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of the Night a small Voice is more distinctly heard and a little distant Light more clearly seen so when the Soul is withdrawn from the noisy throng of the World and outward things are darkned the Voice of Conscience is better heard and the Light of Heaven more perfectly received 3.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 persuade 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 a particular Chapter 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 flys from one thing to another without coherence The Heart fill'd with cloudy Cares and smoaky Fires with Thoughts and Desires about worldly Things is unprepar'd for such a clear calm and sedate Work A Carnal Person can taste no sweetness feel no relish in the Meditation of Heaven nor any spiritual Duty 'T is as if one should take some delicious Fruit into his Mouth a Peach or the like without breaking the Skin it would be rather a trouble than pleasant Nay the Gospel expresly declaring that without Holiness no Man shall see God those who by vicious Affections are ingaged in any sinful way being conscious of their guilt and unpreparedness and that while such they are under a peremptory exclusion from celestial Glory cannot endure the thoughts of Heaven The Divine Presence is their Torment and the serious Consideration of it is to bring them before God's holy and just Tribunal to accuse and condemn them CHAP. X. The Objects of Consideration specified The End of Man's Creation considered The Things of the World and Heaven that solicit our Choice considered in their Quality and Duration I Shall next proceed to a more particular view of those Objects from whence Consideration derives vigour for the inclining of the Will to a right Choice and for regulating the Life 1. Consider the End for which Man was designed in his Creation why endued with rational and noble Powers of Soul and plac'd by the Soveraign Maker in the highest rank of so numerous and various Natures that fill the Universe Is it to raise an Estate to shine in Pomp to enjoy sensual Pleasures for a little while and after the fatal term to be no more for ever Was he sent into the World upon as mean a Business
their smalness are indisposed for the vigorous exercise of the Mind some strictures of Reason appear a presaging sign what will be but mixt with much obscurity But when the organs are come to their just proportion and temperament the Soul displays its strength and activity All things of a supernatural order shall then be clearly discovered The contrivance of our Salvation the ways of conducting us to Blessedness which are objects of a sublime nature will afford an exquisite pleasure to the Understanding All the secrets of our Redemption shall be unsealed The great Mystery of Godliness the Incarnation of the Eternal Son and his according Justice with Mercy shall then be apparent The Divine Counsels in governing the World are now only visible in their wonderful effects either of Mercy or of Justice and those most dreadful but the Reasons of them are past finding out But what our Saviour said to Peter What I do thou knowest not now but shalt know hereafter is applicable to these impenetrable dispensations All the original Fountains of Wisdom as clear as deep shall then be opened We shall then see the beauty of Providence in disposing temporal things in order to our eternal felicity We now see as it were the rough part and Knots of that curious Embroidery but then the whole Work shall be unfolded the sweetness of the Colours and proportion of the Figures appear There we shall be able to expound the perplexing Riddle How out of the Eater came meat and out of the Strong came sweetness For we shall know as we are known We shall see God Our Saviour tells us This is Life Eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent The beginning and perfection of our Happiness consists in this knowledg The Deity is spiritual and invisible to the Eye of the Body infinite and incomprehensible to the Soul But we shall then so clearly understand the Divine Perfections that our present knowledg compar'd to that is but as the seeing a dark resemblance in a Glass to the clear view of a Person in the native beauty of his Face God is most gloriously present in Heaven For according to the degrees of excellence in the Work such are the impressions and discoveries of the Virtues of the Cause Now all sensible things in the low order of Nature are but weak resultances from his Perfections in comparison of their illustrious Effects in the Divine World The Glories of the Place and of the Inhabitants the Angels and Saints clearly express his Majesty Goodness and Power But in a transcendent manner he exhibits himself in the glorified Mediator He is stiled the brightness of the Father's Glory and the express image of his Person not only for his equal Perfections in respect of the unity of their Nature but to signify that God in the Person of the incarnate Mediator is so fully represented to us that by the sight of him we see God himself in his unchangeable Excellencies This appears by the following words that having purged us from our sins he sate down on the right-hand of the Majesty on high for they respect the Son of God as united to the humane Nature in which he perform'd the Office of the Priesthood and took possession of his glorious Kingdom During his humble state the Divine Vertues Wisdom Goodness Holiness Power were so visible in his Person Life Revelations and miraculous Works that when Philip so long'd for the sight of the Father as the only consummate Blessedness Shew us the Father and it suffices He told him He that has seen me has seen the Father also But how brightly do they appear in his triumphant Exaltation 'T was his Prayer on Earth Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory Inestimable Felicity whether we consider him in the respect of an Object that incomparably transcends all the created Glory of Heaven or in the relation of our Head on a double account partly that because he was debased into the form of a Servant and suffered all Indignities and Cruelties of Sinners for us has received the Recompence of his Meritorious Sufferings the triumph of his Victory being glorified with the Father with the Glory he had before the World was and partly because every Member shall be conformed to him in his Glory we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is And all Felicity and Glory is compriz'd in that Promise The sight of the Face of Moses when radiant had no transforming efficacy for the light of it was not in him as its source but by derivation But God is Light essentially and the sight of his Perfections will be productive of his Likeness in us so far as it may be in a restrained subject 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 be in his triumphant Majesty when we shall be transfigured our selves 2. As they shall behold God's Face know his most amiable Excellencies so they shall love him as perfectly as they know him To the illustrations of the Mind there are correspondent impressions on the Heart In the present state our Love is imperfect and as Fire out of its sphere dies away by our neglect to feed it with proper materials enamouring considerations of God But 't is not so in Heaven there the Divine Sun attracts every Eye with the light of its beauty and inflames every Heart with the heat of his Love The continual Presence of God is in different respects the Cause and Effect of our Love to him For there is no more powerful Attractive to love him than to see him And Love keeps the thoughts undivided from him God is Love and will kindle in us a pure Affection that Eternity shall never lessen Our Affections that are now scattered on many things wherein some small Reflections of his Goodness appear shall join in one full Current in Heaven where God is all in all We shall then understand the riches of his Love that God who is infinitely happy in himself should make Man for such a Glory and such a Glory for Man And that when for his Rebellion he was justly expell'd from Paradise and under a sentence of Eternal Death God should please to restore him to his Favour and give him a better state than was forfeited We shall then understand our infinite Obligations to the Son of God who descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there raign'd from the Glory wherein he was visible to the Angelical Minds and became Man for Men Redemption for the Lost to purchase Immortal Life for those who were dead to that blessed Life In short then God will express his Love to us
highest Joy it partakes of is from this consideration that God is infinitely blessed and glorious For in this the supream desire of love is accomplish'd that the most beloved Object is perfectly honour'd and pleased In Heaven the Love of the Saints to God is in its highest Perfection and they see his Glory in the most perfect manner which causes a transcendent Joy to them And this is one reason why the Saints though shining with unequal degrees of 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. The full joy of Heaven shall continue without diminution or end The number of Possessors cannot lessen it The Divine Presence is an unwasted Spring of Pleasure equally full and open to all and abundantly sufficient to satisfy the immensity of their desires Envy reigns in this World because earthly things are so imperfect in their nature and so peculiar in their possession that they cannot suffice nor be enjoyed by all But in Heaven none is touch'd with that low base passion for God contains all that is precious and desireable in the highest degrees of Perfection and all partake of the influence of his universal Goodness without intercepting one another In the Kingdom above there is no cause for the elder Brother to repine at the Father's Bounty to the younger nor for the younger to supplant the elder to obtain the Birth-right The Heirs of God are all rais'd to Sovereign Glory Every one enjoys him as entirely and fully as if solely his felicity God is a Good as indivisible as infinite and not diminished by the most liberal communications of Himself We may illustrate this by comparing the Price of our Redemption and the Reward The Death of Christ is a universal benefit to all the Saints yet 't is so applied to every Believer for his perfect Redemption as if our Saviour in all his Agonies and Sufferings had no other in his Eye and Heart as if all his Prayers his Tears his Blood were offer'd up to his Father only for that Person The common respect of it the Apostle declares in those admirable words that signify such an excess of God's Love to us He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things But to imagin that the propriety of every Believer is thereby prejudiced is not only false but extreamly injurious to the Merit and Dignity and to the infinite Love of Christ. Therefore the same Apostle tells us The Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me as if he were the sole Object of Christ's Love the End and Reward of his Sufferings And this appropriating of it to himself is no prejudice to the Rights of all others St. John describes himself by that truly glorious Title The Disciple whom Jesus loved Could he speak this of himself without the injury and indignation of the other Disciples Certainly he might For if we consider that incomprehensible Love of Christ exprest to them all at his last Supper after Judas was gone forth As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you we may easily understand that every one of them might justly believe that he was singularly beloved of Christ. They were all received in the Heart though with John they did not all lean on the Breast of their Divine Master Thus in Heaven God is the universal Treasure of all the Saints and the peculiar Portion of every one not engrost by possessing nor wasted by enjoying As by his Essence he equally fills the whole World and every part of it and by his Providence equally regards all and every partitular Creature so in Heaven he dispenses the Riches of his Love to all that they cannot desire more if every one of them were if I may so express it the only begotten of the only begotten himself the sole Heir of all the Merits of his Son Every Saint may with the inflamed Spouse break forth in that Triumph of Love My Beloved is mine and I am his Nay the great number of the glorifi'd Saints is so far from lessening their Joy that it unspeakably encreases it The innumerable Company of Angels and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born next of the happiness of enjoying God are a chief part of Heaven 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 Virtue is amiable in an old Person though wrinkled and deformed Vice is hateful in a young Person though 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 mixt 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 is transformed according to the primitive beauty of Holiness No spot or wrinkle remains nor any such thing that may cast the least aspect of deformity upon them 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 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 interiour 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 mutual and reflexive 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 Now can we frame a fuller conception of Happiness than such a State of Love wherein whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens folly and weakness is abolished 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 Favourite into the Pavilion of Darius his Mother then his Priour she bowed to the Favourite 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 O how do they enjoy 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't with Christ. With what excellent discourses do they entertain one another If David felt such inward Pleasure from the sence 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 wholesphere 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 fervours they feel in their united Praises of him in Heaven The Psalmist in an Extasie calls to all the parts of the World to joyn with him The Lord reigns let the Heavens rejoyce 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 inspir'd 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 cryed 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 joyn'd with them Blessed are those that are in thy House they always praise thee 2. The fulness of Joy in Heaven is undecaying for the causes of it are always equal And those are the Beatifick Object reveal'd and the uninterrupted Contemplation of it Whilst we are here below the Sun of Righteousness as to our perception and sence has ascensions and declinations accesses and recesses And our Earth
and spent that 't is like the shadow of a Dream and proportionably their Joy is lessened Honours like Perfumes by custom are less sensible to those that carry them But the Saints above always consider and feel the excellent difference between their suffering and triumphant state They never lose that ravishing part of felicity the vivid sense of past evils Their reflections are always as strong on the Misery from whence they were rais'd to the pitch of Happiness as in their first glorious Translation In what an Extasy of wonder and pleasure will they be from the fresh memory of what they were and the joyful sense of what they are I was says the admiring Soul poor blind and naked but O miraculous and happy Alteration I am full of Light enrich'd with the Treasures of Heaven adorn'd with Divine Glory I was under the tyrannous power of Satan but he is bruised under my feet I was sentenc'd to an everlasting separation from the Presence of God my only Life and Joy but now am possest of my supream Good O how transporting is the comparison of these wide and contrary extreams How beautiful and pleasant is the Day of Eternity after such a dark tempestuous Night How does the remembrance of such Evils produce a more lively and feeling fruition of such Happiness How strangely and mightily does Salvation with Eternal Glory affect the Soul This gives a spritely accent to their everlasting Hallelujahs This preserves an affectionate Heat in their Thanksgivings to their Victorious Deliverer And thus their Happiness is always the same and always new Their pleasure is continued in its perfection Lastly The Blessedness of the Saints is without end This makes Heaven to be it self There is no satiety of the present no solicitude for the future Were there a possibility or the least suspicion of losing that happy state it would cast an aspersion of bitterness upon all their delights they could not enjoy one moments repose but the more excellent their Happiness is the more stinging would their fear be of parting with it But the Inheritance reserved in Heaven is immortal undefiled and fades not away And the tenure of their Possession is infinitely firm by the Divine Power the true Support of their everlasting Duration With God is the Fountain of Life They enjoy a better Immortality than the Tree of Life could have preserved in Adam The Revolutions of the Heavens and Ages are under their Feet and cannot in the least alter or determin their Happiness After the passing of millions of Years still an entire Eternity remains of their enjoying God O most desireable State where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united O joyful Harmony when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing This God is our God for ever and ever This adds an infinite weight to their Glory This redoubles their unspeakable Joys with infinite sweetness and security They repose themselves in the compleat Fruition of their Happiness God reigns in the Saints and they live in him for ever CHAP. III. The Mercy of God the Original Cause of his designing and preparing Heaven for his People The Obedience of Christ the meritorious Cause Some Qualifications are required in those that shall possess it The holy Change of Man's Nature indispensibly requisite in order to his Reception into Heaven The Reasons of it specified HAving such a Revelation of Heaven in the Gospel that all the Kingdoms of the World and the Glory of them in comparison are but as a Glow-worm to the Light of the Sun with what inflamed desires should we seek and strive for that unchangeable Happiness In order to this we shall consider the causes of it and the means whereby 't is obtain'd The Original moving Cause is the pure rich Mercy of God that prepared it for his People and prepares them for it The procuring Cause is the meritorious efficacy of Christ's Obedience and Sufferings This is expresly declared by the Apostle The wages of Sin is Death but the gift of God is eternal Life through Jesus Christ our Lord. I. The designing the preparation and actual bestowing of the Heavenly Glory is from the Mercy of God This will appear by considering 1. That it is absolutely impossible that a meer Creature though perfect should deserve any thing from God For enjoying its being and powers of working from his Goodness the product of all is entirely due to him And the payment of a Debt acquires no Title to a Reward He is the Proprietary and Lord of all by Creation Hence 't is clear that in the order of distributive Justice nothing can be challenged from him 2. Besides such is the infinite Perfection of God in Himself that no benefit can redound to him by the service of the Creature When you have done all say you are unprofitable Servants for we have done what we ought to do The neglect of our duty justly exposes to punishment but the performance of it deserves no Reward because no advantage accrues to God by it Who hath first given unto him and it shall be recompensed to him again He challenges all Creatures even of the highest order To speak strictly therefore When God crowns the Angels with Glory he gives what is meerly his own and does not render what is theirs If he should leave them in their pure Nature or deprive them of their Being he were no loser nor injurious to them For what Law binds him to enrich them with Immortal Glory who are no ways profitable to him or to preserve that being they had from his unexcited Goodness No Creature can give to him therefore none can receive from him by way of valuable Consideration 3. There is no proportion between the best works of Men and the excellency of the Reward much less an equivalence 'T was the just and humble acknowledgment of Jacob to God I am less than the least of all thy Mercies those that common Providence dispenses for the support and refreshment of this temporal Life But how much less than the glorious Excellencies of the supernatural Divine Life wherein the Saints reign with God for ever The most costly the most difficult and hazardous Services are equally nothing in point of Merit with the giving but a Cup of cold Water to a Disciple of Christ there being no correspondence in value between them and the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle tells us I count the Sufferings of the present Life are not to be compar'd to the Glory that shall be revealed in us And suffering is more than doing God rewards his faithful Servants not according to the dignity of their Works but his own Liberality and Magnificence As Alexander having ordered fifty Talents of Gold to be given to a Gentleman in Poverty to supply his want and he surpris'd with that immense Bounty modestly said ten were enough He replied If fifty are too much for you to receive ten are too little for me to give therefore do you receive as Poor
lapst and miserable was in his view he chose some to be Vessels of Mercy and by priviledg separated them from the rest that finally perish Now what induc't him to place a singular Love on the Elect There was nothing in them to incline his Compassion being equally guilty and depraved with the rest of the Progeny of Adam This difference therefore is to be resolved into his unaccountable and adorable Will as the sole cause of it Thus God declares it to be his glorious Prerogative I will have Mercy on whom I will have Mercy and I will have Compassion on whom I will have Compassion And this is no unjust acceptance of Persons For as a Benefactor he may dispense his own Favors as he pleases A Gift from meer and arbitrary Bounty may be bestowed on some and not on others without injustice But there are other actions of God for which there is an evident reason in Men on whom they are terminated Thus as the supreme Judg without respect of Persons he will judg and reward every Man according to his Works The Evangelical Law as was toucht on before is the rule of eternal Judgment and gives a right from the gracious 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 punisht 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 predomanant 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 CHAP. IV. Faith in the Redemer is required of all that will obtain Salvation The choice of Supernatural Happiness previous to our obtaining it The choice must be sincere early and constant The sincerity of the Heavenly Choice declared by its Qualities and Effects 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 to 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
a discerning Eye saw reason enough to part with all that he might gain the Pearl of Price the Grace and Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle declares his resolute contempt of the concurrence of all the Prerogatives either the Law or the World could afford him that he might have an Interest in Christ the Reconciler and Restorer of Man to the Favour and Fellowship of God But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I might win Christ. The glorious Gospel is the brightest and most pleasant Light that ever shone upon the World a revelation of the deepest Wisdom and most admirable Love wherein the combination of God's holy and wonderful Counsels for our Salvation is unfolded and accordingly St. Paul with the greatest Life of Affection sets forth his value of it and by full and most vilifying Expressions rejects all things in comparison of it 2. The Sincerity of the Heavenly Choice is discovered by a zealous observance of the means requisite in order to it Inanimate things incline to rest in their Centre the rational intend and pursue it The blessed End when valued and respected according to its worth excites and directs the Affections and Endeavours in that order 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 remain 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 possest 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 chooses 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 througly 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 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
image of his Saviour who for the joy that was set before him endured the Cross despised the shame and is set down at the right hand of God Disgrace and Pain are Evils that humane Nature has a most tender sence of yet the Son of God with a divine generosity and constancy endured them in the highest degrees He was scorn'd as a feigned King and a false Prophet He suffered a bloody Death and by the Cross ascended to Glory And we must follow him if we desire to be where he is 2. But this is not the only trial of a Christian. Prosperity is a more dangerous Enemy to the Soul though Adversity be more rigorous Saevior armis Incumbit luxuria For the Spirit is excited by Perils and Difficulties to seek to God for Strength and with vigilant resolute Thoughts unites all its Powers to oppose them but 't is made weak and careless by what is grateful to the sensual Inclinations It keeps close the Spiritual Armour in the open encounter of Dangers that threaten its ruin but is inticed to put it off by the caresses and blandishments of the World It does not see its Enemies under the disguise of a pleasant Temptation Thus Sin insinuates its self and by stealing steps gets into the Throne without observation A Man is wounded with a pleasant Temptation as with the Plague that flies in the dark and Grace is insensibly weaken'd From hence it is that Adversity often reforms the Vicious and Prosperity corrupts the Vertuous Now Perseverance must be of proof against Fire and Water against what ever may terrify or allure us from our duty 5. Saving Perseverance excludes not all Sins but total Apostacy and final impenitency which are fatal and deadly under the New Covenant If the Righteous turneth away from his righteousness and committeth Iniquity and doth according to all the Abominations that the wicked Man doth shall he live all his Righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned in his Trespass that he has trespassed and in his Sin that he hath sinned he shall die If any Man draw back my Soul shall have no pleasure in him saith the Lord. These Threatnings imply there is a possibility of the Saints falling away considered in themselves but not that 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 Ruine 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 abolisht 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 a Pardon is not granted 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 sence 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 2. 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
to make an Experiment whether any satisfaction could be found in it at last sadly declares that all things here below are but several kinds and ranks of Vanities as ineffectual to make Men happy as counterfeit Jewels of several Colours are to enrich the Possessor Nay they are not only Vanity but Vexation an empty show that has nothing real but the vexation of disappointment And shall we not value the judgment of Men when they are best instructed and give credit to their Testimony when they are sincere Certainly in their Approaches to the Divine Judgment they are most considerate and serious they have the truest and justest thoughts of Things and most freely declare them O the astonishing Folly of Men the will not be convinc'd of the error of their ways till they come to the end of them and the Sun is set and no time remains for their returning into the way of Life CHAP. VIII The stedfast belief of Eternal Things requisite to direct our Choice The power of Faith illustrated Infidelity total or partial the cause of Mens neglecting Eternal Salvation I Shall proceed to shew further what is necessary to direct us in our choice that we may not fall into the double Misery of being deceived with a false Happiness for a little time and deprived of true Happiness for ever Three things are requisite for this 1. A sound and stedfast belief of unseen Eternal Things 2. Serious Consideration of the vast difference between things that are the objects of Sight and that are the objects of Faith 3. Humble and ardent Prayer to God that he would turn away our Eyes and Hearts from Vanity to the solid durable Good First The sound and stedfast belief of Eternal Things is requisite to direct our choice aright Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen It assures us of their reality and worth as if they were before our Eyes and in our actual Possession This Divine Light governs and conducts the Will to choose wisely and excites all the practick Powers for the prevening the greatest Evils and the obtaining perfect Felicity When the Devil the deadly Flatterer by inviting representations of the World intices the Heart the serious belief of the future reward so glorious and eternal disgraces the most splendid Temptations and makes them ineffectual This is the Victory that overcomes the World even our Faith If tempted to Lasciviousness by the allurements of an earthly Beauty Faith represents the angelical lustre of the Saints when they shall come with the unspotted Lamb in his glorious appearance and this unbinds the Charm and makes the tempting Person an object not of Desire but Aversation If tempted with Honour to a sinful compliance Faith represents so convincingly the Glory which 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 persuasion 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 establisht 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 They do not fear Hell but are afraid they should be fearful of it This is such a piece of Folly as that of the West Indians who at the first Invasion by the Spaniards were so terrified with the glittering of their Swords that they presently fled and very advisedly resolved to hide themselves in the day and assault their Enemies in the night They were fearful to see their Danger and rash to encounter it and fighting in the dark were killed in the dark The Threatnings of Eternal Death are the brandishings of God's glittering Sword before he strikes and sensual Infidels are
assistance that will make it finally victorious over all opposition Thus the two leading Faculties being turn'd from the Creature to God the inferior Wheels will follow their motion and the Conversation be intirely chang'd In order to this happy work the following Discourses were composed wherein are represented those reasons from the Dignity Capacity and Immortality of Man's Soul and from the essential conditions of his Felicity that impartially considered by the Men of the World who prefer Earth before Heaven will discover the vanity of their Designs and check the fury of their Prosecutions and turn their Aims and endeavours to that that is infinitely more worthy of them But the real effecting this belongss solely to his Divine Power who purchased Heaven for us O thou Sun and Life of Souls shed abroad thy Light and Vital Heat the belief of the Truth of unseen things and the love of their superlative Goodness in the Minds and Hearts of Men that they may not frame to themselves an imaginary Happiness in the injoyments of this perishing Life but with that zeal and vigour in their Affections and Actions seek after the real Blessedness of the future Life as becomes an Object so glorious and eternal In treating of this Subject our first inquiry is What is the blessed End for which Man was created This we may clearly discover by considering three things 1. The Wisdom and Goodness of the Creator who made all things in order to some End worthy his Perfections 2. The Human Nature in its highest Faculties and their utmost Capacities 3. The Revelation of it in God's Word Natural Light gives a real signification of God's Intention by the two first but the most clear and full is in the Holy Scriptures I will treat of them in their order First The working of God is always with some design of High Providence He did not create the World and Man by chance nor as a Seal impresses its Figure without knowing what is stampt But he works always by Counsel and Election knowing what he does and for what End Now the last Period wherein all his Works determine is his own Glory that being the chiefest Good He made great variety of Creatures and bountiful Provisions for their Happiness ultimately for his own Pleasure According to his Wisdom and most free Goodness he was pleased that the World should not only be filled with material and sensitive Beings that objectively glorify him by the reflex of the Divine Perfections appearing in them but to frame a higher rank of Creatures wherein the Image of his Excellencies was more conspicuous and that might actively glorify him by understanding and magnifying by loving and obeying Him And as the several kinds of things have degrees of Excellency they are subordinate in their use the simple to the compounded the dead to the living the lower Natures to the more Noble By this we may take an estimate of their Dignity and Order Now for whom was this vast Fabrick raised and furnished with as many Miracles as Creatures for whose use were the Lights of Heaven and the innumerable Forms of lower Beings Plants and Beasts on the Earth If we regard their Operations 't is evident they were intended for the benefit of Man He that understands himself and will not forfeit the Prerogative of the reasonable Nature must readily acknowledg that the Preservation and Comfort of Man was their final Rule in the mind of the Creator and their mutual usefulness to one another is referred to his advantage He is the Center of the Universe wherein the several Orders of visible Beings as Lines drawn in a Circle unite And is Man alone left without an end worthy his excellent Nature 'T is not to be conceived without vile Thoughts even the casting an imputation on the Wisdom of his Maker Secondly The Frame of Man's Nature and his Capacity is an indication of the End for which he was created For of things made with design the End is present in the Mind of the Agent that directs and regulates all the parts of the Work as the prime reason of it In a Ship the Matter the Form the Tackling the number and diversity of Instruments are all in order to Sail. Now Man consists of two parts an Earthly and Spiritual and to make a right Judgment of his last and happy End we must consider him with respect to the Soul that is capable of nobler Operations and higher enjoyments than the Body is for the true notion of Happiness consists in the perfection and satisfaction of his principal and most receptive Faculties the Understanding Will and Affections and consequently both in Action and Fruition with respect to the most excellent Objects Hence it necessarily follows that he is made for a more worthy purpose than the pursuit and enjoyment of sensible things that please the inferior Part and only content the natural Appetites To make this evident 't is requisite to discover the defects and undervalues of all Worldly Things how miserably they fail in the essential conditions of Felicity that is proper to Man and this will convincingly prove that the divine Maker who is infinitely Wise and Good endowed him with intellectual and immortal Powers to advance and enjoy his Glory wherein the intire Blessedness of the reasonable Creature consists 1. Worldly Things are not perfective of his highest Faculties Man is but one degree lower than the Angels and carries the Image of God indelibly ingraven in his Spiritual Immortal Soul And accordingly the order of things in the visible World is establish'd Thou hast set him over the Works of thy Hands and put all things under his Feet By Nobility of Nature and the condition of his state he is incomparably above them And can inferior things make him better can Gold be more precious by incorporating with a baser Metal or Light more resplendent by mixing with Clouds and Smoak All the Bona adventitia the good things of this World Honours Riches Pleasure cannot denominate him truly Wise and Holy cannot add the least intellectual or moral Good wherein the rectitude and brightest excellence of Man is truely plac'd Nay they are consistent with all those sordid Lusts that blemish and defame the humane Nature and sink it below it self External Honour is no Character of real Desert and considered absolutely confers no more to Vertue than to Vice As Varnish in Painting serves only to give Lustre and Vavacity to the Colours whether the Design be regular or ill the Picture deformed or beautiful and makes the Beauty or Deformity more visible Splendor of Extraction renders the good or bad qualities of a Person more conspicuous Folly set in high Degree is more observed than in a low Condition And usually Titles of Honour are an occasion of absurd Pride to ignorant Souls that understand not that Vertue incomparably excells Nobility as the Light is more glorious and radiant where it springs than where 't is reflected Riches are often joined with
This will appear by considering that whatever is requisite to constitute the perfect Blessedness of Man is fully enjoy'd in the Divine Presence 1. An exemption from all evils is the first condition of perfect Blessedness The sentence of wise Solon is true in another sense than he intended DicÃque beatus Ante obitum nemo supremaque funera debet No Man can be named happy whilst in this valley of Tears But upon the entrance into Heaven all those evils that by their number variety or weight disquiet and oppress us are at an end Sin of all Evils the most hateful shall be abolisht 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 with 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 that war against the Soul shall then cease The Tempter 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 Sons of God above And as Sin so all the penal consequences of it are quite taken away The present Life is an incurable 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 mixt with sorrows nay caused by 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 the 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 hew'n in another place and nothing remain'd but the putting them one upon another in the Temple and then as sacred they were 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 Company above is there any Eye that weeps any Breast that sighs any Tongue that complains or 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 Crying 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 Their Salvation is compleat in all degrees Pure Joy is the Priviledg of Heaven unmixed Sorrows the punishment of Hell 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 quickned into a glorious immortal Life The Soul and Body are the essential parts of Man and though the inequality be great in their operations that respect Holiness yet their concourse is necessary Good Actions are design'd by the Counsel and Resolution of the Spirit but perform'd by the Ministry of the Flesh. Every Grace expresses it self in visible actions by the Body In the sorrows of Repentance it supplies tears in Fastings its appetites are restrain'd in Thanksgivings the Tongue breaks forth into the joyful praises of God All the victories over sensible pleasure and pain are obtain'd by the Soul in conjunction with the Body Now 't is most becoming the Divine Goodness not to deal so differently that the Soul should be everlastingly happy and the Body lost in forgetfulness the one glorified in Heaven the other remain in the dust From their first setting out in the World to the Grave they ran the same Race and shall enjoy the same Reward Here the Body is the Consort of the Soul in obedience and sufferings hereafter in fruition When the Crown of Purity or Palm of Martyrdom shall be given by the great Judg in the view of all they shall both partake in the honour Of this we have an earnest in the Resurrection of Christ in his true Body who is the first fruits of them that sleep He shall change our vile Bodies that they may be fashioned like to his glorious Body according to the working of his Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself A substantial unfading Glory will shine in them infinitely above the perishing Pride of this World that is but in appearance like the false colours painted on the feathers of a Dove by reflection of the Light which presently vanish when it changeth its posture or the Light is withdrawn Indeed what can be more glorious than to be conform'd to the Humanity of Christ the seat of all Beauty and Perfection This Conformity shall be the work of his own hands And when Omnipotence interposes nothing is difficult The raising the Body to an unchangeable state of Glory is as easy to the Divine Power as the forming it at first in the Womb. As the Sun labours no more in the Mines in the forming Gold and Silver the most precious and durable Metals than in the production of a poor short-liv'd Flower II. The Soul shall have perfection and satisfaction in all its Faculties 1. The Understanding shall clearly see the most excellent Objects Now we know but in part The naked beauty of Divine Things is vail'd and of impossible discovery And the weakness of the mind is not proportionable to their dazling brightness But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away In that enlightned state the glorious manifestation of the objects shall as much exceed the clearest revealing of them here as the Sun in its full lustre one beam of Light strain'd through a crevice in the Wall And the Understanding shall be prepar'd to take a full view of them Therefore the Apostle compares the several Periods of the Church in respect of the degrees of Knowledg to the several Ages of this Life When I was a Child I spake as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away childish things In Children the organs either from an excess of moisture or
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 Life by the Promises of the Gospel 2. We must chuse Heaven as our supream Happiness and regard it as the main end of our Lives Man fell from his Duty and Felicity by preferring sensual Pleasure before the Favour of God and became guilty of the greatest Disobedience and Dishonour to his Maker and is restored by the holy change of his Will the setting his Affections on a pure Spiritual Blessedness This subliming the Will and turning its Love and Choice from the Creatures to God is the effect of Divine Grace and wrought in a rational way For Man is not moved as artificial Engines by force nor as Brutes from necessity their Faculties being determined by the outward application of Objects he is not drawn up to Heaven by such a natural impression as Steel by the Load-stone nor forc'd by a violent motion as a Stone ascends but as an understanding free Agent by the direction of the enlightned Mind and the consent of the Will an elective unconstrained Faculty And herein the Wisdom Goodness and Equity of God's Transactions with Man appears His Wisdom in that as he has ordered in the whole sphere of Nature that the active Powers of every Creature be drawn forth into exercise for their preservation and accordingly he is pleased to work in and by them so the Understanding and Will the Principles of Operation in Man are to deliberate and choose in order to his Happiness Otherwise the rational Faculties would be in vain His Goodness and Equity in that he sets before them Eternal Life as the Reward of Obedience God will be glorified by him as a Law-giver and a Benefactor and has ordained in the Gospel that all who chuse and diligently seek the Kingdom of Heaven shall infallibly obtain it and none be deprived of it but for their neglect The Decree of a final state of Misery though not in time yet is consequent in the order of causes to the obstinate reluctancy of Sinners against restoring Grace and the wilful forsaking their own Mercies Therefore God vindicates the Equity of his Proceedings with Men by their own Principles and with tender pity expostulates Why will ye dye The corrupt Will declining from God and adhering to the Creature as its Happiness is the true cause of Mans ruin This will infinitely clear the Wisdom and Justice the Purity and Goodness of God from all Imputation The choice of Heaven for our Felicity is primarily to be determined for 't is from the prospect of it that all holy Counsels derive their Life and Vigour As in drawing the Picture of a Man the first work is to delineate the Head not only as the part that in dignity and eminence is above the rest but as it regulates the drawing of the other parts and gives a just proportion and correspondence between them without which the whole Figure becomes disordered and monstrous Thus in the moral consideration of Man that which is primarily to be considered is the Soul and its final Felicity as incomparably more excellent than the Body and its Pleasures for this will have a powerful influence upon the whole Life directing to avoid what is inconsistent and impertinent and to do what is conducive to it Now this being a matter of unspeakable importance I will first shew what the regular choice of Heaven includes as to its Qualities and Effects Secondly direct how to make this Choice Thirdly present some powerful Motives to excite us to it The Qualities of this Choice are three First it must be sincere and cordial Secondly early in our first and best days Thirdly firm and constant 1. It must be sincere and cordial The most essential and active desire in human Nature is to Happiness but there being two kinds of good things presented to the Will that solicit the Affections the pleasures of Sense and spiritual Joys from hence it is that that which makes Men happy is the object of Election And although there is nothing more uniform and inviolable than the natural inclination to Happiness yet the great distinction of Mankind arises from this source the regular or perverse use of this inclination the wise or mistaking choice of Happiness Now the Sincerity of our Choice is discovered when 't is clear and entire arising from a transcendent esteem of the favour and enjoyment of God as our chief Good and absolutely requisite for us The Choice of true Happiness necessarily includes the despising and rejecting of the false Happiness that stands in competition with it There cannot be two reigning Principles in the Soul for it cannot vigorously apply it self to two Objects at the same time Our Saviour has decided it No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon The Masters are irreconcileable and their commands are directly opposite It was as possible to place upon the same Altar the Ark of God and the Idol of the Philistins as that Heaven and the World should compound and take equal shares in our Affections Indeed if the conceptions in the Mind are but faint and floating of the universal satisfying Goodness of the Object proposed to make us happy the Will remains in suspence but when 't is clearly and strongly represented the Heart is drawn intirely to embrace it Divine Grace by the illumination of the Understanding purifies and changes the depraved Will and heals the distempered Affections The wise Merchant that had
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 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 exprest in the last Petition The good things desired either have a direct influence upon our obtaining Happiness and they are sum'd up in our universal obedience to God's Will exprest 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 though under variety of sharp troubles yet expresses his sence with that mitigation as but lightly toucht 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 worketh 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 Whereas the prosperity of Fools shall slay them and their good things here aggravate their Miseries hereafter 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 virtue 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 it chooses 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 senceless 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 Honour or Riches is not content with a mediocrity of Success but drives on his Affairs to the full period of his Desires An ardent Lover of Learning with a noble jealousy strives to excel others in Knowledg In short no Man designs and longs for a thing as his Happiness but will use all diligence to gain the present and full Possession of it Therefore it cannot be imagined that any Person sincerely propounds the injoyment of Heaven as his End but Love will make him fervent and industrious to be as Heavenly as is possible here He will strive by blessed and glorious Gradations to ascend to the perfection of his aims and desires to be holy as God is holy in all manner of Conversation to be pure as Christ is pure We have an admirable instance of this in St Paul who declares Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the mark for the price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus His Progress was great yet that did not make him slack in the prosecution of his End He laboured to attain the President of our Saviour to feel the Power of his Death and Life to apprehend Christ intirely and perfectly as Christ had apprehended him He was very diligent to improve the Divine Image in his Heart and Life From hence we may discover the vanity of their Hopes that are of luke-warm Affections in Religion the abhorr'd character of Laodicea who esteem it a prudent Principle as convenient for their carnal ease and interest not to be earnest in following Holiness Vices in mediocrity are tolerable with them only the excess is condemned They content themselves with a mediocrity in Religion and are presumptuous and secure as the Church that said I am rich and have need of nothing They boast as if they had found out the temperate Region between the burning Line and the frozen Pole They account all that is above their degrees in Religion to be furious or indiscreet Zeal and all below to be dead cold Profaneness They censure those for Hypocrisy or unnecessary Strictness who are visibly better and stand upon proud comparisons with those who are visibly worse And thus set off themselves by taxing others But how easily do Men deceive and damn themselves Can we have too much of Heaven upon the Earth Can we become too like God when a perfect conformity to him is our Duty and Felicity Indeed Moral Vertue consists in a Mediocrity not of the habitual Quality but of the Affections and Actions between the vicious extremities Fortitude consists in the mean between Cowardise and rash Boldness but how much the more confirm'd the couragious Habit is so much the more a Man excells in that Virtue Liberality consists between an indiscreet Profuseness and sordid Avarice Patience between a soft Delicacy and stupid Insensibility Thus Philosophic Virtue glories in its Beauty as pure and intire between two vicious Deformities And the Religion of many is Paganism drest up in a Christian Fashion But this mediocrity only belongs to inferiour Vertues that respect things of created limited goodness and is determined according to the worth of their Nature But divine Graces respect an object supreamly Good and their perfection consists in their most excellent degrees and the most intense Affections and Operations that are leading to it Faith in its Obedience Hope in its Assurance Love in its Ardour can never exceed When the Object is Infinite a mediocrity is vicious Humility can never descend too low nor Love ascend too high for reflecting upon our natural and moral Imperfections that we were raised from nothing that we are defiled and debased with Sin we cannot have too low thoughts of our selves And since God the Soveraign Being infinite in Perfections and infinitely amiable is the Object no bounds or measure must be set to our Affections but with all our united Powers all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and with all the Strength we must love him and please him and endeavour to be beloved of him There are others will acknowledg their defects and tell you they do not pretend to eminent Sanctity to the Graces of the Apostles and Martyrs nor aspire to their degrees in Glory they are content with a lower place in Heaven and less strict Religion is sufficient for their purpose This deceit is strengthned by Popery that enervates and dissolves many of our Saviour's Precepts by teaching they are not Laws obliging all Christans to Obedience that will attain to eternal Life but Counsels of Perfection if they are not done 't is no Sin and the performance of them meritoriously intitles to a richer Crown And though Men by impure Indulgencies please their sensual Affections yet by tasting Purgatory in the way they may come to Heaven on easier terms than a universal respect to God's Commands and an equal care to observe them But Death will confute all these feeble wretched Pretences for though the Saints above shine with an unequal brightness as the Stars differ in Glory yet none are there but Saints And those who do not mourn under their Imperfections and unfeinedly desire and endeavour to be better were never really good The sloathful Servant that did not waste but neglect to improve his Talent was cast into outer darkness There are different degrees of punishments in Hell but the least miserable there are miserable for ever In short 't is a perfect contradiction a Prodigy for any Man to think he is sincere in his Choice and prepar'd in his Affections for the pure glorious Felicity in Heaven that does not labour to cleanse himself from all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God CHAP. V. The Choice of Heaven must be early The Pretences of Mens delaying Repentance The infinite danger of it Secondly THe choice of Eternal Felicity must be early in the prime of our days The rule of our Duty and Reason binds us to remember our Creatour in our Youth to pay to him the first fruits of our Time and Strength When we are surrounded with inticing Objects and the Sense are entire and most capable to enjoy them when the electing Powers are it their vigour then 't is just we should live to God obey him as our Law-giver and prefer the fruition of him in Heaven the reward of Obedience before as the pleasures of Vanity 'T is very honourable and pleasing to God to give the Heart to him when the Flesh and the World strongly solicit to withdraw it 'T is a high endearment of the Soâ— to him when his excellencies are prevalent in the Esteem and Affections above all the charms of the Creatures And 't is an unspeakable satisfaction to the Spirit of a
Man to declare the Truth and Strength of his love to God by despising all Temptations when they are most inviting and he is most receptive of them But alas how many neglect their Duty and defer their Happiness They think it too soon to live for Heaven before the evil days come wherein they shall have no Pleasure when they cannot Sin and fondly presume they can Repent The infinite danger of this I will briefly lay open The Devil is a Sophister in perfection and his ordinary and successful Artifice to elude the force of present conviction and wrap Men in Sin and Damnation is to induce them to delay the great work of the Soul till afterwards He is not so foolish to tell them as he did our first Parents ye shall not die for the Temptation is so palpable that it could deceive none Though the evidence and certainty of supernatural Truths that disturb the security of Sinners is sometimes obscur'd by affected doubts yet there is no artifice that can resist the full and strong conviction in Mankind That Death is inevitable Though Nature recoils from it with abhorrence yet this sad Truth is so visible that it forces an assent from all Those who are titular Gods are not so vain as to pretend to an exemption by privilege from that fatal necessity not to fancy that they may be imbalm'd alive and Nature made incorruptible by Art The Pallace is as near the Grave as the Cottage Therefore the Devil cherishes in Men fond hopes of long Life As some Optick Glasses deceive the sight and make a superficial representation in Colours on a Wall but two or three steps distance appear a long deep Gallery Thus the Tempter by a dangerous artifice presents to the imagination the fatal term at a great distance and since he cannot weaken the certainty of Death in Mens Belief he removes the Image of it out of their Memories to lessen the impression that it is capable to make on their Spirits They dare not venture to die as they live careless of Salvation and unprepared for their accounts with God therefore to suspend the workings of Conscience by a seeming compliance the Tempter insinuates there will be a long interval between the present time and the last hour that shall decide their state for ever that it will be a convenient season to prepare for the other World when they have done with this as if Repentance were best at last when there are no Temptations and therefore no danger of retracting it And the Heart of Man is a great Flatterer very subtile to deceive and ruin him with vain resolutions of a devout retirement and becoming seriously Religious hereafter and thus by an easy permission he gratifies the present desires of the Flesh and goes in a Circuit from one Vanity to another till Death surprise the Presumer 'T is very applicable to this purpose what is related of Alcaeus the Poet who from every season of the Year took Arguments to give a new title to his intemperance The Spring requir'd liberal drinking in sign of Joy for the renovation of Nature The Summer to temper the heat and refresh our draught 'T was due to Autumn as dedicated to the Vintage and Winter requir'd it to expel the Cold that would congeal the Blood and Spirits Thus he pleaded for the allowance of his Excess And thus Men in the several Ages of Life which are correspondent to the seasons of the Year have some Excuses to delay Repentance and give some colour to their contumacy in neglecting Salvation The Vanity of Childhood the Pleasures of Youth the Business of Middle Age the Infirmities of old Age are plausible pretences to put off the seeking the Kingdom of Heaven and the Righteousness thereof Now to excite us to a present choice and pursuit of eternal Happiness Let us consider 1. This Life is the only season allowed us for preparation in order to Immortallity As we improve or neglect it we shall be for ever 'T is observ'd concerning the Straights where the Sea is but a few miles broad yet from thence it pours it self into the vast Ocean that extends to both the Indies So this Life that is confin'd within the straits of Time issues it self into a boundless Eternity of Good or Evil. From a few years well or ill spent here tam immensa soeculorum vastitas panditur Millions of Ages follow of Happiness or Misery If Men now set their affections on things above and earnestly seek them they shall joyfully ascend to the Inheritance of the Saints in Light for the preparation for Happiness is here the perfection of it hereafter But if they are carnally minded and the main design of their lives be to enjoy the present World when the parting hour is come and Death shall make a separation between them and it their Misery is irrecoverable as the Grave Indeed if we had two lives in succession allowed us for tryal and having err'd in our choice of Happiness in the first might correct our errour in a second Life there were some pretence for security but since immediately after Death a private judgment passes upon the Soul without appeal to a more favourable Tribunal since then the errour is unpardonable for ever there is no stupidity equals the present neglect of Salvation 2. Let us consider the desperate uncertainties upon which Men build their Hopes of a future Repentance and Divine Acceptance 1. Men are flattered with the Presumption of long Life But what is more uncertain 'T is the Wisdom and Goodness of God to keep concealed in his own Counsels the time of our sojourning here for if Men though liable to Death every hour and therefore should be under a just fear lest it surprise them unprepared yet against so strong a curb run with that exorbitant vehemence after the Vanities of the World how much more licentious would they be if secur'd from sudden Death But none can promise to himself one day Death comes not according to the order of Nature but the Divine Decree How many in the flower of their Youth and Strength thought themselves at as great a distance from Death as the East is from the West when there was but a step between them and Death between them and Hell The Lamp suddenly expires by a blast of Wind when there is plenty of Oil to feed it The rich Man pleas'd himself with designs of sensual enjoyments for many Years yet did not see the dawning of the next Morning Thou Fool this Night shall thy Soul be required of thee This Sentence is now pronounc'd in Heaven against thousands that are alive this day conversant in the Vanities and Businesses of the World Eating and Drinking Playing and Trading and all unconcerned as to Dying yet shall breath their last before to Morrow and their unwilling Souls be rent from the embraces of the Body In various manners Men die suddenly from inward and outward causes An Apoplexy
Law to him and the special Priviledg of some be extended to all As Thales said an old Mariner that has escapt the various dangers of the Seas was a new Miracle so that one who has lived an obstinate Sinner dyes a penitent Believer is very rare and extraordinary What our Saviour said concerning the Salvation of rich Men is justly applicable in this case that it was as easy for a Camel to go through the Eye of a Needle as for a rich Man to enter into the Kingdom of Heaven This so astonisht the Apostles that they cryed who then can be saved To mitigate the difficulty he remembers them of the Divine Omnipotence All things are possible with God Thus for one that has been fitting himself for Hell and hardened in a constant course of Sin to be at last suddenly prepared and received into the pure and glorious Society above is possible but possible only as Miracles are by the efficacy of infinite Power and we cannot reasonably expect such Miracles And are Heaven and Hell such trivial things as to be left to an uncertainty Are not Men concerned in an other manner in the Affairs of the World How careful to prevent the sentence of Death of Imprisonment or Banishment How diligent to obtain some temporal Advantage yet how neglectful in things of the highest importance It may be says the secure Wretch God will give me Repentance at last as he did to others Remember you speak of the Soul and dare you hang the weight of an immortal Soul upon a naked possibility of receiving Grace What reasonable Person would neglect a Disease that may prove deadly and rely on extream Remedies And can you be guilty of such a cruel indifference such a desperate carelessness as to leave eternal Salvation or Damnation to a peradventure 2. Consider how many thousands have dyed in their Sins that cherisht fallacious hopes of repenting at last Diagoras the Atheist that denied a governing Providence of things in this lower World the Sphere of mutability when one for his conviction shewed him in the Temple of Neptune many votive Tables containing the grateful acknowledgments of those who by addresses to the Gods in dangerous Storms had arrived safe at their Port and askt him Whether he had observed those numerous testimonies for divine Providence he replied I see them but how many have invocated Neptune yet perisht in the Ocean and never came to pay their Vows for Deliverance 'T was impiety in him to argue so against God's disposing Providence but it may justly be said to those who neglect their present Duty presuming upon some Examples of his Glorious Goodness in those who were converted and saved in their approaches to Death how many have finally miscarried in shooting that Gulph to one that has arrived safe at Heaven How many when Sick hope either by the vigour of Nature or the virtue of Remedies to overcome their Disease and never see Death till they feel it and delay Repentance till their time is irrecoverably gone How many are blinded with vain presumptions to the last that God is reconciled to them and a false Tranquillity is more terrible than the storms of a troubled Spirit for those who hope upon deceitful grounds are in the most hopeless state neglecting what is requisite in order to Salvation And thus innumerable pass in a cloud of Ignorance to the Kingdom of Darkness And how many who have lived in a deluding Dream sensual and secure yet at the last when by some sharp affliction or the present fear of divine Judgment Conscience is awakened and looks into the depth of their Guilt fall into the other extream and dye despairing The Devil makes his advantage of the timerous Conscience as well as of the Obdurate Solitude is his Scene as well as the noisy Theatre and by contrary ways either presumption or despair brings Sinners to the same end He changes his methods according to their Dispositions the Tempter turns Accuser and then such who had a dim-sight of Sin before have an overquick sight of it and are swallowed up in an abyss of Confusion The condition of such is extreamly miserable 'T is observed of those who are bit with a mad Dog that being tormented with thirst yet so fearful of Water that the sight of it sometimes causes sudden Convulsions and Death their Cure is extream difficult if not impossible This is a significant emblem of a despairing Soul For when the inraged Conscience bites to the quick the Sinner fill'd with estuations and terrors ardently thirsts for Pardon yet fearfully forsakes his own Mercies What ever is propounded to encourage Faith in the Divine Promises he turns to justify his Infidelity Represent to him the infinite Mercies of God the unvaluable Merits of Christ sufficient to redeem the lost World it hightens his despair because he has perversly abused those Mercies and neglected those Merits The most precious Promises in the Gospel are killing terrours to him as the sweet Title of Friend wherewith our Saviour received Judas when he betrayed him was the most stinging reproach of his perfidious Villany Thus it appears how dangerous it is to delay our Repentance and Reconciliation with God till Sickness and a Death-Bed when the remembrance or forgetfulness of Sin the sence or security of Conscience may be equally destructive I would not from what has been said discourage any who have lived in a course of Sin from earnest seeking to God for his Mercy in their last hours Even then they are not utterly destitute of hope The Gospel sets forth the Mercy of God to returning Sinners in various forms and expressions of incomparable Tenderness When the lost Sheep was recovered there was Joy as if a Treasure had been found The Prodigal had wasted his Estate in Lust and Luxury and by a harsh reduction came to himself reflected with shame upon his Folly and Rebellion and the sence of his Misery not a more ingenuous or noble principle at first compell'd him to go to his Father to try what his Affection would do And it was not a vain Presumption for he found the effects of his compassionate Love When he was a great way off his Father saw him and had compassion and ran and fell on his Neck and kissed him And the Sun said Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son But the Father said to his Servants Bring out the best Robe and put a Ring on his Finger and Shoes on his Feet and bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it let us eat and be merry for this my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found The design of Christ was to represent his heavenly Father in that Parable and to wounded Spirits that feel the intolerable weight of Sin the Mercy and mildness of the Gospel is to be shown God is rich in Mercy to
all that call upon him in Truth But to tell Sinners who securely proceed in an habitual course of evil that they may be saved at last and notwithstanding their presumptuous repulses of Gods calls to his Service yet they may come into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour and be rewarded is to give countenance and protection to Sin and to harden them to Destruction Poison is not cured by giving Food but Antidotes that put Nature into a Passion till it be expell'd The Terrours of the Lord can only prove medicinal to such depraved Souls To conclude this Discourse Let us seriously consider the Revelation God has made of himself in the Gospel as a Father and a Judg that Justice and Holiness as well as Mercy are essential to his Nature that our Affections may be accordingly moved towards him If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every mans work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Presumption and Despair are very dishonourable to God and pernicious to the Soul the one destroys the Fear the other the Love of God But Hope contemper'd with fear hath an excellent influence in the Christian Life As the Ballast and the Wind are both necessary that the Ship may go safely and regularly without the Winds the Ship can make no way and without Ballast 't is in danger of oversetting by every gust Thus Hope and Fear are very useful to bring us safely to Eternal Felicity Fear without Hope stupifies the vigour and alacrity of the Soul that it cannot come to God and Hope without Fear makes it vain and careless of its Duty and liable to be overthrown by every pleasing temptation Briefly let us rightly understand the tenour of Evangelical Promises of Pardon and Grace they are conditional and applicable only to penitent Believers And unfeigned Faith the condition of our Justification purifies the Heart works by Love and is the living Principle of universal Obedience And Repentance unto Life is productive of all good Fruits in their Season Be not deceived God is not mocked as a Man Sows so shall he Reap He that sows to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption He that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life Everlasting CHAP. VI. Our Choice must be Constant. Perseverance in a holy Life absolutely required in order to attaining the Reward The various Temptations that assault Christians to divert them from the pursuit of Heaven The Reason why Perseverance is necessary Cautions against Presumption and a vicious dejection of Spirit I Shall proceed next to consider that our Choice must be firm and lasting victorious over all Temptations The two principal Rules of the Spiritual Life are to begin and end well to fix and establish the main design for Everlasting Happiness and from a determinate Resolution and ratified purpose of Heart to pursue it with firmness and constancy to live for Heaven and with readiness and courage to dye for it if the Glory of God so require Perseverance is indispensably necessary in all that will obtain the Eternal Reward For the clearing this most important Point I will first represent from Scripture the Idea of Perseverance that is attended with Salvation Secondly Confider why 't is so strictly required I. Saving Perseverance includes the permanent residence of Grace in the Soul 'T is composed of the whole Chain of Graces the union of holy habits that are at first infused into a Christian by the sanctifying Spirit When Eternal Life is promised to Faith or Love or Hope 't is upon supposal that those Graces being planted in the Heart shall finally prosper He that is faithful to the Death shall inherit the Crown of Life 'T is Love that never fails that shall enter into Heaven 'T is hope firm unto the end that shall be accomplished in a glorious Fruition If Grace be disseised by a usurping Lust Apostacy will follow and the forfeiture of our right in the Kingdom of Heaven 2. Grace must be continually drawn forth into exercise according to our several states and duties and the various occasions that happen in our course through the World Those who are light in the Lord are commanded to walk as Children of the Light to signify the excellency and purity of the Christian Life Those who live in the Spirit must walk in the Spirit that is by a conspicuous course of Holiness declare the vigour and efficacy of the divine principle that is communicated to them Paulum sepultae distat inertiae celata virtus Virtue that breaks not forth into visible Actions is not worthy of the Name The meer abstaining from evil is not sufficient but all the positive acts of the holy Life are to be constantly done In discharging both these parts of our Duty compleat Religion is exprest and the power of Grace consists 3. Perseverance includes not only continuance in well-doing but fervour and progress towards Perfection There are two fixt States the one in Heaven the other in Hell The blessed Spirits above are arrived to the height of Holiness The Devil and damned Spirits are sunck to the lowest extremity of Sin But in the middle state here Grace in the Saints is a rising growing Light and Sin in the Wicked improves every day like Poison in a Serpent that becomes more deadly by his Age. We are injoined not to remain in our first Imperfections but to follow Holiness to the utmost issue of our Lives to its intire consummation For this end all the dispensations of Providence must be improved whether prosperous or afflicting And the Ordinances of the Gospel were appointed that in the use of them we may be changed into the divine Image from Glory to Glory 4. Perseverance is required notwithstanding all Temptations that may allure or terrify us from our Duties what ever affects us one way or other while we are cloathed with frail Flesh. 'T is the fundamental Principle of Christianity declared by our Saviour If any Man will come after me that is be my Disciple and Servant let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me even to be crucified with him rather than wilfully forfeit his Integrity and Loyalty to Christ. He must by a sacred fixt resolution devest himself of all things even the most valued and desireable in the present World and actually forsake them nay entertain what is most distasteful and resist unto Blood rather than desert his Duty 1. He must with unfainting Patience continue in doing his Duty notwithstanding all Miseries and Calamities Losses Disgraces Torments or Death it self which wicked Men and greater Enemies the Powers of Darkness can inflict upon us To them who by patient continuance in well doing seek for Glory Honour and Immortality Eternal Life is promised He that endures to the End notwithstanding the most terrible Sufferings to which he is exposed for Christ's sake shall be saved In this a Christian must be the express
be discovered by constancy in Obedience under all Tryals 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 dyed in Isaac What resentments what resistance of Nature did he suffer yet presently he addrest himself to perform his Duty Who ever saw a more glorious Victory over all the tender and powerful Passions of human 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 horrour at the sight of the Executioners and the Instruments of Torment they were pale and trembling The Flesh seem'd to cry out O let this Cup pass from me yet weak and faint it followed the Spirit that corrected the natural desire with not my will but thine be done As the Moon in Eclipse though obscure yet goes on in a regular course as when 't is full of Light by the reflection of the Sun So those desolate Martyrs though as it were forsaken and deprived of the bright Beams of Comfort yet persever'd in their Profession of the Truth When one word to renounce Christianity would have saved them no Torments could force it from them but they patiently endured all Now in these the Combate of Nature was visible and the admirable Power of Grace They first overcame their own Fears the reluctancy of the carnal part their Affections to what ever is desireable in the World which is the noblest Victory and then the Cruelty of their Persecutors In them was verified the Testimony of the Spirit Here is the patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Command of God and the Faith of Jesus But how many appear faithful while their Faith is not to be shewed by difficult Works and proved by Sufferings The Seed that fell on the stony Ground sprang up as hopeful as the Seed in the good Ground at first but when Tribulation came it wither'd away wanting the Root of Sincerity And that which was sown among Thorns was choakt by the Cares and Pleasures of the World Some Lust in the Heart interweaves with the Affections and causes Apostacy How many from glorious Beginnings have made a lamentable End not only Mercenaries in Religion whose Zeal is a foraign Complexion not springing from an inward Principle of Life and Health relinquish even the profession of Godliness when their gain ceases but some who have thought themselves sincere yet in times of danger their resolutions like sick Feathers dropt away As the foolish Builder that computed not the charges of his designed Work began to raise a magnificent Structure but unable to finish it laid the Foundation in his own Shame They repented their choice of Heaven when they saw what it must cost them and would save the World with the loss of their Souls Others that began in the Spirit and with raised Affections set out in the ways of Godliness yet by the allurements of sensual Lusts and Temptations and therefore with greater Guilt leave their first Love and end in the Flesh. They fall from high Professions but received by soft Pleasures feel not the fall These were never sincere and never had a right to Heaven They took up sudden Resolutions not grounded in serious and deep Thoughts and for a Flash were hot and active but with great levity return to their former Lusts. The Apostle tells us of such it had been better for them they had not known the way of Righteousness than to turn back and voluntarily to forsake it 'T is observed that boiling Water taken off from the Fire congeals more strongly than that which was never heated because the subtile parts being evaporated by the Fire the more terrestrial parts remaining are more capable of Cold. So those who have felt the power of the Word in their Affections and afterwards lose that holy heat become more harden'd in their Sins God justly withdraws his Grace and the evil Spirit that was expell'd for a time returns with seven worse and aggravates his Tyranny To conclude Since the certainty of Salvation is conditional if we persevere in a holy State let us beware of a corrupt Confidence and a vicious Dejection of Spirit the trusting in our selves or distrusting God To prevent the trusting in our selves Consider 1. The most excellent Creatures are by the instability of Nature liable to defection subject to a corruptive change Of this the fallen Angels are a dreadful Example who of their own motion untempted sinned in Heaven 2. The danger is greater of falling away when they are urged and solicited by a violent or grateful Temptation Thus our first Parents fell and lost more Grace in an Hour then can be recovered by their Posterity in all Ages to the end of the World 3. When there is supervenient Corruption in the Creature that inclines them with earnest propensity to forbidden Things and takes Flame from every Spark the danger is extream Like a besieged City that is in great hazard of taking by Assaults from without and Conspiracies from within Let us therefore be very watchful over our Hearts and Senses and keep as much as is possible at a safe distance from Temptations And be very diligent in the use of all holy means to
Will the rational Appetite is voluntarily subordinate and inslaved by the Sensitive From hence it is that in the competition Heaven with all its Glory is despised and the present World embrac'd To open this more particularly Consider 1. The Sences can only taste and enjoy grosser dreggy Pleasures 2. The Fancy that depends upon them in its Operations and is guided by their report conceives of Felicity only under the notion of sensitive Pleasure We may illustrate this by the practice of Aretius a Painter recorded with Infamy who being often imployed to Paint the Goddesses to be set in the Pagan Temples always drew their Pictures by the Faces and Complexions of his Harlots that the Objects of his impure Love might have Veneration and a Divinity attributed to them under the Titles and Pretence of Minerva Juno Diana and the other Goddesses ador'd by the Heathens This Impiety in an Idolater is resembled by Men who fancy Happiness that is a spiritual divine Perfection enjoyed in the glorious Vision of God to be a carnal Fruition and having with sensible Colours and Lineaments represented it agreeable to their brutish Faculties place it in their Hearts and Sacrifice all their Thoughts Affections and Service to it The Fancy is very powerful in Men upon a double account 1. The Understanding naturally receives the notions of things by Phantasms that are still mixing in its Contemplations While the Soul is confined to a Tabernacle of Flesh it apprehends no Object without the precedent excitation of the Senses From whence it is impossible that a Person absolutely deprived of Sight from his Birth should have an Idea of Light or Colours or that is born deaf should conceive what Sound is the Sense never having imparted an account of it to them And the Image of the Object is not immediately transmitted from the Sense to the Mind but first to the Imagination that prepares it for its view And from hence the sensual Fancy is so predominant in sweying the Judgment and inclining the Will As those Councellors of state that have the Ear of the Prince and are continually with him by specious Informations and disguising Truth influence him to approve or reject Persons and Things according to the various Aspects given by them The same Object propounded in a dark confused manner weakly moves us but varnisht and beautified with lively and pleasant Colours by the Imagsnation is armed with such Power that ravishes the esteem of the Mind and consent of the Will Now Celestial Happiness being purely Spiritual such as Eye hath not seen nor Ear heard nor entered into the Heart of Man to conceive though some discoveries be made of it by Revelation yet the Imagination makes such an obscure detracting Idea of it that it affects no more than a dead shadow drawn in some imperfect Lines of an exquisite Beauty but when the Fancy is warned and enlivened by the presence of sensible Objects it makes a vigorous impression of them upon the Mind and that represents the Pictures of Pleasure as very lovely and delightful to the Will which presently imbraces them 2. The Fancy has a marvellous force upon the sensitive Appetite that eagerly desires what is represented as pleasant though the enlightned Mind sees through the Temptation and knows 't is a meer Dream that brings neither solid nor durable Joy One in a Feaver is pleased by imagining Fountains and Streams though he knows that imaginary Waters cannot quench his Thirst nor afford the least real Refreshment Now the sensitive Appetite being inflam'd by the Fancy imparts a contagious Fire to the Will and that induces the Mind either to concur with it and palliate the deceit and to judge favourably according to its Inclinations or makes it slack or remiss in its Office diverting the Thoughts from what might controul the Appetite or if the Understanding still contradicts yet 'tis in so cold and speculative a manner that the Law of the Members rebels against the Superior Light and is too strong for the Law of the Mind and that Saying is verified Video meliora probóque Deteriora sequor I see what is worthy to be chosen but pursue what is to be abhorr'd Thus miserably weak are the rational guiding Powers in Man since his Fall thus imperious and violent the brutish Faculties In short illusion and concupiscence are the principal causes why the most noble and divine Good is undervalued and rejected in comparison of inferior transitory Vanities O the cheap Damnation of beguiled Souls A Mess of Pottage was more valuable to Esau than the Birth-right that had annext to it the Regal and Priestly Dignity Unwise and unhappy Wretches that follow lying Vanities and forsake their own Mercies Thus I have briefly set down the process of mens foolish choice in this degenerate state Now that we may with a free uncorrupted Judgment compare things in order to a wise choice of true Felicity it follows from what has been said that as the Apostle in obeying his Heavenly Commission conferr'd not with Flesh and Blood We must not in this matter of infinite importance attend 1. To the suggestions and desires of the Senses and carnal Appetite which are the worst Councellors as being uncapable of judging what is our proper Happiness deceitful and importunate First They are uncapable of apprehending Spiritual Eternal Things which alone bring fit and compleat satisfaction to the Soul and cannot look forward to the end of sinful Pleasures and ballance the terrible Evils they leave at parting with the slight vanishing content that springs from their Presence Therefore as blind Persons lay hold on things they feel so the sensitive Faculties adhere to gross present enjoyment not understanding the pure spotless Felicity that is to come and despising what they do not understand Now who would in an Affair upon which his All depends advise with Children and Fools whose Judgment of things is without Counsel their Counsel without Discourse their Discourse without Reason There is nothing more contrary to the order of Nature than for Men that should affect with Judgment to judg by their Affections 2. The carnal Appetite with its Lusts are very deceitful a Party within holding correspondence with our Spiritual Enemies the Armies of evil Angels so active and assiduous in conspiring and accomplishing the Damnation of Men. The Devil in Scripture is called the Tempter by way of eminence who manages and improves all Temptations and his pernicious design is by the Objects of Sense ordered and made more alluring and killing by his various Arts to engage the Affections into a compliance and so to gain the Will Now our great danger is not so much from Satan the Enemy without as from the carnal Appetite the Traitor within that gives him the first and easy entrance into the Soul He can only entice by representing what is amiable to Sense but the corrupt Appetite inclines to the closing with it He tempted Jesus Christ but was repell'd with shame
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 Soveraign 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 Masters 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 ingaged 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 Persuasion 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 persuade 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 although 't is evident from infallible Principles there is an everlasting Glory infinitely to be prefer'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 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 heighth 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 powring Water upon Lime that revives a hidden Fire in it which seems a natural Miracle 'T is therefore of great
as that of the foolish Emperor who employed an Army furnish'd with all Military Preparations to gather Shells upon the Sea-shore This were according to the passionate expostulation of the Psalmist to charge God that he had made all Men in vain Reason and Scripture tells us the End of Man is to glorify and enjoy God the obtaining whereof makes him perfectly happy and the missing of it perfectly miserable This is a fundamental Truth upon which the whole Fabrick of Mans Duty and Felicity is built Without this Foundation our Faith presently sinks If the clearness of this principle be obscur'd we shall wander from the way of Eternal Life and not only lose the way but the remembrance and desire of it Thinking is the property of the reasonable Soul and the just order of Consideration is that the Mind primarily regards this supream directive Truth that is to govern all our Actions 'T was prudent Counsel that one of the Antients gave for composing a Book that the Author frequently reflect upon the Title that it may correspond in all the parts with his original Design Thus it becomes a Man often to consider the End of his Being that the course of his Life may have a direct tendency to it and the more excellent our End is the more constraining is the necessity to prosecute it 'T is of great Efficacy to reflect upon our selves Whither do my Thoughts and Desires tend for what do I spend my Strength and consume my Days Will it be my last Account how much by my Prudence and Diligence I have exceeded others in temporal acquisitions If a General were at play while the Armies are engaging would it be a noble Exploit for him to win the Game whiles his Army for want of conduct loses the Victory Will it be profitable for a Man to gain the World and lose his Soul Let Conscience answer in Truth 'T is observable what is reported of a noble Forreigner that reflecting upon his Birth-day and the Age of his Life he was surpriz'd with grief and struck with Astonishment that without a due Sence of the proper Business and End of Life he was arrived to that Age when our Days begin to decline In an instant all things seem'd to change appearance in his view Then first says he I perceived I was a Man for before I had not resolved for what I should employ my Life The issue was his serious Resolution unfeignedly to honour God sincerely to confess Christ to place his Felicity in Holiness of Life and most zealously to follow it Let any one that is not of a reprobate Mind and an incorrigibly depraved Heart duly consider the sublime and supernatural End of Man O what a marvellous change will it make in him of Carnal into Spiritual nay it would be a kind of Miracle if he continued in his sinful State How will it transform him into another Man with new Valuations new Affections and Resolutions as if he were born again with a new Soul How will it amaze him that his whole course has been a contradiction to the wise and gracious design of God that all his Industry has been a race out of the way a perpetual diversion from his main Business that his Life has been fruitless and dead to the true End of it How will he be confounded at his former Folly Then alone we act with Understanding when mov'd by our blessed End and our Actions by a strict tendency without variation issue into it 2. Consider attentively the Objects that stand in competition for our Choice the present World and Heaven to make a judicious comparison between them in their Quality and Duration First in their Quality The things of the World according to the judgment of God himself who is only Wise and Good and has the highest Authority to decide in the case are but fallacious appearances of Happiness meer Vanity And certainly the Creator knows the true worth of all things and would not disparage his own Works but would undeceive Men that are apt to judge and choose by the Eye of Sense The Apostle tells us that an Idol is nothing in the World although the matter of it may be of Gold or Marble or Wood yet it has no divine Perfection which the Idolater attributes to it So all worldly things in which Men place their chief Care and Confidence and Joy though they have some degrees of Goodness and are a transient relief to us in our passage to Eternity yet they are nothing as to perfect Felicity 'T is meerly Opinion and Conceit that makes them so valued and pleasing like a rich Dye to a slight Stuff from whence its price arises Reason is either obscur'd or not obeyed when the World is the Object of our Choice Now what are these appearances of Beauty and Pleasure compar'd with a Blessedness that is truly infinite Carnal Joy smiles in the Countenance flatters the Fancy touches the Sense but cannot fill the Heart but the Favour of God satisfies the Soul Thou hast put Gladness into my Heart more than when their Corn and Wine increased Carnal Joy in its highest elevation in the time of the Harvest and Vintage is incomparably less than Spiritual Joy that springs from the Light of God's Countenance The World cannot fill the narrow capacity of our Senses but divine Joys exceed our most inlarged comprehensive Faculties The Eye is not satisfied with seeing nor the Ear with hearing but the Peace of God passes all Vnderstanding The Things of the World are of a limited Goodness Wisdom is not Strength nor Learning Riches nor Beauty Fruitfulness But God is a Universal Good in whom are all attractives to raise and satisfy our Desires If Men did consider they would distinguish and despise in comparison all that is named Felicity here with the Favour of God To seek for satisfaction in the Creature and forsake him is as if one desirous to see the Light should withdraw from the presence of the Sun to borrow it from a weak Ray reflected by some obscure matter Now if there be so vast a difference in their Nature as between a painted Vapour and the solid glorious Good between Finite and Infinite why is there not a difference accordingly in our Esteem Affections and Respects to them How unreasonable is it that a Soul capable of God should cleave to the Dust It would be most egregious Folly to hang a Weight that is able to turn a great Engine upon a small Clock 't is incomparably more Foolish when the love of Happiness the Weight of Human Nature which applied aright will turn our Desires to Heaven is only used to give vigorous motion to our endeavours about earthly things 2. Consider their Duration The Apostle tells us that the main scope of his actions was things invisible and gives the reason of it for the things that are seen are Temporal and the things that are not seen are Eternal To insist upon the
vast difference between temporal and eternal may seem needless for the first notions of things are of such uncontroulable Clearness that an attempt to prove them is to light a Candle to discover the Sun Yet this principle drawing after it such powerful Consequences for the government of our Hearts and Lives and Conscience being so remiss and the sensual Affections so rebellious 't is needful to consider this seriously that what is really assented to in Speculation may not be contradicted in Practice Now who can unfold the infinite volume of Ages in Eternity the Understanding of an Angel can no more comprehend what is incomprehensible than the Mind of a Man A Snail will pass over an immense space as soon as an Eagle for though one dispatches more way than the other yet both are equally distant from arriving to the end of what is endless But that the conception of Eternity may be more distinct and affecting it is useful to represent it under some temporal resemblances that sensibly though not fully express it Suppose that the vast Ocean were distilled drop by drop but so slowly that a thousand years should pass between every drop how many Millions of years were required to empty it Suppose this great World in its full compass from one Pole to another and from the top of the Firmanent to the bottom were to be fill'd with the smallest Sand but so slowly that every thousand years only a single Grain should be added how many Millions would pass away before it were filled If the immense Superficies of the Heavens wherein are innumerable Starrs the least of which equals the magnitude of the Earth were filled with Figures of Numbers without the least vacant space and every Figure signified a Million what created Mind could tell their Number much less their Value Having these Thoughts I reply the Sea will be emptied drop by drop the Universe fill'd grain by grain the Numbers written in the Heavens will come to an end and how much of Eternity is then spent Nothing for still infinitely more remains In short what ever is temporal extend the continuance of it to the utmost possibility of conception is infinitely short of Eternity A Day an Hour a Minute has some proportion with a thousand years for that duration is determined by a certain number of Days and Hours and Minutes but Millions of Ages have no proportion to Eternity because 't is an indeterminable Duration The Mind is soon tir'd and lost in searching after numbers to represent it 't is confounded and struck with amazing Horror and can only direct the Eye upward or downward to the two Habitations of Eternity the glorious and the miserable Heaven and Hell Now let us compare the Things of the present World with those of the future State The first are measur'd by flying Time the other remain in an unmoveable Eternity The Comforts that spring from the Earth suddenly wither and fall to it the Tree of Life flourishes only above Frequent changes from Prosperity to Adversity are the Properties of this mortal State As those who are in Voyages at Sea sometimes are in a calm and presently suffer a storm and are forc'd to alter their course by the changing of the Winds So 't is with us in our passage here but upon the first entrance into another World all the variations of this are at an end Verily every Man at his best estate is altogether Vanity Surely every Man walks in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain The visible Felicity of Man is of no continuance We may frequently observe in the Evening a Cloud by the reflection of the Sun invested with so bright a Lustre and adorn'd with such a pleasant variety of Colours that in the judgment of our Eyes if an Angel were to assume a Body correspondent to his Glory it were a fit matter for it But in walking a few Steps the Sun is descended beneath the Horizon and the Light withdrawn and of all that splendid flaming appearance nothing remains but a dark Vapour that falls down in a Showre Thus vanishing is the shew of Felicity here In this Sense assists Faith for the Experience of every day verifies what the Scripture declares that the fashion of this World passes away And therefore the guilty folly of Men is aggravated to set their Eyes and Hearts upon that which is not To see one passionately dote on a Face ruin'd and deform'd with Age to be inchanted without a Charm raises wonder and exposes to contempt Yet such is the stupidity of Men to embrace with their most entire Affections the withred Vanities of the World that are hastening to their period 'T was a stinging reproach to Idolaters from God None considers in his Heart neither is their Knowledg nor Vnderstanding to say I have burnt part of it in the Fire yea I have also baked Bread upon the Coals thereof I have roasted Flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue an Abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a Tree And are not sensual Men equally guilty of such monstrous Folly for though universal Experience convince them that all things under the Sun are fading and that many times their dearest Comforts are snatcht away from their Embraces yet who does advisedly consider and say to himself shall I give my Heart to transient Shadows shall I cherish vain hopes vain aims and desires of obtaining Happiness in a perishing World Although the worshipping a Stock be Idolatry of grosser Infamy yet 't is as foolish and as destructive to set our chief Love and Joy that is only due to God upon the Creature And what follows in the Prophet is justly applicable to such Persons He feedeth on Ashes that not only afford no nourishment but is very hurtful to the Body a deceived Heart has turn'd him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say is there not a Lye in my right Hand Thus carnal Men are so blinded with their Affections to these short liv'd Pleasures that they cannot take the true liberty of judging and reflecting that they are deceived and delighted with empty Shadows that will suddenly end in disappointment and sorrow Briefly these glittering Fictions and false Joys cannot please without an error in the Mind that shall last but a little while And if you saw a distracted Person Sing and Dance with a conceit that he is a Prince would you be willing to lose sober Reason for his phantastick Pleasure especially if you knew that his chearful fit should suddenly change into a mournful or raging Madness for ever But the Blessedness above is unchangeable as God the Author and Object of it Eternal as the Soul that enjoys it And shall the World that passes away with the Lusts thereof turn our Affections from the undefiled immortal Inheritance Shall the vanishing appearance the fleeting Figure of Happiness be preferred before what is substantial and dureable Astonishing Madness that God and Heaven
Image of our suffering Redeemer that we may be crowned with his Glory How many Christians esteemed themselves honoured in the Disgrace and blessed in the Injuries they suffered for Christ and with an invincible Patience and astonishing Joy endured the most cruel Persecutions though yet the human Nature in them was as tender and sensible of Pains as in others but the natural aversion and repugnance to suffering was overruled by the determination of the rational Will upon the account of their Duty and the Reward attending it They gave a most convincing sensible Testimony how much more valuable Heaven is than this present World willingly exposing themselves to all Evil here and rejoycing in hope of a glorious issue In short the Reward of Obedience is a triumphal Crown and where there is no Victory there can be no Triumph and where no Combate no Victory and where no Enemy no Combate Therefore we are commanded to fight against our internal Enemies our corrupt Affections to kill the Lusts of the Flesh and to encounter and overcome by Humility and meek Submissions the cruelty of malicious Enemies without us in a direct order of obtaining the Crown of Life And a Believer that has Heaven in taste and expectation will easily renounce the most pleasant and willingly endure the sharpest Temptations for the blessed Reward of his Obedience CHAP. XII The Gospel threatens Hell to all that prefer the Pleasures of Sin before Heaven How congruous and powerful a Motive this is to work on carnal Men. The Misery of an everlasting Hell represented 4. COnsider if Men choose the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a season before Heaven that infinitely exceeds this World then an everlasting Hell shall be their Portion There is no middle State in the next World no tolerable mediocrity but two contrary States yet alike in this that the Happiness and Misery are equally Infinite and Eternal And by the most wise righteous Will of God there is an inseparable connexion between the Choice and Actions of Men here and their future Condition for ever The equity of this cannot be denied without renouncing the Light of Reason For when by a Chain of Consequences sinful Pleasures are linked with eternal Punishments threatned in the Divine Law he that will enjoy those forbidden Pleasures binds himself to suffer all the pains annexed to them And 't is just that those who err without Excuse should repent without Remedy Now the threatning of eternal Punishment is the most proper Argument to work on carnal secure Sinners 1. Because they are more capable to conceive of the Torments of Hell than the Joys of Heaven Storms and Darkness are more easily drawn by a Pencil than a calm bright Day Fire and Brimstone are very painful to Sense and the imagination strongly represents its vehemence in tormenting the Body and what an evil the uncessant remorse of the guilty Conscience will be hereafter is in part understood by the secret accusations and twinges of self-condemning Sinners here but they are absolutely Strangers to the Joys of the Holy Ghost the Delights of the Soul in the Contemplation and Love of God the peace and contentment of Conseience in his Favour They cannot without Experience know how good the Lord is no more than see a taste To discourse to them of the Spiritual Pleasures that flow from the divine Presence of the Happiness of the Saints that are before the Throne of God and serve him Day and Night in his Temple is to speak with the Tongue of an Angel unintelligible things Their Affections and Minds and Language are confined to sensible things The natural Man receives not the things of the Spirits of God for they are foolishness to him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned There may be in a carnal Person a conception of Heaven as a Refuge from Miseries and some smothering confused thoughts of its Felicity as the Idea of Light and Colours in one Blind from his Birth but only the pure in Heart can see God as in the perfect Vision of Glory in Heaven so in the imperfect reflection of it in the Gospel 2. Carnal Men are more disposed to be wrought upon by representing the Torments of Hell than the Joys of Heaven For we cannot love but what is known nor enjoy but what is loved And as the purification of the Heart from vicious Affections is the best means to clear the Mind so the illustration of the Mind is very influential to warn the Heart The true conception of Heaven in its amiable Excellencies would convey such a sweetness as to change Hatred it self into Love and of this only prepared Souls are capable But those who are sunk into Sense are without relish of spiritual Felicity and are either allured or terrified only with that is pleasant or painful to Sense 'T is recorded as the unparallel'd Folly of Nero that when he was ready to cut his own Throat to avoid the fury of the Multitude he broke forth into great expressions of Sorrow what an excellent Artist he died 'T was not the loss of the Roman Empire that so much troubled him as that so much skill in Musick died with him He valued himself more as a Fidler than an Emperor Thus carnal Men with a folly infinitely more prodigious when Death is near are not so much affected with the loss of the Crown of Glory and the Kingdom of Heaven as with their leaving the present World and its Vanities This makes Death intolerably bitter Till the Love of God inflames and purifies the Heart the fruition of his Glory is not esteemed nor desired A Seraphim sent from the Presence of God with a flaming Coal from the Altar toucht the Lips of the Holy Prophet and his Heart was presently melted into a compliance with the Divine Will But if a Rebel Angel that burns with another Fire than of Divine Love were dispatcht from Hell with a Coal from that Altar where so many Victims are offered to divine Justice as there are damned Souls and touch'd obdurate unreformed Sinners that they might have a lively sence what it is to burn for ever this were the most congruous and effectual way to reclaim them Like stubborn Metals they are only made pliant by the Fire Indeed the fear of Hell though raised to the highest degrees is not sufficient to convert a Sinner thorowly to God For that Religion that is the meer effect of Fear will be according to the nature of its Principle with resistance and trouble wavering and inconstant when the violence of the fear is lessen'd Whereas that which is from the inclination of Love and the hope of a desired Good is fully voluntary and persevering As a Scholar that applies himself to Learning by the constraint of Fear his Study is uneasy and whilst he is reading his Fancy transports him to other things and when his task is finisht he presently runs to Play But a Lover of
Learning with Diligence and Delight is intent in his Studies and though ingaged in other Affairs yet his Thoughts are still conversant about Learning In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is tormenting to the Body and is consistent with the Love of Sin but the hope of Heaven as 't is revealed in the Scripture is a spiritual Affection and always joined with the hatred of Sin Now the great design of the Gospel is by the fear of Hell as a powerful preparative to make way for the love of Heaven If carnal indulgent Sinners are not roused by a quick apprehension of Hell they will securely enjoy their pernicious Pleasures and grow old in Sin and at last die impenitent No offers of Mercy will prevail till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of eternal Misery has made a breach divine Grace victoriously enters and takes Possession The convinced and contrite Sinner most humbly and willingly embraces the precious Promises wherein not only Pardon and Indemnity is offered but the richest favour the advancing him into a State of Eternal Glory Thus the sweetest Hopes succeed tormenting Fears and the Obedience which before had a mixture of involuntary flows from the intire consent of the Soul with filial Freedom Before the particular Description of the pains of the Damned I shall observe in General That the full representation of Hell is beyond all human Expression nay our most fearful Thoughts cannot equal the Horror of it Who knows the Power of thine Anger What are the prepared Plagues by infinite Justice and Almighty Wrath for obstinate Sinners It is impossible for the most guilty and trembling Conscience to inlarge its sad apprehensions according to the degrees of that Misery The Lord will shew forth his Wrath and make his Power known in the Vessels fitted for Destruction None can tell what God can do and what Man shall suffer when made capable to endure such Torments for ever as now would presently consume him As the Glory of Heaven cannot be fully understood till enjoyed so the Torments of Hell cannot be comprehended till felt But we may have some discovery of those unknown Terrors by the following Considerations 1. The Wisdom of God requires that the Punishment threatned in his Law as it must so be firmly decreed that all obstinate Rebels shall of necessity undergo it so it must incomparably exceed all temporal Evils to which Men may be exposed for their Obedience to the divine Commands Otherwise the threatning would not be an effectual restraint from Sin For the propinquity of an Evil makes a strange impression on the Mind and present Fear makes a Person sollicitous to avoid the incursion of a danger ready to seize on him without forecasting to prevent an evil look'd on at a distance Therefore that the sanction of the divine Law may preserve the Precepts inviolable that there may be a continual reverence of it and a fixed resolution in the Heart of Men not to transgress the penaly threatned must be in its own nature so terrible that the fear of it may conquer the apprehension of all present Evils that can be inflicted to force us to Sin As on the other side to confirm our purpose to please God in all things the Reward of Obedience must be of infallible assurance that all and only those who serve him faithfully shall enjoy in the future State and so excellent that all the allurements of the World may in comparison with it be of no consideration to divert us from our Duty They command the Heart and have its most prevailing Respects from whom is expected the most desireable Good and feared the most terrible Evils Therefore our Saviour warns his Disciples Fear not them that can kill the Body make that part die that is mortal but fear him that after he has killed has power to cast into Hell yea I say unto you fear him All the exquisite Tortures that the most cruel contriving and powerful malice of wicked Men can inflict is so much less than the Wrath to come that avoid the one and venture on the other is more brutish Stupidity than that of the Horse or Mule that starts at the shadow of a Bush and springs over a Precipice 2. The Judgments of God executed here are light and tolerable in comparison of the punishment of Sinners in the next Life 1. Temporal Evils of all kinds and degrees as Pestilence Famine War are designed for the bringing of Men to a sight and sence of their Sins and are common to Good and Bad here And if his anger be so terrible when he chastises as a compassionate Father what is his fury when he punishes as a severe Judg If the correcting Remedies ordered by his Wisdom and Love for the conversion of Sinners be so sharp what is the deadly revenge of his irreconcileable Hatred 2. The Miseries of the present State are allayed with some enjoyments None are so universally afflicted so desolate but something remains to sweeten the sence of their Sufferings Judgments are tempered with Mercies No Man is tortur'd with all Diseases nor forsaken of all Friends nor utterly without Comfort And when the Affliction is irremediable yet if our grief produces Sympathy in others 't is some ease to the troubled Mind and by that assistance the Burthen is made lighter But in Hell the Damned are surrounded with Terrors encompast with Flames without any thing to refresh their Sorrows not a drop of Water to a Lake of Fire All that was esteemed Felicity here is totally withdrawn Death puts a period to their Lives and the Pleasures of Sin for ever For 't is most just that those Objects which were abused by their Lusts and alienated their Hearts from their Duty and Felicity should be taken away And which is extream Misery in their most pitiful State they are absolutely unpitied Pity is the cheap and universal Lenitive not denied to the most guilty in their Sufferings here for the Law of Nature instructs us to pity the Man when the Malefactor suffers But even this is not afforded to the Damned All their Agonies and Crys cannot incline the Compassion of God and the blessed Spirits in Heaven towards them for they are not compassionable Objects their Misery being the just effect of their perverse obstinate Choice And in Hell all human tender Affections are extinguisht for ever Now 't is the perfection of Misery the excess of desolation to be deprived of all good things pleasing to our Desires and to suffer all Evils from which we have the deepest aversation and abhorrence As in Heaven all good is eminently comprised and nothing but Good so in Hell all Evil is in excessive degrees and nothing but Evil. 3. Temporal Evils are inflicted by the mediation of second causes that are of a limited power to hurt but in the next World he more immediately torments the Damned by
is not so purified but some Vapors 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 heighth of Joy would not be perpetual But the mind is prepar'd with supernatural vigour to see the brightness of God's Face and by the most attentive application always converses with that blessed Object so that the Joy of Heaven is never intermitted for a moment They always see and love and rejoyce and praise him 'T is possible a carnal suspicion may arise in some as if the uniform perpetual vision of the same Glory might lose its perfect delightfulness For those who seek for happiness in the vanity of the Creatures are always desirous of change and have their Judgments so corrupted that while they languish with a secret desire after an unchangeable Good yet they conceive no Good as desireable that is not changed But to correct this gross errour of Fancy let us a little enquire into the causes of Dissatisfaction that make the constant fruition of the same thing here to be tedious Sensible things are of such a limited Goodness that not any of them can supply all our present wants so that 't is necessary to leave one for another And the most of them are Remedies of our diseased Appetites and if not temperately used are destructive Evils Eating and Drinking are to extinguish Hunger and Thirst but continued beyond just measure become nauseous Besides the Insufficiency of their Objects the Senses themselves cannot be satisfied all at once The Ear cannot attend to delightful Sounds and the Eye be intent on beautiful Colours at the same time The Satisfaction of one Sense defeats another of enjoying its proper good therefore the same Object is not constantly pleasant but the Heart is distemper'd from as many Causes as there are desires unaccomplish'd Add farther all things under the Sun afford only a superficial delight and miserably deceive the Expectations raised of them and many times there is a mixture of some evil in them that is more offensive than the good is delightful The Honey is attended with a Sting so that often those very things we sigh after through vehement desire when they are obtain'd we sigh for grief Now all these Causes of dissatisfaction cease in Heaven for God is an infinite Good and whatever is truly desireable and precious is in Him in all degrees of Perfection And in his Presence all the Powers of the Soul are drawn out in their most pleasant exercise and always enjoy their entire happiness The fruition of him exceeds our most raised hopes as much as he is more glorious in Himself than in any borrowed Representations God will be to us incomparably above what we can ask or think The compass of our thoughts the depth of our desires are imperfect measures of his Perfections And as he is a Pure Good in Himself so he is prevalent over all Evil. 'T is evident therefore that nothing can allay the Joys of Saints when they are in God's presence 2. Novelty is not requisite to ingratiate every Good and make it perfectly delightful God is infinitely happy to whom no Good was ever new 'T is indeed the Sauce that gives a delicious taste to inferiour things For Men relish only what is eminent and the good things of this World are so truly mean that they are feign to borrow a shew of Greatness by comparison with a worse estate preceding But an infinite Good produces always the same pure equal compleat Joy because it arises from its intrinsic perfection that wants no Foil to commend it The Psalmist breaks forth Whom have I in Heaven but Thee This is no vanishing Rapture but a constant joyful height of Affection God the essential happiness of the Saints is always perfectly lovely and delightful to them 3. The glorified Saints in every period of their happy state have as lively a perception of it as in the beginning To make this evident we must consider that the pleasure of Novelty springs from a quick sense of the opposite terms between our condition in the want of some desired Good and after our obtaining it Now the Mind is more intense on the advantage and more strongly affected at first One newly freed from the torments of a sharp disease feels a greater pleasure than from a constant tenour of health Those who are rais'd from a low state to eminent Dignity are transported with their first change but in tract of time the remembrance of their mean condition is so weakned