is the gift of God Ephes 2.8 And this Faith is called a Faith of the operation of God Colos 2.12 't is wrought in us not by us Not only the light of truth which the Christian sees is Divine but the eye of Faith by which he sees this light is Divine also how certain must that knowledge be which in the light of Gods Spirit beholds the light of Gods Truth now from this Word of God the Christian is assured of this reward many ways First He is assured of it by Jesus Christ who himself came from Heaven and makes report thereof In my Fathers house are many Mansions if it were not so I would have told you John 14.2 As if he had said you may belief me for I speak it that cannot lye and who loves you too well to put a cheat upon you That there are such Countries as France and Holland you do not doubt though you never saw them because some that have assure you it is true and shall the Saint be blamed for relying on Christs own faithful Word who cometh from Heaven is above all and what he hath seen and heard that he testifyeth John 3.32 Secondly The Christian knows it by the purchase Christ hath made of Heaven for Believers Mans sin had shut Heaven door against him and opened Death and Hells door upon him now before God would or indeed could set open again this door of life to poor sinners it was necessary that his Glory should first be secured which to do this admirable expedient the Divine Wisdom contrived that Christ should dye for sinners by which both Death the punishment of mans sin might be abolished and life and immortality which man had lost might be restored and brought to light again 2 Tim. 1.10 Hence it is said It became him for whom are all things and by whom are all things in bringing many Sons unto Glory to make the Captain of their Salvation perfect through sufferings Heb. 2.10 Mark that it became him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 there was a condecency for God thus to do God never doth any thing that doth not become him in all his works he acts like himself every work declaring his Glory but not all alike Now God in the Redemption of the world intending to make the greatest manifestation of his Glory that ever he did It became him to pitch on such a means as was sutable to such an end and this of bringing his People to Glory by the abasement of his own Son to an ignominious and cursed death was the expedient he resolved upon as every way condecent to this design and indeed never did all the Divine Attributes appear in all their Glory so as they do here According therefore to this Eternal Council of Gods Will and Love in the fullness of time the Son of God was cloathed with our Flesh laid down his life took it up again and further to shew he had got a full triumph over death and had opened Heaven gates for Believers He opened the Graves of many of the dead Saints and raised them to life as a pledge that he would do the same in due time for the rest So that now to doubt whether there be an Eternal life for the Saints after death is to make the whole Gospel a fiction Thirdly They know it by the actual possession which Christ hath already taken of Heaven for them A Child thinks himself sure of an Estate when his Father not only purchaseth it but also taketh it up for him Thus did Christ ascend to Heaven not only to sit down on his own Throne but to take and keep possession of Heaven for the behoof and benefit of Believers Hence they are said to sit together in Heavenly places in Christ Jesus that is in him as their head which is a certain pledge to them they shall one day sit with him there in their own persons Because I live saith Christ ye shall live also Indeed he lives there to make Intercession for them and will never leave praying till he hath prayed them up unto himself I may say to Believers as once Naomi to Ruth sit still for the man will not cease till he hath finished the thing Christ will not cease his Mediatory work till he hath finished his peoples happiness and got his betrothed Spouse home to him in his Fathers house 4 ly He knows the certainty of this happy estate by the many express Promises made to Believers of it I cannot number them they are so many neither need I name them there being no Child of God so little I hope acquainted with his Saviours Will and Testament as not to be able to turn on a sudden to many places where this Inheritance is setled on them The greatest Heir that lives is the Saint He is heir to both Worlds having Promise of the life that now is and of that which is to come But the grand promise of all is that which gives him title to his Heavenly Inheritance In one place they are called Heirs of Promise in another Heirs of Salvation because this is the Crowning Promise Heaven it is called their Hope till this comes he hath not his Portion all he hath here is the least of what is promised But when Heaven comes then all is paid the Bond then is delivered in Faith and Hopes work is done The Christian who on Earth believes and expects Promises shall in Heaven inherit Promises there Faith shall be turned into Vision and Hope swallowed up in Fruition Now though nothing can make Heaven more sure to the Believer than Gods Promise no not the Oath of God it self because it is as impossible for God to lye without an Oath as with it for being he can swear by no greater he sweareth only by himself and so the strength even of his Oath lyeth in his Veracity which is engaged in his Promise as well as Oath yet he is graciously pleased ex abundanti consulting therein with our frailty to superadd all those things to his Promise by which men in contracts amongst themselves do conceive a further confirmation and security to to be given for performance of their Promises one to another as witnesses Seal Oath and Earnest that having these Securities which are wont to satisfie us in Humane Promises the sin of distrusting Gods performance of his might appear the more unreasonable in us and injurious to him as indeed it is beyond all expression when those Securities will not assure our hearts concerning the performance of Gods Promises than which we cannot exact more from those men that are most unresponsable or deceitful Secondly The Saints reward is described by its Transcendency your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In the explication of which Phrase I shewed that there is more implyed than is exprest That the Christians labour shall be highly unspeakably rewarded the place where the reward is laid up proves the transcendency of it and that is
consequently his Eternal but not to maintain his Spiritual life The provision for this is out of himself his sufficiency is of God 2 Cor. 3.5 and this sufficiency God gives not in an immediate way but by appointed means which he requireth their care to make use of as he did the Israelites hands to gather and bake their Manna and so by blessing his means and their care in using of it their Spiritual life is preserved and nourished unto Eternal life Now when any shall thus extend his care to the use of all appointed means and intend the faculties of his Soul industriously as he ought in the use of them and shall have continued some considerable time in this exercise then and not till then will he be a competent judge to tell us whether it be a slighty business to be a Christian indeed or not Secondly A few words to those who will acknowledge the labour of Christianity to be great but that is it which is their discouragement and scares them from entring into that service which will cost so much pains and bring so much trouble I shall leave some Considerations to be pondered by them which I hope may ease them of this too deep an apprehension of the Christians labour First Christianity 't is confest is a labour but a necessary labour it is not indeed the part of a wise man to labour or hazard much for that he little needs yet for such things is it God knows that most men bestow their greatest toyl and travel to obtain that which they may have specie aut valore and spare this their pains also as Cyneas told Pyrrhus when he said after such and such Kingdoms Conquered by him then we will sit down and live a merry life But why quoth Cyneas may we not do that already without all this trouble I confess considering the present frame of Carnal mens hearts they are under a kind of necessity of what they inordinately desire The Covetous man must have his Gold the Voluptuous man his Pleasures or else they cannot enjoy themselves but this necessity is no other than that of a Dropsie man for his unmeasurable drinking for was this mans disease and the other mans lusts purged out both their necessities would cease alike but Heaven is absolutely necessary to all whether they think so or no. Better we had the Soul of a Beast than having the Soul of a Man not to have at last that perfection and happiness for which this Immortal Soul was made And this thou canst not have except thou wilt take the pains to walk in the ways of Holiness which lead to it thy Soul poor man is hastning apace to its last and eternal state which will be either in Heaven or Hell the Happiness of the one invaluable the misery of the other intollerable and both interminable If thou bestirrest not thy self and that timely to take hold of Eternal Life Hell is at thy back to take hold of thee Now is there any room left in this case for deliberation when de vitâ aut morte aeternâ agitur is it now time to say shall I labour to be saved or shall I not It may in some cases be more eligible to lose our temporal life than to be at pains to save it If Caesar told the Marriner in a storm it was necessary he should sail not that he should live then surely with much more reason may the Christian say yea must he say it is not necessary I live here but 't is necessary while I live that I perform the voyage God hath imposed on me that I launch forth into his service whereby I may make sure of Eternal Life though with the loss of my Temporal But no worldly necessity can be such as should controul our care in the other Get Eternal Life and thou wilt find again that life thou didst lose in getting it but lose Heaven and in Hell thou wilt see all those paltry gains lost to keep which a while thou didst lose Heaven Secondly Consider the greatest labour and trouble the service of God will put thee to is incomparably less than the least pain the sinner shall find and feel in Hell What is the trouble a Christian is at in Mortifying a Lust here to the torment which the enraged Conscience of a Damued Soul will put him to there for not Mortifying of it when time was what is the sorrow which the Saint feels here whilst he mourns for his sins in hope of pardon to the horror of a Reprobrate anguish in Hell imbittered with despair what is the Christians loss to part with his Temporals for Christs sake to the Sinners parting with God and Heaven never to see his blessed face more in a word what are the flouts and reproaches which the Saint hath from a wicked world to the Sinners portion when God with all the Holy Angels and Saints shall laugh at their destruction If the love of Heaven will not move you to submit to the short labour which attends the service of God let the fear of Hell do it Thirdly Though the Christians labour be hard yet there are many things alleviate the burden of it First The sumbleness of the Christians work to his renewed Nature the trouble of a work is much as the mans mind stands to or against it It would be a tedious business to an ignorant Rustick to be locked up in a Scholars Study and there be made to spend his time amongst his Books but the true Scholar needs not be forced or wagered to this work his delight in it takes away the labour of it non inveni said one in hoc mundo requiem nisi in angulo cum libello it were a great calamity to a slothful dastardly spirit to be made to endure the labour and hardship of a Souldier whereas a generous Soul would prefer it before ease and gain at home mea sit laborum major pars pecuniâ autem abundet quis volet was Achilles his speech give me the labour let who will take the money To a sensual heart what more unpleasing then Heavenly Meditations yet what more delighted David To a carnal heart the Commandments of God are all hard sayings because contrary to his unholy nature but to a Gracious Soul none of them are grievous he loves the Law of God from the same reason for which the other hates it because it is pure he delights to do the Will of God because he hath a law within him which corresponds with the law without his Heart answers to it as the eccho to the voice thou saidst seek my face thy face will I seek No wonder a Cross lies heavy upon his shoulders that hath no Faith in God to sustain him under it but a Paul he can take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in necessities c. 2 Cor. 12.10 Secondly The Divine assistances which the Christian hath in his work alleviates the labour of it consider the Christians
ready and prepared for every good work by daily combating with his corruptions and resisting temptations he learns more easily to overcome his Enemy And if in worldly trades this be accounted a sufficient reward to an Apprentice for serving out his time to learn the mystery of his Calling Oh what a reward is it by the daily practice of Godliness to learn more fully the Mystery of it This I am sure holy David set down for great gains I have remembred thy name O Lord in the night and have kept thy Law this I had because I kept thy Precepts Psal 119.55 And again I understand more than the Ancients because I kept thy Precepts ver 100. He did not grudge his own pains nor envy others ease so long as he might get more Heavenly Wisdom by it Secondly The Christians conscionable labour interesseth him in the special Providence of God for him while he is at work for God God will take care of him and what can he want that hath God for his Provider what or whom need he fear that hath God for his Protector For though all the Saints have a right in Promises yet none have a pleasant aptitude to apply the comfort of any one Promise while they are idle and negligent no this is the portion of the laborious Christian that walks in the actual exercise of his Grace No good thing shall he want that walks uprightly When God engageth to Abraham his Almightiness it is to him as walking before him not as sitting in the chair of sloth Thirdly The Christians labour is rewarded here with inward peace of Conscience and serenity of Mind Great peace have they that keep thy Law and nothing shall offend them Psalm 119.166 Peace be on them that walk by this rule as on the Israel of God Gal. 6. These are they in whose bosoms this Bird of Paradise sings her sweet Notes and her sweetest in foulest weather when sickness comes and death approacheth Now he that hath the testimony of his Conscience for having been a faithful Labourer in the Lords work will be able to make a comfortable reflection upon his past life For mens expectations of what is coming to them at death depends upon what their past lives have been Life is the time of sowing and death of reaping as they have sown so only can they expect to reap Life is a time for working and death for receiving the reward sutable to the work Hence it is when death is approaching Conscience if not seared and past all feeling is then carried back to review what the man hath been doing for whom he hath been labouring and therefore must needs bring in heavy tidings to the sinner of his approaching misery then it rips up all the stitches of that false peace which the ungodly wretch had been bolstred up with and tells him that now the Righteous Judge is at hand to pay him the dismal wages due to him for all the wicked works he hath done which makes the thoughts of death a terror to him But the Sincere Christian who hath laboured faithfully in the Lords work he then hath a pleasant Prospect to behold when he looks back upon his conscionable walking and can thence make his humble appeal to God and desire him to remember how he hath walked before him in Truth and with a Perfect Heart Oh what joy is this to his poor heart that his Conscience bears him witness he hath endeavoured to walk before God with godly simplicity and not in guile and can cast himself upon the Mercy of God in Christ and breathe out his Soul with a joyful expectation of being received into the Kingdom of Glory This premised I address my self to speak of the Christians reward in the other world this being principally if not solely in the Text where it is set forth two ways First By its certainty For as much as ye know Secondly By its transcendency Your labour is not in vain in the Lord. In which words you may remember I told you there is more intended than exprest First of the first The certainty of the Saints reward intimated by this Phrase ye know that is ye know it for a certain indubitable truth ye make no doubt of this thus is the Saints future Happiness spoke of with the greatest assurance and certainty We know that if our earthly house of his Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 1 Cor. 5.1 We know that when he shall appear we shall be like him The Saints know this so well that they dare venture the loss of all they are worth here for the reward they expect there Ye took joyfully the spoiling of your goods knowing in your selves that ye have in Heaven a more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 yea they have refused their temporal life when offered to the prejudice of their eternal Heb. 11.35 Not accepting Deliverance that they might obtain a better Resurrection If any should ask how do they know so assuredly there is this reward I would ask such how they know the Sun to be when they see it shine if they say by seeing of it they may know that the Saint sees an Heaven as certainly by an eye of Faith as they can do the Sun by an eye of Sense Faith is the substance of things hoped for the evidence of things not seen The very light of nature whereby the Heathens knew a God did let with it into their minds some knowledge of another world and of a double state therein of happiness to the good and misery to the wicked being not able otherwise to reconcile the unevenness of Providence in this world with the righteous nature of God but alas what was this lesser light which God left in man to rule him in the night of Heathenish darkness to the certainty of the Saints knowledge which comes in by the light of Faith first the Christians Faith is grounded on the testimony of God himself in his word Humane Faith is indeed the weakest and most uncertain kind of knowledge because mans testimony on which it relys is so fallible but Divine Faith the most certain because the testimony of God on which its weight bears is infallible One who cannot deceive because he is truth it self nor be deceived because he is wisdom it self So that though Faith be not Reason yet to believe what God saith is true there is the highest reason 2 ly As the testimony on which the Saints Faith relies is the infallible Word of God so his very Faith which relies on this Word of God is no other than the work of God the same Spirit who is the Author of that is the efficient of this for the Christian believes not from the power of his own will but the power of God mightily working his heart up to this supernatural act Hence we are said to be saved through Faith and that not of our selves it
is But where may some say dwell these Men I am now directing my speech unto I wish they did not swarm every where and made not the greatest number in most of our Towns and Congregations I shall point at a few First He that conceits himself a Christian and nourisheth in him an hope of Salvation even whilst his life is prophane he no doubt thinks it too easie to be a Christian when a man shall think Christ will own him as his meerly for his Christian name and not reject him for his Heathenish Practices thinks that his heart is good though his life be wicked whereas his life could not be wicked if his heart was not so for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh when men shall think they are Gods Servants though they be the Devils Labourers that God is their Friend when they declare themselves every day his Enemies In a word to think they shall leap at death è coeno in coelum out of Delilahs lap into Abrahams bosom is not this to make it an easie thing to be a Christian and no hard matter to be saved and where is any one who hath not first been convinced from some work of the Spirit so bad that is not yet thus kind to himself yea have they not commonly the strongest Faith who have the weakest Grounds for it they build up Sion with blood and Jerusalem with iniquity yet will they lean upon the Lord and say is not the Lord amongst us none evil can come upon us Who knocks more boldly at Heaven Gate to be let in than they whom Christ will reject as workers of iniquity O what a delusion is this Caligula never made himself more ridiculous than when he would be honoured as a God while he lived more like a Devil Before you would have others take you for Christians for Gods sake prove your selves men and not beasts as you do by your bruitish lives Talk not of your hopes of Salvation so long as the marks of Damnation are seen upon your flagitious lives If the way to Heaven were thus easie I promise you the Saints in all Ages have been much over-seen to take so great pains in mortifying their lusts in denying to satisfie their sensual appetite ad quid perditio haec to what purpose did they make so much waste of their sweat in their zealous serving God and of their tears that they could serve him no better if they might have gone to Heaven as these men hope to do That Fryar was far more sound in his judgment in this Point who Preaching at Rome one Lent when some Cardinals and many other great ones were present began his Sermon thus abruptly and Ironically Saint Peter was a Fool Saint Paul was a Fool and all the Primitive Christians were Fools for they thought the way to Heaven was by Prayers and Tears Watchings and Fastings severities of Mortification and denying the pomp and glory of this World Whereas you here in Rome spend your time in Balls and Masks live in Pomp and Pride Lust and Luxury and yet count your selves good Christians and hope to be saved but at last you will prove the Fools and they will be found to have been the Wise men Did ever any man arrive at London by going from it every sin is a step from God and the more we sin the further we depart from God Doth not he then take a wise course to come at last to the full enjoyment of God in Heaven who by a lend wicked life runs as far from him as his legs can carry him Secondly They who think they are good Christians and fair enough for Heaven though they have no more then a Negative Holiness the best that can be said of them is they are not so bad as the worst they do not take so much pains for Hell as others but none for Heaven they labour not so much in the Devils work but work not at all for God like those in the Gospel they stand idle all the day long and yet hope for a peny at night though they never entred into Christs Vineyard they are so far from labouring in the work of the Lord that they will not touch his work with one of their fingers Do not these think it very easie to be Christians as if God was bound to save them but they not bound to serve them Is not Heaven called a reward and what reward can be expected where no work is done if some that work shall be denyed all reward because they did not labour at it and some seek that shall not be able to enter because they do not strive then miserable must thy condition be who fallest short of those who themselves fall short of Heaven Thirdly Formalists and slothful Christians and how many are these who will not be Atheists to live without all Religion but resolve not to be Zealots They are more then key-cold but are afraid to be too hot in their work they are not idle but cannot be perswaded to be diligent they love such a temper in Religion for their Souls as they do a Climate for their Bodies to live in it must be a very temperate one afraid to exceed only in Piety and Holiness in which alone there can be no excess Oh what a delusion is this he that will chuse another temper for his Religion than God hath commanded had need provide another Heaven for himself than God hath prepared for that is given to the zealous Labourer not the lazie Loiterer The violent are they which take this Kingdom by force a man may be sure of Hell with a little pains but Heaven will certainly be lost without our labour and diligence and the reason is because every man is born in a state of sin and damnation and so needs no more than to fit still in that state to bring inevitable destruction upon him to Hell he will come soon enough though he gallop not so fast as others in riot and excess But alas we are born afar off from God and Heaven much labour is required to get into the way that leads to life Eternal and when we are in it many a weary step to take abundance of work to dispatch sins to mortifie temptations to resist afflictions to endure impaired Graces to repair weak to strengthen and to persevere in all this labour till death it self takes us off This we must do or else as Saint Paul said of their abiding in the Ship we cannot be saved It is with the Christians Spiritual Life in this respect as with his natural his body hath within it self that which is sufficient to cause the death of it but not to maintain its life This provision is without as a man he will dye though he make no use of knife or halter to dispatch himself not taking food or not using physick will do it alone Thus the Christian hath enough within him to procure his Spiritual death and
work without this help 't is heavy indeed yea too heavy for him to stand under but Gods helping hand put to it makes this heavy work light The Ship which when lying on ground all the Teams in the Country could not draw off how easily is it set a float when the Tide comes in Thus the Heart which the Christian by no pains and industry of his own can raise out of its dullness and indisposition to Duty Oh how soon is it elevated and inspirited when God flows in with his secret Aspirations and Exuscitations of his Blessed Spirit and Grace he who confessed that he could do nothing of himself not so much as think a good thought tells us also he is able to do all things through Christ who strengthneth him now this help from the Lord is promised but it comes not till the Christians hand is put to the work let him be up and doing and then God will not fail to be with him 'T is cheap travelling we say for a Child in his Fathers company to be sure God will pay the charge the Christian is at in his whole journey to Heaven it is easie working while God holds our hand yea puts strength into it Art thou to pray his Spirit will lift with thee for so that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signifies art thou tempted whilst thou art fighting in the Valley below Christs hands are lift up in Heaven above for thy Victory I have prayed that thy Faith fail not yea he doth not only pray above for thee but will be in the Field with thee and in thee by the secret succours of his Spirit My Grace is sufficient for thee which is not meant of Grace Inherent in us that indeed is unsufficient of it self but the auxiliary Grace which he sends in to assist and excite that in a time of need Thirdly Though Christianity be a labour and many troubles and perils attend it yet 't is not alike to all every Christian hath not Hemans Faith Jobs Patience or Pauls Courage neither shall all have Hemans Disertions Jobs Losses nor Pauls Persecutions the stoutest Souldiers are put upon the hottest service the heaviest burden upon the strongest back he knows every Saints ability and so he rates them he will not suffer any to be tempted above that they are able When the Israelites came first out of Egypt he knew they were raw Souldiers and therefore led them about that they might not be put to fight before he had hardned and heartned them more to bear such a work While Christ was upon Earth he interposed his own body between his weak Disciples and the fury of the wicked world but when he went to Heaven then he ventured them into the storm but careful first to re-inforce them with power from above before he let them take the Field Acts 1.4 Being assembled together with them commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem but wait for the promise of the Father Fourthly The merciful indulgence which the Lord gives them as to their failings hard work indeed God calls them to but the harder the work is the more his pity is expressed towards them in pardoning those invincible infirmities which notwithstanding their faithful endeavour will be found in their doing it It was hard for the Apostles to keep their eyes wakeful in the dead of the night Christ considereth this and Apologizeth for them even while he chides them the Spirit is willing but the Flesh is weak It is hard when Afflictions are strong and long not to fall into some indecencies of speech and behaviour we have heard of Jobs Impatience as well as Patience yet the Lord was graciously pleased to to take his part against his accusing Friends ye have not spoken of me the thing that is right as my servant Job hath Job 42.7 It is hard to act Faith when sense and reason are non-plust the Lord therefore is pleased to overlook the weaknesses of his Childrens faith which in such deep plunges they bewray so they strive against them and be humbled for them in magnis tentasse aliquid non parvum in great and difficult enterprizes an essay and endeavour is not little Peter shewed great Faith in venturing to go upon the Sea but discovered infirmity when he began to sink therefore Christ pitieth and succoureth his weakness Davids strait was in a manner as great at Land as Peters was at Sea When at Gath amongst his Enemies whose Champion he had slain much fear and unbelief he borrowed in this his strait yet some secret actings of Faith were mingled with these his fears as appeared by the Prayer he then lift up to God and even this Prayer attended with so many distrustful fears found acceptance with God which made the good man bring this forth as an encouragement for others This poor man cryed and the Lord heard him and saved him out of all his Troubles Psalm 34.6 A poor man indeed he was at this time not only in his outward state but his inward poor and low in the actings of his Faith O what encouragement is here to come into the service of God hard work thou mayst meet with but not an hard Master do but thou thy best and God will forgive thy worst Beware of wickedness in not doing what thou canst and God will not reject thee for thy weakness Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psalm 103.13 I come now to the Second Part of the Text which presents us with the reward that attends the Christians labour it is not in vain in the Lord they shall not be put off with their labour for their pains no there is a reward laid up in Heaven which will abundantly compensate all the pain and pains they were put to on Earth but we must not understand this as if the Christian received no gain or advantage in this life from the service of God while he is labouring in it Godliness hath the promise of this life as well as the other There are promises of which payment is made here and though these be inferiour to what the Christian shall receive hereafter yet be they so pretious as prove Religion even in this life no hospes asymbolus No guest that lodgeth on free cost but such as pays well and that in present Coin for its entertainment It affords Bread to the eater as well as Seed to the sower there is fruit unto Holiness which the Christian may now feed on to his comfort as well as an hope of Eternal life to be received at the end of this The very vales which the Christian hath given him while at his work afford him enough for his present expence to maintain him in a port becoming his high hopes for afterwards First His conscionable labour in the Lords work will gain him more ability and holy skill to do his work still better by exercising of himself daily unto Godliness he becomes more
Heaven Heb. 10.34 Ye have in Heaven a better and an enduring substance and Heaven is a place so excellent as renders it uncapable of an hyperbole not so far above our heads as it is above our thoughts It hath not entred into the heart of man the things which God hath prepared for them that love him One may as easily draw in all the Air of the world at a breath as express or conceive how great and glorious the Saints reward in Heaven is As it is praemium reconditum pro nobis so it is absconditum à nobis as it is laid up for Believers so it is hid from them We are now the Sons of God but we know not what we shall be The Apostle compares our apprehensions of Heaven here to the low apprehensions which little children have of mens affairs 1 Cor. 13.11 which you know is very low That Saint which knew least of Heaven while on Earth did the first moment he entred into that Glorious place understand more of it than all the Doctors of the Church ever did or could whilst on Earth The Scripture therefore presents it to us as an object of our admiration not comprehension O how great things hath God laid up for them that fear him Psalm 31. When Saint Paul had set forth the Saints Happiness in that Golden chain of Salvation whom he predestinated them he called whom he called them he also justified and whom he justified them he also glorified breaks forth like a man in an Extasie What shall we say to these things expressing thereby his inability to express the greatness and glory of them Yet so much the Saints know of this blessed state that waits for them as will not suffer them to admire any thing they see here below any more than he would the light of a Glow-worm who hath seen the Sun I shall content my self at this time in setting forth the Transcendency of that Happiness the Saints shall receive as their reward in Heaven after their labour is finished on Earth To consider First The Properties of that Blessed state to which they shall be advanced in Heaven Secondly To compare the Saints work and labour on Earth with this their reward in Heaven First of the first The Properties of that Blessed state with which their labour shall be rewarded in Heaven First It is a state purely Spiritual The Saints state on earth is partly Spiritual and partly Animal He ceaseth not to be a Mortal Creature when he becomes a new Creature his life is Spiritual as a Saint but Animal as a mortal Man and so his comforts and refreshings are Animal as well as Spiritual He eats he drinks he sleeps and all these acts of Nature have a pleasure and sweetness proper to their kind which is too low for that glorifyed state to which they shall there be exalted they shall need neither meat nor drink where there is no hunger nor thirst no time there lost in sleep where the Body shall never be weary nor drowsie but be as wakeful as the Soul no need of cloaths where there shall be no shame where the body it self shall out-shine the Sun in its noon-day glory And is it not more desireable to be without these than to need them and have them to have sound legs then to be lame and have crutches who had not rather have been with Moses beholding the face of God in the Mount though all that time without food than Feasting with the Israelites at the bottom of the Hill surely Spiritual Pleasures are more noble and sweet than bodily or else we might say that Sensual men have more joy and pleasure in their life than God hath in his Secondly It is an accumulative state wherein there is an aggregation and concentration of all those things which are requisite to make their happiness compleat it is not Esaus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but Jacobs 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 not having much but having all will make man happy Are here all thy Children said Samuel unto Jesse and would not sit down to the Feast till David the only one wanting was come Thus mans Soul cannot sit down to its Feast and be satisfyed till it hath all that goeth to its Perfection the absence of any one Ingredient keeps it in motion looking and longing for it and that is inconsistent with compleat happiness which consists in rest arising from satisfaction Now in Heaven there is a confluence of all that the Saint even then when his faculties will be stretched out and enlarged to their utmost capacity can possibly desire He that overcometh shall inherit all things and I will be his God The glorifyed Saint hath above him the beatifying Vision of God himself and Jesus Christ the purchaser of all his Felicity whom he so loved on Earth and longed to see Within him he shall behold his own Soul made perfect in all its noble Powers satisfyed with the Image of God as full of Holiness as it can hold Upon him he shall see that body which was once so vile and corruptible made Immortal Spiritual and Glorious even like the Glorious body of Christ the exemplar cause after which it is fashioned about him he shall see an innumerable company of Holy Angels and glorifyed Saints his Brethren not one of them envying his happiness but all congratulating him for it and rejoycing in it Beneath him he shall see the Infernal Pit of Hell wherein so many millions of lost souls are to spend a miserable Eternity in unspeakable torment which must needs fill him with ineffable joy to think how near once he himself was falling into it but was happily prevented by the arms of free Grace seasonably interposing and â—atching him In a word he shall have joy without sorrow health without languour rest without labour and life without end Thirdly It is an entire state There is not only all Ingredients of Happiness in Heaven but the Saint enjoyeth all together here on Earth the Christian hath many pretious Promises sweet Refreshings and Comforts but he takes in the sweetness of them successively not all in one draught Indeed the largest Heart of the Holyest Saint on Earth is an house of too little receipt and roomth to entertain so many Guests together No now the Christian entertains himself first in the company of one then of another Promise God comes in a little at this and more at the next Sermon he hears He is as a leaky vessel under a runing cock filling but never full But in Heaven the Saint is filled and that all at once as a vessel thrown into the Sea full as soon as it is in This the Apostles expression seems to import that mortality might be swallowed up of life 2 Cor. 5.4 in a word the Christian here is like some great man that hath a vast estate but he neither seeth all his Land nor receives all his Rents together but in Heaven his whole felicity
not even as others which have no hope nor mourn so as to refuse to be comforted to take our own loss so to heart as not to rejoyce in their gain Is this thy kindness to thy Friends wouldst thou have them labour and never rest work and never receive their reward They could not have had these here but they have them where they are gone Oh be not unkind to them by being over-kind to your selves If ye loved me ye would rejoice saith our Saviour to his Disciples because I said I go to the Father Joh. 16.28 As if he had said to them you are indeed my Disciples too selvish You think what you shall lose if I depart hence but you do not consider what I should lose by my staying here You see the poor condition I live in here on Earth and know the Royalty and Glory I am going to be possessed of in Heaven and are you unwilling I should be advanced to my Throne there and that after I shall have finished the work of your Redemption here Truly you are unkind and shew but little love in this to me your dear Lord and Saviour Nor do we express much love to our deceased Friends of whose happy change we have no reason to doubt if their incomparable advantage doth not make us more rejoyce for them than our loss make us mourn for our selves If we be as they were sincere and faithful Christians our loss is but short ere long we shall recover it by being taken up to them they are not lost but gone a little before whither the rest of their Brethren ere long shall be called And while we are left here behind we have a God to live upon who cannot dye who will not leave us and whose presence is sufficient to compensate I trow the absence not of one but all our Friends Would Elkanah be thought better to his barren Wife than ten Sons May not God then look his Children when bereaved of any Creature Comforts should count the having him better yea infinitely better than them all Let therefore every Saint in this and all other bereavements solace himself with this of David Psalm 18.46 The Lord liveth and blessed be my rock and let the God of my Salvation be exalted It is expected I know that I should now speak something of that Noble and without offence I hope I may say Elect Lady the Solemnization of whose Funeral occasioned this our sorrowful meeting which should I not do without doubt I should send you all away very much dissatisfyed But far be it from me that I should by my silence put her light now she is dead under a Bushel which shined before all your eyes so radiently while she was alive even as a great Candle on an high Candlestick It was said of John Baptist all men counted John that he was a Prophet indeed And I am perswaded that all who knew her esteemed the Lady Vere a Christian indeed Truly if we may not think so of her we shall be at a great loss to find such Characters by which we may judge any at all to be so I shall begin to speak of her where she her self began to be her Birth I mean and Parentage from which she had her Extraction And this was High and Ancient on both sides For by her Mothers side she sprang from the chief of the Throg-mortons Family and by the Fathers side was extracted of the Ancient Family of the Tracies at Todington in Gloucester-shire She was the youngest of Fifteen Children born on the Eighteenth day of May Anno 1581. being the 23. of Queen Elizabeth Her Mother dyed three days after she was Born and her Father when she was but eight years old Thus soon was she an Orphan but indeed they only are Orphans who have no Father in Heaven When her Father and her Mother thus forsook her the Lord took her up The many Experiences she had all along her life of Gods most tender care over her occasioned her to chuse this for her Motto which is found written by her in the front of most of her Books in her Closet God will Provide She took much delight in speaking of one of her Ancestors as one of the greatest Honours to her Family William Tracy of Toddington Esquire mentioned by Mr. Fox in his Martyrology who in the Reign of King Henry the Eighth for the sound Profession of his Faith made by him in his last Will and Testament was after his Decease condemned to have his body taken out of the ground and burnt which Sentence accordingly was executed She was twice Married to Mr. William Hobby her first Husband at Nineteen Years of Age by whom she had two Sons which were Religiously Educated by her the happy fruit of this her care she reaped at their Pious Deaths for they both went young to Heaven the Younger dyed in the Fourteenth Year of his Age the Elder in his Three and Twentieth much admired for his Parts and loved for his Piety Her second Husband was Sir Horace Vere afterward Baron of Tilbury so Noble and Excellent a Person that I must not name him without some Honourable Reflection one whose Coat Armour made more Renowned than his Coat of Arms and his Personal Atchievements in the field ennobled more than the High Blood he borrowed from his Ancestors But his Piety gave him the highest Character of all by the other he got a great Name like unto the great Men that are in the Earth but by this he obtained a good Name And even Tacitus the Roman Historian prefers a praise from Goodness before that which is obtained by Greatness And therefore speaking of a Noble Roman saith he was inter claros potiùs quà m inter bonos censendus This Noble Lord was one who could wrestle with God as well as fight with Men and may be thought to have got his Victories upon his knees in his Closet before he drew his Sword in the Field And when he had overcome his Enemies he could overcome himself also being one of the humblest Souls in whom so much true worth lodged that I have heard of His good Lady would say she honoured him for his Valour but most for the Grace of God which shined in him Thus she did coruscare radiis Mariti shined by the Rays of her Husbands Excellencies but not only with these for she had radient Beams of her own by which she cast like Honour upon him as she received from him So happily was this Noble Couple suited us in the high Extraction of both their Births so also in the rest of their accomplishments that they mutually illustrated each the others Honour But passing by all her secular Prerogatives we shall now present her to you in some of her spiritual Excellencies These indeed give the intrinsick value to a person He that would take the true height of of a man must not measure him with the vantage-ground he stands on I may
is present not one imaginary point of time wherein he can be more or shall be less happy to all Eternity Fourthly It is a consistent and fixed state free from all changes and vicissitudes which in this life he is subject to here alas the Christian is sometimes well and sometimes sick now in Prosperity then in Adversity Rich and Poor in the same day In momento vertitur mare ubi luserunt navigia sorbentur In a moment a storm arising where the Ship even now danced it is wrackt He is like one that Travels in an April day whose Cloak is wet with the Rain and dryed again by the Sun and then wet again neither do these changes only befal the Saints outward state but his inward also both in point of Grace and Comfort Now his Heart is up and lively in the performance of a duty anon so dead and down as if he were not the same man Now the Christians Coat is on ready to attend and follow his Master anon it is off and he on his bed of sloth So in point of Comfort one while the Spouse hath her Beloved in her arms and is ravished with his company another while she is setting up her Si quis and enquiring if any can tell her tydings of him hora longa brevis mora The Christian waits long for the Comforter and when he comes he doth but look in and then withdraws again so that the joy which he hath at present is much interrupted from the fear of losing it for nemo fruitur solicito bono how much there is of fear so little is then of enjoyment in what we have Indeed what ever the Saints refreshings are here 't is but like a Travellers entertainment in an Inn the thoughts that he must to Horse again in the morning doth lessen the pleasure he takes in it But in Heaven the journey is at an end the Saint is at home his labour is gone and his rest is come he is in a Kingdom that cannot be moved Fifthly It is an Eternal state this is more than the former the property that crowns all the rest There are some in this life and those none of the best who meet with no changes and that for a long time who enjoy a continued Summers day their Sun of Prosperity goes not in and out but shines with a constant beam no black cloud of any great Affliction interposing to hide their joy from them but at last death chops in upon them and spoils all their mirth in a moment they go down to the pit and with them all their thoughts perish What joy remains to him that is in misery to remember the years of pleasure he hath had A past felicity is a present misery and to remember the pleasure we had doubles the sorrow we have This made Saint Bernard interpret that place of the Psalmist with long life will I satisfie him of Heaven because he thought nothing was long that had an end This indeed is the Emphasis of Heavens joy those Blessed Souls shall never sin never weep more they shall not only be with the Lord but ever with the Lord. This is the accent which is set on the Elogies given to Heaven in Scripture 'T is an Inheritance and that an incorruptible one that fadeth not away It is a Crown of Glory and that a weighty one yea an exceeding great and eternal weight of Glory When once it is on the Saints head it can never fall or be snatched off it is a Feast but such an one that hath a sitting down to it but no rising up from it The second way I propounded for seting forth the Saints reward was to compare the Saints work and labour with the reward For though the reward be great yet if the labour bear any considerable proportion to it so much of its greatness is taken away But the Christians labour here bears no proportion at all with his reward hereafter and therefore the Apostle saith It is not worthy to be compared with the Glory that shall be revealed His labour is finite but his reward infinite and there is no proportion between finite and infinite There is but little proportion you will say betwixt a drop of water and the Sea yet there is some because though vastly greater yet not infinitely greater but betwixt these finite and infinite there is none at all The Christians reward is infinite First Intensive God himself is his reward as well as his rewarder who is infinite in all his Divine Perfections And what proportion between a poor nothing Creature and his nothing Service to the having this infinitely Glorious God his portion So far are these from bearing any proportion to God that compared with him they are denyed to be I am and there is none besides me saith God or to have any excellency he is the Holy one the only wise God Mans wisdom is no wisdom his holiness no holiness compared to God Secondly It is infinite extensivè or in duration Their reward is an everlasting life but their work and labour for the Lord how short how soon is it dispatched If there be no proportion between Time and Eternity then none between the Christians labour which is performed in so little a point of time and the reward which endures for ever and ever The Christian is a few hours in the Field at his work and then called into an everlasting rest in his Fathers house He carries a light cross a little way on his back which death at the furthest takes off and then an Eternal Crown of Glory is set on his Head It aggravated King Lysimachus his sorrow that he had lost so great a Kingdom for so little a matter as a draught of water How will it ravish the Saints Heart to receive so great a reward at the end of so short a labour Jonathan wondered that a little Honey should cost him so dear as death I did saith he but taste a little Honey with the end of the Rod that was in mine hand and lo I must dye How much more admiringly may the Saint say 't is but a little and that sorry service that I have done for my God on Earth and lo I must live yea live with God yea with God everlastingly in Glory Well may the Apostle say That Christ shall come to be admired in all them that believe 2 Thes 2.10 How can it but make them admire to see so infinite a Glory the reward of so poor a labour Object But why should not the Christians Holy labour and Faithful service bear the same proportion to his reward in Heaven as the wicked mans sin doth to his punishment in Hell this deserves that why not that this though the wicked mans sin be as little a time in committing as the Saints Holy service is in performing yet there is an infinite evil in his sin that is objective because committed against an infinite God And why should there not