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
out a Prayer Book on my Heart He giveth me desires and he loveth to be importuned by them His Spirit is first a Spirit of supplication and after of Consolation and in both a Spirit of Adoption so far is he from being loth to be troubled with my importunity that he seeketh to me to seek his grace and is displeased with me that I will ask and have no more All this is true But how then cometh my Soul to be yet so low so dark so fond of this wretched Flesh and World and so backward to go home and dwell with Christ Alas a taste of Heaven on Earth is a Mercy too pretious to be cast away upon such as have long grieved and quencht the Spirit and are not by diligent and patient seeking prepared to receive it He that proclaimeth a general Peace will give Peace only to the Sons of Peace If after such unkind neglects such wilful sins as I have been guilty of I should expect to be suddenly in my Saviours Armâ— and to be feasted presently with the first Fruits of Heaven I should look that the Most Holy should too little manifest his hatred of my sin My Conscience remembreth the follies of my Youth and many a later odious sin and telleth me that if Heaven were quite hid from my sight and I should never have a glimpse of the Face of glorious eternal Love it were but just I look upward from Day to Day I groan to see his pleased Face and better to know my God and my home I cry to him daily My God this little is better than all the pleasures of sin My Hopes are better than all the Possessions of this World Thy gracious looks have oft revived me and thy mercies have been unmeasurable to my Soul and Body But O how far short am I of what even Fourty Years ago I hoped sooner to have attained Where is the Peace that passeth Understanding that should keep my Heart and Mind in Christ O where is the seeing the longing the rejoicing and triumphing Faith Where is that pleasant familiarity above that should make a Thought of Christ and Heaven to be sweeter to me than the Thoughts of Friends or Health or all the Prosperity and Pleasure of this World Do those that dwell in God and God in them and have their Hearts and Conversations in Heaven attain to no more clear and satisfying perceptions of that blessed state than I have yet attained Is there no more acquaintance above to be here expected No livelier sense of future joyes No sweeter foretast Nor fuller silencing of doubts and fears I am not so loth to go to a Friend nor to the Bed where I oft spend the Night in restless pains and rolling as I have too often been to come to thee Alas how many of thy Servants are less afraid to go to a Prison than to their God! and had rather be banished to a Land of Strangers than sent to Heaven Lord must I that am called Thy Child and an Heir of Heaven and a Co-heir with Christ have no more acquaintance with my glorified Lord and no more love to Thee that art my portion before I go hence and come before thee Shall I have no more of the heavenly Life and Light and Love Alas I have scarce enough in my Meditations to denominate them truly heavenly Meditations I have scarce enough in a Prayer to make it indeed a heavenly Prayer or in a Sermon to make it a heavenly Sermon And shall I have no more when I come to die Must I go hence so like a stranger to my home Wilt thou take Strangâ—â—â— into Heaven know them as thine that do no better know thee here O my God vouchsafe a Sinner yet more of his Spirit that came down on Earth to call up earthly minds to God and to open Heaven to all Believers O what do I beg for so frequently so earnestly for the sake of my Redeemer as the Spirit of Life and Consolation which may shew me the pleased Face of God and unite all my affections to my glorified Head and draw up this dark and drowsie Soul to love and long to be with thee But alas though these are my daily groans how little yet do I ascend I dare not blame the God of Love He is full and willing I dare not blame my blessed Saviour He hath shewed that he is not backward to do good I dare not accuse the holy Spirit It is his work to sanctifie and comfort Souls If I knew no reason of this my low and dark Estate I must needs conclude that it is somewhat in my self But alas my Conscience wants not matter to satisfie me of the cause Sinful resistance of the Spirit and unthankful neglects of Grace and Glory are undoubtedly the cause But are they not a cause that Mercy can forgive That grace can overcome and may I not yet hope for such a Victory before I die Lord I will lie at thy doors and groan I will pour out my moans before thee I will beg and whatever thou wilt do with me Thou describest the kindness of the Dogs to a Lazarus that lay at a rich Man's Doors in Sores Thou commendest the neighbourly pitty of a Samaritan that took care of a wounded Man Thou condemnest those that will not shew mercy to the poor and needy Thou biddest us Be merciful as our heavenly Father is merciful If we see our Brother have need and shut up the Bowels of our compassion from him it is because thy love dwelleth not in us And shall I wait then at thy Doors in vain and go empty away from such a God when I beg but for that which thou hast commanded me to ask and without which I cannot serve thee or come to thee live or die in a habit beseeming a Member of Christ a Child of God and an Hâ—ir of Heaven O give me the wedding Garment without which I shall but dishonour thy bounteous Feast Let me wear a Livery which becometh thy Family even a Child of God! How oft hast thou commanded 〈◊〉 to Rejoice Yea to rejoice with exceeding and unspeakable joy And how fain would I in this obey thee O that I had more faithfully obeyed thee in other preparatory duties in ruling my Senses my Phantasie my Tongue and in diligent using all thy Talents Then I might more easily have obeyed thee in this Thou knowest Lord that Love and Joy are duties that must have more than a Command O bid me do them with an effecting word How can I Rejoice in Death and Darkness When the Bridegroom is absent I must fast and mourn While I look towards Heaven but through the crevises of this dungeon Flesh my Love and Joy will be but answerable to my Light How long is it since I hoped that I had been translated from the Kingdom of Darkness and delivered from the power of the Prince of Darkness and brought into that Light which is the
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
true 4. They sharply reproved the Rulers for persecuting Christ which would provoke them to do their best to confute the Apostles for their own justification 5. Christ chose men of no great human Learning and Subtility but common plain unlearned men that it might not be thought a deceit of Art 6. Yea he did not make much more known to them before his Death than the bare Matters of Fact which they daâ—ly saw and that he was the Christ and Moral Doctrine his Death Resurrection Ascension and Kingdom of Heaven they knew little of before But experience and the sudden coming down of the Spirit suddenly taught them all the rest 7. They taught not one another but were every one personally taught of God 8. And yet they all agreed in the same Doctrine when they were dispersed over the World and never differed in any one Article of Faith 9 They were men that had no worldly Interest Wealth or Dominion to seek 10. Yea they renounced and denied all worldly Interest and sealed their Testimony by their Sufferings and Blood and all in hope of a heavenly reward which they knew that Lying was no means to obtain 11. Had they plotted to cheat the World for nothing the sin is so heinous that some one of them would have repented and confest it at least at death which none of them did but died joyfully as for the Truth 12. Paul was converted by a Voice and Light from Heaven in the presence of those that travelled with him in his persecuting design 13. But yet it is a fuller evidence that the Doctrine which they delivered as from God beareth a Divine Impress that as the Light it is its own Evidence 14. And for the more infallible conviction they that testified of Christs Miracles did the like themselves to confirm their Testimony they spake with Tongues which they never learnt They healed all Diseases even the shadow of Peter and the Clothes that came from Paul did heal men They raised the Dead And they that in all Countries converted the Nations by their own Miracles attesting the Miracles and Resurrection of Christ must needs compel the Spectators to believe them 15. Yet more than all this those that believed them were presently enabled to do the like in one kind and degree or other The same extraordinary gift of the Spirit fell upon the common multitude of Believers by the laying on of the Apostles hands So that Simon Magus would fain have bought that Power with Money And when men witnessed Christ's Miracles and wrought the like themselves and those that believed them had and did the like either Healing Tongues Prophesie or some wonders it was sure an infallible way of testifying 16. When wrangling Hereticks quarrelled with the Apostles and would draw away Disciples to themselves by disparaging them they still appealed to the Miracles wrought by these Disciples themselves or in their sight as Gal. 3. 1 2 3 5. And as Christ when the Jews said he did all by Beelzebub when he cast out devils askt them By whom do your Children cast them out Which had it been false would have turned all the People from them 17. Their adversaries were so far from writing any Confutation of their Testimony that they confest the Miracles and had no shift but either to blaspheme the Holy Ghost and say that they were done by the Devil or else by persecution and violence to oppress them As if the Devil were Master of the World and could remedilesly deceive it against God's will or God himself would send or suffer a full course of Miracles remedilesly to deceive the World which is to make God like the Devil Or as if the Devil were so good as by Miracles to promote so holy and amiable and just a Doctrine as that of Christianity to make men wise and good and just and kill their sin So that this blasphemy of the Holy Ghost makes Satan to be God or God to be Satan 18. All the cruelty powers Learning and Policy of their Adversaries was not able to stop the progress of this Testimony much less to prevail against it III. It is then most certain that the first Witnesses were not deceived by Christ nor Believers after deceived by them The next Question is whether we be not deceived by a false historical Tradition of these things Had we seen them all our selves we must needs have believed but at this distance we know not what misreports may interven what Eye-sight and hearing was to them that Tradition is to us Now the Question is Is it certainly the very same Fact and Doctrine which they received and which we receive And here let it be premised that there is no other way of assurance than that which God hath afforded us that the reason of Man could have desired 1. If we would see God and Heaven and Hell this is not a way suitable to the state of Probationers that live in Flesh on Earth Angels live by vision and fruition of Glory And Bruits by sense on sensible things But reasonable Travellers must live by reason and by believing certain Revelation 2. If God will send his Son from Heaven to ascertain us and we will believe no more than we see our selves then Christ must dwell on Earth to the end of the World he must be in all places of the Earth at once that all may see and he must die and rise again before all men in all Ages And how mad an expectation is this 3. Or if all that deliver us the History must work Miracles before our Eyes or else we will not believe them it is still most absurd Will you not believe that the Laws of the Land are genuine or that ever there were such Kings as made them unless he that tells it you work Miracles Shall not Children believe their Parents or Schollars their Tutors unless they work Miracles 3. I must premise that there is three sorts of Tradition I. Such as depends on the common Wit and Honesty of Mankind And this is very much to be suspected wickedness folly and lying being grown so common in the World II. Such as depends on the extraordinary skill and honesty of some proved men And this deserveth much belief but it is but an uncertain humane Faith III. Such as depends on Natural Necessity and cannot possibly be false we have both these last to ascertain us of the Gospel History This resteth on a distinction of the Acts of Mans Will Some of them are mutably free and these give no certainty Some of them are naturally and immutably necessary and Man can do no otherwise and these give even natural Infallible certainty Such are To love ones self to love felâ—city to hate torment and misery c. And to know that which is fully manifest to our sound Senses c. When men of contrary Interests and temper all confess the Truth of known things about which their Interests stand cross it is a
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
Polititical Government of the wicked Kingdoms of the World ruling them by men that are ruled by him And as Christ came to cast him out of mens Hearts by his sanctifying conquering Spirit so also to cast him out of the Political Government of the Kingdoms of the World and to bring them under the Laws and Officers and Spirit of Christ and rule them by heavenly Power and Love as his own Kingdoms that he may bring them to Perfection in one Celestial Kingdom at last And in this sense we pray Thy Kingdom come § 4. To make men believe that he is the heavenly King sent from God to cast down Satans Kingdom was the great business of the preaching of the Gospel This he would demonstrate as by all his Miracles which shewed him to have the Victory of Devils and to be the Lord of Life so also by visible Apparition in Glory And as it is said 1 Joh. 5. 7 8. that there are three Witnesses in Heaven and three on Earth so here Christ would have three heavenly and three earthly Witnesses of his Transfiguration From Heaven he had the Witness 1. Of a Voice proclaiming This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased hear him 2. Of Moses the chief Lawgiver 3. And of Elias the chief Prophet to tell us that the Law and the Prophets are his prognosticating Witnesses But Hear him notifieth to us that Christ and his Gospel are to be heard above the Law and the Prophets and to teach us more than they could teach us The Law was given by Moses with its types and shadows but Grace and Truth the substance so typified are by Jesus Christ § 5. Light and Glory are often of the same signification Christ was transfigured into a lucid glorious appearance of Body He tells us by this that he would have us have some sort of Idea of his Kingdom fetcht from sense many Apparitions of Angels have been in lights Christ appeared to Saul in a visible light Act. 9. So did he to John Rev. 1 c. God and the Lamb are the Light of the New Jerusalem It is an inheritance of the Saints in Light Some seem to me to think too basely of Sense and too far to separate it from Intellectual Spirits both as to Power Act and Object And all because they find it in lower Creatures They might accordingly deny substantiality to Spirits because Bruits are substances The higher have all the Perfections of the lower either formally or eminently It is not a Spirits Perfection to be insensible or to have nothing to do with sensible things but to be eminently sensible and to be Superiour Agents on lower sensibles GOD IS LOVE And LOVE is Complacency And a high degree of Complacency is Delight or Joy So that God is Essential Infinite Joy But without that drossie quality which is proper to Souls in Flesh and all that Imperfection which belongs to Creatures Can we tell what it is to enter into our Masters Joy or Joyfully to love and praise him without any sense I rather think that as vigorous Youth maketh men capable of more delight than decrippt languid â—ainful Age and Sickness so Heaven shall by perfecting our Natures make them capable of unconceivably more joy than any on Earth is capable of And as we shall have Sense in Exaltation as to power and act so we shall have sensible Objects God himself delighteth in all his works and so shall we we must not on pretence of taking the heavenly Jerusalem to be meerly Spiritual deprive our selves of all the sensible Idea's of it which God's description offereth to uâ— Light is sensible Christ glorified there is sensible Moses and Elias were sensible to Peter James and John Lazarus and Abraham were sensible to the Man in Hell Luke 16. Stephen saw Heaven open and Christ sitting at the right Hand of God And all Eyes shall see him at his glorious return Heavenly Glory is not enjoyed only by meer THINKING and knowing nor as in a Dream but by the most eminent Intellectual sensation exalted and invigorated § 6. Say not then O my Soul that this Kingdom of Glory is so far above thee that thou canst have no Idea of it Think not that it is therefore unmeet for thy desiring and joyful hopes because thou canst not know what it is Hast thou no conception of the difference between Light and Darkness If thou hadst been but one Year kept in absolute darkness wouldst thou have no desiring thoughts of light The Blind think themselves half dead while they are alive Indeed the Faculty and Object must be suitable Light may be too great for our weak Eyes as heat may be torment in an unsuitable degree but when our Souls are perfected they will be suitable Recipients of a more glorious Light than we can here endure Moses is not there covered in a cleft of the Rock because he could see but as the back parts of God's Glory We must see here but as in a Glass but there as Face to Face Though these Organical Eyes as Spectacles shall be laid by we shall have Media more perfect suitable to our perfect state And as I can think of Heaven as a Region of glorious Light so can I think of it as a place and state of Life and Love I know somwhat of the difference of Life and Death and that a living Dog is better than a dead Lyon And I have felt what it is to love my Friends and thence to desire their near communion as my delight And can I then have no Idea of that World where Life Light and Joyful Love are the very Element of Souls as Water is to the Fishes And as I can have some Idea of that state in general so may I of the state of the perfected Spirits of the Just which are there They are con-natural to their proper Element They are Essential created Life Light and Love And they want not substance to be the Basis of those formal Powers nor Objects on which to exercise them Think not then that Heaven is so far unconceivable as not by any Idea to be thought of If we have no Conception of it we can have no desires of it and no delightful hope What can we conceive of more certainly than of Life and Light and Love of a Region and of Persons essentiated of these Do we not know what Knowledge is and see what Light is and feel what Life and Love are But it 's true that our Conceptions hereof are lamenmentably imperfect and so they must be till Possession Fruition and Exercise perfect them Who knoweth what Light or Sight is but by Seeing or what Knowledge is but by knowing Or what Love and Joy are but by loving and rejoicing And who knows what Perfect Sight Knowledg Love and Joy are but by perfect Seeing Knowing Loving and Rejoicing No Man by an intuitive or immediate perception But some abstractive Conceptions of it we may have by
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
him when he promiseth and hear him before the worldly wise when he teacheth us the way to God Hear him for he knows what he saith Hear him for he is true and faithful and infallible Hear him for he is the Son of God the greatest Messenger that ever God sent Hear him for he purposly came down into Flesh that he might familiarly teach us Hear him for none else in the Word hath made known the things of God like him and none can do it Hear him for he meaneth us no hurt He is our dearest Friend and Love itself and saith nothing but for our Salvation and promiseth nothing but what he will perform Yea Hear him for every Soul that will not hear him shall be cut off Hear him therefore if he contradict thy fleshly Appetite Hear him if great or small if any or all shall be against it Hear him if he set thee on the hardest work or call thee to the greatest suffering Hear him if he bid thee take up the Cross and forsake all and follow him in hope of a reward in Heaven Hear him if he call thee to lay down thy Life for none can be a loser by him Hear him now in the Day of Grace and he will hear thee in the day of thy Extremity in the day of Danger Sickness Death and Judgment when the World forsaketh thee and no ones hearing else can help thee § 37. But I was not one that saw this Vision Had I seen it my self it would have satisfied me and confuted all my doubts Answ But it is the will of God that the Ministry and Testimony of Man shall be a means of our believing It 's Faith and not Sight that must be the ordinary way of our Salvation Else Christ must have shewed himself and his Miracles Resurrection and Ascension to every one in the World that must believe in him And then he must have been visible at once in every Kingdom Parish and Place on Earth and continued so to the end of the World and must have died risen and ascended many Millions of times and in every place They that will put such Laws on their Lawgiver before they will believe in him must be saved without him and against him if they can This is more unreasonable than to tell God that you will not believe that there is a Heaven or Hell unless you see them But God will have us live and be saved by believing and not by sight And he will use Man for the Instruction and Salvation of Man and not send Angels with every Message § 38. But Why did Christ shew this Vision but it Three of his Disciples Answ He is not bound to tell us why But we may know that a sight of heavenly Glory is not to be ordinarily expected on Earth Why did God shew the back parts of his Glory to none but Moses no not to his Brother Aaron Why did he speak to him only in the Bush and in the Mount Why did he translate none to Heaven without dying but Henoch and Elias Why did he save but Noah and Seven with him in the Ark These are not things ordinary nor to be common to many § 39. But by this it appeareth that even among his Twelve Apostles Christ made a difference and preferred some before the rest Though he set no one over the rest in any Governing Authority yet some of them were qualified above the rest and esteemed and used by him accordingly Peter is called the first and it seems was qualified above the rest by his more frequent speaking and familiarity with Christ and his Speeches and Miracles after the Resurrection Though yet the Faction that said I am of Cephas or I am of Paul was rebuked as Carnal so far was Christ from directing the Churches to end all difference by obeying Peter as their Supream Ruler James and John are called the Sons of Thunder They had some more eminent qualification than the rest So that James was the first Martyred Apostle and John the Disciple whom Jesus specially loved Ministers of the same Office and Order may much differ in Gifts and Grace in labour and success and in God's acceptance and reward and in the Churches just esteem and love All Pastors were not such as Cyprian Basil Gregory Nazianzene Chrysostome or Augustine And the rest must not envy at the preference of Peter James and John Andrew seems to be Peters Elder Brother and knew Christ before him as Aaron was Elder Brother to Moses and yet must give God leave to choose to give pre-eminence to whom he will § 40. But Why did not these Three Apostles tell any of this Vision till after Christ's Resurrection Ans Christ did forbid it them And it was according to the Method of his Revelation He would make himself known to the World by degrees and more by his Works than by bare Words And these works were to be finished and all set together to be his convincing Witness to the World And the chief of these were his Resurrection Ascension and sending down the Holy Ghost The Apostles could not say till then Jesus is risen ascended and hath given us the Seal of the Spirit therefore he is the Son of God Christ first preached Repentance like John Baptist And next he told them that the Kingdom of God by the Messiah was come and was among them And then he taught them to believe his Word to be sent from God and to be true And he taught them the Doctrines of Holiness Love and Righteousness towards men And he wrought those Miracles which might convince them that what he said or should say deserved their belief But yet before his Resurrection his Apostles themselves understood not many of the Articles of our Creed they knew not that Christ was to die for sin and so to redeem the World by his Sacrifice nor that he was to Rise Ascend and Reign and Intercede in Glory And yet they were then in a state of Grace and Life such as Believers were in before Christ's Incarnation And sure no more is required of the Nations that cannot hear the Gospel But the Resurrection was the beginning of the proper Gospel State and Kingdom to which all before was but preparatory then by the Spirit Christianity was formed to its setled Consistence and is a known unalterable thing And it is a great confirmation to our Faith that Christ's Kingdom was not settled by any advantage of his personal Presence Preaching and Persuasion so much as by the Holy Ghost in his Apostles and Disciples when he was gone from them into Heaven § 41. But how are we sure that these three men tell us nothing but the Truth Ans This is oft answered elsewhere The Spirit which they spake and work'◠by was Christ's Witness and theirs They healed the Sick raised the Dead spake various Languages which they never learnt and Preached and Recorded that Holy Doctrin committed to them by Christ which
itself contained the evidence of its Divinity and of their Truth And Christ then and to this Day hath owned it by the sanctifying Efficacy of the same Spirit upon Millions of Souls How Holy a Doctrin doth Peter himself deliver as confirmed by this Apparition 2 Pet. 1. 16 17 18. We have not followed cunningly devised Fables when we made known to you the Power and Coming of our Lord Jesus Christ but were Eye Witnesses of his Majesty For he received from God the Father Honour and Glory when there came such a Voice to him from the excellent Glory This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased And this Voice which came from Heaven we heard when we were with him in the Holy Mount The words In whom I am well pleased are only here and in Matthew Mark and Luke omitting them tell us that the Evangelists undertook not to recite all that was said and done but each one so much as seemed necessary for him to say § 42. And now what remaineth O my Soul but that thou take in the due Impression of this Apparition of the Glory of Jesus and his Saints and that thou joyfully obey this heavenly Voice and Hear the Beloved Son of God in whom the Father is well pleased I. As we that are Born in another Age and Land must know what Christ said by the transmission and certain testimony of them that heard him infallible Tradition by Act Word and Record being our way of notice as immediate sensation was theirs so even the glorious Apparition itself may be the mediation of their infallible Record be partly transmitted to our Imagination An Incorporate Soul is so used to a mixed way of knowing by imagined Idea's received by sense that it would fain have such a sort of knowledge of separated Souls and other Spirits and of their glorious state and place and work and is hardly fully satisfied without it Seeing Christ hath partly condescended to this our culpable weakness lose not the help of his condescension Let this clear description of the heavenly sight make it to thee partly as if thou had been one of the three Spectators till thou canst say Methinks I almost see the Face of Christ shine as the Sun and his raiment whiter than the Snow and Moses and Elias no doubt in some degree of glory standing with him Methinks I almost hear them discoursing of Christ's Death and Man's Redemption And by this sight I partly conceive of the unseen heavenly Company and State Methinks I see the Cloud receive them when Peter had been transported with the sight and I almost feel his pleasant raptures and am ready to say as if I had been with him It is good for us to be hear Methinks I almost hear the heavenly Voice This is my beloved Son Hear him And shall I yet doubt of the Celestial Society and Glory Had I once seen that what a sense would it have left upon my Heart of the difference between Earth and Heaven Man and God Flesh and Spirit Sin and Duty how thankfully should I have thought of the work of Redemption and Sanctification And why may I not accordingly put my self as into the case of them who saw all Christ's Miracles and saw him risen and ascend towards Heaven Or at least of all those ordinary Christians who saw all the wonders done by the Reporters of these things I can easily receive a pleasing Idea of some forreign happy Countrey which a Traveller describeth to me though I never saw it and my Reason can partly gather what great things are if I see but lesser of the same kind or somewhat like them A Candle sheweth somewhat by which we may conceive of the greatest flame Even Grace and Gracious actions do somewhat notifie to us the state of Glory But the sight on the Mount did more sensibly notifie it Think not then that heavenly contemplation is an impossible thing or a meer dream as if it had no conceivable subject matter to work upon the visible things of Earth are the Shaddows the Cobwebs the Bubbles the Shews Mummerries and Masques and it is loving them and rejoicing and trusting in them that is the dream and dotage Our heavenly Thoughts and Hopes and Business are more in comparison of these than the Sun is to a glow-Worm or the World to a Mole-hill or Governing an Empire to the motions of a Fly And can I make somwhat yea too much of these almost nothings and yet shall I make almost nothing of the active glorious unseen World and doubt and grope in my Meditations of it as if I had no substance to apprehend If invisibility to Mortals were a cause of doubting or of unaffecting unsatisfying Thoughts God himself who is All to Men and Angels would be as no God to us and Heaven as no Heaven and Christ as no Christ and our Souls which are our selves would seem as nothing to themselves and all men would be as no men to us and we should converse only with Carkasses and Cloaths Lord shine into this Soul with such an heavenly potent quickening Light as may give me more lively and powerful conceptions of that which is all my hope and life Leave me not to the exercise of Art alone in barren notions but make it as Natural to me to love Thee and breath after Thee Thou teachest the young ones both of men and bruits to seek to the Dam for food and shelter And though Grace be not a brutish Principle but work by Reason it hath its Nature and Inclining force and tendeth towards its Original as its End Let not my Soul be destitute of that holy Sense and Appetite which the Divine and Heavenly Nature doth contain Let me not lay more stress and trust upon my own Sight and Sense than on the Sight and Fidelity of my God and my Redeemer I am not so foolish as to live as if this Earth were no bigger than the little of it which I see Let me not be so much more foolish as to think of the vast and glorious Regions and the Blessed Inhabitants thereof and the Receptacles of justified Souls as if they wanted either substantiality or certainty to exercise a heavenly conversation here and to feast believing Souls with joy and draw forth well grounded and earnest desire to depart and be with Christ § 43. II. Hear then and Hear with Trust and Joy the tydings and promises of him whom the Voice from Heaven commanded Man to hear He is the glorified Lord of Heaven and Earth All is in his power He hath told us nothing but what he knew and promised nothing but what he is able and willing to give Two sorts of things he hath required us to Trust him for Things notified by express particular Promises and things only generally promised and known to us 1. We may know particularly that he will receive our departing Souls and justifie them in judgment and raise the Dead and
blessed to be under the Love of Christ p. 881. Excitations Desires p. 182. 3. Communion with Angels and Saints by reception p. 188 More of the good of Vnion and Communion as distinct from singular Propriety p. 190. 5. The constitutive Reasons from our heavenly Practice p. 195. Better works for us there than here proved What they are in general What particularly I. Concordant praising God Excitations and Petitions p. 169. II. The blessed probably used for the good of men and things below p. 198. Their Opinion rejected that assert the cessation of sense proof Objection from Bruits answered The concluding Application p. 202. A Breviate of the helps of Faith Hope and Love for a dying Man I. The Gospel Evidence on 1 Tim. 3. 16. p. 260. II. A Breviate of the proof of supernatural Revelation and the Truth of Christianity p. 262. III. The difference between the World which I am leaving and the World which I am going to With Reasons of my comfortable hope p. 283. IV. More Reasons and Helps of my Faith and Hope p. 289. V. A discourse of the sensible manifestation of the Kingdom of Christ at his Transfiguration which is expounded and applied for the help of Faith and Patience p. 300. VI. Short Meditations on Rom. 5. 1 2 3 4 5. Of the shedding abroad of God's Love on the Heart that we may rejoice in hope of the Glory of God p. 360. THe exercise of Three sorts of LOVE to God to Others and to my Self afford me a Threefold satisfaction conjunct to be vvilling to depart I. I am sure my departure vvill be the fulfilling of that Will vvhich is Love it self vvhich I am bouâ—d above all things to Love and Please and vvhâ—â—â— is the beginning rule Antonineâ—ould â—ould hence fetch good Thoughts of Death II. The World dieth not vvith me vvhen I die nor the Church nor the Praise and Glory of God vvhich he vvill have in and from this World unto the end And if I love others as my self their Lives and Comforts vvill novv be to my Thoughts as if I vvere to live my self in them God vvill be praised and honoured by Posterity vvhen I am dead and gone Were I to be annihilated this vvould comfort me novv if I lived and died in perfect Love III. But a better and glorious World is before me into vvhich I hope by Death to be translated vvhither all these Three sorts of Love should rap up the desires of my ascending Soul even the Love of my self that I may be fully happy the Love of the triumphant Church Christ Angels and glorified Man and the Glory of all the Universe vvhich I shall see and above all the Love of the most Glorious God Infinite Life and Light and Love the ultimate Amiable Object of Man's Love in vvhom to beperfectly pleased and delighted and to vvhom to be perfectly pleasing for ever is the chief and ultimate end of me and of the highest vvisest and best of Creatures Amen THE INTRODUCTION PHIL. 1. 23. For I am in a streight between two c. I Write for my self and therefore supposing the sense of the Text shall only observe what is useful to my Heart and Practice It was a happy state into which Grace had brought this Apostle who saw so much not only tolerable but greatly desirable both in living and dying To live to him was Christ that is Christ's interest or work To die would be gain that is His own interest and reward His streight was not whether it would be good to live or good to depart Both were good But which was more desirable was the doubt I. Quest But was there any doubt to be made between Christ's interest and his own Ans No if it had been a full and fixed competition But by Christ or Christ's interest he meaneth his work for his Churches interest in this World But he knew that Christ also had an interest in his Saints above and that he could raise up more to serve him here Yet because he was to judge by what appeared and he saw a defect of such on Earth this did turn the Scales in his Choice and for the work of of Christ and his Churches good he more inclined to the delay of his reward by self-denial Yet knowing that the delay would tend to its increase It 's useful to me here to note That even in this World short of Death there is some good so much to be regarded as may justly prevail with Believers to prefer it before the present hastning of their reward I the rather note this that no temptation carry me into that extream of taking nothing but Heaven to be worthy of our minding or regard and so to cast off the World in a sinful sort on pretence of mortification and a heavenly mind and life I. As to the sense the meaning is not that any thing on Earth is better than Heaven or simply and in itself to be preferred before it The end is better than the means as such And perfection better than imperfection But the present use of the means may be preferred somtimes before the present possession of the end And the use of means for a higher end may be preferred before the present possession of a lower end And every thing hath its season Planting and Sowing and Building are not so good as Reaping and Fruit gathering and Dwelling But in their season they must be first done II. Quest But what is there so desirable in this Life Ans 1. While it continueth it is the fulfilling of the will of God who will have us here And that 's best which God willeth II. The life to come dependeth upon this As the life of Man in the World upon his Generation in the Womb Or as the reward upon the work or the Runners or Souldiers Prize upon his Race or Fighting Or as the Merchants gain upon his Voyage Heaven is won or lost on Earth The possession is there but the preparation is here Christ will judge all men according to their works on Earth Well done good and faithful Servant must go before Enter thou into the joy of thy Lord I have fought a good Fight I have finished my Course goeth before the Crown of Righteousness which God the righteous Judge will give All that ever must be done for Salvation by us must here be donc It waron Earth that Christ himself wrought the work of 〈◊〉 Redemption fulfilled all Righteousness became our Ransom And paid the Price of our Salvation And it 's here that our part is to be done And the bestowing of the reward of God's work who we are sure will never fail There is no place for the least suspicion or fear of his misdoing or failing in any of his undertaken work But the danger and fear is of our own miscarrying lest we be not found capable of receiving what God will certainly give to all that are disposed Receivers To distrust God is heinous sin and
folly But to distrust our selves we have great cause So that if we will make sure of Heaven it must be by giving all diligence to make firm our Title our Calling and our Election here on Earth If we fear Hell we must fear being prepared for it And it is great and difficult work that must be here done It 's here that we must be cured of all damning sin That we must be Regenerate and new Born that we must be pardoned and justified by Faith It 's here that we must be united to Christ made wise to Salvation renewed by his Spirit and conformed to his likeness It 's here that we must overcome all the temptations of the Devil the World and the Flesh and perform all the duties toward God and Man that must be rewarded It 's here that Christ must be believed in with the Heart to Righteousness and with the Mouth confessed to Salvation It 's here that we must suffer with him that we may reign with him and be faithful to the Death that we may receive the Crown of Life Here we must so run that we may obtain III. Yea we have greater work here to do than meer securing our own Salvation We are 〈◊〉 of the World and Church and we must labour to do good to many We are trusted with our Masters Talents for his Service in our places to do our best to propagaâ—e his Truth and Grace and Church and to bring home Souls and Honour his cause and edifie his Flock and further the Salvation of as many as we can All this is to be done on Earth if we will secure the end of all in Heaven Use I. It is then an errour though it is but few I think that are guilty of it to think that all Religion lieth in minding only the Life to come and disregarding all things in this present life All true Christians must seriously mind both the End and the Means or way If they mind not believingly the End they will never be faithful in the use of means If they mind not and use not diligently the Means they will never obtain the End None can use Earth well that prefer not Heaven And none come to Heaven at Age that are not prepared by well using Earth Heaven must have the deepest esteem and habituated love and desire and joy But Earth must have more of our daily thoughts for present practice A Man that travelleth to the most desirable home hath a habit of desire to it all the way But his present business is his travel And Horse and Company and Inns and Waies and Weariness c. may take up more of his sensible Thoughts and of his Talk and Action than his Home Use II. I have oft marvelled to find David in the Psalms and other Saints before Christ's coming to have expressed so great a sense of the things of this present life and to have said so little of another To have made so great a matter of Prosperity Dominions and Victories on one Hand and of Enemies Success and Persecution on the other But I consider that it was not for meer Personal Carnal interest but for the Church of God and for his Honour Word and Worship And they knew that if things go well with us on Earth they will be sure to go well in Heaven If the militant Church prosper in Holiness there is no doubt but it will triumph in Glory God will be sure to do his part in receiving Souls if they be here prepared for his receipt And Satan doth much of his damning work by men If we escape their temptations we escape much of our danger If Idolaters prospered Israel was tempted to Idolatry The Greek Church is almost swallowed up by Turkish Prosperity and Dominion Most follow the powerful and Prosperous side And therefore for God's cause and for heavenly everlasting interest our own state but much more the Churches must be greatly regarded here on Earth Indeed if earth be desired only for Earth and Prospirity loved but for the present welfare of the Flesh it is the certain Mark of damning carnality and an earthly mind But to desire Peace and Prosperity and Power to be in the hands of wise and faithful men for the sake of Souls and the increase of the Church and the Honour of God that his Name may be hallowed his Kingdom come and his Will done on Earth as it is in Heaven this is to be the chief of our Prayers to God Use III. Be not unthankful then O my Soul for the Mercies of this present life for those to thy Body to thy Friends to the Land of thy Nativity and specially to the Church of God I. This Body is so nearly united to thee that it must needs be a great help or hinderance Had it been more afflicted it might have been a discouraging clog like a tired Horse in a Journey or an ill Tool to a Workman or an untuned Instrument in Musick A sick or bad Servant in an House is a great trouble And a bad Wife much more But thy Body is nearer thee than either and will be more of thy concern And yet if it had been more Strong and Healthful Sense and Appetite would have been strong and Lust would have been strong and therefore danger would have been greater and Victory and Salvation much more difficult Even weak Senses and Temptations have too oft prevailed How knowest thou then what stronger might have done When I see a thirsty Man in a Feaver or Dropsie and specially when I see strong and healthful youths bred up in fulness and among temptations how mad they are in sin and how violently they are carried to it bearing down God's rebukes and Conscience and Parents and Friends and all regard to their Salvation it tells me how great a Mercy I had even in a Body not liable to their case And many a bodily deliverance hath been of great use to my Soul renewing my time and opportunity and strength for Service and bringing frequent and fresh reports of the Love of God If bodily Mercies were not of great use to the Soul Christ would not so much have shewed his saving love by healing all manner of diseases as he did Nor would God promise us a Resurrection of the Body if a congruous Body did not further the welfare of the Soul 2. And I am obliged to great thankfulness to God for the Mercies of this life which he hath shewed to my Friends that which furthers their joy should increase mine I ought to rejoice with them that rejoice Nature and Grace teach us to be glad when our Friends are well and prosper Though all in order to better things than bodily welfare 3. And such Mercies of this life to the Land of our Habitation must not be undervalued The want of them are parts of God's threatned Curse and godliness hath the Promise of this life and of that which is to come and so is profitable to
all things And when God sends on a Land the Plagues of Famine Pestilence War Persecution especially a Famine of the Word of God it is a great sin to be insensible of it If any shall say while Heaven is sure we have no cause to accuse God or to cast away comfort hope or duty they say well But if they say Because Heaven is all we must make light of all that befalleth us on Earth They say amiss Good Princes Magistrates and publick Spirited men that promote the safety Peace and true Prosperity of the Common-wealth do thereby very much befriend Religion and mens Salvation and are greatly to be loved and honoured by all If the Civil State called the Common-wealth do miscarry or fall into ruine and calamity the Church will fare the worse for it as the Soul doth by the ruines of the Body The Turkish Muscovite and such other Empires tell us how the Church consumeth and dwindles away into contempt or withered Ceremony and Formality where Tyranny brings Slavery Beggary or long Persecution on the Subjects Doubtless divers passages in the Revelations contain the Churches glorifying of God for their Power and Prosperity on Earth when Emperors became Christians What else can be meant well by Rev. 9. 10. Hath made us Kings and Priests to God and we shall Reign on the Earth but that Christians shall be brought from under Heathen Persecution and have Rule and Sacred Honour in the World some of them being Princes some honoured Church Guides and all a peculiar honoured People And had not Satan found out that cursed way of getting wicked men that hate true godliness and peace into the Sacred places of Princes and Pastors to do his work against Christ as in Christ's Name surely no good Christians would have grudged at the Power of Rulers of State or Church Sure I am that many called Fifth Monarchy men seem to make this their great Hope that Rule shall be in the Hands of Righteous men And I think most Religious Parties would rejoice if those had very great Power whom they take to be the best and trustiest men Which shews that it is not the greatness of Power in most Princes or sound Bishops that they dislike but the badness real or supposed of those whose Power they mislike Who will blame Power to do good Sure the three first and great Petitions of the Lord's Prayer include some temporal welfare of the World and Church without which the Spiritual rarely prospereth extensively though intensively in a few it may since Miracles ceased 4. Be thankful therefore for all the Churches Mercies here on Earth For all the protection of Magistracy the Plenty of Preachers the perservation from Enemies the restraint of Persecution the Concord of Christians and increase of Godliness which in this Land it hath had in our Ages notwithstanding all Satan's malignant rage and all the bloody Wars that have interrupted our tranquillity How many Psalms of joyful thanksgiving be there for Israel's deliverances and the perservation of Zion and God's Worship in his Sanctuary Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem They shall prosper that love it specially that the Gospel is continued while so many rage against it is a Mercy not to be made light of Use IV. Be specially thankful O my Soul that God hath made any use of thee for the Service of his Church on Earth My God my Soul for this doth magnifie thee and my Spirit rejoiceth in the review of thy great undeserved Mercy O what am I whom thou took'st up from the Dunghil or low obscurity that I should live my self in the constant relish of thy Sweet and Sacred Truth and with such encoucouraging success communicate it to others That I must say now my publick work seems ended that these Forty three or Forty four years I have no reason to think that ever I laboured in vain O with what gratitude must I look upon all places where I lived and laboured but above all that place that had my strength I bless thee for the great numbers gone to Heaven and for the continuance of Piety Humiliation Concord and Peace among them And for all that by my Writings have received any saving Light and Grace O my God let not my own Heart be barren while I labour in thy Husbandry to bring others unto Holy fruit Let me not be a stranger to the Life and Power of that saving Truth which I have done so much to communicate to others O let not my own Words and Writings condemn me as void of that Divine and Heavenly Nature and Life which I have said so much for to the World Use V. Stir up then O my Soul thy sincere desires and all thy Faculties to do the remnant of the work of Christ appointed thee on Earth and then joyfully wait for the heavenly Perfection in God's own time Thou canst truly say To live to me is Christ It is his work for which thou livest Thou hast no other business in the World But thou dost his work with the mixture of many oversights and imperfections and too much troublest thy Thoughts distrustfully about God's part who never faileth If thy work be done be thankful for what is past and that thou art come so near the Port of rest If God will add any more to thy daies serve him with double alacrity now thou art so near the end The Prize is almost within sight Time is swift and short Thou hast told others that there is no working in the Grave and that it must be now or never Though the conceit of meriting of commutative Justice be no better than madness dream not that God will save the wicked no nor equally reward the slothful and the diligent because Christ's Righteousness was perfect Paternal Justice maketh difference according to that worthiness which is so denominated by the Law of Grace And as sin is its own punishment Holiness and Obedience is much of its own reward Whatever God appointeth thee to do see that thou do it sincerely and with all thy might If sin dispose men to be angry because it is detected disgraced and resisted if God be pleased their wrath should be patiently born who will shortly be far more angry with themselves If slander and obloquy survive so will the better effects on those that are converted And there is no comparison between these I shall not be hurt when I am with Christ by the Calumnies of men on Earth But the saving benefit will by converted Sinners be enjoyed everlastingly Words and actions are transient things and being once past are nothing But the effect of them on an immortal Soul may be endless All the Sermons that I have preached are nothing now But the Grace of God on Sanctified Souls is the beginning of Eternal life It is unspeakable Mercy to be sincerely thus employed with success therefore I had reason all this while to be in Pauls streight and make no hast in my desires to depart
The Crown will come in its due time And Eternity is long enough to enjoy it how long soever it be delayed But if I will do that which must obtain it for my self and others it must be quickly done before my declining sun be set O that I had no worse causes of my unwillingness yet to die than my desire to do the work of life for my own and other mens Salvation And to finish my course with joy and the Ministry committed to me by the Lord. Use VI. And as it is on Earth that I must do good to others so it must be in a manner suited to their state on Earth Souls are here closely united to Bodies by which they must receive much good or hurt Do good to mens Bodies if thou wouldst do good to their Souls Say not Things corporeal are worthless Trifles for which the receivers will be never the better They are things that nature is easily sensible of And sense is the passage to the mind and will Dost not thou find what a help it is to thy self to have at any time any ease and alâ—crity of Body And what a burden and hinderance pains and cares are Labour then to free others from such burdens and temptations and be not regardless of them If thou must rejoice with them that rejoice and mourn with them that mourn further thy own joy in furthering theirs and avoid thy own sorrows in avoiding or curing theirs But alas what power hath selfishness in most How easily do we bear our Brethrens pains reproaches wants and afflictions in comparison of our own How few thoughts and how little cost or labour do we use for their supply in comparison of what we do for our selves Nature indeed teacheth us to be most sensible of our own case But Grace tells us that we should not make so great a difference as we do but should love our Neighbours as our selves Use VII And now O my Soul consider how mercifully God hath dealt with thee that thy streight should be between two conditions so desirable I shall either die speedily or stay yet longer upon Earth Which ever it be it will be a Merciful and Comfortable state That it is desirable to depart and be with Christ I must not doubt and shall anon more copiously consider And if my abode on Earth yet longer be so great a Mercy as to be put in the Ballance against my present possession of Heaven surely it must be a state which obligeth me to great thankfulness to God and comfortable acknowledgment And surely it is not my pain or sickness my sufferingâ— from malicious men that should make this Life on Earth unacceptable while God will continue it Paul had his Prick or Thorn in the Flesh the Messenger of Satan to Buffet him and suffered more from men though less in his Health than I have done And yet he gloried in such Infirmities and rejoiced in his Tribulationâ— and was in a streight between living and dying yea rather chose to live yet longer Alas it is another kind of streight that most of the World are in The streight of most is between the desire of Life for fleshly interest and the fear of Death as ending their felicity The streight of many is between a tiring World and Body which maketh them aweary of living and the dreadful prospect of future danger which makes them afraid of dying If they live it is in misery if they must die they are afraid of greater misery which way ever they Look behind or before them to this World or the next fear and trouble is their Lot yea many an upright Christian through the weakness of their Trust in God doth live in this perplexed streight aweary of living and afraid of dying between grief and fear they are prest continually But Paul's streight was between two Joys which of them he should desire most And if that be my case what should much interrupt my Peace or Pleasure If I live it is for Christ for his Work and for his Church for Preparation for my own and others everasting felicity And should any suffering which maketh me not unserviceable make me impatient with such a work and such a life If I die presently it is my gain God who appointeth me my work doth limit my time and sure his glorious reward can never be unseasonable or come too soon if it be the time that he appointeth When I first engaged my self to preach the Gospel I reckoned as probable but upon one or two years And God hath continued me it above Forty four with such interruptions as others in these times have had And what reason have I now to be unwilling either to live or die God's Service hath been so sweet to me that it hath overcome the trouble of constant pains or weakness of the Flesh and all that men have said or done against me But the following Crown exceeds this pleasure more than I am here capable to conceive There is some trouble in all this pleasant work from which the Soul and Flesh would rest And blessed are the dead that die in the Lord Even so saith the Spirit for they rest from their Labours and their Works follow them But O my Soul what need'st thou be troubled in this kind of streight It is not left to thee to choose whether or when thou wilt live or die It is God that will determine it who is infinitely fitter to choose than thou Leave therefore his own work to himself and mind that which is thine whilst thou livest live to Christ and when thou diest thou shalt die to Christ even into his blessed Hands So live that thou maist say It is Christ liveth in me and the life that I live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me And then as thou hast lived in the comfort of hope thou shalt die unto the comfort of Vision and Fruition And when thou canst say he is the God whose I am and whom I serve thou maist boldly add and whom I trust and to whom I commend my departing Soul And I know whom I have trusted Richard Baxter's Dying Thoughts Philippians 1. 23. For I am in a strait betwixt two having a desire to depart and to be with Christ which is far better or for this is much rather to be preferred or better § 1. MAN that is born of a Woman is of few daies and full of trouble He cometh forth like a Flower and is cut down He fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not And dost thou open thine Eyes upon such a one and bringest me into Judgment with thee saith Job ch 14. v. 1 2 3. As a Watch when it is wound up or as a Candle newly lighted so Man newly conceived or born beginneth a motion which incessantly hasteth to its appointed period And an Action and its Time that is past is Nothing So vain a thing would
Nature in all the works of Creation for in Him we Live and Move and Are and by the way of Grace in all the Gracious doth Operate and Is by the works and splendour of his Glory eminently in Heaven By which Glory therefore we must mean some Created Glory For his Essence hath no inequality § 5. 2. We shall be present with the Humane Nature of Christ both Soul and Body But here our present narrow Thoughts must not too boldly presume to resolve the difficulties which to a distinct understanding of this should be overcome For we must not here expect any more than a dark and general Knowledge of them As 1. What is the formal difference between Christs glorified Body and his Flesh on Earth 2. Where Christ's glorified Body is and how far it extendeth 3. VVherein the Soul and the Glorified Body differ seeing it is called A Spiritual Body These things are beyond our present reach § 6. 1. For what conceptions can we have of a Spiritual Body save that it is Pure incorruptible invisible to mortal Eyes and fitted to the most perfect state of the Soul How near the Nature of it is to a Spirit and so to the Soul and how far they agree or differ in substance extensiveness divisibility or activity little do we know § 7. 2. Nor do we know where and how far Christ's Body is present by extent The Sun is commonly taken for a Body and its Motive Illuminative and Calefactive Beams are by the most probable Philosophy taken to be a real emanant part of its substance and so that it is Essentially as extensive as those Beams that is It at once filleth all our Air and toucheth the surface of the Earth and how much further it extendeth we cannot tell And what difference there is between Christ's glorified Body and the Sun in Purity Splendour Extent or Excellency of Nature little do poor Mortals know And so of the rest § 8. Let no Man therefore cavil and say How can a whole World of glorified Bodies be all present with the One Body of Christ when each must possess its proper room For as the Body of the solar Beams and the extensive Air are so compresent as that none can discern the difference of the places which they possess and a World of Bodies are present with them both so may all our Bodies be with Christ's Body and that without any true confusion § 9. 2. Besides Presence with Christ there will be such an Union as we cannot now distinctly know A political Relative Union is past doubt such as Subjects have in one Kingdom with their King But little know we how much more We see that there is a wonderful Corporeal continuity or contact among the material works of God And the more Spiritual pure and noble the more inclination each Nature hath to Union Every Plant on Earth hath a Union with the whole Earth in which it liveth they are real parts of it And what Natural Conjunction our Bodies shall have to Christ's and what influence from it is past our Knowledge Though his similitudes in Joh. â—5 Joh. 6. Eph. 5. 1 Cor. 12. seem to extend far yet being but similitudes we cannot fully know how far § 10. The same variatis variandis we may say of our Union with Christ's humane Soul Seeing Souls are more inclinable to union than Bodies when we see all Vegetables to be united parts of one Earth and yet to have each one its proper individuating form and matter we cannot though Animals seem to walk more disjunct imagine that there is no kind of Union or Conjunction of invisible Souls though they retain their several substances and forms Nor yet that our Bodies shall have a nearer Union with Christ's Body than our Souls with his Soul But the nature manner and measure of it we know not § 11. Far be it from us to think that Christ's glorified Spiritual Body is such in form parts and dimensions as his earthly Body was That it hath Hands Feet Brains Heart Stomach Liver Intestines as on Earth Or that it is such a Compound of Earth Water and Air as here it was and of such confined extent for then as his Disciples and a few Jews only were present with him and all the World besides were absent and had none of his Company so it would be in Heaven But it is not such only as Paul but all true Believers in the World from the Creation to the end shall be with Christ and see his Glory And though inequality of Fitness or Degrees of Holiness will make an inequality of Glory no Man can prove an inequality by local distance from Christ Or if such there be for it 's beyond our reach yet none in Heaven are at such a distance from him as not to enjoy the Felicity of his Presence § 12. Therefore when we dispute against them that hold Transubstantiation and the ubiquity of Christ's Body we do assuredly conclude that Sense is Judge whether there be real Bread and Wine present or not But it is no Judge whether Christ's Spiritual Body be present or not no more than whether an Angel be present And we conclude that Christ's Body is not Infinite or Immense as is his Godhead but what are its dimensions Limits or extent and where it is absent far be it from us to determine when we cannot tell how far the Sun extendeth its secondary substance or emanant Beams nor well what Locality is as to Christ's Soul or any Spirit if to a Spiritual Body § 13. Their fear is vain and carnal who are afraid lest their Union with Christ or one another will be too near even lest thereby they lose their individuation as Rivers that fall into the Sea or extinguished Candles whose Fire is after but a Sun-beam or part of the common Element of Fire in the Air or as the Vegetative Spirits which in Autumn retire from the Leaves into the Branches and Trunk of the Tree I have proved before that our Individuation or numerical Existence ceaseth not And that no Union is to be feared were it never so sure which destroyeth not the Being or formal Powers or Action of the Soul and that it is the great radical disease of SELFISHNESS and want of Holy LOVE to God and our Saviour and one another which causeth these unreasonable Fears Even that Selfishness which now maketh men so partially desirous of their own wills and pleasure in comparison of God's and their own Felicity in comparison of other and which maketh them so easily bear God's injuries and the Sufferings of a Thousand others in comparison of their own But he that put a great desire of the Bodies preservation into the Soul while it is its form will abate that desire when the time of separation is come because there is then no use for it till the Resurrection Else it would be a torment to the Soul § 14. 3. And as we shall
part not Rem sed aliquid Rei in which sense Sanchez truly saith Nihil scitur But then shall I know even as I am known Not a God knoweth us for our knowledge and his must not be so comparatively likened but as Holy Spirits know us both now and for ever we shall both know and be known by immediate intuition If a Physician be to describe the parts of Man and the latent Diseases of his Patient he is fain to search hard and bestow many Thoughts of it besides his long reading and converse to make him capable of knowing and when all is done he goeth much upon Conjectures and his knowledge is mixt with many uncertainties yea and mistakes but when he openeth the Corps he seeth all and his knowledg is more full more true and more certain besides that it is easily and quickly attained even by a present look A Countrey Man knoweth the Town the Fields and Rivers where he dwelleth yea and the Plants and Animals with ease and certain clearness when he that must know the same things by the study of Geographical Writings and Tables must know them but with a General an unsatisfactory and oft a much mistaking kind of knowledge Alas when our present knowledge hath cost a Man the study of Forty or Fifty or Sixty Years how lean and poor how doubtful and unsatisfactory is it after all But when God will shew us himself and all things and when Heaven is known as the Sun by its own Light this will be the clear suâ—â— and satisfactory knowledge Blessed are the Pure in Heart for they shall see God Mat. 5. And without Holiness none can see him Heb. 12. 14. This sight will be worthy the Name of Wisdom when our present glympse is but Philosophy a love and desire of Wisdom So far should we be from fearing Death through the fear of losing our knowledge or any of the means of knowledge that it should make us rather long for the World of Glorious Light that we might get out of this darkness and know all that with an easie look to our joy and satisfaction which here we know with troublesome doubtings or not at all Shall we be afraid of darkness in the Heavenly Light or of Ignorance when we see the Lord of Glory § 6. And as for the loss of Sermons Books and other means surely it is no loss to cease the means when we have attained the end Cannot we spare our Winter Clothes as troublesom in the heat of Summer and sit by the hot Fire without our Glores Cannot we sit at home without a Horse or Coach Or set them by at our Journeys end Cannot we lie in Bed without Boots and Spurs Is it grievous to us to cease our Physick when we are well Even here he is happier that hath least of the Creature and needeth least than he that hath much and needeth much Because all Creature commodities and helps have also their discommodities and troublesomness And the very applying and using so many remedies of our want is tedious of itself And as God only needeth nothing but is self-sufficient and therefore only perfectly and essentially happy so those are likest God that need least from without and have the greatest plenitude of internal goodness What need we to preach hear read pray to bring us to Heaven when we are there § 7. And as for our Friends and our converse with them as Relations or as wise religious and faithful to us he that believeth not that there are far More and far Better in Heaven than are on Earth doth not believe as he ought that there is a Heaven Our Friends here are wise but they are unwise also They are Faithful but partly unfaithful they are holy but also alas too sinful They have the Image of God but blotted and dishonoured by their faults They do God and his Church much service but they also do too much against him and too much for Satan even when they intend the Honour of God They promote the the Gospel but they also hinder it Their weakness ignorance errour selfishness pride passion division contention scandals and remisness do oft so much hurt that it is hard to discern whether it be not greater than their good to the Church or to their Neigbours Our Friends are our helpers and comforters but how oft also are they our hinderers troubles and grief But in Heaven they are altogether wise and holy and faithful and concordant and have nothing in them nor there done by them but what is amiable to God and Man And with our faithful Friends we have here a mixture partly of useless and burdensom Persons and partly of unfaithful Hypocrites and partly of self-conceited factious Wranglers and partly of malicious envious underminers and partly of implacable Enemies And how many of all these set together is there for one worthy faithful Friend And how great a number iâ— there to trouble you For one that will indeed comfort you But in Heaven there are none but the Wise and Holy No Hypocrites no burdensom Neighbours no treacherous or oppressing or persecuting Enemies are there And is not all good and amiable better than a little good with so troublesome a mixture of noisome Evils Christ loved his Disciples his Kindred yea and all Mankind and took pleasure in doing good to all and so did his Apostles But how poor a requital had he or they from any but from God Christ's own Brethren believed not in him but wrangled with him almost like those that said to him on the Cross If thou be the Son of God come down and we will believe Peter himself was once a Satan to him Matth. 16. and after with Cursing and Swearing denied him And all his Disciples forsook him and fled And what then from others could be expected No Friends have a perfect suitableness to each other and roughness and inequalities that are nearest us are most troublesom The wonderful variety and contrariety of apprehensions interest educations temperaments and occasions and temptations c. are such that whilest we are scandalized at the discord confusions of the World we must recal our selves and admire that all ruling Providence which keepeth up so much order and concord as there is We are indeed like People in crowded Streets who going several ways molest each other with their jostling oppositions Or like Boys at Foot-ball striving to overthrow each other for the Ball But it is a wonder of Divine Power and Wisdom that all the World is not continually in mortal War If I do men no harm yet if I do but cross their Wills it goeth for a provoking injury And when there are as many Wills as Persons who is it that can please them all Who hath Money enough to please all the Poor that need it or the Covetous that desire it Or who can live with displeased men and not feel some of the fruits of their displeasure What day goeth over
my Head in which abundance desire not or expect not impossibilities from me And how great is the number of them that expect unrighteous things By nothing do I displease so many as by not displeasing God and my Conscience And for nothing am so deeply accused of sin as for not sinning And the World will not think well of any thing that crosseth their Opinion and Carnal interest be it never so conform to God's Commands I must confess that while I suffer from all sides few men have more common and open Praises from their Persecutors than I But while they praise me in the general and for other particulars they aggravate my Non-conformity to their Opinions and Wills and take me to be so much the more hurtful to them The greatest Crimes that have been charged on me have been for the things which I thought to be my greatest duties and for those parts of my obedience to my Conscience and God which cost me dearest And where I pleased my Flesh least I pleased the World least At how cheap a rate to my Flesh could I have got the Applause of factious men if that had been my end and business Would I have conformed to their Wills and taken a Bishoprick and the Honour and Riches of the World how good a Man had I been called by the Diocesan party And O what praise I should have with the Papists could I turn Papist And all the backbitings and bitter Censures of the Antinomians Anabaptists and Separatists had been turned into praise could I have said as they or not contradicted them But otherwise there is no escaping their accusations And is this tumultuous militant yea malignant World a place that I should be loth to leave Alas our darkness and weakness and passions are such that it 's hard for a Family or a few faithful Friends to live so evenly in the exercise of Love as not to have oft unpleasant Jars What then is to be expected from Strangers and from Enemies Ten thousand Persons will judge of abundance of my Words and Actions who never knew the Reasons of them Every ones conceptions are as the report and conveyance of the matter to them is And while they have a various Light and false Reports and defectiveness will make them false what can be expected but false injurious Censures § 8. And though no outward thing on Earth is more precious than the Holy Word and Worship and Ordinances of God yet even here I see that which pointeth me up higher and telleth me it is much better to be with Christ 1. Shall I love the Name of Heaven better than Heaven itself The Holy Scriptures are precious because I have there the Promise of Glory but is not the Possession better than the Promise If a Light and Guide thither through this Wilderness be good surely the End must needs be better And it hath pleased God that all things on Earth and therefore even the Sacred Scriptures should bear the Marks of our state of imperfection Imperfect Persons were the Pen-men and imperfect humane Language is the conveying signal organical part of the matter And the Method and Phrase though true and blameless are far short of the heavenly Perfection Else so many Commentators had not found so hard a task of it to expound innumerable difficulties and reconcile so many seeming contradictions nor would Infidels find matter of so strong temptation and so much cavil as they do nor would Peter have told us of the difficulties of Pauls Epistles and such occasions of mens wresting them to their own destruction Heaven will not be made to perfect Spirits the occasion of so many Errors and Controversies and quarrels as the Scriptures are to us imperfect men on Earth Yea Heaven is the more desirable because there I shall better understand the Scriptures than here I can ever hope to do All the hard passages now misunderstood will there be made plain and all the seeming contradictions reconciled and which is much more that God that Christ that New Jerusalem that Glory and that Felicity of Souls which are now known but darkly and enigmatically in the Glass will then be known intuitively as we see the Face itself whose Image only the Glass first shewed us To leave my Bible and go to the God and the Heaven that is revealed will be no otherwise a loss to me than to lay by my Crutches or Spectacles when I need them not or to leave his Image for the presence of my Friend 2. Much less do I need to fear the loss of all other Books or Sermons or other Verbal informations Much reading hath oft been a weariness to my Flesh and the pleasure of my Mind is much abated by the great imperfection of the means Many Books must be partly read that I may know that they are scarce worth the reading And many must be read to enable us to satisfie other mens expectations and to confute those who abuse the authority of the Authors against the Truth And many good Books must be read that have little to add to what we have read in many others before and many that are blotted with ensnaring Errours Which if we detect not we leave snares for such as see them not And if we detect them never so tenderly if truly we are taken to be injurious to the Honour of the Learned godly Authors and proudly to overvalue our own conceipts And so lamentable is the Case of all Mankind by the imperfections of humane Language that those Words which are invented for communication of conceptions are so little fitted to their use as rather to occasion misunderstandings and contentions There being scarce a Word that hath not many significations and that needeth not many more words to bring us to the true notice of the speakers Mind And when every word is a Signum that hath three relations 1. To the Matter spoken of 2. To the Mind of the Speaker as signifying his conceptions of that matter 3. And to the Mind of the Hearer or Reader which is to be informed by it it is so hard to find and use words that are fitted indeed to all these uses and to have store of such and mix no other that few if any in the World were ever so happy as to attain it 1. And if words be not fitted to the Matter or Things they are false as to their first and proper use And yet the penury of apt words and the redundancy of others and the Authority of the Masters of Sciences imposing Arbitrary Terms and Notions on their Disciples and the Custom of the Vulgar who have the Empire as to the fense of Words have all conspired to make words inept and of very uncertain signification So that when Students have learnt words by long and hard Studies they are oft little the nearer the true knowledg of the Things and too oft by their ineptitude misled to false conceptions And so their saying is too often true
the Love of ancient Friends and Hearers I must say What mean you to weep and break my Heart I am ready to leave the dearest Friends on Earth and life and all the pleasures of life for the presence of far better Friends with Christ and the sweeter pleasures of a better life That little amiableness which is in things below is in godly men as life in the Heart which dieth last When that 's all gone when we are dead to the Love of the godly themselves and to Learning Books and mediate Ordinances so far as they serve a selfish interest and tempt down our Hearts from heavenly aspirings the World then is Crucified to us indeed and we to it I rejoice to tread in the Footsteps of my Lord who had some indeed weeping about his cross but was forsaken by all his Disciples while in the Hour of Temptation they all fled But my desertion is far less for it is less that I am fit to bear If God will justifie who shall condemn If he be for me who shall be against me O may I not be put to that dreadfull case to cry out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And may nothing separate me from his Love And then were I forsaken of the sober and peaceable as I am in part of some quarrelsom Dividers how tolerable a tryal would it be Man is as dust in the Ballance that addeth little to it and signifieth nothing when God is in the other end But I suspect still that I make too much account of Man when this case hath taken up too much of my observation 1. And of all things surely a departing Soul hath least cause to fear the losing of its notice of the Affairs of the World Of Peace or Wars or Church or Kingdoms For 1. If the Sun can send forth its material Beams and operate by motion light and heat at such a distance as this Earth why should I think that blessed Spirits are such local confined and impotent substances as not to have notice of the things of Earth Had I but bodily Eyes I could see more from the top of a Tower or Hill than any one that is below can do And shall I know less of Earth from Heaven than I do now It 's unlike that my Capacity will be so little And if it were it is unlike that Christs and all the Angels will be so strange to me as to give me no notice of things that so much concern my God and my Redeemer to whom I am united and the Holy Society of which I am a part and my self as a Member of Christ and that Society I do not think that the Communion of the Celestial Inhabitants is so narrow and slow as it is of walking Clods of Earth and of Souls that are confined to such dark Lanthorns as this Body is Stars can shine one to another And we on Earth can see them so far off in their Heaven And sure then if they have a seeing faculty each of them can see many of us even the Kingdoms of the World Spirits are most active and of powerful and quick communication They need not send Letters or write Books to one another nor lift up a voice to make each other hear Nor is there any unkindness division or unsociable selfishness among them which may cause them to conceal their notices or their joys But as Activity so Unity is Greatest where there is most Perfection They will so be Many as yet to be One and their Knowledge will be One Knowledge and their Love One Love and their Joy One Joy Not by so perfect a Unity as in God himself who is One and but One but such as is suitable to created imperfection which participate of the Perfection of the Creator as the Effect doth of the virtue of the Cause and therefore hath some participation of his Unity O foolish Soul if I shall fear this Unity with God Christ and all the Holy Spirits lest I should lose my present separate Individuation when Perfection and Union are so near akin In a word I have no cause to think that my Celestial advancement will be a diminution of any desirable Knowledge even of things on Earth but contrarily that it will be unconceivably increased 2. But if indeed I shall know less of things below it will be because that the knowledge of them is a part of Vanity and Vexation which hath no place in Heaven So much knowledge of good and evil in lower matters as came to us by sin is unworthy of our fond tenaciousness and fear of losing it Surely the sad tidings which we have Weekly in our News Books our lamentable notices of Heathen and Infidel Kingdoms of the overspreading prevalency of Barbarousness Idolatry Ignorance and Infidelity of the rage and success of cruel Tyrants of the bloody Wars of proud unquiet worldly men of the misery of the oppressed desolate Countreys the dissipated Churches the persecuted innocent Christians are no such pleasing things as that we should be afraid to hear of such no more To know or hear of the poor in Famine the rich in Folly the Church distracted the Kingdom discontented the godly scandalous by the effects of their Errours imperfections and divisions the wicked outrageous and waxing worse the falseness or miscarriages or sufferings of Friends the fury or success of Enemies is this an intelligence which I cannot spare What is the daily tidings that I hear but of bloody Wars the undone Countreys the persecuted Churches the silenced banished or imprisoned Preachers of the best removed in judgment from an unworthy World by Death and worse succeeding in their rooms of the renewed designs and endeavours of the Churches Enemies the implacable rage of the worldly and unquiet Clergy and the new divisions of self-conceited Sectaries and the obloquy and backbitings of each Party against the other How oft hear I the sad tidings of this Friends sickness or Death and that Friends discontent and of anothers fall and of many very many's Sufferings My Ears are daily filled with the cryes of the poor whom I cannot relieve with the endless complaints of fearful Melancholy despairing Persons with the wranglings of the ignorant and proud Professors and contentious Divines who censure most boldly where they are most Erroneous or dark Or with the troublesom discontents of those that I converse with And should I be afraid of the ending of so sad a Tragedy or of awaking out of such an unpleasant dream Have I not many times thought of the Priviledge of the deaf that hear not these troublesom and provoking things and of the Blind that see not the Vanities and Temptations of this World It is one part of the benefit of solitude or a private life and habitation to free me from many of these unpleasing Objects and a great part of the benefit of sleep that with my Cloaths I may lay by these troubleous Thoughts § 11. But other men
tell me The Church cannot yet spare you There is yet this and that necessary work to be done There is this and that need c. But 1. Is it we or God that must choose his Servants and cut out their work Whose work am I doing Is it my own or his If his is it not he that must tell me what and when and how long And will not his will and choice be best If I beâ—â—eve not this how do I take him for my God Doth God or I know better what he hath yet to do And who is fittest to do it The Churches Service and benefits must be measured out by our Master and Benefactor and not by our selves 2. What am I to those more excellent Persons whom in all Ages he hath taken out of the World And would mens Thoughts of the Churches needs detain them The poor Heathen Infidel Mahometane Nations have no Preachers of the Gospel And if their need prove not that God will send them such no Countreys need will prove that God will continue them such Many more useful Servants of Christ have died in their youth John Janeway preached but one Sermon Joseph Allen and many another excellent Men died young in the midst of his vigorous successful labours Both of them far more fit for God's work and likely to win Souls and glorifie God than I am or ever was However their greater Light was partly kindled from my lesser Yet did both these under painful consuming languishings of the Flesh die as they had long lived in the lively triumphant Praises of their Redeemer and joyful desires and hopes of Glory And shall I at Sixty seven Years of Age after such a life of unspeakable Mercies and after almost Forty four Years of comfortable help in the Service of my Lord be now afraid of my reward and shrink at the Sentence of Death and still be desiring to stay here upon pretence of further service We know not what is best for the Church as God doth The Church and the World are not Ours but his not our desires but his will must measure out its Mercies We are not so Merciful as he is It is not unmeet for us to desire many things which God will not give nor seeth it meet to grant the particulars of such desires Nothing ever lay so heavy on my Heart as the sin and misery of Mankind and to think how much of the World lyeth in folly and wickedness And for what can I pray so heartily as for the Worlds recovery And it is his will that I should shew a Holy and Universal Love by praying Let thy Name be hallowed Thy Kingdom come and Thy will be done on Earth as it is done in Heaven And yet alas how unlike is Earth to Heaven and what Ignorance Sin Confusions and Cruelties here reign and prosper And unless there be a wonderful change to be expected even as by a general Miracle how little hope appeareth that ever these Prayers should be granted in the things It maketh us better to desire that others may be better But God is the free disposer of his own gifts And it seemeth to be his will that the permitted Ignorance and Confusions of this World should help us the more to value and desire that World of Light Love and Order which he calleth us to prefer and hope for And if I am any way useful to the World it is undeserved Mercy that hath made me so for which I must be thankful But How long I shall be so is not my business to determine but my Lords My many sweet and beautiful Flowers arise and appear in their beauty and sweetness but for one Summers time and they murmur not that they flourish for so short a space The Beasts and Birds and Fishes which I feed on do live till I will have them die And as God will be served and pleased by wonderful variety at once of Animals and Vegetables c. So will he by many successive Generations If one Flower fall or die it sufficeth that others shall Summer after Summer arise from the same root And if my Pears Apples Plums c. fall or serve me when they are ripe it sufficeth that not they but others the next Year shall do the same God will have other Generations to succeed us Let us think him that we have had our time And could we overcome the Grand too little observed Crime of SELFISHNESS and could Love others as our selves and God as God above all the World it would comfort us at Death that others shall survive us and the World shall continue and God will be still God and be glorified in his works And Love will say I shall live in my successors and I shall more than Live in the Life of the World and yet most of all in the eternal Life and Glory of God And God who made us not gods but poor Creatures as it pleased him doth know best our measures And he will not try us with too long a Life of Temptations lest we should grow too familiar where we should be Strangers and utterly Strangers to our home No wonder if that World was ready for a deluge by a deluge of sin in which men lived to Six Seven Eight and Nine hundred Years of Age Had our Great Sensualists any hope of so long a life they were like to be like incarnate Devils and there would be no dwelling near them for the Holy Seed If Angels were among them they would like the Sodâ—mites seek furiously to abuse them Nor will God tire us out with too long a life of earthly sufferings We think short cares and fears and sorrows persecutions sickness and crosses to be long And shall we grudge at the Wisdom and Love which shortneth them Yea though holy duty it self be excellent and sweet yet the weakness of the Flesh maketh us liable to weariness and abateth the willingness of the Spirit And our wise and merciful God will not make our warfare or our race too long lest we be wearied and faint and fall short of the prize By our weariness and complaints and fears and groans one would think that we thought this life too long and yet when we should yield to the call of God we draw back as if we would have it everlasting § 12. Willingly submit then O my Soul It is not thou but this Flesh that must be dissolved this troublesom vile and corruptible Flesh It is but the other half thy meat and drink which thy presence kept longer uncorrupted going after the excremental part Thou diest not when Man the compositum dieth by thy departure And as thou livest not to thy self I die not to my self whether I live or die I am the Lords He that set up the Candle knoweth how long he hath use for the light of it Study thy duty and work while it is Day and let God choose thy time and willingly stand to his disposal The Gospel dieth
water Brooks so panteth my Soul after thee O God My Soul thirsteth for God for the living God When shall I come and appear before God Psa 40. 12. And would I not have my Prayers heard and my desires granted What else is the summ of lawful Prayers but God himself If I desire any thing more than God what sinfulness is in those desires and how sad is their signification How oft have I said Whom have I in Heaven but Thee and there is none on Earth I desire besides Thee It is good for me to draw near to God Psal 73. 25 28. Woe to me if I did dissemble If not Why should my Soul draw back Is it because that Death stands in the way Do not my fellow Creatures die for my daily Food And is not my passage secured by the Love of my Father and the Resurrection and Intercession of my Lord Can I see the Light of heavenly Glory in this darksome shell and womb of Flesh § 2. All Creatures are more or less excellent and glorious as God is more or less Operative and refulgent in them and by that Operation communicateth most of himself unto them Though he be immense and indivisible his Operations and Communications are not equal And that is said to be Nearest to Him which hath most of those Operations on it and that without the intervenient causality of any second created Cause and so all those are in their Order Near unto him as they have Noblest Natures and fewest intervenient Causes far am I from presuming to think that I am or shall be the Best and Noblest of God's Creatures and so that I shall be so near him as to be under the influx of no second or created Causes of which more anon But to be as Near as my Nature was ordained to approach is but to attain the End and Perfection of my Nature § 3. And as I must not look to be the Nearest to Him as he is the first Efficient no more must I as he is the first Dirigent or governing Cause As now I am under the government of his Officers on Earth I look for ever to be under subgovernours in Heaven My glorified Saviour must be my Lord and Ruler and Who else under him I know not If Angels are not equal in Perfection nor as is commonly supposed equal in Power nor without some regimental order among themselves I must not conclude that no created Angel or Spirit shall have any government over me But it will be so Pure and Divine as that the blessed Effects of God's own Government will besweetly powerful therein If the Law was given by Angles and the Angel of God was in the burning Bush and the Angel conducted the People through the Wilderness and yet all these things are ascribed to God much more near and glorious will the Divine Regiment there be whoever are the Administrators § 4. And as I must expect to be under some created Efficient and Dirigent Causes there so must I expect to have some subordinate Ends Else there would not be a proportion and harmony in causalities whatever nobler Creatures are above me and have their Causalities upon me I must look to be finally for those nobler Creatures When I look up and think what a world of glorious Beings are now over me I dare not presume to think that I shall finally any more than Receptively be the Nearest unto God and that I am made for None but Him I find here that I am made and ruled and sanctified for the Publick or Common Good of many as above my own of which I am past doubt And I am sure that I must be finally for my glorified Redeemer and for what other Spiritual Beings or Intelligences that are above me little do I know And God hath so ordered all his creatures as that they are mutually Ends and Means for and to one another though not in an Equality nor in the same respects But whatever nearer Ends there will be I am sure that he who is the first Efficient and Dirigent will be the ultimate final Cause And I shall be in this respect as near him as is due to he rank and order of my Nature I shall be useful to he Ends which are answerable to my Perfection § 5. And if it be the honour of a Servant to have an honourable Master and to be appointed to the most honourable work If it be some honour to a Horse above a Swine or a Worm or Fly that he serveth more nearly for the use of Man yea for a Prince will it not be also my advancement to be ultimately for God and subordinately for the highest created Natures and this in such Services as are suitable to my Spiritual and Heavenly State § 6. For I am far from thinking that I shall be above Service and have none to do For Activity will be my Perfection and my Rest And all such Activity must be Regular in harmony and order of Causes and for its proper use And what though I know not now fully what service it is that I must do I know it will be good and suitable to the blessed state which I shall be in And it is enough that God and my Redeemer know it and that I shall know it in due time when I come to practice it of which more afterward § 7. The inordinate Love of this Body and present composition seduceth Souls to think that all their use and work is for its maintenance and prosperity and when the Soul hath done that and is separated from Flesh it hath nothing to do but must lie idle or be as nothing or have no considerable work or pleasure As if there were nothing in the whole World but this little fluid mass of matter for a Soul to work upon As if itself and all the Creatures and God were nothing or no fit Objects for a Soul And why not hereafter as well as now Or as if that which in our compounded state doth Operate on and by its Organs had no other way of Operation without them As if the Musician lost all his power or were dead when his Instrument is out of tune or broken and could do nothing else but play on that As if the fiery part of the Candle were annihilated or transmutate as some following-Philosphers imagine when the Candle goeth out and were not fire and in action still Or as if that Sun beam which I shut out or which passeth from our Horizon were annihilated or did nothing when it shineth not with us Had it no other individual to illuminate or to terminate its beams or action were it nothing to illuminate the common Air Though I shall not always have a Body to Operate in and upon I shall always have God and a Saviour and a world of fellow-Creatures and when I shine not in this Lanthorn and see not by these Spectacles nor imaginarily in a Glass I shall yet see things suitable
to our clearest view O what beatifying knowledge will this be All dark Texts concerning his Person his Office and his Works will be then expounded and fully understood All those strange and difficult things which were the great exercise and honour of Faith will then be plain Difficulties will no more be Satans advantage to tempt us to unbelief or doubting The sight of the Glory of my Lord will be my Glory Joh. 17. 24. If Paul had not then attained to Perfection in the knowledge of Christ and the power of his Resurrection but was pressing forward to reach that Crown in the life to come which he calleth The Resurrection of the dead Phil. 3. 9 10 11 12. Such as I must not expect here to attain it but when that which is Perfect is come this imperfect knowledge of Faith will be done away as childish knowledge is in manly And the Glass and Riddle shall be laid aside when we shall see Face to Face and shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 10 11 12. as to our sight and knowledge of Christ and his Triumphant Body For I dare not apply that Phrase to the sight and knowledg of the Divine essence nor yet deny it If now though we see not Christ yet believing we love him and rejoice in him with unspeakable glorying joy What love and joy will the Everlasting sight of our blessed head excite there in the Souls of all the glorified IV. I shall better O much better know the heavenly Jerusalem the Triumphant Church the Blessed Angels and glorified Saints And as my love to them so my knowledge of them will not be the least part of my heavenly delight As strangely as I now look upward to that World because I cannot see it with these Eyes it shall be my well known Everlasting habitation O what a sight what a joyful sight will Death shew me by drawing aside the vail Or rather the Lord of Life by turning Death to my advantage When I am there at home I shall no more think with confusion fear or doubting of that blessed place or state My fears which now come from the smalness of my Faith will end when Faith is turned into Vision As I now know the several Rooms in my House and Houses in the Street and Streets in the City so shall I then know the many Mansions which Christ hath said are in his Fathers House Words now give me so poor imperfect a conception of the World and things which I never saw as that somtimes I can scarcely tell whether the Joy of my Faith or the trouble of my dark apprehensions be the greater But when I shall see the Place the Persons the Glory which I heard of that will be the delightful satisfying and possessing kind of knowledge If Nehemiah and the godly Jews made so great a matter of seeing the Walls of Jerusalem repaired and others of the imperfect reedifying of the Temple O what a joyful sight to me will the heavenly Jerusalem then be The most glorious sight will be at the great Marriage day of the Lamb when Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that now believe But the next to that will be the Day of my particular deliverance when I shall come to Christ and see the Saints admiring him in Glory If I were of the Opinion of those Greek Fathers who thought that Stars were Angels or had intellectual Souls matters unknown to us I should love them as my Guardians and take it to be yet more of my concernment to be advanced to the fuller knowledge of them But seeing I know that Angels love us and by Office do attend and keep us and rejoice at our good and at our repentance and which is far more are more holy and excellent Creatures than we are it is therefore my comfort to think that I shall better know them and live in near and perpetual acquaintance and communion with them a more sensible and sweet communion than we can have with them here Devils are aereal and near to this dark and sinful World and ofter appear to men than Angels But the Angels affect not such descending appearances till Love and Obedience to their Lord make it pleasing to them And therefore we have but little knowledge even of those that know and love and keep us But when we come home to their nearest society and converse to know them will be sweet and joyful knowledge For they are more excellent Creatures than the most glorious that are below the Intellective Nature They are full of Light and full of Love to God and Man Had God bid me pray to them I would not have refused it but taken it for my honour But seeing he hath not I will do that which he hath bid me even Love them and rejoice in my relation to the innumerable Company of them in the City of the Living God the heavenly Jerusalem Heb. 12. 22. and long to know and love them more expecting long to bear my part in the Praises of God and of the Lamb in the same Chore where they are the Precentors And that I shall know the Spirits of the perfected Just and be of their communion will be no small addition to my joy How sweet hath one wise and holy though weak and blemished companion been to me here on Earth And how lovely have God's Graces in such though smutted appeared to me O then what a sight will it be when we shall see the Millions of Souls that shine in perfect Wisdom and Holiness with Christ To see a Garden that hath some beautiful Flowers in it is somthing But if you saw whole Fields and Countries shining with them it would be a glory though fading to the Earth A well built City is a pleasanter sight than a single House and a Navy than a Ship and an Army than one Man And if this poor low World did all consist of Wise and Just and Holy Persons O what an orderly lovely World would it be If one Kingdom consisted Prince Magistrates Pastors and People all of such what a blessed Kingdom would that be The plague of wicked mens deceits and falshoods oppressions and iniquities may help to make us sensible of this It would be a great temptation to us to be loth to die and leave such a Countrey were it not that the more the beauty of goodness appeareth the more the state of Perfection is desired It is pleasant to me to pray in hope as Christ hath commanded me that Earth may be made liker unto Heaven which now is become so like to Hell But when I shall see the Society perfected in Number in Holiness in Glory in heavenly Employment the joyful Praises of Jehovah the Glory of God and the Lamb shining on them and God rejoicing over them as his delight and my self partaking of the same that will be the truly blessed day And why doth my Soul imprisoned in Flesh no
are so lamentably mutable that further than God promiseth to uphold us we know not one day what we shall think judge or Will the next But when Love is as a fixed Nature in us we shall be still the same adhering to amiable goodness without intermission or Cessation It will be as easy to us and more to love God and Holiness as it is to the Hungry and Thirsty to love meat and drink or to the proud to love praise or domination yea or to any Man to love his life And we shall be no more weary of Loving than the Sun is of shining or than the Hungry is of Feasting or a Friend of friendly love and converse Nay the Comparison is quite too low for all Creatures here have a fading vanity which wearieth the satiated or failing Appetite but there is no such thing in Heaven § 7. II. And as from the nature of that act so much more from the nature of the Object my love will appear to be my happiness The Objects which are as the Matter of the act will be these 1. GOD himself will be the full and everlasting Object of my Love And he that could but understand as well as those in Heaven do what this word signifieth to LOVE GOD and be BELOVED of him would say that there needs no other description of perfect happiness Perfect joyful Complacency in God is the Heaven which I desire and hope for This is my Felicity and much more As I am the Agent of Love to God and the Object of God's Love to me it is my Felicity As God is the ultimate Object of my Love and the Agent of his Love to me that is of the effects of it so it is unspeakably more high and excellent than to be my felicity Love is the closure of the Wills of God and Man And as it is God's part or interest efficiently or objectively it is infinitely more excellent than as it is my part and interest § 8. In GOD there is all that Love can desire for its full everlasting Feast 1. He is Infinitely good in himself that is most amiable And the nature of Man's will is to love Good as Good Could we love God with a Love that is adequate to the Object we should be God our selves which is impossible none but God can adequately know God or Love him In God's Love to Himself both the Act and Object are Infinite and indeed are both one there being not that formally which we know by the name of Act and Object but Act and Object are our analogical inadequate conceptions of that Act of God which is his Essence But in our Love to God the Act is finite and infinitely below the Object Yea the Object which in reality 〈◊〉 itself infinite yet proximately as the esse Cognitum is the Object of our Love is finite there It is the Conception or Idea of God in the Intellect which is the proper and nearest Object of the Will And this is as a Face in a Glass a shadow even the finite little shaddow of an infinite Being The same Infinite good is a felicity to diverâ— Persons in divers degrees according as they diversly love him and are receptive of his Love § 9. 2. God who is infinitely Good in himself will be that most suitable Good to me and meetest for the dearest embracements of my will For 1. He hath All in himself that I need or can desire There is no Room nothing above him or beyond him or without him for love to cleave to Though Below him the Creature though not being without him is loved without him by the deception of the mind § 10. 2. He is willing to be loved by me He disdaineth not my Love He might have refused to be embraced by such affections as have so oft and sinfully polluted themselves by embracing vanity and filth As Persons of state and stately cleanliness will not be touched by filthy hands much less let Dogs or dirty Swine leap on them which come from wallowing in the mire God might have driven me away from the happiness of loving him and have denyed me the leave for so high a work But he commandeth my Love and maketh it my greatest duty He inviteth and intreateth me as if he were a gainer by my happiness He seeketh to me to seek to him and as he is the first so is he the most earnest suiter He is far readier to receive my Love than I am to give it him All the compassionate invitations which I have had from him here by his Word and Mercies assure me that he will there receive me readily he that so valued my poor cold imperfect love to him on Earth will not reject my perfect love in Heaven He that made it the great work of his Spirit to Effect it will not refuse it when it is made perfect by himself § 11. 3. And he is near to me and not a distant God out of my reach and so unsuitable to my Love Blind Unbelievers may dream that he is far off but he is as near us even now as we are to our selves He is not far from any of us for in him we live and move and have our being The Light of the Sun is not so neaâ— my Eyes as God will be for ever to my Mind When he would sanctifie us to love him he bringeth us nigh to him in Christ. As we love our selves easily as being as they say the nearest to our selves So we shall as easily love God as our selves when we see â—â—at he is as near us as we are to our selves as well as that he is infinitely more Amiable in himself § 12. 4. And because of the imparity of the Creature and the Creator he hath provided such Means to demonstrate to us his nearness as are necessary to the exercise of our Love We shall see his Gâ—oâ—y and taste his Love in our glorified Mediator and in the Gâ—oâ—y of the Church and World God will condescend to shew himself to us according to our Capacities of beholding him Here we see him in his Works and Word and there we shall see him in the glory of all his perfect Works But this leadeth me to the second Object of my Love § 13. II. Under God as I shall see so I shall delightfully Love the glorious Perfection of the Universe even the Image of God in all the World as my Love will be my delight so I shall love best that which is best and most delight in it And the whole is better than any part And there is a peculiar Beauty and Excellency in the whole World as perfect compaginate harmonious which is not to be found in any part no not in Christ himself as Man nor in his Church The marvellous inclination that all things have to Union even the Inanimates might persuade me if I felt it not certainly in my self that it is most credible that Man also shall have the like
study it without Love What sounding Brass and tinkling Cymbals a lifeless Voice are they that preach of God and Christ and heavenly Glory without Love But gazing upon the face of Love in Christ and tasting of its gifts and looking up to its glorious reign is the way to kindle the Sacred Fire in thee Look upwards if thou wouldst see the Light that must lead thee upwards It is not for nothing that Christ hath taught us to begin our Prayers with Our Father which art in Heaven It is Fatherly Love that must win our Hearts and that must comfort them And it is in Heaven where this is gloriously manifested As I said before as the Soul is in all the Body but yet understandeth not in the Hand as it doth in the Head nor rejoiceth not in the Foot as it doth in the Heart so God that is every where doth not every where glorifie his Love as he doth it in Heaven Thither therefore the Mind and Eye are even by Nature taught to look up as to God as we look a Man in the Face when we speak to him rather than to his Feet though his Soul be also there My sinful Heart hath needed sorrow My careless rash presumptuous Soul hath needed fears and I have had some part of these Mercy saw it good for me as necessary to prevent my more dangerous deceits and lapses And O that in the hour of sensual temptations I had feared more and departed from evil But it is HOLY LOVE that must be my life Or else I am dead notwithstanding fear O come then and study the life of Love It is more of a Holy Nature than of Art but yet study must do much to prepare thee to receive it This is the great use of a heavenly Conversation It is the contemplation belief and hope of the glorious state of Love hereafter that must make us like it and kindle it in us here The burning Glass must be turned directly to the Sun if you will have it set any thing on fire There is a carnal or common love to God which is kindled in men by carnal pleasures But a Holy love like that in Heaven must be studiously fetcht from Heaven and kindled by the fore sight of what is there what we shall be there for ever Faith must ascend and look within the vail thou must not live as a stranger to thy home to thy God and Saviour and thy hopes The fire that must warm thee is in Heaven and thou must come near it or open thy self to its influence if thou wilt feel its powerful efficacy It is night and winter with carnal minds when it is day and summer with those that set their Faces Heavenward § 21. II. But though all my Receivings will be from God they will not be from him alone We must live in perfect Union also with one another and with all the heavenly Society and therefore as we must love them all so shall we be beloved by them all And this will be a subordinate part of our blessedness God there will make use of second causes even in communicating his Love and Glory § 22. 1. The Lord Jesus Christ will not only be the Object of our delightful love but will also love us with an effectual operative love for ever His love will be as the Vital Heat and Motion of the Heart to all the Members the Root of our Life and Joy The Love of our Redeemer will flow out into us all as the Vital Spirits and his Face of Glory will be the Sun of the heavenly Jerusalem and will shine upon us and shew us God And in his light we shall have light Did his tears for a dead Lazarus make men say Behold how he loved him O then what will the reviving Beams of heavenly life make us say of that love which filleth us with the pleasures of his presence and turneth our Souls into JOY it self He comforteth us now by the teaching of his Word but surely the fruition of Salvation will be more gladding then the tidings of it When he that told us of Glory in his Gospel shall give it us we shall not only believe but feel that he loveth us § 23. Believe O my Soul thy Saviours Love that thou maist foretast it and be fit to feel it We were uncapable in sinful Flesh of seeing him otherwise than as cloathed with Flesh and his consolations were administred by a word of Promise suitable to his appearance But when he withdrew his bodily presence the Comforter was sent with a fuller Consolation But all that was but the earnest and the first fruits of what he will be to us for ever Be not seldom not unbelieving nor slight in the thoughts of thy Saviours love for it is he that is the way to the Infinite love Let thy believing be so much of thy daily work that thou maist say that he dwelleth in thy Heart by Faith Eph. 3. 17. and that while thou livest here it is Christ that liveth in thee and that thy life in the Flesh is not a fleshly life but by the Faith of the Son of God that hath loved thee and given himself for thee Gal. 2. 20. And that though thou see him not yet believing thou lovest him also with unspeakable Joy as believing the unspeakable perfect Joy which his Love-will communicate to thee for ever Look upon the Sun and think thus with thy self How wonderful is the Emanation of this Sun Its motion light and heat communicated to so many Millions of Câ—eatures all over the Earth and in the Seas What if all these beams of light and heat were proportionable beams of perfect Knowledge Love and Joy and that all Creatures that are under the Sun had from its influx as much Wisdom Love and Joy as they have Light Heat and Motion Would not then this Earth be as a World of Angels and a Heaven O what a blessed World would it be And what a benefactor would the Sun be to the World Why even such will Jesus Christ be to the Celestial World He is the Sun of Glory His Influence will send forth LIFE and LIGHT and JOYFUL LOVE upon all the blessed from the Face of the God as the Sun sends forth from God its Motion Light and Heat upon this World Now therefore begin and live upon him live upon the influence of his Grace his Teaching Love-kindling and Quickning Grace that thou maist have his Name and Mark and he may find in thee something of himself or of his own when thou comest to his Righteous ryal His Grace is not in my power not at my command It is not meet it should be so But he hath not bid me seek and beg in vain If he had never told me that he will give it me it is equal to a promise if he do but bid me seek and ask But I have more He teacheth me to pray He maketh my Prayers He writeth me
is here but as in the Seed the perfect union and communion is hereafter Earth and Heaven must be distinguished We must not extend our hopes or pretensions here beyond the Capacity of our Natures As perfect Holiness and Knowledge so perfect Unity and Concord is proper to Heaven and is not here to be expected The Papal pretensions of an impossible Union in one Governour of all the Earth is the means to hinder that Union which is possible But the state of Perfection is the state of perfect union communion Hasten then upwards O my Soul with the ferventest desires and breath after that state with the strongest Hopes where thou shalt not be rich and see thy Neighbours poor about thee nor be poor while they are rich nor be well while they are sick or sick while they are well But their Riches their Health their Joy will be all thine and thine will be all theirs as the common Light and none will have the less for the participation of the rest Yea Communion will be part of every ones felicity It constitueth the very being of the City of God This Celestial Communion of Saints in one holy Church above what is here to be attained is now an Article of our Belief But believing will soon end in seeing and enjoying V. The Constitutive Reasons from the heavenly Life or Practice § 1. Seeing and Loving will be the heavenly Life But yet it seemeth that besides these there will be EXECUTIVE Powers and therefore some answerable PRACTICE There are GOOD WORKS in Heaven and far more and better than on Earth For 1. There will be more Vital Activity and therefore more exercise of it For the Power is for Action 2. There will be more Love to God and one another And Love is active 3. There will be more likeness to God and our Redeemer who is communicative and doth good as he is good 4. Our Union with Christ who will be everlastingly beneficent as well as benevolent will make us in our places also beneficent 5. Our Communion in the City of God will prove that we shall all bear our part as the Members of the Body in contributing to the welfare of the whole and in the common returns to God § 2. But What are the heavenly Works we must perfectly know when we come thither In general we know 1. That they will be the works of love to God and to his Creatures that is such as Love inclineth us to exercise 2. And they will be works of Obedience to God that is such as we shall do to please his will and because he willeth them to be our duty 3. They will be useful works to others 4. They will be pleasant to our selves and part of our felicity 5. And they will carry all to God our End § 3. And somwhat of them is particularly described in the holy Scriptures As 1. We shall in Concord with the whole Society or Chore give Thanks and Praise to God and our Redeemer Rev. 19. 5. 1 Pet. 4. 11. Rev. 7. 4. 4. 7 11. 5. 13. 7. 12. 19. 1. Phil. 4 20. Whether there be any Voice or only such Spiritual activity and exultation as to Man in Flesh is not to be clearly understood is not fit for us here to presume to determine It will be somwhat more high and excellent than our vocal Praise and Singing is and of which this beareth some analogical resemblance or signification As all Passions earnestly desire vent and exercise so specially do our holy affections of Love Joy and Admiration of God Almighty And there is in us a desire of communion with many in such affections and expressions Methinks when we are singing or speaking God's praise in the great Assemblies with joyful and fervent Souls I have the liveliest foretast of Heaven on Earth And I could almost wish that our Voices were loud enough to reach through all the World and unto Heaven itself Nor could I ever be offended as many are at the Organs and other convenient Musick soberly and seasonably used which excite and help to tune my Soul in so holy a work in which no true assistance is to be despised No work more comforteth me in my greatest sufferings none seemeth more congruous and pleasant to me while I wait for Death than Psalms and words of Praise to God nor is there any exercise in which I had rather end my life And should I not then willingly go to the heavenly Chore where God is praised with perfect Love and Joy and harmony Had I more of a Praising frame of Soul it would make me long more for that Life of Praise For I never find my self more willing to be there than when I most joyfully speak or sing God's praise Though the Dead praise not God in the grave and dust doth not give him thanks yet living Souls in Heaven do it joyfully while their fleshly cloathing turns to dust Lord â—une my Soul to thy Praises now that sweet experience may make me long to be where I shall do it better I see where any excellent Musick is Nature maketh men flock to it and they that are but Hearers yet join by a concurrent phantasie and delight Surely if I had once heard the heavenly Chore I should Eccho to their holy Songs though I could not imitaâ— them and I should think it the truest Blessedness to be there and bear my part My God the voice of thy comforting Spirit speaking thy Love effectually to my Soul would make such holy Musick in me that would incline me to the Celestial consort and without it all these thoughts and words will be in vain It is the inward Mâ—lody of thy Spirit and my Conscience that must tune me to desire the hâ—avenly Melody O speak thy love first to my Heart and then I shall joyfully speak it to my Brethren and shall ambitiously seek that communion of them that praise thee better than sinful groaning Mortals can And though my sins here make a loathed jar and discord in my Songs I hope my groans for these sins and their effects will make no discord Sighs and Tears have had the honour to be accepted by thee who despisest not a contrite Soul But if thy Spirit will sing and speak within me and help me against the discordant murmurs of my unbelieving Heart and pained Flesh I shall offer thee that which is more suitable to thy Love and Grace I confess Lord that daily Tears and Sighs are not unsuitable to the Eyes and Voice of so great a Sinner who is under thy correcting Roâ— What better could I expect when I grieved thy Spirit than that it should prove my grief Yea this is far better than the genuine effects of sin But this is not it that is meeâ—est to be offered to the God of Love He that offereth Praise doth glorifie thee And is not this the Spiritual Sacrifice acceptable through Christ for which we were made Priests to God
with his own And had my resignation and devotedness to him been more absolute my trust in him would have been more easy But Lord thou knowest that I would fain be thine and wholly thine and it is to thee that I desire to live Therefore let me quietly Die to Thee and wholly Trust Thee with my Soul § 5. II. And why should my want of formal Conceptions of the future state of separated Souls and my strangeness to the manner of their subsistence and operations induce me to doubt of those generals which are evident and beyond all rational doubting That Souls are substances and not annihilated and essentially the same when they forsake the Body as before I doubt not Otherwise neither the Christians Resurrection nor the Pythagoreans transmigration were a possible thing For if the Soul cease to be it cannot pass into another Body nor can it re-enter into this If God raise this Body then it must be by another Soul For the same Soul to be Annihilated and yet to begin again to be is a contradiction For the second beginning would be by Creation which maketh a new Soul and not the same that was before It is the Invisible things that are excellent active operative and permanent The Visible excepting Light which maketh all things else visible are of themselves but lifeless dross It is the unseen part of Plants and Flowers which causeth all their growth and beauty their fruit and sweetness Passive Matter is but moved up and down by the invisible active Powers as Chess-men are moved from place to place by the Gamesters hands What a loathsom Corps were the World without the invisible Spirits and Natures that animate actuate or move it To doubt of the being or continuation of the most excellent Spiritual parts of the Creation when we live in a World that is actuated by them and where every thing demonstrates them as their effects is more foolish than to doubt of the being of these gross materials which we see § 6. How oft have I been convinced that there are good Spirits with whom our Souls have as certain communion though not so sensible as our Life hath with the Sun and as we have with one another And that there are evil and envious Spirits that fight against our Holiness and Peace as certain Narratives of Apparitions and Witches and too sad experience of Temptations do evince And the marvellous diversity of Creatures on Earth for kind and number yea the diversity of Stars in Heaven as well as the diversities of Angels and Devils do partly tell me that though All be of One and through One and to One yet absolute Unity is the divine Prerogative and we must not presume to expect such Perfection as to lose our specifique or numerical diversity by any Union which shall befall our Souls Nor can I reasonably doubt that so noble and active a Nature as Souls dwelling above in the lucid Regions in communion with their like and with their betters shall be without the activity the pleasure and felicity which is suitable to their Nature their Region and their Company And my Saviour hath entered into the Holiest and hath assured me that there are many Mansions in his Fathers House and that when we are absent from the Body we shall be present with the Lord. § 7. Organical sight is given me for my use here in the Body And a Serpent or a Hawk hath as much or more of this than I have Mental knowledge reacheth further than sight and is the act of a nobler Faculty and for a higher use Though it be the Soul itself embodied in the igneous Spirits that seeth yet it is by a higher and more useful Faculty that it understandeth And Faith is an understanding act It knoweth things unseen because they are revealed Who can think that all believing holy Souls that have passed hence from the beginning of the World have been deceived in their Faith and Hope And that all the wâ—cked worldly Infidels whose hope was only in this life have been the wisest men and have been in the right If Virtue and Piety are faults or foâ—lies and bruitish Sensualâ—ty be best then why are not Laws made to command Sensualâ—ty and forbâ—d Piety and Virtue To say this is to deny humanity and the Wisdom of our Creator and to feign the World to be governed by a Lie and to take the Perfection of our Nature for its disease and our greatest disease for our Perfection But if Piety and Virtue be better than Impiety and Vice the Principles and necessary Motives of them are certainly true and the exercise of them is not in vain What abominable folly and wickedness were it to say the wicked only attain their ends and that they all lose their labour and live and die in miserable deceit who seek to please God in hope of a better life to come believing that God is the Rewarder of them that diligently seek him Wouâ—d not this justifie the foolish Manichees that thought a bad God made this World yea and would infer that he not only made us for a mischief but Ruleth uâ— to our deceit and hurt and giveth us both Natural and Supernatural Laws in ill will to us to mâ—slead us to our misery and to fill our lives with needless troubles Shall I not abhor every suggestion that containeth such inhumane absurdities as these Wonderful that Satan can keep up so much Unbelief in the World while he must make men such fools that he may make them unbelievers and ungodly § 8. III. That my Soul is no more heavenly and my foretast of future Blessedness is so small is partly the fruit of those many wilful sins by which I have quenched the Spirit that should be my Comforter And it is partly from our common state of darkness and strangeness while the Soul is in Flesh and operateth as the Bodies form according to its Interest and Capacity Affections are more easily stirred up to things seen than to things that are both unseen and known only very defectively by general and not by clear distinct apprehensions And yet this O this is the misery and burden of my Soul Though I can say that I love God's Truth and Graces his Work and his Servants and whatever of God I see in the World and that this is a love of God in his Creatures Word and Works yet that I have no more desiring and delightful Love of Heaven where his Loveliness will be more fully opened to my Soul and that the thoughts of my speedy appearing there are no more joyful to me than they are is my sin and my calamity and my shame And if I did not see that it is so with other of the Servants of Christ as well as with me I should doubt whether affections so unproportionable to my Profession did not signifie unsoundness in my belief It is strange and shameful that one that expecteth quickly to see the glorious World
me the Light of the Sun than the Light of thy Countenance Less miserable had I been without Life or Being than without thy Grace Without thee and my Saviour's help I can do nothing I did not live without thee I could not pray or learn without thee I never could conquer a temptation without thee and can I die or be prepared to die without thee Alas I shall but say as Philip of Christ I know not whither my Soul is going and how then shall I know the way My Lord having loved his own in the World did love them to the end Thou lovest fidelity and perseverance in thy Servants even those that in his sufferings forsook him and fled yet are commended and rewarded by Christ for continuing with him in his temptations Luk. 22. 28. And wilt thou forsake a sinner in his extremity who consenteth to thy Covenant and would not forsake thee My God I have often sinned against thee but yet thou knowest I would fain be thine I have not served thee with the resolution fidelity and delight as such a Master should have been served but yet I would not forsake thy service nor change my Master or my Work I can say with thy Servant Paul Act. 27. 23. that thou art the GOD WHOSE I AM and WHOM I SERVE and O that I could serve thee better For to serve thee is but to Receive thy Grace and to use it for my own and others good and so to glorifie thee and please thy will which being LOVE it self is pleased best when we receive and do most good I have not loved thee as Infinite Goodness and Love it self and fatherly Bounty should have been loved but yet I would not forsake thy Family and nothing in this World is more my grief than that I love thee no more forsake not then a sinner that would not forsake thee that looketh every hour towards thee that feeleth it as a piece of Hell to be so dark and strange unto thee that gropeth and groaneth and gaspeth after thee feeling to his greatest sorrow though thou art every where that while he is present in the body he is absent from the Lord. My Lord I have nothing to do in this World but to seek and serve thee I have nothing to do with a Heart and its affections but to breath after thee I have nothing to do with my Tongue and Pe◠but to speak to thee and for thee and to publish thy Glory and thy Will What have I to do with all my Reputation and Interest in my Friends but to increase thy Church and propagate thy holy Truth and Service What have I to do with my remaining Time even these last and languishing hours but to look up unto thee and wait for thy Grace and thy Salvation O pardon all my carnal thoughts and all my unthankful neglects of thy precious Grace and Love and all my wilful sin against thy Truth and thee and let the fuller Communications of thy forfeited Grace now tell me by experience that thou dost forgive me Even under the terrible Law thou didst tell Man thy very Nature by proclaiming thy Name Exod. 34 6 7. The Lord the Lord God merciful and gracious long-suffering and abundant in goodness and Truth keeping mercy for thousands forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin and is not the Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ revealed in the Gospel for our more abundant Faith and Consolation My God I know as I cannot Love thee according to thy Loveliness so I cannot Trust thee according to thy Faithfulness I can never be sufficiently confident of thy alsufficient Power thy Wisdom and thy Goodness When I have said as Psal 77. 7. Will the Lord cast off for ever and will he be favourable no more Is his mercy clean gone for ever doth his Promise fail to Generations hath God forgotten to be gracious hath he in anger shut up his tender mercies Conscience hath replied that This is my infirmity I never wanted comfort because thou wantedst mercy but because I wanted Faith and fitness to receive it and perceive it But hast thou not mercy also to give me even that Fitness and that Faith My God all is of thee and through thee and all is to thee and when I have the felicity the Glory of all for ever will be thine None that trusteth in thee according to thy Nature and Promise shall be ashamed If I can live and die in Trusting in thee surely I shall not be confounded § 12. Why then should it seem a difficult Question how I may willingly leave this World and my Soul depart to Christ in Peace The same Grace which regenerated me must bring me to my desired end as the same Principle of Vegetation which causeth the Bud must bring the Fruit to sweet maturity 1. BELIEVE and TRUST thy Father thy Saviour and thy Comforter II. And HOPE for the joyful entertainments of his Love and for the blessed state which he hath promised III. And long by LOVE for nearer Union and Communion with him and thus O my Soul thou mayest depart in Peace I. How sure is the Promise of God How suitable to his Love and to the Nature of our Souls and to the operations of every Grace It is initially performed here whilst our desires are turned towards him and the heavenly seed and spark is here ingenerated in a Soul that was dead and dark and disaffected Is it any strange thing for Fire to ascend yea or the fiery Principle of Vegetation in a Tree to carry up the earthy matter to a great procerity Is it strange that Rivers should hasten to the Sea Whither should Spirits go but to the Region or World of Spirits and whither should Christ's Members and holy Spirits go but to himself and the heavenly Society And is not that a more holy and glorious place and state than this below Earth is between Heaven and Hell a place of gross and passive matter where Spirits may indeed operate upon that which needeth them and where they may be detained a while in such operation or as incorporated Forms if not incarcerate Delinquents but it is not their center end or home Even sight and reason might persuade me that all the noble Invisible powers that operate on this lower World do principally belong unto a higher and what can Earth add to their Essence Dignity or Perfection § 13. But why O my Soul art thou so vainly solicitous to have formal clear distinct conceptions of the Celestial World and the individuation and operations of separated Souls any more than of the Angels While thou art the formal Principle of an animated Body thy conceptions must be but suitable to their present state and use When thou art possessed of a better state thou shalt know it as a possessor ought to do For such a knowledge as thou lookest after is part of the possession And to long to Know and Love in Clearness and Perfection is to
possessed It is then worldly Hypocrites Hope that perisheth for all that Hope for true or durable Happiness on Earth in the pleasures of this perishing Flesh must needs be deceived But happy is he that hath the God of Jacob for his help whose Hope is in the Lord his God which made Heaven and Earth which keepeth Truth for ever Ps 146. 5 6. Wo to me were my Hope only in the time and matters of this fleshly life 1 Cor. 15. 19. But the Righteous hath hope in his Death Prov. 14 32. And Hope maketh not ashamed Rom. 5. 5. Blessed is the Man that trusteth in the Lord whose Hope the Lord is Jer. 17. 7. Lay hold then O my Soul upon the Hope which is set before thee Heb. 6. 18. It is thy firm and stedfast Anchor v. 19. without it thou wilt be as a shipwrackt Vessel Thy foundation is sure it is God himself Our Faith and Hope are both in God 1 Pet. 1. 21. It is Jesus our Lord who is risen from the Dead and Reigneth in Glory Lord of all 1 Tim. 1. 1. Yea it is the Christ who by Faith doth dwell within us who is our Hope of Glory Eph. 3. 17. Col. 1. 27. In this Hope which is better than the Law that Moses gave it is that we draw nigh to God Heb. 7. 19. It is the Holy Ghost that is both our Evidence and the Efficient of our Hope Gal. 5. 5. Rom. 8. 16 23. By him we hope for that which we see not and therefore wait in Patience for it v. 24 25. By Hope we are saved It is an encouraging Grace which will make us stir when as despair doth kill endeavours It cureth sloth and makes us diligent and constant to the end and by this doth help us to full assurance Heb. 6. 11 12. It is a desiring Grace and would fain obtain the Glory hoped for It is a quieting and comforting Grace Rom. 15. 4. The God of Hope doth fill us with Joy and Peace in believing that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost v. 13. Shake off despondency O my Soul and rejoice in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5. 2. Believe in Hope though dying Flesh would tell thee that it is against Hope Rom. 4. 18. God that cannot lie hath confirmed his Covenant by his immutable Oath that we might have strong consolation who are fled for refuge to the Hope which is set before us Heb. 6. 18. What blessed preparations are made for our Hope And shall we now let the Tempter shake it or discourage it The abundant Mercy of God the Father hath begotten us again to a lively hope by the Resurrection of Christ to an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1. 3. Grace teacheth us to deny ungodliness and worldly Lusts and to live soberly righteously and godly in this World as looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of the Great God and our Saviour Tit. 2. 12 13. We are renewed by the Holy Ghost and justified by Grace that we should be made Heirs according to the hope of Eternal life Tit. 3. 6 7. We are illuminated that we may know the hope of Christ's calling and what is the riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints Eph. 1. 18 19. The Hope that is laid up for us in Heaven is the chief Doctrine of the Gospel which bringeth Life and Immortality into clearer Light Col. 1. 5. 2 Tim. 1. 10. It is for this hope that we keep a Conscience void of offence and that God is served in the World Act. 24. 15 16. 26. 7. wherefore gird up the loins of thy Mind put on this Helmet the hope of Salvation 1 Thes 5. 8. and let not Death seem to thee as it doth to them that have no hope 1 Thess 4. 13. The love of our Father and our Saviour have given us everlasting Consolation and good hope through Graceâ— to comfort our Hearts and stablish them in every good word and work 2 Thess 2. 16 17. Keep therefore the rejoicing of Hope firm to the end Heb. 3. 6. continue grounded and settled in the Faith and be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel Col. 1. 23. 1 Pet. 1. 13. And now Lord what wait I for my hope is in thee Psal 39. 7. Uphold me according to thy Word that I may live and let me not be ashamed of my Hope Psal 119. 116. Though mine Iniquities testifie against me yet O thou that art the hope of of Israel the Saviour thereof in time of trouble be not as a stranger to my Soul Jer. 14. 7 8. Thy Name is called upon by me O forsake me not v. 9. Why have our Eyes beheld thy Wonders and why have we had thy Covenant and thy Mercies but that we might set our hope in God Psal 78. 5 7. Remember the Word to thy Servant upon which thou hast caused me to hope Psal 119. 49. If thou Lord shouldst mark Iniquity O Lord who should stand But there is forgiveness with thee that thou maist be feared I wait for the Lord my Soul doth wait and in his Word do I hope I will hope in the Lord for with him there is Mercy and plenteous Redemption Psal 130. 3 4 5 7. For he taketh pleasure in them that fear him in those that hope in his Mercy Psal 147. 11. Though Flesh and Heart fail the Lord is the Rock of my Heart he is my Portion saith my Soul therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the Soul that seeketh him It is good that I should both hope and quietly wait for the Salvation of the Lord It is good for me that I have born the Yoak in my Youth and that I keep silence and put my Mouth in the Dust if so be there may be hope Psal 73. 26. Lam. 3. 24 25 26 27 29. God need not flatter such Worms as we nor promise us that which he never meaneth to perform He hath laid the rudiments of our hope in a nature capable of desiring seeking and thinking of another life He hath called me by Grace to actual desires and endeavours And some foretasts he hath vouchsafed I look for no Heaven but the Perfection of Divine Life Light and Love in endless Glory with Christ and his holy Ones And this he hath begun in me already And shall I not boldly hope when I have the capacity the promise and the earnest and foretast Is it not God himself that hath caused me to hope was not Nature Promise and Grace from him And can a Soul miscarry and be deceived that departeth hence in a hope of God's own causing and encouraging Lord I have lived in hope I have prayed in hope I have laboured suffered and waited in hope And by thy Grace I will die in hope And is not this according to thy Word and
Will And wilt thou cast away a Soul that hopeth in thee by thine own Command and Operation Had Wealth and Honour or continuance on Earth or the favour of Man been my reward hope my hope I had died together Were this our best how vain were Man But the Lord liveth and my Redeemer is glorified and interceedeth for me And the same Spirit is in Heaven who is in my Heart As the same Sun is in the Firmament which is in my House And the Promise is sure to all Christ's Seed And Millions are now in Heaven that once did live and die in hope they were Sinners once as now I am They had no other Saviour no other Sanctifier no other Promise than I now have confessing that they were Strangers here they looked for a better Countrey and for a City that had Foundations even a heavenly where now they are And shall I not follow them in hope that have sped so well Hope then O my Soul unto the end 1 Pet. 1. 13. From henceforth and for ever hope in the Lord Psal 131. 13. I will hope continually and will yet praise thee more and more my Mouth shall shew forth thy Righteousness and Salvation Psal 71. 14 15. The Lord is at my right Hand I shall not be moved My Heart therefore is glad and my glory rejoiceth my Flesh also shall dwell confidently and rest in hope for God hath shewed me the path of Life in his presence is fulness of joy and at his right Hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. 8 9 10 11. III. What then remaineth O my Soul but that in TRUST and HOPE thou LOVE thy God thy Saviour thy Comforter the Glorious Society thy own Perfection in Glorious Endless Heavenly Life and Light and Love and the Joyful Praises of Jehovah better then this burden of painful and corruptible Flesh and this howling Wilderness the Habitation of Serpents and untamed Bruits where unbelief and murmuring Lust and Folly Injustice and Uncharitableness Tyranny and Divisions Pride and Contention have long provoked God and wearied thee Where the Vintage and Harvest is Thorns and Thistles Sin and Sorrows Cares and Crosses manured by manifold Temptations How odious is that darkness and unbelief that unholiness and disaffection that deadness and stupidity which maketh such a work as this so reasonable necessary and pleasant a work to seem unsuitable or hard Is it unsuitable or hard to the Eye to see the Sun and Light Or by it to see the beautified World Or for a Man to love his Life or Health his Father or his Friend What should be easier to a Nature that hath rational LOVE than to Love him that is Essential LOVE itself He that loveth all and giveth to all the Loving faculty should be loved by all And he that hath specially loved me should be specially loved by me Love is the Perfection of all thy Preparations It desireth to Please God and therefore to be in the most pleasing state and freed from all that is displeasing to him which is not to be hoped for on Earth It desireth all suitable nearness acquaintance union and communion It is weary of distance estrangedness and alien society and affairs It taketh advantage of every notice intimation or mention of God to renew and exercise these desires Every Message and Mercy from him is fewel for Love and while we are short of Perfection stir up our desires after more When Love tasteth of the Grapes it would have the Vine When it tasteth of the Fruits it would dwell where they grow and possess the Land Its thoughts of Proximity and fruition are sweet No other Person or Thing can satisfie it The Soul is where it loveth If our Friend dwell in our Hearts by Love and if fleshly Pleasure Riches and Honour do dwell in the Heart of the Voluptuous the Covetous and the Proud surely God and our Redeemer the heavenly Society Holiness and Glory do dwell in the Heart which loveth them with a fervent Love And if Heaven dwell in my Heart shall I not desire to dwell in Heaven Light and Light Fire and Fire are not more inclined to union then Love and Love Gracious Love and Glorious Love Would Divine Original Universal LOVE communicate and pour out itself more plentifully upon my Heart how easy would it be to leave this Flesh and World And to hear the Sentence of my departure to my God Death and the Grave would be but a Triumph for victorious Love It would be easier to die in Peace and Joy than to rest at Night or to come home from my Travel to my beloved Friends or to go when I am hungry to a Feast A Little Love hath made me study willingly and preach willingly and write willingly yea and suffer somwhat willingly and would not more make me go more willingly to God Shall the imagination of House Gardens Walks Libraries Prospects Meadows Orchards Hills and Rivers allure the desires of deceived Minds And shall not the Thoughts of the heavenly Mansions Society and Delights much more allure and draw up my desires The reading of a known Fiction of a Civitas Solis an Utopia an Atlantis c. hath pleased many But if I did believingly hear of such a Countrey in the World where men did never die nor were sick or weak or sad where the Prince were perfectly just and pious wise and peaceable devoted to God and the publick good and the Teachers were all wise judicious men of Universal certain knowledge perfectly acquainted with the Matter and Method of Natural and Theological Truths and all their duty and all of one Mind and of one Heart and Tongue and Practice loving each other and the People as themselves and leading the Flocks heavenward through all temptations with triumphant hopes and joy where all the People perfectly obeyed God their Commanders and their Teachers and lived in perfect Love Unity and Peace and were daily employed in the joyful praises of God and hopes of Glory and in doing all possible good to one another contending with none through ignorance uncharitableness or pride nor ever reproaching injuring or hurting one another c. I say if I knew or heard of such a Countrey should I not love it before I ever see it and earnestly desire to be there Nay do I not over-love this distracted World where Tyranny sheddeth streams of Blood and layeth desolate Cities and Countries and exposeth the miserable Inhabitants to lamentable Distress and Famine where the same Tyranny sets up the Wicked reproacheth and oppresseth the Just and Innocent keepeth out the Gospel and keepeth up Idolatry Infidelity and Wickedness in the far greatest part of all the Earth where Satan chooseth Pastors too often for the Churches of Christ even such as by Ignorance Pride Sensuality Worldliness and Malignity become Thorns and Thistles yea devouring Wolves to those whom they should feed and comfort where no two Persons are in all things of a Mind where Evil
they pretend to and profess are the ordinary case and course of the most of men And when we would plead them out of their deceit and misery it 's well if we are not tempted to imitate them or be not partly infected with their Disease or at least reproached and oppressed as their Enemies Such a Bedlam is most of the World become where madness goeth for the only Wisdom and he is the bravest Man that can sin and be damned with reputation and renown and successfully drive or draw the greatest number with him unto Hell To which the World hath no small likeness forsaking God and being very much forsaken by him This is the World which standeth in competition for my Love with the Spiritual blessed World Much of God's Mercies and Comforts I have here had But their sweetness was their taste of Divine Love and their tendency to heavenly Perfection What was the end and use of all the Good that ever I saw or that ever God did for my Soul or Body but to teach me to Love him and to long for more How many weaning experiences How many Thousand bitter or contemning Thoughts have I had of all the glory and pleasures of this World How many Thousand love tokens from God have called me to believe and taste his Goodness Where ever I go and which way soever I look I see VANITY and VEXATION written upon all things in this World so far as they stand in competition with God and would be the end and portion of a fleshly Mind And I see HOLINESS TO THE LORD written upon every thing so far as it declareth God and leadeth me to him as my ultimate end God hath not for nothing engaged me in a War against this World and commanded me to take and use it as mine Enemy The emptiness dangerousness and bitterness of the World and the All-sufficiency Trustiness and Goodness of God have been the Summ of all the experiences of my life And shall a worldly backward Heart overcome the teachings of Nature Scripture the Spirit of Grace and all Experience Far be it from me But O my God LOVE is thy great and special gift All Good is from thee But LOVE is the God-like Nature Life and Image It is given us from the Love of the Father the Grace of the Son and the quickning illuminating and sanctifying Operation of the Holy Spirit What can the Earth return unto the Sun but its own reflected Beams If those As how far soever Man is a Medium in Generation Nature and that Appetite which is the moving pondus in the Child is thy work so whatever is Man's part in the Mediate work of Believing and Repenting which yet is not done without thy Spirit and grace certainly it is the blessed Regenerator which must make us New Creatures by giving us this Divine Nature holy LOVE which is the holy Appetite and Pondus of the Soul Come down Lord into this Heart for it cannot come up to thee Can the Plants for Life or the Eye for Light go up unto the Sun Dwell in me by the Spirit of Love and I shall dwell by Love in Thee Reason is weak and Thoughts are various and Man will be a slippery uncertain Wight if LOVE be not his fixing Principle and do not incline his Soul to Thee Surely through thy Grace I easily feel that I love thy Word I love thy Image I love thy Work and O how heartily do I Love to Love thee And long to Know and Love thee more And if all things be of Thee and through Thee and to Thee surely this Love to the Beams of thy Glory here on Earth is eminently so It 's Thee Lord that it meaneth To Thee it looketh It 's Thee it serveth For Thee it mourns and seeks and groans In Thee it Trusteth And the Hope and Peace and Comfort which support me are in Thee When I was a returning Prodigal in rags thou sawest me afar off and mettest me with thy embracing feasting Love And shall I doubt whether he that hath better cloathed me and dwelt within me will entertain me with a Feast of greater love in the heavenly Mansions the World of Love The suitableness of things below to my fleshly Nature hath detained my affections too much on Earth And shall not the suitableness of things above to my Spiritual Nature much more draw up my Love to Heaven There is the GOD whom I have sought and served He is also here but vailed and but litâ—le known But there he shineth to heavenly Spirits in heavenly Glory There is the Saviour in whom I have believed He hath also dwelt in Flesh on Earth Bâ—t cloathed in such meanness and humbled to such a Life and Death as was to the Jews a stumbling Block and to the Gentiles matter of reproach But he Shineth and Reigneth now in Glory above the malice and contempt of Sinners And I shall there Live because he liveth and in his Light I shall have Light He loved me here with a Redeeming Regenerating and preserving Love But there he will love me with a perfecting glorifying joyful Love I had here some Raies of heavenly Light But interpositions caused Eclipses and Nights yea some long and winter Nights But there I shall dwell in the City of the Sun the City of God the heavenly Jerusalem where there is no Night Eclipse or Darkness There are the heavenly Hosts whose holy Love and Joyful Praises I would fain be a partaker of I have here had some of their Loving assistance but to me unseen being above our fleshly way of Converse But there I shall be with them of the like Nature in the same Orb and of the same Triumphant Church and Chore There are perfected Souls gathered home to Christ Not as here striving like Esau and Jacob in the Womb not yet as John when he leaped in the Womb because of his Mothers joy nor as wrangling Children that are hardly kept in the same House in Peace Not like the Servants of Abraham and Lot like Paul and Barnabas like Epiphanius and Chrysostom like Luther and Carolostadius like Ridley and Hooper or the many striving Parties now among us nor like the Disciples striving who should be the greatest Not like Noah's Family in a wicked World or Lot in a wicked City or Abraham in an Idolatrous Land nor like Elijah left alone nor like those that wandred in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins destitute afflicted and tormented hid in Dens and Caves of the Earth not like Job on the Dunghil or like Lazarus at the rich Man's Doors Not like the African Bishops whose Tongues were cut out nor like the Preachers silenced by Papist imposers in German by the Intâ—rim or elsewhere Nor like such as Tzegedine Peucer and many other worthy men whose maturest Age was spent in Prisons Not as we poor bewildred Sinners feeling evil and fearing more confounded in folly and mad contention some hating the only way of Peace and
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
Essential transcendent Love is ready to receive thee The Spirit of Love hath sealed thee to that blessed state Christ will present thee justified and accepted Most of my old holy familiar Friends are gone before me and all the rest that died since the World began And the few imperfect ones left behind are hasting after them apace and if I go before will quickly overtake me Though they weep as if it were for a long separation it is their great mistake The gate of Death stands all Day open and my sorrowful Friends are quickly following me as I am now following those for whom I sorrowed O pitty them who are left a while under the temptations dangers and fears which have so long been thy own affliction But be not afraid of the Day of thy deliverance and the bosom of everlasting Love and the Society of the wise and just and holy and of the end of all thy troubles and the entrance into the Joy of thy Lord and the place and state of all thy hope O say not notionally only as from argumentative conviction but confidently and with glad desire and hope TO DEPART AND BE WITH CHRIST IS FAR BETTER than to be here But O my God I have much more hope in speaking to thee than to my self Long may I plead with this dark and dull yet fearful Soul before I can plead it into joyful hope and heavenly desires unless thou shine on it with the light of thy Countenance and Thou whom my Soul must Trust and Love wilt give me Faith and Love themselves I thank Thee for convincing Arguments But had this been all the strength of my Faith and Hope the tempter might have proved too subtile for me in dispute I thank thee that some experience tells me that a holy Appetite to heavenly Work and a love to the heavenly Company and State doth more to make me willing to die and think with Pleasure of my change than ever bare Arguments would have done O send down the streams of thy love into my Soul and that will powerfully draw it up by longings for the near and full fruition O give me more of the divine and heavenly Nature and it will be natural and easie to me to desire to be with Thee Send more of the heavenly Joys into this Soul and it will long for Heaven the place of Joy I must not hope on Earth for any such acquaintance with the World above as is proper to the enjoying state But if the Sun can send its illuminating warming Rays to such a World as this according to the various disposition of Recipients doubtless Thou hast thy effectual though unsearchable waies of illuminating sanctifying and attractive influence on Souls And one such Beam of thy pleased Face one Taste of thy complacencial Love will kindle my love and draw up my desires and make my pains and sickness tolerable I shall then put off this cloathing with the less reluctancy and willingly leave my Flesh to the Dust and sing my Nunc dimittis when I have thus seen and tasted thy Salvation O my God Let not thy strengthning comforting grace now forsake me lest it should overwhelm me with the fears of being finally forsaken Dwell in me as the God of Love and Joy that I may long to dwell in Love and Joy with Thee for ever As Grace abounded where sin abounded let thy strengthning and comforting Mercy abound when weakness increaseth and my necessities abound My Flesh and my Heart◠faileth but Thou art the strength of my Heart and my Portion for ever This short life is almost at an end But thy loving kindness is better than life I know not with what pains thou wilt further trie me But if I love Thee thou hast promised that all things shall work together for my good The World that I am going to by Death is not apparent to my sight But my life is hid with Christ in God and because he liveth we shall live and we shall be with him where he is and when he appeareth we shall appear with him in Glory and shall enter into our Masters joy and be for ever with the Lord Amen What sensible manifestation of his Kingdom Christ gave in his Transfiguration § 1. Our Lord who brought Life and Immortalility to Light well knew the difficulty of believing so great things unseen And therefore it pleased him to give men some sensible helps by demonstration In Mat. 16. 17. 1 2. c. Mark 9. 1. Luk. 9. 28. he promised some of his Disciples a sight of his Kingdom as coming in power or such a glimpse as Moses had of the Backparts of God's Glory This he performed first in his Transfiguration as afterward in his Resurrection Ascension and sending the holy Ghost to enable them with power to preach and work Miracles and convert the Nations § 2. By the Kingdom of God is meant God's Government of his Holy ones by a heavenly communication of Life Light and Love initially on Earth by Grace and perfectly in Heaven by Glory A special Theocracy § 3. For the understanding of this we must know that when God had made Man good in his Image he conversed with him in a heavenly manner either immediately or by an Angel speaking to him and telling him his will But Man being made a free self-determining Agent he was left to choose whom he would follow And hearkening unto Satan and turning from God he became a Slave of Satan and gave him advantage to be his deceiving Ruler Not that Man's rebellion nullified God's Power or disposing Government or took Man from under Obligation to Obedience but that forsaking God he was much though not wholly forsaken by his special fatherly approving Government and left to Satan and his own will But the eternal Word interposing for Man's Reprival and Redemption undertook to break the Serpents Head and to conquer and cast out him that had deceived and captivated Man And choosing out a special Seed he made them a peculiar People and set up a heavenly Prophetical Government over them himself by heavenly Revelation making their Laws and choosing their chief Governours under him from time to time and would not leave it to blind and sinful Man to make Laws or choose Princes for themselves but would keep them in a special dependance upon Heaven But the carnal Israelites having provoked God by odious Idolatry to deny them much of the benefit of Government save when they repented and cryed to him for help they thought to amend this by choosing a King like other Nations and ending their dependance on heavenly Revelation and choice for Government And so Theocracy was turned into a more humane Regiment and God more cast off Though yet he would not quite forsake them And the rest of the World was yet more left under the power of Satan and their own corrupted mind and will So that Satan hath both an Internal Kingdom in wicked Souls and a visible
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
more impossible for Moses to assume such a Body as he appeared in on the Mount for that occasion than for Angels to appear in humane shapes and departed Souls too as many Apparitions have told men And if bad Souls can do it why not good ones when God will have it The Tradition seemeth but a Jewish Dream that God kept the Body of Moses uncorrupted in the Grave and that this was it that the Devil is said to strive for against Michael that the Body might be corrupted And say others that at this Transfiguration it rose again There need no such conceits to our satisfaction The Soul of Moses could assume a Body § 8. But still the dissimilitude of Henoch and Elias from all the Saints in Heaven is an unresolved difficulty If we knew that God would have it so it might satisfie us But there is a symmetry in the Body of Christ And it 's like that the same Region hath Inhabitants of the same Nature What shall we think then That Henoch and Elias at their entrance into those Regions laid by their Bodies and became such as Abraham and other holy Souls Why are they taken up to be so laid by The corruptibility no doubt they did lay by God knoweth but it s much unknown to us Or shall we think as all those Fathers cited by Faustus Regiensis and as Dr. More and some of late that all Spirits are Souls and animate some Bodies and so that all in Heaven have some Bodies If so what Bodies are they And how differ they from the Resurrection state As the Soul here operateth in and by the Igneous Spirits in our Bodies it may be so lodged in these as to take some of them with it at Death as the life of a dying Plant yet dieth not in the Seed And a Man may be said to go unclothed to Bed though he put not off his shift or nearest Garment and to be clothed again when he puts on the rest And at the Resurrection as there will be a New Heaven and Earth so Spirits now in Heaven may have much more delightful business on the New and Righteous Earth than now they have and therefore may have use for an additional Body as much differing from what they have now in Heaven as the New Earth and their employment there require and as the Seed doth differ from the Plant. And Spirits being communicative will be more happy by more communication As God delighteth to do good to all his works so the Souls now confined to Heaven will delight to be employed in doing good to the New Earth and to animate the Bodies suited to such work Though now they have use for no other than such Spiritual lucid Receptacles as are fit for the Regions where they dwell And it will be no debasement or dejection for a Spirit now in Heaven to animate a Body at the Resurrection fit for the New Earth no more than it was to Angels to speak to Adam and to Moses to Abraham Jacob Manoah and others or then it is to the Sun to enlighten and enliven things on Earth It is a foolish thing to think as some do that departed Souls will be as dormant and unactive as in Apopletick or Sleeping Persons for want of Organized Bodies to act in Spirits are Essentially Active Intellective and Volitive And will God continue such Essential Powers in vain Moses and Elias wanted not Bodies And those in Heaven can praise Jehovah and the Lamb with holy concordant Love and Joy whether in any sort of ethereal Bodies or without we shall shortly know § 8. It is said that Moses and Elias talked with Christ This sheweth that Christ hath familiar communion with the Blessed He that would come into Flesh on Earth and live with Man in an humbled state and refused not familiar converse with poor men and women and would eat and drink with Publicans and Sinners will not refuse everlasting near familiarity with the glorified If the Church be his dearly beloved Spouse and as it were one with him as his Body surely he will be no stranger to the least and lowest Member of it § 9. But what was it that they talkt about Luk. 9. 31. saith They appeared in Glory and spake of his decease which he should accomplish at Jerusalem This was not to make it known to Christ who came into the World to die for sin What then was it for Did Christ tell them of it as not knowing it before That is not likely neither Did he need their comfort as Angels in his trials ministred to him and strengthned him The particular uses of this speech we know not But in general we know it was somwhat preparatory to his great Sufferings and Death And must Christ's Sufferings and Death have such preparation and must not mine have much premeditation and do I not need the consolatory messages of God Carnal men would rather have chosen pleasanter discourse than the talk of Sufferings and Death But that which must be undergone and requireth greatest strength must be forethought of and requireth the most preparing Thoughts It 's worse than madness to be surprized with Sufferings and Death before it 's seriously forethought of So sharp a trial and so great a change require the greatest preparation He that can refuse to suffer and die may refuse to talk or think of it If Christ must have men from Heaven to talk with him of his Cross what cause have we to study the Cross Even all our lives to foresee it and by obedient consent to submit unto it and take it up to follow Christ and even to determine with Paul to know nothing in the World but Christ and him Crucified that is to take this for the only needful and excellent Learning But alas how senslesly is Death and Suffering talkt of till it comes We are to learn how to suffer when suffering is upon us and to learn how to die till Nature or the Physician pass the sentence of Death on us at hand And it is God's Mercy to some of us to make our sufferings long that we may have a competent time of learning As we learn to write by writing and to discourse by discoursing and every Art and Trade by practice even so by suffering we learn to suffer And the Lesson is very hard Malefactors suffer without Learning whether they will or not but to suffer Obediently with Child-like affections is the Lesson to be learnt O little too little do many honest Christians think how much of their most excellent Obedience consisteth in Child-like holy Suffering Therefore they little expect it and provide for it And then they are overwhelmed with the unexpected surprizal when it comes Even in the sufferings which men bring on the Faithful for Righteousness sake how many shrink and shift off their duty or venture on forbidden things for safety because they were not prepared for it The loss of goods or imprisonment and want seem
and full of Glory in believing Oh how unexcusable am I for every weary Prayer or Meditation of such a Glory and for yielding to Satan and a backward Heart which have oft made me shorten these sweet employments when I had time and leave and need to lengthen them What! aweary of communion with Christ Aweary of speaking to my heavenly Father for endless Blessedness upon such joyful terms of Hope as he hath given me Aweary of the Thoughts of the City of God the heavenly Society and Work Aweary of exciting Divine Love and exercising it in Divine Praise which are the works of Angels and all the heavenly Host O how justly might God be as it were aweary of me and of my weary Services yea of the best that I can offer him which hath in it so much to give him cause § 26. Peter did not fly from this glorious Prospect but would fain have had more of it and have dwelt upon the Holy Mount And when God will call me to a more glorious Vision and Fruition in Heaven shall I draw back and be unwilling to go Was that Mount a better place than Heaven Is not Christ now to be there seen in greater Glory Is the Jerusalem above the Glorious Company of Saints and Angels no better and more desirable a sight than Moses and Elias were on the Mount Alas when we have read and heard and thought and talkt so much of Heaven and done and suffered so much for it that yet we should draw back with fear and unwillingness to go to it O what lamentable weakness of Faith and power of Flesh doth this discover when I read Peter's words It 's good to be here I am grieved that I who dwell in a World so near like Hell among the implacable haters of Holiness and Holy Peace and in a painful tired Body and who have thought said and written so much of Heaven do yet say with no stronger desire and joy It is good to be there When I see all natural Appetites desire earnestly their proper food and even the Bruits desire their beloved company shall my holy Appetite be so dull and indifferent Lord quicken it by the fuller communications of thy Spirit and save me from this hated dangerous disease § 27. But Peter spake he knew not what when he talkt of building Tabernacles on Earth for the fruition of that which is proper to Heaven Alas this is our common malady and folly We would have Christ in the Splendour of his Glory but we would have him here We would see Moses and Elias if they will come down to us We would have that in the Flesh which Flesh and Blood cannot possess O if we knew in what Land what City what Countrey what private House we might live in the least glimpse of the heavenly Glory how joyfully should we run to such an Habitation Merchants make towards the most gainful place for trade Poor men enquire after the most fertile and delectable Countries for Plantation Gentlemen delight themselves with a sweet and pleasantly seated Mansion But if Saints on Earth could find a place where they could see what Stephen or Paul or these Apostles saw and have a little of Heaven without dying and putting off this Body what a desirable dwelling would that seem to them And yet alas how cold are our desires to the time and place where we shall have much more We have Christ on Earth in the manner and measure that we are capable We have here some communion with Heaven as verily though not so sensibly as our Eye hath with the Sun God will not deny Believers their Title their Earnest and some first Fruits But when we would have our All or our Best on Earth or that on Earth which is proper to Heaven we know not what we desire or say Are we vile dirty Sinners in Flesh now fit for heavenly sights or joys Or is this World a place for building Tabernacles where we may see the Lord and take up our rest What! in a world of Temptations of wickedness of sufferings where we are daily wrestling for our lives and fighting not meerly against Flesh and Blood but against Principalities and Powers and the Rulers of the Darkness of this World even Spiritual Wickedness or wicked Spirits in high Places above the greatest men that are their Servants Eph. 6. 12. But that which is of the Earth is earthly Our earthly part would have an earthly Felicity But when we know that it is corruptible and a dying thing and that we have here no continuing City both Faith and Reason bid us seek for one to come The unfaithful Steward had so much Wit as to make sure of another Habitation when he knew that he must be no longer Steward God hath so constantly confuted and befooled me by his marvellous Providence when ever I have said Soul take thy ease and have thought of building Tabernacles on Earth as hath convinced me that such folly is not the least part of the danger of a Soul from which his Mercy did so watchfully save me If a little Health and Ease or a pleasant Habitation or beloved Company and Friends have but flattered me into earthly delight and hopes and made me say It 's good to be here I never was long without some pains and dangerous sickness or some loss or cross in Friends or some removal by personal or publick changes to tell me that I knew not what I said and that rest and happiness are not here As the laborious Ants and Bees are long gathering a heap of Treasure and furnishing a Hive with Winter Provision and a contemptuous foot soon spurneth about the one and the chief owner of the Hive destroyeth the other so while I neglected Wealth and Honour when I have but treasured up the choicest Books and taken pleasure in my Work and Friends God saw that such pleasure needed an allay and hath taken away Books and Friends together or driven me oft from them and my Habitation to tell me sensibly that I have higher to look and further to go and that Moses and Elias appeared not to turn Earth into Heaven and make me think that now I am well but to invite my Soul to their Celestial Habitation When Christ hath comforted me by hearing Prayers by great deliverances by wonderful success of my defective labours by comfortable Friends by publick Mercies it was not by making my condition pleasant to keep down my desires from Heaven but to draw them thither by such foretasts Contentment with our Condition as without more of the World is a great duty But to be content with the World or any thing on Earth without more holiness and communion with God and without a part in the heavenly Perfection is a heynous and pernicious sin But alas it is a far worse mistake than Peter's which deceiveth the greatest part of men They say indeed as he It 's good to be here till melancholy or
misery make them intollerable to themselves But it is not because they have seen a glimpse of Heaven on Earth or tasted the sweetness of Holy society and work but because their Bodies are in Health their Purses full their Appetites pleased and their inferiours do their wills and honour them This is all the Heaven that they love and to leave all this is the Death which they abhor and fear And they will not hear God and the experience of all Mankind befooling them till near the Night that their Souls shall be required and then Whose will all their Treasure be § 28. But yet it was a greater part of Peter's dotage to think of Tabernacles for Christ Moses and Elias and of detaining of heavenly Inhabitants upon Earth If you should offer the lowest Saint in Heaven an earthly Kingdom in exchange for his Condition with what disdain would he despise the offer Christ's Kingdom was not of this World nor would Moses and Elias change their lot with Alexander or Caesar Poor trifles allure us and seem somwhat to us as toys to Children while we are dreaming in the Flesh but if once we be delivered and see what the Celestial Glory is what a change will it make upon our judgments We fear now in the dark to go unto that World of Light and are loth to put off the rags of Flesh and to depart from a known though a dirty falling habitation But if we get to Heaven we shall be loth to return to Earth again and to be so coursly cloathed When once we are there a World would not hire us to come back into this corruptible Body till God will make it Spiritual and Incorruptible Our Friends whose Death we passionately lamented would be loth now to change their company for such as we are or their abode for such a wicked World as this or their work for the best of ours on Earth No wonder that departed blessed Souls appear not to their friends on Earth Most Apparitions are of Devils or miserable Souls to whom it is no loss or condescension Were I once in Heaven could I possibly be willing to be turned again into a Bedlam World and laid under the Feet of blinded pride and raging madness and live among Sodomites called Christians whose God is their Belly and who glory in their filthiness and shame and mind nothing with love but earthly things and are bitter Enemies not only to the Cross but to the Government of Christ Would I be again among Dogs and Swine Yea Devils in Flesh who hate and persecute the Regenerate Seed and all that will not receive their mark and be as mad bad as they would I again be groaning here in pain or tired with a weary Body and more with a feeble sinful Soul weak in Faiâ—h Cold in Love of doubtful Hope and imperfect Duty Would I be here again in the prospect of a Grave with fear of dying as strange as now to the heavenly Felicity Lazarus will not come from Abraham's bosom for the rich Man's Wealth and Belly-pleasure no not to warn his sensual Brethren Had Peter seen Heaven as he saw the Glory on the Mount he would never have made so blind a motion for Christ Moses and Elias to continue there who have so much better a habitation § 29. But this glorious Apparition was but short As the Glory of God's back parts to Moses which did but pass by Presently a cloud cometh and separateth the company and ends the pleasant sight When Christians receive some extraordinary sense of the Love of God some sweet foretasts of promised happiness they must not look that this should be ordinary or always so When some fervent Prayer is extraordinarily answered and a Sacrament sweetned with unusual drops of heavenly sweetness or a holy Discourse or Meditation hath raised us higher than ever before we must not expect that this should be our constant diet and God should thus feast us all the Year The times of fasting also have their turn Moses did not dwell on Mount Horeb nor Mount Nebo or Pisgah from whence he saw the Land of Promise God's Children do not always laugh and sing while they have their sinning times they will have their suffering and crying times How suddenly doth the Lark come down to the Earth who before was soaring out of sight and singing pleasantly in the higher Air as if it had been aspiring towards the Sun A luscious diet is not best for such as we that have so many corruptions to be cured by cleansing means Cordials must not be all our Physick unwarrantable expectations of greater or more continued Joys then we are meet for is injurious both to God and to our selves Desires of more we may and must have But those desires must look up to Heaven where indeed they may be satisfied 30. The joy of these Spectators was turned into Fear saith the Text when they entered into the Cloud No wonder The change was sudden and great from a sight of the Kingdom of God in Power unto a dark Cloud Just now they seemed almost in Heaven and presently they knew not where they were From glorious Light to a kind of Prison of obscurity Such changes here we are liable to The same Soul that lately tasted of transporting joy may lie in terrour hardly resisting temptations to despair The same Person that was confident of the Love of God may be quickly not only doubting of it but sinfully denying it The same that had assuring evidence of sincerity may shortly conclude that all was but Hypocrisie The same that was triumphing in the sense of Love may cry out O miserable Man that I am And the same that magnified the Grace of Christ may say The day of Grace is pastâ— Especially if either the Tempter get the advantage of a Melancholy Body or of casting the Soul in to renewed guilt of some wounding sin or into impatient discontents with the things that befal it in the World There is a stability in the Essentials of Holiness It 's Life eternal that is here begun But alas the degrees of Grace the exercise of it the evenness and integrity of our obedience and accordingly our Comforts are lamentably liable to change Even as all worldly things are mutable to the ungodly though their harden'd Hearts are too little changeable Expecting nothing but joy from God or expecting more than we are meet for maketh our dejections the greater and more grievous None are cast lower with terrour trouble and almost despair than some that have been most transported with joy When some other Christians of an even conversation have an evenness and constancy of Holy Peace though no such joys § 31. The Cloud separated the Company Moses and Elias are seen no more no nor the Glory of Christ But yet Christ is not separated from them His ordinary presence still abideth with them Christ doth not leave the Soul when extraordinary joys do leave it It loseth not
it assureth them of their Union with Christ when they live because he liveth even by the Spirit which is his Seal and Pledge 3. And it proveth both a future life and their title to it For God maketh not all this preparation for it by his Spirit in vain But alas if it were not a work that hath great impediment it would not be so rare in the World What is it in us that keepeth the Sun of Love from so shining on us as to revive our Souls into Holy contentments and delight It must be supposed 1. That all God's gifts are free and that he giveth not to all alike The wonderful variety of Creatures proveth this 2. The reasons of his differencing works are his own will and inferiour reasons are mostly unknown to us of which he is not bound to give us an account 3. But yet we see that God doth his works in a causal order and one work prepareth for another and he maketh variety of capacities which occasion variety of receptions and of gifts and he useth to give every thing that to which he hath brought it into the next capacity and disposition And therefore in general we may conclude that we feel not God's Love shed abroad upon the Heart because the Heart is undisposed and is not in the next disposition thereto And abused free will hath been the cause of that That we have Grace is to be ascribed to God That we are without it is to be ascribed to our selves 1. Heinous guilt of former sin may keep a Soul much without the delights of Divine love And the heinousness is not only in the greatness of the evil done materially but oft in our long and willful committing of smaller sins against Knowledge and Conscience and consideration The Spirit thus grieved by hardened Hearts and willful repulses is not quickly and easily a comforter to such a Soul and when the sinner doth repent it leaveth him more in uncertainty of his sincerity when he thinks I do but repent purpose and promise now and so I oft did and yet returned the next temptation to my sin And how can I tell that my Heart is not the fame and I should sin again if I had the same temptations O what doubts and perplexities doth oft willful sinning prepare for 2. And sins of omission have here a great part The sweetness of God's Love is a reward which sloathful Servants are unmeet for It follows a Well done good and faithful Servant There is needful a close attendance upon God and devotedness to him and improvement of Gospel Grace and Revelation to make a Soul fit for amicable sweet communion with God All that will save a Soul from Hell will not do this He that will taste these Divine Love-tokens must 1. Be no stranger to holy Meditation and Prayer nor unconstant cold and cursory in them but must dwell and walk above with God 2. And he must be wholly addicted to improve his Masters Talents in the World and make it his design and trade on Earth to do all the good in the World he can And to keep his Soul clean from the flesh and worldly vanity And to such a Soul God will make known his Love 3. And alas how ordinarily doth some carnal aâ—fection corrupt the appetite of the Soul When we grow too much in love with mens esteem or with earthly Riches or when our Throats or Phantasies can master us into obedience or vain desires of Meat Drink Recreation Dwelling c. the Soul loseth its Appetite to things Divine and nothing relisheth where Appetite is gone or sick We cannot serve God and Mammon and we cannot at once taste much pleasure both in God and Mammon The old austere Christians found the mortification of the fleshly Lusts a great advantage to the Souls delight in God 4. And many errours about God's nature and works much hinder us from feasting on his Love 5. And especially the slight and ignorant thoughts of Christ and the wondrous workings of God's Love in him 6. And specially if our belief itself once shake or be not well and firmly founded 7. And our slight thoughts of the Office and Work of the Holy Ghost on Souls and our necessity of it and our not begging and waiting for the Spirits special help 8. And lastly our unfaithful forgetfulness of manifold experiences and testimonies of his Love which should still be as fresh before us Alas my Soul thou feelest thy defect and knowest the hinderance but what hope is there of remedy Will God ever raise so low so dull so guilty a Heart to such a foretast of Glory as is this effusion of his Love by the Holy Ghost The lightsom Daies in Spring and Summer when the Sun reviveth the late naked Earth and clothes it with delectable beauties differs not more from Night and Winter than a Soul thus revived with the Love of God doth differ from an unbelieving formal Soul Though this great change be above my power the Spirit of God is not impotent backward barren or inexâ—â—able He hath appointed us means for so high a state and he appointeth no means in vain Were my own Heart obedient to my commands all these following I would lay upon it Yea I 'll do it and beg the help of God I. I charge thee think not of God's Goodness and Love as unproportionable to his Greatness and his Knowledge Nor overlook in the whole frame of Heaven and Earth the manifestation of one any more than of the other II. Therefore let not the the wickedness and misery of the World tempt thee to think basely of all God's Mercies to the World nor the peculiar priviledges of the Churches draw thee to deny or contemn God's common Mercies unto all III. I charge thee to make the study of Christ and the great work of Man's Redemption by him thy chiefest Learning and most serious and constant work and in that wonderful Glass to see the Face of Divine Love and to hear what is said of it by the Son from Heaven and to come boldly as reconciled to God by him IV. O see that thy repentance for former sins against knowledge and Conscience and the Motions of God's Spirit be sound and throughly lamented and abhorred how small soever the matter was in itself That so the doubt of thy sincerity keep not up doubts of God's acceptance V. Let thy dependance on the Holy Ghost as given from Christ be henceforth as serious and constant to thee as is the dependance of the Eye on the light of the Sun and of natural Life upon its heat and motion Beg hard for the Holy Spirit and gladly entertain it VI. O never forget the many and great experiences thou hast had these almost Sixty years observed of marvellous favour and providence of God for Soul and Body in every time place condition relation company or change thou hast been in Lose not all these Love-tokens of thy Father while thou
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