that they cannot be satisfied with any thing but God himself Suppose God should cause all the Emperors and Kings of the world to come and cast down their Crowns before the Saints and say All these are yours An heart that is truly raised would say This is not enough this is not God himself Suppose God should bring all the splendors of all the creatures in heaven and earth and they should be cast at the feet of the Saints they would say This is not enough for this is not God Suppose God should cause all the glory of heaven not onely of Sun Moon and Stars but of the highest heaven to be laid before the Saints they would say This is not enough this is not God If all the Angels should come and say We are sent to put all our glory upon you they would say This is not enough this is not God and therefore when God hath given them heaven he must give them himself to or else they are not happy And that is the fourth thing CHAP. XLV The Saints enjoyment of God to be their portion their happiness in having his presence GOd himself will be the portion of the Saints Augustine says of the happiness of the Saints If God gives such good things to wicked men does he keep nothing for the Saints Yes he keeps heaven it self but says he Surely I speak of too low a thing when I speak of heaven he will give himself to them Heaven is beautiful but more beautiful is God himself the God of heaven Therefore God must give himself to them or else their souls are not satisfied It is a sweet and excellent expression that Bernard hath Lord as whatsoever we give unto thee unless we give our selves cannot satisfie thee so Lord Whatsoever thou givest to us unless thou givest thy self we cannot be satisfied The Lord said to Abraham Fear not I am thy exceeding great reward but says Abraham What wilt thou give me seeing I go childeless Surely he had respect to Christ or else it could not but be a fault that Abraham should not be fully satisfied in what God said for as God does make the Saints to be his portion so God is the portion and the inheritance of the Saints The enjoyment of God is Heaven it self and therefore in Scripture God is called heaven I have sinned against heaven In this there are these seven things First the presence of God Secondly the blessed vision of God Thirdly the happy union with God Fourthly the glorious communion with God Fifthly the fruition of God Sixthly the rest that their souls shal have in God Seventhly the enjoyment of themselves in God O beloved for preparation to hear these things that we had spiritual hearts says one It is not for your carnal base sensual voluptuous spirits to hear of those things For those that know no better things then to eat and drink and to be unclean what is it for them to hear of such excellent things As for the pleasures of the flesh they do infect and defile the soul and make it unfit for the hearing of such things we had need of spiritual ears to hear them God says to Abraham in Genes 13. 16. I will make thy seed to be as the dust of the earth afterward in Gen. 15. 5. he says He will make his seed as the stars of heaven The seed of Abraham are of two sorts Some are of the seed of Abraham that are visible members of a Church and yet have earthly hearts but there are others of his seed and they are as the stars of Heaven of spiritual hearts now as we are of the seed of Abraham outwardly in profession let us not be of that seed that are of the dust of the earth onely fit to hear of earthly things but let us shew that we are of the seed of Abraham that are as the stars of Heaven and shall hereafter come to enjoy the God of Heaven For the first the presence of God that glorious presence that the Saints shal have of God in Heaven is a great part of their happiness Heaven it were not Heaven without the presence of God The presence of God in the most miserable place that can be were a greater happiness then the absence of God in the most glorious place that can be David would not be afraid though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death so that God were with him Psal 23. Luther would rather be in Hell with Gods presence then in Heaven God being absent If the presence of God takes away the dread of the shadow of the valley of death and makes Hell to be more desired then Heaven what will the presence of God make Heaven to be The three Children in the fiery furnace with Gods presence were happy how happy then are the Saints with Gods presence in Heaven The Saints desire Gods presence even when he is angry they are loth to be out of his presence then It is very observable that we have recorded of David Psal 51. ver 9. he cryes to God to hide his face from his sins for Gods face was then an angry face against him yet ver 11. he cryes again Cast me not away from thy presence he was not willing to be out of Gods presence howsoever upon which St. Auguhath this expression Whose face he fears even his face he invocates God made rich promises to Moses yet he could not be satisfied without the presence of God If thy presence be not with us bring us not hence And the Apostle when he would set out the misery of those that are damned in 2 Thess 1. 9. says the Text They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord now the presence of God must needs be the happiness of the Saints First because this must needs draw out all their graces in all the sweet savor of them Cant 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof As it is with the Sun it draws forth all the vertue that there is in the plant and makes a sweet savor in things so the presence of God must much more draw forth the fragrancy of all the graces of his Spirit in the souls of his Saints Secondly the presence of God must needs quicken all the comforts of the souls of his people and keep them always in vigor and activity for as we know the Sun it does quicken things that lay dead so the presence of God hath a wonderful quickning power it keeps the comforts of Gods people fresh so long as we have the presence of God all our comforts are green and lively The Saints in heaven have always the presence of God and therefore their comforts are always vigorous and lively When they shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory it shall cause exceeding joy Jude 24. the word there signifies leaping springing exalting joy
knows the minde of God that soul can know how to savor these things and know the reality of them Again another reason why these things are above the reach of most people is because they are not acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospel and what in them is revealed concerning mankinde If we were acquainted with the mysteries of the Gospel we would not think these things strange that are revealed Thirdly because mens hearts are not enlarged with Gods image for the present therefore they cannot savor any thing but that which hath some savor of the creature Fourthly because they are not acquainted with the first-fruits of Heaven whereas those that are godly have some beginnings of eternal life wrought in them here and upon that these things are not so strange to them their hearts can close with them and suck out abundance of comfort from them And thus we have finished the fourth thing of the reward namely To have God for their portion CHAP. L. The Saints happiness in Communion with Christ NOw the fifth particular in the reward of the Saints is the communion that they shall have with Jesus Christ God and Man there are divers things in which the happiness of the Saints consists in having communion with Christ God and Man It was one of Saint Augustines three wishes To see Christ in the flesh It would be a great delight to you to see Christ in the flesh Many make much of the Picture of Christ and if they had it right they would make more of it but if Christ should come to any of your houses as he did when he lived upon the Earth in his mean condition would it not greatly delight you but when we come to enjoy communion with Christ in Heaven it will be another maner of communion then that upon Earth We accounted the Apostles blessed men that lived with Christ upon the Earth what a blessed condition will it be to live with Christ in Heaven If there were such vertue in Christ upon Earth that there came such vertue from the hem of his garment what glory will there be in Christ in his full glory If Christ were so glorious when he was in his transfiguration how glorious is he being glorified before men and Angels eternally in Heaven With the glory that he had with his Father before the beginning of the World If there was so much vertue in the Apostles of Christ in regard of the reference they had to Christ as from the shadow of Peter and the Napkins that were taken from Pauls body there was such power as to heal diseases what vertue must needs come from Christ when we shall come to enjoy him when we come to see Christ that was the author of all our good We read of the poor Cripple when he was healed by the two Disciples he ran and catched hold on them and was loth to go from them who had been the instruments of so great good to him but for the Saints to come and be with Christ who hath been the instrument of so great good to them as Christ hath been what an infinite happiness will this be we read of many that would go long journeys to see those men that had any excellency in them as some would go from the utmost parts of Greece to Rome to see Livie Themistocles to see Christ then in whom is so much excellency will be glorious And then to have communion with him it is he in whom God the Father takes full satisfaction surely he must be the full satisfaction of the Saints this is that which Christ prays for First he prays for his own glory and then he prays for the Disciples and all Believers That they might be with him to see his glory O to see the Lord Jesus glorified as he shall be glorified must be a glorious thing As to see his glory in regard of the lustre of his Divinity through his humanity when Christ pleased to let out any lustre of his Divinity through his humanity here men were not able to bear it as those that came to apprehend him when he said I am he they fell down backward now in Heaven the lustre of Christs Divinity shall shine mightily through his humanity so in him our bodily eyes shall come to see God as much as it is possible for any creature to see him because God shall be let out through the humanity of Christ as much as it is possible for the Divinity to appear in any corporeal substance or in any creature We shall see him with these our eyes as Iob says We shall see how the power of an infinite God can convey the lustre of a Deity into a creature Certainly Angels and men will be continually viewing of Christ he shall come to be admired of the Saints he shall be admired at the day of Judgement in the Saints but in Heaven they shall see such excellency in Christ God and Man as they shall be admiring at him to all eternity as much as they did at the first moment here if we see any thing that is excellent we admire at first but after a while we do not so but there will be so much excellency in Christ as we shall so admire at it to all eternity as we did at the first moment for there shall be no abatement of our being taken with the glory of the sight of Christ Blessed are your eyes says Christ that see those things you see and blessed are your ears that hear those things you hear It is a blessed thing to see the things we may see here but to see the Divinity shine through the humanity this will be a great blessing And we shall see him in the glory that the Father will put upon him Certainly God will put an infinite glory upon his Son because the Lord was so infinitely well pleased with the satisfaction of his Son Because he subjected himself to the death of the Cross therefore He hath given him a name above all names And we shall see the glory of Christ when all the Angels shall be worshipping of him and all the Saints shall be singing with Praises and Hallalujahs to him And this shall be the business in Heaven eternally to be admiring Christ and praising God for Christ And then we shall see him in his glory triumphing over all his enemies in bringing them down and in his glory when he shall have brought to perfection that great work that he did undertake Now to see Christ thus glorified and for us to enjoy communion with Christ thus in his glory this will be a glorious reward for Gods people This glory of Christ will be made the glory of the Saints as a Queen that sees the Prince in his glory she delights in it because it is her glory and so the Church when she shall see Christ her husband in his glory she shall rejoyce in it because she looks upon it as her own I
pleasantly First be sure to keep the heart right within be sure to keep all at peace within thy soul you know according to the temper within so there is the relishing of things without He that hath peace within can easily go through the duties that are required without with joy Further exercise faith in the work and office of the holy Ghost that office that the holy Ghost is designed unto by the Father and the Son to be the Comforter of his people to bring joy and comfort to them look upon the holy Ghost as designed by the Father and the Son to bring joy and delight to the souls of his people What an infinite difference there is between the comforts of a carnal heart and the comforts of the godly The one come from a little meat and drink and the other come from the exercise of faith about the office of the holy Ghost that is designed to this work Thirdly in all that thou doest be sure to be upright Though thou beest able to do but a little in any way of God if thou beest upright God accepts of it and and thou wilt finde comfort Thou sayest thy duties are mean it may be so but if thou beest upright thou mayest have comfort it becomes the upright to be joyful whereas the most glorious performances if they be not in uprightness are but abominable Again sweeten all your duties by spiritual meditation a Christian that treasures up spiritual meditation and every duty that he performs brings it in by meditation and hath a great many meditations to rowl his duty up and down in this is delight To go to duty and to have a barren heart to act there is no delight but to go to a duty and to exercise spiritual meditation this is sweet Again labor to principle thy heart aright in the ways of godliness to understand what they are if thou understoodest what they are they would be delightful and the reason why many do not go on delightfully is because they do not understand what is in the ways of God to cause delight You will say What is there in the ways of God to cause delight First every work of godliness and that ability that grace hath to exercise is a beam of that infinite choice eternal electing love of God upon thy soul if thou lookest upon it so it will be wonderfully delightful Secondly look upon every duty of godliness as having more of the glory of God in it then the whole frame of heaven and earth besides Take all Gods works in the Creation in Providence in the Heavens the Sun Moon and Stars in the Earth and the Seas there is not so much of the glory of God in them all as in one gracious action that a Christian performs and if you looked at it thus it could not but have pleasure in it Thirdly look at that action of grace as that in which God attains his end in creating heaven and earth more then in other things besides as there is more of God in it so God attains more in it the end of God in his counsels is more attained by any gracious act then by any thing else that can be done save of the same nature How delightful should we be in the ways of godliness if we looked thus at them Fourthly look upon every gracious act as the seed of glory and eternal life Every work of grace in the heart and life of Gods people is a seed of glory and eternal life And these four considerations being put upon every gracious act do confirm that which was said in the opening of the point they must needs be full of pleasantness Be not satisfied in doing any thing in the ways of God till you do it pleasantly I hear the ways of God are pleasant I have gone on being haled by conscience but little have I understood of the pleasantness of them there is more to be looked after then I have attained to By this thou shalt come to be mightily strengthened and it wil be a marvellous help to make thee continue in the ways of godliness And as I said in handling that argument of the easiness of the ways of godliness those that are continually thinking of the hardness of Gods ways will fall off but by having them pleasant it will carry thee on against temptations and the current of all arguments The last Use of all is If the ways of wisdom be ways of pleasantness what is the end of wisdom If the neather springs be so sweet what will the upper be If the lower Jerusalem be paved with gold surely that upper Jerusalem is paved with pearls It is an excellent speech of Bernard Good art thou O Lord to the soul that seeks thee what art thou then to the soul that findes thee How sweet and pleasant are the ways of wisdom then How sweet and delightful is the end of wisdom If grace be pleasant how pleasant is glory therefore the Saints dye so pleasantly because there is a meeting of grace and glory Grace is delightful glory more delightful but when these both meet together what delight will there then be It is a speech of Jerome speaking of carnal delights None can go from delight to delight but it is not so spiritually the more delight we have here the more we shall have hereafter and therefore let this be all our prayer Lord give us evermore this pleasure satisfie our souls with this pleasure if the drops be sweet the rivers of pleasure and joy that are at Christs right hand how sweet are they Moses his Choice The second Part. CHAP. XVI A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction THe fourth Doctrinal Conclusion that was raised from the words was That a spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under never so great affliction Moses chooses rather to suffer affliction with the people of God Who were this people A despised people an afflicted people Yet Moses could see an excellency in them while they were making their brick while they were whipped by their task-masters and contemptible in the eyes of all the Egyptians yet by the eye of faith Moses could look upon them as the most excellent of the earth as the most glorious people that lived in the world and desires rather to joyn with them though in the greatest afflictions then to abide Pharaoh's Court in the enjoyment of all worldly delights let the world cast what dirt they will upon them and darken their glory what they can yet they are precious and honorable in the Saints eyes The excellent of the earth and the glory of the world Job scraping his sores upon the dunghil and Jeremy sinking into the mire in the dungeon are more beautiful and glorious then the great men of the earth when they are crowned upon their Thrones Though you have lien
priviledges from God every one desires to joyn with such societies as have great priviledges now Gods people have such as are very great Psal 87. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God! What glorious things They have glorious priviledges What are they To them are committed the Oracles of God as the Apostle reasons for the Church of the Jews So to every Church of God is committed the Oracles and the Ordinances of God and those Offices for the dispensation of the mysteries of God which were the great gift that Christ triumphingly ascending to Heaven gave and surely that gift must needs be great The benefit but of one Ordinance the Ministery of the Word dispensed rightly is made an argument by God himself for the comfort of his people in all their adversities Isaiah 30. 20 21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed any more into a corner but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers The word in the Ministery of it in the the right way is a great blessing When Chrysostom was banished many godly people were so grieved that they professed it were more sufferable for the Sun to withdraw his beams and so be darkned then for the mouth of Chrysostom to be stopped If this one Ordinance be so blessed what a blessing then is the enjoyment of all and that in a right way Every Church-fellowship is as the pillar to hold forth the truth to the world as a light set upon a hill to hold forth the glory of God And they have amongst them the broad seal of Heaven To Gods people that are together in a Church-fellowship the seals are committed now this is a mighty priviledge And besides they have the power of Christ with them 1 Cor. 5. 4. the power of Christ is committed to them And amongst other priviledges this is one of great worth that all the promises of God made to his Church in former ages is the heritage of every present Church Isaiah 54. 17. These are great and high priviledges and worth the enduring of a great deal of hardship to be made partakers of the good of them Tenthly it is a blessed thing to be with them though with some hardship because God is working more and more good for his people every day Now he is about fulfilling the glorious promises that we have in the Prophets to make an end of all the glory that he does intend in the world Now if God be working great things for his people as we hope he is To set up Jerusalem as the praise of the whole earth Is it not good to be with them that we may be partakers of the glory that God intends to them Isa 58. 14. There is a promise that the Church shall ride upon the high places of the earth There is a time a coming that the society of Gods people in this world shall be set above all societies in the world and Isa 2. that The mountain of the Lord shall be raised above all mountains we cannot see how this hath been fulfilled Isaiah 60. 19. The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory This prophesie is spoken of the estate of the Church of God when was this fulfilled that there should be so much glory in the Church that there need not be any Sun or Moon but God should be in stead of Sun and Moon and all the glory of his people and to be with Gods people when God does such great things for them is worth the enduring much hardship In the former part of Isaiah 60. v. 7. God says He will glorifie the house of his glory and mark what follows ver 8. Who are those that fly as a cloud and as the Doves to their windows Seeing God will glorifie the house of his glory his people should fly to it as a cloud Those who are of heavenly not of drossie sensual spirits will do so and as Doves to their windows those who are of Dove-like spirits loving society and purity they will do so And it was the reason why some desired to live because in a few years they hoped to see some great things for his people And so the 102 Psalm is a prophetical Psalm into what a happy condition the Lord will bring his people and in the latter part of the Psalm the Psalmist brings in a gracious heart living in those times bemoaning the condition of it that it hath a sickly body and weak and like to dye before God would make good those promises made to the Church as if he should say Lord thou art bringing glorious things to pass for thy Church and thou art gathering the Kingdoms to serve thee Lord then take not me away in the midst of my days O God let me live to see all fulfilled Eleventhly It is good to be with Gods people because they are those people we shal live withal in Heaven If there were a company travelling together in a strange countrey and knew when they came to their own countrey they should live together in some great preferment in the Court how would they delight in one another So the godly should look upon one another here we have communion one with another and these are they we must joyn in communion withal hereafter to praise God eternally in the highest Heavens Lastly it is Heaven already to joyn with the people of God in communion The Scripture calls the Church of God and Church communion Heaven And therefore where there is a promise of God to restore his Church and recover it from thraldom and misery Isaiah 65. 17. Behold says God I create new heavens and new earth and so in Rev. 12. where the vision of the restoring of the Church was shewn to John it was shewn that way there was a new heaven and a new earth so that the Church of God is heaven it is not onely a company we shall live withal in Heaven hereafter but it is Heaven now and therefore our Savior says The least in the kingdom of Heaven shall be greater then John the least that lived after John in the Christian Church could speak more of Christ then John could The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing his field with wheat that is the estate of the Church is a field sown with wheat and after the adversary sows tares in it The Church says Chrysostom in one of his Sermons upon the Corinthians is the place of Angels the Palace of Heaven yea Heaven it self And if it be so that communion with Gods people is Heaven already surely it is worth enduring of much affliction to be with them CHAP. XX. Perswasions to draw to the joyning with the people of God in the nearest communion HEnce then let me
the Monarchs and great ones of the earth and so to be honored in the eyes of those that were their enemies and contemned and reproached them and vilified them before and likewise their glory shall be in this to rejoyce in the execution of the sentence that is pronounced upon those that are condemned Lastly their glory shall be in their glorious ascension with Christ into the highest heavens ranked in their comely order with triumph and joy singing Stand open ye gates and be ye open ye everlasting doors that the King of glory and all his redeemed ones may come in Thirdly the possession of heaven the Kingdom of heaven shall be theirs the heaven of heavens great things are spoken of that there are these things considerable in it First it is the third heaven there is the heaven that is the space between the visible firmament and the earth the second heaven is the Orbes wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are and then there is an heaven above them which is the seat of the blessed which is of an infinite heighth above all now it as a sweet confideration for the people of God when you are going out in the evening and seeing the firmament spangled with the Stars to have such thoughts as these What shall one day this body of mine be lifted up beyond yonder place Though now you lie low in some dark hole there is a time when God shall lift you up to be above that spangled firmament that spangled firmament is but the pavement of your Fathers house it is but the outside and if the outside and footstool of Gods house be so glorious how glorious is it within how glorions is the presence Chamber This world is made for Dogs for the Enemies of God and those that are more vile then any creatures he does not think much to have swine live here but you do not suffer swine to come into the presence Chamber or into the Dining-room now heaven is the presence Chamber and Dining-room for that eternal feast to be solemnized in and that must needs be glorious Secondly it is called our Fathers house This is not our Fathers house though we should be caught up where the Stars are that is not our Father house that is but the out-room Says Christ In my Fathers house there are many Mansions God was from all eternity a heaven to himself before the world was then he created the highest heavens to be the place of his presence not that he is comprehended there but that he would have a place for his glory more fully to shine in Again it is a place prepared from the beginning of the world and Christ is gone to prepare it for us If there were such a building here that all the men of the world had been building from the beginning of the world and they had all the pearls and jewels of the world to set into it and all the inventions and strength of men and Angels to help them to build it would be glorious but in comparison it is but a dungeon to this The brightness of this is exceeding glorious says Chrysostom when you see a sumptuous pallace you look upon it and are taken with it but it is but as a dungeon to your Fathers house The light of that shall be of another nature then the light of the world the light that we have here is a material light but the whole body of heaven is of an higher nature then the body of the Sun and there shal be such a glorious presence of God as there shall need no Sun Moon and Stars to enlighten it and then with the brightness of the body of Christ and the brightness of the bodies of the Saints there shall be a glorious lustre And for the large extent of it the lowest heavens are but as a prick of the center in comparison to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick of the center to the highest heaven Men boast here if they have but a few clods of land as Socrates put a scorn upon Alcebiades that boasted of his lands he brought him to the Map of the whole world and prayed him to shew them there and there was not one prick vouchsafed for them in it What is a little land to a countrey and what is a countrey to the world and the world is but as a prick to the lowest heaven and the lowest heaven is but as a prick to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick to the highest heaven and the Saints shall possess all that You that have no possessions here know there is a possession hereafter that is more then if you had all the Lands in the world Besides it is of an incorruptible nature it is an inheritance incorruptible The reason why the heavens and so the soul is incorruptible is because it is not made out of pre-existing principles it was made out of nothing and nothing but an infinite power can annihilate a thing as well as make a thing out of nothing Much is said of that place for the description of it Jerusalem was but a Type of it and the Land of Canaan was but a Type of it and Paradise was but a Type of this glorious place that is provided for the Saints of God Let us therefore raise up our hearts to consider of this And as we read in Gen. 13. 14 15. where God shewed to Abraham the Land of Canaan says God look Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed So consider the vastness of the Heavens and the exceeding extent of them and consider this is the Inheritance of the Saints We know we have an abiding eternal inheritance our bodies shall abide eternally and the Heavens themselves are eternal this should quiet our hearts when we finde any discontent in our habitations it is no matter in what Countrey we are here there is a glorious Countrey we are going to Christ our elder Brother is already gone and hath taken possession of Heaven for us as if so be there were some great inheritance did befal you here and you cannot go to possess it and if you hear one is there for you who hath taken quiet possession for you and you shall be sent for in time convenient will you not be content So we are not fitted for Heaven but Christ is gone before to take possession and within a while we shall go and live with him The earth is too mean a place for the Saints and yet the world is not worthy of the Saints of God in a mean condition then the world shall not be worthy of the Saints in their glorious condition and therefore there must be a place above the world Yet know Heaven is not enough for the Saints the Saints of God are of such spiritual raised spirits as
glorious sight It is not yet Six thousand years since God did any thing out of himself and what is six thousand years to eternity and if God have done such great things in Six thousand years what may God do in the next Six thousand years and so in the next who now can tell A Workman doth his meanest works at first and this world is but the beginning of Gods works and for a creature to see what God shall thus work for ever is an infinite blessed thing The seventh thing wherein this blessed vision of the Saints appears is that they shall look upon all the ways and works of God as to see their happiness consisting in them there is a great deal of difference in seeing an object that is excellent in its self and to see an object that is excellent wherein consists my happiness As in riding over a Land one that is a Stranger rides over it another that is an Heir the Stranger rides over it and takes delight to see the Trees and Fruit to grow but the Heir looks upon it after another maner as the Land for which my Father laid out much and all to enrich me as the Land that is mine Inheritance so were it that we were but admitted to this glorious sight of God meerly to have the view of God it were a great priviledge to the Creature but to see all the shine and all that excellency that is in God is to make me happy and all the counsels and ways of God are working for my happiness and glory this is blessedness indeed There is difference between a Stranger looking upon the King and the Queens looking upon a King A Stranger may see Beauty and Majesty in the King but the Queen looks upon the King and his Beauty and majesty as her own and so the souls of the Saints shall see all in God as their own to make them happy Eighthly the blessedness of the sight of God consists in this that it shall be a transforming sight such a sight of God as shall be a transforming perfecting sight not onely a perfect sight but a perfecting transforming sight The light that shall come from God upon the minde shall perfect the minde and transform the minde into the same likeness with God It shall not be a meer notional sight as men may speak much of God and have a notional vision of God but there is a great deal of difference between the notional vision of God and the Deifical vision of God for it is not only beatifical but Deifical for it does transform a man into the likeness of God A deformed man may see a beautiful object and that sight shall not make him like that beautiful object but the sight of God shall make the soul glorious as God is glorious as you shall have it in 1 Iohn 3. 2. We shall be like him what is the ground We shall see him as he is Ninthly the sight of God will be a full sight a sight whereby the minde shal be raised to that heighth of excellency as it shall be able to see God in his excellency we cannot look upon the Sun now in its excellency if we will see the Sun we must see in its reflection but the understanding of the Saints shal be raised to that heighth that they shall be able to look full upon the face of God and this will be the reward especially of Faith for those that are godly do believe above reason Now because the Saints are willing to fear God so far as to captivate their reason and to believe upon bare testimony above reason therefore hereafter God will give them this rereward to see things fully and the reason of things Again it shall be such a sight of God as shall be without any discourse or labor but there shall be the present vision of God at the opening of the eye We are glad if we can come to understand the creature with labor but to come to understand God the Creator without labor is a great happiness Again to have the sight of God so as never to lose it that addes much to the happiness of the Saints To have but one glimpse of the face of God though it were gone presently it were a great happiness beyond all that the world affords but God shall not onely pass by but stand still so as the soul shall never lose the sight of God but it shall have it to all eternity and the eyes of the soul shall be eternally opened to see God If a man looks upon a delightful object he is loth to have the eye drawn from it you shall never have your eye drawn from God Further in the sight of God you shall see all things that do any way concern your selves in ordering of you to all eternity and this is made by some the ground why it is impossible for the Saints in Heaven in the least degree to fall there because they shall have a continual view of God and in him see fully all circumstances of all actions and all things that any way do or shall concern them to all eternity For there is no falling or declining from God but it comes at first from some error in the theoretical or practical work of the understanding or in some inconsiderateness but there cannot be the least error in the minde or the least inconsiderateness because the soul shall be so fully taken up with the sight of God what an infinite delight must this needs be It was the desire of a Philosopher to see the nature of the Sun though it were to be burnt by it he could be content so if God should grant us this happiness You shall come to see me but the sight of me shall destroy you this were a desireable thing but to have a sight of God that is a perfecting sight and such an excellent and glorious sight in which our happiness shall consist for ever how glorious must this needs be Lastly to see God in our selves It is an happiness to see God in the Creature but much more to see God in our selves the chiefest of the glory of God next to that which appears in Jesus Christ shall appear in the Saints and the chief excellency of God that the Saints shall see shall be within themselves they shall see more of the glory of God within themselves then in all the Heavens besides The Heavens are glorious now the Sun Moon and Stars are glorious but to see the highest Heaven that were more glorious But the meanest Saint of God in Heaven shall see more of God and of his glory in himself then does appear in all the Heavens beside and then much more then does appear in all the World We might make it out there is more of the glory of God in one Saint then in all the Heavens and Earth besides for the Heavens and the Earth are but Gods foot-stool not his image
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and
communication of himself to them and all the glory of one another Look how many Saints shall be in heaven they shall rejoyce in every ones happiness as in their own their own happiness will cause joy but so many Saints as shall be happy so many times shall their joy be double and therefore it must be full joy Comfort proceeds from the suitableness between the faculty and the object now here is the greatest suitableness between the faculty and the object that can be because here is not onely good in the Concreat but goodness in the Abstract and union with goodness it self is more then union with a good thing Surely the joys of heaven must needs be great because a little taste of them here that the Martyrs have had hath made exquisite tortures grievous and dreadful pains not onely tolerable but comfortable And it is Divine joy It may be said to be Divine in three respects First it comes from God Secondly it is in God Thirdly it is with God First it comes from God being caused by the Spirit of God and that is another maner of joy then the men of the world have Secondly it is in God rejoycing in God and that is other maner of joy then rejoycing in meat and drink Look what difference there is between the excellency that is in God and the excellency that there is in meat and drink and idle sports so much difference is between the joy that Gods people have in God and the joy that wicked men have in the creature And it is divine in regard that it is joy with God it is the same joy that God himself hath carnal hearts rejoyce one with another in sensual things but God does not rejoyce in those things you rejoyce in but the Saints in heaven shall be exercised in the same joy that God himself hath and rejoyce in the same things that God shall rejoyce in to have the beams of our joy mingle with the beams of Gods joy and so to have Gods joy and ours put into one that must needs be admirable joy Notwithstanding this joy of the Saints shall be thus glorious yet the utmost happiness of man consists not in it though joy be a necessary concomitant to mans blessedness yet mans blessedness consists not in it We do not seek the enjoyment of God that we might delight in this enjoyment but we seek delight in the enjoyment because the enjoyment is the greatest good And besides all this there are some circumstances that serve to set out all that I have said yet further and to make the happiness of Gods people yet more glorious First it is a prepared happiness that happiness that God hath had his thoughts upon from all eternity and laid the ground of it from all eternity God hath been working from all eternity to provide this Secondly in that it comes to the people of God by such a glorious way as the purchase of Jesus Christ that I have it and that I have it by such a glorious way that will be exceeding comfortable Thirdly that we who are so vile and so wretched and so abominable as we are in our selves that we who by nature are but firebrands of hell and fuel for eternal wrath that we should be raised to such a height of happiness Fourthly that we are so few Not many wise nor rich nor noble but the mean ones of the world that there should be so many of the world and the great ones of the world cast out and a handful of poor contemptible people should be raised to this glory this is a mighty aggravation of the happiness of Gods people Fifthly that this should be a reward for that which we owe in a way of obedience we owe all our services in a way of obedience to God and we may say When we have done all we are unprofitable Servants and that we do we are bound to do as creatures and yet that God should reward that which we owe to him in a way of obedience this aggravates the happiness of the Saints as if a Master should give his Servant all his estate for doing that which he is bound to do We have more then wages here then how much more is that we shall have hereafter Again that which God is pleased to reward it is but poor mixt service take our duties at the best they are such as deserve Hell there is no one act but if God should observe what is amiss you deserve to be cast from God for ever for it now when we rather deserve that God should cast us down to Hell yet that God should reward us with all this glory what a glorious thing is this Again that the Lord is pleased to make this sure to us if God had left it to uncertainty and bidden us work it might be well with us and may be he will think of us this might have been a comfort to us but that God is pleased to binde himself thus and to make all sure As if a King should make his Crown Kingdom sure to a poor wretch in the way of reward for a poor service so does God he makes this glory ours by reward in a way of Covenant and Testament by Covenant such a Covenant as he does not only cause to be written in his word but in our hearts we have witness of this in heaven and earth three bear witness in heaven and three in earth and he gives us seals to confirm this Covenant and he confirms it by an Oath he swears by himself because there is no greater to swear by and he makes it sure by way of Testament Covenant we think we may break but that which is given by Testament and confirmed by the death of the Testator that is sure and thus hath God made it sure unto us Again all things that do befal us in this world and all the ways of Gods providence do but tend to the furtherance of us to our reward and to the encrease of our reward and that is the wonderful happiness of Gods people this should sweeten all conditions If I be in a meaner condition then another yet this is in order to my reward and this is more then if I had a Kingdom in the world if it were not in order to that but whatsoever I have in the world though never so hard to flesh and blood it is in order to this this satisfies Again this reward is near we shall not stay long for it If God required of us to be burning a thousand years and then to have it we had yet cause to rejoyce but it is at hand and nearer at hand to us in this latter age of the world then to our Fore-fathers God hath but a few things to do in the world to gather but a few more of the Gentiles and his own people the Jews and to pull down Antichrist and then all is done
The time is short says the Scripture the word that is translated short in 1 Cor. 7. 29. is a Metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up onely a little left at the end so God hath rolled up all his works onely he hath a little left at the end and then all this glory shall appear the frame of Heaven and earth does but stand till that time and if that time were come the frame of Heaven and earth should presently be dissolved and the ways of Gods providence in this world should be at an end the Heavens and earth groan for this time It is said of Doctor Taylor when he was near at the stake he fetch'd a leap and said I have but two stiles to my Fathers house We in our way here are as Travellers some ride it may be a little faster and get to the Inn first and then another comes a quarter or half an hour after but it is but a short time in comparison he hath promised and he will come quickly with the glory of his Father and all the glory of Heaven with him And then this shall be after all our troubles As Painters first draw all black and then the other beautiful colours so all our troubles here are but as the black ground-work to make our glory the more beautiful hereafter To see land after a long and dangerous voyage how joyful is it As the Trojans after they had been wandring a long time in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas as soon as they espied Italy they cryed out with exulting joys Italy Italy how much more the Saints after they have passed this troublesom world and come to Heaven what acclamations of joy will the heavens ring of Heaven Heaven Lastly all these things are eternal this puts an infiniteness of worth upon every particular How was Haman puffed up by Esthers inviting of him to one Banquet How shall the hearts of the Saints be taken with that eternal Supper of the Lamb Obed-Edom was blessed in having the Ark but three moneths in his house how blessed they who shall have Gods not onely gracious but glorious presence eternally And so I come to the fourth particular which was propounded in the handling of this point namely 4. Wherein lies the power of the consideration of the recompence of reward to help a man through sufferings Much hath been said but more may be said to shew that there is a mighty power in it to enable the heart to suffer any thing for God it is that which hath mightily wrought upon the Saints of God heretofore That is an observable place that we have concerning Christs Transfiguration and Christs Agony when he was transfigured upon the Mount and his glory was shewed even a glimpse of the glory of Heaven Christ took with him onely three Disciples Peter James and Iohn afterward when Christ was to come to his Agony when his soul was heavy to death and he sweat clods of blood he onely took those three Disciples that had seen him in his glory to see him in his sufferings to shew that those that know what the glory of Christ means those are the fittest to joyn with Christ in his Agony and to endure the greatest sufferings that they can meet withal See in Dan. 7. there is mention made of a cruel Tyrant that should make War with the Saints and should persecute Gods people that devoured and brake in pieces yet there were some that should bear out all that should have the Kingdom given them and God should reward them gloriously Who are they at the 22 verse The Saints of the most high so you read it or The Saints of the highest not onely of the highest God but of the highest places of the highest things they are those to whom the Kingdom shall be given those Saints that did see the most glorious things of the Kingdom of God they had the reward for they held out in sufferings but others whose hearts were low in the earth they did not hold out So those that should hold out in the time of Antichrist and should not worship the Beast Rev. 13. 6 7 8. were such as dwelt in Heaven He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwelt in Heaven in many places of the Revelations Heaven is taken for the Church of God and the People of God and so Interpreters take it here And it was given to him to war with the Saints and to overcome them but though he prevailed against the Saints to kill them yet he could not prevail against them that dwelt in Heaven to worship him but all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him all that know no higher good then the Earth they shall follow Antichrist and worship him Here we see the reason why people will not endure the sufferings inflicted by the Beast but follow the Beast have his mark either upon their foreheads openly or in their hands secretly because they do not apprehend the glory of Heaven but if they can come to see those glorious things of Heaven though Antichrist do persecute them they would not worship him in these latter times of the world Antichrist will prevail to get many to worship him but the sight of these glorious things will keep us we shall not worship him In Rev. 12. the Church who is compared to a Woman that was cloathed with the glory of the Sun she had the Moon and all sublunary things under her feet When the soul is seeking after the glory of Heaven and that is always in its eye this causes it to have the Moon by which is signified all things below that are subject to changes under its feet I read of a Martyr that was whipped and almost scourged to death and then being led to the execution he met with his Mother who being a godly gracious woman did not fall of tearing her hair and rending her cloathes as other women used to do but cryed Son Remember eternal life look up to Heaven and see him that reigns there Hence we see that having an eye to the recompence of reward does make the heart to choose the Choice of Moses To suffer affliction with the people of God and to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt you see there is a great deal of power and efficacy in it but wherein does this power consist In divers particulars CHAP. LIII Wherein the power and efficacy of eying the recompence of reward consists FIrst there is a great deal of power in looking to this glorious recompence of reward because the glory of this does so much darken all the glory of the things of the world that we are called to part withal when we are called to suffer any thing Now then the argument lies thus That which darkens all the glory of the world and makes it appear to be
appears to be in others prating of him but now when men do not understand any great good in themselves then they account the evil of the world despising them a great evil Many men judge of themselves rather by the esteem other men have of them then by any good they know in themselves and no marvel though these men be so much troubled at other mens despising of them If a Merchant have a Ship come home laden with many thousand pounds worth of rich Commodities though his Servant should do something amiss that day he would not be froward at it but pass it by because he hath such great profit and good coming in so the evils of the world are nothing in comparison to that soul that knows the great things of the Kingdom of God to be its own Thirdly there is a mighty deal of power in it because this respect unto the recompence of reward does so much take up the faculties of the soul the intention of the minde being taken up about so great an object other things are not minded in comparison and this is the reason why those that are in a phrensie are insensible of what you do unto them because their mindes are taken up about that which they apprehend so strongly as nothing else is minded by them and if there was any object made known to take up the minde of man it must be such great things as these made certain and real to the soul by faith It is a property peculiar to God that though he hath many glorious things that he exercises his wisdom about yet he does minde the least thing the least creature in the world as much as if there were nothing else to minde but no creature can do so no creature can minde great things with intention of minde and yet minde inferior things with any strength of intention too but if he mindes great things with intention other things must be lightly minded An Ecclesiastical Historian tells us of the Christians they did so minde the glory of God and the glory of Heaven as that the pains they suffered were as in the bodies of other men and not in their own bodies It is reported of Archimides who was a great Mathematician that when the City was taken wherein he was and the Warlike instruments of death clattering about his ears and all was in a tumult yet he was so busie about drawing his lines that he did not know there was any danger and heard no noise If such objects as these can take up the intention of the minde so as not to minde other things then much more such an object as eternal life and eternal glory and happiness And therefore that place is very observable in 2 Cor. 4. 16. We faint not in our sufferings because we look not at things that are seen but at things that are not seen We are so intense about Heaven and the glory of God that we do not give a look at things that are seen So in Heb. 11. 15 16. They were not so much as mindeful of that Countrey from whence they came because they sought a Countrey that was better and heavenly It is a notable expression that Basil hath concerning the Martyrs says he They do not look at the danger they are in but at the crown And again he says They do not look at the Officers and Executioners that are whipping of them but they look to the Angels that are giving acclamations and that are encouraging of them As a carnal heart a man that mindes earthly things his minde is so taken up about them because they are an object suitable to him as when all the glory of God and of Christ and of Heaven is set before him he lets it pass without any minding so a gracious heart that by faith can see into the reality of the glory of Heaven and eternal life so taken up with them as not to minde earthly things and that is the third particular Fourthly the respect unto the recompence of the reward hath a mighty power to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because the soul by this comes to see how infinitely well pleased God is with it and with that it undertakes for his names sake in suffering any thing in his cause and this does mightily prevail with a gracious heart If God does but give his command to do a thing this might be enough to shew Gods good pleasure in that action but when with command God reveals such infinite glorious things that he will reward that action withal this discovers more of the infinite good pleasure of God so that the soul in this does not onely see its own happiness but sees the infinite good pleasure of God in it and reasons thus How hath God set his heart upon me And what infinite good pleasure is it that he takes in that I poor worm shall suffer for his names sake when he does not onely tell me it is according to his will but he hath such infinite glorious things to reward that I do except his heart were much upon it taken with it there would never such great and glorious things have been for the rewarding of it but in that these things are so revealed and I in some measure see them I cannot but think God takes infinite delight in these sufferings for his names sake God forbid that any thing in the world should take off my heart from that which I see God takes such infinite pleasure in when a gracious heart shall see God holding forth a crown to set on his head in suffering it sets the soul on fire in suffering for God if thou hadst onely given forth thy command it had been enough to make all creatures obedient to thee but that thou shouldest manifest thy self thus to crown them with this glory and to lay up these treasures of the riches of thy glory for them Who would not do and suffer any thing in thy cause O blessed God! The fifth particular wherein the power of this argument consists is the abundance of sweet that there is in the hope of this reward to fill the heart with joy and peace the more joy and peace the heart is filled withal the more certainly it is able to do great things So Nehemiah tells the people when he would have them rejoyce The joy of the Lord is your strength Neh. 8. 10. When as the heart is strengthned with joy it is able to do mighty things now the hope of these glorious things do mightily fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A man that hath his body strong he can endure cold and bear great burthens that a weak body cannot bear and nothing strengthens the heart more then this joy of the Lord where the heart is filled with it Vessels that are empty will soon be broke with the heat of the fire which they will not be if they be full this hope
of the glorious reward fills the heart with precious liquor that you may set it by the fire and put it into troubles it will not break As a Gyant refreshed with wine hath great strength to undertake any thing so the soul that is filled with this comfort of the hope of Heaven and glory can go forth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and make nothing of those things that others make great matters of When the heart is filled with joy hope of believing and so filled with light within whatsoever darkness is abroad it cares not As Oecolampadius when he was to dye and they spoke of the light without says he What is the light without I have light enough within And so a gracious heart says there is enough within to strengthen me let there be without what there will When Alexander gave away great things almost all he had one of his Officers aked him what he would have left for himself says he Hope so says a gracious heart though all things be gone yet it is enough to fill my heart with joy that I have hope of the glory that is to be reveald A natural chearful spirit can be able to undergo great things that one that is naturally timorous cannot the Wise man saith The Spirit of a man shall sustain his infirmities A man that hath a natural chearful spirit is able to sustain many infirmities that others cannot As for melancholy spirits every thing that comes cross to them is ready to sink them and they cannot undergo those troubles which a chearful spirit can because they want the sweetness within What strength is there then in the filling the heart with joy in believing of these things As a man that hath his bones filled with marrow and hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body he can endure to go with less cloathes then another because he is well lined within so it is with a heart that hath a great deal of fat and marrow joy and peace within though such a one hath not many cloathes and outward comforts to strengthen him he will go through troubles well enough Proverbs 14. 14. A good man is satisfied from himself And it is enough for good men to know within themselves that they have an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. A tree that hath a great deal of sap within can bear great weights and burthens that others cannot and that is the fifth ground because the hope of these things does fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A sixth thing wherein the power of having respect to the recompence of reward appears is in that it hath a great deal of power to resist any temptation of Satan and to quench the fiery darts of Satan In Ephes 6. where the spiritual armor is spoken of the helmet the armor that is for the head and keeps that from being hurt with any stroke is the hope of salvation and the hope of glory so that whatsoever temptations of the Devil comes by this helmet they are kept off that they do not so much as take the judgement As we might instance in the several temptations that the Devil hath to keep one from sufferings as when he comes and says Why will you undo your selves in such a way as this Presently the hope of salvation is held up and the soul answers It is so far from undoing of me that it is the onely way to provide for my self He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it If the Devil comes with this temptation Surely God does not require such things of his people to be brought into such straits and suffer such hard things The soul that hath the hope of his glory holds it up and makes this answer Why seeing the Lord hath laid up such glorious things hereafter why should I not think that God may require hard things for the present If he comes with this temptation Why will you go on in a singular way from others A gracious heart upon this argument answers I expect choice and singular mercies from God and why should I think much to go on in a way that is singular though others do otherwise it may be they shal never be partakers of such singular things If the Devil comes and say Surely God does not love you if he did he would not suffer such great calamities and sore troubles to befal you and if it were his cause he would assist you in it the soul answers Hath the Lord laid up such glorious things for me hereafter and shall I call Gods love in question because I am deprived of these mean things and undergo such afflictions as these certainly those things that God hath laid up for me shall so uphold my heart as that I shall never call in question Gods love though I suffer never so much here and that is the sixth particular Seventhly there is a great deal of power in this argument to help on the soul in a way of suffering because by looking at this recompence of reward the soul comes to see what glorious things sufferings do prepare for hasten unto and work to the encrease of First what glorious things sufferings prepare for As it is a notable expression Mr. Hawks hath in a Letter he writ to encourage Mr. Philpot being cast into the Bishops Cole-house says he This Bishops Cole-house is but to scour you and make you bright and to fit you to be set up upon the high shelf meaning Heaven as when you would set up vessels of brass or iron you first take cinders or ashes and scour them and by rubbing them with such things they are fit to be set up so all sufferings are but the means that God uses to scour his people to make them bright to set them up on high God will not set up his servants on the high shelf till first he hath made them bright and he uses this way to do it and then they hasten to great things the more one suffers the nearer he comes to glory and to Heaven Let the world do the worst it can it can but take away your estates and meat and drink and put you in the cold and hasten death and the hastening of death is the hastening of glory The greatest sufferings of Gods people are but as the fiery Chariots to carry Gods people home in This was the answer of Basil to the Emperors Lieutenant when he threatned death to him Death is a benefit to me it will send me sooner to God to whom I live to whom I desire to hasten And then they do encrease glory it is but a trade of less things to encrease greater all sufferings are the seeds of glory Eighthly there is a great deal of power in this to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because it does mightily enflame the soul with love to God
therefore they cannot hold out in the time of danger To conclude all we see what will do it what will carry us through sufferings Let us make use of this argument and not look upon the greatness of our sufferings to think my sufferings are greater then others but rather let us look up on high to our God and the greater things that are prepared for us As St. Augustine speaking to a Christian that was to suffer Do not so much attend what punishment thou hast what share thou hast in the whip or in correction but what thou hast in the Testament in Gods Word what is revealed there for tby encouragement And labor to have the light within you or else all will never do though many things have been revealed to your eyes and so you may have light outwardly yet if you have not the inward light this outward light will never strengthen you to hold out And labor for faith to put life in all these arguments that have been spoken of unless faith come and breathe the breath of life upon them they will all lie dead Labor that nothing be between your eye and Heaven and if any thing of the world or vain reasonings shall come between your eye and Heaven labor to remove it keep all clear that upon the turning of your eye you may see beyond the vail and be not onely thinking of these things and make them lively by faith but let your conversation be much in heaven sending up your spirits to heaven and opening your hearts to receive the influence of heaven and then you will be able to endure what God calls you to Who knows what God will call us to God is stirring in the world as if he intended to do some great things in the world and therefore we had need of strong arguments to keep our hearts close to him when many thousand hypocrites shall fall And thus we have finished four things in the opening of this point First that there is a reward for Gods people Secondly how far they may have respect to this reward Thirdly what the reward is Fourthly wherein the power of having respect to this reward lay to undergo any suffering Now the fifth thing that remains is the Application of all that hath been said And if there be such a glorious reward for the people of God then in the first place the offence of the cross is taken away let us be ashamed ever to be hindred in the way of God because of the cross because of any thing we shall suffer in the way of God when as there is such a glorious reward hereafter No storm of the raging Sea should terrifie us considering that everlasting calm that is a coming says Jerome Let no man speak hardly of Gods ways any more I remember I read of St. Augustine before his conversion he said he was convinced of the ways of God but says he I did not like to go through those straits He found the ways of God difficult and that he was like to suffer much and that hindred him and so it does many they see straits they must deny themselves and suffer hard things and upon this they are hindred but let us never be hindred more by this seeing there are such great things revealed of the reward of Gods people hereafter Why should we be so shy of the way afflictions that lead thither is not here enough to pay for all God will not says Lactantius have the path that leads to this immortal blessedness be a delicate path Certainly if any of you should be hindred from the ways of God by any hardship you are like to meet withal how will this confound you when God shall come and say Did not I shew unto you those glorious things I intended for my people and was not all that sufficient to draw your hearts over these difficulties In the Primitive times the offence of the cross was taken away after once they came to be enlightned in such glorious things as these in Heb. 10. 32. Call to remembrance the former days in which after you were illuminated you endured a great fight of afflictions before they were not able to indure that fight of afflictions but after they were illuminated they were so howsoever you might have some hard thoughts of the ways of God before yet now being illuminated having the light of this blessed truth of the reward that is to come revealed to you be willing to endure any fight of afflictions do not look at this stumbling block look up to Heaven and that wil keep you from stumbling When men walk upon the earth if they look upward they may stumble upon stones blocks but it is otherwise in our walking in Religion our looking upwards to heaven does keep us from stumbling Wisdom is on high the way of the righteous is a high way he is lifted above all stumbling blocks by looking at this recompence of reward St. Paul when he had his thoughts about this says he Neither life nor death principalities nor powers nor any thing should be able to separate him from the love of God Secondly if there be such a glorious reward consider that this is a mighty aggravation of the evil of sin that when God hath revealed himself so gracious as to lay up such glorious things for those that walk in the way of obedience for any after this yet to embrace the ways of sin must needs aggravate the horrid and desperate wickedness of mans heart There is evil enough in sin though we should lose nothing by it that it is a disobedience to God a breach of the Law and going against the minde of God but for men to venture upon the ways of sin although they know they shall lose such an infinite good as this is here is not onely desperate wickedness but desperate folly it is a sign that mans heart is desperately set upon sin that he wil go on in sin though it be with the loss of all this glory and these blessed things I remember Ambrose reports of one Theotimus that having a disease upon his body and the Physitian told him Except he did abstain from intemperance drunkenness or uncleanness he was like to lose his eyes his heart was desperately fet upon his sin that he said Farewel sweet light then as if he should say I must have my pleasure in that sin if I must lose my eyes then farewel eyes farewel the light I suppose there is none of you dare reason thus desperately when we come to you in the name of God and speak of some particular sin that your consciences tell you you are guilty of and profess unto you as in the name of God that that way you take cannot stand with eternal life that you must eternally perish and lose all that happiness that God hath prepared for the Saints perhaps none dare say Farewel God and Christ and eternal life and
all I must have my sin Though you do not say so directly yet if after you have heard all this you go on in a sinful way you do in effect say so for the Scripture says Know you not that no drunkard nor whoremonger nor covetous nor unclean person nor extortioner and the like shall enter into the Kingdom of God You know this it is not possible that any should be so ignorant but he knows such shall never enter into the Kingdom of God you going on then in such a way you do as it were say Farewel God and heaven and farewel all that Christ hath purchased by his blood rather then I will lose my sin How will this confound you another day how will conscience accuse you when it shall tell you what you have heard and what you might have had and you have lost all for your lust God shall say I revealed to you what my ways and counsels were concerning man that this was the great work and design that I intended to make wretched man happy to bring vile dust into glory and was that my great master-piece that I intended nothing in your eyes but must it be despised for the satisfying of your lusts Christ shall plead against you Was I content to leave the bosom of my Father and to be in the form of a servant and to be made a curse to lose my precious blood my life to purchase glory for man and must this be slighted for your base lusts How will the Spirit of God plead against you What was not I in the mouth of my Ministers to reveal these glorious things and deep things of God that now in the Gospel are made known and must all that work of mine be neglected and slighted for your base lusts Yea how may all the creatures in the earth come to plead against you Lord thou didst not make us capable of any such happiness as thou didst the children of men and yet we did honor and serve thee in our order but thou madest this creature capable of eternal happiness and yet all is despised for the satisfying of their base lusts Yea how may the Devils come and plead against thee Lord when we were once fallen thou wouldst never enter into covenant with us to give us any hope of any mercy at all much less hope to receive any such great things there was hope for these wretched creatures to be eternally happy and yet they neglected all for their lusts therefore shal their punishment be no more then ours shall their fire be no hotter then ours These things that I have delivered though they be comfortable to the people of God they will be terrible things to the wicked and will be a dreadful aggravation to sin as Heb. 10. 29. Of how much sorer punishment do you think those worthy of that in neglect of these things do even tread under foot the blood of the Son of God as cap. 2 3. How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation If the salvation that we speak of were not great salvation it would not deserve such great punishment for the neglect of it See how great the mercy of God is in revealing such great salvation so great shall the punishment be of those that neglect such great salvation We use to say to some that will be bold to venture upon such ways as others will not They may say and do what they will they have nothing to lose but if a man have any thing to lose he is more wary it is true if we had nothing to lose it were not so much for us to go on boldly and carelesly in our way but know we are capable of abundance of glory that we are in danger to lose if we go on carelesly Consider what you are like to lose and let that raise your heart against the ways of sin nothing can make it up For one to do any thing that shall prejudice the right to a Crown this is counted a great offence and is not past by without blood Sin seeks to deprive us of a Crown of Heaven of immortality O the mischief that is in sin let our hearts rise against it with hatred to death when any temptation comes let us use this argument as a help to answer temptation O in this temptation there is that will deprive me of all my hope of heaven of glory and of my crown and of all my good if I take not heed and therefore now shal I sin will any sin do you that good as will countervail the cutting you off the hope of all this glory will it make you amends for this evil If a man might have a whole world given him for to lose his eyes no wise man would lose the benefit of his fight for the whole world wilt thou venture the loss of the sight of God and of Christ and of all communion to be had with them for a lust and for a base pleasure what worth is in it to make thee so venturous When a temptation to sin comes make use of this argument as Saul did to his men What can the son of Jesse give you vineyards and oliveyards So you may say to every temptation to the ways of sin What can my sin give me Heaven and glory and immortality can my sin reward me as God will reward me if I walk in his way If a Chapman should come to you who are Merchants and offer you for a commodity twenty times less then it is worth your hearts will rise against him in disdain and contempt of him Now when sin comes to offer any pleasure or content to the flesh let your hearts rise in disdain against it it offers you infinitely to your loss base momentary pleasure for Heaven and all the glory that hath been opened to you As one said when a Harlot askt a great price for pleasure with her one night I will not buy repentance at such a rate And so when sin comes say I will not buy pleasure at such a rate It was an aggravation of the sin of Israel that they would return into Egypt because the Land of Canaan was so good a Land So it argues base hearts in people to despise all that is in Heaven and the glory of it for to turn to Egypt to some base lust Thirdly if there be such a glorious reward for the Saints this rebukes all base worldly drossie spirits that seek for no higher good then meerly to enjoy the use and comforts of the creature and content to their flesh for a while How many are there in the world that would bless themselves in these things Might I have but such an estate and such content in the world it were enough they should think themselves happy As that Duke of Burbone in France if he might have his Palace in Paris he would not change it for Paradise A company of base drossie spirits that could be content
have felt the work of God regenerating your souls upon which you have followed me you shall sit upon twelve thrones Some do interpret this place Regeneration the estate of the Gospel and so make it not to be the work of God upon the soul but the work of God upon the world to make a new world as the glorious estate of the Church under the Gospel is called a new heaven and a new earth and so take it Ye that have followed me in this new world ye shall sit upon twelve thrones c. but I rather take it the other way not wholly excluding this they are onely those that follow Christ in the Regeneration that shall have this reward It is called the new birth because there is such a strange change there is a new spirit and a new life put into a man Suppose a rational soul were put into a beast what a change would be in that creature Suppose an Angelical nature were put upon us what a change would there be By the change that is wrought in regeneration there is a greater difference the highest degree of glory in heaven is not so different from the lowest degree of grace here as the lowest degree of grace here is different from the highest excellency of nature because the difference between the highest degree of the glory of heaven from the lowest degree of grace is but a gradual difference but the difference that is between the lowest degree of grace and the highest excellency of nature is a specifical difference Therefore you that hope for glory know there must be a regeneration that work of God upon your souls that must cause a greater difference in you from that you were by nature then there is in the glorified Saints that have the highest degree of glory from the meanest Saint in the world as the reward is a mighty glorious thing so the work of God in preparing a soul for this reward is a mighty glorious work And therefore do not content your selves in every poor slight thought of heaven know heaven lies upon that which is a mighty work of God in you Thirdly if you ever come to Heaven there is a principle of heaven put into your souls here that is a heavenly principle that carries you heavenward I mean the work of God causing you to have heavenly mindes and heavenly hearts Our conversation is in heaven says the Apostle In Cant. 3. 6. the Church is compared to pillars of smoke that ascend upward to heaven Though the Church be black and dark in regard of her infirmities yet it hath a principle to carry it upward to heaven The Saints are compared to Eagles that fly aloft towards heaven though their bodies are not there their hearts and souls are there if our treasures be in heaven our hearts are there already I read of Edward the first who had a mighty desire to go to the holy Land to Ierusalem and because he was hindred and could not get thither he gave his Son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and he prepared Two and thirty thousand pound to carry his heart thither So the Saints though they have not their bodies in heaven their hearts are there and they take much pains and are at great charges to get their hearts thither All things in nature have a principle to carry them to their proper place because the place of fire is on high therefore fire hath a principle to carry it on high and because the place of earth is below therefore earth hath a principle to carry it downward So if the place and center of the heart be in Heaven then certainly it hath a principle to move naturally thither to move upward to heaven and therefore that soul that hath nothing but a principle to carry it downward to the earth and to the lusts of it to these things below heaven is not the proper place for such a soul and when the soul goes out of the body it wil not go to Heaven Take earth and close it in a vessel and take fire and put into a vessel open the vessels and let them out and they go both to their places so the souls of men when they are gone out of the body they go to the place whither they had a principle to carry them therefore do not think the principle shall be put into them when you dye but you must have a principle before if your hearts be prest down by earthly things when you dye they will fall down and therefore observe which way your souls work Can you say as in the presence of God My soul works heavenward though I have weights of corruption that would weigh me down yet I have a principle that does work to Heaven But the consciences of many tell them their souls work downward to vanity and sensuality and you have no other principle and therefore when your souls depart they fall downward Fourthly what soul soever hath an interest in heaven heaven is in that soul already The kingdom of God is in them and they have taken hold of eternal life now eternal life abides in them Whom he hath justified he hath glorified already they have the glory of heaven begun you heard what that was In heaven there is the perfection of our natures the image of God shall be renewed now is the image of God begun hath God marked you and set the stamp of his image upon you There is no soul that God does intend to put glory upon but he marks that soul and stamps his image upon it in the work of conversion and says Here is a soul I set the stamp of my image upon because I mark it out to glory if ever you come to Heaven God must see his own Image and Superscription upon you As the Beast set his mark upon men and would suffer none to trade but those that had his mark so God will set his mark upon his people and none shall come into his Kingdom but those that have his mark now a mans Image is upon a thing when by beholding of it I am put in minde of him that it is an Image of so if you have this Image and stamp of God a man that knows God as soon as he looks upon you as soon as he beholds your conversation he is put in minde of God and he says I have heard and read much of God of the holiness and righteousness of God and by this mans conversation I am put in minde of that holiness and righteousness of God the brightness of which I see shining here Again in Heaven you know God himself is the portion of the Saints they have the presence of God What presence of God do you enjoy here Were your souls ever acquainted with the presence of God in the Ordinances What blessed vision have you of God here Those who come to Heaven God gives a sight of himself here
here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
loth to leave these things because he did not know whither he went but a soul that knows what inheritance it shall have hereafter it is not loth to go hence Many are loth to dye because they have treasures in the world as those ten men said in Isa 41. 8. Slay us not for we have treasures in the field of wheat and of barley and of oyl but a godly man is willing to dye because he hath treasures in Heaven Keep open the eye of faith exercise faith to see God that is now sending for his childe home And look upon Christ as having that prayer granted Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am by faith you shall see Heaven opened and the crown prepared and see God in his glory that you may express chearfulness of heart in going to take possession of that glorious recompence of reward behold the Angels of God coming to take you up into Heaven It was an expression of the honor of one Hugh Bishop of Lincoln that King John and his Nobles would carry him to the grave more honor shall the Saints have for God to send his Angels to convey them to that place of glory And further let you spirits work mightily after Heaven now when they draw near to it as the nearer any thing is to the center the more strongly and swiftly it moves As a stone that falls down from a high place it moves more swiftly when it is nearer the ground then when it was higher so at death the soul is nearer its center grace is changing to glory and when grace and glory is to meet there must need be a mighty working of heart and mighty shouts As it is reported of the Duke of Bulloin and his company when they went to Jerusalem as soon as his company saw the high Turrets they gave a mighty shout that the earth rang and so when the soul sees the turrets of this heavenly Jerusalem and when you see your selves ready to go and possess it what mighty workings and shoutings of your heart will there be And when you are to dye speak well of God and of the ways of godliness to all that are about you Christians should now labor so to live as there may appear a mighty difference between their deaths and the death of others whereas ordinarily such is the vanity and drossiness of the hearts of Christians in their lives as when they come to dye they are so heavy and sad as if no such things were prepared for them In 2 Pet. 1. 11. the Apostle having exhorted them before to adde one grace to another and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure says he So an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Christians should labor so to live as when they come to dye they may not onely have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord administred unto them but that they may have an entrance administred unto them abundantly Many make shift to get to heaven but they have not an entrance administred abundantly As a Ship may make shift to get into harbor but with the Anchors lost and Cables rent and Sayls torn and the Masts broke another Ship comes in with the Sayls up and the Flags up and Trumpets sounding and comes bravely into Haven so much difference is sometime between true Christians some through carelesness and unbelief and sadness and sullenness of Spirit although they make shift with much ado to get into Heaven yet so as their anchor of hope was even gone and they had little or no comfort at all but those that have added one vertue to another and have been diligent to make their calling and election sure they come to Heaven with much glory and joy and that should be our care so to live in adding one grace to another that when we dye our deaths may be glorious Yet further from the consideration of this glory revealed which God hath prepared for his Saints we are to draw this meditation If Heaven be so glorious then we had need fill up the comfort of our lives by doing and getting as much good as we can while we live here that we may as much as possibly we can recompence that which we suffer in the staying from the possession of such glorious things reserved for us when we hear of such things as these are we cannot but think in our selves it were better for us many ways to be in Heaven this life is but a bondage to us while we are absent from such things and therefore we had need have something to recompence this bondage we had need do much good and get much good while we live to pay the charges of our lives what a tedious thing is it to us to live so much to sense as we must necessarily do here when we are heirs of such glorious things if we do not do much good and get much good here what have we to sweeten and recompence this tediousness If a man be from home and by his absence suffers much loss of what he might have had at home he is the more diligent and careful in his journey to get something that may recompence this loss so it should be with us It costs us dear as I may so speak to live in the world for it costs us the forbearance of such glorious things if we fill not up our lives with service for God what have we to pay our charges to countervail this that our lives here cost us CHAP. LVII The great things of eternity to be much sought after THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation to all now to set your hearts to seek after these great and blessed things of eternal life that have been opened O that now the hearts of people that have been wandring after other things might be brought in and set upon eternal life and Heaven Let every soul reason with it self Are there indeed such things to be had hath God such intentions to communicate himself thus to mankinde And am I the man or woman that shall lose all this that shall never be partaker of this O wo unto me that ever I was born In Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets says Christ were till John but since that time the kingdom of God suffereth violence The Law and the Prophets did but darkly reveal the things of the Kingdom of God but St. John he did more clearly reveal the things of that Kingdom and since that time the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence O that it might be said concerning any man or woman that have heard this argument opened since that time that the recompence of reward was opened the kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence Surely there is strength enough in that which hath been said to draw forth the heart with violence after it I remember Plutarch reports in
MOSES HIS CHOICE VVith his EYE fixed upon Heaven Discovering THE HAPPY CONDITION OF A Self-denying Heart Delivered in A TREATISE UPON Hebrews 11. 25 26. By JEREMIAH BURROUGHS LONDON Printed by John Field and are to be sold by Thomas Eglesfield at the Marygold and at the Brazen Serpent in St. Pauls Church-yard MDCL To the Right Honorable ROBERT Earl of WARWICK BARON of LEEZE One of the Lords of his Majesties most Honorable Privy Councel Right Honorable AS those who have been of late and in these days yet are of the Antichristian party may well be accounted men born in an evil time because howsoever heretofore was the time of Gods long suffering towards such the time of permission of them to prosper the set time of Antichrists downfal then being further off then now it is But now Gods time of setting his face against Antichrist and all the Antichristian party is come wherein GOD is determined to fight against them and to ruine them most wretched men therefore are they who now have spirits set for the upholding the pleading for that which God hath set himself against So happy especially now are those whose hearts have been and still are set to countenance maintain to further and honor the truth of the Gospel in the power and purity of it These are born and raised up by God and for God in a most blessed time wherein God stretcheth out his holy Arm together with them their hearts are guided by God himself to the furtherance of that work which is the greatest work that God hath to do in this latter age of the world namely To bring in his Truth and Ordinances with glory and power to set up Jerusalem as the praise of the earth to make godliness and the powerful profession of it as honorable as ever it hath been contemptible And now Right Honorable God hath been pleased to bless your Noble Family for many years past with this so great a blessing as to make it instrumental to this great work of his and your self have had a plentiful share in this so great a happiness Your Honor hath discountenanced superstitious time-serving spirits but as for the faithful Ministers of the Gospel and the most sincere and godly of your Countrey your Honor hath cast much respect upon them and been the encourager of them which reflects Honor as upon Gods name and his truth so upon your noble Family I believe there hath not ascended to Heaven more praises to God from any County in England for any Noble Family in regard of the placing of a godly painful conscionable Ministery as hath ascended from that County in which your Honor and your truly Noble Father hath had such a large opportunity of service for God and doing good to his people And I may further confidently affirm That no Noble Family in England hath more prayers of the Saints ascending to Heaven for a blessing upon it then that family of yours neither is there any Noble Family this day shall I say in England I may without presumption reach it further which the Lord hath blessed in regard of some Branches of it with more beauty and power of godliness then he hath blessed yours in regard whereof it would be the most miserable thing that could be if ever the succession of the countenancing and honoring the ways of godliness should be cut off from such a noble Family Cursed be that man who shall be the cutter off of the succession of so great an Honor to such an Honorable Family Psal 72. 17. it is said The name of Christ should endure for ever Filiabitur nomine ejus so the words are it shall be begotten as one generation is begotten of another and so there shall be a succession of Christs name It is a most blessed thing when in a Family there is a begetting of the name of Christ and so it is left unto the succeeding generation as the name of the Family is left unto it Pliny tells us that it was accounted a great honor yea the height of felicity that in one house and Race of the Curio's there were known to be three excellent Orators one after another by descent from the Father to the Son and that the Fabii afforded three Presidents of the Senate in course one immediately succeeding the other If this succession be so honorable so happy how honorable how happy doth the succession of Religion from Father to Son make Families to be This succession in your noble Family is the subject of the prayers of many precious spirits exceedingly dear to God And my Lord although God hath made you exceeding instrumental for much good to his people which is one of the greatest blessings under heaven yet let not your Lordship rest in this Gods warning to Solomon 1 Kings 9. 4. is very observable after Solomon had finished that glorious Temple for the honor of the Lord after he had assembled all the Elders of Israel to bring up the Ark of the Lord with all solemnity after he had made such an excellent Prayer before all the people after he had offered to the Lord two and twenty thousand Oxen and one hundred and twenty thousand sheep and in his rejoycing in this great work done to the honor of God he made a great Feast to all the people seven days and to them he added seven days more and sent away the people with joyful and glad heaets yet after this God says to him If thou wilt walk before me as David thy father walked in integrity of heart and up rightness to do according to all that I have commanded thee then I will establish the throne of thy kingdom Though the things that you have done be great things yet I expect walking according to all that I have commanded thee or else all is nothing It were infinite pity and God forbid so great an evil that any one way of sin should ever stand up to hinder the blessing upon a noble spirit and such worthy services for the Church as you have done well beseeming that true nobility of such a spirit Your Honor hath appeared much for the Honor the Safety Peace Liberties of the Saints and your Countrey and how many now have their consciences check them and shame is upon their faces for that base cowardise and vile time-serving that the true nobility of your Lordships spirit scorning such baseness delivered you from God hath now appeared for his people more then ever in our or our Forefathers time do you now appear more then ever for them As God hath mightily enlarged the opportunity of service so the good God enlarge and heighten with true Nobility and Christian generousness your Noble spirit that you may be as a chosen shaft in the Quiver of the Lord reserved to these times to be in a high degree instrumental to his praise It is now near three years since that your Lordship lying sick not without apprehension that Gods time to
for the encouragement of those who are willing to part with any thing for Christ even there perfecution is annexed for so the words are Mark 10. 29 30. There is no man that hath left house or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my sake and the Gospels but he shall receive a hundred fold now in this life houses and brethren and sisters and mothers and children and lands with persecutions and in the world to come eternal life Persecutions come in amongst all those great things that are there promised Israel is a people afflicted from their youth Psal 129. 1. When God appeared to Moses to send him a deliverer of his people he appeared to him in a burning bush to set out the afflicted estate of his people If the people of God might have a Herald to give Arms to them as some other Professions and Societies have the best and most sutable would be such as Mr. Hooper that holy Martyr had when he was made Bishop of Worcester A Lamb in a flaming bush with rayes of the Sun from Heaven shining on it a Lamb for meekness in a bush burning amongst wicked men who are as brambles and thorns burning with malice and yet the sweet influence and comfortable light of heaven let out upon it When Ignatius came to the wilde beasts to be devoured of them and his bones crushed between their teeth Now says he I begin to be a Christian Blessed Mr. Bradford writing to the Town of Walden to encourage them to suffer saith that that Christian hath not learned his A. B. C. in Christianity who hath not learned the lesson of the Cross A. Christian is a Cross-bearer says Luther As God made the evening and the morning to be the first day and so the second c. So the day of Gods people God hath made to be the evening of troubles here and the everlasting morning of glory and happiness hereafter It is an expression of Mr. Calvin The godly says he have their dark shadow of troubles before them and their brightness of glory behinde to come hereafter but the men of the world have their brightness before them Men use to bring out their best first and reserve the worst till afterwards but Gods dealing with his people is otherwise their worst is first with them The way to Canaan is through the wilderness even after a sore and tedious bondage yea and when God brought his people into Canaan he brought them into the worst part of Canaan first into the southern part which was the most dry and barren part of the land The way to Zion is through the valley of Baca Psal 84. 6. Many are the troubles of the righteous saith David Psal 34. 19. According to that of the Apostles Acts 14. 22. Through much tribulation we must enter into the kingdom of God Psalm 22. is a prophetical Psalm of Christs sufferings and the title is upon Aijeleth Shehar which signifies the morning Hart or Stag such a one as the Huntsmen sever out in the morning from the rest to hunt for that day Such was Christ and such is his Church as the morning Stag severed out to be hunted and worried by the world In the world ye shall have tribulation saith our Savior to his disciples John 16. 33. we cannot follow Christ and be his Disciples but upon these terms Mat. 16. 24. Others use to invite Followers with promises of honors and riches but Christ tells the worst at first what we are like to finde we must be content to take up our cross not to endure it by compulsion and constraint but to take it up willingly and cheerfully Secondly not what cross we will we must not choose our cross but what is appointed for us He must take up his cross But this cross it may be shall be but now and then Yes Luke 9. 23. He must take up his cross daily But if every day I hope it is an easie cross Nay it is a killing cross 1 Cor. 15. 31. I dye daily saith St. Paul But yet I hope there may be refreshings some part of the day Not so neither Rom. 8. 36. For thy sake are we killed all the day long that is in regard of the danger of death Secondly in regard of some beginnings that we suffer Thirdly in regard of our willingness to undergo it Since the days of John Baptist the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Mat. 11. 12. this is ordinarily taken for the greediness of the peoples embracing Johns Ministery but it rather seems to be spoken of another kinde of violence namely the violence of opposition and persecution in which the enemies of the Gospel seek to lay violent hands upon it for he tells them presently Verse 16 17 18. that the Jews were as wayward children that nothing would please them but said that John had a Devil they were therefore rather violent against his Ministery then violent in embracing of his Ministery 2 Tim. 3. 12. All that will live godly must suffer persecution First all Every one must expect it although it is true God calls not all to the like sufferings yet he exempts none from some degree or other let him be as wise and as discreet as he will yet if godly he shall not escape Christ was the best Preacher that ever was he lived the most inoffensively that ever any did and yet while he was preaching the Pharisees blew their noses at him in scorn and derision for so the word signifies in the Original Luke 16. 14. which is translated derided him And at another time they would have broke his neck by casting him from a steep hill after he had done his Sermon Saint Paul the most famous Preacher next to Christ that ever was and yet he was accounted a babler a pestilent fellow his Sermons were accounted factious and seditious Secondly He that will live godly The Devil will let a man have many wishes and desires these are not persecuted but he that will if he be set upon it absolutely resolved that he will and nothing shall hinder then he must make account to suffer When the woman in the Revelations Chap. 12. was ready to bring forth her Childe the Dragon sought to devour it he medled not with her all the while she was a breeding Thirdly he that will live If he keep his godliness in his heart and not discover it in his life he may go on well enough but these shews of godliness the world cannot endure Wickedness must appear with open face but godliness must keep within doors Wickedness trades openly but godliness must keep in as a bankrupt that dare not be seen Fourthly he that will live godly Not civilly onely for a man to live fairly lovingly justly amongst men to keep from crying sins and here to rest this man perhaps may escape sufferings but if he begins to
the chief contentment of thy soul Is it possible that the chief contentment of a creature should be in sinning against an infinite God That thy chief contentment should be in departing from God in striking at God So thou doest in the way of sin That thy chief contentment should be in incensing the wrath of an infinite Deity against thy soul That thy chief contentment should be in putting thy self under the everlasting curse that bindes thee over to eternal death That thy chief contentment should be in that which being committed if ever it comes to be pardoned must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth Thou goest out in the morning and goest into thy company and countest thy self happy that thou hast money to spend and so takest thy pleasure This day thou hast done that which if ever it be pardoned it must cost more then Heaven and Earth is worth There must be a price paid more worth then a thousand worlds to purchase the pardon of it Canst thou choose that for thy chief contentment which was such a dreadful but then to Jesus Christ that made the soul of Christ to be heavy to the very death that squeazed out clods of blood from him What is the chief pleasure and delight of thy soul in that which a true enlightened gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments in the world then do it If so be it were put to him either such a sin must be committed or else all the tortures that can be devised by all the world must be inflicted upon him A gracious heart had rather choose all the tortures that can be inflicted then do that which thou makest the great pleasure of thy soul What an infinite difference is between thy base heart and a gracious heart Thy wretched heart doth choose this deliberately as the great pleasure of thy life which a gracious heart would rather suffer all the torments of the world then be brought to do it To delight in sins against conscience is the most desperate folly in the world No man rejoyces in any error or fault in other things but is rather ashamed onely in the errors in the rule of life and obedience men owe to God they rejoyce in Secondly those come under this reprehension who though they do not choose things for their chief pleasures that are sin yet do choose to themselves pleasures that come in by sin and though this be not so ill as the other yet ill enough that is those that shall strain their consciences to get something in the world to raise their estates and when they have got estates and money and things well about them then they can be merry then their tables are furnished and they can eat and drink and this they delight in O poor deluded heart what is this that can give thee so much content Thou hast cause to look upon thy table and every morsel that thou eatest as having death in it and every draught you drink as having the curse of God in it Little cause thou hast if thou knewest all to rejoyce in these pleasures that come in by sin certainly there can be no good that comes in by sin as sin I know God may turn sin to the good of some but that which sin brings in of it self it is impossible good should come of it that which thou takest pleasure in that which thou art merry and jocund in delighting thy self withal is it may be the calamity and misery of others and how hard is that heart that can make that his mirth and joy that is the sorrow and distress of his brother Chrysostom in a Sermon against luxury and excess cryes out against those who riot in those things that they have got by making others miserable and says It is the most grievous thing that can be Thirdly those who do neither of these they choose not to themselves the pleasures that are sin nor the pleasures that come in by sin but such pleasures in the enjoyment of which they do sin though the pleasures be in themselves lawful they choose to let out their hearts unto them and spend the strength of their spirits on them they think because there is no hurt in them in themselves therefore they may give liberty to themselves there is a great deal of mistake in this we may sin exceedingly in things that are lawful when men shall spend so much time as many that are professors do in giving themselves content in some sports and delights to the flesh as they cut God short of his time that time that should be spent in examining their hearts humbling their souls seeking the face of God is spent in some slight vain idle sport Many are guilty of this especially those that have means and their callings do not require such a necessity of continual attendance How is that time spent wherein you have liberty from your callings Certainly no good account can be given of that time much might be gained to your souls in it and much converse and communion you might have with God and what ill choice do you make when as many poor Christians would bless God if they could have a little liberty from their callings On the one side there is this liberty for you to enjoy communion with God and furnish your souls with heavenly excellencies On the other side there is a little vain delight and carnal content and ease to the flesh and you rather choose this It may be though God hath helped you in the main you chose right yet be convinced this day of the evil of this particular choice in giving such inordinate contentment to your selves in giving that ease to your bodies liberties to the sluggishness of your spirits and reform You have not honored God as you ought and therefore your lives are not so beautiful In the general you continue in the ways of Religion but there is not that convincing lustre and beauty in your lives you do not draw others to that love of godliness because your hearts become so vain and so slight in choosing inordinate liberties to your selves in spending your times and strength in the pleasures of the flesh and therefore when you come to spiritual employment you have no strength but your hearts are dead I appeal to your consciences when you have given your selves leave to have content to the flesh when you come to communion with God what dead flat hearts have you Let me speak to such this day from the Lord this liberty you take to your selves in the pleasures of the flesh hath been the root of the Apostacy of many as 2 Pet. 2. 18. those who fell off were allured through the lusts of the flesh even though they are said to be clean escaped from them who live in error yet through wantonness they were drawn aside Wanton professors seldom prove lasting professors at least in any power of godliness Take this one note
soul hath interest in says there is no peace to the wicked So when those that have interest in God shall say to a man there is no peace to thee it should make his heart quake Gods people ought so to walk as to gain respect from the consciences of men Do you so walk as to gain any such honorable respect Is there not cause of suspition In the name of Jesus Christ I beseech you let it be your care so to walk with such heavenly humble spirits as to hold forth the beauty of godliness unto others and to force respect from them As it is said of God Holy and reverend is his name How does Gods name come to be reverend but by being holy so it may be said of Gods people Holy and reverend are their names if they be holy their names are reverend they will gain reverence from those that are godly and will force it from the basest wretches and therefore you that would have honor and a name here is a way you would be the finest in all the company and you think to get a name that way you seek to get riches and so to get a name this is not the way this does not cover the filth of sin this covering is narrower then that you can wrap your self in Isa 22. 26. but if you would get a name indeed be godly and gracious and holy and then you shall have the testimony of the consciences of men and that is more then all their words for there may be flattery in their words Many Ministers think if they should be poor and mean every one would contemn their Ministery and therefore they think the way to have their Ministery respected is to get great livings this certainly is a false way A poor godly man that walks in his Ministery faithfully and conscionably will gain more respect then others by all their great preferments As it was the speech of Boniface that was a Martyr one askt him whether it was lawful to give the Wine in the Sacrament in a wooden cup Time was says he when there were wooden Chalices and golden Priests but now there are golden Chalices and wooden Priests This was the way of Papistry for to have outward bravery and thought to gain mens devotion that way but when there were wooden Chalices when things were carryed meanly that did not take away the dignity of the Ministery but by the holiness of their lives they were esteemed of the more and the Ordinances were not accounted the worse by the outward simplicity of them but the better Let us that are acquainted with any thing of the minde of God know that there are better things to gain respect to Religion and to our selves by then all the outward things be not afraid therefore of sufferings be godly and let sufferings be never so much and your name will be precious Those who wandred up and down in sheep-skins and goat-skins Heb. 11. yet obtained a good report by faith Lastly if a gracious eye can see so much excellency in the Saints in outward meanness how much more shall they see when they come to their glory when all the treasures of Heaven shall come to be opened and all the good of Heaven let out to them when they shall be wholly free from sin when the robes shall be brought out and the glorious garments and they shal walk with Christ in white If they be so glorious when they are on the dunghil what shall they be when they are in their Kingdom when the Bride shall come trimmed when there shall be a suitableness to that Bridegroom Jesus Christ and God and all the Angels shall come to solemnize the marriage There shall be a time here when wicked men shall take hold upon the skirt of a Iew and say I will go with you for I have heard God is with you How much more afterwards will the great ones and mighty ones of the earth be ready to catch hold upon the Saints and say O that we might go with you though it were but to attend upon you This is the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2. 12. in which they shall glorifie God There are three days of visitation and in all those days of visitation men shall glorifie God in the behalf of Gods people First When the time shall come that God shall visit their souls and work any good upon their souls Secondly the time of affliction when they are upon their sick-beds though in prosperity they contemn you and speak evil of you yet in the day that God shall visit them and lay his hand upon them then they shall say This is the onely people that live upon the earth and send for such a one Thirdly they shall glorifie God in the Day of Judgement when they shall see the glory of these and they shall say These are those we despised and called Hypocrites now we see they are no Hypocrites as those foolish Virgins that wanted oyl when the Bridegroom came then they asked oyl of the wise Virgins it may be before they would not acknowledge it was oyl it was water with them before but now it is oyl so now they shall see they were godly and not hypocrites and they were not notions that they heard of but realities And thus much of the excellency that a gracious heart does see in those that are godly though never so mean and afflicted outwardly The fifth Point is CHAP. XVIII A gracious heart will appear for the people of God whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it A Gracious heart will appear outwardly with Gods people and be on their side whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it Many things useful for the opening and enlarging this point fall into the former and therefore I shall be the briefer in it The Point is of great use in these times wherein God calls for so much appearing in his cause for his people but generally men seek a safe way to themselves as they think to keep their Religion within and not to venture themselves by appearing what they are and if any shall be so forward to appear outwardly what they are inwardly these are deserted St. Pauls complaint 2 Tim. 1. 15. and chap. 4. 16. may justly be the complaint of many of Gods Servants in our times Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes At my first answer no man stood with me but all men for sook me This is no new thing in the world every age affords many examples in this kinde and ours excels but certainly it is the duty of all who would approve themselves to God to be willing to appear with and for the Saints in their troubles First the Saints are dear to God therefore God will certainly take it well at the hands of such as shall joyn with them in their affliction and appear for them if any should see your childe in affliction
Lord is pleased to condescend to our weakness to express his especial presence with his Church and therefore it is good to be with them these are the expressions of it But wherein does the presence of God with his people appear more then with other people In these two things especially First because there God makes himself known reveals himself there and makes his beauty to appear Psal 27. 4. One thing have I desired of the Lord that I will seek after that I may dwell in the house of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the beauty of the Lord and to enquire in his Temple It is the glory of Heaven to see God in his beauty and this is one of the greatest promises of God to his Church that they shall see the King in his majesty We may see some glimmering light of God in the Heavens Sun Moon and Stars but in the Church there God shews his beauty there we may see the face of God and this is that which Moses did desire Lord-shew me thy glory It is much granted to us in the Church in enjoying his Ordinances and there is no way to see Gods face so clearly as this way Every childe of God that is in the Temple shall speak of Gods glory for they see God in his glory in a special maner Secondly the especial presence of God with his people is especially manifested in that he communicates to his people as namely First the choice mercies of God are communicated to his people If you would have any share in Gods choice mercies his peculiar mercies come amongst Gods people joyn with them as that place is observable in Psal 134. 3. The Lord that made Heaven and earth bless thee out of Sion He does not say the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Heaven and Earth but the Lord that made Heaven and Earth bless thee out of Sion as if he should say The blessings that come out of Sion are the choice blessings and the peculiar mercies of God even above any that come out of Heaven and Earth Secondly God communicates his mercies more fully then any where else Isa 25. 6. And in this mountain that is in the Church I will make a feast of fat things a feast of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow c. and Psal 36. 8. They shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house and thou shalt make them drink of the river of thy pleasures In a private way there may be some drops of pleasure from God but there is not that full communication from God as with his people in his Ordinances there is in the world in the creature drops in private communion there are ponds but in a pulique Church-communion there are rivers of pleasure and that is the height of all Thirdly God communicates his mercies more powerfully in the Church then any where else Psal 133. 3. For there the Lord commanded the blessing even life for evermore God did not onely speak and said there should be a blessing but spake in a commanding way There Where is that There in the Church amongst his people there God commanded the blessing even life for evermore Lastly God blesseth more universally with all kinde of blessing and therefore he is more present there and in that respect the Psalmist says Psalm 87. 7. All my springs are in thee This whole Psalm is to set out the excellent condition of the Church and he concludes the Psalm with this All my springs are in thee Now this expression is very emphatical Spring is taken two or three ways in Scripture The Law of God the Doctrine of Gods Law is compared to a spring and heavenly knowledge is compared to a spring and then it is thus All my springs All the truths I have all the knowledge I come to be made partaker of are all in the Church Again All my springs all the comforts of my heart and that good and joy my spirit receives and all the graces of the Spirit that I have and all the quickning and strengthning I have is communicated to me this way And upon this ground the Church is called the very perfection of all beauty Psal 50. 2. Out of Zion the perfection of all beauty God hath shined Out of Zion there is his glory wonderfully apparent The word that is translated the perfection of beauty is translated by some the universality of beauty all kinde of beauty all kinde of excellency as if the Psalmist should say Put all excellencies together that possibly you can imagine to make a thing comely and lovely they are all in the Church Thus you see it is good being with Gods people when as God is thus present with them in a special maner Eighthly it is good being with Gods people because there is Gods special protection others are but as the wilderness the Church is as a garden enclosed Cant. 4. 12. A man regards his garden that he hath enclosed and bestowed cost about more then a wilde field the fields have hedges to keep out the beasts but gardens have brick wals or wood walls Isa 27. 3. I the Lord do keep it I will water it every moment lest any hurt it I will keep it night and day How full is this his care over it is such as he threatens those which shall but touch it Jer. 12. 14. to pluck them out of their land Zach. 2. 5. God promiseth he will be a wall of fire round about his people alluding to the custom of travellers in the wilderness who used to make fires round about them in the night for their safety because then none of the wilde beasts durst come near them such a defence is God to his people There is nothing in the Book of God wherein God is so full in his expression as when he comes to this argument to manifest his affection to his Church Christ is the Shepherd and when sheep are together they are under the protection of the Shepherd when the sheep are scattered the Shepherds eye is not so over them And therefore in Hosea 4. 16. God threatens his people he would feed them as a Lamb in a large place as a Lamb getting from the fold goes up and down bleating so when Gods people are scattered they are as a Lamb in a large place and when God would threaten the sorest judgement against his people Ezekiel 34. he says He will scatter them and they shall become to be meat to the beasts of the field And hence it is that the condition of the Church is so stable a condition and therefore in Isaiah 60. 15. the Church is called an eternal excellency because it is under the Lords protection and is it not good being there to be under the wing of God Ninthly to be amongst Gods people is a blessed thing because they have so many
running up and down from one witness to another but a gracious heart hath other ways to help it self it cryes to God most high and looks for help from Heaven God sends forth his mercy and truth to help and there is help indeed Fifthly another help is this if you can but get your hearts quietly and kindely to lament the condition of your reproachers this will be a marvellous means tosweeten the heart and to help to bear reproaches It was the answer of Socrates to one who wondred at his patience towards one who reviled him If we should meet one says he whose body were more unsound then ours should we be angry with him and not rather pity him why then should we not do the like to him whose soul is more diseased then ours The folly of our reproachers should cause us to pity them to be patient towards them and pass by the wrong they do unto us this was one of the arguments that Abigail brought to David to quiet his spirit that was so stirred against Nabal because of that reproach he cast upon him Nabal saith she is his name and folly is with him it is his folly rather pity him it is too low a thing for such a spirit as Davids is to be stirred with it Instead of being troubled with the reproaches that are upon you your spirits should be most troubled for their sin Now there is infinite cause we have to be troubled for their sin more then for any evil that befals us An evil tongue devours and is an abomination and in Prov. 8. 13. God says The froward mouth he hates Now if you have any love you should think thus This poor man what hath he done he hath brought himself under the hatred of God now this should mightily affect the hearts of the godly As he is an abomination to God so he is an abomination to men Prov. 24. 9. The scorner is an abomination to men scornful spirits love to cast shame and ignominy upon others And in Prov. 18. 7. A fools mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul we should think he hath but ensnared his own soul and so fall a lamenting of his wretched condition And so in Isa 33. 10. Your breath as fire shall devour you If the breath of any man devours him the breath of revilers and reproachers and slanderers does The Heathens called a reproacher A three tongued man because he hurts three at once he hurts him that he reproaches and him that heard the reproach and himself worst of all do but get power over your hearts to bewail this sin and your reproach will not be so troublesom Trilinguis Gallesius a writer upon Exod. 22. ver 28. observes the exceeding patience of those three Emperors Theodosius Honorius Arcadius towards those who spake evil of them they would have them subject to no punishment for they said If it comes from lightness of spirit it is to be contemned if from madness it is worthy of pity if from injury it is to be pardoned wrongs are to be forgiven Again labor to possess your souls with the reality of the sweet of and the honor there is in the ways of God so no reproach will be grievous to you As it is said of the covetous man when some told him Such and such hiss at thee but says he I care not I rejoyce in what I have at home that I have so much money in my chest So it should be with a gracious heart he should say I have sweet enough in my own heart what need I trouble my self with what others think or say Seventhly labor to satisfie your souls in the glory of God and Christ Though my name be cast out as filth yet the name of God and Christ is blessed and glorious and so shall be for ever let Devils and wicked men do what they can against it It was a good speech of Luther writing to his friend Spalatinus bemoaning his condition to him because of the scorn and contempt he suffered yet comforting himself in this that Christ lived and reigned Luther is accounted even a Devil but Christ lives and reigns he addes his Amen to it Thirdly it is not enough to bear reproaches patiently but we must bear them fruitfully a christian should think he hath not done that which belongs to a christian unless he hath got some good by them a christian should not think it enough to free himself from the scorn of the tongue but he must improve it for good by it First consider what ends God aims at by it and labor to work them upon your selves that you may attain to those ends Secondly labor to draw what good instructions you can from the reproaches of others As namely thus when I hear men reproach and revile O what a deal of evil is there secretly in the heart of man that is not discovered till it have occasion I did not think that such and such could ever have been reproachers if they had not been provoked Again do I see another so vigilant over me to finde me out to reproach me how vigilant should I be over my self to finde out what is in me to humble me Again is there so much evil to be under the stroke of mans tongue what a great evil is it to be under the stroke of Gods justice Lastly to be fruitful that is set upon what duty God calls for at the present surely this is one great general duty that the less credit I see I have in the world let me labor to have the more credit in Heaven I see there is a breach of my name here let me seek to make up my name in Heaven 4. And then they must be born joyfully but we shall speak of that afterwards in the third point that a gracious heart is not onely willing to bear reproach when God calls unto it but in the cause of CHRIST to triumph and rejoyce in his reproaches 5. Lastly we should return good for evil then you come to the top of Christianity This is a sign of great progress in Religion If I be weak saith Ambrose perhaps I may pardon one charging me falsly but if I have profited although not altogether perfect though he flows in upon me with reproaches I hold my peace and answer nothing but if I be perfect I then bless him that reviles me according to that of St. Paul Being reviled we bless If you can do thus if you can heartily pray for your reproachers and desire good to them and be willing to take notice of any good in them to clear up their innocency where there is iust cause if you can be ready to offer any offices of love and respect and kindeness to them and so heap coals of fire upon them this is a great sign of grace you have made a good progress indeed in Gods way Mat. 5. 44
matter so as that it should suffer so much by us It is said of the high Priest Numb 6. 7. He shall not make himself unclean for his father or for his mother or for his brother or for his sister because he had the holy oyl upon him the consecration of his God was upon him So I may say unto you You have the holy oyl of the profession of the name of Christ upon you and therefore take heed what you do says St. Paul It were better for me to dye then to lose my glorying were it then not better for us to dye then to have the glory of Christ suffer by us Know though the name of Christ be not dear to you he will defend his name when you shall rot and perish for ever and though it be defiled by you for the present he can clear it otherwise but wo to them that be the causes of reproaches that come thus upon Christ But as we must take heed that Christ be not reproached by us in this regard much more that he be not reproached by our selves so as to speak evil of the ways of God as we may hear it of those that have been forward in profession of Religion if profession of Religion do not come to serve their turns they are ready to speak evil of that way and all the professors of it Take heed what you do in reproaching of a member of Christ the name of Christ is upon him take heed you do not reproach him that the name Christ is upon the people of God do bear the name of Christ upon their foreheads take heed you do not spit upon their faces for it may be you may spit upon the name of Christ as many unskilful hunters will shoot at wilde beasts and shooting at random may kill a man and so many shoot at Christians but they hit Christ they reproach Christ CHAP. XXXVI The dreadful evil there is in reproaching the Saints FOurthly the consideration of this calls for a trembling heart unto all those that have been guilty in any degree of casting reproaches upon the people of God In this Use we have three branches First those that have done it themselves Secondly those that rejoyce in the reproaches that others cast upon Gods people Thirdly those that are the divulgers and spreaders of the reproaches of Gods people In Zeph. 2. The Holy Ghost there rebuking Moab for reproaching his people in the eighth and tenth verses at the eleventh verse it is said The Lord will be terrible to them there are some of you that howsoever God have shewn you better things now yet heretofore you have been guilty and it may be some of you are guilty of this still and if you be guilty the Lord will be terrible to you God hath contempt and dishonor for you as you have cast contempt and dishonor upon Christ suitable to your sin shall be your punishment That is observable that we have in Psalm 59. verse 6. their sin is They return at evening they make a noise like a dog and go round about the City thus is their sin and it is their sin of reproach and scorn as appears in the following words verse 7. They belch out with their mouth and observe ver 14. their judgement is expressed in the same words And at the evening let them return and let them make a noise like a dog and go round about the City Did your reproaches reach no further then the Saints themselves yet in regard of that excellency there is in them it is an abominable wickedness Mark with what indignation the Spirit of God speaks against such as are guilty herein Isa 57. 3 4. Draw near hither ye sons of the sorceress the seed of the adulterer and the whore against whom do ye sport your selves against whom do ye make a wide mouth and draw out the tongue are ye not children of transgression a seed of falshood What you who are so vile and filthy your selves will you presume to reproach the Saints of God such as are so precious in the eyes of God and so near to Christ Know you have not to deal with them onely but with Christ in them You think you have to do onely with a company of poor weak creatures that are not able to right themselves but know you have to do with Christ himself Mark that expression we have in Isa 37. 23. it is spoken concerning Rabshekah Whom hast thou reproached it is not against Hezekiah it is against the holy One of Israel Those that have done thus have lifted up their mouthes against heaven it self They set their mouthes against the heavens Thou hast reproached him that is the brightness of the glory of the Father The character The engraven image of the Father he that is the glory of heaven that hath all the treasures of all good in him Thou hast cast reproach upon him that must be thy Judge At whose mercy thou lyest for thy present and eternal estate Him that is God blessed for ever that is the infinite delight of the Father You mistake you have shot at Christ all this while As we read of Oedepus he killed his father Laius King of Thebes taking him for his enemy your mistake is worse you strike at you reproach Christ while you think it is but a poor man yea your enemy O that ever you should be born to do so much mischief as to cast dirt upon the face of Christ surely you kick against the pricks It is an argument that you are not a son of the promise that you are a successor of Ishmael Thou hast cause to fear that God will laugh at thy destruction and mock when thy fear cometh Thou hast cause to fear that thou art reserved for everlasting shame and contempt unless God does humble thee for this dreadful guilt that is upon thee When you take advantage upon the meanness of Gods people for to reproach them you are the men and women that are found guilty in heaven for to reproach Christ But you will say There are none so vile as to reproach Christ nor the people of Christ for their godliness it is for their hypocrisie Let no man deceive himself thus for there never was any Devil or man that did reproach godliness under the name of godliness but they would put some other name upon it under which it might appear vile and contemptible and in this the men of the world do as the persecutors did in the Primitive times with the Christians they put the bodies of Christians into the skins of wilde beasts and then they would set dogs upon them and other wilde beasts to tear them So men do to this day they put the profession of godliness into the shapes of their own conceits and their own slanders and their own apprehensions to make it ugly and they fall a reproaching and tearing and run upon them like a company of wilde beasts And
things not seen so that the work of faith is there seen Whosoever speaks of the reward that is in heaven if the glory of the world be not darkned in their eyes it argues there is no true saving faith A second difference is a gracious heart looks upon the reward by some experimental sweet and good that he findes in himself as the beginning of that eternal good he expects whereas others look upon the reward as a thing onely to come unto them hereafter He reads in the word and hears Preachers say so and so he can speak of them but it is not from any experimental sweetness that he findes of the beginning of eternal life wrought in him That place is very remarkable for this in Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Other men may know in others in books that there is a reward but a gracious heart knows in himself by that experimental sweetness of the beginning of eternal life that he findes in himself A third difference is The eye that a gracious heart hath unto the recompence of reward is a fixed eye a setled constant eye Another man that is an hypocrite may have a flash of lightning even from heaven it self that may discover something unto him of the glorious condition of the people of God as Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was more then natural I may call it a supernatural work that was upon Balaam yet not saving and gracious It appeared not to be saving because it had not a saving power went with it and it was not constant and so many hypocrites that are unfound when they have enlargement in prayer they may have some flashes of lightning let into their hearts they may have some glimmerings of the glorious things of heaven and as the Holy Ghost speaks in Heb. 6. 5. they may have a taste of the powers of the world to come but a gracious heart hath it not as a flash of lightning but as a constant light that is set up in his soul and as that light which does transform his spirit into light and makes him to be a childe of light Fourthly there is a great deal of difference in this the eye that a gracious heart hath is truly spiritual the other is but carnal A spiritual eye what is that that is he looks at the reward as a spiritual thing a carnal heart looks at it carnally O the flashes of joy to have a crown and a kingdom but a spiritual heart looks at the reward spiritually time is coming when I shall be wholly free from the body of sin and death time is coming when as the image of God shall be made perfect in my soul time is coming when I shall behold the blessed face of God and live to the praise of that blessed God without any intermission joyning with those blessed creatures that are eternally blessing God Now the heart that looks at it thus spiritually and looks at the top of it to be a spiritual good such an one sees the reward after another maner then any carnal heart doth The last difference is the eye of the gracious heart is a believing eye such an eye as he looks upon the glorious and blessed things of heaven as the things that his soul hath an interest in as the things wherein his riches and happiness does consist another may look upon them as glorious things that may be desired but for an eye to be fixed upon the promise so as to be content to venture all upon the bare word of God for such great things so as to count his riches to consist in these things that he hath but a bare word for such a believing eye as this is not the eye of a carnal heart CHAP. XLI What is this recompence of reward NOw the third thing that we are to come to is to shew what this reward is we can but give you a little glimpse of it Whatsoever will be said it will rather even darken it then otherwise in regard of the wonderful excellency of it all the stars in heaven if they were all Suns they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known but yet because the Lord hath been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course having respect with a discerning experimental spiritual fixed believing eye unto the glorious recompence of reward First take all the beauty excellency the sweet and good that there is in all the world if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good in all creature in this world and all to be communicated to one man yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed Secondly this reward certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it Great things are spoken in the word but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed then is yet revealed in all the Book of God Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And therefore in 2 Thess 1. 10. it is said Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Now the cause of admiration it is the sight of something more then was known before that was not thought of and was not understood even then at the first coming of Christ he shall appear in so much glory as he shall be admired as if the Saints should say We heard much concerning Christ and his glory but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ as now we finde and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ Thirdly all those consolations those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of Fourthly then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter As the infant in the womb knows not what the light the glory and beauty of the world is so we while we are in this darkness know little of the beauty and glory of heaven St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it says It is
the highest things that a body can be in without any weariness Thirdly there must be a great deal of power to be able to bear the weight of glory that shall be put upon them 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory such a weight as certainly if the body were not by the power of God upheld it were impossible it should bear it here we finde when there is great joy in the heart the body is not able to bear it but then there shall be a power to bear the weight of glory they shall have And the last is that which I finde expressed in Luther namely The bodies of the Saints shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains in the world like a Ball. And I finde it in an expression of Anselem It shall be such power as they shall be able to shake the whole earth at their pleasure and we cannot think this incredible upon that ground that was named before there is not so much difference between the raising a thing from the lowest degree of power to the highest possibility as in raising a thing from nothing to the lowest degree of power Suppose a creature had but so much power now as to stir the least mote that is in the Sun to raise this power so high as to stir the whole earth does not require so much power as to make a thing out of nothing and if God do intend to manifest his power in glorifying the Saints and in making of them powerful why should we not think that God will extend that possibility of power that is in the body to that heighth certainly glorious shall be the power of the bodies of the Saints and that is the third thing Fourthly it is sowen a natural body and it shall be raised a spiritual body not that it shall be turned into a spirit It shall remain a body but the spiritualness consists in three particulars First that it shall be in a spiritual condition they shall have no more need of meat or drink or clothes or marriage or the like that now the body stands in need of the Angels themselves shall have as much need of meat and drink and clothes as their bodies shall so says Christ They shall not be married nor given in marriage but they shall be as the Angels in Heaven Secondly the spiritualness of the body consists in the absolute subjection of the body to the spirit as to be fully and absolutely serviceable to the spirits of the Saints which here they are not Here many times is a strife between the spirit and the flesh the spirit is willing when the flesh is not but then there shall be an absolute subjection of the body to the spirit As here the spirit of a carnal man is called flesh because his soul is serviceable to the flesh to make provision for the sins of the flesh his soul is counted carnal the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God As the soul now is as it were carnal because it is serviceable to the flesh so the body shall be spiritual because it shall be serviceable to the spirit for you to have such a body as to be serviceable to your souls as you would desire it were a great blessing time will come when it shall be so Thirdly the spiritualness of the body consists in the agility of the body the ability it shall have to move up and down which way it will and that suddenly they shall move in the Heavens as the birds do in the ayr I remember an expression that Luther hath that the body shall move up and down like a thought And Augustine saith They shall move to any place they will as soon as they will These words we do not finde in Scripture but lay this for a ground that whatsoever we can expect for the excellency of a body it is that we speak of or beyond it and then we have a great deal of liberty to invent what expressions we can for our comfort certainly there shall be that happiness of the body that shall come to that we speak of or to more Fourthly some make the spiritualness of the body to consist in the transparency of it Aquinas says It shall be so clear and transparent that all the veins and humors and nerves and bowels shall be seen as in a glass Now brethren the reasons why God will reward the Saints in this part are First because humane bodies as well as humane souls have an hypostatical union with the second person of the Trinity and therefore God rejoyces to raise humane bodies as well as humane souls unto happiness Secondly Christ suffered so much in his body therefore God will glorifie the bodies of the Saints Thirdly our bodies are part of the members of Christ our bodies are joyned in a mystical union with Jesus Christ Fourthly our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost and God will glorifie his own temples Fifthly our bodies are in part sanctified as well as our souls and therefore shall also be glorified Lastly our bodies shall be glorified for the further terror and confusion of the damned because they in their bodies shall see the glory of the Saints and be confounded Here you see a way to get your bodies in a blessed condition here is a stir for clothing of our bodies but there shall be a cloathing with immortality you that have sickly and weak bodies remember this you shall one day receive your bodies in another maner then you have them now Eusebius tels us of one of the children of the Macchabees that were put to death for the profession of the truth when they cut off his members says he I have received these from Heaven and now I do give them unto the God of Heaven and I hope I shall have them again Let us be willing to put our bodies to pain if our bodies suffer hunger or thirst or nakedness or be tyred or suffer Imprisonment or any violence be offered to our bodies in the cause of God What great matter is it we shall receive our bodies in another maner The overcoming of the flesh is the destruction of it but the overcoming the flesh is the glory of it When we speak of the happiness of our souls we are not so capable of it but when we speak of the happiness of our bodies we are sensible of that Now certainly there shall be much more for our bodies here is a way to provide for your bodies Lay up provision for your flesh is spoken as an argument of a carnal heart in Rom. 13. 14. the Apostle exhorts them not to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but there is a way of laying up provision for the flesh that is lawful and that this day I exhort
to give all things to us richly to enjoy 1 Tim. 6. 17. There is no creature can give us to enjoy another another may give a man such and such things in which may be comfort but he cannot give him comfort in the thing it must be God that must give to enjoy no creature can properly give the enjoyment of another because though it gives the thing it cannot give the comfort with it but God gives the thing and he gives the comfort with it and so a man is said to enjoy it Fourthly it is such an enjoyment as the having of it does perfect that which does enjoy it and by that we shall understand the difference between other creatures attaining to their end and the rational creature attaining his end the other creatures when they attain their end they perish so as they cannot be said to enjoy their end the plants and beasts that God hath made for the use of man when man comes to have the use of them then they come to have their end but they do not enjoy their end because in having their end they are destroyed but the rational creature when he comes to have his end then he comes to have the highest perfection and so he may be said to enjoy it because when he comes to have his end he is made the more perfect so take these four together and you may know what I mean by fruition of God and that is the fifth particular 6. The sixth particular in having God to be their portion is the Rest that the foul hath in God The term of all motion is rest every thing that moves moves that it may have rest Now here in this world the creature is altogether in motion and especially man because he is not here in his proper place every thing moves to its center till it comes to its place Psal 38. 10. My heart panteth the word in the Original signifies such a kinde of motion running up and down as Merchants run up and down from one Countrey to another and it is observable there is the two last radical letters double and that is to note That it is more then an ordinary stirring and motion of the spirit because it is not come to its rest but when the foul comes to the term unto which it moves then it comes to have rest God hath let out good things to other creatures and they never return back again directly to him but the good that God lets out to mankinde and to his people it returns back again to God The Saints are made by God and they come and return to the first fountain from whence they came whereas other creatures do not As the wicked they come from God but do not return to God again as their rest And therefore it is an expression of Jeremy Those that seek onely after the satisfying of their senses they go out from God like unto rivers that run from the fountain but there is no regress of them they do not return back again but the godly come from God and have their returns back again unto God unto their fountain there to rest and to have their happiness Psal 12. 9. The wicked walk on every side the wicked move up and down in a circle but never unto the center onely keep their round from one creature to another but never have any direct motion unto God to come to him as their center and so to finde true rest in him Return O my soul unto thy rest Psal 116. 7. The word translated Rest is in the plural number Return O my soul unto thy rests God is the rest of the souls of the Saints Rest and glory seldom meets in this world they who are in glory have not the quietest life and they who have most rest are furthest off from being glorious Issachars condition likes some Gen. 49. 14. Rest was good to him though under burthens and if a man will have a name amongst the great ones of the earth farewel rest but in heaven rest and glory do both happily and perfectly meet together The Rabbies have a note from the name Jehovah that all the letters of that name are quiescentes and they say There is a mystery in it to shew that all our rest is in God Some creatures God hath made so as there is no other good they are capable of but to continue in their beings and therefore they onely seek for their place and no more and there they rest as the Fire and Ayr and the Earth these creatures have no other good but to continue in their beings and you shall observe if they be out of their places with what violence will they move to their proper place As if there be fire or ayr got into the earth it causeth earthquakes it moves there with that violence that it shakes the whole earth that it may come to its proper place because it hath no other good but that Then I would reason thus If those creatures that have no other good but onely to be in their proper place if they be out to get that good shall move with such violence then considering what a good mans soul is capable of if he have not obtained that good with what violence should he move how should the kingdom of heaven suffer violence how should we work toward God who is our proper place and center in whom is so much good But there are other creatures that have an higher good then being in their place as the plants have a Vegetative place and therefore they grow to it and if they have attained that there they rest then the sensitive creature hath an higher good and that moves till it hath got its end namely to all things that are agreeable to sense and they go no further The rational creature looks to that which is suitable to reason And where there is grace grace looks to attain that which is the proper perfection of the life of grace and there it rests and never else Therefore it is the expression of an Ancient O Lord thou hast made us for thee and our hearts are unquiet till they come to enjoy thee and when the soul comes to rest in God that is glorious and that is the Saints happiness to attain the end of their motion and the more glorious is the rest when the end is attained and the glory of the end may be discovered much by the glory of the means that tend to it As if a man will bestow a great deal of Cost and Charges to get his Health then he accounts health worth all those charges and the greater charges are laid out for health argues his greater esteem of it and so if a man be at great charge about a Voyage it is because he accounts much of the excellency of the end of his Voyage and if this be so how excellent is the end of Gods people if we consider the most glorious
exercised in holy duties with others it is good to consider of their weakness whether they be able to hold out and joyn with us but there we shall not need fear weariness in our selves or any others Again we shall see nothing else done by no body else Here we get together and sing and pray and hear the Word and this is comfortable but we see the Sabbath broken by others and that damps our hearts but there is a Sabbath coming shall be so kept as we shall see none break it but every one we have to deal withal shall keep it But yet by the way it is better in a place where it is not altogether so well kept and is in a rising way then in a place where it is better kept for the present but is in a declining way but though it be a grief to us to see the Sabbath broken yet know there is a Sabbath coming that we shall keep and none shall break it Again the happiness of the Sabbath consists in this to keep this Sabbath in these high exercises when so many thousands shall be yelling and roaring under the wrath of an infinite God they shall consider we are now in the presence of God keeping a Sabbath unto him as the children of the Bride-chamber singing songs of triumph to him that sits upon the throne for ever whereas others are cast out from God and are roaring and yelling under the burthen of the wrath of an infinite God and that might have been our portion This addes to the glory of the Saints and therefore the Scripture hath this expression Without shall be dogs That expression is taken from the maner of the Iews marriages usually they were in the night and the Bridegroom and his Bride and their company were taken in with torches and delight into the Bride-chamber others were without without light not taken into the chamber so in Heaven some shall be taken to be exercised in these glorious things and others are cast out as would it not adde much to ones happiness to think thus with ones self I am now going into a place where I shall have abundance of mirth and joy with my friends and others in the mean time lie in the cold starving in the dungeon and I might have been there as well as they if a man should go along with the King in triumph and be at the right hand of the King in glory and as he goes by he should hear a company of poor wretches out of a dungeon crying yelling this sets out his glory so to be at that time thus exercised in those heavenly employments when as others shall be cursing themselves and the time that they were born and blaspheme the name of God it is a comfort to a company of gracious hearts when they are got together in holy exercises to think there are others in the Tavern drinking and swilling and blaspheming what difference is between our condition this day and their condition this does mightily refresh ones heart and enlarge it to praise God for his mercy and so in Heaven the Saints shall know every instant when they are keeping this Sabbath others are howling under the wrath of God and cursing the time they were born Lastly this Sabbath is to be kept in our Fathers house we shall not sing the songs of Zion in a strange Land but in our Fathers house Those godly persons in the times of the Maccabees accounted themselves happy that they might worship and serve God though in the Dens and Caves of the Earth it will be more happiness to serve God in Heaven and in our Fathers House I remember I read of one Marcellus a godly man being cast into a stinking place he did make that his Temple to God and perfumed it with his prayers and after the Christians built a Temple in that place and so we may make a filthy dungeon a Temple but if it be comfortable to be exercised in holy duties in the most filthy and vile places much more comfortable shall it be when we come to Heaven in our Fathers house In Rev. 15. we read of those that sung the song of Moses they stood upon the sea of glass mingled with fire to sing the song of Moses though it be upon the sea of glass this uncertain life of ours full of trouble it is comfortable but to sing it in our Fathers house will be comfortable indeed though we do meet with troubles here yet if we can enjoy the Sabbath we comfort our selves but we shall have a better Sabbath then these even a perpetual Sabbath in our Fathers house put these together and you shall see what this perpetual Sabbath is that Gods people shall have in heaven Now put all together that we have said negatively comparatively and positively the perfection of their natures their bodies and souls and whole persons their glory at the day of judgement their possession of heaven their having God to be their portion their communion with Christ their communion with the Angels and Saints and this perpetual Sabbath that they shall keep and do but apprehend what infinite joy must flow from all these these are as the several streams of this Paradise of God In Gen. 2. we read of Paradise that God made for Adam and there were four streams that were to water it this Paradise of Heaven have these seven streams to water it to make the Saints happy do but consider what infinite joy must flow from all these put together every one does cause joy but put them all together and the joy that comes from hence is a most pure joy and a most spiritual joy and a full joy and a divine joy First pure that is not onely free from any mixture of sorrow but without any thing that should sully it without any sin Here all our pleasures are mixed And spiritual If it were to rejoyce in the good that our bodies shall have it were admirable joy but the joy shall not be so much in regard of the happiness of our bodies but in regard that God is our portion it shall be spiritual yea the happiness of our bodies shall be spiritual and supernatural And it shall be full How full must it needs be they shall enter into their joy because the joy cannot enter into them We rejoyce in believing with joy unspeakable and glorious If the seed time be so glorious how glorious will the harvest be says Cyprian They shall not taste but they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house The fatness of Gods house in the world does abundantly satisfie the souls of Gods people but the fatness of Gods house hereafter how will that satisfie them The people of God shall have such objects to rejoyce in as is the essential glory of God and all the glory that is put upon him by all his creatures and all the good they have by Gods
to have the things of this world for their portion it argues you have low thoughts of an immortal soul you know not what an immortal soul is capable of who can think your selves satisfied in any creature You have but low thoughts of God are there no richer treasures in God then onely a few outward delights meat and drink and sports here Hath God nothing else to communicate to the creature what mean thoughts hast thou of Christ and of all the purchase of the blood of Christ What hath Christ come and laid down his blood to purchase nothing but this to have content in the creature Certainly the God of this world hath blinded thine eyes that thou shouldst not see into the glorious things of eternal life that are in the Gospel and in the Word How many would frame to themselves a kinde of Heaven here an imaginary Heaven As I have read of a King of Persia that he would have an imaginary Heaven and therefore he made a brave Palace and in the top he made the heavens and painted Sun Moon and Stars and underneath Clouds that with Art moved up and down and distilled rain and made thunder and he had a brave Throne glistering above those clouds this might be sufficient for a Heathen and yet how many Christians are guilty of this to imagine Heaven to themselves If they had but this and this that were Heaven Certainly thou wilt finde the loss of these things a hell if there were no pain but know thou canst not lose Heaven but thou must of necessity be plunged into hell you cannot lose all this glory but you must of necessity be under that misery which is contrary to this glory whosoever loses the one though that be ill enough he must be under the misery of the other And know whatsoever thy heart is set upon in this world if it be not in order to this reward it is cursed to thee for the blessing of all comfort does consist in order to this last end O that men were throughly principled in this one principle namely That the good of all things in the world consists in the subordination they have unto the highest and last end for which they were made Now whatsoever a man hath if there be not a subordination of it unto the last end it is all cursed O know thy folly that hast sought to satisfie thy self in the things of the world Know thy folly that thou hast in this like a Swine sought to take contentment in swill and husks when as you hear there is bread enough in your Fathers house Mark what the Psalmist says in Psal 4. 3. How long will you turn my glory into shame how long will you love vanity and seek after lyes By your loving vanity and seeking after lyes you turn the glory of God into shame so all carnal hearts that seek for their portion in this world put a shame upon all that glory that God hath opened to you in this recompence of reward O be not guilty of this when as you have heard of these glorious things in the recompence of reward do not you cast shame and filth upon them as if they were all imaginations Know those things that you esteem to be real and substantial are vanities and imaginations and all substances and realities are in this recompence of reward Fourthly if there be such a glorious recompence of reward for the Saints those also are to be rebuked who seem to go on in those ways that might bring this reward and yet through the wickedness of their hearts do deprive themselves of this reward and these are hypocrites There are three sorts of these First such as though they go on in the hearts same ways that Gods people go in yet there are so base and vile therein as they seek no greater things in them then their own base ends and so lose all Secondly such as go on in the ways that tend to this reward and yet perish at last for some one base lust Thirdly such as go on in those ways and are in a good forwardness and yet prove to be Apostates and so lose all their labor and all their reward First such as go on in the ways that lead to this reward the ways of Religion and godliness they do the same things that Gods people do for this reward but onely this their ends are different they pray as much hear as much and receive Sacraments make a great profession in Religion and their hearts seem to be mightily up in duty yea perhaps they suffer much in the ways of God and are resolute in the ways of godliness and yet lose all in the conclusion upon this ground because though they be in the ways that lead to this reward yet their ends are so base and low they do not look at the glorious reward in these actions but look at some under thing as to give content to men and applause of men and to be accounted some body in the place where they live and to gain some outward respect from such and such and this is the highest pitch their hearts rise unto in the duties of Religion If ever there were any sottish desperate delusion of heart this is it to undertake to do that which others do that come to enjoy all this glorious reward and though you do as much as they and take as much pains as they yet you in the conclusion miss of all and lose all upon your base ends you follow Christ as others do but a gracious heart follows Christ for Christ but you follow him only that your own mindes and wills may be satisfied it may be you know not how to live and this is that you aym at in following Christ and in prayer and in speaking of good things all that you aym at is that you may be accounted those that have parts and gifts and in giving of alms you onely look upon some low and base ends which you shall attain and this is like to be all your reward so says Christ Wo to you hypocrites you have your reward And wo indeed when this shall be said You are forward in Religion to gain to your selves such base things you shall have them says God and this is all the reward you shall have O be ashamed and confounded in your own hearts that you should perform the duties of Religion and take such pains in the ways of God that do lead to such glorious things and yet your ends are so low by having such low ends in religious duties you make Earth your throne and Heaven your footstool whereas God says Heaven is my Throne and Earth is my footstool Why should you be so cross to God in the foolish ways of your vile hearts Some there are that perform these duties to satisfie natural conscience and so they may be unsound and their consciences not accuse them but these hypocrites are the basest that
if he should say Do you know whom you serve You serve the Lord the high and mighty and glorious and infinite God and therefore you had need be fervent in spirit do that you do with all your might and power for it is for that God that will do such great things for you As David when he danced before the Ark he did it with all his might Michol not knowing his meaning scorned him in her heart but says he It was before the Lord that chose me before your Fathers house that hath bestowed such mercies upon me and will bestow more mercies and if this be to be vile I will be more vile Carnal hearts cannot endure earnestness and fervency in Gods service as the wilde beasts cannot endure fire so beastly carnal spirits cannot endure fire fervency and zeal in Gods ways but suppose they should oppose you for fervency in Gods ways you might answer them If this be to be vile I will be more vile It is for that God that hath done great things for me and that I hope to receive great things from hereafter eternally Fourthly if there be such a glorious reward be encouraged to be abundant in Gods service this is the Argument of the Apostle in 1 Cor. 15. 58. Be ye stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as you know your labor is not in vain in the Lord. By that which hath been said you may know your labor is not in vain with the Lord be abundant in service there shall not be one tear nor one sigh nor one prayer lost many say Why do you so much will not less serve The godly do not onely aym at the reward that will require abundance but they would have the heigth of the reward and therefore they think they never have done enough It is an expression of Austin If a man should serve the Lord a thousand years it would not deserve an hour of the reward in Heaven much less an eternity Though it is true the grace of the Lord is glorious and he does accept of his grace as the most glorious thing in the world yet considering what our actions are how much corruption is mingled with them it would not deserve a moment in Heaven and therefore we had need do as much as we can 2 Peter 3. 11. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what maner of persons ought ye to be in all maner of holy conversation and godliness We should be ashamed and confounded in our thoughts that we can do no more and if there should be shame in Heaven when the Saints shall see and enjoy so much there would they not be ashamed that they have done no more for that God so glorious in his bounty goodness here Fifthly if there be such a glorious recompence of reward then let us labor to be faithful with God because we have such a good Master that is so good and gracious to us Princes make account they engage the hearts of their subjects that are about them to be faithful with them by their great rewards and by keeping of them in expectation of great things The great things that God hath prepared for us do lay more engagements upon our hearts to be faithful with him Let us not be false to such a God as this is God expects we should be faithful upon this ground Isaiah 63. 7 8. There are large expressions of the goodness of the Lord unto his people and what follows Surely they are my people children that will not lye As if he should say These are a people that I expect should be satisfied with me In Psal 36. 5. there God joyns his mercy and his faithfulness both together As Gods mercies and faithfulness are joyned together so let the hope of Gods mercies to us and our faithfulness unto God be joyned together It was an argument of God unto Abraham I am God All-sufficient and I am your exceeding great reward walk before me and be upright As if he should say You need not go and shark unto any other creature you have reward enough in me therefore walk before me and be upright So by all that which God hath revealed unto you concerning this glorious reward of his people God says You need not go and seek any thing else you need not be sharking up and down after the creature Is there not enough in me to satisfie any creature living The ground why any depart from God in a way of unfaithfulness is because they have distrustful thoughts and think there is not enough to be had in God but they had need shift for themselves another way If we understand this glorious reward and our hearts close with it this temptation could not have power to draw our hearts from it Therefore God is so plentiful in the manifestation of his goodness because his people should not have any shifting thoughts there is enough in God and in the treasures of his grace to make up all Now by that which hath been said be encouraged to go on in those ways in which you have no present encouragement there are many ways in which you have no encouragement from God or men you pray and hear and perform duties and do not finde God come in that way let the reward that is to come be enough to encourage you You do many good things and men are ungrateful and will not requite them well let this quiet you There is a glorious reward to come I remember a speech of Luther That servitude to men though it be to ungrateful men does please God and God says he wil abundantly reward you for it and that should be more sweet to us then all the treasures in the world In Isa 49. 4. says the Prophet I have labored in vain I have spent my strength for nought and in vain yet truly my judgement is with the Lord and my work with my God It is a speech of Latimer speaking of Ministers that would leave their flock because they did no good says he It is very naughtily done we must look to that which God commands us and leave the issue to God Christ saith Follow me me me three times he hath it and not your own lusts let us do our own work and leave the reward with God Though it be a sweet encouragement for the Ministers of God to see something of their labor yet if they do not it is enough to make them go on in a way of obedience for the present because God commands it though there were no reward but when we do obey God and please God for the present and it shall be rewarded so gloriously hereafter let not this be any excuse We can do no good if you be convinced of a duty whether there be good or no good come of it whether there be present encouragement or not it is enough that it shall be gloriously rewarded hereafter Sixthly if there be
therefore let us consider whether our works be such as when they come to the tryal shall be found to be stubble and burn There are a great many whose works are like to burn and themselves too Many of the works of Gods people are like to burn but look too your selves for your main and principal works whether they will hold when they are examined by the rule of heaven and shall be rewarded It is nothing what your works are before men the people of God may highly esteem of your works but when they come to be examined in heaven they shall be examined strictly and unless God see a supernatural stamp upon them they will burn and therefore look to your works see whether they be supernatural in the principles in the ends and in the maner of doing of them and examine by these rules the assurance of this reward Mr. Latimer says the assurance of heaven is the sweet meats of the feast of a good conscience In great feasts there are good meats and banquets There are other dainty dishes in this feast and the assurance of heaven is the sweet meats and the banquet Now that we may have the feast of a good conscience made full let us take pains in examining whether this recompence of reward be ours if we did but apprehend this reward to be ours it would make us go on with power in our way whereas now every little thing is ready to turn us aside Again if upon examining by these arguments you finde some comfortable hope that the recompence of reward is yours what concerns you but patience to wait for it and in the mean time to live as those that shall have these things and labor to dye so First patiently to wait St. Iames says The Husbandman waits for the precious seed till the harvest come Though it be precious seed the Husbandman casts it into the earth he is not discontent because he hath not harvest next Week but he is content to let the winter the frost and snow go over it and so we must be content to have many troubles between the hope of the reward and the possession of it We must work in the vineyard of the Lord and endure the heat of the day and not expect our peny till night Mark how the Apostle would have those to walk who have the hope of heaven Rom. 2. 7. To them who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for glory and honor and immortality and eternal life Great things are to be expected and waited for If a man have a great venture at Sea that he expects some mighty profit by he is content to wait two or three years because he thinks it will make amends for all So in your way of merchandizing if a man go and buy a commodity of five or ten shillings he lays down present money but if the commodity come to a great sum of many hundred pounds he does but give something in earnest the great pay is to come many moneths after so when men will bargain with God for their obedience to have credit and esteem in the world yea those men that aspire after the greatest things in the world these are poor trifling matters and God gives them presently but because the Covenant that is between God and Christ so between Christ and us is about great matters and God intends to reward his people with glorious things eternally in the Heavens they have but the first-fruits of them for the present and they must not expect the fulness of them suddenly Great men have two kinde of Servants usually some servants that they hire by the day or the moneth or the year that they shall have so much wages and so their wages is paid them it may be every night or every week other servants have not their wages presently but that which they serve for is the expectation of some great office or living that their Lord should give to them after many years service and therefore they go on in their service though nothing come presently Here is the difference between the men of the world and others I speak of those who live the best lives who are not truly gracious they in some measure are the servants of God they do God some service onely such service as poor laboring men do that are hired in a great mans House that have their pay every week or day so you have your pay every day you have meat and drink and the comfort of the creatures but God hath other greater Servants godly people Christians and though they have not so much pay presently as wicked men have yet there are reversions and some glorious things that they expect hereafter and therefore they go on patiently though for the present they have not so much as others And you have no cause to envy others If there be two Servants in a great mans House the one sees the poor laboring man have his shilling given him shall he envy him and say I have served many years and have not had a shilling No he does not envy him because he expects some great things And so when you see the men of the world have the great things of the world do not envy them because you serve God for greater things Queen Elizabeth she envyed the milk-maid when she was in prison but if she had known what a glorious Reign she should have had for four and forty years she would not have envyed her Wait therefore patiently because the things are great and the longer you wait the greater they will be as it was the speech of the Son of an Emperor says he The longer the Cooks are preparing the meat there will be the better chear meaning The longer he staid for the Empire the greater it would be so go on in your way wait patiently the longer you wait the better it will be at the last and it is sure enough Christ is gone before to take possession and God never so wrought to make any thing sure as he hath wrought for the assuring of the good in the Covenant of grace Yet long after it and desire it In Rom. 8. 21. it is said The creature groaneth to be delivered from the bondage of corruption to come into the glorious liberty of the children of God and therefore we our selves should much more desire it and pant after that time we should cry out with David though with patience When shall I appear before God the living God CHAP. LVI Christians should live and dye as becomes heirs of such a glorious estate SEcondly learn if there be such a glorious reward to live and dye as becomes such glorious heirs this is the Exhortation of the holy Ghost unto us by St. Paul in his Epistle unto the Thessalonians As you know how we exhorted and comforted and charged every one of you that ye would walk worthy of God that hath called you unto his kingdom and glory
the life of Camillus of the Gauls that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy they inquired in what Countrey such sweet wine was and after they understood where the grape of that wine grew they would never be at rest till they got to that Countrey where such sweet and pleasant things grew I have endeavored in the opening of this point to bring unto you some of the Clusters of Canaan and some of that wine which is to be drunk in the Kingdom of Heaven now if you account it to be sweet and good let not your hearts be at rest till you come at that Countrey till you come to enjoy the sweet and good of that Countrey It is reported of one Adrianus who seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things in the cause of Christ he asked what was that which caused them to suffer such things and one of them named that Text Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what is laid up for those that love God and the naming of that Text converted him and had such an effect as made him to profess Religion and so to profess it as to be a Martyr for it You have not onely one Text named but many have been used about this argument let not all be in vain We read in Mark 10. 17. of a yong man that came running and kneeled before Christ and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life O that God would move the hearts now of some yong ones that hearing what eternal life means they may now come running to get part in it that that activity and vigor of their youth may be exercised and spent about this What may I do that I likewise may be partaker of eternal life and of these glorious and blessed truths that are here revealed You that are in a poor condition in the world that have little here here are great things for your hearts to make after here are glorious things that are as obvious for you ac for the greatest in the world you cannot expect to have great matters in the earth but here you may expect to have great matters You that are old likewise though you have not been acquainted with the excellency of the Kingdom of God now bless God that you may yet further know more concerning it If a man come to know more of an inheritance that did befal him or of any outward gain then before he is glad that he lived to that time so bless God that you may know yet more concerning eternal life before this life be at an end What is it that your hearts are set upon There are none but their hearts are set upon some good that they apprehend to be good Now what is that good Certainly there is an eminency of all good contained in this It was a charge of God unto Baruch that we read of in Jer. 45. ult Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not for I will bring evil upon all flesh and that which I have planted I will pluck up The argument runs thus Seekest thou great things for thy self in any outward matter do not seek them for I am about to bring evil upon my people the time of publique calamity is coming and doest thou seek great things for thy self But when we are about this argument the glory of the Kingdom of God Doest thou seek great things for thy self We cannot say Seek them not God would have his people seek glorious things for themselves seek them to the utmost that possibly you can So follow these things as not to be satisfied with any thing under these God would have his servants to be of such spirits as though content with the least mercies they do enjoy to acknowledge themselves unworthy of them yet not to be satisfied with the greatest things in the world for their portion What will a reprobates portion serve you Certainly the glory of the world if you had it all it were but the portion of a reprobate What will a Dogs portion satisfie you All the things of the world are but Dogs meat so the Apostle calls them in Phil. 3. I account all things in the world as dross and dung or dogs meat and will this satisfie you Is there nothing else for you to seek after First seek the Kingdom of God says Christ and the righteousness of it let that be your first endeavor Strive to enter into the strait gate though it be never so strait yet if it be the way unto life and unto these things strive to enter We have not spoken more then that is real It is a saying of one Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized that is there cannot be more said of the excellency of Christ and of Heaven then it is in its self and therefore do not think any thing that hath been spoken is an hyperbole but a real expression of some little glimpse of the glory of the recompence of reward It may be some of your hearts when you hear much of the wrath of God against sin and the dreadfulness of Gods displeasure your hearts are ready to rise and belk and these are hard things and hard sayings and who can bear them but now you have not heard so much concerning that but you have heard of the goodness of God and of the glory of God and of the riches of the grace of God and of the wonderful thoughts that God hath for the everlasting good of mankinde how do your hearts work now Shall your hearts stir when you hear Gods wrath and when you hear of Gods grace shall not your hearts stir then If God does intend good to any soul he will cause that soul to see into the reality and excellency of these things and that all things should be neglected in comparison in seeking after these Consider that God hath given unto you natures capable of these glorious things God might have made you worms or bruit beasts and there would have been an end of you presently you had not been any way capable of these things but God hath made you of such a nature such creatures as ye are capable of the highest excellency that ever any creature that God made was capable of and therefore being of such a nature of such a large extent it concerns you to seek after those things which might fill it they are not little things that can fill large capacities now mans nature an immortal soul is of a large capacity and when the time shall come that God shall discover to any soul what it was capable of how infinitely will it be confounded in it self when it shall know what poor things it sought after and minded Men live here in the world as though they were capable of no other happiness but meat and drink and clothes and
Recompence of Reward may be attained BUt what is to be done that we may attain to this glorious recompence of reward I answer Are your hearts serious in asking this question Do your souls ask this question indeed in the earnestness of them as they did Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved so as to be willing to yield to whatsoever God shall reveal If you have such a resolution know this comes from Heaven and if it be followed to purpose it will bring you to Heaven But for direction if you would make your selves partakers of this reward First consider the infinite distance that is between you and Heaven naturally That blessed Martyr Mr. Hooper though he was a gracious man yet he cryed out Lord thou art Heaven and I am hell If he cryed out so how much more may many of you whose consciences may accuse you Lord thou art heaven but I am one not onely that deserve hell but that am hell it self What ever wickedness is in hell is in every mans heart naturally when as any are cast into hell certainly hell puts no new sin into them there is but the venting of that sin which was there before and all the wickedness of mens hearts that was restrained is now let open Now look what infinite distance is between hell and all this glory and the glorious thoughts of God for the salvation of a poor creature the same difference is between this glory and that condition a man is in naturally O labor to see this and be convinced of this and work this upon your hearts what is that reward that you do deserve make your hearts truly sensible of that Secondly it concerns us much if we would not miscarry here to acquaint our selves with the mystery of the Covenant of Grace for it is upon that your eternal estate depends more then any thing else onely in the Covenant of Grace is revealed the counsels of God concerning bringing mankinde to eternal happiness and how he will bring about this glory and without some knowledge of the Covenant of Life and Grace in Christ all that can be done in the world can never bring any soul to Heaven and that soul is in a very good forwardness to eternal life that is acquainted with the Covenant of Grace Thirdly consider what is the special sin that your heart is naturally most inclined unto and you finde the corruption of your hearts vent it self most in and look to that take heed that be not your bane in the conclusion let there be a renouncing of that or else all is to no purpose all your serving of God is nothing St. Paul when he spoke concerning his running the race and attaining an incorruptible crown says I therefore so run not as uncertainly and so fight I as not one that beateth the air as if he should say I hope my labors and endeavors after Heaven and this incorruptible Crown shall not be in vain as one that beateth the air How so because I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others my self should be cast away He was afraid of that body of his wherein corruption did stir and his giving way to some bodily fleshly content that he found stirring in him should disappoint him and therefore says he I keep down my body in the Original it is I beat my body black and blew I club it down his conscience was convinced of Gods ways but he felt the flesh and body of his working in some sinful way and his conscience began so far to reflect upon himself as to think if I do not look to this body of mine I shall lose this incorruptible crown and I shall but beat the ayr therefore says he I keep under my body What shall St. Paul such a glorious Apostle so filled with the grace of God as he was have such thoughts for fear he should labor after Heaven and the incorruptible crown as one that beateth the ayr what shall become of a company of wretched creatures that do nothing but satisfie the flesh minde nothing but to give full satisfaction to the desires of the flesh every way their thoughts are after nothing else but to make provision for the flesh If you will not labor after heaven as one that beats the ayr beat down your bodies if you do not beat down your bodies there is little hope of the salvation of your souls it was St. Pauls care let it be yours Again further if you would have this recompence of reward labor to unsnarl your selves from the creature labor to get your hearts loose and untangled from whatsoever is in the world from all earthly engagements It is a speech that I have read of one Demades when the Emperor sent to his Countreymen of Athens to give him Divine honor and they were loth to yield unto it but consulted about it says he Take heed you be not so busie about heavenly matters as to lose your earthly possessions that indeed is the voyce of a carnal heart Let not me look after the high conceits of heavenly matters as to lose my earthly possessions but rather turn it the other way Take heed you be not so busie about earthly matters as to lose your heavenly possessions I have read of Antipater King of Macedonia that when one presented him a Book treating of happiness his answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no leisure you have been presented with Sermons and now with a Book treating of heavens happiness take heed that no earthly entanglements so take your heart that you should put off all with such a thought I must minde and follow my occasions let no other things take up your heads or hearts that you should have no liberty to your spirits to seek after these glorious things or at least not so to seek after them as becomes things of such a high and glorious nature as these are The Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 19. says They that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition they that set their hearts upon the creature they must have so much of the creature they drown themselves in the creature As a man when he is drowning he catcheth hold of any thing that is next him and by fastening upon that which is next him he loses fastening upon that which might save his life So those that have their hearts engaged to the creature and resolve they must have so much of the creature they are drowning in perdition and they catch hold upon that which is next them some present content and pleasure and though something be cast to deliver them they let that go We in the Gospel cast forth a line to you to help you from drowning for every man naturally is sinking in perdition but because