priviledges from God every one desires to joyn with such societies as have great priviledges now Gods people have such as are very great Psal 87. 3. Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God! What glorious things They have glorious priviledges What are they To them are committed the Oracles of God as the Apostle reasons for the Church of the Jews So to every Church of God is committed the Oracles and the Ordinances of God and those Offices for the dispensation of the mysteries of God which were the great gift that Christ triumphingly ascending to Heaven gave and surely that gift must needs be great The benefit but of one Ordinance the Ministery of the Word dispensed rightly is made an argument by God himself for the comfort of his people in all their adversities Isaiah 30. 20 21. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction yet shall not thy Teachers be removed any more into a corner but thine eyes shall see thy Teachers The word in the Ministery of it in the the right way is a great blessing When Chrysostom was banished many godly people were so grieved that they professed it were more sufferable for the Sun to withdraw his beams and so be darkned then for the mouth of Chrysostom to be stopped If this one Ordinance be so blessed what a blessing then is the enjoyment of all and that in a right way Every Church-fellowship is as the pillar to hold forth the truth to the world as a light set upon a hill to hold forth the glory of God And they have amongst them the broad seal of Heaven To Gods people that are together in a Church-fellowship the seals are committed now this is a mighty priviledge And besides they have the power of Christ with them 1 Cor. 5. 4. the power of Christ is committed to them And amongst other priviledges this is one of great worth that all the promises of God made to his Church in former ages is the heritage of every present Church Isaiah 54. 17. These are great and high priviledges and worth the enduring of a great deal of hardship to be made partakers of the good of them Tenthly it is a blessed thing to be with them though with some hardship because God is working more and more good for his people every day Now he is about fulfilling the glorious promises that we have in the Prophets to make an end of all the glory that he does intend in the world Now if God be working great things for his people as we hope he is To set up Jerusalem as the praise of the whole earth Is it not good to be with them that we may be partakers of the glory that God intends to them Isa 58. 14. There is a promise that the Church shall ride upon the high places of the earth There is a time a coming that the society of Gods people in this world shall be set above all societies in the world and Isa 2. that The mountain of the Lord shall be raised above all mountains we cannot see how this hath been fulfilled Isaiah 60. 19. The Sun shall be no more thy light by day neither for brightness shall the Moon give light unto thee but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting light and thy God thy glory This prophesie is spoken of the estate of the Church of God when was this fulfilled that there should be so much glory in the Church that there need not be any Sun or Moon but God should be in stead of Sun and Moon and all the glory of his people and to be with Gods people when God does such great things for them is worth the enduring much hardship In the former part of Isaiah 60. v. 7. God says He will glorifie the house of his glory and mark what follows ver 8. Who are those that fly as a cloud and as the Doves to their windows Seeing God will glorifie the house of his glory his people should fly to it as a cloud Those who are of heavenly not of drossie sensual spirits will do so and as Doves to their windows those who are of Dove-like spirits loving society and purity they will do so And it was the reason why some desired to live because in a few years they hoped to see some great things for his people And so the 102 Psalm is a prophetical Psalm into what a happy condition the Lord will bring his people and in the latter part of the Psalm the Psalmist brings in a gracious heart living in those times bemoaning the condition of it that it hath a sickly body and weak and like to dye before God would make good those promises made to the Church as if he should say Lord thou art bringing glorious things to pass for thy Church and thou art gathering the Kingdoms to serve thee Lord then take not me away in the midst of my days O God let me live to see all fulfilled Eleventhly It is good to be with Gods people because they are those people we shal live withal in Heaven If there were a company travelling together in a strange countrey and knew when they came to their own countrey they should live together in some great preferment in the Court how would they delight in one another So the godly should look upon one another here we have communion one with another and these are they we must joyn in communion withal hereafter to praise God eternally in the highest Heavens Lastly it is Heaven already to joyn with the people of God in communion The Scripture calls the Church of God and Church communion Heaven And therefore where there is a promise of God to restore his Church and recover it from thraldom and misery Isaiah 65. 17. Behold says God I create new heavens and new earth and so in Rev. 12. where the vision of the restoring of the Church was shewn to John it was shewn that way there was a new heaven and a new earth so that the Church of God is heaven it is not onely a company we shall live withal in Heaven hereafter but it is Heaven now and therefore our Savior says The least in the kingdom of Heaven shall be greater then John the least that lived after John in the Christian Church could speak more of Christ then John could The Kingdom of Heaven is like a man sowing his field with wheat that is the estate of the Church is a field sown with wheat and after the adversary sows tares in it The Church says Chrysostom in one of his Sermons upon the Corinthians is the place of Angels the Palace of Heaven yea Heaven it self And if it be so that communion with Gods people is Heaven already surely it is worth enduring of much affliction to be with them CHAP. XX. Perswasions to draw to the joyning with the people of God in the nearest communion HEnce then let me
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and
here is an exhortation and in the name of God a charge upon every soul that does expect to have the portion of it in these great things that they would walk worthy of God who hath called them unto his kingdom and glory it is a great charge to walk worthy of God but to walk worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory this is great but the life of a Christian must be thus Now consider what life have I Is my life such as may be said to be worthy of God and that God that hath called me unto his kingdom and glory Surely great things must be in the lives of Gods people people talk much of strictness and preciseness that they may be too precise what do you think must this life be that must be worthy of God who hath called us to his kingdom and glory It must not be a dead-hearted life go on with a holy and heavenly chearfulness and courage in Gods ways It becomes the children of the Bride-chamber to be joyful see that in any case you rejoyce before the Lord comfort your selves and one another by these sayings We belye the truth of God if we do not walk joyfully Rejoyce in this that your names are written in the Book of life says Christ they rejoyced that the Devils fell down before them If there were any thing in the world to be rejoyced in one would think they might rejoyce in that but Christ would not have them rejoyce in that in comparison of this Caesar when he was sad he said to himself Think thou art Caesar that that might take away his sadness and so say I to a Christian Think of your Crown and glory let your lives be such as may make it appear you have your portion in these things I may say to some as Jonadab said to Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day being the Kings Son So may I say to every childe of God Why is thy heart so troubled and Why walkest thou so dumpishly in the ways of God being the King of Heavens Son Possibilities of heaven is enough to take away the sting of afflictions but having comfortable hope of these things this should take away even the sense of them at least so far as that they be no way disturbing to us Seneca says That vertue does not consider what it suffers but whither it tends It beseems them well enough but not you it beseems Swine to follow the trough but not the heirs of a Kingdom Plutarch tells of Themistocles that he accounted it not to stand with his state to stoop down to take up the spoyls the enemy had scattered in flight but says to one of his followers You may for you are not Themistocles Thus may it be said to worldly spirits You may be greedy of these things for here is your portion your names are written in the earth you are not the heirs of the kingdom Secondly walk above the world above all things that are here below take heed of ensnarling your hearts of too much mixing your selves with them There is a generation whose names are written in the earth Ier. 17. 13. and it beseems them to look after the things of the earth because their portion is there it is their All but Gods people have their names written in heaven and therefore they should not regard the things below as they do Whosoever was free of the city of Rome might not accept of any other freedom in any other city they counted it a dishonor to the freedom of Rome to take freedom any where else So those that are free of the kingdom of Heaven should not seek to be free here but they should be satisfied with a mean condition here and take heed they do not entangle themselves too much in the things below Besides those that have hopes of Heaven they should labor to have their lives like to Heaven It is that we pray for that the will of God may be done in earth as it is done in heaven How is it done in heaven The Saints and Angels there do it fervently universally readily constantly and therefore the Angels are called by the name of Seraphims it notes burning because they burn with zeal for God labor to conform your life to the life of Heaven Again labor to be much trading for heaven in this world let there be much intercourse between you and Heaven let your conversation be in heaven Phil. 3. 20. If a man intend to live in another Countrey he will have much traffique in that Countrey before he goes and if we believe we shall come to Heaven let there be much trading that way Our conversations should be so in Heaven as all the mercies we enjoy here should raise our hearts to heaven We read Exod. 25. that upon the Table of Shew-bread there was set a crown of gold In those provisions that we have here for souls and bodies our hearts must be raised to that Crown of glory reserved for us for the Shew-bread set before the Lord was to signifie Gods provision for us and the dedication of our bread of all our provision to God Again let us labor to encrease heaven in our hearts and to bring as much of heaven into them as possibly we can And keep your selves in a continual readiness whensoever God shall call you to such a glorious recompence of reward as this is It is said of Daniel though he was in Babylon he opened his windows towards Jerusalem he kept his heart in a readiness to go So you should do keep your hearts in a heavenly frame ready for heaven waiting upon the Bridegroom with your lamps burning that when he comes you may open immediately to him There is a difference between a wife that hath been faithful to her husband and waits for his coming home and another that hath been unfaithful to her husband and hath other lovers in the house when her husband knocks if her husband knocks she doth not go immediately but there is shuffling up and down and she delays the time till she have got the other out of the house but a faithful wife she immediately opens it is true though the wife be not unfaithful yet if the house be not handsom and things be not prepared she is loth to open So Christians they have been dallying with their lusts and their hearts are out of frame and they are loth to open to Christ but we should keep our hearts in such a readiness as immediately to open to Christ and to be willing to dye And when we dye to dye as heirs of such things not to respect things below house or lands or any thing here We read of Pope Adrian when he was to dye he laments his condition because he was to leave all his delights and pompous vanities and cryes out O my soul whither goest thou thou shalt never be merry more he was
loth to leave these things because he did not know whither he went but a soul that knows what inheritance it shall have hereafter it is not loth to go hence Many are loth to dye because they have treasures in the world as those ten men said in Isa 41. 8. Slay us not for we have treasures in the field of wheat and of barley and of oyl but a godly man is willing to dye because he hath treasures in Heaven Keep open the eye of faith exercise faith to see God that is now sending for his childe home And look upon Christ as having that prayer granted Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be where I am by faith you shall see Heaven opened and the crown prepared and see God in his glory that you may express chearfulness of heart in going to take possession of that glorious recompence of reward behold the Angels of God coming to take you up into Heaven It was an expression of the honor of one Hugh Bishop of Lincoln that King John and his Nobles would carry him to the grave more honor shall the Saints have for God to send his Angels to convey them to that place of glory And further let you spirits work mightily after Heaven now when they draw near to it as the nearer any thing is to the center the more strongly and swiftly it moves As a stone that falls down from a high place it moves more swiftly when it is nearer the ground then when it was higher so at death the soul is nearer its center grace is changing to glory and when grace and glory is to meet there must need be a mighty working of heart and mighty shouts As it is reported of the Duke of Bulloin and his company when they went to Jerusalem as soon as his company saw the high Turrets they gave a mighty shout that the earth rang and so when the soul sees the turrets of this heavenly Jerusalem and when you see your selves ready to go and possess it what mighty workings and shoutings of your heart will there be And when you are to dye speak well of God and of the ways of godliness to all that are about you Christians should now labor so to live as there may appear a mighty difference between their deaths and the death of others whereas ordinarily such is the vanity and drossiness of the hearts of Christians in their lives as when they come to dye they are so heavy and sad as if no such things were prepared for them In 2 Pet. 1. 11. the Apostle having exhorted them before to adde one grace to another and to give all diligence to make their calling and election sure says he So an entrance shall be ministred unto you abundantly into the everlasting kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ Christians should labor so to live as when they come to dye they may not onely have an entrance into the everlasting Kingdom of our Lord administred unto them but that they may have an entrance administred unto them abundantly Many make shift to get to heaven but they have not an entrance administred abundantly As a Ship may make shift to get into harbor but with the Anchors lost and Cables rent and Sayls torn and the Masts broke another Ship comes in with the Sayls up and the Flags up and Trumpets sounding and comes bravely into Haven so much difference is sometime between true Christians some through carelesness and unbelief and sadness and sullenness of Spirit although they make shift with much ado to get into Heaven yet so as their anchor of hope was even gone and they had little or no comfort at all but those that have added one vertue to another and have been diligent to make their calling and election sure they come to Heaven with much glory and joy and that should be our care so to live in adding one grace to another that when we dye our deaths may be glorious Yet further from the consideration of this glory revealed which God hath prepared for his Saints we are to draw this meditation If Heaven be so glorious then we had need fill up the comfort of our lives by doing and getting as much good as we can while we live here that we may as much as possibly we can recompence that which we suffer in the staying from the possession of such glorious things reserved for us when we hear of such things as these are we cannot but think in our selves it were better for us many ways to be in Heaven this life is but a bondage to us while we are absent from such things and therefore we had need have something to recompence this bondage we had need do much good and get much good while we live to pay the charges of our lives what a tedious thing is it to us to live so much to sense as we must necessarily do here when we are heirs of such glorious things if we do not do much good and get much good here what have we to sweeten and recompence this tediousness If a man be from home and by his absence suffers much loss of what he might have had at home he is the more diligent and careful in his journey to get something that may recompence this loss so it should be with us It costs us dear as I may so speak to live in the world for it costs us the forbearance of such glorious things if we fill not up our lives with service for God what have we to pay our charges to countervail this that our lives here cost us CHAP. LVII The great things of eternity to be much sought after THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation to all now to set your hearts to seek after these great and blessed things of eternal life that have been opened O that now the hearts of people that have been wandring after other things might be brought in and set upon eternal life and Heaven Let every soul reason with it self Are there indeed such things to be had hath God such intentions to communicate himself thus to mankinde And am I the man or woman that shall lose all this that shall never be partaker of this O wo unto me that ever I was born In Luke 16. 16. The Law and the Prophets says Christ were till John but since that time the kingdom of God suffereth violence The Law and the Prophets did but darkly reveal the things of the Kingdom of God but St. John he did more clearly reveal the things of that Kingdom and since that time the kingdom of heaven suffereth violence O that it might be said concerning any man or woman that have heard this argument opened since that time that the recompence of reward was opened the kingdom of heaven hath suffered violence Surely there is strength enough in that which hath been said to draw forth the heart with violence after it I remember Plutarch reports in
the life of Camillus of the Gauls that after they had once a taste of the sweet wine of the grapes that grew in Italy they inquired in what Countrey such sweet wine was and after they understood where the grape of that wine grew they would never be at rest till they got to that Countrey where such sweet and pleasant things grew I have endeavored in the opening of this point to bring unto you some of the Clusters of Canaan and some of that wine which is to be drunk in the Kingdom of Heaven now if you account it to be sweet and good let not your hearts be at rest till you come at that Countrey till you come to enjoy the sweet and good of that Countrey It is reported of one Adrianus who seeing the Martyrs suffer such grievous things in the cause of Christ he asked what was that which caused them to suffer such things and one of them named that Text Eye hath not seen nor ear hath not heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what is laid up for those that love God and the naming of that Text converted him and had such an effect as made him to profess Religion and so to profess it as to be a Martyr for it You have not onely one Text named but many have been used about this argument let not all be in vain We read in Mark 10. 17. of a yong man that came running and kneeled before Christ and asked him Good Master what shall I do that I may inherit eternal life O that God would move the hearts now of some yong ones that hearing what eternal life means they may now come running to get part in it that that activity and vigor of their youth may be exercised and spent about this What may I do that I likewise may be partaker of eternal life and of these glorious and blessed truths that are here revealed You that are in a poor condition in the world that have little here here are great things for your hearts to make after here are glorious things that are as obvious for you ac for the greatest in the world you cannot expect to have great matters in the earth but here you may expect to have great matters You that are old likewise though you have not been acquainted with the excellency of the Kingdom of God now bless God that you may yet further know more concerning it If a man come to know more of an inheritance that did befal him or of any outward gain then before he is glad that he lived to that time so bless God that you may know yet more concerning eternal life before this life be at an end What is it that your hearts are set upon There are none but their hearts are set upon some good that they apprehend to be good Now what is that good Certainly there is an eminency of all good contained in this It was a charge of God unto Baruch that we read of in Jer. 45. ult Seekest thou great things for thy self Seek them not for I will bring evil upon all flesh and that which I have planted I will pluck up The argument runs thus Seekest thou great things for thy self in any outward matter do not seek them for I am about to bring evil upon my people the time of publique calamity is coming and doest thou seek great things for thy self But when we are about this argument the glory of the Kingdom of God Doest thou seek great things for thy self We cannot say Seek them not God would have his people seek glorious things for themselves seek them to the utmost that possibly you can So follow these things as not to be satisfied with any thing under these God would have his servants to be of such spirits as though content with the least mercies they do enjoy to acknowledge themselves unworthy of them yet not to be satisfied with the greatest things in the world for their portion What will a reprobates portion serve you Certainly the glory of the world if you had it all it were but the portion of a reprobate What will a Dogs portion satisfie you All the things of the world are but Dogs meat so the Apostle calls them in Phil. 3. I account all things in the world as dross and dung or dogs meat and will this satisfie you Is there nothing else for you to seek after First seek the Kingdom of God says Christ and the righteousness of it let that be your first endeavor Strive to enter into the strait gate though it be never so strait yet if it be the way unto life and unto these things strive to enter We have not spoken more then that is real It is a saying of one Neither Christ nor Heaven can be hyperbolized that is there cannot be more said of the excellency of Christ and of Heaven then it is in its self and therefore do not think any thing that hath been spoken is an hyperbole but a real expression of some little glimpse of the glory of the recompence of reward It may be some of your hearts when you hear much of the wrath of God against sin and the dreadfulness of Gods displeasure your hearts are ready to rise and belk and these are hard things and hard sayings and who can bear them but now you have not heard so much concerning that but you have heard of the goodness of God and of the glory of God and of the riches of the grace of God and of the wonderful thoughts that God hath for the everlasting good of mankinde how do your hearts work now Shall your hearts stir when you hear Gods wrath and when you hear of Gods grace shall not your hearts stir then If God does intend good to any soul he will cause that soul to see into the reality and excellency of these things and that all things should be neglected in comparison in seeking after these Consider that God hath given unto you natures capable of these glorious things God might have made you worms or bruit beasts and there would have been an end of you presently you had not been any way capable of these things but God hath made you of such a nature such creatures as ye are capable of the highest excellency that ever any creature that God made was capable of and therefore being of such a nature of such a large extent it concerns you to seek after those things which might fill it they are not little things that can fill large capacities now mans nature an immortal soul is of a large capacity and when the time shall come that God shall discover to any soul what it was capable of how infinitely will it be confounded in it self when it shall know what poor things it sought after and minded Men live here in the world as though they were capable of no other happiness but meat and drink and clothes and
into a net and cast unto the wilde Bulls to be gored and so slain We read of one Eulalila a yong Gentlewoman famous for her godliness and constancy who was pulled away from the seat of her Persecuters by the hair of her head then one joynt was pulled from another and the flesh from the bones by cushes and claws of wilde beasts then they harrowed her flesh with an iron hurdle they burnt her body on every side before and behinde with flaming torches and at last cast her into fire and consumed her body unto ashes How lamentable is the hearing of these things unto nice and curious women who now must not have the wind to blow on them who are ready to dye if they be but crossed a little of their wills It was an excellent speech of a woman Martyr Iulitta by name who being to be put into the fire spake unto other women thus Cease to acouse the fragility of the feminine sex What are not we made of the same matter that men are yea after Gods image are we made as well as they God did not use flesh to make women of in token of infirmity we are bone of his bone in token we must be strong in the living God These were the sufferings of those times we shrink at every thing at every scorn and frown As for after times it pleased God to stir Constantine a Christian Emperor and then the Church had some rest to which some apply that place Rev. 20. 2. Satan was bound a thousand years not to rage for a thousand years after so as he then did until Antichrist got strength but the Text will not bear this interpretation we read Rev. 8. 1. at the opening the first seal there was silence in Heaven half an hour that is a space of intermission wherein the Church had some little breathing for a while but yet continued not long for Licinius who first joyned in the maintenance of Christian Religion fell off and turned an outragious persecuter After that the Church endured infinite troubles by the heresie of Arrianism that spread it self mightily abroad so that the whole world almost was become an Arrian at this time says Hilary the Church was so obscured as it was not to be sought in any external pomp in publique places but in prisons and dens Non in tect is exteriori pompa sed potius in carceribus speluncis Arrius was a man of excellent parts and forward in good but through pride being disappointed of his expected preferment fell off Mr. Brightman upon Revelations 8. 11. thinks it was he that was meant by that Star which fell which was called wormwood by which the third part of the maters were made bitter and many dyed of the waters After that Antichrist began to rise more and more and to bring a fearful darkness over the face of the Church of which times the holy Ghost prophesies Rev. 8. 12. The moon sun and stars were smitten The first open and bloody persecution of Antichrist was that of the Waldenses in the year 1160. and 1260. and so on there is a whole volumn written of the lamentable extremities that these poor people endured the reading whereof might cause the hardest heart that lives to break A special agent in this persecution was one Dominick father of the Dominicans of whom his mother dreamed when she was with childe with him that she had a Wolf flaming with fire out of his mouth in her body In after times we read of the most famous instruments of Gods glory what hard things they endured as Wickliff Huss Ierame of Prague and others The first time that ever any Law was made for burning those that opposed the Pope in England was in Henry the Fourths time so it went on to those bloody Marian days What imprisonments what starvings stranglings gibbets fire banishments were there then What grievous miseries did Gods people endure in France especially in that bloody savage Massacre in the year 1572 the History of it tells us that near the Archbishops Prison in Lyons the blood ran warm reeking in the streets into the River in thirty days space there were an hundred thousand poor orphans widows and succorless creatures wandring about without relief Thus both Scripture and the Histories of all times hold forth unto us the truth of this point that the estate of Gods people is an afflicted estate they cry out aloud unto us that through many tribulations we must enter into the kingdom of God This hath been the way of God even towards those who have been dearest to him and it is so at this day but yet a great difference hath God made between us and those in former times in regard of the degree of afflictions yea between us and others of his Servants in other places now we feel but little of those hard things that many of Gods people have felt and still do feel we sit under our vines and fig-trees in peace and plenty not onely under the shadows of them but we taste and eat plentifully of the fruit of them they are not empty vines nor empty fig-trees unto us CHAP. IV. What use we should make of Gods sparing us from the woful afflictions which have befaln and do befal others NOw what use should we make of this difference First we had need examine whether our prosperity be in love or not whether it be sanctified unto us or not for we have a great deal more then Gods people use to have And we shall know it by this if the chief thing we rejoyce in in the enjoyment of our prosperity be the opportunity of service for God that we have by it Secondly let us admire Gods goodness to us and bless his name How favorable is the Lord to us who spares us that we suffer little or nothing in comparison of what others have done We are weak and if we should have felt such things as others have what should have become of us They endured spoiling of their goods imprisonment tortures but we may go to Heaven and have peace comfort the use of the creature houses lands friends had we onely the blessings of the upper springs although we wanted wholly the blessings of the nether we were happy but oh the goodness of our God unto us we do plentifully enjoy both Though a man do lose all the world and win his soul although he beg his bread from door to door if he be saved at last he is a happy man happy that ever he was born but we may save our souls and yet have the good things of the world too But it may be said A suffering condition is the joyful condition why then should we thus bless God that we are freed from it Answ 1. Sufferings in themselves have no good but as God uses them and turns them unto good now God can use and turn prosperity into good as well if he please and prosperity hath good in it self and in
poor afflicted estate And surely the Papists could not always plead this argument time hath been when the Goths Vandals Hunnes and Turks have been more prosperous then they The Emperor Henry the fourth was much hated by the Bishop of Rome and yet he was not unprosperous in his way when the Pope cursed him and made another Emperor namely Rodulphus King of Swevia yet this Emperor of his setting up prospered not at all but was overcome and slain by Henry The Pope after set up another and he was slain by a woman yea he set up a third after him against Henry the fourth he likewise was taken in a Mill and slain by the Emperor at the last the Pope himself was cast out of his Seat and cast into Prison and dyed in extreme dolours of minde for that he had so wronged the Emperor and as it is reported he asked pardon of him And as outward prosperity hath not been always an argument that they could make use of so we hope that time will come when they shall make use of it no more when their judgements shall be altered and this argument wherein now they boast shall for ever fail them but for the present though now she be crowned with Diamonds and cloathed with Scarlet yet still she is the mother of Harlots and the abominations of the earth I have not says Luther a stronger argument against the Papal Kingdom then this that it is without the cross Let none amongst us deceive themselves by resting upon outward prosperity as an argument of Gods love for their everlasting estates Many have no other hold to lean upon for their salvation but this all those solemn protestations of God against this in his word all the works of Gods providence towards his own people in leading them on in an afflicted condition and towards the wicked in giving them the fat of the earth will not take mens hearts off from this false reasoning but still they will think if God did not love them surely he would not let them prosper so as he doth A painted face is as certain an argument of a good complexion as this is of a good condition When God shall come hereafter to take up his own to himsef he will not look so much amongst the great ones of the earth the rich the gorgious attires sumptuous houses furnished tables as amongst the the persecuted contemned scorned company out of them he will finde his own Mal. 3. 17. In that day when I make up my jewels saith the Lord the phrase notes that Gods jewels now do lie scattered in the dirt and God hath his time to make them up God passes by Pallaces and looks in at cottages he passes by the rich and takes the poor he passes by the honorable and takes the despised ones Thirdly hence we have a confirmation of another life after this certainly these things cannot always continue it is impossible that the godly should always be in this poor afflicted distressed condition it is not against the rule of justice to suffer this for a while that way may be made to other of Gods intentions but that there never should be any righting of their cause that there should never be seen a difference between him that feareth God and him that feareth him not that God should never appear to judge in the Earth that there should never be a reward for the righteous this cannot be The souls that are under the Altar which were of those who were put to death for the Testimony of Christ they cry How long O Lord holy and true will it be before thou avengest thy self for the blood of thy Saints S. Paul reasons strongly from this argument 1 Cor. 15. 19. to prove the resurrection For saith he if in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable When therefore we see the godly to be wronged and persecuted when we see iniquity to be in the place of righteousness and wickednes in the place of judgement let us not be offended but say in our hearts God shall judge the righteous and the wicked for there is a time for every purpose and every work And as Chap. 5. 8. When thou seest the oppression of the poor and violent perverting of judgement marvel not at the matter for he that is higher then the highest regardeth If God should always prosper his servants in this life then it would be thought he intended no other for them but he withdraws his hand here that we might be taught to look for another In the times under the Law God did usually more prosper his people in outward things then now he does and the reason may be because then Christ was but darkly revealed the riches of spiritual mercies were not much made known there was but little mention made of that eternal life which is to come hereafter we have very few texts of Scripture in the Old Testament wherein there is any clear mention made of eternal life but in the times of the Gospel God calls his people to a more suffering condition then he did then and therefore the mystery of Christ the glorious promises of the Gospel the Doctrine of the resurrection and the ways of God in that eternity which is to come hereafter are more clearly and fully revealed It is an excellent expression that Luther hath to this purpose Bodily promises says he is as the shell or husk that covers the nut which is Christ and eternal life wherefore Christ coming the shell the husk is broken and taken off that is temporal promises cease and the spiritual succeed he means in comparison of that it was under the Law The Reason why the Pharisees scorned at Christ preaching against seeking the things of the world Luke 13. 14. was because the promises were so large for temporal things Wherefore when Christ would teach them not to seek those which they conceived the chief blessings of God contained in the promises they deride him hence Christ tells them ver 16. The Law and the Prophets were till Iohn till then the promises ran much upon temporal things but now the Kingdom of heaven suffers violence there is now another maner of kingdom revealed sought after in another way then ever formerly I dare appeal to thy conscience whosoever thou art canst thou think otherwise in thy conscience but that those who walk close with God subjecting their hearts and lives unto his fear must be most beloved of him they must needs be nearer that eternal good and fountain of all happiness then vile wretched sinners who walk according to their lusts who are vile and abominable in their ways When thou seest Gods people to be so low so distressed so afflicted either thou must be convinced strongly that there is a time wherein all shall be called over again or else thou art an Atheist God will convince thee another day by this argument Did you
that they have here here is their All. This is as it were their Kingdom They are upon their own dunghil Secondly God hath time enough hereafter to torment them to make sin bitter unto them and therefore he does not care though they have their pleasure and go on for a while in the enjoyment of their delights And God hath time enough to glorifie his Saints to give them everlasting consolation and therefore although here they be cut short of the pleasures of the flesh God does not regard that Thirdly God hereby would shew to all the world his own fulness and how little he esteems of these carnal things they are but bones therefore he gives them to dogs they are but swill even the very cream of them therefore he lets swine have them Luther in his Comment upon Genesis cap. 21. hath a notable vilifying expression of the great things of the world which God gives to wicked men The Turkish Empire says he as great as it is it is but a crust of bread which the rich master of the family casts to dogs When retainers when dogs have such allowance it is a sign of a great deal of plenty in the house Fourthly God grants pleasure and prosperity in just judgement to them to ripen their sin to harden them in it The Sun-shine of prosperity ripens the sins of the wicked apace and so fits them for destruction this hardens them against the ways of God it makes them bless themselves in their way They spend their days in wealth therefore they say to God depart from us we desire not the knowledge of thy ways What is the Almighty that we should serve him There is no truer misery then false joy says Bernard There is a great difference between the prosperity of the wicked and that which the godly have God carries his people when he exalts them as the Eagle her yong upon her wings he exalts them to safety according to that expression that we have Job 5. 11. that those which mourn may be exalted to safety but when God exalts the wicked he lifts them up as the Eagle lifts up her prey in her talons he lifts them up to destroy them It was a speech of Augustine upon the 26 Psalm Many are miserable by loving hurtful things but they are more miserable by having them it is not what men enjoy but the principle from whence it comes that makes them happy Fifthly God is a patient God and in the day of his patience even the wicked are suffered to enjoy their hearts desire Obj. But it may be said God is patient towards his people and yet they are afflicted Answ Those afflictions that come upon Gods people may better stand with the glory of patience then if the same things should be upon the wicked because in the afflictions of the Saints there is no revenge there is no hatred in them but if God should inflict the same things upon the wicked they would come out of revenge against them and hatred of them and so there would not be such manifestation of that glory of patience that God hath to manifest here in this world Hence let Gods people learn not to be greedy in their desires after outward pleasures they are but the portion of dogs and reprobates It is true godly men may have them but never as their portion God hath afforded you better pleasures hath he not reserved better things for you As when we enjoy outward prosperity we must not bless our selves in it because it is that which wicked men have so when we are afflicted our hearts must not be dejected because we are onely deprived of that which God gives most many times to those that he hates most God will keep his people from being prevailed against by this temptation David was in this temptation Psal 73. but he says verse 23. that God held him by his right hand When men see how the world lives in pleasure and the Saints are afflicted they are in danger of stumbling but God holds his own by his right hand that they fall not Secondly let us learn not to envy the men of the world who live in pleasures who wallow in the sensual delights of this life The reason why they take so much delight in such things is because they know no better they seek after no better Ambrose in his first Book de officiis brings in godly men objecting thus Why do the wicked rejoyce why do they riot it out why do not they labor as well as I He answers They have not put in for the crown yea says he if you object thus the wicked may answer you as the spectators in their Olympiack games if those that labor and wrastle in them should call the spectators and say Come you and labor and strive here as well as we the spectators would answer You without us shall get the glory of the crown if you overcome Besides there is little cause we should envy all their jollity they must give an account for it and dear When a Soldier was to dye for taking a bunch of grapes against the Generals command and going to execution he went eating his grapes one of his fellows rebuked him What are you eating your grapes now The poor man answers I pray thee friend do not envy me these grapes for they cost me dear so they did indeed for they cost him his life and so will these vain delights of wicked men they will cost them their lives And yet further consider ere long things will turn Gods people shall have pleasure and the world shall have afflictions Affliction did I say nay Misery with torment time is at hand when it shall be said to every wicked man Son remember in thy life time thou hadst pleasure and my servants who walked faithfully with me had affliction but now thou art tormented and they are comforted Time is at hand when that Scripture shall be fulfilled Esay 65. 13 14. Behold my servants shall eat and ye shall be hungry my servants shall drink and ye shall be thirsty my servants shall rejoyce and ye shall be ashamed my servants shall sing for joy of heart and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and shall howl for vexation of spirit Thirdly let not wicked men bless themselves in the enjoyment of their pleasures you have no other then thousands have had before you who are now in Hell If that you have were of any great worth you might be sure you should not have it if you knew how the Lord brings about your destruction by your pleasures you would have little cause to rejoyce in them Haman rejoyced when Esther invited him rather then others to the banquet but if he had known that in his banquet there was a snare laid for his life his heart would have faln it would have been but a sad banquet to him certainly there is a
soul hath interest in says there is no peace to the wicked So when those that have interest in God shall say to a man there is no peace to thee it should make his heart quake Gods people ought so to walk as to gain respect from the consciences of men Do you so walk as to gain any such honorable respect Is there not cause of suspition In the name of Jesus Christ I beseech you let it be your care so to walk with such heavenly humble spirits as to hold forth the beauty of godliness unto others and to force respect from them As it is said of God Holy and reverend is his name How does Gods name come to be reverend but by being holy so it may be said of Gods people Holy and reverend are their names if they be holy their names are reverend they will gain reverence from those that are godly and will force it from the basest wretches and therefore you that would have honor and a name here is a way you would be the finest in all the company and you think to get a name that way you seek to get riches and so to get a name this is not the way this does not cover the filth of sin this covering is narrower then that you can wrap your self in Isa 22. 26. but if you would get a name indeed be godly and gracious and holy and then you shall have the testimony of the consciences of men and that is more then all their words for there may be flattery in their words Many Ministers think if they should be poor and mean every one would contemn their Ministery and therefore they think the way to have their Ministery respected is to get great livings this certainly is a false way A poor godly man that walks in his Ministery faithfully and conscionably will gain more respect then others by all their great preferments As it was the speech of Boniface that was a Martyr one askt him whether it was lawful to give the Wine in the Sacrament in a wooden cup Time was says he when there were wooden Chalices and golden Priests but now there are golden Chalices and wooden Priests This was the way of Papistry for to have outward bravery and thought to gain mens devotion that way but when there were wooden Chalices when things were carryed meanly that did not take away the dignity of the Ministery but by the holiness of their lives they were esteemed of the more and the Ordinances were not accounted the worse by the outward simplicity of them but the better Let us that are acquainted with any thing of the minde of God know that there are better things to gain respect to Religion and to our selves by then all the outward things be not afraid therefore of sufferings be godly and let sufferings be never so much and your name will be precious Those who wandred up and down in sheep-skins and goat-skins Heb. 11. yet obtained a good report by faith Lastly if a gracious eye can see so much excellency in the Saints in outward meanness how much more shall they see when they come to their glory when all the treasures of Heaven shall come to be opened and all the good of Heaven let out to them when they shall be wholly free from sin when the robes shall be brought out and the glorious garments and they shal walk with Christ in white If they be so glorious when they are on the dunghil what shall they be when they are in their Kingdom when the Bride shall come trimmed when there shall be a suitableness to that Bridegroom Jesus Christ and God and all the Angels shall come to solemnize the marriage There shall be a time here when wicked men shall take hold upon the skirt of a Iew and say I will go with you for I have heard God is with you How much more afterwards will the great ones and mighty ones of the earth be ready to catch hold upon the Saints and say O that we might go with you though it were but to attend upon you This is the day of visitation 1 Pet. 2. 12. in which they shall glorifie God There are three days of visitation and in all those days of visitation men shall glorifie God in the behalf of Gods people First When the time shall come that God shall visit their souls and work any good upon their souls Secondly the time of affliction when they are upon their sick-beds though in prosperity they contemn you and speak evil of you yet in the day that God shall visit them and lay his hand upon them then they shall say This is the onely people that live upon the earth and send for such a one Thirdly they shall glorifie God in the Day of Judgement when they shall see the glory of these and they shall say These are those we despised and called Hypocrites now we see they are no Hypocrites as those foolish Virgins that wanted oyl when the Bridegroom came then they asked oyl of the wise Virgins it may be before they would not acknowledge it was oyl it was water with them before but now it is oyl so now they shall see they were godly and not hypocrites and they were not notions that they heard of but realities And thus much of the excellency that a gracious heart does see in those that are godly though never so mean and afflicted outwardly The fifth Point is CHAP. XVIII A gracious heart will appear for the people of God whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it A Gracious heart will appear outwardly with Gods people and be on their side whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it Many things useful for the opening and enlarging this point fall into the former and therefore I shall be the briefer in it The Point is of great use in these times wherein God calls for so much appearing in his cause for his people but generally men seek a safe way to themselves as they think to keep their Religion within and not to venture themselves by appearing what they are and if any shall be so forward to appear outwardly what they are inwardly these are deserted St. Pauls complaint 2 Tim. 1. 15. and chap. 4. 16. may justly be the complaint of many of Gods Servants in our times Thou knowest that all they which are in Asia be turned away from me of whom are Phygellus and Hermogenes At my first answer no man stood with me but all men for sook me This is no new thing in the world every age affords many examples in this kinde and ours excels but certainly it is the duty of all who would approve themselves to God to be willing to appear with and for the Saints in their troubles First the Saints are dear to God therefore God will certainly take it well at the hands of such as shall joyn with them in their affliction and appear for them if any should see your childe in affliction
reproaches in the cause of Christ THat a gracious heart hath a high esteem of the reproaches of Christ he highly esteems of every disesteem he suffers for Christ And not onely bears reproaches and sufferings patiently but triumphingly he is not onely contented with them but counts himself enriched by them This is a great riddle and mystery to the world that Sufferings Troubles Miseries and Reproaches should be rejoyced in and esteemed highly of We are to understand by reproaches is this point likewise not onely slanders and mocks and scorns the sufferings of Gods people in their names formally but materially their sufferings they suffer for Christ upon which they come to be contemned So that whatsoever Gods people do suffer in the cause of God and for Christ they have high thoughts of it If God should give unto them all the riches and honors of the world they could not count themselves so enriched as they do by their sufferings For men to be enriched by the glorious things of heaven this is no wonder but to be enriched by their sufferings and reproaches this is the great wonder of the world that onely those that have the Spirit of God are acquainted withal Says St. Paul in Rom. 5. 3. We glory in tribulations There is a patient bearing of tribulation and a rejoycing in tribulation and glorying in tribulation now they did not onely bear them patiently and rejoyce in them but they did esteem them their glory It is a notable speech in Acts 5. 41. It is said of the Apostles when they were called before the Councel and were very ill handled They departed from the Councel rejoycing that they were counted worthy to suffer shame for his name to be worthy of shame is a strange kinde of phrase But in the Original it is They counted it honor to be dishonored In Luke 6. 22 23. you have another Text to shew forth unto us this truth clearly Blessed are you when men shall hate you and when they shall separate you from their company and shall reproach you and cast out your name as evil for the Son of mans sake Here is an expression of the greatest dishonor that can be to Gods people What should they do then Rejoyce in that day and leap for joy for behold your reward is great in heaven As if Christ should say I do not bid you bear it patiently but joyfully and more then an ordinary joy leap for joy And that is remarkable of St. Paul in 2 Cor. 11. where he reckons up many things to vindicate his Apostleship wherein he was equal and above others you shall finde they are his sufferings principally he endured for Christ at verse 23. Are they the Ministers of Christ I speak as a fool I am more in labors more abundant in stripes above measure in prisons more frequent in deaths oft now this is brought to shew the dignity of his Apostleship and therefore in the conclusion at verse 30. when he was put upon glorying he shews what he most gloried in If I must needs glory I will glory in things that concern mine infirmities by infirmities we are not to understand the infirmities of sin but his weakness and evils that he endured for Christ And so in chap. 12. ver 10. Therefore I take pleasure in infirmities in reproaches in persecutions in distresses for Christs sake And thus the people of God in former times have much gloryed in that they have suffered in the cause of Christ It is the speech of Tertullian Your cruelty is our glory We read of tender mothers beholding their childrens suffering death for Christ as their Trophees and Triumphs and delighting in their last breathings as in most melodious musick And it is reported of Balilas when he was to dye he required this favor to have his chains to be buried with him as the ensigns of his honor It was the maner of the Romans when any had received any wounds for their countrey they would shew the scars and places of their wounds for their glory Pliny tells us of one because he got forty five wounds for his countrey by that he got immortal honor amongst the Romans Thus Saint Paul seems to argue Let no man put me to business I bear about me the marks of the Lord Jesus And Ignatius professed he had rather be a Martyr then a Monarch And Prudentius tells us of the Martyrs in his time and especially of Vincentius that the great torments that were presented to them were but sports and plays to them they delighted themselves in those things they suffered for Christ they trod upon burning coals as if they had trod upon roses And so in the Primitive time they were wont to call Martyrdom by that name The crown of Martyrdom I desire to know nothing says St. Paul but Christ and him crucified And we know how superstitiously they did use the Cross of Christ in former times and how high respect they would give unto a piece of wood that Christ was crucified upon yea if they had but that piece of wood in imagination what a deal of business was there made by Constantines mother about the Cross of Christ Certainly it grew upon this it was but the abuse of the high esteem that the people of God had of sufferings The Emperor Baldwyn thought himself blest if he had but a piece of the Cross of Christ that he would carry about with him in his arms It is reported of one King of England that he bestowed as much upon a Cross as the Revenues of his Kingdom came to in a year And that esteem which they had of a piece of wood the Martyrs in the Primitive times had of the Cross of Christ namely of the sufferings they endured for Christ Quest. But you will say wherein does it appear and how comes it to pass that Gods people do so esteem of their sufferings for Christ Ans There are great riches in them First the riches of evidence Secondly the riches of preferment Thirdly the riches of employment Fourthly riches of improvement Fifthly riches of experience Sixthly riches of promises Seventhly riches of comforts Eighthly riches of glory First they are great riches because they have rich evidences from them and that in these four or five particulars First by the sufferings they suffer for Christ they have an evidence to themselves that the way they are in is the right way They have reproached the footsteps of thine anointed there was a time when they walked in the ways of sin in their footsteps and then they were never reproached but now they have changed their way and walk in the footsteps of the anointed now they are reproached If a man being going in a way the end of which is of great consequence and if he should miscarry in his way he were undone If one should tell him some marks of the way as you go you shall meet with such a dirty
things not seen so that the work of faith is there seen Whosoever speaks of the reward that is in heaven if the glory of the world be not darkned in their eyes it argues there is no true saving faith A second difference is a gracious heart looks upon the reward by some experimental sweet and good that he findes in himself as the beginning of that eternal good he expects whereas others look upon the reward as a thing onely to come unto them hereafter He reads in the word and hears Preachers say so and so he can speak of them but it is not from any experimental sweetness that he findes of the beginning of eternal life wrought in him That place is very remarkable for this in Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Other men may know in others in books that there is a reward but a gracious heart knows in himself by that experimental sweetness of the beginning of eternal life that he findes in himself A third difference is The eye that a gracious heart hath unto the recompence of reward is a fixed eye a setled constant eye Another man that is an hypocrite may have a flash of lightning even from heaven it self that may discover something unto him of the glorious condition of the people of God as Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was more then natural I may call it a supernatural work that was upon Balaam yet not saving and gracious It appeared not to be saving because it had not a saving power went with it and it was not constant and so many hypocrites that are unfound when they have enlargement in prayer they may have some flashes of lightning let into their hearts they may have some glimmerings of the glorious things of heaven and as the Holy Ghost speaks in Heb. 6. 5. they may have a taste of the powers of the world to come but a gracious heart hath it not as a flash of lightning but as a constant light that is set up in his soul and as that light which does transform his spirit into light and makes him to be a childe of light Fourthly there is a great deal of difference in this the eye that a gracious heart hath is truly spiritual the other is but carnal A spiritual eye what is that that is he looks at the reward as a spiritual thing a carnal heart looks at it carnally O the flashes of joy to have a crown and a kingdom but a spiritual heart looks at the reward spiritually time is coming when I shall be wholly free from the body of sin and death time is coming when as the image of God shall be made perfect in my soul time is coming when I shall behold the blessed face of God and live to the praise of that blessed God without any intermission joyning with those blessed creatures that are eternally blessing God Now the heart that looks at it thus spiritually and looks at the top of it to be a spiritual good such an one sees the reward after another maner then any carnal heart doth The last difference is the eye of the gracious heart is a believing eye such an eye as he looks upon the glorious and blessed things of heaven as the things that his soul hath an interest in as the things wherein his riches and happiness does consist another may look upon them as glorious things that may be desired but for an eye to be fixed upon the promise so as to be content to venture all upon the bare word of God for such great things so as to count his riches to consist in these things that he hath but a bare word for such a believing eye as this is not the eye of a carnal heart CHAP. XLI What is this recompence of reward NOw the third thing that we are to come to is to shew what this reward is we can but give you a little glimpse of it Whatsoever will be said it will rather even darken it then otherwise in regard of the wonderful excellency of it all the stars in heaven if they were all Suns they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known but yet because the Lord hath been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course having respect with a discerning experimental spiritual fixed believing eye unto the glorious recompence of reward First take all the beauty excellency the sweet and good that there is in all the world if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good in all creature in this world and all to be communicated to one man yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed Secondly this reward certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it Great things are spoken in the word but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed then is yet revealed in all the Book of God Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And therefore in 2 Thess 1. 10. it is said Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Now the cause of admiration it is the sight of something more then was known before that was not thought of and was not understood even then at the first coming of Christ he shall appear in so much glory as he shall be admired as if the Saints should say We heard much concerning Christ and his glory but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ as now we finde and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ Thirdly all those consolations those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of Fourthly then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter As the infant in the womb knows not what the light the glory and beauty of the world is so we while we are in this darkness know little of the beauty and glory of heaven St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it says It is
The time is short says the Scripture the word that is translated short in 1 Cor. 7. 29. is a Metaphor taken from a piece of cloth that is rolled up onely a little left at the end so God hath rolled up all his works onely he hath a little left at the end and then all this glory shall appear the frame of Heaven and earth does but stand till that time and if that time were come the frame of Heaven and earth should presently be dissolved and the ways of Gods providence in this world should be at an end the Heavens and earth groan for this time It is said of Doctor Taylor when he was near at the stake he fetch'd a leap and said I have but two stiles to my Fathers house We in our way here are as Travellers some ride it may be a little faster and get to the Inn first and then another comes a quarter or half an hour after but it is but a short time in comparison he hath promised and he will come quickly with the glory of his Father and all the glory of Heaven with him And then this shall be after all our troubles As Painters first draw all black and then the other beautiful colours so all our troubles here are but as the black ground-work to make our glory the more beautiful hereafter To see land after a long and dangerous voyage how joyful is it As the Trojans after they had been wandring a long time in the Mediterranean and Aegean Seas as soon as they espied Italy they cryed out with exulting joys Italy Italy how much more the Saints after they have passed this troublesom world and come to Heaven what acclamations of joy will the heavens ring of Heaven Heaven Lastly all these things are eternal this puts an infiniteness of worth upon every particular How was Haman puffed up by Esthers inviting of him to one Banquet How shall the hearts of the Saints be taken with that eternal Supper of the Lamb Obed-Edom was blessed in having the Ark but three moneths in his house how blessed they who shall have Gods not onely gracious but glorious presence eternally And so I come to the fourth particular which was propounded in the handling of this point namely 4. Wherein lies the power of the consideration of the recompence of reward to help a man through sufferings Much hath been said but more may be said to shew that there is a mighty power in it to enable the heart to suffer any thing for God it is that which hath mightily wrought upon the Saints of God heretofore That is an observable place that we have concerning Christs Transfiguration and Christs Agony when he was transfigured upon the Mount and his glory was shewed even a glimpse of the glory of Heaven Christ took with him onely three Disciples Peter James and Iohn afterward when Christ was to come to his Agony when his soul was heavy to death and he sweat clods of blood he onely took those three Disciples that had seen him in his glory to see him in his sufferings to shew that those that know what the glory of Christ means those are the fittest to joyn with Christ in his Agony and to endure the greatest sufferings that they can meet withal See in Dan. 7. there is mention made of a cruel Tyrant that should make War with the Saints and should persecute Gods people that devoured and brake in pieces yet there were some that should bear out all that should have the Kingdom given them and God should reward them gloriously Who are they at the 22 verse The Saints of the most high so you read it or The Saints of the highest not onely of the highest God but of the highest places of the highest things they are those to whom the Kingdom shall be given those Saints that did see the most glorious things of the Kingdom of God they had the reward for they held out in sufferings but others whose hearts were low in the earth they did not hold out So those that should hold out in the time of Antichrist and should not worship the Beast Rev. 13. 6 7 8. were such as dwelt in Heaven He opened his mouth in blasphemy against God to blaspheme his Name and his Tabernacle and them that dwelt in Heaven in many places of the Revelations Heaven is taken for the Church of God and the People of God and so Interpreters take it here And it was given to him to war with the Saints and to overcome them but though he prevailed against the Saints to kill them yet he could not prevail against them that dwelt in Heaven to worship him but all that dwell upon the Earth shall worship him all that know no higher good then the Earth they shall follow Antichrist and worship him Here we see the reason why people will not endure the sufferings inflicted by the Beast but follow the Beast have his mark either upon their foreheads openly or in their hands secretly because they do not apprehend the glory of Heaven but if they can come to see those glorious things of Heaven though Antichrist do persecute them they would not worship him in these latter times of the world Antichrist will prevail to get many to worship him but the sight of these glorious things will keep us we shall not worship him In Rev. 12. the Church who is compared to a Woman that was cloathed with the glory of the Sun she had the Moon and all sublunary things under her feet When the soul is seeking after the glory of Heaven and that is always in its eye this causes it to have the Moon by which is signified all things below that are subject to changes under its feet I read of a Martyr that was whipped and almost scourged to death and then being led to the execution he met with his Mother who being a godly gracious woman did not fall of tearing her hair and rending her cloathes as other women used to do but cryed Son Remember eternal life look up to Heaven and see him that reigns there Hence we see that having an eye to the recompence of reward does make the heart to choose the Choice of Moses To suffer affliction with the people of God and to esteem the reproach of Christ greater riches then the treasures of Egypt you see there is a great deal of power and efficacy in it but wherein does this power consist In divers particulars CHAP. LIII Wherein the power and efficacy of eying the recompence of reward consists FIrst there is a great deal of power in looking to this glorious recompence of reward because the glory of this does so much darken all the glory of the things of the world that we are called to part withal when we are called to suffer any thing Now then the argument lies thus That which darkens all the glory of the world and makes it appear to be