dispersed Rays are conspicuously united in him the Sun of Righteousness and as in a curious Piece of Mosaick Work each Stone according to its natural Vein and Colour is so exactly disposed and with that proportion join'd to another that the lively Figure of the Humane Body results from the Composure so by variety of Types the intire Image of our Saviour's Life is represented from his first appearing on Earth to his ascending to Heaven Now the due comparing and observing the harmonious Agreement between the Prophesies and Types of the Old Testament and the History of the New is a powerful means to produce and establish a true lively Faith in the blessed Jesus as the promised Messiah For it is an infallible Argument of the Divine Providence in disposing Times and Things so as the Oracle should be verified in the Event and the mysterious Figures substantially exhibited in the manifestation of the Son of God 'T is true his Miracles raised Admiration and argued the concurrence of Power truly Divine For the exercise of an absolute Dominion over the Order of Nature is a Royalty reserved to God but that his miraculous Operations were foretold added more Authority to his Person and Efficacy to his Doctrine Therefore our Saviour himself in answer to the publick Question sent from John the Baptist whether he were the expected Saviour of the World commanded the Messengers to tell him what they heard and said The Blind receive their Sight and the Lame walk the Lepers are cleansed the Deaf hear and the Dead are raised up Which healing Miracles were foretold by the Prophet Esay as the clear and distinguishing Characters of the Messiah from all Seducers when he should come The fulfilling God's Word by the Works of Christ of which there was sensible evidence was an irrefutable testimony that his Miracles were true and performed for the confirmation of the Truth Now of all the chosen Saints that foretold the coming of Christ the new Law of Grace and the new Kingdom of Glory that he should reveal and establish Of all that represented him in various Particularities concerning his Person and Offices there was not a more illustrious Type than David that by prophetical Words and by prophetical Actions did so clearly describe him In this Psalm composed by him there is a mixture of History and Prophecy Some things in the literal and immediate sense referring to David I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Our being at God's right Hand implies the highest Honour his being at our right Hand implies present and sure protection and defence And of this David had the infallible Promise of God to secure his Hope notwithstanding all his unrighteous and implacable Enemies But the following Verses are applicable to David but in a lower sense and by a remote Metaphor and have their literal and principal Accomplishment in our Saviour Thou wilt not leave my Soul in Hell that is in the State of the Dead nor suffer thy holy One to see Corruption that is the Body of our Saviour should be exempted from the corrupting Power of the Grave and restored the third Day to Life In this propriety and perfection of sense the Prophecy is applyed by St. Peter to our Saviour's alone for David died and saw Corruption and his Body still remains under the Dominion of Death And this last Verse Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life in thy Presente is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore is applied by the Apostle to Christ his Resurrection Ascension to Heaven and sitting at the right Hand of the Majesty on high Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life that is introduce him into the Kingdom of Glory and by experimental Fruition make him partaker of it In thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand are Pleasures for evermore In these words the Causes and Excellencies of the Heavenly Life are express'd The Causes are the glorious Presence of God and the intimate application of his Presence and discovery of his peculiar Love to the Saints This our blessed Saviour had respect to as the compleat Reward of his Sufferings Thou shalt make me full of Joy with thy Countenance And his right Hand implies his Bounty that dispenses and his Power that secures our Happiness The Excellencies of it are fulness of Joy and Pleasures for evermore From the words I shall observe one Proposition The enjoyment of the Divine Presence in Heaven is the supream and everlasting Felicity of the Saints In the discoursing of this Point I will consider First The Place wherein the Divine Presence is gloriously reveal'd Secondly Shew that the enjoyment of the Divine Presence is the supream Felicity of the Saints Thirdly Prove that the Felicity shall be Everlasting First The Place wherein the Divine Presence is revealed 'T is consistent with the Divine Immensity to be differently present in some places The essential Presence of God is the same every where the influxive declarative Presence of God is special and wise in one place than another He is more excellently present in the living Temples his Saints on Earth by the gracious and eminent Operations of his Spirit than he is in the rest of the World He is most excellently present in Heaven by the clearest Manifestation and the express Characters and Effects of the Divine Perfections This inferior World is fram'd with exquisite Order The Earth is full of the Glory of the Lord yet 't is but the Sediment of the Creation the Habitation of Birds and Beasts nay of rebellious Sinners And by this we may raise our Thoughts to conceive something of the glorious Sanctuary of Life and Blessedness above 'T is called the Heaven of Heavens which is the highest Comparison to instruct and astonish us with the Amplitude and Glory of the Place 'T is a Place becoming the Majesty of God the Image of his Immensity Our Saviour assures us In his Father's House are many Mansions to receive the innumerable company of glorified Saints 'T is called the Excellent Glory 2 Pet. 1.17 The shining Firmament with all the Luminaries that adorn it are but the Frontispiece to the highest Heaven All the Lustre of Diamonds the Fire of Carbuncles and Rubies the Brightness of Pearls are dead in comparison of its Glory 'T is the Throne of the God of Glory wherein his Majesty is reveal'd in the most illustrious manner For Pleasantness 't is call'd Paradise in allusion to the delightful Garden planted by the Hands of God himself for Adam his Favourite whilst innocent There is the Tree of Life There are Rivers of Pleasure springing from the Divine Presence 'T is call'd the Inheritance of the Saints in Light to signify the Glory and Joy of the Place for Light has splendour and conciliates chearfulness and is a fit Emblem of both As on the contrary Hell is described by the blackness
Promise of God to all penitent Believers in the Kingdom of Heaven and excludes all impenitent Infidels Divine Justice will illustriously appear then in distinguishing Believers from Unbelievers by their Works the proper Fruits either of Faith or Infidelity All the thick Clouds of Disgraces Calumnies Persecutions that often oppress the most sincere Christians here shall not then darken their Holiness and all the specious appearances of Piety which the most artificial Hypocrites make use of to deceive others shall not conceal their Wickedness And accordingly the one shall be absolved and glorified the others condemned and punish'd for ever In short without violation of his own righteous establishment in the Gospel God cannot receive the unholy into his Glory 3. Besides the Legal Bar that excludes unsanctified Persons from the beatifick vision of God there is a moral incapacity Suppose that Justice should allow Omnipotence to translate such a Sinner to Heaven would the Place make him happy Can two incongruous Natures delight in one another The happiness of Sense is by an impression of Pleasure from a suitable Object The happiness of intellectual Beings arises from an entire conformity of dispositions So that unless God recede from his Holiness which is absolutely impossible or Man be purified and changed into his likeness there can be no sweet Communion between them Our Saviour assigns this Reason of the necessity of Regeneration in order to our admission into Heaven That which is born of the flesh is flesh and that which is born of the Spirit is Spirit According to the quality of the Principle such is what proceeds from it The Flesh is a corrupt Principle and accordingly the Natural Man is wholly carnal in his propensions operations and end The Disease is turn'd into his Constitution He is dead to the Spiritual Life to the actions and enjoyments that are proper to it Nay there is in him a surviving Principle of Enmity to that Life not only a mortal coldness to God but a stiff aversation from him a perpetual resistance and impatience of the Divine Presence that would disturb his voluptuous enjoyments The Exercises of Heaven would be as the Torments of Hell to him while in the midst of those pure Joys his inward inclinations vehemently run into the lowest Lees of Sensuality And therefore till this Contrariety so deep and predominant in an unholy Person be removed 't is utterly impossible he should enjoy God with satisfaction As it was necessary that God should become like Man on Earth to purchase that Felicity for him so Man must be like God in Heaven before he can possess it Holiness alone prepares Men for Celestial Happiness that is against the corruption and above the perfection of meer Nature I shall now proceed to consider more particularly what is requisite in order to our obtaining of Heaven 1. Faith in the Redeemer is absolutely required of all that will partake of the Salvation purchased by him God so loved the World that he gave his only begotten Son that whoever believes in him should not perish but have Eternal Life This is the Spirit and Substance of the Gospel therefore I will briefly unfold it The Son of God having assumed the human Nature and performed what was necessary for the expiation of Sin the Father was so pleased with his Obedience that from his lowest State he rais'd him to Divine Glory and gave him supream Authority and all-sufficient Power to communicate that Glory to others Thus our Saviour declares Thou hast given him i. e. the Son power over all Flesh that he should give Eternal Life to as many as thou hast given him And he exhorts the People Labour for that Meat that endures unto Eternal Life which the Son of Man shall give unto you for him hath God the Father sealed Now this glorious Life is not given to all but only to those who are united to him As Adam the principle of the carnal corrupt Nature derives Guilt and Death to all his Progeny so Jesus Christ who is opposed to him the Head and Prince of the renewed State communicates Life and Glory to his People The Apostle expresses it As in Adam all dye his natural Descendants are involv'd in his Condemnation even so in Christ shall all be made alive that is all that are spiritually united to him shall partake of his glorious Resurrection And St. John tells us He that hath the Son hath Life and he that hath not the Son hath not Life The having the Son upon which our right to Eternal Life depends is believing in him Faith has a principal Efficiency in receiving Christ therefore 't is exprest by that Act But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the Sons of God and consequently Heirs of Glory so as many as believed on his Name And Christ is said to dwell in our Hearts by Faith This is not a meer assent to the Doctrines of the Gospel concerning the Dignity of his Person that he is in so high and glorious a Relation of being the Eternal Son of God and the infinite value of his Merits whereby he is able to save all that come unto God by him and his merciful compassionate Nature to embrace returning Sinners and the excellency of the benefits purchased by him but such a Belief as sways the Will and Affections to receive him upon God's terms for our Salvation Faith is seated in the whole Soul in the Mind and Heart and accepts of Christ intirely as Prophet Priest and King The parts of the Mediator's Office are inseparably connected and all the Effects of them are communicated to the same Persons Jesus Christ is made of God to Believers Wisdom to cure their Ignorance and Folly Righteousness to abolish their Guilt Sanctification to renew their Natures and Redemption to free them at last from the Grave and bring them to Glory From hence 't is clear that the Faith which is justifying and saving includes in its Nature as dependance and trust in Christ as a powerful and merciful Mediator that is able and willing to reconcile us to God and make us for ever happy in his Favour so a sincere resolution of Obedience and Subjection to all his holy Commands even to the plucking out of the right Eye and the cutting off the right hand the parting with the most pleasing or profitable Sins For the Promises of God that are the Rule of Faith make an offer of Christ upon these Conditions to us Him hath God exalted with his right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour for to give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of Sins And only the Justified shall be glorified Those therefore who desire a partial interest in him as a Saviour out of absolute necessity to escape Hell and will not out of Love submit to him as their Prince have not that Faith that is unfeigned and gives a title to Eternal
and measure as is proportionable to its Excellency and the Difficulties of obtaining it There may be a naked estimation and some desires of Eternal Happiness simply considered yet the Will remains incompleat and undetermined in its choice for the End in conjunction with the Means is propounded to us and the carnal Man will not consent to the Means He dislikes the Holiness of Religion and will rather forfeit Heaven than submit to such strict terms Though with Balaam in a fit of Devotion he says O that I might die the death of the Righteous and that my last End might be like his yet from Indulgence to his sensual Inclinations he will not live as the Righteous All his Wishes of true Happiness are soon strangled by the predominant love of some Vanity 'T is said of the Israelites they despised the pleasant Land not absolutely in it self for it was the Glory of all Lands abounding with things for the support and delight of Man but considering its distance a Wilderness waste and wild interposing and the Enemies to be encountred they did not think it worthy of undergoing such Hazards and Difficulties The Land of Canaan was a Type of Heaven both with respect to its pleasantness and the manner of the Israelites obtaining it Their Title to it was derived from the rich Bounty of God therefore 't is called the Land of Promise but it was to be possess'd by Conquest Thus the Celestial Canaan is the pure Gift of God but the actual enjoyment of it is obtained by victorious resistance against the Enemies of our Salvation And Carnal Men despise this pleasant Land the Promise being inseparably joined with Precepts of Duty and Obedience from which they are averse But he that chuses sincerely is joyful and vigorous in the use of means for acquiring his most desired Good Ardent Affections like Elijah's Chariot of Fire ravish the Soul above this sensible World to the place where God dwells in Glory Zeal animates his Endeavours as the Motion of the Heart diffuses the Spirits into the Arteries to convey Life to all parts of the Body One thing saith the inflamed Psalmist have I desired of the Lord that will I seek after that I may dwell in the House of the Lord all the days of my life to behold the Beauty of the Lord and to enquire into his Temple The sensual Man is ranging abroad for satisfaction and shoots all the Game that crosses his Eye but the Soul that has a discovering Light and feeling heat of the divine Beauty unites all its desires in God and with affection to an Extasy longs for the enjoyment of him and the endeavours are in some proportion to the desires Our Saviour tells us That from the days of John the Baptist until now the Kingdom of Heaven suffers violence and the violent take it by force Some previous Rays of the Sun of Righteousness appeared in his Ministry and produc'd such a holy Ardency in those Converts that with all resolution diligence and earnestness they sought to be partakers of the Blessedness revealed Lazy Desires easy Prosecutions sluggish Attempts discover that the Heart is not throughly engaged for the spiritual Eternal Good When the End is truly designed it will give Law to the Actions This is visible in Men who are wholly led by Sense how sagacious how sollicitous are they to accomplish their Ends and base Designs They try all ways either by fine dissimulation or toilsome industry to obtain their Desires No time is too much in their gainful Affairs or voluptuous Enjoyments They transform the Night to lengthen out the Day for their Profit they vail the Day to lengthen out the Night for their Ease and Pleasure But alas Heaven is only regarded by the By as if the intellectual Soul were only given to dwell with the Body on Earth the place of its Banishment and direct Affairs here below and not to lead in the way to Heaven the place of its Nativity and prepare for another World The Work of Salvation is followed with that remiss degree of Affection as if it were a slight matter whether performed or neglected These Persons carry their Conviction in their Bosoms for they are ardent and active to obtain inferior and infinitely less concerning Ends but with that cold application mind the superior nobler End of Man that it is wholly frustrate which plainly shews it was never seriously intended by them The sight of Worldly Men so active and vigilant to prosecute their low Designs should quicken us to seek with greater diligence and alacrity the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof A Carnal Wretch urged by the sting of a brutish Desire with what impatience doth he pursue the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a season An ambitious Person with what an intemperate height of Passion does he chase a Feather A covetous Man how greedily does he pursue the Advantages of the present World that passes away and the Lusts thereof Ah! how do they upbraid our indifferent Desires our dull Delays and cold Endeavours when such a high Prize is set before us Who is able to conceive the ravishing Pleasure of the Soul when it first enters through the beautiful Gate of the Celestial Temple and sees the Glory of the Place and hears a Voice from the Throne Enter into thy Master's Joy to be happy with him for ever The serious belief of this will draw forth all our active Powers in the Service of God 3. The sincerity of our Heavenly Choice declares it self in the temper and frame of our Hearts with respect to all temporal Things in this World For our main and happy End being established that it consists not in secular Riches and Honours and the Pleasures of Sense but in the clear Vision of God the blessedness of the Spirit it follows that all present things are in our use so far Good or Evil and to be desired or not as they are profitable or prejudicial to our obtaining Salvation as they conduct or divert us from Heaven A wise Christian looks on temporal things not through the Glass of disordered Passions that are impetuous and impatient for what is grateful to them but with reference to his future Happiness He considers the train of Temptations that attend an exalted Condition and desires such a portion of these things as may redound to the Glory of the Giver and be improved for his own Salvation This Purity of Affections our Saviour teaches us For in his Divine Form of Prayer the true Directory of our Desires are set down in an admirable order all things we are to pray for And they respect the End or the Means The End is the primary Object of our Desires accordingly the two first Petitions concern our blessed End as it respects God and our selves We pray Hallowed be thy Name that is by the reverence and adoration of all his Subjects and Thy Kingdom come that is for the manifestation of his Eternal
on the Mind but solid Conversion is produc'd by deliberate Discourse by the due consideration and estimation of things 't is rational and perpetual 2. Consideration must be frequent to keep eternal Objects present and powerful upon us Such is the natural Levity and Inconstancy Sloth and Carnality of the Mind That the Notions of Heavenly Things quickly pass through but of Earthly abide there If a Stone be thrown upwards it remains no longer in the Air than the impression of the force by which it was thrown continues but if it falls on the Earth it rests there by Nature When the Soul is raised in contemplation to Heaven how apt is it to fall from that height and lose the esteem the lively Remembrance and Affections of Eternal Things But when the Thoughts are excited by the presence of what is pleasing to Sense the withdrawing the Object does not deface the Idea of it in the Memory nor lessen the Conceit nor cool the Desires of it because the Heart is naturally inclined to it Therefore 't is necessary every day to refresh and renew the conceptions of eternal Things that although they are not always in act yet the efficacy may be always felt in the Heart and Life The Soul habituated to such Thoughts will not easily yield to Temptations that surprise and overcome others that are Strangers in their Minds to the other World Nay the presence of Temptations as by Antiperistasis will reinforce the Resolutions for Heaven like the pouring Water upon Lime that revives a hidden Fire in it which seems a natural Miracle 'T is therefore of great advantage frequently to sequester our selves from the World to redeem Time from secular Affairs for the recollecting of our Thoughts and their solemn exercise upon the Eternal World Sense that reveals natural things darkens spiritual How can the Thoughts be fixt on invisible things so distant from Sense if always conversant with secular Objects that draw them down In the silence of the Night a small Voice is more distinctly heard and a little distant Light more clearly seen so when the Soul is withdrawn from the noisy throng of the World and outward things are darkned the Voice of Conscience is better heard and the Light of Heaven more perfectly received 3. Consideration of Eternal Things must be with present Application to the Soul 'T is not the meer conviction of the Mind but the decree of the Will that turns Men from Sin to Holiness from the Creatures to God The Heart is very deceitful and by variety of shifts and palliations is disposed to irresolutions and delays in spiritual Concernments How often does the miserable Sinner contend with himself and while Conscience urges him to seek the Kingdom of Heaven and the Affections draw down to the Earth the carnal part prevailing over the rational he overcomes and is overcome he is convinced and condemned by his own Mind Till Consideration issues in this that with setled Judgment and Affections the Soul determines for God and Heaven 't is without profit Therefore in the managing this Duty 't is our Wisdom not to be curious and inquisitive after subtile Conceptions and exalted Notions of the future State that little confer to the making the Heart better but to think seriously on what is plain and evident and most useful to produce a present lasting Change It were egregious Folly in a Man that for the use of his Garden should with great labour fetch Water from distant Fountains and neglect that which springs up in his own Ground That Meditation is profitable which produces not new Thoughts but holy and firm resolutions of obeying God in order to the full enjoying of him for ever To perswade us to the serious practice of this Duty there are many Enforcements Is any Man so foolish so regardless of his Convenience to purchase a House wherein he must live all his Days and will not first see whether it will be convenient and secure for his Habitation Shall we not then consider Heaven the Mansion of Blessedness and Hell the Seat of Misery and Horror for according as we chuse here we shall be in the one or other place for ever I shall in the fourth part of this Treatise endeavour to represent something of the inexpressible Misery of the Wicked hereafter and shew how congruous and powerful the Thoughts of it are to restrain Men from Sin but at present shall briefly excite to the Meditation of the Heavenly Glory as the most noble delightful and fruitful Work of the Soul whiles confin'd to the Body of Flesh. 'T is the most exalted Exercise of the Mind the purest converse with God the Flower of consecrated Reason 'T is most like the Life of glorified Spirits above who are in continual contemplation of the Divine Excellencies and 't is most raised above the Life of Carnal Men that are sunk into Sensuality and Brutishness 'T is the most joyful Life in that it sheds abroad in the Soul Delights that neither satiate nor corrupt nor weaken the Faculties as the Delights of Sense do but afford Perfection as well as Pleasure 'T is the most profitable Life As in those parts of the Earth where the Beams of the Sun are strongly reflected precious Metals and Jewels are produc'd wherein the refulgent resemblance of that bright Planet appears so the lively and vigorous Exercise of the Thoughts upon the heavenly Glory will produce heavenly Affections heavenly Discourses and a heavenly shining Conversation This will make us live like the blessed Society above imitating their Innocence and Purity their joyful entire and constant Obedience to God This confirms the Holy Soul in its Choice with an invincible efficacy against the Temptations and Lusts of the World The serious considering Believer is filled with ravishing Wonder of the Glory that shall be revealed and looks down with Contempt upon the Earth and all that has the Name of Felicity here All the Invitations nay Terrors of the World are as unable to check his pursuit of his blessed End as the Breath of an Infant to stop the high flight of an Eagle But how rare and disused a Duty is this How hardly are Men induc'd to set about it Business and Pleasures are powerful Diversions Some pretend Business as a just Cause but in vain for the one Thing necessary challenges our principal Thoughts and Care Besides there are intervals of Leisure and the Thoughts are always streaming and often run waste which directed aright would be very fruitful to the Soul The true Cause of this neglect is from the inward temper of Men. Carnal Pleasures alienate the Mind and make it unfit for the deep serious actings of the Thoughts upon Eternal Things I have said of Laughter Thou art mad it makes the Mind light and vain and desultory As a distracted Person by every motion of Fancy flies from one thing to another without Coherence The Heart fill'd with cloudy Cares and smoaky Fires with Thoughts and Desires
your Sex and more truly Honourable than your Noble Descent and Alliance but direct my best Desires to God that your Family may be a singular and eminent Example of the Divine Favour that the fading Gloss of this World may not deceive you but your Heart may be above where your Treasure is that you may live to God and your Soul for Heaven and Eternity I am Madam Your Honour 's very humble and faithful Servant WILLIAM BATES The Bookseller's Advertisement THE Four Last Things Death and Judgment Heaven and Hell are Subjects of that great Importance and so nearly concerns all Persons that serious Discourses publish'd upon them deserve the Reader 's best Attention and Application And that they may be of more diffusive and general Benefit it will be a proper Means that according to the Examples of some pious Persons Books treating of those solemn Arguments BE GIVEN AT FUNERALS AS A FUNERAL-LEGACY When according to the observation of the wise Preacher The Living lay to Heart their own Frailty and are more receptive of Holy Counsels to prepare for their great Change from Time to Eternity and would affect their Minds with the present Instance of Mortality much better than Wine Sweatmeats Gloves or Rings or unprofitable Talk as is too usual at such Solemnities All serious practical Books are proper for this Design which may be of any Price or Bigness And if Bound in Black with a Cypher of Mortality will be very decent And some Memorables of the Life of the Deceased if desired may be printed on a Leaf or more and bound with it Several Books so bound may be seen at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil B. A. OF DEATH HEB. 2.15 And deliver them who through fear of Death were all their Life-time subject to Bondage IN the first Chapter of this Epistle the Proofs of the Eternal Deity of Christ are produced with that evidence of Scripture-Light that only a vailed Heart obstinate Infidelity can resist The Medium which the inspired Pen-man makes use of is the comparing him with the Angels the most noble Flower of the Creation and shewing that he is infinitely dignified above them This he does by a strong connexion of Arguments First By his Title that is divinely high and peculiar to himself He is declared by the Testimony of the eternal Father to be his Son in the most proper and sublime sense begotten of him and therefore having the same essential Perfections of the Godhead in their uncreated Glory But the Angels are not dignified with this Name in any Places of Scripture where the Excellency of the Angels is in the fullest Terms expressed And that this Name is taken from his Nature is clearly proved because Adoration is due to him upon this account even from the Angels of the highest Order When he bringeth in the first-begotten into the World he saith And let all the Angels of God worship him Divine Worship is a Prerogative inseparably annex'd to the Deity both upon the account of the supream Excellencies of the Nature of God and his Relation to Angels and Men as Creator and Preserver the Fountain of their Being and Happiness This without the most open defiance of his Authority cannot be given to a meer Creature and by the Command of God himself is to be performed as a Respect due to the filial Godhead The Argument proceeds from the Name to the Offices Of the Angels he saith Who maketh his Angels Spirits and his Ministers a flame of Fire They are the prime Instruments of his Providence most zealous and active to accomplish his Pleasure But the Son is God not by Analogy and Deputation as Princes are nor with a limitation and diminution as Moses was made a God to Pharaoh but absolutely and really as subsisting in the Divine Nature And consequently he is the Supreme King and to him the Ensigns of Majesty divinely Royal are ascribed But unto the Son he saith Thy Throne O God is for ever and ever a Scepter of Righteousness is the Scepter of thy Kingdom Whereas the Scepters of Earthly Kings are often unrighteously manag'd and their Thrones ruinously fall There is a further Confirmation from his Works that are divinely great and glorious wherein no Creature has any share of Efficiency The making of the World is ascribed to him Thou Lord in the beginning hast laid the Foundation of the Earth and the Heavens are the Works of thy Hands The Divine Attributes the peculiar Character of the Deity belong to him Eternity and Immutability The most solid parts of the visible Creation shall perish and be changed but thou remainest and art the same His Life is an intire uniform unchangeable Perfection His Glory and Felicity are in the same invariable Tenor for ever possess'd by him Lastly the Son sits in that quality at the right Hand of the Father in the Society of Empire as equal to him in Power and Honour commanding all in the visible and invisible World most easily and irresistibly tho gradually subduing his Enemies to a consummate Victory But the Angels so numerous and powerful are ministring Spirits employed for the defence and benefit of the Church From this summary account we may understand how firmly the Divinity of Christ is establish'd in the Scripture For those Passages of the Prophets that speak of the God of Israel as Creator and the sole Object of Adoration are directly referr'd to Jesus Christ. And the Name Jehovah the Majesty of which consists in its being incommunicable is attributed to him This is the Foundation upon which the whole Fabrick of the Gospel is built The Office of Mediator in the Prophetical Priestly and Regal Administration is necessarily join'd with the Divinity of his Person And the revelation of it from Heaven is as clear as the Sun is visible in the Firmament All the Difficulties in our conceiving this great Mystery of Godliness are but like the Shadows that attend the Light And all the heretical Subtilties to pervert the Sense of such plain and positive Texts are as impertinent as impious This being establish'd the Apostle proceeds to give an account of the Son of God's assuming the Humane Nature and submitting to Sufferings and Death This is a Divine Secret so miraculously strange that the Contrivance was without the Compass of the Angelical Minds and the discovery of it is only by supernatural Revelation but when revealed the account of it is so open and consentaneous to Reason as being the most congruous Means for the illustration of God's Glory in the saving lost Men that the humane Mind if not deeply corrupted with the tincture of Prejudice must consent to it as worthy of all Acceptation The substance of his reasoning is this That it was the product of the most wise merciful and righteous Counsel of God that the Saviour of Men should have Communion with them in their Nature that he might have a
Death and Judgment sting them by fits and make them uneasy The flashes of Conscience like moments of Lightning startle them but they relapse into their habitual stupidity And the account of it will be clear by considering the following Particulars 1. Men are apt to flatter themselves with the hopes of long Life and look upon Death at a great distance Tho there be a dying disposition in the youngest and strongest Persons though we live in a World of Casualties and Death lie in ambush to surprize us every day yet we are secure because Evils affect us according to their apprehended nearness A petty Constable that is troublesom and vexatious is more fear'd by his Neighbours than the Grand Signior with all his Executioners As remote Objects though of vast bigness are lessen'd to our sight so through the supposed interval of many years Death is look'd on with a diminution of its Terror But when Death presents it self before Men ready to dispatch them how formidable is its appearance Saul though renowned for his Valour yet when he understood by Revelation that to morrow he and his Sons should be in the state of the Dead there was no strength in him but he fell straitway all along on the Earth struck through with fear before he was wounded by the Arrows of the Philistines Belshazzar in the midst of his luxury and jolity attended with a thousand Lords and his Herd of Concubines inflam'd with Wine and therefore less capable of fear yet upon the sight of the fatal Hand writing on the Wall a few unknown Characters which his guilty Conscience before the Prophet Daniel came interpreted to be the Sentence of present Death how fearfully was his Countenance changed pale as a Carcass How suddenly did his Blood congeal and his warmest quickest Spirits die in his Heart His whole Body was seized by such a vehement trembling that his Joints were loosed and his knees smote one against another This is a representation of those who bid defiance to Death at a distance but when the fatal Hour is come and they hear the Sentence decreed against them God has numbred thy days and finish'd them thou art weighed in the ballance all thy Words and Actions thy Thoughts and Affections and art found wanting and thy Soul shall be divided from thy Body the one sent to Hell to suffer the undying Worm of Conscience the other to the Grave to be a Prey to the Worms of Corruption how are they overcome with horror 2. The continual succession of the Pleasures and Business of the World divert the Mind from the attentive strong contemplation of Death and the Consequences of it Pensive Thoughts are unwelcome and we studiously endeavour to cancel the memory of such things as afflict us 'T is said of the Wicked that God is not in all their Thoughts The consideration of the holy Inspector and Judg of their Actions is tormenting therefore they fill their Minds with earthly Imaginations to exclude the Divine Presence We read of those who to put far away the evil Day chaunted to the sound of the Viol and drank Wine in Bowls They are rock'd asleep with the motion of phantastick Vanities And Sleep takes away Fear but gives no safety 'T is recorded of Marius that after his Overthrow by Sylla he was always in consternation as if he heard the sound of the Trumpets and the noise of the victorious Army pursuing him And his Fears were no longer quiet than whilst charm'd with Wine and Sleep he therefore was continually drunk that he might forget himself his Enemy and his Danger Thus Men make a pitiful shift to forget their latter End and whilst they are following either secular Affairs or sensual Pleasures are unconcerned for what is to be hereafter But this Diversion will shortly be at an end for in their languishing hours when the wasted Body fails the carnal Mind and sensual Desires fail the Man then Conscience that spoke with a low Voice before is loud and terrible and like the rigid Exactor in the Parable that took his Debtor by the throat requires them to pay what they owe. 3. Some are so hardned in Infidelity that the Powers of the World to come make no Impression on their Hearts They mind but little and are less affected with invisible things They fortify themselves with gross Thoughts that the Spirit of Man vanishes with his Breath that Death is the end of this Life and not the beginning of another and feed without Fear Place one in the midst of destructive Evils but unseen or not believed and he is as fearless as a blind Person walking on the brink of a deep Pit Indeed there are none less disturbed with the Terrors of Death than the eminently Good or the extremely Bad for the one sort have a blessed Hope that Death will be to them an entrance into Life and live like the Angels with a Joy unspeakable and glorious The others are as sensual and secure as the Beasts that perish having extinguish'd the fear of eternal future Evils which is the proper passion of Reason The Apostle declares That knowing the Terror of the Lord we perswade Men to be reconcil'd to him before the Season of Mercy be expired But those who have suppress'd the natural Notions of Eternal Judgment as they think it beneath their Wisdom to be perswaded by the Promises of Heaven so beneath their Courage to be terrified with the Threatnings of Hell and triumph over the Ruines of Conscience But though wicked Infidels slight the Threatnings they shall not escape the Vengeance of God We read of Noah That being warned of God of things not seen as yet moved with fear he prepared an Ark for the saving of his House His Fear was the native issue of his Faith But the profane World in whom Sense was predominant that despised the Oracle and trembled at no Judgments but what were acting on the visible Stage they ate and drank married and were given in marriage till swept away by the unfeared Inundation We read that Lot being certified by an embassy of Angels that a Deluge of Fire would in a few hours pour down from Heaven upon Sodom he most earnestly sollicited his Sons-in-Law Arise depart out of this Place for the Lord will destroy this City but they entertained his compassionate Advice with derision he seemed to them as one that mocked and were surprised by those fearful Flames that dispatch'd them from a Temporal Hell to that which is Eternal Thus 't was prophesied That in the last days there shall come Scoffers walking after their own Lusts and saying Where is the Promise of his coming But let them blaspheme and scorn the most sacred and terrible Truths let them perpetuate their excess of Riot and wild Mirth while they live Death will come and Judgment as sure as Death III. I now come to shew how the Death of Christ frees us from the tormenting fear of Death
place with execration Thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurs'd In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed Advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty Thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive Life is lost The natural Order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The Death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The freedom he obtains from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here and from Sin the worst in its nature and the cause of all the rest The present World is a Labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the Troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Trouble A short Life and many Miseries O our unhappy Capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many Perplexities as Passions How often are the Scenes and Habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in Pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest Comforts have hidden Stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of Afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the Wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy Devourers escaped This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the Way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted Pleasures of the World and for other holy Ends but there is a Rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Relicks of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from Sovereignty and Rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their Hands and Feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring Death Still the Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh. As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest Health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a meer Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly carnal dead in Sins and Trespasses or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender Affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the Sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking Sorrow Now Death is to a Believer an universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the Passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the Rest above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the Purity of the Blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the Effects of God's Displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their Exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with Divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The Lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last Hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of Affability be in his Temper How pleasantly does Time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Though the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is
is an happy means to render Death comfortable to us Sins of Ignorance and Infirmity of sudden Surreption and Surprize the best Men are not freed from in the present State and being the daily motive of our Grief and serious circumspection to prevent them are consistent with the regular Peace of Conscience and the Friendship and Favour of God But great Sins in their matter being so contrary to natural Conscience and supernatural Grace or Sins presumptuous in the manner of their commission such as proceed from the choice of the perverse Will against the inlightned Mind whatever the matter or kind of them be are direct Rebellion against God a despising of his Command and provoke his pure Eyes and make the aspect of Death fearful The Spirit seals our Pardon and Title to Heaven as the holy Spirit his Testimony that we are the Children of God and Heirs of Glory is concurrent with the renewed Conscience and distinguish'd from the ignorant Presumptions blind Conjectures and carnal Security of the Unholy As the sanctifying Spirit he distinguishes true Christians from the lost World appropriates them to God confirms their present Interest in the Promises of the Gospel and their future Hopes Briefly Grace is the most sensible effect and sign of God's special Favour the fruit of Election and the earnest of Glory and the Truth of Grace is most clearly and certainly made evident by the continual Efficacy of it in the Conversation The observation of our Hearts to suppress unholy Affections and of our Senses to prevent them a constant course of Holiness in our Lives though many Frailties will cleave to the best is usually rewarded with great Peace here God has establish'd a connexion between our Obedience and his Comforts Those that keep themselves pure from the Defilements of the World have the white Stone promised the bright Jewel of assurance of God's pardoning and rewarding Mercy We read of Enoch that he walk'd with God was a Star shining in a corrupt Age the tenour of his Life was holy and he was translated to Heaven without seeing Death Though this was an extraordinary Dispensation yet there is a peculiar Reward analogical to it for those who walk circumspectly they shall not see Death with its Terrors but usually have a holy Chearfulness a peaceful Joy in their passage through the dark Valley to Heaven But presumptuous Sins against external and internal Restraints the convincing Law of God and the Directions of Conscience to which even the Saints of God are liable here as appears by David's earnest Prayer to be preserved from them such Sins grieve the holy Spirit and wound our Spirits and if continued sequester us from the comfortable Priviledges of the Gospel and render us unfit for the Kingdom of Heaven And when they are retracted by Repentance yet there often remains a bitter Remembrance of them as deep Wounds though cur'd yet are felt in change of Weather And sometimes a Spring-tide of Doubts and Fears breaks into humble penitent Souls in the last Hours though Death brings them safely yet not comfortably to Heaven 3. The zealous Discharge of the Duties of our Place and Calling the Conjunction of our Resolutions and Endeavours to glorify God and do good according to our Abilities and Opportunities of Service sweetens the Thoughts of Death to us For the true End and Perfection of Life is the Glory of God and when with Fidelity it is employed in order to it Death brings us to the blessed Rest from our Labours Our Saviour when he was to leave the World address'd himself to his Father I have glorified thee on Earth I have finish'd the Work thou gavest me to do And now Father glorify me with thy self with the Glory which I had with thee before the World was A Christian that imitates and honours Christ and with Diligence perseveres in well-doing may with an humble Confidence in the Divine Mercy expect the promised Reward The Reflection upon a well-spent Life is joyn'd with a joyful Prospect of God's Favour and Acceptance above But to the careless and remiss to those who are wilfully negligent of their Duty how fearful is Death that summons them to give an account of their Talents to the Righteous Lord 4. A holy Indifference of Affection to present things makes it easy to part with them and Death less fearful to us David though a King declares he was a Stranger on Earth not only with respect to his transient Condition but his inward Disposition and that he was as a weaned Child from the admired Vanities of the World Chrysostom in a Letter to Ciriacus who was tenderly sensible of his Banishment wrote to him You now begin to lament my Banishment but I have done so for a long time for since I knew that Heaven was my Country I have esteemed the whole Earth a place of Exilement Constantinople from whence I am expell'd is as distant from Paradise as the Desert to which they send me But when our Affections are set upon external things and we are irregular in our Aims intemperate in our Use and immoderate in our Delights how sensible and cutting is the Division from them How bitter is Death that deprives a carnal Wretch of all the Materials of his frail Felicity What a Storm of Passions is raised to lose all his good things at once for 't is a Rule in Nature What is possess'd with transporting Joy is lost with excessive Sorrow As the Ivy that twines so closely about the Tree and is intimately fastned by so many Roots as there are Branches cannot be pluck'd away without rending the Bark with it so when the World that was as it were incarnated with the Heart is taken away the Heart it self is grievously rent by the violent Separation And the Infelicity of carnal and worldly Persons is heavily aggravated in that the Guilt in procuring or abusing those Treasures and Delights that they leave here with so great Sorrow will cleave to them and give Testimony against them before their Judg. But when the Affections are loose to the World and set upon Heaven our leaving the Earth is no Loss but Gain and our Separation from the Body of Flesh is with that Alacrity as the putting off a vile Garment to be clothed with a Royal Robe 'T was the wise Counsel of Tertullian to the Women of the first Ages of the Church not to value and love the Jewels and Ornaments of Gold that they might be more ready and resolved to obtain by Death Martyrdom and by Martyrdom Eternal Glory And that we may disentangle our Souls from those voluntary Bands that fasten us to present things we must have a sincere uncorrupted Judgment of their Meanness The Apostle exhorts Christians to Moderation in their Temper and Conversation with respect to the Business and Enjoyments here that they who have Wives be as though they had none that those that rejoice be as though they rejoiced not and they
that buy as though they possessed not and they that use the World as not abusing it for the fashion of the World passeth away To a wise and pondering Observer what comparison is there between Shadows and Dreams and substantial everlasting Blessedness If Men had the same opinion of this World whilst they live as they will have when they are to die they would not inordinately seek it They who have magnified temporal Honours and Riches and lived in Pleasures without Remorse yet in their dying Hours when Men speak with most Feeling and least Affectation how have they vilified those empty Appearances of Happiness with what moving Expressions declared the Vanity and Brevity of worldly things As when the Israelites were to go through the River Jordan that opened it self to make a free and dry Passage for them the lower part of its Waters ran into the Dead Sea and utterly fail'd but the Waters that came from above rose up and appear'd like a Mountain Thus when Men come to the universal Passage from this to the next Life inferiour things absolutely fail and are lost in the dead Sea but the things above that are eternal then appear in their true Greatness exceeding all humane Comprehension from hence is the change of Mind and Language concerning the one and other 5. Solemn affectionate and frequent Converse with God in religious Duties will render Death not fearful to us The whole Life of a Christian as such is a continual Communion with the Father and with Jesus Christ. For he performs all good Works by Divine Grace communicated from above and refers all to the Divine Honour As in a pair of Compasses one Foot is fix'd in the Center while the other moves in the Circumference so the Heart of a Christian is in Heaven his aims are for God whilst he is active here in the World His Natural and Civil Actions are heightened to a supernatural End And thus his Conversation is in Heaven But this was spoken of before and that which is now specified is the more immediate Service of God in Holy Meditation Prayer and the Ordinances of the Gospel which is the noblest part of the spiritual Life Our blessed Saviour who was a Comprehensor upon Earth always saw the Face of God and invariably sought his Glory in all things yet had his special times of Prayer and Heavenly Communion with God and the most glorious Testimonies of his Favour in those times Our Communion with God here is as true as in Heaven but the Influence and Fruition is different according to our Capacity When the Soul feels the vigorous Exercise of the Thoughts and Affections upon God and the raised Operations of Grace in Holy Duties 't is as certain a Sign of God's Favour and Acceptance as when Fire descended from Heaven to consume the Sacrifice And often our affectionate Duties are rewarded with sensible Consolations and holy Souls are dismiss'd from the Throne of Grace as they shall be received at the Throne of Glory with the reviving Testimonies of God's Approbation Now the Assurance of God's Love conquers the Fear of Death This Communion must be frequent As Love and Respects between Friends are maintained by constant Visits and Letters and mutual Confidence arises from Acquaintance so by the interchange of holy Duties and divine Favours we preserve a lively Sense of God's Love and an humble Familiarity with his Majesty that his Presence is not a Terror to us A Christian that walks with God here when he leaves the World to use the Words of a dying Saint changes his Room but not his Company God was always with him on Earth and he shall be ever with God in Heaven But cold and seldom Converse begets Strangeness and that makes us shy of God When religious Duties are performed as a complemental Visit without zealous Affections or used only in times of Affliction and Exigency as Cordial Waters in swooning Fits the Divine Presence is uncomfortable to us They who prefer carnal Sweets before Acquaintance with God cannot with Peace and Joy think of appearing before him O how unwelcome is Death to such for then the Spirit returns to God that gave it 6. Let us strengthen our Belief of the blessed State after Death Divine Truths lose their Influence and Efficacy when they are not stedfastly believed Faith is the substance of things not seen and the Evidence or Conviction of things hoped for The Spirit confirms our Faith not by a pure Physical Act but by convincing Reasons of the Truth of the Gospel The Life of Christ so glorious in Holiness his Doctrine so becoming the Wisdom and other excellent Attributes of the Deity his Miracles so great numerous open and beneficial not meerly to surprize the Spectators with Astonishment but to touch their Hearts his Death foretold by the Prophets and exactly agreeing in all the Circumstances of the Predictions his Resurrection the most noble Operation of the Divine Power are the strongest Proofs that what he has reveal'd as the Counsel of God for our Redemption and the Preparations of Glory for the Saints in Heaven are divine Truths And the Efficacy of the Spirit of Christ in sanctifying his Disciples in all Ages is a continual and as satisfying an Argument that the Gospel is derived from God the Fountain of Truth as extraordinary Miracles For Holiness is as inseparable a property of the Divine Nature as Omnipotence and the Sanctification of the Soul as divine an Effect as the Resurrection of the Body Now in the Gospel God enters into Covenant with obedient Believers to be their God a Title and Relation that supposing them the most happy here all the Enjoyments of this World cannot fulfil This Covenant is not dissolv'd by Death for he uses this Stile after the Death of his faithful Servants and from hence it follows they are Partakers of his Glory and Joys in the next Life For the Honour of his Veracity is most dear to him The Psalmist declares that he has magnified his Word above all his Name No Perfections of his Nature are more sacred and inviolable than his Truth The Foundations of Nature shall be overturn'd and the most solid parts of the Creation destroyed but his Promises shall be compleatly accomplish'd We are assured by his infallible Authority that there remains a Rest for the People of God And he that receives this Testimony sets to his Seal that God is true honours the Truth of God's Word and binds himself more firmly to his Service and is encouraged to leave this sensible World for that which is infinitely better Our Confidence and Patience in well-doing and in suffering the utmost Evil to Nature is from the pregnant Apprehensions of the Reality of eternal things We know saith the Apostle if our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved we have a Building not made with Hands eternal in the Heavens This fortified him against the Terrors of Death When Stephen saw the Heavens open
and the Son of God ready to receive him with what Courage and Constancy did he encounter the bloody Rage of his Murderers Faith supplies the want of Vision it pierces the Clouds opens a Window in Heaven sees the Crowns of Righteousness prepared for the Saints and sweetens the bitterest Passage to it But if our Faith be weak and wavering our Courage will decline in the needful Hour 'T is with Christians in their last Passage from Earth to Heaven as with Saint Peter walking upon the Waters to Christ whilst his Faith was firm in Christ he went upon the Waves as on the firm Land but upon the rising of a Storm his Faith sunk into Fear and he sunk in the Waters till our Saviour upon his earnest Prayer Lord save me took hold of him and rais'd him with that compassionate Reproof O thou of little Faith wherefore didst thou doubt The last Use is to excite the Saints to die with that Courage and Chearfulness as becomes the Gospel of Christ. The Encouragement of Joshua to the Israelites against the Giants that terrified them from entring into the Land of Canaan the Type of Heaven Be not afraid of them they are Bread for us we shall obtain an easy Conquest over them is applicable to this purpose Do not fear Death the Enemy that interposes between us and the true Canaan for our Conflict shall be the means of our Victory and triumphant Possession of the holy and blessed Land above This is very honourable to our Redeemer and recommends Godliness to the Judgment Affections and Practice of others St. Basil tells of a Custom to annoint the tops of Doves Wings with some fragrant Liquor that mixing in company with other Doves they might by the Sent allure them to follow to the Dove-houses Thus when holy Persons live and die with peaceful Joy those that converse with them are drawn by that Fragrance of Paradise to apply themselves to serious Religion 'T is the Apostle's consolatory Advice to Believers Not to be sorrowful for those that sleep in JESVS as those that are without hope When Jacob saw his beloved Son's Coat rent and stain'd with Blood he abandoned himself to desperate Sorrow and continued mourning for his Death when Joseph was advanc'd in Authority and Dignity next to Pharaoh in the Kingdom of Egypt Thus when we see the Garment of Mortality rent by Diseases we mourn for departed Saints as if Death had absolutely destroyed them when their Souls are reigning in Glory This immoderate Sorrow is an Heathenish Passion suitable to their ignorance of the future happy State but very unbecoming the plenary Assurance the Gospel affords us of it Indeed for the Wicked to die with fears and palpitations of heart to be surrounded with impendent horrours when such a precipice and depth of Misery is before them is very just and reasonable but for the Saints to die uncomfortably under inordinate Fears is a disparagement to the Blessed Hope establish'd upon the Revelation of Life and Immortality by the Gospel Now in three things I shall propound the Duty of dying Christians 1. To submit to the Divine Pleasure with resigned Spirits as to the Means the Manner and Time of Death God has a Sovereign Right and Dominion over us The present Life is his most free Favour and he may justly resume it when he pleases His Will should be the first and last Rule of ours Whether he gently untwines the Band of Life or violently breaks it we must placidly without reluctation yield up our selves By what Means soever Death comes all second Causes are moved by an impression from above in what Age of Life soever all our Times are appointed by the divine Counsel and a Saint ought with that readiness and meek submission receive it as if he heard an express Voice from Heaven calling him to God and say in his heart with Samuel Here I am thou didst call me This is the last act of our Obedience and very pleasing to God We read of the marvellous Consent of Abraham and his Son Isaac the Father to offer up his Son and the Son his Life that were both the Gifts of God in compliance with the divine Command and from Heaven he declared his high approbation of it This is to make a Vertue of Necessity and turn Nature into Grace But discontent and reluctancy as if our Lives were our own and taken from us unjustly or unseasonably is Rebellious Unthankfulness unbecoming a Creature much more a true Christian who exchanges a perishing Life for that which is eternal 2. To receive Death not only with Patience but earnest desires to be with Christ. I know Death is naturally unwelcome Our Saviour tells St. Peter When thou art old another shall bind thee and lead thee where thou wouldest not signifying his Martyrdom The Circumstance when thou art old is remarkable and intimates the natural unwillingness to die when there was little time to live But his rational sanctified Will was superiour and prevalent The universal desire of the Saints is to be happy in the Presence of God for the divine Nature communicated to them is intelligent and inclining towards its chief Good and if the obtaining it were not by being unclothed but clothed upon by an immediate Translation to Heaven how willingly would they leave this World But there is a bitterness in Death that makes it unpleasant and many holy Souls that desire the Glorious Liberty in Heaven yet are loth to leave their Prison Now there are so many Arguments to make the Saints desirous of dying that methinks since Life is chiefly valued and dear to them as it is the way to Heaven when they are come to that blessed end it should not be longer desirable What is this lower World that chains us so fast 'T is the Devil's Circuit wherein he ranges seeking whom he may devour 'T is the Theater of Contentions The Low aspire to rise the Exalted fear to fall The Poor envy the Rich and the Rich despise the Poor 'T is a foreign Country to the Saints and as Pilgrims and Strangers they are liable to Reproaches Injuries and hard Dealings from the Wicked the Natives of the Earth What is the present momentany Life that so enamours us 'T is surrounded with Temptations oppress'd with Fears ardent with irregular Desires and continually spent in Vanity or Vexation In Adversity 't is depress'd and melancholy in Prosperity foolish and proud 'T is a real Infelicity under the deceitful appearance of Felicity But above all other Motives the evil of Sin from which we cannot be clearly exempted here should render Death desirable The best suffer internal Divisions between the Law of the Flesh and the Law of the Mind as Rebecca felt the Twins Esau and Jacob repugnant in her Womb. How hard is it to be continually watching the Heart that Corruptions do not break out and the Senses that Temptations do not break in How difficult to order
with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Solomon under the Law repeats this Doctrine that every secret thing shall be brought into Judgment whether good or evil And God himself speaks in the sublimest stile of Majesty and swears by himself for our firmer belief As I live saith the Lord very Knee shall bow to me and every Tongue confess to God the glory of his Justice From whence the Apostle infers So then every one of us shall give an account to God for himself In the Gospel we have distinctly described the Person of the Judg the glorious Attendants of his Coming and the manner of his proceedings in that Day Now the many Predictions in Scripture so visibly accomplish'd in the Person of Jesus Christ and by him give infallible assurance that all his Promises and Threatnings are equally certain and shall be fulfilled As sure as our Saviour is come in his humble state and has accomplish'd the Prophecies of his Sufferings he will come in his Glory to judg the World Secondly That the belief of eternal Judgment may be powerful in our hearts and lives it must be actuated by frequent and serious thoughts Faith gives life and efficacy to our notions of eternal things and Consideration makes our Faith effectual As the natural Life is preserved by the activity of the vital Principles the Circulation of the Blood the drawing of the Breath the motion of the Pulse so the spiritual Life is maintained by the exercise of Grace The carnal Affections dare not appear before Reason and Conscience when awakened by the serious believing Consideration of eternal Judgment The Evangelists relate that when our Saviour was asleep in the Ship a sudden Tempest arose that was likely to over-set it in the Sea but awakened by the cry of his Disciples Lord save us we perish he presently rebuked the Wind and a Calm ensued Thus whilst the habit of Faith is asleep in the Soul there will be great danger from the concurrent violence of Temptations and Corruptions but when 't is awakened by lively and powerful thoughts it does Miracles in subduing the strongest Lusts. 'T is monstrous and beyond all belief did not sensible Experience make it evident that notwithstanding the minds of Men are convinc'd of the certainty of the Divine Judgment and the Recompences that immediatly follow yet their Wills remain unconverted and their Affections cold and unactive in their preparations for it That such numbers who have so much Christianity as to believe that an irrevocable Doom will pass upon the Wicked and so little Christianity that they cannot justly hope to escape from it yet are so careless of their Duty nay joyful in their sinful courses as if Judgment were a dreadless thing What is the cause of this prodigious security 'T is the neglect of considering that we must all appear before the Judgment-Seat of Christ to receive according to the things done in the body whether good or evil The next Cause of this stupidity is that they put the Evil Day at a remote distance as the Scorners said the Vision is for many Days They study to be secure and delay their preparations presuming to have time enough before them Their Senses and Faculties are so imployed abroad in the World they have neither leisure nor desire to think seriously of it Their Hearts are so ravish'd with Dreams of Sensuality and engaged in terrene Affairs that they are very averse from exercising their minds upon such displeasing Objects Vain Men how willingly do they deceive themselves The Judg himself declares Behold I come quickly His Throne is like a fiery Flame and his Wheels as burning Fire an Emblem of his swift coming to judgment Can they be assur'd of Life one Hour The Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment for immediately after there is a final decision of Mens states for ever I have read of an excellent Preacher that in a Sermon described the last Judgment in all its Terrors with such ardent Expressions and those animated with such an affecting Voice such an inflamed Countenance and Action that his Hearers broke forth into passionate Cries as if the Judg himself had been present to pass the final Sentence upon them In the heighth of their Commotion the Preacher bid them stop their Tears and Passions for he had one thing more to add the most afflicting and astonishing Consideration of all the rest That within less than a quarter of an hour the Memory and regard of that which so transported them would vanish and their Affections return to carnal Objects in their usual manner The neglect of Consideration makes even the Doctrine of Judgment to come to be without efficacy 'T is necessary therefore that the belief of this be so firmly seated in the Heart as its Throne that it may command the thoughts to be very attentive to it and may have Regal Power over our Wills and Affections that our Lives may be ordered according to its Rules 2. The Consideration of Eternal Judgment will vindicate the Proceedings of Divine Providence and the honour of God's governing this World from the imputations of Unrighteousness God is provoked every day yet spares the Wicked and heaps an abundance of Favours on them His Patience and Goodness they prophanely abuse and become more obdurate and inflexible They are apt to blaspheme the Excellency of his Nature in their Hearts thinking that he is ignorant or careless impotent or unjust They implicitly deny his Providence and Judgment that he does not observe their Sins and will not require an account for them Or else they interpret his Permission to be an Approbation of their Sins These things hast thou done and I kept silence thou thoughtest I was such an one as thy self Thus the Heathens transplanted the Vices of Earth to Heaven and represented their Gods to be sensual jealous furious as Men and accordingly expected an easy Absolution for their Sins Or else the distance of Judgment to come so hardens them that they hear God's Thunder with less fear than Boys do their Squibs and Crackers Because Sentence against an evil Work is not speedily executed therefore the hearts of the Sons of Men are fully set in them to do evil But how desperate is the madness of Sinners God now seems to wink at their Sins but hath appointed a day of Accounts He suffers them to live in prosperity but they are reserved to the day of Judgment to be punish'd and possibly sooner for sometimes they are cut off by visible Vengeance to convince the World that the supream Judg does not bear the Sword in vain But though 't is delayed for a time yet he declares that their Sins are laid up in store with him and sealed up among his Treasures To him belongs Vengeance and Recompence He is a mild Judge now and his Clemency suspends their Punishment but Justice will not
in the day of Adversity But the Lord is not slack in performing his Promise as Men count slackness There is not the least reason to question his Fidelity and Power or to suspect his Love and Remembrance of his People And as the Stars of Heaven enlighten the Earth but the Candles on Earth cannot enlighten the Heavens so the Wisdom of God's Counsel and Providence should direct us patiently to expect his appointed time but our glimmering Reason cannot direct him 4. The serious belief of future Judgment is the most effectual restraint from secret Sins Men are apt to encourage themselves in evil upon the account of secrecy 't is the usual tinder of Temptations If solitude and silence if the darkness of the night or any disguises may conceal their Wickedness from humane Eyes they are bold and secure as to God The Psalmist declares what is the inward principle that acts them what is the language of their hearts All the workers of Iniquity boast themselves they say The Lord shall not see neither shall the God of Jacob regard it But O the brutish folly of Men to think that because they do not see God that he does not see them As if one should shut his Eyes in the face of the Sun and do some foul abominable thing thinking himself to be unseen because he sees no person How vain is the impure diligence of the Adulterer the crafty diligence of the Deceiver the sollicitous diligence of other Sinners to hide things from the Judge of all Shall not God search it out for he knows the very secrets of the heart What a confounding discovery will be made of secret Wickedness at the last day Here obscurity is the mask of Shame that conceals it from the World Or if only Children and Fools that are not capable to judg of the indecency and turpitude of Actions be Spectators Men are not touch'd with shame for foul things But then their Wickedness shall be displayed before God the holy Angels and Saints The actual belief of this would deprive Satan of one of his greatest Advantages and be a blessed Preservative from many Sins that allure the consent by the temptation of secrecy A considering Christian will reject them with indignation saying with Joseph How can I do this great Wickedness and sin against God The Sins undiscovered and upunish'd by temporal Tribunals shall then receive a just recompence 5. The remembrance of that strict Judgment is the most natural and powerful remedy against sensual Temptations that so easily insinuate and engage the Hearts of Men. S. Peter reckoning up the Heathens Sins Lasciviousness Lusts excess of Wine Revellings and abominable Idolatries tells the Christians that the Gentiles thought it strange that they did not run with them to the same excess of riot As the Disciples when our Saviour walk'd upon the Waters thought he had been a Spirit judging that no real Body could tread on them without sinking thus Men are apt to think it impossible to restrain their carnal appetites when allured by pleasing Objects But the belief of the Terrors of the Lord will damp the sensual Affections when most strongly enclin'd to forbidden things and extinguish delight in Sin for Delight and Fear are inconsistent Therefore the wise Preacher gives this Counsel Rejoice O young Man in thy youth and let thy Heart chear thee in the Days of thy Youth and walk in the ways of thy Heart and sight of thine Eyes but know thou for all these things God will bring thee to Judgment This will change the apprehensions of the mind and alter the taste of the appetite and make the most enticing and irresistible Lusts the objects of our greatest detestation 6. The consideration that the Son of God clothed with our Nature shall judg the World affords strong Consolation to his People and is a motive of great terror to the Wicked How comfortable is it to his People that he who loved them above his Life and was their Redeemer on the Cross shall be their Judg on the Throne He is the same Jesus Christ yesterday to day and for ever the same indulgent Saviour in the exaltation of his Glory as when under Sufferings Reproach and Shame He is described in that glorious Appearance by the conjunct Titles of his Majesty and Power The Great God and of his Compassion and Mercy Our Saviour to signify his Ability and Affection to make them happy When he comes with a heavenly Train of Angels to Judgment he will be as tender of his Servants as when he suffered for them in his humble state He that paid their Debt and seal'd their Pardon with his own Blood will certainly publish the Acquittance How is it possible he should condemn those for whom he died and who appear with the impressions of his reconciling Blood upon them How reviving is it that Christ whose Glory was the end and perfection of their Lives shall dispose their states for ever that he who esteems every act of their Charity and Kindness done to his Servants as done to himself shall dispense the blessed Reward Then the King will say to them plac'd on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World O the transports of Joy to hear those words from his Life-breathing Lips The Prophet breaks forth in an Extasy How beautiful are the feet of the Messengers of Peace those that bring glad-tidings of Salvation but how much more beautiful is the face of the Author of our Peace and Salvation O how full of Serenity and Clemency and Glory The expectation of this makes them languish with impatience for his Coming Though the Preparations of that Day are so dreadful when the Sun shall be darkned and the Moon turned into Blood and the Stars fall like leaves in Autumn yet 't is stiled a Day of Refreshment to the Saints But how dreadful will his Coming in Majesty to Judgment be to the Wicked They shall see him whom they have pierced and with bitter lamentation remember the Indignities offered to him What Excuses can they alledg why they did not believe and obey the Gospel Our Saviour revealed high Mysteries but confirm'd them with great Miracles He requir'd strict Holiness but offer'd Divine Grace to enable Men to do his Will He poured forth his Spirit upon them but their Hearts were as hard as the Rocks and as barren as the Sands Then he will reproach them for their insolent Contempt of all the Perfections of his Divine Nature and the bleeding Sufferings of his Humane Nature to reconcile them to God for their undervaluing neglect of the great Salvation so dearly purchased and so freely and earnestly offered to them for their Obstinacy that the purple Streams that flow'd from his Crucified Body that all the Sorrows and Agonies of his Soul were not effectual Perswasives to make them forsake their Sins for their
of darkness for ever to signify the sadness and despair of the Damned and because in that centre of Misery a perpetual Night and invincible Darkness increases the horror of lost Souls Heaven for stability is called a City that has Foundations whose Builder and Maker is God The present World is like a Tent or Tabernacle set up for a time whilst the Church is passing through the Wilderness but Heaven is the City of the Living God the Place of his happy Residence the Seat of his eternal Empire The visible World with all its perishing Idols shall shortly fall this Beautiful Scene shall be abolish'd but the supreme Heaven is above this Sphere of mutability wherein all Bodies compounded of the jarring Elements are continually changing and dissolving 't is truly call'd a Kingdom that cannot be shaken Briefly the wise Maker has fram'd it correspondently to the end for which it was designed 't is the Seat of his Majesty his Sacred Temple wherein he diffuses the richest Beams of his Goodness and Glory and his chosen Servants see and praise his adorable Excellencies for ever Secondly I will endeavour to shew that the enjoyment of the Divine Presence in Heaven is the supreme Felicity of the Saints To make this supernatural Blessedness more easy and intelligible to us the Scripture describes it by sensible Representations For while the Soul is clothed with Flesh Fancy has such a dominion that we conceive of nothing but by Comparisons and Images taken from material things 'T is therefore set forth by a Marriage-Feast to signify the Joy and Glory of the Saints above But to prevent all gross Conceits we are instructed that the Bodies of the Saints shall be spiritual not capable of Hunger or Thirst nor consequently of any Refreshment that is caused by the satisfaction of those Appetites The Objects of the most noble Senses Seeing and Hearing the pleasure of which is mixed with Reason and not common to the Brutes are more frequently made use of to reconcile the blessed and Heavenly State to the proportion of our Minds Thus sometimes the Saints above are represented on Thrones and with Crowns on their Heads Sometimes clothed in White with Palms in their Hands sometimes singing Songs of Triumph to him that sits on the Throne But the real Felicity of the Saints infinitely exceeds all those faint Metaphors The Apostle to whom the admirable Revelation was exhibited of the Sufferings of the Church and the victorious issue out of them in the successive Ages of the World tells us it does not appear what the Saints shall be in Heaven The things that God has prepared for those that love him are far more above the highest ascent of our Thoughts than the Marriage-Feast of a King exceeds in splendor and Magnificence the Imagination of one that has always lived in an obscure Village and never saw any Ornaments of State nor tasted Wine in his Life We can think of those things but according to the Poverty of our Understandings But so much we know as is able to sweeten all the Bitterness and render insipid all the Sweetness of this World This will appear by considering whatever is requisite to constitute the compleat Blessedness of Man is fully enjoyed in the Divine Presence 1. An exemption from all Evils is the first condition of perfect Blessedness The Sentence of the wise Solon is true Dicique beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet No Man can be call'd happy whilst in this Valley of Tears There are so many natural Calamities so many casual which no humane Mind can foresee or prevent that one may be less miserable than another but none perfectly happy here But upon the entrance into Heaven all those Evils that by their number variety or weight disquiet and oppress us here are at an end Sin of all Evils the worst and most hateful shall be abolish'd and all Temptations that surround us and endanger our Innocence shall cease Here the best Men lament the Weakness of the Flesh and sometimes the violent Assaults of Spiritual Enemies St. Paul himself breaks forth into a mournful Complaint O wretched Man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death And when harrass'd by the buffets of Satan renews his most earnest Addresses to God to be freed from them Here our Purity is not absolute we must be always cleansing our selves from the Reliques of that deep Defilement that cleaves to our Nature Here our Peace is preserv'd with the Sword in our Hand by a continual warfare against Satan and the World But in Heaven no Ignorance darkens the Mind no Passions rebel against the sanctified Will no Inherent Pollution remains The Church is without Spot or Wrinkle or any such thing And all Temptations shall then cease The Temper was cast out of Heaven and none of his poison'd Arrows can reach that purified Company Glorious Liberty here ardently desir'd but fully enjoyed by the Saints above And as Sin so all the penal Consequences of it are quite taken away The present Life is a continual disease and sometimes attended with that sharp sense that Death is desir'd as a remedy and accepted as a Benefit And though the Saints have reviving Cordials yet their Joys are mix'd with Sorrows nay caused 〈◊〉 Sorrows The tears of Repentance are their sweetest refreshment Here the living Stones are cut and wounded and made fit by sufferings for a Temple unto God in the new Jerusalem But as in building of Solomon's Temple the noise of a Hammer was not heard for all the parts were fram'd before with that exact design and correspondence that they firmly combin'd together They were hewen in another place and nothing remain'd but the putting them one upon another and then as Sacred they became inviolable So God the wise Architect having prepar'd the Saints here by many cutting Afflictions places them in the eternal Building where no Voice of Sorrow is heard Of the innumerable Assembly above is there any Eye that weeps any Breast that sighs any Tongue that complains or any appearance of Grief The Heavenly State is called Life as only worthy of that Title There is no infirmity of Body no Poverty no Disgrace no Treachery of Friends no persecution of Enemies There is no more Death nor Sorrow nor shall there be any more Pain for former things are past away God will wipe away all Tears from the Eyes of his People There Salvation is compleat in all degrees Pure Joy is the Priviledge of Heaven unmixed Sorrows the Punishment of Hell 2. A concurrence of all positive Excellencies is requisite to Blessedness And these are to be considered with respect to the entire Man 1. The Body shall be awak'd out of its dead Sleep and quicken'd into a glorious immortal Life The Soul and Body are the essential parts of Man and though the inequality be great in their holy Operations yet their concourse is necessary Good Actions are design'd by the
the glorious Creatour As if one from the Region of the Stars should look down upon the Earth the Mountains and Hills with the Vallies would appear one flat Surface an equal Plain the height and the lowness of the several parts being indiscernible at that immense distance Now in Heaven the Divine Majesty is most visible and most awful and adorable The sublimest Spirits cover their Faces before his glorious Brightness The Prophet Isaiah had a representation of Heaven I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple Above it stood the Seraphims each one had six Wings With twain he cover'd his Face with twain he cover'd his Feet with twain he did fly And one cried to another and said Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory They highly honour him by the reflection of his separate and peerless Excellencies his Almighty Power his Infinite Supremacy and Eternal Empire in their consert of Praises This is the principal Duty of Angels and Men to the blessed Creator for his admirable Perfections and his excellent Benefits The Evidence of it is so entire that the reasonable Mind cannot suspend its Assent for Goodness and Beauty the Fruit and the Flower of amiable Things do so recommend them to the Understanding and Will that they powerfully allure and engage the Affections Now these are in God in unspeakable degrees of Eminence The Prophet breaks out in a rapture How great is his Goodness how great is his Beauty 'T was a Precept of the Ceremonial Law that the Firstlings of the Flock and the first and best Fruits of the Earth should be offer'd to God not as if the first that open'd the Belly was more valuable in his Account than the last or the most early Fruits in the Spring more pleasing to him than the later in the Autumn but 't was instructive that our Love the first born of the Soul and the beginning of its strength should be consecrated to God 2. In Heaven the Saints as perfectly love God as they know him The Love of God is the Essential Character of a Saint that distinguishes him from the Unregenerate Indeed it is strange that God who is infinitely lovely and infinitely liberal and benificent should not prevail on the Hearts of all Men but if we consider the degeneracy of Mankind how their Minds are depraved and deceived and their Affections are vitiated the Wonder will cease Carnal Men have not due Conceptions of God and will not attentively observe his amiable Perfections St. John tells us He that loveth not doth not know God Knowledg is the leading Principle in the Operations of the Soul There must be a heavenly Eye to discover the heavenly Beauty before there can be love of it Now Men are in ignorant darkness and are defiled in Flesh and Spirit and therefore cannot love God who is glorious in Holiness Without resemblance there can be no affectionate Union which is the Essence of Love The contrariety of Dispositions infers a contrariety of Affections The Scripture expresses this in dreadful Colours The carnal Mind is enmity against God the Friendship of the World is enmity with God that is Pride and Covetousness and Sensuality which are the Lusts of the Carnal Mind and are terminated upon worldly Things are inconsistent with the Love of God The Justice of God is terrible to the Consciences and his Holiness odious to the Affections of the Unrenewed 'Till by Divine Grace the Understanding is enlightned and purified to have right apprehensions of God till the Will and Affections are cleansed and changed till there be a resemblance of God's holy Nature and a conformity to his holy Laws they are not capable of delightful adhering to him which is the internal essential Property of Love But those who are partakers of the Divine Nature the holy and heavenly taste and see how good the Lord is and according to the Illustrations of the Mind such are the Impressions upon the Heart the Love of God in their Breasts here is like smoaking Flax but in Heaven 't is a triumphant Flame God is the first Fair the Original of all amiable Excellencies in whom they shine in their unstained Lustre and Perfection when he fully reveals himself and displays the richest Beams of his Love and Glory how transporting and endearing is that Sight Our Affections that are now scatter'd on many things wherein some faint Reflections of his Goodness appear shall then be united in one full Current to him who is all in all In Heaven the immense Treasures of his Grace are reveal'd That when Man for his rebellious Sin was justly expell'd from Paradise and under the Sentence of Eternal Death God should not only pardon but prefer us to the dignity of his Children and prepare such a Glory for us and us for such a Glory This will inspire the Saints with such ardent Affections that will make them equal to the Angels those pure and everlasting Flames of Love to God In Heaven we shall be with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant who is seated at the right Hand of God And how admirable will he appear to the Sense and Soul of every glorified Saint for we shall see the King in his Beauty When our Saviour was upon the Holy Mount and one vanishing Beam of Glory appear'd in his Transfiguration Peter was so transported at the sight that he forgot the World and himself How ravishing then will the sight of him in his Triumphant Majesty be when we shall be transfigur'd our selves Now while Believers are in the shadows of the earthly State they love their unseen Saviour with such intense degrees of affection as deface all the washy Colours all the vain loves of things in this World but when they are admitted into his shining Presence and see him in the day of Celestial Glory with what an extasy of Affection will they be transported We shall then feel the endearing Obligations our Saviour has laid upon us who ransom'd us with so rich a Price and purchas'd for us such an unvaluable Inheritance For in proportion as we shall understand his Greatness in himself we shall his Goodness to us The Eternal Son of God descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our lowly Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there reign'd and was visible to the Angels he became Man that he might die to redeem us from the most woful Captivity from Death and the sting of Death Sin and the strength of Sin the Law and obtain a blessed Life and Immortality for us O unexampled Love Greater Love hath no Man than this to lay down his Life for his Friend And what is the Life of a sinful Man a vanishing Vapour a Life mix'd with Troubles and Vexation and to lay down this for a Friend deservedly dear is the highest expression of humane Love But for the Son of God to lay down his Life
Glory are equally content For their most ardent Love being set on God that he is pleased to glorify himself by such various communications of his Goodness is full satisfaction to their Desires Besides in those different degrees of Glory every one is so content with his own that there is no possible desire of being but what he is 4. In Heaven the innumerable Company of Angels and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born as they receive Happiness from the sight of God so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society Our Love is now kindled either from a relation in Nature or a civil Account or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship but in Heaven the Reasons are greater and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent All Carnal Alliances and Respects cease in that supernatural State The Apostle tells us If I have known Christ after the Flesh I know him so no more By the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was transported into another World and had communion with him as an Heavenly King without low regards to the temporal Priviledg of conversing with him on Earth The spiritual Relation is more near and permanent than the strictest Band of Nature The Saints have all relation to the same Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace and Head of that happy Fraternity The principal Motives of Love here are the inherent Excellencies of a Person Wisdom Holiness Goodness Fidelity are mighty Attractives and produce a more worthy Affection a more intimate confederacy of Souls than propinquity in Nature or any carnal respects Vertue is amiable in an old Person tho wrinkled and deformed Vice is hateful in a young Person tho beautiful There are clearer Eyes than those of Flesh a purer Light than what is sensible a diviner Beauty than what is Corporeal and a nobler Love than what is sensual David declares that all his delight was in the Excellent But there are allays of this Spiritual Love here For 1. There are Reliques of Frailty in the best Men on Earth some Blemishes that render them less amiable when discovered Here their Graces are mix'd with Infirmities and but ascending to Glory Accordingly our Love to them must be regular and serene not clouded with Error mistaking Defects for amiable Qualities But in Heaven the Image of God is compleat by the union of all the glorious Vertues requisite to its perfection Every Saint there exactly agrees with the first Exemplar a Divine Beauty shines in them ever durable a Beauty that darts no contagious Fire that is inviolable and can suffer no injury The Apostle tells us The Church shall be glorious in Holiness without spot or wrinkle or any thing that may cast an Aspect of deformity upon it 2. In the present state the least part of the Saints Worth is visible As the Earth is fruitful in Plants and Flowers but its Riches are in Mines of precious Metals and the Veins of Marble hidden in its Bosom True Grace appears in sensible Actions but its Glory is Within The sincerity of Aims the purity of Affections the impresses of the Spirit on the Heart the interior Beauties of Holiness are only seen by God Besides such is the humility of eminent Saints that the more they abound in spiritual Treasures the less they show As the heavenly Bodies when in nearest conjunction with the Sun and fullest of Light make the least appearance to our sight But all their Excellencies shall then be in view The Glory of God shall be revealed in them And how attractive is the Divine Likeness to an holy Eye How will it ravish the Saints to behold an immortal Loveliness shining in one another Their Love is reciprocal proportionable to the cause of it An equal constant Flame is preserv'd by pure Materials Every one is perfectly amiable and perfectly enamour'd with all How happy is that state of Love The Psalmist breaks out in a Rapture Behold how good and pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity Love is the Beauty and Strength of Societies the Pleasure of Life How excellent is the Joy of the Blessed when the Prayer of Christ shall be accomplished that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us God is absolutely One in his glorious Nature and Will and therefore unalterably Happy And their inviolable Union in Love is a Ray of the Essential Unity between the Sacred Persons There are no Divisions of Heart and Tongues as in this Babel but the most perfect and sweetest Concord an Eternal Agreement in Tempers and Inclinations There are no envious Comparisons for Love that affectively transforms one into another causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all Every one takes his share in the Felicity of all and adds to it Such is the Power of that Celestial Fire wherein they all burn that it melts and mixes Souls in such an entire Union that by Complacence and an intimate Joy the Blessedness of all is as it were proper to every one as if every one were plac'd in the Hearts of all and all in the Heart of every one If in the Church of the First-born Christians in the earthly Jerusalem the Band of Charity was so strict that 't is said the Multitude of Believers were of one Heart and one Soul How much more intimate and inseparable is the Union of the Saints in Jerusalem above where every one loves another as himself 'T is recorded of Alexander that entring with Hephestion his Favorite into the Pavilion of the Mother of Darius then his Prisoner she bowed to the Favorite as having a greater appearance of Majesty thinking him to be Alexander But advised of her Error she humbly begg'd his Pardon To whom the generous King replied You did not err Mother this is also Alexander Such was their Affection that whoever was taken of them the other was taken in him the less ascending in the greater without degrading the greater in the less This is a Copy of the holy Love of the Blessed but with the same difference as between the Description of a Star with a Coal and its Beauty in its proper Aspect And where all is Love all is Delight The Act it self is its own Reward As that benign and pleasant Affection is enlarged with respect to the Object and its degrees such is the complacence and delight that results from it In that blessed Society there is a constant receiving and returning of Love and Joy And that double exercise of the Saints in the perfect circle of Love is like the pleasant labour of the Bees who all the day are flying to the Gardens and returning to their Hives and all their Art is in extracting the purest Spirits from fragrant Flowers and making sweet Honey O how do they
rejoice and triumph in the Happiness of one another With what an unimaginable tenderness do they embrace What Reciprocations of Endearments are between them O their ravishing Conversation and sweet Entercourse for their Presence together in Heaven is not a silent Show In the Transfiguration Moses and Elias talk'd with Christ We may understand a little of it by the sensible complacence that is among sincere Friends here In pure Amity there is a threefold Union a Union of Resemblance that is the principle of it likeness causes Love a Union of Affection that is its Essence 't is said of Jonathan that incomparable Friend his Soul was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul the Union of Conversation that is requisite to the satisfaction of Love What an entertainment of Love and Joy is there in the presence and discourses of dear Friends their mutual Aspects like a Chain compos'd of Spirits luminous and active draw and fasten their Souls to one another The Felicity of Love consists in their Conversation Now in Heaven whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in Perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens Folly and Weakness is abolish'd With what excellent Discourses do they entertain one another If David felt such inward Pleasure from the sense of God's Favours that he could not restrain the expression of it but invites the Saints Come and hear all ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what he has done for my Soul Certainly in Heaven the Blessed with overflowing Affections recount the Divine Benefits the admirable Methods whereby the Life of Grace was begun preserv'd and carried on in the midst of Temptations the continual Succession of Mercies in the time of their Hopes and the Consummation of all in the time of their enjoyment How joyfully do they concur in their Thanksgivings to God for the Goodness of Creation in making them reasonable Creatures capable to know love and enjoy him when they might have been of the lowest Order in the whole Sphere of Beings for his compassionate Care and Providence over them in this World but especially for his sovereign and singular Mercy in electing them to be Vessels of Honour for his powerful Grace in rescuing them from the cruel and ignominious Bondage of Sin for his most free Love that justified them from all their Guilt by the Death of his only Son and glorified them with himself They are never weary in this delightful Exercise but continually bless him for his Mercy that endures for ever We may judg by the Saints here when they are in a fit disposition to praise God what Fervors they feel in their united Praises of him in Heaven The Psalmist in an Extasy calls to all the parts of the World to join with him The Lord reigns let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad let the Sea roar let the Fields be joyful and all that dwell therein He desires that Nature should be elevated above it self that the dead parts be inspired with Life the insensible feel motions of Joy and those that want a Voice break forth in Praises to adorn the Divine Triumph With what Life and Alacrity will the Saints in their blessed Communion celebrate the Object of their Love and Praises The Seraphims about the Throne cried to one another to express their Zeal and Joy in celebrating his Eternal Purity and Power and the Glory of his Goodness O the unspeakable Pleasure of this Concert when every Soul is harmonious and contributes his part to the full Musick of Heaven O could we hear but some Eccho of those Songs wherewith the Heaven of Heavens resounds some remains of those Voices wherewith the Saints above triumph in the Praises in the solemn Adoration of the King of Spirits how would it inflame our Desires to be join'd with them Blessed are those that are in thy House they always praise thee 3. The fulness of Joy in Heaven is everlasting without defect and without end 1. 'T is undecaying the productive Causes are conservative of it being always equal Those are the beatifick Object and the continual fruition of it Whilst we are here below the Sun of Righteousness as to our perception and sense has Ascensions and Declinations Accesses and Recesses And our Earth is not so purified but some Vapours arise that intercept his chearful refreshing Light From hence there are alternate successions of Spiritual Comforts and Sorrows of Doubts and filial Confidence in the Saints 'T is a rare Favour of Heaven when an humble Believer in his whole course is so circumspect as not to provoke God to appear displeased against him When a Christian as those tutelar Angels spoken of in the Gospel always beholds the Face of his Heavenly Father and converses with him with an holy Liberty And what a torment the hiding of God's Face is to a deserted Soul only they know who feel it External troubles are many times attended with more Consolations to the Spirit than Afflictions to Sense but to love God with a transcendent Affection and to fear he is our Enemy no Punishment exceeds or is equal to it As his Loving-kindness in their esteem is better than Life so his Displeasure is worse than Death How do they wrestle with God by Prayers and Tears and offer as it were a holy Violence to the King of Heaven to recover their first serenity of Mind the lost Peace of Heart How passionately do they cry out with Job in the Book of his Patience O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shin'd upon my head and when by his Light I walk'd through darkness As I was in the days of my youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle And sometimes God delays the revealing himself even to his dearest Children not that he does not see their Necessities and hears their Prayers or is so hard that till their Extremities he is not moved with Compassion but for wise and holy Reasons Either that they may not return to folly if by any presumptuous Sin they forfeited their Peace or if they have been careful to please him yet he may deprive them of Spiritual Comforts for a time to keep them humble and that with an obedient resignation to his Sovereign Pleasure they may wait for his reviving Presence And then Joy returns greater than before For thus God usually renders with interest what he suspended only for trial But the Saints above are for ever enlightned with the vital splendor and dear regards of his Countenance always enjoy his beamy smiles A continual effusion of Glory illustrates Heaven and all its blessed Inhabitants And their Contemplation of God is fixed If the Object though extraordinary glorious were transient or the Eye so weak that it could only see it but by glances the height of Joy would not be perpetual But the mind is prepar'd with supernatural vigour to see the brightness
laspes have justly deserved that God should withdraw his grieved Spirit are new Obligations to Thankfulness and the more Grace the less Merit 3. The best Works of Men are imperfect allayed with the mixtures of Infirmities and not of full weight in the Divine Ballance If God should strictly examin our Righteousness 't will be found neither pure nor perfect in his Eyes and without Favour and Indulgence would be rejected And that which wants Pardon cannot deserve Praise and Glory He shews Mercy to thousands that love him and keep his Commandments If Obedience were meritorious it were strict justice to reward them The Apostle prays for Onesiphorus who had exposed himself to great danger for his love to the Gospel The Lord grant he may find Mercy in that day The Divine Mercy gives the Crown of Life to the Faithful in the day of eternal Recompences II. The meritorious Cause of our obtaining Heaven is the Obedience of Jesus Christ comprehending all that he did and suffered to reconcile God to us From him as the eternal Word we have all benefits in the order of Nature for all things were made by him and for him as the incarnate Word all good things in the order of Grace What we enjoy in Time and expect in Eternity is by him To shew what influence his Mediation has to make us happy we must consider 1. Man by his Rebellion justly forfeited his Happiness and the Law exacts precisely the Forfeiture Pure Justice requires the Crime should be punish'd according to its Quality much less will it suffer the guilty to enjoy the favour of God For Sin is not to be considered as an Offence and Injury to a private Person but the violation of a Law and a disturbance in the order of Government so that to preserve the honour of governing Justice an equivalent reparation was appointed Till Sin was expiated by a proper Sacrifice the Divine Goodness was a sealed Spring and its blessed effects restrain'd from the guilty Creature Now the Son of God in our assumed Nature offered up himself a Sacrifice in our stead to satisfy Divine Justice and removed the Bar that Mercy might be glorified in our Salvation The Apostle gives this account of it We have boldness to enter into the Holiest by the Blood of Christ by a new and living way which he hath consecrated for us through the Vail that is to say his Flesh. 2. Such were the most precious Merits of his Obedience that it was not only sufficient to free the guilty contaminated Race of Mankind from Hell but to purchase for them the Kingdom of Heaven If we consider his Humane Nature all Graces were born with him as Rays with the Sun and shin'd in the whole course of his Life in the excellence of Perfection And the dignity of his Divine Person derived an immense Value to all he perform'd as Mediator One Act of his Obedience was more honourable to God than all the Lives of the Saints the Deaths of the Martyrs and the Service of the Angels God was more pleased in the Obedience of his Beloved Son than he was provok'd by the rebellion of his Servants Therefore as the just Recompence of it he constituted him to be Universal Head of the Church supream Judg of the World invested him with Divine Glory and with Power to communicate it to his faithful Servants He is the Prince of Life In short it is as much upon the account of Christ's Sufferings that we are glorified as that we are forgiven The Wounds he received in his Body the Characters of Ignominy and Footsteps of Death are the Fountains of our Glory His Abasement is the cause of our Exaltation If it be said This seems to lessen the freeness of this Gift The answer is clear This was due to Christ but undeserved by us Besides the appointing his Son to be our Mediator in the way of our Ransom was the most glorious Work of his Goodness 2. The Means of our obtaining Heaven are to be considered Though the Divine Goodness be free in its Acts and there can be nothing in the Creature of Merit or Inducement to prevail upon God in the nature of a Cause yet he requires Qualifications in all those who shall enjoy that blessed unchangeable Kingdom The Apostle expresly declares 'T is not of him that wills nor of him that runs but of God that sheweth Mercy But we must distinguish the Effects of this Mercy which are dispensed in that order the Gospel lays down The first Mercy is the powerful calling the Sinner from his corrupt and wretched State a second Mercy is the pardoning his Sins the last and most eminent is the glorifying him in Heaven Now 't is clear that in this place the shewing of Mercy signifies the preventing Grace of God in Conversion for in the 18 th Verse 't is said God shews Mercy to whom he will and whom he will he hardens Where 't is evident that shewing Mercy is oppos'd not to condemning but to hardning and consequently the intent of the words is this That Divine Grace overcomes the Rebellious Will softens the stiff and stubborn Heart and makes it pliant to Obedience This flows from his pure good Will and Pleasure without the least Motive from the Inclinations or Endeavours of sinful Men. But the other Effects of God's Mercy require Conditions in the Subjects that receive them for he pardons only penitent Believers and glorifies none but persevering Saints To make this clear 't is worthy of Observation The Gospel has several Denominations 'T is called a Law a Covenant and a Testament 'T is called the Law of Faith and the Law of the Spiritual Life As a Law it signifies a new Right that God has most freely establish'd in favour of lost Man that commands certain Duties and sets before them Eternal Life as the Reward of Obedience and Eternal Death the Punishment of Disobedience According to this the trial and decision of Mens everlasting States shall be which is the Character of a true Law This Law of Grace is very different from the Law of Nature that requir'd intire Innocence and for the least omission or accusing Act past an irrevocable Doom upon the Offenders for that strictness and severity is mollified by the Gospel which accepts of sincere persevering Obedience tho imperfect accordingly 't is called the Law of Liberty But the Law of Faith is unalterable and admits of no Dispensation from the Duties required in order to our being everlastingly happy 2. The Gospel is stiled a Covenant and that imports a reciprocal Engagement between Parties for the performance of the Matter contained in it The Covenant of Grace includes the Promise of pardoning and rewarding Mercy on God's part and the Conditions on Man's with respect to which 't is to be perform'd There is an inviolable dependence between them He will be our God to make us happy but we must be his People to yield
Glory in the next World that we may reign with him The Means in order to this End are of two sorts Some conduct to it by themselves those are the good things desired in the third and fourth Petitions and some lead to it by accident and those are the freedom from Evils express'd in the last Petition The good things desired either have a direct influence upon our obtaining Happiness and they are summ'd up in our universal Obedience to God's Will express'd in the third Petition Let thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven or they are such as by way of subserviency promote our Happiness and those we pray for in the fourth Petition Give us this day our daily Bread And 't is observable there is but one Petition for Temporal Blessings and 't is the last in the order of those that concern good things And that single Petition is so restrained that 't is evident by its Tenour that earthly things are not absolutely good to be desired for themselves but relatively and subordinately to our eternal Good Daily Bread we must ask of our heavenly Father the necessary support of the present Life without which we cannot exercise our internal or external Powers and Faculties in his Service but not Delicacies and Abundance for the luxurious Appetite The difference of Conditions in the present World is very great as in Pharaoh's Dream some Ears of Corn were so full and weighty that they bended with their weight others so thin and blasted that they were as Stubble for the Fire Thus some abound in all Felicities possible in this Life others are chastened every Morning under various and continual Afflictions Now this infallible Principle being planted in the Heart that all present things are to be improved with respect to our future Happiness will moderate the Affections in Prosperity so to use the World that we may enjoy God and make us not only patient but pleased in Adversities as they are preparatory for Heaven The Original of all the Sins and Misery of Men is their perverse abuse of things by turning the Means into the End setting their Affections of Love Desire and Joy upon sensible things as their proper Happiness with inconsiderate neglect of the spiritual eternal state to which all other things should be subservient As if one diseased and sickly in a Forreign Country that could not possibly recover Health but in his Native Air in his return thither invited by the pleasantness of the way should take up his residence in it and never arrive to his own Country Among the West Indians some are reported to be so swift in running that no Horse can keep pace with them and they have a constant rule in their Diet to eat of no Beast or Bird or Fish that is slow in motion fancying it would transfuse a sluggishness in them The Christian Life is by the Apostle compar'd to a Race and earthly things by an inseparable property of Nature load and depress the Soul that it cannot with vigour run the Race set before it The Believer therefore who intends for the high price of his Calling and is true to his End will be temperate in all things Nay he will not only be circumspect lest they should check with his great Design but wisely manages them in subserviency to it St. Paul charges them that are rich in this World to do good to be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal Life And the fixed aim at Heaven as our Felicity will reconcile an afflicted state to us When temporal Evils are effectual means to promote our everlasting Happiness the amiableness and excellency of the End changes their Nature and makes those Calamities that in themselves are intolerable to become light and easy The Poor the Mourners the Persecuted are blessed now because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle tho under variety of sharp Troubles yet expresses his sense with that mitigation as but lightly touch'd with them as sorrowful but always rejoicing From hence he tells us that with unfainting courage he prosecuted his glorious End For our light Afflictions that are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory This seriously believed and considered will make us understand the Harmony and Consent of the most discordant parts of God's Providence This will reconcile the severity and roughness of his Hand with the tender Compassions of his Heart towards his Servants This will dry up Rivers of unprofitable Tears that flow from the Afflicted and make the Cross of Christ a light burthen For their heaviest Afflictions are not only consistent with his Love but the Effects of it being influential upon their Happiness We are now toss'd upon the alternate Waves of Time but 't is that we may arrive at the Port the blessed Bosom of our Saviour and enjoy a peaceful Calm and so we shall be ever with the Lord. Words of infinite sweetness This is the Song of our Prosperity and the Charm of our Adversity Well might the Apostle add immediately after Therefore comfort one another with these Words 4. The sincere Choice of Heaven as our final Happiness will make us aspire to the greatest height of Holiness we are capable of in the present state For the End has always a powerful Vertue to transform a Man into its Likeness and Heaven is a state of perfect conformity to the Holy God This difference is observable between the Understanding and the Will in their Operations The Understanding in forming Conceptions of Things draws the Object to it self The Will is drawn by the Object to it chuses and is always fashioning and framing the Soul into an intire conformity to it Thus Carnal Objects when propounded as the End of a Man secretly imprint on him their Likeness his Thoughts Affections and whole Conversation is Carnal As the Psalmist speaks of the Worshippers of Idols they that make them are like unto them so is every one that trusteth in them whatever we adore and esteem we are changed into its Image Idolaters are as stupid and senseless as the Idols to which they pay Homage Thus when God is chosen as our supream Good and last End by conversing with him the Image of his glorious Holiness is derived on the Soul and it becomes Godly the Heart is drawn by his attractive Excellencies and the Life directed to him This being a Point of great importance I shall further prove and illustrate it There is no deliberating about the degrees of that which is loved for it self as our End More or less may respect the Means that are valued and used to obtain it but the Love of the End is vast and unlimited A Physician endeavours to recover his Patient to sound and perfect Health that being the End of his Art He that seeks for
they are ever totally deserted by the Holy Spirit and left under the reigning Power of Sin The Threatnings are intended to awaken their Care and are Preservatives of them from Ruin and have a singular Influence on their Perseverance A vigilant and cautious Fear establishes the certainty of their Hope Indeed from the Reliques of weakness and corruption in the Saints they sometimes actually fall into presumptuous Sins and by rebellious relapses wound Conscience and let out much of the vital Spirits their Graces and Comforts But though the divine Nature in them is miserably wasted by such Sins yet 't is not abolish'd As after the Creation of Light there was never pure and total Darkness in the World Grace does not consist in a Point but is capable of Degrees The new Creature may decline in Beauty and Strength yet Life remain Between a lively and a dead Faith there may be a fainting Faith as in St. Peter for certainly our Saviour was heard in his Prayer for him that his Faith should not fail in his dreadful Temptation The Saints do not by a particular fall extinguish the first living Principles of Obedience Faith and Love nor change their last end by an entire turning from God to the World In short a single act of Wickedness does not reduce them into a state of Unregeneracy for 't is not the matter of the Sin singly considered but the disposition of the Sinner that denominates him If Grace in the Saints should utterly perish as some boldly assert their recovery would be impossible For the Apostle tells us that if those who were enlightned and had tasted of the Heavenly Gift that had been under some common Workings and lower Operations of the Spirit if such fall away universally and live in a course of Sin opposite to their former illuminations and resolutions it is impossible to renew them by Repentance how much more then if those who were truly sanctified by the holy Spirit should intirely lose all those gracious habits planted in them in their Regeneration But David though guilty of Adultery and Murder Sins of so foul a Nature as would dishonour Paganism it self and made the Enemies of God to blaspheme was restored by Repentance The Gospel propounds a remedy not only for Sins committed before Conversion but after it If any Man sin we have an Advocate with the Father Jesus Christ the Righteous God does not revoke the Adoption nor reverse the Justification of a Believer but upon scandalous disorders the effects of Justification are suspended with respect to the new contracted guilt till there be sincere and actual Repentance He is not disinherited but his right to the Kingdom of Heaven is eclipsed as to the comfortable sense of it nay suspended till by renovation he is qualified and made fit for the enjoyment of that pure Inheritance For those Sins which are a just cause of excommunicating an Offender from the Church on Earth would exclude him from the Kingdom of Heaven without Repentance Our Saviour tells us what is bound on Earth is ratified in Heaven And the Apostle expresly declares of those kinds of Sin for which Professors must be removed from the Communion of Saints here that they are an exclusive bar from the Kingdom of Heaven But I have written to you not to keep Company if any that is called a Brother be a Fornicator or Covetous or an Idolater or a Railer or a Drunkard or an Extortioner with such a one no not to eat And know ye not that the Vnrighteous shall not inherit the Kingdom of God Be not deceived neither Fornicators nor Idolaters nor Adulterers nor Effeminate nor Covetous nor Drunkards nor Revilers nor Extortioners shall inherit the Kingdom of God If one that is truly a Child of God fall into any of these Sins till by an extraordinary Repentance he is prepared for Pardon he cannot obtain it nor have a comfortable hope of entring into Heaven For only those who are justified are glorified Indeed it is not imaginable where the Seed of God remains the vital Principle of Grace as it does in all that are born of God but that notorious Sins that cannot be concealed from the view of Conscience will cause stings and sorrows proportionable to their malignity and consequently a hatred and forsaking of them Now Perseverance principally respects the End of our Course There may be Interruptions in the way for a time but if with renewed Zeal and Diligence we prosecute our blessed End we shall not fall short of it Secondly I come now to consider the second thing propounded The Reason why Perseverance is requisite in all that will obtain Eternal Life and 't is this That their Sincerity may be discovered by constancy in Obedience under all Trials Blessed is the Man that endures Temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him The Law required unsinning Obedience as the Condition of Life the Gospel accepts of Sincerity but if that be wanting there is no Promise that gives right to the Reward Now Sincerity implies such an entire Love of God as makes a Person submit to all Duties commanded in his Law and all Trials appointed by his Providence A high Example we have of this in Abraham when he was commanded to offer up his only Son Isaac and by his own Hands for a Burnt-Offering This was to kill a double Sacrifice at one Blow for the Life of Abraham was bound up in Isaac he lived in him more dearly than in himself all his Joy all his Posterity by Sarah had died in Isaac What resentments what resistance of Nature did he suffer yet presently he address'd himself to perform his Duty Whoever saw a more glorious Victory over all the tender and powerful Passions of humane Nature O unexampled Obedience being an Original without any Precedent to imitate and without a Copy to succeed it After this clear infallible Testimony of his Sincerity the Angel declar'd from Heaven Now I know that thou fearest God seeing thou hast not withheld thy Son thine only Son from me And 't is said concerning the followers of the Lamb that they loved not their Lives unto the Death The Love of Christ that animated them in all their Sufferings was sweeter than Life and stronger than Death Indeed there was a wonderful difference in the behaviour of the Martyrs under Sufferings but in all the same Persevering Grace was evident though working variously Some in the most beautiful Flower of their Age encounter'd Fire and Sword Tormentors and Torments with that sensible Joy with those Songs of Praise to Christ as if they saw the Heavens open with St. Stephen and their Saviour ready to receive and crown them But many others as Chrysostom testifies went to the Tribunals to the Theatres to Death with many appearances of Fear Upon hearing the wild Beasts roar they were struck with horror at the sight of
all those who preserve their Conscience and Integrity inviolable shall receive at the universal Judgment in the presence of God and the holy Angels as our Saviour has promis'd He that serves me him will my Father honour and the confusion wherein the most honourable Sinners shall then be cover'd that with a generous disdain all secular honours will be despised And it is as powerful to enervate the Temptation of temporal Profit We read of Moses that by Faith when he was come to Years and therefore more capable to understand and enjoy what Felicity the brightest Honours and greatest Riches could afford refused to be called the Son of Pharaoh 's Daughter chusing rather to suffer Affliction with the People of God than to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin for a season esteeming the reproach of Christ greater Riches than the Treasures of Egypt for he had respect to the recompence of Reward And all the Evils which a wicked World inspir'd with rage from Satan can threaten to fright us from our Duty Poverty Disgrace Banishment nay Torments and Death those terribles visu formae so heightned by the carnal Fancy are easily overcome by a sincere and strong Believer Thus some who were urged by such motives to renounce their Religion told the Persecutors that Life was not sweet to them if they might not live Christians nor Death bitter if they must die for Christ. A lively firm perswasion of the excellence and eternity of the Reward what miraculous effects would it produce Nothing would be impossible within the compass of our Duty either to do or suffer in order to a glorious Immortality Faith has a celestial Power a magnetick Virtue to draw up the Heart from the Earth and fastens it to things above It is not imaginable that a clear-sighted Soul that sees a Good infinitely great should reject it for mean things to please the lower Desires We may as probably imagine that a skilful Jeweller would part with the richest Oriental Pearls for Cherry Stones to play with Children From hence we may discover the true cause of the neglect of the great Salvation offered in the Gospel the Word preached does not profit not being mixt with Faith in them that hear it It is astonishing to consider that Earth should contend with Heaven for our Affections and prevail against it that Vanity should turn the Scale against the exceeding and eternal weight of Glory that Men should pursue fleeting Shadows and neglect the most excellent Realities as if they could be happy here and continue for ever and hereafter there were neither Happiness nor Eternity But this releases the wonder that all Men have not Faith Eternal Things are not of conspicuous moment in the carnal Ballance Some are Infidels in Profession openly declaring themselves to be without Religion without God and have the same credit of the Heaven and Hell discovered in the Gospel as of the Elysian Fields and Stygian Lake the Fables of the Poets These live as if they should never die and die as if they should never live in the other World as if Death caused so deep a sleep that the Voice of the Son of God could not awaken them at the last day Their Unbelief is not from Reason but vicious opposite Affections for the truth of the Eternal State is so clearly revealed and strongly establish'd in the Gospel that the sincere Mind must readily assent to it But the Wicked cannot delight in the discovery of that for which they are unprepared and therefore try all ways to elude the Force of the most satisfying Arguments Their Infidelity is obstinate and incurable An instance whereof we have in the Pharisees who rejected our Saviour Tho all the Characters of the Messiah were conspicuous in his Person tho his Doctrines were confirmed by Miracles yet they would not yield up themselves to that omnipotent conviction so strong were their carnal Prejudices against his humble State and holy Doctrines That Reproach is more justly due to Infidels under the Gospel than to Israel in the Prophet Who is blind as my Servant The Heathens who are blind from their Birth and have only some glimmering apprehensions that Eternity succeeds Time are less culpable than those who have infinitely more reason to believe it and yet believe it less The Plea for them will be a terrible Accusation against such Unbelievers If a blind Person falls it moves Compassion but if one voluntarily shuts his Eyes against the Sun and refuses the Direction of the Light and falls from a Precipice his Ruin is the just Consequence of his Folly Simple Ignorance excuses as to the degrees of the Fault but affected wilful Ignorance now Reason and Revelation with united Beams give so clear a prospect into the Eternal World aggravates the Guilt and Sentence of such Unbelievers Besides the most who are Believers in Title are Infidels in Heart Our Saviour tells the Jews who pretended the highest Veneration to the Writings of Moses That if they had believed Moses they would have believed him for Moses wrote of him If Men did seriously believe such an excellent Reward as the Gospel propounds would it be a cold unperswasive Motive to them The depravation of the Will argues a correspondent defect in the Mind though not absolute total Infidelity yet such a weakness and wavering in the Assent that when Temptations are present and urgent and it comes to actual Choice Sense prevails over Faith This will be clear by Universal Experience in temporal Things The probable hope of Gain will make those who are greedy of Gold prodigal of their Lives and venture through tempestuous Seas to accomplish their Desires And if the belief were equal would not Men do or suffer as much for obtaining what is infinitely more valuable A firm Assent would produce adherence and Faith in the Promises Fidelity in obeying the Commands of Christ. Tertullian propounds it as a powerful incentive to the Martyrs Quis ergo non libentissimè tantum pro vero habeat erogare quantum alii pro falso Who would not joyfully sacrifice Life and all its Indearments to obtain true Blessedness which others do for the vain Appearance of it Men may be as truly Subjects without subjection as Believers without a Heavenly Conversation which is inseparable from the Reality of Faith Many in the Bosom of the Church are as truly though not so notoriously Infidels as Turks and Heathens Indeed even in true Believers the apprehension of eternal Things has such great allays that temporal Things are over-valued and over-feared A strong Faith in the Truth and Power of God would make the glorious World so sure and near in our Thoughts that with indifferent Affections we should receive good or evil Things here Rejoice as if we rejoiced not and mourn as if we mourned not Our Lives would be so regular and pure as if the Judg were to come the next Hour as if the Sun did now begin to be darkned and the
Trumpet of the Arch-Angel were sounding and the noise of the dissolving World were universally heard Infidelity deads the Impression and suppresses the reigning Power of Eternal Things in our Hearts In short Men are heavenly or earthly in their Choice and Conversation as they are directed by the sincere Light of Faith or misled by the false Beams of Sense Secondly The second Thing requisite in order to a wise Choice is Consideration For as by Faith the Vertue of the Reward is diffused through all the Faculties and the Powers of the World to come are felt in the Soul so by consideration Faith is exercised and becomes effectual This unites and reinforces the Beams of Eternal Truth and inflames the Affections As the Psalmist expresses himself My Heart was hot within me while I was musing the Fire burned Heaven is a Felicity so glorious and attractive that if duly considered no Man can possibly refuse it and Hell is a Misery so extream and fearful that if seriously laid to Heart none can possibly chuse it The last End is to be conceived under the Notion of an infinite Good without the least mixture of Evil to which the humane Will swayed by the invincible Impression of Nature has a tendency The Liberty of Indifference is with respect to some particular good Things which may be variously represented so as to cause Inclination or Aversion Those Men who believe Eternal Life is the Reward of Holiness yet with a careless Inadvertency pass over their Duty and that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin yet securely continue in it is more wonderful than to see Martyrs sing in the Flames and the great Cause of it is the neglect of Consideration This is assigned to be the Cause of that unnatural and astonishing Rebellion of Israel against God their Father and Sovereign Hear O Heavens and give Ear O Earth for the Lord hath spoken I have nourished and brought up Children and they have rebelled against me The Ox knows his Owner and the Ass his Master's Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider This Duty as it is of admirable Advantage so 't is universally necessary for all are equally concern'd and it is within the Power of all to perform Though Men cannot convert themselves yet they may consider what is preparatory to Conversion For the Will may turn the Thoughts of the Mind to any sort of Objects I will briefly shew the Nature of this Duty and how to manage it for spiritual Profit and those Objects from whence our Thoughts derive vigour for the swaying of the Will and the Conduct of the Life 1. The Nature of Consideration is discovered by its End which is this That the Mind being satisfied in the just Reasons upon which the Choice of Heaven is to be made the Will and Affections may be engaged in an earnest joyful and constant pursuit of it And in this respect it differs from simple Knowledg and naked Speculation that informs the Mind without Influence and Efficacy upon the Heart Like a Garland of Flowers that adorns the Head without any benefit and refreshing to him that wears it And practical Meditation differs from the study of Divine Things in order to the instructing of others That is like a Merchant's buying of Wine for Sale this like providing it for our own use 2. That the Consideration of Eternal Things may be effectual it must be 1. Serious and deliberate For the Affair is great in reality above all possible Conception or Comparison All other things how considerable soever in themselves yet respectively and in parallel with this are of no account Our Saviour told Martha One thing is necessary Mary hath chosen the better part that shall not be taken from her What Instance can be of equal moment with that of entertaining the Son of God Yet a serious attention to the Words of Eternal Life dropping from his Lips was more necessary than making provision for him The greatest and most weighty Affairs in the World are but a vain Employment but Irregularity and Impertinence in compare with Eternal Salvation And the greatest solemnity of Thoughts is requisite to undeceive the Mind and ingage the Will for Heaven 'T is very observable that Errors in Judgment and Choice spring from the same Causes the not sincere and due weighing of Things In the decisions of Questions Truth is discovered by comparing with an equal staid Attention the Reasons of the one and the other part But when some vicious Affection contradicts the Truth it fills the Mind with Prejudices that it cannot impartially search into Things and is deceived with specious Fallacies with the Image of Truth For according to the present application of the Mind 't is determined and Passion strongly applies it to consider that which is for the Carnal Interest and consequently Inclination not Reason is the Principle of the Perswasion And this is more evident in Mens foolish Choice As the Eye cannot see but what is visible nor the Understanding conceive what is not Intelligible the Will cannot love and chuse what is not amiable at least in shew If the Devil did appear without a Disguise he would have no Power to perswade but in all his Temptations there is the mixture of a Lie to make it pleasant He presents a false Perspective to make what is but superficial appear solid and substantial And the carnal Heart turns the Thoughts to what is grateful without seriously considering what is infinitely better and accordingly chuses by the Eye of Sense the happiness of this World Therefore till Eternal Things are open'd in the view of Conscience and the Mind calmly considers by the Light of Faith their Reality and Greatness no right valuation nor wise choice can be made Besides the most clear and rational enforcements by the actings of the Thoughts are necessary to make a strong impression on the Affections and rescue them from the captivity of the Flesh. In other things as soon as the Mind is inlightned the Will resolves and the inferior Faculties obey but such is the resistance of the carnal Heart that altho 't is evident from infallible Principles there is an everlasting Glory infinitely to be preferr'd above the little appearances of Beauty and Pleasure here yet the most piercing Reasons enter heavily without earnest inculcation Slight or sudden Thoughts may produce vanishing Affections of complacence or distaste and fickle Resolutions that like sick Feathers drop away and leave the Soul naked to the next Temptation but solemn and fixed Thoughts are powerful on the Heart in making a thorow and lasting Change When the Clouds dissolve in a gentle Shower the Earth drinks in all and is made Fruitful but a few sprinkling Drops or a short storm of Rain that wets only the Surface without sinking to the Root is little beneficial In short there may be some excitations to Good and retractions from Evil some imperfect faint essays towards Heaven from an impulse