after by various Narcotick and stupefactive potions or by some strong enchantments and charms which are composed of a few fine-spun and Cobweb distinctions making them for a few daies insensible and laying them asleep rather than you will hazard or suffer the loss of the same for the very Religion that you profess and are denominated Christians from or for that Religion in its most pure and undefiled constitutions Consider I pray betimes how inauspicious and unhappy that tenure is like to prove to your immortal souls how certainly and infallibly it doth augurate and portend your loss of God and Heaven for ever and that the Assurance and hope that now you think you have will prove a heart-breaking cheat and be one high aggravation of your misery to eternity For if you had such an Assurance you would take joyfully with the Hebrews the spoiling of your goods for the same pure Worship of Jesus Christ You may as rationally suppose that the Sun should harden and soften the same Clay and the Fire the same Wax or any natural cause in an ordinary way of operation produce the most contrary effects in the same specifick matter as that the Assurance of a future eternal happiness and immortal glory should make some so weaned from this world and mortified to it and in so great a measure draw off their hearts and affections from it that with much facility joy they can leave and forsake it when called thereunto and yet in others it should suffer their souls to be so fast glued unto the world to adhere and stick so close to the same to be so deeply sunk into the earth and their riches and treasures to have that prevailing interest in them as if they were incorporated that though they have the same call and have the same Cause to suffer for as the propugnation and defence of Gospel-truth they will no more leave it and suffer a separation and divorce from it than they will suffer their skin to be torn from their flesh or their flesh and sinews from their bones when they can prevent it 6. Infer Sixthly That it 's not enough to take the spoiling of our goods for Christ unless it be done with joy Some mens darling lust is more pride than covetousness and therefore to keep their credit and reputation among the Professors of Religion they may run an equal hazard of their estates with others in serving and worshiping God and sometimes may actually lose as much as others yet it 's with much more inward disquietness and discomposure of mind the reminiscence of and reflection upon their losses especially if considerable is with much sadness and sorrow Their present parting with their goods puts them to much pain though they will conceal it that their honour may not be clouded But this is not acceptable to God nor approved of by him because it springs not from any prevailing love to him and his Gospel or from a predominant interest that they have in their affections The conflict is not between grace and corruption or between it and temptation but between two different lusts and the one must yield to the other which never demonstrates heart-uprightness and sincerity 7. Infer Seventhly That both the taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods or suffering for our Religion here depends upon the knowledge and hope of a reward hereafter and the possession of that reward hereafter depends when called to it upon taking joyfully the spoiling of our goods or suffering for Religion here This is likewise implyed in the Proposition The Hebrews doing the one upon the knowledge of the other supposeth a necessary connexion between them and that they were convinced effectually of this truth For who would cast away that which constitutes his happiness in this world were it not to gain a greater in another or who would make himself miserable here were it not to avoid eternal misery hereafter and had not God by an irrepealable Law and wise Sanction made the one the condition of the other If it were granted that man as he is Gods creature and hath his being from him which his subject state and and Gods absolute soveraignty and dominion over him are a resultancy from stands obliged and ought contentedly to act in pure obedience to him though he should not hereafter enjoy any unchangeable state of blessedness as a consequent reward but after he had done and suffered all that 's required by his Makers command he should perish for ever or be annihilated and reduced to nothing I say if this were granted how soon what-ever some men may talk would Religion languish and expire in the world what an allay and abatement would it be to the vigour and fervour of divine affections in the best how would it damp and stifle all readiness unto and cheerfulness in the loyal service of God and suffering for him So that if God should signifie his will that we should lose our goods and suffer imprisonment to maintain his interest and advance his glory in the world without the promise of any future happiness and so to leave us without any hope of compensation by it We should soon see a prevailing averseness and unwillingness in all to it And we should never have read that the Hebrews and such a cloud of witnesses in former Ages had done it For we find that notwithstanding both the clear revelations and sure promises of such a blessed immortality and permanent Substance in Heaven with what a paucity and inconsiderable number of men it hath any efficacy and power to command and govern their lives and be prevalently influential upon them to do but this one thing for the honour of their Creatour and Redeemer It 's true all our doing and suffering cannot merit such a compensating faelicity but yet God dealing with us as we are men and have a principle of self-preservation in us promiseth this for our great encouragnment hereunto And indeed it seems very inconsistent both with the wisdom and goodness of that Eternal Being that 's the Supreme Rector and Governour of the world and a very unlikely and inefficacious way to maintain the just honour and reputation of his Government over rational creatures to command the one without the promise of the other And yet it would be as incompitable with and disagreeing from these and other glorious Attributes of God to confer upon us and crown us with the latter without our doing of the former And to assert the contrary is a prodigious solaecism and absurdity both in divinity and right reason for it were unwarrantably to maim the Notion of God to conceive and bear in our minds an Idea of him altogether incongruous to his very Justice and Holiness Seeing in complyance herewith he must own them as Heirs of the incorruptible Inheritance in Heaven who have disowned and denyed him upon earth and have preferrd a finite before his infinite goodness and glory But let the Word of God speak fully
rest and happiness whatsoever If Divine Grace in its imperfect measures and degrees give so great and solid satisfaction to an immortal spirit that is principled with it in this world that it shall never thirst more John 4.14 neither through Necessity not for variety as one saith S. S. in his Immanuel after any other thing shall not rove and rang up and down in the world in unfixedness and suspence to seek for satisfaction and rest if such a soul never be uncertain or unsatisfied more as to its supreme object and main happiness if hereby all its restless fluctuations and aestuations all its tossings and ragings for want of a chief Good shall cease so much How sedate and calm must it be to what a complacential rest must it be brought when it 's put into the full enjoyment of this Substance which a perfection of Grace is so great a part of This is that it shall ultimately and unchangeably acquiesce in 2. It 's a Substance in Heaven This is not any visible Heaven whose influences reach our bodies and other creatures here upon earth but the Heaven that 's invisible to a corporeal eye though assisted with the help of all Mathematical Telescopes It 's the Heaven where God is most eminenntly present where there is the most conspicuous effulgency of his Glory where as it were he keeps his Imperial Court and hath his special Favourites about him Isa 66.1 Heaven is my Throne and the Earth is my foot-stool It 's that Heaven where Christ Reigneth The Angels shine in Glory and all the Saints are Crowned and Enthron'd Such a Heaven there is where God more especially dwells though in respect of the Immensity of his Essence he is present in all places and bounded or circumscribed with none and where all the Saints shall be congregated together to receive the reward of their faithful service to God and all their sufferings for him It is called in 1 King 8.27 the Heaven of Heavens the most vast expanded Heaven which environs and compasseth about all the other Heavens and is the most spacious place that ever was Created It s called therefore the Heaven of Heavens for amplification sake and to set forth the Imensity of God which it cannot contain * The Third Heaven is a simple and shining body Created immediately of God to be the Tâ—â—one of his special Presence and of the gracious manifestations of his Peâ—â—â—tions and the Habitation of the Blessed both Angels and Men. It 's called the Third Heaven in 2 Cor. 12.2 which is the * Not from its heat but from its resplendency and most pleasant light The Third Heaven we have only from the Scripture Heathenish Philosophers were ignorant of it Empyreal Heaven far above the Aereal in which the Fowls flying are called the Fowls of Heaven Mat. 6.26 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and above the Siderial in which the Lights are called Stars of Heaven Gen. 15.5 It 's that which is uppermost of all in which the Angels residing are called the Angels in Heaven Mat. 24.36 This is that then which in Scripture is called the Highest Heaven Luke 2.14 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Coelis Altissimis as Eeza translates it or rather interprets it the Highest Heavens Mat. 21.9 We have the same for it 's usual with the Greeks to put Adjectives without their Substantives as one shall find in the most elegant Authors among them Xenephon and others and this is frequent in the New Testament Mat. 10.42 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 where is understood 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 As the Heaven signifies that which is above us when it 's Local and carries in it a Notation of Altitude so this Heaven is not inferior to any but superior to all other Heavens Although God be Omnipotent and cannot be said to be in a place either Definitive as finite incorporeal Substances may or Circumscriptive as all corporeal Substances are yet seeing both according to reason and his own most sacred Revelations which are all most highly Rational though some of them be superior to our Reason there must be some peculiar place where there are most admirable ravishing Emications and beamings forth of his most bright shining Excellencies and absolute Perfection which are the great part of that Objective Glory the Angels behold and are united to and which all the Saints shall by the completion and perfection of Holiness be fitted to bear and also made capable of an union with and which is the ineffable and incomprehensible Beatifical Vision Mat. 5.8 1 John 3.2 Psal 17.15 And this place must have a Superiority to all other places which seeing it is called Heaven it must be above all other Heavens else it would hold no congruity nor sutableness to the Grandeur of his own Majesty inferior and subject to which is all other Majesty that 's but a very dark resemblance of the same We find that according to all Political order and Oeconomical disposure those persons that are of greatest Eminency and worth either by birth or discent or by true Virtue Education which doth most really nobilitate and dignify a person and Offices relating to their distinct and proper objects have still the highest places assigned them and deservedly challenge a precedency before and superiority to others And this is only Analogical unto and derivative from that God who is supereminent and likewise clearly demonstrative what is due to him as his most just Right and Prerogative Height is that which 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and by way of eminency is approprietated to God Isa 57.15 and therefore every finite created being the higher it is the more in that respect it resembles God and is denominated and accounted more excellent from thence than another creature or being of the same species and kind Hence in Scripture tall Trees and high Mountains are called Mountains of God 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. Psal 36.6 Thy Righteousness is like the great Mountains Heb. Mountains of God Psal 104.16 The Trees of the Lord are full of Sap that is the goodly and tall Trees such as the Cedars are that he immediately after speaks of The very Heathens by the light of Nature had a knowledg of this Truth so agreeable is it to the reason of Man as they did distinguish between their Gods as Majores and Minores so their greater Gods were supposed to inhabit an higher place or Court and the other to be below them And as Jupiter was their chiefest God so the highest Palace and Heaven was made proper and peculiar to him Thus he is spoken of by the Latine Poet * Ovid. lib. 1 Metamorph fab 6. Olympus by the Pâ—ets it being a very high hill was taken for Heaven vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 tanta ejus altitudine ut pedes ascendentium non possunt conspâ—ci vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quod illic oculi frigore vitiuntur vel quasi 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
mind Say within themselves this is He Whom we sometimes had in derision and in a Parable of Reproach We Fools thought his life madness and his end without honour How is He counted among the Children of God and his Portion is among the Saints Therefore we have erred from the way of Truth and the light of Righteousness hath not shined in us and the Son of understanding rose not upon us We wearied our selves in the way of wickedness and destruction yea we have gone thorow Desarts where there lay no way But as for the way of the Lord we have not known it What hath Pride profited us or what good hath Riches with our vanting brought us All those things are passed away like a shadow and as a Post that hasted by And as a Ship that passeth over the Waves of the Water which when it is gone by the trace thereof cannot be found Neither the Path way of the Keel in the Waves Or as when a Bird hath flown thorow the Air there is no token of her way to be found but the light Air being beaten with the stroke of her Wings and parted with the violent noise and motion of them is passed thorow and therein afterwards no sign where she went is to be found Or like as when an Arrow is shot at a Mark it parteth the Air which immediately cometh together again So that a Man cannot know where it went thorow Even so in like manner as soon as we were born began to draw to our end and had no sign of vertue to shew but were consumed in our own wickedness 4. The Security and safety of it It 's that which neither force nor fraud power nor policy can deprive them of the hands of violence cannot reach it it 's said to be in Heaven so 1 Pet. c. 4. to be reserved there The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies sometimes sollicitously to keep something lest it should be lost and taken away by others Matth. 23.3 John 8.55 1 John 5.18 Thus is this heavenly substance kept that it cannot be taken away by the most mortal and immortal enemies the Saints have Heaven is a place that neither humane nor Diabolical power can besiege and storm Matth. 6. v. 20. It 's never liable to violence nor spoil and in that respect stands opposed to and far surpasseth all terrene treasures Many are born and have a real right to an earthly substance but never come to possess it being either defrauded or by oppressing power most injuriously deprived of the same But this substance is obnoxious to no such thing Although many times Persecutors with prodigious voraciousness and greediness and with the greatest barbarity and ferocity swallow up as their prey the estates and all the outward comforts of Gods children Yet however in this they may rejoyce and it may be sufficient to put their pious souls into an exulting posture to consider how they have a substance in Heaven Suppose plundering Sabeans and spoiling Caldeans come to a mans house and by violence take away his Lumber stuff and some less considerable goods yet this begets scarce any discomposure of mind so long as his Jewels his Silver and Gold his principal Treasure is safe and secure So when persevering Saints are spoil'd of their earthly Goods it should produce no commotions nor disquietudes in their souls seeing their principal and chief substance their choicest treasure is in safe custody guarded by all the heavenly host and encompass'd with the omnipotent Power of God which is more for it's security than the highest and strongest walls of brass and marble Who will be dejected or drownd in sorrow to lose the streams when he hath the fountain or who will be pensive and sad to lose the Candle-light or lesser Lamps when he hath the light of the Sun the principal Lamp of Heaven 5. The delectability of it It must be a substance affording the most incomparably delicious pleasures For what delights can be wanting to a substance in Heaven which is a notation of all absolute perfection Bartons and Manors and all earthly Inheritances are highly commended and are the more valuable from their pleasant situations How pleasantly situated then must this substance and inheritance be which is in Heaven It 's neither in the pleasant plain of Jordan Gen. 13.10 nor in the Land of Goshen Gen. 47 6. nor in the Land of Canaan that overflowed with milk and honey Lev. 20.24 nor in the Garden of Eden nor in any earthly Paradise but in Heaven where the most blessed God shines forth in his Glory What then can be wanting to make it most delectable to the glorified Saints who must be the eternal inhabitants of Heaven But here let no man mistake me as if I meant Mahometan amaenities and delights which I fear too many professed Christians have corresponding and agreeing Notions with the Turks of which differs not spicifically but gradually from what they enjoy here upon earth and so make it nothing else but a plenitude of sensual pleasures or flesh-pleasing good and delights in a higher measure I might quote much out of Mahomets Alchoran to this purpose but one passage shall serve for all which is this I will cause those that have believed in God and have performed good works to enter into Gardens wherein flow many Rivers where they shall dwell eternally with most beautiful Women I will give them the shade of Paradise Pag. 52. in the Chapter of Women written at Medina Thus here and in other places also we find the Beatitude which Mahomet promiseth to the faithful keepers of his Laws is accommodated to their flesh and senses which I forbear to mention because it would be too far a digression For I intend no other but what are Intellectual and spiritual which are the noblest and sweetest Pleasures most exactly accommodated to the understanding and all the powers and capacities of an Immortal Soul The nearer the streams are to the Fountain the purer and sweeter they are In Heaven the Saints shall have all their joys or most of them immediately from the fullest fountain God himself which will make them infinitely more recreating to their minds ravishing and reviving to their souls and spirits See Mr. Baxters Saints Rest Pag. 84 85. more largely treating of this particular Their pleasures shal not be conveyed to them through any unclean Channels nor shall they in the use of means and ordinances be brought to them neither shall they have them at the first second or third hand c. as they have in this world whereby they become more mixt and less delicious but they shall be as that pure River of Water of Life clear as Crystal proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1.2 They shall see God face to face and stand continually in his presence and so their comforts must flow more immediately from himself Psal 16. In thy presence there is fulness of joy and at
Divine essence being an Arbitrary and voluntary Glass he may according to his good pleasure manifest more or less of such a visible glory to the Eyes of Saints in Heaven And why may there not be such a corporeal Vision or ocular Veiw of the Face of God in this sense seeing Jacob had it though in a lower degree because his mortal state would not bear such a sight as is proper to a state immortal upon Earth Gen. 33.30 I have seen saith he God Face to Face though it was not God's Essence that was discernable at that time yet besides that humane form and shape that God appeared in and which at first might make him think it was but a man before he left Jacob besides his solemn blessing him it 's very probable he gave some demonstration of his Divinity which it's likely was by some glorious appearance or resplendent and bright manifestation of himself so much as he was then capable of bearing to his Eye sight this made him say I have seen God Face to Face and yet my life is preserved Such a sight Moses and Aaron c had of God in the Exod. 24. v. 10. And they saw the God of Israel how by the effulgency and shining forth of some glory and brightness which was obvious to their sense by which they might perceive that God was present in an especial and extraordinary manner this appears by what follows And there was under his Feet as it were a paved work of a Saphir Stone which is a Stone of a very clear Sky colour and as it were the body of Heaven in it's clearness or in it's brightness Exod. 33.18 Moses supplicates God that he would shew him his glory shew me thy glory which is not to be understood of God's essence which no doubt he knew to be invisible but his divine glory While God was speaking with him by a sensible Voice his presence was over-shadowed with some Cloud or darkness so that this glory did not appear and therefore now he desired either the removal of the interposing Cloud or that his glory might break through it to be objected to his sense God in the 19. verse replies to this Petition thus I will make my goodness pass before thee that is I my self will pass before thee and with my self all my goodness and glory but seeing it is too much for thee to comprehend it shall therefore pass and not stay for thee to gaze upon it shall pass before or by thee that thou mayest see a shadow of it behind That which Moses was so desirous to see was the Divine glory fully manifested and displayed now God tells him that this state of defiled infirmity and mortallity was not capable of 〈◊〉 therefore God promiseth to help the imperfection and dimness of sight by the â—tion of his Ear as followeth I will proclaim my name i. e. my nature Now that Moses might know that God was not unkind to him while he denied to gratify his request he tells him plainly in the 20. v. He could not see his Face without the peril and hazard of his life And he said thou canst not see my Face which is not only to be understood of God's spiritual Majesty which is altogether invisible but likewise if not principally in this place of that brightness and glory which accompanieth his presence and that he is cloathed with as with a Garment For there shall none see me and live From these words the principal objection may be raised against any ocular views or corporeal Visions of God in Heaven For seeing in Heaven the Saints shall have their humane nature and not cease to be men how can they see any thing of him there more than here and live To which it may be replied that either such a Vision of God is not in this life but in the other that if a man would see God he must first die and then he shall see as it were face to face and so the sence of the words is this No man while he lives in a mortal condition here upon earth can see my face which interpretation I do not approve of because it contradicts other Scriptures already spoken to and explain'd without another which is That the full manifestations of my glory are too much for mans infirmity to bear and apprehend Thus for man to see me would so astonish him as to make him a dead man Rev. 1.16 17. Dan. 10.8 9. This is that glory which Moses desired to see which God tells him he was not capable of beholding as he was a meer mortal man But yet it 's clear from vers 23. that God did manifest so much of his glory to him as was sufficient for his discerning and for his desire When he saith thou shalt see my back-parts he speaks here as if he appeared in humane shape at this time who though he hid his glory from Moses his eyes as if an hand had been spread over his face to cover him while he passed before him yet was he priviledged with a glimpse of his glory coming after behind he might see him as in a shadow And it 's probable when Moses came down from Mount Sinai where he had been forty days and forty nights without food with God with a shining lustre upon his face it was from a reflexion of a divine glory and splendor upon it which he was in some considerable degree enabled and strengthened to behold Exod. 34.28 29 30. We find that in the Mount when Christ was transfigur'd Matth. 17.2.9.2 and his face and countenance irradiated with coelestial glory yet those Disciples which were with him had ocular views of it though in respect of their mortal condition they could scarce bear and endure the sparkling rayes thereof but seem to be astonished while wonderfully ravished and delighted with the same Now if the eye of God's Saints have had such glympses of Divine Glory upon earth what clearer and fuller view will they have thereof in heaven when their visible faculty and organ of sight shall be unspeakably invigorated and made a thousand degrees more pure and piercing more acute and quick than now it is And if a small beam or glympse thereof was so delectable to Peter John and James that were with Christ in the Mount that they were loath to leave it but were very desirous to take up their abode there how infinitely more pleasant and ravishing will those more open and ample manifestations of Glory be and though we cannot determine what the measures thereof will be yet we may conclude it will infinitely more surpass the most amiable and Loves-most powerful attractive objects upon earth than either the Morning or Meridian Sun that minute and little light that acts the part of an Hypocrite in a Glow-worm We may rationally suppose likewise that the sight of Christ as he is man with all the inherent coelestial qualities of his most glorious body will render heaven a place full
Scarce an Eye can come within the reach and view of it but more or less it doth attract it how much more comâ—tiâ— then must it's attractions 〈…〉 compleat in Heaven Through the corruption and depraviâ— of 〈◊〉 nature how fatal and pernic◠〈…〉 been to mankind in this lower 〈◊〉 by it's effascinations and 〈…〉 hath wofully and miserably 〈◊〉 many thousands What an 〈…〉 and Queen is she in the Wâ—ld 〈◊〉 â—iâ—ions and Soveraignty â—ding as far as there are any reason◠〈…〉 the Earth And with 〈◊〉 â—ness and great authority 〈◊〉 she command To fulfil her pleasure 〈◊〉 sometimes makes wise Men Fools couragious Men Cowards and Cowards sometimes couragious to their own destruction while their Rivals lay the Foundation of their supposed but mistaken honour in their blood Rich men she makes poor what vast Estates and Treasures hath she devoured Patrimonies Inheritances and Lordships in abundance hath she swallowed up Millions of Silver Gold and Jewels have been Sacrificed to her And all the Riches both of Land and Sea are not too much to maintain her so boundless is the cost and charges of her insolent Pride How unkind is she to and tyrannizeth over them most that are her greatest Admirers and Adorers and ruines them unmercifully and cruelly that do the greatest Homage to her How many Nobles hath she degraded and debased How many crowned Heads hath she conquered How many Kings and Princes hath she made her Servants and Vassals to Lackey after her How many flourishing Kingdomes and goodly Politick Bodies as ere the Earth bore or the Sun shined upon hath She laid waste and destroyed How many thousands hath She given to the devouring Sword the mortal Dagger and the ignominious Halter How often hath She fill'd the World with Blood or made it a Sanguineous Stage and Theatre How frequently hath She made the strictest Bonds of Nature to be broken to make her Commands to take place and her Laws to be kept inviolable by her Captives She hath made the nearest and dearest Relations cruel unto and to embrew their hands in the Blood of each other How contrary to all Justice Equity and Reason are her Edicts and yet her power is so great and absolute that but few Hero's can be found that with a daring boldness are resolute to disobey and resist them And this is the greatest mischeif of all that she doth to the world that as she hath a power to effect it so She sports and delights her self in nothing more then in brutifying and yet with their own consent which with some bewitching charm She strangly gains her Devotees and turning them into Beasts But because this is so is therefore deformity to be desired chosen and preferred before Beauty certainly no for that were to dispise and contemn one of the most excellent outward gifts of God and Nature it were to besmear and cast Dirt upon that which is the greatest glory next to Reason of humane Nature and to disparage that which is to be the smile of nature the excellency and gloss of the whole Creation yea a more dark and imperfect resemblance of God himself Let but the noble Reason of man keep it's Throne in the Soul and hold the Reins of Government over the same in its hands exercising like a King it 's Regiment over the inferiour faculties curbing and restraining a bruitish extravagant appetite and then a due and right improvement will be made of it which is to admire the wisdome and power of it's Original and Creator and to celebrate him for the same And thus shall the glorified do in Heaven they will always celebrate that infinite wisdom and omnipotent power which could cloath so many Myraids of bodies with this white Raiment that could advance Dust and Clay to such high perfection Rev. 3.4 5 7 10. How do we praise and commend a Limner when he draws but an inanimate and liveless Picture to the life when every Limb Member Muscle and Feature with all the smallest visible Parts of the original shadow are exactly represented in it we highly applaud the Wisdom and Art that shines forth in it and guided tke Pencil to the perfection of the Draught How much more shall God be prais'd and magnified by hiâ— Saints in Heaven that hath made their Bodies in some sense living and immortal Pictures of himself which hath made them fairer then the Moon which hath her spots and clearer then the Sun To know and consider their Beauty to be the effect of so many of Gods glorious attributes will makt it infinitely more delightful and ravishing Here Beauty shall do no hurt but good where the Fire and Flames of Lust shall be for ever extinguished Do we hang up Pictures in our Rooms because they are so ornamental and do they afford so much delight to the curious Eye and critical beholder when drawn most dexterously by that curious Pencil which was managed and guided with the steddy hand of some rare and most ingenious Apelles Certainly then to see constantly so many Millions of Bodies beautified by all that wisdom skill and power that is in the Creator of the Heavens and the Earth must make this Heaven where the Saints substance is a place of admirable Delectability The Firmament when most bespangled with innumerable sparkling Stars is but a dull deformed and unpleasant object in comparison of the same and could we suppose the whole Earth to be one Garden full of odoriferous beautiful Flowers yet the delectableness of their object would fall infinitely short of the other yea if all the Beauty diffused through so great a variety were concentring in one Flower yet would it not match or equalize the pulcritude of one Saints Body in Heaven Therefore as our Saviour tell us that Solomon in all his glory was not cloathed like one Lilly so all Lillies and other Flowers are not in all their glory cloathed like one Saint in Heaven We may not without good reason also conceive that the sense of Hearing shall have it's delights in Heaven as well as that of seeing For the speaking Tongue that is the glory of man above a Beast while upon Earth methinks should not be useless in Heaven and there all the Saints be Dumb Psal 16.9.57.8 * Some conceive that the Saints probably shall speak in the Hebrew Tongue Nothing hinders but that we may believe that they shall speak not only mentally in an Angelicall manner but also vocally when they please after the manner of humane Locution here though their Tongues and Voice and Language may not in all respects be there what they are here but in some inconceavable manner undergo a change likewise And the sacred Scriptures seem to affirm that there shall be audable Halelujahs and Songs of Thankfulness in Heaven which the Tongues of the Saints shall be employed to sing forth to God Re.v. 19.1 3 4 6. besides the high and constant inward Admirations and Adorations of their Souls Which things with all
and brought it forth and having obtained too great a Masterdome over the soul enfeebled and consumed with its flames Nero-like it would rip up the womb and tear out the bowels of its own Mother And under this miserable frustration and deplorable disappointment it s like an enrag'd man who when he cannot be revenged upon the person that hath highly affronted and offered great indignities to him he will tear his own hair and flesh and execute his fury upon his nearest relation or the man that is next to him But Heaven admits of no such thing for there the glorified Saints shall not yea cannot possibly love God so much as they shall be loved by him for they love him but according to their perfect finite goodness but he loves them according to his perfect infinite goodness they love him so far as they are made good and he loves them so far as he is good and therefore look how far his goodness exceeds theirs so far must his love surpass theirs When God therefore and they meet together in heaven there will be nothing but the highest endearments of love betwixt them nothing but the mutual constant actings and embracements of Love in the very bosom of God's Love shal their pure and holy souls be lodged for ever O how sweet and pleasant will that Heaven be where perfect created and perfect intreated love shall meet together were the Saints shall never doubt more whether or no they do love God sincerely that is prevalently and supremely which occasions many perplexing thoughts many inquiries into and much deep searching of their hearts here least after all their highest pretences and professions they should prove and perish as hypocrites for ever And then shall all their perplexing doubts and disquieting fears that they are not loved by God cease No such complaints as we read of in Psal 77.7 8 9. and in Psal 88.3 4 5 6 7 14 15 16. shall be heard in heaven There shall be no need of that counsel which we have in Isa 50.10 Who is there among you that feareth the Lord that obeyeth the voyce of his servants that sitteth in darkness and seeth no light let him trust in the Lord and stay himself upon his God That text shall never be preach'd upon in heaven for the comforting of drooping dejected though holy souls And as there shall be nothing but Love betwixt God and his Saints so there shall be nothing but love among themselves Peevishness and Passion Mis-judgings Mis-constuctions Hard-censures of each others Actions Quarrelling about Property too much Self-love Difference in Judgments Pride and Emulation Imbetter their Converse and breed too great an estrangedness among them here upon earth but as all these things proceed from the weakness of Christian and Brotherly Love so when that Love is perfected towards each other as well as God himself none of these things shall be found in heaven to render it a place and their society unpleasant to them We find that too often a few days or hours converse in this world makes them weary of each others company and they desire to draw of and retire though there be none of those former things to occasion it And such a Seclusion in solitude they find after converse very Recreating and delightful to them But as this ariseth from the Languidness and imperfection of their Love so when there is a Consummation of it in Heaven then a whole Eternity will not make their Fellowship ingrateful and burdensome nor their uninterrupted Converses Nauseous and glutting all desires shall then cease to Sequester themselves each from other .. And as there shall be such perfect exercises of love among all the Saints so shall there be betwixt them and the Holy Angels No doubt the love of Angels is now very strong towards the Saints which is not apprehended by them because their Nature is so little known to them But when they come to Heaven they shall have such a clear knowledge thereof that it shall strongly Elicit and powerfully draw forth their love to them again The Scriptures discovers to us the co-habitation of Angels and Saints in the same Heaven Rev. 4.8.5.8.7.9 and as they do dwell together so we may rationally suppose they converse and love together for the Soul of the Saints being of a spiritual substance they and the Angels are capable of speaking one to another that is mentally though not vocally in a heavenly spiritual manner communicating their minds notions meanings and conceptions as they see cause and as they please each to other But though we cannot absolutely and certainly determine either how Angels speak among themselves or how they and humane Souls speak each to other yet we may not in the least doubt or question the most delightful reciprocations of love and highest Carasses between them Now how pleasant is every place that is full of Love how comfortable is it to live in a Family of Love what a complacential co-habitation is that which Love is the Cementation of where it conglutinates and joyns all hearts together When conjugal Love is kept up in it's truth and strength How delightful and unwearied a converse is there betwixt Man and Wife And if uniting and knitting Love according to Psal 133.3 render all Communities and Societies so sweet how incomparably pleasant then must Heaven be which is perfumed throughout with Love where Love is most immixt and pure where the Love both of God Angels and Saints meet together Where Love is not only compleat but perpetual which shall never be shut up and buried in the depths of sorrows nor breath out its last by violent and forced separations as the Love of the nearest Friends and the dearest Relations soon-or later doth And hath Love such a vertue in it that if Friends be cast into a loathsome Prison together it can turn it into a pleasant Palace if into a dark disconsolate Dungeon it can supply the want of Light if in a Wilderness it can change it into a Paradise How can delights then be wanting in Heaven what perfection of all dilectabilities must be there where there is such a perfect plenitude and fulness of Love 5. Superlative Excellency this I have spoken to before and therefore shall not dwell long upon it now but seeing its a a substance in Heaven it must be most excellent 1. Specifically and in respect of kind This substance being in Heaven it must be distinct from any substance here upon Earth and as far as the Coelestial Bodies excel Terrestrial so far must this surpass the other And being Essentially the very glory and blessedness of God himself what can compare with it Not Gold nor Pearls nor Princes Crowns though they could be heaped up as high as the highest Mountains or could be made to reach the Sun and Stars yea the highest Heavens 2. Gradually for measure here is nothing wanting Heaven imports most absolute Perefection All earthly Substances are defective and
this thing declaring to him that he was commanded so to do by the Bishop To whom the Minister replies come and I will shew thee how I live Look into this Pot and see a piece of good Beef boyling go and tell the Bishop I live by eating such good Beef Whether the Non-Conformists have more or less blessed be the Self-sufficient and All-sufficient Jehovah that they stand not to the mercies of their Enemies for their present sustenance and comforts Let his Name be magnified and celebrated for ever Let Heaven and Earth be filled with his Praises Let sacrifices of thanksgiving be continually offer'd up and songs of the highest gratitude and thankfulness continually poured forth unto him that they are not necessitated to beg their bread from door to door and especially at the doors of their Enemies some whereof have heretofore begg'd their bread at theirs and are not complaining and crying out for want of bread and no friends to supply them with it I do not doubt but the same Principle of Religion which at first when they could have no rational prospect of a livelihood and subsistance in the world obliged them unto and engag'd them in the way of Non-Conformity doth still as another soul act the Generality of them unto perpetual and constantly progressive Motions a steady and resolute perseverance therein and produce an invincible and inflexible non-compliance with till they see better grounds and clearer reason for the contrary than yet they have done an apprehended error and evil All the Non-conforming Party are not men of sneaking and sordid Spirits some are as highly and truly generous and noble as those that do most debase and vilifie them and it 's very irksome and ingrateful unto such to live after an Eleemosynary manner dependently upon others which too frequently prostitutes and exposeth them to a contemptuous and slighting carriage of some even among their own Party very unbecoming and unsuitable to the notions of their Function which God never appointed to be either constituted or supported by riches or to be built upon some lofty though quickly deprest and level'd Mountain and Pyramid of worldly dignities and Grandeurs or the highest coacervation of any earthly fading Glories I know the Consideration of this hath been more a temptation to some of them to conform than all their other sufferings or any avaritious greedy desire to accumulate and heap up these lower perishing Treasures but the consideration of their auty to God the fear of displeasing and dishonoring him the resignation of their Wills not onely to his preceptive but providential Will to be disposed of by him and provided for in such a way as he in his infinite and unerring Wisdom thinks best and fittest for them hath efficaciously attemper'd and fram'd their spirits hereto and wrought a complacential acquicscence in the same whereby they still conquer the Temptation But to close up this Discourse which I suppose is not pleasing to the Palate nor grateful to the Gusto of every one would we be satisfied with some rational account how these Non-conformists came with so much Promptitude and Readiness with so much Alacrity and Cheerfulness to forsake their Benefices and present Livelyhoods when Sense and carnal Reason could make no discovery of and way wherein they should be provided for I shall only briefly offer this that as they were men that had Preacht up frequently and zealously prest and urg'd others to live by Faith a life so vilysied and contemn'd by and unknown as to its excellency and usefulness unto many yea the far greatest part of the World so that they would hereby give a clear demonstration that they could live upon their own Doctrine that they were no strangers to this most sweet and sure and noble conquering life That they have their own souls principled with that faith which is The Substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen That they can fixedly depend upon and confidently trust the infinitely who knows how the Almighty and All-sufficient who can and is able the most merciful and faithful God who will certainly take care of and provide for them By this Faith can they suck in the exuberant sweetness of his most precious promises And would you farther know how they came to find so many bountiful Friends and Benefactors I may tell you one reason is Gods blessing his Word and Doctrine which they Preach making it take place in the hearts of so many which begets a fervent and pure love towards them and likewise His Truth which obligeth him so eminently to fulfil that Promise which is worth more than all the Crowns and Kingdoms in the world Mat. 19.29 with many others that are their choisest and chiefest Cordials as Psal 3 â—â— 19 34. Psal 33.18 19. Job 5.22 At destruction and famine shalt thou laugh Heb. 13.5 for he said I will never leave thee nor forsake thee Now I hope that you to whom I Dedicate this Discourse many of you being a poor and an afflicted people as the Prophet speaketh Zeph. 3.12 as you will rejoyce in the spoiling of your Goods from the consideration of this excellent Heavenly Substance so you will live above and not be discouraged with the opprobries and obloquies the insolencies and insultations of all your Enemies That whatever be their most conâ—itiating language dirty detractations dishonorable reflexions scornful disdainful conculcations of your Good Name you will not value them How little should Rhetorical Railery the Extracts and Quintescence of Billinsgate trash and trumpery the froth and foam of the black-soul-mouth'd Female Scolds there suckt in and spew'd up again with all the envenom'd Darts of Apostatical Malice the best Ornaments of many Books the Authors whereof are the Degenerate Off springs of pious Parents signifie to those who have the lively hope of this Substance in the possession whereof they shall be Crowned with immortal Honour Possibly after your present sufferings you may have a Calm a lucid Interval some Sun shine some intermission of your pains and grievances But though this should be so yet look and prepare for Storms and Tempests black and dismaying clouds and darkness a return with double rage and fury of your Torments You have not yet resisted unto bloud for Truth God grant both you and I by this Better and Enduring Substance may be so fortifyed and encouraged to be faithful to the Death that according to Gods Promise Rev. 2.10 we may by him have given to us the ever-flowrishing and flourishing Crown of Life for which I bow my knees unto the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ Farewel ERRATA PAge 2. line 15. read Emolument p. 3. l. 22. r. So in p. 4. l. 14. dele be p. 7. l. 15. r. as to p. 14. l. 4. r. Intellects p. 15. l. 10. r. fabricated l. 14. r. done it p. 16. l. 20. r. make them p. 22. l. 17. r. and pass p. 24. l. 30. 40. p. 25.
their bruitish flesh and gratifie their senses while they neglect are unconcern'd and insolicitous for the happiness of their immortal spirits they indeed eagerly pursue shadows that fly from them and fly from a real substance even the supream good that doth pursue them and would gladly be elected and chosen by them But Heaven-born-souls have not their reason so debilitated and dethron'd nor can be guilty of such monstrous madness and prodigious folly Those that are divinely illuminated cannot ly under such gross mistakes concerning their true and adaequate happiness or conceive false and delusive Idea's of the same 2. Comparatively a better Substance As always good either real or apparent is the object of a mans love desire and choice so it is an apprehended at least if not a certainly known Meliority of good either under a specifick or gradual consideration that induceth and prevails with us to choose it before another and to shew our preference of it by parting with the other in corrivalship for the same When two good things are judged exactly to be equal and a preponderation when they are weighed in the ballance of our judgments can be ascribed to neither of them then the same right reason that doth dictate to us at first and bring us under its regal and powerful commands to choose good before evil tells us likewise it 's as good and convenient for us to keep and adhere to what we are for present in possession of as to part with it for that which doth no way excel or can challeng a superiority to it Had not then these goods that the Hebrews suffered a rapacious direption and plundering of beâ—n inferior to this heavenly Substance they might justly and deservedly been stigmatized and branded eternally with the most infamous folly Yea and had not the latter as far surmounted and surpassed the former as the bright and beautiful heavens do the dull-complexion'd and melancholy-look'd earth with all opacous terrestrial bodies they might with good reason have been made the objects of all mens scorn derision for what wise man will leave his present Substance and Comfort in his Native Country for any in a forreign and far remote one unless there be a very great disproportion betwixt them as to all excellency and worth and it be very much for his advantage But saith the Text they knew they had a better Substance 3. Locally by an an Hypotyposis is this substance described it 's in the Heavens that we may know certainly where it is and what its matchless worth and excellency is When our Saviour would recommend to our choice the best Treasure that we are capable of possessing he tells us it 's in Heaven Mat. 6.20 and these intense desires of the Soul are rightly terminated when the supream object thereof is a Country that 's heavenly Heb. 11.16 of which more hereafter This likewise highly commends their wisdom that they would let go and part with terrene treasures for heavenly and indeed no man is truly wise but he that doth it Mat. 13.45 46. saith Piscator upon the very words in the text to this very purpose Quibus verbis simul eorum sapientiam collaudat ut qui majoris boni consequendi causa aequo animo jacturam fecerint minoris Etenim bona coelestia terrenis longe potiora sunt Men that embrace and are most strongly tenacious of an earthly substance when they should with disdain and contempt cast it away for the heavenly make themselves no wiser than Ixion who according to the Poetical fiction instead of formose and beautiful Juno embrac'd and hugg'd a deformed and ill-favoured Cloud And discover no more true wisdom than Children whose Reason moves but in the lowest Sphere while they prefer some Pebble-stones or Painted-glass before the most bright Orient Pearls the richest Jewels and purest Gold 4. By a most noble and peculiar Property enduring or abiding Such is the quality of this Celestial Substance that this is an adjunct inseparable from it which is farther demonstrated what a highly rational Act this of the Hebrews was This 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 must be understood of a constant eternal duration of the immercessibility and never-fading nature of this Substance not being subject to moth nor rust nor thieves nor hands of violence nor any such consuming devouring and wasting things It 's a Substance from its own Nature and essential constitution incapable of corruption it 's always flouring and flourishing it 's verdure and greenness never fades It 's enduring is to everlasting life like the me at that our Saviour speaks of in John 6.27 It 's the same with the Crown of life Rev. 2.10 the incorruptible inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 the house not made with hands eternally in the heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 the City that hath foundations whose builder and maker is God Heb. 11.16 This stands opposed to those other goods which they lost and all earthly goods whatsoever that are fluxous and evanid that have a mortal dying nature and disposition in them and which the worm of vanity doth so quickly wear and wast away 3. The Assurance that they had of a right and title to this Object to this better and permanent heavenly Substance Knowing in your selves that you have c. It 's not knowing simply and speculatively that there was such a Substance but knowing in themselves that they had it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which the Dutch Annot Translate more exactly knowing that you have in your selves that is to say in the hope which is in you Calvin with some others Translate the words only knowing that you have Scientes vos habere following some Greek Copies which have only 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the accusative case ut quisciatis vos habere Quam posteriorem lectionem secutus est vetus Latinus Interpres nec ego improbo quamvis duorum codicum Authoritate nitatur saith Beza Some Greek Copies have it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the Proposition and with this doth the Translation of Junius and Tremel seem to accord and correspond which is this Quoniam scitis quod est vobis Possessio in Coelis c. But Piscator adheres to our Greek and translates it Vt qui sciretis vos habere apud vos c. Beza in his Commentary upon the place speaks thus Neque redundat 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 id est apud vos quasi intra vos cum fide ac spe jam nunc possideamus quod in Coelis est nobis repositum Read the words what way we please and they prove some assurance that the Hebrews had a full right to this more excellent heavenly Substance But 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 aptly translated knowing in your selves or that you have in your selves carries the greatest Emphasis and more important signification in it For the production of such a triumphant joy as is here spoken of either some measure and degree of assurance that they had a right to a higher
good than that which they were deprived of was needful or hope with very great vigor and vivacity acted and exercised about this its proper object For though a more faint and languid hope of such a good I mean that hope which is heart and life purifying 1 Joh. 3.3 which is the genuine off-spring of the spirit of God and product of Divine power in the soul Rom. 15.13 efficaciously makes a soul willing to part with all outward earthly comforts patiently undergo the spoyling of all inferior worldly goods for the sake of Christ Yet I think it must be a more strong hope a hope more highly elevated plum'd and that is able upon its unwearied wings to bear up the soul that it doth possess and inhabit above all the storms of these lower Regions that can make it thus joyfully to do the same of which more hereafter Having thus opened the Text explain'd and paraphras'd a little upon every part and particular thereof I shall sum up and resolve all into one general Proposition of Divine Truth or Doctrinal Conclusion which takes in all the Terms that are in this Portion of Scripture Prop. That those who know in themselves that they have a better Substance than is here upon earth and enduring in Heaven should and will take joyfully the spoiling of their goods for the sake of the pure instituted Worship of God and Doctrine of the Gospel or if you will for that Doctrine of the Faith of Jesus Christ because the Apostle mentions that in vers 23. Hold fast the profession of your Faith which is objective and not subjective Faith that is that Doctrine of Christ and his Gospel which is to be believed which is the same that we are Commanded to contend earnestly for Jude 3. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Contend as Wrestlers and Combatants do for Victory as they were wont to strive in the Olympick Games instituted by Hercules for the honor of Jupiter The Verb being compounded hath a greater significancy in it The simple word signifieth certamina proposita qualia sunt inter Athletas sed compositio illustior est significat certare cum summo studio Aret. viz. the exerting and putting forth all our vigour and strength to hold fast this faith whatever way of suffering we be engaged in All Goods the whole World must go for it if we had it rather than part with or from it It was for this Faith and the pure Worship of Christ that these Hebrews had suffered so much already In prosecution of this Doctrine according as the parts of it lie in order 1. I shall shew what it is to know 2. What it is which we must know in our selves 3. Discourse and treat distinctly of the thing known 4. Enquire how it comes to be known 5. Discover what it is to take joyfully the spoyling of goods for such a thing when thus known 6. Apply the whole in several particulars 1. I shall shew what it is here to know Though this hath various acceptations and is of a large extensive signification in Scripture yet I shall name no more than what I conceive may be the proper sense and meaning of the Term here Seeing God hath made Man so noble a Creature and dignified him above the whole visible Creation by that intellective and rational faculty which his soul is indued with And because God hath likewise appointed the same to have the steerage conduct and government of the soul to which all other faculties must do obeysance and must follow and wait on as their Captain and Leader in so much that the will it self which is only appropriated to reasonable Nature cannot without the dictactes and informations hereof make any choice becoming a man or an immortal Soul for though it may have many appetitions inclinations and likewise aversations to good or evil I mean Physical and Natural yet are they all but sensitive if they do not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or be not in some measure according to the Rules of right Reason for this is that which makes all the volitions of the Soul laudable and honorable the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 thereof being properly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a desire upon reason or rational understanding and knowledge Hence not only in the holy Scriptures but in profane Authors this supreme faculty of the soul is put for all tho rest and expresseth the exercises of them by which the soul is capable of happiness as choosing loving desiring delighting c. and so here we must determine that it signifies more than a meer simple naked notion or speculation to make way for this real and solid joy As 1. It signifies a certain understanding such as conquers and removes all haesitatitations doubtful and fluctuating opinions it implies such an understanding that is a resultancy from a full pregnant proof and clear demonstration of the real existence and verity of the thing it self Thus to know in Scripture is sometimes to know certainly Judg. 18.5 Jer. 10.23 John 8.32 Judg. 6.37 1 King 2.42 2 King 10.10 Job 19.25 for had the Hebrews not thus known the Heavenly Substance but in the least had doubted of it they could not have rejoyced as they did They had therefore such a certain knowledg of it as did beget a true and through perswasion for that is the sense likewise of some of the former Scriptures 2. Serious Consideration when the soul is brought solidly and judiciously to weigh in it self and ponder what the nature and quality of a thing is how advantageous and beneficial or how noxious and hurtful it will be to it then it knows aright Psal 90.11 Who knows the power of thine anger Some make the meaning of it to be Who seriously considers it Hos 2.8 She did not know that I gave her Corn and Oyl and Wine and multiplyed her Silver and Gold that is she did not take it into consideration she did not allow her thoughts time enough to work upon and ponder this to oblige her to obey and fear the Lord. For of a meer nesciency or ignorance it cannot be understood So to know in the words of the text and in the proposition they afford is to be ruminating considering with the greatest composedness steddiness of mind fixedness of spirit what this Heavenly Substance is what is its intrinsick work and excellency For the more profound and deep consideration any man hath of the good he knows the more joy and comfort he receiveth from it as on the contrary the more a man considers of any evil that befalls him which he knows the more it racks and tortures his mind and causeth greater heart-piercing and breaking sorrows Had not these Hebrews been much in pondering what a full and ample reward this Substance in Heaven would be for all their losses and troubles so as to cause a reckoning or counting with the Apostle in Rom. 8.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is more than
resolves it self into the Authority and veracity of divine Revelations and Promises makes what is invisible as visible to the Soul It 's of such an evidencing Nature and property and doth so substantiate bring into a real existence that eternal felicity which is the object of the Saints hope that it hath a most powerful influence upon the Soul to abandon and forsake all visible and finite good and the highest terene Felicities and worldly Enjoyments that come in competition with the same Heb. 11.1 Now Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated substance signifies the making things so really to subsist as begets a wonderful unshaken confidence in the soul So it 's rendered in the 2 Cor. 9.4 2 Cor. 11.17 It signifies sometimes a Basis or Foondation which doth not only subsist of it self but supports upholds other things so it 's the ground and Basis of a Christians hope * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it signifies a firm Metaphora ducta a venatoribus qui feram dicuntur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 cum cam constanter expectant irrututem fortiter excipiunt and settled perswasion of the mind the most constant expectation of the Soul The sum of what it signifies is this that it makes the invisible Coelestial happiness so visible and so really to subsist before and unto the Soul that it affords most true and solid matter of confident glorying to it and makes it imperterritous and undaunted The other word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 translated eviaence signifies such evidence as results from most convincing demonstration such as gives â—mple satisfaction to the Soul resolving * That is whether there is a future happiness and reward for well-doing and suffering yea or no. all it's â—oubts and removing all â—'s fears Now seeing â—aith doth all this it 's no â—onder though the Coeâ—eâ—stial substance be invisible that the Saints â—ho have it can with triumphant Joys â—art with all their wordly comforts for the â—ke of Christ that they may enjoy the same The Apostle further shews us that things not seen are so clearly seen and lookt upon by believing that the Soul is kept from fainting and sinking under the most ponderous Pressures and mountainous loads of Troubles and the most crushing burdens of all Crosses and Calamities 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18. This made Moses to endure so resolutely and couragiously Heb. 11.27 To see what is not seen to have that visible which is invisible is a strange Paradox yea and seems to imply a gross contradiction to sensual Souls and earthly minded men It 's a mystery they cannot plum or fathome the depth of If at any time notionally or by the report of others they speak and discourse of it it 's but as a blind man doth of the beauty and brightness of Sun and Moon and Stars which is invisible to him but to believing Souls that are not immerst in sensuality and buried in the Earth but have a Spiritual Visive faculty suted and proportion'd to a Spiritual object it 's as clear a truth as any thing that 's most demonstrable in Nature Yea its more clear certain then many things are by ocular demonstration because the bodily Eye is capable of deception and hath many times a fallacy put upon it which Faith is never liable to because it depends upon the word and promise of the unerringly infallibly wise and faithful God The Enemies of pure and undefiled Religion and the divinely instituted and authorized worship of God whose Souls lye under the Dominion of their Senses and many carnal Hypocritical Professors in whose hearts Earth and not Heaven is most regnant the World and inferiour good and not God the Supream good hath the prevailing and predominant interest they wonder at the imprudence of those and highly censure and accuse them of the grossest and most ridiculous folly that will hazard and part with their Estates and Spontaneously and eligibly make themselves poor for the Gospel sake as these Hebrews did rather then to possess all Earthly Treasures without it They think them for so doing deprived of all Sense and Reason strangly insatuated or under some great delusion that calls for pity and commiseration or that too much Religion hath made them delirious For as no man in his right Wits will refuse Riches when they court him to an acceptance so they judge none but a Fool unless he be forced will part with them These men who alwayes make their Consciences subservient to their interest and are resolved to walk no further in the way to Heaven then it 's plain and smooth and may consist with the case of the Flesh and the Security of their Possessions admire and adore the depths of their own Wisdom and Prudence as they call it out of which they can draw subtil distinctions as they list to baffle theâ— own Consciences for awhile and to silence and still the clamours thereof when they do awake in this World And indeed they judge all men Fools that cannot distinguish themselves out of Heaven either to get or improve or keep an estate hereupon Earth But were this most substantial blessedness conspicable and could it be steddily beheld with their Eyes yea had they but the least transient view and smallest momentary glimps thereof they would then be astonished and confounded at their own monstrous sottishness and matchless folly to adventure the losing of the same for such an unsatisfying trifle as an earthly Estate and Treasure is and would no less admire the wisdom of true Believers in the choice which they have made But although no such view and sight they shall be honoured with neither will God take such a course to convince them of these things yet when they come into another World where this Heavenly substance shall be visible to them that they may know and feel how great their loss is when they meet with an eternal separation from the same and have their misery highly aggravated thereby then they will confess that living by Faith was the highest point of true wisdom then shall they know to their everlasting shame and sorrow that the Eye of Faith formerly despised and derided by them could penetrate and look through the thickest Clouds of miseries and the most black midnight darkness of Calamities into the highest Coelestial Regions to view that glory and blessedness which is there but to all other eyes invisible Then shall they befool themselves and form a furious Reflexion upon their former madness begin to tear and torment themselves as it is in 5. Chapter of Wisdom from Ver. 1. to 14. Then shall the Righteous stand in great boldness before the Face of such as have tormented him and taken away his labours When they see him they shall be vexed with horrible fear and shall be amazed for his wonderful deliverance And shall change their minds and sigh for grief of
thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore What sensitive Pleasures shall be in Heaven is very dubious and more Questions may be put concerning them than can be easily and readily resolved yet it 's certain external senses shall not be delighted as they are here upon earth All coitive and venereal pleasures shall cease and such as are in a grosser sense fleshly and some of the senses shall cease likewise whose Being implyeth their Use and whose Use supposeth our present state of Imperfection For seeing in Heaven the Saints Beings shall not be maintained in the use of means as eating and drinking the Taste must cease but if there continue any use of some other external senses in Heaven which must have objects to delight them they will differ vastly from what they are now in our mortal state while we dwell in these houses of clay and earthly tottering tabernacles whose foundation is in the dust Job 4.19 2 Cor. 5.1 For the change that our Bodies and so our Senses proportionably thereunto shall undergo is inconceivable and unexpressible Flesh and blood as now it is cannot be capable of an Hâ—avenly state in which sense are those words to be understood Flesh and blood cannot inherit the kingdom of God 1 Cor. 15.50 It must first be refined and made spiritual incorruptible and immortal 1 Cor. 15.52 53. Such a Qualitative though not a substantial mutation it shall undergo for at the Resurrection all the infirm qualities of the Saints bodies by which they are incapable of bearing the Majesty and Glory of God in Heaven shall be removed Phil. 3. ver 21. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est transfiguâ—are in aliam figuram sormam Converterè Cornel. a Lap. Who shall change 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which properly signifies to transfigurate shall convert them into another figure or form our vile body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 this body of vileness baseness and abjection an Hebraism which is very emphatical and very frequent in the New Testament it may supply the superlative degree for our most vile and abject body as it may be translated our body of misery and afflictions this body that all Calamities prey upon gradually consume and waste and at last resolve into the Dust for the word in this sense is used by the Sep. Gen. 29.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psa 25.18 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 2 K. 14.26 that it may be fashioned 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it may be made conformable unto like unto his glorious body 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 his body of glory another Heb. that is his most glorious or glorified body So then their Bodies shall not be those fraile diseased socord and sluggish lumps of Flesh Dirt those Bags of Phlegm that they continually carry about with them here upon Earth But as the Ore that 's cast into the Fire a Stone comes forth a very bright and pure Metal which is called Gold between which two there is an exceeding great difference so shall the Bodies of the Saints rise out of their Graves and enter Heaven with such impassibility and clarity with such agility and subtilty as is not now to be comprehended by us And if the Saints Bodies be thus changed we may rationally conclude the change of the senses shall be commensurate and equal to the same And as they shall hereby be advanc'd and their capacity and vivacity be amplified and enlarged so shall they have an happiness and delights adequate thereunto And though we know not what these senses shall be yet we call them seeing and hearing but what shall be seen and heard as beautiful and delightful that we cannot tell But certainly the pulchritude and fairness the beauty and brightness of Sun Moon and Stars and all the Lamps of Heaven with all the formose objects in the world yea could we suppose all the admired and adored beauties that have been are or shall be seen collected and united into one body or made to concenter in one person and sparkle forth in one face and whatever amiableness is diffused through the whole creation were made to meet and become all visible at one view in any one single object and our eyes dazled and over-power'd at the emission and efflux of its beams yet all would be but a very dark representation a very imperfect miserable glimmering of that bright shining Sun of immortal glory and the incomprehensiâ—le Beauty of the Face of God that the Eyes of the glorified Saints shall be strengthened to behold It 's true a full proper and immediate sight of the immense divine essence there cannot be for that being infinite cannot be comprehended by a visine faculty 1 Tim. 6.16 Col. 1.15 1 Tim. 17. which is but finite as finite objects may whose splendor doth not over power its strength and it being likewise an increated immaterial and spiritual object so it must be invisible to a corporeal Eye for it's sight being united to the object by the help of the sensible Species i. e. the similitudes or Image of the object the divine Essence cannot be visible to it because it 's impossible for a thing created to represent that which is increated as a created Species to represent an increated object or a material Species an immaterial object and to assert the contrary would be to make the divine Essence a created being for then there would be some other similitude of it something as could represent it as the proper likeness thereof This is the Reason why that clear sight of God which is called the Beatifical Vision because it makes the Seer blessed is principally intellectual and thus the Saints in glory are said to see the divine Essence according to Matt. 5.7 1 Joh. 3.1 We shall see him as he is 1 Cor. 13.12 but now we see through a Glass darkly but then Face to Face that is now we see immediately but then we shall see immediately so that the great object seen now and then is the same Psal 17.15 As for me I will behold thy Face c. Rev. 22.4 Mat. 18.10 In Heaven the Angels do always behold the Face of my Father This beatifical Vision is such a sight of God as is opposite to the sight of Faith 2 Cor. 5.7 that sight then being immediate the sight of him in the state of blessedness as the Antithesis in that respect to the other will be immediate By this shall the Soul see divine the Essence apprehensively according to it's finite created but then enlarged and perfected capacity of the understanding so as it cannot proceed further in point of knowledge concerning God or that great Question What God is But though this felicitating Vision be principally that of the Soul yet the Scripture seems to hold forth that so much of the divine glory shall beam forth to the glorified corporeal Eye to behold as such a Creature is capable of for delighting it in a most wonderful ravishing manner for the
place like ponderous bodies that stand fast with their own weight like as the great hills or mountains It s therefore 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Eternal this is the accomplished perfection of their Glory of this their substance How admirably wise then are those believing souls that will adventure and chearfully part with that substance which is measured with a few moments of time for that which is coextended with Eternity And oh what folly possesseth them and what 's their debility of reason who will not do it Having now dispatcht this third and most considerable particular in the proposition I shall proceed to the next in order as they were at first laid down to be spoken to Therefore 4. How comes this substance to be known to the Saints or how come they to know they have such a substance in Heaven Answ 1. By Divine Revelation Had not God first made it known to them it could never have been known by them but it s clearly discovered in the sacred Scriptures in the writings both of the Prophets and Apostles though more plainly and fully in the latter It s true the dim twi-light of Nature helps most men to some very low imperfect and confused Notions and obscure glimmerings of a future happiness in another world when they depart this but it can make no such discovery of an Heavenly Glory and Blessedness what it is and wherein it consists as the word of God doth The Heathens had their Elysium a place as they conceiv'd of all pleasures whither they thought the souls of all the virtuous went after death The Mahometans have their pleasant Paradise whither they believe their great Prophet Mahomet will convey the souls of all those that live agreable to his Laws but still are grosly ignorant of the true happiness in Heaven All the most profound Philosophers in the world by their most diligent and laborious investigation and seach cannot discover and find out this Mystery though they can so many rare secrets of Nature It s the Gospel that brings life and immortality to light 2 Tim. 1.10 The word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies Res ipsas occultas in lucem proferre seu reddere visibiles illuminare ipsos homines ut qui in tenebris non poterant ad presentiam Lucis ipsi etiam illustrati possint videre Zanch. That is to bring occult and hidden things into light or render them visible and to illuminate men themselves so that they who could not be seen at the presence of the light they themselves also being illustrated might see So that until the Gospel like the Sun shine unto men this immortal blessedness and eternal life is hid and kept secret and all men are in darkness and cannot possibly search and seek it out no more than a man in the darkest night can distinctly see those objects that the light of the Sun only can clearly manifest Hence till the Gospel be sent among a people they are said to fit in darkness and in the Region of the shadow of death Luke 1.79 Matth. 4.15 even deathful ignorance This is the light that springs up among those involv'd and envelop'd in dreadful darkness which they see the beatitude of Heaven by 2. By divine illumination of the Soul For any man to know this Heavenly substance it is not sufficient that there be a light without to manifest it but there must be a light within like an eye to the soul to behold it Let the Sun shine never so brightly let all Clouds be chas'd and driven away and the Heavens most serene and clear yet a man that hath no eyes can neither behold the Sun nor any objects it doth discover So let the light of the Gospel shine round about us yet unless its bright and blessed beams break into our souls for their illustration and illumination we see nothing by it And therefore as the Gospel doth enlighten the object so God must enlighten the Intellect which is the faculty the soul sees by He must give the seeing eye and actually enable to discern the illustrated object Let the Gospel be preached unto an Heathen or an Heathenish Congregation yet they will not understand what the blessedness of another world is till God in some measure shine into their souls which is the opening of the blind eyes and turning from darkness to light that the Apostle speaks of in Acts 26.18 which fully proves this truth This is the reason why so many in the Christian world who have lived many years under the preaching of the Gospel yet know so little of the life and immortality it brings to light Alas their souls are not from Heaven enlightned and though the light doth shine yet their souls are wrapt up in Clouds and darkness and that darkness cannot comprehend that light 1 Joh. 5. Every man according to the measure and degree of divine light that shines into his soul forms his Notions and conceives Idea's of the future blessedness If his light be but common or of a low degree then his Notions are less clear more languid and feeble less powerful and impressive upon the soul for its change and renovation and rise no higher or proceed no farther than some jejune and unaffectionate speculations and indeed this is the reason why we have so many speculative but so few practical Christians But when this light is more special and saving when it so irradiates the understanding that it efficatiously works on the will to cause a choice of this object and becomes transformative of the soul into the nature thereof then are its Notions profund and vigorous and produce a firm belief thereof with a frame of spirit and conversation sutable thereunto and no more than you can make a man that hath his eyes in his head and his sight clear believe that the Sun shines not at Noon-day or that he sees not Trees and Men distinct from Mountains can you make a soul thus specially enlightned believe he is under a mistake as to his future happiness or that he sees and knows not such a substantial Glory in the other world 3. By Divine Promission or the Promise of God Had not the faithful and true God promised it to them had they not the word of a God for it they could not know it should be theirs yea it were sinful presumption for such finite crawling worms and mortal defiled dust without this so much as to hope for it but they have the Promises of God those sure Rocks of Eternity to be the basis and foundation of such high expectations Tit. 1.2 In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised before the world began Rev. 2.10 Rev. 3.21 If we firmly believe a man to be just and honest when he promiseth to lend or give us so much money or leave us such an estate and treasure when he dies then we have a strong confidence that it shall be ours and say we know it shall be so So
astonished O yea Heavens at this and be horribly afraid We will grant that these men have an Heart and a Will for Religion but it 's that which is Inferiour and not Superiour to the Will and Volitions they have for the World and their Estates it 's divided between contrary objects and it 's strongest inclination is towards the more vile and base the Creature and Earth as opposed to God and Heaven the former hath plainly their chusing Will for to that do they adhere most and cleave the fastest That Will and Heart which they then pretend to have is abominated and rejected by God who will either have our actual choice and the prevailing part of our Wills or hee 'l have none and shall never stand them in steed or be the least helpful and advantageous to them at the day of Judgement to prevent their being turned into Hell with the greatest Opposers and Persecutors of Religion Rom. 10.9 10. Matt. 10.32 33. Mark 8.38 Would this serve their turn then might the grossest Sinners who live where the Gospel is preached and under the discoveries of salvation by Jesus Christ escape everlasting Condemnation because there is a willingness in all such to be saved and this willingness is much stronger in some then in others insomuch that many are willing to do many things for salvation and some to perform the whole Gospel condition but yet all their Wills are more strongly inclined towards some Lust or many Lusts and their actual choice is to please their Flesh they would have Christ and Heaven but yet they would have some inferiour good that is what they judge to be so though an evil or perhaps in it self it may be a natural good either equally with or rather then them How many Avaritious Ambitious Libidinous and Ebrious Persons are there in the Christian World who will their salvation by Christ but yet they will their particular Lust their Profits and Honors and unchast impure Pleasures and the gratifying of their sensitive Appetites with their pleasant Cups more and so notwithstanding all their Wills they eternaly perish did these men prevalently will Christ and Salvation then would they part with every thing that comes in competion therewith which is coming up to the terms and conditions thereof to take joyfully then the spoiling of our goods for the sake of Christ implies as the principal and cheif thing the strongest byass of our Wills towards Christ and Heaven for this was eligible to the Hebrews and chosen by them It was no force upon them as in time of War when without the consent of any mans will his Goods are often taken away But as it 's said of Moses Heb. 11.25 They chose this rather than to betray the Truth 2. Great Patience Patience which is the strength and power of the Soul to endure greivous things which is the breath of the Soul whereby it holds out long and perseveres in the Race of Christianity to the end To take joyfully the spoiling of our Goods this must be in more then an ordinary measure and degree in us for one that 's impatient under sufferings that frets and fumes and chases and rageth and railes at and conceives revenge against persecuting Enemies can never rejoyce when thus wronged and opprest Impatiency and such joys are inconsistent A Christian must be so patient as that the raging Sea of Passion may be ruled the Waves of wrath appeased and stilled the Surges and Billows of Fury with all inward Storms and Tumultations asswaged We must be calm sedate and composed within if we will rejoyce when we suffer for Religion Patience is of a very great use needful for the accomplishing atting of many things which concern a Christian so particularly this Joy whereby his cause is so much honoured without this he cannot obey that Law Jam. 1.2 Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations nor that in 1 Pet. 4.14 But rejoyce in as much as ye are Partakers of Christs sufferings This is one Reason among many why our Saviour exhorts Christians to possess their Souls in Patience Luke 21.19 and the Apostle in Jam. 1.3 that Patience might have her perfect work in them so in the 36. ver of this 10. of the Heb. He tells the Hebrews ye have need of Patience with many other places to the same purpose 3. Courage previous to our suffering joyfully is great boldness invincible magnanimity and mightiness of Spirit Pusillaminity which by too many is called Prudence and joyful suffering are inconsistent fear and joy are exterminative and exclusive of each other had these Hebrews been dismayed and their Hearts fainted through fear they could not have taken joyfully the spoiling of their Goods Fears and Sorrows Courage and Comforts attend upon each other and go together He that doth not live above the fear of Poverty for the Gospel sake will most dishonourably flinch when his Estate is in danger for it the loss of a little comparatively to the whole will gall and perplex him and you shall seldome find him guilty of the same Error as he counts it twice his fears still make him keep out of harms way 4. Self-denial that first Lesson which a Christian is to learn in the School of Christ and which though he be alwayes learning he 's never so perfect in as he should be Matt. 16.24 Mark 8.34 Luke 9.23 In Self-denial consists the Vital part and power of Godliness and Religion without which we can no more be sincere Christians whatever our profession may be then we can be Men without Reason and this is highly requisite yea absolutely necessary to the performing of this Act the taking joyfully the spoiling of our Goods Most Professours cannot deny themselves Superfluities Superfluity of Dishes of Diet of Meat and Drinks Superfluity of Apparel of costly Furniture for their Houses with many other things which might be enumerated and most mens Superfluities will bear and defray the expences the costs and charges of Religion much less those things that seem more necessary for the maintaining of their Lives and beings in the World but till a man be of that frame of Spirit to deny his Wealth and Riches and so be willing to be made poor for the sake of Christ which both Ministers and private Christians must do 1 Cor. 4.11 2 Cor. 6.10 Phil. 4.12 Heb. 11.37 38. they cannot perform this duty of parting with their Goods joyfully for him 5ly Contentation to be contented with any state and condition though it be never so mean and low Contentment indeed implies the two former but yet it 's something more it 's a being well pleased with our present condition a complacential acquiesce therein This must be or else a Christian cannot rejoyce to be impoverished or cheerfully undergo such losses for Religion Phil. 4.11 To do this we must learn what the Apostle there tells us he did I have saith he learned in whatsoever state I am therewith to be
content And that Doctrine of the Apostles in 1 Timoth. chap. 6. vers 8. And having food and rayment let us be therewith content 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word signifies let us have enough though we have neither delicates nor ornaments but any thing that may be called food and rayment 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Coverings any garments that will cover our nakedness and shelter us from the cold though but hair covering though but such as those Worthies had in Heb. 11.37 They wandred about in Sheep Skins and Goat Skins c. yet let us count this enough and sufficient Those that â—annot deny their sensitive appetites their flesh and senses whether outward or the fancy and imagination which deservedly comes under the same denomination their gratifications and satisfactions that cannot live without full Tables Silks and Sattins and a large confluence of more inferiour comforts and drossy pleasures whose souls are not the Cabinet where this rare Jewel of Christian Contentment is to be found will never do as the Hebrews did i. e. take joyfully the spoiling of their goods 6ly A low esteem of these worldly goods especially compared with this Heavenly Substance What a man estimates very highly it 's very ungrateful to him to part with it he cannot do it with any joy Mens value of terrene Treasures must be brought to a very low ebb and that by an exceeding high appretiation of unseen immortal treasures before they can take joyfully the spoiling the same The reason why so many Professors stick at this is because Earth out-weighs in the ballance of their esteem Heaven Those Saints that have their conversations in Heaven that are frequently taken up into the Mount of Contemplation to view and behold their most excellent Inheritance there that often revolve in their minds the cogitations and thoughts of its inestimable pleasures and delights the whole world with all its glories is no more to them when compared therewith than a drop is to the Ocean a beam to the whole body of the Sun or the smallest punct or point to the vast expanded and encompassing Heavens After they have looked upwards a while and pierced into eternity and then cast their eyes upon the things of this lower world which are admired so much by those that never beheld better they all seem to vanish and disappear as blushing and being ashamed from a consciousness of their vileness and imperfections to stand before those very mental Idea's that they have of what they have seen in the other world and become very contemptible to them It s from want of a superlative esteem of this better and abiding substance in Heaven that men reluctate so much to part with for God and Christ the vacuous and flaccescous things here upon Earth things that are so empty and therefore cannot fill things that are so transitory and therefore must leave an immortal soul 7ly The weaning of our affections from worldly good from estates and riches a considerable mortification and crucifixion to them in respect of love and desire for them and delight in them What a man intensly loves vehemently desires and abundantly delights in that he cannot joyfully part with for that is a rending of the thing from the soul which puts it to grievous pain Every mans sorrow in losing any earthly good is proportionable to the love he had for it and delight he took in it And when these affections are in excess and acted beyond those due bounds and limits that reason should and which Divine Laws have prescribed and set unto them they make their darling objects at last the most smarting Rods to correct and lash them with for their folly And sometimes they become sharp swords cruelly and deeply to wound them that had too kindly entertained them before All that violent and unbounded sorrow that we see in many when some finite good flies away from them out of sight and returns no more proceeds from the deep possession it had in the soul by a no less imperious and commanding love before This is so universally an experimented truth that it clearly demonstrates and proves another viz. That no man will or can take joyfully the spoiling of his goods till such affections be moderated towards them or in a considerable degree be withdrawn from them Could we that profess our selves Christians but follow and put in practice the Psalmists advice Psal 62.10 If riches increase set not thy heart upon them And the Apostles in Heb. 13.5 to have our conversation without covetousness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 without the love of money as that Greek word signifies and that counsel of his which we have in Colos 3.2 Set your affections upon things that are above And were we but as the Apostle was in the 6th chap. of the Galatians v. 14. crucified to the world c. had the world crucified unto us then would it be easily attainable for us to do what the Hebrews did and the present Doctrine should not be judged so impracticable or so little practised as it is Let us but close and shut our hearts against the world while we have it in our hands and then we shall neither sigh nor sob to let it go for the Gospel and the great concerns and interest of Jesus Christ But if this world be profoundly radicated and riveted in mens hearts and have the prevailing interest in their affections to speak to them to use all the swasion and counsel that we can to make them lose and leave it thus joyfully for the same is an attempt as vain as to command Mountains to remove out of their places and flie up into the Air or the Sun to forbear shining and the Sea flowing at their stated times 8ly And lastly An act of deliberate Judgment not a precipitous and rash act for that would cause repentance and sorrow for our folly afterwards Mens timerarious actions are usually erroneous and terminate in some angry or pensive reflection upon their incogitant hastiness which they find hath discommoded them So that to suffer joyfully for Christ that such joy may not be turned into sorrow after from an apprehended mistake must suppose some deep cogitancy and consideration a weighing in the judgment what the loss and gain will be thereby This therefore results from a comparison made between these two and a sober pondering judgment passed thereupon which will prevent all after repentance for the ruminating soul finding that the disproportion is so vast between what it shall lose and what it shall gain and that the former is so unworthy to be compared with the latter it shall never befool it self for suffering and learn to be wiser thereby for the future to verifie that old Proverb That bought Wit is best and that saying of the Heathen 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hesiod A fool is wise after he hath suffered When the Apostle tells the Hebrews what they had suffered and what joy they had therein he makes
it an argument why they should persevere and be constant in suffering which implies they had not declared any repentance or sorrow for their former folly Such praeconsideration there was to part with their goods for the pure Doctrine of the Gospel The reason of many mens inconstancy and instability in suffering for Christ but after perhaps they have endured a little they flinch is the want of a thorow deliberate judgment before they engage in such a sight So much those words of our Saviour import in Luke 14.26 27 28 30 31 32. But when Christians to use the Apostles words in James 1.2 Count it all joy which is an act free from all temerity and the doing this in their choicest deliberation when they shall fall into divers temptations And with the Apostle Paul 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the word is not to be referred to Opinion which is uncertain and doubtful but to assuredness certainty and is a metaphor taken from such as Casting Account find the true total summe as if he should say I have cast up the cross with all the incumbrances of it Par. in Loc. Rom. 8.8 Reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in them I say when they do this then is their joy durable and abiding a joy that suffers no ecclipse a Sun that never sets in a Sea of sorrow And such counting and reckoning there must be to take joyfully the spoiling of our goods The Application of the Doctrine thus explained The first Use may be by way of Information 1. Infer FIRST from hence infer that the joy which springs from an Heavenly Substance that 's a sweet stream from that upper fountain can subsist live in the soul in the want of outward earthly comforts It s not depending upon sensible things and present enjoyments upon a great estate and a copiousness of wealth dignities and honours or such foeculent and drossy things here below This is too noble and sweet a Lamp in the soul to be maintained and fed with such impure Oyle This is the reason why Paul and Silas could sing in a prison and in the stocks Acts 16.25 why Paul was so filled with joy and exceeding joyful in all his tribulations 2 Cor. 7.4 why he could say he with others 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it notes the most exuiting Joy did glory in tribulations Rom. 5.3 why the Prophet Habakkuk could say chap. 3.17 18. Although the Figg-tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit be in the Vines The labour of the Olive shall fail and the fields shall yield no meat the flock shall be cut off from the fold and there shall be no herd in the stalls yet will I rejoyce in the Lord I will joy in the God of my salvation And this is the reason why the Heroick and blessed Martyrs had such a redundancy of joy in the midst of torturing flames and under the most exquisite torments And no less doth that great emboldening and encouraging promise hold forth in Matth. 19.29 And every one that hath forsaken Houses or Brethren or Sisters or Father or Mother or Wife or Children or Lands that is the nearest and dearest relations and all possessions for my Name sake shall receive an hundred-fold and shall inherit everlasting life The hundred-fold promised concerns not another world but this or not eternity but time as we may see by comparing this Scripture with Luke 18.30 Mark 10.30 And yet though this may and is sometimes made good in the plain literal sense a certain number being put for an uncertain an hundred-fold for manifold as the other Evangelists explain it and in specie yet it is not alwaies so And though the former sense according to the judgment of some may be true in part yet it s not in the whole only so far as the nature of the thing will ordinarily admit of it for an hundred Wives and Fathers and Mothers c. are not to be expected though a far greater estate may than that which is forsaken for the Name-sake of Christ Therefore the performance of the promise is to be understood eminenter that though God doth not give those things formally and specifically yet he will do it eminently What are relations and possessions for but comfort Now when there is by any a dereliction and forsaking of these for Christ they shall have that in God and receive such exuberant consolations from him which all the creatures would be to him yea and far more if they were multiplied an hundred times Did all that profess the Christian Religion firmly believe this or did they but feel and taste before they are called to suffer for their Religion those sweet and pure joyes that are an effluence from God and Heaven did they not really think their principal if not all their comforts to be wrapt and bound up in their present enjoyments and possessions and all because Sense is the great Dictator to them and their souls lye so much under the dominion thereof so many of them would not desert in the day of tryal their most noble Religion as they do The enemies of the Saints when they drag them to prisons and shut them up in dungeons and spoil them of their goods they conclude they have hereby made them miserable and revenged themselves upon them not knowing nor considering what an effectual course they have taken to make them more happy How they have taken away puddle waters that they may more freely and plentifully drink of fountain waters that they have removed their Candle-light that they may enjoy more of the Sun that they have deprived them of the Earth and the creature to make way for their possessing more of God and Heaven Sensual souls and worldly-minded men wonder often at the Saints comforts when they seem to be denuded and devested of all not knowing as our Saviour said in another case that they have meat to eat which they know not of John 4.32 The sweet effluvium's of these joyes and their secret illapses into holy souls cannot by all humane or diabolical malice and power be obstructed or intercepted they have their occult conveyances and communications to the souls of suffering Saints else the Hebrews had not taken joyfully the spoiling of their goods 2. Infer Secondly How wise a choice they make that leave and abandon this world for the sake of Christ seeing they do not deprive themselves of present joy and comfort and likewise render themselves capable of a better and more excellent substance by it It matters not what hypocritical Professors censure them for who think it their greatest wisdom to secure what they have whatever becomes of the Gospel the pure Christian Religion and the Interest of Christ in the world They may secretly deride them for imprudence rashness inconsiderateness and perhaps worse with the openly profest and declared enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ but when
in the defence of this truth Matth. 19. v. 29. And every one that hath forsaken houses or brethren or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands for my Names sake shall receive an hundred-fold and inherit everlasting life Now though this be a positive assertion yet it includes a negative as in Scripture it 's frequent none but such shall inherit this everlasting life and this will appear to be the proper genuine sense of it if we compare it with Luke 14.33 So likewise whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath he cannot be my Disciple And if no Disciple of Christ then no Heir of the future glory All this shews us how many now of the Visible Church of Christ shall be excluded the Kingdom of Heaven and meet with that most dreadful repute and eternal separation from God Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know not whence ye are Luke 13.27 But I having intermixt this Discourse with other foregoing particulars I shall not expiate and enlarge it further though it cannot be too industriously and frequently inculcated upon us who are so backward firmly to believe and to be brought under the powerful and effectual conviction of such a truth 8. Infer Eightly How vast a disproportion there is between the Saints present losses and their future gain This is that which makes them so joyfully suffer the loss of all things The ineffable and unutterable inequality between them is the sourse and spring of their joy They have a substance for a shadow a substance that 's permanent and perpetual for that which is withering and fading Who will not rejoyce to part with a penny for a pound with one pound for an hundred with a hundred for a thousand with a thousand for a million c. but yet what 's the disproportion between the least of these and the greatest summe to that which is between an earthly and an heavenly Substance But my purpose is not to dilate and amplifie this great truth having already in part glost and paraphras'd upon it I say but in parts for who can speak to that fully which is so infinitely above and beyond the grasp and reach of his Reason the comprehension of his capacity and the compass of his understanding But it is to raise the Souls of Saints to a more sublime and frequent admiration of the unsearchable Riches of God's free Grace and exurbetant Mercies and to fill them with more ravishing contemplations thereof which this disproportion doth so much illustrate and celebrate varnish and beautify with a matchless Glory That there should be an infinite and eternal reward for a finite and temporary Act and that which we are under an indispensable Obligation to do and when we have done it to be still unprofitable Servants That an Act should be thus rewarded by God that he stands in no need of that he hath no dependance upon as Augmentative of and and additional to his blessedness for the uttermost contributions of men and Angels with all other Creatures can add nothing to him And that an Act shall be so superabundanly recompenced which is but the employing for Gods glory and the returning to him what is his own and what we first received from him what he hath but lent us or we are still but Tenants at Will his property never being alienated That we should have as the Apostle saith in 2 Cor. 4.17 Glory for afflictions a weight of glory for light afflictions an exceeding Eternal glory for momentary afflictions O! astonishing Antithesis In what extatical and transporting admirations hereof should the Souls of Saints be in and certainly more frequently than they are they would be so were they but more with the Apostle in Reckoning that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed in him Rom. 8.18 And would we but fixedly and steddily meditate hereon our Souls would not be so effaete and barren of praises to God as they are But we should be ever blessing and adoring him for that superfluous and reabundant compensation of the very little that we can do or suffer for him And seeing time is too little for this work we should more ardently long to Triumph in his Praises to Eternity The consideration of this vast disproportion between our losses and our gain our sufferings and our reward should wonderfully animate and encourage us to suffer the loss of all things it should â—l and strengthen our hearts and fortifie our Spirits to endure the utmost extremity of misery and to be insuperable and unconquerable in a patient toleration of all Tribulations for the sake of Christ to promote and advance his interest in the World And certainly were there but an immoration and dwelling of our most serious thoughts hereon we should never dread such sufferings which are ever worse in fearing then in feeling them as we do not be so averse to undergo them as we are 9. Infer Ninthly That one and the same Heavenly substance belongs to all Saints and all Sufferers for their Lord and Master Jesus Christ There is but one Kingdom Matt. 25.34 one Inheritance 1 Pet. 1.4 One Crown Rev. 1.10 one Throne Rev. 3.21 that belongs to them all It 's in the Text one substance that all the Hebrews knew they had If an Earthly Father have many Children usually the first-born Son or the eldest living inherits his Estate if a King have many Sons the eldest usually is Heir to the Crown When Jehoshaphat died the Text tells us 2 Chron. 21.3 He gave great Gifts of Silver and of Gold and pretious things with fenced Cities in Judah But the Kingdom gave he to Jehoram because he was the first-born This right of Primogeniture unto Earthly Inheritances hath some Foundation in the Law of Nature But in Heaven there is no difference nor distinction made among all the Children of God one inheritance he hath provided for them all and every individual shall have the whole as all the Inhabitants upon Earth equally enjoy the light of the Sun when it shines unto them provided their visive faculty be alike so shall all the Inhabitants in Heaven equally enjoy a Kingdom Indeed God puts a difference and makes distinctions between his Children in this World some are rich though but a very few some are poor some noble though not many and some ignoble and he will have the order of Superiority and Inferiority maintained among them and to break it is a sin Servants though Godly must keep in their proper Station and know their distance from their Godly Masters and Mistresses and greatly fear and reverence them and the base for their Piety must not think themselves equal with the honourable nor behave themselves the more immodestly and disrespectively towards them for such a procacious carriage and malepart deportment is a violiation of the Law of God Nature But in Heaven all these distinctions
of delectableness This must be the next object to the Beatifical Vision it self To have the fulness of the Godhead that which dwelleth in him bodily Col. 2.9 radiating as it were through his transparent body must afford excessive delights to the beholder That Glory of the Manhood which is out of measure that is respectively in regard of us who are unable to measure it must be a most lovely object to behold To see that Christ whose visage was marred more than any man and his form more than the Sons of men Isa 52.14 whom the Jews could see no beauty in that they should desire him Isa 53.2 Who was despised and rejected of men a man of sorrows and acquainted with grief and who was not esteemed by men Isa 53.3 Who hath born our griefs and carried our sorrows who was wounded for our transgressions and bruised for our iniquities upon whom was the chastisement of our peace and with whose stripes we are healed Isa 53.4 5. Him who was spit upon and buffited Matth. 26.67 Who endured an eructation of all obloquies and evomition of all blasphemies upon him who was every way most opprobriously and contumiliously used Who was scourged and whipt Matth. 27.26 Who when he was in the prime and flower of his youth had his beauty so much withered and decayed and his body so much maceraâ—ed through want and poverty and variety of sorrows as if wrinckling and surrowing old age had overtaken and seized upon him or did very nearly approach him Joh. 8.57 Whose innocent and pure soul was put into so great an agony that he swear as it were great drops of blood falling down to the ground Luk. 22.44 which made him say his soul was exceeding sorrowful even unto death Matth. 26.38 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 encompassed and besieged round about beset with sorrows And to conclude this to see him after that most low state of his Humiliation having when he was born a Manger for his Cradle crown'd with thorns as a sign of the greatest contempt and after all this condemned and executed upon the Cross crucified for the greater contempt between two Thieves most scornfully there insulted over having his sides pierced with the spear to let forth a pure stream of his most precious blood and not only to endure that most shameful ignominious tormenting death of the Cross but the whole weight and burden of his Fathers wrath and displeasure and the severe strokes and lashes of vindictive punitive justice and the very pains of Hell to take hold of his soul I say after all this to see him exalted in glory and majesty at the right hand of his Father a sparkling Crown upon his head sitting upon a magnificent Throne to see his countenance as the Sun shineth in his strength Rev. 1.16 to see him exceeding all the glory of Angels to see him infinitely more beautiful in his whole body than his Spouse the Church when enamour'd of him most passionately and Rhetorically describes him to be Cant. 5.10 11 12 13 14 15 16. To see as much of the Creator and the Divine Nature in Christ as is possibly visible in the nature of man and not only to see Christ in all that eminency of his glory but if we be Saints to see Christ in it as ours as we are interested in this object will make it most delectable Joh. 17.24 We find this is the great happiness honour and priviledg that Christ Wills for all true Believers Father This proves his Divinity I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my glory which thou hast given me Certainly Christ would never have Will'd this would it not afford ineffable joy to the beholder and fully prove that as much contentation as the creature can be made partaker of by the sight of any one visible object will be the portion of the Beholders of Christ as he is man The wise man tells us The eye is never satisfied with seeing Eccl. 1.8 Although it may be wearied with looking upon various objects yet it is not satisfied but still desires new ones and can drink them in without surfeiting so that though the acts of the eye be scant and finite yet the lusts of the eye seem to have a kind of infinity in them Now all this ariseth from the imperfection of all conspicable glory and beauty in this world for the sight cannot be quieted except in the most excellent of visible objects and this it only meets with in heaven Melancthon desired death for this very end that he might see Christ in glory Cupio ex hac vita migrare propter duas causas primum ut fruar desiderato conspectu filii Dei Coelestis Ecclesiae c. And if death be desirable by the Saints for this end certainly the object will be proportionably delightful We may likewise rationally conceive the glorified bodies of the Saints will be very delightful objects whose constantly flowring and radiant beauty shall never be incentives and baits to lust shall not beget unchast thoughts nor allure and tempt to unclean embraces There shall be no need of Ornaments to cover any deformities of the body or to add a grace and comliness to any of i'ts parts all meretricious Painting and Patching all the clouding Tooers as an addition to that sufficiency of hair which God and nature hath given to the female Sex shall be quite out of fashion and of no use Had man continued in the state of Innocency that beauty which is now composed of the most exact symmetry and complexion falls inconceivably short of what it would then have been and even that before sin darkned it's lustre and stain'd it's glory or in the least withered it's flower was not to be compared with this Then saith our Saviour shall the righteous shine forth as the sun in the kingdom of their father Which may very well be understood as one sense if not the chief of their corporeal brightness and it 's probable had there been a more splended creature in the whole visible Creation than the Sun our Saviour would have made use of it to express the formosity of the Saints bodies by in heaven To see then Heaven full of those bodies which perhaps were once cloathed with ulcerous soars with loathsome and nauceating deformities and liable to so great variety of diseases and though many of them were freed from these unamiable things yet at last their rarest Beauties were exposed to blasting Old age which planted deep Furrows in their smooth Brows shrunk and shriveld up their plump and comely Checks and causing their most straight and upright Bodies to bow themselves and uncomelily to stoop I say to see Heaven so full of those Bodies and every Body so perfectly beautiful that no addition can be made and al supplements are excluded what delight must this afford what a strange magnetick vertue is there in imperfect Beauty upon earth