keeping it from being blown over with every Wind So the remainders of Sin and indwelling Corruption these keep the People of God from being overthrown through Pride and high towring Thoughts of themselves (o) 2 Sam. 24. David's miscarriage in the Matter of Uriah did more deeply abase him than all the Persecutions that ever he met