foreseeth c. The righteous man so far excells in this faculty as that his eye looks thorow all the periods of time and penetrates into eternity recommends to the Soul a blessedness of that same stamp and alloy that will endure and last for ever It will not content him to be happy for an hour or for any Space that can have an end after which it shall be possible to him to look back and recount with himself how happy he was once Nor is he much solicitous what his present state be if he can but find he is upon safe tearms as to his future and eternal state As for me saith the Psalmist he herein sorts and severs himself from them whose portion was in this life I shall behold I shall be satisfied when I awake he could not say it was well with him but it shall be q. d. Let the purblind short-sighted Sensualist imbrace this present world who can see no further Let me have my portion in the world to come may my soul always lie open to the impression of the powers of the coming world and in this so use every thing as to be under the power of nothing What are the pleasures of sin that are but for a season or what the sufferings of this now this moment of affliction to the glory that shall be revealed to the exceeding and eternal glory He considers patient afflicted godliness will triumph at last when riotous raging wickedness shall lament for ever He may for a time weep and mourn while the world rejoyces he may be sorrowful but his sorrow shall be turned into joy and his joy none shall take from him Surely here is wisdom this is the wisdom that is from above and tends thither This is to be wise unto salvation The righteous man is a judicious man he hath in a measure that judgment wherein the Apostle prayes the Philippians might abound to approve the things that are excellent and accordingly to make his choice This is a sense little thought of by the Authour wherein that sober Speech of the voluptuous Philosopher is most certainly true A man cannot live happily without living wisely No man shall ever enjoy the eternal pleasures hereafter that in this acquits not himself wisely here even in this chusing the better part that shall never be taken from him In this the plain righteous man out-vies the greatest Sophies the Scribe the disputer the Politician the prudent Mamonist the facete Wit who in their several kinds all think themselves highly to have merited to be accounted wise And that this point of wisdom should escape their notice and be the principal thing with him can be resolved into nothing else but the Divine good pleasure In this contemplation our Lord Jesus Christ is said to have rejoyced in Spirit it even put his great comprehensive soul into an extasie Father I thank thee Lord of heaven and earth that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent and revealed them to babes Even so Father because it pleased thee Here was a thing fit to be reflected on as a piece of Divine Royalty a part worthy the Lord of heaven and earth And what serious spirit would it not amaze to weigh and ponder this case awhile to see men excelling in all other kinds of knowledge so far excelled by those they most contemn in the highest point of wisdom such as know how to search into the abstrusest Mysteries of Nature that can unravel or see through the most perplext intrigues of State that know how to save their own Stake and secure their private Interests in whatsoever times yet so little seen often for not many wise in the matters that concern an eternal felicity It puts me in mind of what I find observed by some the particular madness adementia quoad hoc as 't is called when persons in every thing else capable of sober rational discourse when you bring them to some one thing that in reference to which they became distempered at first they rave and are perfectly mad How many that can manage a discourse with great reason and judgment about other matters who when you come to discourse with them about the affairs of practical godliness and which most directly tend to that future state of blessedness they are 〈◊〉 at their wits end know not what to say They savour not those things These are things not understood but by such to whom it is given And surely that given wisdom is the most excellent wisdom Sometimes God doth as it were so far gratifie the world as to speak their own language and call them wise that affect to be called so and that wisdom which they would fain have go under that name Moses 't is said was skil'd in all the wisdom of Egypt c. but at other times he expresly calls those wise men fools and their wisdom folly and madness or annexes some disgraceful adject for distinction sake or applies those appellatives Ironically and in manifest derision No doubt but any such person as was represented in the parable would have thought himself to have done the part of a very wise man in entertaining such deliberation and resolvs as we find he had there with himself How strange was that to his ears Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul c. Their wisdom is sometimes said to be foolish or else called the wisdom of the flesh or fleshly wisdom said to be earthly sensual devillish they are said to be wise to do evil while to do good they have no understanding they are brought sometimes as it were upon the stage with their wisdom to be the matter of divine triumph where is the wise and that which they account foolishness is made to confound their wisdom And indeed do they deserve to be thought wise that are so busily intent upon momentary trifles and trifle with eternal concernments that prefer vanishing shadows to the everlasting glory that follow lying vanities and forsake their own mercies Yea will they not cease to be wise in their own eyes also when they see the issue and reap the fruits of their foolish choice when they find the happiness they preferred before this eternal one is quite over and nothing remains to them of it but an afflictive remembrance That the torment they were told would follow is but now beginning and without end when they hear from the mouth of their impartial Judge Remember you in your life time had your good things and my faithful servants their evil now they must be comforted and you tormented When they are told you have received the consolation you were full ye did laugh now you must pine and mourn and weep Will they not then be as ready to befool themselves and say as they be those righteous ones are they whom we sometimes had in derision and for a proverb of reproach we fools counted their life madness
that only is capable of being imprest by the intervening ministry of our own understanding viz. by its Vision intimated as was formerly observed in that of the Apostle We shall be like for we shall see him c. It s natural perfections are antecedent and presupposed therefore not so fitly to be understood here And I say both these wayes for as we cannot form an intire Idea of God without taking in together his perfections of both sorts communicable and incommunicable the former whereof must serve instead of a genns the latter of a differentia in composing the notion of God so nor will his impresse on us be intire without something in it respecting both in the senses already given What it will contribute to future blessedness we shall shortly see in its place when we have made a brief enquiry which is the next thing according to our order proposed concerning Thirdly The satisfaction that shall hence accrue Where it will not be besides our purpose to take some notice of the significancy of the word And not to insist on its affinity to the word used for swearing or rather being sworn which an oath being the end of controversies and beyond which we go no further nor expect more in way of testifying would the more fitly here represent to us the soul in its non-ultra having attained the end of all its motions and contentions Its equal nearness to the word signifying the number of seven is not altogether unworthy observation That number is we know often used in Scripture as denoting plenitude and perfection and God hath as it were signalliz'd it by his rest on the seventh day and if this were not designedly pointed at here in the present use of this word as it must be acknowledged to be frequently used where we have no reason to think it is with such an intendment It may yet occasion us to look upon the holy soul now entered into the eternal Sabbath the rest of God which secluding all respect to that circumstance is yet the very substance and true notion of the thing it self to the consideration whereof I now passe under the word held forth to us For this satisfaction is the souls rest in God It s perfect enjoyment of the most perfect good The expletion of the whole capacity of its will the total filling up of that vast enlarged appetite the perfecting of all its desires in delight and joy Now delight or joy for they differ not save that the latter word is thought something more appropriate to reasonable nature is more fitly defined the rest of the desiring faculty in the thing desired Desire and Delight are but two acts of Love diversified only by the distance or presence of the same Object which when 't is distant the soul acted and prompted by love desires moves towards it pursues it when present and attained delights in it enjoyes it staies upon it satisfies it self in it according to the measure of goodness it finds there Desire is therefore love in motion Delight is love in rest and of this latter delight or joy Scripture evidently gives us this Notion He will rejoyce over thee with joy unto which is presently added as exegetical he will rest in his love Which resting can be but the same thing with being satisfied This satisfaction then is nothing else but the repose and rest of the soul amidst infinite delights It s peaceful acquiescence having attained the ultimate tearm of all its motions beyond which it cares to go no further the solace it finds in an adequate full good which it accounts enough for it and beyond which it desires no more reckons its state as good as it can be and is void of all hovering thoughts which perfect rest must needs exclude or inclination to change And so doth this being satisfied not only generally signifie the soul to be at rest but it specifies that rest and gives us a distinct account of the nature of it As that it is not a forced violent rest such as proceeds from a beguiled ignorance a drowsie sloth a languishing weakness or a desire and hope of happiness by often frustrations bafled into despair to all which the native import and propriety of that word satisfaction doth strongly repugne But it discovers it to be a natural rest I mean from an internal principle the soul is not held in its present state of enjoyment by a strong and violent hand but rests in it by a connaturalness thereunto is attempered to it by its own inward constitution and frame It rests not as a descending stone intercepted by something by the way that holds and stops it else it would fall further but as a thing would rest in its own centre with such a rest as the earth is supposed to have in its proper place that being hung upon nothing is yet unmoved ponderibus librata suis equally ballanced by its own weights every way It is a rational judicious rest upon certain knowledge that its present state is simply best and not capable of being changed for a better The soul cannot be held under a perpetual cheat so as alwayes to be satisfied with a â—hadow It may be so befool'd for a while but if it remain satisfied in a state that never admits of change that state must be such as commends it self to the most throughly informed reason and judgement It is hence a free voluntary chosen rest Such as God professes his own to be in Zion This is my rest here will I dwell for I have desired it It is a complacential rest wherein the soul abides steady bound only by the cords of love a rest in the midst of pleasantnesses The Lord is my portion the lots are fallen to me in amanitatibus it cannot be more fitly exprest than amidst pleasantnesses And this speaks not only what the Psalmists condition was but the sense and account he had of it That temper of mind gives us some Idea of that contentful satisfied abode with God which the blessed shall have He intimates how undesirous he was of any change Their sorrows he told us above should be multiplied that hasten after another God Hereafter there will be infinitely less appearance of reason for any such thought Now it is the sense of an holy soul Whom have I in heaven but thee and there is none I desire on earth besides thee q. d. Heaven and Earth yield not a tempting Object to divert me from thee 't is now so at sometimes when faith and love are in their triumph and exaltation but the Lord knows how seldom but much more when we see him as he is and are satisfied with his likeness It 's an active vigorous rest Action about the end shall be perpetuated here though action towards it ceases 'T is the rest of an awâ—kned not of a drowsie sluggish soul of a soul satiâ—fiâ—d by heavenly sensations and fruitions
The vital quickning beams of divine light are darting in upon it on every side and turning it into their own likeness The shadows of the evening are vanished and fled away It converses with no other objects but what are full themselves and most apt to replenish it with energy and life This cannot be but a joyful awakning a blessed season of satisfaction and delight indeed to the enlightned revived soul. But 2. It must be acknowledged the further and more eminent season of this blessedness will be the general resurrection day which is more expresly signified in Scripture by this term of awaying as is manifest in many plain Texts where 't is either expresly thus used or implyed to have this meaning in the opposite sense of the word sleep What addition shall then be made to the Saints blessedness lyes more remote from our apprehension in as much as Scripture states not the degree of that blessedness which shall intervene We know by a too sad instructive experience the calamities of our present state and can therefore more easily conceive wherein it is capable of betterment by the deposition of a sluggish cumbersome body where those calamities mostly have their spring but then we know less where to fix our foot or whence to take our rise in estimating the additional felicities of that future state when both the states to be compared are so unknown to us But that there will be great additions is plain enough The full recompence of obedience and devotedness to Christ of foregoing all for him is affixed by his promise to the resurrection of the just The judgment day gives every one his portion according to his workâ— Then must the holy obedient Christian hear from its Redeemers mouth Come ye-blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom c. Till then the Devils think their torment to be before their time 'T is when he shall appear we shall be like him and see him as he is That noted day is the day of being presented faultless with exceeding joy And divers things there are obviously enough to be reflected on which cannot but be understood to contribute much to the increase and improvement of this inchoate blessedness The acquisition of a glorified body For our vile bodies shall be so far transfigured as to be made like conform to the glorious body of the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ. And this shall be when he shall appear from heaven where Saints here below are required to have their commerce as the infranchised Citizens thereof and from whence they are to continue looking for him in the mean time When he terminates and puts a period to that expectation of his Saints on earth then shall that great change be made i. e. when he actually appears at which time the trumpet sâ—unds and even sleeping dust it self awakes the hallowed dust of them that slept in Jesus first who are then to come with him This change may well be conceived to add considerably to their felicity A natural congruity and appetite is now answered and satisfied which did either lie dormant or was under somewhat an anxious restless expectation before neither of which could well consist with a state of blessedness every way already perfect And that there is a real desire and expectation of this change seems to be plainly intimated in those words of Job All the days of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Where he must rather be understood to speak of the resurrection than of death as his words are commonly mistaken and misapplyed as will appear by setting down the Context from the seventh verse For there is hope of a tree if it be cut down that it will sprout again and that the tender branch thereof will not cease Though the root thereof wax old in the earth and the stock thereof dye in the ground yet through the sent of water it will bud and bring forth boughs like a plant But man dyeth and wasteth away yea man giveth up the Ghost and where is he As the waters fail from the Sea and the flood decayeth and dryeth up so man lyeth down and riseth not till the heavens be no more they shall not be awaked nor raised out of their sleep O that thou wouldest hide me in the grave that thou wouldest keep me secret till thy â—rath be pâ—st that thou wouldest appoint me a set time and remember me If a man dye shall he live again All the dayes of my appointed time will I wait till my change come Thou shalt call and I will answer thee thou wilt have a desire to the work of thy hands He first speaks according to common apprehension and sensible appearance touching the hopeless state of man in death as though it were less capable of reparation then that of some inferiour creatures unto the end of ver 10. And then gradually discovers his better hope bewrayes his Faith as it were obliquely touching this point lets it breaking out first in some obscure glimmerings ver 11 12. giving us in his Protasis a similitude not fully expressive of his seeming meaning for waters and flouds that fail may be renewed and in his Apodosis more openly intimating mans sleep should be only till the heavens were no more Which till might be supposed to signiâ—ie never were it not for what follows ver 13. where he expresly speaks his confidence by way of petition that at a set and appointed time God would remember him so as to recall him out of the Grave and at last being now minded to speak out more fully puts the question to himself if a man dye shall he live again and answers it all the dayes of my appointed time i. e. of that appointed time which he mention'd before when God should revive him out of the dust will I wait till my change come i. e. that glorious change when the corruption of a loathsome grave should be exchang'd for immortal glory which he amplifies and utters more expresly ver 15. Thou shalt call and I will answer thou shalt have a desire to the work â—f thy hands Thou wilt not always forget to restore and perfect thy own creature And surely that waiting is not the act of his inanimate sleeping dust but though it be spoken of the person totally gone into Hâ—des into the invisible state 't is to be understood of that part that should be capable of such an action q. d. I in that part that shall be still alive shall patiently await thy appointed time of reviving me in that part also which Death and the Grave shall insult over in a temporary triumph in the mean time And so will the words carry a facile commodious sense without the unnecessary help of an imagined Rhetorical Scheme of Speech And then that this waiting carries in it a desirous expectation of some additional good is evident at â—irst sight which therefore must needs add to the
and he that peâ—ceiveth the operations of a strong effectual Lovâ— hath an acquaintance with God and Heaven whiâ—â— is above that of believing Faith seeth the Feaâ—â— but Love is the tasting of it And therefore it that the Holiest souls sticks closest unto God because though their reâ—soning faculty may be dâ—fective they know him by the highest and mâ— Tenacious kind of knowledge which this Worâ—â—ffâ—rdeth as I have lately shewed elsewhere â— Here you have described to you the true witness the spirit Not that of supposed Internal Voiceâ— which they are usually most taken up with whâ— have the smallest knowledge and Faith and Love and the greatest self esteem or spiritual pride with the strongest phantasies and pâ—ssiâ—ns But the objective and the sealing Testimony the Divinâ— Nature the renewed Image of God whose Children are known by being like to their Heavenly Father even by being Holy as he is Holy This is the Spirit of Adoption by which we are inclined by Holy Love to God and confidence in him to cry Abba Father and to flie unto him The Spirit of Sanctification is thereby in us the Spirit of Adoption For both signifie but the giving us that Love to God which is the filial nature and our â—athers Image And this Treatise doth happily direct thee to â—â—at faithful beholding God in Righteousness which â—ust here begin this blessed Assimilation which full â—tuition will for ever perfect It is a happy sign that God is about to repair our â—ins and divisions when he stirreth up his serâ—ants to speak so much of Heaven and to call â— the minds of impatient complainers and conâ—tious censurers and ignorant self conceited diâ—ders and of worldly unskilful and unmerciful â—stors to look to that state where all the godly shall one and to turn those thoughts to the furtherance Holiness to provoke one another to Love and to â—od works which two many lay out upon their hay â—â—d stubble And to call men from judging and â—spising each other and worse then both those out their Meats and Drinks and Dayes to study â—â—ghteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost â—r he that in these things serveth Christ in which â— Kingdom doth consist is acceptable to God and proved of men that are wise and good Let us â—â—erefore follow after the things which make for â—ace and things wherewith one may edifie anoâ—â—er whilest the contentious for meat will destroy â—e work of God Rom. 14. 17 18 19 20. The â—ion between Peace and Holiness is so strict that he â—o truly promoteth one promoteth both Heb. 12. â—4 Jam. 3. 17. The true way of our Union is exâ—lently described Eph. 4. 11 12 13 14 15 â—6 If any plain unlearned Readers shall blame the â—curateness of the stile they must remember that those persons have not the least need to hear of Heâ—ven and to be drawn up from the vanities of earâ—â— who cannot digest a looser stile As God hath endued the worthy Authour with more thâ—n ordinary measure of judiciousness 〈◊〉 soundness and accurateness of understanding 〈◊〉 seriousness spirituality and a heavenly mind we have for our common benefit the effects of these happy qualifications in this judicious heâ—venly discourse And if my recommendations mâ— in any measure further your acceptance in provement and practising of so edifying a Treatâ—â— it will answer the ends of him who waiteth with 〈◊〉 in hope for the same Salvation Rich. Baxter Acton May 30. 1668 THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS A Proemial Discourse to the intended Subject THe continual mixture of Good and Evil in this present state of things with its uncertain fluctuations and subjection to perpetual changes do naturally prompt a considering mind to the belief and hope of another that may be both more perfect and more permanent For certainly it could never be a design adequate or any way agreeable to the Divine Wisdom and goodness that the blessed God should raise such a thing as this lower Creation out of nothing Only to give himself the temporary pleasure of beholding the alternate Joys and Sorrows of the best part thereof his reasonable creature seated in it Nor a delight at all proportionable to an eternal happy being when he hath connaturalliz'd such a creature to this sensible world onely to take notice how variously the passions he hath planted in him may be mov'd and stir'd by this variety of occasions which he shal thence be presented with And what suddain and contrary impressions may be made upon his easie passive senses by the interchanged strokes and touches of contrary objects How quickly he can raise him into a transport of high contentment and pleasure and then how soon he can again reduce him to a very Paroxism of anguish and despair It would discover us to have very vile and low thoughts of God if we did not judge it altogether unanswerable to his perfections to design no further thing in creating this world and placing such a creature as man in it then onely to please himself for a while with such a spectacle and then at last clear the Stage and shut up all again in an eternal Silent darkness If we could suppose a man furnished with such power he would surely adde little to the reputation of his being wise or good beyond other men by a design so to use it Much less can we think it worthy of God to perpetuate such a state of things as this and continue a succession of such persons and actions as we now behold in the world through eternal generations onely to perpetuate to himself the same pleasure in the exercise of his immense power upon created natures over which he hath so infinite advantage And indeed nothing can be more unconceivable then that the great Creatour and Authour of all things should frame a Creature of so vast comprehension as the Spirit of man put into it a capacity of knowing and conversing with himself give it some prospect of his own glory and blessedness raise thereby in many boundless unsatisfied desires after him and an unexpressible pleasure in the preconceived hope of being received into the communion of that glory and blessedness and yet defeat and blast so great an expectation by the unsuspected reducement of the very subject of it again to nothing Yea and that he should deal herein as in that case he must the most hardly with the best And that such souls whose meer love and devotedness to him had made them abandon the pleasures of this life and run thorough whatsoever difficulties for his sake should fare worse then the very worst were beyond all the rest most utterly unimaginable and a thought which Pagan-reason hath not known how to digest or entertain If saith one and he speaks the sense of many another as well as his own with the dissolution of our bodies the essence of the Souls whatsoever that be should be dissolved too and for ever cease to be any thing I know not how
is easily moulded and wrought to his will yeilds to the transforming power of his appearing glory There is no resistent principle remaining when the love of God is perfected in it and so overcoming is the first sight of his glory upon the awaking soul that it perfects it and so his likenesse both at once But enmity fortifies the soul against him as with bars and doors averts it from him carries with it an horrid guilty consciousness which fils it with eternal despair and rage and enraps it in the blackness of darknesse for ever 2. Both the vision of God and likeness to him must be considered in their relation to the consequent satisfaction and the influence they have in order thereto I say both for though this satisfaction be not expressely and directly referred by the letter of the text to the sight of Gods face yet its relation thereto in the nature of the thing is sufficiently apprehensible and obvious both mediate in respect of the influence it hath towards the satisfying assimilation and immediate which we are now to consider as it is so highly pleasurable in it self and is plainly enough intimated in the text being applied in the same breath to a thing so immediately and intimately conjunct with this vision as we find it is Moreover supposing that likeness here do as it hath been granted it may signifie objective glory also as well as subjective and repeat what is contained in the former expression the face of God the reference satisfaction hath to this vision which the remention of its object though under a varied form of expression supposes will be more expresse therefore we shall shew 1. What the vision of the divine glory contributes to the satisfaction of the blessed soul and what felicity it must needs take herein which cannot but be very great whether we respect The glory seen the object of this vision or The act of vision or intuition it self 1. The Object the glory beheld what a spring of pleasure is here what rivers of pleasure flow hence In thy presence saith the Psalmist is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore The awaking soul having now past the path of life drawn through Sheol it self the state of deadly head appears immediately in this presence and what makes this presence so joyous but the pleasant bâ—â—ghtness of this face to be in the presence of any one and before his face in conspectu are eqâ—iâ—alent expressions therefore the Apostle 〈◊〉 this passage renders it thus Thou hast 〈◊〉 me with gladness by thy countenance Now in this glorious presence or within view of the face of God is fulness of joy i. e. joy unto satiâ—fâ—ction And the Apostle Jude speaking of this presence under this name a presence of glory tels us of an exceeding joy a jubilation an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that shall attend the presentment of Saints there The holy Soul now enters the divine Shechinah the Chamber of presence of the great King the haâ—itation of his holiness and glory The place where his honour dwelleth Here his glory surrounds it with incircling beams 't is beset with glory therefore surely also fill'd with joy When the vail is drawn aside or we are within the vail in that very presence whither Jesus the forerunâ—â—◠〈◊〉 for uâ— entred through that path of life O the satisfying overcoming pleasure of this sight Now that it is to us revealed or unvailed glory which was hidden before Here the glory set in Majesty as the expression is concerning the glory of the Temple is presented to view openly and without umbrage Gâ—d is now no longer seen through an obscurâ—â—g medium They are not now shadowed â—â—mmerings transient oblique glances but the direct beams of full ey'd glory that shine upon us The discovery of this glory is the ultimate product of that infinite wisedom and love that have been working from eternity and for so many thousand years through all the successions of time towards the heirs of salvation The last and compleat issue of the great atchievments sharp conflicts glorious victories high merits of our mighty Redeemer All these end in the opening of Heaven the laying of this glory as it were common to all believers This is the upshot and close of that great design will it not think ye be a satisfying glory The full blessedness of the redeemed is the Redeemers reward He cannot be satisfied in seeing his seed if they should be unsatisfied He cannot behold them with content if his heart tell him not that he hath done well enough for them God would even be ashamed to be called their God had he not made provision for their entertainment worthy of a God T is the season of Christs Triumphs and Saints are to enter into His joy T is the appointed jubilee at the finishing of all Gods works from the Creation of the world when he shall puposely shew himself in his most adorable Majesty and when Christ shall appear in his own likenesse he appeared in another likeness before surely glory must be in in its exaltation in that day But take a more distinct account how grateful a sight this glory will be in these following particulars 1. It is the Divine glory Let your hearts dwell a little upon this consideration 'T is the gâ—ory of God i. e. the glory which the blessed God both enjoyes and affords which he contemplates in himself and which raies from him to his Saints 't is the felicity of the divine Being It satisfies a Deity will it not a worm 'T is a glory that results and shines from him and in that sense also divine which here I mainly intend the beauty of his own face the lustre of Divine perfectioâ—s every Attribute bears a part all concur to make up this glory And here pretermitting those which are lesse liable to our apprehension his Eternity Immensity Simplicity c. of which not having their like in us we are the more uncapable to form distinct conceptions and consequently of perceiving the pleasure that we may hereafter upon the removal of other impediments find in the contemplation of them let us bethink our selves how admirable and ravishing the glory will be 1. Of his unsearchable wisdom which hath glory peculiarly annext and properly belonging to it Glory is as it were by inheritance due to wisdom The wise shall inherit glory And here now the blessed souls behold it in its first seat and therefore in its prime glory wisedom counsel understanding are said to be with him as if no where else Twice we have the Apostle ascribing glory to God under the notion of only wise which is but an acknowledging him glorious in this respect Wisdom we know is the proper and most connatural glory of intellectual nature whether as it relates to speculation when we call it knowledge or action when 't is prudence How pleasant will the contemplation be of the
and good impressions thou had'st but even all thou wast capable of and mightst have attained Thou shalt now recount with anguish and horror and rend thy own Soul with the thoughts what thou mightest now have been how excellent and glorious a creature hadst thou not contriv'd thy own misery and conspir'd with the Devil against thy self how to deform and destroy thy own Soul While this remembrance shall alwayes a fresh return that nothing was injoyned thee as a duty or propounded as thy blessedness but what thou wast made capable of and that it was not fatal necessity but a wilful choice made thee miserable CHAP. XII Inference 3. That a change of heart is necessary to this blessedness The pretences of ungodly men whereby they would avoid the necessity of this change Five considerations proposed in order to the detecting the vanity of such pretences A particular discussion and refutation of those pretences 3. 'T Is a mighty change must pâ—sse upon the Souls of men in order to their enjoyment of this Blessedness This equally follows from the consideration of the Nature and substantial parts of it as of the qualifying righteousness prerequired to it A little reflection upon the common state and temper of mens spirits will soon inforce an acknowledgement that the Vision of God and conformity to him are things above their reach and which they are never likely to take satisfaction in or at all to savour till they become otherwise disposed then before the renovating change they are The text expresses no more in stating the qualified subject of this blessedness in righteousness then it evidently implies in the account it gives of this blessedness it self that it lies in seeing God and being satisfied with his likeness Assoon as it is considered that the blessedness of Souls is stated here what can be a more obvious reflection then this Lord then how great a change must they undergo what such Souls be blessed in seeing and pertaking the Divine likeness that never loved it were so much his enemies 'T is true they are naturally capable of it which speaks their original excellencie but they are morally uncapable i. e. indisposed and averse which as truly and most sadly speaks their present vileness and the sordid object temper they now are of They are destitute of no natural Powers necessary to the attainment of this blessedness but in the mean time have them so depraved by impure and vitious tinctures that they cannot relish it or the means to it They have reasonable Soul's furnished with intellective and elective faculties but labouring under a manifold distemper and disaffection that they cannot receive they cannot savour the things of God or what is Spiritual They want the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as we may express it the well disposedness for the Kingdom of God intimated Luke 9. 62. the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the meetness the aptitude or idoneity for the inheritance of the Saints in light Col. 1. 12. A settled aversion from God hath fastned its roots in the very spirit of their minds for that is stated as the prime subject of the change to be made and how can they take pleasure then in the vision and participation of his glory whereas by beholding the glory of the Lord they should be changed into the same image a vail is upon the heart till it turn to the Lord as was said concerning the Jews 2 Cor. 3. The God of this world hath blinded their minds least that transforming light the light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the image of God should shine unto them Chap. 4. 4. They are alienated from the Life of God through their ignorance and blindness of heart The life they chuse is to be 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Atheists or without God in the world They like not to retain God in their knowledge are willingly ignorant of him Say to him depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy wayes The Lord looks down from Heaven upon the children of men to see if any will understand if any will seek after God and the result of the inquiry is there is none that doth good no not one They are haters of God as our Saviour accused the Jews and Saint Paul the Gentiles Are lovers of pleasure more then lovers of God Their understandings are dark their minds vain their wills obstinate their Consciences seared their hearts hard and dead their lives one continued Rebellion against God and a defiance to Heaven At how vast distance are such Souls from such blessedness The notion and nature of blessedness must sure be changed or the temper of their Spirits Either they must have new hearts created or a new Heaven if ever they be happy And such is the stupid dotage of vain man he can more easily perswade himself to believe that the Sun it self should be transformed into a dunghill that the Holy God should lay aside his Nature and turn Heaven into a place of impure darkness then that he himself should need to undergo a change O ye powerful infatuation of self love that men in the gall of bitterness should think 't is well with their spirits and fancie themselves in a case good enough to enjoy Divine pleasures that as the Toads venome offends not it self their loathsom wickedness which all good men detest is a pleasure to them and while 't is as the poison of Asps under their lips they call it as a daintie bit revolve it in their thoughts with delight Their wickedness speakes it self out to the very hearts of others while it never affects their own and is found out to be hateful while they still continue slattering themselves And because they are without spot in their own eyes they adventure so high as to presume themselves so in the pure eyes of God too and instead of designing to be like God they already imagine him sucâ— a one as themselves Hence their allotment of time in the whole of it the Lord knowes little enough for the working out of their salvation spends a pace while they do not so much as understand their business Their measured hour is almost out an immense Eternity is coming on upon them and lo they stand as men that cannot find their hands Urge them to the speedy serious indeavour of an heart-change earnestly to intend the business of regeneration of becoming new creatures they seem to understand it as little as if they were spoken to in an unknown tongue and are in the like posture with the confounded builders of Babel they know not what we mean or would put them upon They wonder what we would have them do They are say they Orthodox Christians They believe all the Articles of the Christian Creed They detest all Heresie and false Doctrine They are no strangers to the house of God but diligently attend the injoyned Solemnities of Publick
the Divine will and Law is that I mainly intend at present By such a necessity also they are excluded who by Gods rule according to which the supreme judgment must be managed shall be found unrighteous Those that come not up to the tearms of the Gospel Covenant never accepted the offers nor submitted to the commands of it And that hence consequently are unrelated to Christ and ununited to him no way capable of advantage by his most perfect and all-sufficient righteousness that alone fully answers all the exâ—ctions and demands of the Covenant of Works and so who are at last found unrighteous by the Old Law and the New the Law both of the Creatour and Redeemer too There is the same necessity these should be excluded as that God should be just and true The word is gone forth of his mouth in righteousness and cannot return He did not dâ—lly with sinners when he settled those constitutions whence this necessity results He is not a man that he should lye nor the Son of mâ—n that he should repent An Heathen understood so much of the nature of God I have thought sometimes with much wonder of the stupid folly of unsanctified hearts they are even confounded in their own wishes and would have in order to their security they know not what Were the question faithfully put to the very heart of such a one what wouldest thou have done in order to thy eternal safety from divine wrath and vengeance would not the answer be O that God would recall those severe constitutions he hath made and not insist â—o strictly on what be hath required in the Gospel in order to the salvation on of sinners But foolish wretch dost thou know what thou sayst wouldst thou have God repeal the Gospel that thou mayest be the more secure in what a case art thou then Hast thou no hope if the Gospel stand in force what hope wilt thou have if it do not Must the hopes of all the world be ruin'd to establish thine and yet leave them involv'd in the common ruine too What but the Gospel gives the least hope to Apostate sinners There is now hope for thee in the Gospel promise if thou return to God Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon But take away the Gospel and where art thou Were it possible for thee to repent and become a new man what settles the connexion between Repentance and Salvation but the Gospel-promise Will the violated Law of works accept thy Repentance instead of Obedience Doth it not expresly preclude any such expectation Doth it give any ground to look for any thing but death after sin Thou must therefore flye to the Gospel or yield thy self lost and know it contains none but faithful and true sayings that have more stability in them than the foundations of heaven and earth Therefore expect nothing to be altered for thy sake The Gospel-constitution was settled long before thou wast born Thou com'st too late with thy Exceptions if thou hadst any against it Remember therefore this is one of the unalterable determinations of this Gospel without holiness thou shalt never see God or which amounts to the same thou canst not behold his face but in righteousness There is no word in all the Bible of more certain truth than this In this also how apt are sinners foolishly to intangle themselves The Gospel is true and to be believed till they meet with something that crosses them and goes against the hair and then they hope it is not so But vain man if once thou shake the truth of God what wilt thou stay thy self upon Is God true when he promises and is he not as true when he threatens if that be a true saying Sâ—y to the righteous it shall be well with him is not that as much to be regarded wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Are not these of equal authority If thou hadst any reason to hope thou mayest be happy though thou never be righteous is there not as much reason to fear thou might'st be miserable though thou be since the one is as much against the slat express word of God as the other Let not thy love to sin betray thee out of all Religion and thy wits together Wherein wilt thou believe one upon the bare value of his word that will lie to thee in any thing Yea and as it is the same authority that is affronted in every command whence disobedience to one is a breach of all so is the same veracity denyed in every truth and the disbelief of one belies all and wilt thou believe him in any thing thou hast proclaimed a lier in every thing Therefore so little hast thou gained by disbelieving the divine revelation in this thing that thou hast brought thy self to this miserable Dilemma if the word of God be false thou hast no foundation of any Faith left thee if it be true it dooms thee to eternal banishment from his blessed face while thou remainest in thy unrighteousness It will not be thy advantage then to disbelieve this Gospel record but to consider it and take it to heart 't will prove never the lesse true at last for that thou wilt not believe it shall thy unbelief make the truth of God of none effect And if thou wouldest but reasonably consider the case methinks thou shouldest soon be convinc't Since thou acknowledgest as I suppose thee to do that there are two states of men in the other World a state of blessedness and a state of misery and two sorts of men in this World the righteous and the unrighteous Let thy reason and conscience now judge who shall be allotted to the one state and who to the other Sure if thou acknowledge a righteous Judge of all the world thou canst non think he will turn men promiscuously into Heaven or Hell at random without distinction Much less canst thou be so absurd and mad as to think all the unrighteous shall be saved and the righteous perish and then what is leâ—t thee to judge but that which I am now urging upon thee that when the righteous shall be admitted to the vision of Gods blessed face the unrighteous shall be driven forth into outer darkness It may be some here will be ready to say but to what purpose is all this they were of the same mind before and cannot think that any one would ever say the contrary Nor do I think so either but 't is one thing not to believe a conclusion to be true and another to prosess a contrary belief And one thing to believe a conclusion another to think we believe it Men often know not their own minds In practical matters 't is
why should my heart any longer hang in doubt within me or look wishly towards future glory as if it were an uncouth thing or is it reasonable to confront my own imaginations to his discoveries Charge conscience with the duty it owes to God in such a case and let his revelations be received with the reverence and resignation which they challenge and in them study and contemplate the blessedness of awakened souls till you have agreed with your self fully how to conceive it Run over every part of it in your thoughts view the several divine excellencies which you are hereafter to see and imitate and think what every thing will contribute to the satisfaction and contentment of your Spirits This is a matter of unspeakable consequence Therefore to be as clear as is possible you may digest what is recommended to you in this Rule into these more particular directions 1. Resolve with your selves to make the divine revelation of this blessedness the prime measure â—nd reason of all your apprehensions concerning it Fix that purpose in your own hearts so to order all your conceptions about it that when you demand of your selves What do I conceive of the future blessedness and why do I conceive so the divine revelation may answer both the questions I apprehend what God hath revealed and because he hath so revealed The Lord of heaven sure best understands it and can best help us to the understanding of it If it be said of the origen of this world 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 it may much more be said of the stâ—â—e of the other we understand it by faith That must inform and perfect our intellectuals in this matter 2. Therefore reject and sever from the notion of this blessedness whatsoever is alien to the account Scripture gives us of it Think not that sensual pleasure that a liberty of sinning that an exemption from the divine dominion distance and estrangedness from God which by nature you wickedlâ— affect can have any ingrediency into or consistency with this state of blessedness 3. Gather up into it whatsoever you can find by the Scripture-discovery to appertain or belong thereto Let your notion of it be to your uttermost not only true but comprehensive and full and as particular and positive as Gods revelation will warrant Especially remember 't is a spiritual blessedness that consists in the refining and perfecting of your Spirits by the vision and likeness of the holy God and the satisfying of them thereby for ever 4. Get the notion of this blessedness deeply imprinted in your minds so as to abide with you that you may not be alwayes at a loss and change you apprehensions every time you come to think of it Let a once-well formed Idaea a clear full state of it be preserv'd entire and be as a lively image alwayes before your eyes which you may readily view upon all occasions 2. That having well fixed the notion of this blessedness in your minds you seriously reflect upon yourself and compare the temper of your Spirit with it that you may find out how it is affected thereto and thence judge in what likelihood you are of enjoying it The general aversion of mens Spirits to this so necessary work of self-reflection is one of the most deplorable Symptoms of lapsed degenerate humanity The wickedness that hath overspread the nature of man and a secret consciousness and misgiving hath made men afraid of themselves and studiously to decline all acquaintance with their own souls to shun themselves as Ghosts and Spectives they cannot indure to appear to themselves You can hardly impose a severer task upon a wicked man than to go retire an hour or two and commune with himself he knows not how to face his own thoughts His own soul is a Devil to him as indeed it will be in hell the most frightful tormenting Devil Yet what power is there in man more excellent more appropriate to reasonable nature than that of reflecting of turning his thoughts upon himself Sense must here confess it self out done The eye that sees other objects cannot see it self But the mind a rational Sun can not only project its beams but revert them make its thoughts turn inward It can see its own face contemplate it self And how useful an indowment is this to the nature of man If he err he might perpetuate his error and wander infinitely if he had not this self-reflecting power and if he do well never know without it the comfort of a rational self-approbation Which comfort Paganish morality hath valued so highly as to account it did associate a man with the inhabitants of heaven and make him lead his life as among the gods as their Pagan language is Though the name of this reflecting power Conscience they were less acquainted with the thing it self they reckon'd as a kind of indwelling Deity as may be seen at large in those Discourses of Maximus Tyrius and Apuleius both upon the same subject concerning the god of Socrates And another giving this precept Familiarize thy self with the gods adds and this shalt thou do if thou bear thy mind becomingly towards them being well pleased with the things they give and doing the things that may please thy Daemon or Genius whom saith he the most high God which they mean by Jupiter hath put into every man as as a derivation or extraction from himself 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be his president and guide viz. every ones own mind and reason And this mind or reason in that notion of it as we approve our selves to it and study to please it is the same thing we intend by the name of Conscience And how high account they had of this work of self-reflection may appear in that they entituled the Oracle to that document Know thy self esteeming it above humane discovery and that it could have no lower than a divine Original therefore consecrating and writing it up in golden Characters in their Delphick Temple as Pliny informs us for an heavenly-inspired dictate Among Christians that enjoy the benefit of the Gospel-revelation in which men may behold themselves as one may his natural face in a glass how highly should this self-knowledge be prized and how fully attained The Gospel discovers at the same time the ugly deformities of a mans soul and the means of attaining a true spiritual comliness Yea it is it self the instrument of impressing the divine image and glory upon mens Spirits which when it is in any measure done they become most sociable and conversable with themselves and when 't is but in doing it so convincingly and with so piercing energy layes open the very thoughts of mens hearts so thoroughly rips up and diffects the soul so directly turns and strictly holds a mans eye intent upon himself so powerfully urges and obliges the sinner to mind and study his own soul that where it hath affected any thing been any way operative
be God-like Let us therefore make this our present business much to acquaint our selves with God We count upon seeing him face to face of being alwayes in his presence beholding his glory that speaketh very intimate acquaintance indeed How shall we reach that pitch what to live now as strangers to him Is that the way The path of the righteous is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto perfect day The text shews us the righteous mans end to behold the glory of Gods face c. 't is easie to apprehend then his way must needs have in it a growing brightness as he comes still nearer this end Every nearer approach to a lucid thing infers to us an increase of light from it We should therefore be following on to know the Lord and we shall see his going forth will â—e before us as the morning He will be still visiting us with renewed increasing light for such is morning light fresh and growing light and ere long it will be perfect daâ— Labour we to improve our knowledge of God to such a degree of acquaintance as our present state can admit of To be as inward with him as we can to familiarzie our selves to him His Gospel aims at this to make those that were afar off nigh Far-distant objects we can have no distinct view of He can give us little account of a person that hath only seen him afar off so God beholds the proud afar off That is he will have no acquaintance with them Whereas with the humble he will be familiar he will dwell as in a family with them So the ungodly behold God till he brings them in and make them nigh then they are no longer strangers but of his family and houshold now throughly acquainted Several notes there are of a through acquaintance which we should endeavour may concur in our acquaintance with God in that analogy which the case will bear To know his nature or as we would speak of a man what will please and displease him so as to be able in the whole course of our daily conversation to approve our selves to him To have the skill so to manage our conversation as to continue a correspondence not interrupted by anâ— of our offensive unpleasing demeanours To walk worthy of God unto all well-pleasing It concerns us most to study and indeavour this practical knowledge of the nature of God what trust and love and fear and purity c. his faithfulness and greatness his goodness and holiness c. do challenge from us What may in our daily walking be agâ—eeable what repugnant to the several Attributes of his being To know his secrets to be as it were of the Cabinet-councel the word used by the Psalmist hath a peculiar significancy to that purpose to signifie not only counsel but a council or the concessus of persons that consult together This is his gracious vouchsafement to humble reverential souls The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him such acquaintance with him is to be sought to know the communicable secrets both of his mind and heart Of his mind his truths Gospel-mysteries that were kept secret from ages and generations We have the mind of Christ. This is great inwardness of his heart His love his good will his kind bosome-thoughts towards our souls To know his methods and the course of his dispensations towards the World his Church and specially our own Spirits This is great knowledge of God to have the skill to trace his footsteps and observe by comparing times with times that such a course he more usually holds and accordingly with great probability collect from what we have seen and observed what we may expect What order and succession there is of storms of wrath to clouds of sin and again of peaceful lucid intervals when such storms have infer'd penitential tears In what exigences and distresses humble mourners may expect Gods visits and consolations To recount in how great extremities former experience hath taught us not to despair and from such experiences still to argue our selves into fresh reviving hopes when the state of things whether publick or private outward or spiritual seems forlorn To know the proper seasons of address to him and how to behave our selves most acceptably in his presence In what dispositions and postures of Spirit we are fittest for his converse so as to be able to come to him in a good hour in a time when he may be found To know his voice This discovers acquaintance The ear trieth words as the mouth tasteth meats Gods righteous ones that are filled with the fruits of righteousness do proportionably abound in knowledge and in all sense They have quick naked unvitiated senses to discern between good and evil Yea and can have the suffrage of several senses concerning the same Object They have a kind of taste in their ear They taste the good word of God even in his previous workings on them Being-born they are intimated to have tasted in the word how gracious the Lord is As they grow up thereby they have still a more judicious sense and can more certainly distinguish when God speaks to them and when a stranger goes about to counterfeit his voice They can tell at first hearing what is grateful and nutritive what offensive and hurtful to the divine life what is harmonious and agreeable what dissonant to the Gospel already receivâ—d so that an Angel from heaven must expect no welcome if he bring another To know his inward inâ—tiâ—ns and impulses When his hand toucheth our hearts to be able to say this is the â—iâ—ge of God there is something divine in this touch My beloved put in his hand by the hole of the door and my bowels were moved This speaks acquaintance when the soul can say I know his very touch the least impression from him I can distinguish it from thousands of objects that daily beat upon my heart To understand his looks to know the meaning of his aspects and glances of the various casts as it were of his eye Such things intimate friends can in a sort talk by with one another I will guide thee by mine eye that implyes an intelligent teachable subject We have now no full-ey'd appearances of God he shews himself looks in upon us through the lattess through a vail or shadow or a glass That measure of acquaintance with him to be able to discern and own him in his appearances is a great participation of heaven Utter unacquaintance with God is exprest by the denyal of these two ye have neither heard his voice nor seen his shape John 5. Finally which brings us home to the text to keep our eye intentively fixed on him not to understand his looks only as before but to return our own intimate acquaintance when such friends meet it is much exprest and improv'd by the eye by a reciprocation of
as an end Religion doth not brutify men but make them more rational It s business is to guide them to blessedness It must therefore pitch their eyes upon it as the mark and 〈◊〉 they are to aim at and hold them intent there 'T is ingenuous and honourable to God that we should expresly avow it we come to Him for satisfaction to our Spirits not knowing whether else to apply our selves We turn our eyes upon Him we lay open our souls to receive impressions from Him for this very end This is an explicit acknowledment of Him as God our highest Soveraign good 2. Actually apply and accommodate divine visions and communications to this purpose Say O my Soul now come solace thy self in this appearance of God come take thy allowed pleasure in such exertions of God as thou dost now experience in thy self Recount thy happiness think how great it is how rich thou art on purpose that thy Spirit may grow more daily into a satisfied contented frame Often bethink thy self What is the great God doing for me that he thus reveals and imparts himself to my soul O how great things do those present pledges presignisie to me That thou may'st still more and more like thy portion and account it faln in pleasant places so as never to seek satisfaction in things of another kind though thou must still continue expecting and desiring more of the same kind And remember to this purpose there cannot be a greater participation of the misery of hell before-hand than a discontented Spirit perpetually restless and weary of it self nor of the blessedness of heaven than in a well-pleased satisfied contented frame of Spirit CHAP. XIX Rule 5. Directing to raise our desires above the actual or possible attainments of this our present and terminate them upon the future consummate state of Blessedness The Rule explained and pressed by sundry considerations Rule 6. That we add to a desirous pursuit a joyful expectation of this blessedness which is pursued in certain subordinate directions 5. THat notwithstanding all our present or possible attainments in this imperfect state on earth We direct fervent vigorous desires towards the perfect and consummate state of glory it self Not designing to our selves a plenary satisfaction and rest in any thing on this side of it That is that forgetting what is behind we reach forth not only to what is immediately before us the next step to be taken but that our eye and desire aim forward at the ultimate period of our race terminate upon the eternal glory it self and that not only as a measure according to which we would some way proportion our present attainments but at the very mark which it self we would fain hit and reach home to And that this be not only the habitual bent and tendency of our Spirits but that we keep up such desires in frequent and as much as is possible continual exercise Yea and that such actual desires be not only faint and sluggish wishes but full of lively efficacy and vigour in some measure proportionable to our last end and highest good beyond and above which we neither esteem nor expect any other enjoyment Whatsoever we may possibly attain to here we should still be far from projecting to our selves a state of rest on this side consummate glory but still urge our selves to a continual ascent so as to mount above not onely all enjoyments of any other kind but all degrees of enjoyment in this kind that are beneath perfection Still it must be remembred this is not the state of our final rest The Mass of Glory is yet in reserve we are not yet so high as the highest Heavens If we gain but the top of Mount Tabor we are apt to say 't is good to be here and forget the longer journey yet before us loath to think of a further advance when were our spirits right how far so ever we may suppose our selves to have attained it would be matter of continual joy to us to think high perfections are still attainable that we are yet capable of greater things then what we have hitherto compast our souls can yet comprehend more Nature intends what is most perfect in every Creature methinks the Divine Nature in the New Creature should not design lower or cease aspiring till it have attained its ultimate perfection its culminating point till Grace turn into Glory Let us therefore Christians bestir our selves let us open and turn our eyes upon the eternal glory Le ts view it well and then demand of our own souls why are our desires so faint and slothful why do they so seldom pierce through the interveining distance and reach home to what they prefessedly level at so rarely touch this blessed mark How can we forbear to be angry with our selves that so glorious an end should not more powerfully attract that our hearts should not more sensibly find themselves drawn and all the powers of the soul beset on work by the attractive power of that glory It certainly concerns us not to sit still under so manifest a distemper But if the proposal of the object the discourse all this while of this blessed state do not move us to make some further trials with our selves see what urging and reasoning with our souls what rubbing and chasing our hearts will do And there is a two fold trial we may in this kind make upon our spirits What the sense of shame will work with us whether our hearts cannot be made sensible to suppose how vile and wretched a temper it is to be undesirous of glory And then what sense of praise can effect or what impression it may make upon us to consider the excellency and worth the high reasonableness of that temper posture of soul which I am now perswading to a continual desirousness of that blessed glorious state 1. As to the former Let us bethink our selves can we answer it to God or to our own souls that we should indulge our selves in a continual negligence of our eternal blessedness A blessedness consisting in the Vision and Participation of the Divine Glory Have we been dreaming all this while that God hath been revealing to us this glorious state and setting this lovely prospect before our eyes Did it become us not to open our eyes while he was opening Heaven to us and representing the state which he designed to bring us to or will we say we have seen it and yet desire it not Have we been deaf and dead while he hath been calling us into eternal glory have all our senses been bound up all this while Hath he been speaking all along to sensless Statues to Stocks and Stones while he expected reasonable living souls should have received the voice and have returned an obedient complying answer And what answer could be expected to such a call a call to his Glory below this We desire it Lord we would fain be there And if we say we have not
world to come are so overmastered by the powers of this present world and objects of sense so much outweigh those of Faith And is not this apparently the case with the Christians of the present age Do not your thoughts run the same course with theirs that meditated nothing but sitting on the right and left hand of Christ in an earthly dominion while they never dream't of drinking of his Cup or being baptized with his Baptism How many vain dreamers have we of golden mountains and I know not what earthly felicity whose pretended Prophesies about a supposed near approaching prosperity to the Church on earth gain easier belief or are more savory and taking with too many then all that the Sacred Oracles discover about its glorious state in heaven Hence are our shoulders so unfitted to Christs yoke like the unaccustomed Heifer and the business of suffering will not enter into our hearts Methinks the belief and expectation of such a state hereafter should make us even regardless of what we see or suffer here and render the good or evil things of time as indifferent to us Yet neither plead I for an absolute Stoical Apathy but for patience A great follower of that Sect acknowledges It is not a vertue to bear what we feel not or have no sense of Stupidity under Providence is not a Christian temper as that Moralist sayes of the wise man 'T is not the hardness of stone or iron that is to be ascribed to him But least any should run into that more dangerous mistake to think that by the patience we have been all this while perswading to in the expectation of the blessedness yet to come is meant a love of this present world and a complacential adherence of heart to the earth which extream the terrene temper of many souls may much encline them to It will be necessary upon that account to adde in reference also to the yet future expected season of this blessedness this further and concluding instruction viz. That however we are not to repine at our being held so long in this world in an expecting state yet we let not our souls cleave too close to their terrestrial stations nor be too much in love with the body and this present low state of life on earth For evident it is that notwithstanding all the miseries of this expecting state the most are yet loath to leave the world and have hearts sordidly hankering after present things And surely there is much difference between being patient of an abode on earth and being fond of it Therefore since the true blessedness of Saints consists in such things as we have shewn and cannot be enjoy'd till we awake not within the compass of time and this lower world It will be very requisite to insist here a while in the prosecution of this last Rule And what I shall say to it shall be by way of Caution Inforcement 1. For Cautionâ—s that we misapprehend not that temper and disposition of Spirit we are in this thing to endeavour and aim at And it especially concerns us to be cautious about the Inducements Degree Of that desire of leaving this world or concontempt of this present life which we either aspire to or allow our selves in First Inducements Some are desirous others at least content to quit the world upon very insufficient or indeed wicked considerations 1. There are who desire it meerly to be out of the way of present troubles whereof they have either too impatient a sense or an unworthy and impotent fear Many times the urgency and anguish of incumbent trouble impresses such a sense and utters it self in such a language as that Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die then to live Or that My soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life Makes men long for death and dig for it as for hid treasures rejoyce and be exceeding glad when they can find the grave Yea and the very fear of troubles that are but impendent and threatning make some wish the Grave a Sanctuary and render the Clods of the Valley sweet unto their thoughts They lay possibly so humoursom and phansiful stress upon the meer circumstances of dying that they are earnest to dye out of hand to avoid dying so and so as the Poet would fain perswade himself it was not Death he feared but Shipwrack It would not trouble them to dye but to dye by a violent hand or to be made a publick spectacle they cannot endure the thoughts of dying so Here is nothing commendable or worthy of a Christian in all this It were a piece of Christian bravery to dare to live in such a case even when there is a visible likelihood of dying a sacrifice in the midst of flames How much this glory was affected in the earlier days of Christianity is sufficiently known Though I confess there were excesses in that kind altogether unimitable But if God call a man forth to be his Champion and witness to lay down a life in it self little desirable in a truly worthy cause The call of his Providence should be as the sound of the Trumpet to a truly Martial Spirit it should fill his soul with a joyful courage and sense of honour and be comply'd with cheerfully with that apprehension and resentment a stout Souldier would have of his Generals putting him upon some very hazardous piece of service viz. he would say My General hath not as the Morallist expresses his sense for him deserved ill of me but it appears he judged well It should be counted all joy to fall into such tryals that is when they become our lot by a providential disposition not by a rash precipitation of our selves And as it is a wickedness inconsistent with Christianity to be of that habitual temper to chuse to desert such a cause for the saving of life so it is a weakness very reproachful to it to lay down ones life in such a case with regret as unwilling in this kind to glorifie him who laid down his for us we are no more to dye to our selves then to live to our selves Our Lord Jesus hath purchased to himself a Dominion over both states of the living and dead and whether we live we must live to him or dye we must dye to him T is the glory of a Christian to live so much above the world that nothing in it may make him either fond of life or weary of it 2. There are others who are at least indifferent and careless how soon they dye out of either a worse than paganish infidelity disbelieving the concernments of another world or a bruitish stupidity not apprehending them or a gross conceited ignorance misunderdanding the terms of the Gospel and thinking themselves to be in a good condition as to eternity when the case is much otherwise with them Take heed thy willingness to dye
the Lusts of it That is cruel Love that shall enslave a man and subject him to so vile and ignoble a servitude And it discovers a sordid temper to be so imposed upon How low are our Spirits sunk that we disdain not so base a vassalage God and nature have obliged us to live in bodies for a time but they have not obliged us to measure our selves by them to confine our desires and designs to their compass to look no further then their concernments to entertain no previous joyes in the hope of being one day delivered from them No such hard law is laid upon us But how apt are we to become herein a most oppressive Law to our selves and not only to lodge in filthy earthen cottage but to love them and confine our selves to them loath so much as to peep out T is the apt expression of a Philosopher upbraiding hat base low temper The degenerous Soul saith he buried in the Body is as a slothful creeping thing that loves its hole and is loath to come forth And methinks if we have no love for our better and more noble self we should not be altogether unapprehensive of an obligation upon us to express a dutiful love to the Author of our beings doth it consist with the love we owe to him to desire always to lurk in the dark and never come into his blessed presence Is that our love that we never care to come nigh him Do we not know that while we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord should we not therefore be willing rather to be present with the Lord and absent from the body should we not put on a confidence an holy fortitude as 't is there exprest we are confident or of good courage and thence willing c. that might carry us through the Grave to him As is the brave Speech of that last mentioned Philosopher God will call thee ere long expect his call Old age will come upon thee and shew thee the way thither and death which he that is possest with a base fear laments and dreads as it draws on but he that is a lover of God expects it with joy and with courage meets it when it comes Is our love to God so faint and weak that it dares not encounter Death nor venture upon the imaginary terrours of the Grave to go to him How unsuitable is this to the character which is given of a Saints love And how expresly are we told that he who loves his life better then Christ or that even hates it not for his sake as certainly he cannot be said to do that is not willing to part with it to enjoy him cannot be his Disciple If our love to God be not Supreme 't is none or not such as can denominate us lovers of him and will we pretend to be so when we love a putide flesh and this base earth better then him And have we not professedly as a fruit of our avowed love to him surrendred our selves Are we not his devoted ones will we be his and yet our own or pretend our selves dedicated to his holy pleasure and will yet be at our own dispose and so dispose of our selves too as that we may be most ungrateful to him and most uncapable of converse with him How doth this love of a perishing life and of a little animated clay stop all the effusions of the Love of God suspends its sweet and pleasant fruits which should be always exerting themselves towards him Where is their fear obedience joy and praise who are through the fear of death all their lives subject to bondage And kept under a continual dismal expectation of an unavoidable dissolution But must the great God lose his due acknowledgements because we will not understand wherein he deals well with us Is his mercy therefore no mercy As we cannot nullify his truth by our unbelief so nor his goodness by our disesteem But yet consider doth it not better become thee to be grateful then repine that God will one day unbind thy Soul and set thee free Knock of thy Letters and deliver thee out of the house of thy bondage Couldst thou upon deliberate thoughts judge it tollerable should he doom thee to this earth forever He hath however judged otherwise as the Pagan Emperour and and Philosopher excellently speaks who is the Author both of the first composition of thy present being and now of the dissolution of it thou wert the cause of neither therefore depart and be thankful for he that dismisseth thee dealeth kindly with thee If yet thou understandest it not yet remember It is thy Father that disposes thus of thee how unworthy is it to distrust his Love What child would be afraid to compose it self to sleep in the Parents bosom It expresses nothing of the duty and ingenuity but much of the frowardness and folly of a child They sometimes cry vehemently in the undressing but should their cryes be regarded by the most indulgent Parent or are they fit to be imitated by us We have no excuse for this our frowardness The Blessed God hath told us his gracious purpose concerning us and we are capable of understanding him What if he had totally hidden from us our future state and that we know nothing but of going into an eternal silent-darkness The Authority of a Creator ought to have awed us into a silent submission But when we are told of such a glory that 't is but drawing aside this fleshly vaile and we presently behold it methinks the Blessed hour should be expected not with patience only but with ravishing joy Did we hear of a country in this world where we might live in continual felicity without toyl or sickness or grief or fear who would not wish to be there though the passage were troublesome have we not heard enough of Heaven to allure us thither Or is the eternal truth of suspected credit with us Are Gods own reports of the future glory unworthy our belief or regard How many upon the credit of his word are gone already triumphantly into glory That only seeing the promises afar off were perswaded of them and embraced them and never after owned themselves under any other notion then of Pilgrims on earth longing to be at home in their most desirable Heavenly Country We are not the first that are to open Heaven The main Body of Saints is already there 't is in comparison of their number but a scattering remnant that are now alive upon the earth How should we long to be associated to that glorious Assembly Methinks we should much more regret our being so long left behind But if we should desire still to be so why may not all others as well as we And as much expect to be gratified as we And then we should agree in desiring that our Redeemers triumph might be defer'd that his Body might yet remain incompleat that
driven away in his wickedness with a never more see my face Again what amazing Visions wilt thou have what gashly frightful objects to converse with amidst those horrours of eternal darkness when the Devil and his Angels shall be thy everlasting associates What direful images shall those accursed enraged Spirits and thy own fruitful parturient imagination for ever entertain thee with and present to thy view 2. Is it a small thing with thee to be destitute of all those inherent excellencies which the perfected Image of God whereof thou wast capable comprehends view them over in that too defective account some of the former pages gave thee of them Thou art none of those bright stars those sons of the morning those blessed glorified Spirits Thou might'st have been But Consider what art thou what shalt thou for ever be what image or likeness shalt thou bear alas poor wretch thou art now a Fiend conformed to thy hellish partners thou bearest their accursed likenesse Death is now finished in thee and as thou sowedst to the flesh thou reapest corruption Thou art become a loathsome Carcass the Worms that never die abound in thy putrified filthy soul. Thou hast an Hell in thee Thy venomous lusts are now mature are in their full grown state If a world of iniquity a fulness of deadly poyson tempered by Hell fire is here sometimes to be found in a little member what will there then be in all thy parts and powers 3. Consider how blessed a satisfaction dost thou lose how pleasant and delightful a rest arising both from the sight of so much glory and so peaceful a temper and constitution of Spirit Here thou might'st have injoyed an eternal undisturbed rest But for rest and satisfaction thou hast vexation and endless torment both by what thou beholdest and what thou feelest within thee Thy dreadful visions will not let thee rest but the chief matter of thy disquiet and torment is in the very temper and composition of thy soul. Thy horrid lusts are fuller of poysonous energie and are destitute of their wonted objects whence they turn all their power and fury upon thy miserable self Thy inraged passions would fly in the face of God but they spend themselves in tormenting the soul that bred them Thy curses and blasphemies the invenom'd Darts pointed at Heaven are reverberated and driven back into thy own heart And therefore 4. Consider what awaking hast thou Thou awakest not into the mild and chearful light of that blessed day wherein the Saints of the most High hold their solemn joyful triumph But thou awakest into that great and terrible day of the Lord dost thou desire it for what end is it to thee a day of darkness and not light a gloomy and a stormy day The day of thy birth is not a more hateful then this is a dreadful day Thou awakest and art beset with terrours presently apprehended and drag'd before thy glorious severe Judge and thence into eternal torments O happy thou might'st thou never awake might the grave conceale and its more silent darkness cover thee for ever But since thou must awake then how much more happy wert thou if thou would'st suffer thy self to be awaken'd now What to lose and endure so much because thou wilt not now a little bestir thy self and look about thee Sure thy Conscience tells thee thou art urg'd but to what is possible and lawful and hopeful and necessary methinks if thou be a man and not a stone if thou hast a reasonable Soul about thee thou shalt presently fall to work and rather spend thy days in serious thoughts and prayers and tears than run the hazard of losing sotranscendent a glory and of suffering misery which as now thou art little able to conceive thou wilt then be less able to endure CHAP. XVIII Rule 4. Directing to the endeavour of a gradual improvement in such a disposedness of Spirit as shall be found in any measure already attained towards this blessedness That 't is blessedness begun which disposes to the Consummate state of it That we are therefore to endeavour the daily encrease of our present knowledge of God conformity to him and the satisfiednesse of our spirits therein THat when we find our selves in any disposition towards this blessedness we endeavour a gradual improvement therein to get the habitual temper of our spirits made daily more suitable to it We must still remember we have not yet attained and must therefore continue pressing forward to this mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus That prize not price as we commonly misread it in our Bibles of which the Apostle here speaks is as may be seen by looking back to v. 8 9 c. the same with the blessedness in the Text. Such a knowledge of Christ as should infer at last his participation with him in his state of glory or of the resurrection of the dead This is the ultimate term the scope or end of that high calling of God in Christ so 't is also stated elsewhere who hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus Now we should therefore frequently recount how far short we are of this glory and stir up our souls to more vigorous indeavours in order to it Our suitableness to this blessedness stands in our having the elements and first principles of it in us 't is glory onely that fits for glory some previous sights and impressions of it and a pleasant complacential relish thereof that frame and attemper us by degrees to the full consummate state of it This is that therefore we must endeavour A growing Knowledge of God Conformity to him and Satisfiedness of Spirit therein What we expect should be one day perfect we must labour may be in the mean time alwayes growing 1. Our knowledge of God The knowledge of him I here principally intend is not notional and speculative but which is more ingredient to our blessedness both inchoate and perfect that of converse that familiar knowledge which we usually express by the name of acquaintance See that this knowledge of him be encreased daily Let us now use our selves much with God Our knowledge of him must aim at conformity to him and how powerful a thing is converse in order hereto How insensibly is it wont to transform men and mould anew their Spirits Language Garbe Deportment To be remov'd from the solitude or rudeness of the Country to a City or University What an alteration doth it make How is such a person devested by degrees of his rusticitio of his more uncomely and agrest manners Objects we converse with beget their Image upon us They walked after vanity and became vain saith Jeremiah And Solomon He that walketh with the wise shall be wise Walking is an usual expression of converse So to converse with the holy is the way to be holy with heaven the way to be heavenly with God the way to