hath also used them to do abundance of good against Idolatry in the Heathen World Where-ever they come Idolatry is destroyed Yea the corrupt Christians Greeks and specially Papists that worship Images Angels and Bread are rebuked and condemned justly by Mahometans But O that they who have Conquered so far by the Sword were Conquered by the Sacred Word of Truth and truly understood the Mystery of Redemption and the Doctrin of the Gospel of Jesus Christ Obj. But they think us Idolaters for saying that Christ is God and believing the Trinity I. As to the Trinity it is no contradiction that one Fire or Sun should have Essentially a Virtue or Power to Move Light and Heat Nor that one Soul should have a power of Vegetation Sense and Reason Nor as Rational to have a peculiar power of Vitality Intellection and Free-will Why then should the Trinity seem incredidible II. We do not believe that the Godhead hath any change or is made Flesh or the Manhood made God but that the Godhead is incomprehensibly united to the humane Nature by assumption so as he is united to no other Creature by and for those peculiar Operations on the humanity of Christ which make him our Redeemer They that well think that God is All in All things more than a Soul to all the World and as near to us as our Souls to our Bodies in whom we live and move and have our being will find that it is more difficult to apprehend how God is further from any Soul than that he is so much One with Christ Save that different Operations of God on his Creatures are apparent to us By all this we see that every sanctified Christian hath the certain Witness in himself that Christ is true He is truly a Physician that healeth and a Saviour that saveth all that seriously believe and obey him The Spirit of God in a New and Holy and Heavenly Nature of Spiritual Life and Light and Love is the Witness VI. The Sixth Article in my Text is Received up into Glory That Christ after Forty Days continuance on Earth was taken up into Heaven in the sight of his Disciples is a Matter of Fact of which we have all the forementioned infallible proof which I must not here again repeat And 1. If Christ were not glorified now in Heaven he could not send down his Spirit with his Word on Earth nor have enabled the first Witnesses to speak with all Tongues and heal the Sick and raise the Dead and do all the Miracles which they did A dead Man cannot send down the Holy Spirit in likeness of Firy cloven Tongues nor enable Thousands to do such VVorks nor could he do what is done on the Souls of serious Believers in all Ages and Nations to this Day He is sure alive that makes men live and in Heaven that draws up Hearts to Heaven 2. And this is our Hope and Joy Heaven and Earth are in his Power The Suffering and VVork which he performed for us on Earth was short but his heavenly Intercession and Reign is Everlasting Guilty Souls can have no immediate access to God All is by a Mediator All our receivings from God are by him And all our services are returned by him and accepted for his sake And as he is the Mediator between his Father and us his Spirit interceedeth between him and us By his Spirit he giveth us Holy desires and every Grace and by his Spirit we exercise them in returns to him And our glorified Saviour hath Satan and all our Enemies in his Power Life and Death are at his command All Judgment is committed to him He that hath redeemed us is preparing us for Heaven and it for us and receiveth our departing Souls to his own Joy and Glory He hath promised us that we shall be with him where he is and shall see his Glory He that is our Saviour will be our Judge He will come with Thousands of his Angels to the confusion of wicked Unbelievers and to be glorified in his Saints He will make a New Heaven and a New Earth in which Righteousness shall dwell Angels and Glorified Saints shall with Christ our Head make one City of God or holy Society and Chore in perfect Love and Joy to praise the blessed God for ever I. The differences between this World and that which I am going to I. THis World is God's Footstool That is his Throne II. Here are his Works of Inferiour Nature and of Grace There he shineth forth in Perfect Glory III. Here is gross Receptive Matter moved by Invisible Powers There are the noblest efficient communicative Powers moving all IV. This is the Inferiour subject Governed World That is the Superiour Regent World V. This is a World of Trial where the Soul is his that can win its consent That is a World where the Will is perfectly determined and fixed VI. Satan winning mens Consent hath here a large Dominion of Fools There he is cast out and hath no Possession VII Here he is a 〈◊〉 and Troubler of the Best There he hath neither Power to Tempt or Trouble VIII This World is as the dark Womb where we are regenerated That is the World of Glorious Light into which we are born IX Here we dwell on a World of sordid Earth There we shall dwell in a World of Celestial Light and Glory X. Here we dwell in a troublesom tempting perishing Body There we are delivered from this burden and prison into glorious liberty XI Here we are under a troublesom Cure of our Maladies There we are perfectly healed rejoicing in our Physicians praise XII Here we are using the Means in weariness and hope There we obtain the end in full fruition XIII Here sin maketh us loathsom to our selves and our own annoiance There we shall love God in our selves and our Perfected selves in God XIV Here all our Duties are defiled with sinful imperfection There perfect Souls will perfectly love and praise their God XV. Here Satans temptations are a continual danger and molestation There perfect Victory hath ended our temptations XVI Here still there is a remnant of the Curse and Punishment of sin Pardon and Deliverance are perfected there XVII Repenting Shame Sorrow and Fear are here part of my necessary work There all the troublesom part is past and utterly excluded XVIII Here we see darkly as in a Glass the Invisible World of Spirits There we shall see them as Face to Face XIX Here Faith alas too weak must serve instead of sight There presence and sight suspend the use of such believing XX. Desire and Hope are here our very Life VVork But there it will be full felicity in fruition XXI Our Hopes are here oft mixt with grievous doubts and fears But there full possession ends them all XXII Our holy Affections are here corrupted with Carnal mixtures But there all are purely Holy and Divine XXIII The coldness of our Divine Love is here our sin and
reasoning deduction from that poor Degree which we here in the Kingdom of Grace possess Can I perceive substantiality in the dark terrene appearances which are but mutable lifeless matter agitated and used by invisible Powers and shall I think of those unseen powerful substances as if they were less substantial for being Spiritual or were not Objects for a knowing Thought Are the Stars which I see less substantial than a Carkass in a darksom Grave The Lord that appeared in shining Glory hath Members in their measure like himself and hath promised that we shall shine as Stars in the Kingdom of his Father If some degree of this be here performed in them who are called the Children of Light and the Lights of the World how much more will they shine in the World of Light They that call Light a quality or an Act must confess it hath a substance whose quality or act it is Alas what a deceived thing is a sensual Unbeliever who spendeth his Life in the pursuit of fugitive shaddows and walketh in a vain shew and thinks of Spiritual glorious substances as if they were the nothings or delusions of a Dream § 6. Christ Moses and Elias here visibly appeared as three distinct individual Persons This tells us that it is a false conceit that Death ceaseth Individuation and turneth all Souls into one of which before Perfect indivisible infinite Unity is proper to God From this One is multiplicity Reason forbids us when we see the numberless individuals in this World and see also the numerous Stars above to imagine that all the Worlds above us have so much of Divine Perfection as to be but one undivided substance and to have no multiplicity of Inhabitants Yea some of those Sadduces hold that the Stars are Worlds inhabited as the Earth is And why then should they think whither soever Souls go that they cease their individuation When they go among individuals But Christ hath confuted them even to Sense Moses is Moses still and Elias is Elias still And all our Friends that are gone to Christ are the same still that they were and may be called by the same Names Abraham Isaac and Jacob are the same in Heaven and Lazarus was Lazarus in Abraham's bosom When we lay by Flesh and are uncloathed we put not off our personality Every one shall receive his own reward according to what he hath done in the Body when every one must give account of his own works and talents Why then may I not with distinct conceptions and joyful desires look after the Souls of my departed Friends that are now in the Celestial Kingdom Though malignity hath scorned me for naming some few in my Saints Rest being such as the Despisers hated yet I forbear not on such accounts to Solace my self by naming more but because they are more than it 's fit to number In all places where I have lived how many excellent Souls though here they were not perfect are gone to Christ How sweet is the remembrance of the communion which I had with many of them in Shrewsbury and other parts of Shropshire Of many at Dudley and the adjoining parts Of Multitudes at Kiderminster Bewdley and other parts of Worcestershire Of abundance at Coventry and other parts of Warwickshire And of many where I have sojourned in other parts of the Land And above all in London and the adjoining parts As Mr. How hath elegantly exprest it in his excellent Character of my excellent and dear Friend Mr. Richard Fairclough What a Multitude of Blessed Saints will arise at the last Day out of London and this Earth is as it were hallowed with the Dust and Relicts of so many blessed Souls But it 's Heaven that is spangled with these Spiritual Stars The place honoured with them and they with it and all by Christ We are like Infants or Lambs or other young ones that cry for their Dams if they be but out of sight though they are never so near if they see them not they cry as if they were not or had forsaken them As Christ told his Disciples that it was needful for them that he departed from them and yet their Hearts for this were sorrowful till the Holy Ghost came upon them as better than Christ's fleshly presence to prepare them joyfully to follow him so we think of our Friends as almost lost to us by separation till the heavenly Spirit tell us where they are and prepare us to desire to be with them § 6. Elias hath a Body now in Heaven and so hath Henoch But can we think that only two or three that are there with Christ do so much differ from all the rest as to have Bodies when the rest have none Is there such a dissimilitude of Saints in Heaven What are two or three in such a Society Doubtless their Bodies are not corruptible Flesh and Blood but such Spiritual Bodies as all Saints shall have at the Resurrection But are they in Heaven such visible and shaped Bodies as they appeared on the Mount The same difficulty poseth us about the risen Body of Christ He would not have Mary touch him because he had not yet ascended to his Father He could appear and vanish from their sight at his pleasure And yet Thomas handled him and felt that he had Flesh and Bones That Body of Flesh ascended visibly up toward Heaven And yet it is not Flesh and Blood in Heaven but a Spiritual Body For it is not worse than he will make his Members What shall we say to these things We must say That we are not capable of knowing them but have Reason to be thankful that we may know so much more necessary for us But yet it seemeth probable that the Bodies of Christ and Henoch and Elias were changeable according to the Region in which they were to be Christ could take up a Body of Flesh and Blood and immediately change that state of it into a pure incorruptible Spiritual Body as it entered into the incorruptible Spiritual Region And so God did by Henoch and Elias As Paul saith that we shall not all die those that live till Christ's appearing but we shall all be changed And yet if Elias have business on the Mount he can put on the cloathing of a grosser Body to be so seen of men and can lay it by or return to his more invisible Spiritual state when he returneth to the place from whence he came And no wonder when Angels and the Ancients say Christ before his Incarnation assumed Bodies suitable to their several businesses on Earth yea such as could eat and drink with men when yet they dwelt not in Heaven so coursly cloathed § 7. But how came Moses to have a Body on the Mount who is said to have been buried and therefore took none with him into Heaven We must still remember that we enquire of things above our certain knowledge But in humble conjecture we may say That it 's no
It is with each others Souls in the Body that we converse together on Earth And it is not sluggish but lively Faith and fervent desire that must converse in Heaven with Moses and Elias and our living Head § 23. But how did Peter know Moses and Elias whom he had never seen before Perhaps glorified Saints do bear each one his notifying Signature and need not names and sound of words to make them known Perhaps Christ told the Disciples who they were that talked with him Perhaps he made them know it by Inspiration as Prophets have their knowledge Any of these ways God could notifie them It 〈◊〉 not needful that we know which of them it was But that they were known is certain We shall be no Strangers to any Saints in Heaven and therefore not to our old acquaintance Whether we shall have any greater love to them or delight in them for old acquaintance sake or because they were instruments of our good on Earth I know not But I know that our love to them with whom we had Holy comfort on Earth may well render Heaven more familiar to us now and more suitable to our desires O how great a number of my godly Friends are there They are so many that I cannot make a Catalogue of their Names but the Memory of abundance of them doth delight me And when we meet there we shall be far better known to each other then we were to the most intimate on Earth O let Christians now so converse together as remembring that they must meet in Heaven where all that was secret will be brought to light If we now put on any Vizor and seem better than we are if we hide any sin or base corruption if we by fraud or falshood deceive our Friends all this will be opened when we meet in Heaven It is a daily grief and shame to my Soul to think of the sins that I have committed against some that are now in Heaven which I either excused extenuated or hid And to think how much evil they will know of me there which on Earth they knew not by me But God who pardoneth them will cause his Servants there to forgive each other but the detected sin for all that will be an odious shameful thing Lying and Hypocrisie are there no cloak but an aggravation of the shame If we cannot confess and take shame to our selves by repentance upon Earth how shall we appear in the open light and see the Faces of those whom we wronged What diminution it will make of our joy I know not but it must needs be a dishonour to have been false to God or Man And especially when we meet where sin is perfectly hated to think how we either sinned together or that we tempted and ensnared one another in any sin how it will affect us then I do not fully know but it is now to me a far greater grief to think of any in Heaven whom I tempted or wronged than it was while they lived with me on Earth And I think there is somwhat of this Nature common to good and bad Even the Consciences of wicked men do haunt them for notable injuries to others especially concealed ones and especially for persecuting the Servants of God when they are dead more than while they lived In so much that though I doubt not of real Apparitions I am ready to think that some that say they are haunted by the sight and the voice of such as seem to them to be deceased Persons are rather haunted by their own Consciences which strongly represent those Persons to their imaginations But on the other side it is a great delight to me to think of the good which I received from many that are now in Heaven Of the profitable Sermons which I heard from some and the profitable conversation which I had with others How oft we sweetly consulted together of the things which concern everlasting life How many days in publick and private we spent in preparation and in some prospect of the Blessedness which now they enjoy And it is not a small Mercy to me that I can think of Multitudes now in Heaven of whose Conversion and Salvation God hath made my weak endeavours a prosperous means O what a Mercy is it to think on that while I am yet compassed with temptations and languishing in weakness and groaning in pain and worst of all burdened with a dark and sinful Soul so many are past all this with Christ by means of any help which he sent them by my labours It hath oft humbled me greatly to read in the lives of such men as John Janeway and Joseph Allen how much of their proficiency they ascribed to my Writings and how far they over-went me and left me quite behind them in Holy delights and praises of God! But how much more am I below a Multitude now in Heaven who called me Father here on Earth And if here I must rejoice with them that rejoice as well as mourn with them that mourn why should I not much more rejoice with all the blessed Society above And more familiarly with my old Acquaintance Pupils and dear Friends My Love should be most to the best and therefore more to them than to any other of my Friends And therefore my Union with them being closer and their Felicity far greater I should think with more Joy of them than of any left behind They are safe in the Harbour past all our dangerous storms and waves And though they know or will know more of my sins than they did on Earth and hate them more yet they that feel the comfort of the Pardon of their own will imitate God in pardoning me and rejoice in God's forgiveness of me Though their vile Bodies lie like common dust how much better do they now know the love of God the Mysteries of Grace the heavenly Glory the state of Spirits in the City of God than I do who was wont to preach it to them God that sent down Moses and Elias to shew that Saints in Heaven and on Earth have communnion will bring me and my Friends now in Heaven together again into a far sweeter Communion than ever we had here § 24. It is no great wonder that Peter should be transported with this glorious sight and greatly delighted with this heavenly Communion and say Master it is good for us to be here Would not a sight a glimpse of Heaven have transported any Holy Soul Yea even those that now lie in tears and fears and are overwhelmed with doubts and troubles When they are groping after God and groaning on their Knees because they feel more of his frowns than of his love if then they had such a sight as this what a change would it make upon them Perhaps you 'll say that the doubt of their own sincerity might still deprive them of the Joy No This sight would banish doubts and troubles It is a communication of Love
shew us whither we must ascend and that after these comfortable words SAY TO MY BRETHREN I ASCEND TO MY FATHER AND YOUR FATHER TO MY GOD AND YOUR GOD Joh. 20. 17. And shall I not follow him through Death and trust such a Guide and Captain of my Salvation 14. He is there to prepare a place for me and will take me to himself And may I not confidently expect it 15. He told a Malefactor on the Cross that he should that day be with him in Paradise to tell believing Sinners what they may expect 16. The Church by the Article of his Descent into Hell hath signified their common belief that his separated Soul had its subsistence and operation and did not sleep or perish to tell us the Immortality of separated Souls 17. His Apostles and other Servants have on earth served him all with these expectations 18. The Spirits of the perfected Just are now in possession of what I hope for And I am a follower of them who by Faith and Patience have attained the promised Felicity And may I not trust him to save me who hath already saved Millions in this way When I could trust a Ferriman to pass me over a River that had safely passed over Thousands before me Or I could trust a Physician who cureth all that he undertaketh of the same Disease 19. I must be at his disposal whether I will or not I shall live while he will and die when he will and go whither he will I may sin and vex my Soul with fears and cares and sorrows but I shall never prevail against his will 20. Therefore there is no Rest for Souls but in the Will of God That will created us and that will did govern us and that will shall be fulfilled on us It was our Efficient and our Regent Cause and it shall be our End Where else is it that we should rest In the will of men or Angels or in our own wills All Creatures are but Creatures And our own Wills have undone us They have misgoverned us and they are our greatest Enemies our Disease our Prison and our Death till they are brought over to the will of God Till then they are like a Foot out of joint like a Child or Subject in Rebellion There is no rectitude or health no order no peace or true felicity but in the Conformity of our wills to the will of God And shall I die in distrustful striving against his will and desiring to keep up my own before it 21. What abundant experience have I had of God's fidelity and love and after all this shall I not trust him His undeserved Mercy gave me being it chose my Parents it gave them a tender love to me and desire of my good it taught them to instruct me early in his Word and to Educate me in his fear It chose me suitable Company and Habitation It gave me betimes a teachable ingeny It chose my School-masters It brought to my Hands many excellent and suitable Books It gave me some profitable publick Teachers It placed me in the best of Lands on Earth and I think in the best of Ages which that Land had seen It did early destroy all great expectations and desires of the World teaching me to bear the Yoak from my youth and causing me rather to groan under my infirmities than to fight with strong and potent Lusts It chastened me betimes but did not destroy me Great Mercy hath trained me up all my daies since I was Nineteen years of Age in the School of Affliction to keep my sluggish Soul awake in the constant expectations of my change and to kill my Pride and overvaluing of this World and to lead all my studies to the most necessary things and as a Spur to excite my Soul to seriousness and especially to save me from the supine neglect and loss of time O what unspeakable Mercy hath a life of constant but gentle Chastisement proved to me It urged me against all dull delays to make my Calling and Election sure and to make ready my accounts as one that must quickly give them up to God The Face of Death and nearness of Eternity did much convince me what Books to read what studies to perfer and prosecute what Company and Conversation to choose It drove me early into the Vineyard of the Lord and taught me to preach as a dying Man to dying men It was Divine Love and Mercy which made Sacred Truth so pleasant to me that my life hath been under all my infirmities almost a constant recreation and delight in its discoveries contemplation and practical use How happy a Teacher have I had What excellent help and sweet illumination How far beyond my expectation hath Divine Mercy encouraged me in his Sacred work How congruously did he choose every place of my Ministration and Habitation to this day without my own forecast or seeking When and where since he first sent me forth did I labour in vain How many are gone to Heaven and how many are in the way to whom he hath blessed the Word which in weakness I did by his Grace and Providence deliver Many good Christians are glad of now and then an Hours time to meditate on God's Word and recreate themselves in his holy worship but God hath allowed and called me to make it the constant business of my life My Library hath afforded me both profitable and pleasant company and help at all times when ever I would use them I have dwelt among the shining Lights which the Learned Wise and Holy men of all Ages have set up and left to illuminate the World How many comfortable Hours have I had in the Society of living Saints and in the love of faithful Friends How many joyful Daies have I had in the solemn Assemblies where God hath been worshipped with seriousness and alacrity by concordant though imperfect Saints Where the Spirit of Christ hath manifested his presence by helping my self and my Brethren in speaking and the People in ready delightful hearing and all of us in loving and gladly receiving his Doctrine Covenant and Laws How unworthy was such a sinful Worm as I who never had any Academical helps nor much from the Mouth of any Teacher that Books should become so great a Blessing to me and that quite beyond my own intentions God should induce or constrain me to provide any such like helps for others How unworthy was I to be kept from the multiplied snares of Sects and Errours which reigned in this Age and to be used as a means for other mens preservation and reduction And to be kept in a love of Unity and Peace How unworthy was I that God should make known to me so much of his reconciling truth while extreams did round about prevail and were commended to the Churches by the advantages of Piety on one side and of worldly Prosperity and Power on the other And the God should use me above thirty Years
the wicked to prosecure his Servants to the Death and make duty costly and give no after recompence 6. If he let the most wicked on the Earth pass unpunished or to scape as well hereafter as the best and to live in greater pleasure here The Objections fetcht from the intrinsecal good of Duty I have elsewhere answered § 1. VI. But God hath not left us to the Light of meer Nature as being too dark for men so blind as we The Gospel Revelation is the clear Foundation of our Faith and Hopes Christ hath brought Life and Immortality to Light One from Heaven that is greater than an Angel was sent to tell us what is there and which is the way and to secure our hopes He hath risen and conquered death and entered before us as our Captain and Forerunner into the Everlasting habitations And he hath all power in Heaven and Earth and all Judgment is committed to him that he might give Eternal life to his Elect he hath frequently and expresly promised it them that they shall live because he liveth and shall not perish but have Everlasting life And how fully he hath proved and sealed the Truth of his Word and Office to us I have so largely opened in my Reasons of the Christian Religion and unreasonableness of Infidelity and in my Life of Faith c. and since in my Houshold Catechizing that I will not here repeat it § 2. And as all his Word is full of promises of our future Glory at the Resurrection so we are not without assurance that at Death the departing Soul doth enter upon a State of Joy and Blessedness For 1. He expresly promised the penitent crucified Thief This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise Luk. 23. 2. He gave us the Narrative or Parable of the damned sensualist and of Lazarus Luk. 16. to instruct us and not to deceive us 3. He tells the Sadduces that God is not the God of the Dead as his Subjects and Beneficiaries but of the Living Mat. 22. 32. 4. Henoch and Elias were taken up to Heaven and Moses that died appeared with Elias on the Mount Mat. 17. 5. He telleth us Luk. 12. 4. that they that kill the Body are not able to kill the Soul 6. And Christ's own Soul was commended into his Father's hands Luk. 23. 46. and was in Paradise when his Body was in the Grave to shew us what shall become of ours 7. And he hath promised that Where he is there shall his Servant be also Joh. 12. 26. And that the life here begun in us is Eternal life and that he that believeth in him shall not die but shall live by him as he liveth by the Father for he dwelleth in God and God in him and in Christ and Christ in him Joh. 17. 3. 6. 54. 3. 16 36. 6. 47 56 57 50. 1 Joh. 4. 5. 13. Luk. 17. 21. Rom. 14. 17. 8. And accordingly Stephen that saw Heaven opened prayed the Lord Jesus to receive his Spirit Act. 7. 5. 59. 9. And we are come to Mount Sion c. to an innumerable Company of Angels and to the Spirits of the Just made perfect Heb. 12. 22 23. 10. And Paul here desireth to depart and be with Christ as far better And to be absent from the Body and be present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 8. 11. And the dead that die in the Lord are blessed from henceforth that they may rest from their labours and their works follow them 12. And if the disobedient Spirits be in Prison and the Cities of Sodom and Gomorrah suffer the vengeance of eternal Fire 1 Pet. 3. 19. Jude 7. then the Just have eternal Life And if the Jews had not thought the Soul immortal Saul had not desired the Witch to call up Samuel to speak with him The rest I now pass by We have many great and precious promises on which a departed Soul may trust 13. And Luk. 16. 9. Christ expresly saith that when we fail that is must leave this World we shall be received into the Everlasting habitations § 1. VII And it is not nothing to encourage us to hope in him that hath made all these Promises when we find how he heareth Prayers in this life and thereby assureth his Servants that he is their true and faithful Saviour We are apt in our distress to cry loud for Mercy and deliverances and when humane help faileth to promise God that if he now will save us we will thankfully acknowledg it his work and yet when we are delivered to return not only to security but to ingratitude and think that our deliverance came but in the course of common Providence and not indeed as an answer to our Prayers And therefore God in Mercy reneweth both our distresses and our deliverances that what once or twice will not convince us of many and great deliverances may This is my own case O how oft have I cryed to him when men and means were nothing and when no help in second Causes did appear and how oft and suddenly and mercifully hath he delivered me What sudden ease what removal of long afflictions have I had such extraordinary changes and beyond my own and others expectations when many plain-hearted upright Christians have by Fasting and Prayer sought God on my behalf as have over and over convinced me of Special Providence and that God is indeed a hearer of Prayers And wonders I have seen done for others also upon such Prayer more than for my self Yea and wonders for the Church and publick Societies Though I and others are too like those Israelites Psal 78. who cried to God in their troubles and he oft delivered them out of their distress but they quickly for got this Mercies and their Convictions Purposes and Promises when they should have praised the Lord for his Goodness and declared his works with thanksgiving to the Sons of Men. And what were all these Answers and Mercies but the fruits of Christ's Power Fidelity and Love the fulfilling of his Promises and the earnest of the greater blessings of Immortality which the same Promises give me Title to I know that no Promise of hearing Prayer setteth up our wills in absoluteness or above God's as if every will of our must be fulfilled if we do but put it into a fervent or confident Prayer But if we ask any thing through Christ according to his will expressed in his Promise he will hear us If a sinful love of this present life or of Ease or Wealth or Honour should cause me to pray to God against Death or against all sickness want reproach or other Trials as if I must live here in Prosperity for ever if I ask it this sinful desire and expectation is not the work of Faith but of Presumption What if God will not abate me my last or daily pains What if he will continue my life no longer who ever pray for
not when I die The Church dieth not The Praises of God die not the World dieth not And perhaps it shall grow better and those Prayers shall be answered which seemed lost Yea it may be some of the Seed that I have sowen shall spring up to some benefit of the dark unpeaceable World when I am dead And is not this much of the end of life is not that Life good which attaineth its End If my End was to do Good and Glorifie God if Good be done and God be Glorified when I am dead yea though I were annihilated is not my End attained Feign not thy self to be God whose Interest that is the pleasing of his Will is the End of all things And whose will is the measure of all Created good Feign not thy self to be All the World God hath not lost his work the World is not dissolved when I am dissolved O how strong and unreasonable a Disease is this inordinate SELFISHNESS Is not God's Will Infinitely better than mine And fitter to be fulfilled Choose the fulfilling of his Will and thou shalt always have thy choice If a Man be well that can always have his will let this always be thy Will that God's Will may be done and thou shalt always have it Lord let thy Servant Depart in Peace even in Thy Peace which passeth understanding and which Christ the Prince of Peace doth give and nothing in the World can take away O give me that Peace which beseemeth a Soul which is so near the Harbour even the World of endless PEACE and LOVE where perfect UNION such as I am capable of will free me from all the sins and troubles which are caused by the convulsions divulsions and confusions of this divided SELFISH World Call home this Soul by the encouraging Voice of Love that it may joyfully hear and say It is my Fathers Voice Invite it to thee by the heavenly Messenger Attract it by the tokens and the foretasts of Love The Messengers that invited me to the Feast of Grace compelled me to come in without constraint Thy effectual call did make me willing And is not Glory better than preparing Grace Shall I not come more willingly to the Celestial Feast What was thy Grace for but to make me willing of Glory and the way to it Why didst thou dart down thy Beams of Love but to make me Love thee and to call me up to the everlasting Center Was not the Feast of of Grace as a Sacrament of the Feast of Glory Did I not take it in remembrance of my Lord until he come Did not he that told me All things are ready tell me also that He is gone to prepare a place for us and it is his will that we shall be with him and see his Glory They that are Given him and Drawn to him by the Father on Earth do come to Christ Give now and Draw my Departing Soul to my Glorified Head And as I have Glorified thee on Earth in the measure that thy Grace hath prevailed in me pardon the sins by which I have offended thee and Glorifie me in the beholding and participation of the Glory of my Redeemer come Lord Jesus come quickly with fuller Life and Light and Love into this too Dead and Dark and Disaffected Soul that it may come with joyful willingness unto thee § 13. Willingly Depart O lingring Soul It is from a Sodom though in it there be righteous Lots who yet are not without their woful blemishes Hast thou so oft groaned for the general blindness and wickedness of the World and art thou loth to leave it for a better How oft wouldst thou have rejoyced to have seen but the dawning of a Day of Universal Peace and Reformation And wouldst thou not see it where it shineth forth in fullest Glory Would a light at Midnight have pleased thee so well Hast thou prayed and laboured for it so hard And would thou not see the Sun Will the things of Heaven please thee no where but on Earth where they come in the least and weakest influences and are terminated in gross terrene obscure and unkind recipients Away away the vindictive Flames are ready to consume this sinful World Sinners that blindly rage in sin must quickly rage in the effects of sin and of God's Justice The pangs of Lust prepared for these pangs They are treasuring up wrath against this Day Look not then behind thee Away from this unhappy World Press on unto the Mark Phil. 3. Looking towards and hastning to the coming of the Day of God 2 Pet. 3. 10 11 12. As this World hath used thee it would use thee still and it will use others If thou hast sped well in it no thanks to it but unto God! If thou hast had manifold deliverances and marvellous preservations and hast been sed with Angels food love not this Wilderness for it but God and his Angel which was thy Guide Protector and Deliverer And hath this troublesome Flesh been so comfortable a companion to thee that thou shouldst be so loth to leave it Have thy pains thy weariness thy languishings thy labours thy cares and fears about this Body been pleasing to thee And art thou loth that they should have an end Didst thou not find a need of patience to undergo them And of greater Patience than mâ—â—r Nature gave thee And canst thou hope now for better when Nature faileth and that an aged consumed more diseased Body should be a pleasanter habitation to thee than it was heretofore If from thy youth up it hath been both a tempting and a troubling thing to thee surely though it be less tempting it will not be less troubling when it is falling to the Dust and above ground savoureth of the Grave Had things sensible been never so pleasant in thy youth and hadst thou glutted thy self in health with that sort of delight in Age thou art to say by Nature I have no pleasure in them Doth God in great Mercy make pain and feebleness the Harbingers of Death and wilt thou not understand their business Doth he mercifully before hand take away the pleasure of all fleshly things and worldly vanities that there may be nothing to relieve a departing Soul as the shell breaketh when the Bird is hatched and the Womb relaxed when the Infant must be Born and yet shall we stay when nothing holdeth us and still be loth to come away Wouldst thou dwell with thy beloved Body in the Grave where it will rot and stink in loathsome darkness If not why should it now in its painful languor seem to thee a more pleasant habitation than the glorious presence of thy Lord In the Grave it will be at rest and not tormented as now it is nor wish at Night O that it were Morning nor say at Morning when will it be Night And is this a dwelling fit for thy delight Patience in it while God will so try thee is thy duty But is such
Doctrines and Examples and for which I have been called to hear and read and meditate and pray and Watch so long Was it the interest of the Flesh on Earth or a longer life of worldly Prosperity which the Gospel Covenant secured to me which the Sacraments and Spirit Sealed to me Which the Bible was written to direct me to which Ministers preached to me Which my Books were written for Which I prayed for and for which I served God Or was it not for his Grace on Earth and Glory in Heaven And is it not better for me to have the End of all these means than lose them all and lose my hopes Why have I used them if I would not attain their End § 13. 5. That is my Best state which all the Course of God's Fatherly Providences tend to All his sweeter Mercies and all his sharper corrections are to make me partaker of his Holiness and to Lead me to glory in the way that my Saviour and all his Saints have gone before me All things work together for the best to me by preparing me for that which is best indeed Both calms and storms are to bring me to this Harbour If I take them but for themselves and this present life I mistake them and understand them not but unthankfully vilifie them and lose their End and life and sweetness Every word and work of God every Days mercies and changes and Usages do look at Heaven and intend Eternity God leadeth me no other way If I follow him not I forsake my hope in forsaking him If I follow him shall I be unwilling to be at home and come to the End of all this way § 14. 6. Surely that is Best for me which God hath required me principally to value love and seek and that as the business of all my life referring all things else thereto That this is my Duty I am fully certain as is proved elsewhere and before Is my business in the World only for the things of this World How vain a Creature then were Man and how little were the difference between waking and sleeping Life and Death No wonder if he that believeth that there is no Life but this to seek or hope for do live in uncomfortable despair and only seek to palliate his misery with the brutish pleasures of a wicked life and if he stick at no villany which hisfleshly Lusts incline him to Especially Tyrants and Multitudes who have none but God to fear And it is my certain duty to seek Heaven with all the fervour of my Soul and diligence of my life And is it not Best to find it § 15. 7. That must needs be Best for me which all other things must be forsaken for It is folly to forsake the Better for the worse But Scripture Reason and Conscience tell me that all this World when it stands in competition or opposition should be forsaken for Heaven yea for the least hopes of it A possible everlasting Glory should be preferred before a certainly perishing Vanity I am sure this life will shortly be nothing to me and therefore it is next to nothing now And must I forsake all for my everlasting Hopes and yet be unwilling to pass unto the possession of them § 16. 8. That is like to be our Best which is our Maturest state Nature carrieth all things towards their perfection Our Apples Pears Grapes and every Fruit is best when it is ripe And though they then hasten to corruption that is through the incapacity of the corporeal materials any longer to retain the Vegetative Spirit which is not annihilated at its separation and being not made for its own felicity but for Mans its ripeness is the state in which Man useth it before it doth corrupt of itself that its corruption may be for his nutriment and the Spirits and best matter of his said food doth become his very substance And doth God cause Saints to grow up unto ripeness only to perish and drop down unto useless rottenness It is not credible Though our Bodies become but like our filthiest excrements our Souls return to God that gave them And though he need them not he useth them in their separated state and that to such heavenly uses as their heavenly Maturity and Mellowness hath disposed them to Seeing then Love hath ripened me for itself shall I not willingly drop into its hand § 17. 9. That is like to be the Best which the Wisest and Holiest in all Ages of the World have preferred before all and have most desired And which also almost all Mankind do acknowledge to be best at last It is not like that all the Best men in the World should be most deceived and be put upon fruitless labour and sufferings by this deceit and be undone by their duty and that God should by such deceits rule all or almost all Mankin And also that the common notices of humane Nature and Consciences last and closest documents should be all in vain But it is past all doubt that no men usually are worse than those that have no Belief or Hopes of any Life but this And that none are so Holy Just and Sober so charitable to others and so useful to Mankind as those that firmliest believe and hope for the state of immortality And shall I fear that state which all that were wise and holy in All Ages have preferred and desired § 18. 10. And it is not unlike that my Best state is that which my greatest Enemies are mâ—st against And how much Satan doth to keep me and other men from Heaven and how much worldly Honour and Pleasure and Wealth he could afford us to accomplish it I need not here again be copious in reciting having said so much of it elsewhere And shall I be towards my self so much of Satans mind He would not have me come to Heaven And shall I also be unwilling All these things tell me that It is Best to be with Christ II. The Final Reasons § 1. II 1. Is it not far better to dwell with GOD in Glory than with sinful men in such a World as this Though he be every where his Glory which we must behold to our Felicity and the perfecting Operations and Communications of his Love are in the glorious World and not on Earth As the Eye is made to see the Light and then to see other things by the Light so is mans mind made to see God and to Love him and other things as in by and for him He that is our beginning is our end And our End is the first Motive of all Moralaction and for It it is that all means are used And the End attained is the Rest of Souls How oft hath my Soul groaned under the sense of Distance and Darkness and Estrangeness from God! How oft hath it looked up and gasped after him and said O when shall I be nearer and better acquianted with my God As the Heart panteth after the
intuitively and as Face to Face That which is essentially Life as a Living Principle will Live And that which is essentially an Active Intellective Volitive principle force and Virtue will still be such while it is itself and is not annihilated or changed into another thing which is not to be feared And that which is such can never want an Object till all things be annihilated § 8. Reason assureth me that were my will now what it should be and fully obsequious herein to my understanding to fulfil Gods will would be the fulfilling my own will for my will should perfectly comply with His and to please him perfectly would be my perfect pleasure And it is the unreasonable adhesion to this Body and sinful selfishness which maketh any one think otherwise now I am sure that my Soul shall Live for it is Life itself and I am sure that I shall live to God and that I shall fulfil and please his blessed will and this is as such incomparably better than my Felicity as such And yet so far as I am pleased in so doing it will be my Felicity § 9. I begin now to think that the strange Love which the Soul hath to this Body so far as it is not inordinate is put into us of God partly to signifie to us the great Love which Christ hath to his Mystical Political Body and to every member of it even the least He will gather all his Elect out of the World and none that come to him shall be shut out and none that are given him shall be lost As his Flesh is to them Meat indeed and his Blood is to them Drink indeed and he nourisheth them for Life eternal His Spirit in them turning the Sacrament the Word and Christ himself in esse objectivo as Believed in into Spirit and Life to us as the Soul and our Natural Spirits turn our food into Flesh and Blood and Spirits which in a dead Body or any lifeless repository it would never be so as we delight in the ease and prosperity of our Body and each Member and have pleasure in the pleasant food that nourisheth it and other pleasant Objects which accommodate it Christ also delighteth in the welfare of his Church and of all the Faithful and is pleased when they are fed with good and pleasant Food and when hereby they prosper Christ Loveth the Church not only as a Man must love his Wife but as we Love our Bodies And no Man ever hated his own Flesh Eph. 5. 27 c. And herein I must allow my Saviour the preeminence to overgo me in powerful faithful Love He will save me better from pain and death than I can save my Body and will more inseparably hold me to himself If it please my Soul to dwell in such a House of Clay and to operate on so mean a thing as Flesh how greatly will it please my glorified Lord to dwell with his glorified Body the triumphant Church and to cherish and bless each Member of it It would be a kind of death to Christ to be separated from his Body and to have it die Whether Augustine and the rest of the Fathers were in the right or no who thought that as our Bodies do not only shed their Hairs but by sicknesses and wast lose much of their very Flesh so Christ's Militant Body doth not only lose Hypocrites but also some living justified Members yet certain it is that confirmed Members and more certain that glorified Members shall not be lost Heaven is not a place for Christ or us to suffer such loss in And will Christ love me better than I love my Body Will he be lother to lose me than I am to lose a Member or to die Will he not take incomparably greater pleasure in animating and actuating me for ever than my Soul doth in animating and actuating this Body O then let me long to be with him And though I am naturally loth to be absent from the Body let me be by his Spirit more unwilling to be absent from the Lord And though I would not be unclothed had not sin made it necessary let me groan to be clothed upon with my heavenly Habitation and to become the delight of my Redeemer and to be perfectly loved by Love itself § 10. And even this blessed Receptivity of my Soul in terminating the Love and Delight of my glorified Head must needs be a felicity to me The insensible Creatures are but Beautified by the Suns communication of its Light and Heat but the sensitives have also the Pleasure of it Shall my Soul be sensless will it be a Clod or Stone Shall that which is now the form of be then more Lifeless Sensless or uncapable than the form of Bruits is now Doubtless it will be a living perceiving sensible Recipient of the felicitating Love of God and my Redeemer I shall be loved as a living Spirit and not as a dead and senseless thing that doth not comfortably perceive it § 11. And if I must rejoice with my fellow Servants that rejoice shall I not be glad to think that my blessed Lord will rejoice in me and in all his glorified Ones Union will make his pleasure to be much mine And it will be aptly said by him to the faithful Soul Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Mat. 25. 21. His own active Joy will objectively be Ours as Ours will be Efficiently His or from Him Can that be an ill condition to me in which my Lord will most rejoice It is Best to Him and therefore Best to me § 12. And the heavenly Society will joyfully welcome a Holy Soul If there be now Joy in Heaven among the Angels for one Sinner that Repenteth who hath yet so little Holiness and so much Sin What joy will there be over a perfected glorified Soul Surely if Our Angels there behold our Fathers Face they will be glad in Season of our Company The Angels that carried Lazarus to Abraham's Bosom no doubt rejoiced in their work and their success And is the Joy of Angels and the heavenly Host as nothing to me Will not Love and Union make their Joy to be my own if Love here must make all my Friends and Neighbours comforts to become my own And as their Joy according to their Perfection is greater than any that I am now capable of so the participation of so great a Joy of theirs will be far better than to have my little separated apartment Surely that will be my best condition which Angels and blessed Spirits will be best pleased in and I shall rejoice most in that which they most rejoice in III. The Constitutive Reasons from the Intellective state III. § 1. Though the Tempter would persuade men because of the case of Infants in the Womb Apoplectick's c. that the understanding will be but an unactive Power when separated from these corporeal Organs I have seen before sufficient Reasons to repel this
entrance of the Inheritance of Saints And yet alas Darkness Darkness is still my misery There is Light round about me in thy word and works but darkness is within me And if my Eye be dark the Sun will be no Sun to me Alas my Lord it is noâ— all the Learning in the World no not of Theology that consisteth in the knowledge of Words and Methods which I can take for the satisfactory heavenly Light To know what thou hast written in the Sacred Book is nor enough to make me know my glorified Saviour my Father and my home It must be a Light from Heaven that must shew me Heaven and a Light accompanied with Vital heat that must turn to Love and Joy within me O Let me not have only dreaming knowledge of Words and Signs but quickning Light to shew the Things which these words do signifie to my Mâ—nd and Heart Surely the Faith By which we must live must be a lâ—ving Faith And must reach further than to Words how true soever Can Faith live in the Dark What is it but an effect of thine Illumination What is my Unbelief but the Darkness of my Soul Lord Iesus scatter all these mists Make thy way O thou Son of Righteousness into this benighred mind O send thine Advocate to silence every temptation that is against thy truth and thee and thine Agent to prosecute thy cause against thine Enemies and mine and to be the resident Witness of thy Verity and my Sonship and Salvation Hearing of thee is not satisfactory to me It must be the Presence and Operation of thy Light and Love shed abroad by thy Spirit on my Heart that must quiet and content my Soul I confess with shame that I have sinned against Heaven and before thee and am unworthy to have any glimpse or taste of Heaven But so did many that are now entertained and feasted by thy Love in Glory My Lord I know that Heaven is not far from me It is not I believe one Days or Hours journey to a separated Soul How quick is the communion of my Eyes with the Sun that seems far off And couldst thou not shew it me in a moment Is not Faith a seeing Grace It can see the invisible God and the unseen World the new Jerusalem the innumerable Angels and the Spirits of the perfected Just if it be animated by thine influx Without which it can do nothing and is nothing Thou that oft healedst the Blind here in the Flesh didst tell us that it is much more thy work to illuminate Souls It is but forgiving all my sins and removing this film that sin hath gathered and my illuminated Soul will see thy Glory I know that the vail of Flesh must be also rent before I shall see thee with open Face and know my fellow Citizens above as I am known It is not Heaven on Earth that I am begging for But that I may see it from Mount Nebo and have the bunch of Grapes the Pledge and the first Fruits that Faith and Hope which may kindle Love and Desire and make me run my Race in Patience and live and die in the Joy which beseemeth an Heir of Heaven But if my part on Earth must be no greater than yet it is let it make me the wearier of this Dungeon and groan more fervently to be with thee and long for the day when all my longing shall be satisfied and my Soul be filled with thy light and love § 24. And doubtless as I shall love the Angels and Saints in Heaven so I shall some way in subordination to Christ be a Receiver from them Our love will be mutual And which way soever I owe duty I shall expect some answerable return of benefit The Sun shineth upon the Stars as well as on the Earth and the Stars on one another If Angels are greatly useful to me here it 's like they will be much more there where I shall be a more capable receiver It will be no diminution to Christ's honour that he there maketh use of my fellow Creatures to my joy no more than it is here The whole Creation will be still one compaginated frame and the heavenly Society will for ever retain their Relation to each other and their aptitude and disposition to the duties and benefits of those Relations And as we shall be far sitter for them than here we are so shall we have far more comfort in them How gloriously will God shine in the glory of the Blessed How delightful will it be to see their Perfection in Wisdom Holiness Love and Concord What Voices they use or what Communication instead of Voices we shall shortly know But surely there is a blessed harmony of Minds and Wills and Practice All are not equal but all accord to love and praise their glorious God and readily to obey him and perfectly to love each other There is no jarring or discordant Spirit that is out of tune no separation or opposition to each other As God's love in Christ is our full and final happiness so Nature which hath made us sociable teacheth us to desire to be loved of each other but especially by wise and worthy Persons Saints and Angels in Heaven will love incomparably better than our dearest Friends on Earth can do and better than they did themselves when we were on Earth For they will love that best which is best and where there is most of God appearing Else it were not intellectual love And therefore they will love us as much better when we come to Heaven as we shall be better If we go from loving friends on Earth we shall go to them that love us far more The love of these here doth but pitty us in our pains and go weeping with our Carkasses to the Grave But the love of those above will joyfully convoy or welcome out Souls to their triumphing Society All the holy Friends that we thought we had lost that went before us we shall find rejoicing there with Christ And O what a glorious state will be that common uniting and united love If two or three Candles joined together make a greater flame and light what would Ten thousand Stars united do When all the LOVE of Angels and Saints in full Perfection shall be so united as to make ONE LOVE to God that is One and to one another who are there all one in Christ O what a glorious LOVE will that be That LOVE and JOY will be the same thing And that One universal LOVE will be One universal JOY Little know we how great a Mercy it is to be here commanded to love our Neighbours as our selves and much more to be effectually taught of God so to love one another And did we all here live in such unfeigned Love we should be like to Heaven as bearing the Image of the God of Love But alas our Societies here are small our Goodness which is our Amiableness wofully imperfect and mixt with loathsom
doubtingly whether thy heavenly Father and thy Lord doth love thee Canst thou forget the sealed Testimonies of it Did I not even now repeat so many as should shame thy doubts A multitude of thy Friends have loved thee so entirely that thou canst not doubt of it And did any of them signifie their love with the convincing evidence that God hath done Have they done for thee what he hath done Are they Love itself Is their love so full so firm and so unchangeable as his I think the sweetlier of Heaven because abundance of my ancient Lovely and Loving Holy Friends are there and am the willinger by Death to follow them And should I not think of it more pleasedly because my God and Father my Saviour and my Comforter is there And not alone but with all the Society of Love Was not Lazarus in the Bosom of God himself yet it is said that he was in Abraham's Bosom as the Promise runs that we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God And what maketh the Society of Saints so sweet as holy Love It is comfortable to read that To love the Lord our God with all our Heart and Soul and might is the First and great Commandment and the Second is like to it To Love our Neighbours as our selves For God's Commands proceed from that Will which is his Nature or Essence and they tend to the same as their Objective end Therefore he that hath made Love the Great Command doth tell us that LOVE is the Great conception of his own Essence the spring of that Command and that this commanded imperfect Love doth tend to perfect heavenly Love even to our communion with Essential Infinite Love It were strange that the Love and Goodness which is equal to the Power that made the World and the Wisdom that ordereth it should be scant and backward to do good and to be suspected more than the Love of Friends The remembrance of the holiness humility love and faithfulness of my dearest Friends of every Rank with whom I have conversed on Earth in every place where I have lived is so sweet to me that I am oft ready to recreate my self with the naming of such as are now with Christ But in Heaven they will love me better than they did on Earth and my love to them will be more pleasant But all these Sparks are little to the Sun Every place that I have lived in was a place of Divine Love which there set up its obliging Monuments Every Year and Hour of my life hath been a time of Love Every Friend and every Neigbour yea every Enemy have been the Messengers and Instruments of Love Every state and change of my life notwithstanding my sin hath opened to me Treasures and Mysteries of Love And after such a life of Love shall I doubt whether the same God do love me Is he the God of the Mountains and not of the Valleys Did he love me in my youth and health And doth he not love me in my Age and Pain and Sickness Did he love all the Faithful better in their life than at their Death If our hope be not chiefly in this life neither is our state of Love which is principally the heavenly endless Grace My groans grieve my Friends but abate not their love Did he love me for my strength my weakness might be my fear as they that love for Beauty loath them that are deformed and they that love for Riches despise the Poor But God loved me when I was his Enemy to make me a Friend and when I was bad to make me better What ever he taketh pleasure in is his own gift Who made me to differ And what have I that I have not received And God will finish the Work the Building the Warfare that is his own O the multitude of Mercies to my Soul and Body in Peace and War in Youth and Age to my self and friends the many great and gracious deliverances which have testified to me the Love of God! Have I lived in the experience of it and shall I die in the doubts of it Had it been Love only to my Body it would have died with me and not have accompanied my departing Soul I am not much in doubt of the truth of my Love to him Though I have not seen him save as in a Glass as in a Glass seen I love him I love my Brethren whom I have seen and those most that are most in Love with him I love his Word and Works and Ways and fain I would be nearer him and love him more and I loath my self for loving him no better And shall Peter say more confidently Thou knowest that I love thee than I know that thou lovest me Yes he may because though God's Love is greater and stedfaster than ours yet our knowledge of his great love is less than his knowledge of our little love and as we are defective in our own Love so are we in our certainty of its sincerity And without the knowledge of our Love to God we can never be sure of his special love to us But yet I am not utterly a stranger to my self I know for what I have lived and laboured in the World And who it is that I have desired to please The God whose I am and whom I serve hath loved me in my youth and he will love me in my aged weakness My Flesh and my Heart fail my pains seem grievous to the Flesh But it is LOVE that chooseth them that useth them for my good that moderateth them and will shortly end them Why then should I doubt of my Fathers Love Shall pain or dying make me doubt Did God love none from the beginning of the World but Henoch and Elias And what am I better than my fore-Fathers What is in me that I should expect exemption from the common lot of all Mankind Is not a competent time of great Mercy on Earth in order to the unseen felicity all that the best of men can hope for O for a clearer stronger Faith to shew me the World that more excelleth this than this excelleth the Womb where I was conceived Then should I not fear my third Birth day what pangs soever go before it nor be unwilling of my change The Grave indeed is a Bed that Nature doth abhor Yet there the weary be at rest But Souls new born have a double Nature that is Immortal and go to the place that is agreeable to their Nature even to the Region of Spirits and the Region of Holy Love Even passive Matter that hath no other Natural motion hath a Natural Inclination to uniting aggregative motion And God maketh all Natures suitable to their proper ends and use How can it be that a Spirit should not incline to be with Spirits And Souls that have the Divine Nature in holy Love desire to be with the God of Love Arts and Sciences and Tongues become not
a Nature to us Else they would not cease at Death But holy LOVE is our New Nature and therefore ceaseth not with this bodily life And shall accidental love make me desire the company of a frail and mutable Friend And shall not this ingrafted inseparable love make me long to be with Christ Though the love of God to all his Creatures will not prove that they are all Immortal nor oblige them to expect another life that never had Capacity or Faculties to expect it yet his love to such as in Nature and Grace are made capable of it doth warrant and oblige them to believe and hope for the full Perfection of the work of love Some comfort themselves in the love of St. Peter as having the Keys of Heaven And how many could I name that are now with Christ who loved me so faithfully on Earth that were I sure they had the Keys and Power of Heaven and were not changed in their Love I could put my departing Soul into their Hands and die with joy And is it not better in the Hand of my Redeemer and of the God of Love and Father of Spirits Is any love comparable to his Or any Friend so boldly to be trusted I should take it for ungrateful unkindness in my Friend to doubt of my love and trustiness if I had given him all that he hath and maintained him constantly by my kindness But O how odious a thing is sin Which by destroying our love to God doth make us unmeer to believe and sweetly perceive his Love And by making us doubt of the Love of God and lose the pleasant relish of it doth more increase our difficulty of loving him The Title that the Angel gave to Daniel A Man greatly beloved of God methinks should be enough to make one joyfully love and trust God both in life and death Will Almighty LOVE ever hurt me or forsake me And have not all Saints that Title in their degrees What else signifieth their Mark and Name HOLINESS TO THE LORD What is it but our separation to God as his peculiar beloved People And how are they separated but by mutual love and our forsaking all that alienateth or is contrary Let Scorners deride us as self flatterers that believe they are God's Darlings and wo to the Hypocrites that believe it on their false Presumption without such belief or grounded hopes I see not how any Man can die in true Peace He that is no otherwise beloved than Hypocrites and Unbelievers must have his portion with them And he that is no otherwise beloved than as the ungodly unholy and unregenerate shall not stand in judgment nor see God nor enter into his Kingdom Most upright Souls are to blame for groundless doubting of God's Love but not for acknowledging it rejoicing in it and in their doubts being most solicitous to make it sure Love brought me into the World and furnished me with a Thousand Mercies Love hath provided for me delivered me and preserved me till now And will it not entertain my separated Soul Is God like false or insufficient Friends that forsake us in adversity I confess that I have wronged LOVE by sin by many and great unexcusable sins But all save Christ himself were sinners which love did purifie and receive to Glory God who is rich in Mercy for the great love wherewith he loved us even when we were dead in sins hath quickned us together with Christ by Grace we are saved and hath raised us up together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus Eph. 2. 4 5 6. O that I could love much that have so much forgiven The glorified praised him who loved us and washed us from our sins in his own Blood and made us Kings and Priests to God Rev. 1. 5 6. Our Father that hath loved us giveth us consolation and good hope through Grace 2 Thess 2. 16. I know no sin which I repent not of with self-loathing And I earnestly beg and labour that none of my sins may be to me unknown I dare not justifie even what is any way uncertain though I dare not call all that my sin which siding men of differing judgments on each side passionately call so While both sides do it on contrary accounts and not to go contrary ways is a Crime O that God would bless my accusations to my illumination that I may not be unknown to my self Though some think me much better than I am and others much worse it most concerneth me to know the Truth my self flattery would be more dangerous to me than false accusations I may safelier be ignorant of other mens sins than of my own Who can understand his errours Cleanse me Lord from secret sins and let not ignorance or errour keep me in impenitence and keep thou me back from presumptuous sins Psal 19. 12 13. I have an Advocate with the Father and thy Promise that he that confesseth and forsaketh his sins shall have Mercy Those are by some men taken for my greatest sins which my most serious Thoughts did judge to be the greatest of my outward duties and which I performed through the greatest difficulties and which cost me dearest to the Flesh and the greatest self-denial and patience in my reluctant Mind Where-ever I have erred Lord make it known to me that my confession may prevent the sin of others and where I have not erred confirm and accept me in the right And seeing an unworthy Worm hath had so many Testimonies of thy tender love let me not be like them Mal. 1. 1 2. that when thou saidst I have loved you unthankfully asked Wherein hast thou loved us Heaven is not more spangled with Stars than thy Word and Works with the refulgent Signatures of Love Thy well beloved Son the Son of thy Love undertaking the Office Message and Work of the greatest Love was full of that Spirit which is Love which he sheds abroad in the Hearts of thine Elect that the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the communion of the Spirit may be their hope and life His Works his Sufferings his Gifts as well as his comfortable Word did say to his Disciples Joh. 15. 9. As the Father loved me so have I loved you continue ye in my love And how Lord shall we continue in it but by the thankful belief of thy love and loveliness desiring still to love thee more and in all things to know and please thy Will Which thou knowest is my Souls desire Behold then O my Soul with what Love the Father Son and Holy Spirit have loved thee that thou should be made and called a Son of God redeemed regenerate adopted into that Covenant-state of Grace in which thou standest Rejoice therefore in hope of the Gâ—ory of God Rom. 5. 1 2. being justified by Faith having Peace with God and access by Faith and Hope that maketh not ashamed that being reconciled when an Enemy by the Death of Christ I shall be saved
by his life Having loved his own to the end he loveth them and without end His Gifts and Calling are without Repentance When Satan and thy Flesh would hide God's love look to Christ and read the golden words of Love in the Sacred Gospel and peruse thy many recorded experiences and remember the convictions which secret and open Mercies have many a time afforded thee But especially draw nearer to the Lord of Love and be not seldom and slight in thy contemplations of his Love and Loveliness Dwell in the Sun-shine and thou wâ—lt know that it is light and warm and comfortable Distance and strangeness cherish thy doubts Acquaint thy self with him and be at peace Yet look up and oft and earnestly look up after thy ascended glorified Head who said Tell my Brethren I ascend to my Father and your Father to my God and your God! Think where and what he is and what he is now doing for all his own and how humbled abased suffering Love is now Triumphant regnant glorified Love and therefore no less than in all its tender expressions upon Earth As Love is no where perfectly revealed but in Heaven so I can no where so fully discern it as by looking up by Faith to my Father and Saviour which is in Heaven and conversing more believingly with the heavenly Society Had I done this more and better and as I have persuaded others to do it I had lived in more convincing delights of God's Love which would have turned the fears of Death into joyfuller hopes and more earnest desires to be with Christ in the Arms in the World in the life of Love as far better than to be here in a dark a doubting fearing World But O my Father Infinite LOVE though my Arguments be many and strong my Heart is bad and my strength is weakness and I am insufficient to plead the cause of thy Love and Loveliness to my self or others O plead thy own cause and what Heart can resist Let it not be my word only but Thine that thou lovest me even me a Sinner speak it as Christ said to Lazarus Arise If not as thou tellest me that the Sun is warm yet as thou hast told me that my Parents and my dearest Friends did love me and much more powerfully than so Tell it me as thou tellest me that thou hast given me life by the consciousness and works of life That while I can say Thou that knowest all things Knowest that I love Thee it may include therefore I know that I am beloved of thee and therefore come to thee in the confidence of thy Love and long to be nearer in the clearer sight the fuller sense and joyfuller exercise of Love for ever Father into thy Hand I commend my Spirit Lord Jesus receive my Spirit Amen AN APPENDIX A Breviate of the Helps of Faith Hope and Love A Breviate of the proof of Supernatural Revelation and the Truth of Christianity 1 TIM 3. 16. Without Controversie great is the Mystery of Godliness God was manifested in the Flesh justified in the Spirit seen of Angels preached to the Gentiles believed on in the World received up into Glory THese are the Creed or Six Articles of the Gospel which the Apostles preached § 1. I. God manifested in the Flesh of Jesus is the first and great Article Believe this and believe all No wonder that believing that Jesus Christ is the Son of God is so often made in Scripture the description of saving Faith the Title to Baptism and Pardon and Salvation the Evidence of the Spirit c. He that truly and practically believeth that God came in Flesh to Man and that Christ is the Fathers Messenger from Heaven must needs believe that God hath a great value for the Souls of men and for his Church that he despiseth not even our Flesh that his Word is true and fully to be trusted that he who so wonderfully came to Man will certainly take up Man to him Who can doubt of the Immortality of Souls or that Christ will receive the departing Souls of the Faithful to himself who believeth that he took Man's Nature and hath glorified it now in Heaven in union with the Divine Who can ever have low Thoughts of God's love and Mercy who believeth this And who can prostitute his Soul and Flesh to wickedness who firmly believeth that he took the Soul and Flesh of Man to sanctifie and glorifie it § 2. II. The holy Spirit is the Justification of the Truth of Jesus Christ He is Christ's Advocate and Witness to the World He proveth the Gospel by these five ways of Evidence I. By all the Prophesies Types and Promises of Christ in the Old Testament before Christs coming II. By the Inherent impress of God's Image on the Person and Doctrine of Christ VVhich Propria luce sheweth itself to be Divine III. By the concomitant Miracles of Christ Read the History of the Gospel for this use and observe each History IV. By the subsequent gift of the Spirit to the Apostles and other Christians by Languages wonders and multitudes of Miracles to convince the VVorld V. By the undeniable and excellent work of Sanctification on all true Believers through all the VVorld in all generations to this day These five are the Spirits VVitness which fully justifieth the certain Truth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God § 3. Quest But how are we sure who our selves never saw the Person Miracles Resurrection Ascension of Christ that the History of them is true Answ 1. We may be sure that the Spectators were not deceived II. And that they did not deceive them to whom they reported it III. And that we are not deceived by any miscarriage in the historical Tradition to us § 4. I. It was not possible that men that were not mad that had Eyes and Ears could for three Years and a half believe that they saw the Lame the Blind the Deaf and all Diseases healed the Dead raised Thousands miraculously fed c. and this among crouds of People that still followed Christ if the things had not been true One Man's Senses may be deceived at some one instance by some deceitful accident But that the Eyes and Ears of Multitudes should be so oft deceived many years in the open Light is as much as to say No Man knoweth any thing that he seeth and heareth § 5. II. That the Disciples who received the Apostles and Evangelists report of Christ were not deceived by the Reporters is most evident For 1. They received it not by hearsay at the second hand but from the Eye and Ear Witnesses themselves who must needs know what they said 2. They heard this report from Men of the same Time and Age and Countrey where it was easy to examine the case and confute it had it been false 3. The Apostles appealed to crouds and Thousands of Witnesses as to many of Christ's Miracles who would have made it odious had it not been
that I understand and by willing that I will c. 2. I am sure by these Acts that I have the power or faculties to do them For none doth that which it cannot do 3. And I know that it is a substance that hath these powers For nothing can do nothing My Soul then being certainly an intellective Volitive Vital substance 1. I have no reason to think that God who annihilateth not the least Sand will annihilate so noble a substance 2. Nor that he will destroy those Powers which are its Essential form and turn it into some other thing 3. Nor that such Essential powers shall lie as dead unactive and so be continued in vain 4. There remaining therefore nothing uncertain to natural Reason but the continuance of Individuation to separate Souls 1. Apparitions and Wirches cases have put that out of doubt notwithstanding many Fables and Delusions 2. Christ hath put it more out of doubt 3. While substance faculties and acts continue it is the errour of our selfish state in Flesh which maketh any fear too near a Union which shall end our individuation The greatest Union will be the greatest Perfection and no loss to Souls XVII God's wonderful Providences for the Church and single Saints on Earth are such as tell us of that love and care which will bring them afterwards to him XVIII The Nature of God taketh off the terrour of my departure much I am sure I shall die at the will and into the Hand of Infinite Essential Love and Goodness whose love should draw up my longing Soul XIX I am going to a God whose Mercies have â—ong told me that he loveth me better than my dearest Friend doth and better than I love my self and is a far better chooser of my lot XX. As he hath absolute right to dispose of his own so indeed the fulfilling of his Will is the ultimate end of all things and therefore most desirable in itself And his will shall be fulfilled on me XXI I go to a glorified Saviour who came down to fetch me up and hath conquered and sanctified Death and made it my Birth-day for Glory and taketh me for his dear bought own and interest and is in Glory ready to receive his own XXII I go to that Saviour who on the Cross commended his Spirit into his Fathers Hand and taught me with dying Stephen to say Lord Jesus receive my Spirit XXIII I go no solitary untrodden way but follow all the Faithful since the death of Abel to this day save Henoch and Elias who all went by Death into that glorious World where I shall find them XXIV I have so long groaned under a languid Body and in a blind distracted and by Man uncurable World where Satan by Lies Malice and Murder reigneth in alas how many and specially am so weary of my own darkness and sinful imperfection that I have great reason to be willing of deliverance XXV I have had so large a share of Mercies in this World already in time and manifold comforts from God that reason commandeth me to rest in God's time for my removal XXVI I shall leave some fruits not useless to serve the Church when I am gone and if good be done I have my end XXVII When I am gone God will raise up and use others to do his appointed work on Earth And a Church shall be continued to his praise And the Spirits in Heaven will rejoice therein XXVIII When I am gone I shall not wish to be again on Earth XXIX Satan by his temptations and all his instruments would never have done so much as he doth in the World to keep us from Heaven if there were not a Heaven which Conquerors obtain XXX When darkness and uncertainty of the manner of the action and fruition of separated Souls would daunt me it is enough to know explicitely so much as is explicitely revealed and implicitely to trust Christ with all the rest Our Eyes are in our Head who knoweth for us Knowledg of Glory is part of fruition And therefore we must expect here no more than is suited to a life of Faith XXXI All my part is to do my own duty and then trust God obeying his commanding will and fully and joyfully resting in his disposing and rewarding will There is no rest for Souls but in the Will of God and there with full Trust to repose our Souls in Life and at Death is the only way of a safe and comfortable departure XXXII The glorious Marriage day of the Lamb cannot now be far off when the number of the Elect shall be compleat and Christ will come with his glorious Angels and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all Believers and there shall be a New Heaven and a New Earth wherein dwelleth Righteousness and that Kingdom shall come where that which God hath prepared for them that love him Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor hath it entred into the Heart of Man to have a formal full conception of it Come Lord Jesus come quickly Amen Fear not then O my Soul to lay down this Flesh Mercy hath kept it up for my preparing work but O what a burdensom and chargeable a Companion hath it been Is it better than the dwelling place of perfect Spirits O what are my groans and all my cold and faint Petitions and my dull Thanksgiving to their harmonious joyful Praise If a Day in God's Courts be better than a Thousand what is a Day yea what is Everlastingness in the heavenly Society and Work O how hateful a thing is darkness and unbelief when the remnants of them thus stop poor Souls in their ascent And make us half unwilling to go home What! unwilling to be with my glorified Lord Unwilling to be with Saints and Angels who are all Life Light and Love Unwilling to see the Glory of Jehovah O foolish sinful Soul Hath Christ done so much to purchase the heavenly Glory for thee and now art thou unwilling to go into the possession of it Hast thou been seeking and praying and labouring and suffering so many Years for that which now thou seemest scarce willing to obtain Dost thou not judge thy self unworthy of Eternal Life when thou no more desirest to enjoy it All this is long of thy too much adherence unto SELF and SENSE Thou art still desiring sensitive satisfaction and not content to know thy part wouldst know that for thy self which Christ knoweth for thee As if thou couldst better trust thy self than him Fear not weak Soul it is our Fathers good pleasure to give thee the Kingdom Trust infinite Power Wisdom and Love Trust that faithful gracious Saviour who hath so wonderfully merited to be trusted Trust that promise which never deceived any one and which is confirmed by so many Miracles and by the Oath and by the Spirit of God Whenever thou departest from this house of Flesh the Arms of Mercy are open to embrace thee yea
fettereth an active Spirit and we sleep or turn away in wandering Thoughts when we should seriously converse with Christ and Heaven Alas what unworthy Servants hath our Lord Are such as these meet for his work his Love his Acceptance or his Kingdom But O how merciful a Saviour have we who taketh not his poor Servants at the worst but when they after served him thus in his Agony he gently rebuketh them Could you not watch with me one Hour and that with an excuse The Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak § 18. It is a matter of great Moment to understand in what cases this excuse will hold and our weakness will not make the willingness of the Spirit unacceptable to God If a Drunkard Fornicator or other Sensualist should say My Spirit is willing to leave my sin but my Flesh is weak and in temptation doth prevail Video meliora proboque c. This excuse would not prove God's forgiveness If a Man live in known sin which he could forbear were he truly willing and say To will is present with me but to do I am unable it is not I but sin that dwelleth in me this would be but a frivolous excuse And yet to the sleepy Disciples it was a good excuse and I think to Paul Rom 7. where then is the dâ—fference There are some acts of Man which the will hath not power to rule and some that it can rule The will hath not power always to keep a sleepy Man awake This sleep might be of the Flesh without any will at all And this excuseth from all guilt There are some acts of Man which the will cannot rule but by a great degree of power and endeavour As perhaps with much ado by preventing and resisting diligence the Disciples might have kept awake In this case their sleep is a fault but a pardoned fault of weakness Some Persons are liable to inordinate Fear and Grief which so surprizeth them by the Constitution of their Bodies that the greatest unwillingness would not hinder them And some could do more to resist these passions than they do but very hardly with the greatest diligence These are accordingly excusable in degree Paul would have perfectly obeyed God's Law and never have sinned But there is no Perfection in this Life Meer Imperfection of true Grace which is predominant in the will doth not damn men But there are acts which are so subject to the will that a sincere will though imperfect can command them He that doth these or doth the contrary it is not because he sincerely would and cannot but because he hath but uneffectual wishes and is not sincerely willing if he know them to be what they are Especially if they be materially great sins which he yieldeth to which true Grace more strongly resisteth than it doth an idle word or thought or action In short all omissions or commissions in which the will is positively or privatively guilty are sinful in some degree but only these do damn the Sinner which are inconsistent with the predominant Love of God and Heaven and Holiness in the Soul § 19. When the Disciples awaked they saw these glorious ones in converse Did they hear what they said or did Christ after tell them The later is most probable Doubtless as Moses tells us how God made the World which none could tell him but by God's telling them first so the Apostles have written many things of Christ which they neither saw nor heard but from Christ that told it them by Word or Inspiration How else knew they what Satan said and did to him in his Temptations in the Wilderness and on the Pinacle of the Temple How knew they what his Prayer was in his Agony And so in this instance also But Christ's own testimony was enough to put them out of Doubt to them that daily saw his confirming Miracles § 20. How great a difference was there between Mount Sinai and this Mount When God delivered the Law to Moses that Mount was terrible in Flame and Smoak and Thunder so that the People trembled and fled But now here is nothing but Life and Light and Love from Heaven A merciful Redeemer whose Face shined as the Sun with heavenly Company appearing nearly to the Disciples pittying and bearing with their heaviness and infirmity strengthning their Faith and Hope and proving to them a Resurrection and a heavenly Kingdom by a visible Apparition of some of its Possessors This was not a frightful but a confirming delectable sight The Law in terrour was by Moses but Grace and Truth Peace and Pleasure are by Christ This was an inviting and delighting and not an affrighting Apparition Was it not a shameful infirmity and a sin that Peter should deny Christ after such a sight as this and the rest of the Disciples forsake him and fly What! after they had seen the Kingdom of God come in Power and Christ's Face shine as the Sun in its brightness Could they forget all this Or could they doubt whether he or his Persecutors were the stronger and liker to prevail at last O how frail how uncertain how bad a thing is depraved Man But though Christ found them asleep and though he foreknew that they would forsake him he forsook not them nor used them as they deserved but comforted them with a glimpse of Heaven For he died for his Enemies § 21. But this was but once in all the time of his abode among them It was an extraordinary Feast and not their daily Bread They had Christ still with them but not transfigured in Glory nor Moses and Elias in their sight We are too apt to think that if God give us a joyful extraordinary glimpse of Heaven we must have it always or that he forsaketh us and castus off when he denieth it us O that we were as desirous of Holiness and Duty as we are of the Joy which is the reward But our Father and not we must be the chooser both of our Food and Feast Moses did not dwell on Mount Nebo that he might still see the Land of Promise It was enough to have one sight of it before his death As Flesh and Blood cannot enter into Heaven so it 's little of Heaven that entereth into it § 22. When the Disciples awake they see his Glory and the two men that stood with him It must not be a sleeeping but an awakened Christian that will have a sight of heavenly Glory As we must love God with all the Heart and Soul and Might all must be awakened in seeking him and in attending him before we can have a joyful foretast of his Love Carnal security supine neglect and dull contempt are dispositions which render us uncapable of such delights Heavenly joys suppose a heavenly disposition and desires Angels sleep not nor are clogged with Bodies of Clay Earth hath no Wings It must be holy vivacity that must carry up a Soul to God notwithstanding the fetters of Flesh
not how erroneously they think The sensible souls of Bruits are substance And therefore are not annihilated at death But God put them under us and made them for us and us more nearly for himself Bruits have not Faculties to know and love God to meditate on him or praise him or by moral agency to obey his Precepts They desire not any higher felicity than they have God will have us use their service yea their lives and Flesh to tell us they were made for us He tells us not what he doth with them after death But whatever it is it is not annihilation and it 's like they are in a state still of service unto Man Whether united or how individuate we know not Nor yet whether those Philosophers are in the right that think that this Earth is but a small Image of the vast superiour Regions where there are Kingdoms answerable to these here where the Spirits of Bruits are in the like subjection in aerial Bodies to those low rational Spirits that inhabite the Aerial Regions as in Flesh they were to Man in Flesh But it 's enough for us that God hath given us Faculties to know love praise and obey him and trust him for Glory which he never gave to them because they were not made for things so high Every Creatures Faculties are suited to their use and ends And Love tells me that the blessed God who giveth to Bruits that life health and pleasure which they are made and fitted for will give his Servants that heavenly delight in the fulness of his Love and Praise and and mutual joyful Love to one another which Nature fundamentally and Grace more immediately hath made them fit for Blessed Jehovah for what tasts of this effused Love thou hast given me my Soul doth bless thee with some degree of gratitude and joy And for those further measures which I want and long for and which my pained languid state much needs and would raise my joyful hopes of Glory I wait I beg from day to day O give me now at the Door of Heaven some fuller taste of the heavenly Felicity Shed more abroad upon my Heart by the Holy Ghost that Love of thine which will draw up my longing Soul to thee rejoicing in hope of the Glory of God FINIS This is the true mean between George Keith the Quakers Doctrine of Continued Inspiration Intuition and that on the other extream Matth. 28. 18. Joh. 5. 22. Joh. 17. 2. Joh. 12. 26. Joh. 3. 16. Rom. 8. 35 36 37 30. * 1 Pet. 4. 6. They that died to or in the Flesh according to Men do live in the Spirit according to God * Indeed if the Soul were not Immortal the Resurrection were impossible It might be a new Creation of another Soul but not a Resurrection of the same if the same be annihilated It 's certain that the Jews believed the Immortality of the Soul in that they believed the Resurrection and future life of the same Man * Psal 34. 7. 91. 11 12. Luk. 15. 10. 1 Cor. 11. 10. Heb. 1. 14. 12. 22. 13. 2. Mat. 18. 10. 25. 31. 13. 39 49. Act. 5. 19. 8. 26. 12. 7. 23. * Of this see the Second Edition by Dr. More of Mr. Glanvile's Book of Apparitions called Atheismus Triumphatus †For the truth of this read Mr. Fairclough's Life * See what I have said of particular Testimonies in my Saints Rest and unreasonableness of Infidelity * 1 Joh. 5. 9 10 11. Gal. 5. 17. Rom. 7. Phil. 3. 7. to the 15. * Eph. 1. 14. 2 Cor. 1. 22. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 23. 2 Tim. 2. 19. Eph. 1. 13. 4. 30. 1 Joh. 5. 9 10. Heb. 10. 15. * This one Truth will give great Light into the Controversies about God's gracious Operations on the Soul For when he useth second Causes we see he Operateth according to their limited aptitude And Christ's humane Nature and all other second Causes are limited and operate variously and resistibly according to the Recipients capacity * Treat of Infidelity Luke 15. 10. And Mr. Beverly in his Great Soul of Man ☞
long to possess It is thy Saviour and his glorified Ones that are comprehensors and possessors And it is his knowledge which must now be most of thy satisfaction To seek his Prerogative to thy self is vain usurping arrogance Wouldst thou be a God and Saviour to thy self O consider how much of the fall is in this selfish care and desire to be as God in knowing that of Good and Evil which belongeth not to thee but to God to know Thou knowest past doubt that there is a God of Infinite Perfection who is the rewarder of them that diligently seek him Labour more to know thy duty to this God and absolutely Trust him as to the particularities of thy felicity and reward Thou didst trust thy Parents to provide thee food and raiment when thou didst but dutifully obey them Though they could have forsaken thee or killed thee every hour thou didst never fear it Thou hast trusted Physicians to give thee even ungrateful Medicines without enquiring after every ingredient or fearing lest they should wilfully give thee Poyson I trust a Barber with my Throat I trust a Boatman or Shipmaster with my life Yea my Horse that might cast me because I have no reason to distrust them saving their insufficiency and uncertainty as Creatures If a Pilote undertake to bring thee to the Indies thou canst trust his conduct though thou know thy self neither the Ship nor how to govern it neither the way nor the place to which thou art conveyed And must not thy God and Saviour be trusted to bring thee safe to Heaven unless he will satisfie all thy enquiries of the individuation and operation of Spirits Leave unsearchable and useless Questions to him that can easily resolve them and to those to whom the knowledge of them doth belong Thou dost but entangle thy self in sin and self-vexation while thou wouldst take God's work upon thee and wouldst know that for thy self which he must know for thee Thy knowledge and care for it did not precede nor prepare for thy Generation nor for the motion of one Pulse or Breath or for the Concoction of one bit of all thy Food or the continuance of thy life one hour supposing but thy care to use the means which God appointed thee and to avoid things hurtful and to beg his Blessing The command of being careful for nothing and casting all thy care on God who careth for us obligeth us in all things that are God's part and for our Souls as well as for our Bodies Yea to Trust him with the greatest of our concerns is our greatest duty supposing we be careful about our own part viz. to use the means and obey his Precepts To dispose of a departing Soul is God's part and not ours O how much evil is in this distrustful self-providing Care If I did but know what I would know about my Soul and my Self and if I might but choose what condition it should be in and be the final disposer of it my Self O what satisfaction and joy would it afford me And is not this to be partly a God to my self Is he not fitter to know and choose and dispose of me than I am I could Trust my self easily even my Wit and Will in such a Choice if I had but power And cannot I trust God and my Redeemer without all this care and fear and trouble and all these particular enquiries If you are convoying your Child in a Boat or Coach by Water or by Land and at every turn he be crying out O Father whither do we go Or what shall I do or I shall be drowned or fall Is it not rather his Trust in you than the particular satisfaction of his ignorant doubts that must quiet and silence him Be not then foolishly distrustful and inquisitive Make not thy self thy own disquieter or tormentor by an inordinate care of thy own security Be not cast down O departing Soul nor by unbelief disquieted within me Trust in God for thou shalt quickly by experience be taught to give him thanks and praise who is the health of my countenance and my God § 14. O what clear reason What great experience do command me to Trust him absolutely and implicitly to Trust him and to distrust my self 1. He is Essential Infinite Perfection Power Wisdom and Love There is in him all that should invite and encourage rational trust and nothing that should discourage it 2. There is nothing in any Creature to be trusted but God in that Creature or God working in and by it Distrust him and there is nothing to be trusted Not the Earth to bear me nor the Air to breath in much less any mutable Friend 3. I am altogether his Own His Own by right and his own by devotion and consent And shall I not trust him with his own 4. He is the great Benefactor of all the World that giveth all good to every Creature not by constraint nor by commutation but as freely as the Sun giveth forth its light And shall we not trust the Sun to shine 5. He is my Father and special Benefactor and hath taken me into his Family as his Child And shall I not trust my heavenly Father 6. He hath given me his Son as the great Pledge of his Love And what then will he think too dear for me Will he not with him give me all things Rom. 8. 7. His Son came purposely to reveal the Fathers unspeakable Love and purpose to save us And shall I not trust him that hath proclaimed his Love and Reconciliation by such a Messenger from Heaven 8. He hath given me the Spirit of his Son even the Spirit of Adoption which is the surest Character of his Child the Witness Pledge and Earnest of Heaven the Name and Mark of God upon me HOLINESS TO THE LORD and yet shall I not believe his Love and Trust him 9. He hath made me a Member of his Son and so far already united me to him And will he not take care of the Members of his Son Will he lose those that are given him Is not Christ to be trusted with his Members 10. I am his interest and the interest of his Son Freely beloved dearly bought For whom so much is suffered and done that he is pleased to call us his peculiar Treasure And may I not trust him with his dear bought Treasure 11. He hath stated me in a relation to Angels who rejoiced at my Repentance and to the heavenly Society which shall not miss the smallest part Angels shall not lose their joy nor ministration 12. He is in Covenant with me even the Father Son and Holy Ghost He hath given me many great and precious Promises And shall I fear lest he will break his Word or Covenant 13. My Saviour is the forerunner entred into the Holiest and there appearing and interceeding for me And this after he had conquered Death and risen again to assure me of a future life and ascended into Heaven to