alive As all that were naturally in and from Adam the corrupt Fountain of Mankind are under the sentence of Death so all that are in Christ the Head of the Regenerate shall partake of his blessed Life Others shall be raised by his Power as their Judg but not as their Head rais'd to be more miserable than Death can make them not be transform'd into his glorious Resemblance made capable of suffering an ever-dying Death not revived to eternal Life Now the Bond of our Union to Christ is the Holy Spirit derived from him as the Head of the Church and is the inward powerful and lasting Principle of Holiness and new Obedience in Believers He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit that is by the Spirit of Holiness has a real Participation of his Life is both quickned and united to him When the Prophet Elisha by the outward applying the parts of his Body to the dead Child inspir'd Life into him there was no real Union between them but Christ is by his Spirit so intimately united to Believers that he lives in them and they in him The sanctifying Spirit renews the directing and commanding Faculties the Fountains of moral Actions enlightens the Understanding with saving Knowledg rectifies the Obliquity of the Will purifies the Affections and reforms the Life so that the same Mind is in Christians as was in Christ and as his Conversation was such is theirs in the World This Divine Change is not wrought by natural Reason though assisted by the most powerful Arguments The Breath of a Man may as easily dispel a Mist or thaw a Frost as humane Directions and Motives to Vertue can renew the Mind and Heart and produce a Holy frame of Soul towards God Renewed Christians are said to be in the Spirit illuminated inclin'd and enabled by the Spirit to do God's Will and the Spirit of God to dwell in them by his peculiar and eminent Operations They live in the Spirit and walk in the Spirit An Angel may assume a Body and act by it but the humane Soul enlivens it and performs sensible Operations by it And such a Principle is the Holy Spirit to the Soul gives it spiritual Life Activity and Power for good Works By what Application of the Spirit 's Power this is produc'd is mysterious and inexplicable but as the Apostle speaks of his Rapture into the third Heavens that he knew it was real and heard unutterable things though how it was performed whether in the Body or out of the Body he could not tell thus when a natural Man the current of whose Thoughts and Affections was to the things of this World becomes spiritual when the carnal Appetite is subdued and sanctified Reason has the Throne when he feels such strong and sweet Impulsives to Holiness as engage the Will when the Stream of his Desires ascend to the things above and his Life becomes Holy and Heavenly he feels and knows this wonderful Change though the manner how it was wrought he cannot tell I will shew more fully this sanctifying Work of the Spirit that we may the better understand our State The Spirit of God is denominated by various Titles the Spirit of Truth the Spirit of Holiness the Comforter and represented by various Types by an Ointment that clarifies the Eye to see things aright by cleansing refreshing Water by purifying refining Fire correspondent to his sacred Operations in the Soul As the Spirit of Truth he illuminates the Understanding to see the Reality and Excellency of supernatural and Heavenly things of the great Mysteries of Godliness of Eternal Glory so that a Christian in his most deliberate solemn and composed Thoughts in his exactest Valuation infinitely prefers them before the gaudy Vanities of this transient World When the Eyes of the Mind are truly enlightned present things appear or rather disappear as Shadows As the Spirit of Holiness he renews the Will and Affections inspires the Soul with Divine and unutterable Desires after the Favour and Grace of God and communicates spiritual Power for the Prosecution and obtaining those Desires The Holy Spirit raises such a Love to God that habitually and strongly inclines the Soul to obey his Commands This is the most clear and essential Character of a Christian the special and most excellent Property of a Saint upon which all other Holy Qualifications depend As Reason is the first and chief Excellence of Man from whence his other Perfections are derived that distinguish him from the Brutes and give him a natural and regular Preeminence and Dominion over them so that a Man is most properly defined a reasonable Creature Thus the Love of God is the most Divine Grace the true Form of Holiness the Root from whence all other Vertues spring and flourish and most peculiarly distinguish a Saint from unregenerate Men however adorn'd and accomplish'd so that a Saint is most properly defined to be a Lover of God This is the Principle of true Holiness inherent in the Soul and shining in the Conversation that distinguishes the Sincerity of a Saint from the Art of Hypocrisy an affected Appearance of Religion for carnal sordid respects and from civil Vertue that restrains from what is ignominious and disgraceful to our Reputation and makes obnoxious to Penalties of the Laws and excites to praise-worthy Actions upon worldly Motives and from Philosophical Morality that forbids Vice as contrary to Reason and commends Vertue as the chief Ornament and Perfection of humane Nature without a Regard to please and glorify God And Divine Love is the Principle of universal Holiness Love is called the fulfilling of the Law as 't is a comprehensive Grace and as it draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul to do God's Will in an exact manner Universal Obedience is the Exercise of Love in various Instances As the Spouse in the Song of Solomon is transform'd in divers Representations sometimes as a Sister sometimes as a Warriour sometimes as the Keeper of a Vineyard but she always acted as a Lover and her chief business was to please her Beloved This Allegorical Description of the Church signifies that when the Soul is inflamed with the Love of God that Affection will be active and discover it self in all it does or suffers in the Service of God This will make a Christian very desirous and diligent to please God in all things and careful not to displease him in any thing for that is the inseparable Effect of Love The Felicity of the natural temper and the force of Education may cause a loathing of some Evils and dispose to some good Works but with a reserved delight in other Sins and a secret Exception against other Duties Servile Fear is a partial Principle and causes an unequal respect to the Divine Precepts it restrains from Sins of greater Guilt at which Conscience takes fire it urges to some Duties the neglect of which causes Disquiet but the Love of
a Life without Sin and without End for Immortality was a Privilege due to his Innocence and for Enemies for the worst Enemies Rebels by revolture from obedience to their Creator and King is a Love truly Divine and infinitely surpassing not only the Affections but the understanding and knowledg of all Creatures Briefly he gave his Life for us and gives himself to us the most excellent testimonies of Love that we can receive from Love it self and we shall love him with all the strength of our glorified Spirits 3. Union with God by Knowledg and Love accomplishes the Perfection and Happiness of the Saints The most pernicious effect of Sin is the separation of the Soul from God and the restoral of us to Happiness is by re-union with him This we obtain by Christ who is Emanuel in his Nature and by Office who took our Flesh which he offer'd as a Sacrifice to God to atone his Displeasure and gives his Spirit to dwell in us as a permanent active Principle by whose special operation Faith is produc'd in our Hearts that is such a belief of his Love in redeeming us as inspires us with a sincere and superlative Love to him and by these vital Bands we are united to him and as his true Members live the same Life with him in Grace and Glory Now in Heaven our Union with God is more near and noble more intimate and influential more inseparable and eternal 'T is observable in natural Causalties that what is of a more refin'd and purer Nature is more active and penetrating and more closely unites with other things than what is more gross and material Light which is the purest Quality in the World actuates all Colours and makes them visible and actuates the Eye and conveys the lively Image of the Object with shining Evidence into it The Sun shoots its invisible Virtue into the deepest Mines Fire is more subtile and pure than Water and will pierce into solid Metals which the Water cannot soak into The glowing Iron seems to be all Fire Now God is the purest Spirit and of infinite energy and can unite himself to our Spirits more intimately than the closest Union between any Creatures in the World He unites himself to the Understanding by an immediate irradiation and discovery of his glorious Excellencies In thy Light saith the Psalmist we shall see Light He unites himself to the Will by the infusion of his Love and by that drawing forth our Love to him This Union is compleat in Heaven and most communicative of the Divine Influences to the Saints and consequently their conformity and fruition of God is in the highest degrees that created Spirits are capable of This is the most desireable and perfect State of reasonable Creatures for God is the ever-flowing Fountain of Felicity the only stable Center of the Soul wherein it reposes it self for ever Accordingly the Psalmist speaks Return to thy Rest O my Soul for the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee When the Soul opens its Eyes to the clear discoveries of the first Truth in which is no shadow of Error and its Breast to the dear and intimate imbraces of the Supream Good in which is no mixture of Evil and beyond which nothing remains to be known nothing to be enjoy'd what a Deluge of the purest and sweetest Pleasures will overflow it We cannot ascend in our Thoughts so high as to conceive the excess of Joy that attends those Operations of the glorified Soul upon its proper Object But something we may conjecture Those who are possess'd with a noble Passion for Knowledg how do they despise all lower Pleasures in comparison of it How do they forget themselves neglect the Body and retire into the Mind the highest part of Man and nearest to God The bare apprehension of such things that by their internal Nature have no attractive influence upon the Affections is pleasant to the Understanding As the appearance of Light though not attended with any other visible Beauties refreshes the Eye after long darkness So the clear discovery of Truths how abstract so ever that were before unknown is grateful to the intellective Faculty Thus some have been strangely transported with the pleasure of a Mathematical Demonstration when the Evidence not the Importance of the thing was so ravishing for what is more dry and barren of delight than the speculation of Figures and Numbers Solon when near his End and some of his Friends that visited him were speaking softly of a Point of Philosophy by that sound of Wisdom was awaken'd from the sleep of Death that was just seizing on him and opening his Eyes raising his Head to give attention being ask'd the reason of it Answered That when I understand what you are discoursing of I may die Such was his delight in Knowledg that a little of it made his Agony insensible But here are many Imperfections that lessen this intellectual Pleasure which shall cease in Heaven Here the acquisition of Knowledg is often with the expence of Health The Flower of the Spirits necessary for natural Operations is wasted by intense Thoughts How often are the Learned sickly As the Flint when 't is struck gives not a spark without consuming it self So Knowledg is obtain'd by Studies that waste our faint sensitive Faculties But then our Knowledg shall be a free emanation from the spring of Truth without our labour and pains Here we learn by circuit and discern by comparing things ignorant darkness is dispell'd by a gradual succession of Light But then perfect Knowledg shall be infused in a moment Here after all our labour and toyl how little Knowledg do we gain Every Question is a Labyrinth out of which the nimblest and most searching Minds cannot extricate themselves How many specious Errors impose upon our Understandings We look on things by false Lights through deceiving Spectacles But then our Knowledg shall be certain and compleat There is no forbidden Tree in the Celestial Paradise as no inordinate Affection But suppose that all things in the compass of the World were known yet still there would be emptiness and anguish in the Mind for the most comprehensive knowledg of things that are insufficient to make us happy cannot afford true Satisfaction But then we shall see God in all his Excellencies the supream Object and End the only Felicity of the Soul How will the sight of his glorious Perfections in the first moment quench our extream Thirst and fill us with Joy and Admiration 'T is not as the naked conception of Treasures that only makes rich in Idea's but that Divine sight gives a real interest in him The Angels are so ravish'd with the Beauties and Wonders of his Face that they never divert a moment from the contemplation of it 2. The pure Love of the Saints to God is fully satisfied in the possession and enjoyment of him and consequently the greatest delight and complacency is shed abroad in their Hearts Love
Glory are equally content For their most ardent Love being set on God that he is pleased to glorify himself by such various communications of his Goodness is full satisfaction to their Desires Besides in those different degrees of Glory every one is so content with his own that there is no possible desire of being but what he is 4. In Heaven the innumerable Company of Angels and the General Assembly of the Church of the First-born as they receive Happiness from the sight of God so they communicate the purest Pleasure to one another An unfeigned ardent Affection unites that pure Society Our Love is now kindled either from a relation in Nature or a civil Account or some visible Excellencies that render a Person worthy of our Choice and Friendship but in Heaven the Reasons are greater and the degrees of Love incomparably more fervent All Carnal Alliances and Respects cease in that supernatural State The Apostle tells us If I have known Christ after the Flesh I know him so no more By the Resurrection and Ascension of Christ he was transported into another World and had communion with him as an Heavenly King without low regards to the temporal Priviledg of conversing with him on Earth The spiritual Relation is more near and permanent than the strictest Band of Nature The Saints have all relation to the same Heavenly Father and to Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace and Head of that happy Fraternity The principal Motives of Love here are the inherent Excellencies of a Person Wisdom Holiness Goodness Fidelity are mighty Attractives and produce a more worthy Affection a more intimate confederacy of Souls than propinquity in Nature or any carnal respects Vertue is amiable in an old Person tho wrinkled and deformed Vice is hateful in a young Person tho beautiful There are clearer Eyes than those of Flesh a purer Light than what is sensible a diviner Beauty than what is Corporeal and a nobler Love than what is sensual David declares that all his delight was in the Excellent But there are allays of this Spiritual Love here For 1. There are Reliques of Frailty in the best Men on Earth some Blemishes that render them less amiable when discovered Here their Graces are mix'd with Infirmities and but ascending to Glory Accordingly our Love to them must be regular and serene not clouded with Error mistaking Defects for amiable Qualities But in Heaven the Image of God is compleat by the union of all the glorious Vertues requisite to its perfection Every Saint there exactly agrees with the first Exemplar a Divine Beauty shines in them ever durable a Beauty that darts no contagious Fire that is inviolable and can suffer no injury The Apostle tells us The Church shall be glorious in Holiness without spot or wrinkle or any thing that may cast an Aspect of deformity upon it 2. In the present state the least part of the Saints Worth is visible As the Earth is fruitful in Plants and Flowers but its Riches are in Mines of precious Metals and the Veins of Marble hidden in its Bosom True Grace appears in sensible Actions but its Glory is Within The sincerity of Aims the purity of Affections the impresses of the Spirit on the Heart the interior Beauties of Holiness are only seen by God Besides such is the humility of eminent Saints that the more they abound in spiritual Treasures the less they show As the heavenly Bodies when in nearest conjunction with the Sun and fullest of Light make the least appearance to our sight But all their Excellencies shall then be in view The Glory of God shall be revealed in them And how attractive is the Divine Likeness to an holy Eye How will it ravish the Saints to behold an immortal Loveliness shining in one another Their Love is reciprocal proportionable to the cause of it An equal constant Flame is preserv'd by pure Materials Every one is perfectly amiable and perfectly enamour'd with all How happy is that state of Love The Psalmist breaks out in a Rapture Behold how good and pleasant it is for Brethren to dwell together in Vnity Love is the Beauty and Strength of Societies the Pleasure of Life How excellent is the Joy of the Blessed when the Prayer of Christ shall be accomplished that they all may be one as thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us God is absolutely One in his glorious Nature and Will and therefore unalterably Happy And their inviolable Union in Love is a Ray of the Essential Unity between the Sacred Persons There are no Divisions of Heart and Tongues as in this Babel but the most perfect and sweetest Concord an Eternal Agreement in Tempers and Inclinations There are no envious Comparisons for Love that affectively transforms one into another causes the Glory of every Saint to redound to the Joy of all Every one takes his share in the Felicity of all and adds to it Such is the Power of that Celestial Fire wherein they all burn that it melts and mixes Souls in such an entire Union that by Complacence and an intimate Joy the Blessedness of all is as it were proper to every one as if every one were plac'd in the Hearts of all and all in the Heart of every one If in the Church of the First-born Christians in the earthly Jerusalem the Band of Charity was so strict that 't is said the Multitude of Believers were of one Heart and one Soul How much more intimate and inseparable is the Union of the Saints in Jerusalem above where every one loves another as himself 'T is recorded of Alexander that entring with Hephestion his Favorite into the Pavilion of the Mother of Darius then his Prisoner she bowed to the Favorite as having a greater appearance of Majesty thinking him to be Alexander But advised of her Error she humbly begg'd his Pardon To whom the generous King replied You did not err Mother this is also Alexander Such was their Affection that whoever was taken of them the other was taken in him the less ascending in the greater without degrading the greater in the less This is a Copy of the holy Love of the Blessed but with the same difference as between the Description of a Star with a Coal and its Beauty in its proper Aspect And where all is Love all is Delight The Act it self is its own Reward As that benign and pleasant Affection is enlarged with respect to the Object and its degrees such is the complacence and delight that results from it In that blessed Society there is a constant receiving and returning of Love and Joy And that double exercise of the Saints in the perfect circle of Love is like the pleasant labour of the Bees who all the day are flying to the Gardens and returning to their Hives and all their Art is in extracting the purest Spirits from fragrant Flowers and making sweet Honey O how do they
the Executioners and the Instruments of Torment they were pale and trembling The Flesh seem'd to cry out O let this Cup pass from me yet weak and faint it followed the Spirit that corrected the natural desire with not my Will but thine be done As the Moon in Eclipse though obscure yet goes on in a regular course as when 't is full of Light by the reflection of the Sun So those desolate Martyrs though as it were forsaken and deprived of the bright Beams of Comfort yet persever'd in their Profession of the Truth When one Word to renounce Christianity would have saved them no Torments could force it from them but they patiently endured all Now in these the Combat of Nature was visible and the admirable Power of Grace They first overcame their own Fears the reluctancy of the carnal part their Affection to whatever is desirable in the World which is the noblest Victory and then the Cruelty of their Persecutors In them was verified the Testimony of the Spirit Here is the patience of the Saints Here are they that keep the Command of God and the Faith of Jesus But how many appear faithful while their Faith is not to be shewed by difficult Works and proved by Sufferings The Seed that fell on the stony Ground sprang up as hopeful as the Seed in the good Ground at first but when Tribulation came it wither'd away wanting the Root of Sincerity And that which was sown among Thorns was choak'd by the Cares and Pleasures of the World Some Lust in the Heart interweaves with the Affections and causes Apostacy How many from glorious Beginnings have made a lamentable End not only Mercenaries in Religion whose Zeal is a foreign Complexion not springing from an inward Principle of Life and Health relinquish even the profession of Godliness when their Gain ceases but some who have thought themselves sincere yet in times of danger their Resolutions like the morning Dew have suddenly vanish'd As the foolish Builder that computed not the Charges of his designed Work began to raise a magnificent Structure but unable to finish it laid the Foundation in his own Shame They repented their Choice of Heaven when they saw what it must cost them and would save the World with the loss of their Souls Others that began in the Spirit and with raised Affections set out in the ways of Godliness yet by the allurements of sensual Lusts and Temptations and therefore with greater Guilt leave their first Love and end in the Flesh. They fall from high Professions but received by soft Pleasures feel not the Fall These were never sincere and never had a Right to Heaven They took up sudden Resolutions not grounded in serious and deep Thoughts and for a Flash were hot and active but with great levity return to their former Lusts. The Apostle tells us of such it had been better for them they had not known the Way of Righteousness than to turn back and voluntarily to forsake it 'T is observed that boiling Water taken off from the Fire congeals more strongly than that which was never heated because the subtile Parts being evaporated by the Fire the more terrestrial Parts remaining are more capable of Cold. So those who have felt the Power of the Word in their Affections and afterwards lose that holy heat become more harden'd in their Sins God justly withdraws his Grace and the evil Spirit that was expell'd for a time returns with seven worse and aggravates his Tyranny To conclude Since the certainty of Salvation is conditional if we persevere in a holy State let us beware of a corrupt Confidence and a vicious Dejection of Spirit the trusting in our selves or distrusting God To prevent the trusting in our selves consider 1. The most excellent Creatures are by the instability of Nature liable to defection subject to a corruptive change Of this the fallen Angels are a dreadful Example who of their own motion untempted sinned in Heaven 2. The Danger is greater of falling away when they are urged and solicited by a violent or grateful Temptation Thus our first Parents fell and lost more Grace in an Hour than can be recovered by their Posterity in all Ages to the end of the World 3. When there is supervenient Corruption in the Creature that inclines them with earnest propensity to forbidden Things and takes Flame from every Spark the Danger is extream Like a besieged City that is in great hazard of taking by Assaults from without and Conspiracies from within Let us therefore be very watchful over our Hearts and Senses and keep as much as is possible at a safe distance from Temptations And be very diligent in the use of all holy Means to confirm and fortify our Resolutions for Heaven God promised to Hezekiah 15 Years but not to preserve his Life by Miracle he was obliged to repair the wastings of Nature by daily Food and to abstain from what was noxious and destructive to his Body The Apostle excites Christians to work out their own Salvation with fear and trembling for it is God that works in them to will and to do of his good Pleasure Let him that stands take heed lest he fall None are a more easy Conquest to the Tempter than those who presume upon their own Strength We should be always jealous of our selves from the sad Examples of Apostacy in every Age. St. Ambrose testifies from his own knowledg that many after the couragious enduring of cruel Torments for Religion the tearing open their Sides that their Bowels appeared and the burning of some parts of their Bodies yet when led forth to finish the Victory of Faith to be a triumphant Spectacle to Angels and Men when the blessed Rewarder was ready to put the Martyrs Crown on their Heads at the sight of their mourning Wives and Children in the way were overcome by Pity the weakest Affection and fail'd in the last act of Christian Fortitude We must pray to be strengthned with all Might according to his glorious Power unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness For some may vigorously resist one sort of Temptation and render themselves to others And if finally vanquish'd by one of those Enemies we lose our Victory and Crown And as Presumption betrays the Soul into the Devil's Snares so a vicious dejection of Spirit from a distrust of Relief from God in our Difficulties and his assistance with our unfeigned endeavours for Salvation is very pernicious For this damps Industry and causes either a total neglect or uncomfortable use of Means for that End Many Christians considering their Graces are weak their Nature fickle and apt to revolt are ready as David said One day I shall perish by the Hand of Saul to conclude sadly of the Issue of their Condition To encourage such let them consider that Perseverance is not only a Condition but a Privilege of the Covenant of Grace For that assures us of supply of spiritual Strength to the
a limited Goodness Wisdom is not Strength nor Learning Riches nor Beauty Fruitfulness But God is a Vniversal Good in whom are all Attractives to raise and satisfy our Desires If Men did consider they would distinguish and despise in comparison all that is named Felicity here with the Favour of God To seek for satisfaction in the Creature and forsake him is as if one desirous to see the Light should withdraw from the presence of the Sun to borrow it from a weak Ray reflected by some obscure Matter Now if there be so vast a difference in their Nature as between a painted Vapour and the solid glorious Good between Finite and Infinite why is there not a difference accordingly in our Esteem Affections and Respects to them How unreasonable is it that a Soul capable of God should cleave to the Dust It would be most egregious folly to hang a Weight that is able to turn a great Engine upon a small Clock 't is incomparably more foolish when the love of Happiness the weight of Humane Nature which applied aright will turn our Desires to Heaven is only used to give vigorous motion to our Endeavours about earthly Things 2. Consider their Duration The Apostle tells us that the main scope of his Actions was Things invisible and gives the reason of it For the things that are seen are Temporal but the things that are not seen are Eternal To insist upon the vast difference between Temporal and Eternal may seem needless for the first Notions of things are of such uncontroulable clearness that an attempt to prove them is to light a Candle to discover the Sun Yet this Principle drawing after it such powerful Consequences for the government of our Hearts and Lives and Conscience being so remiss and the sensual Affections so rebellious 't is needful to consider this seriously that what is really assented to in Speculation may not be contradicted in Practice Now who can unfold the infinite Volume of Ages in Eternity The Understanding of an Angel can no more comprehend what is incomprehensible than the Mind of a Man A Snail will pass over an immense space as soon as an Eagle for though one dispatches more way than the other yet both are equally distant from arriving to the end of what is endless But that the Conception of Eternity may be more distinct and affecting it is useful to represent it under some temporal Resemblances that sensibly though not fully express it Suppose that the vast Ocean were distilled drop by drop but so slowly that a thousand Years should pass between every drop how many millions of Years were required to empty it Suppose this great World in its full compass from one Pole to another and from the top of the Firmament to the bottom were to be fill'd with the smallest Sand but so slowly that every thousand Years only a single Grain should be added how many Millions would pass away before it were filled If the immense Superficies of the Heavens wherein are innumerable Stars the least of which equals the magnitude of the Earth were filled with Figures of Numbers without the least vacant space and every Figure signified a Million what created Mind could tell their Number much less their Value Having these Thoughts I reply The Sea will be emptied drop by drop the Universe fill'd grain by grain the Numbers written in the Heavens will come to an end and how much of Eternity is then spent Nothing for still infinitely more remains In short what-ever is Temporal extend the continuance of it to the utmost possibility of Conception is infinitely short of Eternity A Day an Hour a Minute has some proportion with a thousand Years for that duration is determined by a certain number of Days and Hours and Minutes but Millions of Ages have no proportion to Eternity because 't is an indeterminable Duration The Mind is soon tir'd and lost in searching after Numbers to represent it 't is confounded and struck with amazing Horror and can only direct the Eye upward or downward to the two Habitations of Eternity the glorious and the miserable Heaven and Hell Now let us compare the Things of the present World with those of the future State The first are measur'd by flying Time the other remain in an unmoveable Eternity The Comforts that spring from the Earth suddenly wither and fall to it the Tree of Life flourishes only above Frequent changes from Prosperity to Adversity are the Properties of this mortal State As those who are in Voyages at Sea sometimes are in a calm and presently suffer a storm and are forc'd to alter their Course by the changing of the Winds so 't is with us in our passage here But upon the first entrance into another World all the variations of this are at an end Verily every Man at his best estate is altogether Vanity Surely every Man walks in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain The visible Felicity of Man is of no continuance We may frequently observe in the Evening a Cloud by the reflection of the Sun invested with so bright a Lustre and adorn'd with such a pleasant variety of Colours that in the judgment of our Eyes if an Angel were to assume a Body correspondent to his Glory it were a fit matter for it But in walking a few steps the Sun is descended beneath the Horizon and the Light withdrawn and of all that splendid flaming appearance nothing remains but a dark Vapour that falls down in a Showre Thus vanishing is the shew of Felicity here In this Sense assists Faith for the experience of every day verifies what the Scripture declares that the Fashion of this World passes away And therefore the guilty Folly of Men is aggravated to set their Eyes and Hearts upon that which is not To see one passionately dote on a Face ruin'd and deform'd with Age to be inchanted without a Charm raises wonder and exposes to contempt Yet such is the stupidity of Men to embrace with their most entire Affections the wither'd Vanities of the World that are hastening to their Period 'T was a stinging reproach to Idolaters from God None considers in his Heart neither is their Knowledg nor Vnderstanding to say I have burnt part of it in the Fire yea I have also baked Bread upon the Coals thereof I have roasted Flesh and eaten it and shall I make the residue an Abomination shall I fall down to the stock of a Tree And are not sensual Men equally guilty of such monstrous Folly for though universal Experience convince them that all things under the Sun are fading and that many times their dearest Comforts are snatch'd away from their Embraces yet who does advisedly consider and say to himself Shall I give my Heart to transient Shadows Shall I cherish vain Hopes vain Aims and Desires of obtaining Happiness in a perishing World Altho the worshipping a Stock be Idolatry of grosser Infamy yet 't is as foolish
Perfection and Satisfaction of the immortal Soul The Felicity resulting from it is as entire and eternal as God is Great and True who has so often promis'd it in Scripture Now the Damned are for ever excluded from the reviving Presence of God 'T is often seen how tenderly and impatiently the humane Spirit resents the loss of a dear Relation Jacob for the supposed death of Joseph was so overcome with Grief that when all his Sons and Daughters rose up to comfort him he refused to be comforted and said I will go down mourning to the Grave Indeed this overwhelming Sorrow is both a Sin and a Punishment 'T is ordain'd by the righteous and unchangeable Decree of God that every inordinate Affection in Man should be his own Tormentor But if the loss of a poor frail Creature for a short time be so afflicting how insupportable will the Sorrow be for the loss of the Blessed God for ever Who can fully conceive the Extent and Degrees of that Evil For an Evil rises in proportion to the Good of which it deprives us It must therefore follow that Celestial Blessedness being an infinite eternal Good the exclusion from it is proportionably Evil. And as the Felicity of the Saints results from the Fruition of God in Heaven and from comparison with the contrary State So the Misery of the Damned arises both from the thoughts of lost Happiness and from the lasting Pain that torments them It may be replied If this be the utmost Evil that is consequent to Sin the Threatning of it is likely to deter but few from the pleasing their corrupt Appetites for carnal Men have such gross and vitiated Affections that are careless of spiritual Happiness They cannot taste and see how good the Lord is To this a clear Answer may be given In the next State where the Wicked shall be for ever without those Carnal Objects that here deceive and delight them when deprived of all things that pleases their voluptuous Senses their Apprehensions will be changed they shall understand what a Happiness it is to enjoy God and what a Misery to be expell'd from the Celestial Paradise Our Saviour tells the Jews There shall be weeping and gnashing of Teeth when ye shall see Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you your selves thrust out How will they pine with envy at the sight of that triumphant Felicity of which they shall never be Partakers To see that blessed Company entring into the sacred Mansions of Light will make the loss of Heaven infinitely more discernable and terrible to the Wicked who shall be cast into outer Darkness and for ever be deprived of Communion with God and his Saints Depart from me will be as dreadful a part of the Judgment as Eternal Fire With the loss of the most excellent Good the suffering of the most afflicting painful Evil is join'd The Sentence is Depart ye Cursed into Everlasting Fire God's Justice is not satisfied in depriving them of Heaven but inflicts the most heavy Punishment upon Sense and Conscience in the Damned for as the Soul and Body in their state of union in this Life were both guilty the one as a Guide the other as the Instrument of Sin and if an imaginarry Sorrow conceived in the Mind without a real external Cause as in Melancholly Persons when gross Vapours darken and corrupt the brightness and purity of the Spirits that are requisite for its chearful Operations is often so oppressing that Nature sinks under it How insupportable will the Sorrow of condemned Sinners be under the impression and sense of God's Almighty and avenging Hand when it shall fully appear how pure and holy he is in his Anger for Sin how just and dreadful in punishing Sinners It may be the indulgent Sinner may lessen his fear of Hell by fancying the number of Sufferers will asswage the sense of their Misery But this is a foolish Mistake For the number of Sufferers shall be so far from affording any relief that the Misery is aggravated by the Company and Communication of the Miserable Every one is surrounded with Sorrows and by the sights of Wo about him feels the universal Grief The weeping and wailing the cries and dolorous expressions of all the Damned increases the torment and vexation of every one As when the Wind conspires with the Flame 't is more fierce and spreading 3. The Concomitant of Sorrow will be Fury and Rage against themselves as the true causes of their Misery For God will make such a discovery of his righteous Judgment that not only the Saints shall glorify his Justice in the condemnation of the Wicked but they shall be so convinc'd of it as not to be able to charge their Judg with any defect of Mercy or excess of Rigour in his proceedings against them As the Man in the Parable of the Marriage-Feast when taxt for his presumptuous intrusion without a Wedding-Garment How camest thou in hither was speechless so they will find no plea for their Justification and Defence but must receive the eternal Doom with Silence and Confusion Then Conscience shall revive the bitter remembrance of all the methods of divine Mercy for their Salvation that were ineffectual by their Contempt and Obstinacy All the compassionate Calls by his Word with the holy Motions of the Spirit were like the sowing of Seed in the Stony Ground that took no root and never came to perfection All his terrible Threatnings were but as Thunder to the Deaf or Lightning to the Blind that little affects them the bounty of his Providence design'd to lead them to Repentance had the same effect as the Showers of Heaven upon Briars and Thorns that makes them grow the faster And that a Mercy so ready to pardon did not produce in them a correspondent affection of grateful obedient Love but by the most unworthy provocations they pluck'd down the Vengeance due to obstinate Rebels will so enrage the Damned against themselves that they will be less miserable by the Misery they suffer than by the conviction of their torn Minds that they were the sole Causes of it What Repentings will be kindled within them for the stupid neglect of the great Salvation so dearly purchased and earnestly offered to them What a fiery addition to their Torment that when God was so willing to save them they were so wilful to be Damned They will never forgive themselves that for the short and mean Pleasures of Sense which if enjoyed a thousand years cannot recompence the loss of Heaven nor requite the pains of Hell for an Hour they must be deprived of the one and suffer the other for ever 4. The Sorrow and Rage will be increased by Despair for when the wretched Sinner sees the Evil is peremptory and no Outlet of Hope he abandons himself to the violence of Sorrow and by cruel Thoughts wounds the Heart more than the fiercest Furies in Hell can This
the Soul to Eternal Vengeance for the Pleasures of Sin that are but for a Season 3. Let us stedfastly believe and frequently consider that Eternal Death is the Wages of Sin that we may renounce it with the deepest Abhorrence and forsake it for ever We are assured from the Wisdom and Compassion of our Saviour that 't is a powerful Means to mortify the Inclination to sin and to induce us to prevent and resist all Temptations The subtile Tempter cannot present any Motives that to a rectified Mind will make Sin eligible Let the Scales be even and put into one all the Delights of the Senses all the Pleasures and Honours of the World that are the Elements of Carnal Felicity how light are they against the Heavenly Glory Will the Gain of the World compensate the Loss of the Soul and Salvation for ever If there were any possible comparison between deluding transient Vanities and the Happiness that is substantial and satisfying for ever the Choice would be more difficult and the Mistake less culpable but they vanish into nothing in the Comparison According to the Judgment of Sense would any one chuse the enjoyment of the most exquisite Pleasures for a Year and afterwards be content to burn in a Furnace for a Day much less to enjoy them for a Day and to burn for a Year What stupid Brutes are they who for momentany Delights incur the fiery Indignation of God for ever Try but the Finger with the Flame of a Candle you will soon discover your weakness Will the remembrance of sensual Delights allay the Torments of the Damned When Carnal Lusts are most inflamed and Objects are present Pain will extinguish all the Pleasure of the Senses And if actual Enjoyment cannot afford Delight when the Body is under a Disease will the Reflections upon past Pleasures in the Fancy and Memory refresh the Damned in their extream Torments No the remembrance will infinitely increase their Anguish that for such seeming and short Pleasures they brought upon themselves Misery intolerable without Ease or End O that Men would strip Sin of its disguises and wash off its flattering Colours and look into its odious Nature and to the consequential Evils of it in the next World O that they would consider they hang by slender Strings a little Breath that expires every Minute over the bottomless Pit and that within a little while nothing will remain of the Pleasures of Sin but the undying Worm and the ever-living Flames This would be a means to raise and preserve in them an invincible Resolution and Reluctancy against all temptations to sin and provoke God But how hardly are Men induced to exercise their Minds on this terrible Object They think least of Hell who have most reason to consider it To this I must add that the meer fear of Hell and the judicial impression upon Conscience from it is not sufficient to convert Men to God For that servile Affection though it may stop a Temptation and hinder the eruption of a Lust into the gross Act yet does not renew the Nature and make Men Holy and Heavenly There may be a respective dislike of Sin with a direct Affection to it Besides that Religion that is the meer Effect of Fear will be according to the Nature of its Principle with resistance and trouble wavering and inconstant for tormenting Fear is repugnant to the humane Nature and will be expelled if possible In short the fear of Hell may be only a natural Affection that recoils from what is painful to Sense Therefore 't is the great Design of the Gospel by the fear of Hell as a powerful Preparative to make way for the Love of God who offers Pardon and Indempnity to all returning Sinners and for the Hope of Heaven the blessed Reward promised to them No Offers of Mercy will prevail to make Sinners to yield themselves till they are storm'd by the Terrors of the Lord. But when the fear of Hell has made a Breach Divine Grace enters and takes possession As the Virtue of the Loadstone when encompass'd and arm'd with Iron is increas'd and draws a far greater weight than when 't is naked and single thus the Attractives of Heaven are more powerful to move the Hearts of Men when enforced from the Terrors of Hell Now the Love of God and the Hope of Heaven are spiritual Affections and the Obedience that flows from them is voluntary from the intire consent of the Soul and persevering Lastly From the consideration of the Punishment determin'd for Sin we may understand how dear our Engagements are to the Lord Jesus Christ. The Rector and Judg of the World would not release the Guilty without a Ransom nor the Surety without Satisfaction and the Son of God most willingly and compassionately gave his precious Blood the Price of our Redemption He obtain'd the Spirit of Holiness to illuminate our Minds to incline our Wills to sanctify our Affections without whose Omnipotent Grace neither the Hopes or Fears of things Spiritual and Future would ever have cleansed and changed our Hearts and Lives We are naturally as senseless as the Dead as to what concerns our everlasting Peace blind and brutish and without fear should plunge our selves into Destruction if the Spirit of Power and of a sound Mind did not quicken us and direct us in the way to everlasting Life O that we might feel our dear Obligations to him who has delivered us from the Wrath to come and purchast for us a Felicity perfect and without end I would not lessen and disparage one Divine Work to advance and extol another but 't is a Truth that shines with its own Light and is declar'd by our Saviour that our Redemption from Hell to Heaven is a more excellent Benefit than our Creation in as much as our Well-being is better than our Being and eternal Misery is infinitely worse than mere not being Our Saviour speaks of Judas It had been better for him if he had never been born How engaging is the Love of Christ who rais'd us from the Bottom of Hell to the Bosom of God the Seat of Happiness If his Perfections were not most amiable and attractive yet that he died for us should make him the Object of our most ardent Affections To those who believe he is precious to those who have felt their undone Condition and that by his Merits and Mediation are restor'd to the Favour of God that are freed from tormenting Fears and revived with the sweetest Hopes he is and will be eminently and eternally precious Blessing and Honour and Glory and Power be to Him that sitteth upon the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever FINIS Books writ by William Bates D. D. and sold by B. Aylmer THE Harmony of the Divine Attributes in the Contrivance and Accomplishment of Man's Redemption by the Lord Jesus Christ Or Discourses wherein is shewed how the Wisdom Mercy Justice Holiness Power and Truth of God
place with execration Thus the death of the Saints is precious in the sight of the Lord their Bodies are kept in the bosom of the Earth to be raised in Glory and the death of the Wicked is accurs'd In short as the Wood that Moses cast into the Waters of Marah by a miraculous virtue sweetned them so the Cross of Christ has taken away the malignity and bitterness of Death 2. Death is a blessed Advantage and enriching Gain to a Believer it brings him to the possession of that Good that incomparably exceeds the Evil that remains in it For the Death of a Saint is not total but as in the Ceremony of Purification from Leprosy one Bird was killed and the other let fly in the open Air the mysterious shadow of the Lepers being restored to a state of Liberty Thus when the Body dies and returns to the Earth the Spirit returns to God the Father of Spirits and Fountain of Life Our Saviour told the Jews I am the living Bread that came down from Heaven if any Man eat of this Bread he shall live for ever and the Bread that I will give is my Flesh that I will give for the Life of the World The Heavenly Divine Life that is communicated by the Spirit of Christ to Believers remains entire when the sensitive Life is lost The natural Order is There is a time to be born and a time to die the supernatural is there is a time to die and a time to be born The Death of a Saint is a new Birth the pains of the dying Body are as Throws whereby the ripen'd Soul is delivered into the Land of the Living The happiness of a Saint after Death more particularly will appear by considering 1. The freedom he obtains from all afflicting Evils that are numberless here and from Sin the worst in its nature and the cause of all the rest The present World is a Labyrinth of Thorns in every state we meet with something to vex us You may as well count the Waves of the Sea when inraged by a Tempest as the Troubles to which in this mortal open state we are expos'd Man that is born of a Woman is of few days and full of Trouble A short Life and many Miseries O our unhappy Capacity the Body is liable to as many Diseases as there are Members and the Soul to as many Perplexities as Passions How often are the Scenes and Habits chang'd in the time of one Man He that lives in Pleasures must act the Mourner's part Our sweetest Comforts have hidden Stings and whatever is most pleasing may occasion bitter grief And usually holy Men have a greater portion of Afflictions here sometimes by the malignity and violence of the Wicked as under the Law the Lamb and the Dove were Sacrifices the Emblems of Innocence and Purity and Meekness whilst the Vulture and the Lion the greedy Devourers escaped This the Apostle declares of the Elect They are predestinated to be conformed to the Image of God's Son who trac'd out the Way to Heaven in his own Blood and by the Cross ascended to the Throne Sometimes more immediately Divine Providence afflicts them to preserve their Spirits from the tainted Pleasures of the World and for other holy Ends but there is a Rest for the People of God in Heaven Besides there are Relicks of Sin in the best of the Saints here Indeed Sin is depos'd from Sovereignty and Rule the imperious Lusts are crucified but not quite expir'd As those that were nail'd to the Cross in their Hands and Feet the parts least vital and most sensible died a painful lingring Death Still the Flesh lusts against the Spirit and the Spirit against the Flesh. As there is a complexion of Humours in humane Bodies always jarring when they are in the soundest Health and where there is not this active contrariety either the Body is without a Soul a meer Carcass or a glorified Body in Heaven So where there is not this internal Combat between Grace and Sin either the Man is wholly carnal dead in Sins and Trespasses or wholly spiritual reigning in Heaven And there is nothing more works on the tender Affections of a Saint than to find in himself what is displeasing to God that still he is under a sad necessity of sinning What is said concerning an old Man wasted and decayed in his drooping Years that the Grashopper is a burden to him is true of the new Man in a Christian the Sins that are counted light in the valuation of the World are a heavy weight to him Vain Thoughts idle Words irregular Passions unprofitable Actions are motives of heart-breaking Sorrow Now Death is to a Believer an universal Remedy against all the Evils of this Life it frees him from all Injuries and Sufferings and from Sin in all its degrees from all inclinations and temptations to it He that is dead ceaseth from Sin Death is the Passage from this Wilderness to the true Canaan the Rest above that flows with better Milk and Hony with Innocence and Happiness for ever There nothing can disturb the Peace or corrupt the Purity of the Blessed 3. Besides the privative advantage the freedom from all the Effects of God's Displeasure and the resentments of it there is the highest positive Good obtained by Death The Spirits of just Men are made perfect in Heaven The Soul is the Glory of Man and Grace is the Glory of the Soul and both are then in their Exaltation All the Faculties of the Soul are rais'd to the highest degrees of Natural and Divine Perfection In this Life Grace renews the Faculties but does not elevate them to their highest pitch it does not make a mean Understanding pregnant nor a frail Memory strong nor a slow Tongue eloquent but sanctifies them as they are But when the Soul is releas'd from this dark Body of Earth the Understanding is clear and quick the Memory firm the Will and Affections ardent and vigorous And they are enrich'd with Divine Light and Love and Power that makes them fit for the most noble and heavenly Operations The Lineaments of God's Image on the Soul are first drawn here but then it receives his last Hand All the Celestial Colours are added to give the utmost life and lustre to it Here we are advancing but by Death we arrive at Perfection We shall in Heaven be join'd to the Assembly of Saints and Angels our best Friends Love is the Law of that Kingdom and perfectly obeyed there Now how charming is the Conversation of one that is wise and holy especially if the sweetness of Affability be in his Temper How pleasantly does Time slide away in the company of our beloved Friends We are not sensible of its flight But what dear satisfaction is it to be united to that chosen consecrated Society Above who love one another as themselves Though the Angels and Saints have different degrees of Glory yet every one is
twinkling of an Eye be changed that they may be qualified for it Now herein the Wisdom of God is wonderful that Death which by the Covenant of Works was the deserved Penalty of Sin by the Covenant of Grace should be the Instrument of Immortality That as Joseph by a surprising Circuit was brought from the Prison to the Principality so a Believer by the Grave ascends to Heaven This the Apostle in his Divine Disputation against Infidels proves in a most convincing manner Thou Fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die As the rotting of the Corn in the Earth is necessary to the reviving and springing of it up so we must die and the Image of the Earthly Adam be abolish'd that we may be transformed into the Image of the Heavenly One And to the other part of the Question Why the Saints remain in the state of Death for a time there is a clear Answer The Resurrection of the Saints is delayed till Christ's coming to Judgment partly for the Glory of his Appearance For what an admirable Sight will it be that the Saints of all Ages shall at once arise glorified and immortalized to attend upon our Saviour in the last Act of his Regal Office and then to make a triumphant Entry with him into Heaven And partly that the establish'd order of Providence may not be disturbed for the changing of our Nature into Glory in a suddain and inexplicable manner cannot be without miraculous Power and if every Believer presently after Death were in his glorified Body translated to Heaven the World would be always filled with Miracles which were to cease after the sufficient Confirmation of the Gospel by them But how long soever the Interval be to the Resurrection it shall be with them that sleep in Jesus as 't is with those that awake out of a quiet natural Sleep to whom the longest Night seems but as a Moment so when the Saints first awake from Death in the great Morning of the World a thousand Years will seem no more to them than to God himself but as one day I now come to prove the third thing That our Saviour will abolish the Dominion of Death over the Saints Whilst the Bodies of the Saints remain in the Grave they seem to be absolutely under the Power of Death The World is a Golgotha fill'd with the Monuments of its Victories And it may be said to this our last Enemy in the Words of the Prophet to the bloody King Hast thou killed and taken Possession But we are assur'd by an infallible Word that the Power of Death shall be abolish'd and the Bodies of the Saints be reviv'd incorruptible and immortal The Resurrection is a Terra incognita to the wisest Heathens a Doctrine peculiar to the Gospel some Glimmerings they had of the Soul's Immortality without which all Vertue had been extinguish'd in the World but no conjecture of the reviving of the Body But Reason assists Faith in this point both as to the Will of God and his Power for the performing it I will glance upon the natural Reasons that induce the considering Mind to receive this Doctrine and more largely shew how the Resurrection of the Just is assured by our Redeemer 1. The Divine Laws are the Rule of Duty to the entire Man and not to the Soul only and they are obeyed or violated by the Soul and Body in Conjunction Therefore there must be a Resurrection of the Body that the entire Person may be capable of Recompences in Judgment The Soul designs the Body executes the Senses are the open Ports to admit Temptations Carnal Affections deprave the Soul corrupt the Mind and mislead it The Love of Sin is founded in bono jucundo in sensible Pleasures and the Members are the Servants of Iniquity The Heart is the Fountain of Prophaneness and the Tongue expresses it And the Body is obsequious to the Holy Soul in doing or suffering for God and denies its sensual Appetites and Satisfactions in Compliance with Reason and Grace The Members are the Instruments of Righteousness It follows then there will be an universal Resurrection that the rewarding Goodness of God may appear in making the Bodies of his Servants gloriously happy with their Souls and their Souls compleatly happy in Union with their Bodies to which they have a natural Inclination and his revenging Justice be manifest in punishing the Bodies of the Wicked with eternal Torments answerable to their Guilt And of the Possibility of the Resurrection the circular and continual Production of things in the World is a clear Demonstration of the Power of God for that effect There is a pregnant Instance that our Saviour and the Apostle made use of as an Image of the Resurrection A Grain of Corn sowed in the Earth corrupts and dies and after springs up entire its Death is a disposition to Life The Essays of God's Power in the Works of returning Nature Flowers and Fruits in their season instruct us how easily he can make those that are in the Dust to awake to Life If the Art of Man whose Power and Skill are very narrow and limited can refine Gold and Silver to such a Luster as if their matter were not Earth digged out of the Mines If from black Cinders it can form Chrystal Glasses so clear and shining how much more can Omnipotency recompact our Dust and reanimate it with a glorious Life Death that dissolves our vital Frame does not abolish the matter of our Bodies and though 't is corrupted and changed by a thousand accidents yet 't is unperishing and under whatsoever Colours and Figures it appears God perfectly discerns and will separate it for its proper use More particularly I will shew how the Resurrection of Christ is an assurance of the Resurrection of Believers to Glory As our Surety he was under the arrest of Death it becoming the holy Majesty of God and conducing to the ends of his Government not to derogate from the dignity of his Law but to lay the penalty upon his Son who interposed for us Now having finish'd the Work of our Redemption by his Sufferings his Resurrection was the just consequent of his Passion And 't is observable that his Resurrection tho one entire Act is ascribed as to himself so to his Father by whose consent and concurrence he rose again Therefore 't is said Whom God raised up having loosed the Pains of Death since it was impossible he should be holden by it 'T was naturally impossible upon the account of the Divine Power inherent in his Person and legally impossible because Divine Justice required that he should be raised to Life partly to vindicate his Innocence for he was reputed and suffered as a Malefactor and principally because he had fully satisfied God Accordingly the Apostle declares he died for our Sins and rose again for our Justification Having paid our Debt he was releas'd from the Grave and the Discharge was
the Affections to raise what is drooping and suppress what is rebellious For they are like the People of whom the Historian speaks qui nec totam servitutem pati possunt nec totam libertatem How many Enemies of our Salvation are lodg'd in our own bosoms The Falls of the Saints give sad evidence of this If the Body were unspotted from the World as in the Creation of Man there might be a just Plea of our unwillingness to part with it but since it is the incentive and instrument of Sin we should desire to be dissolved that we might be perfectly holy Death is the final Remedy of all the temporal and spiritual Evils to which we are liable here And the Love of Christ should make us willing to part with all the Endearments of this Life nay desirous to enter into the Celestial Paradise though we must pass under the Angels Sword the stroke of Death to come into his Presence He infinitely deserves our Love for we owe our Salvation and Eternal Glory to the merit of his Humiliation and the power of his Exaltation With what earnest affections did St. Paul desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Love gave Wings of Fire to his Soul ardent desires mounting to Heaven How valiant were the Martyrs in expressing acts of Love to Christ How boldly did they encounter Death that interpos'd between them and the sight of his Glory Their Love was hotter than the Flames that consumed them They as willingly left their Bodies as Elias let fall his Mantle to ascend to Heaven And how does it upbraid the coldness of our Love that we are so contented to be here absent from our Saviour That the Moles of the Earth who never saw the Light of the Sun and feed on bitter Roots are pleas'd in their dark Receptacles is no wonder but if Birds that are refresh'd with his chearful Beams and feed on sweet Fruits should willingly be consin'd in Caverns of the Earth it were unnaturally strange Thus for Pagans and those who are so in Heart though different in Profession that are so short-sighted and depraved that they only perceive and affect present sensible things for them to be unwilling to die is no wonder for then all that is valuable and delightful to them is lost for ever but for those who are inlightned by the Revelation of God so clearly concerning the state of Glory and have tasted the Goodness of the Lord and know the incomparable difference between the mean and frail Felicity here and the inestimable immutable Felicity hereafter for them to be unwilling to leave this World for that which is infinitely better is astonishing Such was the Love of our Saviour that his personal Glory in Heaven did not fully content him without the Saints partaking of it with him Father I will that those whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory If our Hearts do not answer his 't is a sad indication that we have not an Interest in him for the application of his Merits is always join'd with the imitation of his Vertues and the reflection of his Love The Lovers of Christ will join with the inflamed Spouse Draw us and we will run after thee O loosen our Affections from this World that we may readily ascend to thee they will renew the Sighs of holy David in his Banishment O when shall we come and appear before God! Lastly To die with Thanksgiving and Joy 'T is usual to compare this Life to a Voyage The Scripture is the Chart that describes the Coasts we must pass and the Rocks we must avoid Faith is the Compass that directs the Course we must steer Love is the Rudder that governs the Motion of the Ship Hope fills the Sails Now what Passenger does not rejoice at the discovery of his Country where his Estate and Heart is and more at the near approach to the Port where he is to land Is not Heaven the Country of the Saints Is not their Birth from above and their tendency to their Original And is not the blessed Bosom of Christ their Port O what joyful Thanksgivings are due to God when by his Spirit and Providence they have happily finish'd their Voyage through such dangerous Seas and are coming into the Land of the Living How joyful was to Noah the coming of the Dove with an Olive-Branch to shew him the Deluge was asswaged and the Time was come of his freedom from the troublesom company of Animals and from the straitness and darkness of the Ark to go forth and possess the World How joyful should Death be to a Saint that comes like the Dove in the evening to assure him the Deluge of Misery is ceas'd and the time is come of his enlargement from the Body his deliverance from the wretched sinful Society here and his possessing the Divine World Holy Souls are immediately transported by the Angels to Christ and by him presented to his Father without spot or wrinkle compleat in Holiness and prepared for Communion with him in Glory How joyfully are they received into Heaven by our Saviour and the blessed Spirits they are the reward of his Sufferings the precious and dear purchase of his Blood The Angels that rejoice at the Conversion of a Sinner do much more at the Glorification of a Saint and the Church of the First-born who have before us enter'd into Glory have a new accession of Joy when their younger Brethren arrive to the undefiled immortal Inheritance And is it not very becoming Believers joyfully to ascend to the Seat of Blessedness to the happy Society that inspires mutual Joys for ever For our encouragement there are numerous Instances of Believers that have with Peace and Joy though in various degrees past through the dark Valley to the Inheritance of Light Some have died with more Joy than they lived and triumph'd over the last Enemy with the vocal Praises of God others with silent Affections have quietly commended their Spirits into his Hand Some have inward Refreshings and Support others exuberant Joys and Ravishments as if the Light of Glory shined into them or the Vail of Flesh were drawn and their Spirits were present with the invisible World Some of the Martyrs in their cruellest Sufferings felt such impressions of Confidence and Alacrity that as in the House of Lamech there was accorded at the same time two discordant Callings by the two Brothers Jubal the Inventer of the Harp and Organ and Tubal-Cain the first Artificer in Brass and Iron the one practised on Instruments of Musick breathing harmonious Sounds and Melodies the other used Hammers and Anvils making noise and tumult So in some Persons whilst the heaviest Strokes fell on their Bodies their Souls were ravish'd with the sweetest Joy and Exultation Indeed 't is not thus always with the Saints for though Sin be pardoned yet the apprehensions of Guilt may remain When a
Parents that should instil the Principles of Godliness into their Children in their early Age and season their Minds with the knowledg of the Divine Laws to regulate their Lives and make them sensible of their Obligations to obey them that should recommend Religion to their Affections by an holy and heavenly Conversation if by the neglect of their Duty their Children are exposed as a Prey to the Tempter and ruin'd for ever it will enhance their last Reckoning and encrease the Score of their Guilts beyond expression And Masters of Families and all others that have Authority and Advantage to preserve or reform from evil those that are committed to their Care and to instruct and command them to do what is pleasing to God and profitable to their Souls will be sadly accountable for those that perish by their neglect In short we see by common Experience that Company and mutual Consent is a usual Motive to Sin and many Persons that alone would with abhorrence reject some Temptations yet are sociably sinful Now all those who by excitation or example lead others to Destruction as they are first in Sin will be chief in Punishment We read in the Parable of the rich Voluptuary that being in Hell he desired a Messenger might be dispatch'd from the Dead to warn his Brethren lest they should come to that place of Torment Is there such Charity in Hell to the Souls of others No that Furnace always burns with its proper Flames there is not a spark of that Divine Fire there But remembring how guilty he had been of their Sins feared that his Torments would be encreased by their coming thither Society in endless Sorrows does not divide but reflect them Now if Damnation for Sin be such a Misery as is express'd in the Scripture by the most violent Figures and Words of the heaviest signification if all the possible Tortures suffered here are but a Lenitive to the preparations of Wrath in Hell how miserable shall those be who as if a single Damnation were a light matter do not only commit Sin in their own Persons but are in combination with Satan to corrupt and destroy others and multiply Damnation against themselves These treasure up Wrath against the day of Wrath. Briefly The whole Process of that Day the Arraignment and Sentence will be so ordered the Righteousness and Reasonableness of the Proceedings will be so manifest as to clear the Judg and confound the Guilty God will be justified in his Sentence and overcome when he judgeth I shall now come to apply this great Doctrine 1. Let us from what has been discours'd of Judgment to come be excited to confirm our Faith in this great and useful Doctrine and by serious and frequent thoughts to apply it to our selves Some within the Church have only a superficial belief of this as a point of the Religion wherein they were educated but carnal Affections Fear Hope Love and Desire controul their Assent as to its operation upon them They believe in the general that God is the Judg and Rewarder of our Actions and in the absence of Temptation resolve to obey him but when a strong Tryal comes from some temporal Good or Evil that is present their Faith is negligent and unactive to keep them from Sin Now to make our Faith powerful we must First confirm it by convincing Arguments that it may be an undoubted Assurance a certain Light directive and perswasive in the course of our Lives Some Doctrines of Religion that are of an incomprehensible nature and should be received with silent adoration for the Authority of the Revealer are obstinately contradicted by some upon a vain pretence that nothing is to be believed that will not endure the rigorous inquisition of Reason and be comprehended by our narrow Minds but Reason though darkned sees the necessity of a future Judgment Nature and Scripture testify there is a God and that he has a Right and Power and Will to distribute the rewards of Vertue and the penalties of Vice to his Subjects To deny this is directly against the implanted Notion of the Deity in the Heart of Man There is a real difference between Moral Good and Evil not depending upon Opinion but arising from the immutable Nature of things and the eternal Law of God Otherwise considered in it self it were no more faulty to murder a Parent than to kill a Fly nor to rob a Travellor than to chase a Deer But the Conscience of the most profligate Wretch would startle at such an Assertion The disposition and admirable order of the World in its various parts and the vicissitude of Seasons declare to the observing Mind that a most wise good and powerful God governs and preserves all things by his vigorus Influence And can it be that the Divine Providence so visibly wise and good in regulating the course of Nature should be defective towards Man the most noble part of the World And can it be extended to humane Affairs if there be no other than the present state wherein the Righteous are afflicted and the Wicked prosper where Sins of the deepest stain and the lowdest cry are unpunish'd and the sublime and truly heroick Vertues are unrewarded nay where Vice receives the natural reward of Vertue Honour and Felicity and Vertue the just wages of Vice Disgrace and Sufferings 'T is necessary therefore that there be a future State and a righteous distribution of Rewards according to the good and evil of Mens Actions here The Heathens disguised this terrible Truth under the Fictions of the Infernal Judges Minos and Rhadamanthus and Eacus And the Furies and Vultures and fiery Lake which they thought tormented the Wicked in the next World discover what apprehensions they had of the desert of Sin and the punishment that certainly attended it The Guilty would fain be freed from the terrours of it and strangle Conscience that is bound over to give Testimony in the Day of Judgment that they may sin without scruples But though Fear be a troublesom and involuntary Passion they cannot totally extinguish the internal sense and presages of future Judgment but as the motions of Courage came upon Sampson at times so Conscience awakened by sharp Afflictions by sudden Dangers and the approaches of Death makes a sad deduction of past Sins and forecasts cruel things It cites the Offender before the enlightened Tribunal of Heaven scourges with remorse and makes him feel even here the strokes of Hell Tho' the Sin be secret and the guilty Person powerful not within the cognizance or reach of humane Justice yet Conscience has a Rack within and causes pain and anxiety by fearful expectations of Judgment to come And Divine Revelation is most express in declaring this great Truth The Light of Faith is more clear and certain from the infallible Word of God than the Light of Reason Before the Flood Enoch in the early Age of the World foretold it Behold the Lord cometh
the glorious Creatour As if one from the Region of the Stars should look down upon the Earth the Mountains and Hills with the Vallies would appear one flat Surface an equal Plain the height and the lowness of the several parts being indiscernible at that immense distance Now in Heaven the Divine Majesty is most visible and most awful and adorable The sublimest Spirits cover their Faces before his glorious Brightness The Prophet Isaiah had a representation of Heaven I saw the Lord sitting upon a Throne high and lifted up and his Train filled the Temple Above it stood the Seraphims each one had six Wings With twain he cover'd his Face with twain he cover'd his Feet with twain he did fly And one cried to another and said Holy holy holy Lord of Hosts the whole Earth is full of his Glory They highly honour him by the reflection of his separate and peerless Excellencies his Almighty Power his Infinite Supremacy and Eternal Empire in their consert of Praises This is the principal Duty of Angels and Men to the blessed Creator for his admirable Perfections and his excellent Benefits The Evidence of it is so entire that the reasonable Mind cannot suspend its Assent for Goodness and Beauty the Fruit and the Flower of amiable Things do so recommend them to the Understanding and Will that they powerfully allure and engage the Affections Now these are in God in unspeakable degrees of Eminence The Prophet breaks out in a rapture How great is his Goodness how great is his Beauty 'T was a Precept of the Ceremonial Law that the Firstlings of the Flock and the first and best Fruits of the Earth should be offer'd to God not as if the first that open'd the Belly was more valuable in his Account than the last or the most early Fruits in the Spring more pleasing to him than the later in the Autumn but 't was instructive that our Love the first born of the Soul and the beginning of its strength should be consecrated to God 2. In Heaven the Saints as perfectly love God as they know him The Love of God is the Essential Character of a Saint that distinguishes him from the Unregenerate Indeed it is strange that God who is infinitely lovely and infinitely liberal and benificent should not prevail on the Hearts of all Men but if we consider the degeneracy of Mankind how their Minds are depraved and deceived and their Affections are vitiated the Wonder will cease Carnal Men have not due Conceptions of God and will not attentively observe his amiable Perfections St. John tells us He that loveth not doth not know God Knowledg is the leading Principle in the Operations of the Soul There must be a heavenly Eye to discover the heavenly Beauty before there can be love of it Now Men are in ignorant darkness and are defiled in Flesh and Spirit and therefore cannot love God who is glorious in Holiness Without resemblance there can be no affectionate Union which is the Essence of Love The contrariety of Dispositions infers a contrariety of Affections The Scripture expresses this in dreadful Colours The carnal Mind is enmity against God the Friendship of the World is enmity with God that is Pride and Covetousness and Sensuality which are the Lusts of the Carnal Mind and are terminated upon worldly Things are inconsistent with the Love of God The Justice of God is terrible to the Consciences and his Holiness odious to the Affections of the Unrenewed 'Till by Divine Grace the Understanding is enlightned and purified to have right apprehensions of God till the Will and Affections are cleansed and changed till there be a resemblance of God's holy Nature and a conformity to his holy Laws they are not capable of delightful adhering to him which is the internal essential Property of Love But those who are partakers of the Divine Nature the holy and heavenly taste and see how good the Lord is and according to the Illustrations of the Mind such are the Impressions upon the Heart the Love of God in their Breasts here is like smoaking Flax but in Heaven 't is a triumphant Flame God is the first Fair the Original of all amiable Excellencies in whom they shine in their unstained Lustre and Perfection when he fully reveals himself and displays the richest Beams of his Love and Glory how transporting and endearing is that Sight Our Affections that are now scatter'd on many things wherein some faint Reflections of his Goodness appear shall then be united in one full Current to him who is all in all In Heaven the immense Treasures of his Grace are reveal'd That when Man for his rebellious Sin was justly expell'd from Paradise and under the Sentence of Eternal Death God should not only pardon but prefer us to the dignity of his Children and prepare such a Glory for us and us for such a Glory This will inspire the Saints with such ardent Affections that will make them equal to the Angels those pure and everlasting Flames of Love to God In Heaven we shall be with Jesus the Mediator of the New Covenant who is seated at the right Hand of God And how admirable will he appear to the Sense and Soul of every glorified Saint for we shall see the King in his Beauty When our Saviour was upon the Holy Mount and one vanishing Beam of Glory appear'd in his Transfiguration Peter was so transported at the sight that he forgot the World and himself How ravishing then will the sight of him in his Triumphant Majesty be when we shall be transfigur'd our selves Now while Believers are in the shadows of the earthly State they love their unseen Saviour with such intense degrees of affection as deface all the washy Colours all the vain loves of things in this World but when they are admitted into his shining Presence and see him in the day of Celestial Glory with what an extasy of Affection will they be transported We shall then feel the endearing Obligations our Saviour has laid upon us who ransom'd us with so rich a Price and purchas'd for us such an unvaluable Inheritance For in proportion as we shall understand his Greatness in himself we shall his Goodness to us The Eternal Son of God descended from the Heaven of Heavens to our lowly Earth and which is more from the Majesty wherein he there reign'd and was visible to the Angels he became Man that he might die to redeem us from the most woful Captivity from Death and the sting of Death Sin and the strength of Sin the Law and obtain a blessed Life and Immortality for us O unexampled Love Greater Love hath no Man than this to lay down his Life for his Friend And what is the Life of a sinful Man a vanishing Vapour a Life mix'd with Troubles and Vexation and to lay down this for a Friend deservedly dear is the highest expression of humane Love But for the Son of God to lay down his Life
considered as an Affection of Friendship is always attended with two Desires to be assured of Reciprocal Love and to enjoy the Conversation of the Person beloved the testimony of his Esteem and Good-will This kind of Affection seems to be inconsistent with that infinite distance that is between God and the Creature But tho 't is disproportionable to the Divine Majesty 't is proportionable to his Goodness Accordingly our Saviour promises He that loves me shall be loved of my Father and I will love him and manifest my self unto him And to confirm our belief of this astonishing Condescention repeats it If a Man love me my Father will love him and we will come to him and make our abode with him In the present state the signs of God's special Favour are exhibited to his Friends Now he bestows on them the honour of being his Sons the Graces and Comforts of his Spirit the precious Earnests of his Love and Seal of their Redemption But in eminency of degrees the Emanations of his Love and the Effects of his Beneficence are incomparably more glorious in Heaven Here the Saints are adopted there crown'd There he opens all the bright Treasures of his Wisdom the Riches of his Goodness the Beauties of his Holiness the Glories of his Power and by the intimate application of his Presence makes his Love most sensible to them Infinite Goodness excites and draws forth all the Powers of the Soul and fills the utmost Capacity and Expansion of the Spirit From hence perpetual Pleasure and Satisfaction springs O the pure Delights between God and glorified Souls God looks on them with an engaged Eye as his own by many dear Titles and is ravish'd with the Reflex of his own Excellencies shining in them As the Bridegroom rejoices over the Bride 't is the Language of Divine Love so their God rejoices over them The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save he will rejoice over thee with joy he will rest in his love he will rejoice over thee with singing He is infinitely delighted in the communication of his Goodness to them And what a blessed Rest do they find in the compleat fruition of his Goodness All their Desires quietly expire in his Bosom What triumphs of Joy follow Can we frame a fuller Conception of Happiness than to be perfectly loved by the best and most blessed Being and perfectly to love him and to partake of the richest Emanations of his Loving-kindness that is far more valuable and desireable than Life it self How precious and joyful will the Presence of Christ be to the Saints 'T was his Prayer on Earth Father I will that they also whom thou hast given me be with me where I am that they may behold my Glory When the Saints are received into the Everlasting Kingdom the first Object that draws their admiring regards is Christ on the Throne Inestimable Felicity whether we consider him as the Son of God in whose conspicuous Countenance all the Glory of his Father shines or as the Saviour of Men and the Head of the Elect upon a double account partly that he that loved us and wash'd us from our Sins in his Blood after suffering all Indignities and Cruelties for our sake has received the Reward of his meritorious Sufferings the triumph of his Victory being glorified with the Father with the Glory he had before the World was and partly because every Member shall be conform'd to him in Glory The sight of the Face of Moses when radiant had no transforming Efficacy for the Light of it was not in him as its Spring but by derivation But the Son of God is Light essentially and the sight of his Glory will transform us into his Likeness And how dear and joyful is the presence of the Saints to Christ He then sees of the travel of his Soul the fruit of his sharp Sufferings and bleeding Love and is satisfied How delightful is it to him to see all his Spiritual Progeny safely brought to Heaven and made partakers of his Glory and Joy in his everlasting Kingdom For according to the extent of the Object and dearness of the Affection Joy rises He will then present them to his Father with infinite complacency Behold here am I and the Children whom thou hast given me The dearest Affections of Christ and the Saints in Heaven are mutual and reflexive In the Sacred Song the expressions of Love Desire and Joy borrowed from the espousals of Solomon and his beloved Wife are as it were Characters in the Bark to be understood in a spiritual Sense of the Mystical Marriage of Christ and the Church What endearing entercourse is there between the most perfect Lover and his Spouse inspir'd with the same pure Flam Here amiable Perfections attract his Eye and Heart Thou art all fair my Love there is no spot in thee His propriety in the Church is his unvaluable Treasure My Vineyard which is mine is ever before me He repeats the word Mine in the sweetest and most tender manner And the Church with the same harmonious Affections speaks of Christ. She contemplates in a soft extasy his ever-satisfying Beauty My Beloved is the chiefest of ten thousand he is altogether lovely She breaks forth in triumph My Beloved is mine and I am his By all their expressions of joyful Love and Union we may ascend in our Thoughts what are the Joys of Heaven where the Communion of Christ and the Church is entire and uninterrupted for ever If Faith and Love of our unseen Saviour produce a Joy unspeakable and glorious as if Believers were wrap'd up to Paradise or Paradise descended into them what will the sight and fruition of him There is as great a difference in degrees between the Joy that flows from the assurance and application of Faith and the Joy from Vision and full Possession as between the impression of Joy the Forerunner of Christ felt when he sprang in the Womb at the coming of our Saviour and his ravishing Joy when he saw Christ and pointed him out to his Disciples Behold the Lamb of God that takes away the Sins of the World 3. The supream Joy of the Saints is for the Felicity and Glory of God himself For as the holy Soul feels no more powerful motive to love God than because he is most worthy of it as he is God a Being of infinite Excellencies and therefore to be loved above the dearest Persons and Things even it self so the highest Joy it partakes of is from this consideration that God is infinitely blessed and glorious For in this the supream desire of Love is accomplish'd that the most beloved Object is perfectly honour'd and pleased In Heaven the Love of the Saints to God is in its highest Perfection and they see his Glory in the most perfect manner which causes a transcendent Joy to them And this is one reason why the Saints tho shining with unequal degrees of
rejoice and triumph in the Happiness of one another With what an unimaginable tenderness do they embrace What Reciprocations of Endearments are between them O their ravishing Conversation and sweet Entercourse for their Presence together in Heaven is not a silent Show In the Transfiguration Moses and Elias talk'd with Christ We may understand a little of it by the sensible complacence that is among sincere Friends here In pure Amity there is a threefold Union a Union of Resemblance that is the principle of it likeness causes Love a Union of Affection that is its Essence 't is said of Jonathan that incomparable Friend his Soul was knit with the Soul of David and he loved him as his own Soul the Union of Conversation that is requisite to the satisfaction of Love What an entertainment of Love and Joy is there in the presence and discourses of dear Friends their mutual Aspects like a Chain compos'd of Spirits luminous and active draw and fasten their Souls to one another The Felicity of Love consists in their Conversation Now in Heaven whatever is pleasant in Friendship is in Perfection and whatever is distastful by Mens Folly and Weakness is abolish'd With what excellent Discourses do they entertain one another If David felt such inward Pleasure from the sense of God's Favours that he could not restrain the expression of it but invites the Saints Come and hear all ye that fear the Lord and I will tell you what he has done for my Soul Certainly in Heaven the Blessed with overflowing Affections recount the Divine Benefits the admirable Methods whereby the Life of Grace was begun preserv'd and carried on in the midst of Temptations the continual Succession of Mercies in the time of their Hopes and the Consummation of all in the time of their enjoyment How joyfully do they concur in their Thanksgivings to God for the Goodness of Creation in making them reasonable Creatures capable to know love and enjoy him when they might have been of the lowest Order in the whole Sphere of Beings for his compassionate Care and Providence over them in this World but especially for his sovereign and singular Mercy in electing them to be Vessels of Honour for his powerful Grace in rescuing them from the cruel and ignominious Bondage of Sin for his most free Love that justified them from all their Guilt by the Death of his only Son and glorified them with himself They are never weary in this delightful Exercise but continually bless him for his Mercy that endures for ever We may judg by the Saints here when they are in a fit disposition to praise God what Fervors they feel in their united Praises of him in Heaven The Psalmist in an Extasy calls to all the parts of the World to join with him The Lord reigns let the Heavens rejoice and the Earth be glad let the Sea roar let the Fields be joyful and all that dwell therein He desires that Nature should be elevated above it self that the dead parts be inspired with Life the insensible feel motions of Joy and those that want a Voice break forth in Praises to adorn the Divine Triumph With what Life and Alacrity will the Saints in their blessed Communion celebrate the Object of their Love and Praises The Seraphims about the Throne cried to one another to express their Zeal and Joy in celebrating his Eternal Purity and Power and the Glory of his Goodness O the unspeakable Pleasure of this Concert when every Soul is harmonious and contributes his part to the full Musick of Heaven O could we hear but some Eccho of those Songs wherewith the Heaven of Heavens resounds some remains of those Voices wherewith the Saints above triumph in the Praises in the solemn Adoration of the King of Spirits how would it inflame our Desires to be join'd with them Blessed are those that are in thy House they always praise thee 3. The fulness of Joy in Heaven is everlasting without defect and without end 1. 'T is undecaying the productive Causes are conservative of it being always equal Those are the beatifick Object and the continual fruition of it Whilst we are here below the Sun of Righteousness as to our perception and sense has Ascensions and Declinations Accesses and Recesses And our Earth is not so purified but some Vapours arise that intercept his chearful refreshing Light From hence there are alternate successions of Spiritual Comforts and Sorrows of Doubts and filial Confidence in the Saints 'T is a rare Favour of Heaven when an humble Believer in his whole course is so circumspect as not to provoke God to appear displeased against him When a Christian as those tutelar Angels spoken of in the Gospel always beholds the Face of his Heavenly Father and converses with him with an holy Liberty And what a torment the hiding of God's Face is to a deserted Soul only they know who feel it External troubles are many times attended with more Consolations to the Spirit than Afflictions to Sense but to love God with a transcendent Affection and to fear he is our Enemy no Punishment exceeds or is equal to it As his Loving-kindness in their esteem is better than Life so his Displeasure is worse than Death How do they wrestle with God by Prayers and Tears and offer as it were a holy Violence to the King of Heaven to recover their first serenity of Mind the lost Peace of Heart How passionately do they cry out with Job in the Book of his Patience O that I were as in months past as in the days when God preserved me when his Candle shin'd upon my head and when by his Light I walk'd through darkness As I was in the days of my youth when the Secret of God was upon my Tabernacle And sometimes God delays the revealing himself even to his dearest Children not that he does not see their Necessities and hears their Prayers or is so hard that till their Extremities he is not moved with Compassion but for wise and holy Reasons Either that they may not return to folly if by any presumptuous Sin they forfeited their Peace or if they have been careful to please him yet he may deprive them of Spiritual Comforts for a time to keep them humble and that with an obedient resignation to his Sovereign Pleasure they may wait for his reviving Presence And then Joy returns greater than before For thus God usually renders with interest what he suspended only for trial But the Saints above are for ever enlightned with the vital splendor and dear regards of his Countenance always enjoy his beamy smiles A continual effusion of Glory illustrates Heaven and all its blessed Inhabitants And their Contemplation of God is fixed If the Object though extraordinary glorious were transient or the Eye so weak that it could only see it but by glances the height of Joy would not be perpetual But the mind is prepar'd with supernatural vigour to see the brightness
Life by the Promises of the Gospel 2. We must chuse Heaven as our supream Happiness and regard it as the main end of our Lives Man fell from his Duty and Felicity by preferring sensual Pleasure before the Favour of God and became guilty of the greatest Disobedience and Dishonour to his Maker and is restored by the holy change of his Will the setting his Affections on a pure Spiritual Blessedness This subliming the Will and turning its Love and Choice from the Creatures to God is the effect of Divine Grace and wrought in a rational way For Man is not moved as artificial Engines by force nor as Brutes from necessity their Faculties being determined by the outward application of Objects he is not drawn up to Heaven by such a natural impression as Steel by the Load-stone nor forc'd by a violent motion as a Stone ascends but as an understanding free Agent by the direction of the enlightned Mind and the consent of the Will an elective unconstrained Faculty And herein the Wisdom Goodness and Equity of God's Transactions with Man appears His Wisdom in that as he has ordered in the whole sphere of Nature that the active Powers of every Creature be drawn forth into exercise for their preservation and accordingly he is pleased to work in and by them so the Understanding and Will the Principles of Operation in Man are to deliberate and choose in order to his Happiness Otherwise the rational Faculties would be in vain His Goodness and Equity in that he sets before them Eternal Life as the Reward of Obedience God will be glorified by him as a Law-giver and a Benefactor and has ordained in the Gospel that all who chuse and diligently seek the Kingdom of Heaven shall infallibly obtain it and none be deprived of it but for their neglect The Decree of a final state of Misery though not in time yet is consequent in the order of causes to the obstinate reluctancy of Sinners against restoring Grace and the wilful forsaking their own Mercies Therefore God vindicates the Equity of his Proceedings with Men by their own Principles and with tender pity expostulates Why will ye die The corrupt Will declining from God and adhering to the Creature as its Happiness is the true cause of Man's ruin This will infinitely clear the Wisdom and Justice the Purity and Goodness of God from all Imputation The choice of Heaven for our Felicity is primarily to be determined for 't is from the prospect of it that all holy Counsels derive their Life and Vigour As in drawing the Picture of a Man the first work is to delineate the Head not only as the part that in dignity and eminence is above the rest but as it regulates the drawing of the other parts and gives a just proportion and correspondence between them without which the whole Figure becomes disordered and monstrous Thus in the moral consideration of Man that which is primarily to be considered is the Soul and its final Felicity as incomparably more excellent than the Body and its Pleasures for this will have a powerful influence upon the whole Life directing to avoid what is inconsistent and impertinent and to do what is conducive to it Now this being a matter of unspeakable importance I will First Shew what the regular Choice of Heaven includes as to its Qualities and Effects Secondly Direct how to make this Choice Thirdly Present some powerful Motives to excite us to it The Qualities of this Choice are three 1. It must be sincere and cordial 2. Early in our first and best Days 3. Firm and constant 1. It must be sincere and cordial The most essential and active Desire in humane Nature is to Happiness but there being two kinds of good Things presented to the Will that solicit the Affections the Pleasures of Sense and spiritual Joys from hence it is that that which makes Men happy is the Object of Election And although there is nothing more uniform and inviolable than the natural inclination to Happiness yet the great distinction of Mankind arises from this source the regular or perverse use of this Inclination the wise or mistaking choice of Happiness Now the sincerity of our Choice is discovered when 't is clear and entire arising from a transcendent esteem of the Favour and Enjoyment of God as our chief Good and absolutely requisite for us And from hence it is evident that the Choice of true Happiness necessarily includes the despising and rejecting of the false Happiness that stands in competition with it There cannot be two reigning Principles in the Soul for it cannot vigorously apply it self to two Objects at the same time Our Saviour has decided it No Man can serve two Masters for either he will hate the one and love the other or hold to the one and despise the other ye cannot serve God and Mammon The Masters are irreconcileable and their Commands are directly opposite It was as possible to place upon the same Altar the Ark of God and the Idol of the Philistins as that Heaven and the World should compound and take equal shares in our Affections Indeed if the Conceptions in the Mind are but faint and floating of the universal satisfying Goodness of the Object proposed to make us happy the Will remains in suspence but when 't is clearly and strongly represented the Heart is drawn entirely to embrace it Divine Grace by the illumination of the Understanding purifies and changes the depraved Will and heals the distempered Affections The wise Merchant that had a discerning Eye saw reason enough to part with all that he might gain the Pearl of Price the Grace and Glory of the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle declares his resolute contempt of the concurrence of all the Prerogatives either the Law or the World could afford him that he might have an Interest in Christ the Reconciler and Restorer of Man to the Favour and Fellowship of God But what things were gain to me those I counted loss for Christ yea doubtless I count all things but loss for the Excellency of the Knowledg of Jesus Christ my Lord for whom I have suffered the loss of all things and do count them but dung that I might win Christ. The glorious Gospel is the brightest and most pleasant Light that ever shone upon the World a Revelation of the deepest Wisdom and most admirable Love wherein the Combination of God's holy and wonderful Counsels for our Salvation is unfolded and accordingly St. Paul with the greatest Life of Affection sets forth his value of it and by full and most vilifying Expressions rejects all things in comparison of it 2. The Sincerity of the Heavenly Choice is discovered by a zealous observance of the Means requisite in order to it Inanimate things incline to rest in their Centre the Rational intend and pursue it The blessed End when valued and respected according to its worth excites and directs the Affections and Endeavours in that order
and as destructive to set our chief Love and Joy that is only due to God upon the Creature And what follows in the Prophet is justly applicable to such Persons He feedeth on Ashes that not only afford no nourishment but is very hurtful to the Body a deceived Heart has turn'd him aside that he cannot deliver his Soul nor say Is there not a Lie in my right Hand Thus Carnal Men are so blinded with their Affections to these short-liv'd Pleasures that they cannot take the true liberty of judging and reflecting that they are deceived and delighted with empty Shadows that will suddenly end in disappointment and sorrow Briefly these glittering Fictions and false Joys cannot please without an Error in the Mind that shall last but a little while And if you saw a distracted Person sing and dance with a conceit that he is a Prince would you be willing to lose sober Reason for his phantastick Pleasure especially if you knew that his chearful Fit should suddenly change into a mournful or raging Madness for ever But the Blessedness above is unchangeable as God the Author and Object of it Eternal as the Soul that enjoys it And shall the World that passes away with the Lusts thereof turn our Affections from the undefiled immortal Inheritance Shall the vanishing appearance the fleeting Figure of Happiness be preferred before what is substantial and durable If a spark of true Reason of sincere Love to our Souls be left we shall count all things but dross and dung that we may gain the Kingdom of Glory Thus Eternity inlightens thus it counsels us To encourage us to seek the Kingdom of Heaven I shall propound other Motives to Consideration 1. God is very willing that Men should be saved and partake of his Glory For this end he has brought Life and Immortality to light in the Gospel The Lord Jesus the Sun of Righteousness has dispel'd the darkness of the Gentiles and the shadows of the Jews and rendred the blessed and eternal State so clear and so visible that every Eye may see it Our assurance of it is upon infallible Principles And though the excellent Glory of it is inexpressible yet 't is represented under variety of fair and lovely Types to invite our Affections Besides God makes an earnest offer of Life to us in his Word he Commands Counsels Excites Urges nay Intreats and Beseeches with infinite Tenderness that Men will accept of it Thus the Apostle declares Now then wa are Embassadors for Christ as though God did beseech you by us we pray you in Christ's stead be reconciled to God Is it not evident then beyond the most jealous suspicion God is desirous of our Happiness Can we imagine any design any insincerity in his Words Why should Heaven court a Worm 'T is his love to Souls that expresses it self in that condescending compassionate manner to melt and overcome the perverse and hardned in Sin And as his Words so his Works are a convincing Argument of his Will His most gracious sustaining and supporting of sinful Men his innumerable Benefits conferr'd upon them in the provision of Good and preservation from Evil are for this End that by the conduct of his merciful Providence they may be led to Repentance and received into his Favour And the temporal Judgments inflicted on Sinners are medicinal in their Nature and in his design to bring them to a sight and abhorrence of Sin to prevent their final ruin if they prove mortal to any 't is from their obstinate Corruption The time allowed to those who are obnoxious to his Justice every hour is not a meer reprieve from Torment but a space of Repentance to sue out a Pardon They are spared in order to Salvation The Lord is long-suffering to usward not willing that any should perish but that all should come to Repentance But above all his other Works the giving of his Son to be a Sacrifice for Sin is an incomparable demonstration how much he delights in the Salvation of Men. Since God has been at such cost to put them into a capacity of obtaining the Kingdom of unchangeable Glory far transcending the earthly Paradise that was forfeited by Sin we have the strongest assurance that he desires their Felicity And how guilty and miserable will those Sinners be that when Christ has opened Heaven to us by his Blood refuse to enter into it When Brutus the most noble Roman propounded to a Philosopher his design to restore Rome to Liberty he replied That the action would be glorious indeed but that so many servile Spirits that tamely stoopt under Tyranny were not worthy that a Man of Vertue and Courage should hazard himself to recover that for them which they did so lightly esteem The Redemption of Mankind is without controversy the Master-piece of God's works wherein his principal Attributes appear in their excellent Glory But how astonishing is the unworthiness of Men who wretchedly neglect Salvation which the Son of God purchased by a Life full of Sorrows and a Death of infinite Sufferings Blessed Redeemer may it be spoken with the humble affectionate and thankful sense of thy dying Love why didst thou give thy self a ransom for those who are charm'd with their Misery and with the most foul Ingratitude disvalue so precious a Redemption How justly shall they be for ever deprived of it Behold ye despisers and wonder and perish 2. Consider this glorious Blessedness shall be the Portion of all that unfeignedly choose it and earnestly seek it This motive was inclosed in the first but deserves a separate Consideration And of this we have infallible assurance from the Word of God who cannot lie Godliness has the Promise of the Life to come This is a faithful saying and worthy of all acceptation The hope of a Christian is so certain that 't is compar'd to an Anchor fastned in Heaven And besides the Fidelity of his Word God has given us Security of the Reward the Life of his Son This methinks should turn the Current of our Desires and Endeavours to Heaven For notwithstanding all our toil and sweat the labour of the Day and the watchings of the Night for the obtaining earthly things yet we many times fall short of our aims and hopes 'T was the observation of the wisest Man I returned and saw under the Sun that the Race is not to the Swift nor the Battel to the Strong neither yet Bread to the Wise nor yet Riches to Men of Vnderstanding nor yet Favour to Men of Skill but Time and Chance happeneth to all Indeed such is the order of Divine Providence in the World there must be different conditions of Men here some Rich others Poor some Noble others Mean some in Command others in Subjection And from hence it is also evident that neither Dignity nor Riches nor Pleasures are the Happiness of Man For 't is not becoming the Wisdom and Goodness of God to make that the last end of the
God causes the Hatred of Sin and therefore 't is against all Sin not only to prevent the Exercise of it but to eradicate it out of the Soul All the fearful consequences of Sin do not render it so odious to a gracious Spirit as its own proper Idea and intrinsick Evil as 't is contrary to the holy Nature and Law of God Love unites the Soul to God and turns the Thoughts continually to him and the lively sense of his Majesty and Presence who is so pure that he cannot behold Iniquity causes an aversion from all that is displeasing to his Divine Eyes And from hence it is that a zealous Lover of God is frequent and strict in reviewing his Heart and Ways and upon the discovery of sinful failings renews his Repentance which is the exercise of Grief and Love and renews his purposes of more care and circumspection for the future Love aspires to be like God in all possible degrees of Purity for it inflames our Desires after his Favour as that which is better than Life and all the sweetest enjoyments of it and Holiness is the powerful attractive of God's delightful Love to us Love is the Principle of free ingenuous and joyful Obedience 'T was our Saviour's Meat and Drink to do the Will of his Father For Love is the fountain of Pleasure it moves the Soul with Election and Liberty and makes every thing grateful that proceeds from it Therefore the Apostle declares that the Law is not made for a righteous Man that is as it is enforc'd by terrible penalties to constrain rebellious Sinners to Obedience for Love is an internal living Law in the Heart and has an Imperial Power over his Actions And this also distinguishes the renovation of one sanctified by the Spirit from the imperfect Change that is made in the Unregenerate They may stop the eruption of corrupt Nature but are Swine that being wash'd have an inclination to wallow in the Mire they may by strong impressions of Fear be urged to do many good things but in this they are like a Bowl that is thrown with such violence as controuls the drawing of the Bias and makes it run contrary to it But Love enclines the Soul to obey the holy Motions of the Spirit with facility as the Wheels in Ezekiel's Vision turned every way with readiness as the Spirit moved them And with holy Love there is a spiritual Power communicated that both the natural averseness and impotence to what is good may be healed By the virtue of the sanctifying Spirit the Soul that was dead absolutely unable to perform spiritual and supernatural Acts is revived to a kind of Omnipotence it can do all things required by the Evangelical Covenant by the new Law that is in the hands of our merciful Mediator for Salvation 'T is true there are relicks of Sin in the best and the Flesh and Spirit are repugnant Principles warring against one another but the holy Spirit will make no capitulation or composition with Sin but is so predominant that Sin is gradually subdued and does not so freely and frequently break forth as it does from the unrenewed By the accession of his Strength we are enabled to mortify the Deeds of the Body to crucify the Flesh with the Affections and Lust thereof And to perform holy Duties with freedom alacrity and zeal in such a manner as is acceptable to God In short saving Grace is distinguish'd from that which is common to the Unregenerate by its prevalency and constancy There may be a declination in the Saints tending to a downfal but the Seed of God that supernatural Grace that remains in them will by the Power of the holy Spirit recover the Supremacy Others may be enlightned and feel some good Motions and transient Touches as Saul had his rapture among the Prophets but they are not truly entirely and perseveringly converted to God they are not proof against the allurements or Terrors of the World They make a fair Profession till they are tried by Temptations Congealed drops of Water appear like solid Chrystal till the warm beams of the Sun dissolve them and discover the hypocrisy of the Chrystal False Jewels may seem to have the lustre of Diamonds till they are broke by a fall and discovered to be Glass Thus the Riches the Honours and Pleasures of the Flesh melt some and temporal Evils break the Resolutions of others and make it evident they were not sincere Converts But where the holy Spirit savingly works he is said to dwell he is not like a Passenger or a Tenant at will that neglects the House and suffers it to fall into ruine but as the Proprietary and Owner he keeps perpetual residence in true Christians and by his continual Influence preserves them from final Apostacy Now from hence we may judg whether we have an Interest in Christ and his Benefits For the Apostle clearly tells us That if any Man have not the Spirit of Christ he is none of his By this sacred Signature we are appropriated to Christ and visibly distinguished from the World For though the secret and pure Influences of the Spirit in the Soul are only known to the Person that feels them yet his active Inspirations are declarative of his Presence and Power in the outward Conversation As the Wind that is of so thin and subtil a nature that 't is invisible in it self but we certainly know from what Point it blows by the course and way that the Ship makes thus the Spirit of God who is compared to the Wind is discovered by an infallible Indication his Fruits and Effects in a holy Life And those who have communion with Christ by his Spirit have a share in his Victories and may with confidence meet the last Enemy Death For we are assured If the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwell in us he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken our mortal Bodies by the Spirit that dwelleth in us A preparative conformity to Christ in Grace will be followed with a consummate in Glory But those who never felt the sanctifying efficacy of the Spirit in their Hearts and Lives though they are Christians in profession yet they have no other Union with Christ than a dead Branch with a Tree that receives no sap and virtue from it or an artificial Member joined to the Body that may have the outward clothing and ornaments proper to that part but derives no Life and Sense from it Whoever is in Christ is a new Creature And only those who partake in the first Resurrection from Sin shall be exempted from the Power of the second Death and upon just grounds are freed from the Terrors of the first To apply this Point let us 1. Consider our dear Obligations to our blessed Saviour who to free us from the sting and enslaving fear of Death submitted to it with all its Terrors from God and wicked Men. He felt a
Sadness to an Agony in his Soul and suffered the equal extremities of Ignominy and Torment in his Body The Favour of God was intercepted from him that it may shine upon us in that gloomy hour And all his terrible Sufferings though foreknown by his enlightned Mind could not weaken his determined Will to undergo them for us But when Peter regarded with a more tender eye his Life than our Salvation he was repell'd with indignation Unparallel'd Love no less than Divine transcending all the Instances of humane Affection The highest kind and excess of Love amongst Men is to die for another and the highest degree in that kind is to die to save an Enemy and of this our Saviour is the singular Example Love incomprehensible it passes knowledg and all understanding but his who express'd it His Love was equal to the heighth of his Glory from whence he descended and the depth of his Sufferings that he sustained in our stead By washing us from our Sins in his Blood he makes us Kings dignifies us with spiritual Soveraignty over not only defiling but disturbing Passions The freest and most confident Sinner in the World that rebels against the Divine Laws without restraint is a Slave not only under the Chains of his imperious Lusts but in that he is liable to the scourgings of Conscience when ever awaken'd and to the servile fear of Death every day But the sincere Christian has a clear and sweet Peace a blessed Tranquillity from the tormenting apprehensions and fears of Death that are the just consequents of Guilt One of the ancient Romans highly celebrates the Astronomers who discover'd the true Causes of the Eclipses of the Sun and Moon and freed the World from the double darkness of Ignorance and Fear for before that Discovery Men believed the obscuring of those great Lights were the fainting fits of Nature and mortal Symptoms threatning an universal Calamity But what Praise and Blessing is due to our Saviour who hath given us infallible assurance that the Death of the Righteous is not as the Heathen World imagin'd an irreparable loss of Life but a short eclipsing of this low and mean Light that is common to sensitive Creatures to be restored more excellent and permanent in Heaven where those Stars shine in the Divine Presence for ever Thanks be to God which gives us the Victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. This should render him infinitely precious to us and inflame our Hearts with Desires equal to our Obligations to serve him 2. Let us make it the main Business of our Lives to remove from our Souls the just Fears of Death 'T is one of the solemn Follies of the World to fear where there is no cause As if a Sentinel should mistake Gloworms in the Night for lighted Matches and give a false Alarm but 't is a worse Folly though pleasing not to fear when there is the greatest Reason to excite it And 't is so in the present Case for the most are without the Fear of Death that should make them serious in preparing for it nay to maintain their Security are as unwilling to hear Conscience declare the Wretchedness of their Condition with respect to Eternity as Ahab was the Prophet Micaiah who always foretold evil things to him 'T was the chief Design of the Philosophers by Principles of Reason to fortify themselves against all frightful Accidents and with a masculine Mind with an Heart ardent and with generous Spirits to encounter this inevitable Evil. When one of them was threatned by the Emperor Antigonus with present Death he boldly replied Threaten this to your dissolute Courtiers that are softned and melted by sensual Pleasures and easily receptive of terrible Impressions not to a Philosopher to whom Death is contemptible in any Appearance This was a piece of affected Bravery for Pagan Philosophy could never furnish them with Armor of Proof against the Dart of our last Enemy But the Gospel assuring us that Death is an Entrance into Immortality makes that to be the Reality of a Christian that was a vain boast of the Philosophers Now that we may be establish'd in that blessed Tranquillity that Death cannot discompose the following Directions are infinitely useful 1. We must give all Diligence to be in a State of Reconciliation with God The things requisit to that are as the Apostle declares Repentance towards God and Faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Repentance includes a Godly Sorrow for Sins past with a Detestation and forsaking them sincerely without Hypocrisy and entirely without Partiality in the Heart and Conversation 'T is call'd Repentance from dead Works the proper Name of our Sins that deserve Eternal Death By Repentance we return to Obedience that is due to God our Maker and Lawgiver Faith respects the Redeemer who by his Blood shed on the Cross and pleaded in Heaven reconciles God to penitent Sinners The Belief of his merciful and powerful Mediation for our Acceptance and Pardon Works by Love and constrains us to dedicate our selves in a devoted Propriety to his Glory and Service and to live according to that Dedication These two are absolutely necessary to the vital and salvifical State of a Christian. And as soon as a Person sincerely repents and believes he is justified before God and if he dies will certainly obtain eternal Glory This should be the early and most speedy Work of our Lives for the Delay of Repentance and Neglect of securing the Favour of God arms Death with more Stings and Terrors The infinite Danger of this I will unfold to awaken the Careless and Secure The Devil is a Sophister in Perfection and his ordinary and successful Artifice to elude the force of present Conviction and wrap Men in Sin and Damnation is to induce them to delay the great Work of the Soul till afterward He is not so foolish to tell them as he did our first Parents Ye shall not die for the Temptation is so palpable that it could deceive none Though the Evidence and Certainty of supernatural Truths that disturb the Security of Sinners is sometimes obscur'd by affected Doubts yet there is no Artifice that can resist the full and strong Conviction in Men that Death is inevitable Though Nature recoils from it with Abhorrence yet this sad Truth is so visible that it forces an Assent from all Those who are titular Gods the greatest Princes are not so vain as to pretend to an Exemption by Priviledg from that fatal Necessity they cannot fancy to be imbalm'd alive and that Nature may be made incorruptible by Art The Palace is as near the Grave as the Cottage therefore the Devil cherishes in Men fond hopes of a long Life As some optick Glasses deceive the Sight and make a superficial Representation in Colours on a Wall but two or three Steps distant appear a long deep Gallery Thus the Tempter by a dangerous Deceit presents to the Imagination the fatal term at a
that seals up the Damnation of Sinners is Impenitence Now he that delays the returning to his Duty shall have more cause to repent hereafter but less Will and Power for Sin repeated makes him more uncapable of Repentance and that which is Indisposition will become Averseness and Obstinacy The Heart with Difficulty changes its last End Actions may be suddenly chang'd when there is a Disability to perform them but the inward Inclinations to Sin without supernatural renewing Grace remain 'T is therefore the Subtilty of the old Serpent to make the Entrance of Sin easy for he knows that Custom is a second Nature and has a mighty Power in us Can an Ethiopian change his Skin or the Leopard change his Spots then may you who are accustomed to do Evil do good If Sin in its Infancy can make such Resistance that the Spirit of Grace is foil'd in his Motions to rescue the Soul from its Bondage how much more when 't is grown into a confirm'd Habit Therefore the Apostle urges so zealously To Day if you will hear his Voice harden not your Hearts lest any be hardned through the Deceitfulness of Sin 3. How uncertain is it whether God will accept the Addresses of such at last We are commanded Seek the Lord while he may be found call upon him while he is near The Limitation implies if the Season be neglected he will hide his Face for ever Now in cases of great Moment and Hazard what Diligence what Caution should be used 1 st Consider how derogatory it is to his Majesty to offer to him the Dregs of our Age the Reliques of a licentious careless Life spent in the Works of Vanity Is this to give Glory to God Contempt provokes Superiours as much as actual Injuries How vilifying is it of his excellent Greatness that Men lavishly waste the best of their Time and Strength upon their Lusts and when through Weakness of Age or the Violence of a Disease they can no more do the Acts of Sin nor relish the Pleasures of Sin to presume that God will upon their Prayers forgive their Sins so long indulg'd and of such violent Provocations and receive them into his Kingdom as if he could not be happy without them and it were his Interest to receive them God has laid his Exceptions against such Addresses He may justly stand upon his Greatness and Honour If ye offer the Blind for a Sacrifice is it not evil And if ye offer the Lame and Sick is it not evil Offer it now to thy Governour will he be pleased with it to accept thy Person saith the Lord of Hosts As the Lord upbraids the Jews for their black Ingratitude in barginning for thirty pieces of Silver to have him betrayed to their Malice a goodly Price that I was prized at of them So when there is an universal Prostration of all the Powers and Faculties when the Spirits are damp'd the vital Heat is check'd and the function of the senses is obstructed then to seek to God for Mercy and to make fair Promises of Obedience he may justly reproach the Presumer a goodly time you have alotted for me Your Youth and Strength the Golden Age of Life has been wasted on your Lusts and in the Business of the World and the wretched remains you think worthy of my Acceptance 2 dly Consider what Sincerity or moral Value is in Religion that meerly proceeds from bitter Constraint 'T is a Rule in Law Falsum est eam peperisse cui mortuae filius extractus est 'T is not a natural Birth when the Child is extracted from the dead Mother 'T is not genuine Piety that is extorted by the rack whilst the Heart full of Reluctancy does not truly consent Pure Religion flows uncompell'd from Love to God 't is the Dregs that come forth with pressing 'T is observ'd of the Israelites that when God slew them they sought him and returned and enquired early after God But 't is added Nevertheless they did flatter him with their Mouths and they lied to him with their Tongues for their Hearts were not right with him neither were they stedfast in his Covenant How often does Experience convince us of the Inefficacy of a Sickbed-Repentance How many that were very devout and mournful with one Foot as it were in the Grave and another in Hell and were as a Brand pluck'd out of the Fire yet when the Fear of Death is removed all the Terrors of Conscience the religious Affections that were felt and express'd by them vanish as the Morning-Dew Now converting Grace is distinguish'd by its radication and efficacy not only from the mere Pretences of those who know their own Insincerity but from the real Workings of Conscience and the imperfect Dispositions to Good that are in the Unrenewed And those Persons who with the return of Health have returned to their Sins if they had died with their religious Resolutions would have presum'd that their Repentance was unto Life and of their Interest in the Divine Mercy The Heart is deceitful above all things and above all things deceitful to it self Besides when Sinners are plunged in deep Distress when the shadow of Death sits upon their Eye-lids they may with plentiful effusions of Tears desire God to receive them to Heaven not to see and praise his adorable Excellencies not to please and glorify him for ever but as a Sanctuary from revenging Justice a Refuge from Hell And will such Prayers prevail What swells the Confidence of Sinners but unworthy Notions of God as if a forc'd and formal Confession of their Sins could deceive his all-discerning Eye and Desires merely terminated on themselves were sufficient to reconcile his offended Majesty 3. There is nothing renders Men more unworthy of Mercy than continuance in Sin upon presumption of an easy Pardon at last This is the most provoking Abuse of his Goodness and Long-suffering that should lead them unto Repentance He can in the twinkling of an eye in the beating of a Pulse cut off the Sinner 't is as easy to his Power as to will it And there is no Consideration should be so melting and moving as his Clemency We read of David that he had more than once in his power Saul his unjust and cruel Enemy yet spared him the effect of it was that Saul was softened and under such compunction of Spirit that he wept confess'd his Guilt and persecuted him no more overcome by that unexampled Love If a Man find his Enemy will he let him go Yet Men take advantage from the Goodness of God securely to despise his Laws The habitual Sinner thinks that God is so gracious such a Lover of Souls so easy to be intreated that upon his dying Prayer Lord remember me in thy Kingdom the Answer will be To day shalt thou be with me in Paradise This is the deceitful Principle upon which Men usually build their Hopes as their Actions that bear the Image of their
stinging Reproach of his perfidious Villany Thus it appears how dangerous it is to delay Repentance and Reconciliation with God till Sickness and a Death-bed when the remembrance or forgetfulness of Sin the sense or security of Conscience may be equally destructive The Sum of what has been amplified in this Part is this A vain hope of living long and being reconcil'd to God when Men please is the fatal Foundation of their Sins and Misery They apply the Word of God against the Mind of God and securely provoke him as if they could take Heaven by Violence in contradiction to the Gospel But they usually dispose of that time they shall never enjoy and presume upon that Mercy and Grace they shall never obtain We are commanded to seek the Lord while he may be found a sad Intimation that 't is not in our power to find him to our Comfort when we please He spares long but abused Patience will deliver Sinners to revenging Justice Sampson was three times in the Chamber of his Lust expos'd to Treachery and escap'd but the fourth time he said I will arise but was surprized by his Enemies and lost his Strength and Sight and Liberty How justly will the wilful neglect of Salvation so long and so compassionately offer'd to Sinners render the Divine Mercy inexorable to their Prayers and Tears at last When a Roman Gentleman that was wont to revel in the night and sleep in the day had wasted a great Estate by Luxury he petitioned the Emperor Tiberius to relieve his Poverty and was dismiss'd with this upbraiding Answer Serò experrectus es you are risen too late He never open'd his Eyes to see his Condition till it was past Remedy This is the sad Case of many that waste the Seasons of Grace and are careless of their Duty till upon the point of perishing and then address themselves to God for his Favour and Pardon but are justly rejected with the reproaches of their obstinate neglect of Salvation in the time of their Lives I doubt not that some are wonderfully converted and saved at last but these special Mercies are like our Saviour's miraculous healing the two blind Persons as he was passing in the way when great numbers of the Blind remain'd uncur'd We read a prodigious Story in the Book of Kings that a Captain and his fifty Men commanded Elias to come to the King and immediately a Tempest of Lightning destroyed them Now who would think that another Captain with his fifty should be so desperate that having the Ashes and Relicks of those miserable Carcasses before their Eyes as to make the same Citation to the Prophet yet they did and provok'd the Justice of Heaven to consume them And this Madness is exemplified in thousands every day for notwithstanding they see Sinners like themselves cut off in their evil Ways they continue unreformed as if they were fearless of Hell as if resolved to secure their own Damnation I would not from what has been represented in this Matter so universally useful discourage any that have lived in a course of Sin from earnest seeking to God in their last Hours For even then they are not utterly destitute of Hope The Gospel sets forth the Mercy of God to returning Sinners in various Representations and Expressions of admirable Tenderness When the lost Sheep was recovered there was Joy as if a Treasure had been found The Prodigal had wasted his Estate in Lasciviousness and Luxury and by a harsh reduction came to himself reflected with shame upon his Folly and Rebellion and the sense of his Misery not a more ingenuous or noble Principle at first compell'd him to go to his Father to try what his Affection would do And it was not a vain presumption for he found the effects of fatherly and compassionate Love When he was a great way off his Father saw him and had Compassion and ran and fell on his Neck and kissed him And the Son said Father I have sinned against Heaven and in thy sight and am no more worthy to be called thy Son But the Father said to his Servants Bring out the best Robes and put a Ring on his Finger and Shoes on his Feet and bring hither the fatted Calf and kill it let us eat and be merry for this my Son was dead and is alive again was lost and is found The Design of Christ was to represent his Heavenly Father in that Parable and to wounded Spirits that feel the intolerable weight of Sin the Mercy and Mildness of the Gospel is to be exhibited God is rich in Mercy to all that call upon him in Truth But to tell Sinners who securely proceed in their sinful Ways that they may be saved at last and notwithstanding their presumptuous Repulses of God's Calls to his Service yet think they may come into the Vineyard at the eleventh hour and be rewarded is to give countenance and protection to Sin and to harden them to Destruction Poison is not cured by giving Food but Antidotes that put Nature into a Passion till it be expelled The Terrors of the Lord can only prove medicinal to such depraved Souls To conclude this Argument let us seriously consider the Revelation God has afforded of himself in the Gospel He is a Father and a Judg Justice and Holiness as well as Mercy are essential to his Nature that our Affections may be accordingly moved towards him If ye call on the Father who without respect of Persons judgeth according to every Man's Work pass the time of your sojourning here in fear Presumption and Despair are very dishonourable to God and pernicious to the Soul the one destroys the Fear the other the Love of God But Hope contemper'd with Fear has an excellent Influence in the Christian Life As the Ballast and the Wind are both necessary that the Ship may sail safely without the Wind the Ship can make no way and without Ballast 't is in danger of oversetting by every Gust Thus Hope and Fear are necessary to bring us safely to Heaven Fear without Hope chills and stupifies the Vigour and Alacrity of the Soul that it cannot come to God and Hope without Fear makes it vain and careless of its Duty and liable to be overthrown by every pleasing Temptation Briefly let us rightly understand the Tenor of the Evangelical Promises of Pardon and Grace they are conditional and applicable only to penitent Believers And unfeigned Faith purifies the Heart works by Love and is the living Principle of universal Obedience And Repentance unto Life is productive of all good Fruits in their Season Without Faith and Repentance we can neither be justified in this World nor glorified in the next Be not deceived God is not mocked as a Man sows so shall he reap He that sows to the Flesh shall of the Flesh reap Corruption he that sows to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap Life everlasting 2. The careful preserving our selves from wilful presumptuous Sins
in these Talents because they are usually abused to the dishonour of the Donor If the slothful Servant that hid his single Talent in a Napkin and returned it without advantage to his Lord was cast into outer darkness where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth a fearful Image of what will befal all unprofitable Persons how severe will their Accounts be who lavish out their numerous Talents to gratify their carnal Appetites and betray the Blessings of God to his Enemy the Devil Only the wise and good Servant that with prudent Contrivance and zealous Endeavours improves his Talents shall from the gracious Lord in whom are all Attractives and Remuneratives of our Service receive an excellent Reward Fifthly Another Rule of our Acceptance at the last Day is That we must with Courage and Zeal maintain in our rank and places the Cause of Christ. For thus he declares expresly Whosoever shall confess me before Men him also will I confess before my Father which is in Heaven But whosoever shall deny me before Men him also will I deny before my Father which is in Heaven When the Truth Purity and Power of Religion in Doctrine Worship and Practice is discountenanc'd and overborn our Saviour commands and will reward our undiscouraged visible Constancy in it He will not only reign in our Hearts but be honoured with our Lips and in our Conversations We usurp the Title of Christians unless we adhere to our Duty in despite of all opposition The Temptations that usually withdraw Men from confessing and glorifying Christ are such as work upon the Passions of Fear and Shame And the consideration of the last Judgment will fortify us against both 1. Sometimes Religion exposes the Professors of it to the loss of all temporal Enjoyments and of Life it self And when the Honour of our Saviour requires such a Service of us when that Confirmation is necessary to recommend Divine Truth to the Belief and Affections of others when our chearful and couragious Example in suffering would animate those that are fearful to Constancy and Confession then from Cowardise to withdraw our Testimony is to betray him again When our Duty is attended with extream Dangers then the sincerity and perfection of our Love to Christ is brought to the strictest trial As true Carbuncles are discovered in the Night for the Darkness redoubles their Splendor so the fidelity of Christians is evident in Persecutions that enflame and excite their Zeal to magnify the Name of Christ in the sight of the World There is no Fear in Love but perfect Love casts out Fear But Fearfulness hinders the expressing acts of Love to Christ and betrays to Apostacy For as every Passion is a Perturbation so especially Carnal Fear that blinds and disturbs the Mind and hinders the serious consideration of the Reasons of our Duty and those Motives to persevere in it that are the Fountains of our Strength From hence the timerous are often treacherous and Faith lies buried under the cold pale Ashes of Fear Now the irregularity of this Passion is best cured by directing it to the most powerful Object As the Rod of Moses swallowed up the Rods of the Magicians so a stronger Fear will subdue that which is in a weaker degree Our Saviour therefore threatens those that for the fear of Men who can but kill the Body dare not own and defend his Truth and Cause that he will renounce them before his Father in the great Day the immediate consequence of which will be the destruction of Body and Soul in Hell If Earthly Potentates had a Jurisdiction over Heaven if Men were to be tried by their Laws at the last Day if their Power extended to Eternity they might exact unlimited Obedience to their Wills but Conscience is a more desirable Friend and terrible Enemy than Caesar and all temporal Tribunals are subordinate and accountable to the Supream and Eternal there is one Lawgiver and Judg who is able to save and to destroy for ever It is the worst Perdition to secure our selves by the neglect of our Duty when we ought to perish for the Glory of our Saviour He that saves his Life shall lose it 2. Shame wounds deeper the Breasts of some than Violence Zedekiah would rather expose his Kingdom and Life to the Fury of the Chaldean Armies than be himself exposed as an Object of Derision by surrendring it And Satan who understands the temper of Mens Spirits suits his Temptations accordingly The Purity and Holiness of Religion exprest in the Actions of the Saints is by the seurrilous Reflections and bitter Sarcasms of prophane Persons made contemptible This is as foolish and malicious as if a Slave should reproach the Son of a King that he was like his Father in his Countenance and Actions for by how much the resemblance of God's Holiness appears with more evidence and eminence in their Lives their Divine Relation is more certainly and justly to be acknowledged Yet how many are ashamed of this Glory And Zeal to vindicate the Honour of Religion is traduc'd and vilified either as the Effect of designing Faction or of the Indiscretion and Rashness of a weak Judgment and strong Passions In every Age the faithful Servants of God are by scornful Titles despised We are accounted saith the Apostle the Off-scouring of the World But a generous Christian looks upon disgrace for the sake of Christ as his Honour The Apostles rejoiced that they were accounted worthy to suffer shame for his Name 'T is said of the Baptist He was not that Light but came to bear Witness to that Light intimating as if that were the next degree of Dignity to it And our Saviour speaking of the Proofs of his Divine Mission reckons up the Witnesses of such Dignity that 't is not possible for Sacred Ambition to aspire to higher Honour than to be in Conjunction with them they are John the Baptist his Miracles his Father and the Scriptures Let us appeal then from the light depraved Fancies of carnal Men to the wise and faithful Judgment and Authority of the Son of God He will at the last Day in the presence of his Father and all the Court of Heaven give an incomparable Crown to all that have despised Shame for his sake But those vile Spirits whose Courage of Straw is quell'd by vain Opinion and the Reproaches of Fools and have deserted the Cause of Christ shall then be clothed with Confusion for this we are assured by our Judg That whosoever shall be ashamed of me and my words in this adulterous and sinful Generation of him also shall the Son of Man be ashamed when he cometh in the Glory of his Father with the Holy Angels If the unnatural Brothers were astonish'd when the Governor of Egypt told them I am Joseph whom ye sold how much more will false Christians when the Lord of Glory shall tell them I am Jesus whom for base shame ye
denied How will it confound those abject Wretches to be a spectacle of Abhorrence and Scorn before that Universal Glorious Confluence They would chuse rather to be covered under the Ruins of the World If we value and desire the Approbation of the King of Angels if we fear a final rejection from him to obtain the one and avoid the other we must entirely adhere to his Interest without any respect to the eyes and esteem of the perverse deceived World Sixthly A cordial beneficent Love to the Saints is a requisite Qualification of our Acceptance in the Day of Judgment Then shall the King say to them on his right hand Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World For I was an hungry and ye gave me meat I was thirsty and ye gave me drink I was a stranger and ye took me in naked and ye clothed me I was sick and ye visited me I was in Prison and ye came unto me The Union and Endearments betwixt Christ and his People are mutual and reflexive as they are extreamly tender of his Glory so he is concern'd in all that is done to them And though the Perfection of Love consists more in the Affection of the Heart than in outward Offices yet our Saviour most congruously produces in Judgment the conspicuous Effects of Love to them the supplying their Wants allaying their Sorrows owning them when obscured and deprest by Afflictions and injuriously treated by others This love of Service that is directed and exercised towards the Saints for the Image of God shining in them because they are the Children of God and Members of Christ and therefore extended to all in whom the reason of that Love appears shall be gloriously rewarded for he interprets what is done upon his Account to those who are his own by so many dear Titles as done to himself And what is more becoming his excellent Goodness than to reward the Works of Mercy with saving Mercy But those who when Christ presents himself to them in his poor distressed Members and sollicits their assistance to protect them from Injuries to refresh their Sorrows to support them in their Exigencies those that have Ability but want Affection to do them good and incompassionately neglect the suffering Saints shall be sentenc'd to be tormented with the Apostate Angels for ever What Indignity is it to the Son of God that those for whom he shed his most precious Blood should be in less value and regard with many than the Dogs and Horses maintained for their pleasure And if those on the left hand shall be condemned to eternal Fire for the coldness of their Love how terrible will the Judgment be of those that from the heat of their Enmity outragiously persecute the Servants of Christ for his sake in their Persons Estates Reputations that with a worse than barbarous inhumanity seek their ruin Is there any Sin of a more mortal Guilt The infernal Furnace is seven-fold heated for the punishing such Wickedness To conclude this Argument let us observe the Command of our Saviour To watch and pray always that we may be counted worthy to stand before the Son of Man These are Duties of universal Influence into our Lives the one prevents Carelesness the other vain Confidence in our selves and the consideration of Judgment to come is the greatest Motive to them and the first Principle of Holiness This should work more powerful in us considering the Day of Death is equivalent to the Day of Judgment to every Person for then a particular Sentence decisive and irrevocable passes that shall be publish'd at the last Day Methinks the Terrors of the Lord should engage our Souls and Senses to a continual preparation for his Coming 'T is represented so as to affect the Eye and keep it vigilant Behold the Lord comes with ten thousand of his Saints to execute Judgment upon all Behold he comes in the Clouds and every Eye shall see him And to call the Ear and make it attentive The Lord himself shall descend from Heaven with the Voice of the Arch-Angel and with the Trump of God How circumspect should we be in all our Ways since every Action shall be reviewed by our Judg St. Peter strongly infers from the dissolution of the World as a most cogent Argument that we should be exactly and universally Holy Seeing then all these things shall be dissolved what manner of Persons ought we to be in all holy Conversation and Godliness But the consideration of the eternal Judgment immediately succeeding the destruction of the World O how powerful should it be upon Conscience and the Affections to regulate the whole course of our Lives with a final respect to God's Tribunal In short That which we read of the success of the Apostle's preaching to the Athenians upon the present Subject the Immortality of the Soul comprised in the Resurrection of the Body and the future Judgment is the same in all times and places And when they heard of the Resurrection of the Dead some mocked and others said We will hear thee again of this matter and others believed There are three Differences of the Hearers of this Doctrine of so great importance some deride it as an extravagant Fancy some believe it and yield up themselves entirely in obedience to it others do not absolutely reject it as the first nor accept it as the second but have a Conjecture or slight superficial Opinion of it or a speculative Assent as to a history of things that do not concern them and defer the serious consideration and applying of it to themselves And of this third sort O Grief are the most of those who are Christians in Name They delay till Death the solemn reflecting upon the final Judgment and the inevitable Consequence of it a blessed or miserable Estate for ever And whereas the Apostle who had infallible assurance of God's Love did with an holy severity and self-denial abstain from all carnal Complacencies that might hazard the never-fading Crown I keep under my Body and bring it into subjection lest by any means when I have preached to others I should be a Cast-away Yet the most live and die in a secure state without preparation to appear before the Presence of his Glory FINIS OF HEAVEN BY WILLIAM BATES D.D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. OF HEAVEN Psalm 16.11 Thou wilt shew me the Path of Life in thy Presence is fulness of Joy at thy right Hand there are Pleasures for evermore THE Divine Wisdom and Goodness was pleased before and during the legal Dispensation by various Predictions and Types to delineate the Person of our Redeemer and the Work of Redemption to prepare the Minds of Men for his Reception at his coming into the World All the Evangelical Prophecies recorded in the Old Testament as
counsel and resolution of the Spirit but perform'd by the ministry of the Flesh. Every Grace expresses it self in visible Actions by the Body In the Sorrows of Repentance it supplies Tears in religious Fasts its Appetites are restrain'd in Thanksgivings the Tongue breaks forth into the joyful Praises of God All our Victories over sensible Pleasure and Pain are obtain'd by the Soul in conjunction with the Body Now 't is most becoming the Divine Goodness not to deal so differently that the Soul should be everlastingly happy and the Body lost in forgetfulness the one glorified in Heaven the other remain in the Dust. From their first setting out in the World to the Grave they ran the same race and shall enjoy the same Reward Here the Body is the Consort of the Soul in Obedience and Sufferings hereafter in Fruition When the Crown of Purity or Palm of Martyrdom shall be given by the great Judg in the view of all they shall both partake in the Honour The Apostle assures us the Bodies of the Saints shall be revived and refin'd to a spiritual and glorious Perfection Flesh and Blood the Body with its terrene Qualities is mutable and mortal and cannot inherit the Kingdom of Heaven it cannot breath in so pure an Air. God tells Moses No Man can see my Face and live The sight of the Divine Glory is not consistent with such temper'd frail Tabernacles of Flesh. Nay the Body must be freed from the innocent Infirmities that were inseparable from Adam in Paradise for he was made a living Soul i. e. the Soul united to the Body was the Fountain of the natural sensitive Life which was in a perpetual Flux the vital Heat wasting the radical Moisture from whence there was a necessity of Food and Sleep to repair the Substance and Spirits and preserve his Life in vigour but in the Divine World the Body shall be spiritual in its Qualities and the Principle of its Liâ—e it shall be supported by the supernatural Power of the Spirit without the supplies of outward nourishment and exempted from all the low Operations of Nature therefore our Saviour tells us the Children of the Resurrection shall be equal to the Angels prepar'd for the employment and Enjoyments of those blessed Spirits And a substantial unfading Glory will shine in them infinitely above the perishing Pride of this World and the Glory of the Flesh that is but an appearance like the false Colours painted on the Feathers of a Dove by the reflection of the Light which presently vanishes when the Posture is chang'd or the Light withdrawn Of this we have a sure Pledg in the glorified Body of Christ who is the first Fruits of them that sleep He shall change our vile Bodies that they may be fashion'd like to his glorious Body according to the working of his Power whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself What can be more glorious than to be conform'd to the humanity of the Son of God This Conformity shall be the Work of his own Hands and when Omnipotence interposes nothing is difficult The raising the Body to an immortal state of Glory is as easy to the Divine Power as the forming it first in the Womb. As the Sun labours no more in the Mines in the forming Gold and Silver the most precious and durable Metals than in the production of a short-liv'd Flower 2. The supream happiness of Man is in the Soul's Communion with God This will appear by considering the principal Ingredients of Happiness they are the excellence of the Object and the vigour of the Actings upon it The Life and Blessedness of God is to know and love himself according to his infinite Perfections And 't is the highest happiness of the reasonable Creature to know and love God For he is a spiritual infinite unchangeable Good and can fully communicate all that is requisite to intire Blessedness Supply all the Wants and satisfy all the Wishes of the immortal Soul The Understanding and Will are our most comprehensive Faculties the principles of our most eminent Operations To know and to love are essential to the reasonable Soul and in directing those Acts upon God the Rectitude the Perfection and Felicity of Man consists As the intellectual Creature by setting its Mind and Heart upon earthly things is degraded into a lower order the thoughts and desires that are spiritual with respect to the principle from whence they proceed are sensual and perishing with respect to their Objects So when our noble faculties are exercis'd in their most lively and vigorous perceptions upon the supream Good Man is advanc'd to an equality of Joy and Perfection with the Angels Now in Heaven God by his most evident and effectual presence excites and draws forth all the active Powers of the Soul in their highest degrees and such is the immensity of his Perfections fills their utmost Capacity from whence a Divine pleasure a perpetual Satifaction springs a Joy that is as unspeakable as 't is eternal To unfold this more particularly 1. The Understanding shall clearly see the most excellent Objects Now we know but in part The naked Beauty of divine Things is vail'd and of impossible discovery and by natural or accidental weakness the Mind is not proportionable to sustain that dazling brightness But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away In that inlightned the State manifestation of the Objects shall abundantly exceed the clearest revealing of them here And the Understanding shall be prepar'd in proportion to take a full view of them Therefore the Apostle compares the several Periods of the Church in respect of the degrees of Knowledg to the several Ages of humane Life When I was a Child I spoke as a Child I understood as a Child I thought as a Child but when I became a Man I put away Childish things In Children the Organs either from the excess of moisture or their smalness are indispos'd for the vigorous exercise of the Mind some strictures of Reason appear a presaging sign what will be but mix'd with much obscurity But when the Organs are come to their just proportion and temperament the Soul displays its strength and activity To explicate this it is requisite to consider the expressions in Scripture that signify the eminent degrees of Knowledg in the Blessed Our Saviour assures us that the Pure in Heart shall see God Sight is the most noble extensive and affective Sense and therefore fit to notify the clear sweet and satisfying intuition of God in Heaven 'T is true the Deity is spiritual and invisible to the Eye of the Body infinite and incomprehensible to the Eye of the Soul but the glorified Saints so clearly understand the Divine Perfections that our present knowledg of God compar'd to that Vision is but as the seeing of a dark Shadow in a Glass to the immediate view of the living Substance and Person The discovery
and the Reward The Death of Christ is a universal Benefit to all the Saints yet 't is so applied to every Believer for his perfect Redemption as if our Saviour in all his Agonies and Sufferings had no other in his Eye and Heart as if all his Prayers his Tears his Blood were offer'd up to his Father only for that Person The common respect of it the Apostle declares in those admirable words that signify such an excess of God's Love to us He that spared not his own Son but deliver'd him up for us all how shall he not with him also freely give us all things But to imagin that the propriety of every Believer is thereby prejudiced is not only false but extreamly injurious to the Merit and Dignity and to the infinite Love of Christ. Therefore the same Apostle tells us The Life which I now live in the Flesh I live by the Faith of the Son of God who loved me and gave himself for me as if he were the sole Object of Christ's Love the End and Reward of his Sufferings And this appropriating of it to himself is no prejudice to the Rights of all others St. John describes himself by that truly glorious Title The Disciple whom Jesus loved Could he speak this of himself without the injury and indignation of the other Disciples Certainly he might For if we consider that incomprehensible Love of Christ exprest to them all at his last Supper after Judas was gone forth As the Father hath loved me so I have loved you we may easily understand that every one of them might justly believe that he was singularly beloved of Christ. They were all received in the Heart though with John they did not all lean on the Breast of their Divine Master Thus in Heaven God is the universal Treasure of all the Saints and the peculiar Portion of every one not engross'd by possessing nor wasted by enjoying As by his Essence he equally fills the whole World and every part of it and by his Providence equally regards all and every particular Creature so in Heaven he dispenses the Riches of his Love to all that they cannot desire more if every one of them were the sole Heir of all the Merits of his Son and enjoyed him alone for ever 2. The Blessedness of the Saints as 't is without diminution so 't is without end 't is compleat and continual for ever This makes Heaven to be Heaven the Security is as valuable as the Felicity There is no satiety of the present no solicitude for the future Were there a possibility or the least suspicion of losing that happy State it would cast an aspersion of bitterness upon all their Delights it would disturb their peaceful Fruition and joyful Tranquillity as Hope in Misery allays Sorrow so Fear in Happiness dashes Joy and the more excellent the Happiness is the more stinging would be the fear of losing it But the Inheritance reserved in Heaven is immortal undefiled and fades not away And the Tenure of their Possession is infinitely firm by the Promise of God who is truly immutable and immutably true and by the Divine Power the support of their everlasting Duration Our Saviour assures his Disciples Because I live ye shall live also and he lives for evermore This blessed Priviledg the Saints have by Jesus Christ who obtain'd eternal Redemption for them above the Grace given to Angels and Men in the first Creation The Angels were upon trial of their Obedience not in a determin'd State of Felicity The first declination of Love and Subjection was fatal to them Woful Change how unlike to themselves in their Original Purity and Glory an unparallel'd Example of the Frailty of the Creature and the Divine Severity Man did stand in Paradise for a little while and had a ruinous Fall with all his Progeny But the glorified Saints sit with Christ in Heavenly Places and enjoy an unchangeable Happiness as permanent as the everlasting Author of it and the everlasting Soul the Subject of it With God is the Fountain of Life Who can pluck them out of the Hands and Bosom of a Gracious God He will never withdraw his Love and they shall never forfeit it for Sin is from the perversness of the Will and the disorder of the Affections join'd with some Error of the Mind But in the Light of Glory and full enjoyment of God the Understanding is so perfectly illuminated the Will and Affections so exceedingly satisfi'd that 't is impossible they should apprehend erroneously or desire irregularly God is Love and will kindle in the Saints a pure Affection that Eternity shall not lessen In the present state our Love is imperfect and as Fire out of its Sphere dies away by our neglect to feed it by proper Materials enamouring Considerations of God But in Heaven the uncreated Sun attracts every Eye with the Light of his Beauty and inflames every Heart with the heat of his Love The glorious Presence of God is in different respects the Cause and Effect of our Love to him for the sight of God is the most powerful Attractive to love him and Love fixes the Mind upon him And the persevering Love of God assures the constant fruition of him for by Love the supreme Good is possess'd and enjoyed The Apostle tells us Charity never fails and therefore the Happiness of Heaven never fails They enjoy a better Immortality than the Tree of Life could have preserved in Adam The Revolutions of the Heavens and Ages are under their Feet and cannot in the least alter or determine their Happiness After the passing of Millions of Years still an entire Eternity remains of their enjoying God O most desireable State where Blessedness and Eternity are inseparably united O joyful Harmony when the full Chorus of Heaven shall sing This God is our God for ever and ever This adds an infinite weight to their Glory This redoubles their Joys with infinite sweetness and security for the direct pleasure of enjoying God is attended with the pleasant reflection it shall continue for ever They repose themselves in the compleat fruition of their Happiness God reigns in the Saints and they live in him for ever Eternity crowns and consummates their Felicity The Application From what has been discoursed we should 1. Consider the woful Folly of Men in refusing such an Happiness that by the admirable Favour of God is offer'd to their choice Can there be an Expectation or Desire or Capacity in Man of enjoying an Happiness beyond what is Infinite and Eternal O blind and wretched World so careless of everlasting Felicity Who can behold without compassion and indignation Men vainly seeking for Happiness where 't is not to be found and after innumerable disappointments flying at an Impossibility and neglect their Sovereign and final Blessedness An Error in the first enquiry might have some colour of an Excuse but having been so often deceived with painted Grapes for the Fruits
unreserved Obedience to him He will be our Father and we shall be his Sons and Daughters but 't is upon the terms of purifying our selves from all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit and unfeigned endeavours to perfect Holiness in his fear 'T is astonishing Goodness that he is pleased to condescend to such a Treaty with fallen Creatures by a voluntary Promise he encourages them but tho most free in making 't is conditional in the performance The constancy of his Holy Nature obliges him to fulfil his Word but 't is if we do not fail on our part by carelessness of our Duty A Presumer may seal Assurance to himself and be deceived in this great Matter but God will not be mocked If we prove false in the Covenant he will be faithful and exclude those from Heaven that were neglectful of the Conditions to which it is promised 3. The Gospel is stiled a Testament sealed in the Blood of Christ confirm'd by his Death The Donation of eternal Blessings in it is not absolute and irrespective but the Heirs are admitted to the possession of the Inheritance according to the Will of the rich liberal and wise Testator There can be no regular Title or Claim made out without performing what is required And this is the Will of God and Christ our Sanctification without which we cannot enjoy it Now from hence we may see the admirable Agreement between these two Notions that Heaven is a Gift and a Reward 'T is a Reward in the order of giving it not due to the Work but from the Bounty of the Giver God gives Heaven to those that faithfully serve him But their Service was due to God of no worth in respect of Heaven so that Man's Work is no Merit and God's Reward is a Gift Our everlasting Glory must be ascribed to his most free Grace as much as the pardon of our Sins I shall now proceed to consider what the Gospel declares to be indispensably requisite in order to our obtaining of Heaven this is compriz'd in the holy Change of Man's Nature which I will briefly unfold and shew how necessary it is to qualify us for Celestial Glory 1. This holy Change is express'd in Scripture by the new Birth Our Saviour with a solemn repeated Asseveration tells Nicodemus Verily verily except a Man be born again he cannot see the Kingdom of God Sin is natural to Man from his Conception and Birth and infects with its Contagion all his Faculties This is fomented and cherisht by Temptations that easily encompass him The Understanding is polluted with evil Principles full of strong Prejudices and lofty Imaginations against the supernatural Mysteries of Salvation 'T is full of Ignorance and Folly and from hence either rejects them as incredible or despises them as impertinent or unprofitable The Will is depraved and perverse full of unruly and unhallowed Affections The Senses are luxurious and rebellious In short Man is so viciously and sensually inclined so alienated from the Life of God as if he had no diviner Part within him that should aspire to a spiritual Blessedness that should regulate and controul the excess of the inferiour Appetites This is the unhappy Character Satan impress'd on him in his Fall and without Renovation upon an infinite account he is uncapable of seeing God This Renovation consists not in the change of his Substance as the Water was miraculously turn'd into Wine at the Marriage in Cana of Galilee the same Soul with its essential Powers the same Body with its natural Senses the Work of the Creator remains but in the cleansing of his stain'd Nature in the sanctifying his Faculties that are the Springs of his Actions the whole Man is quickned into a Divine Life and enabled to act in conformity to it And of this the new Birth is a convenient Illustration An active Principle of Holiness is planted in him that springs up into visible Actions The Apostle particularly expresses it in his earnest Prayer for the Thessalonians The very God of Peace sanctify you wholly and preserve your whole Spirit Soul and Body blameless till the coming of Jesus Christ. Every Faculty is renewed and every Grace infused that constitutes the Divine Image The Mind is renewed by Spiritual Light to believe the Truth and Goodness of unseen Things promised the reality and dreadfulness of Things threatned in the Word of God It sees the truest Beauty in Holiness the highest Honour in Obedience to God the greatest Equity and Excellence in his Service The Will is renewed by holy Love a purifying Flame and feels the attractive virtue of our blessed End before all desirable Things on Earth and determines to pursue it in the vigorous use of proper means The Body is made an holy Instrument fit for the renewed Soul In short the natural Man becomes Spiritual in his Perceptions Resolutions and Actions All things are become New There is a firm assent an inviolable adherence to those most precious Objects revealed in the Scripture and a sincere chosen constant Obedience flows from the renewed Faculties And from hence we may distinguish between regenerating Grace and formal Hypocrisy in some and the proficiency of Nature and power of common Grace in others A Hypocrite in Religion is acted from without by mercenary base respects and his Conscience being cauteris'd handles sacred Things without feeling a regenerate Person is moved by an internal living Principle and performs his Duties with lively Affections Natural Conscience under the compulsion of Fear may lay a restraint upon the outward Acts of Sin without an inward Consent to the Sanctity of the Law Renewing Grace cleanses the Fountain and the Current is pure It reconciles the Affections to the most Holy Commands I love thy Law because 't is pure saith the Psalmist A Moral Principle may induce one to abstain from many Sins and to perform many praise-worthy things in conformity to Reason But this is neither sanctifying nor saving for it only prunes Sin as if it were a good Plant and does not root it up it compounds with it and does not destroy it There may be still an impure Indulgence to the secret lustings of the Heart notwithstanding the Restraint upon their Exercise And many Duties may be done on lower Motives without a divine respect to the Commands and Glory of God But renewing Grace subjects the Soul to the whole Royalty of the Law uniformly inclines it to express Obedience to all its Precepts because they are pure and derived from the eternal Spring of Purity It mortifies Concupiscence and quickens to every good Work from a Principle of Love to God and in this is distinguisht from the most refined unregenerate Morality In short there may be a superficial tincture of Religion from common Grace a transient Esteem vanishing Affections and earnest Endeavours for a time after Spiritual Things and yet a Person remain in a state of Unregeneracy But renewing Grace is a permanent solid Principle that makes a Man
Glory in the next World that we may reign with him The Means in order to this End are of two sorts Some conduct to it by themselves those are the good things desired in the third and fourth Petitions and some lead to it by accident and those are the freedom from Evils express'd in the last Petition The good things desired either have a direct influence upon our obtaining Happiness and they are summ'd up in our universal Obedience to God's Will express'd in the third Petition Let thy Will be done on Earth as it is in Heaven or they are such as by way of subserviency promote our Happiness and those we pray for in the fourth Petition Give us this day our daily Bread And 't is observable there is but one Petition for Temporal Blessings and 't is the last in the order of those that concern good things And that single Petition is so restrained that 't is evident by its Tenour that earthly things are not absolutely good to be desired for themselves but relatively and subordinately to our eternal Good Daily Bread we must ask of our heavenly Father the necessary support of the present Life without which we cannot exercise our internal or external Powers and Faculties in his Service but not Delicacies and Abundance for the luxurious Appetite The difference of Conditions in the present World is very great as in Pharaoh's Dream some Ears of Corn were so full and weighty that they bended with their weight others so thin and blasted that they were as Stubble for the Fire Thus some abound in all Felicities possible in this Life others are chastened every Morning under various and continual Afflictions Now this infallible Principle being planted in the Heart that all present things are to be improved with respect to our future Happiness will moderate the Affections in Prosperity so to use the World that we may enjoy God and make us not only patient but pleased in Adversities as they are preparatory for Heaven The Original of all the Sins and Misery of Men is their perverse abuse of things by turning the Means into the End setting their Affections of Love Desire and Joy upon sensible things as their proper Happiness with inconsiderate neglect of the spiritual eternal state to which all other things should be subservient As if one diseased and sickly in a Forreign Country that could not possibly recover Health but in his Native Air in his return thither invited by the pleasantness of the way should take up his residence in it and never arrive to his own Country Among the West Indians some are reported to be so swift in running that no Horse can keep pace with them and they have a constant rule in their Diet to eat of no Beast or Bird or Fish that is slow in motion fancying it would transfuse a sluggishness in them The Christian Life is by the Apostle compar'd to a Race and earthly things by an inseparable property of Nature load and depress the Soul that it cannot with vigour run the Race set before it The Believer therefore who intends for the high price of his Calling and is true to his End will be temperate in all things Nay he will not only be circumspect lest they should check with his great Design but wisely manages them in subserviency to it St. Paul charges them that are rich in this World to do good to be rich in good Works ready to distribute willing to communicate laying in store for themselves a good Foundation against the time to come that they may lay hold of eternal Life And the fixed aim at Heaven as our Felicity will reconcile an afflicted state to us When temporal Evils are effectual means to promote our everlasting Happiness the amiableness and excellency of the End changes their Nature and makes those Calamities that in themselves are intolerable to become light and easy The Poor the Mourners the Persecuted are blessed now because theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven The Apostle tho under variety of sharp Troubles yet expresses his sense with that mitigation as but lightly touch'd with them as sorrowful but always rejoicing From hence he tells us that with unfainting courage he prosecuted his glorious End For our light Afflictions that are but for a moment work for us a far more exceeding weight of Glory This seriously believed and considered will make us understand the Harmony and Consent of the most discordant parts of God's Providence This will reconcile the severity and roughness of his Hand with the tender Compassions of his Heart towards his Servants This will dry up Rivers of unprofitable Tears that flow from the Afflicted and make the Cross of Christ a light burthen For their heaviest Afflictions are not only consistent with his Love but the Effects of it being influential upon their Happiness We are now toss'd upon the alternate Waves of Time but 't is that we may arrive at the Port the blessed Bosom of our Saviour and enjoy a peaceful Calm and so we shall be ever with the Lord. Words of infinite sweetness This is the Song of our Prosperity and the Charm of our Adversity Well might the Apostle add immediately after Therefore comfort one another with these Words 4. The sincere Choice of Heaven as our final Happiness will make us aspire to the greatest height of Holiness we are capable of in the present state For the End has always a powerful Vertue to transform a Man into its Likeness and Heaven is a state of perfect conformity to the Holy God This difference is observable between the Understanding and the Will in their Operations The Understanding in forming Conceptions of Things draws the Object to it self The Will is drawn by the Object to it chuses and is always fashioning and framing the Soul into an intire conformity to it Thus Carnal Objects when propounded as the End of a Man secretly imprint on him their Likeness his Thoughts Affections and whole Conversation is Carnal As the Psalmist speaks of the Worshippers of Idols they that make them are like unto them so is every one that trusteth in them whatever we adore and esteem we are changed into its Image Idolaters are as stupid and senseless as the Idols to which they pay Homage Thus when God is chosen as our supream Good and last End by conversing with him the Image of his glorious Holiness is derived on the Soul and it becomes Godly the Heart is drawn by his attractive Excellencies and the Life directed to him This being a Point of great importance I shall further prove and illustrate it There is no deliberating about the degrees of that which is loved for it self as our End More or less may respect the Means that are valued and used to obtain it but the Love of the End is vast and unlimited A Physician endeavours to recover his Patient to sound and perfect Health that being the End of his Art He that seeks for
Honour or Riches is not content with a Mediocrity of Success but drives on his Affairs to the full period of his Desires An ardent lover of Learning with a noble jealousy strives to excel others in Knowledg In short no Man designs and longs for a thing as his Happiness but will use all diligence to gain the present and full possession of it Therefore it cannot be imagined that any Person sincerely propounds the enjoyment of Heaven as his End but Love will make him fervent and industrious to be as Heavenly as is possible here He will strive by blessed and glorious Gradations to ascend to the perfection of his Aims and Desires to be holy as God is holy in all manner of Conversation to be pure as Christ is pure We have an admirable instance of this in St. Paul who declares Brethren I count not my self to have apprehended but this one thing I do forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forth unto those things which are before I press toward the Mark for the Prize of the high Calling of God in Christ Jesus His Progress was great yet that did not make him slack in the prosecution of his End He laboured to attain the Precedent of our Saviour to feel the Power of his Death and Life to apprehend Christ intirely and perfectly as Christ had apprehended him He was very diligent to improve the Divine Image in his Heart and Life From hence we may discover the vanity of their Hopes that are of luke-warm Affections in Religion the abhorr'd character of Laodicea who esteem it a prudent Principle as convenient for their carnal ease and interest not to be earnest in following Holiness Vices in mediocrity are tolerable with them only the excess is condemned They content themselves with a mediocrity in Religion and are presumptuous and secure as the Church that said I am rich and have need of nothing They boast as if they had found out the temperate Region between the burning Line and the frozen Pole They account all that is above their degrees in Religion to be furious or indiscreet Zeal and all below to be dead cold Profaneness They censure those for Hypocrisy or unnecessary Strictness who are visibly better and stand upon proud comparisons with those who are visibly worse And thus set off themselves by taxing others But how easily do Men deceive and damn themselves Can we have too much of Heaven upon the Earth Can we become too like God when a perfect conformity to him is our Duty and Felicity Indeed Moral Vertue consists in a Mediocrity not of the habitual Quality but of the Affections and Actions between the vicious extremities Fortitude consists in the mean between Cowardise and rash Boldness but how much the more confirm'd the couragious Habit is so much the more a Man excells in that Virtue Liberality consists between an indiscreet Profuseness and sordid Avarice Patience between a soft Delicacy and stupid Insensibility Thus Philosophic Virtue glories in its Beauty as pure and intire between two vicious Deformities And the Religion of many is Paganism drest up in a Christian Fashion But this mediocrity only belongs to inferiour Vertues that respect things of created limited goodness and is determined according to the worth of their Nature But divine Graces respect an Object supreamly Good and their perfection consists in their most excellent degrees and the most intense Affections and Operations that are leading to it Faith in its Obedience Hope in its Assurance Love in its Ardour can never exceed When the Object is Infinite a mediocrity is vicious Humility can never descend too low nor Love ascend too high for reflecting upon our natural and moral Imperfections that we were raised from nothing that we are defiled and debased with Sin we cannot have too low thoughts of our selves And since God the Soveraign Being infinite in Perfections and infinitely amiable is the Object no bounds or measure must be set to our Affections but with all our united Powers all the Heart and with all the Soul and with all the Mind and with all the Strength we must love him and please him and endeavour to be beloved of him There are others will acknowledg their defects and tell you they do not pretend to eminent Sanctity to the Graces of the Apostles and Martyrs nor aspire to their degrees in Glory they are content with a lower place in Heaven and less strict Religion is sufficient for their purpose This deceit is strengthned by Popery that enervates and dissolves many of our Saviour's Precepts by teaching they are not Laws obliging all Christians to Obedience that will attain to eternal Life but Counsels of Perfection if they are not done 't is no Sin and the performance of them meritoriously intitles to a richer Crown And though Men by impure Indulgencies please their sensual Affections yet by tasting Purgatory in the way they may come to Heaven on easier terms than a universal respect to God's Commands and an equal care to observe them But Death will confute all these feeble wretched Pretences for though the Saints above shine with an unequal brightness as the Stars differ in Glory yet none are there but Saints And those who do not mourn under their Imperfections and unfeignedly desire and endeavour to be better were never really good The slothful Servant that did not waste but neglect to improve his Talent was cast into outer darkness There are different degrees of punishments in Hell but the least miserable there are miserable for ever In short 't is a perfect contradiction a Prodigy for any Man to think he is sincere in his Choice and prepar'd in his Affections for the pure glorious Felicity in Heaven that does not labour to cleanse himself from all pollutions of Flesh and Spirit and to perfect Holiness in the fear of God Secondly The choice of Eternal Felicity must be early in the prime of our days The rule of our Duty and Reason binds us to remember our Creatour in our Youth to pay to him the first fruits of our Time and Strength When we are surrounded with inticing Objects and the Senses are entire and most capable to enjoy them when the electing Powers are in their vigour then 't is just we should live to God obey him as our Law-giver and prefer the fruition of him in Heaven the reward of Obedience before all the pleasures of Vanity 'T is very honourable and pleasing to God to give the Heart to him when the Flesh and the World strongly solicit to withdraw it 'T is a high endearment of the Soul to him when his Excellencies are prevalent in the Esteem and Affections above all the Charms of the Creatures And 't is an unspeakable satisfaction to the Spirit of a Man to declare the truth and strength of his Love to God by despising Temptations when they are most inviting and the Appetite is eager for the enjoyment of them But alas how many
difference between what is Temporal and Eternal how despicably light all the Vanities of this World are found when put in the Ballance against the infinite inestimable Happiness of the next In short the renewed Mind knows Spiritual Things according to their Nature and Qualities believes esteems and determines that they are of eternal Moment and absolutely necessary for the Happiness of Man And as when the natural Faculty of seeing is perish'd 't is irreparable by human Skill and without a Miracle can never be restored so the intellectual Faculty when darkned by sinful Lusts without the renewing power of the Spirit can never know Spiritual Things as they ought to be known Therefore as the blind Men in the Gospel who dispair'd of help from the Physicians hearing of the miraculous Power of Christ importunately begg'd his healing Mercy so let us pray to the Light and Saviour of the World but in a more noble and higher Sense Lord that we may receive our sight Let us with the most zealous Affections call upon the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of Glory that he would give unto us the Spirit of Wisdom and Revelation in the knowledg of him the Eyes of our understanding being inlightned that we may know what is the hope of his Calling and what the Riches of the Glory of his Inheritance in the Saints 2. The efficacious Influence of the Holy Spirit is requisite to change the Will that with a free and full consent it may desire and prosecute the Spiritual Eternal Good Without this the conviction of the Mind is not powerful enough to convert the Soul from the love of the World to choose Heaven There may be an inlightned Conscience without a renewed Heart Though the Judgment assents that God is the Supream Good yet till the Heart be circumcised the sensuality of the Affections taken away divine Love that directs the Life to God as our blessed End can never possess it Suppose that Men had a sensible and strong assurance of the Eternal State hereafter if all those who lived godly in a visible manner ascended with Elias to Heaven and if all who continued in their Sins visibly descended into Hell as Corah and his Company were swallowed up alive by the Earth before the Israelites if Men could hear the joyful Exultations of the Saints above their high Praises of God and hear the desperate Crys and deep Complaints of the Damned if one according to the desire of the rich Man were sent from Hell and with his Fiery Tongue should relate what he had seen and suffer'd and exhibit a sensible demonstration in himself of those Torments yet this alone were not sufficient to draw off their Hearts from the deceitful Happiness of this World and fasten them on the perfect and Eternal Happiness in the next Indeed they could not then indulge their Lusts so securely but they would be Strangers to the Life of God such an inveterate alienation of Heart is in Men from real Holiness Till the sanctifying Spirit by a directive persuasive Light that represents the Truth and Goodness of Spiritual Things transforms the Soul and makes it Spiritual in its Valuations and Affections 't is inwardly averse from Grace and Glory The Lord direct our Hearts into the Love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ when he shall come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe FINIS OF HELL BY WILLIAM BATES D.D. LONDON Printed by J. D. for Brabazon Aylmer at the Three Pigeons against the Royal Exchange in Cornhil 1691. OF HELL Mark 9.48 Where their Worm dieth not and the Fire is not quenched THE Words are the repetition of a powerful Motive by our Blessed Saviour to deter Men from indulging Temptations to sin how grateful or useful soever to them If thy Hand offend thee cut it off if thy Foot offend thee cut it off if thy Eye offend thee pluck it out All the Occasions whereby Sin insinuates it self and inflames our Inclinations whether it bribes us with Profit or allures by Pleasure must be immediately cut off and for ever separated from us This Counsel seems very severe to the natural Man who freely converses with Temptations To do Violence to himself and tear his beloved Lusts from his Bosom the Carnal Nature will not consent to Our Saviour therefore urges such Arguments as may move the Understanding and Affections may strike Sense and Conscience For it is better to enter into Life maimed than having two Hands to go into Hell where the Fire never shall be quenched Hope and Fear are the most active Passions The Hope of Heaven is motive enough to induce a true Believer to despise and reject all the Advantages and Pleasures of Sin that are but for a Season and the fear of an Everlasting Hell is strong enough to controul the vicious Appetites Reason determines that when a Gangreen that is deadly and spreading has seiz'd upon a Member presently to cut off an affected Arm or Leg to save the rest how much more reasonable and necessary is it to part with the most charming and favourite Sin to preserve the Soul from Eternal Death 'T is observable our Saviour inculcates three times that Men may take notice of it with terror Where the Worm never dies and the Fire is never quenched A Worm gnawing upon the Bowels that are of the most tender and quick sense Fire that causes the most vehement pain are fearful Representations to typify the Torments of the Damned And that the Worm is undying and the Fire unquenchable infinitely aggravates their Punishment The Proposition is this That the punishment of those who will retain their pleasant or profitable Sins shall be extream and eternal In the handling of this Point I will 1. Discourse of the Extremity of the Punishment 2. Of the Eternity of it 1. Of the Extremity of it Before the particular Description of the Pains of the Damned I shall observe in general That the full Representation of Hell is beyond all humane Expression nay our most fearful Thoughts cannot equal the Horror of it Who knows the Power of thine Anger What are the prepared Plagues by infinite Justice and Almighty Wrath for obstinate Sinners It is impossible for the most guilty and trembling Conscience to inlarge its sad apprehensions according to the degrees of that Misery The Lord will shew forth his Wrath and make his Power known in the Vessels fitted for Destruction None can tell what God can do and what Man shall suffer when made capable to endure such Torments for ever as now would presently consume him As the Glory of Heaven cannot be fully understood till enjoyed so the Torments of Hell cannot be comprehended till felt But we may have some discovery of those unknown Terrors by the following Considerations 1. The most heavy Judgments of God upon Sinners here are light and tolerable in Comparison of the Punishment of Sinners in the next
a folly infinitely more prodigious when Death is near are not so much affected with the loss of the Crown of Glory and the Kingdom of Heaven as with their present leaving this World and its Vanities This makes Death intolerably bitter Till the Love of God purifies the Heart the fruition of his Presence is not esteemed or desir'd A Seraphim sent from the presence of God with a flaming Coal from the Altar toucht the Lips of the Holy Prophet and his Heart was presently melted into a compliance with the Divine Will But if a rebel Angel that burns with another fire than of Divine Love were dispatch'd from Hell with a Coal from that Altar where so many Victims are offer'd to Divine Justice as there are damned Souls and touch'd obdurate Sinners that they might have a lively sense what it is to burn for ever it were the most congrous and effectual means to reclaim them like stubborn Metals they are only made pliant by the Fire From what has been said we may observe the heavenly Harmony between Mercy and Justice in God he is the Father of Mercy 't is his natural Off-spring his primary Inclination to the Creature and the threatning of Vengeance against Sinners is a gracious design to constrain them with humility and repenting Affections to seek his Favour Briefly his severity and flaming displeasure never destroys Sinners but to revenge the abuse of his neglected Benignity and Clemency 2. This shews the woful depravation of the Minds and Wills of Men that chuse Sin when thinly painted over with Pleasure notwithstanding the most dreadful and durable Torments the certain Consequences of it Desperate folly either they believe or do not the eternal Torment of Hell If they do not how prodigious is their impiety If they do 't is more prodigious they dare indulge their vicious Affections A wicked Believer is more monstrous and guilty than a wicked Infidel In some there is Atheism full of Folly or Folly full of Atheism that they will not believe the prepared Plagues for the wicked in the next State because they have no sensible proof of them Reason assisted by Divine Revelation affords so clear an evidence of the future State and the Rewards and Punishments in it that if any sincerely apply themselves to consider things he will receive the most affective conviction of them 'T is true there is not sensible evidence for God will try our Faith before he satisfies our Sight partly that we may honour his Veracity by yielding a firm assent to his Word before the actual accomplishment of what is promised or threatn'd and partly that our Obedience may be voluntary and unconstrain'd that his Goodness may take its rise to reward us But these presumptuous Infidels live as if they had no Spirit nothing of understanding in them they are wholly under the Dominion of sense as if they were free and lawless independant and unaccountable as if the most high Governour of the World were an inferiour Being without Power and Justice to vindicate the Honour of his despised Deity They do not fear Hell but are afraid they should be fearful of it This is such a piece of folly but infinitely more woful as that of the West-Indians who at their first invasion by the Spaniards were so terrified by their glittering Swords that they presently fled and very considerately resolved to hide themselves in the Day and assault their Enemies in the Night They were fearful to see their Danger and rash to encounter it and fighting in the dark were kill'd in the dark The threatnings of eternal Death are the brandishing of God's glittering Sword before he strikes and sensual Infidels are afraid lest the belief of those terrible Truths should pierce into their Breasts therefore are utterly averse from due considering their Danger and will not foresee what they shall certainly suffer 'T is in vain to offer Arguments to convince them for they are as deaf as Adders to the wisest Instructions till Sense extort an Acknowledgment from them They have hardned their Hearts and Faces against all Reproofs and by an open contempt of Scripture-Threatnings are past reclaiming They are now fearless of that Judgment the thoughts whereof make the Devils tremble but the time will shortly come when the Word of the righteous God which now they despise shall irresistibly and immediately like Lightning shot from Heaven destroy them There are many degrees of Sin many steps in the descent to Hell but the lowest and nearest the Gate of that infernal Prison is the scornful derision of God's dreadful Preparations for the wicked Others in the Christian Church who profess and presume they are true Believers yet by living indulgently in their pleasant or profitable Sins discover their Faith is counterfeit or such a superficial assent to the Truth of God's Word that is without efficacy and will not avail them at the last Unfeigned Faith of the Divine Threatnings produces such a fear as would make Men circumspect over their Hearts and Ways The fear of a present destructive Evil controuls the most eager Appetites 'T is recorded that when the Army of Israel was in pursuit of the Philistines Saul to compleat his Victory forbad upon pain of Death that any should taste Food till the Sun was down In the chace of their Enemies they pass through a Wood dropping with Honey yet notwithstanding their Hunger and Faintness and the easy provisions before them no Man so much as tasted it for the People feared the King's Oath And did Men truly believe and fear the Law of God threatning Hell for Sin would they dare to commit it though invited by pleasant Temptations Nay not only a strong Fear but the mere suspicion of great Danger will restrain the most vehement desires of Nature What Person though inflam'd with thirst would drink a Glass of cool Liquor if he suspected that deadly Poison were mix'd with it And if Men were perswaded that Sin is attended with eternal Death would they drink in Iniquity like Water The Devils themselves are not able to conquer the fear of Judgment to come they believe and tremble Therefore when it is not active upon the Conscience it is either because Men do not believe it or they fancy that retaining their beloved Lusts they may obtain an easy Absolution and escape the Damnation of Hell which the Eternal Judg has declar'd shall be the punishment of all that will not cut off the right Hand and pluck out the right Eye separate their dearest Corruptions from them Astonishing Perverseness How many will not discern nor censure that Folly in themselves which they will condemn in others for extream Madness If one riotously lavishes away his Estate and for the short Pleasure of a few Years be reduc'd with the Prodigal to extream Poverty and to loathsom Imprisonment all his Life after would he not be esteem'd to have been besides himself Yet this is a very tolerable Case in comparison of exposing
apprehension Now all these troubles of Mind are but the beginnings of Sorrows but the Smoak of the infernal Furnace but Earnests of that terrible Sum which divine Justice will severely exact of the Wicked in Hell Indeed these Examples are rare and not regarded by the most and by some lookt on as the effects of Distraction but to convince the bold and careless Sinners who never felt the stings of an awakned Conscience what extream Terrors seize upon the Wicked in the other World Consider 1. The Apprehension shall be more clear and enlarged than in the present State Now the Soul is opprest with a weight of Clay and in Drowsiness and Obscurity The great things of Eternity are of little force to convince the Conscience or perswade the Affections But then the Soul shall work with the quickest activity The Mind shall by an irresistible Light take a full view of all afflicting Objects The most stupid and unconcerned Sinners shall then see and feel their ruin'd State what a glorious Felicity they have lost what a Misery they are plunged into without any possibility of lessening it by false Conceits and receiving any relief by the error of Imagination 2. The mournful Thoughts shall be always fixt upon what is tormenting The Soul in conjunction with the Body cannot always apply it self to one sort of Objects For the Ministry of the sensible Faculties is requisite to its Operations And the Body must be supported by Eating and Drinking and Rest which interrupts troublesom Thoughts Besides the variety of Objects and Accidents here avert the Mind sometimes from what is afflicting But the separate Soul is in no dependance on the Body and after their reunion there shall be no necessity of Food or Sleep or any other animal actions to support it but it shall be restored to a new capacity for new Torments and preserved in that miserable State by the power of God There will be nothing then to divert the lost Soul from sad Reflections upon its Misery There are no lucid intervals in Hell 3. All the tormenting Passions will then be let loose at once upon the guilty Creature And if there be no single Passion so weak but heightned will break the Spirit and render Life so miserable that a Man will take Sanctuary in the Grave to escape how miserable is the Condition when the most fierce and united Passions war against the Soul This is signified by the never-dying Worm that gnaws on the tenderest parts and of quickest sense Shame Sorrow Despair Fury Hatred and Revenge are some of that brood of Vipers that torment the Damned 1. Shame is a Passion of which human Nature is very sensible and this in the highest degree of Confusion shall seize on the Wicked For all the just causes of Shame shall then meet The inward source of it is the consciousness of Guilt or Turpitude and Folly in the Actions and all these are the inseparable Adjuncts of Sin The guilty Soul by a piercing reflection upon its Crimes has a secret shame of its Degeneracy and Unworthiness The Passion is increast when a discovery is made of vile practices that defile and debase a Man expose to Contempt and Infamy before Persons of high Quality and eminent Vertue whom we admire and reverence and whose esteem we value To be surprized in an unworthy Action by such a Person disorders the Blood and transfuses a Colour into the Face to cover it with a Vail of Blushing And the more numerous the Spectators are the more the Disgrace is aggravated And if Derision be joined with the Ignominy it causes extream Displeasure O the universal Confusion the over-powring amazement that will seise on Sinners in the great Day of Discovery when all the Works of Darkness all their base Sensualities shall be revealed before God Angels and Saints When all the Covers of Shame shall be taken off the Excuses and Denials to extenuate or conceal their Sins shall vanish and their Breasts be transparent to the Eyes of all How will they be ashamed of their foul and permanent Deformity in the Light of that glorious Presence How will they be astonisht to appear in all their Pollutions before that bright and immense Theatre How will they be confounded to stand in all their Guilt before that sublime and severe Tribunal How will they endure the upbraidings for all the Sins which they have so wickedly committed and the derision for the Punishment they so deservedly suffer The holy Judg will laugh at their Calamity and mock when their fear comes The Righteous also shall see and shall laugh at them Lo these are the Men that made not God their Portion but perishing Vanities that prefer'd sweet Folly before severe Wisdom The Devils will reproach them for that scornful advantage they had over them That as Children are seduc'd for things of Lustre to part with real Treasures so they were easily persuaded for the Trifles of Time to exchange Eternal Happiness Whither will they cause their Shame to go Those black Sinners that here never change colour for their Filthiness that hardned by custom in Sin are impenetrable to Shame as the brute Beasts that are absolutely destitute of reason nay that have not only overcome all tenderness but glory in their Shame shall glow at the manifestation of their sordid Lusts their vile Servilities and be covered with Confusion and the sense of it shall be revived in their Minds for ever 2. To open Shame is joined the greatest inward Sorrow This Passion when violent penetrates the Soul in all its Faculties and fastens it to the afflicting Object When it dwells in the Bosom it gives an easy entrance to whatever cherishes and increases it and rejects what might asswage and lessen the sense of the Evil. The most pleasant things do not excite Desire or Joy but exasperate Grief Like those Animals that convert the best nourishment into their own Poison so deep Sorrow receives mournful impressions from all things and turns the sweetest Comforts of Life into Wormwood and Gall. The causes of Sorrow are either the loss of some valued Good or the sense of some present Evil. And the Sorrow is more violent as the Cause is great in it self and in the apprehension and tenderness of the Sufferers Now both these Causes with all the heavy Circumstances that can multiply and aggravate Sorrow meet in Hell the Centre of Misery The loss is inconceivably great If Cain when banish'd from the Society of the Saints where God was publickly worship'd and by spiritual Revelations and visible Apparitions graciously made himself known cry'd out in anguish of Soul My punishment is greater than I can bear from thy Face shall I be hid and I shall be a Fugitive upon the Earth how intolerable will be the final separation from his glorious and joyful Presence be In the clear and transforming Vision of his Glory and the intimate and indissolvable Union with him by Love consists the