he will have us live by faith and not by sight Oh fellow Christians what a day will that be when we who have been kept prisoners by sin by sinners by the grave shall be fetcht out by the Lord himself When Christ shall come from heaven to plead with his enemies and set his Captives free It will not be such a Coming as his first was in meanness and poverty and contempt He will not come to be spit upon and buffeted and scorned and crucified again He will not come oh careless world to be slighted and neglected by you any more And yet that coming which was necessarily in Infirmity and Reproach for our sakes wanted not its Glory If the Angels of heaven must be the messengers of that Coming as being tydings of Joy to all people And the Heavenly Hoast must go before or accompany for the Celebration of his Nativity and must praise God with that solemnity Glory to God in the Highest and on Earth Peace Good will towards men Oh then with what shoutings will Angels and Saints at that day proclaim Glory to God and Peace and Good will toward men If the stars of heaven must lead men from Remote parts of the world to come to worship a child in a manger how will the Glory of his next appearing constrain all the world to acknowledg his Soveraignty If the King of Israel riding on an Ass be entertained into Jerusalem with Hossana's Blessed be the King that comes in the Name of the Lord Peace in Heaven and Glory in the Highest Oh with what Proclamations of blessings Peace and Glory will he come toward the New Jerusalem If when he was in the form of a Servant they cry out What manner of man is this that both wind and sea obey him What will they say when they shall see him Coming in his Glory and the Heavens and the Earth obey him Then shall appear the sign of the Son of man in Heaven and then shall all the Tribes of the Earth mourn and they shall see the Son of man coming in the Clouds of Heaven with Power and great Glory Oh Christians it was comfortable to you to hear from him to believe in him and hope for him What will it be thus to see him The promise of his coming and our deliverance was comfortable What will it be to see him with all the Glorious attendance of his Angels come in person to deliver us The mighty God the Lord hath spoken and called the Earth from the Rising of the Sun to the going down thereof Out of Sion the perfection of Beauty God hath shined Our God shall come and shall not keep silence A fire shall devour before him and it shall be very tempestuous round about him He shall call to the Heavens from above and to the Earth that he may judg his people Gather my Saints together to me those that have made a Covenant with me by Sacrifice and the Heavens shall declare his Righteousness for God is Judg himself Sclah Psal. 50. from vers 1. to 6. This Coming of Christ is frequently mentioned in the Promises as the great Support of his peoples spirits till then And when ever the Apostles would quicken â—o duty or comfort and encourage to patient waiting they usually do it by mentioning Christs Coming Why then do we not usâ— more this cordial consideration when ever we want support and comfort To think and speak of that Day with Horror doth well beseem the impenitent Sinner but ill the beleeving Saint Such may be the voyce of a Beleever but it 's not the voyce of Faith Christians what do we beleeve and hope and wait for but to see that Day This is Pauls encouragement to moderation to Rejoycing in the Lord alway The Lord is at hand Phil. 4.4 5. It is to all them that Love his Appearing that the Lord the Righteous Judg shall give the Crown of Righteousness at that Day 2 Tim. 4.8 Dost thou so long to have him come into thy Soul with comfort and life and takest thy self but for a forlorn Orphan while he seemeth absent And dost thou not much more long for that Coming which shall perfect thy Life and Joy and Glory Dost thou so rejoyce after some short and slender enjoyment of him in thy heart Oh how wilt thou then Rejoyce How full of Joy was that Blessed Martyr Mr Glover with the Discovery of Christ to his Soul after long doubting and waiting in sorrows so that he cryes out He is come He is come If thou have but a dear friend returned that hath been far and long absent how do all run out to meet him with Joy Oh saith the Childe My Father is come saith the Wife My Husband is come And shall not we when we behold our Lord in his majesty returning cry out He is come He is come Shall the wicked with unconceiveable horror behold him and cry out Oh yonder is he whose blood we neglected whose Grace we resisted whose counsels we refused whose Government we cast off And shall not then the Saints with unconceiveable gladness cry out Oh yonder is he whose Blood redeemed us whose Spirit cleansed us whose Law did Govern us Yonder comes he in whom we trusted and now we see he hath not deceived our Trust He for whom we long waited and now we see we have not waited in vain Oh cursed Corruption that would have had us turn to the world and present things and give up our hopes and say Why should we wait for the Lord any Longer Now we see that Blessed are all they that wait for him Beleeve it fellow Christians this Day is not far off For yet a little while and he that comes will come and will not tarry And though the unbeleeving world and the unbelief of thy heart may say as those Atheistical Scoffers Where is the Promise of his Coming Do not all things continue as they were from the beginning of the Creation Yet let us know The Lord is not slack of his Promise as some men count slackness One day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years as one day I have thought on it many a time as a small Emblem of that day when I have seen our prevailing Army drawing towards the Towns and Castles of the Enemy Oh with what glad hearts do all the poor prisoners within hear the news and behold our approach How do they run up to their prison windows and thence behold us with Joy How glad are they at the roaâ—ing report of that Cannon which is the Enemies terror How do they clap each other on the back and cry Deliverance Deliverance While in the mean time the late insulting scorning cruel Enemies begin to speak them fair and beg their favor But all in vain for they are not at the dispose of Prisoners but of the General Their fair usage may make their conditions somewhat the more easie but yet they
then by the blood of Jesus that we have entrance into the Holyest Heb. 10.19 Even all our entrance to the fruition of God both that by faith and prayer here and that by full possession hereafter Therefore do the Saints sing forth his praises who hath Redeemed them out of every Nation by his blood and made them Kings and Priests to God Rev. 5.9.10 Whether that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eph. 1.14 which is translated the Redemption of the purchased profession do prove this or not yet I see no appearance of truth in their exposition of it who because they deny that salvation is purchased by Christ do affirme that its Christ himself who is there called the Purchased possession Therefore did God give his Son and the Son give his life and therefore was Christ lift up on the Cross as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.15 16. So then I conclude either Christ must loose his blood and sufferings and never see of the travaile of his soul but all his pains and expectation be frustrate or els there remaineth a Rest to the people of God SECT III. THirdly And as this Rest is purchased for us so is it also promised to us As the Firmament with the Stars so are the sacred pages bespangled with the frequent intermixture of these Divine engagements Christ hath told us that it is his will that those who are given to him should be where he is that they may behold the Glory which is given him of the Father John 17.24 so also Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom q. d. Fear not all your enemies rage fear not all your own unworthiness doubt not of the certainty of the guift for it is grounded on the good pleasure of your Father Luke 22.29 I appoint to you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me a Kingdom That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom But because I will not be tedious in the needless confirming an acknowledged truth I refer you to the places here cited 2 Thes. 1.7 Heb. 4.1 3. Mat. 25.34 13.43 2 Tim. 4.18 Jam. 2.5 2 Pet. 1.11 2 Thes. 1.5 Acts 14.22 Luke 6.20 13.28 29. 1 Thess. 2.12 Mat. 5.12 Mark 10.21 12.25 1 Pet. 1.4 Heb. 10.34 12.23 Col. 1.5 Phil. 3.20 21. Heb. 11. â—6 Eph. 1. â—0 1 Cor. 15. Rev. 2.7 11 17 c. SECT IIII. FOurthly All the means of Grace and all the workings of the Spirit upon the soul and all the gracious actions of the Saints are so many evident Mediums to prove that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God If it be an undeniable maxime that God and nature do nothing in vaine then is it as true of God and his Grace All these means and motions implie some End to which they tend or else they cannot be called means nor are they the motions of Wisdom or Reason And no lower End then this Rest can be imagined God would never have commanded his people to repent and beleeve to fast and pray to knock and seek and that continually to read and study to conferr and meditate to strive and labor to run and fight and all this to no purpose Nor would the Spirit of God work them to this and create in them a supernaturall power and enable them and excite them to a constant performance were it not for this end whereto it leads us Nor could the Saints reasonably attempt such employments nor yet undergo so heavy sufferings were it not for this desirable end But whatsoever the folly of man might do certainly Divine Wisdom cannot be guilty of setting awork such fruitless motions Therefore whereever I read of duty required whenever I finde the Grace bestowed I take it as so many promises of Rest. The Spirit would never kindle in us such strong desires after Heaven nor such a love to Jesus Christ if we should not receive that which we desire and love He that sets our feet in the way of Peace Luke 1.79 will undoubtedly bring us to the end of Peace How neerly is the means and end conjoyned Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force or as Luke 16.16 every man presseth into it So that the violence apprehends the Kingdom Those whom he causeth to follow him in the regeneration he will sure provide them Thrones of judgement Mat. 19.28 SECT V. FIfthly Scripture further assures us that the Saints have the beginnings foretasts earnest and Seals of this Rest here And may not all this assure them of the full possession The very Kingdom of God is within them Luke 17.21 They here as is before said take it by force They have a beginning of that knowledg which Christ hath said is eternall life John 17.3 I have fully manifested that before that the Rest and Glory of the people of God doth consist in their Knowing Loving Rejoycing and Praising and all these are begun though but begun here therefore doubtless so much as we here know God so much as we Love Rejoyce and Praise so much we have of Heaven on earth so much we enjoy of the Rest of Souls And do you think that God will give the Beginning where he never intends to give the End Nay God doth give his people oftentimes such foresights and foretasts of this same Rest that their spirits are even transported with it and they could heartly wish they might be present there Paul is taken up into the third Heaven and seeth things that must not be uttered The Saints are kept by the power of God through faith unto that salvation ready to be revealed in the last time wherein they can greatly Rejoyce even in temptations 1 Pet. 1.5 6. And therefore the Apostle also tells us That they who now see not Christ nor ever saw him yet love him and Believing do Rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Receiving the end of their faith the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.8.9 Observe here First How God gives his people this foretasting joy Secondly How this joy is said to be full of Glory and therefore must needs be a beginning of the Glory Thirdly How immediatly upon this there follows Receiving the end of their Faith the Salvation of the soul. And Paul also brings in the Justified Rejoycing in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 And I doubt not but some poor Christians amongst us who have little to boast of appearing without have often these foretasts in their souls And do you think God will Tantalize his people Will he give them the first fruits and not the crop Doth he shew them Glory to set them a longing and then dâ—ny them the actuall fruition Or doth he lift them up so neer this Rest and
The delight which a pair of special faithful friends do finde in loving and enjoying one another is a most pleasing sweet delight It seemed to the Philosophers to be above the delights of Natural or Matrimonial friendship and I think it seemed so to David himself so he concludes his Lamentation for him I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 Yea the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David Even Christ himself as it seemeth had some of this kinde of love for he had one Disciple whom he especially loved and who was wont to lean on his brest why think then if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great what delight shall we have in the friendship of the most High and in our mutual amity with Jesus Christ and in the dearest love and consort with the Saints Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship then ever was betwixt any friends on earth and these will be more lovely and desirable friends than any that ever the Sun beheld and both our affections to our Father and our Saviour but especially his affection to us will be such as here we never knew as Spirits are so far more powerful then Flesh that one Angel can destroy an Host so also are their affections more strong and powerful we shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly then now we can and as all the Attributes and Works of God are incomprehensible so is the attribute and work of Love He will love us many thousand times more then we even at the perfectest are able to love him what joy then will there be in this mutuall Love SECT VII 5. COmpare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold What a deal of wisdom and power and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabrick of the world surely his Works are great and admirable sought out of them that have pleasure therein This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant because the Works of God are so excellent VVhat rare workmanship is in the body of a man yea in the body of every beast which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful what excellency in every Plant we see in the beauty of Flowers in the nature diversity and use of Herbs in Fruits in Roots in Minerals and what not But especially if we look to the greater works if we consider the whole body of this earth and its creatures and inhabitants the Ocean of waters with its motions and dimensions the variation of the Seasons and of the face of the earth the entercourse of Spring and Fall of Summer and Winter what wonderful excellency do these contain Why think then in thy Meditations if these things which are but servants to sinful man are yet so full of mysterious worth what then is that place where God himself doth dwell and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ VVhen thou walkest forth in the Evening look upon the Stars how they glissen and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament If in the day time look up to the glorious Sun view the wide expanded encompassing heavens and say to thy self what glory is in the least of yonder Stars what a vast what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon and every Planet O what an unconceiveable glory hath the Sun Why all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless for it would not be seen for the brightness of God I shall live above all yonder glory yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self yonder is but as the wall of the Pallace-yard as the Poet â—aith If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be What is the glory which the Saints do see So think of the rest of the Creatures This whole earth is but my Fathers footstool this Thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these so much and far much more greatness and goodness and loving delights shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God Surely if the Rain which rains and the Sun which shines on the just and unjust be so wonderful the Sun then which must shine on none but Saints and Angels must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory SECT VIII 6. COmpare the things which thou shalt enjoy above with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence which God doth exercise in the Church and in the World What glorious things hath the Lord wrought and yet we shall see more glorious then these Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand and on the left and the dry Land appear in the midst and the people of Israel pass safely through and Pharoah and his people swallowed up what if we should see but such a sight now If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven or had seen the Earth open and swallow up the wicked or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones with an Angel or by one another Would not all these have been wondrous glorious sights But we shall see far greater things then these And as our sights shall be more wonderful so also they shall be more sweet There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled we shall not then cry out as David Who can stand before this Holy Lord God Would it not have been an astonishing sight to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament or to have seen Ahaz Dyal go ten degrees backward Why we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness Were it not a brave life if we might still live among wonders and miracles and all for us and not against us if we could have drought or rain at our prayers as Elias or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies or raise the dead to life as Elisha or cure the diseased and speak strange languages as the Apostles Alas these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self through whose vertue all these works were done we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these Jonas was raised but from a three days burial from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean but
dare to contend in love with thee or set my borrowed languid spark against the Element and Sun of Love Can I love as high as deep as broad as long as Love it self as much as he that made me and that made me love that gave me all that little which I have both the heart the hearth where it is kindled the bellows the fire the fuel and all were his As I cannot match thee in the works of thy Power nor make nor preserve nor guide the worlds so why should I think any moreof matching thee in Love No Lord I yield I am unable I am overcome O blessed conquest Go on victoriously and still prevail and triumph in thy love The Captive of Love shall proclaim thy victory when thou leadest me in triumph from Earth to Heaven from Death to Life from the Tribunal to the Throne my self and all that see it shall acknowledg that thou hast prevailed and all shall say Behold how he loved him Yet let me love thee in subjection to thy Love as thy redeemed Captive though not thy Peer shall I not love at all because I cannot reach thy measure or at least let me heartily wish to love thee O that I were able O that I could feelingly say I love thee even as I feel I love my friend and my self Lord that I could do it but alas I cannot fain I would but alas I cannot Would I not love thee if I were but able Though I cannot say as thy Apostle Thou knowest that I Love thee yet can I say Lord thou knowest that I would love thee but I speak not this to excuse my fault it is a crime that admits of no excuse and it is my own it dwelleth as neer me as my very heart if my heart be my own this sin is my own yea and more my own then my heart is Lord what shall this sinner do the fault is my own and yet I cannot help it I am angry with my heart that it doth not love thee and yet I feel it love thee never the more I frown up on it and yet it cares not I threaten it but it doth not feel I chide it and yet it doth not mend I reason with it and would fain perswade it and yet I do not perceive it stir I rear it up as a carkass upon its legs but it neither goes nor stands I rub and chafe it in the use of thine Ordinances and yet I feel it not warm within me O miserable man that I am unworthy soul is not thine eye now upon the onely lovely object and art thou not beholding the ravishing glory of the Saints and yet dost thou not love and yet dost thou not feel the fire break forth why art thou not a soul a living spirit and is not thy love the choicest piece of thy life Art thou not a rational soul and shouldst not thou love according to Reasons conduct and doth it not tell thee that all is dirt and dung to Christ that earth is a dungeon to the celestial glory Art thou not a spirit thy self and shoulst thou not love spiritually even God who is a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Doth not every creature love their like why my soul art thou like to fleshâ— or gold or stately buildings art thou like to meat and drink or cloathes wilt thou love no higher then thy horse or swine hast thou nothing better to love then they what is the beauty that thou hast so admired canst thou not even wink or think it all into darkness or deformity when the night comes it is nothing to thee while thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away a Botch or Scab the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age do make it as loathsom as it was before delightful suppose but that thou sawest that beautiful carcass lying on the Bier or rotting in the grave the skull dig'd up and the bones scattered where is now thy lovely object couldst thou sweetly embrace it when the soul is gone or take any pleasure in it when there is nothing left thats like thy self Ah why then dost thou love a skinful of dirt and canst love no more the heavenly Glory What thinkest thou shalt thou love when thou comest there when thou seest when thou dost enjoy when the Lord shall take thy carcass from the grave and make thee shine as the Sun in glory and when thou shalt everlastingly dwell in the blessed presence shalt thou then love or shalt thou not is not the place a meeting of lovers is not the life a state of love is it not the great marriage day of the Lamb when he will embrace and entertain his Spouse with love is not the imployment there the work of love where the souls with Christ do take their fill O then my soul begin it here be sick of love now that thou maist be well with love there keep thy self now in the love of God Jude 21. and let neither life nor death nor any thing separate thee from it and thou shalt be kept in the fulness of love for ever and nothing shalt imbitter or abate thy pleasure for the Lord hath prepared a city of love a place for the communicating of love to his chosen and those that love his Name shall dwell there Psal. 69.36 Awake then O my drowsie soul who but an Owl or Mole would love this worlds uncomfortable darkness when they are called forth to live in light to sleep under the light of Grace is unreasonable much more in the approach of the light of Glory The night of thy ignorance and misery is past the day of glorious Light is at hand this is the day-break betwixt them both Though thou see not yet the Sun it self appear methinks the twilight of a promise should revive thee Come forth then O my dull congealed spirits and leave these earthly Cels of dumpish sadness and hear thy Lord that bids thee Rejoyce and again Rejoyce thou hast lain here long enough in thy prison of flesh where Satan hath been thy Jaylor and the things of this world have been the Stocks for the feet of thy Affections where cares have been thy Trons and fears thy Scourge and the bread and water of Affliction thy food where sorrows have been thy lodging and thy sins and foes have made the bed and a carnal hard unbelieving heart have been the iron gates bars that have kept thee in that thou couldst scarce have leave to look through the Lattices and see one glimpse of the immortal light The Angel of the Covenant now calls thee and strikes thee and bids thee Arise and follow him up O my soul and cheerfully obey and thy bolts and bars shall all fly open do thou obey and all will obey follow the Lamb which way ever he leads thee Art thou afraid because thou knowst not whither Can the place be worse then where thou art Shouldst thou fear to follow
these frail noisom diseased Lumps of flesh or dirt that now we carry about us so far shall our sense of Seeing and Hearing exceed these we now possess For the change of the senses must be conceived proportionable to the change of the body And doubtless as God advanceth our sense and enlargeth our capacity so will he advance the happiness of those senses and fill up with himself all that capacity And certainly the body should not be raised up and continued if it should not share of the Glory For as it hath shared in the obedience and sufferings so shall it also do in the blessedness And as Christ bought the whole man so shall the whole partake of the everlasting benefits of the purchase The same difference is to be allowed for the Tongue For though perhaps that which we now call the tongue the voyce or language shal not then be Yet with the forementioned unconceiveable change it may continue Certain it is it shall be the everlasting work of those Blessed Saints to stand before the Throne of God and the Lamb and to praise him for ever and ever As their Eyes and Hearts shall be filled with his Knowledg with his Glory and with his Love so shall their mouthes be filled with his praises Go on therefore Oh ye Saints while you are on Earth in that Divine Duty Learn Oh learn that Saint-beseeming work for in the mouthes of his Saints his praise is comely Pray but still praise Hear and Read but still praise Praise him in the presence of his people for it shall be your Eternal work Praise him while his Enemies deride and abuse you You shall praise him while they shall bewail it and admire you Oh Blessed Employment to sound forth for ever Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Honor Glory and Power Revel 4.11 And worthy is the Lamb who was slain to receive Power and Riches and Wisdom and Strength and Honor and Glory and Blessing for he hath Redeemed us to God by his blood out of every kinred and tongue and people and Nation and hath made us unto our God Kings and Priests Revel 5.12 9 10. Alleluja Salvation and Honor and Glory and Power unto the Lord our God Praise our God all ye his servants and ye that fear him small and great Alleluja for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth Revel 19.1 5 6. Oh Christians this is the Blessed Rest A Rest without Rest For they Rest not day and night saying Holy Holy Holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Revel 4.8 Sing forth his praises now ye Saints It is a work our Master Christ hath taught us And you shall for ever sing before him the song of Moses and the song of the Lamb Great and marvellous are thy works Lord God Almighty Just and true are thy ways thou King of Saints Revel 15.3 SECT VI. ANd if the Body shall be thus employed Oh how shall the Soul be taken up As its powers and capacities are greatest so its action strongest and its enjoyment sweetest As the bodily senses have their proper aptitude and action whereby they receive and enjoy their objects so doth the Soul in its own action enjoy its own object By knowing by thinking and Remembering by Loving and by delightful joying this is the Souls enjoying By these Eyes it sees and by these Arms it embraceth If it might be said of the Disciples with Christ on Earth much more that behold him in his Glory Blessed are the Eyes that see the things that you see and the Ears that hear the things that you hear for many Princes and great ones have desired and hoped to see the things that you see and have not seen them c. Mat. 13.16 17. Knowledg of it self is very desireable even the knowledg of some evil though not the Evil it self As far as the Rational Soul exceeds the Sensitive so far the Delights of a Philosopher in discovering the secrets of Nature and knowing the mystery of Sciences exceeds the Delights of the Glutton the Drunkard the unclean and of all voluptuous sensualists whatsoever so excellent is all Truth What then is their Delight who know the God of Truth What would I not give so that all the uncertain questionable Principles in Logick Natural Philosophy Metaphysicks and Medicine were but certain in themselves and to me And that my dull obscure notions of them were but quick and clear Oh what then should I not either perform or part with to enjoy a clear and true Apprehension of the most True God How noble a faculty of the Soul is this Understanding It can compass the Earth It can measure the Sun Moon Stars and Heaven It can fore-know each Eclipse to a minute many years before Yea but this is the top of all its excellency It can know God who is infinite who made all these a little here and more much more hereafter Oh the wisdom and goodness of our Blessed Lord He hath created the Understanding with a Natural Byas and inclination to Truth as its object and to the Prime Truth as its Prime Object and lest we should turn aside to any Creature he hath kept this as his own Divine Prerogative not communicable to any Creature viz. to be the Prime Truth And though I think not as some do that there is so neer a close between the Understanding and Truth as may produce a proper Union or Identity Yet doubtless it 's no such cold touch or disdainful embrace as is between these gross earthly Heterogeneals The true studious contemplative man knows this to be true who feels as sweet embraces between his Intellect and Truth and far more then ever the quickest sense did in possessing its desired object But the true studious contemplative Christian knows it much more who sometime hath felt more sweet embraces between his Soul and Jesus Christ then all inferior Truth can afford I know some Christians are kept short this way especially the careless in their watch and walking and those that are ignorant or negligent in the dayly actings of Faith who look when God casts in Joys while they lie idle and labor not to fetch them in by beleeving But for others I appeal to the most of them Christian dost thou not sometime when after long gazing heaven-ward thou hast got a glimpse of Christ dost thou not seem to have been with Paul in the third Heaven whether in the body or out and to have seen what is unutterable Art thou not with Peter almost beyond thy self ready to say Master it 's good to be here Oh that I might dwell in this Mount Oh that I might ever see what I now see Didst thou never look so long upon the Sun of God till thine Eyes were dazled with his astonishing glory and did not the splendor of it make all things below seem black and dark to thee when thou lookest down again Especially in thy day
Kingdom of his Father To have necessities but no supply is the case of them in Hell to have necessity supplied by the means of Creatures is the case of us on Earth to have necessity supplied immediately from God is the case of the Saints in Heaven to have no necessity at all is the prerogative of God himself The more of God is seen and received with and by the means and Creature here the neerer is our state like that in glory In a word We have now our Mercies as Benjamin had Josephs cup we finde them at a distance from God and scarcely know from whence they come and understand not the good will intended in them but are oft ready to fear they come in wrath and think they will but work our ruine But when we shall feed at Josephs own house yea receive our portion from his own hand when he shall fully unbowel his love unto us and take us to dwell in Goshen by him when we shall live in our Fathers house and presence and God shall be All and in All then are we indeed at home in Rest. SECT VI. SIxthly Again a further excellency is this It will be unto us a seasonable Rest. He that expecteth the fruit of his Vineyard in season and maketh his people as Trees planted by the waters fruitful in their season he will also give them the Crown in season He that will have the words of Joy spoken to the weary in season will sure cause that time of Joy to appear in the meetest season And they who knew the season of Grace and did repent and believe in season shall also if they faint not reap in season If God will not miss the season of common Mercies even to his enemies but will give both the former and latter rain in their season and the appointed weeks of the Harvest in its season and by an inviolable Covenant hath established day and night in their seasons Then sure the Harvest of the Saints and their day of gladness shall not miss its season Doubtless he that would not stay a day longer then his promise but brought Israel out of Egypt that self same day that the 430 yeers were expired neither will he fail of one day or hour of the fittest season for his peoples glory And as Christ failed not to come in the fulness of time even then when Daniel and others had foretold his coming so in the fulness and fitness of time will his second coming be He that hath given the Stork the Crane the Swallow to know their appointed time will surely keep his time appointed When we have had in this world a long night of sad darkness will not the day-breaking and the arising of the Sun of Righteousness be then seasonable When we have endured a hard Winter in this cold Climate will not the reviving Spring be then seasonable When we have as Paul sailed slowly many days and much time spent and sailing now grown more dangerous and when neither Sun nor Stars in many days appear and no small tempest lieth on us and all hope that we shall be saved is almost taken away do you think the Haven of Rest is not then seasonable When we have passed a long and tedious Journey and that through no small dangers is not Home then seasonable When we have had a long and perilous War and have lived in the midst of furious Enemies and have been forced to stand on a perpetual watch and received from them many a wound would not a Peace with Victory be now seasonable When we have been captivated in many yeers imprisonment and insulted over by scornful foes and suffered many pinching wants and hardly enjoyed bare necessaries would not a full deliverance to a most plentiful State even from this prison to a Throne be now seasonable Surely a man would think who looks upon the face of the World that Rest should to all men seem seasonable Some of us are languishing under continual weakness and groaning under most grievous pains crying in the morning Would God it were evening and in the evening Would God it were morning weary of going weary of sitting weary of standing weary of lying weary of eating of speaking of waking weary of our very friends weary of our selves O how oft hath this been mine own case and is not Rest yet seasonable Some are complaining under the pressures of the times weary of their Taxes weary of their Quartering weary of Plunderings weary of their fears and dangers weary of their poverty and wants and is not Rest yet seasonable Whither can you go or into what company can you come where the voyce of complaining doth not shew that men live in a continual weariness but especially the Saints who are most weary of that which the world cannot feel What godly society almost can you fall into but you shall hear by their moans that somewhat aileth them some weary of a blinde minde doubting concerning the way they walk in unsetled in almost all their thoughts some weary of a hard heart some of a proud some of a passionate and some of all these and much more some weary of their daly doubtings and feares concerning their spiritual estate and some of the want of spiritual Joyes and some of the sense of Gods wrath and is not Rest now seasonable when a poor Christian hath desired and prayed and waited for deliverance many a year is it not then seasonable When he is ready almost to give up and saith I am afraid I shall not reach the end and that my faith and patience will scarce hold out is not this a fit season for Rest If it were to Joseph a seasonable message which called him from the Prison to Pharohs Court Or if the return of his Benjamin the tidings that Joseph was yet alive and the sight of the Chariots which should convoy him to Egypt were seasonable for the Reviving of Jacobs Spirits then me thinks the message for a release from the flesh and our convoy to Christ should be a seasonable and welcome message If the voice of the King were seasonable to Daniel early in the morning calling him from his Den that he might advance him to more then former dignity then me thinks that morning voice of Christ our King calling us from our terrors among Lyons to possesse his Rest among his Saints should be to us a very seasonable voice Will not Canaan be seasonable after so many years travel and that through a hazardous and grievous Wilderness Indeed to the world its never in season they are already at their own home and have what they most desire they are not weary of their present State the Saints sorrow is their Joy and the Saints weariness is their Rest Their weary day is coming where there is no more expectation of Rest But for the thirsty soul to enjoy the fountain and the hungry to be filled with the bread
tittle SECT VIII 8. BUt the great aggravation of this misery will be its Eternity That when a thousand millions of ages are past their Torments are as fresh to begin as the first day If there were any hope of an end it would ease them to foresee it but when it must be for ever that thought is intollerable much more will the misery it self be so They were never weary of sinning nor ever would have been if they had lived eternally upon earth And now God will not be weary of plaguing them They never heartily repented of their sin and God will never repent him of their sufferings They broke the Lawes of the eternal God and therefore shall suffer eternal punishment They knew it was an Everlasting Kingdom which they refused when it was offered them and therefore what wonder if they be everlastingly shut out of it It was their immortall souls that were guilty of the trespass and therefore must immortally suffer the pains O now what happy men would they think themselves if they might have layen still in their graves or continued dust or suffered no worse then the gnawing of those worms O that they might but there lye down again What a mercy now would it be to dye And how will they call and cry out for it O death whither art thou now gone Now come and cut off thâ—s doleful life O that these pains would break my heart and end my being O that I might once at last dye O that I had never had a beeing These groanes will the thoughts of Eternity wring from their hearts They were wont to think the Sermon long and prayer long how long then will they think these Endless torments What difference is there betwixt the length of their pleasures and of their paines The one continued but a moment but the other endureth through all eternity O that sinners would lay this thought to heart Remember how Time is almost gone Thou art standing all this while at the door of Eternity and death is waiting to open the door and put thee in Go sleep out yet but a few more nights and stir up and down on earth a few more dayes and then thy nights and dayes shall end thy thoughts and cares and pleasure sand all shall be devoured by eternity thou must enter upon that state which shall never be changed As the Joyes of Heaven are beyond our conceiving so also are the pains of Hell Everlasting Torment is unconceivable Torment SECT IX BUt I know if it be a sensuall unbeliever that readeth all this he will cast it by with disdain and say I will never believe that God will thus Torment his Creatures What to delight in their torture And that for everlasting And all for the faults of a short time It is incredible How can this stand with the infiniteness of his mercy I would not thus Torment the worst enemy that I have in the world and yet my mercifulness is nothing to Gods These are but threats to awe men I will not believe them Answ. Wilt thou not believe I do not wonder if thou be loath to believe so terrible tidings to thy soul as these are which if they were believed and apprehended indeed according to their weight would set thee a trembling and roaring in the anguish of horror day and night And I do as little wonder that the Devil who ruleth thee should be loath if he can hinder it to suffer thee to believe it For if thou didst believe it thou wouldest spare no cost or pains to escape it But go to If thou wilt read on either thou shalt believe it before thou stirrest or prove thy self an Infidel or Pagan Tell me then Dost thou believe Scripture to be the word of God If thou do not thou art no more a Christian then thy horse is or then a Turk is For what ground have we besides Scripture to believe that Jesus Christ did come into the world or dye for man If thou believe not these I have nothing here to do with thee but refer thee to the second part of this book where I have proved Scripture to be the word of God But if thou do believe this to be so and yet dost not believe that the same Scripture is true thou art far worse then either Infidel or Pagan For the vilest Pagans durst hardly charge their Idol Gods to be lyars And darest thou give the lye to the God of Heaven And accuse him of speaking that which shall not come to pass and that in such absolute threats and plain expressions But if thou darest not stand to this but dost believe Scripture both to be the word of God and to be true then I shall presently convince thee of the truth of these eternall Torments Wilt thou believe if a Prophet should tell it thee Why read it then in the greatest Prophets Moses David and Isaiah Deut. 32.22 Psal. 11.6 9 17. Isai. 30.33 Or wilt thou believe one that was more then a Prophet Why hear then what John Baptist saith Mat. 3.10 Luk. 3.17 Or wilt thou believe if an Apostle should tell thee Why hear what one saith Jud. 7.13 where he cals it the vengeance of eternall fire and the blackness of darness for ever Or what if thou have it from an Apostle that had been rapt up in Revelations into the third Heaven and seen things unutterable Wilt thou believe then Why take it then from Paul 2 Thess. 1.7 8 9. The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels in flaming fire taking vengeance on them that know not God and that obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power And 2 Thess. 2.12 That they all might be damned who believed not the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness So Rom. 2.5 6 7 8 9 10. Or wilt thou believe it from the beloved Apostle who was so taken up in Revelations and saw it as it were in his visions Why see then Rev. 20.10 15. They are said there to be cast into the lake of fire and tormented day and night for ever So Rev. 21.8 So 2 Pet. 2.17 Or wilt thou believe it from the mouth of Christ himself the judg Why reade it then Mat. 7.19 13.40 41 42 49 50. As therefore the Tares are gathered and burnt in the fire so shall it be in the end of this world the Son of man shall send forth his Angels and they shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them which do iniquity and shall cast them into a furnace of fire there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth c. So Mat. 18.8 9. So Mark 9.43 44 46 48. Where he repeateth it three times over Where their worm never dyeth and their fire is not quenched And Mat. 25.41 46. Then shall he say to
them on the left hand Depart from me ye cursed into everlasting fire prepared for the Devil and his angels For I was c. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal What sayest thou now to all this Wilt thou not yet believe If thou wilt not believe Christ I know not whom thou wilt believe and therefore it is in vain to perswade thee any further Only let me tell thee the time is at hand when thou wilt easily believe and that without any preaching or arguing when thou seest the great and terrible day and hearest the condemning sentence past and art thy self thrust down to Hell as Luk. 10.15 then thou shalt believe and never doubt again And do not say but thou wast told so much Surely he that so much disswades thee from believing doth yet believe and tremble himself Jam. 2.19 And whereas thou thinkest that God is more merciful why sure he knowes best his own mercifulness His mercy will not cross his Truth Cannot God be infinite in mercy except he save the wilful and rebellious Is a judg unmerciful for condemning malefactors Mercy and Justice have their several objects Thousands of humble believing obedient souls shall know to their eternall comfort that God is merciful though the refusers of his grace shall lye under Justice God will then force thy conscience to confess in Hell that God who condemned thee was yet merciful to thee Was it no mercy to be made a reasonable creature And to have Patience endure thy many yeers provocations and wait upon thee from Sermon to Sermon desiring and intreating thy repentance and return Was it no mercy to have the Son of God with all his blood and merits freely offered thee if thou wouldest but have accepted him to govern and to save thee Nay when thou hadst neglected and refused Christ once twice yea a hundred times that God should yet follow thee with invitations from day to day And shalt thou wilfully refuse mercy to the last hour and then cry out that God will not be so unmercifull as to condemn thee Thy conscience will smite thee for this madness and tell thee that God was merciful in all this though such as thou do perish for your wilfulness Yea the sense of the greatness of his mercy will then be a great part of thy torment And whereas thou thinkest the pain to be greater then the offence that is because thou art not a competent Judg Thou knowest what pain is but thou knowest not the thousand part of the evil of sin shall not the righteous Judg of the world do justly Nay it is no more then thou didst chuse thy self Did not God set before thee Life and Death and tell thee If thou wouldest accept of the Government of Christ and renounce thy Lusts that then thou shouldest have eternal Life And if thou wouldest not have Christ but the World or Flesh to rule over thee thou shouldest then endure eternal torments Did not he offer thee thy choice and bid thee take which of these thou wouldest yea and intreat thee to chuse aright And dost thou now cry out of Severity when thou hast but the consequents of thy wilful choice But it is not thy accusing God of cruelty that shall serve thy turn in stead of procuring thy escape or the mitigation of thy torments it will but make thy burthen the more heavy And whereas thou saist that thou wouldest not so torment thy own enemy I Answ. There is no Reason that thou shouldest For is it all one to offend a crawling Worm of the earth and to offend the eternal glorious God Thou hast no absolute dominion over thine enemy and there may be some fault in thy self as well as in him but with God and us the case is contrary Yet thou makest nothing of killing a Flea if it do but bite thee yea a hundred of them though they did not touch thee and yet never accusest thy self of cruelty Yea thou wilt torment thy Ox all his life time with toilsome labor and kill him at the last though he never deserved ill of thee nor disobeyed thee though thou hast over him but the borrowed authority of a superiour fellow creature and not the soveraign power of the absolute Creator Yea How commonly dost thou take away the lives of Birds and Beasts and Fishes Many times a great many of lives must be taken away to make for thee but one meal How many deaths then have been suffered in obedience to thy will from thy first Age to thy last hour and all this without any desert of the creature And must it yet seem cruelty that the Soveraign Creator who is ten thousand times more above thee then thou art above a Flea or a Toad should execute his Justice upon such a contemner of his Authority But I have given you some Reasons of this before SECT X. BUt methinks I perceive the obstinate sinner desperately resolving If I must be damned there is no remedy rather then I will live so precisely as the Scripture requireth I will put it to the venture I shall scape as well as the rest of my neighbours and as the most of the world and we will even bear it as well as we can Answ. Alas poor creature would thou didst but know what it is that thou dost so boldly venture on I dare say thou wouldest sleep this night but very unquietly Wilt thou leave thy self no room for Hope Art thou such a malicious implacable enemy to Christ and thy own soul And dost thou think indeed that thou canst bear the wrath of God and go away so easily with these eternal Torments Yet let me beg this of thee that before thou dost so flatly resolve thou wouldest lend me thine attention to these few Questions which I shall put to thee and weigh them with the reason of a man and if then thou think thou canst bear these pains I shall give thee over and say no more 1. Who art thou that thou shouldest bear the wrath of God Art thou a God or art thou a man what is thy strength to undergo so much Is it not as the strength of Wax or Stubble to resist the Fire or as Chaffe to the Winde or as the Dust before the fierce Whirlwinde Was he not as stout a man as thy self who cryed to God Job 13.25 Wilt thou break a leaf driven to and fro and wilt thou pursue the dry stubble and he that confesseth I am a worm and no man Psal 22.6 If thy strength were as iron and thy bones as brass thou couldest not bear If thy foundation were as the Earth and thy power as the Heavens yet shouldest thou perish at the breath of his Indignation How much more when thou art but a little piece of warm creeping breathing Clay kept a few days from stinking and from being eaten with Worms by the meer support and favor of him whom thou thus resistest
2. If thou art able to wrastle with the indignation of the Almighty why then dost thou tremble at the signs of his Power or Wrath Do not the terrible Thunder-claps sometime fear thee or the Lightning flashes or that unseen Power which goes with it in renting in pieces the mighty Oakes and tearing down the strongest buildings If thou hadst been in the Church of Withicombe in Devonshire when the lightning broke in and scorched and burnt the people and left the brains and haire upon the pillars would it not have made thee afraid If thou be but in a place where the plague doth rage so that it comes to so many thousand a week doth it not astonish thee to see men that were well within a few dayes to be thrown into the graves by heaps and multitudes If thou hadst stood by when Pharoah and his people were so strangely plagued and at last drowned together in the Sea or when the earth swallowed up Dathan Abiram and their companies and the people fled away at the cry lest the earth should swallow them up also or when Elias brought fire from Heaven to consume the Captains and their compaines would not any of these sights have daunted thy spirit Why how then canst thou bear the hellish plagues Thirdly Tell me also if thou be so strong and thy heart so stout why do those small sufferings so dismay thee which befal thee here If thou have but a tooth ake or a fit of the gout or stone what groans dost thou utter What moan dost thou make The house is filled with thy constant complaints Thy friends about thee are grieved at thy pains and stand over thee condoling thy miserable state If thou shouldest but lose a leg or an arm thou wouldest make a greater matter of it If thou lose but a friend if thou lose thine estate and fall into poverty and beggery and disgrace how heavily wouldest thou bear any one of these And yet all these laid together will be one day accounted a happy state in comparison of that which is suffered in Hel. Let me see thee shake off the most painful sickness and make as light of Convulsive Epileptick Arthritick Nephritick pains or such like diseases when they selfe upon thee and then the strength of thy spirit will appear Alas how many such boasters as thy self have I seen made stoop and eat their words And when God hath but let out a little of his wrath that Pharaoh who before asked Who is the Lord that I should let all go for him have turned their tune and cryed I have sinned Fourthly If thy stout spirit do make so light of hel why then doth the approach of death so much affright thee Didst thou never finde the sober thoughts of death to raise a kind of dread in thy mind VVast thou never in a feaver or a consumption or any disease wherein thou didst receive the sentence of death If thou wast not thou wilt be before long and then when the Physitian hath plainly told thee that there is no hopes O how cold it strikes to thy heart VVhy is death to men the King of terrors else and the stoutest champions then do abate their courage O but the grave would be accounted a palace or a Paradise in comparison of that place of Torment which thou desperately slightest 5. If all this be nothing go try thy strength by some corporall torment As Bilney before he went to the stake would first try his finger in the candle so do thou Hold thy finger a while in the fire and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of Hell Austin menâ—tioneth a chast Christian woman who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd Ruffian she desireth him for her sake to hold his finger an hour in the fire he answereth It is an unreasonable request How much more unreasonable is it saith she that I should burn in Hell for the satisfying of your lust Lo say I to thee If it be an intollerable thing to suffer the heat of the fire for a yeer or a day or an hour what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever VVhat if thou were to suffer Lawrence his death to be rosted upon a Gridiron or to be scraped or pricked to death as other Martyrs were Or if thou were to feed upon toads for a yeer together If thou couldest not endure such things as these how wilt thou endure the eeternal flames 6. Tell me yet again if Hell be so small a matter why canst thou not endure so much as the thoughts or the mention of it If thou be alone thou darest scarcely think of Hel for fear of raising disquietness in thy spirit If thou bein company thou canst not endure to have any serious speech of it lest it spoile the sport and mar the mirth and make thee tremble as Faelix did when Paul was discoursing of the Judgement to come Thou canst not endure to hear a Minister preach of Hell but thou gnashest thy teeth and disdainest him and reproachest his Sermon as enough to drive men to desperation or make them mad And canst thou endure the Torments when thou canst not endure so much as to hear of them Alas man to hear thy Judgment from the mouth of Christ and to feel the execution will be another kinde of matter them to hear it from a Minister 7. Furthermore what is the matter that the rich man in Hell mentioned in Luk. 16. could not make as light of it as thou dost VVas not he as likely a man to bear it as thy self VVhy doth he so cry out that he is tormented in the flames and stoop so low as to beg a drop of water of a beggar that he had but a little before despised at his gates and to be beholden to him that had been beholden to the dogs to lick his sores 8. Also what aileth thy companions who were as resolute as thy self that when they lye a dying their courage is so cooled and their haughty expressions are so greatly changed They who had the same spirits and language as thou hast now and made as light of all the threats of the word yet when they see they are going into another world how pale do they look how faintly do they speak how dolefully do they complain and groan They send for the Minister then whom they despised before and desire to be prayed for and would be glad to dye in the state of those whom they would not be perswaded to imitate in their lives Except it be here and there a desperate wretch who is given over to a more then Hellish hardness of heart VVhy cannot these make as light of it as thou 9. Yet further if thou be so fearless of that eternall misery why is the least foretast of it so terrible Didst thou never feel such a thing as a tormenting conscience If thou hast not thou shalt do Didst thou never see and speak with a
If the Law of the Land did punish every breach of the Sabbath or every omission of family duties or secret duties or every cold and heartless prayer with Death If it were Felony or Treason to be ungodly and negligent in Worship and loose in your lives What manner of persons would you then be and what lives would you lead And is not Eternal death more terrible then temporal 3 Quest. If it were Gods ordinary course to punish every sin with some present Judgment so that every time a man swears or is drunk or speaks a lye or back-biteth his neighbor he should be struck dead or blind or lame in the place If God did punish every cold prayer or neglect of duty with some remarkable plague what manner of persons would you then be If you should suddenly fall down dead like Ananias and Saphira with the sin in your hands or the plague of God should seize upon you as upon the Israelites while their sweet morsels were yet in their mouths If but a Mark should be set in the forehead of every one that neglected a duty or committed a sin What kind of lives would you then lead And is not Eternal Wrath more terrible then all this Give but Reason leave to speak 4 Quest. If one of your old acquaintance and companions in sin should come from the dead and tell you that he suffereth the Torments of Hell for those sins that you are guilty of and for neglecting those duties which you neglect and for living such a careless worldly ungodly life as you now live should therfore advise you to take another course If you should meet such a one in your Chamber when you are going to bed and he should say to you Oh take heed of this carnal unholy life Set your self to seek the Lord with all your might neglect not your Soul Prepare for Eternity that you come not to the place of Torment that I am in How would this take with you and what manner of persons would you afterwards be It is written in the life of Bruno that a Doctor of great note for learning and godliness being dead and being brought to the Church to be buried while they were in their Popish Devotions and came to the words Responde mihi the Corps arose in the Beir and with a terrible voyce cryed out Justo Dei Judicio accusatus sum I am accused at the Just Judgment of God At which voyce the people run all out of Church affrighted On the morrow when they came again to perform the Obsequies at the same words as before the Corps arose again and cryed with a hideous voyce Justo Dei Judicio Judicatus sum I am Judged at the righteous Judgment of God Whereupon the people run away again amazed The third day almost all the City came together and when they came to the same words as before the Corps rose again and cryed with a more doleful voyce then before Justo Dei Judicio Condemnatus sum I am Condemned at the Just Judgment of God The consideration whereof that a man reputed so upright should yet by his own confession be damned caused Bruno and the rest of his companions to enter into that strict order of the Carthusians If the voyce of the dead man could affright them into Superstition should not the warnings of God affright thee into true Devotion 5 Quest. If you knew that this were the last day you had to live in the world how would you spend this day If you were sure when you go to bed that you should never rise again would not your thoughts of another life be more serious that night If you knew when you are praying that you should never pray more would you not be more earnest and importunate in that prayer Or if you knew when you are preaching or hearing or exhorting your sinful acquaintance that this were the last opportunity you should have would you not ply it more closely then usually you do Why you do not know but it may be the last and you are sure your last is near at hand 6 Quest. If you had seen the general dissolution of the world and all the pomp and glory of it consumed to ashes If you saw all on a fire about you sumptuous buildings Cities Kingdoms Land Water Earth Heaven all flaming about your ears If you had seen all that men labored for and sold their Souls for gone friends gone the place of your former abode gone the history ended and all come down what would such a sight as this perswade you to do Why such a sight thou shalt certainly see I put my Question to thee in the words of the Apostle 2 Pet. 3.11 Seeing all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy conversation and godliness looking for and hasting unto the coming of the day of God wherein the heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the elements shall melt with fervent heat As if he should say We cannot possibly conceive or express what manner of persons we should be in all holiness and godliness when we do but think of the sudden and certain and terrible dissolution of all things below 7 Quest. What if you had seen the process of the Judgment of the great day If you had seen the Judgment set and the Books opened and the most stand trembling on the left hand of the Judg and Christ himself accusing them of their rebellions and neglects and remembring them of all their former slightings of his grace and at last condemning them to perpetual perdition If you had seen the godly standing on the right hand and Jesus Christ acknowledging their faithful obedience and adjudging them to the possession of the Joy of their Lord What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this Why this sight thou shalt one day see as sure as thou livest And why then should not the fore-knowledg of such a day awake thee to thy duty 8 Quest. What if you had once seen Hell open and all the damned there in their easeless Torments and had heard them crying out of their sloathfulness in the day of their visitation and wishing that they had but another life to live and that God would but try them once again One crying out of his neglect of duty and another of his loitering and trifling when he should have been labouring for his life What manner of persons would you have been after such a sight as this What if you had seen Heaven opened as Stephen did and all the Saints there triumphing in Glory and enjoying the End of their labours and sufferings What a life would you lead after such a sight as this Why you will see this with your eyes before it be long 9 Quest. What if you had lien in Hell but one year or one day or hour and there felt all those Torments that now you do but hear of
certainly at least immediatly after yet do they labor with patience and rest themselves on these Expectations Or if God do take away both present injoyments and all hopes of ever recovering them how do we search about from creature to creature to finde out something to supply the room and to settle upon in stead thereof Yea if we can finde no supply but are sure we shall live in poverty in sickness in disgrace while we are on earth yet will we rather settle in this misery and make a Rest of a wretched Being then we will leave all and come to God A man would think that a multitude of poor people who beg their bread or can scarce with their hardest labor have sustenance for their lives should easily be driven from Resting here and willingly look to heaven for Rest and the sick who have not a day of ease nor any hope of recovery leâ—t them But O the cursed aversness of these souls from God We will rather account our misery our happiness yea that which we daily groan under as intolerable then we will take up our happiness in God If any place in hell were tolerable the soul would rather take up its Rest there then come to God Yea when he is bringing us over to him and hath convinced us of the worth of his wayes and service the last deceit of all is here we will rather settle upon those wayes that lead to him and those ordinances which speak of him and those gifts which flow from him then we will come clean over to himself Christian marvel not that I speak so much of Resting in these Beware least it should prove thy own case I suppose thou art so far convinced of the vanity of Riches and Honor and carnal pleasure that thou canst more easily disclaim these and it s well if it be so but for thy more spiritual mercies in thy way of profession thou lookest on these with less suspicion and thinkest they are so neer to God that thou canst not delight in them too much especially seeing most of the world despise them or delight in them too little But do not the encrease of these mercies dull thy longings after heaven If all were according to thy desire in the Church wouldst thou not sit down and say I am well Soul take thy Rest and think it a judgment to be removed to heaven Surely if thy delight in these excel not thy delight in God or if thou wouldst gladly leave the most happy condition on earth to be with God then art thou a rare man a Christian indeed Many a one of us were more willing to go to heaven in the former dayes of persecution when we had no hopes of seeing the Church reformed and the Kingdom delivered But now we are in hopes to have all things almost as we desire the case is altered and we begin to look at heaven as strangely and sadly as if it would be to our loss to be removed to it Is this the right use of Reformation Or is this the way to have it continued or perfected should our deliverances draw our hearts from God O how much better were it in every trouble to fetch our chief arguments of comfort from the place where our chiefest Rest remains and when others comfort the poor with hopes of wealth or the sick with hopes of health and life let us comfort our selves with the hopes of heaven So far rejoyce in the creature as it comes from God or leads to him or brings thee some report of his love So far let thy soul take comfort in ordinances as God doth accompany them with quickning or comfort or gives in himself unto thy soul by them Still remembring when thou hast even what thou dost desire yet this is not Heaven yet these are but the first fruits Is it not enough that God alloweth us all the comforts of travellers and accordingly to rejoyce in all his mercies but we must set up our staff as if we were at home While we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord and while we absent from him we are absent from our Rest. If God were as willing to be absent from us as we from him and if he were as loth to be our Rest as we are loth to Rest in him we should be left to an Eternal Restless seperation In a word as you are sensible of the sinfulness of your earthly discontents so be you also of your irregular contents and pray God to pardon them much more And above all the plagues and judgments of God on this side hell see that you watch and pray against this Of settling any where short of Heaven or reposing your souls to Rest on any thing below God Or else when the bough which you tread on breaks and the things which you Rest upon deceive you you will perceive your labor all lost and your sweetest contents to be preparatives to your wâ— and your highest hopes will make you ashamed Try if you can perswade Satan to leaâ—e tempting and the world to cease both troubling and seducing and sin to cease inhabiting and acting if you can bring the Glory of God from above or remove the Court from Heaven to earth and secure the continuance of this through Eternity then settle your selves below and say Soul take thy rest here But till then admit not such a thought CHAP. II. USE VII Reproving our unwillingness to Dye SECT I. IS there a Rest remaining for the people of God Why are we then so loth to dye and to depart from hence that we may possesse this Rest If I may judg of others hearts by my own we are exceeding guilty in this point We linger as Lot in Sodome till God being merciful to us doth pluck us away against our wills How rare is it to meet with a Christian though of strongest parts and longest profession that can dye with an unfeigned willingness Especially if worldly calamity constrain them not to be willing Indeed we sometime set a good face on it and pretend a willingness when we see there is no remedy and that our unwillingness is only a disgrace to us but will not help to prolong our lives But if God had enacted such a law for the continuance of our lives on earth as is enacted for the continuance of the Parliament that we should not be dissolved till our own pleasure and that no man should dye till he were truly willing I fear Heaven might be empty for the most of us and if our worldly prosperity did not fade our lives on earth would be very long if not eternal We pretend desires of being better preâ—aâ—eâ— and of doing God some greater service and to that end we beg on yeer more and another and another but still our promised preparation and service is as far to seek as ever before and we remain as unwilling to dye as we were when we begged our first Râ—pâ—â—vall
he hath chosen him for his Portion his thoughts are on Eternity his desires there his dwelling there he cryes out O that I were there he takes that day for a time of imprisonment wherein he hath not taken one refreshing view of Eternity I had rather dye in this mans condition and have my soul in his souls case then in the case of him that hath the most eminent gifts and is most admired for parts and dutie whose heart is not thus taken up with God The man that Christ will finde out at the last day and condemn for want of a wedding Garment will be he that wants this frame of heart The question will not then be How much you have known or professed or talked but How much have you loved and where was your heart Why then Christians as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God and a sure proof of your title to Glory labor to get your hearts above God will acknowledg that you really love him and take you for faithful friends indeed when he sees your hearts are set upon him Get but your hearts once truly in Heaven and without all question your selves will follow If sin and Satan keep not thence your affections they will never be able to keep away your persons SECT IIII. 2. COnsider A heart in Heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here and the noblest part of your Christian disposition As there is not only a difference between men and beasts but also among men between the Noble and the Base so there is not only a common excellency whereby a Christian differs from the world but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit whereby the more excellent differ from the rest And this lyes especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit Only man of all inferior creatures is made with a face directed heaven-ward but other creatures have their faces to the earth As the Noblest of Creatures so the Noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for Heaven As Saul is called a choice and goodly man higher by the head then all the company so is he the most choice and goodly Christian whose head and heart is thus the highest Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs and not the smaller things of low poverty Their discourse is of the councels and matters of State of the Government of the Common-wealth and publike things and not of the Countrey-mans petty imployments O to hear such an heavenly Saint who hath fetcht a journey into heaven by faith and hath been wrapt up to God in his contemplations and is newly come down from the veiws of Christ what discoveries he will make of those Superior regions What ravishing expressions drop from his lips How high and sacred is his discourse Enough to make the ignorant world astonished and say Much study hath made them mad And enough to convince an understanding hearer that have seen the Lord and to make one say No man could speak such words as these except he had been with God this This is the noble Christian. As Bucholcers hearers concluded when he had preached his last Sermon being carried between two into the Church because of his weakness and there most admirably discoursed of the Blessedness of souls departed this life Caeteros concio naetores a Bucholcero semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum That Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers but that day he excelled himself so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian He ever excelleth the Rest of men but when he is neerest Heaven he excelleth himself As those are the most famous mountains that are highest and those the fairest trees that are talest and those the most glorious Pyramides and buildings whose tops do reach neerest to Heaven so is he the choisest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there If a man have lived neer the King or have travelled to see the Sultan of Persia or the great Turk he will make this a matter of boasting and thinks himself one step higher then his private neighbors that live at home What shall we then judg of him that daily travels as far as Heaven and there hath seen the King of Kings That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life For my part I value this man before the ablest the richest the most learned in the world SECT V. 3. COnsider A heavenly minde is a joyful minde This is the neerest and the truest way to live a life of comfort And without this you must needs be uncomfortable Can a man be at the fire and not be warm or in the Sun-shine and not have light Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort The countreys of Norway Island and all the Northward are cold and frozen because they are farther from the power of the Sun But in Egypt Arabia and the Southern parts it is far otherwise where they live more neer its powerful rayes What could make such frozen uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven And what makes some few others so warm in comforts but their living higher then others do and their frequent access so neer to God When the Sun in the Spring draws neer our part of the earth how do all things congratulate its approach The earth looks green casteth off her mourning habit the trees shoot forth the plants revive the pretty birds how sweetly sing they the face of all things smile upon us and all the creatures below reioyce Beloved friends if we would but try this life with God and would but keep these hearts above what a Spring of joy would be within us and all our graces be fresh and green How would the face of our souls be changed and all that is within us rejoyce How should we forget our winter sorrows and withdraw our souls from our sad retirements How early should we rise as those birds in the spring to sing the praise of our Great Creator O Christian get above Believe it that Region is warmer then this below Those that have been there have found it so and those that have come thence have told us so And I doubt not but that thou hast sometime tryed it thy self I dare appeal to thy own experience or to the experience of any soul that knows what the true Joys of a Christian are When is it that you have largest comforts Is it not after such an exercise as this when thou hast got up thy heart and converst with God and talkt with the inhabitants of the higher world and veiwed the mansions of the Saints and Angels and filled thy soul with the forethoughts of Glory If thou know by experience what this practice is I dare say thou knowest what spiritual Joy is David professeth that the light of Gods countenance would make his
you were but banished into a strange Land how frequent thoughts would you have of home how oft would you think of your old companions which way ever you went or what company soever you came in you would still have your hearts and desires there you would even dream in the night that you were at home that you saw your Father or Mother or Friends that you were talking with Wife or Children or Neighbors And why is it not thus with us in respect of Heaven Is not that more truly and properly our home where we must take up our everlasting abode then this which we are looking every hour when we are separated from and shall see it no more VVe are strangers and that is our Countrey Heb. 11 14 15. VVe are heirs and that is our Inheritance even an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 VVe are here in continual distress and want and there lies our substance even that better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 VVe are here fain to be beholden to others and there lies our own perpetual Treasure Matth. 6.20 21. Yea the very Hope of our souls is there all our hope of relief from our distresses all our hope of happiness when we are here miserable all this hope is laid up for us in Heaven whereof we hear in the true VVord of the Gospel Col. 1.5 VVhy beloved Christians have we so much interest and so seldom thoughts have we so near relation and so little affection are we not ashamed of this Doth it become us to be delighted in the company of strangers so as to forget our Father and our Lord or to be so well pleased with those that hate and grieve us as to forget our best and dearest friends or to be so besotted with borrowed trifles as to forget our own possession and treasure or to be so taken up with a strange place as not once a day to look toward home or to fall so in love with tears and wants as to forget our eternal Joy and Rest Christians I pray you think whether this become us or whether this be the part of a wife or thankful man why here thou art like to other men as the heir under age who differs not from a servant but there it is that thou shalt be promoted and fully estated in all that was promised Surely God useth to plead his propriety in us and from thence to conclude to do us good even because we are his own people whom he hath chosen out of all the world And why then do we not plead our interest in him and thence fetch Arguments to raise up our hearts even because he is our own God and because the place is our own possession Men use in other things to over-love and over-value their own and too much to minde their own things O that we could minde our own inheritance and value it but half as it doth deserve SECT XIIII 12. LAstly consider There is nothing else that 's worth the seting our hearts on If God have them not who or what shall have them if thou minde not thy Rest what wilt thou minde As the Disciples said of Christ John 4.32 33. hath any man given him meat to eat that we know not of So say I to thee Hast thou found out some other God or Heaven that we know not of or something that will serve thee in stead of Rest Hast thou found on Earth an Eternal happiness where is it and what is it made of or who was the man that found it out or who was he that last enjoyed it where dwelt he and what was his name or art thou the first that hast found this treasure and that ever discovered Heaven on Earth Ah wretch trust not to thy discoveries boast not of thy gain till experience bid thee boast or rather take up with the experience of thy forefathers who are now in the dust and deprived of all though sometime they were as lusty and jovial as thou I would not advise thee to make experiments at so dear rates as all those do that seek after happiness below least when the substance is lost thou finde too late that thou didst catch but at a shadow least thou be like those men that will needs search out the Philosophers stone though none could effect it that went before them and so buy their experience with the loss of their own estates and time which they might have had at a cheaper rate if they would have taken up with the experience of their Predecessors So I would wish thee not to disquiet thy self in looking for that which is not on Earth least thou learn thy experience with the loss of thy soul◠which thou mightest have learned at easier terms even by the warnings of God in his VVord and loss of thousands of souls before thee It would pity a man to see that men will not beleeve God in this till they have lost their labor and Heaven and all Nay that many Christians who have taken Heaven for their resting place do lose so many thoughts needlesly on Earth and care not how much they oppress their spirits which should be kept nimble and free for higher things As Luther said to Melancthon when he over-pressed himself with the labors of his Ministery so may I much more say to thee who oppressest thy self with the cares of the world Vellem te adhuc decies plus obrui Adeo me nihil tui miseret qui toties monitus ne onerares teipsum tot oneribus nihil audis omnia benè monita contemnis Erit cum sero stultum tuum hunc zelum frustra damnabis quo jam ardes solus omnia portare quasi ferrum aut saxum sis it were no matter if thou wert oppressed ten times more so little do I pity thee who being so often warned that thou shouldst not load thy self with so many burdens dost no whit regard it but contemnest all these wholsom warnings Thou wilt shortly when it is too late condemn this thy foolish forwardness which makes thee so desirous to bear all this as if thou wert made of Iron or Stone Alas that a Christian should rather delight to have his heart among these thorns and bryars then in the bosom of his crucified glorified Lord Surely if Satan should take thee up to the Mountain of Temptation and shew thee the Kingdoms and glory of the world he could shew thee nothing that 's worthy thy thoughts much less to be preferred before thy Rest. Indeed so far as duty and necessity requires it we must be content to minde the things below but who is he that contains himself within the compass of those limits And yet if we bound our cares and thoughts as diligently as ever we can we shall finde the least to be bitter and burdensom even as the least VVasp hath a sting and the smallest Serpent hath his poyson As
shall now lay thee down some positive helps and conclude with a Directory to the 〈◊〉 in duty it self But first I expect that thou resolve against the forementioned impediments that thou read them seriously and avoid them faithfully or else thy labor will be all in vain thou dost but go about to reconcile Light and Darkness Christ and Belial and to conjoyn Heaven and Hel in thy spirit thou maist sooner bring down Heaven to earth then do this I must tell thee also that I here expect thy promise faithfully to set upon the helps which I shall prescribe thee and that the Reading of them will not bring heaven into thy heart but in their constant practice the Spirit will do it It were better for thee I had never written them and thou hadst never seen this Book nor read them if thou do not buckle thy self to the duty As thou valuest then the delights of these foretastes of Heaven make conscience of performing these following duties SECT II. 1. KNow Heaven to be the onely Treasure and labor to know also what a Treasure it is be convinced once that thou hast no other happiness and then he convinced what happiness is there If thou do not soundly believe it to be the chiefest good thou wilt never set thy heart upon it and this conviction must sinke into thy affections for if it be onely a notion it will have little operation And sure we have reason enough to be easily convinced of thiâ—â—s as you may see in what hath been spoken already Read over the Description and Nature of this Rest in the beginning of this Book and the Reasons against thy Resting below in Chapter First and conclude That this is the onely Happiness As long as your judgments do undervalue it your affections must needs be cold towards it If your judgments do mistake Blear-eyed Leah for Beautiful Rachel so will your affections also mistake them If Evah do once suppose she sees more worth in the forbidden fruit then in the love and fruition of God no wonder if it have more of her heart then God If your judgments once prefer the delights of the Flesh before the delights in the Presence of God its impossible then your hearts should be in heaven as it is the ignorance of the emptiness of things below that makes men so overvalue them so it is ignorance of the high delights above which is the cause that men so little minde them If you see a purse of gold and believe it to be but Stones or Counters it will not intice your affections to it it is not a things excellency in it self but it s an excellency known that provokes desire If an ignorant man see a Book containing the secrets of Arts or Sciences yet he values it no more then a common piece because he knows not what is in it but he that knows it doth highly value it his very minde is set upon it he can pore upon it day and night he can forbear his meat and drink and sleep to read it As the Jews enquired after Elias when Christ tells them that verily Elias is already come and ye knew him not but did unto him whatsoever ye listed so men enquire after Happiness and Delight when it is offered to them in the promise of Rest and they know it not but trample it under foot and as the Jews killed the Messiah while they waited for the Messiah and that because they did not know him For had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Acts 13.27 1 Cor. 2.8 So doth the world cry out for Rest and busily seek for Delight and Happiness even while they are neglecting and destroying their Rest and Happiness and this because they throughly know it not for did they know throughly what it is they could not so sleight the everlasting Treasure SECT II. 2. LAbor as to know Heaven to be the onely happiness so also to be thy happiness Though the knowledg of excellency and suitableness may stir up that love which worketh by desire yet there must be the knowledg of our interest or propriety to the setting awork of our love of complacency We may confess Heaven to be the best condition though we despair of enjoying it and we may desire and seek it if we see the obtainment to be but probable and hopeful But we can never delightfully rejoyce in it till we are somewhat perswaded of our title to it What comfort is it to a man that is naked to see the rich attire of others or to a man that hath not a bit to put in his mouth to see a feast which he must not taste of What delight hath a man that hath not a house to put his head in to see the sumptuous buildings of others Would not all this rather increase his anguish and make him more sensible of his own misery So for a man to know the excellencies of Heaven and not to know whether he shall ever enjoy them may well raise desire and provoke to seek it but it will raise but little joy and content Who will set his heart on another mans possessions If your houses your goods your cattel your children were not your own you would less minde them and delight less in them O therefore Christians rest not till you can call this Rest your own sit not down without assurance get alone and question with thy self bring thy heart to the bar of tryal force it to answer the interrogatories put to it set the conditions of the Gospel and qualifications of the Saints on one side and thy performance of those conditions and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side and then judg how neer they resemble Thou hast the same word before thee to judg thy self by now by which thou must be judged at the great day Thou art there before told the questions that must then be put to thee put these questions now to thy self Thou mayst there read the very Articles upon which thou shalt be tryed why try thy self by those Articles now Thou mayst there know beforehand on what terms men shall be then acquit and condemned why try now whether thou art possessed of that which will acquit thee or whether thou be upon the same terms with those that must be condemned and accordingly acquit or condemn thy self Yet be sure thou judg by a true touchstone and mistake not the Scriptures description of a Saint that thou neither acquit nor condemn thy self upon mistakes For as groundless hopes do tend to confusion and are the greatest cause of most mens damnation so groundless doubtings do tend to discomforts and are the great cause of the disquieting of the Saints Therefore lay thy grounds of tryal safely and advisedly proceed in the work deliberately and methodically follow it to an issue resolutely and industriously suffer not thy heart to give thee the â—lip and get away before a judgment
clay to totter Look on thy glass and see how it runs Look on thy watch how fast it getteth what a short moment is between us and our Rest what a step is it from hence to Everlastingness While I am thinking and writing of it it hasteth neer and I am even entring into it before I am aware While thou art reading this it pâ—steth on and thy life will be gone as a tale that is told Mayst thou not easily foresee thy dying time and look upon thy self as ready to depart It s but a few dayes till thy friends shall lay thee in the grave and others do the like for them If you verily believed you should dye to morrow how seriously would you think of Heaven to night The condemned prisoner knew before that he 〈◊〉 dye and yet he was then as Jovial as any but when he hears the sentence and knows he hath not a week to live then how it sinkes his heart within him So that the true apprehensions of the neerness of Eternity doth make mens thoughts of it to be quick and piercing and put life into their fears and sorrowes if they are unfitted and into their desires and Joyes if they have assurance of its glory When the Witches Samuel had told Saul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this quickly worked to his very heart and laid him down as dead on the earth And if Christ should say to a believing soul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this would be a working word indeed and would bring him in spirit to Heaven before As Melanchton was wont to say of his uncertain station because of the persecution of his enemies Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio 40. annos et nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse i. e. I have now been here this fourty yeers and yet could never say or be sure that I shall tarry here for one week so may we all say of our abode on earth As long as thou hast continued out of heaven thou canst not say thou shalt be out of it one week longer Do but suppose that you are still entring in it and you shall finde it will much help you more seriously to minde it SECT IV. 4. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is To be much in serious discoursing of it especially with those that can speak from their hearts and are seasoned themselves with an heavenly nature It s pitty saith Mr. Bolton that Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in Heaven or the way to it before they part Its pitty so much pretious time is spent among Christians in vain discourses foolish janglings and useless disputes and not a sober word of Heaven among them Methinks we should meet together of purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our Rest. To hear a Minister or private Christian set forth that blessed Glorious State with power and life from the Promises of the Gospel Methinks should make us say as the two Disciples Did not our hearts burn within us while he was opening to us the Scripture while he was opening to us the windows of Heaven If a Felix or wicked wretch will tremble when he hears his judgment powerfully denounced why should not the believing soul be revived when he hears his Eternal Rest revealed Get then together fellow Christians and talk of the affairs of your Country and Kingdom and comfort one another with such words 1 Thess. 4.18 If Worldlings get together they will be talking of the World when Wantons are together they will be talking of their Lusts and wicked men can be delighted in talking of wickedness and should not Christians then delight themselves in talking of Christ and the heirs of heaven in talking of their Inheritance This may make our hearts revive within us as it did Jacobs to hear the Message that called him to Goshen and to see the Chariots that should bring him to Joseph O that we were furnished with skil and resolution to turn the stream of mens common discourse to these more sublime and pretious things And when men begin to talk of things unprofitable that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven and say as Peter of his bodily food Not so for I eat not that which is common and unclean this is nothing to my eternal Rest O the good that we might both do and receive by this course If it had not been needful to deter us from unfruitful conference Christ would not have talked of giving an account of every idle word at judgment say then as David when you are in conference Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest mirth And then you shall finde the truth of that Prov. 15.4 A wholsom tongue is a Tree of Life SECT V. 5. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is this Make it thy business in every duty to winde up thy affections neerer Heaven A mans attainments and receivings from God are answerable to his own desires and ends that which he sincerely seeks he findes Gods end in the institution of his Ordinances was that they be as so many stepping stones to our Rest and as the staires by which in subordination to Christ we may daily ascend unto it in our affections Let this be thy end in using them as it was Gods end in ordaining them and doubtless they will not be unsuccessful though men be personally far asunder yet they may even by Letters have a great deal of entercourse How have men been rejoyced by a few lines from a friend though they could not see him face to face what gladness have we when we do but read the expressions of his Love or if we read of our friends prosperity and welfare Many a one that never saw the fight hath triumphed and shouted made Bonefires and rung Bels when he hath but heard and read of the Victory and may not we have entercourse with God in his Ordinances though our persons be yet so far remote May not our spirits rejoyce in the reading those lines which contain our Legacy and Charter for heaven with what Gladness may we read the expressions of Love and hear of the state of our Celestial Country with what triumphant shoutings may we applaud our Inheritance though yet we have not the happiness to behold it Men that are separated by sea and land can yet by the meer entercourse of Letters carry on both great and gainful trades even to the value of their whole estate and may not a Christian in the wise improvement of duties drive on this happy trade for Rest Come not therefore with any lower ends to duties Renounce Formality Customariness and Applause When thou kneelest down in secret or publike prayer let it be in hope to get thy heart neerer God before
weary day and hour might make us long for our eternal rest That as the pulling down of one end of the ballance is the lifting up of the other so the pulling down of our bodies might be the lifting up of our souls that as our souls were usually at the worst when our bodies were at the best so now they might be at the best when our bodies are at the worst why should we not think thus with our selves why every one of these gripes that I feel are but the cutting of the stitches for the ripping off mine old attire that God may cloathe me with the glory of his Saints Had I rather live in these rotten raggs then be at the trouble and pains to shift me Should the Infant desire to stay in the womb because of the straitness and pains of the passage or because he knows not the world that he is to come into nor is acquainted with the fashions or inhabitants thereof Am I not neerer to my desired rest then ever I was If the remembrance of these griefs will increase my joy when I shall look back upon them from above why then should not the remembrance of that joy abate my griefs when I look upwards to it from below And why should the present feeling of these dolors so much diminish the foretasts of Glory when the remembrance of them will then increase it All these gripes and woes that I feel are but the farewell of sin and sorrows As Nature useth to struggle hard a little before death and as the devil cast the man to the ground and tore him when he was going out of him Mark 9.26 so this tearing and troubling which I now feel is but at the departure of sin and misery for as the effects of Grace are sweetest at last so the effects of sin are bitterest at the last and this is the last that ever I shall taste of it when once this whirlwind and earthquake is past the still voyce will next succeed and God onely will be in the voyce though sin also was in the earthquake and whirlwinde Thus Christian as every pang of sickness should minde the wicked of their eternal pangs and make them look into the bottom of hell so should all thy wo and weakness minde thee of thy neer approaching joy and make thee look as high as heaven and as a Ball the harder thou art smitten down to earth the higher shouldst thou rebound up to heaven If this be thy case who readest these lines and if it be not now it will be shortly if thou lye in consuming painful sickness if thou perceive thy dying time draw on O where should thy heart be now but with Christ Methinks thou shouldst even behold him as is were standing by thee and shouldst bespeak him as thy Father thy Husband thy Physitian thy Friend Methinks thou shouldst even see as it were the Angels about thee waiting to perform their last office to thy soul as thy friends wait to perform theirs to thy body Those Angels which disdained not to bring the soul of a scabbed Begger to heaven will not think much to conduct thee thither O look upon thy sickness as Jacob did on Josephs Chariots and let thy spirit revive within thee and say It is enough that Joseph that Christ is yet alive for because he lives I shall live also Joh. 14.19 As thou art sick and needest the daintiest food and choicest Cordials so here are choices then the world affords here is the food of Angels and glorified Saints here is all the joyes that heaven doth yield even the Vision of God the sight of Christ and whatsoever the blessed there possess This Table is spread for thee to feed on in thy sickness these dainties are offered thee by the hand of Christ He hath written thee the Receipt in the Promises of the Gospel He hath prepared thee all the ingredients in Heaven onely put forth the hand of Faith and feed upon them and rejoyce live The Lord saith to thee as he did to Elias Arise and eat because the journey is too great for thee 1 Kings 19.7 Though it be not long yet the way is foul I counsel thee therefore that thou obey his voyce and arise and eat and in the strength of that meat thou maist walk till thou come to the Mount of God Dye not in the ditch of horror or stupidity but as the Lord said to Moses Go up into the Mount and see the Land that the Lord hath promised and dye in the Mount And as old Simeon when he saw Christ in his infancy in the Temple so do thou behold him in the Temple of the New Jerusalem as in his Glory and take him in the arms of thy Faith and say Lord now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace for mine eye of Faith hath seen thy salvation As thou wast never so neer to Heaven as now so let thy spirit be neerer it now then ever So you have seen which is the fittest season for this duty I should here advise thee also of some times unseasonable but I shall onely add this one Caution The unseasonable urging of the most spiritual duty is more from the Tempter then from the Spirit of God When Satan sees a Christian in a condition wherein he is unable and unfit for a duty or wherein he may have more advantage against us by our performance of it then by our omitting it he will then drive on as earnestly to duty as if it were the very spirit of Holiness that so upon our omitting or ill performance he may have somewhat to cast in our teeth and to trouble us with And this is one of his wayes of deceiving when he transformes himself into an Angel of Light It may be when thou art on thy knees in prayer thou shalt have many good thoughts will come into thy minde or when thou art hearing the word or at such unseasonable times Resist these good thoughts as coming from the devil for they are formally evil though they are materially good Even good thoughts in themselves may be sinful to thee It may be when thou shouldst be diligent in thy necessary labors thou shalt be moved to cast aside all that thou mayest go to Meditation or to Prayer These motions are usually from the spirit of delusion The spirit of Christ doth nothing unseasonably God is not the God of confusion but of order SECT VIII THus much I thought necessary to advise thee concerning the time of this duty It now followes that I speak a word of the fittest place Though God is every where to be found by a faithful soul Yet some places are more convenient for a duty then others 1. As this is a Private and spiritual duty so it is most covenient that thou retire to some private place Our spirits had need of every help and to be freed from every hinderance in the work And the quality of these
deadness of thy heart doth hinder thy joyes even as a sick man is sorry that he wants a stomack when he sees a feast before him Therefore Reader seeing it is much in the capacity and frame of thy heart how much thou shalt enjoy of God in this contemplation be sure that all the room thou hast be empty and if ever seek him here with all thy soul Thrust noâ— Christ into the stable and the manger as if thou hadst better guests for the chiefest rooms Say to all thy worldly business and thoughts as Christ to his Disciples Sit you here while I go and pray yonder Matth. 26.36 Or as Abraham when he went to sacrifice Isaac left his servants and Ass below the Mount saying Stay you here and I and the Lad will go yonder and worship and come again to you So say thou to all thy worldly thoughts Abide you below while I go up to Christ and then I will return to you again Yea as God did terrifie the people with his threats of death if any one should dare to come to the Mount when Moses was to receive the Law from God so do thou terrifie thy own heart and use violence against thy intruding thoughts if they offer to accompany thee to the Mount of Contemplation Even as the Priests thrust Vzziah the King out of the Temple where he presumed to burn incense when they saw the Leprosie to arise upon him so do thou thrust these thoughts from the Temple of thy heart which have the badg of Gods prohibition upon them As you will beat back your dogs yea and leave your servants behinde you when your selves are admitted into the Princes presence so also do by these Your selves may be welcome but such followers may not SECT X. 2. BE sure thou set upon this work with the greatest seriousness that possibly thou canst Customariness here is a killing sin There is no trifling in holy things God will be sanctified of all that draw neer him These spiritual excellent soul-raising duties are the most dangerous if we miscarry in them of all The more they advance the soul being well used the more they destroy it being used unfaithfully As the best meats corrupted are the worst To help thee therefore to be serious when thou settest on this work First Labor to have the deepest apprehensions of the presence of God and of the incomprehensible Greatness of the Majesty which thou approachest If Rebecca vail her face at her approach to Isaac if Esther must not draw neer till the King hold forth the Scepter if dust and worms-meat must have such respect Think then with what reverence thou shouldst approach thy Maker think thou art addressing thy self to him that made the Worlds with the word of his mouth that upholds the Earth as in the palm of his hand that keeps the Sun and Moon and Heavens in their courses that bounds the raging Sea with the Sands and saith Hitherto go and no farther Thou art going about to converse with him before whom the Earth will quake and Devils tremble before whose bar thou must shortly stand and all the world with thee to receive their doom O think I shall then have lively apprehensions of his Majesty my drowsie spirits will then be wakened and my stupid unreverence be laid aside Why should I not now be rouzed with the sense of his Greatness and the dread of his Name possess my soul Secondly Labor to apprehend the greatness of the work which thou attemptest and to be deeply sensible both of its weight and height of its concernment and excellency If thou were pleading for thy life at the bar of a Judg thou wouldst be serious and yet that were but a trifle to this If thou were engaged in such a work as David was against Goliah whereon the Kingdoms deliverance did depend in it self considered it were nothing to this Suppose thou were going to such a wrestling as Jacobs suppose thou were going to see the sight which the three Disciples saw in the Mount How seriously how reverently wouldst thou both approach and behold If the Sun do suffer any notable Eclipse how seriously do all run out to see it If some Angel from Heaven should but appoint to meet thee at the same time and place of thy contemplations how dreadfully how apprehensively wouldst thou go to meet him Why consider then with what a Spirit thou shouldst meet the Lord and with what seriousness and dread thou shouldst daily converse with him When Manoah had seen but an Angel he cryes out We shall surely die because we have seen God Judg 13.22 Consider also the blessed Issue of the work if it do succeed it will be an admission of thee into the presence of God a begining of thy Eternal Glory on Earth a means to make thee live above the rate of other men and admit thee into the next room to the Angels themselves a means to make thee live and die both joyfully and blessedly So that the prize being so great thy preparations should be answerable There is none on Earth that live such a life of joy and blessedness as those that are acquainted with this Heavenly conversation The joyes of all other men are but like a childes play a fools laughter as a dream of health to the sick or as a fresh pasture to a hungry Beast It is he that trades at Heaven that is the onely gainer and he that neglecteth it that is the onely loser And therefore how seriously should this work be done CHAP. VIII Of Consideration the instrument of this Work and what force it hath to move the Soul SECT I. HAving shewed thee how thou must set upon this work I come now to direct thee in the work it self and to shew thee the way which thou must take to perform it All this hath been but to set the Instrument thy heart in tune and now we are come to the Musick it self All this hath been but to get thee an appetite it follows now That thou approach unto the Feast that thou sit down and take what is offered and delight thy soul as with marrow and fatness Whoever you are that are children of the Kingdom I have this message to you from the Lord Behold the dinner is prepared the Oxen and fatlings are killed Come for all things are now ready Heaven is before you Christ is before you the exceeding Eternal weight of Glory is before you Come therefore and feed upon it Do not make light of this invitation Matth. 22.5 nor put off your own mercies with excuses Luke 14.18 what ever thou art Rich or poor though in Alms-houses or Hospitals though in High-ways or Hedges my Commission is if possible to compel you to come in And blessed is he that eateth bread in the Kingdom of God Luke 14.15 The Manna lyeth about your Tents walk forth into the Wilderness gather it up take it home and feed upon it so that
such a guide Can the Sun lead thee to a state of darkness or can he mislead thee that is the light of every man that cometh into the world will he lead thee to death who died to save thee from it or can he do thee any hurt who for thy sake did suffer so much follow him and he will shew thee the Paradise of God he will give thee a sight of the New Jerusalem he will give thee a taste of the Tree of Life Sit no longer then by the fire of earthly common comforts whether the cold of carnal fears and sorrows did drive thee thy Winter is past and wilt thou house thy self still in earthly thoughts and confine thy self to drooping and dulness even the silly Flies will leave their holes when the Winter is over and the Sun draws neer them the Ants will stir the Fishes rise the Birds will sing the earth look green and all with joyful note will tell thee the Spring is come Come forth then O my drooping soul and lay aside thy Winter mourning Robes let it be seen in thy believing Joyes and Praise that the day is appearing and the Spring is come and as now thou seest thy comforts green thou shalt shortly see them white and ripe for Harvest and then thou who art now called forth to see and taste shalt be called forth to reap and gather and take possession Shall I suspend and delay my joyes till then should not the joyes of the Spring go before the joyes of Harvest Is Title nothing before possession Is the heir in no better a state then the slave My Lord hath taught me to rejoyce in hope of his glory and to see it thorow the bars of a Prison and even when I am persecuted for righteousness sake when I am reviled and all manner of evil sayings are said against me falsly for his sake then hath he commanded me to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because of this my great reward in Heaven How justly is an unbelieving heart possessed by sorrow and made a prey to cares and fears when it self doth create them and thrust away its offered peace and joy I know it is the pleasure of my bounteous Lord that none of his family should want for Comfort nor live such a poor and miserable life nor look with such a famished dejected face I know he would have my joyes exceed my sorrowes And as much as he delighteth in the humble and contrite yet doth he more delight in the soul as it delighteth in him I know he taketh no pleasure in my self-procured sadness nor would he call on me to weep or mourn but that it is the only way to these delights Would I spread the Table before my guest and bring him forth my best provision and bid him sit down and eat and welcome if I did not unfeignedly desire he should do so Hath my Lord spread me a table in this Wilderness and furnished it with the promises of Everlasting Glory and set before me Angels food and broched for me the side of his beloved Son that I might have a better wine then the blood of the Grape Doth he so frequently and importunately invite me to sit down and draw forth my faith and feed and spare not Nay hath he furnished me to that end with reason and faith and a rejoycing disposition And yet is it possible that he should be unwilling of my joyes Never think it O my unbelieving soul nor dare to charge him with thy uncomfortable heaviness who offereth thee the foretaste of the highest delights that heaven doth afford and God bestow Doth he not bid thee delight thy self in the Lord and promise to give thee then the desires of thy heart Hath he not charged thee to rejoyce evermore Yea to sing aloud and shout for joy Psal. 47.1 Why should I then draw back discouraged My God is willing if I were but willing He is delighted in my delights He would faine have it my constant frame and daily business to be neer to him in my believing Meditations and to live in the sweetest thoughts of his goodness and to be always delighting my soul in himself O blessed work Employment fit for the sons of God! But ah my Lord thy feast is nothing to me without an appetite Thou must give me a stomack as well as meat Thou hast set the dainties of heaven before me but alas I am blinde and cannot see them I am sick and cannot relish them I am so benummed that I cannot put forth a hand to take them What is the glory of Sun and Moon to a clod of earth Thou knowest I need thy subjective grace as well as thine objective and that thy works upon mine own distempered soul is not the smallest part of my salvation I therefore humbly beg this grace that as thou hast opened heaven unto me in thy blessed word so thou wouldest open mine eyes to see it and my heart to affect it else heaven will be no heaven to me Awake therefore O thou Spirit of Life and breath upon thy Graces in me blow upon the garden of my heart that the spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits Cant. 4.16 And take me by the hand and lift me up from earth to thy self 〈◊〉 I may fetch one walk in the garden of glory and see by Faith what thou hast laid up for them that love thee and wait for thee Away then you soul-tormenting cares and fears Away you importune heart-vexing sorrows At least forbear me a little while stand by and trouble not my aspiring soul stay here below whilest I go up and see my Rest. The way is strange to me but not to Christ. There was the eternal dwelling of his glorious deitie And thither hath he also brought his assumed glorified flesh It was his work to purchase it it is his work to prepare it and to prepare me for it and to bring me to it The Eternal God of truth hath given me his promise his seal and his oath to assure me that believing in Christ I shall not perish but have everlasting life Thither shall my soul be speedily removed and my body very shortly follow It is not so far but he that is every where can bring me thither nor so difficult and unlikely but Omnipotencie can effect it And though this unbelief may diminish my delights and much abate my joyes in the way Yet shall it not abate the love of my Redeemer nor make the promise of none effect And can my tongue say that I shall shortly and surely live with God and yet my heart not leap within me Can I say it believingly and not rejoycingly Ah faith how sensibly now do I perceive thy weakness Ah unbelief if I had never heard or known it before yet how sensibly now do I perceive thy malicious tyranny But though thou darken my light and dull my life
and suppress my joyes yet shalt thou not be able to conquer and destroy me There shall I and my joyes survive when thou art dead and though thou envy all my comforts yet some in despight of thee I shall even here receive But were it not for thee what abundance might I have The light of Heaven would shine into my heart and I might be as familiar there as I am on earth Come away my soul then stop thine ears to the ignorant language of infidelity Thou art able to answer all its Arguments Or if thou be not yet tread them under thy feet Come away stand not looking on that grave nor turning those bones nor reading thy lesson now in the dust Those lines will soon be wiped out But lift up thy head and look to heaven and read thy instructions in those fixed Stars Or yet look higher then those eyes can see into that foundation which standeth sure and see thy name in golden letters written before the foundations of the world in the book of life of the slain Lamb. What if an Angel from Heaven should tell thee that there is a mansion prepared for thee that it shall certainly be thine own and thou shalt possess it for ever would not such a message make thee glad And dost thou make light of the infallible word of promises which were delivered by the spirit and by the Son himself Suppose thou hadst seen a fiery chariot come for thee and fetch thee up to Heaven like Elias would not this rejoyce thee Why my Lord hath acquainted me and assured me that the soul of a Lazarus a begger goes not forth of its corrupted flesh but a Convoy of Angels are ready to attend it and bring it to the comforts in Abrahams bosome Shall a drunkard be so merry among his cups and a glutton in his delicious fare and the proud in his bravery and dignity and the lustful wanton in the enjoyment of his mate And shall not I rejoyce who must shortly be in Heaven How glad is voluptuous youth of their playtimes and holydayes VVhy in Heaven I shall have an everlasting Holyday of Pleasure Can meat and drink delight me when I hunger and thirst Can I finde pleasure in walks and gardens and convenient dwellings Can beauteous sights delight mine eyes and odors my smell and melody mine ears And shall not the forethought of the Celestial bliss delight me my beast is glad of his fresh pasture and his liberty and his Rest And shall not I What delight have I found in my private studies especially when they have prospered to the increase of my knowledg me thinks I could bid the world farewel and immure my self among my books and look forth no more were it a lawful course but as Heinsius in his Library at Leyden shut the doors upon me and as in the lap of Eternity among those divine souls imploy my self in sweet content and pitty the rich and great ones that know not this happiness Sure then it is a high delight indeed which in the true lap of Eternity is enjoyed If Lipsius thought when he did but read Seneca that he was even upon Olympus top above mortality and humane things VVhat a case shall I be in when I am beholding Christ If Julius Scaliger thought twelve verses in Lucan better then the whole German Empire What shall I think mine inheritance worth If the Mathematicks alone are so delectable that their students do profess that they should think it sweet to live and dye in those studies How delectable then will my life be when I shall fully and clearly know those things which the most learned do now know but doubtfully and darkly In one hour shall I see all difficulties vanish and all my doubts in Physicks Metaphysicks Politicks Medicine c. shall be resolved so happy are the students of that University Yea all the depths in divinity will be uncovered to me and all the difficult knots untyed and the book unsealed and mine eyes opened For in knowing God I shall know all things that are fit or good for the creature to know There Commeni'us attempt is perfected and all the sciences reduced to one Seneca thought that he that lived without books was but buried alive But had he known what it is to enjoy God in glory he would have said indeed that to live without him is to be buried alive in hell If Apollonius travelled into Aethiopia and Persia to consult with the learned there And if Plato and Pythagoras left their country to see those wise Egyptian Priests And if as Hierom saith many travelled thousand miles to see and speak with eloquent Livy And if the queen of Sheba came from Ethiopia to hear the wisdome of Solomon and see his glory O how gladly should I leave this Countrey how cheerfully should I pass from earth to Heaven to see the glory of that Eternal Majesty and to attain my self that height of wisdom in comparison of which the most learned on earth are but silly bruitish fools and Ideots If Bernard were so ravished with the delights of his Monastery where he lived in poverty without the common pleasures of the world because of its green banks and shady bowers and herbes and trees and various objects to feed the eyes and fragrant smels and sweet and various tunes of Birds together with the opportunity of devout contemplations that he cryes out in admiration Lord VVhat abundance of delights dost thou provide even for the poor How then should I be ravished with the description of the Court of Heaven where in stead of hearbs and trees and birds and bowers I shall enjoy God and my Redeemer Angels Saints and unexpressible pleasures and therefore should with more admiration cry out Lord what delights hast thou provided for us miserable and unworthy wretches that wait for thee If the heaven of glass which the Persian Emperor framed were so glorious a piece and the heaven of silver which the Emperor Ferdinand sent to the great Turk because of their rare artificial representations and motions VVhat will the Heaven of Heavens then be which is not formed by the Art of man nor beautified like these childish toyes but is the matchless Pallace of the great King built by himself for the residence of his glory and the perpetual entertainment of his beloved Saints Can a poor deluded Mahometan rejoyce in expectation of a feigned sensual Paradise And shall not I rejoyce in expectation of a certain Glory If the honor of the ambitious or the wealth of the covetous person do increase his heart is lifted up with his estate as a boate that riseth with the rising of the water If they have but a little more lands or money then their neighbors how easily may you see it in their countenance and carriage How high do they look how big do they speak how stately and loftily do they demean themselves And shall not the heavenly loftiness
task of outward Duties Let men see in you what a Life they must aim at If ever a Christian be like himself and answerable to his Principles and Profession it is when he is most serious and lively in this Duty when as Moses before he died went up into Mount Nebo to take a survey of the Land of Canaan so the Christian doth ascend this Mount of Contemplation and take a survey by Faith of his Rest. He looks upon the glorious delectable Mansions and saith Glorious things are deservedly spoken of thee O thou City of God He heareth as it were the melody of the Heavenly Chore and beholdeth the excellent employment of those Spirits and saith Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are they that have the Lord for their God He next looketh to the glorified Inhabitants of that Region and saith Happy art thou O the Israel of God a people saved by the Lord the Shield of thy Strength the Sword of thine Excellency When he looketh upon the Lord himself who is their Glory he is ready with the rest to fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power When he looks on the Glorified Saviour of the Saints he is ready to say Amen to that new Song Blessing honor glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever for he hath redeemed us out of every Nation by his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld he blesseth the believing patient despised Saints he pitieth the ignorant obstinate miserable World and for himself he saith as Peter It is good to be here or as David It is good for me to draw neer to God for all those that are far from him shall perish Thus as Daniel in his captivity did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem though far out of sight when he went to God in his Devotions so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh look towards Jerusalem which is above And as Paul was to the Colossians so may he be with the Glorified Spirits Absent in the flesh but present in Spirit joying in beholding their Heavenly Order And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon before his death did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words John 3.16 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life That he raised and ravished the hearts of his otherwise sad hearers So may the Meditating Beleever do through the Spirits assistance by his own heart And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly and never cease her pleasant ditty while she hovereth aloft as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth So is the frame of the Soul most Delectable and Divine while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation But alas we make there too short a stay but down again we fall and lay by our musick But O thou the Merciful Father of Spirits the Attractive of Love and Ocean of Delights draw up these drossie hearts unto thy self and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined and second these thy Servants weak Endevors and perswade those that read these lines to the practice of this Delightful Heavenly Work And O suffer not the Soul of thy most unworthy Servant to be a stranger to those Joyes which he unfoldeth to thy people or to be seldom in that way which he hath here lined out to others But O keep me while I tarry on this Earth in daily serious Breathings after thee and in a Believing Affectionate Walking with thee And when thou comest O let me be found so doing not hiding my Talent nor serving my Flesh nor yet asleep with my Lamp unfurnished but waiting and longing for my Lords return That those who shall read these Heavenly Directions may not read onely the fruit of my Studies and the product of my fancy but the hearty breathings of my active Hope and Love That if my heart were open to their view they might there read the same most deeply engraven with a Beam from the Face of the Son of God and not finde Vanity or Lust or Pride within where the words of Life appear without That so these lines may not witness against me but proceeding from the heart of the Writer may be effectual through thy Grace upon the heart of the Reader and so be the savor of Life to both Amen Glory be to God in the highest On Earth Peace Good-wil towards Men. FINIS BROVGHTON In the Conclusion of His Concent of Scripture Concerning the New-Jerusalem and the Everlasting Sabbatism meant in my Text as begun here and perfected in Heaven THe Company of faithful Souls called to the blessed Marriage of the Lamb are a Jerusalem from Heaven Apoc. 3. and 21. Heb. 12. Though such glorious things are spoken concerning this City of God the perfection whereof cannot be seen in this Vale of Tears yet here God wipeth all tears from our eyes and each blessing is here begun The name of this City much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace for this is called Jerusalem and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed This Name should clearly have taught both the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan and Pseudo-Catholikes not to fight for special holiness there We live in this by Faith and not by Eye-sight and by Hope we behold the perfection Of this City Salvation is a Wall goodly as Jasper clear as Crystal the foundations are in number twelve of twelve pretious stones such as Aaron ware on his brest all the Work of the Lambs twelve Apostles the Gates are twelve each of Pearl upon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel of whose Faith all must be which enter in Twelve Angels are conductors from East West North and South even the Stars of the Churches The City is square of Burgesses setled for all turns Here God sitteth on a Throne like Jasper and Ruby Comfortable and Just The Lamb is the Temple that a third Temple should not be looked for to be built Thrones twice twelve are for all the Christians born of Israels twelve or taught by the Apostles who for dignity are Seniors for infinity are termed but four and twenty in regard of so many Tribes and Apostles Here the Majesty is Honorable as at the delivery of the Law from whose Throne Thunder Voyces and Lightnings do proceed Here oyl of Grace is never wanting but burning with seven Lamps the spirits of Messias of Wit and Wisdom of Counsel and Courage of Knowledg and Understanding and of the Fear due to the Eternal Here the Valiant Patient Witty and Speedy
Dial. l. 4. Nihil crus Sentit in nervo quum animus est in coelo Tertul. ad Martyr Euseb. Hist. Eccles l. 14. c. 17. Idem l. 11. c. 9. §. 12. Cum Christo semper vivemus facti per ipsum filii Dei cum ipso exultabimus semper ipsius cruore â—parati Erirmus Christiani cum Christo simul gloriosi de Deo patre beati de perpetua voluptate laetantes semper in conspectu Dei agentes Deo gratias semper Neque enim poterit nisi laetus esse semper gratus qui cum morti fuisset obnoxus factus est de immortalitate securus Cyprian ad Demetriad §. 13. §. 14. Ibi non gustabunt quam suavis sit Deus sed implebuntur satiabuntur dulcedine mirifica Nihil eis dâ—erit nihil oberit omne desiderium corum Christus praesens implebit Non senescent non tabescent non putrescent amplius Perpetua sanitas faelix aeternitas beatitudinis illius sufficientiam confirmabunt Non erit concupiscentia in membris non ultra ulla exurget rebellio carnis sed tâ—tus status hominis pacificus sine omni macula ruga permanebitâ— â—yprian de laude Martyr Quaecunque supra coelum sunt mentes formae olympici illius habitacâ—li cives si non candem atque Deus illi tamen dignitate naturâ proximam conditionem acceperunt Feâ—nel de abdit rerum causis cap. 9. Ex Platone §. 1. §. 2. §. 3. Gen. 40.10 11 c. §. 4. Psal. 104.15 §. 1. §. 2. * Praemium est videre deum vivere cum Deo vivere de Deo esse cum Deo esse in in Deo qui erit omnia in omnibus habere deum qui est summum bonum ubi est summum bonum ibi est summa faelicitas summa jucunditas vera libertas perfecta charitas aeterna securitas Bern. de praemio coelest Zeph. 3.17 That even the philosophers understood that there was a heaven see Fernelius de abdit rer caus cap. 9. And Aristol de Caelo l. 1. c 9. Manifestum est quod neque locus neque vacuum neque tempus est extra caelum In omni enim loco corpus esse possibile est Vacuum autem esse dicunt in quo non est corpus possibile autem est esse Tempus autem est numerus motus motus autem sine naturali corpore non est c. Quapropter neque quae illic sunt nata sunt in loco esse neque tempus ipsa facit senâ—scere neque ulla transmulatio ullius eorum est quae super extima disposita sunt latione sed inalterabilia impassiblia optimam habentia vitam per se sufficientissimam perseverant toto aevo c. Love acted * In which it is said Saint John was cast and came out anointed only * Quemadmodum umbram nostram superare non datur quippe quae tantum praeit quantum progredimur aequa portiene semper antecedit neque supra caput esse potest corporis magnitudo cum illud semper corpori superpositum sit sic neque Deum largiendo vincere possumus Neque enim quippiam largimur quod illius non sit aut magnificentiam liberalitatem antecedat considera unde sit tibi id ipsum quod es quod spiras quod sapis id quod maximum est quod Deum cognoscis quod speras regnum coelorum aequalem angelis dignitatem puram perfectamque gloriae quam nunc in speculis aenigmatibus cernis contemplationem qúod factus es filius Dei cohaeres Christi audacter dicam Deus ipse Nazianzen in orat de pauper amand c. Cant. 5.8 Rom. 8.35 Joy Rom. 5.2 Mat. 5.10 11 12. Psal. 37.4 1 Thes. 5.16 Psal. 32.11 John 3.16 2 Tim. 2.19 Rev. 13.8 and 18. Luke 10.20 2 King 2.11 Leon. Diggs praefat ad perpet prognost Du Bartas in the second day of the first week Th' Empyreal Pallace where th' eternal Treasures Of Nectar flow where everlasting pleasures Are heaped up where an immortal May In blisful beauties flourisheth for aye Where life still lives where God his Sizes hold's Environd round with Seraphins and souls Bought with his pretious blood whose glorious flight Yerst mounted earth above the heavens bright Boeth l. 2. Met. 8. O foelix hominum genus Si vestros animos amor Quo caelum regitur regat Eras. Apotheg Anima est ubi amat non ubi animat * Gaudeo ego atque adeo exulto jam tandem illuxisse tempus quo ille ille praepotens Jehova cujus Majestaâ—em in naturae indagatione miratus sum veneratus quoque bonitatem quem fide desideravi quem suspiravi a facie jam se mibi ad faciem visendum exhibebit Melchior Adam in vitis Germanorum mâ—dicorum pag. 416. Job 23.12 Jer. 15.16 Psal. 119.97 Psal. 119.92.70.77 c. Discendi adeo fuit cupidus ut mori fuerit ipsi suave modò ex dubiis questionibus in quibus sibi ipse satissacere non poterat se posset expedire Melch. Adam in vita Erasti Luk. 2.43 If thy first glance so powerful be A mirth but opened and sealed up again What wonders shall we feel when we shall see Thy full-ey'd Love When thou shalt look us out of pain And one aspect of thine spend in delight More then a thousand sun's disburse in light In Heav'n above Herberts Poems The Glance Col. 3.10 Du Bartas in the seventh day of the first week p. 187. With cloudy cares th' â—n's muffled up somewhiles The others face is full of pleasing smiles For never grief nor fear of any fit Of the lest care shall dare come neer to it 'T is the grand Jubile the feast of feasts Sabbaoth of Sabbaoths endless Rest of Rests Which with the prophets and Apostles zealous The constant Martyrs and our Christian fellowes Gods faithful servants and his chosen sheep In Heav'n we hope within short time to keep Desire Herberts Poems Dotage False glozing pleasures Casks of happiness Foolish night fires Womens and Childrens wishes Chases in Arras Guilded Emptiness Embroider'd Lies Nothing between two dishes These are the Pleasures here True earnest Sorrows Rooted Miseries Anguish in grain Vexations ripe and blown Sure-footed Griefs Solid Calamities Plain Demonstrations evident and clear Fetching their proof even from the very bone These are the Sorrows here But O the folly of distracted men Who griefs in earnest Joyes in jest pursue Preferring like bruit Beasts a loathsom den Before a Court even that above so clear Where are no Sorrows but Delights more true Then Miseries are here * Antigonus cum audiret se a vetulâ-propter opes dignitatem beatum praedi cari Mea Matercula inquit si nosses quantis malis hic panniculus viz. Diadema sit refertus ne in sterquilinio quidem jacentem tolleres Psal. 116. Jere. 50.6 * Memini quid Bucholcerus de Melancthone convitiis lacerato dicere solebat Quidam sunt Anathema secundum dici quidam secundum esse Mallem ego cum Philippo Anathema secundum dici quam cum illo secundum esse Josh. 22. Eccl. 1.18 Jere. 20.9 * Nihil modo quietis aut securitatis invenire possumus dum adhuc in nobis ipsis ingemiscimus gravati adoptionem expectantes Cum autem mortale hoc induerit immortalitatem tunc nulla erit diabolicae fraâ—dis impugnatio nullum haereticae pravitatis dogma nulla infidelis populi impiâ—tas omnibus ita pacatis compositis ut in tabernaculis justoruÌ„ sola audiatur vox exultationis salutis Greg. in 7. Psal. paenitent Psal. 42.1 2. Phil. 3.19 20 21. 2 Cor. 5.1 6 7 8. Col. 3.1 2 3 4. Not that we may not here Taft of the cheer But as birds drink and then lift up the head So must we sip and think Of better drink We may attain to after we are dead Herbert in Temple Heb. 11.1 Col. 2.5 * Talmud in Sanedrim Cha. Chelec fol. 73. b. Joh. 6. Dan. 9.24 Apoc. 6. Isai. 60. Apo. 21. Isai. 35.8 Haggi 2.8 Dan. 2.44 Ephes. 1.4 Ephes. 2.19 Joh. 7 38. Cant. 4.15 Apoc 2. Psal. 95.7 2. Tim. 4 8. Apoc. 2. Apoc. â— Phil. 3.21 Cant. 1. 3.
THE Saints Everlasting Rest OR A TREATISE Of the Blessed State of the SAINTS in their enjoyment of GOD in Glory Wherein is shewed its Excellency and Certainty the Misery of those that lose it the way to Attain it and Assurance of it and how to live in the continual delightful Forecasts of it by the help of Meditation Written by the Author for his own use in the time of his languishing when God took him off from all Publike Imployment and afterwards Preached in his weekly Lecture And now published by Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church of Kederminster in Worcestershire My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal. 73.26 If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Set your affections on things above and not on things on the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Col. 3.2 3 4. Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 Jan. 15. 1649. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl London Printed by Rob. White for Thomas Vnderhil and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the Blue-Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the Inner-Temple-gate 1650. To my dearly beloved Friends the Inhabitants of the Burrough and Forreign OF KEDERMINSTER Both Magistrates and People My dear Friends IF either I or my labors have any thing of publike use or worth it is wholly though not onely yours And I am convinced by Providence That it is the Will of God it should be so This I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you When I was separated by the miseries of the late unhappy war I durst not fix in any other Congregation but lived in a military unpleasing state lest I should forestal my return to you for whom I took my self reserved The offers of greater worldly accommodations with five times the means which I receive with you was no temptation to me once to question whether I should leave you Your free invitation of my return your obedience to my Doctrine the strong affection which I have yet towards you above all people and the general hearty return of Love which I finde from you do all perswade me that I was sent into this world especially for the service of your souls And that even when I am dead I might yet be a help to your salvation the Lord hath forced me quite besides my own resolution to write this Treatise and leave it in your hands It was far from my thoughts ever to have become thus publike and burdened the world with any writings of mine Therefore have I oft resisted the requests of my reverend Brethren and some Superiors who might else have commanded much more at my hands But see how God over ruleth and crosseth our resolutions Being in my quarters far from home cast into extream languishing by the sudden loss of about a Gallon of blood after many yeers foregoing weakness and having no acquaintance about me nor any Books but my Bible and living in continual expectation of death I bent my thoughts on my Everlasting Rest And because my memory through extream weakness was imperfect I took my pen and began to draw up my own funeral Sermon or some helps for my own Meditations of Heaven to sweeten both the Rest of my life and my death In this condition God was pleased to continue me about five moneths from home where being able for nothing else I went on with this work which so lengthened to this which here you see It is no wonder therefore if I be too abrupt in the beginning seeing I then intended but the length of a Sermon or two Much less may you wonder if the whole be very imperfect seeing it was written as it were with one foot in the grave by a man that was betwixt living and dead that wanted strength of nature to quicken Invention or Affection and had no Book but his Bible while the chief part was finished nor had any minde of humane ornaments if he had been furnished But O how sweet is this Providence now to my review which so happily forced me to that work of Meditation which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul and shewed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps then I was aware of and hath caused my thoughts to feed on this Heavenly Subject which hath more benefited me then all the studies of my life And now dear Friends such as it is I here offer it you and upon the bended knees of my soul I offer up my thanks to the merciful God who hath fetched up both me and it as from the grave for your service Who reversed the sentence of present death which by the ablest Physitians was past upon me who interrupted my publike labors for a time that he might force me to do you a more lasting service which else I had never been like to have attempted That God do I heartily bless and magnifie who hath rescued me from the many dangers of four yeers war and after so many tedious nights and days and so many doleful fights and tidings hath returned me and many of your selves and reprived us till now to serve him in peace And though men be ungrateful and my body ruined beyond hope of recovery yet he hath made up all in the comforts I have in you To the God of mercy do I here offer my most hearty thanks and pay the vows of acknowledgment which I oft made in my distress who hath not rejected my prayers which in my dolor I put up but hath by a wonder delivered me in the midst of my duties and hath supported me this fourteen yeers in a languishing state wherein I have scarce had a waking hour free from pain who hath above twenty several times delivered me when I was neer to death And though he hath made me spend my days in groans and tears and in a constant expectation of my change yet hath he not wholly disabled me to his service and hereby hath more effectually subdued my pride and made this world contemptible to me and forced my dull heart to more importunate requests and occasioned more rare discoveries of his Mercy then ever I could have expected in a prosperous state For ever blessed be the Lord that hath not onely honored me to be a Minister of his Gospel but hath also set me over a people so willing to obey and given me that success of my labors which he hath denied to many more able and faithful who hath kept you in the zealous practice of godliness when so many grow negligent or despise the Ordinances of God who hath kept you stable in his
children and servants the knowledg and fear of God do it early and late in season and out of season Pray with them daily and fervently remember Daniels example Dan. 6. and the command 1 Thes. 5.17 Read the Scripture and good Books to them restrain them from sin keep not a servant that will not learn and be ruled Neighbors I charge you as you will shortly answer the contrary before the Lord your Judg That there be never a family among you that shall neglect these great Duties If you cannot do what you should yet do what you can especially see that the Lords day be wholly spent in these exercises To spend it in idleness or sports is to consecrate it to your flesh and not to God and far worse then to spend it in your Trades 5. Beware of extreams in the controverted points of Religion When you avoid one Error take heed you run not into another specially if you be in heat of disputation or passion As I have shewed you I think the true mean in the doctrine of Justification and Redemption so I had intended to have writ a peculiar Treatise with three Columns shewing both extreams and the truth in the middle through the body of Divinitie but God takes me off Especially beware of the Errors of these times Antinomianism comes from gross ignorance and leads to gross wickedness Socinians are scarce Christians Arminianism is quite above your reach and therefore not fit for your study in most points The middle way which Camero Ludov. Crocius Amâ—raldus Davenant c. go I think is neerest the Truth Separation comes from Pride and Ignorance and directly leads to the dissolution of all Churches That Independency which gives the people to govern by vote is the same thing in another name Anabaptists play the Divels part in accusing their own children and disputing them out of the Church and Covenant of Christ and affirming them to be no Disciples no Servants of God nor holy as separated to him when God saith the contrary Levit. 25.41 42. Deut. 29.10 11 12 c. Acts 15.10 1 Cor. 7.14 I cannot digress to fortifie you against these Sects You have seen God speak against them by Judgments from Heaven What were the two Monsters in New England but miracles Christ hath told you By their fruits ye shall know them We mis-interpret when we say he means by fruit their false doctrine that were but idem per idem Heretikes may seem holy for a little while but at last all false doctrines likely end in wicked lives Where hath there been known a society of Anabaptists since the world first knew them that proved not wicked How many of these or Antinomists c. have you known who have not proved palpably guiltie of lying perfidiousness covetousness malice contempt of their godly Brethren licenciousness or seared Consciences They have confident expressions to shake poor ignorant souls whom God will have discovered in the day of trial But when they meet with any that can search out their fallacies how little have they to say You know I have had as much opportunitie to try their strength as most And I never yet met with any in Garison or Army that could say any thing which might stagger a solid man You heard in my late publike dispute at Bewdley January 1. with Mr. Tombs who is taken to be the ablest of them in the Land and one of the most moderate how little they can say even in the hardest point of Baptism what gross absurdities they are driven to and how little tender Consciencious fear of erring is left among the best 6. Above all see that you be followers of Peace and Vnitie both in the Church and among your selves Remember what I taught you on Heb. 12.14 He that is not a son of Peace is not a son of God All other sins destroy the Church consequentially but Division and Separation demolish it directly Building the Church is but an orderly joyning of the materials and what then is disjoyning but pulling down Many Doctrinal differences must be tolerated in a Church And why but for Vnitie and Peace Therefore Disunion and Separation is utterly intolerable Beleeve not those to be the Churches Friends that would cure and reform her by cutting her throat Those that say No Truth must be concealed for Peace have usually as little of the one as the other Study Gal. 2.2 Rom. 14.1 c. Acts 21.24 26. 1 Tim 1.4 and 6.4 Tit. 3.8 9. I hope sad experience speaks this lesson to your very hearts if I should say nothing Do not your hearts bleed to look upon the state of England and to think how few Towns or Cities there be where is any forwardness in Religion that are not cut into shreds and crumbled as to dust by Separations and Divisions To think what a wound we have hereby given to the very Christian name How we have hardened the ignorant Confirmed the Papists And are our selves become the scorn of our enemies and the grief of our friends And how many of our dearest best esteemed Friends are faln to notorious Pride or Impietie yea some to be worse then open Infidels These are Pillars of Salt see that you remember them You are yet eminent for your Vnitie Stedfastness and Godliness hold fast that you have that no man take your Crown from you Temptations are now come neer your doors yet many of you have gone through greater and therefore I hope will scape through these Yet least your temptations should grow stronger let me warn you That though of your own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw disciples after them Acts 20.30 yea though an Angel from Heaven should draw you to divisions see that you follow him not If there be erronious practises in the Church keep your selves innocent with moderation and peace Do your best to reform them and rather remove your dwellings if you cannot live innocently then rend the Church It must be no small Error that must force a Separation Justin a holy learned Martyr In Dialog cum Tryphone who was converted within thirtie one yeers of Johns death and wrote his first Apologie within fiftie one and therefore it is like saw Johns days professeth That if a Jew should keep the Ceremonial Law so he did not perswade the Gentiles to it as necessary yet if he acknowledg Christ he judgeth that he may be saved and he would embrace him and have communion with him as a Brother And Paul would have him received that is weak in the faith and not unchurch whole Parishes of those that we know not nor were ever brought to a just trial You know I never conformed to the use of Mystical Symbolical Rites my self but onely to the determination of Circumstantials necessary in genere and yet I ever loved a godly peaceable Conformist better then a turbulent Non-Conformist I yet differ from many in several Doctrines of greater moment then Baptism c. As
necessary That thy Lord had sweeter ends and meant thee better then thou wouldst believe And that thy Redeemer was saving thee as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them and as well when he broke thy Heart as when he bound it up Oh no thanks to thee unworthy Self but shame for this received Crown But to Jehovah and the Lamb be Glory for ever Thus as the memory of the wicked will eternally promote their torment to look back on the pleasures enjoyed the sin committed the Grace refused Christ neglected and time lost So will the Memory of the Saints for ever promote their Joys And as it 's said to the wicked Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst Thy good things So will it be said to the Christian Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thine evils but now thou art comforted as they are tormented And as here the Remembrance of former good is the occasion of encreasing our grief I remembred God and was troubled I called to Remembrance my Songs in the night Psal. 77.3 6. So there the Remembrance of our former sorrows addeth life to our Joys SECT VIII BUt Oh the full the near the sweet enjoyment is that of the Affections Love and Joy It 's near for Love is of the Essence of the Soul and Love is the Essence of God For God is Love 1 John 4.8 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure The Spirits phrase is God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever carryeth much delight along with it Especially when the object appears deserving and the Affection is strong But O what will it be when perfected Affections shall have the strongest perfect incessant actings upon the most perfect object the ever Blessed God Now the poor soul complains Oh that I could love Christ more but I cannot alas I cannot Yea but then thou canst not chuse but love him I had almost said forbear if thou canst Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness and therefore lovest little Then thine eye will affect thy heart and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love Now thy Salvation is not perfected nor all the mercies purchased yet given in But when the top stone is set on thou shalt with shouting cry Grace Grace Now thy Sanctification is imperfect and thy pardon and Justification not so compleat as then it shall be Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest and therefore lovest the less But when thou knowest much is forgiven and much bestowed thou wilt Love more Doth David after an imperfect deliverance sing forth his Love Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and supplications What think you will he do eternally And how will he love the Lord who hath lifted him up to that Glory Doth he cry out O how I love thy Law My delight is in the Saints on earth and the excellent Psal. 16.3 How will he say then O how I love the Lord and the King of Saints in whom is all my delight Christians doth it not now stir up your love to remember all the experiences of his Love To look back upon a life oâ— mercies Doth not kindness melt you and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts What will it do then when you shall live in Love and have All in him who is All O the high delights of Love of this Love The content that the heart findeth in it The satisfaction it brings along with it Surely Love is both work and wages And if this were all what a high favour that God will give us leave to love him That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms that have embraced Lust and Sin before him But this is not all He returneth Love for Love nay a thousand times more As perfect as we shall be we cannot reach his measure of Love Christian thou wilt be then brim full of Love yet love as much as thou canst thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved Dost thou think thou canst overlove him What! love more then Love it self Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory Did he begin to love before thou lovedst and will he not continue now Did he love thee an enemy thee a sinner thee who even loathedst thy self and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son thee a perfect Saint thee who returnest some love for Love Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love Doubt of it now if thou canst As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath who would never before believe it So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusalem in her Glory O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus till he force the Jews that stood by to say Behold how he loved him Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us and blessing us make all even the damned if they see it to say Behold how he loveth them Is his Spouse while black yet comely Is she his Love his Dove his undefiled Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes Is her Love better then wine O believing soul study a little and tell me What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel and the Love which these are but the earnest of Here O here is the Heaven of Heaven This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet mutual constant actings and embracements of Love doth it consist To Love and be beloved These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath Deut. 33.27 His left hand is under their heads and with his right hand doth he embrace them Cant. 2.6 Reader stop here and think a while what a state this is Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God to be the Son the Spouse the Love the delight of the King of Glory Christian believe this and think on it Thou shalt be eternally embraced in the Arms of that Love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting Of that Love which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth from Earth to the Cross from the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to Glory That Love which was weary hungry tempted scorned scourged buffetted spit upon crucified pierced which did fast pray teach heal weep sweat bleed dye That Love will eternally embrace thee When perfect created Love and most perfect uncreated love meet together O the blessed meeting It will
shall the Ark of God come to us Who is able to stand before this holy Lord God Who shall approach and dwell with the consuming fire Imperfect or none must be thy Service here Oh take thy Sons excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak CHAP. V. The four great Preparatives to our Rest. SECT I. HAving thus opened you a window toward the Temple and shewed you a small Glimpse of the Back-parts of that Resemblance of the Saints Rest which I had seen in the Gospel Glass It follows that we proceed to view a little the Adjuncts and blessed properties of this Rest. But alass this little which I have seen makes me cry out with the Prophet Isa. 6.5 6 7. Wo is me for I am undone because I am a man of unclean Lips and dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips for mine eyes have seen the King the Lord of Hoasts Yet if he will send and touch my lips with a coal from the Altar of his Son and say thine iniquity is taken away and thy sin purged I shall then speak boldly and if he ask Whom shall I send I shall gladly answer Here am I Send me Vers. 8. And why doth my trembling heart draw back Surely the Lord is not now so terrible and inaccessible nor the passage of Paradise so blocked up as when the Law and Curse reigned Wherefore finding Beloved Christians that a new and Living way is consecrated for us through the vail the flesh of Christ by which we may with boldness enter into the Holiest by the blood of Jesus I shall draw neâ—r with the fuller Assurance and finding the flaming Sword removed shall look again into the Paradise of our God and because I know that this is no forbidden fruit and withal that it is good for food and pleasant to the Spiritual Eyes and a tree to be desired to make one truly wise and happy I shall take through the assistance of the Spirit and eat thereof my self and give to you according to my power that you may eat For you Christians is this food prepared this wine broached this fountain opened And the message my Master sends you is this Hearty Welcom which you shall have in his own words Eat O Friends Drink yea Drink abundantly O Beloved And surely it 's neither manners nor wisdom for you or me to draw back or to demur upon such an Invitation And first let us consider of the eminent Antecedents the great Preparations that notable Introduction to this Rest For the Porch of this Temple is exceeding Glorious and the gate of it is called Beautiful And here offer themselves to our distinct observation these four things as the four Corners of this Porch 1. The most Glorious Coming and Appearing of the Son of God 2. His powerful and wonderful raising of our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again with the Soul 3. His publick and solemn Proceedings in their Judgment where they shall be justified and acquit before all the world 4. His solemn Celebration of their Coronation and his Inthronizing of them in their Glory Follow but this four-fold Stream unto the Head and it will bring you just to the Garden of Eden SECT I. 1. ANd well may the Coming of Christ be reckoned in to his peoples Glory and annumerated with those ingredients that compound this precious Antidote of Rest For to this end is it intended and to this end is it of apparent Necessity For his peoples sakes he sanctified himself to his office For their sakes he came into the world suffered dyed rose ascended And for their sakes it is that he will Return Whether his own exaltation or theirs were his primary Intention is a Question though of seeming usefulness yet so unresolved for ought I have found in Scripture that I dare not scan it for fear of pressing into the Divine Secrets and approaching too near the inaccessible Light I find Scripture mentioning both ends distinctly and conjunctly but not comparatively This is most clear that to this end will Christ come again to receive his people to himself that where he is there they may be also John 14.3 The Bridegrooms departure was not upon divorce He did not leave us with a purpose to return no more He hath left pledges enough to assure us We have his Word in pawn his many Promises his Sacraments which shew forth his death till he Come and his Spirit to direct sanctifie and comfort till he Return We have frequent tokens of Love from him to shew us he forgets not his Promise nor us We behold the forerunners of his coming foretold by himself dayly come to pass We see the figtree put forth her branches and therefore know the Summer is nigh We see the fields white unto Harvest And though the Riotous World say Our Lord will be long a coming Yet let the Saints lift up their heads for their Redemption draweth nigh Alas fellow Christians what should we do if our Lord should not Return What a case are we here left in What Leave us among Wolves and in the Lyons den among a generation of Serpents and here forget us Did he buy us so dear and then cast us off so To leave us sinning suffering groaning dying dayly and come no more at us It cannot be Never fear it It cannot be This is like our unkind dealing with Christ who when we feel our selves warm in the world care not for coming at him But this is not like Christ dealing with us He that would come to suffer will surely come to Triumph And he that would come to purchase will surely come to possess Alas where else were all our hopes What were become of our faith our prayers our tears and our waiting What were all the patience of the Saints worth to them Were we not left of all men most miserable Christians hath Christ made us forsake all the world and be forsaken of all the world to hate all and be hated of all and all this for him that we might have him in stead of all and wil he think you after all this forget us forsake us himself Far be such a thought from our hearts But why stayed he not with his people while he was here Why must not the Comforter be sent Was not the work on earth done Must he not receive the Recompence of Reward and enter into his Glory Must he not take possession in our behalf Must he not go to prepare a place for us Must he not intercede with the Father and plead his sufferings and be filled with the Spirit to send forth and receive authority and subdue his enemies Our abode here is short If he had stayed on earth what would it have been to enjoy him for a few days and then dye But he hath more in Heaven to dwell among even the spirits of the Just of many Generations there made perfect Beside
are used as Enemies still Oh when the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall appear with all the Hoasts of Heaven when he shall surprize the careless world as a thief in the Night When as the Lightening which appeareth in the East and shineth even to the West so they shall behold him coming What a change will the sight of this Appearance work both with the World and with the Saints Now poor deluded World where is your Mirth and your Jollity Now where is your Wealth and your Glory Where is that prophane and careless heart that slighted Christ and his Spirit and out-sate all the offers of Grace Now where is that tongue that mocked the Saints and jeered the holy ways of God and made merry with his peoples Imperfections and theâ— own Slanders What was it not you Deny it if you can your heart condemns you and God is greater then your heart and will condemn you much more Even when you say Peace and Safety then Destruction cometh upon you as Travel upon a woman with childe and you shall not escape 1 Thess. 5.3 Perhaps if you had known just the day and hour when the Son of God would have come then you would have been found praying or the like But you should have watched and been ready because you know not the hour But for that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Oh blessed is that servant Verily I say unto you for Christ hath said it he shall make him ruler over all his Goods And when the chief Shepherd shall appear he shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Oh how should it then be the character of a Christian to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the Dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 And with all faithful diligence to prepare to meet our Lord with joy And seeing his Coming is of purpose to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes. 1.10 Oh what thought should Glad our hearts more then the thought of that day A little while indeed we have not seen him but yet a little while and we shall see him For he hath said I will not leave you comfortless but will come unto you We were comfortless should he not come And while we dayly gaze and look up to Heaven after him let us remember what the Angels said This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven While he is now out of sight It is as a sword to our Souls while they dayly ask us Where is your God But then we shall be able to answer our enemies See O proud sinners yonder is our Lord. And now Christians should we not put up that Petition heartily Let thy Kingdom come for the Spirit and the Bride say Come and let every Christian that heareth and readeth say Come And our Lord himself saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.17 20. SECT II. THe second stream that leadeth to Paradise is that Great work of Jesus Christ in raising our Bodies from the dust and uniting them again unto the Soul A wonderful effect of infinite Power and Love Yea wonderful indeed saith Unbelief if it be True What saith the Atheist and Sadducee shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man A man drowned in the Sea is eaten by fishes and they by men again and these men by worms what is become of the body of that first man shall it rise again Thou fool for so Paul calls thee dost thou dispute against the power of the Almighty Wilt thou pose him with thy Sophistry Dost thou object difficulties to the Infinite Strength Thou blinde Mole Thou silly Worm Thou little piece of creeping breathing clay Thou dust Thou nothing Knowest thou who it is whose Power thou dost Question If thou shouldst see him thou wouldst presently dye If he should come and dispute his cause with thee couldst thou bear it Or if thou shouldst hear his voyce couldst thou endure But come thy way let me take thee by the hand and do thou a little follow me and let me with Reverence as Elihu plead for God and for that power whereby I hope to arise Seest thou this great massie body of the earth What beareth it and upon what foundation doth it stand Seest thou this vast Ocean of waters What Limits them and why do they not overflow and drown the Earth Whence is that constant Ebbing and Flowing of her Tides Wilt thou say from the Moon or other Planets and whence have they that power of effective influence Must thou not come to a Cause of Causes that can do all things and doth not Reason require thee to conceive of that cause as a perfect Intelligence and voluntary Agent and not such a blinde worker and empty notion as that Nothing is which thou callest Nature Look upward Seest thou that Glorious body of Light the Sun How many times bigger is it then all the Earth and yet how many thousand miles doth it run in one minute of an hour and that without weariness or failing a moment What thinkest thou Is not that power able to effect thy Resurrection which doth all this Dost thou not see as great works as a Resurrection every day before thine eyes but that the Commonness makes thee not admire them Read but the 37 38 39 40 41. Chapters of Job and take heed of disputing against God again for ever Know'st thou not that with him all things are possible Can he make a Camel go through the eye of a needle Can he make such a blinde Sinner as thou to see and such a proud heart as thine to stoop and such an Earthly minde as thine Heavenly And subdue all that thy fleshly foolish wisdom And is not this as great a work as to Raise thee from the Dust Wast thou any unlikelier to Be when thou wast Nothing then thou shalt be when thou art Dust Is it not as easie to raise the Dead as to make Heaven and Earth and all of Nothing But if thou be unperswadeable all I say to thee more is as the Prophet to the Prince of Samaria 2 King 7.20 Thou shalt see that day with thine Eyes but little to thy Comfort for that which is the day of relief to the Saints shall be a day of Revenge on thee There is a Rest prepared but thou canst not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3.19 But for thee O Beleeving Soul never think to comprehend in the narrow capacity of thy shallow brain the Counsels and ways of thy Maker No more then thou canst contain in thy fist the vast Ocean He never intended thee such a Capacity when he made thee and gave thee that measure thou
again even so them also which sleep in Jesus will God bring with him Can the Head live and the body or members remain Dead Oh write those sweet words upon thy heart Christian Because I Live Ye shall Live also As sure as Christ lives we shall live And as sure as he is risen we shall rise Else the Dead perish Else what is our Hope what advantageth all our duty or suffering Else the sensual Epicure were one of the wisest men and what better are we then our beasts Surely our knowledg more then theirs would but encrease our sorrows and our dominion over them is no great felicity The Servant hath oft-times a better life then his Master because he hath few of his Masters Cares And our dead Carcasses are no more comely nor yeeld a sweeter savour then theirs But we have a sure ground of Hope And besides this Life we have a Life that 's hid with Christ in God and when Christ who is our Life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3.3 4. Oh let not us be as the purblinde world that cannot see afar off Let us never look at the Grave but let us see the Resurrection beyond it Faith is quick-sighted and can see as far as that is yea as far as Eternity Therefore let our hearts be glad and our Glory rejoyce and our flesh also shall rest in hope for he will not leave us in the Grave nor suffer us still to see Corruption Yea therefore let us be stedfast unmoveable always abounding in the work of the Lord for as much as we know our Labor is not in vain in the Lord 1 Cor. 15.58 It 's a Question much debated Whether a Resurrection be onely an effect of Christs Death and Resurrection And whether there should have been any Resurrection if Christ had not come Some that maintain the Negative of the last Question do also maintain That the Sin under the Covenant of Nature or Works did deserve onely the separation of Soul and Body and not Eternal Torments Whence also follows that the Soul is or at least then was Mortal or that it hath no Being or no Sense when it 's separated from the Body As also that Christ dyed to Redeem us onely from the Grave and not from Hell And so their Doctrine of Universal Redemption in this sence asserted doth neither so much honor the merits of Christ nor advance his mercy as they pretend For it maketh him to raise us onely from the Grave and bring all the world into a Capacity of Eternal Torment He fore-knowing the same time that most would certainly reject him and so perish But as I confess these of weight and difficulty so having professed in this Discourse to handle matters less controverted I pretermit them This sufficeth to the Saints Comfort That Resurrection to Glory is onely the fruit of Christs Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure All that are in the Graves shall hear his voyce and come forth Joh. 5.28 And this is the Fathers will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should Raise it up at the last Day Joh. 6.39 And that every one that beleeveth on the Son may have Everlasting Life and he will raise him up at the last Day Vers. 40. If the prayers of the Prophet could raise the Shunamites Dead Childe and if the dead Souldier revive at the touch of the Prophets bones How certainly shall the will of Christ and the power of his death raise us That voyce that said to Jairus Daughter Arise and to Lazarus Arise and come forth can do the like for us If his death immediately raised the dead bodies of many Saints in Jerusalem If he gave power to his Apostles to raise the Dead Then what doubt of our Resurrection And thus Christian thou seest that Christ having sanctified the Grave by his burial and conquered Death and broke the Ice for us a dead Body and a Grave is not now so horrid a spectacle to a beleeving Eye But as our Lord was neerest his Resurrection and Glory when he was in the Grave even so are we And he that hath promised to make our bed in sickness will make the dust as a bed of Roses Death shall not dissolve the Union betwixt him and us nor turn away his affections from us But in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the stone and unseal our Graves and reach us his hand and deliver us alive to our Father Why then doth the approach of Death so cast thee down O my Soul and why art thou thus disquieted within me The Grave is not Hell if it were yet there is thy Lord present and thence should his Merit and Mercy fetch thee out Thy sickness is not unto death though I dye but for the Glory of God that the Son of God may be glorified thereby Say not then He lifteth me up to cast me down and hath raised me high that my fall may be the Lower But he casts me down that he may lift me up and layeth me low that I may rise the higher An hundred experiences have sealed this Truth unto thee That the greatest dejections are intended but for advantages to thy greatest dignity and thy Redeemers Glory SECT III. THe third part of this Prologue to the Saints Rest is the publick and solemn process at their Judgment where they shall first themselves be acquit and justified and then with Christ judg the World Publick I may well call it for all the world must there appear Young and old of all estates and Nations that ever were from the Creation to that day must here come and receive their doom The judgment shal be set and the books opened the book of Life produced and the Dead shall be judged out of those things which were written in the books according to their works and whosoever is not found written in the book of Life is cast into the lake of fire O Terrible O Joyful Day Terrible to those that have let their Lamps go out and have not watched but forgot the coming of their Lord Joyful to the Saints whose waiting and hope was to see this day Then shall the world behold the goodness and severity of the Lord on them who perish severity but to his chosen goodness When every one must give account of his stewardship And every Talent of Time Health Wit Mercies Afflictions Means Warnings must be reckoned for When the sins of youth and those which they had forgotten and their secret sins shall all be layd open before Angels and men When they shall see all their Friends wealth old delights all their confidence and false hopes of Heaven to forsake them When they shall see the Lord Jesus whom they neglected whose Word
Sentence which at that Day they shall Actually receive from the mouth of Christ. By which Sentence their sin which before was pardoned in the sence of the Law is now perfectly pardoned or blotted out by this ultimate Judgment Act. 3.19 Therefore well may it be called the Time of Refreshing as being to the Saints the perfecting of all their former Refreshments He who was vexed with a quarrelling Conscience an Accusing World a Cursing Law is solemnly pronounced Righteous by the Lord the Judg. Though he cannot plead Not Guilty in regard of fact yet being pardoned he shall be acquit by the proclamation of Christ. And that 's not all But he that was accused as deserving Hell is pronounced a member of Christ a Son of God and so adjudged to Eternal Glory The Sentence of pardon past by the spirit and conscience within us was wont to be exceeding sweet But this will fully and finally resolve the question and leave no room for doubting again for ever We shall more rejoyce that our names are found written in the Book of Life then if men or Devils were subjected to us And it must needs affect us deeply with the sense of our mercy and happiness to behold the contrary condition of others To see most of the world tremble with Terror while we triumph with Joy To hear them doomed to everlasting flames and see them thrust into Hell when we are proclaimed heirs of the Kingdom To see our neighbors that lived in the same Towns came to the same Congregation sate in the same seats dwelt in the same houses and were esteemed more honorable in the world then our selves to see them now so differenced from us and by the Searcher of hearts eternally separated This with the great magnificence and dreadfulness of the day doth the Apostle pathetically express in 2 Thess. 1.6 7 8 9 10. It is Righteous with God to recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with us when the Lord Jesus shall be revealed from Heaven with his mighty Angels In flaming fire taking vengeance on then that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the Glory of his power c. And now is not here enough to make that day a welcom day and the thoughts of it delightful to us But yet there 's more We shall be so far from the dread of that Judgment that our selves shall become the Judges Christ will take his people as it were into Commission with him and they shall sit and approve his Righteous Judgment Oh fear not now the reproaches scorns and censures of those that must then be judged by us Did you think Oh wretched worldlings that those poor despised men whom you made your dayly derision should be your Judges Did you beleeve this when you made them stand as offenders before the Bar of your Judgment No more then Pilate when he was judging Christ did beleeve that he was condemning his Judg Or the Jews when they were whipping imprisoning killing the Apostles did think to see them sit on twelve Thrones Judging the twelve Tribes of Israel Do you not know saith Paul that the Saints shall judg the world Nay Know you not that we shall judg Angels Surely were it not the Word of Christ that speaks it this advancement would seem incredible and the language arrogant Yet even Henoch the seventh from Adam prophecyed of this saying Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all and to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodly committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoke against him Jude 14. Thus shall the Saints be honored and the Righteous have dominion in the morning O that the careless world were but wise to consider this and that they would remember this latter end That they would be now of the same minde as they will be when they shall see the Heavens pass away with a noise and the elements melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein to be burnt up 2 Pet. 3.10 When all shall be on fire about their ears and all earthly Glory consumed For the Heavens and the Earth which are now are reserved unto fire against the day of Judgment and perdition of ungodly men 2 Pet. 3.7 But alas when all is said the wicked will do wickedly and none of the wicked shall understand But the wise shall understand Rejoyce therefore O ye Saints yet watch and what you have hold fast till your Lord come Revel 2.25 and study that use of this Doctrine which the Apostle propounds 2 Pet. 3.11 12. Seeing then that all these things shall be dissolved what manner of persons ought ye to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness Looking for and hasting to the coming of the day of God wherein the Heavens being on fire shall be dissolved and the Elements melt with fervent heat But go your way keep close with God and wait till your change come and till this end be for you shall Rest and stand in the Lot at the end of the days Dan. 12.13 SECT IV. THe fourth Antecedent and highest step to the Saints Advancement is Their solemn Coronation Inthronizing and Receiving into the Kingdom For as Christ their head is anointed both King and Priest so under him are his people made unto God both Kings and Priests for Prophecy that ceaseth to Reign and to offer praises for ever Revel 5.10 The Crown of Righteousness which was layd up for them shall by the Lord the Righteous Judg be given them at that day 2 Tim. 4.8 They have been faithful to the death and therefore shall receive the Crown of Life And according to the improvement of their Talents here so shall their rule and dignity be enlarged Mat. 25.21 23. So that they are not dignified with empty Titles but real Dominions For Christ will take them and set them down with himself in his own Throne and will give them power over the Nations even as he received of his Father Revel 2.26 27 28. And will give them the morning Star The Lord himself will give them possession with these applauding expressions Well done good and faithful Servant thou hast been faithful over a few things I will make thee Ruler over many things Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Matt. 25.21 23. And with this solemn and blessed Proclamation shall he Inthrone them Come ye Blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Every word full of Life and Joy Come This is the holding forth of the golden Scepter to warrant our approach unto this Glory Come now as neer as you will fear not the Bethshemites Judgment for the enmity
Hope our Diligence of all Mercies of all Ordinances as before is proved It is not for themselves but for this Rest that all these are desired and used Praying is not the end of Praying nor Preaching the end of Preaching nor Beleeving the end of Beleeving these are but the way to him who is the way to this Rest. Indeed Christ himself is both the way and the Rest the means and the end singularly desireable as the way but yet more as the end If any thing then that ever you saw or enjoyed appear lovely and desireable then must its end be so much more SECT II. 2. IN order of Good the last is still the Best For all good tends to perfection The end is still the last enjoyed though first intended Now this Rest is the Saints last estate Their beginning was as a Grain of Mustard-seed but their perfection will be an estate high and flourishing They were taken with David from the sheep-fold to reign as Kings for ever Their first Day was a day of small things but their last will be an everlasting perfection They sowed in tears but they reap in Joy If their prosperity here their res secundae were desireable much more their res ultimae their final Blessedness Rondeletius saw a Priest at Rome who would fall down in an Extasie when ever he heard those words of Christ Consummatum est It is finished but observing him careful in his fall ever to lay his head in a soft place he suspected the dissimulation and by the threats of a cudgel quickly recovered him But methinks the fore-thoughts of that Consummation and last estate we speak of should bring a considering Christian into such an unfeigned Extasie that he should even forget the things of the flesh and no care or fear should raise him out of it Surely that is well which ends well and that 's Good which is Good at last and therefore Heaven must needs be Good SECT III. 3. ANother Rule is this That whose absence or loss is the worst or thâ— greatest evil must needs it self be best or the greatest Good And is there a greater loss then to lose this Rest If you could ask the Restless Souls that are shut out of it they would tell you more sensibly then I can For as none know the sweetness like those who enjoy it so none know the loss like those that are deprived of it Wicked men are here sensless of the loss because they know not what they lose and have the delights of flesh and sense to take them up and make them forget it But when they shall know it to their Torment as the Saints do to their Joy and when they shall see men from the East and West sit down with Abraham Isaac and Jacob in the Kingdom of God and themselves shut out when they shall know both what they have lost and for what and why they lost it surely there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth He that loseth Riches may have more and he that loseth honor may repair it or if not yet he is not undone He that loseth life may save it But what becomes of him that loseth God and who or what shall repair his loss We can bear the loss of any thing below if we have it not we can either live without it or dye and live eternally without it But can we do so without God in Christ As God gives us outward things as auctuaries as over-plus or above measure into our bargain so when he takes them from us he takes away our superfluities rather then our necessaries and pareth but our nails and toucheth not the quick But can we so spare our part in Glory You know whose Question it is What shall it profit a man to win all the world and lose his own Soul will it prove a saving match Or what shall a man give for the ransom of his Soul Christians compare but all your losses with that loss and all your sufferings with that suffering and I hope you will lay your hand upon your mouth and cease your repining thoughts for ever SECT IV. 4. ANother Rule is this That which cannot be given by man or taken away by man is ever better then that which can And then I hope Heaven will carry it For who hath the Key of the everlasting Treasures And who is the Disposer of the Dignities of the Saints Who saith Come ye Blessed and go ye Cursed Is it the voyce of God or of meer man If every good and perfect gift cometh from above from the Father of Lights whence then cometh the gift of Eternal Light with the Father Whose priviledg soever it is to be Key-keepers of the visible Churches here below sure no meer man but the Man of Sin will challenge the Keyes of that Kingdom and undertake to shut out or take in or to dispose of that Treasure of the Church We may be beholden to men as Gods instruments for our Faith but no further For what is Paul or who is Apolio but Ministers by whom we beleeved even as the Lord gave to every man Surely every step to that Glory every gracious gift and act every deliverance and mercy to the Church shall be so clearly from God that his very name shall be written in the forehead of it and his excellent Attributes stampt upon it that he who runs may read it was the work of God and the Question may easily be answered whether it be from Heaven or of men Much more evidently is that Glory the gift of the God of Glory What can man give God or earth and dust give Heaven Surely no! And as much is it beyond them to deprive us of it Tyrants and persecutors may take away our Goods but not our chief Good our Liberties here but not that state of Freedom our Heads but not our Crown You can shut us up in Prisons and shut us out of your Church and Kingdom but now shut us out of Heaven if you can Try in lower attempts Can you deny us the light of the Sun and cause it to forbear its shining Can you stop the influences of the Planets or deny us the dew of Heaven or command the Clouds to shut up their womb or stay the course of the flowing streams or seal up the passages of the deep how much less can you deprive us of our God or deny us the light of his countenance or stop the influences of his Spirit or forbid the dew of his Grace to fall or stay the streams of his Love and shut up his overflowing ever-flowing Springs or seal up the bottomless depth of his bounty You can kill our Bodies if he permit you but try whether you can reach our Souls Nay it is not in the Saints own power to give to or take away from themselves this Glory So that according to this Rule there 's no state like the Saints Rest.
Now we are stupified with vile and sensless hearts that can hear all the story of this Bloody Love and read all the dolors and sufferings of Love and hear all his sad complaints and all with dulness and unaffected He cries to us Behold and see Is it nothing to you O all ye that pass by Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow Lamen 1.12 and we will scarce hear or regard the dolorous voyce nor scarce turn aside to view the wounds of him who turned aside and took us up to heal our wounds at this so dear a rate But Oh then our perfected Souls will feel as well as hear and with feeling apprehensions flame again in Love for Love Now we set his picture wounded and dying before our eyes but can get it no neerer our hearts then if we beleeved nothing of what we read But then when the obstructions between the eye and the understanding are taken away and the passage opened between the head and the heart surely our eyes will everlastingly affect our heart and while we view with one eye our slain-revived Lord and with the other eye our lost-recovered Souls and transcendent Glory these views will eternally pierce us and warm our very Souls And those eyes through which folly and lust hath so often stole into our hearts shall now be the Casements to let in the Love of our dearest Lord for ever Now though we should as some do travel to Jerusalem and view the Mount of Olives where he prayed and wept and see the Dolorons way by which he bare his Cross and enter the Temple of the Holy Grave yea if we should with Peter have stooped down and seen the place where he lay and behold his Relicts yet these Bolted doors of sin and flesh would have kept out the feeling of all that Love But Oh! that 's the Joy we shall then leave these hearts of stone and Rock behinde us and the sin that here so close besets us and the sottish unkindness that followed us so long shall not be able to follow us into that Glory But we shall behold as it were the wounds of Love with eyes and hearts of Love for ever Suppose a little to help our apprehensions that a Saint who hath partaked of the Joys of Heaven had been translated from as long an abode in Hell and after the experience of such a change should have stood with Mary and the rest by the Cross of Christ and have seen the Blood and heard the Groans of his Redeemer What think you Would love have stirred in his Brest or no Would the voyce of his dying Lord have melted his heart or no Oh that I were sensible of what I speak With what astonishing apprehensions then will Redeemed Saints everlastingly behold their Blessed Redeemer I will not meddle with their vain audacious Question who must needs know whether the glorified body of Christ do yet retain either the wounds or scars But this is most certain that the memory of it will be as fresh and the impressions of Love as deep and its workings as strong as if his wounds were still in our eyes and his complaints still in our ears and his blood still streaming afresh Now his heart is open to us and ours shut to him But when his heart shall be open and our Hearts open Oh the Blessed Congress that there will then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first sinful silly woman that he appears to How doth Love struggle for expressions and the straitned fire shut up in the brest strive to break forth Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his feet having her heart as neer to his heart as her hands were to his feet What a meeting of Love then will there be between the new glorified Saint and the Glorious Redeemer But I am here at a loss my apprehensions fail me and fall so short Onely this I know it will be the singular praise of our inheritance that it was bought with the price of that blood and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the purchaser and the price together with the possession Neither will the views of the wounds of Love renew our wounds of sorrow He whose first words after his Resurrection were to a great sinner Woman why weepest thou knows how to raise Love and Joy by all those views without raising any cloud of sorrow or storm of tears at all He that made the Sacramental Commemoration of his Death to be his Churches Feast will sure make the real enjoyment of its blessed purchase to be marrow and fatness And if it afforded Joy to hear from his mouth This is my Body which is given for you and This is my Blood which was shed for you What Joy will it afford to hear This Glory is the fruit of my Body and my Blood and what a merry feast will it be when we shall drink of the fruit of the Vine new with him in the Kingdom of his Father as the fruit of his own Blood David would not drink of the waters which he longed for because they were the blood of those men who jeoparded their lives for them and thought them fitter to offer to God then to please him But we shall value these waters more highly and yet drink them the more sweetly because they are the Blood of Christ not jeoparded onely but shed for them They will be the more sweet and dear to us because they were so bitter and Dear to him If the buyer be judicious we estimate things by the price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased with the life of our dearest friend how highly should we value it Nay if a Dying Friend deliver us but a token of his Love how carefully do we preserve it and still remember him when we behold it as if his own name were written on it And will not then the Death and Blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed Glory Methinks England should value the plenty of the Gospel with their Peace and Freedom at a higher rate when they remember what it hath cost How much precious blood How many of the Lives of Gods worthies and our most dear friends besides all other cost Methinks when I am with freedom preaching or hearing or living I see my dying friends before mine eyes whose blood was shâ—d for this and look the more respectively on them yet living whose frequent dangers did procure it Oh then when we are rejoycing in Glory how shall we think of the blood that revived our Souls and how shall we look upon him whose sufferings did put that Joy into our hearts How carefully preserve we those prizes which with greatest hazard we gained from the enemy Goliahs sword must be kept as a Trophie and layd up behinde the Ephod and in a time of need David says There 's none to that Surely when
we do divide the spoil and partake of the prize which our Lord so dearly won we shall say indeed There 's none to that How dear was Jonathans Love to David which was testified by stripping himself of the Robe that was upon him and giving it David and his garments even to his sword and to his bow and to his girdle and also by saving him from his fathers wrath How dear for ever will the Love of Christ be then to us who stripped himself as it were of his Majesty and Glory and put our man Garment of flesh upon him that he might put the Robes of his own Righteousness and Glory upon us and saved us not from cruel injustice but from his Fathers deserved wrath Well then Christians as you use to do in your Books and on your Goods to write down the price they cost you so do on your Righteousness and on your Glory write down the price The Precious Blood of Christ Yet understand this rightly Not that this highest Glory was in strictest proper sense purchased or that it was the most immediate Effect of Christs death We must take heed that we conceive not of God as a Tyrant who so delighteth in cruelty as to exchange mercies for stripes or to give a Crown on condition he may torment men God was never so pleased with the sufferings of the Innocent much lesse of his Sonne as to sell his mercy properly for their sufferings Fury dwelleth not in him nor doth he willingly correct the sons of men nor take pleasure in the death of him that dieth But the sufferings of Christ were primarily and immediatly to satisfie the justice that required blood and to bear what was due to the sinner and to receive the blow that should have fallen upon him so to restore him to the life he lost and the happiness he fell from But this dignity which surpasseth the first is as it were from the redundancy of his merit or a secondary fruit of his death The work of his Redemption so well pleased the Father that he gave him power to advance his chosen to a higher dignity then they fell from and to give them the glory which was given to himself and all this according to his counsell and the good pleasure of his own will SECT II. 2. THe Second Pearl in the Saints Diadem is that It 's Free This seemeth as Pharoahs second Kine to devour the former and as the Angell to Balaam To meet it with a drawne sword of a full opposition But the seeming discord is but a pleasing diversity composed into that harmony which constitutes the Melody These two Attributes Purchased and Free are the two chaines of Gold which by their pleasant twisting doe make up that wreath for the heads of the Pillars in the Temple of God It was deare to Christ but free to us When Christ was to buy silver and gold was nothing worth Prayers and Tears could not suffice nor any thing below his Blood But when we come to buy the price is fallen to just nothing Our buying is but receiving we have it freely without money and without price Nor doe the Gospell-conditions make it lesse Free or the Covenant tenor before mentioned contradict any of this If the Gospell-conditions had been such as are the Laws or payment of the debt required at our hands the freeness then were more questionable Yea if God had said to us Sinners if you will satisfie my Justice but for one of your sins I will forgive you all the rest it would have been a hard condition on our part and the Grace of the Covenant not so Free as our disability doth necessarily require But if all the Condition be our cordiall acceptation surely we deserve not the name of Purchasers Thankfull accepting of a free acquittance is no paying of the Debt If life be offered to a condemned man upon condition that he shall not refuse the offer I think the favour is never the lesse free Nay though the condition were that he should begge and wait before he have his pardon and take him for his Lord who hath thus redeemed him All this is no satisfying of the justice of the Law Especially when the condition is also given as it is by God to all his chosen surely then here 's all free If the Father freely give the Son and the Son freely pay the debt and if God do freely accept that way of payment when he might have required it of the principall and if both Father and Sonne do freely offer us the purchased life upon those fair conditions and if they also freely send the Spirit to inable us to perform those conditions then what is here that is not free Is not every Stone that builds this Temple Free-Stone Oh the everlasting admiration that must needs surprize the Saints to think of this Freenesse What did the Lord see in me that he should judge me meet for such a State That I who was but a poor diseaâ—ed despised wretch should be clad in the brightnesse of this Glory That I a silly creeping breathing worm should be advanced to this high dignity That I who was but lately groaning weeping dying should now be as full of joy as my heart can hold Yea should be taken from the grave where I was rotting and stinking and from the dust and darkness where I seemed forgotten and here set before his Throne that I should be taken with Mordecai from captivity to be set next unto the King and with Daniel from the Den to be made ruler of Princes and Provinces and with Saul from seeking Asses to be advanced to a Kingdom Oh who can fathom unmeasurable Love Indeed if the proud hearted selfe-ignorant selfe-admiring sinners should be thus advanced who think none so fit for preferment as themselves perhaps instead of admiring free Love they would with those unhappy Angels be discontented yet with their estate But when the selfe-denying selfe-accusing humble soule who thought himselfe unworthy the ground he trod on and the aire he breathed in unworthy to eat drink or live when he shall be taken vp into this Glory He who durst â—carce come among or speak to the imperfect Saints on earth because he was unworthy he who durst scarce hear or scarce read the Scripture or scarce pray and call God Father oâ— scarce receive the Sacraments of his Covenant and all because he was unworthy For this soul to finde it self rapt up into heaven and closed in the armes of Christ even in a moment Do but think with your selves what the transporting astonishing admiration of such a soule will be He that durst not lift up his eyes to heaven but stood a farre off smiting on his brest and crying Lord be mercifull to me a sinner now to be lift up to heaven himself He who was wont to write his name in Bradfords stile The unthankâ—full the hard-hearted the unworthy sinner And was wont to
souls Did I not let passe my time and forget my God and soul as well as they And was I not born in sin and wrath as well as they Oh who made me to differ Was my heart naturally any readier for Christ then theirs Or any whit better affected to the Spirits perswasions Should I ever have begun to love if God had not begun to me or ever been willing if he had not made me willing or ever differed if he had not made me to differ Had I not now been in those flames if I had had mine own way and been let alone to mine own will Did I not resist as powerful means and lose as fair advantages as they And should I not have lingered in Sodom tâ—ll the flames had seized on me if God had not in mercy carryed me out Oh how free was all this Love and how free is this enjoyed Glory Doubtless this will be our everlasting admiration That so Rich a Crown should fit the head of so vile a Sinner That such high advancement and such long unfruitfulness and unkindness can be the state of the same person and that such vile rebellions can conclude in such most precious Joys But no thanks to us nor to any of our duties and labors much less to our neglects and laziness we know to whom the praise is due and must be given for ever And indeed to this very end it was that infinite Wisdom did cast the whole design of Mans Salvation into this mould of PVRCHASE and FREENES that the Love and Joy of man might be perfected and the Honor of Grace most highly advanced that the thought of Merit might neither cloud the one nor obstruct the other and that on these two hinges the gates of Heaven might turn So then let DESERVED be written on the door of Hell but on the door of Heaven and Life THE FREE GIFT SECT III. THirdly The third comfortable Attribute of this Rest is That it is the Saints prop and peculiar possession It belongs to no other of all the sons of men not that it would have detracted from the greatness or freeness of the gift if God had so pleased that all the world should have enjoyed it But when God hath resolved otherwise that it must be enjoyed but by few to finde our names among that number must needs make us the more to value our enjoyment If all Egypt had been light the Israelites should not have had the less but yet to enjoy that light alone while their neighbors live in thick darkness must make them more sensible of their priviledg Distinguishing separating Mercy affecteth more then any Mercy If it should rain on our grounds alone or the Sun shine upon our alone habitations or the blessing of Heaven divide between our flocks and other mens as between Jacobs and Labans we should more feelingly acknowledg Mercy then now while we possess the same in common Ordinariness dulleth our sense and if Miracles were common they would be slighted If Pharoah had passed as safely as Israel the Red Sea would have been less remembred If the first-born of Egypt had not been slain the first-born of Israel had not been the Lords peculiar If the rest of the World had not been drowned and the rest of Sodom and Gomorrah burned the saving of Noah had been no wonder nor Lots deliverance so much talked of The lower the weighty end of the ballance descends the higher is the other lifted up and the falling of one of the sails of the Wind-Mill is the occasion of the rising of the other It would be no extenuation of the Mercies of the Saints here if all the world were as holy as they and the communication of their Happiness is their greatest desire yet it might perhaps dull their thankfulness and differencing grace would not be known But when one shall be illightened and another left in darkness one reformed and another by his lusts enslaved it makes them cry out with the Disciple Lord what is it that thou wilt reveal thy self to us and not unto the world When the Prophet shall be sent to one Widow onely of all that were in Samaria and to cleanse one Naaman of all the Lepers the Mercy is more observable O that will sure be a day of passionate sense on both sides when two shall be in a Bed and two in the field the one taken and the other forsaken For a Christian who is conscious of his own undeserving and il-deserving to see his companion in sin perish his Neighbor Kinsman Father Mother Wife Childe for ever in Hell while he is preferred among the Blessed To see other mens sins eternally plagued while his are all pardoned To see those that were wont to sit with us in the same seat and eat with us at the same Table and joyn with us in the same Duties now to lie tormented in those flames while we are triumphing in Divine Praises That Lot must leave his sons in law in the flames of Sodom and the wife of his bosom as a Monument of Divine Vengeance and escape with his two Daughters alone Here is chusing distinguishing Mercy Therefore the Scripture seems to affirm That as the damned souls shall from Hell see the Saints Happiness to increase their own torments so shall the Blessed from Heaven behold the wickeds misery to the increase of their own Joy And as they looked on the dead bodies of Christs two Witnesses slain in their streets and they that dwell on the Earth rejoyced over them and made merry and as the wicked here behold the calamities of Gods people with gladness so shall the Saints look down upon them in the burning lake and in the sense of their own happiness and in the approbation of Gods just proceedings they shall rejoyce and sing Thou art righteous O Lord which art and wast and shalt be because thou hast thus judged For they have shed the blood of Saints and Prophets and thou hast given them blood to drink for they are worthy Alleluja Salvation and Glory and Honor and Power to our God for true and righteous are his Judgments And as the command is over Babylon so will it be over all the condemned souls Rejoyce over her thou Heaven and ye holy Apostles and Prophets for God hath avenged you on her By this time the impenitent World will see a reason for the Saints singularity while they were on Earth and will be able to answer their own demands Why must you be more holy then your neighbors even because they would fain be more happy then their neighbors And why cannot you do and live as the World about you Even because they are full loath to speed as those others or to be damned with the VVorld about them Sincere singularity in Holiness is by this time known to be neither Hypocrisie nor Folly If to be singular in that Glory be so desirable surely to be singular in godly
we have but only that which implyeth our imperfection And what imperfection can this imply Nay our present knowledg shall be increased beyond belief It shall indeed be done away but as the light of the candle and stares is done away by the rising of the Sun which is more properly a doing away of our ignorance then of our knowledge Indeed we shall not know each other after the flesh not by stature voice colour complexion visage or outward shape if we had so known Christ we should know him no more not by parts and gifts of learning nor titles of honour and worldly dignity nor by tearmes of affinity and consanguinity nor benefits nor such Relations not by youth or age nor I think by sex But by the Image of Christ and spiritual relation and former faithfulness in improving our Talents beyond doubt we shall know and be known Nor is it only our old acquaintance but all the Saints of all ages whose faces in the flesh we never saw whom we shall there both know and comfortably enjoy Luther in his last sickness being asked his Judgment whether we shall know one another in Heaven answered thus Quod accidit Adam nunquam ille vider at Evam c. i. e. How was it with Adam He had never seen Eve yet he asketh not who she was or whence she came but saith She is flesh of my flesh and bone of my bone And how knew he that Why being full of the Holy Ghost and indued with the true knowledge of God he so pronounced After the same sort shall we be renewed by Christ in another life and shall know our parents wives children c. much more perfectly then Adam did then know Eve Yea and Angels as well as Saints will be our blessed acquaintance and sweet associates We have every one now our owne Angels there beholding our Fathers face And those who now are willingly ministring Spirits for our good will willingly then be our companions in joy for the perfecting of our good And they who had such joy in heaven for our conversion will gladly reioyce with us in our glorification I think Christian this will be a more honourable assembly then you ever here beheld and a more happy society then you were ever of before Surely Brooke and Pim and Hambden and White c. are now members of a more knowing unerring well ordered right-ayming self-denying unanimous honourable Triumphant Senate then this from whence they were taken is or ever Parliament will be It is better be doore-keeper to that Assembly whether Twisse c. are translated then to have continued here the Moderator of this That is the true Parliamentum Beatum the Blessed Parliament and that is the only Church that cannot erre Then we shall truly say as David I am a companion of all them that fear thee when we are come to Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the Heavenly Jerusalem and to an innumerable company of Angels to the General Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in Heaven and to God the Judg of all and to the Spirits of Just men made perfect and to Jesus the Mediator of the new Covenant and to the blood of Sprinkling We are come thither already in respect of title and of earnest and first-fruits but we shall then come into the full possession O Beloved if it be a happiness to live with the Saints in their imperfection when they have sin to imbitter as well as holiness to sweeten their society what will it be to live with them in their perfection where Saints are wholly and onely Saints If it be a delight to hear them pray or preach what will it be to hear them praise If we thought our selves in the Suburbs of Heaven when we heard them set forth the Beauty of our Lord and speak of the excellencies of the Kingdom what a day will it be when we shall joyn with them in praises to our Lord in and for that Kingdom Now we have corruption and they have corruption and we are apter to set awork each others corruption then our Graces and so loose the benefit of their company while we do enjoy it because we know not how to make use of a Saint But then it will not be so Now we spend many an hour which might be profitable in a dull silent looking on each other or else in vain and common conference But then it will not be Now the best do know but in part and therefore can instruct and help us but in part But then we shall with them make up one perfect man So then I conclude This is one singular excellency of the Rest of Heaven That we are fellow citizens with the Saints and of the houshold of God Eph. 2.19 SECT V. FIfthly another excellent property of our Rest will be That the Joyes of it are immediately from God Nor doth this contradict the former as I have before made plain Whether Christ who is God as well as man shall be the Conveyor of all from the Divine Nature to us And whether the giving up the Kingdom to the Father do imply the ceasing of the Mediators Office And consequently the laying aside of the humane Nature though I believe the Negative in these last yet are Questions which I will not now attempt to handle But this is sure we shall God face to face and stand continually in his presence and consequently derive our life and comfort immediately from him Whether God will make use of any Creatures for our service then or if any of what Creatures and what use is more then I yet know It seems by that Rom. 8.21 that the Creature shall have a day of Deliverance and that into the glorious Liberty of the sons of God But whether this before or at the great and full Deliverance or whether to endure to Eternity or to what particular imployment they shall be continued are Questions yet too hard for me When God speaks them plainer and mine understanding is made clearer then I may know these But it s certain that at least our most and great Joyes will be immediate if not all Now we have nothing at all immediately but at the second or third or fourth or fifth hand or how many who knows From the Earth from Man from Sun and Moon from the influence of the Planets from the Ministration of Angels and from the Spirit and Christ and doubtless the farther the Stream runs from the Fountain the more impure it is It gathers some defilement from every unclean Channel it passeth through Though it savors not in the hand of Angels of the imperfection of sinners yet it doth of the imperfection of Creatures and as it comes from man it savors of both How quick and piercing is the Word in it self Yet many times it never enters being managed by a feeble Arm. O what weight and worth is there in
every passage of the Blessed Gospel Enough one would think to enter and force the dullest Soul and wholly possess its thoughts and affections and yet how oft doth it fall as water upon a stone And how easily can our hearers sleep out a Sermon time â— and much because these words of Life do die in the delivery and the Fruit of our Conception is almost Still-born Our peoples Spirits remain congealed while we who are entrusted with the Word that should melt them do suffer it to freez between our Lips We speak indeed of Soul-concerning Truths and set before them Life and Death But it is with such Self-seeking affectation and in such a lazy formal customary strain like the pace the Spaniard rides that the people little think we are in good sadness or that our Hearts do mean as our Tongues do speak I have heard of some Tongues that can lick a coâ—l of fire till it be cold I fear these Tongues are in most of our Mouths and that the Breath that is given us to blow up this fire till it flame in our Peoples Souls is rather used to blow it out Such Preaching is it that hath brought the most to hear Sermons as they say their Creed and Pater Nosters even as a few good words of course How many a cold and mean Sermon that yet contains most precious Truths The things of God which we handle are Divine but our maner of handling too Humane And there 's little or none that ever we touch but we leave the print of our fingers behinde us but if God should speak this Word himself it would be a piercing melting Word indeed How full of comfort are the Gospel Promises yet do we oft so heartlesly declare them that the broken bleeding-hearted Saints are much deprived of their Joyes Christ is indeed a precious Pearl but oft held forth in Leprous hands And thus do we disgrace the Riches of the Gospel when it is the Work of our Calling to make it honorable in the eyes of men and we dim the glory of that Jewel by our dull and low expressions and dunghil conversations whose lustre we do pretend to discover while the hearers judg of it by our expressions and not its proper genuine worth The truth is the best of men do apprehend but little of what God in his Word expresseth and what they do apprehend they are unable to utter Humane language is not so copious as the hearts conceivings are and what we possibly might declare yet through our own unbelief stupidity laziness and other corruptions we usually fail in and what we do declare yet the darkness of our peoples understandings and the sad senslesness of their hearts doth usually shut out and make voyd So that as all the Works of God are perfect in their season as he is perfect so are all the works of man as himself imperfect And those which God performeth by the hand of man will too much savor of the instrument If an Angel from Heaven should preach the Gospel yet could he not deliver it according to its glory muchless we who never saw what they have seen and keep this Treasure in Earthen Vessels The comforts that flow through Sermons through Sacraments through Reading and Company and Conference and Creatures are but half comforts and the Life that comes by these is but a half life in comparison of those which the Almighty shall speak with his own mouth and reach forth to us with his own hand The Christian knows by experience now that his most immediate Joyes are his sweetest Joyes which have least of man and are most directly from the Spirit That 's one reason as I conceive why Christians who are much in secret prayer and in meditation and contemplation rather then they who are more in hearing reading and conference are men of greatest life and joy because they are nearer the Well-head and have all more immediately from God himself And that I conceive the reason also Why we are more undisposed to those secret duties and can easilier bring our hearts to hear and read and confer then to secret Prayer Self-examination and Meditation because in the former is more of man and in these we approach the Lord alone and our Natures draw back from the most spiritual and fruitful Duties Not that we should therefore cast off the other and neglect any Ordinance of God To live above them while we use them is the way of a Christian But so to live above Ordinances as to live without them is to live without the compass of the Gospel Lines and so without the Government of Christ. Let such beware least while they would be higher then Christians they prove in the end lower then men We are not yet come to the time and state where we shall have all from Gods immediate hand As God hath made all Creatures and instituted all Ordinances for us so will he continue our need of all We must yet be contented with Love-tokens from him till we come to receive our All in him We must be thankful if Joseph sustain our lives by relieving us in our Famine with his Provisions till we come to see his own face There 's joy in these remote receivings but the fulness is in his own presence O Christians you will then know the difference betwixt the Creature and Creator and the content that each of them affords We shall then have Light without a Candle and a perpetual day without the Sun For the City hath no need of the Sun neither of the Moon to shine in it for the glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof Revel 21.23 Nay There shall be no night there and they need no candle nor light of the Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Revel 22.5 We shall then have rest without sleep and be kept from cold without our cloathing and need no Fig-leaves to hide our shame For God will be our Rest and Christ our cloathing and shame and sin will cease together We shall then have health without Physick and strength without the use of food for the Lord God will be our strength and the light of his countenance will be health to our souls and marrow to our bones We shall then and never till then have enlightened understandings without Scriptures and be governed without a written Law For the Lord will perfect his Law in our hearts and we shall be all perfectly taught of God his own will shall be our Law and his own face shall be our light for ever Then shall we have joy which we drew not from the promises nor was fetcht us home by Faith or Hope Beholding and possessing will exclude the most of these We shall then have Communion without Sacraments when Christ shall drink with us of the fruit of the Vine new that is Refresh us with the comforting Wine of immediate fruition in the
us His face shall be the Scripture where we shall read the Truth and himself instead of Teachers and Councels to perfect our understandings and acquaint us with himself who is the perfect Truth No more Error no more Scandal to others no more Disquiet to our own spirits no more mistaking zeal for falshood because our understandings have no more sin Many a Godly man hath here in his mistaken zeal been a means to deceive and pervert his Brethren and when he sees his own Error cannot again tell how to undeceive them But there we shall all conspire in one Truth as being one in him who is that Truth And as we shall rest from all the sin of our understandings so of our wills affection and conversation VVe shall no more retain this rebelling principle which is still withdrawing us from God and addicting us to backsliding Doubtless we shall no more be oppressed with the power of our corruptions nor vexed with their presence No Pride Passion Sloathfulness Senselesness shall enter with us no strangness to God and the things of God no coldness of affections nor imperfection in our love no uneven walking nor grieving of the Spirit no scandalous action or unholy conversation we shall Rest from all these for ever Then shall our understandings receive their Light from the face of God as the full Moon from the open Sun where there is no Earth to interpose betwixt them then shall our wills correspond to the Divine VVill as face answers face in a Glass and the same his will shall be our Law and Rule from which we shall never swerve again Now our corruptions as the Anakims dismay us and as the Canaanites in Israel they are left for pricks in our sides and thorns in our eyes and as the bond-woman and her son in Abrahams house they do but abuse us and make our lives a burden to us But then shall the bond-woman and her son be cast out and shall not be heirs with us in our Rest. As Moses said to Israel Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every one whatsoever is right in his own eyes For ye are not as yet come to the Rest and to the Inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you Deut. 12.8 9. I conclude therefore with the words next to my Text. For he that is entered into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God from his So that there is a perfect Rest from sin SECT IX 2. IT is also a perfect Rest from suffering When the cause is gone the effect ceaseth Our sufferings were but the consequents of our sinning and here they both shall cease together I will shew particularly ten kindes of suffering which we shall there rest from 1. We shall Rest from all our perplexing doubts and fears It shall no more be said That doubts are like the Thistle a bad weed but growing in good ground they shall now be weeded out and trouble the gracious soul no more No more need of so many Sermons Books and marks and signes to resolve the poor doubting soul The full fruition of Love it self hath now resolved his doubts for ever We shall hear that kinde of language no more What shall I do to know my state How shall I know that God is my father That my heart is upright That Conversion is true That Faith is sincere O I am afraid my sins are unpardoned O I fear that all is but in hypocrisie I fear that God will reject me from his presence I doubt he doth not hear my prayers How can he accept so vile a wretch So hard-hearted unkinde a sinner Such an under-valuer of Christ as I am All this kinde of language is there turned into another tune even into the praises of him who hath forgiven who hath converted who hath accepted yea who hath glorified a wretch so unworthy So that it will now be as impossible to doubt and fear as to doubt of the food which is in our bellies or to fear it is night when we see the Sun shining If Thomas could doubt with his finger in the wounds of Christ yet in Heaven I am sure he cannot If we could doubt of what we see or hear or taste or feel yet I am sure we cannot of what we there possess Sure this will be comfort to the sad and drooping soul whose life was nothing but a doubting distress and their language nothing but a constant complaining If God would speak peace it would ease them but when he shall possess them of this peace they shall rest from all their doubts and fears for ever SECT X. 2. WE shall rest from all that sense of Gods displeasure which was our greatest torment whether manifested mediately or immediately For he will cause his fury towards us to rest and his jealousie to cease and he will be angry with us no more Ezek. 16.42 Surely Hell shall not be mixed with Heaven There is the place for the glorifying of Justice prepared of purpose to manifest wrath but Heaven is onely for Mercy and Love Joh doth not now use his old language Thou writest bitter things against me and takest me for thine enemy and settest me up as a mark to shoot at c. O how contrary now to all this David doth not now complain That the arrows of the Almighty stick in him that his wounds stink and are corrupt that his sore runs and ceaseth not that his moysture is as the drought of Summer that there is no soundness in his flesh because of Gods displeasure nor rest in his bones because of sin that he is weary of crying his throat is dried his eyes fail in waiting for God that he remembreth God and is troubled that in complaining his spirit is overwhelmed that his soul refuseth to be comforted that Gods wrath lieth hard upon him and that he afflicteth him with all his waves O how contrary now are Davids Songs Now he saith I spake it in my haste and this was my infirmity Here the Christian is oft complaining O if it were the wrath of man I could bear it but the wrath of the Almighty who can bear O that all the world were mine enemies so that I were assured that he were my Friend If it were a stranger it were nothing but that my dearest Friend my own Father should be so provoked against me This wounds my very soul If it were a Creature I would contemn it but if God be angry who may endure If he be against me who can be for me And if he will cast me down who can raise me up But O that blessed day when all these dolorous complaints will be turned into admiring thankfulness and all sense of Gods displeasure swallowed up in that Ocean of infinite Love when Sense shall convince us that fury dwelleth not in God And though for a little
Ignorance and if conceitedness and pride do but strike in to become a zealous enemy to Truth and a leading troubler of the Churches peace under pretences of truth and holiness Are we men of eminency and in place of Authority How strong is our Temptation to slight our brethren to abuse our trust to seek our selves to stand upon our honour and priviledges To forget our selves our poor brethren and the publick good How hard to devote our power to his Glory from whom we have received it How prone to make our wills our law and to cut out all the enjoyments of others both religious and civil by the cursed rules and model of our own interest and policy Are we Inferiors and subject How prone to grudg at others preheminence and to take liberty to bring all their actions to the bar of our incompetent Judgment and to censure and slander them and murmure at their proceedings Are we rich and not too much exalted Are we poor and not discontented and make our worldly necessities a pretence for the robbing God of all his service If we be sick O how impatient If in health how few and stupid are our thoughts of eternity If death be near we are distracted with the fears of it If we think it far off how careless is our preparation Do we set upon duty Why there are snares too either we are stupid and lazy or rest on them and turn from Christ or we are customary and notional only In a word not one word that falls from the mouth of a Minister or Christian but is a snare not a place we come into not a word that our own tongues speake not any mercy we possess not a bit we put into our mouths but they are snares Not that God hath made them so but through our own corruption they become so to us So that what a sad case are we poor Christians in And especially they that discern them not for it s almost impossible they should escape them It was not for nothing that our Lord cryes out What I say to one I say to all Watch. We are like the Lepers at Samaria if we go into the City there 's nothing but famine if we sit still we perish But for ever Blessed be Omnipotent Love which saves us out of all these and maketh our streights but the advantages of the glory of his saving Grace And blessed be the Lord who hath not given our souls for a prey Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fouler the snare is broken and we are escaped Now our Houses our Cloaths our Sleep our Food our Physick our Father Mother Wife Children Friends Goods Lands are all so many Temptations and our selves the greatest snare to our selves But in Heaven the danger and trouble is over there is nothing but what will advance our joy Now every old companion and every loose-fellow is putting up the finger and beckning us to sin and we can scarce tell how to say them nay What say they will not you take a cup will you not do as your neighbors must you be so precise do you think none shall be saved but Puritans what needs all this strictness this reading and praying and preaching will you make your self the scorn of all men Come do as we do take your cups and drink away sorrow O how many a poor Christian hath been haunted and vexed with these Temptations and it may be Father or Mother or neerest Friends will strike in and give a poor Christian no rest And alas how many to their eternal undoing have hearkened to their seducements But this is our comfort dear Friends our Rest will free us from all these As Satan hath no entrance there so neither any thing to serve his malice but all things shall there with us conspire the high praises of our great Deliverer SECT XIII 5. ANd as we Rest from the Temptations so also from all abuses and persecutions which we suffer at the hands of wicked men We shall be scorned and derided imprisoned banished butchered by them no more the prayers of the souls under the Altar will then be answered and God will avenge their blood on those that dwell on the Earth This is the time for crowning with thorns buffetting spitting on that is the time for crowning with glory Now the Law is decreed on That whosoever will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution then they that suffered with him shall be glorified with him Now we must be hated of all men for Christs Name sake and the Gospel then will Christ be admired in his Saints that were thus hated Now because we are not of the world but Christ hath taken us out of the world therefore doth the world hate us then because we are not of the world but taken out of their calamity therefore will the world admire us Now as they hated Christ they will also hate us then as they will honor Christ so will they also honor us We are here as the scorn and off-scouring of all things as men set up for a gazing-stock to Angels and men even for signes and wonders among professing Christians They put us out of their Synagogues and cast out our name as evil and separate us from their company But we shall then be as much gazed at for our glory and they will be shut out of the Church of the Saints and separated from us whether they will or no. They now think it strange that we run not with them to all excess of riot speaking evil of us 1 Pet. 4.4 they will then think more strange that they ran not with us in the despised ways of God and speak evil of themselves and more vehemently befool themselves for their carelesness then ever they did us for our heavenliness A poor Christian can scarce go along the streets now but every one is pointing the finger in scorn but then they would be glad of the Crums of his Happiness The rich man would scarce have believed him that would have told him That he should beg for water from the tip of Lazarus finger Here is a great change We can scarce now pray in our Families or sing praises to God but our voyce is a vexation to them How must it needs torment them then to see us praising and rejoycing while they are howling and lamenting How full were their prisons a while ago and how bitter their rage How did they scatter the carkasses in the fields and delight themselves in the blood of Saints How glad would they have been if they could have brought them to ruine and blotted out their name from off the Earth How did they prepare like Haman their Gallows and if God had not gainsaid it the execution would have been answerable But he that siteth in Heaven did laugh them to scorn the Lord had them in derision O how full were their hearts of blood and
their hands of cruelty I am perswaded the next generation that knew them not will scarcely believe the fury of their rage Blessed be the Guardian of the Saints who hath not suffered the prevalency of that Wrath which would I believe have made the Gun-powder Treason the Turkish Slavery the Spanish Inquisition the French Massacres to have seemed acts of clemency But the Lord of Hosts hath brought them down and his Power and Justice hath abated their fury and raised to his Name an everlasting Trophee and set up a Monument of Remembrance in England which God forbid should ever be forgotten So let all thine uncurable enemies perish O Lord. When the Lord maketh inquisition for blood he will remember the precious blood which they have shed and the Earth shall not cover it any more Their hopes are that they shall yet again have a prevailing day It is possible though improbable If they should we know where their rage will stop They shall pursue but as Pharaoh to their own destruction and where they â—all there shall we pass over safely and escape them for ever For our Lord hath told them That whither he goes they cannot come When their flood of persecution is dryed up and the Church called out of the Wilderness and the new Jerusalem come down from Heaven and Mercy and Justice are fully glorified then shall we feel their fury no more There is no cruel mockings and scourgings no bonds or imprisonments no stoning or sawing asunder tempting or slaying with the sword wandring in Sheep-skins or Goat skins in Deserts or Mountains Dens or Caves of the Earth no more being destitute afflicted or tormented We leave all this behinde us when once we enter the City of our Rest the names of Lollard Hugonots Puritan Roundheads are not there used the Inquisition of Spain is there condemned the Statute of the six Articles is there Repealed and the Law De Haeretiâ—is comburendis more justly executed the date of the Interim is there expired Subscription and Conformity no more urged Silencing and Suspending are there more then suspended there are no Bishops or Chancelors Courts no Visitations nor High Commission Judgments no Censures to loss of Members perpetual Imprisonment or Banishment Christ is not there cloathed in a Gorgeous Robe and blindfolded nor do they smite him and say Read who struck thee Nor is truth clothed in the Robes of Error and smitten for that which it most directly contradicteth nor a Schismatick wounded and a Saint found bleeding nor our Friends smite us whilest they mistake us for their enemies There is none of all this blinde mad work there Dear Brethren you that now can attempt no work of God without resistance and finde you must either lose the love of the World and your outward comforts or else the Love of God and your eternal Salvation consider You shall in Heaven have no discouraging company nor any but who will further your work and gladly joyn heart and voyce with you in your everlasting joy and praises Till then possess your souls in patience Binde all reproaches as a crown to your heads Esteem them greater riches then the worlds treasures Account it matter of Joy when you fall into tribulation You have seen in these days that our God can deliver us but this is nothing to our final conquest He will recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with Christ. Onely see to this Brethren That none of you suffer as an evil doer as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ingrateful to those that have been Instruments of our good as evil-speakers against Dignities as opposers of the Discipline and Ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious judicious conscientious Ministry c. But if any of you suffer for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you And if any of you begin to shrink and draw back because of opposition and are ashamed either of your Work or your Master let such a one know to his face That he is but a base-spirited cowardly wretch and cursedly undervalueth the Saints Rest and most foolishly over-valueth the things below and he must learn to forsake all these or else he can never be Christs Disciple and that Christ will renounce him and be ashamed of him before his Father and the Angels of Heaven But for those that have held fast their integrity and gone through good report and evil report and undergone the violence of unreasonable men Let them hear the word of the Lord Your Brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified they had good words and godly pretences but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Isai 66.5 Your Redeemer is strong the Lord of Hosts is his Name he shall throughly plead your cause that he may give rest to his people and disquietness to their enemies Jere. 50.34 SECT XIIII 6. WE shall then Rest also from all our sad Divisions and unchristian like quarrels with one another As he said who saw the Carkasses lie together as if they had embraced each other who had been slain by each other in a Duel Quantâ se invicem amplectuntur amicitiâ qui mutuâ implacabili inimicitiâ periêre How lovingly do they embrace one another being dead who perished through their mutual implacable enmity So how lovingly do thousands live together in Heaven who lived in Divisions and Quarrels on Earth or as he said Who beheld how quietly and peaceably the bones and dust of mortal enemies did lie together Non tantâ vivi pace essetis conjuncti You did not live together so peaceably So we may say of multitudes in Heaven now all of one minde one heart and one imployment You lived not on Earth in so sweet familiarity There is no contention because none of this Pride Ignorance or other Corruption Paul and Barnabas are now fully reconciled There they are not every man conceited of his own understanding and in love with the issue of his own Brain but all admiring the Divine perfection and in love with God and one another As old Grynaeus wrote to his friend Si te non ampliùs in his terris videam ibi tamen conveniemus ubi Lutherus cum Zuinglio optimè jam convenit If I see you no more on Earth yet we shall there meet where Luther and Zuinglius are now well agreed There is a full reconciliation between Sacramentarians and Vbiquitarians Calvinists and Lutherans Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants Disciplinarians and Anti Disciplinarians Conformists and Non-Conformists Antinomians and Legalists are terms there not known Presbyterians and Independents are perfectly agreed There is no Discipline erected by State Policy nor any disordered popular
Prince of Darkness who having taken them in his snares did lead them captive at his will They were once within a step of Hell who must be now advanced as high as Heaven And though I mention their lost condition before their predestination yet I hereby intend not to signifie any precedency it hath either in it self or in the divine consideration Though I cannot see yet how Dr. Twisses Arguments against the corrupted mass being the object of predestination can be well Answered upon the common acknowledged grounds Yet that Question I dare not touch as being very suspicious that its high Arrogancy in us to dispute of precedency in the Divine Consideration and that we no more know what we talk of then this paper knows what I write of VVhen we confess that all these Acts in God are truly one and that there is no difference of time with him Its folly to dispute of priority or posteriority in nature 3. That they are but a small part of this lost Generation is too apparent in Scripture and experience It s the little flock to whom its the fathers good pleasure to give the Kingdom If the sanctified are few the saved must needs be few Fewer they are then the world imagines yet not so few as some drooping Spirits deem who are doubtful that God will cast off them who would not reject Him for all the world and are suspitious that God is unwilling to be their God when yet they know themselves willing to be his people 4. It is the design of Gods eternal decree to glorifie his Mercy and Grace to the highest in this their salvation and therfore needs must it be a great salvation Every step of mercy to it was great how much more this end of all those mercies which stands next to Gods ultimate end his Glory God cannot make any low or meane worke to be the great business of an eternal purpose 5. God hath given all things to his Son but not as he hath given his chosen to him The difference is clearly expressed by the Apostle He hath made him Head over all things to his Church Ephes. 1.21.22 And though Christ is in some sense A Ransome for All yet not in that special maner as for his people He hath brought others under the Conditional Gospel-Covenant but them under the Absolute He hath according to the tenor of his Covenant procured Salvation for All If they will believe but he hath procured for his Chosen even this Condition of believing 6. Nor is the Redeeming of them by death his whole task but also the effecting of their full Recovery He may send his Spirit to perswade others but he intends absolutely his prevailing only with his Chosen And as truly as he hath accomplished his part on the cross for them so truly will he accomplish his part in Heaven for them and his part by his Spirit also upon them And of all that the Father hath thus given him he will lose nothing SECT II. BUt this is but a piece of their description containing Gods work for them and on them Le ts see what they are also in regard of the working of their own Souls towards God and their Redeemer again These people of God then are that 2 part of the â— externally called 3 who being by the 4 Spirit of Christ 5 throughly though 6 imperfectly regenerate are hereupon 7 convinced and 8 sensible of that 9 evil in sin 10 that misery in themselves that 11 vanity in the creature and that 12 necessity 13 sufficiency and 14 excellency of Jesus Christ that they 15 abhor that evil 16 bewail that misery and 17 turn their hearts from that vanity and most 19 affectionately 18 accepting of Christ for their 20 Saviour and 21 Lord to bring them unto 22 God the chief Good and present them 23 perfectly just before him do accordingly enter into a 24 Cordial Covenant with him and so 25 deliver up themselves unto him and herein 26 persevere to their lives End I shall briefly explain to you the branches of this part of the description also 1. I say they are a part of the Externally Called because the Scripture hath yet shewed us no other way to the Internal call but by the external For how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher All divulging of the substance of the Gospel whether by Solemn Sermons by writing printing reading conference or any other meanes that have a rational sufficiency for information and conviction are this preaching though not all alike clear and excellent The knowledge of Christ is none of Natures principles The book of the Creatures is no meanes alone much less a sufficient means to teach the knowledge of Christ. It may discover mercy but gives not the least hint of the way of that mercy It speaks nothing of God incarnate of two natures in one person of Jesus the Son of Mary of Christs Suretiship and suffering for us rising ascending mediating returning of two Covenants and their several conditions and the reward of keeping them and penalty of breaking them c. It s utterly silent in these things And to affirm that the Spirit calls or teacheth men where the word is not and where the Creature or nature speaks not is I think a groundless fiction There is the light of the eye and the light of the Sun or some other substitute external light necessary to our seeing any object The Scripture and certain revelations from Heaven when and where such are is the sun or external light the understanding is our eye or internal light This eye is become blinde and this internal light in the best is imperfect but the external light of Scripture is now perfected Therefore the work of the Spirit now is not to perfect Scripture or to add any thing to its discovery or to be in stead of a Scripture where it is wanting much less where the Scripture is But to remove the darkness from our understanding that we may see clearly what the Scripture speaks clearly Before the Scripture was perfected the Spirit did enlighten the Prophets and penmen of Scripture both wayes But now I know no teaching of the Spirit save only by its illuminating or sanctifying work teaching men no new lesson nor the old without book but to read with understanding what Scripture Nature Creatures and providences teach The asserting of any more is proper to the Enthusiasts if the spirits teachings did without Scripture or tradition reveal Christ surely some of those millions of poor blinde Pagans would have before this believed and the Christian faith have been propagated among them Or if the Spirit did teach them any step toward Christ upon the receiving whereof he would teach them more and so more and more till they resist this teaching which is the evading doctrine of some then sure
us which is unâ—evealed in the Word and that to be doubtful which is darkly â—evealed Then the Contentions of the Church about the Mysteâ—ies of the Divine Decrees the nature of Internal Grace and way â—nd maner of the Spirits working c. will be more calmly managed Two things have set fire on the Church and been the plagues of it his thousand yeers and more First Englarging our Creed and making more Fundamentals â—hen God hath done Master Parker and Ludovicus Crocius have fully proved That the Creed for a long time contained no more â—hen Christs words in Matth. 28. do teach To beleeve in the Father Son and Holy Ghost and no more were they baptized â—nto Secondly Delivering our Creeds and Confessions in our own Humane phrase When men have learned more maners and humility then to acâ—use the Language of God as too general and obscure and have more dread of God and compassion on themselves then to make those Fundamentals which God never made so And when they reduce their Creed and Confessions first To their due extent or length secondly And to Scripture phrase and take this onely for a Touchstone of the Orthodox then and not tell then shall the Church have peace about Doctrinals If my judgment much fail not It seems to me no hainous Socinian motion which is so cryed out against of Chillingworths making viz. That every man subscribe to the whole Scripture as Gods Word with a promise to do his best for the right understanding of it No doubt many a Heretick would so subscribe and lurk under a false interpretation and so he may do also by their Humane Canons But I forget my self in thus digressing Reader As thou lovest thy Comforts thy Faith thy Hope thy Safety thine Innocency thy Soul thy Christ thine Everlasting Rest Love Read Study Stick close to Scriptures Farewel Jan. 18. 1649. THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. PART II. CHAP. I. SECT I. WE are next to proceed to the confirmation of this Truth which though it may seem needless in regard of its own clearness and certainty yet in regard of our distance and infidelity nothing more necessary But you will say To whom will this endeavour be usefull They who believe the Scriptures are convinced already and for those who believe it not how will you convince them Answ. But sad experience tels us that those thaâ— believe do believe but in part and therefore have need of further confirmation and doubtless God hath left us Arguments sufficient to convince unbelievers themselves or else how should we preach to Pagans Or what should we say to the greatest part of the world that acknowledg not the Scriptures Doubtless the Gospel should be preacht to them and though we have not the gift of miracles to convince them of the truth as the Apostles had yet we have arguments demonstrative and clear or else our preaching to them would be vain we having nothing left but bare affirmations Though I have all along confirmed sufficiently by testimony of Scripture what I have said yet I will here briefly add thus much more That the Scripture doth clearly assert this Truth in these six wayes 1. It affirms That this Rest is fore-ordained for the Saints and the Saints also fore-ordained to it Heb. 11.16 God is not ashamed to be called their God for he hath prepared for them a City 1 Cor. 2.9 Eye hath not seen nor ear heard nor heart conceived what God hath prepared for them that love him which I conceive must be meant of these preparations in heaven for those on earth are both seen and conceived or else how are they enjoyed Mat. 20.23 To sit on Christs right and left hand in his Kingdom shall be given to them for whom it is prepared And themselves are called Vessels of mercy before prepared unto glory Rom 9.23 And in Christ we have obtained the inheritance being predestinated according to the purpose of him who worketh all things after to the counsel of his own will Ephes. 1.11 And whom he thus predestinateth them he glorifieth Rom. 8.30 For he hath from the beginning chosen them to salvation through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth 2 Thes. 2.13 And though the intentions of the vnwise and weak may be frustrated and without counsel purposes are disappointed Prov. 15.22 yet the thoughts of the Lord shall surely come to passe and as he hath purposed it shall stand The Counsel of the Lord standeth for ever and the thoughts of his heart to all generations Therefore blessed are they whose God is the Lord and the people whom he hath chosen for his own inheritance Psal. 33.11 12. Who can bereave his people of that Rest which is designed them by Gods eternall purpose SECT II. SEcondly the Scripture tels us that this Rest is Purchased as well as Purposed for them or that they are redeemed to this Rest. In what sense this may be said to be purchased by Christ I have shewed before viz. Not as the immediate work of his sufferings which was the payment of our debt by satisfying the Law but as a more remote though most excellent fruit even the effect of that power which by his death he procured to himself He himself for the suffering of death was crowned with glory yet did he not properly die for himself nor was that the direct effect of his death Some of those Teachers who are gone forth of late do tell us as a piece of their new discoveries that Christ never purchased Life and Salvation for us but purchased us to Life and Salvation Not understanding that they affirm and deny the same thing in severall expressions What difference is there betwixt buying liberty to the prisoner and buying the prisoner to liberty betwixt buying life to a condemned malefactor and buying him to life Or betwixt purchasing Reconciliation to an enemy and purchasing an enemy to Reconciliation But in this last they have found a difference and tell us that God never was at enmity with man but man only at enmity with God and therefore need not be reconciled Directly contrary to Scripture which tels us that God hateth all the workers of iniquity and that he is their enemy And though there be no change in God nor any thing properly called Hatred yet it sufficeth that there is a change in the sinners relation and that there is something in God which cannot better be expressed or conceived then by these termes of enmity and hatred And the enmity of the Law against a sinner may well be called the enmity of God However this differenceth betwixt enmity in God and enmity in us but not betwixt the sense of the forementioned expressions So that whether you will call it purchasing life for us or purchasing us to life the sense is the same viz. By satisfying the Law and removing impediments to procure us Title to and Possession of this Life It is
thou shalt perish for ever except I had seen the Book of Life Why the Bible also is the Book of Life and it describeth plainly those that shall be saved and those that shall be condemned Though it do not name them yet it tels you all those signs and conditions by which they may be known Do I need to ascend up into heaven to know That without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 Or That it is the pure in heart who shall see God Matth. 5.8 Or That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Or That he that believeth not that is stoops not to Christ as his King and Saviour is condemned already and that he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.18.36 And that except you repent which includeth reformation you shall all perish Luke 13.3 5. With a hundred more such plain Scripture Expressions Cannot these be known without searching into Gods Counsels Why thou ignorant or wilful self-deluding Sot Hath thy Bible layn by thee in thy house so long and didst thou never read such words as these Or hast thou read it or heard it read so oft and yet dost thou not remember such passages as these Nay Didst thou not finde that the great drift of the Scripture is to shew men who they are that shall be saved and who not and let them see the conditions of both estates And yet dost thou ask me How I know who shall be saved what need I go up to heaven to inquire that of Christ which he came down to earth to tell us and sent his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to tell us and hath left upon Record to all the world And though I do not know the secrets of thy heart and therefore cannot tell thee by name whether it be thy state or no yet if thou art but willing and diligent thou maist know thy self whether thou be an heir of heaven or not And that is the main thing that I desire that if thou be yet miserable thou mayest discern it and escape it But canst thou possibly escape if thou neglect Christ and salvation Heb. 2.3 Is it not resolved on That if thou love father mother wife children house lands or thy own life better then Christ thou canst not be his disciple and consequently canst never be saved by him Is this the word of man or of God Is it not then an undoubted concluded case that in the case thou art now in thou hast not the least title to heaven Shall I tell thee from the Word of God It is as impossible for thee to be saved except thou be born again and made a new creature as it is for the devils themselves to be saved Nay God hath more plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture that such sinners as thou shall never be saved then he hath done that the devils shal never be saved And doth not this tidings go cold to thy heart Me thinks but that there is yet life and hope before thee and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered or else it should kill thy heart with terror and the sight of thy doleful discovered case should even strike thee dead with amazement and horror If old Ely fell from his seat and dyed to hear that the Ark of God was gone which was but an outward sign of his presence how then should thy heart be astonished with this tidings that thou hast lost the Lord God himself and all thy title to his eternal presence and delights If Rachel wept for children and would not be comforted because they were not How then shouldst thou now sit down and weep for the happiness and future life of thy soul because to thee it is not VVhen King Belshazzar saw but a piece of a hand sent from God writing over against him on the wall it made his countenance change his thoughts trouble him his loyns loosed in the joynts and his knees smite one against another Dan. 5.6 VVhy what trembling then should seaze on thee who hast the hand of God himself against thee not in a Sentence or two onely but in the very tenor and scope of the Scriptures not threatning thee with the loss of a Kingdom onely as he did Belshazzar but with the loss of thy part in the everlasting Kingdom But because I would fain have thee if it be possible to lay it close to thy heart I will here stay a little longer and shew thee first The greatness of thy loss and secondly The aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss thirdly And the Positive miseries that thou maist also endure with their aggravations SECT III. FIrst The ungodly in their loss of heaven do lose all that glorious personal perfection which the people of God do there injoy They lose that shining lustre of the body surpassing the brightness of the Sun at noon day Though perhaps even the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual incorruptible bodies then they were on earth yet that wil be so far from being a happiness to them that it onely makes them capable of the more exqâ—isite torments their understandings being now more capable of apprehending the greatness of their loss and their senses more capable of feelâ—ing their sufferings They would be glad then if every member were a dead member that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it and if the whole body were a rotten carkass or might again lye down in the dust and darkness The devil himself hath an Angelical and excellent nature but that onely honoreth his skilful Creator but is no honor or comfort at all to himself The glory the beauty the comfortable perfections they are deprived of much more do they want that morâ—all perfection which the Blessed do partake of Those holy dispositions and qualifications of minde That blessed conformity to the Holiness of God that chearful readiness to do his Will that perfect rectitude of all their actions In stead of these they have their old ulcerous deformed souls that perversness of Will that disorder in their faculties that loathing of good that love to evil that violence of passion which they haâ— on earth It is true their understandings will be much cleared both by the ceasing of their temptations and deluding obâ—ects which they had on earth as also by the sad experience which they will have in hell of the falshood of their former conceits and delusions But this proceeds not from the sanctifying of their natures And perhaps their experience and too late understanding may restrain much of the evil motions of their wils which they had formerly here on earth but the evil disposition is never the more changed so also wil the conversation of the damned in hel be voyd of many of those sins which they commit here on earth They will be drunk no more and whore no more and
be gluttonous no more nor oppress the innocent nor grind the poor nor devour the houses and estates of their brethren nor be revenged on their enemies nor persecute and destroy the members of Christ All these and many more actual sins will then be laid aside But this is not from any renewing of their natures they have the same dispositions still and fain they would commit the same sins if they could they want but opportunity they are now tied up it is part of their torment to be denied these their pleasures No thanks to them that they sin not as much as ever Their hearts are as bad though their actions are restrained Nay it is a great question whether those remainders of good which were left in their natures on earth as their common honesty and morall vertues be not all taken from them in Hell according to that From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath This is the judgment of Divines generally But because it is questionable and much may be said against it I will let that pass But certainly they shall have none of the Glorious perfection of the Saints either in soul or body There will be a greater difference between these wretches and the glorified Christian then there is betwixt a Toad under a sill and the Sun in the Firmament The rich mans purple robes and delicious fare did not so exalt him above Lazarus at his door in scabs nor make the difference between them so wide as it is now made on the contrary in their vast separation SECT IV. SEcondly But the great loss of the damned will be their loss of God they shall have no comfortable relation to him Nor any of the Saints communion with him As they did not like to retain God in knowledg but did him Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy wayes So God will abhor to retain them in his houshold or to give them entertainment in his Fellowship and Glory He will never admit them to the inheritance of his Saints nor endure them to stand amongst them in his presence but bid them Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Now these men dare belye the Lord if not blaspheme in calling him by the title of Their Father How boldly and conâ—idently do they daily approach him with their lips and indeed reproach him in their formall prayers with that appellation Our Father As if God would Father the Divels children or as if the slighters of Christ the pleasers of the flesh the friends of the world the haters of godliness or any that trade in sin and delight in iniquity were the Off-spring of Heaven They are ready now in the height of their presumption to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven as if they were sincere believing Saints The Swearer the Drunkard the Whoremaster the Worldling can scornfully say to the People of God What is not God our Father as well as yours Doth he not love us as well as you Will he save none but a few holy Precisians O but when that time is come when the case must be decided and Christ will separate his followers from his foes and his faithfull friends from his deceived flatterers where then will be their presumptuous claim to Christ Then they shall finde that God is not their Father but their resolved foe because they would not be his people but were resolved in their negligence and wickedness Then though they had preached or wrought miracles in his name he wil not know them And though they were his Brethren or sisters after the flesh yet will he not own them but reject them as his enemies And even those that did eat and drink in his presence on earth shall be cast out of his heavenly presence for ever And those that in his name did cast out Divels shall yet at his command be cast out to those Divels and endure the torments prepared for them And as they would not consent that God should by his Spirit dwell in them so shall not these evil doers dwell with him the Tabernacles of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him nor the wicked inhabit the City of God For without are the Dogs the Sorcerers Whoremongers Murderers Idolaters and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lye For God knoweth the way of the righous but the way of the wicked leads to perishing God is first enjoyed in part on earth before he be fully enjoyed in Heaven It is only they that walked with him here who shall live and be happy with him there O little doth the world now know what a loss that soul hath who loseth God! VVhat were the world but a dungeon if it had lost the Sun What were the body but a loathsome carrion if it had lost the soul Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God even the little taste of the fruition of God which the Saints enjoy in this life is dearer to them then all the world As the world when they feed upon their forbidden pleasures may cry out with the sons of the Prophets There 's death in the pot So when the Saints do but taste of the favor of God they cry out with David In his favour is life Nay though life be naturally most dear to all men yet they that have tasted and tryed do say with David his loving kindness is better then life So that as the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the Saints so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly And as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all So the loss of God is the loss of All. SECT V. THirdly Moreover as they lose God so they lose all those spiritual delightful Affections and Actions by which the Blessed do feed on God That transporting knowledg those ravishing views of his Glorious Face The unconceivable pleasure of loving God The apprehensions of his infinite Love to us The constant joys which his Saints are taken up with and the Rivers of consolation wherewith he doth satisfie them Is it nothing to lose all this The employment of a King in ruling a kingdome doth not so far exceed the imployment of the vilest scullion or slave as this Heavenly imployment exceedeth his These wretches had no delight in Praising God on earth their recreations and pleasures were of another nature and now when the Saints are singing his prayses and imployed in magnifying the Lord of Saints then shall the ungodly be denyed this happiness and have an imployment suitable to their natures and deserts Their hearts were full of Hell upon earth in stead of God and his Love and Fear and Graces there was Pride and self-love and lust and unbelief And therefore Hell must now entertain those Hearts which formerly entertained so much of it Their Houses on Earth were the resemblances of Hell in stead of worshipping God and calling upon
his name there was scorning at his worship and swearing by his name And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their former impieties and blasphemies Can it probably be expcted that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth in deriding the persons and families of the godly for their frequent worshiping and praising God should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven and joyn with those Saints in those more perfect praises Surely without a sound change upon their hearts before they go hence it is utterly impossible It is too late then to say Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are out Let us now enter with you to the marriage feast let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody You should have joyned in it on earth if you would have joyned in Heaven As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts and your voices turned to another tune As the doors of heaven will be shut against you so will that joyous imployment be denied to you There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome Those that go down to the pit do not praise him Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows And who can be glad in the land of confusion God suits mens imployments to their natures The bent of your spirits was another way your hearts were never set upon God in your lives you were never admirers of his Attributes and works nor ever throughly warmed with his love you never longed after the enjoyment of him you had no delight to speak or to hear of him you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long you had rather have continued on earth if you had known how you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment or lands and lordships or a feast or sports or your cups or whores then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy or an Ass to build a City or govern a Kingdom or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise SECT VI. FOurthly They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels and glorified Saints Instead of being companions of those happy spirits and numbred with those Joyful and Triumphing Kings they must now be members of the corporation of hell where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality While they lived on earth they loathed the Saints they imprisoned banished them and cast them out of their societies or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings And therefore they shall not now be their companions in their Glory Scorning them and abusing them hating them and rejoycing in their calamities was not the way to obtain their blessedness If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father you should have joyned with them in their holiness and faith and painfulness and patience you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ the common stock and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members and walked with them in singleness of heart and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation in faithfull admonitions in conscionable reformation in prayer and in praise you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate through the Red Sea and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ as well as the name prefession of Christians and rejoyced with them in suffering persecution and tribulation All this if you had faithfully done you might now have been triumphing with them in glory and have possessed with them their masters joy But this you could not you would not endure your souls loathed it your flesh was against it and that flesh must be pleased though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly and endure but what you were foretold you must endure and are shut out of that company from which you first shut out your selves and are separated but from them whom you would not be joyned with You could not endure them in your houses nor in your Towns nor scarce in the Kingdom you took them as Ahab did Elias for the troublers of the land and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down If any thing fell out amiss you thought all was long of them When they were dead or banished you were glad they were gone and thought the Countrey was well rid of them They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences to see them so far excell your selves and to condemn your loosness by their strictness and your prophaness by their conscionable lives and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families but it was a vexation to you And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter I have heard of those that have said that if the Puritans were in Heaven and the good fellows in Hell they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven And can they think much to have their desires granted them The day is neer when they will trouble you no more betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set that those that would pass from thence to you if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water cannot neither can they pass to them who would go from you for if they could there would none be left behinde Luk. 16.26 Even in this life while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities cloathed with the same frail flesh as other men and were mocked destitute afflicted and tormented yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost they were such of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellowship in their Glory CHAP. II. The aggravations of the loss of Heaven to the ungodly SECT I. I Know many of the wicked will be ready to think If this be all they do not much care they can bear it well enough what care they for losing the perfections above What care they for losing God his favor or his presence they lived merrily without him on earth and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter And what care they for being deprived of that Love and Joy and
Praising of God They never tasted sweetness in things of that nature Or what care they for being deprived of the Fellowship of Angels and Saints They could spare their company in this world well enough and why may they not be without it in the world to come To make these men therefore to understand the truth of their future condition I will here annex these two things 1. I will shew you why this forementioned loss will be intollerable and will be most tormenting then though it seem as nothing now 2. I will shew you what other losses will accompany these which though they are less in themselves yet will now be more sensibly apprehended by these sensual men And all this from Reason and the truth of Scripture 1. Then That this loss of heaven will be then most tormenting may appear by these considerations following First The Understandings of the ungodly will be then cleared to know the worth of that which they have lost Now they lament not their loss of God because they never knew his excellency nor the loss of that holy imployment and society for they were never sensible what they were worth A man that hath lost a Jewel and took it but for a common stone is never troubled at his loss but when he comes to know what he lost then he lamenteth it Though the understandings of the damned wil not then be sanctified as I said before yet will they be cleared from a multitude of errors which now possess them and mislead them to their ruine They think now that their honor with men their estates their pleasures their health and life are better worth their studies and â—â—â—our then the things of another world which they never saw but when these things which had their hearts have left them in misery and given them the slip in their greatest need when they come to know by experience the things which before they did but read and hear of they will then be quite in another minde They would not believe that water would drown till they were in the sea nor that the fire would burn till they were cast into it but when they feel it they will easily believe All that error of their minde which made them set light by God and abhor his worship and vilifie his people will then be confuted and removed by experience their knowledg shall be increased that their sorrows may be increased as Adam by his fall did come to the knowledg of Good and Evil so shall all the damned have this increase of knowledg As the knowledg of the excellency of that Good which they do enjoy and of that Evil which they have escaped is necesâ—sary to the glorified Saints that they may rationally and truly enjoy their glory so is the knowledg of the greatness of that good which they have lost and of that evil which they have procured to themselves necessary to the tormenting of these wretched sinners for as the joyes of heaven are not enjoyed so much by the bodily senses as by the intellect and affections so it is by understanding their misery and by affections answerable that the wicked shal endure the most of their torments for as it was the soul that was the chiefest in the guilt whether positively by leading to sin or onely privatively in not keeping the Authority of Reason over Sense the Understanding be guilty I will not now dispute so shall the soul be chiefest in the punishment doubtless those poor souls would be comparatively happy if their understandings were wholly taken from them if they had no more knowledg then Ideots or bruit beasts or if they knew no more in hell then they did upon earth their loss and misery would then less trouble them Though all knowledg be Physically good yet some may be neither Morally good nor good to the owner Therefore when the Scripture saith of the wicked that They shall not see life Joh 3.36 nor see God Heb. 12.14 The meaning is they shall not possess life or see God as the Saints do to enjoy him by that sight they shall not see him with any comfort nor as their own but yet they shall see him to their terror as their enemy and I think they shall have some kinde of eternal knowledg or beholding of God and heaven and the Saints that are there happy as a necessary ingredient to their unutterable calamity The rich man shall see Abraham and Lazarus but afar off as God beholdeth them afar off so they shal they behold God afar off Oh how happy men would they now think themselves if they did not know that there is such a place as heaven or if they could but shut their eyes and cease to behold it Now when their knowledg would help to prevent their misery they will not know or will not read and study that they may know Therefore then when their knowledg will but feed their consuming fire they shall know whether they will or no as Toads and Serpents know not their own vile and venemous nature nor the excellent nature of man or other creatures and therefore are neither troubled at their own nor desirous of ours so is it with the wicked here but when their eyes at death shall be suddenly opened then the case will be suddenly altered They are now in a dead sleep and they dream that they are the happiest men in the world and that the godly are but a company of precise fools and that either heaven will be theirs as sure as anothers or else they may make shift without it as they have done here but when death smites these men and bids them awake and rowseth them out of their pleasant dreams how will they stand up amazed and confounded How will their judgments be changed in a moment and they that would not see shall then see and be ashamed SECT II. 2. ANother reason to prove that the loss of heaven will more torment them then is this Because as the Understanding will be cleared so it will be more enlarged and made more capacious to conceive of the worth of that Glory which they have lost The strength of their apprehensions as well as the truth of them will be then encreased What deep apprehensions of the wrath of God of the madness of sinning of the misery of sinners have those souls that now endure this misery in comparison of those on earth that do but hear of it what sensible apprehensions of the worth of life hath the condemned man that is going to be executed in comparison of what he was wont to have in the time of his prosperity Much more will the actual deprivation of eternal blessedness make the damned exceeding apprehensive of the greatness of their loss and as a large Vessel will hold more water then a shell so will their more enlarged understandings contain more matter to feed their torment then now their shallow capacity can do SECT III. 3.
wils this will be a griping thought to their hearts What thinks this wretched creature had I not enemies enough in the world but I must be an enemy to my self God would neither give the devil nor the world so much power over me as to force me to commit the least transgression if I had not consented their temprations had been in vain they could but intice me it was my self that yielded and that did the evil and must I needs lay hands upon mine own soul and imbrew my hands in my own blood who should pitty me who pittied not my self and who brought all this upon mine own head When the enemies of Christ did pull down his Word and Laws his Ministry and Worship the news of it did rejoyce me when they set up dumb or seducing or ungodly Ministers in stead of the faithful Preachers of the Gospel I was glad to have it so when the Minister told me the evil of my ways and the dangerous state that my soul was in I took him for mine enemy and his Preaching did stir up my hatred against him and every Sermon did cut me to the heart and I was ready to gnash my teeth in indignation against him If a drunken Ceremonious Preacher did speak me fair or read the Common Prayer or some toothless Homily instead of a searching plain-dealing Sermon why this was according to my own heart never was I vvilling of the means of mine own welfare never had I so great an enemy as my self never did God do me any good or offer me any for the welfare of my soul but I resisted him and vvas utterly unwilling of it he hath heaped mercy upon me and renewed one deliverance after another and all to intice my heart unto him and yet vvas I never heartily willing to serve him He hath gently chastized me and made me groan under the fruit of my disobedience and yet though I promised largely in my affliction I was never unfainedly vvilling to obey him Never did a good Magistrate attempt a Reformation but I vvas against it nor a good Minister labour the saving of the Flock but I vvas ready to hinder as much as I could nor a good Christian labour to save his soul but I vvas ready to discourage and hinder him to my power as if it vvere not enough to perish alone but I must draw all others to the same destruction O vvhat cause hath my vvife my children my servants my neighbours to curse the day that ever they saw me As if I had been made to resist God and to destroy my own and other mens souls so have I madly behaved my self Thus will it gnaw upon the hearts of these wretches to remember that they were the cause of their own undoing and that they vvilfully and obstinately persisted in their Rebellion and were meer Voluntiers in the service of the Devil They vvould venture they vvould go on they would not hear him â—hat spoke against it God called to them to hear and stay but they vvould not Men called Conscience called and said to them as Pilates vvife Have nothing to do vvith that hateful sin for I have suffered many things because of it but they vvould not hear their Will vvas their Law their Rule and their Ruine SECT XV. TEnthly and lastly It will yet make the vvound in their Consciences much deeper vvhen they shall remember that it vvas not onely their own doing but that they vvere at so much cost and pains for their own damnation What great undertakings did they ingage in for to effect their ruin To resist God to conquer the Spirit to overcome the power of Mercies Judgments and the Word it self to silence Conscience all this did they take upon them and perform What a number of sins did they manage at once vvhat difficulties did they set upon even the conquering of the power of Reason it self What dangers did they adventure on Though they walked in continual danger of the wrath of God and knew he could lay them in the dust in a moment though they knew they lived in danger of eternal perdition yet would they run upon all this What did they forsake for the service of Satan and pleasures of sin They forsook their God their Conscience their best Friends their eternal hopes of salvation and all They that could not tell how to forsake a lust or a little honor or ease for Christ yet can lose their souls and all for sin O the labour that it costeth poor wretches to be damned Sobriety they might have at a cheap rate and a great deal of health and ease to boot and yet they will rather have Gluttony and Drunkenness with poverty and shame and sickness and belchings and vomitings with the outcries and lamentations of wife and children and Conscience it self Contentedness they might have with ease and delight yet will they rather have Covetousness and Ambition though it cost them study and care and fears and labour of body and minde and 〈◊〉 continual unquietness and distraction of spirit and usually a shameful overthrow at the last Though their anger be nothing but a tormenting themselves and Revenge and Envy do consume their spirits and keep them upon a continual â—ack of disquâ—et though uncleanness destroy their bodies and states and names and though they are foretold of the hazard of their eternal Happiness yet will they do and suffer all this rather then suffer their souls to be saved How faâ—t runs Gehezi for his Leprosie what cost and pains is Nimrod at to purchase an universal confusion How doth an Amorous Amnon pine himself away for a self destroying lust How studiously and painfully doth Absalon seek a hanging Ahitophels reputation and his life must go together even when they are struck blinde by a Judgment of God yet how painfully do the Sodomites grope and weary themselves to finde the door what cost and pains are the Idolatrous Papists at for their multifarious Wilworship How unweariedly and unreservedly have the Malignant enemies of the Gospel among us spent their estates and health and limbs and lives to overthrow the power of Godliness and set up Formality to put out the light that should guide them to heaven and how earnestly do they still prosecute it to the last How do the Nations generally rage and the people imagine a vain thing The Kings of the Earth setting themselves and the Rulers taking counsel together against the Lord and against his Christ that they may break the bonds of his Laws asunder and cast away the cords of his Government from them though he that sitteth in heaven do laugh them to scorn though the Lord have them in derision though â—e speak to them in his vvrath and vex them in his sore displeasure and reâ—solve them that yet in despite of them all He vvill set his King upon his holy Hill of Sion Yet vvill they spend and tire out themselves as long as they are able
people to this beliefâ— so is it the hardest task almost that we meet with to convince men 〈◊〉 the ungroundedness of this belief and to break that peace 〈…〉 maintaineth in their souls Neither do I know a 〈…〉 of mens destruction then such a misbelief Who will â—eek for that which he believes he hath already This is the great engine of Hell to make men go merrily to their own perdition I know men cannot believe Christ or believe in or upon Christ either too soon or too much But they may believe or judg that themselves are pardoned adopted and in favour with God too soon and too much For a false judgment is always too much and too soon As true grounded Faith is the master grace in the Regenerate and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Christ so is a false ungrounded faith the master vice in the unregenerate soul and of greatest use in the Kingdom of Satan Why do such a multitude sit still when they might have pardon for the seeking but that they verily think they are pardoned already Why do men live so contentedly in the power of the devil walk so carelesly in the certain way to Hel but that they think their way wil have no such end and that the Divel hath nothing to do with them they defie him they spit at the mention of his name If you could aske so many 1000 as are now in Hell What madness could cause you to come hither voluntarily or to follow Satan to this place of torment when you might follow Christ to the land of Rest They would most of them answer you VVe believed that we had followed towards Salvation and that the way which we were in would have brought us to Heaven VVe made sure account of being saved till we found our selves damned and never feared Hell till we were suddenly in it we would have renounced our sinfull courses and companions but that we thought we might have them and heaven too VVe would have sought after Christ more heartily but that we thought we had part in him already VVe would have been more earnest seekers of Regeneration and the power of godliness but that we verily thought we were Christians before O if we had known as much as now we know what lives would we have led what persons would we have been But we have flattered our selves into these unsufferable torments VVe were told of this before from the word of God but we would not believe it till we felt it and now there is no remedy Reader do but stop and think here with thy self how sad a Case this is That men should so resolutely cheat themselves of their Everlasting Rest The Lord grant it never prove thy own case I would be very loath to weaken the true faith of the meanest Christian or to perswade any man that his faith is false when it is true God forbid that I should so disparage that pretious grace which hath the stamp of the spirit or so trouble the soul that Christ would have to be comforted But I must needs in faithfullness tell thee that the confident belief of their good estate and of the pardon of their sins which the careless unholy unhumbled multitude amongst us do so commonly boast of will prove in the end but a soul-damning delusion It hath made me ready to tremble many a time to hear a drunken ungodly unfaithful Minister as confidently in his formall prayers in the Pulpit give God thanks for Vocation Justification Sanctification and assured hope of Glorification as if he had been a most assured Saint when it may be his Sermon was intended to reproch the Saints and to jeer at Sanctification Me thoughts I even heard the Pharisee say I thank thee that I am not as other men Or Corah Are not all the people holy every one How commonly do men thank God for these which they never received nor ever shall do How many have thanked God for pardon of sin who are now tormented for it and for Sanctification and assured hope of Glory who are now shut out of that Inheritance of the Sanctified I warrant you ther 's none of this believing in hell nor any perswasions of pardon or happiness nor any boasting of their honesty nor justifying of themselves This was but Satans stratagem that being blindfold they might follow him the more boldly but then he will uncover their eyes and they shall see where they are SECT III. 2. ANother addition to the misery of the damned will be this That with the loss of heaven they shall lose also all their hopes In this life though they were threatned with the wrath of God yet their hope of escaping it did bear up their hearts And when they were wounded with the terrors of the Word they lick't all whole again with their groundless hopes but then they shall part with their hopes and heaven together We can now scarce speak with the vilest Drunkard or Swearer or covetous Wordling or scorner at Godliness but he hopes to be saved for all this If you should go to all the Congregation or Town or Countrey and ask them one by one whether they hope to be saved how few shall you meet with that will not say yea or that make any great question of it But O happy world if Salvation were as common as this Hope Even those whose hellish nature is written in the face of their conversation that he that runs may read it whose tongues plead the cause of the devil and speak the language of hell and whose delight is in nothing but the works of the flesh yet these do strongly hope for heaven though the God of heaven hath told them over and over again in his Word that no such as they shall ever come there Though most of the world shall eternally perish and the Judg of the world himself hath told us that of the many that are called yet but few are chosen yet almost all do hope for it and cannot endure any man that doth but question their hopes Let but their Minister Preach against their false hopes or their best friend come to them and say I am afraid your present hopes of heaven will deceive you I see you minde not your soul your heart is not set upon Christ and heaven you do not so much as pray to God and worship him in your Family and the Scripture gives you not the least hope of being saved in such a condition as this is How ill would they take such an admonition as this and bid the Admonisher look to himself and let them alone he should not answer for them they hope to be saved as soon as these preciser men that pray and talk of heaven so much Nay so strong are these mens hopes that they will dispute the case with Christ himself at Judgment and plead their eating and drinking in his presence their Preaching in his Name and casting out devils and these are
possessions that thou art willing to have them tryed and fearfull of being deceived that they stir up they desires of enjoying what thou hopest for and the deferring thereof is the trouble of thy heart Prov. 13.12 If thou be sure that thy hopes be such as these God forbid that I should speak a word against them or discourage thee from proceeding to hope thus to the end No I rather perswade thee to go on in the strength of the Lord and what ever men or devils or thy own unbelieving heart shall say against it go on and hold fast thy hope and be sure it shall never make thee ashamed But if thy hope be not of this spiritual nature and if thou art able to give no better reason why thou hopest then the worst in the world may give That God is mercifull and thou must speed as well as thou canst or the like and hast not one sound evidence of a saving work of grace upon thy soul to shew for thy hopes but only hopest that thou shalt be saved because thou wouldest have it so and because it is a terrible thing to despaire If this be thy case delay not an hour but presently cast away those hopes that thou mayest get into a capacity of having better in their stead But it may be thou wilt think this strange doctrine and say VVhat would you perswade me directly to despaire Answ. Sinner I would be loath to have thy soul destroyed by wilful self-delusion The truth is There is a hope such as I have before shewed thee of which is a singular grace and duty and there is a hope which is a notorious dangerous sin So consequentely there is a despaire which is a grievous sin and there is a despaire which is absolutely necessary to thy salvation I would not have thee despaire of the suffiâ—ciency of the blood of Christ to save thee if thou believe and heartily obey him Nor of the willingness of God to pardon and save thee if thou be such a one Nor yet absolutely of thy own salvation because while there is life and time there is some hope of thy conversion and so of thy salvation Nor would I draw thee to despaire of finding Christ if thou do but heartily seek him Or of Gods acceptance of any sincere endeavors nor of thy successe against Satan or any corruption which thou shalt heartily oppose nor of any thing whatsoever God hath promised to do either to all men in generall or to such as thou art I would not have thee doubt of any of these in the least measure much less despaire But this is the despaire that I would perswade thee to as thou lovest thy soul That thou despaire of ever being saved except thou be born again or of seeing God without Holiness or of escaping perishing except thou soundly Repent Or of ever having part in Christ or salvation by him or ever being one of his true Disciples except thou love him above Father mother or thy own life Or of ever having a Treasure in Heaven except thy very heart be there Or of ever scaping eternal death if thou walk after the flesh and dost not by the spirit mortify the deeds of the flesh or of ever truly loving God or being his servant while thou lovest the world and servest it These things I would have thee despair of and what ever else God hath told thee shall never come to passe And when thou hast sadly searched into thy own heart and findest thy self in any of these cases I would have thee despair thy self of ever being saved in that state thou art in Never stick at the sadness of the conclusion man but acknowledg plainly If I die before I get out of this estate I am lost for ever It is as good deal truly with thy self as not God will not flatter thee he will deal plainly whether thou do or not The very truth is This kinde of despair is one of the first steps to Heaven Consider if a man be quite out of his way what must be the first means to bring him in again Why a despair of ever coming to his journies end in the way that he is in If his home be Eastward and he be going Westward as long as he hopes he is the right he will go on and as long as he so goes on hoping he goes further amiss Therefore when he meets with some body who assures him that he is clean out of his way and brings him to despair of coming home except he turn back again then he will return and then he may hope and spare not Why sinner Just so it is with thy soul Thou art born out of the way to Heaven and in that way thou hast proceeded many a yeer Yet thou goest on quietly and hopest to be saved because thou art not so bad as many others Why I tell thee except thou be brought to throw away those hopes and see that thou hast all this while been quite out of the way to Heaven and hast been a childe of wrath and a servant of Satan unpardoned unsanctified and if thou hadst dyed in this state hadst been certainly damned I say till thou be brought to this thou wilt never return and be saved Who will turn out of his way while he hopes he is right And let me once again tell thee that if ever God mean good to thy soul and intend to save thee this is one of the first things he will work upon thee Remember what I say till thou feel God convincing thee that the way which thou hast lived in will not serve the turn and so breaking down thy former hopes there is yet no saving work wrought upon thee how well soever thou mayest hope of thy self Yea this much more If any thing keep thy soul out of Heaven which God forbid there is nothing in the world liker to do it then thy false hopes of being saved while thou art out of the way to salvation Why else is it that God cryes down such hopes in his word Why is it that every faithful skilful Minister doth bend all his strength against the false faith and hope of sinners as if he were to fight against neither small nor great but this prince of iniquity Why alas they know that these are the main pillars of Satans Kingdom Bring down but them two and the house will fall They know also the deceit and vanity of such hopes that they are directly contrary to the Truth of God and what a sad case that soul is in who hath no other hope but that Gods word will prove false when the truth of God is the only ground of true hope Alas it is no pleasure to a Minister to speak to people on such an unwelcome subject no more then it is to a pitifull Physitian to tell his patient I do despair of your life except you let blood or there is no hope of the cure except the gangren'd
member be cut off If it be true and of flat necessity though it be displeasing there is no remedy Why I beseech you think on it reasonably without prejudice or passion and tell me Where doth God give any hope of your salvation till you are new Creatures Gal. 6.15 Nay I have shewed you where he flatly overthroweth all such hope And will it do you any good for a Minister to give you hope where God gives you none or would you desire them to do so Why what would you think of such a Minister when those hopes forsake you or what thanks will you give him when you finde your self in Hell would you not there lye and curse him for a deceiver for ever I know this to be true and therefore I had rather you were displeased with me here then curse me there For my own part if I had but one Sermon to preach while I lived I think this should be it to perswade down all your ungrounded hopes of Heaven not to leave you there in despair but that you may hope upon better grounds which will never deceive you God hath told us what we shall say Isai. 3.10 11. Say to the Righteous It shall be well with him and to the wicked It shall be ill with him And if I shall say it shall be well with thee when God hath said it shall be ill with thee what the better were thou for this Whose word would stand think you Gods or mine O little do carnall Ministers know what they do who strengthen the hopes of ungodly men They work as hard as they can against God while they stand there to speak in the name of God God layeth his battery against these false hopes as knowing that they must now down or the sinner must perish And these teachers build up what God is pulling down I know not what they can do worse to destroy mens souls There are false teachers in regard of application though they are true in regard of doctrine This is partly through their flattering men-pleasing temper partly because they are guilty themselves and so should destroy their own hopes as well as others and partly because being graceless they want that experience which should help them to discern betwixt hope and hope The same may be said of carnall friends If they see a poor sinner but doubting whether all be well with him and but troubled for fear least he be out of the way What paines do they take to keep up his old hopes What say they If you should not be saved God help a great many You have lived honestly c. Never doubt man God is mercifull Alas silly creatures You think you perform an office of friendship and do him much good Even as much as to give cold water to a man in a Feaver you may ease him at the present but it afterward inflames him What thanks will he give you hereafter if you settle him upon his former hopes again Did you never read Prov. 24.24 He that saith to the wicked Thou art righteous him shall the people curse Nations shall abhorre him If you were faithful friends indeed you should rather say thus to him Friend if you perceive the soundness of your hopes for Heaven to be doubtful O do not smother those doubts but go and open them to your Minister or some able friend and try them throughly in time and hold no more of them now then will hold good at Judgment It is better they break while they may be built more surely then when the discovery will be your torment but not your remedy This were friendly faithful counsel indeed The Proverb is If it were not for hope the heart would break And Scripture tels us that the heart must break that Christ will save How can it be bound up till it be broken first So that the hope which keeps their hearts from breaking doth keep them also from healing and saving Well if these unwise men who are as we say penny wise and pound foolish who are wise to keep off the smart of a short conditional necessary curable despaire but not wise to prevent an eternal absolute tormenting uncurable despair do not change their condition speedily these Hopes will leave them which they would not leave and then they that were now resolved to hold fast their Hopes let all the Preachers in the world say what they would shall let them go whether they will or no. Then let them hope for heaven if they can So that you see it will aggravate the misery of the damned that with the loss of heaven they shall lose all that hope of it which now supporteth them SECT IV. THirdly Another Additional loss will be this They will lose-all that false peace of Conscience which maketh their present life so easie The loss of this must necessarily follow the loss of the former When Presumption and Hope are gone Peace cannot tarry Who would think now that sees how quietly the multitude of the ungodly live that they must very shortly lye roaring in everlasting flames They lye down and rise and sleep as quietly they eat and drink as quietly they go about their work as cheerfully they talk as pleasantly as if nothing ailed them or as if they were as far out of danger as an obedient Believer like a man that hath the Falling-sickness you would little think while he is labouring as strongly and talking as heartily as another man how he will presently fall down and lye gasping and foaming and beating his brest in torment So it is with these men They are as free from the fears of Hell as others as free from any vexing sorrows not so much as troubled with any cares for the state of their souls nor with any sad or serious thoughts of what shall become of them in another world yea and for the most part they have less doubts or disquiet of minde then those who shall be saved O happy men if it would be always thus and if this peace would prove a lasting peace But alas there 's the misery it will not They are now in their own Element as the Fish in the water but little knows that silly creature when he is most fearlesly and delightfully swallowing down the Baite how suddenly he shall be snatched out and lye dead upon the Bank And as little think these careless sinners what a change they are near The Sheep or the Ox is driven quietly to the slaughter because he knows not whither he goes if he knew it were to his death you could not drive him so easily How contented is the Swine when the Butchers Knife is shaving his throat little thinking that it is to prepare for his death Why it is even so with these sensual careless men they fear the mischief least when they are nearest to it because they feel it not or see it not with their eyes As in the dayes of Noah saith Christ they were eating
Shall we then take these for friendly actions Or rather wish we had spent this time in praying together oâ— admonishing one another O why should we sell such a lasting incomprehensible Joy for one tast of a seeming pleasure Come as we have sinned together let us pray together before we stir that God would pardon us And let us enter into a promise to one another that we will do thus no more but will meet together with the godly in the worship of God and help one another toward Heaven as oft as we have met for our sinfull metriments in helping to deceive and destroy each other This would be the way to prevent this sorrow and a course that would comfort you when you look back upon it hereafter VVho would spend so many dayes and yeers and thoughts and cares and be at so much cost and pains and all to please this flesh for a moment which must shortly be most loathsome stinking rottenness and in the mean time neglect our pretious souls and that state which we must trust to for ever and ever To be at such pains for that pleasure which dyes in the enjoying and is almost as soon gone as come and when we have most need of comfort will be so far from following us as our happiness that it will be perpetual fuel to the flames which shall torment us O that men knew but what they desire when they would so fain have all things suited to the desires of the flesh They would have Buildings VValks Lands Cloathes Diet and all so fitted as may be most pleasing and delightful VVhy this is but to desire their temptations to be increased and their snare strengthened Their Joyes will be more carnall and how great an enemy carnal Joy is to spiritual experienced men can quickly tell you If we took the flesh so much for your enemy as we do professe we could not so earnestly desire and contrive to accommodate it and so congratulate all its contentments as we do CHAP. IV. The greatness of the torments of the damned discovered SECT I. HAving thus shewed you how great their Loss is who are shut out of Rest and how it will be aggravated by those Additional losses which will accompany it I should next here shew you the greatness of those Positive sufferings which will accompany this loss But because I am to Treat of Rest rather then of Torment I will not meddle with the Explication of the quality of those sufferings but onely shew their greatness in some few brief discoveries lâ—st the careless sinner while he hears of no other punishment but that of loss before mentioned should think he can bear that well enough by his own resolvedness and so flatter himself â—â—hopâ— of a tollerable hell That there are besides the loss of Happiness such actuall sensible Torments for the damned is a matter beyond all doubt to him that doth not doubt of the truth of the Scripture and that they will be exceeding great may appear by these Arguments following First From the principal Author of them which is God himself As it was no less then God whom the sinner had offended so it is no less then God that will punish them for their offences He hath prepared those torments for his Enemies His continued Anger will still be devouring them His Breath of Indignation will kindle the flames His Wrath will be an intollerable burden to their souls O if it were but a creature that they had to do with â—hey might better bear it for the Penalty would be answerable to the Infirmity of him that should inflict it A childe can give but an easie stroak but the stroaks of a Gyant will be answerable to his strength Wo to him that fals under the stroaks of the Almighty They shall feel to their sorrow That it is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God It were nothing in comparison to this if all the world were against them or if the strength of all creatures were united in one to inflict their penalty They had now rather venture upon the displeasure of God then to displease a Landlord a Master a Friend a Neighbour or their own Flesh but then they will wish a thousand times in vain that they had lost the favor of all the world and been hated of all men so they had not lost the favor of God for as there is no life like his Favor so is there no death like his displeasure O what a consuming fire is his Wrath If it be kindled here and that but a little how do we wither before it as the grass that is cut down before the Sun How soon doth our strength decay and turn to weakness and our beauty to deformity Churches are rooted up Common-wealths are overthrown Kingdoms depopulated Armies destroyed and who can stand before his wrath Even the Heavens and the Earth will melt at his Presence and when he speaks the word at his great Day of Accompt they will be burnt up before him as a scrole in the fire The flames do not so easily run through the dry Stubble or consume the Houses where its violence hath prevailed as the wrath of God will feed upon these wretches O they that could not bear a Prison or a Gibbet or Fire for Christ no nor scarce a few scorns from the mouths of the ignorant how will they now bear the devouring fire SECT II. 2. THe place or state of torment is purposely ordained for the glorifying of the Attribute of Gods Justice As all the Works of God are great and wonderful so those above all which are specially intended for the eminent advancing of some of his Attributes When he will glorifie his Power he makes the worlds by his Wisdom The comely order of all and singular creatures declare his Wisdom His Providence is shewn in sustaining all things and maintaining Order and attaining his excellent ends amongst the confused perverse tumultuous agitations of a world of wicked foolish self-destroying Miscreants When a spark of his Wrath doth kindle upon the earth the whole world save onely eight persons are drowned Sodom Gomorrah Admah and Zeboim are burnt with fire from heaven to ashes The sea shuts her mouth upon some The earth doth open and swallow others The Pestilence destroyeth them up by thousands The present deplorable estate of the Jews may fully testifie this to the world And yet the glorifying of the two great Attributes of Mercy and Justice is intended most eminently for the life to come As therefore when God will purposely then glorifie his Mercy he will do it in a way and degree that is now incredible and beyond the comprehension of the Saints that must enjoy it so that the blood of his Son and the enjoyment of himself immediately in Glory shall not be thought too high an honor for them So also when the time comes that he will purposely manifest his Justice it shall appear to
be indeed the Justice of God The everlasting flames of Hell will not be thought too hot for the Rebellious and when they have there burned through millions of Ages he will not repent him of the evil which is befaln them O wo to the soul that is thus set up for a Butt for the wrath of the Almighty to shoot at and for a Bush that must burn in the flames of his Jealousie and never be consumed SECT III. 3. THe torments of the damned must needs be extream because they are the effect of Divine Revenge Wrath is terrible but Revenge is implacable When the great God shall say I will now be righted for all the wrongs that I have born from rebellious creatures I will let out my wrath and it shall be staied no more you shall now pay for all the abuse of my Patience Remember now how I waited your leasure in vain how I stooped to perswade you how I as it were kneeled to intreate you did you think I would alwayes be slighted by such miscreants as you O who can look up when God shall thus plead with them in the heat of Revenge Then will he be revenged for ever mercy abused for his creatures consumed in luxury and excess for every hours time mispent for the neglect of his word for the vilifying of his messengers for the hating of his people for the prophanation of his ordinances and neglect of his worship for the breaking of his Sabbaths and the grieving of his Spirit for the taking of his Name in vain for unmerciful neglect of his servants in distress O the numberless bils that will be brought in And the charge that will overcharge the soul of the sinner And how hotly Revenge will pursue them all to the highest How God will stand over them with the rod in his hand not the rod of fatherly chastisement but that Iron rod wherewith he bruiseth the rebellious and lay it on for all their neglects of Christ and grace O that men would foresee this And not put themselves under the hammer of revenging fury when they may have the treasure of happiness at so easie rates And please God better in preventing their woe SECT IIII. SECT IIII. 4. COnsider also how this Justice and Revenge will be the delight of the Almighty Though he had rather men would stoop to Christ and accept of his mercy yet when they persist in rebellion he will take pleasure in their execution Though he desire not the death of him that dyeth but rather that he repent and live yet when he will not repent and live God doth desire and delight in the execution of Justice conditionally so that men will repent he desires not their death but their life Ezek 33.11 yet if they repent not in the same place he uttereth his resolution for their death vers 8.13 He tels us Isai. 27.4 That fury is not in him yet he addeth in the next words Who would set the bryers and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together What a doleful case is the wretched creature in when he shall thus set the heart of his Creator against him and he that made him will not save him and he that formed him will not have mercy upon him Isai. 27.11 How heavy a threatning is that in Deut. 28.63 As the Lord Rejoyced over you to do you good so the Lord will Rejoyce over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought Wo to the soul which God Rejoyceth to punish Yea he tels the simple ones that love simplicity and the scorners that delight in scorning and the fools that hate knowledg That because he called and they refused he stretched out his hand and no man regarded but set at nought all his counsel and would none of his reproof therefore he will also laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh when their fear cometh as desolation and their destruction as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon them Then shall they call upon him but he will not answer they shall seek him early but shall not finde him for that they hated knowledg and did not choose the fear of the Lord Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. I would intreat thee who readest this if thou be one of that sort of men that thou wilt but view over seriously that part of the Chapter Prov. 1. from the 20. verse to the end and believe them to be the true words of Christ by his Spirit in Solomon Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul when it shall lie roaring perpetually in the flames of Hell and the God of mercy himself shall laugh at them When they shall cry out for mercy yea for one drop of water and God shall mock them in stead of relieving them When none in Heaven or earth can help them but God he shall rejoyce over them in their calamity why you see these are the very words of God himself in Scripture And most just is it that they who laughed at the Sermon and mocked at the Preacher and derided the people that obeyed the Gospel should be laughed at and derided by God Ah poor ignorant Fools for so this Text cals them they will then have mocking enough till their heart ake with it I dare warrant them them for ever making a jeast of Godliness more or making themselves merry with their own slanderous reports It is themselves then that must be the woful objects of derision and that of God himself who would have crowned them with glory I know when the Scripture speaks of Gods laughing and mocking it is not to be understood literally but after the maner of men but this may suffice us that it will be such an act of God to the tormenting of the sinner which vve cannot more fitly conceive or express under any other notion or name then these SECT V. 5. COnsider who shall be Gods Executioners of their Torment and that is First Satan Secondly Themselves First He that was here so successful in drawing them from Christ will then be the Instrument of their punishment for yielding to his temptations It was a pittiful sight to see the man possessed that was bound with chains and lived among the Tombs and that other that would be cast into the fire and into the water but alas that was nothing to the torment that Satan puts them to in Hel That is the reward he wil give them for all their service for their rejecting the commands of God and forsaking Christ and neglecting their souls at his perswasion Ah if they had served Christ as faithfully as they did Satan and had forsaken all for the love of him he would have given them a better reward Secondly and it is most just also that they should there be their own tormentors that they may see that their whole destruction is of themselves and they
fighting and bloodshed to get a step higher in the world then their brethren while they neglect the Kingly dignity of the Saints what insatiable pursuit of fleshly pleasures whilest they look upon the Praises of God which is the joy of Angels as a tiring burden what unwearied diligence there is in raising their posterity in enlarging their possessions in gathering a little silver or gold yea perhaps for a poor living from hand to mouth while in the mean time their Judgment is drawing neer and yet how it shall go with them then or how they shall live eternally did never put them to the trouble of ones hours sober consideration what rising early and sitting up late and labouring and caring year after year to maintain themselves and their children in credit till they dye but what shall follow after that they never think on as if it were onely their work to provide for their bodies and onely Gods work to provide for their souls whereas God hath promised more to provide for their bodies without their care then for their souls though indeed they must painfully serve his Providence for both and yet these men can cry to us May not a man be saved without so much ado And may we not say with more reason to them May not a man have a little Air or Earth a little credit or wealth without so much ado or at least may not a man have enough to bring him to his grave without so much ado O how early do they rowse up their servants to their labour up come away to work we have this to do or that to do but how seldom do they call them Up you have your souls to look to you have Everlasting to provide for up to prayer to reading of the Scripture Alas how rare is this language what a gadding up and down the world is here like a company of Ants upon a Hillock taking uncessant pains to gather a treasure which death as the next passenger that comes by will spurn abroad as if it were such an excellent thing to dye in the midst of wealth and honors or as if it would be such a comfort to a man at death or in another world to think that he was a Lord or a Knight or a Gentleman or a Rich man on earth For my part whatever these men may profess or say to the contrary I cannot but strongly suspect that in heart they are flat Pagans and do not believe that there is an eternal glory and misery nor what the Scripture speaks of the way of obtaining it or at least that they do but a little believe it by the halves and therefore think to make sure of Earth lest there be no such thing as Heaven to be had and to hold fast that which they have in hand lest if they let go that in hope of better in another world they should play the fools and lose all I fear though the Christian Faith be in their mouths lest that this be the faith which is next their hearts or else the lust of their Senses doth overcome and suspend their Reason and prevail with their Wils against the last practical conclusion of their Understanding What is the excellency of this Earth that it hath so many Suiters and Admirers what hath this World done for its Lovers and Friends that it is so eagerly followed and painfully sought after while Christ and Heaven stand by and few regard them or what will the world do for them for the time to come The common entrance into it is through anguish and sorrow The passage through it is with continual care and labor and grief the passage out of it is with the greatest sharpness and sadness of all What then doth cause men so much to follow affect it O sinful unreasonable bewitched men Will mirth and pleasure stick close to you Will gold and worldly glory prove fast friends to you in the time of your greatest need will they hear your cries in the day of your calamity If a man should say to you at the hour of your death as Elias did to Baals Priests Cry aloud c. O Riches or Honor now help us will they either answer or relieve you will they go along with you to another world and bribe the Judg and bring you off clear or purchase you a room among the blessed why then did so rich a man want a drop of water for his tongue or are the sweet morsels of present delight and honor of more worth then the eternal Rest and will they recompense the loss of that enduring Treasure Can there be the least hope of any of these why what then is the matter Is it onely a room for our dead bodies that we are so much beholden to the world for why this is the last and longest courtesie that we shal receive from it But we shal have this whether we serve it or no and even that homely dusty dwelling it will not afford us alwayes neither It shall possess our dust but till the great Resurrection day Why how then doth the world deserve so well at mens hands that they should part with Christ and their salvation to be its followers Ah vile deceitful world How oft have we heard thy faithfullest servants at last complaining Oh the world hath deceived me and undone me It flattered me in my prosperity but now it turns me off at death in my necessity Ah if I had as faithfully served Christ as I have served it He would not thus have cast me off nor have left me thus comfortless and hopeless in the depth of misery Thus do the dearest friends and favorites of the world complain at last of its deceit or rather of their own selfâ—deluding folly and yet succeeding sinners will take no warning So this is the first sort of neglecters of Heaven which fall under this Reproof SECT III. 2. THe second sort to be here reproved are the prophane ungodly presumptuous multitude who will not be perswaded to be at so much pains for salvation as to perform the common outward duties of Religion Yea though they are convinced that these duties are commanded by God and see it before their eyes in the Scripture yet wil they not be brought to the constant practice of them If they have the Gospel preached in the town where they dwell it may be they will give the hearing to it one part of the day and stay at home the other or if the master come to the congregation yet part of his family must stay at home If they want the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel how few are there in a whole Town that will either be at cost or pains to procure a Minister or travell a mile or two to hear abroad Though they will go many miles to the market for provision for their bodies The Queen of the South shall rise up in Judgment with this generation and condemn them for
speak sense or reason But in a word our want of seriousness about the things of Heaven doth charme the souls of men into formality and hath brought them to this customary careless hearing which undoes them The Lord pardon the great sin of the Ministery in this thing and in particular my own And are the people any more serious then Magistrates and Ministers How can it be expected Reader look but to thy self and resolve the question Ask conscience and suffer it to tell thee truely Hast thou set thine Eternal Rest before thine eyes as the great business which thou hast to do in this world Hast thou studied and cared and watcht and labored and laid about thee with all thy might lest any should take thy Crown from thee Hast thou made hast lest thou shouldest come too late and dye before the work be done Hath thy very heart been set upon it and thy desires and thoughts run out this way Hast thou pressed on through crowdes of opposition towards the Mark for this price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus still reaching forth unto those things which are before When you have set your hand to the work of God have you done it with all your might Can conscience witness your secret cries and groans or teares Can your families witness that you have taught them the fear of the Lord and warned them all with earnestness and unweariedness to remember God and their souls and to provide for Everlasting Or that you have done but as much for them as that damned Glutton would have had Lazarus do for his brethren on earth to warn them that they come not to that place of Torment Can your Ministers witness that they have heard you cry out What shall we do to be saved and that you have followed them with complaints against your corruptions and with earnest enquiries after the Lord Can your neighbors about you witness that you are still learning of them that are able to instruct you and that you plainly and roundly reprove the ungodly and take pains for the saving of your brethrens souls Let all these witnesses Judg this day between God and you Whether you are in good sadness about the affaires of Eternall Rest. But if yet you cannot discern your neglects Look but to your selves within you without you to the work you have done you can tell by his work whether your servant have loytered though you did not see him so you may by your selves Is your love to Christ your faith your zeal and other graces strong or weak What are your joyes what is your Assurance Is all right and strong and in order within you Are you ready to dye if this should be the day Do the souls among whom you have conversed bless you Why Judg by this and it will quickly appear whether you have been Labourers or Loyterers O Blessed Rest how unworthily art thou neglected O glorious Kingdom how art thou undervalued Little know the careless sons of men what a state they set so light by If they once knew it they would sure be of another minde CHAP. VI. An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest. SECT I. I Hope Reader by this time thou art somewhat sensible what a desperate thing it is to trifle about our Eternal Rest and how deeply thou hast been guilty of this thy self And I hope also that thou darest not now suffer this Conviction to dye but art resolved to be another man for the time to come What sayst thou Is this thy Resolution If thou were sick of some desperate disease and the Physitian should tell thee If you will observe but one thing I doubt not to cure you wouldst thou not observe it Why if thou wilt observe but this one thing for thy Soul I make no doubt of thy Salvation If thou wilt now but shake off thy sloath and put to all thy strength and ply the work of God unweariedly and be a down-right Christian in good sadness I know not what can hinder thy Happiness As far as thou art gone from God if thou wouldst but now return and seek him with all thy heart no doubt but thou shalt find him As unkindly as thou hast dealt with Jesus Christ if thou didst but feel thy self sick and dead and seek him heartily and apply thy self in good earnest to the obedience of his Laws thy Salvation were as sure as if thou hadst it already But as full as the Satisfaction of Christ is as free as the Promise is as large as the Mercy of God is yet if thou do but look on these and talk of them when thou shouldst greedily entertain them thou wilt be never the better for them and if thou loiter when thou shouldst labour thou wilt lose the Crown Oh fall to work then speedily and seriously and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it and though that which is past cannot be recalled yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause I will here adjoyn a multitude of Considerations to Move thee yet do I not desire thee to take them by number but by waight Their intent and use is to drive thee from Delaying and from Loytering in seeking Rest And to all men do I propound them both Godly and ungodly Whoever thou art therefore I entreat thee to rouze up thy spirit and read them deliberately and give me a little while thy attention as to a message from God and as Moses said to the people Deut. 32.46 Set thy heart to all the words that I testifie to thee this day for it is not a vain thing but it is for thy Life Weigh what I here wright with the Judgment of a man and if I speak not Reason throw it back in my face but if I do see thou entertain and obey it accordingly and the Lord open thy heart and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee SECT II. 1. COnsider Our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the Ends to which they are intended Now the Ends of a Christians Desires and Endeavors are so Great that no humane understanding on earth can comprehend them whether you respect their proper Excellency their exceeding Importance or their absolute Necessity These Ends are The Glorifying of God The Salvation of our own and other mens Souls in our escaping the Torments of Hell and Possessing the Glory of Heaven And can a man be too much affected with things of such Moment Can he Desire them too Earnestly or Love them too Violently or Labour for them too Diligently When we know that if our prayers prevail not and our labour succeed not we are undone for ever I think it concerns us to seek and labour to the purpose When it is put to the Question Whether we shall live for ever in Heaven or in Hell and the Question must be resolved upon our Obeying
and Earth where we now are yea or Heaven which is offered us then certainly we have received Mercy Yea if the Blood of the Son of God be Mercy then are we engaged to God by Mercy for so much did it cost him to recover us to himself And should a people of such deep engagements be lazy in their returns Shall God think nothing too much nor too Good for us and shall we think all too much that we do for him Thou that art an observing sensible man who knowest how much thou art beholden to God I appeal to thee Is not a loytering performance of a few heartless duties an unworthy requital of such admirable kindness For my own part when I compare my slow and unprofitable life with the frequent and wonderful mercies received it shames me it silenceth me and leaves me unexcusable SECT VIII 7. A Gain consider All the Relations which we stand in toward God whether common or special do call upon us for our utmost diligence Should not the pot be wholly at the service of the Potter and the creature at the service of his great Creator Are we his Children and do we not owe him our most tender affections and dutiful obedience Are we the Spouse of Christ and do we not owe him our observance and our Love If he be our Father where is his honour and if he be our Master where is his fear Mal. 1.6 We call him Lord and Master and we do well but if our industry be not answerable to our assumed relations we condemn our selves in saying we are his children or his servants How will the hard labour and dayly toyl that servants undergo to please their Masters judg and condemn those men who will not labour so hard for their Great Master Surely there 's none have a better or more honourable Master then we nor can any expect such fruit of their labours 1 Cor. 15. ult SECT IX 8. COnsider What haste should they make who have such Rods at their backs as be at ours And how painfully should they work who are still driven on by such sharp Afflictions If either we wander out of the way or loyter in it how surely do we prepare for our own smart Every creature is ready to be Gods Rod to reduce us or to put us on Our sweetest mercies will become our sorrows Or rather then he will want a Rod the Lord will make us a scourge to our selves Our diseased bodies shall make us groan our perplexed minds shall make us restless our conscience shall be as a Scorpion in our bosom And is it not easier to endure the labour then the spur Had we rather be still thus afflicted then to be up and going Alas how like are we to tired horses that will lie down and groan or stand still and let you lay on them as long as you will rather then they will freely travel on their journey And thus we make our own lives miserable and necessitate God if he love us to chastiâ—e us It is true those that do most do meet with Afflictions also but surely according to the measure of their peace of Conscience and faithfulness to Christ so is the bitterness of their Cup for the most part abated SECT X. 9. HOw close should they ply their work who have such great preparations attending them as we have All the world are our servants that we may be the Servants of God The Sun and Moon and Stars attend us with their light and influence The Earth with all its furniture is at our service How many thousand plants and flowers and fruits and birds and beasts do all attend us The Sea with its inhabitants the Air the wind the frost and snow the heat and fire the clouds and rain all wait upon us while we do our work Yea the Angels are ministring Spirits for the Service of the Elect. And is it not an intolerable crime for us to trifle while all these are employed to assist us Nay more The Patience and Goodness of God doth wait upon us The Lord Jesus waiteth in the offers of his blood The Holy Ghost waiteth in striving with our backward hearts Besides all his Servants the Ministers of his Gospel who study and wait and preach and wait and pray and wait upon careless sinners And shall Angels and Men yea the Lord himself stand by and look on and as it were hold thee the Candle while thou dost nothing Oh Christians I beseech you when ever you are upon your knees in prayer or reproving the transgressors or exhorting the obstinate or upon any duty do but remember what attendance you have for this work and then Judg how it behoves you to perform it SECT XI 10. SHould not our Affections and Endeavors be answerable to the acknowledged Principles of our Christian Profession Sure if we are Christians indeed and mean as we speak when we profess the Faith of Christ we shall shew it in Affections and Actions as well as Expressions Why the very fundamental Doctrines of our Religion are That God is the chief Good and all our Happiness consists in his Love and therefore it should be valued and sought above all things That he is our only Lord and therefore chiefly to be served That we must Love him with all our heart and soul and strength That the very business that men have in the world and the only errand that God sent them about is to Glorifie God and to obtain Salvation c. And do mens duties and conversations second this profession Are these Doctrines seen in the painfulness of mens practise Or rather do not their works deny what their words do confess One would think by mens Actions that they did not believe a word of the Gospel to be true Oh sad day when mens own tongues and professions shall be brought in against them and condemn them SECT XII 11. HOw forward and painful should we be in that work where we are sure we can never do enough If there were any danger of over-doing then it might well cause men to moderate their endeavors But we know that if we could do all we were but unprofitable servants much more when we are sure to fail in all It is true a man may possibly pray too much or preach too much or hear or reprove too much though I have known few that ever did so but yet no man can obey or serve God too much For one duty may be said to be too long when it shuts out another and then it ceaseth indeed to be a duty So that though all Superstition or service of our devising may be called a Righteousness-over-much yet as long as you keep your service to the rule of the Word that so it may have the true nature of obedience you never need to fear being Righteous too much For else we should reproach the Lord and Law-giver of the Church as if he had commanded us
received it with Joy Mat. 13.20 and have heard the Preacher gladly and done many things after him shall yet perish Mark 6.20 It is time for us to look about us and take heed of loytering When they that seek God dayly and delight to know his ways and ask of him the Ordinances of Justice and take Delight in approaching to God and that in fasting and afflicting their Souls Isai. 58.2 3. are yet shut out with Hypocrites and Unbeleevers When they that have been enlightened and have tasted of the heavenly gift and of the good Word of God and of the Powers of the World to come and were made partakers of the Holy Ghost may yet fall away beyond recovery and crucifie to themselves the Son of God afresh Heb. 6.4 5 6. When they that have received the knowledg of the Truth and were sanctified by the blood of the Covenant may yet sin wilfully and tread under-foot the Son of God and do despite to the Spirit of Grace till there is nothing left him but the fearful expectation of Judgment and fire that shall devour the adversaries Heb. 10.26 27 28 29. Should not this rouze us out of our laziness and security How far hath many a man followed Christ and yet forsaken him when it comes to selling of all to bearing the Cross to burning at a stake or to the renouncing of all his worldly Interests and Hopes What a deal of pains hath many a man taken for Heaven that never did obtain it How many Prayers Sermons Fasts Alms good desires confessions sorrow and tears for sin c. have all been lost and faln short of the Kingdom Methinks this should affright us out of our sluggishness and make us strive to out-strip the highest Formalists SECT XXI 20. COnsider God hath resolved That Heaven shall not be had on easier terms He hath not onely commanded it as a duty but hath tyed our Salvation to the performance of it Rest must always follow Labor He that hath ordained in his Church on Earth That he that will not Labor shall not Eat hath also decreed concerning the Everlasting Inheritance That he that Strives not shall not Enter They must now lay up a Treasure in Heaven if they will finde it there Mat. 6.19 20. They must seek First the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Matth. 6.33 They must not Labor for the food which perisheth but for that food which endureth to Everlasting Life Joh. 6.27 Some think that it is good to be Holy but yet not of such absolute necessity but that a man may be saved without it But God hath determined on the contrary That without it no man shall see his face Heb. 12.14 Seriousness is the very thing wherein consisteth our Sincerity If thou art not Serious thou art not a Christian. It is not onely a high degree in Christianity but of the very life and essence of it As Fencers upon a Stage who have all the skill at their weapons and do eminently and industriously act their parts but do not seriously intend the death of each other do differ from Souldiers or Combatants who fight in good sadness for their lives Just so do Hypocrites differ from serious Christians If men could be saved without this Serious Diligence they would never regard it All the excellencies of Gods ways would never entice them But when God hath resolved That if you will have your ease here you shall have none hereafter is it not wisdom then to bestir our selves to the utmost SECT XXII ANd thus Reader I dare confidently say I have shewed thee sufficient Reason against thy sloathfulness and negligence if thou be not a man resolved to shut thine eyes and to destroy thy self wilfully in despite of Reason Yet lest all this should not prevail I will add somewhat more if it be possible to perswade thee to be Serious in thy Endeavors for Heaven 1. Consider God is in Good earnest with you and why then should not you be so with him In his Commands he means as he speaks and will verily require your real Obedience In his Threatenings he is Serious and will make them all good against the Rebellious In his Promises he is Serious and will fulfil them to the Obedient even to the least tittle In his Judgments he is Serious as he will make his Enemies know to their terror Was not God in good earnest when he drowned the World When he consumed Sodom and Gomorrah When he scattered the Jews Hath he not been in good sadness with us lately in England and Ireland and Germany And very shortly will he lay hold on his Enemies particularly man by man and make them know that he is in good earnest Especially when it comes to the great reckoning day And is it time then for us to dally with God 2. Jesus Christ was Serious in Purchasing our Redemption He was Serious in Teaching when he neglected his meat and drink Joh. 4.32 He was Serious in Praying when he continued all night at it Luk. 6.12 He was Serious in Doing good when his kindred came and layd hands on him thinking he had been beside himself Mark 3.20 21. He was Serious in Suffering when he fasted fourty days was tempted betrayed spit on buffeted crowned with thorns sweat water and blood was crucified pierced dyed There was no Jesting in all this And should not we be Serious in seeking our own Salvation 3. The Holy Ghost is Serious in soliciting us for our Happiness His Motions are frequent and pressing and importunate He striveth with our hearts Gen. 6.3 He is grieved when we resist him Ephes. 4.30 And should not we then be Serious in obeying his Motions and yeelding to his Suite 4. God is Serious in hearing our Prayers and delivering us from our dangers and removing our troubles and bestowing his Mercies When we are afflicted he is afflicted with us Isai. 63.9 He regardeth every groan and sigh He putteth every tear into his bottle He condoleth their misery when he is forced to chastise them How shall I give thee up O Ephraim saith the Lord How shall I make thee as Admah and as Zeboim my heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together Hos. 11.8 He heareth even the rebellious oft-times when they call upon him in their misery when they cry to him in their trouble he delivereth them out of their distress Psa. 78.37 38. Psa. 107.10 11 12 13 19 28. Yea the next time thou art in trouble thou wilt beg for a serious regard of thy prayers and grant of thy desires And shall we be so sleight in the work of God when we expect he should be so regardful of us Shall we have real Mercies downâ—weight and shall we return such superficial and frothy service 5. Consider The Ministers of Christ are Serious in Instructing and Exhorting you and why should not you be as Serious in obeying their Instructions They are Serious in Study Serious in Prayer
in some measure sure that he is the Child of God 7. There are some duties that either the Saints only or chiefly are commanded to perform And how shall that be done if we cannot know that we are Saints Psal. 144.5 132.9 30.4 31.23 c. Thus I have proved that a Certainty may be attained an Infallible though not a perfect Certainty such as excludeth deceit though it exclude not all degree of doubting If Bellarmine by his Conjectural Certainty do mean this Infallible though imperfect Certainty as I doubt he doth not then I would not much contend with him And I acknowledg that it is not properly a Certainty of meer Faith but mixt SECT VI. 3. THe third thing that I promised is to shew you what are the Hinderances which keep men from Examination and Assurance I shall 1. Shew you what hinders them from Trying and 2. What hindereth them from Knowing when they do Try That so when you see the Impediments you may avoyd them And 1. We cannot doubt but Satan will do his part to hinder us from such a necessary duty as this If all the power he hath can do it or all the means and Instruments which he can raise up he will be sure above all duties to keep you off from this He is loath the Godly should have that Joy and Assurance and Advantage against Corruption which the faithful performance of Self-Examination would procure them And for the Ungodly he knows if they should once fall close to this Examining task they would find out his deceits and their own danger and so be very likely to escape him If they did but faithfully perform this duty he were likely to lose most of the Subjects of his Kingdom How could he get so many millions to Hell willingly if they knew they went thither And how could they chuse but know if they did throughly try having such a clear light and sure rule in the Scripture to discover it If the beast did know that he is going to the slaughter he would not be driven so easily to it but would strive for his life before he comes to dye as well as he doth at the time of his death If Balaam had seen as much of the danger as his Ass instead of his driving on so furiously he would have been as loath to proceed as he If the Syrians had known whither they were going as well as Elisha did they would have stopt before they had found themselves in the hand of their Enemies 2 King 6.19 20. So if sinners did but know whither they are hasting they would stop before they are engulfed in damnation If every swearer drunkard whoremonger lover of the world or unregenerate person whatsoever did certainly know that the way he is in will never bring him to Heaven and that if he dye in it he shall undoubtedly perish Satan could never get him to proceed so resolvedly Alas he would then think every day a year till he were out of the danger and whether he were eating drinking working or what ever he were doing the thoughts of his danger would be still in his mind and this voyce would be stil in his ears Except thou Repent and be converted thou shalt surely perish The Devil knows well enough that if he cannot keep men from trying their states and knowing their misery he shal hardly be able to keep them from Repentance and Salvation And therefore he deals with them as Jael with Sisera she gives him fair words and food and layeth him to sleep and covereth his face and then she comes upon him softly and strikes the nail into his temples And as the Philistines with Sampson who first put out his eyes and then made him grind in their mills If the pit be not covered who but the blind will fall into it If the snare be not hid the bird will escape it Satan knows how to angle for Souls better then to shew them the hook and the line and to fright them away with a noise or with his own appearance Therefore he labours to keep them from a searching Ministry or to keep the Minister from helping them to search or to take off the edg of the Word that it may not pierce and divide or to turn away their thoughts or to possess them with prejudice Satan is acquainted with all the Preparations and Studies of the Minister he knows when he hath provided a searching Sermon fitted to the state and necessity of a hearer and therefore he will keep him away that day if it be possible above all or else cast him asleep or steal a way the Word by the cares and talk of the world or some way prevent its operation and the sinners obedience This is the first Hinderance SECT VII 2. WIcked men also are great impediments to poor sinners when they should examine and discover their estates 1. Their Examples hinder much When an ignorant sinner seeth all his friends and neighbors do as he doth and live quietly in the same state with himself yea the Rich and Learned as well as others this is an exceeding great temptation to him to proceed in his security 2. Also the merry company and pleasant discourse of these men doth take away the thoughts of his Spiritual State and doth make the understanding drunk with their sensual delight so that if the Spirit had before put into them any jealousie of themselves or any purpose to Try themselves this Jovial company doth soon quench them all 3. Also their continual discourse of nothing but matters of the world doâ—h damp all these purposes for self-trying and make them foâ—gotten 4. Their railings also and scorning at godly persons is a very great impediment to multitudes of Souls and possesseth them with such a prejudice and dislike of the way to Heaven that they settle resolvedly in the way they are in 5. Also their constant perswasions allurements threats c. hinder much God doth scarce ever open the eyes of a poor sinner to see that â—ll is naught with him and his way is wrong but presently there is a multitude of Satans Apostles ready to flatter him and dawb and deceive and settle him again in the quiet possession of his former Master What say they do you make a doubt of your Salvation who have lived so well and done no body harm and been beloved of all God is merciful and if such as you shall not be saved God help a great many What do you think is become of all your forefathers and what will become of all your friends and neighbours that live as you do Will they all be damned Shall none be sâ—ved think you but a few strict precisians Come come if ye hearken to these Puritan books or Preachers they will drive you to despair shortly or drive you out of your wits they must have something to say they would have all lâ—ke themselves Are not all men sinners and
and how tenderly he is affected toward thee 3. It will quicken thy desires after him when thou art once sure of thy Interest in him 4. It is the most excellent Fountain of Continual Rejoycing Hab. â— 17 18 19. 5. It will confirm thy Trust and Confidence in God in the greatest straits Psal. 89.26 and 46.1 2 3 c. 6. It will fill thy heart with Thankfulness 7. It will raise thee in the high delightful work of Praise 8. It will be the most excellent help to a Heavenly Mind 9. It will exceedingly tend to thy Perseverance in all this He that is sure of the Crown will hold on to the End when others will be tired and give up through discouragement All these sweet effects of Assurance would make thy Life a kind of Heaven on Earth Seeing then that Examination of our states is the way to this Assurance and the Means without which God doth not usually bestow it doth it not Concern us to fall close to this Searching Work SECT IX I Would not have bestowed this time and labour in urging you with all these fore-going Considerations but that I know how backward man is to this duty And though I am certain that these Motives have weight of Reason in them yet experience of mens unreasonableness in things of this Nature doth make me Jealous lest you should lay by the Book when you have read all this as if you had done and never set your selves to the practise of the duty Reader Thou seest the Case in hand is of greatest moment It is to know Whether thou shalt Everlastingly live in Heaven or Hell If thou hast lived hitherto in dark uncertainty it is a pitiful case but if thou wilfully continue so thy Madness is unexpressible And is it not wilfully when a through Tryal might help thee to be Resolved and thou wilt not be perswaded to be at so much pains What sayst thou now Art thou fully resolved to fall upon the Work Shall all this labour that I have bestowed in perswading thee be lost or no If thou wilt not obey I would thou hadst never read these lines that they might not have aggravated thy guilt and silenced thee in Judgment I here put this special Request to thee in behalf of thy Soul nay I lay this charge upon thee in the Name of the Lord That thou defer no longer but take the next opportunity that thou canst have and take thy Heart to task in good earnest and think with thy self Is it so Easie so Common and so Dangerous to be Mistaken Are there so many wrong ways Is the heart so guilâ—ful Why then do I not search into every corner and ply this work till I know my state Must I so shortly undergo the Tryal at the Bar of Christ And do I not presently fall on Trying my self Why what a case were I in if I should then miscarry May I know by a little diligent Enquiry now and do I stick at the labour And here set thy self to the duty Object But it may be thou wilt say I know not how to do it Ans. That is the next Work that I come to to give thee Directions herein but alas it will be in Vain if thou be not resolved to practise them Wilt thou therefore before thou goest any further here promise before the Lord to set thy self to thy power upon the speedy performing of the duty according to these Directions which I shall lay down from the Word I demand nothing unreasonable or impossible of thee It is but That thou wouldst presently bestow a few hours time to know what shall become of thee for ever If a neighbor or common friend desire but an hours time of thee in conference or in labour or any thing that thou mayst help them in thou wouldst not sure deny it How much less shouldst thou deny this to thy self in so great a Case I pray thee take this request from me as if upon my knees in the Name of Christ I did prefer it to thee And I will betake me upon my knees to Christ again to beg that he will perswade thy heart to the Duty And in hope that thou wilt practise them I will here give thee some Directions CHAP. IX Containing Directions for Examination and some Marks for Tryal SECT I. I Will not stand here to lay down the Directions necessary for preparation to this Duty because you may gather them from what is said concerning the Hinderances For the Contraries of those Hinderances will be most necessary Helps Only before you set upon it I advise you moreover to the Observation of these Rules 1. Come not with too peremptory Conclusions of your selves before-hand Do not Judg too confidently before you Try Many Godly dejected Souls come with this Pre-judging to the work concluding certainly that their state is Miserable before they have Tryed it And most wicked men on the contrary side do conclude most confidently that their state is good or tolerable at the least No wonder if these both miscarry in Judging when they pass the Sentence before the Tryal 2. Be sure to be so well acquainted with the Scripture as to know what is the Tenor of the Covenant of Grace and what are the Conditions of Justification and Glorification and consequently what are sound Marks to Try thy self by and wherein the Truth of Grace and Essence of Christianity doth consist 3. And it will not be unuseful to write out some of the chief and those Scriptures withall which hold them forth and so to bring this Paper with you when you come to Examination 4. Be a constant observer of the temper and motions of thy heart Almost all the difficulty of the work doth lie in the true and clear discerning of it Be watchful in observing the Actings both of Grace and Corruption and the circumstances of their Actings as how frequent how violent how strong or weak were the outward incitements how great or small the impediments what delight or loathing or fear or reluctancy did go with those Acts by these and the like observations you may come to a more infallible knowledg of your selves 5. Be sure you set upon the work with a serious rouzed wakened Soul apprehensive of how great concernment it is 6. And lastly Resolve to judg thy self impartially neither better nor worse then thou art but as the Evidence shall prove thee SECT II. BEing thus provided then set to the business and therein observe these Directions following which I will mention briefly that lying close together you may be able to view and observe them the more easily 1. Empty thy minde of all thy other cares and thoughts that they do not distract or divide thy mind This work will be enough at once of it self without joyning others with it 2. Then fall down before God and in hearty prayer desire the assistance of his Spirit to discover to thee the plain truth of thy
if he were sure that Heaven should be his own he would desire to depart and to be with Christ as being the best stâ—te of all And if God would set before him an Eternity of Earthly pleasures and contents on one hand and the Rest of the Saints on the other hand and bid him take his choyce he would refuse the world and chuse this Rest Psal. 16.9 10. Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 3. Phil. 3.20 Thus if thou be a Christian indeed thou takest God for thy chiefest Good and this Rest for the most amiable and desireable state and by the foresaid means thou mayst discover it But if thou be yet in the flesh and an unsanctified wretch then is it clean contrary with thee in all these respects Then dost thou in thy Heart prefer thy worldly happiness and fleshly delights before God And though thy tongue may say that God is the chief Good yet thy Heart doth not so esteem him For 1. The world is the chief End of thy Desires and Endevors Thy very heart is set upon it Thy greatest Care and Labor is to maintain thy estate or credit or fleshly delights But the life to come hath little of thy care or labor Thou didst never perceive so much excellency in that unseen Glory of another world as to draw thy heart so after it or set thee a laboring so heartily for it But that little pains which thou bestowest that way it is but in the second place and not the first God hath but the worlds leavings and that time and labor which thou canst spare from the world or those few cold and careless thoughts which follow thy constant earnest and delightful thoughts of earthly things Neither wouldst thou do any thing at all for Heaven if thou knew'st how to keep the world But lest thou shouldst be turned into Hell when thou canst keep the world no longer therefore thou wilt do something 2. Therefore it is that thou thinkest the way of God too strict and wilt not be perswaded to the constant labor of conscionable walking according to the Gospel rule And when it comes to tryal that thou must forsake Christ or thy worldly happiness and the wind which was in thy back doth turn in thy face then thou wilt venture Heaven rather then Earth and as desperate Rebels use to say thou wilt rather trust Gods Mercy for thy Soul then mans for thy body and so wilfully deny thy obedience to God 3. And certainly if God would but give thee leave to live in health and wealth for ever on Earth thou wouldst think it a better state then Rest Let them seek for Heaven that would thou wouldst think this thy chiefest happiness This is thy case if thou be yet an unregenerate person and hast no Title to the Saints Rest. SECT IV. THe second Mark which I shall give thee to try whether thou be an Heir of Rest is this As thou takest God for thy chief Good so Thou dost heartily accept of Christ for thy onely Saviour and Lord to bring thee to this Rest The former Mark was the sum of the first and great Command of the Law of Nature Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy heart or above all This second Mark is the sum of the Command or Condition of the Gospel which saith Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved And the performance of these two is the whole sum or essence of Godliness and Christianity Observe therefore the parts of this Mark which is but a Definition of Faith 1. Dost thou finde that thou art naturally a lost condemned man for thy breach of the first Covenant and dost beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Mediator who hath made a sufficient satisfaction to the Law and hearing in the Gospel that he is offered without exception unto all dost heartily consent that he alone shall be thy Saviour and dost no further trust to thy Duties and works then as conditions required by him and means appointed in subordination to him not looking at them as in the least measure able to satisfie the Curse of the Law or as a Legal Righteousness nor any part of it But art content to trust thy Salvation on the Redemption made by Christ 2. Art thou also content to Take him for thy onely Lord and King to govern and guide thee by his Laws and Spirit And to obey him even when he commandeth the hardest duties and those which most cross the desires of the flesh Is it thy sorrow when thou breakest thy resolution herein and thy Joy when thou keepest closest in obedience to him And though the world and flesh do sometime entice and over reach thee yet is it thy ordinary Desire and Resolution to Obey So that thou wouldst not change thy Lord and Master for all the world Thus it is with every true Christian. But if thou be an Hypocrite it is far otherwise Thou mayst call Christ thy Lord and thy Saviour But thou never foundest thy self so lost without him as to drive thee to seek him and trust him and lay thy Salvation on him alone Or at least thou didst never heartily consent that he should Govern thee as thy Lord nor didst resign up thy Soul and Life to be Ruled by him nor takest his Word for the Law of thy Thoughts and Actions It is like thou art content to be saved from Hell by Christ when thou dyest But in the mean time he shall command thee no further then will stand with thy credit or pleasure or worldly estate and ends And if he would give thee leave thou hadst far rather live after the world and flesh then after the Word and Spirit And though thou mayst now and then have a Motion or Purpose to the contrary yet this that I have mentioned is the ordinary desire and choyce of thy heart And so thou art no true Beleever in Christ For though thou confess him in words yet in works thou dost deny him being disobedient and to every Good Work a Disapprover and a Reprobate Tit. 1.16 This is the Case of those that shall be shut out of the Saints Rest. But especially I would here have you observe That it is in all this the Consent of your Hearts or Wills which I lay down in this Mark to be enquired after For that is the most essential Act of Justifying Faith Therefore I do not ask whether thou be Assured of Salvation nor yet whether thou canst beleeve that thy sins are pardoned and that thou art beloved of God in Christ These are no parts of Justifying Faith but excellent fruits and consequents which they that do receive are comforted by them but perhaps thou mayst never receive them whilest thou livest and yet be a true heir of Rest. Do not say then I cannot beleeve that my sin is pardoned or that I am in Gods favor and therefore I am no true Beleever This is a most mistaking conclusion The Question is Whether thou
canst heartily Accept of Christ that thou mayst be pardoned reconciled to God and so saved Dost thou Consent that he shall be thy Lord who hath bought thee and take his own course to bring thee to Heaven This is Justifying Saving Faith and this is the Mark that thou must try thy self by Yet still observe That all this Consent must be Hearty and Real not feigned or with reservations It is not saying as that dissembling son Matt. 21.30 I go sir when he went not To say Christ shall be my Lord and yet let corruption ordinarily rule thee or be unwilling that his Commands should encroach upon the interest of the world or flesh If any have more of the Government of thee then Christ or if thou hadst rather live after any other Laws then his if it were at thy choyce thou art not his Disciple Thus I have layd you down these two Marks which I am sure are such as every Christian hath and no other but sincere Christians I will add no more seeing the substance of Christianity is contained in these Oh that the Lord would now perswade thee to the close performance of this Self-trying Task That thou mayst not tremble with horror of Soul when the Judg of all the World shall try thee but have thy Evidence and Assurance so ready at hand and be so able to prove thy Title to Rest that the thoughts and approaching of Death and Judgment may revive thy spirits and fill thee with Joy and not apale thee and fill thee with amazement CHAP. X. The fourth Vse The Reason of the Saints Afflictions here SECT I. A Further necessary Use which we must make of the present Doctrine is this To inform us why the People of God do suffer so much in this life What wonder when you see their Rest doth yet Remain They are not yet come to their Resting place We would all fain have continual prosperity because it is easie and pleasing to the flesh but we consider not the unreasonableness of such desires We are like children who if they see any thing which their appetite desireth do cry for it and if you tell them that it is unwholesom or hurtful for them they are never the more quieted or if you go about to heal any sore that they have they will not endure you to hurt them though you tell them that they cannot otherwise be healed their Sense is too strong for their Reason and therefore Reason doth little perswade them Even so is it with us when God is afflicting us He giveth us Reasons why we must bear them so that our Reason is oft convinced and satisfied And yet we cry and complain still and we rest satisfied never the more It is not Reason but Ease that we must have What cares the flesh for Scripture and Argument if it still suffer and smart These be but winde and words which do not remove or abate its pain Spiritual remedies may cure the spirits maladies but that will not content the flesh But methinks Christians should have another pallate then that of the flesh to try and relish providences by God hath purposely given them the Spirit to subdue and over-rule the flesh And therefore I shall here give them some Reasons of Gods dealing in their present sufferings whereby the equity and mercy therein may appear And they shall be onely such as are drawn from the reference that these afflictions have to our Rest which being a Christians Happiness and ultimate End will direct him in judging of all estates and means SECT II. 1. COnsider then That Labor and Trouble are the common way to Rest both in the course of Nature and of Grace Can there possibly be Rest without Motion and Weariness Do you not Travel and Toyl first and then rest you afterwards The day for Labor goes first and then the night for Rest doth follow Why should we desire the course of Grace to be perverted any more then we would do the course of Nature seeing this is as perfect and regular as the other God did once dry up the Sea to make a passage for his people and once make the Sun in the Firmament to stand still But must he do so always or as oft as we would have him It is his established Decree That through many tribulations we must enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Act. 14.22 And that if we suffer with him we shall also be glorified with him 2 Tim. 2.12 And what are we that Gods Statutes should be reversed for our pleasure SECT III. 2. COnsider also That Afflictions are exceeding useful to us to keep us from mistaking our Resting place and so taking up short of it A Christians Motion Heaven-wards is Voluntary and not constrained Those means therefore are most profitable to him which help his Understanding and Will in this prosecution The most dangerous mistake that our Souls are capable of is to take the Creature for God and Earth for Heaven And yet alass how common is this And in how great a degree are the best guilty of it Though we are ashamed to speak so much with our tongues yet how oft do our hearts say It is best being here And how contented are they with an earthly portion So that I fear God would displease most of us more to afflict us here and promise us Rest hereafter then to give us our hearts desire on earth though he had never made us a promise of Heaven As if the Creature without God were better then God without the Creature Alass how apt are we like foolish children when we are busie at our sports and worldly employments to forget both our Father and our home Therefore is it a hard thing for a Rich man to enter into Heaven because it is hard for him to value it more then Earth and not to think he is well already Come to a man that hath the world at will and tell him This is not Your Happiness You have higher things to look after and how little will he regard you But when Affliction comes it speaks convincingly and will be heard when Preachers cannot What warm affectionate eager thoughts have we of the world till Affliction cool them and moderate them How few and cold would our thoughts of Heaven be how little should we care for coming thither if God would give us Rest on Earth Our thoughts are with God as Noahs Dove was in the Ark kept up to him a little against their inclinations and desires but when once they can break away they fly up and down over all the world to see if it were possible to finde any Rest out of God But when we finde that we seek in vain and that the world is all covered with the waters of instable vanity and bitter vexation and that there is no Rest for the sole of our foot or for the foot of our Soul no wonder then if we return to the Ark again Many a
poor Christian whom God will not suffer to be drowned in worldliness nor to take up short of his Rest is sometime bending his thoughts to thrive in wealth sometime he is enticed to some flesh-pleasing sin sometime he begins to be lifted up with applause and sometime being in health and prosperity he hath lost his relish of Christ and the Joys above Till God break in upon his riches and scatter them abroad or upon his children or upon his conscience or upon the health of his body and break down his mount which he thought so strong And then when he lieth in Manassâ—â— his fetters or is fastened to his bed with pining sickness Oh what an opportunity hath the Spirit to plead with his Soul When the World is worth nothing then Heaven is worth something I leave every Christian to judg by his own experience whether we do not over-love the World more in prosperity then in adversity and whether we be not loather to come away to God when we have what the flesh desireth here How oft are we sitting down on Earth as if we were loath to go any further till Affliction call to us as the Angel to Elijah Vp thou hast a great way to go How oft have I been ready to think my self at home till Sickness hath roundly told me I was mistaken And how apt yet to fall into the same disease which prevaileth till it be removed by the same cure If our dear Lord did not put these thorns into our bed we should sleep out our lives and lose our Glory Therefore doth the Lord sometime deny us an inheritance on Earth with our Brethren because he hath separated us to stand before him and minister to him and the Lord himself will be our inheritance as he hath promised as it is said of the Tribe of Levi Deut. 10.8 9. SECT IV. 3. COnsider also That Afflictions be Gods most effectual means to keep us from stragling out of the way to our Rest. If he had not set a hedg of Thorns on the right hand and another on the left we should hardly keep the way to Heaven If there be but one gap open without these Thorns how ready are we to finde it and turn out at it But when we cannot go astray but these Thorns will prick us perhaps we will be content to hold the way When we grow fleshly and wanton and worldly and proud what a notable means is Sickness or other Affliction to reduce us It is every Christian as well as Luther that may call Affliction one of his best School-masters Many a one as well as David may say by experience Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I sincerely kept thy Precepts Psal. 119.67 As Phisicians say of bodily destruction so may we of spiritual That Peace killeth more then War Read Nehem. 9. Their case is ours When we have prosperity we grow secure and sinful Then God afflicteth us and we cry for mercy and purpose reformation But after we have a little Rest we do evil again Vers. 28. Till God take up the Rod again that he may bring us back to his Law vers 29. And thus prosperity and sinning and suffering and repenting and deliverance and sinning again do run all in around Even as Peace breeds Contention and that breeds War and that by its bitterness breeds Peace again Many a thousand poor recovered sinners may cry Oh healthful sickness Oh comfortable sorrows Oh gainful losses enriching poverty Oh Blessed Day that ever I was afflicted It is not onely the pleasant streams and the green pastures but his Rod and Staff also that are our Comfort Psal. 23. Though I know it is the Word and Spirit that do the main work Yet certainly the Time of Suffering is so opportune a season that the same word will take then which before was scarce observed It doth so unbolt the door of the heart that a Minister or a godly man may then be heard and the Word may have easier enterance to the Affections Even the Threats of Judgment will bring an Ahab or a Nineveh into their sackcloth and ashes and make them cry mightily unto GOD. Something then will the feeling of those Judgments do SECT V. 4. COnsider also That Afflictions are Gods most effectual Means to make us mend our pace in the way to our Rest. They are his Rod and his Spur What sluggard will not awake and stir when he feeleth them It were well if meer Love would prevail with us and that we were rather drawn to Heaven then driven But seeing our hearts so are bad that Mercy will not do it it is better be put on with the sharpest scourge then loyter out our time till the doors are shut Matthew the 25. Chap. and the 3 5 10 Verses Oh what a difference is there betwixt our prayers in health and in sickness betwixt our prosperity and our adversitiy-repentings He that before had not a tear to shed nor a groan to utter now can sob and sigh and weep his fill He that was wont to lie like a block in prayer and scarce minded what he said to God Now when affliction presseth him down how earnestly can he beg how doth he mingle his prayers and his tears how doth he purpose and promise reformation and cry out what a person he will be if God will but hear him and deliver him Alas if we did not sometime feel the spur what a slow pace would most of us hold toward Heaven and if we did not sometimes smart by Affliction how dead and blockish would be the best mens hearts Even innocent Adam is liker to forget GOD in a Paradise then Joseph in a prison or Job upon a dunghil Even a Solomon is like enough to fall in the midst of pleasure and prosperity when the most wicked Manasses in his Irons may be recovered As Doctor Stoughton saith We are like to childrens tops that will go but little longer then they are whipt Seeing then that our own vile natures do thus require it why should we be unwilling that GOD should do us good by so sharp a means Sure that is the best dealing for us which surest and soonest doth further us for Heaven I leave thee Christian to judg by thy own experience whether thou dost not go more watchfully and lively and speedily in thy way to Rest in thy sufferings then thou dost in thy more pleasing and prosperous state If you go to the vilest sinner on his dying bed and ask him Will you now drink and whore and scorn at the godly as you were wont to do you shall finde him quite in another minde Much more then will Affliction work on a gracious Soul SECT VI. 5. COnsider further It is but this Flesh which is troubled and grieved for the most part by Affliction And what Reason have we to be so tender of it In most of our sufferings the Soul is free further
them begin to look about them Let them know that thou speak not to them of indifferent things not about childrens games or worldlings vanities or matters of a few days or years continuance nor yet about matters of uncertainty which perhaps may never come to pass But it is about the saving or damning of their Souls and bodies and whether they shall be Blessed with Christ or tormented with Devils and that for ever and ever without any change It is how to stand before God in Judgment and what answer to give and how they are like to speed And this Judgment and eternal state they shall very shortly see they are almost at it yet a few more nights and days and they shall presently be at that last day a few more breathes they have to breathe and they shall breathe out their last and then as certainly shall they see that mighty change as the Heaven is over their heads and the earth under their feet Oh labour to make men know that it is mad jesting about Salvation or Damnation and that Heaven and Hell be not matters to be playd with or passed over with a few careless thoughts Is it most certain that one of these days thou shalt be either in everlasting unchangeable Joy or Torments and doth it not awake thee Is there so few that find the way of life so many that go the way of death so hard to escape so easie to miscarry and that while we fear nothing but think all is well and yet do you fit still and trifle Why what do you mean what do you think on The world is passing away its pleasures are fading its honours are leaving you its profits will prove unprofitable to you Heaven or Hell are a little before you God is Just and Jealous his Threatenings are true the great day of his Judgment will be terrible your time runs on your lives are uncertain you are far behind hand you have loitered long your case is dangerous your Souls are far gone in sin you are strange to God you are hardened in evil customs you have no assurance of pardon to shew if you dye to morrow how unready are you and with what terror will your Souls go out of your bodies And do you yet loiter for all this Why consider with your selves God standeth all this while waiting your leasure his patience beareth his Justice forbeareth his Mercy intreateth you Christ standeth offering you his blood and merits you may have him freely and life with him the Spirit is perswading you Conscience is accusing and urging you Ministers are praying for you and calling upon you Satan stands waiting when Justice will cut off your lives that he may have you This is your time Now or Never What! had you rather lose Heaven then your profits or pleasures had you rather burn in Hell then repent on Earth had you rather howl and roar there then pray day and night for mercy here or to have Devils your Tormentors then to have Christ your Governor Will you renounce your part in God and Glory rather then renounce your cursed sins Do you think a holy life too much for Heaven or too dear a course to prevent an endless misery Oh friends What do you think of these things God hath made you men and endued you with Reason do not renounce your Reason where you should chiefly use it In this manner you must deal roundly and seriously with men Alas it is not a few dull words between Jest and earnest between sleep and waking as it were that will waken an ignorant dead-hearted sinner When a dull hearer and a dull speaker meet together a dead heart and a dead exhortation it is far unlike to have a lively effect If a man fall down in a Swoun you will not stand trifling with him but lay hands on him presently and snatch him up and rub him and call loud to him If a house be on fire you will not in a cold affected strain go tell your neighbor of it nor go make an oration of the nature and danger of fire but you will run out and cry Fire Fire Matters of moment must be seriously dealt with To tell a man of his sins so softly as Eli did his sons or reprove him so gently as Jehosaphat did Ahab Let not the King say so doth usually as much harm as good I am perswaded the very manner of some mens reproof and exhortations hath hardened many a sinner in the way of destruction To tell them of Sin or of Heaven or Hell in a dull easie careless language doth make men think you are not in good sadness nor do mean as you speak but either you scarce think your selves such things are true or else you take them for small indifferent matters or else sure you would never speak of them in such a slight indifferent manner Oh Sirs deal with Sin as Sin and speak of Heaven and Hell as they are and not as if you were in Jest. I confess I have failed much in this my self the Lord lay it not to my charge Loathness to displease men makes us undo them SECT IX 6. YEt lest you run into extreams I advise you to do it with Prudence and discretion Be as serious as you can but yet with Wisdom And especially you must be wise in these things following 1. In choosing the fittest season for your Exhortation not to deal with men when they are in passion or drunk or in publique where they will take it for a disgrace Mâ—n should observe when sinners are fittest to hear instructions Physick must not be given at all times but in season Opportunity advantageth every work It is an excellent example that Paul giveth us Gal. 2. â— He communicated the Gospel to them yet privately to them of reputation lest he should run in vain Some men would take this to be a sinful complying with their Corruption to yield so far to their pride and bashfulness as to teach them only in private because they would be ashamed to own the Truth in Publique But PAVL knew how great a hinderance mens reputation is to their entertaining of the Truth and that the remedy must not only be fitted to the disease but also to the strength of the Patient and that in so doing the Physician is not guilty of favoring the disease but is praise-worthy for taking the right way to cure and that learners and young-beginners must not be dealt with as open professors Moreover means will work easily if you take the opportunity when the Earth is soft the Plow will enter Take a man when he is under affliction or in the house of mourning or newly stirred by some moving Sermon and then set it home and you may do him good Christian Faithfulness doth require us not onely to do good when it falls in our way but to watch for opportunities of doing good 2 Be wise also in suiting your Exhortation to the quality and
we would not plead with sinners with our tongues God locketh up the clouds because we have shut up our mouthes The earth is grown hard as Iron to us because we have hardened our hearts against our miserable neighbors The cryes of the poor for bread are lowd because our cryes against sin have been so low Sicknesses run apace from house to house and sweep away the poor unprepared inhabitants because we swept not out the sin that breedeth them When you look over the woful desolations in England how ready are you to cry out on them that were the causers of it But did you consider how deeply your selves are guilty And as Christ said in another case Luk. 19 40. If these should hold their peace the stones would speak So because we held our peace at the Ignorance ungodliness and wickedness of our places therefore do these plagues and Judgments speak 7. Consider What a thing it will be to look upon your poor friends eternally in those flames and to think that your neglect was a great cause of it and that there was a time when you might have done much to prevent it If you should there perish with them it would be no small aggravation of your torment If you be in Heaven it would sure be a sad thought were it possible that any sorrow could dwell there To hear a multitude of poor souls there cry out for ever O if you would but have told me plainly of my sin and danger and dealt roundly with me and set it home I might have scaped all this torment and been now in Rest O what a sad voice will this be 8. Consider What a Joy is it like to be in Heaven to you to meet those there whom you have been means to bring thither To see their faces and joyn with them for ever in the praises of God whom you were instruments to bring to the knowledge and obedence of Christ. What it will be then we know not But sure according to our present temper it would be no small Joy 9. Consider how many souls have we drawn into the way of damnation or at least hardened or setled in it And should we not now be more diligent to draw men to life There is not one of us but have had our companions in sin especially in the dayes of our Ignorance and unregeneracy We have enticed them or encouraged them to Sabbath-breaking drinking or revellings or dancings and stageplayes or wantonness and vanities if not to scorn and oppose the godly We cannot so easily bring them from sin again as we did draw them to it Many are dead already without any change discovered who were our companions in sin we know not how many are and will be in hell that we drew thither and there may curse us in their torments for ever And doth it not beseem us then to do as much to save men as we have done to destroy them and be merciful to some as we have been cruel to others 10. Consider how diligent are all the enemies of these poor souls to draw them to Hell And if no body be diligent in helping them to Heaven what is like to become of them The Divel is tempting them day and night Their inward lusts are still working and withdrawing them The flesh is still pleading for its delights and profits Their old companions are ready to entice them to sin and to disgrace Gods wayes and people to them and to contradict the doctrine of Christ that should save them and to encrease their prejudice and dislike of holiness Seducing Teachers are exceeding diligent in sowing tares and in drawing off the unstable from the doctrine and way of life so that when we have done all we can and hope we have won men what a multitude of late have after all been taken in this snare And shall a seducer be so unwearied in Proselyting poor ungrounded souls to his Fancies And shall not a sound Christian be much more unwearied in laboring to win men to Christ and Life 11. Consider The neglect of this doth very deeply wound when conscience is awaked When a man comes to dye conscience will ask him VVhat good hast thou done in thy life time The saving of souls is the greatest good work what hast thou done towards this How many hast thou dealt faithfully with I have oft observed that the consciences of dying men do very much wound them for this omission For my own part to tell you my experience when ever I have been neer death my conscience hath accused me more for this then for any sin It would bring every ignorant prophane neighbor to my remembrance to whom I never made known their danger It would tell me Thou shouldst have gone to them in private and told them plainly of their desperate danger without bashfulness or dawbing though it had been when thou shouldest have eaten or slept if thou hadst no other time Conscience would then remember me how at such a time or such a time I was in company with the ignorant or was riding by the way with a wilful sinner and had a fit opportunity to have dealt with them but did not or at least did it by the halves and to little purpose The Lord grant I may better obey conscience hereafter while I live and have time that it may have less to accuse me of at death 12. Consider further It is now a very seasonable time which you have for this work Take it therefore while you have it There are times wherein it is not safe to speak it may cost you your liberties or your lives It is not so now with us Besides your neighbours will be here with you but a very little while They will shortly dye and so must you Speak to them therefore while you may set upon them and give them no rest till you have prevailed Do it speedily for it must be now or never A Roman Emperor when he heard of a neighbor dead he asked And what did I do for him before he dyed and it grieved him that a man should dye neer him and it could not be said that he had first done him any good Me thinks you should think of this when you hear that any of your neighbors are dead But I had far rather while they are alive you would ask the question There is such and such a neighbor alas how many that are ignorant and ungodly what have I done or said that might have in it any likely-hood of recovering them They will shortly be dead and then it is too late 13. Consider this is a work of greatest charity and yet such as every one of you may perform If it were to give them moneys the poor have it not to give if to fight for them the weak cannot if it were to suffer the fearful will say they cannot But every one hath a tongue to speak to a sinner The poorest may be thus charitable as well as the
drink with Publicans and sinners but it was only to be their Physitian and not their companion Who knows but God gave you interest in them to this end that you might be means of their recovery They that will not regard the words of another will regard a brother or sister or husband or wife or neer friend Besides that the bond of friendship doth engage you to more kindness and compassion then ordinary SECT IV. 3. PHysitians that are much about dying men should in a special maner make conscience of this duty They have a treble advantage First They are at hand Secondly They are with men in sickness and dangers when the ear is more open and the heart less stubborn then in time of health He that made a scorn of godliness before well then be of another minde and hear counsel then if ever he will hear it Thirdly Besides they look upon their Physitian as a man in whose hand is their life or at least may do much to save them and therefore they will the more regardfully hear his advice O therefore you that are of this honourable profession do not think this a work besides your calling as if it belonged to none but Ministers except you think it besides your calling to be compassionate or to be Christians O help therefore to fit your patients for heaven and whether you see they are for Life or for Death teach them both how to live and to dye and give them some Physick for their souls as you do for their bodies Blessed be God that very many of the chief Physitians of this Age have by their eminent piety vindicated their profession from the common imputation of Atheism and prophaness SECT V. 4. ANother sort that have excellent advantages for this duty is men that have wealth and authority and are of great place and command in the world especially that have many that live in dependance on them O what a world of good might Gentlemen and Knights and Lords do that have a great many of Tenants and that are the leaders of the Country if they had but hearts to improve their interest and advantage Little do you that are such think of the duty that lies upon you in this Have you not all your honor and riches from God and is it not evident then that you must employ them for the best advantage of his service Do you not know who hath said that to whom men commit much from them they will expect the more You have the greatest opportunities to do good of most men in the world Your Tenants dare not contradict you lest you dispossess them or their children of their habitations They fear you more then they do God himself Your frown will do more with them then the threatnings of the Scripture They will sooner obey you then God If you speak to them for God and their souls you may be regarded when even a Minister that they fear not shall be despised If they do but see you favor the way of Godliness they will lightly counterfeit it at least to please you especially if they live within the reach of your observation O therefore as you value the honor of God your own comfort and the Salvation of souls improve your interest to the utmost for God Go visit your Tenants and neighbors houses and see whether they worship God in their families and take all opportunities to press them to their duties Do not despise them because they are poor or simple Remember God is no respecter of persons your flesh is of no better mettal then theirs nor wil the worms spare your faces or hearts any more then theirs nor will your bones or dust bear the badge of your Gentility you must all be equals when you stand in Judgment And therefore help the soul of a poor man as well as if he were a Gentleman And let men see that you excell others as much in piety heavenliness compassion and diligence in Gods work as you do in riches and honor in the world I confesse you are like to be singular if you take this course but then remember you shall be singular in glory for few great and mighty and noble are called SECT VI. 5. ANother sort that have special opportunity to this work of helping others to heaven is The Ministers of the Gospel As they have or should have more ability then others so it is the very work of their calling and every one expecteth it at their hands and will better submit to their teaching then to other mens I intend not these instructions so much to teachers as to others and therefore I shall say but little to them and if all or most Ministers among us were as faithfull and diligent as some I would say nothing But because it is otherwise let me give these two or three words of advice to my Brethren in this office 1. Be sure that the recovering and saving of souls be the main end of your studies preaching O do not propound any low and base ends to your selves This is the end of your calling let it be also the end of your endeavors God forbid that you should spend a weeks study to please the people or to seek the advancing of you own reputations Dare you appear in the Pulpit on such a business and speak for your selves when you are sent and pretend to speak for Christ Dare you spend that time and wit and parts for your selves And wast the Lords day in seeking applause which God hath set apart for himself O what notorious sacriledge is this Set out the work of God as skilfully and adornedly as you can But still let the winning of souls be your end and let all your studies and labors be serviceable thereto Let not the window be so painted as to keep out the light but alwayes Judg that the best means that most conduceth to the end Do not think that God is best served by a neat starched laced Oration But that he is the able skilful Minister that is best skilled in the art of instructing convincing perswading and so winning of souls and that is the best Sermon that is best in these When you once grow otherwise minded and seek not God but your selves God will make you the basest and most contemptible of men as you make your selves the most sinfull and wretched Hath not this brought down the Ministery of England once already It is true of your reputation as Christ saith of your lives They that will save them shall lose them O let the vigor also of your perswasions shew that you are sensible on how weighty a business you are sent O Preach with that seriousness and fervor as men that believe their own doctrine and that know their hearers must either be prevailed with or be damned What you would do to save them from Everlasting burning that do while you have the opportunity and price in your hand that
one with another and Calvins Exposition which is the summ of all I have said q. d. Danda est vobis opera non tantum ut salsi intus sitis sed etiam ut saliatis alios Quia tamen sal acrimoniâ suâ mordet ideo statim admonet sic temperandam esse condituram ut pax interim salva maneat SECT XI 6. THe last whom I would perswade to this great Work of helping others to the Heavenly Rest is Parents and Masters of Families All you that God hath intrusted with Children or Servants O consider what Duty lyeth on you for the furthering of their Salvation That this Exhortation may be the more effectual with you I will lay down these several Considerations for you seriously to think on 1. What plain and pressing commands of God are there that require this great Duty at your hands Deut. 6.6 7 8. And these words which I command thee this day shall be in thy heart and thou shalt teach them diligently to thy children speaking of them when thou sittest in thy house and when thou walkest by the way and when thou lyest down and when thou risest up So Deut. 11. And how well is God pleased with this in Abraham Gen. 18.19 Shall I hide from Abraham that thing which I do For I know him that he will command his Children and his Houshold after him that they shall keep the way of the Lord c. And it is Joshuaes Resolution That he and his Houshold will serve the Lord. Prov. 22.6 Train up a childe in the way he should go and when he is old he will not depart from it Ephes 6.4 Bring up your children in the Nurture and Admonition of the Lord. Many the like Precepts especially in the Book of Proverbs you may finde So that you see it is a Work that the Lord of heaven and earth hath laid upon you and how then dare you neglect it and cast it off 2. It is a duty that you ow your children in point of Justice from you they received the defilement and misery of their natures and therefore you ow them all possible help for their recovery If you had but hurt a stranger yea though against your will you would think it duty to help to cure him 3. Consider how neer your children are to you and then you will perceive that from this Natural Relation also they have interest in your utmost help your children are as it were parts of your selves If they prosper when you are dead you take it almost as if you lived and prospered in them If you labor never so much you think it not ill bestowed nor your buildings or purchases too dear so that they may enjoy them when you are dead and should you not be of the same minde for their everlasting Rest 4. You will else be witnesses against your own souls your great care and pains and cost for their bodies will condemn you for your neglect of their pretious souls you can spend your selves in toyling and caring for their bodies and even neglect your own souls and venture them sometimes upon unwarrantable courses and all to provide for your Posterity and have you not as much reason to provide for their souls Do you not believe that your children must be everlastingly happy or miserable when this life is ended and should not that be fore-thought of in the first place 5. Yea All the very bruit creatures may condemn you Which of them is not tender of their young How long will the Hen sit to hatch her Chickens and how busily scrape for them and how carefully shelter and defend them and so will even the most vile and venemous Serpent and will you be more unnatural and hard-hearted then all these will you suffer your children to be ungodly and profane and run on in the undoubted way to damnation and let them alone to destroy themselves without controll 6. Consider God hath made your children to be your charge yea and your servants too Every one will confess they are the Ministers charge and what a dreadful thing it is for them to neglect them when God hath told them That if they tell not the wicked of their sin and danger their blood shall be required at that Ministers hands and is not your charge as great and as dreadful as theirs Have not you a greater charge of your own Families then any Minister hath Yea doubtless and your duty it is to reach and admonish and reprove them and watch over them and at your hands else will God require the bloud of their souls The greatest charge it is that ever you were entrusted with and we to you if you prove unfaithful and betray your trust and suffer them to be ignorant for want of your teaching or wicked for want of your admonition or correction O â—ad account that many parents will make 7. Look into the dispositions and lives of your children and see what a work there is for you to do First It is not one sin that you must help them against but thousands their name is Legion for they are many It is not one weed that must be pulled up but the field is overspread with them Secondly And how hard is it to prevail against any one of them They are Hereditary diseases bred in their Natures Naturam expellâ—s furea c. They are aâ— neer them as the very heart and how tenacious are all things of that which is natural how hard to teach a Hare not to be fearful or a Lyon or Tiger not to be fierce Besides the things you must teach them are quite above them yea clean contrary to the interest and desires of their Flesh how hard is it to teach a man to be willing to be poor and despised and destroyed here for Christ to deny themselves and displease the flesh to forgive an Enemy to love those that hate us to watch against temptations to avoid occasions and appearance of evil to believe in a crucified Saviour to rejoyce in tribulation to trust upon a bare word of Promise and let go all in hand if call'd to it for something in hope that they never saw nor ever spake with man that did see to make God their chief delight and love and to have their hearts in heaven while they live on earth I think none of this is easie they think otherwise let them try and Judg yet all this must be learned or they are undone for ever If you help them not to some Trade they cannot live in the world but if they be destitute of these things they shall not live in heaven If the Marriner be not skilful he may be drowned and if the Souldier be not skilful he may be slain but they that cannot do the things above mentioned will perish for ever For without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 O that the Lord would make all you that are Parents sensible what a work and charge
of war and the unpleasing life of a Souldier and after so many yeers groaning under the Churches unreformedness and the great fears that lay upon us and after so many longings and prayers for these days Have I not thought of them with too much content and been ready to say Soul take thy rest Have not I comforted my self more in the fore-thoughts of enjoying these then of coming to Heaven and enjoying God What wonder then if God cut me off when I am just sitting down in this supposed Rest and hath not the like been your condition Many of you have been Souldiers driven from house and home endured a life of trouble and blood been deprived of Ministry and Means longing to see the Churches setling Did you not reckon up all the Comforts you should have at your return and glad your hearts with such thoughts more then with the thoughts of your coming to Heaven Why what wonder if God now somewhat cross you and turn some of your joy into sadness Many a servant of God hath been destroyed from the Earth by being overvalued and overloved I pray God you may take warning for the time to come that you rob not your selves of all your mercies I am perswaded our discontents and murmurings with an unpleasing condition and our covetous desires after more are not so provoking to God nor so destructive to the sinner as our too sweet enjoying and Rest of Spirit in a pleasing State If God have crossed any of you in Wife Children Goods Friends c. either by taking them from you or the comfort of them or the benefit and blessing Try whether this above all other be not the cause for wheresoever your desires stop and you say Now I am well that condition you make your god and engage the jealousie of God against it Whether you be friends to God or enemies you can never expect that God should wink at such Idolatrie or suffer you quietlie to enjoy your Idols SECT V. 4. COnsider if God should suffer thee thus to take up thy Rest here it were one of the forest plagues and greatest curses that could possibly befall thee It were better for thee if thou never hadst a day of ease or content in the world for then weariness might make thee seek after the true Rest But if he should suffer thee to sit down and rest here where were thy rest when this deceives thee A restless wretch thou wouldst be through all eternitie To have their portion in this life and their good things on the Earth is the lot of the most miserable perishing sinners And doth it become Christians then to expect so much here Our Rest is our Heaven and where we take our Rest there we make our Heaven And wouldst thou have but such a Heaven as this Certainly as Sauls Messengers found but Michols man of Straw when they expected David So wilt thou finde but â— Rest of Straw of Wind of Vanitie when thou most needest Rest. It will be but as a handful of water to a man that 's drowning which will help to destroy but not to save him But that is the next SECT VI. 5. COnsider thou seekest Rest where it is not to be found and so wilt lose all thy labor and if thou proceed thy souls eternal Rest too I think I shall easily evince this by these clear demonstrations following First Our Rest is onely in the full obtaining of our ultimate end But that is not to be expected in this life therefore neither is rest to be here expected Is God to be enjoyed in the best Reformed Church in the purest and powerfullest Ordinances here as he is in Heaven I know you will all confess he is not How little of God not onely the multitude of the blinde world but sometimes the Saints themselves do enjoy even under the most excellent Means let their own frequent complainings testifie And how poor comforters are the best Ordinances and Enjoyments without God the truly Spiritual Christian knows Will a stone rest in the Air in the midst of its fall before it comes to the Earth No because its center is its end Should a Traveller take up his rest in the way No because his home is his journeys end VVhen you have all that Creatures and Means can afford have you that you sought for Have you that you beleeved pray suffer for I think you dare not say so VVhy then do we once dream of resting here VVe are like little Children strayed from home and God is now fetching us home and we are ready to turn into any house stay and play with every thing in our way and sit down on every green bank and much ado there is to get us home Secondly As we have not yet obtained our end so are we in the midst of labors and dangers and is there any resting here VVhat painful work doth lie upon our hands Look to our Brethren to godly to ungodly to the Church to our souls to God and what a deal of work in respect of each of these doth lie before us and can we rest in the midst of all our labors Indeed we may take some refreshing and ease our selves sometimes in our troubles if you will call that Rest But that 's not the setling Rest we now are speaking of we may rest on Earth as the Ark is said to have rested in the midst of Jordan Josh. 3.13 A short and small Rest no question or as the Angels of Heaven are desired to turn in and rest them on Earth Gen. 18.4 They would have been loath to have taken up their dwelling there Should Israel have setled his Rest in the VVilderness among Serpents and enemies and weariness and famine Should Noah have made the Ark his home and have been loth to come forth when the waters were faln Should the Marriner chuse his dwelling on the Sea and settle his rest in the midst of Rocks and Sands and raging Tempests though he may adventure through all these for a Commodity of worth yet I think he takes it not for his rest Should a Souldier rest in the midst of fight when he is in the very thickest of his enemies and the instruments of death compass him about I think he cares not how soon the battle is over And though he may adventure upon war for the obtaining of peace yet I hope he is not so mad as to take that instead of Peace And are not Christians such Travellers such Marriners such Souldiers Have we not fears within and troubles without are we not in the thickest of continual dangers we cannot eat drink sleep labor pray hear confer c. but in the midst of snares and perils and shall we sit down and rest here O Christian follow thy work look to thy dangers hold on to the end win the field and come off the ground before thou think of a setling rest I read indeed that Peter on the mount when
the Christian the Drunkard the Whoremaster and the jovial Lads do swagger it out with gallantry and mirth when a poor Saint is mourning in a corner yea the very beasts of the field do eat and drink and skip play and care for nothing when many a Christian dwels with sorrows So that if you would not dye and go to heaven what would you have more then an Epicure or a beast What doth it availe us to fight with beasts as men if it were not for our hopes of a life to come Why do we pray and fast and mourn why do we suffer the contempt of the world why are we the scorn and hatred of all if it were not for our hopes after we are dead why are we Christians and not Pagans and Infidels if we do not desire a life to come why Christian wouldst thou lose thy faith and lose thy labor in all thy duties and all thy sufferings wouldst thou lose thy hope and lose all the end of thy life and lose all the blood of Christ and be contented with the portion of a worldling or a brute If thou say No to this how canst thou then be loth to dye As good old Milius said when he lay a dying and was asked whether he were willing to dye or no Illius est nolle mori qui nolit ire ad Christum A saying of Austins which he oft repeated Let him be loth to dye who is loth to be with Christ. SECT XI 2. COnsider Is God willing by death to Glorifie us and are we unwilling to dye that we may be glorified would God freely give us heaven and are we unwilling to receive it As the Prince who would have taken the lame begger into his Coach and he refused said to him Opitimè mereris qui in luto haereas Thou well deservest to stick in the dirt So may God to the refusers of Rest You well deserve to live in trouble Me thinks if a Prince were willing to make you his heir you should scarce be unwilling to accept it Sure the refusing of such a kindness must needs discover ingratitude and unworthiness As God hath resolved against them who make excuses when they should come to Christ Verily none of these that were bidden shall tast of my supper So is it just with him to resolve against us who frame excuses when we should come to Glory SECT XII 3. THe Lord Jesus was willing to come from heaven to earth for us and shall be unwilling to remove from earth to heaven for our selves and him Sure if we had been once possessed of Heaven and God should have sent â—s to earth again as he did his Son for our sakes we should then have been loth to remove indeed It was another kinde of change then ours is which Christ did freely submit unto to cloath himself with the garments of flesh and to take upon him the form of a servant to come from the bosome of the Fathers Love to bear his wrath which we should have borne Shall he come down to our hell from the height of glory to the depth of misery to bring us up to his Eternal Rest and shall we be after this unwilling Sure Christ had more cause to be unwilling he might have said What is it to me if these sinners suffer If they value their flesh above their spirits and their lusts above my Fathers Love if they needs will sell their souls for nought who is it fit should be the loser and who should bear the blame and curse Should I whom they have wronged must they wilfully transgress my Law and I undergo their deserved pain Is it not enough that I bear the trespasse from them but I must also bear my Fathers wrath and satisfie the Justice which they have wronged Must I come down from Heaven to Earth and cloth my self with humane flesh be spit upon and scorned by man and fast and weep and sweat and suffer and bleed and dye a cursed death and all this for wretched wormes who would rather hazard all they had and venture their souls and Gods favor then they would forbear but one forbiden morsel Do they cast away themselves so slightly and must I redeem them again so dearly Thus we see that Christ had much to have pleaded against his coming down for man and yet he pleaded none of this He had reason enough to have made him unwilling and yet did he voluntarily condescend But we have no reason against our coming to him except we will reason against our hopes and plead for a perpetuity of our own calamities Christ came down to fetch us up and would we have him loose his blood and labor and go away again without us Hath he bought our Rest at so dear a rate Is our inheritance purchased with the blood of God And are we after all this loth to enter Ah Sirs it was Christ and not we that had cause to be loth The Lord forgive and heal this foolish ingratitude SECT XIII 4. COnsider do we not combine with our most cruel mortal foes and jump with them in their most malitious designe while we are loth to dye and go to heaven where is the height of all their malice and what 's the scope of all temptations and what 's the divels daily business Is it not to keep our souls from God And shall we be well content with this and joyn with Satan in our desires what though it be not those eternal torments yet it s the one half of Hell which we wish to our selves while we desire to be absent from Heaven and God If thou shouldest take counsel of all thine enemies If thou shouldest beat thy brains both night and day in studying to do thy self a mischief What greater then 〈◊〉 could it possibly be To continue here on earth from God Excepting only hell it self O what sport is this to Sathan that his desires and thine should so concur That when he sees he cannot get thee to Hell he can so long keep thee out of Heaven and make thee the earnest petitioner for it thy self O gratifie not the Divel so much to thy own displeasure SECT XIV 5. DO not our daily fears of death make our lives a continual torment The fears of death as Erasmus saith being a sorer evil then death it self And thus as Paul did dye daily in regard of preparation and in regard of the necessary sufferings of his life so do we in regard of the torments and the useless sufferings which we make our selves Those lives which might be full of Joyes in the daily contemplation of the life to come and the sweet delightful thoughts of bliss how do we fill them up with terrors through all these causeless thoughts and fears Thus do we consume our own comforts and prey upon our truâ—st pleasures When we might lye down and rise up and walk abroad with our hearts full of
his chariot so long a coming Why tarry the wheels of his chariots Hovv long Lord Hovv long SECT XX. 11. COnsider vvhat if God should grant thy desire and let thee live yet many yeers but vvithal should strip thee of the comforts of life and deny thee the mercies vvhich thou hast hitherto enjoyed Would this be a blessing vvorth the begging for Might not God in judgment give thee life as he gave the murmuring Israelites Quails or as he oft times gives men riches and honor when he sees them over-earnest for it Might he not justly say to thee Seeing thou hadst rather linger on earth then come away and enjoy my presence seeing thou art so greedy of life take it and a curse with it never let fruit grow on it more nor the Sun of comfort shine upon it nor the dew of my blessing ever water it Let thy table be a snare let thy friends be thy sorrow let thy riches be corrupted and the rust of thy silver eat thy flesh Go hear Sermons as long as thou wilt but let never Sermon do thee good more let all thou hearest make against thee and increase the smart of thy wounded spirit If thou love Preaching better then Heaven go and preach till thou be aweary but never profit soul more Sirs what if God should thus chastise our inordinate desires of living were it not just and what good would our lives then do us Seest thou not some that spend their days on their cowch in groaning and some in begging by the high-way sides and others in seeking bread from door to door and most of the world in laboring for food and rayment and living onely that they may live and loosing the ends and benefits of life Why what good would such a life do thee were it never so long when thy soul shall serve thee onely in stead of Salt to keep thy body from stinking God might give thee life till thou art weary of living and as glad to be rid of it as Judas or Ahitophel and make thee like many miserable Creatures in the world who can hardly forbear laying violent hands on themselves Be not therefore so importunate for life which may prove a judgment in stead of a blessing SECT XXI 12. COnsider how many of the precious Saints of God of all ages and places have gone before thee Thou art not to enter an untrodden path nor appointed first to break the Ice Except onely Henoch and Elias which of the Saints have scaped death And art thou better then they There are many millions of Saints dead more then do now remain on Earth What a number of thine own bosome friends and intimate acquaintance and companions in duty are now there and why shouldst thou be so loth to follow Nay hath not Jesus Christ himself gone this way hath he not sanctified the grave to us and perfumed the dust with his own body And art thou loth to follow him too O rather let us say as Thomas Let us also go and die with him or rather let us suffer with him that we may be glorified together with him Many such like Considerations might be added as that Christ hath taken out the sting How light the Saints have made of it how cheerfully the very Pagans have entertained it c. But because all that 's hitherto spoken is also conducible to the same purpose I pass them by If what hath been said will not perswade Scripture and Reason have little force I have said the more on this subject finding it so needful to my self and others finding that among so many Christians who could do and suffer much for Christ there 's yet so few that can willingly die and of many who have somewhat subdued other corruptions so few have got the conquest of this This caused me to drawforth these Arrows from the quiver of Scripture and spend them against it SECT XXII I Will onely yet Answer some Objections and so conclude this Use. 1. Object O If I were but certain of Heaven I should then never stick at dying Answ. 1. Search for all that whether some of the forementioned câ—uses may not be in fault as well as this 2. Didst thou not say so long ago Have you not been in this song this many yeers if you are yet uncertain whose fault is it you have had nothing else to do with your lives nor no greater matter then this to minde Were you not better presently fall to the tryal till you have put the Question out of doubt Must God stay while you trifle and must his patience be continued to cherish your negligence If thou have played the loyterer do so no longer Go search thy soul and follow the search close till theâ— come to a clear discovery Begin to night stay not till the next morning Certainty comes not by length of time but by the blessing of the Spirit upon wise and faithful tryal You may linger out thus twenty yeers more and be still as uncertain as now you are 3. A perfect certainty may not be expected we shall still be deficient in that as well as in other things They who think the Apostle speaks absolutely and not comparatively of a perfect assurance in the very degree when he mentions a Plerophory or Full assurance I know no reason but they may expect perfection in all things else as well as this VVhen you have done all you will know this but in part If your belief of that Scripture which saith Beleeve and be saved be imperfect and if your knowledg whether your own deceitful hearts do sincerely beleeve or not be imperfect or if but one of these tvvo be imperfect the result or conclusion must needs be so too If you vvould then stay till you are perfectly certain you may stay for ever if you have obtained assurance but in some degree or got but the grounds for assurance said it is then the speediest and surest vvay to desire rather to be quickly in Rest For then and never till then vvill both the grounds and assurance be fully perfect 4. Both your assurance and the comfort thereof is the gift of the Spirit vvho is a free bestovver And Gods usual time to be largest in mercy is vvhen his people are deepest in necessity A mercy in season is the svveetest mercy I could give you here abundance of late examples of those vvho have languished for assurance and comfort some all their sickness and some most of their lives and vvhen they have been neer to death they have received in abundance Never fear death then through imperfections of assurance for that 's the most usual time of all vvhen God most fully and svveetly bestovvs it SECT XXIII OBject 2. O but the Churches necessities are great and God hath made me useful in my place so that the loss vvill be to many or else me thinks I could vvillingly die Answ. This may be the case of some but
fruit perhaps we should be sooner drawn unto them and we should itch as the Bethshemites to be looking into this Ark. Sure I am where God hath forbidden us to place our thoughts and our delights thither it is easâ—y enough to draw them If he say Love not the World nor the things of the World we dote upon it never the less We have love enough if the world require it and thoughts enough to pursue our profits How delightfully and unweariedly can we think of vanity and day after day imploy our mindes about the Creature And have we no thoughts of this our Rest How freely and how frequently can we think of our pleasures our friends our labors our flesh our lusts our common studies or news yea our very miseries our wrongs our sufferings and our seats But vvhere is the Christian vvhose heart is on his Rest Why Sirs vvhat is the matter vvhy are vve not taken up vvith the vievvs of Glory and our souls more accustomed to these delightful Meditations Are vve so full of joy that vve need no more or is there no matter in Heaven for our joyous thoughts or rather are not our hearts carnal and blockish Earth vvill to Earth Had vve more Spirit it vvould be othervvise with us As the Jews use to cast to the ground the Book of Esther before they read it because the Name of God is not in it And as Austin cast by Ciceroes writings because they contained not the Name of Jesus So let us humble and cast dovvn these sensual hearts that have in them no more of Christ and Glory As we should not own our duties any further then somewhat of Christ is in them so should we no further own our hearts And as we should delight in the creatures no further then they have reference to Christ and Eternity so should we no further approve of our own hearts If there were little of Christ and Heaven in our mouths but the world were the onely subject of our speeches then all would account us to be ungodly why then may we not call our hearts ungodly that have so little delight in Christ and Heaven A holy tongue will not excuse or secure a profane heart Why did Christ pronounce his Disciples eyes and eares so blessed but as they were the doors to let in Christ by his Works and Words into their hearts O blessed are the eyes that so see and the ears that so hear that the heart is thereby raised to this blessed heavenly frame Sirs so much of your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven let it befilled with shame and sorrow and not with ease SECT II. BUt let me turn my Reprehension to Exhortation That you would turn this Conviction into Reformation And I have the more hope because I here address my self to men of Conscience that dare not wilfully disobey God and to men whose Relations to God are many and neer and therefore methinks there should need the fewer words to perswade their hearts to him Yea because I speak to no other men but onely them whose portion is there whose hopes are there and who have forsaken all that they may enjoy this glory and shall I be discouraged from perswading such to be heavenly-minded why fellow Christians if you will not hear and obey who will well may we be discouraged to exhort the poor blinde ungodly world and may say as Moses Exod. 6.12 Behold the Children of Israel have not hearkned unto me how then shall Pharoah hear me Who ever thou art therefore that readest these lines I require thee as thou tendrest thine Allegiance to the God of Heaven as ever thou hopest for a part in this glory that thou presently take thy heart to task chide it for its wilful strangeness to God turn thy thoughts from the pursuit of Vanity bend thy soul to study Eternity busie it about the life to come habituate thy self to such contemplations and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory but settle upon them dwell here bathe thy soul in heavens Delights drench thine affections in these rivers of pleasure or rather in this sea of Consolation and if thy backward soul begin to flag and thy loose thoughts to fly abroad call them back hold them to their work put them on bear not with their lasiness do not connive at one neglect and when thou hast once in obedience to God tried this work and followed on till thou hast got acquainted with it and kept a close guard upon thy thoughts till they are accustomed to obey and till thou hast got some mastery over them thou wilt then finde thy self in the suburbs of Heaven and as it were in a new world thou wilt then finde indeed that there is sweetness in the work and way of God and that the life of Christianity is a life of Joy Thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed and panted and groaned after and which so few Christians do ever here obtain because they know not this way to them or else make not conscience of walking in it You see the work now before you This this is it that I would fain perswade your souls to practise Beloved friends and Christian neighbors who hear me this day let me bespeak your consciences in the name of Christ and command you by the Authority I have received from Christ that you faithfully set upon this weighty duty and fix your eye more stedfastly on your Rest and daily delight in the fore-thoughts thereof I have perswaded you to many other duties and I bless God many of you have obeyed and I hope never to finde you at that pass as to say when you perceive the command of the Lord that you will not be perswaded nor obey if I should it were high time to bewail your misery Why you may almost as well say we will not obey as sit still and not obey Christians I beseech you as you take me for your Teacher and have called me thereto so hearken to this Doctrine if ever I shall prevail with you in any thing let me prevail with you in this to set your heart where you expect a Rest and Treasure Do you not remember that when you called me to be your Teacher you promised me under your hands that you would faithfully and conscionably endeavor the receiving every truth and obeying every command which I should from the Word of God manifest to you I now charge your promise upon you I never delivered to you a more apparent Truth nor prest upon you a more apparent duty then this If I knew you would not obey what should I do here preaching Not that I desire you to receive it chiefly as from me but as from Christ on whose Message I come Me thinks if a childe should shew you Scripture and speak to you the Word of God you should not dare to disobey it Do not wonder that I perswade you so earnestly though
same and if we took the right course for fetching in our comfort from these sure our comforts would be more setled and constant though not always the same Whoever thou art therefore that Readest these lines I intreat thee in the name of the Lord and as thou valuest the life of constant Joy and that good conscience which is a continual feast that thou wouldest but seriously set upon this work and learn this Art of Heavenly-mindedness and thou shalt finde the increase a hundred fold and the benefit abundantly exceed thy labor But this is the misery of mans Nature Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow and loves the most merry and joyful life yet few do love the way to Joy or will endure the pains by which it is obtained they will take the next that comes to hand and content themselves with earthly pleasures rather then they will ascend to heaven to seek it and yet when all is done they must have it there or be without it SECT VI. 4. COnsider A heart in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations a powerful means to kill thy corruptions and to save thy conscience from the wounds of sin God can prevent our sinning though we be careless and keep off the temptation which we would draw upon our selves and sometime doth so but this is not his usual course nor is this our safest way to escape When the minde is either idle or ill imployed the devil needs not a greater advantage when he finds the thoughts let out on Lust Revenge Ambition or Deceit what an opportunity hath he to move for Execution and to put on the Sinner to practise what he thinks on Nay if he finde the minde but empty there 's room for any thing that he will bring in but when he finds the heart in heaven what hope that any of his motions should take Let him entice to any forbidden course or shew us the baite of any pleasure the soul will return Nehemiaes Answer I am doing a great work and cannot come Neh. 6.3 Several ways will this preserve us against Temptations First By keeping the heart imployed Secondly By clearing the Understanding and so confirming the Will Thirdly By prepossessing the Affections with these highest delights Fourthly And by keeping us in the way of Gods blessing First By keeping the heart employed when we are idle we tempt the devil to tempt us as it is an encouragement to a Thief to see your doors open and no body within and as we use to say Careless persons make Theeves or as it will encourage an High-way Robber to see you unweaponed so may it encourage Sathan to find your hearts idle but when the heart is taken up with God it cannot have while to hearken to Temptations it cannot have while to be lustful and wanton ambitious or worldly If a poor man have a suit to any of you he will not come when you are taken up in some great mans company or discourse that 's but an ill time to speed If you were but busied in your lawful Callings you would not be so ready to hearken to Temptations much less if you were busied above with God Will you leave your Plow and Harvest in the Field or leave the quenching of a fire in your houses to run vvith children a hunting of Butterflies vvould a Judg be perswaded to rise from the Bench vvhen he is sitting upon life and death to go and play among the Boys in the streets No more will a Christian vvhen he is busie vvith God and taking a survey of his eternal Rest give ear to the alluring charms of Sathan Non vacat exiguis c. is a Character of the truly prudent man the children of that Kingdom should never have vvhile for trifles but especially vvhen they are imployed in the affairs of the Kingdom and this employment is one of the Saints chief preservatives against temptations For as Gregory saith Nunquam Dei amor otiosus est operatur enim magna si est Si verò operari renuit non est amor The Love of God is never idle it vvorketh great things vvhen it truly is and vvhen it vvill not vvork it is not love Therefore being still thus working it is still preserving Secondly A heavenly minde is the freest from sin because it is of clearest understanding in spiritual matters of greatest concernment A man that is much in conversing above hath truer and livelyer apprehensions of things concerning God and his soul then any reading or learning can beget Though perhaps he may be ignorant in divers controversies and matters that less concern salvation yet those truths vvhich must stablish his soul and preserve him from temptation he knows far better then the greatest Scholars he hath so deep an insight into the evil of sin the vanity of the creature the brutishness of fleshly sensual delights that temptations have little power on him for these earthly vanities are Satans baites which though they may take much with the undiscerning world yet with the clear-sighted they have lost their force In vain saith Salomon the net is spread in the sight of any bird Pro. 1.17 And usually in vain doth Satan lay his snares to entrap the soul that plainly sees them when a man is on high he may see the further we use to set our discovering Centinels on the highest place that 's neer unto us that he may discern all the motions of the Enemy In vain doth the Enemy lay his Ambuscado's when we stand over him on some high Mountain and clearly discover all he doth When the heavenly-minde is above with God he may far easier from thence discern every danger that lyes below and the whole method of the devil in deceiving Nay if he did not discover the snare yet were he likelier far to escape it then any others that converse below A net or baite that 's laid on the ground is unlikely to catch the bird that flyes in the Air while she keeps above she 's out 〈◊〉 of the danger and the higher the safer so is it with us Sathans temptations are laid on the earth earth is the place and earth the ordinary baite How shall these ensnare the Christian who hath left the earth and walks with God But alas we keep not long so high but down we must to the earth again and then we are taken If conversing with wise and learned men is the way to make one wise and learned then no wonder if he that converseth with God become wise If men that travel about the earth do think to return home with more experience and wisdom how much more he that travels to heaven As the very Air and Climate that we most abide in do work our bodies to their own temper no wonder if he that is much in that sublime and purer Region have a purer soul and quicker sight and if he have an understanding full of light who liveth with
the Sun the Fountain the Father of light as certain herbs and meats we feed on do tend to make our sight more clear so the soul that 's fed with Angels food must needs have anâ— understanding much more clear then they that dwel and feed on earth And therefore you may easily see that such a man is in far less danger of temptations and Satan will hardlier beguile his soul even as a wise man is hardlier deceived then fools and children Alas the men of the world that dwell below and know no other conversation but earthly no wonder if their understandings be darkned and they be easily drawn to every wickedness no wonder if Satan take them captive at his will and leade them about as we see a Dog leade a blinde man with a string The foggy Air and Mists of earth do thicken their sight the smoak of worldly cares and business blindes them and the dungeon which they live in is a land of darkness How can Worms Moles see whose dwelling is alwayes in the earth while this dust is in mens eyes no wonder if they mistake gain for godliness sin for grace the world for God their own wils for the Law of Christ and in the issue hell for heaven if the people of God will but take notice of their own hearts they shall finde their experiences confirming this that I have said Christians do you not sensibly perceive that when your hearts are seriously fixt on heaven you presently become wiser then before Are not your understandings more solid and your thoughts more sober have you not truer apprehensions of things then you had For my own part if ever I be wise it is when I have been much above and seriously studied the life to come Me thinks I finde my understanding after such contemplations as much to differ from what it was before as I before differed from a Fool or Idiot when my understanding is weakned and befool'd with common imployment and with conversing long with the vanities below me thinks a few sober thoughts of my Fathers house and the blessed provision of his Family in Heaven doth make me with the Prodigal to come to my self again Surely when a Christian withdraws himself from his earthly thoughts and begins to converse with God in heaven he is as Nebuchadnezzar taken from the beasts of the field to the Throne and his understanding returneth to him again O when a Christian hath had but a glimpse of Eternity and then looks down on the world again how doth he befool himself for his sin for neglects of Christ for his fleshly pleasures for his earthly cares How doth he say to his Laughter Thou art mad and to his vain Mirth What dost thou How could he even tear his very flesh and take revenge on himself for his folly how verily doth he think that there is no man in Bedlam so truly mad as wiful sinners and lazy betrayers of their own souls and unworthy sleighters of Christ and glory This is it that makes a dying man to be usually wiser then other men are because he looks on Eternity as neer and knowing he must very shortly be there he hath more deep and heart-piercing thoughts of it then ever he could have in health and prosperity Therefore it is that the most deluded sinners that were cheated with the world and bewitched with sin do then most ordinarily come to themselves so far as to have a righter judgment then they had and that many of the most bitter enemies of the Saints would give a world to be such themselves and would fain dye in the condition of those whom they hated even as wicked Balaam when his eyes are opened to see the perpetual blessedness of the Saints will cry out O that I might dye the death of the righteous and that my last end might be like his As Witches when they are taken and in prison or at the Gallows have no power left them to bewitch any more so we see commonly the most ungodly men when they see they must dye and go to another world their judgments are so changed and their speech so changed as if they were not the same men as if they were come to their wits again and Sin and Satan had power to bewitch them no more Yet let the same men recover and lose their apprehension of the life to come and how quickly do they lose their understandings with it In a word those that were befool'd with the world and the flesh are far wiser when they come to die and those that were wise before are now wise indeed If you would take a mans judgment about Sin or Grace or Christ or Heaven go to a dying man and ask him which you were best to chuse ask him whether you were best be drunk or no or be lustful or proud or revengeful or no ask him whether you were best pray and instruct your Families or no or to sanctifie the Lords Day or no though some to the death may be desperately hardned yet for the most part I had rather take a mans judgment then about these things then at any other time For my own part if my judgment be ever solid it is when I have the seriousest apprehensions of the life to come nay the sober mention of death sometimes will a little compose the most distracted understanding Sirs do you not think except men are stark devils but that it would be a harder matter to intice a man to sin when he lyes a dying then it was before If the devil or his Instruments should then tell him of a cup of Sack of merry company of a Stage-play or Morrice-Dance do you think he would then be so taken with the motion If he should then tell him of Riches or Honors or shew him a pair of Cards or Dice or a Whore would the temptation think you be as strong as before would he not answer Alas what 's all this to me who must presently appear before God and give account of all my life and straitways be in another world Why Christian if the apprehension of the neerness of Eternity will work such strange effects upon the ungodly and make them wiser then to be deceived so easily as they were wont to be in time of health O then what rare effects would it work vvith thee and make thee scorn the baits of sin if thou couldst always dwell in the views of God and in lively thoughts of thine everlasting state Surely a believer if he improve his faith may ordinarily have truer and more quickning apprehensions of the life to come in the time of his health then an unbeliever hath at the hour of his death Thirdly Furthermore A Heavenly minde is exceedingly fortified against temptations because the affections are so throughly prepossessed with the high delights of another world Whether Satan do not usually by the sensitive Appetite prevail with the Will without any further prevailing with the
Reason then meerly to suspend it I will not now dispute But doubtless when the soul is not affected with good though the Understanding do never so clearly apprehend the Truth it is easie for Satan to entice that soul. Meer speculations be they never so true which sink not into the affections are poor preservatives against temptations He that loves most and not he that onely knows most will easilyest resist the motions of sin There is in a Christian a kinde of spiritual taste whereby he knows these things besides his meer discuisive reasoning power The Will doth as sweetly relish goodness as the Understanding doth Truth and here lyes much of a Christians strength If you should dispute with a simple man and labor to perswade him that Suger is not sweet oâ— that Wormwood is not bitter perhaps you might by Sophistry over-argue his meer Reason but yet could you not perswade him against his sense whereas a man that hath lost his taste is easilyer deceived for all his reason So is it here when thou hast had a fresh delightful taste of heaven thou wilt not be so easily perswaded from it you cannot perswade a very childe to part with his Apple while the taste of its sweetness is yet in his mouth O that you would be perswaded to try this course to be much in feeding on the hidden Manna and to be frequently tasting the delights of heaven It s true it is a great way off from our Sense but Faith can reach as far as that How would this raise the resolutions and make thee laugh at the fooleries of the world and scorn to be cheated with such childish toyes Reader I pray thee tell me in good sadness dost thou think if the devil had set upon Peter in the Mount when he saw Christ in his Transfiguration and Moses and Elias talking with him would he so â—asily have been drawn to deny his Lord what with all that glory in his eye No the devil took a greater advantage when he had him in the High Priests Hall in the midst of danger and evil company when he had forgotten the sight on the Mount and then he prevails So if he should set upon a believing soul when he is taken up in the Mount with Christ what would such a soul say Get thâ—e behinde me Satan wouldst thou perswade me from hence with trifling pleasures and steal my heart from this my Rest wouldst thou have me sell these joyes for nothing Is there any honor or delight like this or can that be profit which loseth me this some such answer would the soul return But alas Satan staies till we are come down and the taste of heaven is out of our mouthes and the glory we saw is even forgotten and then he easily deceives our hearts What if the devil had set upon Paul when he was in the third Heaven and seeing those unutterable things could he then do you think have perswaded his heart to the pleasures or profits or honors of the world If his prick in the flesh which he after received were not affliction but temptation sure it prevailed not but sent him to heaven again for preserving grace Though the Israelites below may be enticed to Idolatry and from eating and drinking to rise up to play yet Moses in the Mount with God will not do so and if they had been where he was and had but seen what he there saw perhaps they would not so easily have sinned If ye give a man Aloes after Honey or some loathsome thing when he hath been feeding on junkets will he not soon perceive and spit it out O if we could keep the taste of our soul continually delighted with the sweetness above with what disdain should we spit out the baits of sin Fourthly Besides whilst the heart is set on heaven a man is under Gods protection and therefore if Satan then assault him God is more engaged for his defence and will doubtless stand by us and say My grace is sufficient for thee when a man is in the way of Gods blessing he is in the less danger of sins enticing So that now upon all this let me intreat thee Christian Reader If thou be a man that is haunted with temptation as doubless thou art if thou be a man if thou perceive thy danger and wouldst fain escape it O use much this powerful remedy keep close with God by a heavenly minde learn this Art of diversion and when the temptation comes go straite to heaven and turn thy thoughts to higher things thou shalt finde this a surer help then any other resisting whatsoever As men will do with scolding women let them alone and follow their business as if they heard not what they said and this will sooner put them to silence then if they answered them word for word so do by Satans temptations it may be he can overtalk you and over-wit you in dispute but let him alone and study not his temptations but follow your business above with Christ and keep your thoughts to their Heavenly imployment and you will this way sooner vanquish the temptation then if you argued or talk'd it out with the Tempter not but that sometime its most convenient to over-reason him but in ordinary temptations to known sin you shall finde it far better to follow this your work and neglect the allurements and say as Grynaeus out of Chrysost. when he sent back Pistorius letters not so much as opening the Seal Inhonestum est honestam matronam cum meritrice litigare It s an unseemly thing for an honest Matrone to be scolding with a Whore so it s a dishonest thing for a Son of God in apparent cases to stand wrangling with the devil and to be so far at his beck as to dispute with him at his pleasure even as oft as he will be pleased to tempt us Christian If thou remember that of Solomon Prov. 15.24 thou hast the summ of what I intend The way of life is above to the wise to avoide the path of hell beneath and withall remember Noahs example Gen. 6.9 Noah was a just man and perfect in his generation and no wonder for Noah walked with God So I may say to thee even as God to Abraham Walk before God and thou wilt be upright Gen. 17.1 SECT VII 5. COnsider The diligent keeping of your hearts on heaven will preserve the vigor of all your graces and put life into all your duties It s the heavenly Christian that is the lively Christian It s our strangeness to Heaven that makes us so dull It s the end that quickeneth to all the means And the more frequently and clearly this end is beheld the more vigorous will all our motion be How doth it make men unweariedly labor and fearelesly venture when they do but think of the gainful prize How will the Souldier hazard his life and the Marriner pass through storms and waves how cheerfully do they compass
sea and land and no difficulty can keep them back when they think of an uncertain perishing treasure O what life then would it put into a Christians endeavors if he would frequently forethink of his everlasting Treasure We run so slowly and strive so lazily because we so little minde the prize When a Christian hath been tasting the hidden Manna and drinking of the streams of the Paradise of God what life doth this Ambrosia and Nectar put into him How fervent will his spirit be in prayer when he considers that he prayes for no less then Heaven If Henoch Elias or any of the Saints who are now in Heaven and have partaked of the vision of the living God should be sent down to the earth again to live on the tearmes as we now do would they not strive hard and pray earnestly rather then lose that blessed Rest No wonder for they would know what it is they pray for It s true we cannot know it here so throughly as they yet if we would but get as high as we can and study but that which may now be known it would strangely alter both our spirits and our duties Observe but the man who is much in heaven and you shall see he is not like other Christians There is somewhat of that which he hath seen above appeareth in all his duty and conversation Nay take but the same man immediatly when he is returned from these views of Bliss and you shall easily perceive that he excels himself as if he were not indeed the same as before If he be a Preacher how heavenly are his Sermons what clear descriptions what high expressions what savory passages hath he of that Rest If he be a private Christian what heavenly conference what heavenly prayers what a heavenly carriage hath he May you not even hear in a preachers Sermons or in the private duties of another when they have been most above When Moses had been with God in the mount he had derived so much glory from God that made his face to shine that the people could not behold him Beloved friends if you would but set upon this employment even so would it be with you men would see the face of your conversation shine and say surely he hath been with God As the body is apt to be changed into the temper of the air it breaths in and the food it lives on so will your spirits receive an alteration according to the objects which they are exercised about If your thoughts do feed on Christ and heaven you will be heavenly if they feed on Earth you will be earthly It s true a heavenly Nature goes before this heavenly imployment but yet the work will make it more heavenly There must be life before we can feed but our life is continued and increased by feeding Therefore Reader let me here inform thee That if thou lie complaining of deadness and dulness that thou canst not love Christ nor rejoyce in his Love that thou hast no life in prayer nor any other duty and yet never tryedst this quickning course or at least art careless and unconstant in it Why thou art the cause of thy own complaints thou deadest and dullest thine own heart thou deniest thy self that life which thou talkst of Is not thy life hid with Christ in God Whither must thou go but to Christ for it and whither is that but to Heaven where he is Thou wilt not come to Christ that thou maist have life If thou wouldst have light and heat why art thou then no more in the Sunshine If thou wouldst have more of that Grace which flows from Christ why art thou no more with Christ for it Thy strength is in Heaven and thy life in Heaven and there thou must daily fetch it if thou wilt have it For want of this recourse to heaven thy soul is as a candle that is not lighted and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire Fetch one coal daily from this Altar and see if thy offering will not burn Light thy candle at this flame and feed it daily with Oyl from hence and see if it will not gloriously shine Keep close to this reviving fire and see if thy affections will not be warm Thou bewailest thy want of love to God and well thou maist for its a hainous crime a killing sin why lift up thy eye of Faith to Heaven behold his beauty contemplate his excellencies and see whether his amiableness will not fire thy affections and his perfect goodness ravish thy heart As the eye doth incense the sensual affections by its overmuch gazing on alluring objects so doth the eye of our Faith in meditation inflame our affections towards our Lord by the frequent gazing on that highest beauty Whoever thou art that art a stranger to this imployment be thy parts and profession never so great let me tell thee Thou spendest thy life but in trifling or idleness thou seemest to live but thou art dead I may say of thee as Seneca of idle Varia Scis latere vivere nescis Thou knowest how to lurk in idleness but how to live thou knowest not And as the same Seneca would say when he passed by that sluggards dwelling Ibi fitâ—s est Varia so may it be said of thee There lies such a one but not there lives such a one for thou spendest thy days liker to the dead then the living One of Draco's Laws to the Athenians was That he who was convict of idleness should be put to death Thou dost execute this on thy own soul whilest by thy idleness thou destroyest its liveliness Thou maist many other ways exercise thy parts but this is the way to exercise thy Graces They all come from God as their Fountain and lead to God as their ultimate End and are exercised on God as their chiefest Object so that God is their All in All. From Heaven they come and heavenly their nature is and to Heaven they will direct and move thee And as exercise maintaineth appetite strength and liveliness to the body so doth it also to the soul. Vse limbs and have limbs is the known Proverb And use Grace and Spiritual Life in these heavenly exercises and you shall finde it quickly cause their increase The exercise of your meer abilities of Speech will not much advantage your graces but the exercise of these heavenly soul exalting gifts will unconceivably help to the growth of both For as the Moon is then most full and glorious when it doth most directly face the Sun so will your souls be both in gifts and graces when you do most neerly view the face of God This will feed your tongue with matter and make you abound and overflow both in Preaching Praying and Conferring Besides the fire which you fetch from Heaven for your Sacrifices is no false or strange fire As your liveliness will be much more so will it be also more sincere A man may have a
great deal of fervor in Affections and Duties and all prove but common and unsound when it is raised upon common Grounds and motives your zeal will partake of the nature of those things by which it is acted The zeal therefore which is kindled by your meditations on Heaven is most like to prove a heavenly zeal and the liveliness of the Spirit which you fetch from the face of God must needs be the Divinest and sincerest life Some mens fervency is drawn onely from their Books and some from the pricks of some stinging affliction and some from the mouth of a moving Minister and some from the encouragement of an attentive Auditory but he that knows this way to heaven and it derives it daily from the pure Fountain shall have his soul revived with the water of Life and enjoy that quickning which is the Saints peculiar By this Faith thou maist offer Abels Sacrifice more excellent then that of common men and by it obtain winess that thou art righteous God testifying of thy gifts that they are sincere Heb. 11.4 when others are ready as Baals Priests to beat themselves and cut their flesh because their sacrifice will not burn then if thou canst get but the spirit of Elias and in the chariot of Contemplation canst soar aloft till thou approachest neer to the quickning Spirit thy soul and sacrifice will gloriously flame though the flesh and the world should cast upon them the water of all their opposing enmity Say not now How shall we get so high or how can mortals ascend to heaven For Faith hath wings and Meditation is its chariot Its office is to make absent things as present Do you not see how a little piece of Glass if it do but rightly face the Sun will so contract its beames and heat as to set on fire that which is behinde it which without it would have received but little warmth Why thy Faith is as the Burning-glass to thy Sacrifice and Meditation sets it to face the Sun onely take it not away too soon but hold it there awhile and thy soul will feel the happy effect The slanderous Jews did raise a foolish tale of Christ that he got into the Holy of Holies and thence stole the true name of God and lest he should lose it cut a hole in his thigh and sewed it therein and by the vertue of this he raised the dead gave sight to the blinde cast out divels and performed all his Miracles Surely if we can get into the Holy of Holies and bring thence the Name and Image of God and get it closed up in our hearts this would enable us to work wonders every duty we performed would be a wonder and they that heard would be ready to say Never man spake as this man speaketh The Spirit would possess us as those flaming tongues and make us every one to speak not in the variety of the confounded Languagues but in the primitive pure Language of Canaan the wonderful Works of God We should then be in every duty whether Prayer Exhortation or brotherly reproof as Paul was at Athens his Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was stirred within him and should be ready to say as Jeremy did Jer. 20.9 His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Christian Reader Art thou not thinking when thou seest a lively beleever and hearest his soul-melting Prayers and soul-ravishing discourse O how happy a man is this O that my soul were in this blessed plight Why I here direct and advise thee from God Try this forementioned course and set thy soul conscionably to this work and thou shalt be in as good a case Wash thee frequently in this Jordan and thy Leprous dead soul will revive and thou shalt know that there is a God in Israel and that thou mayst live a vigorous and joyous life if thou wilfully cast not by this duty and so neglect thine own mercies If thou be not a lazy reserved hypocrite but dost truly value this strong and active frame of Spirit shew it then by thy present attempting this heavenly exercise Say not now but thou hast heard the way to obtain this life into thy soul and into thy duties If thou wilt yet neglect it blame thy self But alas the multitude of Professors come to a Minister just as Naaman came to Elias they ask us How shall I know I am a childe of God How shall I overcome a hard heart and get such strength and life of Grace But they expect that some easie means should do it and think we should cure them with the very Answer to their Question and teach them a way to be quickly well but when they hear of a daily trading in Heaven and the constant Meditation on the joyes above This is a greater task then they expected and they turn their backs as Naaman on Elias or the young man on Christ and few of the most conscionable will set upon the duty Will not Preaching and Praying and Conference serve say they without this dweling still in Heaven Just as Countrey people come to Physitians when they have opened their case and made their moan they look he should cure them in a day or two or with the use of some cheap and easie Simple but when they hear of a tedious Method of Physick and of costly Compositions and bitter Potions they will hazard their lives with some sotish Empirick who tells them an easier and cheaper way yea or venture on death it self before they will obey such difficult counsel Too many that we hope well of I fear will take this course here If we could give them life as God did with a word or could heal their souls as Charmers do their bodies with easie stroaking and a few good words then they would readily hear and obey I entreat thee Reader beware of this folly fall to the work the comfort of Spiritual Health will countervail all the trouble of the Duty It is but the flesh that repines and gain-sayes which thou knowest was never a friend to thy soul If God had set thee on some grievous work shouldst thou not have done it for the life of thy soul How much more when he doth but invite thee Heaven-ward to himself SECT VIII 6. COnsider The frequent believing views of Glory are the most precious cordial in all Afflictions First To sustain our spirits and make our sufferings far more easie Secondly To stay us from repining and make us bear with patience and joy And thirdly to strengthen our resolutions that we forsake not Christ for fear of trouble Our very Beast will carry us more chearfully in travel when he is coming homeward where he expecteth Rest. A man will more quietly endure the lancing of his sores the cutting out the Stone when he thinks on the ease that will afterwards follow What then will not a beleever endure when
will not let us have our wils Sirs believe it this is the great reason of our mistakes impatience and censuring of God of our sadness of spirit at sickness and at death because we gaze on the evill it self but fix not our thoughts on what 's beyond it We look only on the blood and ruine and danger in our wars but God sees these with all the benefits to Souls Bodies Church State and Posterity all with one single view We see the Ark taken by the Philistines but see not their god falling before it and themselves returning it home with gifts They that saw Christ only on the Cross or in the Grave do shake their heads and think him lost but God saw him dying buryed rising glorified and all this with one view Surely faith will imitate God in this so far as it hath the glass of a promise to help it He that sees Joseph only in the pit or in the prison will more lament his case then he that sees his dignity beyond it Could old Jacob have seen so far it might have saved him a great deal of sorrow He that sees no more then the burying of the Corn under ground or the threshing the winnowing and grinding of it will take both it and the labour for lost but he that foresees its springing and increase and its making into bread for the life of man will think otherwise This is our mistake we see God burying us under ground but we foresee not the spring when we shall all revive we feel him threshing and winnowing and grinding us but we see not when we shall be served to our Masters table If we should but clearly see Heaven as the end of all Gods dealings with us surely none of his dealings could be so grievous Think of this I intreat thee Reader If thou canst but learn this way to Heaven and get thy soul acquainted there thou needest not be unfurnished of the choisest Cordials to revive thy spirits in every affliction thou knowest where to have them when ever thou wantest thou mayst have arguments at hand to answer all that the devil or flesh can say to thy discomfort Oh if God would once raise us to this life we should finde that though heaven and sin are at a great distance yet heaven and a prison or remotest banishment heaven and the belly of a Whale in the Sea heaven and a Den of Lions a consuming sickness or invading death are at no such distance But as Abraham so far off saw Christs day and rejoyced so we in our most forlorn estate might see that day when Christ shall give us Rest and therein rejoyce I beseech thee Christian for the honor of the Gospel and for the comfort of thy soul that thou be not to learn this heavenly Art when in thy greatest extremity thou hast most need to use it I know thou expectest suffering dayes at least thou lookest to be sick and dye thou wilt then have exceeding need of consolation why whence dost thou think to draw thy comforts If thou broach every other vessel none will come its only heaven that can afford thee store the place is far off the well is deep and if then thou have not wherewith to draw nor hast got thy soul acquainted with the place thou wilt finde thy self at a fearfull loss It s not an easie nor a common thing even with the best sort of men to die with Joy As ever thou wouldst shut up thy dayes in peace and close thy dying eyes with comfort dye daily live now above be much with Christ and thy own soul and the Saints about thee shall bless the day that ever thou tookst this Councell When God shall call thee to a sick bed and a grave thou shalt perceive him saying to thee as Isa. 26.20 Come my people enter into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast It s he that with Stephen doth see heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God who will comfortably bear the storm of stones Acts 7.56 Thou knowest not yet what tryals thou mayst be called to The Clouds begin to rise again and the times to threaten us with fearfull darkness Few Ages so prosperous to the Church but that still we must be saved so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.15 and go to heaven by the old road Men that would fall if the storm should shake them do frequently meet with that which tryes them Why what wilt thou do if this should be thy case Art thou fitted to suffer imprisonment or banishment to bear the loss of goods and life How is it possible thou shouldst do this and do it cordially and chearfully except thou hast a tast of some greater good which thou lookest to gain by losing these will the Merchant throw his goods overboard till he sees he must otherwise lose his life And wilt thou cast away all thou hast before thou hast felt the sweetness of that Rest which else thou must lose by saving these Nay and it is not a speculative knowledg which thou hast got onely by Reading or Hearing of heaven which will make thee part with all to get it as a man that onely heares of the sweetness of pleasant food or reads of the melodious sounds of Musick this doth not much excite his desires but when he hath tried the one by his taste and the other by his ear then he will more lay out to get them so if thou shouldst know onely by the hearing of the ear what is the glory of the inheritance of the Saints this would not bring thee through sufferings and death but if thou take this Trying tasting course by daily exercising thy soul above then nothing will stand in thy way but thou wouldest on till thou were there though through fire and water What State more terrible then that of an Apostate when God hath told us If any man draw back his soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Because they take not their pleasure in God and fill not themselves with the delights of his wayes and of his heavenly paths which drop fatness Psal. 65.11 Therefore do they prove backsliders in heart and are filled with the bitterness of their own wayes Prov. 14.14 Nay If they should not be brought to trial and so not actually deny Christ yet they are still interpretatively such because they are such in disposition and would be such in action if they were put to it I assure thee Reader for my part I cannot see how thou wilt be able to hold out to the end if thou keep not thine eye upon the recompence of reward and use not frequently to taste this cordially or the less thy diligence is in this the more doubtful must thy perseverance needs be for the Joy of the Lord is thy strength and that Joy must he fetcht from the place of thy Joy and if
thou walk without thy strength how long dost thou think thou art like to endure SECT IX 7. COnsider It is he that hath his conversation in heauen who is the profitable Christian to all about him with him you may take sweet counsel and go up to the celestial House of God When a man is in a strange Countrey far from home how glad is he of the company of one of his own Nation how delightful is it to them to talk of their Countrey of their acquaintance and the â—â—â—airs of their home why with a heavenly Christian thou maist have such discourse for he hath been there in the Spirit and can tell thee of the Glory and Rest above VVhat pleasant discourse was it to Joseph to talk with his Brethren in a strange Land and to enquire of his Father and his brother Benjamin Is it not so to a Christian to talk with his Brethren that have been above and enquire after his Father and Christ his Lord when a worldling will talk of nothing but the world and a Politician of nothing but the affairs of the State and a meer Scholar of Humane learning and a common Professor of Duties and of Christians the Heavenly man will be speaking of Heaven and the strange Glory which his Faith hath seen and our speedy and blessed meeting there I confess to discourse with able men of clear Understandings and piercing Wits about the controverted difficulties in Religion yea about some Criticisms in Languages and Sciences is both pleasant and profitable but nothing to this Heavenly discourse of a Beleever O how refreshing and savory are his expressions how his words do peirce and melt the heart how they transform the hearers into other men that they think they are in Heaven all the while How doth his Doctrine drop as the Rain and his Speech distil as the gentle Dew as the small Rain upon the tender Herb and as the showers upon the Grass while his tongue is expressing the Name of the Lord and ascribing greatness to his God Deut. 32.2 3. Is not his feeling sweet discourse of Heaven even like that box of precious oyntment which being opened to pour on the head of Christ doth fill the house with the pleasure of its perfume All that are neer may be refreshed by it His words are like the precious oyntment on Aarons head that ran down upon his beard and the skirts of his Garments Even like the dew of Hermon and as the dew that descendeth from the Celestial Mount Zion where the Lord hath commanded the blessing even life for evermore Psal. 133.3 This is the man who is as Job When the Candle of God did shine upon his head and when by his light he walked through darkness When the secret of God was upon his Tabernacle and when the Almighty was yet with him Then the ear that heard him did bless him and the eye that saw him gave witness to him Job 29.3 4 5 11. Happy the people that have a Heavenly Minister Happy the children and servants that have a Heavenly Father or Master Happy the man that hath Heavenly Associates if they have but hearts to know their happiness This is the Companion who will watch over thy ways who will strengthen thee when thou art weak who will chear thee when thou art drooping and comfort thee with the same comforts wherewith he hath been so often comforted himself 2 Cor. 1.4 This is he that will be blowing at the spark of thy Spiritual Life and always drawing thy soul to God and will be saying to thee as the Samaritan woman Come and see one that hath told me all that ever I did one that hath ravished my heart with his beauty one that hath loved our souls to the death Is not this the Christ Is not the knowledg of God and Him Eternal life Is not it the glory of the Saints to see his Glory If thou come to this mans house and sit at his Table he will feast thy soul with the dainties of Heaven thou shalt meet with a better then Plato's Philosophical feast even a taste of that feast of fat things Of wines on the lees of fat things full of marrow of wine on the lees well refined Isai. 25.6 That thy soul may be satisfied as with marrow and fatness and thou maist praise the Lord with joyful lips Psal 63.5 If thou travel with this man on the way he will be directing and quickning thee in thy Journey to Heaven If thou be buying or selling or trading with him in the world he will be counselling thee to lay out for the inestimable Treasure If thou wrong him he can pardon thee remembring that Christ hath not onely pardoned greater offences to him but will also give him this unvaluable portion If thou be angry he is meek considering the meekness of his heavenly Pattern or if he fall out with thee he is soon reconciled when he remembreth that in heaven you must be everlasting friends This is the Christian of the right stamp this is the servant that is like his Lord these be the innocent that save the Iland and all about them are the better where they dwell O Sirs I fear the men I have described are very rare even among the Religious but were it not for our own shameful negligence such men we might all be What Families what Towns what Commonwealths what Churches should we have if they were but composed of such men but that is more desirable then hopeful till we come to that Land which hath no other inhabitants save what are incomparably beyond this Alas how empty are the speeches and how unprofitable the society of all other sorts of Christians in comparison of these A man might perceive by his Divine Song and high Expressions Deut. 32. and 33. that Moses had been oft with God and that God had shewed him part of his Glory Who could have composed such spiritual Psalms and poured out praises as David did but a man after Gods own heart and a man that was neer the heart of God and no doubt had God also neer his heart Who could have preached such spiritual Doctrine and dived into the precious mysteries of Salvation as Paul did but one who had been called with a light from heaven and had been rapt up into the third heavens in the Spirit and there had seen the unutterable things If a man should come down from heaven amongst us who had lived in the possession of that blessed State how would men be desirous to see or hear him and all the Countrey far and neer would leave their business and crowd about him happy would he think himself that could get a sight of him how would men long to hear what reports he would make of the other world and what he had seen and what the blessed there enjoy would they not think this man the best companion and his discourse to be of all most profitable Why sirs Every true
the knowledg of whom They esteemed it sweet to live but to die far more sweet And I cannot tell whether this very thing will not prove more glorious to Bucholcer before God then if he had consecrated to the memory of posterity many Myriads of contentious writings And as the study of controversies is not the most pleasant nor the most profitable so much less the publike handling of them For do it with the greatest meekness and ingenuity yet shall we meet with such unreasonable men as the said Bucholcer did Qui arrepta ex aliquibus voculis calumniandi materia haereseos insimulare traducere optimum virum non erubescerent Frustra obtestante ipso dextrè data dextrè acciperent i. e. Who taking occasion of reproach from some small words were not ashamed to traduce the good man and accuse him of Heresie while he in vain obtested with them that they should take in good part what was delivered with a good intention Siracides saith in Ecclesiasticus Chapter 26. That a scolding woman shall be sought oâ—t for to drive away the enemies but experience of all ages tells us to our sorrow That the wrangling Divine is their chiefest in let and no such Scarcrow to them at all So then its clear to me That there is nothing worth our minding but Heaven and the way to Heaven All the Question will be about the affairs of Church and State Is not this worth our minding to see what things will come to and how God will conclude our differences Answ. So far as they are considered as the providences of God and as they tend to the setling of the Gospel and Government of Christ and so to the saving of our own and our posterities souls they are well worth our diligent observation but these are onely their relations to eternity Otherwise I should look up on all the stirs and commotions in the world but as the busie gading of a heap of Ants or the swarming of a nest of Wasps or Bees The spurn of a mans foot destroyes all their labor or as an Enterlude or Tragedy of a few hours long They first quarrel and then fight and let out one anothers blood and bring themselves more speedily and violently to their graves which however they could not long have delayed and so come down and the Play is ended And the next generation succeeds them in their madness and make the like bustle in the world for a time and so they also come down and lie in the dust Like the Roman Gladiatores that would kill one another by the hundreds to make the beholders a solemn shew or as the young men of Joab and Abner that must play before them by stabbing one another to the heart and fall down and dye and there is an end of the sport And is this worth a wise mans observance Surely our very bodies themselves for which we make all this ado in the world are very silly pieces Look upon them not as they are set out in a borrowed bravery but as they lie rotting in a ditch or a grave and you will say they are silly things indeed Why then sure all our dealings in the world our buyings and sellings and eating and drinking our building and marrying our wealth and honors our peace and our war so far as they relate not to the life to come but tend onely to the support and pleasing of this silly flesh must needs themselves be silly things and not worthy the frequent thoughts of a Christian For the Means as such is meaner then their end And now doth not thy Conscience say as I say That there is nothing but Heaven and the way to it that is worth thy minding SECT XV. THus I have given thee these twelve Arguments to consider of and if it may be to perswade thee to a heavenly minde I now desire thee to view them over read them deliberately and read them again and then tell me Are they Reason or are they not Reader stop here while thou answerest my Question Are these Considerations weighty or not are these Arguments convincing or not Have I proved it thy duty and of flat necessity to keep thy heart on things above or have I not Say Yea or Nay man If thou say Nay I am confident thou contradictest thine own Conscience and speakest against the light that is in thee and thy Reason tells thee thou speakest falsly If thou say Yea and acknowledg thy self convinced of the duty bear witness then that I have thine own confession That very tongue of thine shall condemn thee and that confession be pleaded against thee if thou now go home and cast this off and wilfully neglect such a confessed duty and these twelve Considerations shall be as a Jury to convict thee which I propounded hoping they might be effectual to perswade thee I have not yet fully laid open to you the nature and particular way of that duty which I am all this while perswading you to that is the next thing to be done All that I have said hitherto is but to make you willing to perform it I know the whole work of mans salvation doth stick most at his own will If we could once get over this block well I see not what could stand before us Be soundly willing and the work is more then half done I have now a few plain Directions to give you for to help you in doing this great work but alas it s in vain to mention them except you be willing to put them in practice What sayeth thou Reader Art thou willing or art thou not wilt thou obey if I shew thee the way of thy Duty However I will set them down and tender them to thee and the Lord perswade thy heart to the Work CHAP. IV. Containing some Hinderances of a Heavenly Life SECT I. THe first task that I must here set thee consists in the avoiding of some dangerous hinderances which otherwise will keep thee off from this work as they have done many a thousand souls before thee If I shew thee briefly where the Rocks and Gulf do lie I hope thou wilt beware If I stick up a mark at every quicksand I hope I need to say no more to put thee by it Therefore as thou valuest the comforts of a Heavenly conversation I here charge thee from God to beware most carefully of these impediments 1. The first is The living in a known unmortified sin Observe this O what havock this will make in thy soul O the joyes that this hath destroyed The blessed Communion with God that this hath interrupted The ruines it hath made amongst mens graces The soul-strengthning duties that this hath hindred And above all others it is especially an enemy to this great duty Christian Reader I desire thee in the fear of God stay here a little and search thy heart Art thou one that hast used violence with thy conscience Art thou a wilful neglecter of
known duties either publike private or secret Art thou a slave to thine appetite in eating or â—rinking or to any other commanding sense Art thou a proud Seeker of thine own esteem and a man that must needs have mens good opinion or else thy minde is all in a combustion Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person as if thou wert made of Tinder or Gun powder ready to take fire at every word or every wry look or every supposed sleighting of thee or every neglect of a complement or curtesie Art thou a knowing deceiver of others in thy dealing or one that hast set thy self to rise in the world not to speak of greater sins which all take notice of If this be thy case I dare say Heaven and thy Soul are very great strangers I dare say thou art seldom in Heart with God and there is little hope it should ever be better as long as thou continuest in these transgressions These beams in thine eyes will not suffer thee to look to Heaven these will be a cloud between thee and God When thou dost but attempt to study Eternity and to gather comforts from the life to come thy sin will presently look thee in the face and say These things belong not to thee How shouldst thou take comfort from Heaven who takest so much pleasure in the lusts of thy flesh O how this will damp thy joyes and make the thoughts of that day and state to become thy trouble and not thy delight Every wilful sin that thou livest in will be to thy comforts as water to the fire when thou thinkest to quicken them this will quench them when thy heart begins to draw neer to God this will presently come in thy minde and cover thee with shame and fill thee with doubting Besides which is most to the point in hand it doth utterly indispose thee and disable thee to this work When thou shouldst wind up thy heart to Heaven alas it s byassed another way it is intangled in the lusts of the flesh and can no more ascend in Divine Meditation then the bird can flie whose wings are clipt or that is intangled in the Lime-twigs or taken in the snare Sin doth cut the very sinews of the soul therefore I say of this heavenly life as Master Bolton saith of Prayer Either it will make thee leave sinning or sin will make thee leave it and that quickly too For these cannot continue together If thou be here guilty who readest this I require thee sadly to think of this folly O man what a life dost thou lose and what a life dost thou chuse what daily delights dost thou sell for the swinish pleasure of a stinking lust what a Christ what a glory dost thou turn thy back upon when thou art going to the embracements of thy hellish pleasures I have read of a Gallant addicted to uncleanness who at last meeting with a beautiful Dame and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly sinned with which had been acted by the devil all night and left dead again in the morning Surely all thy sinful pleasures are suche The devil doth animate them in the darkness of the night but when God awakes thee at the farther at death the deceit is vanished and nothing left but a carkass to amaze thee and be a spectacle of horror before thine eyes Thou thinkest thou hast hold of some choice delight but it will turn in thy hand as Moses rod into a Serpent and then thou wouldst fain be rid of it if thou knewest how and wilt â—â—ie from the face of it as thou dost now embrace it And shall this now dream thee from the high delights of the Saints If Heaven and Hell can meet together and if God can become a lover of sin theâ—â— maist them live in thy sin and in the tastes of glory and maist have a conversation in Heaven though thou cherish thy corruption If therefore thou finde thy self guilty never doubt on it but this is the cause that estrangeth thee from Heaven And take heed least it keep out thee as it keeps out thy heart and do not say but thou wast bid Take heed Yea if thou be a man that hitherto hast escaped and knowest no raigning sin in thy soul yet let this warning move thee to prevention and stir up a dread of this danger in thy spirit As Huâ—nius writes of himself That hearing the mention of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost it stirred up such fears in his spirit that made him cry out What if this should be my case and so rouzed him to prayer and tryal So think thou though thou yet be not guilty what a sad thing it were if ever this should prove thy case And therefore watch SECT II. 2. A Second hinderance carefully to be avoided is An Earthly minde For you may easily conceive that this cannot stand with an Heavenly minde God and Mammon Earth and Heaven cannot both have the delight of thy heart This makes thee like Anselmne's Bird with a stone tyed to the foot which as oft as she took flight did pluck her to the Earth again If thou be a man that hast fancied to thy self some content or happiness to be found on Earth and beginnest to taste a sweetness in gain and to aspire after a fuller and a higher estate and hast hatched some thriving projects in thy brain and art driving on thy rising design Beleeve it thou art marching with thy back upon Christ and art posting apace from this Heavenly life Why hath not the World that from thee which God hath from the Heavenly When he is blessing himself in his God and rejoycing in hope of the glory to come then thou art blessing thy self in thy prosperity and rejoycing in hope of thy thriving here When he is solacing his soul in the views of Christ of the Angels and Saints that he shall live with for ever then art thou comforting thy self with thy wealth in looking over thy Bills and Bonds in viewing thy Money thy Goods thy Cattel thy Buildings or large Possession and art recreating thy minde in thinking of thy hopes of the favor of some great ones on whom thou dependest of the pleasantness of a plentiful and commanding state of thy larger provision for thy children after thee of the rising of thy house or the obeisance of thine inferiors Are not these thy morning and evening thoughts when a gracious soul is above with Christ Dost thou not delight and please thy self with the daily rolling these thoughts in thy minde when a gracious soul should have higher delights If he were a fool by the sentence of Christ that said Soul take thy rest thou hast enough laid up for many yeers What a fool of fools art thou that knowing this yet takest not warning but in thy heart speakest the same words Look them over seriously and
that makes men Hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep such out among Infidels for fear of making Hypocrites but when the net is drawn unto the shore the fishes shall be separated and when the time of Harvest comes then the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that work iniquity Matth. 13.41 There are many Saints or sanctified men that yet shall never come to heaven who are onely Saints by their separation from Paganism into fellowship with the visible Church but not Saints in the strictest sense by separation from the ungodly into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ Heb. 10 29. Deut. 7.6 and 14 2 21. and 26.19 and 28.9 Exod. 19.6 1 Cor. 7.13 14. Rom. 11.16 Heb. 3.1 compared with ver 12. 1 Cor. 3.17 and 14.33 1 Cor. 1.2 compared with 11.20 21 c. Gal. 3.26 compared with Gal. 3.3 4. and 4.11 and 5.2 3 4. Joh. 15.2 Thus far I have digressed by way of Caution that you may not think that I disswade you from lawful converse but it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men and too much familiarity with unprofitable companions though they be not so apparently ungodly that I disswade you from There are many persons whom we may not avoid or excommunicate out of the Church no nor out of our private society judicially or by way of penalty to them whom yet we must exclude from our too much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of our selves It is not onely the open prophane the swearer the drunkard and the enemies of godliness that will prove hurtful companions to us though these indeed are chiefly to be avoided but too frequent society with dead-hearted Formalists or persons meerly civil and moral or whose conference is empty unsavory and barren may much divert our thoughts from heaven and do our selves a great deal of wrong as meer idleness and forgetting God will keep a soul as certainly from Heaven as a profane licentious fleshly life so also will the usuall company of such idle forgetful negligent persons as surely keep our hearts from heaven as the company of men more dissolute and profane Alas our dulness and backwardness is such that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps A clod or a stone that lyes on the earth is as prone to arise and fly in the Air as our hearts are naturally to move toward heaven you need not hold nor hinder the earth and Rocks to keep them from flying up to the skies it is sufficient that you do not help them And surely if our spirits have not great assistance they may easily be kept from flying aloft though they never should meet with the least impediment O think of this in the choice of your company when you spirits are so powerfully disposed for heaven that you need no help to lift them up but as the flames you are alwayes mounting upward and carrying with you all that 's in your way then you may indeed be less careful of our company but till then as you love the delights of a heavenly life be careful herein As it s reported of a Lord that was neer to his death and the Doctor that prayed with him read over the Letany For all women labouring with childe for all sick persons and young children c. From lightning and tempest from plague pestilence and famine from battel murder and sudden death c. Alas saith he what is this to me who must presently dye c. So maist thou say of such mens conference who can talk of nothing but their Callings and vanity Alas what 's this to me who must shortly be in Rest and should now be refreshing my soul with its foretastes what will it advantage thee to a life with God to hear where the Fair is such a day or how the Market goes or what weather is or is like to be or when the Moon changeth or what news is stirring why this is the discourse of earthly men What will it conduce to the raising of thy heart God-ward to hear that this is an able Minister or that an able Christian or that this was an excellent Sermon or that is an excellent book to hear a violent arguing or tedious discourse of Baptism Ceremonies the power of the Keyes the order of Gods Decrees or other such controversies of great difficulty and less importance Yet this for the most part is the sweetest discourse that thou art like to have of a formal speculative dead-hearted Professor Nay if thou hadst newly been warming thy heart in the contemplation of the blessed Joys above would not this discourse benum thine affections and quickly freez thy heart again I appeal to the Judgment of any man that hath tryed it and maketh observations on the frame of his spirit Men cannot well talk of one thing and minde another especially things of such differing natures You young men who are most lyable to this temptation think sadly of what I say Can you have your hearts in Heaven on an Ale-house bench among your roaring singing swaggering companions or when you work in your Shops with none but such whose ordinary language is oaths or filthiness or foolish talking or jesting Nay let me tell you thus much more that if you choose such company when you might have better and finde most delight and content in such you are so far from a Heavenly conversation that as yet you have no title to heaven at all and in that estate shall never come there For were your Treasure there your heart would not be on things so distant Mat. 6.21 In a word our company will be part of our happiness in heaven and its a singular part of our furtherance to it or hinderance from it And as the creatures living in the several Elements are commonly of the temperature of the Element they live in as the fishes cold and moist like the water the worms cold and dry as the earth and so the rest So are we usually like the society which we most converse in He that never found it hard to have a heavenly minde in earthly company it is certainly because he never tryed SECT IIII. 4. A Fourth hinderance to a heavenly conversation is Too frequent disputes about lesser truths and especially when a mans Religion lyes only in his opinions a sure sign of an unsanctified soul. If sad examples be doctrinal to you or the Judgments of God upon us be regarded I need to say the lesse upon this particular It s legibly written in the faces of thousands It is visible in the complexion of our diseased nation This facies Hypocritica is our facies Hipocratica He that hath the least skill in Physiognomy may see that this complexlon is mortal and this picture-like shaddow-like visage affordeth our state a sad prognostick You that have been my companions in Armies and Garrisons in Cities and Countreyes I know have been
thou risest off thy knees when thou openest thy Bible or other Books let it be with this hope to meet with some passage of Divine truth and some such blessing of the Spirit with it as may raise thine affections neerer Heaven and give thee a fuller taste thereof when thou art setting thy foot out at thy door to go to the publike Ordinance and Worship say I hope to meet with somewhat from God that may raise my affections before I returne I hope the Spirit will give me the meeting and sweeten my heart with those celestial delights I hope that Christ will appear to me in that way and shine about me with light from heaven and let me hear his instructing and reviving voyce and causa the scales to fall from mine eyes that I may see more of that glory then I ever yet saw I hope before I return to my house my Lord will take my heart in hand and bring it within the view of Rest and set it before his Fathers presence that I may return as the Shepherds from the heavenly Vision glorifying and praising God for all the things that I have heard and seen Luke 2.20 and say as those that behold his Miracles We have seen strange things to day Luke 5.26 Remember also to pray for thy Teacher that God would put some Divine Message into his mouth which may leave a heavenly relish on thy spirit If these were our ends and this our course when we set to duty we should not be so strange as we are to heaven When the Indian first saw the use of Letters by our English they thought there was sure some spirit in them that men could so converse together by a paper If Christians would take this course in their duties they might come to such holy fellowship with God and see so much of the Mysteries of the Kingdom that it would make the standers by admire what is in those Lines what is in that Sermon what is in this praying that fils his heart so full of joy and that so transports him above himself Certainly God would not fail us in our duties if we did not fail our selves and then experience would make them sweeter to us SECT VI. 6. ANother help is this Make an advantage of every object thou seest and of every passage of Divine providence and of every thing that befals in thy labor and calling to minde thy soul of its approaching Rest. As all providences and creatures are means to our Rest so do they point us to that as their end Every creature hath the name of God and of our final Rest written upon it which a considerate believer may as truly discern as he can read upon a post or hand in a cross way the name of the Town or City which it points to This spiritual use of creatures and providences is Gods great End in bestowing them on man And he that overlooks this End must needs rob God of his chiefest praise and deny him the greatest part of his thanks The Relation that our present mercies have to our great Eternal mercies is the very quintessence and spirits of all these mercies Therefore do they loose the very spirits of their mercies and take nothing but the huskes and bran who do overlook this Relation and draw not forth the sweetness of it in their contemplations Gods sweetest dealings with us at the present would not be half so sweet as they are if they did not intimate some further sweetness As our selves have a fleshly and a spiritual substance so have our mercies a fleshly and spiritual use and are fitted to the nourishing of both our parts He that receives the carnal part and no more may have his body comforted by them but not his soul. It is not all one to receive six pence meerly as six pence and to receive it in earnest of a thousand pound though the sum be the same yet I trow the relation makes a wide difference Thou takest but the bear earnest and overlookest the maine sum when thou receivest thy mercies and forgettest thy crown O therefore that Christians were skilled in this Art You can open your Bibles and read there of God and of Glory O learn to open the creatures and to open the several passages of providence and to read of God and Glory there Certainly by such a skilful industrious improvement we might have a fuller tast of Christ and Heaven in every bit of bread that we eat and in every draught of Beer that we drink then most men have in the use of the Sacrament If thou prosper in the world and thy labor succeed let it make thee more sensible of thy perpetual prosperity If thou be weary of thy labors let it make thy thoughts of Rest more sweet If things go cross hard with thee in the world let it make thee the more earnestly desire that day when all thy sorrows and sufferings shall cease Is thy body refreshed with food or sleep Remember thy unconceivable refreshings with Christ. Dost thou hear any news that makes the glad Remember what glad tydings it will be to hear the sound of the trump of God and the absolving sentence of Christ our Judg. Art thou delighting thy self in the society of the Saints Remember the Everlasting amiable fraternity thou shalt have with perfected Saints in Rest. Is God communicating himself to thy spirit Why remember that time of thy highest advancement when thy Joy shall be full as thy communion is full Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the disorders of the vulgar and the confusions in the world like the noise in a crowd or the roaring of the waters Why think of the blessed agreement in Heaven and the melodious harmony in that Quire of God Dost thou hear or feel the tempest of wars or see any cloud of blood arising Remember the day when thou shalt be housed with Christ where there is nothing but calmness and amiable union and where we shall solace our selves in perfect Peace under the wings of the Prince of Peace for ever Thus you may see what advantages to a Heavenly Life every condition and creature doth afford us if we had but hearts to apprehend and improve them As it s said of the Turkes that they 'l make bridges of the dead bodyes of their men to passe over the trenches or ditches in their way So might Christians of the very ruines and calamities of the times and of every dead body or misery that they see make a bridge for the passage of their thoughts to their Rest. And as they have taught their Pigeons which they call carriers in divers places to bear letters of entercourse from friend to friend at a very great distance so might a wise industrious Christian get his thoughts carried into Heaven and receive as it were returns from thence again by creatures of slower wing then Doves by the assistance of the Spirit the Dove of God
delight thereof and taking up in the tune and melody and suffering the heart to be all the while idle which must perform the chiefest part of the work and which should make use of the melody for its reviving and exhilerating SECT VIII 8. IF thou wouldest have thy heart in Heaven keep thy soul still possessed with true believing thoughts of the exceeding infinite love of God Love is the attractive of love No mans heart will be set upon him that hates him were he never so excellent nor much upon him that doth not much love him There is few so vile but will love those that love them be they never so mean No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life to have hard and doubtful thoughts of God to conceive of him as a hater of the Creature except onely of obstinate Rebels and as one that had rather damn us then save us and that is glad of an opportunity to do us a mischief or at least hath no great good will to us This is to put the Blessed God into the similitude of Satan And who then can set his heart and love upon him When in our vile unbelief and ignorance we have drawn the most ugly picture of God in our imaginations then we complain that we cannot love him and delight in him This is the case of many thousand Christians Alas that we should thus belie and blaspheme God and blast our own joyes and depress our spirits Love is the very essence of God The Scripture tells us That God is Love it telleth us That Fury dwelleth not in him that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he repent and live Much more hath he testified his love to his chosen and his full resolution effectually to save them O if we could always think of God but as we do of a friend as of one that doth unfeignedly love us even more then we do our selves whose very heart is set upon us to do us good and hath therefore provided us an everlasting dwelling with himself it would not then be so hard to have our hearts still with him Where we love most heartily we shall think most sweetly and most freely And nothing will quicken our love more then the belief of his love to us Get therefore a truer conceit of the loving Nature of God and lay up all the experiences and discoveries of his love to thee and then see if it will not further thy heavenly-mindedness SECT IX 9. ANother thing I would advise you to is this Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit and fearful of quenching its motions or resisting its workings If ever thy soul get above this earth and get acquainted with this living in heaven the Spirit of God must be to thee as the Chariot to Elijah yea the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend O then grieve not thy Guide quench not thy Life knock not off thy Chariot-wheels if thou do no wonder if thy soul be at a loss and all stand still or fall to the earth you little think how much the life all your Graces and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial Obedience to the Spirit When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer and thou refusest obedience when he forbids thee thy known transgressions and yet thou wilt go on when he telleth thee which is the way and which not and thou wilt not regard no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange if thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ and to thy duty how should it lead thee to heaven and bring thy heart into the presence of God O what supernatural help what bold access shall that soul finde in its approaches to the Almighty that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit And how backward how dull and strange and ashamed will he be to these addresses who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him Even as stiffe and unfit will they be for this Spiritual motion as a dead man to natural I beseech thee Christian Reader learn well this lesson and try this course let not the motions of thy body onely but also the very thoughts of thy heart be at the Spirits beâ—k Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion to retire from the world and draw neer to God O do not now disobey but take the offer and hoâ—se up sail while thou mayst have this blessed gale When this wind blows strongest thou goest fastest either forward or backward The more of this Spirit we resist the deeper will it wound and the more we obey the speedier is our pace As he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face and he easiest that hath it in his back SECT X. 10. LAstly I advise as a further help to this heavenly work That thou neglect not the due care for the health of thy body and for the maintaining a vigorous cheerfulness in thy spirits nor yet over-pamper and please thy flesh Learn how to carry thy self with prudence to thy body It is a useful servant if thou give it its due and but its due It is a most devouring tyrant if thou give it the mastery or suffer it to have what it unreasonably desireth And 〈◊〉 as a blunted Knife as a Horse that is lame as thy Ox that is famished if thou injuriously deny it what is necessary to its support When we consider how frequently men offend on both extreams and how few use their bodies aright we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their heavenly conversing Most men are very slaves to their sensitive appetite and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh which they can give it on easie rates without much shame or loss or grief The flesh thus used is as unfit to serve you as a wilde colt to ride on When such men should converse in Heaven the flesh will carry them to an Alehouse or to their sports to their profits or credit or vain company to wanton practices or sights or speeches or thoughts It will thrust a whore or a pair of Cards or a good bargain into their mindes in stead of God Look to this specially you that are young and healthful and lusty As you love your souls remember that in Rom. 13.14 which converted Austin Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires and that Rom. 8.4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14. Some few others do much hinder their heavenly joy by over rigorous denying the body its necessaries and so making it unable to serve them But the most by forfeiting and excess do overthrow and disable it You love to have your knife keen and every instrument you use in order when your horse goes lustily how cheerfully do you travel As much need hath the soul of a sound and cheerful body If they who
and Valleys to the Holy Mount Zion from Sea and Land to the Land of the Living from the Kingdoms of this world to the Kingdom of Saints from Earth to Heaven from Time to Eternity It is a walking upon Sun and Moon and Stars it is a walk in the Garden and Paradise of God It may seem far off but spirits are quick whether in the body or out of the body their motion is swift They are not so heavy or dull as these earthly lumps nor so slow of motion as these clods of flesh I would not have you cast off your other Meditations but surely as Heaven hath the preheminence in perfection so should it have the preheminence also in our Meditation That which will make us most happy when we possess it will make us most joyful when we meditate upon it especially when that Meditation is a degree of Possession if it be such affecting Meditation as I here describe You need not here be troubled with the fears of the world lest studying so much on these high matters should craze your brains and make you mad unless you will go mad with delight and joy and that of the purest and most solid kinde If I set you to meditate as much on Sin and Wrath and to study nothing but Judgment and Damnation then you might justly fear such an issue But its Heaven and not Hell that I would perswade you to walk in its Joy and not Sorrow that I perswade you to exercise I would urge you to look upon no deformed object but onely upon the ravishing glory of Saints and the unspeakable excellencies of the God of glory and the beams that stream from the face of his Son Are these such sadding and madding thoughts will it distract a man to think of his onely happiness will it distract the miserable to think of mercy or the captive and prisoner to fore-sâ—â— deliverance or the poor to think of riches and honor approaching Neither do I perswade your thoughts to matters of great difficulty or to study thorny and knotty controversies of Heaven or to search out things beyond your reach If you should thus set your wit and invention upon the Tenters you might be quickly distracted or distempered indeed But it is your Affections more then your wits and inventions that must be used in this heavenly employment we speak of They are Truths which are commonly known and professed which your souls must draw forth and feed upon The Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting are Articles of your Creed and not nicer controversies Me thinks it should be liker to make a man mad to think of living in a world of wo to think of abiding in poverty and sickness among the rage of wicked men then to think of living with Christ in bliss Me thinks if we be not mad already it should sooner distract us to hear the Tempests and roaring Waves to see the Billows and Rocks and Sands and Gulfs then to think of arriving safe at Rest. But Wisdom is justified of all her children Knowledg hath no enemy but the ignorant This heavenly course was never spoke against by any but those that never either knew it or used it I more fear the neglect of men that do approve it then the opposition or Arguments of any against it Truth looseth more by loose friends then by sharpest enemies CHAP. VII Concerning the fittest time and place for this contemplation and the preparation of the heart unto it SECT I. THus I have opened to you the nature of this duty and by this time I suppose you paâ—tly apprehend what it is that I so press upon you which when it is opened more particularly you will more fully discern I now proceed to direct you in the work where I shall first shew you how you must set upon it and secondly how you must behave your self in it and thirdly how you shall shut it up And here I suppose thee to be a man that dost conscionably avoyd the forementioned hinderances and conscionably use the forementioned helps or else it is in vain to set thee a higher lesson till thou hast first learned that Which if thou have done I then further advise thee First Somewhat concerning the time and season secondly somewhat concerning the place and thirdly somewhat concerning the frame of thy Spirit And first for the time I advise thee that as much as may be it may be set and constant Proportion out such a part of thy time to the work Stick not at their scruple who question the stating of times as superstitious If thou suit out thy time to the advantage of the work and place no more Religion in the time it self thou needest not to fear lest this be superstition As a workman in his shop will have a set place for every one of his Tools and Wares or else when he should use it it may be to seek So a Christian should have a set time for every ordinary duty or else when he should practise it it s ten to one but he will be put by it Stated time is a hedg to duty and defends it against many temptations to omission God hath stated none but the Lords day himself but he hath left it to be stated and determined by our selves according to every mans condition and occasions least otherwise his Law should have been a burden or a snare Yet hath he left us general rules which by the use of Reason and Christian Prudence may help us to determine of the fittest times It s as ridiculous a question of them that ask us Where Scripture commands us to pray so oft or at such hours privately or in families as if they askt Where the Scripture commands that the Church-House or Temple stand in such a place or the Pulpit in such a place or my seat in such a place or where it commands a man to read the Scriptures with a pair of Spectacles c. Most that I have known to break this bond of duty and to argue against a stated time have at last grown careless of the duty it self and shewed more dislike against the work then the time If God give me so much money or wealth and tell me not in Scripture how much such a poor man must have nor how much my family nor how much in cloaths and how much in expences is it not lawful yea and necessary that I make the division my self and allow to each the due proportion So if God do bestow on me a day or a week of time and give me such and such work to do in this time and tell me not how much I shal allot to each work Certainly I must make the division my self and cut my coat according to my cloth and proportion it wisely and carefully too or else I am like to leave something undone Though God hath not told you at what hour you shall rise in the morning or what hours you shall eat
it The Lords Day What fitter day to ascend to heaven then that on which our Lord did arise from earth and fully triumph over death and hell and take possession of Heaven before us The fittest temper for a true believer is to be in the spirit on the Lords Day This was Saint Johns temper on that day And what can bring us to this ravishment in the spirit but the spiritual beholding of our ravishing glory Surely though an outward ordinance may delight the ear or tickle the fancy yet it is the viewes of God that must ravish the soul. There is a great deal of difference betwixt the receiving of the word with joy Mat. 13.20 and being in the spirit on the Lords Day Rev. 1 10. Two sorts of Christians I would entreat to take notice of this especially 1. Those that spend the Lords day only in publique worship either through the neglect of this spiritual duty of Meditation or else by their overmuch exercise of the publique allowing no time to private duty Though there be few that offend in this last kinde yet some there are and a hurtful mistake to the soul it is They will grow but in gifts and common accomplishments if they exercise but their gifts in outward performances 2. Those that have time on the Lords day for idleness and vain discourse and finde the day longer then they know how well to spend Were these but acquainted with this duty of contemplation they would need no other recreation nor pastime they would think the longest day short enough and be sorry that the night hath shortned their pleasure Whether this day be of positive Divine Institution and so to us Christians of necessary observation is out of my way to handle here I refer those that doubt to what is in Print on that subject especially Master George Abbot against Broad and above all Master Cawdrey and Master Palmer their Sabbatum Redivivum It s an encouragment to the doubtful to finde the generality of its rational opposers to acknowledg the usefulness yea necessity of a stated day and the fitness of this above all other days I would I could perswade those that are convinced of its morality to spend a greater part of it in this true spirituality But we do in this as in most things else think it enough that we believe our duty as we do the articles of our faith and let who will put it in practice VVe will dispute for duty and let others perform it As I have known some drunkards upon the Ale bench will plead for godly men while themselves are ungodly So do too many for the observation of the Lords day who themselves are unacquainted with this spiritual part of its observation Christians let heaven have some more share in your Sabbaths where you must shortly keep your everlasting Sabbath As you go from stair to stair till you come to the top so use your Sabbaths as steps to glory till you have passsed them all and are there arived Especially you that are poor men and servants that cannot take time in the week as you desire see that you well improve this day Now your labor lies not â—o much upon you now you are unyoaked from your common business Be sure as your bodyes Rest from their labors that your spirits seek after Rest with God I admonish also those that are possessed with the censorious divel that if they see a poor Christian walking privately in the fields on the Lords Day they would not Pharisaically conclude him a Sabbath breaker till they know more It may be he takes it as the opportunest place to withdraw himself from the world to God Thou seest where his body walkes but thou seest not where he is walking in the spirit Hannah was censured for a woman drunk till Eli heard her speak for her self and when he knew the truth he was ashamed of his censure The silent spiritual worshipper is most lyable to their censure because he gives not the world an account of his worship Thus I have directed thee to the fittest season for the ordinary performance of this heavenly work SECT V. 2. FOr the extraordinary performance these following are seasonable times 1. When God doth extraordinarily revive and enable thy spirit When God hath kindled thy spirit with fire from above it is that it may mount aloft more freely It is a choice part of a Christians skill to observe the temper of his own spirit and to observe the gales of grace and how the spirit of Christ doth move upon his VVithout Christ we can do nothing Therefore let us be doing when he is doing and be sure not to be out of the way nor asleep when he comes The sails of the wind-mill stir not without the wind therefore they must set them a going when the wind blowes Be sure that thou watch this wind and tide if thou wouldst have a speedy voyage to Heaven A little labor will set thy heart a going at such a time as this when another time thou mayest study and take pains to little purpose Most Christians do sometime finde a more then ordinary reviving and activeness of spirit take this as sent from heaven to â—alse thee thither And when the spirit is lifting thy heart from the earth be sure thou then lift at it thy self As when the Angel came to Peter in his prison and Irons and smoâ—e him on the side and raised him up saying Arise up quickly gird thy self â—inde on thy sandals and cast thy garment about thee and follow me And Peter arose and followed till he was delivered Act. 12.7.8 c. So when the spirit finds thy heart in prison and Irons and smites it and bids thee Arise quickly and follow me be sure thou then arise and follow and thou shalâ— finde thy chains fall off and all doors will open and thou wilt be at Heaven before thou art aware SECT VI. 2. WHen thou art cast into perplexing troubles of minde through suffering or fear or care or temptations then is it seasonable to address thy self to this duty VVhen should we take our cordials but in our times of fainting When is it more seasonable to walk to heaven then when we know not in what corner on earth to live with comfort or when should our thoughts converse above but when they have nothing but grief to converse with below Where should Noahs Dove be but in the Arke when the waters do cover all the earth and she cannot finde Rest for the sole of her foot What should we think on but our fathers house when we want even the husks of the world to feed on Surely God sends thee thy afflictions to this very purpose Happy thou poor man if thou make this use of thy poverty and thou that art sick if thou so improve thy sickness It is seasonable to go to the Promised Land when our burdens and taskes are increased in Egypt and when we endure
the dolors of a greivous wilderness Believe it Reader if thou knewest but what a cordial in thy griefs and care the serious views of glory are thou wouldst less fear these harmles troubles and more use that preserving reviving Remedy I would not have thee as Mountebanks take poyson first and then their Antidote to shew its power so to create thy affliction to try this remedy But if God reach thee forth the bitterest cup drop in but a little of the Tastes of Heaven and I warrant thee it will sufficiently sweeten it to thy spirit If the case thou art in seem never so dangerous take but a little of this Antidote of Rest and never fear the pain or danger I will give thee to confirm this but the Example of David and the Opinion of Paul and desire thee throughly to consider of both In the multitude of my thoughts within me saith David thy comforts delight my soul Psal. 94.19 As if he should say I have multitudes of sadding thoughts that crowd upon me thoughts of my sins and thoughts of my foes thoughts of my dangers and thoughts of my pains yet in the midst of all this crowd one serious thought of the comforts of thy Love and especially of the comfortable life in Glory doth so dispel the throng and scatter my cares and disperse the clouds that my troubles had raised that they do even revive and delight my soul. And Paul when he had cast up his full accounts gives thee the sum in Rom. 8 18. For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us Study these words well for every one of them is full of life If these true sayings of God were truly and deeply fixt in thy heart and if thou couldst in thy sober Mediditation but draw out the comfort of this one Scripture I dare them it would sweeten the bitterest cross and in a sort make thee forget thy trouble as Christ saith A woman forgets her travail for joy that a man is born into the world yea and make thee rejoyce in thy tribulation I will add but one Text more 2 Cor 4.16.17 For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inward is renewed day by day For our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal SECT VII 3. ANother fit Season for this heavenly duty is When the Messengers of God do summon us to die when either our gray hairs or our languishing bodies or some such like forerunners of death do tell us that our change cannot be far off when should we most frequently sweeten our souls with the believing thoughts of another life then when we finde that this is almost ended and when Flesh is raising fears and terrors Surely no men have greater need of supporting joyes then dying men and those joyes must be fetcht from our eternal joy Men that have earthly pleasures in their hands may think they are well though they taste no more but when a man is dying and parting with all other pleasures he must then fetch his pleasure from Heaven or have none when health is gone and friends lye weeping about our beds when houses and lands and goods and wealth cannot afford us the least relief but we are taking our leave of earth for ever except a hole for our bodies to rot in when we are daily expecting our final day it s now time to look to heaven and to fetch in comfort and support from thence and as heavenly delights are sweetest when they are unmixed and pure and have no earthly delights conjoyned with them so therefore the delights of dying Christians are oft-times the sweetest that ever they had Therefore have the Saints been generally observed to be then most Heavenly when they were neerest dying what a Prophetical blessing hath Jacob for his sons when he lay a dying And so Isaac what a heavenly Song what a Divine Benediction doth Moses conclude his life withal Deut. 32. 33. Nay as our Saviour increased in Wisdome and Knowledg so did he also in their blessed expressions and still the last the sweetest what a heavenly prayer what heavenly advice doth he leave his Disciples when he is about to leave them when he saw he must leave the world and go to the Father how doth he weane them from worldly expectations How doth he minde them of the Mansions in his Fathers House and remember them of his coming again to fetch them thither and open the union they shall have with him and with each other and promise them to be with him to behold his Glory There 's more worth in those four Chapters John 14.15.16.17 then in all the Books in the world beside When Blessed Paul was ready to be offered up what heavenly Exhortation doth he give the Philippians what advice to Timothy what counsel to the Elders of the Ephesian Church Acts 20. How neer was S. John to heaven in his banishment in Patmos a little before his translation to Heaven what heavenly discourse hath Luther in his last sickness How close was Calvin to his Divine studies in his very sickness that when they would have disswaded him from it He answers Vultisne me otiosum a domino apprehendi What would you have God finde me idle I have not lived idly and shall I dye idly The like may be said of our famous Reignolds When excellent Bucholcer was neer his end he wrote his Book De Consolâ—tiâ—ne Decumbentium Then it was that Tossianus wrote his Vade mecum Then Doctor Preston was upon the Attributâ—s of God And then Mr Bolton was on the Joyes of Heaven It were end less to enumerate the eminent examples of this kinde It is the general temper of the spirits of the Saints to be then most Heavenly when they are neerest to Heaven As we use to say of the old and the weak that they have one foot in the grave already so may we say of the godly when they are neer their Rest they have one foot as it were in Heaven already When should a Traveller look homewards with joy but when he is come within the sight of his home It s true the pains of our bodies and the fainting of our spirits may somewhat abate the liveliness of our joy but the measure we have will be the more pure and spiritual by how much the less it is kindled from the Flesh. O that we who are daily languishing could learn this daily heavenly conversing and could say as the Apostle in the forecited place 2 Cor. 4.16 17 18 O that every gripe that our bodies feel might make us more sensible of future ease and that every
circumstances though to some they may seem small things doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty Mat. 6.4 6 18 If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us that our Father may hear us in secret so is it also requisite in this Meditation How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain or wilderness or other solitary place For occasional Meditation I give thee not this advise but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thy self from all society yea though it were the society of godly men that thou mayest a while enjoy the society of Christ If a student cannot study in a crowd who exerciseth only his invention and memory much lesse when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul and that upon an object so far above nature When thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men and thine ears with their discourse its hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty Though I would not perswade thee to Pythagoras his Cave nor to the Hermets Wilderness nor to the Monks Cell yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness that thou mayest sometimes confer with Christ and with thy self as well as with others We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion Friends use to converse most familiarly in private and to open their Secrets and let out their affections most freely Publike converse is but common converse Use therefore as Christ himself did Mark 1.35 to depart sometimes into a solitary place that thou maist be wholly vacant for this great employment See Mat. 14.23 Mark 6.47 Luke 9.18 36. John 6.15 16. We seldom read of Gods appearing by himself or his Angels to any of his Prophets or Saints in a throng but frequently when they were alone And as I advise thee to a place of retiredness so also that thou observe more particularly what place and posture best agreeth with thy spirit Whether within doors or without whether siting still or walking I beleeve Isaacs example in this also will direct us to the place and posture which will best suit with most as it doth with me viz. His walking forth to meditate in the field at the eventide And Christs own example in the places forecited gives us the like direction Christ was used to a solitary Garden that even Judas when he came to betray him knew where to finde him John 18.1 2. And though he took his Disciples thither with him yet did he separate himself from them for more Secret devotions Luke 22.41 And though his meditation be not directly named but onely his praying yet it is very clearly implied Matth. 26.38 39. His soul is first made sorrowful with the bitter meditations on his death and sufferings and then he poureth it out in prayer Mark 14.34 So that Christ had his accustomed place and consequently accustomed duty and so must we Christ hath a place that is solitary whither he retireth himself even from his own Disciples and so must we Christs meditations do go further then his thought they affect and pâ—erce his heart and soul and so must ours Onely there is a wide difference in the object Christ meditates on the suffering that our sins had deserved that the wrath of his Father even passed through his thoughts upon all his soul But the meditation that we speak of is on the glory he hath purchased that the love of the Father and the joy of the Spirit might enter at our thoughts and revive our affections and overflow our souls So that as Christs meditation was the sluce or flood-gate to let in Hell to overflow his Affections so our meditation should be the sluce to let in Heaven into our affections SECT IX SO much concerning the Time and Place of this duty I am next to advise thee somewhat concerning the preparations of thy heart The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart When mans heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker God did not quit his residence there till man did expel him by unworthy provocations There grew no strangeness till the heart grew sinful and too loathsom a dungeon for God to delight in And were this soul reduced to its former innocency God would quickly return to his former habitation yea so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit and purged of its lusts and beautified with his Image the Lord will yet acknowledg it his own and Christ will manifest himself unto it and the Spirit will take it for his Temple and Residence So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God so far it doth actually for the most part enjoy him Therefore with all diligence keep thy heart for from thence are the issues of life Prov 4.23 More particularly when thou fettest on this duty First Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business of thy troubles of thy enjoyments and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst that so it may be the more capable of being filled with God It is a work as I have said that will require all the powers of thy soul if they were a thousand times more capacious and active then they are and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections while you are busied here If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart while the other is absent yet this above all I am sure thou canst not Surely if thou once address thy self to the business indeed thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of Gold that when he might take as much as he could carry away lamented that he was able to bear no more So when thou shalt get into the Mount in contemplation thou wilt finde there as much of God and Glory as thy narrow heart is able to contain and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession but onely the uncapableness of thy own Spirit O then wilt thou think that this understanding were larger that I might conceive more that these affections were wider to contain more it is more my own unfitness then any thing else which is the cause that even this place is not my Heaven God is in this place and I know it not This Mount is full of the Angels of God but mine eyes are shut and cannot see them O the words of love that Christ hath to speak O the wonders of love that he hath to shew But alas I cannot bear them yet Heaven is here ready at hand for me but my uncapable heart is unready for Heaven Thus wouldst thou lament that the
the remaining Work is onely to direct you how to use your hands and mouth to feed your stomack I mean how to use your â—nderstandings for the warming of your Affections and to fire your Hearts by the help of your Heads And herein it will be necessary that I observe this Method First to shew you what instrument it is that you must work by Secondly VVhy and how this way of working is like to succeed and attain its end Thirdly VVhat powers of the soul should here be acted and what are the particular Affections to be excited and what objective Considerations are necessary thereto and in what order you should proceed Fourthly By what acts you must advance to the height of the work Fifthly VVhat advantages you must take and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success Sixthly In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole And I will be the briefer in all left you should loâ—e my meaning in a crowd of words or your thoughts be carried from the VVork it self by an over-long and tedious Explication of it SECT II. 1. THe great Instrument that this Work is done by is Ratiocination Reasoning the case with your selves Discourse of minde Cogitation or Thinking or if you will call it Consideration I here suppose you to know the things to be considered and therefore shall wholly pass over thaâ— Meditation of Students which tends onely to Speculation or Knowing They are known Truths that I perswade you to consider for the grossly ignorant that know not the Doctrine of everlasting Life are for the present uncapable of this duty Mans soul as it receives and retains the Idea's or Shapes of things so hath it a power to chuse out any of these deposited Idea's and draw them forth and act upon them again and again even as a Sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it and so we should be somewhat below the Bruits This is the power that here you must use To this choice of Idea's or subjects for your Cogitation there must necessarily concur the act of the Will which indeed must go along in the whole Work for this must be a voluntary not a forced Cogitation Some men do consider whether they will or no and are not able to turn away their own thoughts so will God make the wicked consider of their sins when he shall set them all in order before them Psal. 50.21.22 And so shall the damned consider of Heaven and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised and of the eternal joyes which they have foolishly lost But this forced Consideration is not that I mean but that which thou dost willingly and purposely chose but though they will be here requisite yet still Consideration is the instrument of the Work SECT III. 2. NExt let us see what force Consideration hath for the moving of the affections and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart Why First Consideration doth as it were open the door between the Head and the Heart The Understanding having received Truths layes them up in the Memory now Consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the Affections There 's few men of so weak Understanding or Memory but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them and make great alterations in their spirits if they were not locked up in their brain and if they could but convey them down to their hearts Now this is the great work of Consideration O what rare men would they be who have strong heads and much learning and knowledge if the obstructions between the Head and the Heart were but opened and their Affections did but correspond to their Understandings why if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things as they bestow in studying the Truth and Falshood of Enunciations it were the readiest way to obtain this he is usually the best Scholar who hath the quick the clear and the tenacious apprehension but he is usually the best Christian who hath the deepest piercing and affecting Apprehension He is the best Scholar who hath the readiest passage from the Ear to the Brain but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the Brain to the Heart now Consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage though the Spirit open as the principal cause inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless SECT IV. 2. MAtter 's of great weight which do neerly concern us are aptest to work most effectually upon the Heart now Meditation draweth forth these working Objects and presents them to the Affections in their worth and weight The most delectable Object doth not please him that sees it not nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now Consideration presents before us those Objects that were as absent and brings them to the Eye and the Ear of the soul Are not Christ and Glory think you affecting Objects would not they work wonders upon the soul if they were but clearly discovered and strangely transport us if our apprehensions were any wâ—it answerable to their worth why by Consideration it is that they are presented to us This is the Prospective Glass of the Christian by which he can see from Earth to Heaven SECT V. 3. AS Consideration draweth forth the weightiest Objects so it presenteth them in the most affecting way and presseth them home with enforcing Arguments Man is a Rational Creature and apt to be moved in a Reasoning way especially when Reasons are evident and strong Now Consideration is a reasoning the case with a mans own heart and what a multitude of Reasons both clear and weighty are always at hand for to work upon the heart VVhen a Believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work how many Arguments do offer themselves from God from the Redeemer from every one of the Divine Attributes from our former Estate from our present Estate from Promises from Seals from Earnest from the Evil we now suffer from the Good we partake of from Hell from Heaven every thing doth offer it self to promote our joy now Meditation is the Hand to draw forth all these as when you are weighing a thing in the Ballance you lay on a little more and a little more till it weigh down so if your Affections do hang in a dull indifferency why due Meditation will add Reason after Reason till the scales do turn Or as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use you bid a little more and a little more till at last you come to the sellers price so when Meditation is perswading you to Joy it will first bring one Reason and then another till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows and your cause to rejoyce lyes plain before you If another mans reasons will
work so powerfully with us though we are uncertain whether his heart do concur with his speeches and whether his intention be to inform us or deceive us how much more should our own Reasons work with us when we are acquainted with the right intentions of our own hearts Nay how much more rather should Gods Reasons work with us which we are sure are neither fallacions in his intent nor in themselves seeing he did never yet deceive nor was ever deceived Why now Meditation is but the Reading over and repeating Gods reasons to our hearts and so disputing with our selves in his Arguments and terms And is not this then likely to be a prevailing way What Reasons doth the prodigal plead with himself why he should return to his fathers house And as many and strong have we to plead with our affections to perswade them to our Fathers Everlasting habitations And by Consideration it is that they must all be set a work SECT VI. 4. MEditation putteth reason in its Authority and preheminence It helpeth to deliver it from its captivity to the senses and setteth it again upon the throne of the soul. When Reason is silent it is usually subject For when it is asleep the senses domineer Now consideration wakeneth our reason from its sleep till it rowse up it self as Sampson and break the bonds of sensuality wherewith it is fettered and then as a Gyant refreshed with wine it bears down the delusions of the flesh before it What strength can the Lyon put forth when he is asleep What is the King more then another man when he is once deposed from his throne and authority When men have no better Judg then the flesh or when the joyes of heaven go no further then their fantasie no wonder if they work but as common things sweet things to the eye and beautiful things to the ear will work no more then bitter and deformed every thing worketh in its own place and every sense hath its proper object Now it is spiritual reason excited by Meditation and not the fantasie or fleshly sense which must favor and judg of those superior Joyes Consideration exalteth the objects of faith and disgraceth comparatively the objects of sense The most inconsiderate men are the most sensual men SECT VII 5. MEditation also putteth reason into his strength Reason is at the strongest when it is most in action Now Meditation produceth reason into Act. Before it was as a standing water which can move nothing else when it self moveth not but now it is as the speedy stream which violently bears down all before it Before it was as the still and silent air but now it is as the powerful motion of the wind and overthrows the opposition of the flesh and the devil Before it was as the stones which lay still in the brook but now when Meditation doth set it awork it is as the stone out of Davids sling which smites the Goliah of our unbelief in the forehead As wicked men continue wicked not because they have not reason in the principle but because they bring it not into Act and use so godly men are uncomfortable and sad not because they have no causes to rejoyce nor because they have not reason to discern those causes but because they let their reason and faith lye asleep and do not labor to set them a going nor stir them up to action by this work of Meditation You know that our very dreams will deeply affect What fears What sorrowes What Joy will they stir up How much more then would serious Meditation affect us SECT VIII 6. MEditation can continue this Discouâ—sive imployment That may be accomplished by a weaker motion continued which will not by a stronger at the first attempt A plaister that is never so effectual to cure must yet have time to do its work and not to be taken off as soon as it s on Now Meditation doth hold the plaister to the sore It holdeth Reason and Faith to their work and bloweth the fire till it throughly burn To run a few steps will not get a man heat but walking an hour together may So though a sudden occasional thought of Heaven will not raise our affections to any spiritual heat yet Meditation can continue our thoughts and lengthen our walk till our hearts grow warm And thus you see what force Meditation or consideration hath for the effecting of this great elevation of the soul whereto I have told you it must be the Instrument CHAP. IX What Affections must be Acted and by what Considerations and objests and in what order SECT I. THirdly To draw yet neerer the heart of the work The third thing to be discovered to you is What Powers of the soul must here be acted What affections excited What considerations of their objects are necessary thereto and in what order we must proceed I joyn all these together because though in themselves they are distinct things yet in the practice they all concurre to the same Action The matters of God which we are to think on have their various qualifications and are presented to the soul of man in divers relative and Modal considerations According to these several considerations of the objects the soul it self is distinguished into its several faculties powers and capacities That as God hath given man five senses to partake of the five distinct excellencies of the objects of sense so he hath diversifyed the soul of man either into faculties powers or ways of acting answerable to the various qualifications and considerations of himself and the inferior objects of this soul And as if there be more sensible excellencies in the creatures yet they are unknown to us who have but these five senses to discern them by so whatever other excellencies are in God and our happiness more then these faculties or powers of the soul can apprehend must needs remain wholly unknown to us till our souls have senses as it were suitable to those objects 〈◊〉 as it is unknown to a tree or a stone what sound and light 〈◊〉 sweetness are or that there are any such things in the world 〈◊〉 Now these matters of God are primarily diversifyed to our consideration under the Distinction of True and Good accordingly the primary Distinction concerning the soul is into the faculties of Understanding and Will the former having Truth for its object and the latter Goodness This Truth is sometime known by evident Demonstration and so it is the object of that we call knowledg which also admits of divers distinctions according to several ways of demonstration which I am loth here to puzzle you with Sometime it is received from the Testimony of others which receiving we call belief When any thing else would obscure it or stands up in competition with it then we weigh their several evidences and accordingly discover and vindicate the Truth and this we call Judgment Sometime by the strength the clearness
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
your hope dieth your duties die yours endevors die your joyes die and your souls die And if your hope be not acted but lie asleep its next to dead both in likeness and preparation Therefore Christian Reader when thou art winding up thy affections to Heaven do not forget to give one lift at thy Hope remember to winde up this peg also The object of Hope hath four qualifications First It must be good secondly Future thirdly Difficult fourthly yet Possible For the goodness of thy Rest there is somewhat said before which thou maist transfer hither as thou findest it useful so also of the difficulty and futurity Let Faith then shew thee the truth of the Promise and Judgment the goodness of the thing promised and what then is wanting for the raising of thy hope Shew thy soul from the Word and from the Mercies and from the Nature of God what possibility yea what probability yea what certainty thou hast of possessing the Crown Think thus and reason thus with thine own heart Why should I not confidently and comfortably hope when my soul is in the hands of so compassionate a Saviour and when the Kingdom is at the disposal of so bounteous a God Did he ever manifest any backwardness to my good or discover the least inclination to my ruine Hath he not sworn the contrary to me in his Word that he delights not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should repent and live Have not all his dealings with me witnessed the same Did he not minde me of my danger when I never feared it and why was this if he would not have me to escape it Did he not minde me of my happiness when I had no thoughts of it and why was this but that he would have me to enjoy it How oft hath he drawn me to himself and his Christ when I have drawn backward and would have broken from him What restless importunity hath he used in his suit how hath he followed me from place to place and his Spirit incessantly sollicited my heart with winning suggestions and perswasions for my good And would he have done all this if he had been willing that I should perish If my soul were in the hands of my mortal foes then indeed there were small hopes of my salvation yea if it were wholly in my own hands my flesh and my folly would betray it to damnation But have I as much cause to distrust God as to distrust my foes or to distrust my self Sure I have not Have I not a sure Promise to build and rest on and the Truth of God engaged to fulfil it Would I not hope if an honest man had made me a promise of any thing in his power And shall I not hope when I have the Covenant and the Oath of God It s true the glory is out of sight we have not beheld the Mansions of the Saints Who hath ascended up to discover it and descended to tell us what he had seen why but the Word is neer me Have I not Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles Is not the promise of God more certain then our sight it is not by sight but by hope that we must be saved and hope that is seen is not hope for if we see it why do we yet hope for it but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Rom. 8.24 25. I have been ashamed of my hope in the arm of flesh but hope in the promise of God maketh not ashamed Rom. 5.5 I will say therefore in my greatest sufferings with the Church Lam. 3.24 c. The Lord is my portion therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him It is good that I both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth I will sit alone and keep silence because I have born it upon me I will put my mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope For the Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Though I languish and die yet will I hope for he hath said The righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Though I must lie down in dust and darkness yet there my flesh shall rest in hope Psal. 16.9 And when my flesh hath nothing in which it may rejoyce yet will I keep the rejoycing of hope firm to the end Heb. 3.6 For he hath said The hope of the righteous shall be gladness Prov. 10.28 Indeed if I had lived still under the Covenant of Works and been put my self to the satisfying of that Justice then there had been no hope But Christ hath taken down those impossibilities and hath brought in a better hope by which we may now draw nigh to God Heb. 7.19 Or if I had to do with a feeble Creature there were small hope for how could he raise this Body from the dust and lift me up above the Sun But what is this to the A mighty Power who made the Heavens and Earth of nothing Cannot that same power that raised Christ raise me and that hath glorified the Head also glorifie the Members Doubtless by the blood of Christs Covenant will God send forth his prisoners from the pit wherein is no water therefore will I turn to this strong hold as a prisoner of hope Zach. 9.11 12. And thus you see how Meditation may excite your Hope SECT VIII 4. THe next Affection to be acted is Courage or Boldness which leadeth to Resolution and concludeth in Action When you have thus mounted your Love and Desire and Hope go on and think further thus with your selves And will God indeed dwell with men And is there such a glory within the reach of hope O why do I not then lay hold upon it where is the cheerful vigor of my spirit why do I not gird up the loyns of my minde and play the man for such a prize why do I not run with speed the race before me and set upon mine enemies on every side and valiantly break through all resistance why do I not take this Kingdom by force and my fervent soul catch at the place do I yet sit still and Heaven before me If my Beast do but see his Provender if my greedy senses perceive but their delightful objects I have much ado to stave them off And should not my soul be as eager for such a blessed Rest why then do I not undauntedly fall to work what should stop me or what should dismay me Is God with me or against me in the work will Christ stand by me or will he not If it were a way of sin that leads to death then I might expect that God should resist me and stand in my way with
the drawn sword of his displeasure or at least overtake me to my grief at last But is he against the obeying of his own commands is perfect good against any thing but evil doth he bid me seek and will he not assist me in it doth he set me awork and urge me to it and will he after all be against me in it It cannot be And if he be for me who can be against me In the work of sin all things almost are ready to help us and God onely and his Servants are against us and how ill doth that work prosper in our hands But in my course to Heaven almost all things are against me but God is for me and how happily still doth the work succeed Do I set upon this work in my own strength or rather in the strength of Christ my Lord And cannot I do all things through him that strengthneth me was he ever foiled or subdued by an enemy He hath been assaulted indeed but was he ever conquered Can they take the sheep till they have overcome the Shepherd why then doth my flesh lay open to me the difficulties and urge me so much with the greatness and troubles of the work It is Christ that must answer all these Objections and what are the difficulties that can stay his power Is any thing too hard for the Omnipotent God May not Peter boldly walk on the Sea if Christ do but give the word of command and if he begin to sink is it from the weakness of Christ or the smalness of his Faith The water indeed is but a sinking ground to tread on but if Christ be by and countenance us in it if he be ready to reach us his hand who would draw back for fear of danger Is not Sea and Land alike to him shall I be driven from my God and from my Everlasting Rest as the silly Birds are feared from their food with a man of clouts or a loud noise when I know before there is no danger in it How do I see men daily in these wars adventure upon Armies and Forts and Cannons and cast themselves upon the instruments of death and have not I as fair a prize before me and as much encouragement to adventure as they What do I venture my life is the most and in these prosperous times there is not one of many that ventures that VVhat do I venture on are they not unarmed foes A great hazzard indeed to venture on the hard thoughts of the world or on the scorns and slanders of a wicked tongue Sure these Serpents teeth are out these Vipers are easily shaken into the fire these Adders have no stings these Thorns have lost their prickles As all things below are silly comforters so are they silly toothless enemies Bugbears to frighten fools and children rather then powerful dreadful foes Do I not well deserve to be turned into Hell if the scorns and threats of blinded men if the fear of silly rotten Earth can drive me thither do I not well deserve to be shut out of Heaven if I will be frighted from it with the tongues of sinners Surely my own voice must needs condemn me and my own hand subscribe the sentence and common Reason would say that my damnation were just VVhat if it were Father or Mother or Husband or VVife or the neerest Friend that I have in the world if they may be called Friends that would draw me to damnation should I not run over all that would keep me from Christ VVill their friendship countervail the enmity of God or be any comfort to my condemned soul shall I be yielding and pliable to the desires of men and onely harden my self against the Lord Let men let Angels beseech me upon their knees I will slight their tears I will scorn to stop my course to behold them I will shut mine ears against their cryes Let them flatter or let them frown let them draw forth tongues and swords against me I am resolved to break through in the might of Christ and to look upon them all as naked dust If they would entice me with preferment with the Kingdoms of the world I will no more regard them then the dung of the Earth O Blessed Rest O most unvaluable Glorious State who would sell thee for dreams and shadows who would be enticed or affrighted from thee who would not strive and fight and watch and run and that with violence even to the last breath so he might but have hope at last to obtain thee Surely none but those that know thee not and beleeve not thy glory Thus you see with what kinde of Meditations you may excite your Courage and raise your Resolutions SECT IX 5. THe last Affection to be acted is Joy This is the end of all the Rest Love Desire Hope and Courage do all tend to the raising of our Joy This is so desirable to every man by nature and is so essentially necessary to the constituting of his happiness that I hope I need not say much to perswade you to any thing that would make your life delightful Supposing you therefore already convinced That the pleasures of the flesh are brutish and perishing and that your solid and lasting joy must be from Heaven in stead of perswading I shall proceed in directing Well then by this time if thou hast managed well the former work thou art got within the ken of thy Rest thou believest the Truth of it thou art convinced of the excellency of it thou art faln in Love with it thou longest after it thou hopest for it and thou art resolved couragiously to venture for the obtaining it But is here any work for joy in this we delight in the good which we do possess It s present good that is the object of joy but thou wilt say alas I am yet without it Well but yet think a little further with thy self Though the Real presence do afford the choicest joy yet the presence of its imperfect Idea or image in my understanding may afford me a great deal of true delight Is it nothing to have a deed of gift from God Are his infallible promises no ground of joy Is it nothing to live in daily expectation of entring into the Kingdom Is not my assurance of being glorified one of these dayes a sufficient ground for unexpressible joy Is it no delight to the Heir of a Kingdom to think of what he must hereafter possess though at present he little differ from a servant Am I not commanded to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 12.12 Here then Reader take thy heart once again as it were by the hand Bring it to the top of the highest Mount if it be possible to some Atlas above the clouds shew it the Kingdom of Christ and the glory of it say to it All this will thy Lord bestow upon thee who hast believed in him and been a worshipper of him It
it tends also exceedingly to quicken and raise it so that as God is the highest Object of our Thoughts so our viewing of him and our speaking to him and pleading with him doth more elevate the soul and actuate the Affections then any other part of Meditation can do Men that are careless of their carriage and speeches among children and Ideots will be sober and serious with Princes or grave men so though while we do but plead the case with our selves we are careless and unaffected yet when we turn our speech to God it may strike us with awfulness and the holiness and Majesty of him whom we speak to may cause both the matter and words to pierce the deeper Isaac went forth to pray saith the former Translation To Meditate saith the latter The Hebrew Verb saith Paraeus in loc signifieth both ad Orandum Meditandum The men of God both former and later who have left their Meditations on Record for our view have thus intermixed Soliloquy and Prayer sometime speaking to their own hearts and sometime turning their speech to God And though this may seem an indifferent thing yet I conceive it very sutable and necessary and that it is the highest step that we can advance to in the Work Object But why then is it not as good take up with Prayer alone and so save all this tedious work that you prescribe us I Answer They are several duties and therefore must be performed both Secondly We have need of one as well as the other and therefore shall wrong our selves in the neglecting of either Thirdly The mixture as in Musick doth more affect the one helps on and puts life into the other Fourthly It is not the right order to begin at the top therefore Meditation and speaking to our selves should go before Prayer or speaking to God want of this makes Prayer with most to have little more then the name of Prayer and men to speak as lightly and as stupidly to the dreadful God as if it were to one of their companions and with far less reverence and affection then they would speak to an Angel if he should appear to them yea or to a Judg or Prince if they were speaking for their lives and consequently their success and answers are often like their prayers O speaking in the God of Heaven in prayer is a weightier duty then most are aware of SECT V. THe Ancients had a Custom by Apostrophe's and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to speak as it were to Angels and Saints departed 〈…〉 it was used by them I take to be lawful but what they spoke in Rhetorical Figures were interpreted by the succeeding Ages to be spoken in strict propriety and Doctrinal Conclusions for praying to Saints and Angels were raised from their speeches Therefore I will omit that course which is so little necessary and so subject to scandalize the less-judicious Readers And so much for the fourth part of the Direction by what steps or Acts we must advance to the height of this Work I should clear all this by some examples but that I intend shall follow in the end CHAP. XI Some Advantages and Helps for raising and affecting the Soul by this Meditation SECT I. FIfthly The fifth part of this Directory is To shew you what advantages you should take and what helps you should use to make your Meditations of Heaven more quickening and to make you taste the sweetness that is therein For that is the main work that I drive at through all that you may not stick in a bare thinking but may have the lively seâ—â—e of all upon your hearts And this you will finde to be the most difficult part of the work and that its easier barely to think of Heaven a whole day then to be lively and affectionate in those thoughts one quarter of an hour Therefore let us yet a little further consider what may be done to make your thoughts of Heaven to be piercing affecting raising thoughts Here therefore you must understand That the meer pure work of Faith hath many disadvantages with us in comparison of the work of Sense Faith is imperfect for we are renewed but in part but Sense hath its strength according to the strength of the flesh Faith goes against a world of resistance but Sense doth not Faith is supernatural and therefore prone to declining and to languish both in the habit and exercise further then it is still renewed and excited but Sense is natural and therefore continueth while nature continueth The object of Faith is far off we must go as far as Heaven for our Joyes But the object of Sense is close at hand It is no easie matter to rejoyce at that which we never saw nor ever knew the man that did see it and this upon a meer promise which is written in the Bible and that when we have nothing else to rejoyce in but all our sensible comforts do fail us But to rejoyce in that which we see and feel in that which we have hold of and possession already this is not difficult Well then what should be done in this case Why sure it will be a point of our Spiritual Prudence and a singular help to the furthering of the work of Faith to call in our Sense to its assistance If we can make us friends of these usual enemies and make them instruments of raising us to God which are the usual means of drawing us from God I think we shall perform a very excellent work Sure it is both possible and lawful yea and necessary too to do something in this kinde for God would not have given us either our Senses themselves or their usual objects if they might not have been serviceable to his own praise and helps to raise us up to the apprehension of higher things And it is very considerable How the Holy Ghost doth condescend in the phrase of Scripture in bringing things down to the reach of Sense how he sets forth the excellencies of Spiritual things in words that are borrowed from the objects of Sense how he describeth the glory of the New Jerusalem in expressions that might take even with flesh it self As that the Streets and Buildings are pure Gold that the Gates are Pearl that a Throne doth stand in the midst of it c. Revel 21. and 22. That we shall eat and drink with Christ at his Table in his Kingdom that he will drink with us the fruit of the Vine new that we shall shine as the Sun in the Firmament of our Father These with most other descriptions of our glory are expressed as if it were to the very flesh and sense which though they are all improper and figurative yet doubtless if such expressions had not been best and to us necessary the Holy Ghost would not have so frequently used them He that will speak to mans understanding must speak in mans language and speak that which he is capable
to conceive And doubtless as the Spirit doth speak so we must hear and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings Those conceivings and expressions which we have of Spirits and things meerly Spiritual they are commonly but second Notions without the first but meer names that are put into our mouths without any true conceivings of the things which they signifie or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms are meerly negative what things are not rather then what they are As when we mention Spirits we mean they are not corporeal substances but what they are we cannot tell no more then we know what is Aristotles Materia Prima It is one reason of Christs assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead that we might know him the better when he is so much neerer to us and might have more positive conceivings of him and so our mindes might have familiarity with him who before was quite beyond their reach But what is my scope in all this is it that we might think Heaven to be made of Gold and Pearl or that we should Picture Christ as the Papists do in such a shape or that we should think Saints and Angels do indeed eat and drink No Not that we should take the Spirits figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety or have fleshly conceivings of Spiritual things so as to beleeve them to be such indeed But thus To think that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety is utterly beyond our reach and capacity and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections but not to pervert them and use these low notions as a Glass in which we must see the things themselves though the representation be exceeding imperfect till we come to an immeditae and perfect sight yet still concluding That these phrases though useful are but borrowed and improper The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of Creatures as anger repenting willing what shall not come to pass c. Though these be improper drawn from the maner of men yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet then in this glass and which we can no better conceive of then in such notions or else the Holy Ghost would have given us better I would the Judicious Reader would on the by well weigh also how much this conduceth to reconcile us and the Arminians in those ancient and like-to-be continuing Controversies SECT II. 1. GO too then When thou settest thy self to meditate on the joyes above think on them boldly as Scripture hath expressed them Bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense Excellency without familiarity doth more amaze then delight us Both Love and Joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance When we go about to think of God and Glory in proper conceivings without these Spectacles we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon We set God and Heaven so far from us that our thoughts are strange and we look at them as things beyond our reach and beyond our line and are ready to say That which is above us is nothing to us To conceive no more of God and Glory but that we cannot conceive them and to apprehend no more but that they are past our apprehension will produce no more love but this To acknowledg that they are so far above us that we cannot love them and no more joy but this That they are above our rejoycing And therefore put Christ no further from you then he hath put himself least the Divine Nature be again inaccessible Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified think of our fellow Saints as men there perfected think of the City and State as the Spirit hath expressed it onely with the Caution and Limitations before mentioned Suppose thou were now beholding this City of God and that thou hadst been companion with John in his Survey of its Glory and hadst seen the Thrones the Majesty the Heavenly Hosts the shining Splendor which he saw Draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present that which God hath in Prophecies revealed and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long Suppose therefore with thy self thou hadst been that Apostles fellow-traveller into the Celestial Kingdom and that thou hadst seen all the Saints in their White Robes with Palms in their hands Suppose thou hadst heard those Songs of Moses and of the Lamb or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the Living God If thou hadst seen these things indeed in what a rapture wouldst thou have been And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thy self the more will the Meditation elevate thy heart I would not have thee as the Papists draw them in Pictures nor use mysterious significant Ceremonies to represent them This as it is a course forbidden by God so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart But get the liveliest Picture of them in thy minde that possibly thou canst meditate of them as if thou were all the while beholding them and as if thou were even hearing the Hallelujahs while thou art thinking of them till thou canst say Methinks I see a glympse of the Glory methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise methinks I even stand by Abraham and David Peter and Paul and many more of these triumphing souls methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom methinks I even hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father and even see them go rejoycing into the Joy of their Lord My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me and should not these just suppositions affect me much more What if I had seen with Paul those unutterable things should I not have been exalted and that perhaps above measure as well as he What if I had stood in the room of Stephen and seen Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones O that I might but see what he did see though I also suffered what he did suffer What if I had seen such a sight as Michaiah saw The Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his left Why these men of God did see such things and I shall shortly see far more then ever they saw
is in the Face of God If the very feet of the Messengers of these tidings of Peace be beautiful how beautiful is the face of the Prince of Peace If the word in the mouth of a fellow servant be so pleasant what is the living Word himself If this Treasure be so pretious in earthen Vessels what is that Treasure laid up in Heaven Think with thy self If I had heard but such a Divine Prophet as Isaiah or such a perswading moving Prophet as Jeremy or such a worker of Miracles as Elijah or Elisha how delightful a hearing would this have been If I had heard but Peter or John or Paul I should rejoyce in it as long as I lived but what would I give that I had heard one Sermon from the mouth of Christ himself sure I should have felt the comfort of it in my very foul why but alas all this is nothing to what we shall have above O blessed are the eyes that see what there is seen and the ears that hear that things that there are heard There shall I hear Elias Isaiah Daniel Peter John not preaching to an obstinate people in imprisonment in persecution and reproach but triumphing in the praises of him that hath advanced them Austin was wont to wish these three wishes first That he might have seen Christ in the flesh secondly That he might have heard Paul Preach thirdly That he might have seen Rome in its glory Alas these are small matters all to that which Austin now beholds there we see not Christ in the form of a servant but Christ in his Kingdom in Majesty and Glory not Paul Preach in weakness and contempt but Paul with millions more rejoycing and triumphing not pesecuting Rome in a fading glory but Jerusalem which is above in perfect and lasting glory So also think what a joy it is to have access and acceptance in Prayer that when any thing aileth me I may go to God and open my case and unbosom my soul to him as to my most faithful friend especially knowing his sufficiency and willingness to relieve me O but it will be a more surpassing unspeakable joy when I shal receive all blessings without asking them and when all my necessities and miseries are removed and when God himself will be the portion and inheritance of my soul. What consolation also have we oft received in the Supper of the Lord what a priviledge is it to be admitted to sit at his Table to have his Covenant sealed to me by the outward Ordinance and his special Love sealed by his Spirit to my heart Why but all the life and comfort of these is their declaring and assuring me of the comforts hereafter their use is but darkly to signifie and seal those higher mercies when I shall indeed drink with him the fruit of the vine renewed it will then be a pleasant feast indeed O the difference between the last Supper of Christ on earth and the marriage Supper of the Lamb at the great day Here he is in an upper roome accompanied with twelve poor selected men feeding on no curious dainties but a Paschal Lamb with sowâ—e Herbs and a Judas at his table ready to betray him But then his room will be the Glorious Heavens his attendants all the host of Angels and Saints no Judas nor unfurnished guest comes there but the humble believers must sit down by him and the Feast will be their mutual Loving and Rejoycing Yet further think with thy self thus The communion of the Saints on earth is a most delectable mercy What a pleasure is it to live with understanding and heavenly Christians â— Even David saith they were all his delight O then what a delightful society shall I have above The Communion of Saints is there somewhat worth where their understandings are fully cleared and their affections so highly advanced If I had seen but Job in his sores upon the Dunghil it would have been an excellent sight to see such a mirror of patience what will it be then to see him in glory praising that power which did uphold and deliver him If I had heard but Paul and Sylas singing in the stocks it would have been a delightful hearing what will it be then to hear them sing praises in heaven If I had heard David sing praises on his Lute and Harp it would have been a pleasing Meloâ—dy and that which drove the evil spirit from Saul would sure have driven away the dulness and sadness of my spirit and have been to me as the Musick was to Elisha that the Spirit of Christ in joy would have come upon me why I shall shortly hear that sweet Singer in the heavenly Chore advancing the King of Saints and will not that be a far more melodious hearing If I had spoke with Paul when he was new come down from the third Heavens and he might have revealed to me the things which he had seen O what would I give for an hours such conference how far would I go to hear such an Narration why I must shortly see those very things my self yea and far more then Paul was then capable of seeing and yet shall I see no more then I shall possess If I had spoke but one hour with Lazarus when he was risen from the dead heard him describe the things which he had seen in another world if God would permit and enable him thereto what a joyful discourse would that have been How many thousand books may I read before I could know so much as he could have told me in that hour If God would have suffered him to tell what he had seen the Jews would have more thronged to hear him then they did to see him O but this would have been nothing to the sight it self and to the fruition of all that which Lazaâ—us saw Once again think with thy self what a soul raising imployment is the praising of God especially in consort with his affectionate Saints What if I had been in the place of those Shepherds and seen the Angels and heard the multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men Luke 2.13 14. what a glorious sight and hearing would this have been but I shall see and hear more glorious things then this If I had stood by Christ when he was thanking his Father Joh 17. I should have thought mine ears even blessed with his voyce how much more when I shall hear him pronounce me blessed If there were such great joy at the bringing back of the Ark 2 Sam. 6.15 and such great joy at the reedifying the material Temple Nehe. 12.43 what joy will there be in the New Jerusalem why If I could but see the Church here in Unity and Prosperity and the undoubted Order and Discipline of Christ established and his Ordinances purely and powerfully administred what an unspeakable joy to my soul it would
be If I could see the Congregations provided with able Teachers and the people receiving and obeying the Gospel and longing for Reformation and for the Government of Christ O what a blessed place were England If I could see our Ignorance turned into Knowledg and Error turned into soundness of Understanding and shallow Professors into solid Believers and Brethren living in Amity and in the life of the Spirit O what a fortunate Iland were this Alas alas what 's all this to the Reformation in Heaven and to the blessed condition which we must live in there There 's another kinde of change and glory then this What great joy had the people and David himself to see them so willingly offer to the Service of the Lord And what an excellent Psalme of Praise doth David thereupon compose 1 Chro. 29.9 10 c. When Solomon was anointed King in Jerusalem the people rejoyced with so great joy that the earth rent at the sound of them 1 Kings 1.40 what a joyful shout will there be then at the appearing of the King of the Church If when the foundations of the earth were fastned and the corner stone thereof was laid the morning stars did sing together and all the sons of God did shout for joy Job 38 6 7. why then when our glorious world is both founded and finished and the corner stone appeareth to be the top stone also and the Holy City is adorned as the Bride of the Lamb O Sirs what a joyful shout will then be heard SECT XI 9 COmpare the joy which thou shalt have in heaven with that which the Saints of God have found in the way to it and in the foretastes of it when thou seest a heavenly man rejoyce think what it is that so affects him it is the property of fools to rejoyce in toyes and to laugh at nothing but the people of God are wiser then so they know what it is that makes them glad When did God ever reveal the least of himself to any of his Saints but the joy of their hearts were answerable to the Revelation Paul was so lifted up with what he saw that he was in danger of being exalted above measure and must have a prick in the flesh to keep him down when Peter had seen but Christ in his Transfiguration which was but a small glimpse of his glory and had seen Moses and Elias talking with him what a rapture and extasie is he cast into Master saith he it is good for us to be here let us here build three Tabernacles one for Thee and one for Moses and one for Elias as if he should say O let us not go down again to yonder persecuting rabble let us not go down again to yonder drossy dirty world let us not return to our mean and suffering state is it not better that we stay here now we are here is not here better company and sweeter pleasures but the Text saith He knew not what he said Matth. 17.4 When Moses had been talking with God in the Mount it made his Visage so shineing and glorious that the people could not endure to behold it but he was fain to put a vail upon it No wonder then if the face of God must be vailed till we are come to that state where we shall be more capable of beholding him when the vail shall be taken away and we all beholding him with open face shall be turned into the same Image from glory to glory Alas what is the backparts which Moses saw from the clefts of the Rock to that open face which we shall behold hereafter what is the Revelation to John in Patmos to this Revelation which we shall have in heaven How short doth Pauls Vision come of the Saints Vision above with God How small a part of the glory which we must see was that which so transported Peter in the Mount I confess these were all extraordinary foretastes but little to the full Beatifical Vision when David foresaw the Resurrection of Christ and of himself and the pleasures which he should have for ever at Gods right hand how doth it make him break forth and say Therefore my heart was glad and my glory rejoyceth my flesh also shall rest in hope Psal. 16.9 Why think then If the foresight can raise such ravishing joy what will the actual possession do How oft have we read and heard of the dying Saints who when they had scarce strength and life enough to express them have been as full of joy as their hearts could hold And when their bodies have been under the extremities of their sickness yea ready to feel the pangs of death have yet had so much of heaven in their spirits that their joy hath far surpassed their sorrows and if a spark of this fire be so glorious and that in the midst of the sea of adversity what then is that Sun of Glory it self O the joy that the Martyrs of Christ have felt in the midst of the scorching flames sure they had life and sense as we and were flesh and blood as well as we therefore it must needs be some excellent thing that must so rejoyce their souls while their bodies were burning VVhen Bilney can burn his finger in the Candle and Cranmer can burn off his unworthy right Hand when Bainham can call the Papists to see a Miracle and tel them that he feels no more pain then in a bed of Down and that the fire was to him as a bed of Roses when Farrer can say If Istir believe not my Doctrine Think then Reader with thy self in thy Meditations sure it must be some wonderful foretasted glory that can do all this that can make the flames of fire easie and that can make the King of Fears so welcome O what then must this glory it self needs be when the very thoughts of it can bring Paul into such a streight that he desired to depart and to be with Christ as best of all when it can make men never think themselves well till they are dead O what a blessed Rest is this Shall Sanders so delightfully embrace the Stake and cry out Welcome Cross and shall not I more delightfully imbrace my blessedness and cry Welcome Crown Shall blessed Bradford kiss the Faggot and shall not I then kiss the Son himself Shall the poor Martyr rejoyce that she might have her foot in the same hole of the Stocks that Mr. Philpots foot had been in before her and shall not I rejoyce that my soul shall live in the same place of glory where Christ and his Apostles are gone before me Shall Fire and Faggot shall Prisons and Banishment shall Scorns and cruel Torments be more welcome to others then Christ and Glory shall be to me God forbid What thanks did Lucius the Martyr give them that they would send him to Christ from his ill masters on earth How desirously did Basil wish when his persecuters threatned his
death the next day that they might not change their resolution lest he should miss of his expectation What thanks then shall I give my Lord for removing me from this loathsome prison to his Glory and how loth should I be to be deprived thereof When Luther thought he should dye of an Apoplexy it comforted him and made him more willing because the good Duke of Saxony and before him the Apostle John had died of that disease how much more should I be willing to pass the way that Christ hath passed and come to the glory where Christ is gone If Luther could thereupon say Feri Domine feri clementer ipse paratus sum quia verbo tuo a peccatis absolutus Strike Lord strike gently I am ready because by thy Word I am absolved from my sins how much more cheerfully should I cry come Lord and advance me to this glory and repose my weary soul in Rest SECT XII 10. COmpare also the Glory of the Heavenly Kingdom with the glory of the imperfect Church on earth and with the Glory of Christ in his state of Humiliation And you may easily conclude If Christ under his fathers wrath and Christ standing in the room of sinners were so wonderful in excellencies what then is Christ at the Fathers right hand And if the Church under her sins and enemies have so much beauty something it will have at the marriage of the Lamb. How wonderful was the Son of God in the forme of a servant When he is born the Heavens must proclaime him by miracles A new Star must appear in the firmament and fetch men from remote parts of the world to worship him in a manger The Angels and Heavenly host must declare his Nativity and solemnize it with praising and glorifying God When he is but a childe he must dispute with the Doctors and confute them VVhen he sets upon his office his whole life is a wonder Water turned into wine thousands fed with five loaves and two fishes multitudes following him to see his miracles The lepers cleansed the sick healed the lame restored the blinde receive their sight the dead raised if we had seen all this should we not have thought it wonderful The most desperate diseases cured with a touch with a word speaking the blinde eyes with a little clay and spittle the Devil departing by Legions at his command the windes and the seas obeying his VVord are not all these wonderful Think then How wonderful is his Celestial Glory If there be such cutting down of boughs and spreading of Garments and crying Hosanna to one that comes into Jerusalem riding on an Asse what will there be when he comes with his Angels in his Glory If they that heard him preach the Gospel of the Kingdom have their hearts turned within them that they returne and say Never man spake like this Man Then sure they that behold his Majesty in his Kingdom will say There was never glory like this Glory If when his enemies come to apprehend him the word of his mouth doth cast them all to the ground if when he is dying the earth must tremble the vail of the Temple rent the sun in the firmament must hide its face and deny its light to the sinful world and the dead bodies of the Saints arise and the standers by be forced to acknowledge Verely this was the Son of God O then what a day will it be when he will once more shake not the Earth only but the Heavens also and remove the things that are shaken when this Sun shall be taken out of the firmament and be everlastingly darkened with the brightness of his Glory when the dead must all arise and stand before him and all shall acknowledge him to be the Son of God and every tongue confess him to be Lord and King If when he riseth again the Grave and Death have lost their power and the Angels of Heaven must roll away the stone and astonish the watchmen till they are as dead men and send the tidings to his dejected Disciples If the bolted doors cannot keep him forth If the sea be as firme ground for him to walk on If he can asend to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples and send the Angels to forbid them gazing after him O what Power and Dominion and Glory then is he now possessed of and must we for ever possess with him Yet think further Are his very servants enabled to do such miracles when he is gone from them Can a few poor fishermen and tent-makers and the like Mechanicks cure the lame and blinde and sick open their prisons destroy the disobedient raise the dead and astonish their adversaries O then what a world will that be where every one can do greater works then these and shall be highlier honoured then by the doing of wonders It were much to have the Devils subject to us but more to have our names written in the book of Life If the very preaching of the gospel be accompanied with such power that it will pierce the heart and discover its secrets bring down the proud and make the stony sinner tremble If it can make men burne their books sel their lands bring in the price and lay it down at the Preachers feet If it can make the spirits of Princes stoop and the Kings of the Earth resigne their Crownes and do their homage to Jesus Christ If it can subdue Kingdome and convert thousands and turn the world thus upside down If the very mention of the Judgment and Life to come can make the Judge on the bench to tremble when the prisoner at the bar doth preach this Doctrine O what then is the Glory of the Kingdom it self What an absolute Dominion hath Christ and his Saints And if they have this Power and Honour in the day of their abasement and in the time appointed for their suffering and disgrace what then will they have in their full advancement SECT XIII 11. COmpare thy mercies thou shalt have above with the mercies which Christ hath here bestowed on thy soul and the glorious change which thou shalt have at last with the gracious change which the Spirit hath wrought on thy heart Compare the comforts of thy glorification with the comforts of thy sanctification There is not the smallest grace in thee which is genuine and sincere but is of greater worth then the riches of the Indies not a hearty desire and groan after Christ but is more to be valued then the Kingdoms of the VVorld A renewed nature is the very Image of God Scripture calleth it by the name of Christ dwelling in us and the Spirit of God abiding in us It is as a beam from the face of God himself it is the Seed of God remaining in us it is the onely inherent beauty of the rational soul it innobleth man above all nobility it fitteth him to understand his Makers pleasure to do his VVill and to receive his
Glory VVhy think then with thy self If this grain of Mustard seed be so precious what is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God If a spark of life which will but strive against corruptions and flame out a few desires and groans be so much worth how glorious then is the Fountain and End of this life If we be said to be like God and to bear his Image and to be holy as he is holy when alas we are pressed down with a body of sin Sure we shall then be much liker God when we are perfectly holy and without blemish and have no such thing as sin within us Is the desire after Heaven so precious a thing what then is the thing it self which is desired Is the love so excellent what then is the beloved Is our joy in foreseeing and believing so sweet what will be the joy in the full possessing O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections VVhat good do's it to his very heart when he can feelingly say He loves his Lord what sweetness is there in the very act of loving yea even those troubling Passions of Sorrow and Fear are yet delightful when they are rightly exercised How glad is a poor Christian when he feeleth his heart begin to melt and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it Even this Sorrow doth yield him matter of Joy O what will it then be when we shall do nothing but know God and love and rejoyce and praise and all this in the highest perfection what a comfort is it to my doubting soul when I have a little assurance of the sincerity of my graces when upon examination I can but trace the Spirit in his sanctifying works How much more will it comfort me to finde that this Spirit hath safely conducted me and left me in the arms of Jesus Christ what a change was it that the Spirit made upon my soul when he first turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God To be taken from that horrid state of nature wherein my self and my actions were loathsom to God and the sentence of death was past upon me and the Almighty took me for his utter enemy and to be presently numbred among his Saints and called his Friend his Servant his Son and the sentence revoked which was gone forth O what a change was this To be taken from that state wherein I was born and had lived delightfully so many yeers and was rivetted in it by custom and engagements when thousands of sins did lie upon my score and if I had so died I had been damned for ever and to be justified from all these enormous crimes and freed from all these fearful plagues and put into the title of an Heir of Heaven O what an astonishing change was this Why then consider how much greater will that glorious change then be Beyond expressing beyond conceiving How oft when I have thought of this change in my Regeneration have I cryed out O blessed day and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it why how then shall I cry out in Heaven O blessed Eternity and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it Was the mercy of my conversion so exceeding great that the Angels of God did rejoyce to see it Sure then the mercy of my salvation will be so great that the same Angels will congratulate my felicity This Grace is but a spark that is raked up in the ashes it is covered with flesh from the sight of the world and covered with corruption sometime from mine-own sight But my Everlasting glory will not so be clouded nor my light be under a bushel but upon a hill even upon Sion the Mount of God SECT XIIII 12. LAstly compare the joyes which thou shalt have above with those foretastes of it which the Spirit hath given thee here Judg of the Lyon by the Paw and of the Ocean of Joy by that drop which thou hast tasted Thou hast here thy strongest refreshing comforts but as that man in Hell would have had the water to cool him a little upon the tip of the finger for thy tongue to taste yet by this little thou maist conjecture at the quality of the whole Hath not God sometime revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul and let a drop of glory fall upon it Hast thou not been ready to say O that it might be thus with my soul continually and that I might always feel what I feel sometimes Didst thou never cry out with the Martyr after thy long and doleful expectations He is come he is come Didst thou never in a lively Sermon of Heaven nor in thy retired contemplations on that blessed State perceive thy drooping spirits revive and thy dejected heart to lift up the head and the light of Heaven to break forth to thy soul as a morning Star or as the dawning of the day Didst thou never perceive thy heart in these duties to be as the childe that Elisha revived to wax warm within thee and to recover life VVhy think with thy self then what is this earnest to the full Inheritance Alas all this light that so amazeth and rejoyceth me is but a Candle lighted from Heaven to lead me thither through this world of darkness If the light of a Star in the night be such or the little glimmering at the break of the day what then is the light of the Sun at noontide If some godly men that we read of have been overwhelmed with joy till they have cryed out Hold Lord stay thy hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot endure too great a light O what will then be my joyes in Heaven when as the object of my joy shall be the most glorious God so my soul shall be made capable of seeing and enjoying him and though the light be ten thousand times greater then the Suns yet my eyes shall be able for ever to behold it Or if thou be one that hast not felt yet these sweet foretastes for every beleever hath not felt them then make use of the former delights which thou hast felt that thou maist the better discern what hereafter thou shalt feel And thus I have done with the fifth part of this Directory and shewed you on what grounds to advance your Meditations and how to get them to quicken your affections by comparing the unseen delights of Heaven with those smaller which you have seen and felt in the flesh CHAP. XII How to manage and watch over the Heart through the whole Work SECT 1. SIxthly The sixt and last part of this Directory is To guide you in the managing of your hearts through this work and to shew you wherein you have need to be exceeding watchful I have shewed before what must be done with your hearts in your preparations to the work and in your setting upon it I shall now shew
frequently finde a motion to have done art thou not ready to be up as soon almost as thou art down on thy knees Why so it will be also in thy contemplations of Heaven As fast as thou gettest up thy heart it will be down again it will be weary of the work it will be minding thee of other business to be done and stop thy Heavenly walk before thou art well warm Well what is to be done in this case also why the same authority and resolution which brought it to the work and observed it in the work must also hold it to it till the work be done Charge it in the Name of God to stay do not so great a work by the halves say to it VVhy foolish heart If thou beg a while and go away before thou hast thy alms dost thou not lose thy labor if thou stop before thou art at the end of thy journey is not very step of thy travel lost Thou camest hither to fetch a walk to Heaven in hope to have a sight of the glory which thou must inherit and wilt thou stop when thou art almost at the top of the Hill and turn again before thou hast taken thy survey Thou camest hither in hope to speak with God and wilt thou go before thou hast seen him Thou camest to bathe thy self in the streams of Consolation and to that end didst uncloath thy self of thy Earthly thoughts and wilt thou put a foot in and so be gone Thou camest to spie out the Land of Promise O go not back without the bunch of Grapes which thou maist shew to thy Brethren when thou comest home for their Confirmation and Encouragement till thou canst tell them by experience That it is a Land flowing with Wine and Oyl with Milk and Honey Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Wine by the gladness of thy heart and that thou hast been anointed with the Oyl by the cheerfulness of thy countenance Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Milk of the Land by thy feeding and by thy milde and gentle disposition and of the Honey by the sweetness of thy words and conversation The views of Heaven would heal thee of thy sinfulness and of thy sadness but thou must hold on the Plaister that it may have time to work This Heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart and refine it from the dross and take away the earthy part and leave the rest more spiritual and pure but then thou must not be presently gone before it have time either to burn or warm Stick therefore to the work till something be done till thy graces be acted thy affections raised and thy soul refreshed with the delights above or if thou canst not obtain these ends at once ply it the closer the next time and let it not go till thou feel the blessing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Matth. 24.46 CHAP. XIII The Abstract or Sum of all for the use of the weak SECT I. THus I have by the gracious assistance of the Spirit directed you in this work of Heavenly Contemplation and lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance and lead you into the path where you may walk with God But because I would bring it down to the capacity of the meanest and help their memories who are apt to let slip the former particulars and cannot well lay together the several branches of this method That they may reduce them to practice I shall here contract the whole into a brief sum and lay it all before you in a narrower compass But still Reader I wish thee to remember that it is the practice of a duty that I am directing thee in and therefore if thou wilt not practise it do not read it The sum is this As thou makest conscience of praying daily so do thou of the acting of thy Graces in Meditation and more especially in meditating on the joyes of Heaven To this end Set apart one hour or half hour every day wherein thou maist lay aside all worldly thoughts and with all possible seriousness and reverence as if thou were going to speak with God himself or to have a sight of Christ or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thy self into some secret place and set thy self wholly to the following work If thou canst take Isaacs time and place who went forth into the Field in the Evening to meditate But if thou be a servant or poor man that cannot have that leisure take the fittest time and place that thou canst though it be when thou art private about thy labors When thou setst to the work look up toward Heaven let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can remember that there is thine Everlasting Rest study its excellency study its reality till thy unbelief be silenced and thy Faith prevail If thy judgment be not yet drawn to admiration use those sensible helps and advantages which were even now laid down Compare thy heavenly joyes with the choicest on earth and so rise up from Sense to Faith If yet this meer consideration prevail not which yet hath much force as is before expressed then fall a pleading the case with thy heart Preach upon this Text of Heaven to thy self convince inform confute instruct reprove examine admonish encourage and comfort thy own soul from this Celestial Doctrine draw forth those several considerations of thy Rest on which thy several affections may work especially that Affection or Grace which thou intendest to act If it be Love which thou wouldst act shew it the loveliness of Heaven and how suitable it is to thy condition if it be Desire consider of thy absence from this lovely object if it be Hope consider the possibility and probability of obtaining it if it be Courage consider the singular assistance and encouragements which thou maist receive from God the weakness of the enemy and the necessity of prevailing if it be Joy consider of its excellent ravishing glory of thy interest in it and of its certainty and the neerness of the time when thou must possess it Urge these considerations home to thy heart whet them with all possible seriousness upon each affection If thy heart draw back force it to the work if it loyter spur it on if it step aside command it in again if it would slip away and leave the work use thine authority keep it close to the business till thou have obtained thine end Stir not away if it may be till thy Love do flame till thy Joy be raised or till thy Desire or other Graces be lively acted Call in assistance also from God mix Ejaculations with thy Cogitations and Soliloquies Till having seriously pleaded the case with thy heart and reverently pleaded the case with God thou have pleaded thy self from a clod to a flame from a forgetful sinner to a mindful lover from a lover of
the world to a thirster after God from a fearful coward to a resolved Christian from an unfruitful sadness to a joyful life In a word What will not be done one day do it the next till thou have pleaded thy heart from Earth to Heaven from conversing below to a walking with God and till thou canst lay thy heart to rest as in the bosom of Christ in this Meditation of thy full and Everlasting Rest. And this is the sum of these precedent Directions CHAP. XIV An Example of this Heavenly Contemplation for the help of the unskilful There remaineth a Rest to the people of God SECT II. REst How sweet a word is this to mine ears Methinks the sound doth turn to substance and having entred at the ear doth possess my brain and thence descendeth down to my very heart methinks I feel it stir and work and that through all my parts and powers but with a various work upon my various parts to my wearied senses and languid spirits it seems a quieting powerful Opiate to my dulled powers it is spirit and life to my dark eyes it is both eye-salve and a prospective to my taste it is sweetness to mine ears it is melody to my hands and feet it's strength and nimbleness Methinks I feel it digest as it proceeds and increase my native heat and moisture and lying as a reviving cordial at my heart from thence doth send forth lively spirits which beat through all the pulses of my soul. Rest Not as the stone that rests on the earth nor as these clods of flesh shall rest in the grave so our beast must rest as well as we nor is it the â—atisfying of our fleshly lusts nor such a rest as the carnal world desireth no no we have another kinde of rest then these Rest we shall from all our labors which were but the way and means to Rest but yet that is the smallest part O blessed Rest where we shall never rest day or night crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths when we shall rest from sin but not from worship from suffering and sorrow but not from solace O blessed day when I shall rest with God when I shall rest in the Arms and Bosome of my Lord when I shall reâ—t in Knowing Loving Reâ—oycing and Praising when my perfect soul and body together shall in these perfect actings perfectly enjoy the most perfect God! when God also who is Love it self shall perfectly love me yea and rest in his Love to me as I shall rest in my love to him and rejoyce over me with joy and singing as I shall rejoyce in him How neer is that most blessed joyful day it comes apace even he that comes will come and will not tarry Though my Lord do seem to delay his coming yet a little while and he will be here What is a few hundred years when they are over How surely will his sign appear and how suddenly will he seize upon the careless world Even as the lightning that shines from East to West in a moment He who is gone hence will even so return Methinks I even hear the voyce of his foregoers Methinks I see him coming in the clouds with the attendants of his Angels in Majesty and in Glory O poor secure sinners what will you now do where will you hide your selves or what shall cover you mountains are gone the earth and heavens that were are passed away the devouring fire hath consumed all except your selves who must be the fuel for ever O that you could consume as soon as the earth and melt away as did the heavens Ah these wishes are now but vain the Lamb himself would have been your friend he would have loved you and ruled you and now have saved you but you would not then and now too late Never cry Lord Lord too late too late man why dost thou look about can any save thee whether dost thou run can any hide thee O wretch that hast brought thy self to this Now blessed Saints that have Believed and Obeyed This is the end of Faith and Patience This is it for which you prayed and waited Do you now repent your sufferings and sorrows your self-denying and holy walking Are your tears of Repentance now bitter or sweet O see how the Judg doth smile upon you there 's love in his looks The titles of Redeemer Husband Head are written in his amiable shining face Heark doth he not call you He bids you stand here on his right hand fear not for there he sets his Sheep O joyful Sentence pronounced by that blessed mouth Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world see how your Saviour takes you by the hand go along you must the door is open the Kingdom 's his and therefore yours there 's your place before his Throne The Father receiveth you as the Spouse of his Son he bids you welcome to the Crown of Glory never so unworthy crowned you must be this was the project of free redeeming Grace and this was the purpose of eternal Love O blessed Grace O blessed Love O the frame that my soul will then be in O how Love and Joy will stir but I cannot express it I cannot conceive it This is that Joy which was procured by Sorrow this is that Crown which was procured by the Cross my Lord did weep that now my tears might be wip't away he did bleed that I might now rejoyce he was forsaken that I might not now be forsaken he did then dye that I might now live This weeping wounded Lord shall I behold this bleeding Saviour shall I see and live in him that dyed for me O free Mercy that can exalt so vile a wretch free to me though dear to Christ Free Grace that hath chosen me when thousands were forsaken when my companions in sin must burn in hell and I must here rejoyce in Rest here must I live with all these Saints O comfortable meeting of my old acquaintance with whom I prayed and wept and suffered with whom I spoke of this day and place I see the Grave could not contain you the sea and earth must give up their dead the same love hath redeemed and saved you also This is not like our Cottages of Clay nor like our Prisons or earthly Dwellings This voyce of Joy is not like our old complainings our groans our sighes our impatient moans nor this melodious praise like our scorns and revilings nor like the oathes and curses which we heard on earth this body is not like the body we had nor this soul like the soul we had nor this life like the life that then we lived we have changed our place we have changed our state our cloathes our thoughts our looks our Language we have changed our company for the greater part and the rest of our company is changed it self Before a Saint was weak and despised so full of
tryal of this world Dost thou finde it agree with thy nature or desires are these common abominations these heavy sufferings these unsatisfying vanities suitable to thee or dost thou love for interest and neer relation Why where hast thou better interest then in heaven or where hast thou neerer relation then there Dost thou love for acquaintance and familiarity Why though thine eyes have never seen thy Lord yet he is never the further from thee If thy son were blinde yet he would love thee his father though he never saw thee Thou hast heard the voice of Christ to thy very heart thou hast received his benefits thou hast lived in his bosome and art thou not yet acquainted with him It is he that brought thee seasonably and safety into the world It is he that nursed thee up in thy tender infancy and helped thee when thou couldst not help thy self He taught thee to go to speak to read to understand He taught thee to know thy self and him he opened thee that first window whereby thou sawest into heaven Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he did quicken it and hard and stubborn and he did soften it and made it yeeld when it was at peace and he did trouble it and whole till he did break it and broken till he did heal it again Hast thou forgotten the time nay the many very many times when he found thee in secret all in tears when he heard thy dolorous sighes and groans and left all to come and comfort thee when he came in upon thee and took thee up as it were in his armes and asked thee Poor soul what doth aile thee dost thou weep when I have wept so much Be of good cheer thy wounds are saving and not deadly It is I that have made them who mean thee no hurt Though I let out thy blood I will not let out thy life O me thinks I remember yet his voice and feel those embracing armes that took me up How gently did he handle me how carefully did he dress my wounds and binde them up Me thinks I hear him still saying to me Poor sinner though thou hast dealt unkindly with me and cast me off yet will not I do so by thee though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies yet both I and All are thine what wouldst thou have that I can give thee and what dost thou want that I cannot give thee If any thing I have will pleasure thee thou shalt have it If any thing in heaven or earth will make the happy why it is all thine own Wouldst thou have pardon thou shalt have it I freely forgive thee all the debt wouldst thou have grace and peace thou shalt have them both wouldst thou have my self why behold I am thine thy friend thy Lord thy brother thy husband and thy head wouldst thou have the Father why I will bring thee to him and thou shalt have him in and by me These were my Lords reviving words These were the melting healing raising quickening passages of love After all this when I was doubtful of his love me thinks I yet remember his overcoming and convincing Arguments Why sinner have I done so much to testifie my Love and yet dost thou doubt Have I made thy believing it the condition of enjoying it and yet dost thou doubt Have I offered thee my self and love so long and yet dost thou question my willingness to be thine VVhy what could I have done more then I have done At what dearer rate should I tell thee that I love thee Read yet the story of my bitter passion wilt thou not believe that it proceeded from love Did I ever give thee cause to be so jealous of me Or to think so hardly of me as thou dost Have I made my self in the Gospel a Lyon to thine enemies and a Lamb to thee and dost thou so over-look my Lamb like nature Have I set mine arms and heart there open to thee and wilt thou not believe but they are shut why if I had been willing to let thee perish I could have done it at a cheaper rate what need I then have done and suffered so much what need I follow thee with so long patience and intreating what dost thou tell me of thy wants have I not enough for me and thee and why dost thou foolishly tell me of thy unworthiness and thy sin I had not died if man had not sinned if thou wert not a sinner thou wert not for me if thou wert worthy thy self what shouldst thou do with my worthiness Did I ever invite the worthy and the righteous or did I ever save or justifie such or is there any such on earth Hast thou nothing art thou lost and miserable art thou helpless and forlorn dost thou believe that I am a sufficient Saviour and wouldst thou have me why then take me Lo I am thine if thou be willing I am willing and neither sin nor devils shall break the match These O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his Gospel spoke unto me till he made me cast my self it his feet ye into his arms and to cry out My Saviour and my Lord Thou hast broke my heart thou hast revived my heart thou hast overcome thou hast wone my heart take it it is thine if such a heart can please thee take it if it cannot make it such as thou wouldst have it Thus O my soul maist thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ therefore if acquaintance will cause affection O then let out thy heart unto him it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness that hath cooled thy heats and eased thy pains and refreshed thy weariness and removed thy fears He hath been always ready when thou hast earnestly sought him He hath given thee the meeting in publike and in private He hath been found of thee in the Congregation in thy house in thy chamber in the field in the way as thou wast walking in thy waking nights in thy deepest dangers O if bounty and compassion be an attractive of Love how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him All the mercies that have filled up my life do tell me this all the places that ever I did abide in all the societies and persons that I have had to deal with every condition of life that I have passed through all my imployments and all my relations every change that hath befaln me all tell me That the Fountain is Overflowing Goodness Lord what a summ of love am I indebted to thee and how doth my debt continually increase how should I love again for so much love But what shall I dare to think of making thee requital or of recompencing all thy love with mine will my mite requite thee for thy golden Mines my seldom wishes for thy constant bounty or mine which is nothing or not mine for thine which is infinite and thine own shall I
mercies which I here received then shall behold the glory enjoyed there which was the End of all this O what a blessed view will that be O glorious prospect which I shall have on the celestial mount Zion Is it possible that there should be any defect of joy or my heart not raised when I am so raised If one drop of lively faith were mixed with these considerations O what work they would make in my brest and what a Heaven-ravished heart should I carry within me Faine would I believe Lord help my unbelief Yet further consider O my soul How sweet have the very ordinances been unto thee What raptures hast thou had in prayer and under heavenly Sermons What gladness in dayes of thanksgiving after eminent deliverances to the Church or to thy self What delight do I finde in the sweet society of the Saints To be among my humble faithful neighbors and friends To joyne with them in the frequent worship of God To see their growth and stability and soundness of understanding To see those daily added to the Church which shall be saved O then what delight shall I have to see the perfected Church in Heaven and to joyne with these and all the Saints in another kinde of worship then we can here conceive of How sweet is it to joyne in the high praises of God in the solemn assemblies How glad have I been to go up to the house of God Especially after long restraint by sickness when I have been as Hezekiah released and readmitted to joyne with the people of God and to set forth the praises of my great deliverer How sweet is my work in Preaching the Gospel and inviting sinners to the marriage feast of the Lamb and opening to them the treasures of free Grace Especially when God blesseth my endeavors with plenteous success and giveth me to see the fruit of my labors even this alone hath been a greater joy to my heart that if I had been made the Lord of all the riches on earth O how can my heart then conceive that joy which I shall have in my admittance into the Celestial Temple and into the Heavenly Host that shall do nothing but praise the Lord for ever When we shall say to Christ Here am I and the children thou hast given me and when Christ shall present us all to his Father and all are gathered and the Body compleated If the very Word of God were sweeter to Job then his necessary food and to Jeremy was the very joy and rejoycing of his heart and to David was sweeter then the Hony and Honicomb so that he cryeth out O how I love thy Law it is my meditation continually and if thy Law had not been my delight I had perished in my troubles O then how blessed a day will that be when we fully enjoy the Lord of this Word and shall need these written precepts and promises no more but shall in stead of these love-letters enjoy our beloved and in stead of these promises have the happiness in possession and read no book but the face of the glorious God! How far would I go to see one of those blessed Angels which appeared to Abraham to Lot to John c. Or to speak with Henoch or Elias or any Saint who had lived with God especially if he would resolve all my doubts and describe to me the celestial habitacions How much more desirable must it needs be to live with those blessed Saints and Angels and to see and possesse as well as they It is written of Erastus that he was so desirous to learn that it would be sweet to him even to dye so he might but be resolved of those doubtful questions wherein he could not satisfie himself How sweet then should it be to me to dye that I may not only be resolved of all my doubts but also know what I never before did think of and enjoy what before I never knew It was a happy dwelling that the twelve Apostles had with Christ to be always in his company and see his face and hear him open to them the mysteries of the Kingdom But it will be another kinde of happiness to dwell with him in Glory It was a rare priviledg of Thomas to put his fingers into his wounds to confirme his faith and of John to be called the Disciple whom Jesus loved on whose brest at supper he was wont to lean But it will be another kinde of priviledg which I shall enjoy when I shall see him in his glory and not in his wounds and shall enjoy a fuller sense of his Love then John then did and shall have the most hearty entertainment that Heaven affordeth â—f they that heard Christ speak on earth were astonished at his Wisdome and answers and wondered at the gratious Words which proceeded from his mouth How shall I be affected then to behold him in his Majesty Rowse up thy self yet O my soul and consider Can the foresight of this glory make others embrace the stake and kiss the fagot and welcome the cross and refuse deliverance And can it not make thee cheerful under lesser sufferings Can it sweeten the flames to them and can it not sweeten thy life or thy sickness or naturall death If a glympse could make Moses his face to shine and Peter on the mount so transported and Paul so exalted and John so rapt up in the spirit Why should it not somewhat revive me with delight Doubtless it would if my thoughts were more believing Is it not the same Heaven which they and I must live in Is not their God their Christ their Crown and mine the same Nay how many a weak woman or poor despised Christian have I seen mean in parts but rich in faith who could rejoyce and triumph in hope of this inheritance And shall I look upon it with so dim an eye So dull a heart So dejected a countenance some small foretastes also I have had my self though indeed small and seldome thorow mine own belief and how much more delightful have they been then ever was any of these earthly things The full enjoyment then will sure be sweet Remember then this bunch of Grapes which thou hast tasted of and by them conjecture the fruitfulness of the Land of Promise A Grape in a wilderness cannot be like the plentiful Vintage Consider also O my soul What a beauty is there in the imperfect Graces of the spirit here so great that they are called the Image of God and can any created exceellencie have a more honorable title Alas how small a part are these of what we shall enjoy in our perfect state O how pretious a mercy should I esteem it if God would but take off my bodily infirmities and restore me to any comfortable measure of health and strength that I might be able with cheerfulness to go through his work How pretious a mercy then will it be to have all
delight in God and heavenly Things it would rectifie their judgments better then all the arguments in the world Lose this delight once and you will begin to quarrel with the Ordinances and Ways of God and to be more offended at the Preachers imperfections then profited by the Doctrine Sixthly And it is the want of these Heavenly Delights in God that makes men so entertain the delights of the flesh This is the cause of most mens voluptuousness and flesh-pleasing The Soul will not rest without some kinde of delights If it had nothing to delight in either in hand or in hope it would be in a kinde of Hell on Earth vexing it self with continual sorrow and despair If a Dog have lost his Master he will follow somebody else Men must have their sweet Cups or delicious Fare or gay Apparel or Cards or Dice or Fleshly Lasts to make up their want of delight in God How well these will serve in stead of God our fleshly youths will be better able to tell me when we meet at Judgment If men were acquainted with this Heavenly Life there would need no Laws against Sabbath breaking and riotousness nor would men need to go for mirth to an Alehouse or a Tavern They would have a far sweeter pastime and recreation neerer hand Seventhly also This want of Heavenly Delights will leave men under the power of every Affliction they will have nothing to comfort them and ease them in their sufferings but the empty uneffectual pleasures of the flesh and when that is gone where then is their delight Eighthly Also it will make men fearful and unwilling to die For who would go to a God or a place that he hath no delight in or who would leave his pleasure here except it were to go to better O if the people of God would learn once this Heavenly Life and take up their delights in God whilest they live they would not tremble and be disconsolate at the tidings of death Ninthly Yea this want of Heavenly Delight doth lay men open to the power of every Temptation A little thing will tice a man from that which he hath no pleasure in Tenthly Yea it is a dangerous preparative to total Apostacy A man will hardly long hold on in a way that he hath no delight in nor use the means if he have no delight in the end But as a Beast if you drive him a way that he would not go will be turning out at every gap If you be Religious in your actions and become over to God in your outward Conversaâ—ion and not in your delight you will shortly be gone if your trial be strong How many young people have we known who by good education or the perswasion of friends or for fear of Hell have been a while kept up among Prayers and Sermons and good company as a Bird in a Cage when if they durst they had rather have been in an Alehouse or at their sports and at last they have broke loose when their restraint was taken off and have forsaken the way that they never took pleasure in You see then that it is not a matter of indifferency whether you entertain these Heavenly Delights or not nor is the loss of your present comfort all the inconvenience that follows the neglect And now Christian Friends I have here lined you out a Heavenly precious Work would you but do it it would make you men indeed To delight in God is the work of Angels and the contrary is the work of devils If God would perswade you now to make conscience of this duty and help you in it by the blessed influence of his Spirit you would not change your lives with the greatest Prince on the Earth But I am afraid if I may judg of your hearts by the backwardness of my own that it will prove a hard thing to perswade you to the work and that much of this my labor will be lost Pardon my jealousie it is raised upon too many and sad experiments What say you Do you resolve on this Heavenly course or no Will you let go all your sinful fleshly pleasures and daily seek after these higher delights I pray thee hear shut the Book and consider of it and resolve on the duty before thou go further Let thy Family perceive let thy Neighbors perceive let thy Conscience perceive yea let God perceive it that thou art a man that hast thy daily Conversation in Heaven God hath now offered to be thy daily delight Thy neglect is thy refusal What Refuse delight and such a Delight If I had propounded you onely a course of Melancholy and Fear and Sorrow you might better have demur'd on it Take heed what thou dost Refuse this and refuse all Thou must have Heavenly Delights or none that are lasting God is willing that thou shouldst daily walk with him and fetch in consolations from the Everlasting Fountain if thou be unwilling even bear thy loss And one of these days when thou liest dying then seek for comfort where thou canst get it and make what shift for contentment thou canst Then see whether thy fleshly delights will stick to thee or give thee the slip and then Conscience in despight of thee shall make thee remember That thou wast once perswaded to a way for more excellent pleasures that would have followed thee through death and have lasted thee to Everlasting What man will go in rags that may be clothed with the best or feed on pulse that may feed of the best or accompany with the vilest that may be a companion to the best and admitted into the presence and favor of the greatest And shall we delight so much in our clothing of flesh and feed so much on the vain pleasures of Earth and accompany so much with sin and sinners When Heaven is set open as it were to our daily view and God doth offer us daily admittance into his presence O how is the unseen God neglected and the unseen Glory forgotten and made light of and all because they are unseen and for want of that Faith which is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things that are not seen But for you sincere Beleevers whose hearts God hath weaned from all things here below I hope you will value this Heavenly Life and fetch one walk daily in the New Jerusalem I know God is your Love and your desire and I know you would fain be more acquainted with your Saviour and I know it is your grief that your hearts are not more neer him and that they do no more feelingly and passionately love him and delight in him As ever you would have all this mended and enjoy your desires O try this Life of Meditation on your Everlasting Rest Here is the Mount Ararat where the fluctuated Ark of your Souls must Rest. O let the World see by your Heavenly Lives That Religion lieth in something more then Opinions and Disputes and a
attamen ex cis confirmari possumus credâ—re Pet. Martyr Loci Commun cap. 8 pag. 38. vid. plura ibidem f Non per alios dispositionem salutis nostrae cognovimus quam perâ— eos per quos Evangelium pervenit ad nos quod quidem tunc preconiavêrunt postea verò per Dei voluntatem in Scripturis nobis tradiderunt fundamentum columnam fidei nostrae futurum Irenaeus adver haeres l. 3. c. 1. * Aquin. summ 3. q. 55. 2. c. §. 5. What the sin against the Holy Ghost is * How Hunnius was assaulted with this temptation that he had sinned against the holy Ghost you may read in his life and death And it is stil a common temptation Matth. 12.24 c. Mar 3.28 Joh 5.39 33. 45 46 47. Joh. 15 22.24 a Act 3.17 b 1 Cor. 2.8 * Nunc non ut olim sunt necessaria miracula priusquam crederet mundus necessaria fuere ad hoc ut mundus crederet ut August de Civit. Dei lib. 22. c. 8. §. 6. * Yet do I believe that that of 2 Pet. 1.20 is generally mistaken as if the Apostle did deny private men the liberty of interpreting Scriptures even for themselves When it is in regard of the object and not of the interpreter that the Apostle calleth it Private As if he should say The Prophets are a sure Testimony of the Doctrine of Christianity but then you must understand that they are not to be interpreted of the Private men that spoke them for they were but types of Christ the Publique person so Psal. 2. 16. c. are to be interpreted of Christ and not of David only a private person and but a type of Christ in all so that Peter answereth the Question of the Eunuch in Acts 8. Of whom doth the Prophet speak of himself privately or some other more publike man This is I think the true meaning of Peter c The Vse of Church Governours and Teachers and how far they are to be obeyed d Oportet discentem credere Aristot. in Analytic post e Tit. 1.7 1 Cor. 4.1 1 Cor. 12.16.17.21 Luke 12.42 Heb. 13.3.17.24 1 Tim. 3.5 Act. 20.28 1 Tim. 3. â— 5. 1 Pet. 5.2 1 Cor. 4.15 d Haec duo dictat ipsa ratio Primò In mysteriis quae superant rationem non nitendum esse ratiocinantis Logicá sed Revelantis authoritate Secundò In consequentiis deducendis aut obscuris in Religione interpretandis magis fidendum esse caetui in nomine Domini legitimè congregatis quam privatis spiritibus seorsim sapientibus recalcitrantibus Doct. Prideaux Lect. 22. de Auth. Eccl. pag. 361. See Doctor Jackson Eternall truth of Scripture lib. 2. chap. 1.2 3 4 5 6. * I may say of many of them for doctrine as Fulbeck of Bracton Britton c. Direct p. 27. There be certaine ancient writers whom as it is not unprofitable to read so to relye on them is dangerous their books are Monumenta adorandae rubiginis of more reverence then authority Argument 2. § 1. I take it for granted that good Angels could not be guilty of forging the Scripture § 2. Not of man * Mahâ—mâ—â— was 〈…〉 by the Arabian soldiers for their commander In his Alcoâ—an he confesseth himself to be a sinner an Idolater an Adulterer given to Lechery His Laws run thus Avenge your selves of your enemies Take as many wives as you can keep and spare not Kill the Infidels he that fighteth lazily shall be damned and he that killeth most shall be in Paradise He saith that Christ had the Spirit and Power of God and the soul of God and that he is Christs servant See Alcoran Azoar 2.3.6 Also Azoar 18.4.11.13 He confesseth that Christ is the Spirit and word and messenger of God that his doctrine iâ— perfect that it enlighteneth the old Testament and that he came to confirm it yet denyeth him to be God Magnus fuit Sanctus magnus Dei amicus magnus propheta c. Vide Thom. Bradwardin de Causa Dei lib. 1. cap. 1. Corol. part 32. § 3. Vid. Wigandum in Method ante comment in mino prophetas Joh. 7 48.49 Acts 10. § 4. Argum. 3. §. 1. Object §. 2. * Cum Romani in victoriosae antiquitatis memoriam templum singulari schemate a facere decrevissent ab omni illâ deorum immo daemoniorum multitudinâ— quaesierunt usquequo durare pusset tam excellentis operis tam operosa constructio Responsum est Donec virgo pareret Illi ad impossibilitatem Oraculum retorquentes templum aeternum solennem illam machinam vocaverunt Nocte autem cum virginali thalamo virginius flos Mariae egressus est ita cecidit confractum est illud mirabile et columnarium opus ut vix appareant vestigia ruinarum Bernard in Natal Domini Serm. 23. 1 Sam. 7.12 * To speak my heart All that I fear is lest Master Herbert be a true Prophet and the Gospel be in its solar motion travelling for the West and American parts and qultting its present places of residence and unworthy professours and possessours And then farewell England But else not §. 3. * Not that Miracles are still necessary but speciall providences do much confirme Nec jam opus est Miraculus cum in omnem terram verbum sonuerit Doct. Humfredus Jesiutis part 1. pag. 114. §. 4. * About the time of the silencing of Ministers how many Churches in England were torne at once with terrible lightning and almost no place else but Churches were touched especially in the lower part of Devonshire where many were scorched maimed and some their brains struck out as they sat in Church And at the Church of Anthony in Cornwall neer Plimouth on Witsunday 1640. See the Relation in Print §. 5. * Was it not neer a Miracle that God wrought for Mistris Honywood when she threw the glass up to the wall saying if this glassbreak not I may be saved c. and yet took it up whole §. 6. Psal. 2.2 3 4 5. a Morneâ— Grotius Doct. Jaâ—â—son Parsons Resolut part 2. c. b Ask them in New England whether Mistris Hutchinsons and Mistris Dyers most hideous monstrous births were not convincing providences against their Antinomian Anti-scriptural heresies as if God from heaven had spoke against them and yet Old England will not take warning See Nicephor Eccl. hist. Tem. 1. li. 4. cap. 13. where Tertulli Jul. Capitolinus Orosius c. do mention c The Legion of Malta in the time of Mar. Aurelius who procured by prayer both Thunder on the enemies and raine for the Army See the Epist. of M. Aurelius in Justin Martyrs Apolo Xiphitin in Vita Aurelij Melch. Adam in vita Myconij Recorded by Sozom. and others Jam. 5.13 14 15 16. Psal. 73.26 August de Civitate Dei lib. 33. Argum. 4. §. 1. §. 2. Lege Epistolam Vâ—ssii de Samuele apparente Saulo in Joan Beverovitii Epistolis Et D. Prideaux Hypomnemata pag. 261 262
then we do wilfully afflict it our selves Suppose thou be in poverty It is thy flesh only that is pinched If thou have sores or sicknesses it is but the flesh that they assault If thou dye it is but that flesh that must rot in the grave Indeed it useth also to reach our hearts and Souls when the body suffereth but that is because we pore upon our evils and too much pity and condole the flesh and so we open the door and let in the pain to the heart our selves which else could have gone no further then the flesh God smites the flesh and therefore we will grieve our spirits and so multiply our grief as if we had not enough before Oh if I could but have let my body have suffered alone in all the pining paining sicknesses which God laid upon it and not have foolishly added my own self-tormenting fears and cares and sorrows and discontents but have quieted and comforted my Soul in the Lord my Rock and Rest I had escaped the far greater part of the Afflictions Why is this flesh so precious in our eyes Why are we so tender of these dusty carcasses Is flesh so excellent a thing Is it not our prison and what if it be broken down Is it not our Enemy yea and the greatest that ever we had and are we so fearful lest it be overthrown Is it not it that hath so long hampered and clog'd our Souls and tyed them to earth and ticed them to forbidden lusts and pleasures and stoln away our hearts from God Was it not it that longed for the first forbidden fruit and must needs be tasting what ever it cost And still it is of the same temper It must be pleased though God be displeased by it and our selves destroyed It maketh all Gods mercies the occasion of our transgressing and draweth poyson from the most excellent objects If we behold our food it inticeth to gluttony if drink to drunkenness if apparel or any thing of worth to pride if we look upon beauty it ticeth to lust if upon money or possessions to Covetousness It causeth our very spiritual love to the godly to degenerate into carnal and our spiritual Zeal and Joy and other graces It would make all carnal like it self What are we beholden to this flesh for that we are so loath that any thing should ail it Indeed we must not wrong it our selves for that is forbidden us Nor may we deny it any thing that is fit for a Servant that so it may be useful to us while we are forced to make use of it But if God chastise it for rebelling against him and the Spirit and it begin to cry and complain under this chastisement shall we make the suffering greater then it is and take its part against God Indeed the Flesh is very near to us we cannot chuse but condole its sufferings and feel somewhat of that which it feeleth But is it so near as to be our chiefest part Or cannot it be sore but we must be so sorry or cannot it consume and pine away but our peace and comfort must consume with it What if it be undone are we therefore undone or if it perish and be destroyed do We therefore perish Oh fie upon this carnality and unbelief which is so contradictory to the principles of Christianity Surely God dealeth the worse with this Flesh because we so over-value and Idolize it We make it the greatest part of our care and labour to provide for it and to satisfie its desires and we would have God to be of our mind and to do so too But as he hath commanded us to make no provision for the flesh to fulfil the desires or lusts thereof Rom. 13.14 So will he follow the same rule himself in his dealings with us and will not much stick at the displeasing of the flesh when it may honour himself or profit our Souls The flesh is aware of this and perceives that the Word and Works of God are much against its desires and delights and therefore is it also against the Word and Works of God It saith of the Word as Ahab of Micaiah I hate it for it doth not speak good concerning me but evil There is such an Enmity betwixt this flesh and God That they that are in the flesh cannot please him and the carnal mind is Enmity against him for it is not subject to his Law nor indeed can be So inconsistent is the pleasing of the flesh and the pleasing of GOD That he hath concluded That to minde the things of the flesh or to be carnally minded is Death and if we live after the flesh we shall dye but if by the Spirit we mortifie the deeds of the body we shall live Rom. 8. vers 4 5 6 7 8 13. So that there is no likelihood that ever Gods dealings should be pleasing to the flesh no more then its works are pleasing to God Why then O my Soul dost thou side with this Flesh and say as it saith and complain as it complaineth It should be part of thine own work to keep it down and bring it in subjection and if God do it for thee shouldst thou be discontented Hath not the pleasing of it been the cause of almost all thy spiritual sorrows Why then may not the displeasing of it further thy Joys Should not Paul and Silas sing because their feet were in the stocks and their flesh yet sore with the last days scourgings Why their spirits were not imprisoned nor scourged Ah unworthy Soul Is this thy thanks to God for his tenderness oâ— Thy good and for his preferring thee so far before the body Art thou turned into flesh thy self by thy dwelling a few years in flesh That thy Joys and thy Sorrows are most of them so fleshly Art thou so much a debter to the flesh that thou shouldst so much live to it and value its prosperity Hath it been so good a friend to thee and to thy Peace Or is it not thy Enemy as well as Gods Why dost thou look so sadly on those withered limbs and on that pining body Do not so far mistake thy self as to think its Joys and thine are all one or that its prosperity and thine are all one or that thou must needs stand or fall together When it is rotting and consuming in the grave then shalt thou be a companion of the perfected Spirits of the Just And when those bones are scattered about the Church-yard then shalt thou be praising God in Rest. And in the mean time hast not thou food of consolation which the flesh knoweth not of and a Joy which this stranger meddleth not with And do not think that when thou art turned out of this body that thou shalt have no habitation Art thou afraid thou shalt wander destitute of a Resting place Is it better Resting in flesh then in God Dost thou not know that when this house of earth is dissolved
thou hast a building with God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 2. It would therefore better become thee earnestly to groan desiring to be cloathed upon with that house Is thy flesh any better then the flesh of Noah was And yet though God saved him from the common deluge he would not save him from common death Or is it any better then the flesh of Abraham or Job or David or all the Saints that ever lived Yet did they all suffer and dye Dost thou think that those Souls which are now with Christ do so much pity their rotten or dusty corps or lament that their ancient habitation is ruined and their oneâ— comely bodies turned into earth Oh what a thing is strangeness and disacquaintance It maketh us afraid of our dearest friends and to draw back from the place of our only happiness So was it with thee towards thy chiefest friends on earth While thou wast unacquainted with them thou didst withdraw from their society but when thou didst once know them throughly thou wouldst have been loath again to be deprived of their fellowship And even so though thy strangeness to God another world do make thee loath to leave this flesh yet when thou hast been but one day or hour there if we may so speak of that Eternity where is neither day nor hour thou wouldst be full loath to return into this flesh again Doubtless when God for the Glory of his Son did send back the Soul of Lazarus into its body he caused it quite to forget the Glory which it had enjoyed and to leave behind it the remembrance of that happiness together with the happiness it self Or else it might have made his life a burden to him to think of the blessedness that he was fetched from and have made him ready to break down the prison doors of his flesh that he might return to that happy state again Oh then impatient Soul murmur not at Gods dealings with that body but let him alone with his work and way He knows what he doth but so dost not thou He seeth the End but thou seest but the beginning If it were for want of love to thee that he did thus chastise thy body then would he not have dealt so by all his Saints Dost thou not think he did not love David and Paul or Christ himself Or rather doth he not chasten because he loveth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Believe nor the Fleshes reports of God nor its commentaries upon his Providences It hath neither Will nor Skill to interpret them aright Not Will for it is an enemy to them They are against it and it is against them Not Skill for it is darkness It savoreth only the things of the flesh but the things of the Spirit it cannot understand because they are spiritually discerned Never expect then that the flesh should truly expound the meaning of the rod. It will call Love Hatred and say God is destroying when he is saving and murmur as if he did thee wrong and used thee hardly when he is shewing thee the greatest mercy of all Are not the foul steps the way to Rest as well as the fair Yea are not thy sufferings the most necessary passages of his providence And though for the present they are not Joyous but Grievous yet in the End do they bring forth the Quiet fruits of Righteousness to all those that are exercised thereby Hast thou not found it so by former experience when yet this flesh would have perswaded thee otherwise Believe it then no more which hath mis-informed thee so oft For indeed there is no believing the words of a wicked and ignorant enemy Ill-will never speaks well But when malice viciousness and Ignorance are combined what actions can expect a true and fair interpretation This flesh will call Love Anger and Anger Hatred and Chastisements Judgments It will tell thee That no mans case is like thine and if God did Love thee he would never so use thee It will tell thee That the promises are but deceiving words and all thy prayers and uprightness is vain If it find thee sitting among the ashes it will say to thee as Jobs wife Dost thou yet retain thine integrity Job 2. 8 9 10. Thus will it draw thee to offend against God and the generation of his Children It is a party and the suffering party and therefore not fit to be the Judg. If your Child should be the Judg when and how oft you should chastise him and whether your chastisement be a token of fatherly love you may easily imagine what would be his Judgment If we could once believe God and Judg of his dealings by what he speaks in his Word and by their usefulness to our Souls and reference to our Rest and could stop our ears against all the clamours of the flesh then we should have a truer Judgment of our Afflictions SECT VII 6. LAstly Consider God doth seldom give his people so sweet a fore-taste of their Future Rest as in their deep Afflictions He keepeth his most precious cordials for the time of our greatest faintings and dangers To give such to men that are well and need them not is but to cast them away They are not capable of discerning their working on their worth A few drops of Divine Consolation in the midst of a world of pleasure and contents will be but lost and neglected as some precious spirits cast into a vessel or river of common waters The Joys of Heaven are of unspeakable sweetness But a man that overflows with earthly delights is scarce capable of tasting their sweetness They may easilier comfort the most dejected Soul then him that feeleth not any need of comfort as being full of other comforts already Even the best of Saints do seldom-taste of the delights of God and pure spiritual unmixed Joys in the time of their prosperity as they do in their deepest troubles and distress God is not so lavish of his choice favours as to bestow them unseasonably Even to his own will he give them at so fit a time when he knoweth that they are needful and will be valued and when he is sure to be thanked for them and his people rejoyced by them Especially when our sufferings are more directly for his cause then doth he seldom fail of sweetening the bitter cup. Therefore have the Martyrs been possessors of the highest Joys and therefore were they in former times so ambitious of Martyrdom I do not think that Paul and Silas did ever sing more Joyfully then when they were sore with scourgings and were fast in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks Acts 16.24 25. When did Christ preach such comforts to his Disciples and leave them his Peace and assure them of his providing them mansions with himself but when he was ready to leave them and their hearts