the Communication of His blessed Body and Blood by consecrated Elements to worthy Partakers of His holy Table Which tho' they be great and infallible Truths are dark and enigmatical and full of divine and venerable Abstruseness There are REVELATIONS wonderful for Sublimity and Nobleness As those of the Creation of the World of the Fall of the Angels of the Sin and Redemption of Man of the Immortality of the Soul of the Resurrection of the Body and of the general and eternal Judgment There are PROMISES wonderful for Truth and Preciousness As of GOD's hearing our Prayers His pitying our Infirmities His assisting us in Duties His accepting our Performances His pardoning our Miscarriages His purifying our Souls His speaking peace to our Consciences His supplying us with Blessings His adorning us with Virtues and Graces in this Life and His crowning us with everlasting and glorious Recompences in the next These amongst others are wonderful Things which are contained in the sacred Books And when we rightly apprehend them and ruminate upon them or upon any of them they will not fail to lift up our Religious Minds into refreshing Joys especially if the Light of the divine Countenance be display'd upon us at the same Time Then both the Heavenly Instruments of Comfort being at once set a Work they cannot but produce it at a mighty Rate The Fourth Mark of true Comforts is they are productive of pious Effects That they should have no Effects being powerful things would be very strange and that they should have any but good ones must be as impossible considering how excellent they are in themselves and from whence they come Their Nature and Origin proclaim them Operative and all the effects which they work in us are absolutely pious or tending to Godliness Amongst many we are sure to find these that follow Hatred of Sin and Love to Righteousness Gentleness of Spirit and Tenderness of Conscience Fear to offend GOD and Forwardness to please Him Purity of Mind and Integrity of Life Disgust of earthly things and Desire of Heavenly ones Weariness of the World and Willingness to go out of it Wherever therefore Comforts have such Effects and Symptoms they have Evidence on their side to prove that they are right But where they find men bad in case they continue so or if instead of growing better they become worse under them we may cease all Enquiry concerning their truth because there 's enough to evince they are false And as one Specific inseparable Effect of genuine Comforts I might here mention their peculiar sweetness For tho' all Comforts carry sweetness with them where they go yet the Sweetness of the true may as well be distinguisht from that of the false as the Light of the Sun from the Light of a Torch The one is exceedingly finer than the other and also as superior to it in Strength And therefore David does not only own that the Light of GOD's Countenance put Gladness in his Heart Psal 4.7 which signifies it was no flashy frothy sort of Comfort as dwelling in the Heart but he farther declares that it put more Gladness in His Heart than the Increase of Corn and Wine could do That is it produced in him an higher kind of Joy than the greatest abundance of the usefullest Blessings of this Life could possibly infuse Which does more than intimate that a particular and extraordinary Sweetness is contain'd in the true spiritual Comforts And where-ever this Sweetness comes in its Strength it claps a seal upon the Conscience as I may say warranting it to be right and by its fulness and force bears down the Soul into a fiducial belief that the Comforts which imprint it come down from Heaven But having made Sweetness the first beatifying Property of true Comforts to say more concerning it here would be superfluous Only this would be noted that when the Religious are importunate in seeking and supplicating for the Light of GOD's Countenance as we may observe they are in Scripture they have greatest Reason to be so and I heartily wish that all Men were so for it is not only an Instrument but the chiefest Instrument of raising divine Comforts in the Soul The Last Mark of true Comforts is their coming upon us when we are in a good state in a state of Regeneracy or Righteousness The truth is * Mat. 15.26 27. they are the Childrens Bread and therefore shall not be given to Dogs or impious Livers They indeed eat of the Crumbs that fall from their Masters Table They share largely in temporal Blessings and in the common Use or external Injoyment of many Spiritual ones But as for true Comforts they belong not to them nor shall they partake of them They may have Comforts that are like the true but the real Consolations of the SPIRIT fall not to their Lot For as an excellent Man said †Fiat justitia habebis pacem August divine Peace is an Appendix of Righteousness But they that travel in the Rode of Sin are out of the way of true Comfort Hence we may judge of the Quality of our Comforts and be able to determine whether they are such as they ought to be How is it with our Souls that 's the Question to be askt here Are we in a righteous or regenerate condition Have we mortifi'd our Lusts and subdu'd our Corruptions Have we repented of our Sins and fully renounc'd them and finally relinquisht them Do we honour and love GOD and are we resolv'd to do so with our whole Hearts and through our whole Lives And to come home to the point is our Love to GOD express'd in obeying Him and is our Obedience faithful and undissembled Then we may conclude that our Comforts are true But instead of loving GOD if we disregard Him instead of serving Him if we disobey Him and do it constantly or do it frequently in any known instance in all likelihood our Comforts must be false By this last Mark the truth of our Comforts may as well be tri'd as by any of the rest Tho' our safest way will not be to trust to one singly except the last lest we should be deceived King Herod as we observed heard John the Baptist gladly and the People compared to the stony Ground receiv'd the Seed of the Word with Joy And so according to the first Mark Both when their Comforts came upon them were well imployed And according to the second Mark their Comforts flow'd from divine Objects But for all that they were still but counterfeit The best and only way to be assured they are genuine is to find all these Marks upon them at once And by those Four which are here laid down it will be easy to discern True Comforts from False We are next to consider whence these false Comforts spring And they issue from several Fountains First From Nature Secondly From the Evil Spirit Thirdly From Enthusiasm Fourthly From wrong Notions in Divinity Fifthly From Texts
Name changed into Israel in token of his signal Prevalence with the ALMIGHTY this Powerful Remarkable Prevalence of His was owing in good measure to pious Mourning Nor can we be out in this our Assertion forasmuch as it plainly stands thus imputed by a venerable Prophet By his strength he had power with GOD yea he had power over the Angel and prevailed Hos 12.3 4. And why did he so It follows he wept and made supplication to Him So that His mighty Prevalence and Success in great part was due unto his Tears But then to come home to our purpose I must add that as religious Tears when shed for our selves prevail with Heaven so they will prevail for others likewise when poured out to GOD upon their account The following Instance will make this good beyond exception Israel had provoked the LORD to Anger and Moses was afraid as well he might that He would destroy them Hereupon he fell down before the LORD Deut. 9.18 That is he mourned as well as prayed for the People for Prostration was a Posture in use for both And because he mourned and wept Rabbi Solomon called that forty days wherein then he fell down says mine * Quadragena tristabilis Lyr. in loc Author the forty Mournful days And what the Effect of his Mournful intercession was appears v. 19. where we find that the LORD hearkened unto him at that time And when the Mournful Importunity of one good Man could quench the Fury of an inraged GOD and save a wicked People from utter destruction must it not carry a wonderful Prevalence with it For when he was minded to ruine the Rebellious Hebrews and to blot out the Name or Memory of them from under Heaven as well as the Generation then living He was pleas'd to cry out to Moses †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 v. 14. Let me alone or be gone from me Implying there was such force or power of restraint in Moses's humble mournful Intreaty that unless it was silenc'd or removed GOD could not inflict those just Severities which he intended and they deserved But then who that are truly and throughly good can think they have not great Reason to mourn for the Sins of others when thereby they may avert the Judgments of GOD which are due unto them Yea tho' those Sins be most hainous of all even National Sins and the Judgments like to be proportionably heavy But here we must remember that tho' the holy Mournings of all good people are very powerful and prevailing with Heaven yet the Mournings of one sort of Men always were and ever will be of greatest prevalence namely those in the ministerial Office And therefore when terrible Judgments were coming upon the Jews the Prophet expresly charged the Priests the Ministers of the LORD not only to pray but also to weep in prevention of them Joel 2.17 And then adds immediately as the happy consequence or effect of the same Then will the LORD be jealous for His land and pity his People So when Christians at any time are visited with Sickness they are required to call for the Elders of the Church to pray over them Jam. 5.14 And so prevalent shall their Prayers be especially when mingled with holy Tears that if it be best the LORD shall raise them up again by restoring them to health as the Apostle declares in the next Verse Nor need we wonder that the Clergies Prayers should be most prevailing to prevent or remove any manner of National or Personal Judgments For if we rightly consider as they are or should be Men of the most zeal so they pray with the greatest Authority as being appointed and commission'd thereunto by virtue of the Function to which they are ordained And by the way they being thus doubly qualifi'd to pray with most prevalence they should as they have reason do it with all Diligence Pray even night and day to GOD for all his People tho' for some perhaps much more than others as particular Respects and Obligations bind them Only when they or any other set apart a day wherein to pray for their Souls or to pray for their Bodies for the remission of such Sins as they have committed or for the Removal of such Severities as GOD hath inflicted or for the Suspension of such Judgments as He hath plainly threatned let them endeavour to inforce their Prayers with mournful Tears which adds to the Strength and Efficacy of them Fourthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning especially brings us Comfort And this it may do two Ways Either as it benefits those Persons whom we bewail which when it comes to our knowledge must needs afford us most noble satisfaction or else as it inclines the gracious GOD to dispense His holy Consolations to us as a liberal recompence for our Christian Pity in laying our Brethrens Miscarriages to Heart As many as mourn for other mens Sins must certainly be comforted one of these ways if not both Else the divine Promise must fail Isai 57.18 I will restore Comforts to him and to his Mourners Not only to reclaimed Sinners themselves that have well considered their crooked ways and wisely corrected and amended them but also to those Mourners for them that have lamented their Immoralities and great Offences And have we not reason to mourn for others Sins when thereby we shall draw down the Joys of Heaven upon our selves Fifthly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Public and National Sins call for great and general Calamities and it is but Just with GOD to send them And when they come by His appointment they are exactly what the Prophet of old termed them Isai 28.15 an over-flowing scourge A scourge that breaks in with most terrible Violence and passes through a Country with such spreading Fierceness and irresistible Fury as is able to drown and dismally to sweep away all before it Now should GOD provoked to it by our Sins in His great Displeasure send down any sad Epidemical Evil upon this Nation as the Sword Famine Pestilence or the Like and should it dreadfully overflow the Land from one end of it to the other cutting off many if not most and threatning and indangering all would it not then be a signal Favour and singular Privilege or Felicity for some few to be providentially distinguisht from the rest and by a special Protection secured from the Dint of this judicial severity Yet thus it is sometimes yea thus we may hope it always shall be where there are Mourners for the Peoples sins and that those very Mourners shall be the Persons so Preserved For this hope there seems to be somewhat of good ground in the ninth Chapter of Ezekiel The Inhabitants of Jerusalem had committed many and most horrid Abominations and thereby had mightily offended GOD and incensed His MAJESTY To such a Pitch that he was now resolv'd
taught he that is * Prudens nemini miseretur prudent pities none But as the Wisdom of this World is foolishness with GOD 1 Cor. 3.19 so this Piece of Wisdom as the Stoics reckon'd it amongst true Religionists is the worst sort of folly as being a real and an hainous Sin And tho' †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 De Rep. lib. 3. Plato who was Master of a nobler Philosophy excluded Tears from great Mens Eyes yet it cannot be deni'd but his Political Rule in that case does plainly interfere with the Evangelical Law and His Maxim of state lies cross to the precepts of Orthodox Christianity And then the weakness of their Principles is notoriously manifest from the contrary Practice For notwithstanding the Doctrines of both these Schools great and wise Men have been struck with commiseration and upon just occasions have exprest their Pity in plenty of Tears Thus Julius Caesar wept when the Head of Pompey was brought before Him Scipio Africanus wept excessively when he saw Carthage in flames Marcellus wept when he beheld Syracuse which he was to enter in so sad a condition tho' Livy says he wept for Joy at so great an Atchievement as his Conquest of it Now these were not only great and wise Men but wise and great Generals and by being Martial Heroes were Sons of Bloud not to add of Rapine and Violence and so by reason of their Office might be much harder than others Yet these very Persons had a natural Tenderness for Mankind and Sympathized deeply with such as were their proclaimed and professed Enemies And when heathen Soldiers could with Tears lament the sufferings of their Enemies shall not we Christians mourn for the sins of our Brethren In case we do not besides that we refuse to tread in the steps of the best we plainly call our own Goodness in question For according to the Greek Proverb * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 good Men are prone to Tears And as they are so upon many accounts so especially for the sins of others And therefore in the Judgment of an admirable Divine †Guil. Paris lib. de Morib none can doubt but pious Souls do so much the more flow with tears of Pity by how much the more they see or hear the sins of their Neighbours to abound Secondly We must mourn for the sins of others because to neglect it is highly blameable It is GOD's Command to Christians Phil. 2.15 and so should be our care and endeavour to be harmless and blameless and without rebuke in the midst of a crooked and perverse Nation Tho' the Generation wherein we live be never so irregular and unrighteous yet we must not only be harmless as to others but blameless in our selves So blameless as to be guilty of nothing that the piercing Eye of the All-seeing GOD shall discern to be a wilful fault or that the fierce and malicious Accuser of our Souls may be able to charge upon us as such But then in order to this 't will be necessary for us to mourn for the known and scandalous Sins of those about us else the very omission of that will render us grossly culpable So it did a whole Church once and laid it under Apostolical Censure The Church I mean was that at Corinth It was newly planted and had lately received the Christian Faith and being just born and in her tender Infancy one would have thought she might have been innocent Especially having one so skilful and careful so pious and prudent as St. Paul was to super-intend her 1 Cor. 5.1 But we find it far otherwise with Her and that She was over-run not only with early but great Disorders Amongst the rest there was one corrupt and scandalous Member that liv'd in open and horrid Incest with his Father's Wife And yet which aggravates the Crime he was a Person that made some figure in the Church for according to S. Chrysostom and Theodoret both * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he had obtained the Degree of a Doctor Now so grievous a Lewdness being so publickly committed amongst the Corinthians how should they have behav'd themselves in reference to the bold and shameful miscarriage They ought by all means to have lamented it or mourned for it And because they did not they are reprehended and blamed by the great Apostle in these Words ye are puffed up and have not rather Mourned Which gives us to understand that when any in the Communion which we are of fall into deadly and damnable Sins it lies upon us to mourn for the same And in case we do not we are utterly in a fault In a fault so great that it deserves express Reproof from Heaven And as it highly deserves it it shall certainly have it for indeed such a fault where-ever it happens stands actually reproved by GOD already in those very words which we last cited As therefore we would escape the Dint of this Reproof we must bewail the great Sins of all those Christians that come to our knowledge but especially of those who belong to the same Church or Nation with us And if they be so many as GOD knows they are very numerous that we cannot consider and bewail them apart or every one in particular it must suffice that we do it in gross by a more comprehensive and general Mourning But then we must take care that this our Mourning be not slight and superficial but deep and hearty such at least for the sadness and seriousness of it as we usually bestow on our departed Friends And let none despise this Rule or Measure as being borrowed from no meaner Person than learned Origen For where he describes the Discipline of the Primitive Church he thus informs us That as the venerable School of the Pythagoreans * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Con. Celsum lib. 3 set up empty Coffins in the places of all such as deserted its Philosophy to shew they were esteemed no better than Dead so for those that were conquered either by Carnality or any other Evil Christians us'd to mourn as for Creatures lost and dead to GOD. So that look how we mourn for dead and so we must mourn for sinful Christians Or if there be any Difference to be allow'd betwixt them the abatement must be made on the Deceased's side inasmuch as Moral or Spiritual Death is far more deplorable than that which is Natural Thirdly We must mourn for the Sins of others because such Mourning prevails with Heaven As we read Lam. 3.26 The LORD is good to the Soul that seeketh Him But how good He is to such and how strangely he manifests His Goodness to them in a gracious Readiness to be found of them none can tell like the well experienc'd Yet this I must say that none prevail more and none prevail sooner with GOD than they who seek Him with holy Mourning And therefore when Jacob had Power with GOD and such Power as to have his
us with constant and most powerful Preaching of Thy Word but we do not hear it so as to obey it Thou indulgest to us a blessed Liberty and frequent Opportunities of calling upon Thee by Public Prayer but we do not join it so as to honour Thee and advantage our selves by it Instead of keeping holy * Isai 58.13 Thy Day we break and pollute it Instead of Reverencing Thy †Levit. 19.30 Sanctuary we neglect or prophane it Instead of ‖ Mat. 6.9 Hallowing Thy Name we abuse and blaspheme it Instead of Duly frequenting Thy Table we turn our Backs upon it or come unworthily to it Instead of rightly attending on any of Thine Ordinances we either so slight them as to absent from them or if we resort to them we are so lukewarm in them that we profit little or nothing under them Instead of * 1 Thess 5.13 Esteeming Thy Ministers very highly for their Works-sake we despise them too much and vilify them too often upon that account These are great and provoking Sins O LORD and who besides Thy patient Self could ever have born so long with us in them But yet I have more and more hainous Sins to confess unto Thee which multitudes amongst us most Blessed GOD commit against Thee For many are guilty of horrid Atheism They do not only say in †Psal 14.1 their Hearts there is no GOD but profess and contend for it and maintain it in their Discourse Notwithstanding they are Baptiz'd into the Faith of Thy SON they doubt of thy Being and dispute against it O Heavenly Father Many are guilty of abominable Idolatry The Glory which is due to Thee alone they superstitiously give unto a meer Creature against the plainest sense and clearest Reason adoring even the Bread which themselves do eat Many are guilty of damnable Heresie and some allow not of Thy DIVINITY O Eternal and most Glorious JESUS But though Thou hast laid down Thy Life as a ‖ Mat. 20.28 Ransom for our Souls they wretchedly deny * 2 Pet. 2.1 the LORD that bought them Many are guilty of hideous Perjury They make light not only of common Swearing but of the Solemn Oaths of GOD upon them They count them such sorry and trifling Obligations as impiously to neglect the necessary Duties to which they are bound by those Sacred Ties And O LORD how lamentable must our case be when in this one miscarriage alone there is malignity enough to make †Jer. 23.10 a Land to mourn Many are guilty of most filthy Pollutions Thou feedest them to the full and they assemble themselves by Troops in the ‖ Jer. 5.7 Harlots Houses Instead of * Gal. 5.24 crucifying the Flesh they †Ephes 4.19 work uncleanness with greediness and Adultery and ‖ 5.3 Fornication which should not once be named amongst Christians are matters of their common and continual Practice How shalt thou * Jer. 5.7 pardon us for this O LORD and what direful effects of thine Anger may we justly expect when for †Eph 5.6 these things sake the wrath of GOD cometh upon the children of Disobedience Many are guilty of high Injustice They oppress the Widow and wrong the Fatherless and instead of living righteously in the World they steal and they kill and addict themselves to Fraud and all manner of violence Many are guilty of Faction in the State Instead of being ‖ Rom. 13.1 subject to the higher Powers which are ordained of GOD and of * 1 Pet. 2.13 submitting themselves to every Ordinance of Man for the LORD's sake they are so †2 Pet. 2.10 presumptuous as to confront Government ‖ Jude 8. despise Dominion and speak evil of Dignities Many are guilty of Schism in the Church Instead * Eph. 4 3. of keeping the Unity of the SPIRIT in the bond of peace of being of one †Act. 4.32 heart and of one Soul of ‖ Rom. 15.6 glorifying GOD with one mind and with one mouth they have sowed Dissentions and have caused Divisions they have invaded the Ministry and seduced thy People drawing them away into divers Sects by dangerous Separations Many are Guilty of Gluttony and Drunkenness Instead of eating and drinking to thy * 1 Cor. 10.31 Glory O GOD they do it continually to their own great shame and to thy dishonour And notwithstanding the many and great Obligations upon them to Sobriety they abuse themselves and the good Creatures Thou vouchsafest them to most brutish Intemperance and Excess And which mightily aggravates all our sins so deadly in themselves they have been acted directly against Knowledg and Conscience We can plead no Ignorance O LORD in excuse of our Enormities For Thy word from Heaven hath taught us plainly and told us aloud that we †2 Cor. 5.10 must all appear before the Judgment Seat of Christ That ‖ Rom. 6.23 the wages of Sin is Death That there shall be * Rom. 2.9 tribulation and anguish upon every Soul of Man that doth evil That except we †Luk. 13.3 repent we shall all perish That the Wicked shall go into ‖ Mat. 25.46 everlasting Punishment But all this and whatever else should have hindred us from sin through our own perverseness hath but heightned our Guilt Nor have we sinned only against strongest Convictions but with greatest Boldness We have boasted of our Lewdness we have bragged of our Baseness and have been ready to defend if not to applaud it Our Immoralities and Irreligion have fac'd the Sun and instead of concealing them we have gloried in them And as thus we have offended the upright and virtuous so the vitious we have encourag'd to do like our selves Nor are our Sins few O LORD that have been thus hainous For they are greatly multiplied as well as scandalous and are not more notorious than innumerable * Jer. 5.9 Shall not GOD visit for these things shall not His Soul be avenged on such a Nation as this Here rest again and by reflecting and ruminating on the Nation 's Sins raise your Sorrow for them as high as you can And to help to increase it use these Petitions LORD make mine Eyes a Fountain of Tears to weep for the Transgressions of this sinful Nation Let mine †Lam. 1.16 20. Eye run down with Water O GOD and let my Bowels be troubled because this People have so grievously rebelled We have ‖ Ps 106.6 sinned with our Fathers we have committed iniquity we have done wickedly for this let mine * Lam. 2.11 19. Eyes flow with Tears and let me pour out my heart like Water before the face of Thee O LORD I have contributed too much to the Sins of this Land which call for Vengeance inable me Good GOD to help to drown that hideous Cry with holy Mourning If Sorrow swells to such a rate as to debilitate or dispirit you then once more
measure of the stature of the fulness of CHRIST are St. Paul's Words Eph. 4.13 Which seem to insinuate that there is a decreed Pitch or Perfection for us to reach in this Life before we can dy and ascend to Blessedness And shall we not haste on then by holy Mourning with all possible speed to the heighth of Grace which must be accomplisht in us What would we not fain be in Heaven Do we not sigh and groan under the Load of our Mortality and would we not gladly be freed from the heavy Burthen and hard Bondage of it Are we not weary of our present Troubles and do we not complain of many uneasinesses and should not a call to endless Rest and perfect Joy be welcome to us Or had we rather continue here and abide still in this earthly State O senseless stupid and egregious Folly can we love our Prisons and embrace our Chains and hug our Fetters Can we court a longer Exile from our eternal Home and be content to be kept out of the coelestial Kingdom Is not God our loving Father there Is not CHRIST our tender Husband there Is not the HOLY GHOST our sweetest Comforter there And to go lower are not many of our good Friends and dear Relatives there And is not the greatest part of the true Church gone thither and now triumphing in the Presence of our LORD and can we once wish to stay behind Does not the Hireling long for his Pay The Servant for his Wages The Souldier for his Reward The Husbandman for his Harvest The Heir for his Inheritance And do not we long and pant and ardently desire to be in Heaven It will be seen here whether we do or no for then we shall mourn the oftener and the more earnestly that so we may get thither quickly To all good Christians the Gates of Heaven are set wide open and the faster we improve in Divine Grace the sooner possibly we shall enter What more forcible Reason can there be or Motive either to provoke to this Duty If we can outstand the Dint of this vain it will be to propound any more well therefore may it be the Last I offer Let good Christians think seriously with themselves what a vast difference there is between what we are now and what we hope to be hereafter What a sad case are we in here What variety of Infirmities encompass and incommode us We have stupid Minds and crooked Wills clouded Understandings and erroneous Judgments unfaithful Memories and extravagant Affections sensual Desires and unruly Appetites polluted Souls and filthy sickly mortal Bodies What a blessed Condition shall we be in above and what a fulness of Beatitude shall there surround us For besides a freedom from the aforesaid Complaints we shall have a clear and most comfortable Vision of GOD whom our Souls upon Earth so entirely loved The immediate Fruition of the eternal JESUS whose very Name was so ravishing to us The taking Society of Angels most spotless and illustrious that now do us good and we perceive it not The delightful Fellowship of departed Saints whom we prized so much and were so loth to forego Souls pure as the brightest Cherubim and Bodies at length more glittering and radiant than the Starrs or Sun And shall not the hope of such high Preferment make us forward to increase in Grace tho' it were by Mourning that so we may the sooner be invested with it Does not the sense of our many Miseries make us impatiently desirous of Heaven Are not our Sins many Are not our Doubts and Fears and Distractions many Do not these rend our Hearts and afflict our Spirits and sting and gnaw and wound our Consciences and make us oftentimes restless and joyless Can we serve and please GOD as the Souls of the just made perfect do Can we see Him and know Him and love Him and laud Him and derive Happiness from Him as they do Alas the best Services which we perform to Him and the Highest Felicities we receive from Him in these lower Regions are not worthy to be named in the same day with theirs The Duties we offer up to GOD are lame and imperfect mingled with Failings and many Weaknesses and scarce deserve the Name of Duties And answerable to our Duties to Him are our Comforts from Him so faint and low in comparison that they scarce deserve the Name of Comforts If now and then we can get a slight Taste of GOD's Goodness a short Glimpse of His Countenance a single Beam of His Favour darted into our Souls that 's all which ordinary Christians commonly attain to But O the quick and lively sense that the Saints in Glory have of GOD's Love O the close and sweet Embraces that they there feel in the Arms of His Mercy O the fresh Torrents of incessant Joys that always overflow and exceedingly affect them They continually bathe themselves in streams of delight that issue directly from the Great JEHOVAH and swim in such an Ocean of Divinest Pleasures as hath indeed neither Bounds nor Bottom Nor is the measure of their Happiness beyond its Duration for in respect of that it is really infinite being to last as long as GOD Himself Now are not these Excellent things worth the having Can there be any more valuable and so more eligible than they And consequently can we desire any thing so much as a speedy Passage into the Fruition of them Would we not gladly exchange corruption for Glory and a dying Life for blessed Immortality Had we not rather sit down before the Throne of GOD in Holiness and Triumph than abide here in a condition of Sin in a state of Sufferings and in a vale of Tears In short were it not better for us to be taken up into the Mansions on high to reap the Fruits and injoy the Rewards of our respective Labours than still to be imploy'd in any painful Exercises Why if in reality we think it better and accordingly desire it let us manifest the sincerity of our Desires by the Earnestness of our Endeavours to encrease our Graces by holy Mourning Happy are they who by any Piece of early Piety do so advance or augment their Graces as to obtain an early ascent to Heaven And to encourage a little farther yet as we shall go to Heaven perhaps the sooner for this so we shall have the more Glory there Every Vessel shall be full in that Sea but yet the biggest shall receive most That therefore we may be capable of the more Bliss in Heaven while we are on Earth let us enlarge our Graces by Religious Mourning CHAP. XXI Reasons why we must mourn for the Sins of others The Best have done it The neglect of it is blameable It prevails with Heaven It brings us Comforts It secures us from Judgments when others fall by them Both Nature and Religion bind us to it It may be we have been Sharers in the Sins of others HAving given in the Reasons why we