and Earth where we now are yea or Heaven which is offered us then certainly we have received Mercy Yea if the Blood of the Son of God be Mercy then are we engaged to God by Mercy for so much did it cost him to recover us to himself And should a people of such deep engagements be lazy in their returns Shall God think nothing too much nor too Good for us and shall we think all too much that we do for him Thou that art an observing sensible man who knowest how much thou art beholden to God I appeal to thee Is not a loytering performance of a few heartless duties an unworthy requital of such admirable kindness For my own part when I compare my slow and unprofitable life with the frequent and wonderful mercies received it shames me it silenceth me and leaves me unexcusable SECT VIII 7. A Gain consider All the Relations which we stand in toward God whether common or special do call upon us for our utmost diligence Should not the pot be wholly at the service of the Potter and the creature at the service of his great Creator Are we his Children and do we not owe him our most tender affections and dutiful obedience Are we the Spouse of Christ and do we not owe him our observance and our Love If he be our Father where is his honour and if he be our Master where is his fear Mal. 1.6 We call him Lord and Master and we do well but if our industry be not answerable to our assumed relations we condemn our selves in saying we are his children or his servants How will the hard labour and dayly toyl that servants undergo to please their Masters judg and condemn those men who will not labour so hard for their Great Master Surely there 's none have a better or more honourable Master then we nor can any expect such fruit of their labours 1 Cor. 15. ult SECT IX 8. COnsider What haste should they make who have such Rods at their backs as be at ours And how painfully should they work who are still driven on by such sharp Afflictions If either we wander out of the way or loyter in it how surely do we prepare for our own smart Every creature is ready to be Gods Rod to reduce us or to put us on Our sweetest mercies will become our sorrows Or rather then he will want a Rod the Lord will make us a scourge to our selves Our diseased bodies shall make us groan our perplexed minds shall make us restless our conscience shall be as a Scorpion in our bosom And is it not easier to endure the labour then the spur Had we rather be still thus afflicted then to be up and going Alas how like are we to tired horses that will lie down and groan or stand still and let you lay on them as long as you will rather then they will freely travel on their journey And thus we make our own lives miserable and necessitate God if he love us to chastiâ—e us It is true those that do most do meet with Afflictions also but surely according to the measure of their peace of Conscience and faithfulness to Christ so is the bitterness of their Cup for the most part abated SECT X. 9. HOw close should they ply their work who have such great preparations attending them as we have All the world are our servants that we may be the Servants of God The Sun and Moon and Stars attend us with their light and influence The Earth with all its furniture is at our service How many thousand plants and flowers and fruits and birds and beasts do all attend us The Sea with its inhabitants the Air the wind the frost and snow the heat and fire the clouds and rain all wait upon us while we do our work Yea the Angels are ministring Spirits for the Service of the Elect. And is it not an intolerable crime for us to trifle while all these are employed to assist us Nay more The Patience and Goodness of God doth wait upon us The Lord Jesus waiteth in the offers of his blood The Holy Ghost waiteth in striving with our backward hearts Besides all his Servants the Ministers of his Gospel who study and wait and preach and wait and pray and wait upon careless sinners And shall Angels and Men yea the Lord himself stand by and look on and as it were hold thee the Candle while thou dost nothing Oh Christians I beseech you when ever you are upon your knees in prayer or reproving the transgressors or exhorting the obstinate or upon any duty do but remember what attendance you have for this work and then Judg how it behoves you to perform it SECT XI 10. SHould not our Affections and Endeavors be answerable to the acknowledged Principles of our Christian Profession Sure if we are Christians indeed and mean as we speak when we profess the Faith of Christ we shall shew it in Affections and Actions as well as Expressions Why the very fundamental Doctrines of our Religion are That God is the chief Good and all our Happiness consists in his Love and therefore it should be valued and sought above all things That he is our only Lord and therefore chiefly to be served That we must Love him with all our heart and soul and strength That the very business that men have in the world and the only errand that God sent them about is to Glorifie God and to obtain Salvation c. And do mens duties and conversations second this profession Are these Doctrines seen in the painfulness of mens practise Or rather do not their works deny what their words do confess One would think by mens Actions that they did not believe a word of the Gospel to be true Oh sad day when mens own tongues and professions shall be brought in against them and condemn them SECT XII 11. HOw forward and painful should we be in that work where we are sure we can never do enough If there were any danger of over-doing then it might well cause men to moderate their endeavors But we know that if we could do all we were but unprofitable servants much more when we are sure to fail in all It is true a man may possibly pray too much or preach too much or hear or reprove too much though I have known few that ever did so but yet no man can obey or serve God too much For one duty may be said to be too long when it shuts out another and then it ceaseth indeed to be a duty So that though all Superstition or service of our devising may be called a Righteousness-over-much yet as long as you keep your service to the rule of the Word that so it may have the true nature of obedience you never need to fear being Righteous too much For else we should reproach the Lord and Law-giver of the Church as if he had commanded us
to pass and he worshipped Daniel and offered oblations to him because he foretold them When Christ had told his Disciples that one of them should betray him how desirous are they to know who it was though it were a matter of sorrow How busily do they enquire when Christs Predictions should come to pass and what were the Signs of his coming With what gladness doth the Samaritan woman run into the City saying Come and see a man that hath told me all that ever I did though he told her of her faults When Ahaziah lay sick how desirous was he to know whether he should live or dye Daniel is called a man greatly beloved therefore God would reveal to him things that long after must come to pass And is it so desireable a thing to hear Prophecies and to know what shall befall us hereafter and is it not then most especially desireable to know what shall befall our Souls and what place and state we must be in for ever Why this you may know if you will but faithfully Try. 2. But the Comforts of that Certainty of Salvation which this Tryal doth conduce toward are yet far greater If ever God bestow this blessing of Assurance on thee thou wilt account thy self the happiest man on earth and feel that it is not a Notional or empty mercy For 1. What sweet thoughts wilt thou have of God All that Greatness and Jealousie and Justice which is the terror of others will be matter of encouragement and Joy to thee As the son of a King doth rejoyce in his fathers Magnificence and Power which is the awe of Subjects and terror of Rebels When the thunder doth roar and the lightening flash and the earth quake and the signs of dreadful omnipotency do appear thou canst say All this is the effect of my Fathers power 2. How sweet may every thought of Christ and the blood that he hath shed and the benefits he hath procured be unto thee who hast got this Assurance Then will the Name of a Saviour be a sweet Name and the thoughts of his gentle and loving nature and of the gracious design which he hath carried on for our Salvation will be pleasing thoughts Then will it do thee good to view his wounds by the eye of faith and to put thy finger as it were into his side when thou canst call him as Thomas did My Lord and my God! 3. Every passage also in the Word will then afford thee Comfort How sweet will be the Promises when thou art sure they are thine own The Gospel will then be Glad Tydings indeed The very threatnings will occasion thy Comfort to remember that thou hast escaped them Then thou wilt cry out with David Oh how I love thy Law It is sweeter then honey More precious then gold c. And as Luther That thou wilt not take all the world for one leaf of the Bible When thou wast in thy sin this Book was to thee as Micaiah to Ahab It never spoke Good of thee but Evil and therefore no wonder if then thou didst hate it But now it is the charter of thy Everlasting Rest how welcom will it be to thee and how beautiful the very feet of those that bring it 4. What boldness and comfort then mayst thou have in prayer When thou canst say Our Father in full Assurance and knowest that thou art welcom and accepted through Christ and that thou hast a promise to be heard when ever thou askest and knowest that God is readier to grant thy requests then thou to move them With what comfortable boldness mayst thou then approach the Throne of Grace Especially when the case is weighty and thy necessity great this Assurance in prayer will be a sweet priviledg indeed A despairing Soul that feeleth the weight of Sin and Wrath especially at a dying hour would give a large price to be partaker of this Priviledg and to be sure that he might have Pardon and Life for the asking for 5. This Assurance will give the Sacrament a sweet relish to thy Soul and make it a refreshing feast indeed 6. It will multiply the sweetness of every mercy thou receivest when thou art sure that all proceeds from Love and are the beginnings and earnest of Everlasting Mercies Thou wilt then have more comfort in a morsel of bread then the world hath in the greatest abundance of all things 7. How comfortably then mayst thou undergo all Afflictions When thou knowest that he meaneth thee no hurt in it but hath promised that All shall work together for thy Good when thou art sure that he chasteneth thee because he loveth thee and scourgeth thee because thou art a Son whom he will receive and that out of very faithfulness he doth afflict thee What a support must this be to thy heart and how will it abate the bitterness of the Cup Even the Son of God himself doth seem to take comfort from this Assurance when he was in a manner forsaken for our sins and therefore he cries out My God my God why hast thou forsaken me And even the Prodigal under his guilt and misery doth take some Comfort in remembring that he hath a Father 8. This Assurance will sweeten to thee the fore-thoughts of death and make thy heart glad to fore-think of that entrance into Joy when a man that is uncertain whither he is going must needs dye with horror 9. It will sweeten also thy fore-thoughts of Judgment when thou art sure that it will be the day of thy absolution and Coronation 10. Yea the very thoughts of the flames of Hell will administer matter of Consolation to thee when thou canst certainly conclude thou art saved from them 11. The fore-thoughts of Heaven also will be more incomparably delightful when thou art certain that it is the place of thine Everlasting abode 12. It will make thee exceeding lively and strong in the Work of the Lord With what courage wilt thou run when thou knowest thou shalt have the prize and fight when thou knowest thou shalt conquer It will make thee always abound in the work of the Lord when thou knowest that thy labour is not in vain 13. It will also make thee more profitable to others Thou wilt be a most chearful encourager of them from thine own experience Thou wilt be able to refresh the weary and to strengthen the weak and speak a word of Comfort in season to the troubled Soul Whereas now without Assurance in stead of comforting others thou wilt rather have need of support thy self So that others are losers by thy Uncertainty as well as thy self 14. Assurance will put life into all thy Affections or Graces 1. It will help thee to Repent and melt over thy sins when thou knowest how dearly God did Love thee whom thou hast abused 2. It will enflame thy Soul with Love to God when thou once knowest thy near Relation to him
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
THE Saints Everlasting Rest OR A TREATISE Of the Blessed State of the SAINTS in their enjoyment of GOD in Glory Wherein is shewed its Excellency and Certainty the Misery of those that lose it the way to Attain it and Assurance of it and how to live in the continual delightful Forecasts of it by the help of Meditation Written by the Author for his own use in the time of his languishing when God took him off from all Publike Imployment and afterwards Preached in his weekly Lecture And now published by Richard Baxter Teacher of the Church of Kederminster in Worcestershire My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever Psal. 73.26 If in this life onely we have hope in Christ we are of all men most miserable 1 Cor. 15.19 Set your affections on things above and not on things on the Earth For ye are dead and your life is hid with Christ in God When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall ye also appear with him in glory Col. 3.2 3 4. Because I live ye shall live also John 14.19 Jan. 15. 1649. Imprimatur Joseph Caryl London Printed by Rob. White for Thomas Vnderhil and Francis Tyton and are to be sold at the Blue-Anchor and Bible in Pauls Church-yard near the little North-door and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet near the Inner-Temple-gate 1650. To my dearly beloved Friends the Inhabitants of the Burrough and Forreign OF KEDERMINSTER Both Magistrates and People My dear Friends IF either I or my labors have any thing of publike use or worth it is wholly though not onely yours And I am convinced by Providence That it is the Will of God it should be so This I clearly discerned in my first coming to you in my former abode with you and in the time of my forced absence from you When I was separated by the miseries of the late unhappy war I durst not fix in any other Congregation but lived in a military unpleasing state lest I should forestal my return to you for whom I took my self reserved The offers of greater worldly accommodations with five times the means which I receive with you was no temptation to me once to question whether I should leave you Your free invitation of my return your obedience to my Doctrine the strong affection which I have yet towards you above all people and the general hearty return of Love which I finde from you do all perswade me that I was sent into this world especially for the service of your souls And that even when I am dead I might yet be a help to your salvation the Lord hath forced me quite besides my own resolution to write this Treatise and leave it in your hands It was far from my thoughts ever to have become thus publike and burdened the world with any writings of mine Therefore have I oft resisted the requests of my reverend Brethren and some Superiors who might else have commanded much more at my hands But see how God over ruleth and crosseth our resolutions Being in my quarters far from home cast into extream languishing by the sudden loss of about a Gallon of blood after many yeers foregoing weakness and having no acquaintance about me nor any Books but my Bible and living in continual expectation of death I bent my thoughts on my Everlasting Rest And because my memory through extream weakness was imperfect I took my pen and began to draw up my own funeral Sermon or some helps for my own Meditations of Heaven to sweeten both the Rest of my life and my death In this condition God was pleased to continue me about five moneths from home where being able for nothing else I went on with this work which so lengthened to this which here you see It is no wonder therefore if I be too abrupt in the beginning seeing I then intended but the length of a Sermon or two Much less may you wonder if the whole be very imperfect seeing it was written as it were with one foot in the grave by a man that was betwixt living and dead that wanted strength of nature to quicken Invention or Affection and had no Book but his Bible while the chief part was finished nor had any minde of humane ornaments if he had been furnished But O how sweet is this Providence now to my review which so happily forced me to that work of Meditation which I had formerly found so profitable to my soul and shewed me more mercy in depriving me of other helps then I was aware of and hath caused my thoughts to feed on this Heavenly Subject which hath more benefited me then all the studies of my life And now dear Friends such as it is I here offer it you and upon the bended knees of my soul I offer up my thanks to the merciful God who hath fetched up both me and it as from the grave for your service Who reversed the sentence of present death which by the ablest Physitians was past upon me who interrupted my publike labors for a time that he might force me to do you a more lasting service which else I had never been like to have attempted That God do I heartily bless and magnifie who hath rescued me from the many dangers of four yeers war and after so many tedious nights and days and so many doleful fights and tidings hath returned me and many of your selves and reprived us till now to serve him in peace And though men be ungrateful and my body ruined beyond hope of recovery yet he hath made up all in the comforts I have in you To the God of mercy do I here offer my most hearty thanks and pay the vows of acknowledgment which I oft made in my distress who hath not rejected my prayers which in my dolor I put up but hath by a wonder delivered me in the midst of my duties and hath supported me this fourteen yeers in a languishing state wherein I have scarce had a waking hour free from pain who hath above twenty several times delivered me when I was neer to death And though he hath made me spend my days in groans and tears and in a constant expectation of my change yet hath he not wholly disabled me to his service and hereby hath more effectually subdued my pride and made this world contemptible to me and forced my dull heart to more importunate requests and occasioned more rare discoveries of his Mercy then ever I could have expected in a prosperous state For ever blessed be the Lord that hath not onely honored me to be a Minister of his Gospel but hath also set me over a people so willing to obey and given me that success of my labors which he hath denied to many more able and faithful who hath kept you in the zealous practice of godliness when so many grow negligent or despise the Ordinances of God who hath kept you stable in his
your souls to this blessed Work and that when death comes it may finde you so imployed that I may see your faces with joy at the Bar of Christ and we may enter together into the Everlasting Rest. Amen Your most affectionate though unworthy Teacher Rich. Baxter Kederminster Jan. 15. 1649. To the Right Worshipful Sir Thomas Rous Baronet with the Lady Jane Rous his VVife Right Worshipful THis First Part of this Treatise was written under your Roof and therefore I present it not to you as a gift but as your own Not for your Protection but for your Instruction and Direction for I never perceived you possessed with that evil spirit which maketh men hear their Teachers as their Servants to censure their Doctrine or be humored by them rather then to learn Nor do I intend this Epistle for the publishing of your Vertues You know to whose judgment you stand or fall It is a small thing to be judged by mans judgment If you be sentenced as Righteous at the Bar of Christ and called by him the Blessed of his Father it matters not much by what name or title you are here called All Saints are low in their own esteem and therefore thirst not to be highly esteemed by others He that knows what Pride hath done in the World and is now doing and how close that hainous sin doth cleave to all our Natures will scarce take him for a friend who will bring fewel to the fire nor that breath for amicable which will blow the coal Yet he that took so kindly a womans box of oyntment as to affix the History to his Gospel that where-ever it was read that good Work might be remembred hath warranted me by his example to annex the mention of your Favors to this Treatise which have many times far exceeded in cost that which Judas thought too good for his Lord. And common ingenuity commandeth me thankfully to acknowledg That when you heard I was suddenly cast into extream weakness you sent into several Counties to seek me in my quarters and missing of me sent again to fetch me to your house where for many moneths I found a Hospital a Physitian a Nurse and real Friends and which is more then all daily and importunate Prayers for my recovery and since I went from you your kindnesses still following me in aboundance And all this for a man that was a stranger to you whom you had never seen before but among Souldiers to burden you And for one that had no witty insinuations for the extracting of your favors nor impudency enough to return them in flatteries yea who had such obstructions betwixt his heart and his tongue that he could scarce handsomly express the least part of his thankfulness much less able to make you a requital The best return I can make of your love is in commending this Heavenly Duty to your Practice wherein I must intreat you to be the more diligent and unwearied because as you may take more time for it then the poor can do so have you far stronger temptations to divert you it being extreamly difficult for those that have fulness of all things here to place their happiness really in another life and to set their hearts there as the place of their Rest which yet must be done by all that will be saved Study Luke 12.16 to 22. and 16.19 25. Matth. 6.21 How little comfort do all things in this world afford to a departing soul My constant prayer for you to God shall be That all things below may be below him in your heart and that you may throughly master and mortifie the desires of the flesh and may daily live above in the Spirit with the Father of Spirits till you arrive among the perfected Spirits of the Just. Your much obliged Servant Rich. Baxter The Contents of the First Part. CHAP. I. THE Text explained pag. 1 2 3 Qu. Doth this Rest remain to a determinate number of persons Elect Or only to believers in generall p. 4 Qu. Is it theirs only in possibility or in certainty p. 5 Chap. 2. The definition of Rest And of this Rest. p. 6 Qu. Whether to make the obtaining of Rest and avoiding misery the end of our duties be not Legall or Mercenary Answered p 8 9 Chap. 3. Twelve things which are presupposed to this Rest. p. 12 c. Chap. 4. What this Rest containeth 1. Cessation from all that motion which is the means to attain the end p. 20 2. Perfect freedom from all evill p. 21 3. The highest-degree of personall Perfection p. 22 4. Our nearest fruition of God the chief Good p. 23 5. A sweet and constant action of all the powers in this fruition p 28 As 1. Of the Senses and Tongue and whole Body p. 29 2. Of the Soul And 1. Vnderstanding As 1. Knowledg p. 30 2. Memory p. 33 2. Affections As by Love p. 35 2. By Joy p. 39 This Love and Joy will be mutuall p. 41 Chap. 5. The four great antecedents and preparatives to this Rest. p. 44 1. The coming of Christ. p. 45 2. Our Resurrection p. 51 3. Our justification in the great Judgment p. 57 4. Our solemn Coronation and Inthroning p. 65 Chap. 6. This Rest tryed by nine Rules in Philosophy or Reason and found by all to be the most excellent state in generall p. 69 Chap. 7. The particular excellencies of this Rest. p. 76 1. It s the fruit of Christs blood and enjoyed with the purchaser ibid. 2. It is freely given us p. 78 3. It is the Saints peculiar p. 81 4. In association with Angels and perfect Saints p. 83 5. Yet its Joys immediate from God p. 87 6. It will be a seasonable Rest. p. 91 7. And a sutable Rest 1. To our Natures 2. Desires 3. Necessities p. 97 8. A perfect Rest 1. In the sincerity of it 2. And universality p. 101 1. Of good enjoyed 2. And of the evill we are freed from ibid. We shall Rest 1. From sin and that 1. Of the Vnderstanding p. 102 2. From sin of Will Affection and Conversation p. 105 2. From suffering Particularly 1. From all doubts of Gods love p. 106 2. From all sense of his displeasure p. 107 3. From all Satans Temptations p. 108 4. From temptations of the world and flesh p. 110 5. From Persecutions and abuses of the world p. 112 6. From our own divisions and dissentions p. 116 7. From participating in our brethrens sufferings p. 121 8. From all our own personall sufferings p. 125 9. From all the labour and trouble of duty p. 128 10 From the trouble of Gods absence p. 129 9. As it will be thus perfect so Everlasting p. 129 c. Chap. 8. The People of God described The severall parts of the description opened and therein many weighty controversies briefly touched And lastly the description applyed by way of examination p. 134. to 164 The Contents of the Second Part. CHAP. I. THE Certain truth
they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
tells us plainly who shall be saved and who shall not So that if men would but first search the Word to find out who be these men that shall have Rest and what be their properties by which they may be known and then next search carefully their own hearts till they find whether they are those men or not how could they chuse but come to some Certainty But alas either men understand not the nature and use of this duty or else they will not be at the pains to try Go through a Congregation of a thousand men and how few of them shall you meet with that ever bestowed one hour in all their lives in a close Examination of their title to Heaven Ask thy own Conscience Reader When was the time and where was the place that ever thou solemnly tookest thy heart to task as in the sight of God and examined it by Scripture Interrogatories Whether it be Born again and Renewed or not Whether it be Holy or not Whether it be set most on God or on creatures on Heaven or on Earth and didst follow on this Examination till thou hast discovered thy Condition and so past sentence on thy self accordingly But because this is a Work of so high Concernment and so commonly neglected and mens Souls do so much languish every where under this neglect I will therefore though it be Digressive 1. Shew you That it is possible by trying to come to a Certainty 2. Shew you the hinderances that keep men from trying and from Assurance 3. I will lay down some Motives to perswade you to it 4. I will give you some Directions how you should perform it 5. And lastly I will lay you down some Marks out of Scripture by which you may try and so come to an infallible Certainty Whether you are the People of God for whom this Rest Remaineth or no. And to prepare the way to these I will a little first open to you what Examination is and what that Certainty is which we may expect to attain to SECT III. THis Self-Examination is An enquiry into the course of our lives but more especially into the inward Acts of our Souls and trying of their Sincerity by the Word of God and accordingly Judging of our Real and Relative Estate So that Examination containeth severall Acts 1. There must be the Tryal of the Physical Truth or Sincerity of our Acts That is An enquiry after the very Being of them As whether there be such an Act as Belief or Desire or Love to God within us or not This must be discovered by Conscience and the internal sense of the Soul whereby it is able to feel and perceive its own Acts and to know whether they be Real or Counterfeit 2. The next is The Tryal of the Moral Truth or Sincerity of our Acts Whether they are such as agree with the Rule and the Nature of their Objects This is the discursive work of Reason comparing our Acts with the Rule It implyeth the former knowledg of the Being of our Acts and it implyeth the knowledg of Scripture in the point in question and also the Belief of the Truth of Scripture This Moral Spiritual Truth of our Acts is another thing far different from the Natural or Physical Truth as far as a Mans Being differeth from his Honesty One man loveth his wife under the notion of an harlot or only to satisfie his lust Another loveth his wife with a true Conjugal Affection The former is True Physical Love or true in point of Being but the latter only is True Moral Love The like may be said in regard of all the Acts of the Soul There is a Believing Loving Trusting Fearing Rejoycing all True in point of Being and not counterfeit which yet are all false in point of Morality and right-being and so no gracious Acts at all 3. The third thing contained in the Work of Self-Examination is The Judging or Concluding of our Real Estate that is of the habitual temper or disposition of our Hearts by the quality of their Acts Whether they are such Acts as prove a Habit of Holiness or only some slight Disposition or whether they are only by some Accident enticed and enforced and prove neither Habit nor Disposition The like also of our Evil Acts. Now the Acts which prove a Habit must be 1. Free and chearful not constrained or such as we had rather not do if we could help it 2. Frequent if there be opportunity 3. Through and Serious Where Note also That the Tryal of the Souls Disposition by those Acts which make after the End as Desire Love c. to God Christ Heaven is always more Necessary and more Certain then the tryal of its Disposition to the Means only 4. The last Act in this Examination is To Conclude or Judg of our Relative Estate from the former Judgment of our Acts and Habits As if we find sincere Acts we may Conclude that we have the Habits so from both we may Conclude of our Relation So that our Relations or Habits are neither of them felt or known immediately but must be gathered from the knowledg of our Acts which may be felt As for Example 1. I enquire whether I Believe in Christ or Love God 2. If I find that I do then I enquire next whether I do it sincerely according to the Rule and the Nature of the Object 3. If I find that I do so then I conclude that I am Regenerate or Sanctified 4. And from both these I conclude that I am Pardoned Reconciled Justified and Adopted into sonship and title to the Inheritance All this is done in a way of Reasoning thus 1. He that Believes in Spiritual Sincerity or He that Loves God in Spiritual Sincerity is a Regenerate Man But I do so Believe and Love Therefore I am Regenerate 2. He that Believes in Sincerity or He that is Regenerate for the Conclusion will follow upon either is also Pardoned Justified and Adopted But I do so Believe or I am Regenerate Therefore I am Justified c. SECT IV. THus you see what Examination is Now let us see what this Certainty or Assurance is And indeed It is nothing else but the Knowledg of the forementioned Conclusions that we are Sanctified Justified shall be Glorified as they arise from the premises in the work of Examination So that here you may observe how immediately this Assurance followeth the Conclusion in Examination and so how necessary Examination is to the obtaining of Assurance and how conducible thereunto Also that we are not speaking of the Certainty of the Object or of the thing in it self considered but of the Certainty of the Subject or of the thing to our Knowledg Also you may observe that before we can come to this Certainty of the Conclusion That we are Justified and shall be Glorified there must be a Certainty of the Premises And in respect of the Major Proposition He that Believeth
acquainted then in their own brests 3. Besides many come to the work with forestalling conclusions They are resolved what to judge before they Try They use the duty but to strengthen their present conceits of themselves and not to find out the truth of their condition Like a bribed Judge who examines each party as if he would Judge uprightly when he is resolved which way the cause shall go before hand Or as perverse disputers who argue only to maintain their present opinions rather then to try those opinions whether they are right or wrong Just so do men examine their hearts 4. Also men are partial in their own Cause They are ready to think their great sins small and their small sins to be none their gifts of nature to be the work of Grace and their gifts of common grace to be the special grace of the Saints They are straight ways ready to say All these have I kept from my youth And I am rich and increased c. Rev. 3.17 The first common excellency that they meet with in themselves doth so dazle their eyes that they are presently satisfied that all is well and look no further 5. Besides most men do search but by the halves If it will not easily quickly be done they are discouraged and leaveoff Few set to it and follow it as beseems them in a work of such moment He must give all diligence that means to make sure 6. Also men try themselves by false Marks and Rules not knowing wherein the truth of Christianity doth consist some looking beyond and some short of the Scripture standard 7. Moreover there is so great likeness betwixt the lowest degree of special grace and the highest degree of Common Grace that it is no wonder if the unskilful be mistaken It is a great Question whether the main difference between special grace and common be not rather gradual then specifical If it should be so as some think then the discovery will be much more difficult However to discern by what principle our affections are moved and to what ends and with what sincerity is not very easie there being so many wrong Ends and motives which may excite the like Acts. Every grace in the Saints hath its counterfeit in the Hypocrite 8. Also men use to Try themselves by unsafe Marks either looking for a high degree of grace instead of a lower degree in sincerity as many doubting Christians do or else enquiring only into their outward Actions or into their inward Affections without their ends motives and other qualifications The sure evidences are Faith Love c. that are Essential parts of our Christianity and that lie neerest to the heart 9. Lastly Men frequently miscarry in this work by setting on it in their own strength As some expect the Spirit should do it without them so others attempt it themselves without seeking or expecting the help of the Spirit both these will certainly miscarry in their Assurance How far the Spirits Assistance is necessary is shewed before and the several Acts which it must perform for us SECT X. FUrther Causes of doubting among Christians Because the Comfort of a Christians life doth so much consist in his Assurance of Gods Special Love and because the right way of obtaining it is so much controverted of late I will here proceed a little further in opening to you some other Hinderances which keep true Christians from Comfortable Certainty besides the forementioned Errors in the Work of Examination Though I would still have you remember and be sensiâ—le That the neglect or slighty performance of that great duty and not following on the seaâ—ch with Seriousness and Constancy is the most common Hinderance for ought I have yet found I shall add now these Ten more which I find very ordinary Impediments and therefore desire Christians more carefully to Consider and Beware of them 1. One Common and great Cause of doubting and uncertainty is The weakness and small measure of our Graces A little Grace is next to None Small things are hardly discerned He that will see a small needle a hair a mote or atome must have clear light and good eyes But houses and Towns and Mountains are easily discerned Most Christians content themselves with a small measure of Grace and do not follow on to spiritual strength and manhood They Believe so weakly and Love God so little that they can scarce find whether they Believe and Love at all Like a man in a swoun whose pulse and breathing is so weak and obscure that it can hardly be perceived whether they move at all and consequently whether the man be alive or dead The chief Remedy for such would be To follow on their duty till their Graces be increased Ply your work Wait upon God in the use of his prescribed means and he will undoubtedly bless you with Increase and Strength Oh that Christians would bestow most of that time in getting more Grace which they bestow in Anxious doubtings whether they have any or none And that they would lay out those Serious Affections in Praying and seeking to Christ for more Grace which they bestow in fruitless Complaints of their supposed Gracelesness I beseech thee Christian take this advice as from God And then when thou Believest strongly and Lovest fervently thou canst not doubt whether thou do Believe and Love or not No more then a man that is burning hot can doubt whether he be warm or a man that is strong and lusty can doubt whether he be alive Strong Affections will make you feel them Who loveth his friend or wife or child or any thing strongly and doth not know it A great measure of Grace is seldom doubted of Or if it be you may quickly find when you seek and try SECT XI 2. ANother Cause of uncomfortable living is That Christians look more at their present Cause of Comfort or Discomfort then they do at their Future Happiness and the way to attain it They look afâ—er Signs which may tell thâ—m what they are more then they do at Pâ—ecepts which tell them what they should do They are very desirous to know whether they are Justified and beloved or not but they do not think what course they should take to be Justified if they be not As if their present Case must needs be their Everlasting Case and if they be now unpardoned there were no Remedy Why I beseech thee consider this Oh doubting Soul What if all were as bâ—d as thou dost fear and none of thy sins were yet pardoned Is not the Remedy at hand May not all this be done in a moment Dost thou not know that thou mayst have Christ and pardon when ever thou wilt Call not this a loose or strange doctrine Christ is willing if thou be willing He offereth himself and all his benefits to thee He presseth them on thee and urgeth thee to accept them He will condemn thee and destroy thee if thou
their impression on thy heart 11. Be sure to Record this Sentence so passed write it down or at least write it in thy Memory At such a time upon through Examination I found my state to be thus or thus This Record will be very useful to thee hereafter If thou be ungodly what a damp will it be to thy presumption and security to go and read the Sentence of thy Misery under thy own hand If thou be godly what a help will it be against the next Temptation to doubting and fear to go and read under thy hand this Record Mayst thou not think If at such a time I found the Truth of Grace is it not likely to be now the same and these my doubts to come from the Enemy of my Peace 12. Yet would I not have thee so trust to once discovery as to Try no more Especially if thou have made any foul Defection from Christ and play'd the backslider See then that thou renew the Search again 13. Neither would I have this hinder thee in the dayly Search of thy ways or of thy increase in Grace and fellowship with Christ It is an ill sign and desperate vile sin for a man when he thinks he hath found himself Gracious and in a happy state to let down his watch and grow negligent of his heart and ways and scarce look after them any more 14. Neither would I have thee give over in discouragement if thou canst not at once or twice or ten times trying discover thy Case But follow it on till thou hast discovered If one hours labor will not serve take another If one day or moneth or year be too little follow it still If one Minâ—ster cannot direct thee sufficiently go to another The Issue will answer all thy pains There is no sitting down discouraged in a work that must be done 15. Lastly above all take heed if thou finde thy self to be yet unregenerate that thou do not conclude of thy Future estate by thy present nor say Because I am ungodly I shall dye so or because I am an Hypocrite I shall continue so No thou hast another work to do And that is To resolve presently to cleave to Christ and break off thy Hypocrisie and thy Wickedness If thou finde that thou hast been all this while out of the way do not sit down in despair but make so much the more haste to turn into it If thou have been an Hypocrite or ungodly person all thy life yet is the promise offered thee by Christ and he tendereth himself to be thy Lord and Saviour Neither canst thou possibly be so Willing to Accept of him as he is to Accept thee Nothing but thy own unwillingness can keep thy Soul from Christ though thou hast hitherto abused him and dissembled with him Object But if I have gone so far and been a professor so long and yet finde my self an Hypocrite now after all what hope is there that I should now become sincere Answ. Dost thou heartily Desire to be Sincere Thy Sincerity doth lie especially in thy Will As long as thou art unwilling I confess thy case is sad But if thou be willing to receive Christ as he is offered to thee and so to be a Christian indeed then thou art sincere Neither hath Christ restrained his Spirit or Promises to any set time or said to thee Thou shalt finde grace if thou sin but so much or so long But if thou be heartily Willing at any time I know not who can hinder thy happiness Yet is this no diminution of the sin or danger of delaying Thus I have given you these Directions for Examination which conscionably practised will be of singular advantage and use to discover your states But it is not the bare reading of them that will do it I fear of many that will approve of this advice there will but few be brought to use it However those that are willing may finde help by it and the rest will be left more unexcuseable in Judgment SECT III. I Will not digress further to warn you here of the false Rules and Marks of Tryal which you must beware having opened them to you fullier when I preached on that subject But I will briefly adjoyn some Marks to try thy Title to this Rest by referring you for a fuller discovery to the Description of the People of God in the first part of the Book But be sure you search throughly and deal plainly or else you will but lose your labor and deceive your selves 1. Every Soul that hath Title to this Rest doth place his chiefest Happiness in it and make it the chief and ultimate End of his Soul This is the first Mark which is so plain a Truth that I need not stand to prove it For this Rest consisteth in the full and glorious enjoyment of God And he that maketh not God his chief Good and ultimate End is in heart a Pagan and vile Idolater and doth not take the Lord for his God Let me ask thee then Dost thou truly in Judgment and Affection account it thy chiefest Happiness to enjoy the Lord in Glory or dost thou not Canst thou say with David Psal. 16.5 The Lord is my Portion And as Psa. 73.25 Whom have I in Heaven but thee and whom in earth that I desire in comparison of thee If thou be an heir of Rest it is thus with thee Though the flesh will be pleading for its own delights and the world will be creeping into thine affections and thou canst not be quite freed from the Love of it Yet in thy ordinary setled prevailing Judgment and Affections thou preferrest God before all things in the world 1. Thou makest him the End of thy Desires and Endevors The very reason why thou hearest and prayest why thou desirest to live and breathe on earth is chiefly this That thou mayst seek the Lord and make sure of thy Rest. Thou seekest first the Kingdom of God and its Righteousness Though thou dost not seek it so desirously and zealously as thou shouldst yet hath it the chief of thy desires and endevors and nothing else is desired or preferred before it Mat. 6.33 So that thy very heart is thus far set upon it Mat. 6.21 Col. 3.1 2 3. 2. Also thou wilt think no labor or suffering too great to obtain it And though the flesh may sometime shrink or draw back yet art thou resolved and content to go through all Mat. 7.13 2 Tim. 2.5 Rom. 8.17 Luk. 14.26 27. 2 Tim. 2.12 Luk. 14.24 3. Also if thou be an heir of Rest thy valuation of it will be so high and thy affection to it so great that thou wouldst not exchange thy Title to it and hopes of it for any worldly Good whatsoever Indeed when the Soul is in doubts of enjoying it perhaps it may possibly desire rather the continuance of an earthly happiness then to depart out of the body with fears of going to Hell But
raise within us Were we throughly perswaded That every Word in the Scripture concerning the unconceivable joyes of the Kingdom and the unexpressible Blessedness of the life to come were the very Word of the Living God and should certainly be performed to the smallest tittle O what astonishing apprehensions of that life would it breed what amazing horror would seize upon our hearts when we found our selves strangers to the conditions of that life and utterly ignorant of our portion therein what love what longings would it raise within us O how it would actuate every affection how it would transport us with joy upon the least assurance of our title If I were as verily perswaded that I shall shortly see those great things of Eternity promised in the Word as I am that this is a chair that I sit in or that this is paper that I write on would it not put another Spirit within me would it not make me forget and despise the world and even forget to sleep or to eat And say as Christ I have meat to eat that ye know not of O Sirs you little know what a through belief would work Not that every one hath such affections who hath a true Faith But thus would the acting and improvement of our Faith advance us Therefore let this be a chief part of thy business in Meditation Produce the strong Arguments for the Truth of Scripture plead them against thy unbelieving nature answer and silence all the cavils of infidelity Read over the Promises study all confirming Providences call forth thine own recorded experiences Remember the Scriptures already fulfilled both to the Church and Saints in former ages and eminently to both in this present age and those that have been fulfilled particularly to thee Get ready the clearest and most convincing Arguments and keep them by thee and frequently thus use them Think it not enough that thou wast once convinced though thou hast now forgot the Arguments that did it no nor that thou hast the Arguments still in thy Book or in thy Brain This is not the acting of thy Faith but present them to thy understanding in thy frequent meditations and urge them home till they force belief Actual convincing when it is clear and frequent will work those deep impressions on the heart which an old neglected forgotten conviction will not O if you would not think it enough that you have Faith in the habit and that you did once beleeve but would be daily setting this first wheel a going Surely all the inferior wheels of the Affections would more easily move Never expect to have Love and Joy move when the foregoing Grace of Faith stands still And as you should thus act your assent to the Promise so also your Acceptation your Adherence your Affiance and your Assurance These are the four steps of Application of the Promise to our selves I have said somewhat among the Helps to move you to get Assurance But that which I here aim at is That you would daily exercise it Set before your Faith the Freeness and the Universality of the Promise Consider of Gods offer and urging it upon all and that he hath excepted from the conditional Covenant no man in the world nor will exclude any from Heaven who will accept of his offer Study also the gracious disposition of Christ and his readiness to entertain and welcome all that will come Study all the Evidences of his love which appeared in his sufferings in his preaching the Gospel in his condescention to sinners in his easie conditions in his exceeding patience and in his urgent invitations Do not all these discover his readiness to save did he ever yet manifest himself unwilling remember also his faithfulness to perform his engagements Study also the Evidences of his Love in thy self look over the works of his Grace in thy soul If thou do not finde the degree which thou desirest yet deny not that degree which thou findest look after the sincerity more then the quantity Remember what discoveries of thy state thou hast made formerly in the work of self-examination how oft God hath convinced thee of the sincerity of thy heart Remember all the sonner testimonies of the Spirit and all the sweet feelings of the favor of God and all the prayers that he hath heard and granted and all the rare preservations and deliverances and all the progress of his Spirit in his workings on thy soul and the disposals of providence conducing to thy good The vouchsafing of means the directing thee to them the directing of Ministers to meet with thy state the restraint of those sins that thy nature was most prone to And though one of these considered alone may be no sure evidence of his special love which I expect thou shouldst try by more infallible signes yet lay them altogether and then think with thy self Whether all these do not testifie the good will of the Lord concerning thy salvation and may not well be pleaded against thine unbelief And whether thou maist not conclude with Sampsons Mother when her husband thought they should surely die If the Lord were pleased to kill us he would not have received an offering at our hands neither would he have shewed us all these things nor would as at this time have told us such things as these Judg. 13.22 23. SECT V. â— WHen thy Meditation hath thus proceeded about the truth of thy Happiness the next part of the work is to meditate of its Goodness That when the Judgment hath determined and Faith hath apprehended it may then past on to raise the Affections 1. The first Affection to be acted is Love the object of it as I have told you is Goodness Here then here Christian is the Soul reviving part of thy work Go to thy Memory thy Judgment and thy Faith and from them produce the excellencies of thy Rest take out a copy of the Record of the Spirit in Scripture and another of the sentence registred in thy Spirit whereby the â—â—anscendent glory of the Saints is declared Present these to thy affection of Love open to it the Cabinet that contains the Pearl shew it the Promise and that which it assureth Thou needest not look on Heaven through a multiplying Glass open but one Casement that Love may look in Give it but a glimpse of the back parts of God and thou wilt finde thy self presently in another world Do but speak out and Love can hear do but reveal these things and Love can see It s the bruitish love of the world that is blinde Divine love is exceeding quick sighted Let thy Faith as it were take thy heart by the hand and shew it the sumptuous buildings of thy Eternal Habitation and the Glorious Ornaments of thy Fathers house shew it those Mansions which Christ is preparing and display before it the Honors of the Kingdom Let Faith lead thy heart into the presence of God and draw as neer as possibly thou
The delight which a pair of special faithful friends do finde in loving and enjoying one another is a most pleasing sweet delight It seemed to the Philosophers to be above the delights of Natural or Matrimonial friendship and I think it seemed so to David himself so he concludes his Lamentation for him I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 Yea the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David Even Christ himself as it seemeth had some of this kinde of love for he had one Disciple whom he especially loved and who was wont to lean on his brest why think then if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great what delight shall we have in the friendship of the most High and in our mutual amity with Jesus Christ and in the dearest love and consort with the Saints Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship then ever was betwixt any friends on earth and these will be more lovely and desirable friends than any that ever the Sun beheld and both our affections to our Father and our Saviour but especially his affection to us will be such as here we never knew as Spirits are so far more powerful then Flesh that one Angel can destroy an Host so also are their affections more strong and powerful we shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly then now we can and as all the Attributes and Works of God are incomprehensible so is the attribute and work of Love He will love us many thousand times more then we even at the perfectest are able to love him what joy then will there be in this mutuall Love SECT VII 5. COmpare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold What a deal of wisdom and power and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabrick of the world surely his Works are great and admirable sought out of them that have pleasure therein This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant because the Works of God are so excellent VVhat rare workmanship is in the body of a man yea in the body of every beast which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful what excellency in every Plant we see in the beauty of Flowers in the nature diversity and use of Herbs in Fruits in Roots in Minerals and what not But especially if we look to the greater works if we consider the whole body of this earth and its creatures and inhabitants the Ocean of waters with its motions and dimensions the variation of the Seasons and of the face of the earth the entercourse of Spring and Fall of Summer and Winter what wonderful excellency do these contain Why think then in thy Meditations if these things which are but servants to sinful man are yet so full of mysterious worth what then is that place where God himself doth dwell and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ VVhen thou walkest forth in the Evening look upon the Stars how they glissen and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament If in the day time look up to the glorious Sun view the wide expanded encompassing heavens and say to thy self what glory is in the least of yonder Stars what a vast what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon and every Planet O what an unconceiveable glory hath the Sun Why all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless for it would not be seen for the brightness of God I shall live above all yonder glory yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self yonder is but as the wall of the Pallace-yard as the Poet â—aith If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be What is the glory which the Saints do see So think of the rest of the Creatures This whole earth is but my Fathers footstool this Thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these so much and far much more greatness and goodness and loving delights shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God Surely if the Rain which rains and the Sun which shines on the just and unjust be so wonderful the Sun then which must shine on none but Saints and Angels must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory SECT VIII 6. COmpare the things which thou shalt enjoy above with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence which God doth exercise in the Church and in the World What glorious things hath the Lord wrought and yet we shall see more glorious then these Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand and on the left and the dry Land appear in the midst and the people of Israel pass safely through and Pharoah and his people swallowed up what if we should see but such a sight now If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven or had seen the Earth open and swallow up the wicked or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones with an Angel or by one another Would not all these have been wondrous glorious sights But we shall see far greater things then these And as our sights shall be more wonderful so also they shall be more sweet There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled we shall not then cry out as David Who can stand before this Holy Lord God Would it not have been an astonishing sight to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament or to have seen Ahaz Dyal go ten degrees backward Why we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness Were it not a brave life if we might still live among wonders and miracles and all for us and not against us if we could have drought or rain at our prayers as Elias or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies or raise the dead to life as Elisha or cure the diseased and speak strange languages as the Apostles Alas these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self through whose vertue all these works were done we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these Jonas was raised but from a three days burial from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean but
the duty When thou hast perhaps but an hours time for thy Meditation the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious This doing of duty as if we did it not doth undo as many as the flat omission of it To rub out the hour in a bare lazie thinking of Heaven is but to lose that hour and delude thy self Well what is to be done in this case why do here also as you do by a loitering servant keep thine eye always upon thy heart look not so much to the time it spendeth in the duty as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done You can tell by his work whether your servant hath been painful ask what affections have yet been acted how much am I yet got neerer Heaven Verily many a mans heart must be followed as close in this duty of Meditation as a Horse in a Mill or an Ox at the Plow that will go no longer then you are calling or scourging If you cease driving but a moment the heart will stand still and perhaps the best hearts have much of this temper I would not have thee of the judgment of those who think that while they are so backward it is better let it alone and that if meer love will not bring them to the duty but there must be all this violence used to compel it that then the service is worse then the omission These men understand not first That this Argument would certainly cashiere all Spiritual obedience because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified will still be resisting so far as they are carnal Secondly Nor do they understand well the corruptness of their own natures Thirdly Nor that their sinful undisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God Fourthly Nor one sin excuse another Fifthly Especially they little know the way of God to excite their Affections and that the love which should compel them must it self be first compelled in the same sense as it is said to compel Love I know is a most precious grace and should have the chief interest in all our duties But there be means appointed by God to procure this love and shall I not use those means till I can use them from love that were to neglect the means till I have the end Must I not seek to procure love till I have it already There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun and means for the exciting of it where it lieth dull And must I not use these means till it is increased and excited Why this reasoning considering-duty that we are in hand with is the most singular means both to stir up thy love and to increase it and therefore stay not from the duty till thou feel thy love constrain thee that were to stay from the fire till thou feel thy self warm but fall upon the work till thou art constrained to love and then love will constrain thee to further duty My jealously least thou shouldst miscarry by these sotish opinions hath made me more tedious in the opening of its error Let nothing therefore hinder thee while thou art upon the work from plying thy heart with constant watchfulness and constraint seeing thou hast such experience of its dulness and backwardness let the spur be never out of its side and when ever it slacks pace be sure to give it a remembrance SECT III. 3. AS thy heart will be loitering so will it be diverting It will be turning aside like a carless servant to talk with every one that passeth by When there should be nothing in thy minde but the work in hand it will be thinking of thy calling or thinking of thy afflictions or of every bird or tree or place thou seest or of any impertinency rather then of Heaven Thy heart in this also will be like the Husbandmans Ox or Horse if he drive not he will not go and if he guide not he will not keep the furrow and it is as good stand still as go out of the way Experience will tell thee thou wilt have much ado with thy heart in this point to keep it one hour to the work without many extravagancies and idle cogitations The cure here is the same with that before to use watchfulness and violence with your own imaginations and as soon as they step out to chide them in Say to thy heart What did I come hither to think of my business in the world to think of places and persons of news or vanity yea or of any thing but Heaven be it never so good what canst thou not watch one hour wouldst thou leave this world and dwell in Heaven with Christ for ever and canst thou not leave it one hour out of thy thoughts nor dwell with Christ in one hours close Meditation Ask thy heart as Absalom did Hushai Is this thy love to thy friend Dost thou love Christ and the place of thy Eternal Blessed abode no more then so When Pharaohs Butler dreamed That he pressed the ripe Grapes into Pharaohs Cup and delivered the Cup into the Kings hand it was a happy dream and signified his speedy access to the Kings presence But the dream of the Baker That the Birds did eat out of the Basket on his head the baked meats prepared for Pharaoh had an ill omen and signified his hanging and their eating of his flesh So when the ripened Grapes of Heavenly Meditation are pressed by thee into the Cup of Affection and this put into the hands of Christ by delightful praises if thou take me for skilful this is the interpretation That thou shalt shortly be taken from this prison where thou liest and be set before Christ in the Court of Heaven and there serve up to him that Cup of praise but much fuller and much sweeter for ever and for ever But if the ravenous fowls of wandring thoughts do devour the Meditations intended for Heaven I will not say flatly it signifieth thy death but this I will say That so far as these intrude they will be the death of that service and if thou ordinarily admit them That they devour the life and the joy of thy thoughts and if thou continue in such a way of duty to the end It signifies the death of thy soul as well as of thy service Drive away these birds of prey then from thy sacrifice and strictly keep thy heart to the work thou art upon SECT IV. 4. LAstly Be sure also to look to thy heart in this That it cut not off the work before the time and run not away through weariness before it have leave Thou shalt finde it will be exceeding prone to this like the Ox that would unyoke or the Horse that would be unburdened and perhaps cast off his burden and run away Thou maist easily perceive this in other duties If in secret thou set thy self to pray is not thy heart urging thee still to cut it short dost thou not
for thy disobedience Wretched unbelieving heart Tell a fool or tell a Tyrant or tell some false and flattering man of drawing their subjects by false promises and procuring obedience by deceitful means But do thou not dare to charge the Wise Almighty Faithful God with this Above all men it beseems not thee to doubt either of this Scripture being his infallible Word or of the performance of this Word to thy self Hath not Argument convinced thee may not thy own experience utterly silence thee How oft hath this Scripture been verified for thy good how many of the promises have been performed to thee hath it not quickened thee and converted thee hast not thou felt in it something more then humane would God perform anothers promise or would he so powerfully concur with a feigned word If thou hadst seen the miracles that Christ and his Apostles wrought thou wouldst never sure have questioned the truth of their doctrine why they delivered it down by such undoubted testimony that it may be called Divine as well as Humane Nay hast thou not seen its Prophecies fulfilled hast thou not lived in an age wherein such wonders have been wrought that thou hast now no cloak for thy unbelief hast thou not seen the course of Nature changed and works beyond the power of nature wrought and all this in the fulfilling of this Scripture hast thou so soon forgotten since nature failed me and strength failed me and blood and spirits and flesh and friends and all means did utterly fail and how Art and Reason had sentenced me for dead and yet how God revoked the sentence and at the request of praying believing Saints did turn thee to the Promise which he verified to thee And canst thou yet question the truth of this Scripture hast thou seen so much to confirm thy faith in the great actions of seven yeers past and canst thou yet doubt Thou hast seen signes and wonders and art thou yet so unbelieving O wretched heart Hath God made thee a promise of Rest and wilt thou come short of it and shut out thy self through unbelief Thine eyes may fail thee thy ears deceive thee and all thy senses prove delusions sooner then a promise of God can delude thee Thou maist be surer of that which is written in the Word then if thou see it with thine eyes or feel it with thy hands Art thou sure thou livest or sure that this is Earth which thou standest on art thou sure thine eyes do see the Sun As sure is all this glory to the Saints as sure shall I be higher then yonder stars and live for ever in the Holy City and joyfully sound forth the praise of my Redeemer if I be not shut out by this evil heart of unbelief causing me to depart from the living God And is this Rest so sweet and so sure O then what means the careless world Do they know what it is they so neglect did they ever hear of it or are they yet asleep or are they dead Do they know for certain that the Crown 's before them while they thus sit still or follow trifles undoubtedly they are quite beside themselves to minde so much their provision in the way and strive and care and labor for trifles when they are hasting so fast to another world and their eternal happiness lies at stake Were there left one spark of VVit or Reason they would never sell their Rest for toil nor sell their Glory for worldly vanities nor venture Heaven for the pleasure of a sin Ah poor men That you would once consider what you hazard and then you would scorn these tempting baits O blessed for ever be that love that hath rescued me from this mad bewitching darkness Draw neerer yet then O my soul bring forth thy strongest burning Love here 's matter for it to work upon here 's something truly worth thy loving O see what beauty presents it self Is it not exceeding lovely is not all the beauty in the world contracted here is not all other beauty deformity to it Dost thou need to be perswaded now to love Here 's a feast for thine eyes a feast for all the powers of thy soul dost thou need to be intreated to feed upon it Canst thou love a little shining Earth canst thou love a walking piece of clay and canst thou not love that God that Christ that Glory which is so truly and unmeasurably lovely Thou canst love thy friend because he loves thee And is the love of thy friend like the love of Christ Their weeping or bleeding for thee doth not ease thee nor stay the course of thy tears or blood But the tears and blood that fell from thy Lord have all a soveraign healing vertue and are waters of Life and Balsam to thy faintings and thy sores O my soul If love deserve and should procure love what incomprehensible love is here before thee Pour out all the store of thy affections here and all is too little O that it were more O that it were many thousand times more Let him be first served that served thee first let him have the first born and strength of thy love who parted with strength and life in love to thee If thou hast any to spare when he hath his part let it be imparted then to standers-by See what a Sea of love is here before thee cast thy self in and swim with the arms of thy love in this Ocean of his love Fear not least thou shouldst be drowned or confirmed in it Though it seem as the scalding furnace of lead yet thou will finde it but mollifying oyle Though it seeme a furnace of fire and the hottest that ever was kindled upon earth yet is it the fire of love and not of wrath a fire most effectual to extinguish fire never intended to consume but to glorifie thee venture into it then in thy believing meditations and walk in these flames with the Son of God when thou art once in thou wilt be sorry to come forth again O my soul what wantest thou here to provoke thy love Dost thou love for excellency why thou seest nothing below but baseness except as they relate to thy enjoyments above Yonder is the Goshen the region of light this is a Land of palpable darkness Yonder twinkling Stars that shining moon the radiant Sun are all but as the Lanthorns hanged out at thy fathers house to light thee while thou walkest in the dark streets of the earth But little dost thou know ah little indeed the glory and blessed mirth that is within Dost thou love for suitableness why what person more suitable then Christ his Godhead his manhood his fulness his freeness his willingness his constancy do all proclaime him thy most suitable friend What state more suitable to thy misery then that of mercy or to thy sinfulness and baseness then that of honor and perfection What place more suitable to thee then heaven Thou hast had a sufficient
dare to contend in love with thee or set my borrowed languid spark against the Element and Sun of Love Can I love as high as deep as broad as long as Love it self as much as he that made me and that made me love that gave me all that little which I have both the heart the hearth where it is kindled the bellows the fire the fuel and all were his As I cannot match thee in the works of thy Power nor make nor preserve nor guide the worlds so why should I think any moreof matching thee in Love No Lord I yield I am unable I am overcome O blessed conquest Go on victoriously and still prevail and triumph in thy love The Captive of Love shall proclaim thy victory when thou leadest me in triumph from Earth to Heaven from Death to Life from the Tribunal to the Throne my self and all that see it shall acknowledg that thou hast prevailed and all shall say Behold how he loved him Yet let me love thee in subjection to thy Love as thy redeemed Captive though not thy Peer shall I not love at all because I cannot reach thy measure or at least let me heartily wish to love thee O that I were able O that I could feelingly say I love thee even as I feel I love my friend and my self Lord that I could do it but alas I cannot fain I would but alas I cannot Would I not love thee if I were but able Though I cannot say as thy Apostle Thou knowest that I Love thee yet can I say Lord thou knowest that I would love thee but I speak not this to excuse my fault it is a crime that admits of no excuse and it is my own it dwelleth as neer me as my very heart if my heart be my own this sin is my own yea and more my own then my heart is Lord what shall this sinner do the fault is my own and yet I cannot help it I am angry with my heart that it doth not love thee and yet I feel it love thee never the more I frown up on it and yet it cares not I threaten it but it doth not feel I chide it and yet it doth not mend I reason with it and would fain perswade it and yet I do not perceive it stir I rear it up as a carkass upon its legs but it neither goes nor stands I rub and chafe it in the use of thine Ordinances and yet I feel it not warm within me O miserable man that I am unworthy soul is not thine eye now upon the onely lovely object and art thou not beholding the ravishing glory of the Saints and yet dost thou not love and yet dost thou not feel the fire break forth why art thou not a soul a living spirit and is not thy love the choicest piece of thy life Art thou not a rational soul and shouldst not thou love according to Reasons conduct and doth it not tell thee that all is dirt and dung to Christ that earth is a dungeon to the celestial glory Art thou not a spirit thy self and shoulst thou not love spiritually even God who is a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Doth not every creature love their like why my soul art thou like to fleshâ— or gold or stately buildings art thou like to meat and drink or cloathes wilt thou love no higher then thy horse or swine hast thou nothing better to love then they what is the beauty that thou hast so admired canst thou not even wink or think it all into darkness or deformity when the night comes it is nothing to thee while thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away a Botch or Scab the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age do make it as loathsom as it was before delightful suppose but that thou sawest that beautiful carcass lying on the Bier or rotting in the grave the skull dig'd up and the bones scattered where is now thy lovely object couldst thou sweetly embrace it when the soul is gone or take any pleasure in it when there is nothing left thats like thy self Ah why then dost thou love a skinful of dirt and canst love no more the heavenly Glory What thinkest thou shalt thou love when thou comest there when thou seest when thou dost enjoy when the Lord shall take thy carcass from the grave and make thee shine as the Sun in glory and when thou shalt everlastingly dwell in the blessed presence shalt thou then love or shalt thou not is not the place a meeting of lovers is not the life a state of love is it not the great marriage day of the Lamb when he will embrace and entertain his Spouse with love is not the imployment there the work of love where the souls with Christ do take their fill O then my soul begin it here be sick of love now that thou maist be well with love there keep thy self now in the love of God Jude 21. and let neither life nor death nor any thing separate thee from it and thou shalt be kept in the fulness of love for ever and nothing shalt imbitter or abate thy pleasure for the Lord hath prepared a city of love a place for the communicating of love to his chosen and those that love his Name shall dwell there Psal. 69.36 Awake then O my drowsie soul who but an Owl or Mole would love this worlds uncomfortable darkness when they are called forth to live in light to sleep under the light of Grace is unreasonable much more in the approach of the light of Glory The night of thy ignorance and misery is past the day of glorious Light is at hand this is the day-break betwixt them both Though thou see not yet the Sun it self appear methinks the twilight of a promise should revive thee Come forth then O my dull congealed spirits and leave these earthly Cels of dumpish sadness and hear thy Lord that bids thee Rejoyce and again Rejoyce thou hast lain here long enough in thy prison of flesh where Satan hath been thy Jaylor and the things of this world have been the Stocks for the feet of thy Affections where cares have been thy Trons and fears thy Scourge and the bread and water of Affliction thy food where sorrows have been thy lodging and thy sins and foes have made the bed and a carnal hard unbelieving heart have been the iron gates bars that have kept thee in that thou couldst scarce have leave to look through the Lattices and see one glimpse of the immortal light The Angel of the Covenant now calls thee and strikes thee and bids thee Arise and follow him up O my soul and cheerfully obey and thy bolts and bars shall all fly open do thou obey and all will obey follow the Lamb which way ever he leads thee Art thou afraid because thou knowst not whither Can the place be worse then where thou art Shouldst thou fear to follow
and men of Command p. 504 5. To Ministers Five means which they must use p. 506 6. To Parents and masters of Families Severall Considerations to urge them to the performance p. 527 Some of their objections answered p. 537 Directions to Parents for teaching their Children p. 546 The summe or Fundamentals of Divinity which Children and others must first be taught p. 548 Some further Directions only named p. 550 The Contents of the Fourth Part. CHAP. I. REproving our expectation of Rest on earth with divers Reasons against it p. 559 â—hap 2. Reproving our lothness to die and go to our Rest. p. 574 The hainous aggravations of this sin p. 575 Considerations against it and to make us willing and objections answered p. 583 â—hap 3. A Directory for a heavenly life 1. Reproof of our unheavenliness and Exhortation to set our hearts above p. 598 Twelve moving considerations to heavenly-mindedness p. 604 â—hap 4. Seven great Hindrances of heavenliness to be avoided p 645 â—hap 5. Ten general Helps to a heavenly life p. 668 â—hap 6. The great duty of heavenly meditation described and the Description explained p. 686 â—hap 7. Directions 1. Concerning the fittest Time for this Meditation p. 696 2. Concerning the fittest Place p. 712 3. Concerning the preparation of the heart to it p. 714 Chap. 8. Of Consideration and what power it hath to move the soul. p. 718 Chap. 9. What faculties and affections must be acted in this Contemplation p. 724 By what objects and considerations and in what order ibid. More particularly 1. The exercise of Judgment p. 725 2. The acting of Faith p. 728 3. The acting of Love p. 731 4. The acting of Desire p 736 5. The acting of Hope p. 739 6. The acting of Courage or holy Boldness and Resolution p. 742 7. The acting of Joy p. 744 Chap. 10. By what Actings of the soul to proceed to this work of heavenly Contemplation beside Cogitation p. 749 As 1. Soliloquy Its parts and method p 750 2. Speaking to God p. 754 Chap. 11. Some advantages for raising and affecting the soul in its Meditations of Heaven In generall by making use of sense or sensitive things p 756 Particularly 1. By raising strong suppositions from sense p. 759 2. By comparing the objects of Sense with the objects of Faith p. 761 Twelve helps by comparison to be affected with the Joys of Heaven p. 76â— Chap. 12. Direction how to manage and watch over the heart whiâ—â— we are in this work of Contemplation p. 781 Chap. 13. An abstract or brief summe of all for the help of the weak p. 787 Chap. 14. An example of the acting of Judgment Faith Love Joy and Desire by this duty of Heavenly Meditation p. 790 The Conclusion commending this duty from its necessity and excellency p. 83â— THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. CHAP. I. HEBR. 4.9 There remaineth therefore a Rest to the people of God SECT I. IT was not only our interest in God and actual fruition of him which was lost in Adams Covenant-breaking fall but all spiritual knowledg of him and true disposition towards such a felicity Man hath now a heart too suitable to his estate A low state and a low spirit And as some expound that of Luk. 18.8 when the Son of God comes with Recovering Grace and discoveries and tenders of a spiritual and eternal Happiness and Glory he findes not faith in man to beleeve it But as the poor man that would not beleeve that any one man had such a sum as an hundred pound it was so far above what he possessed So man will hardly now beleeve that there is such a Happiness as once he had much less as Christ hath now procured When God would give the Israelites his Sabbaths of Rest in a Land of Rest he had more ado to make them beleeve it then to overcome their enemies and procure it for them And when they had it only as a small intimation earnest of a more incomparably glorious Rest through Christ they stick there and will yet beleeve no more then they do possess but sit down and say as the Glutton at the feast Sure there 's no other Heaven but this Or if they do expect more by the Messiah it is only the increase of their earthly felicity The Apostle bestows most of this Epistle against this distemper and clearly and largely proves unto them That it 's the end of all Ceremonies and Shadows to direct them to Jesus Christ the Substance and that the Rest of Sabbaths and Canaan should teach them to look for a further Rest which indeed is their Happiness My Text is his Conclusion after divers Arguments to that end a Conclusion so useful to a Beleever as containing the ground of all his comforts the end of all his duty and sufferings the life and sum of all Gospel-promises and Christian-priviledges that you may easily be satisfied why I have made it the subject of my present Discourse What more welcome to men under personal afflictions tiring duty successions of sufferings then Rest What more welcom news to men under publick calamities unpleasing employments plunderings losses sad tydings c. which is the common case then this of Rest Hearers I pray God your attentions intention of spirit entertainment and improvement of it be but half answerable to the verity necessity and excellency of this Subject and then you will have cause to bless God while you live that ever you heard it as I have that ever I studied it SECT II. THe Text is as you may see the Apostles Assertion in an entire proposition with the concluding illative The Subject is Rest The Predicate It yet Remains to the people of God It s requisite we say somewhat briefly 1. For Explication of the terms 2. Of the Subject of them Therefore i. e. It clearly follows from the former Argument There Remains 1. In order of speaking As the Consequence follows the Antecedent or the Conclusion the Premises So there Remains a Rest or it remains that there is another Rest. 2. But rather in order of being As the bargain remains after the earnest the performance after the promise the Anti-type after the Type and the ultimate end after all the means so there remains a Rest To the People of God God hath a two-fold people within the Church One his only by a common vocation by an external acceptation of Christ and covenanting sanctified by the blood of the Covenant so far as to be separated from the open enemies of Christ and all without the Church therefore not to be accounted common and unclean in the sence as Jews and Pagans are but holy and Saints in a larger sence as the Nation of the Jews and all Proselited Gentiles were holy before Christs coming These are called Branches in Christ not bearing fruit and shall be cut off c. for they are in the Church and in him by the foresaid profession and external Covenant but
necessary That thy Lord had sweeter ends and meant thee better then thou wouldst believe And that thy Redeemer was saving thee as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them and as well when he broke thy Heart as when he bound it up Oh no thanks to thee unworthy Self but shame for this received Crown But to Jehovah and the Lamb be Glory for ever Thus as the memory of the wicked will eternally promote their torment to look back on the pleasures enjoyed the sin committed the Grace refused Christ neglected and time lost So will the Memory of the Saints for ever promote their Joys And as it 's said to the wicked Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst Thy good things So will it be said to the Christian Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thine evils but now thou art comforted as they are tormented And as here the Remembrance of former good is the occasion of encreasing our grief I remembred God and was troubled I called to Remembrance my Songs in the night Psal. 77.3 6. So there the Remembrance of our former sorrows addeth life to our Joys SECT VIII BUt Oh the full the near the sweet enjoyment is that of the Affections Love and Joy It 's near for Love is of the Essence of the Soul and Love is the Essence of God For God is Love 1 John 4.8 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure The Spirits phrase is God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever carryeth much delight along with it Especially when the object appears deserving and the Affection is strong But O what will it be when perfected Affections shall have the strongest perfect incessant actings upon the most perfect object the ever Blessed God Now the poor soul complains Oh that I could love Christ more but I cannot alas I cannot Yea but then thou canst not chuse but love him I had almost said forbear if thou canst Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness and therefore lovest little Then thine eye will affect thy heart and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love Now thy Salvation is not perfected nor all the mercies purchased yet given in But when the top stone is set on thou shalt with shouting cry Grace Grace Now thy Sanctification is imperfect and thy pardon and Justification not so compleat as then it shall be Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest and therefore lovest the less But when thou knowest much is forgiven and much bestowed thou wilt Love more Doth David after an imperfect deliverance sing forth his Love Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and supplications What think you will he do eternally And how will he love the Lord who hath lifted him up to that Glory Doth he cry out O how I love thy Law My delight is in the Saints on earth and the excellent Psal. 16.3 How will he say then O how I love the Lord and the King of Saints in whom is all my delight Christians doth it not now stir up your love to remember all the experiences of his Love To look back upon a life oâ— mercies Doth not kindness melt you and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts What will it do then when you shall live in Love and have All in him who is All O the high delights of Love of this Love The content that the heart findeth in it The satisfaction it brings along with it Surely Love is both work and wages And if this were all what a high favour that God will give us leave to love him That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms that have embraced Lust and Sin before him But this is not all He returneth Love for Love nay a thousand times more As perfect as we shall be we cannot reach his measure of Love Christian thou wilt be then brim full of Love yet love as much as thou canst thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved Dost thou think thou canst overlove him What! love more then Love it self Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory Did he begin to love before thou lovedst and will he not continue now Did he love thee an enemy thee a sinner thee who even loathedst thy self and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son thee a perfect Saint thee who returnest some love for Love Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love Doubt of it now if thou canst As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath who would never before believe it So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusalem in her Glory O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus till he force the Jews that stood by to say Behold how he loved him Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us and blessing us make all even the damned if they see it to say Behold how he loveth them Is his Spouse while black yet comely Is she his Love his Dove his undefiled Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes Is her Love better then wine O believing soul study a little and tell me What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel and the Love which these are but the earnest of Here O here is the Heaven of Heaven This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet mutual constant actings and embracements of Love doth it consist To Love and be beloved These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath Deut. 33.27 His left hand is under their heads and with his right hand doth he embrace them Cant. 2.6 Reader stop here and think a while what a state this is Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God to be the Son the Spouse the Love the delight of the King of Glory Christian believe this and think on it Thou shalt be eternally embraced in the Arms of that Love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting Of that Love which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth from Earth to the Cross from the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to Glory That Love which was weary hungry tempted scorned scourged buffetted spit upon crucified pierced which did fast pray teach heal weep sweat bleed dye That Love will eternally embrace thee When perfect created Love and most perfect uncreated love meet together O the blessed meeting It will
the goats on the left and so on as you may read in the Text. But why tremblest thou Oh humble gracious Soul Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom but Thou must quake Do I make sad the Soul that God would not have sad Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep who have heard his voyce and followed him He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge when him onely he had found faithful in all the earth He that would not over-look one Lot in Sodom nay that could do nothing till he were forth Will he forget thee at that day Thy Lord knoweth now to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes and yet the greatest for joy to his people He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day wherein both Love and Fury should be manifested to the highest Oh then let the Heavens rejoyce the Sea the Earth the Floods the Hills for the Lord cometh to judg the Earth With Righteousness shall he judg the World and the People with Equity But especially let Sion hear and be glad and her children rejoyce For when God ariseth to judgment it is to save the meek of the Earth They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confession and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Shall the Law Why whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law but we are not under the Law but under Grace For the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Or shall Conscience Why we were long ago justified by faith and so have peace with God and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If our Judg condemn us not who shall He that said to the Adulterous woman Hath no man condemned thee neither do I condemn thee He will say to us more faithfully then Peter to him Though all men deny thee or condemn thee I will not Thou hast confessed me before men and I will confess thee before my Father and the Angels of Heaven He whose first coming was not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I am sure intends not his second coming to condemn his people but that they through him might be saved He hath given us Eternal Life in Charter and Title already yea and partly in possession and will he after that condemn us When he gave us the knowledg of his Father and himself he gave us Eternal Life And he hath verily told us That he that heareth his word and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Indeed if our Judg were our enemy as he is to the world then we might well fear If the Devil were our Judg or the Ungodly were our Judg then we should be condemned as Hypocrites as Heretiques as Schisinatiques as proud or covetous or what not But our Judg is Christ who dyed yea rather who is risen again and maketh request for us For all power is given him in Heaven and in Earth and all things delivered into his hands and the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man For though God judg the world yet the Father immediately without his Vicegerent Christ judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father Oh what inexpressible joy may this afford to a Beleever That our Dear Lord who loveth our Souls and whom our Souls love shall be our Judg Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend By a Brother By a Father Or a Wife by her own Husband Christian Did he come down and suffer and weep and bleed and dye for thee and will he now condemn thee Was he judged and condemned and executed in thy stead and now will he condemn thee himself Did he make a Bath of his blood for thy sins and a garment of his own Righteousness for thy nakedness and will he now open them to thy shame Is he the undertaker for thy Salvation and will he be against thee Hath it cost him so dear to save thee and will he now himself destroy thee Hath he done the most of the work already in Redeeming Regenerating and Sanctifying Justifying preserving and perfecting thee and will he now undo all again Nay hath he begun and will he not finish Hath he interceded so long for thee to the Father and will he cast thee away himself If all these be likely then fear and then rejoyce not Oh what an unreasonable sin is unbelief that will charge our Lord with such unmercifulness and absurdities Well then fellow Christians let the terror of that day be never so great surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all Let it make the Devils tremble and the wicked tremble but it shall make us to leap for Joy Let Satan accuse us we have our answer at hand our surety hath discharged the debt If he have not fulfilled the Law then let us be charged as breakers of it If he have not suffered then let us suffer but if he have we are free Nay our Lord will make answer for us himself These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their sin and I bore their transgressions They are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my stripes I have justified them by my knowledg They are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands Yea though the humble Soul be ready to speak against it self Lord when did we see thee hungry and feed thee c. yet will not Christ do so This is the day of the Beleevers full Justification They were before made just and esteemed Just and by Faith justified in Law and this evidenced to their consciences But now they shall both by Apology be maintained Just and by Sentence pronounced Just actually by the lively voyce of the Judg himself which is the most perfect Justification Their Justification by Faith is a giving them Title in Law to that Apology and Absolving
and my last end might be like his Never take heed therefore what they think or say now for as sure as they shall dye they will one of these days think and say clean contrary As we regard not what a drunken man says because it is not he but the drink and when he hath slept he will awake in another minde so why should we regard what wicked men say now who are drunk with security and fleshly delights When we know before hand for certain that when they have slept the sleep of death at the furthest they will awake in another minde Onely pity the perverted understandings of these poor men who are beside themselves knowing that one of these days when too late experience brings them to their right mindes they will be of a far different Judgment They ask us What are you wiser then your fore-fathers then all the Town besides then such and such Great men and learned men And do you think in good sadness we may not with better reason ask you What are you wiser then Henoch and Noah then Abraham Isaac Jacob Samuel then David and Solomon then Moses and the Prophets then Peter Paul all the Apostls and all the Saints of God in all Ages and Nations that ever went to Heaven yea then Jesus Christ himself Men may be deceived but we appeal to the unerring Judgment of Wisdom it self even the wise All-Knowing God whether a day in his Courts be not better then a thousand elsewhere and whether it be not better to be door-keepers there then to dwell in the Tents of wickedness Nay whether the very Reproaches of Christ even the scorns we have from you for Christs sake and the Gospel be not greater riches then all the Treasures of the World If Wisdom then may pass the sentence you see which way the cause will go and Wisdom is justified of all her children SECT IX 9. LAstly Another Rule in Reason is this That Good which containeth all other Good in it must needs it self be best And where do you think in Reason that all the streams of Goodness do finally empty themselves Is it not in God from whom by secret springs they first proceed Where else do all the Lines of Goodness concenter Are not all the sparks contained in this fire and all the drops in this Ocean Surely the time was when there was nothing besides God and then all Good was onely in him And even now the creatures essence and existence is secondary derived contingent improper in comparison of his who Is and Was and Is to Come whose Name alone is called I AM. What do thine eyes see or thy heart conceive desireable which is not there to be had Sin indeed there is none but darest thou call that good Worldly delights there are none for they are Good but for the present Necessity and please but the bruitish Senses Brethren do you fear losing or parting with any thing you now enjoy What do you fear you shall want when you come to Heaven shall you want the drops when you have the Ocean or the light of the Candle when you have the Sun or the shallow Creature when you have the perfect Creator Cast thy bread upon the waters and after many days thou shalt There finde it Lay abroad thy tears thy prayers pains boldly and unweariedly as God is true thou dost but set them to usury and shalt receive an hundred fold Spare not man for State for Honor for Labor If Heaven do not make amends for all God hath deceived us which who dare once imagine Cast away Friends House Lands Life if he bid thee Leap into the Sea as Peter if he command thee Lose thy life and thou shalt save it everlastingly when those that saved theirs shall lose them everlastingly Venture all man upon Gods Word Promise There 's a Day of Rest coming will fully pay for all All the pence and the farthings thou expendest for him are contained with infinite advantage in the massie Gold and Jewels of thy Crown When Alexander had given away his Treasure and they asked him where it was he pointed to the poor and said in scriniis in my chests And when he went upon a hopeful expedition he gave away his Gold and when he was asked what he kept for himself he answers spem majorum meliorum The hope of greater and better things How much more boldly may we lay out all and point to Heaven and say it is in scriniis in our everlasting treasure and take that hope of greater and better things in stead of all Nay lose thy self for God and renounce thy self and thou shalt at that day finde thy self again in him Give him thy self and he will receive thee upon the same terms as Socrates did his Schollar Aeschines who gave himself to his Master because he had nothing else accipio sed ea lege ut te tibi mâ—liorem reddam quam accepi that he may return thee to thy self better then he received thee So then this Rest is the Good which containeth all other Good in it And thus you see according to the Rules of Reason the transcendent Excellency of the Saints Glory in the General We shall next mention the particular Excellencies CHAP. VII The Excellencies of our Rest. SECT I. YEt let us draw a little neerer and see more immediately from the pure fountain of the Scriptures what further Excellencies this Rest affordeth And the Lord hide us in the Clefts of the Rock and cover us with the hands of indulgent Grace while we approach and take this view and the Lord grant we may put off from our feet the shoes of unreverence and fleshly conceivings while we stand upon this holy ground SECT I. 1. ANd first it 's a most singular honor and ornament in the stile of the Saints Rest to be called the Purchased Possession That it is the fruit of the Blood of the Son of God yea the chief fruit yea the end and perfection of all the fruits and efficacy of that Blood Surely Love is the most precious ingredient in the whole composition and of all the flowers that grow in the Garden of Love can there be brought one more sweet and beautiful to the Garland then this Blood Greater Love then this there is not to lay down the life of the Lover And to have this our Redeemer ever before our Eyes and the liveliest Sense and freshest Remembrance of that dying-bleeding-dying-bleeding-Love still upon our Souls Oh how will it fill our Souls with perpetual Ravishments To think that in the streams of this Blood we have swam through the violence of the world the snares of Satan the seducements of flesh the curse of the Law the wrath of an offended God the accusations of a Guilty Conscience and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbeleeving heart and are passed through all and here arrived safely at the brest of God!
us His face shall be the Scripture where we shall read the Truth and himself instead of Teachers and Councels to perfect our understandings and acquaint us with himself who is the perfect Truth No more Error no more Scandal to others no more Disquiet to our own spirits no more mistaking zeal for falshood because our understandings have no more sin Many a Godly man hath here in his mistaken zeal been a means to deceive and pervert his Brethren and when he sees his own Error cannot again tell how to undeceive them But there we shall all conspire in one Truth as being one in him who is that Truth And as we shall rest from all the sin of our understandings so of our wills affection and conversation VVe shall no more retain this rebelling principle which is still withdrawing us from God and addicting us to backsliding Doubtless we shall no more be oppressed with the power of our corruptions nor vexed with their presence No Pride Passion Sloathfulness Senselesness shall enter with us no strangness to God and the things of God no coldness of affections nor imperfection in our love no uneven walking nor grieving of the Spirit no scandalous action or unholy conversation we shall Rest from all these for ever Then shall our understandings receive their Light from the face of God as the full Moon from the open Sun where there is no Earth to interpose betwixt them then shall our wills correspond to the Divine VVill as face answers face in a Glass and the same his will shall be our Law and Rule from which we shall never swerve again Now our corruptions as the Anakims dismay us and as the Canaanites in Israel they are left for pricks in our sides and thorns in our eyes and as the bond-woman and her son in Abrahams house they do but abuse us and make our lives a burden to us But then shall the bond-woman and her son be cast out and shall not be heirs with us in our Rest. As Moses said to Israel Ye shall not do after all the things that we do here this day every one whatsoever is right in his own eyes For ye are not as yet come to the Rest and to the Inheritance which the Lord your God giveth you Deut. 12.8 9. I conclude therefore with the words next to my Text. For he that is entered into his Rest he also hath ceased from his own works as God from his So that there is a perfect Rest from sin SECT IX 2. IT is also a perfect Rest from suffering When the cause is gone the effect ceaseth Our sufferings were but the consequents of our sinning and here they both shall cease together I will shew particularly ten kindes of suffering which we shall there rest from 1. We shall Rest from all our perplexing doubts and fears It shall no more be said That doubts are like the Thistle a bad weed but growing in good ground they shall now be weeded out and trouble the gracious soul no more No more need of so many Sermons Books and marks and signes to resolve the poor doubting soul The full fruition of Love it self hath now resolved his doubts for ever We shall hear that kinde of language no more What shall I do to know my state How shall I know that God is my father That my heart is upright That Conversion is true That Faith is sincere O I am afraid my sins are unpardoned O I fear that all is but in hypocrisie I fear that God will reject me from his presence I doubt he doth not hear my prayers How can he accept so vile a wretch So hard-hearted unkinde a sinner Such an under-valuer of Christ as I am All this kinde of language is there turned into another tune even into the praises of him who hath forgiven who hath converted who hath accepted yea who hath glorified a wretch so unworthy So that it will now be as impossible to doubt and fear as to doubt of the food which is in our bellies or to fear it is night when we see the Sun shining If Thomas could doubt with his finger in the wounds of Christ yet in Heaven I am sure he cannot If we could doubt of what we see or hear or taste or feel yet I am sure we cannot of what we there possess Sure this will be comfort to the sad and drooping soul whose life was nothing but a doubting distress and their language nothing but a constant complaining If God would speak peace it would ease them but when he shall possess them of this peace they shall rest from all their doubts and fears for ever SECT X. 2. WE shall rest from all that sense of Gods displeasure which was our greatest torment whether manifested mediately or immediately For he will cause his fury towards us to rest and his jealousie to cease and he will be angry with us no more Ezek. 16.42 Surely Hell shall not be mixed with Heaven There is the place for the glorifying of Justice prepared of purpose to manifest wrath but Heaven is onely for Mercy and Love Joh doth not now use his old language Thou writest bitter things against me and takest me for thine enemy and settest me up as a mark to shoot at c. O how contrary now to all this David doth not now complain That the arrows of the Almighty stick in him that his wounds stink and are corrupt that his sore runs and ceaseth not that his moysture is as the drought of Summer that there is no soundness in his flesh because of Gods displeasure nor rest in his bones because of sin that he is weary of crying his throat is dried his eyes fail in waiting for God that he remembreth God and is troubled that in complaining his spirit is overwhelmed that his soul refuseth to be comforted that Gods wrath lieth hard upon him and that he afflicteth him with all his waves O how contrary now are Davids Songs Now he saith I spake it in my haste and this was my infirmity Here the Christian is oft complaining O if it were the wrath of man I could bear it but the wrath of the Almighty who can bear O that all the world were mine enemies so that I were assured that he were my Friend If it were a stranger it were nothing but that my dearest Friend my own Father should be so provoked against me This wounds my very soul If it were a Creature I would contemn it but if God be angry who may endure If he be against me who can be for me And if he will cast me down who can raise me up But O that blessed day when all these dolorous complaints will be turned into admiring thankfulness and all sense of Gods displeasure swallowed up in that Ocean of infinite Love when Sense shall convince us that fury dwelleth not in God And though for a little
their hands of cruelty I am perswaded the next generation that knew them not will scarcely believe the fury of their rage Blessed be the Guardian of the Saints who hath not suffered the prevalency of that Wrath which would I believe have made the Gun-powder Treason the Turkish Slavery the Spanish Inquisition the French Massacres to have seemed acts of clemency But the Lord of Hosts hath brought them down and his Power and Justice hath abated their fury and raised to his Name an everlasting Trophee and set up a Monument of Remembrance in England which God forbid should ever be forgotten So let all thine uncurable enemies perish O Lord. When the Lord maketh inquisition for blood he will remember the precious blood which they have shed and the Earth shall not cover it any more Their hopes are that they shall yet again have a prevailing day It is possible though improbable If they should we know where their rage will stop They shall pursue but as Pharaoh to their own destruction and where they â—all there shall we pass over safely and escape them for ever For our Lord hath told them That whither he goes they cannot come When their flood of persecution is dryed up and the Church called out of the Wilderness and the new Jerusalem come down from Heaven and Mercy and Justice are fully glorified then shall we feel their fury no more There is no cruel mockings and scourgings no bonds or imprisonments no stoning or sawing asunder tempting or slaying with the sword wandring in Sheep-skins or Goat skins in Deserts or Mountains Dens or Caves of the Earth no more being destitute afflicted or tormented We leave all this behinde us when once we enter the City of our Rest the names of Lollard Hugonots Puritan Roundheads are not there used the Inquisition of Spain is there condemned the Statute of the six Articles is there Repealed and the Law De Haeretiâ—is comburendis more justly executed the date of the Interim is there expired Subscription and Conformity no more urged Silencing and Suspending are there more then suspended there are no Bishops or Chancelors Courts no Visitations nor High Commission Judgments no Censures to loss of Members perpetual Imprisonment or Banishment Christ is not there cloathed in a Gorgeous Robe and blindfolded nor do they smite him and say Read who struck thee Nor is truth clothed in the Robes of Error and smitten for that which it most directly contradicteth nor a Schismatick wounded and a Saint found bleeding nor our Friends smite us whilest they mistake us for their enemies There is none of all this blinde mad work there Dear Brethren you that now can attempt no work of God without resistance and finde you must either lose the love of the World and your outward comforts or else the Love of God and your eternal Salvation consider You shall in Heaven have no discouraging company nor any but who will further your work and gladly joyn heart and voyce with you in your everlasting joy and praises Till then possess your souls in patience Binde all reproaches as a crown to your heads Esteem them greater riches then the worlds treasures Account it matter of Joy when you fall into tribulation You have seen in these days that our God can deliver us but this is nothing to our final conquest He will recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with Christ. Onely see to this Brethren That none of you suffer as an evil doer as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ingrateful to those that have been Instruments of our good as evil-speakers against Dignities as opposers of the Discipline and Ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious judicious conscientious Ministry c. But if any of you suffer for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you And if any of you begin to shrink and draw back because of opposition and are ashamed either of your Work or your Master let such a one know to his face That he is but a base-spirited cowardly wretch and cursedly undervalueth the Saints Rest and most foolishly over-valueth the things below and he must learn to forsake all these or else he can never be Christs Disciple and that Christ will renounce him and be ashamed of him before his Father and the Angels of Heaven But for those that have held fast their integrity and gone through good report and evil report and undergone the violence of unreasonable men Let them hear the word of the Lord Your Brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified they had good words and godly pretences but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Isai 66.5 Your Redeemer is strong the Lord of Hosts is his Name he shall throughly plead your cause that he may give rest to his people and disquietness to their enemies Jere. 50.34 SECT XIIII 6. WE shall then Rest also from all our sad Divisions and unchristian like quarrels with one another As he said who saw the Carkasses lie together as if they had embraced each other who had been slain by each other in a Duel Quantâ se invicem amplectuntur amicitiâ qui mutuâ implacabili inimicitiâ periêre How lovingly do they embrace one another being dead who perished through their mutual implacable enmity So how lovingly do thousands live together in Heaven who lived in Divisions and Quarrels on Earth or as he said Who beheld how quietly and peaceably the bones and dust of mortal enemies did lie together Non tantâ vivi pace essetis conjuncti You did not live together so peaceably So we may say of multitudes in Heaven now all of one minde one heart and one imployment You lived not on Earth in so sweet familiarity There is no contention because none of this Pride Ignorance or other Corruption Paul and Barnabas are now fully reconciled There they are not every man conceited of his own understanding and in love with the issue of his own Brain but all admiring the Divine perfection and in love with God and one another As old Grynaeus wrote to his friend Si te non ampliùs in his terris videam ibi tamen conveniemus ubi Lutherus cum Zuinglio optimè jam convenit If I see you no more on Earth yet we shall there meet where Luther and Zuinglius are now well agreed There is a full reconciliation between Sacramentarians and Vbiquitarians Calvinists and Lutherans Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants Disciplinarians and Anti Disciplinarians Conformists and Non-Conformists Antinomians and Legalists are terms there not known Presbyterians and Independents are perfectly agreed There is no Discipline erected by State Policy nor any disordered popular
word as his Kingdom was planted so hath it been preserved by no other ways but force and flattery But Christ hath not one word for either of these His compelling men to come in is but rational perswading 2. Nay yet more then this he makes his Church to grow by sufferings when others increase their Dominions by the destroying of their enemies he increaseth his by suffering them to kill his subjects An unlikely way one would think to make the world either love or serve him There have been few Ages since the first appearing of the Gospel in the world wherein the earth hath not drunk in the blood of Believers In the beginning it was a rare case to be a faithful Pastor and not a Martyr Thirty Three Romane Bishops successively were Martyred thousands yea ten thousand slaughtered at a time In so much that Gregory and Cyprian cry out that the witnesses who had dyed for the Truth of the Gospel were to men innumerable that the world was all over filled with their blood and they that were left alive to behold it were not so many as those that were slain that no war did consume so many And the Histories of the Enemies acknowledg almost as much Now whether this be a likely course to gain disciples and to subdue the world you may easily judg Yet did the Church never thrive better then by persecution what they got not in number yet they got in the zeal and excellency of Professors and seldom hath it lost more then in prosperity yea when the vulgar professors have enjoyed prosperity yet persecution hath almost ever been the lot of the zealous and sincere And thus I have shewed you those wonders of Providence which have been exereised for the Church universal SECT II. SEcondly Consider next what strange providences have been exercised for particular Churches I cannot stand to heap up particular examples You may finde them frequent in the Histories of the Church What deliverances Cities and Countries have had what Victories those Princes have had who have been their Defenders as Constantine the great and many since and what apparent manifestations of Gods hand in all Yea he that reads but the Histories of latter times where wars have been managed for defence of the Doctrine of this Scripture and obedience thereto against the corruptions and persecutions of Rome may see most apparent discoveries of the hand of God yea even in those wars where the enemy hath at last prevailed as in Bohemia in Zisca's time in France at Merindol and Cabriers The History of Belgia will shew it clearly so will the strange preservation of the poor City of Geneva But all these are further from us God hath brought such experiments home to our hands If we should overlooke the strange providences that produced the reformation in the times of Henry the eight Edward the sixt Queen Mary Queen Elizabeth and King James yet even the strange passages of these yeers past have been such that might silence an Atheist or an Antiscripturist To see the various streights that God hath brought his people through The unlikly means by which he still performed it The unexpected events of most undertakings The uncontrived and unthought-of wayes which men have been lead in The strange managing of our counsels and our actions The plain appearance of an extraordinary providence and the plain interposition of an Almighty arme which hath appeared in almost every fight even where it went against us was this apparent and our overthrows were but preparatives to some eminent good and the means of carrying on the designs of God whose Issues shewed us what we could not see before VVe have as plainly discerned the successe of prayer and our unsuccessfulness when we grew secure almost as if we had stood by Moses Aaron and Hur in the Mount How confident were the enemies still before their overthrows When did we win a field for the most part but we lost it first How little did we prosper when our Armies were fresh and flourishing and strong When was it that we were revived but when we took our selves for dead And when we gave up all for lost then did God most evidently restore it When it was thought about a yeer or two before that the whole Kingdome would not have afforded enough to have resisted the power of the persecuters in one County they were so oppressed and banished into America then did God arise and his enemies did flie before him they melted as the waxe before the fire they were scattered as the chaffe before the wind Not that I make a meer successe any evidence of a good cause But successes that have the apparent finger of God and are brought about by such wonders of providence I am sure do teach us much of God and tend exceedingly to confirm us in the verity of his promises Some men are so strongly possest with prejudice and others so unobservant of Divine providence and others such Atheists that they think all things fall out by chance that it is no wonder if nothing work upon them Miracles from Heaven had no better successe with most of the beholders in times of old Sure the strange providences for the Church in the times of Judges of the Kings of Hester of Nehemiah were very convincing though they were not miracles And ours have been as strange as most of theirs For my own part having been an eye witness of a very great part of these eminent providences from the first of the war I have plainly seen something above the course of nature and ordinary way of Gods workings in almost every fight that I have beheld And many of the adversaries that before would not see yet have seen the hand of God and have been ashamed because of their envyings at his people Isay 26.10 Many do yet suspend their judgement of all this till they see the full Issue so cannot I whatever the end may yet prove I am sure I have seen the Lord in the means And we may yet set up Samuels stone and say Hitherto hath the Lord helped us Hitherto the end hath not been such as the enemy hoped If we will see the end before we judg for ought I know you may stay till the end of the world and till you are judged your selves For Gods work is a chaine of many links every age hath one link but the last reacheth to eternity and you cannot see the end till then If you wait to know the full Issue why you shall not see it till the Issue of all things This folly causeth a succession of enemies to the Church and of men of deluded and perverse understandings who will become wiser altogether when they see the full end indeed but then it will be too late It is true that things are still in a sad confusion and in the eye of the carnal worse then they were But I have so often seen such a cloudy morning to go
be gluttonous no more nor oppress the innocent nor grind the poor nor devour the houses and estates of their brethren nor be revenged on their enemies nor persecute and destroy the members of Christ All these and many more actual sins will then be laid aside But this is not from any renewing of their natures they have the same dispositions still and fain they would commit the same sins if they could they want but opportunity they are now tied up it is part of their torment to be denied these their pleasures No thanks to them that they sin not as much as ever Their hearts are as bad though their actions are restrained Nay it is a great question whether those remainders of good which were left in their natures on earth as their common honesty and morall vertues be not all taken from them in Hell according to that From him that hath not shall be taken away even that which he hath This is the judgment of Divines generally But because it is questionable and much may be said against it I will let that pass But certainly they shall have none of the Glorious perfection of the Saints either in soul or body There will be a greater difference between these wretches and the glorified Christian then there is betwixt a Toad under a sill and the Sun in the Firmament The rich mans purple robes and delicious fare did not so exalt him above Lazarus at his door in scabs nor make the difference between them so wide as it is now made on the contrary in their vast separation SECT IV. SEcondly But the great loss of the damned will be their loss of God they shall have no comfortable relation to him Nor any of the Saints communion with him As they did not like to retain God in knowledg but did him Depart from us we desire not the knowledg of thy wayes So God will abhor to retain them in his houshold or to give them entertainment in his Fellowship and Glory He will never admit them to the inheritance of his Saints nor endure them to stand amongst them in his presence but bid them Depart from me ye workers of iniquity I know you not Now these men dare belye the Lord if not blaspheme in calling him by the title of Their Father How boldly and conâ—idently do they daily approach him with their lips and indeed reproach him in their formall prayers with that appellation Our Father As if God would Father the Divels children or as if the slighters of Christ the pleasers of the flesh the friends of the world the haters of godliness or any that trade in sin and delight in iniquity were the Off-spring of Heaven They are ready now in the height of their presumption to lay as confident claim to Christ and heaven as if they were sincere believing Saints The Swearer the Drunkard the Whoremaster the Worldling can scornfully say to the People of God What is not God our Father as well as yours Doth he not love us as well as you Will he save none but a few holy Precisians O but when that time is come when the case must be decided and Christ will separate his followers from his foes and his faithfull friends from his deceived flatterers where then will be their presumptuous claim to Christ Then they shall finde that God is not their Father but their resolved foe because they would not be his people but were resolved in their negligence and wickedness Then though they had preached or wrought miracles in his name he wil not know them And though they were his Brethren or sisters after the flesh yet will he not own them but reject them as his enemies And even those that did eat and drink in his presence on earth shall be cast out of his heavenly presence for ever And those that in his name did cast out Divels shall yet at his command be cast out to those Divels and endure the torments prepared for them And as they would not consent that God should by his Spirit dwell in them so shall not these evil doers dwell with him the Tabernacles of wickedness shall have no fellowship with him nor the wicked inhabit the City of God For without are the Dogs the Sorcerers Whoremongers Murderers Idolaters and whatsoever loveth and maketh a lye For God knoweth the way of the righous but the way of the wicked leads to perishing God is first enjoyed in part on earth before he be fully enjoyed in Heaven It is only they that walked with him here who shall live and be happy with him there O little doth the world now know what a loss that soul hath who loseth God! VVhat were the world but a dungeon if it had lost the Sun What were the body but a loathsome carrion if it had lost the soul Yet all these are nothing to the loss of God even the little taste of the fruition of God which the Saints enjoy in this life is dearer to them then all the world As the world when they feed upon their forbidden pleasures may cry out with the sons of the Prophets There 's death in the pot So when the Saints do but taste of the favor of God they cry out with David In his favour is life Nay though life be naturally most dear to all men yet they that have tasted and tryed do say with David his loving kindness is better then life So that as the enjoyment of God is the heaven of the Saints so the loss of God is the hell of the ungodly And as the enjoying of God is the enjoying of all So the loss of God is the loss of All. SECT V. THirdly Moreover as they lose God so they lose all those spiritual delightful Affections and Actions by which the Blessed do feed on God That transporting knowledg those ravishing views of his Glorious Face The unconceivable pleasure of loving God The apprehensions of his infinite Love to us The constant joys which his Saints are taken up with and the Rivers of consolation wherewith he doth satisfie them Is it nothing to lose all this The employment of a King in ruling a kingdome doth not so far exceed the imployment of the vilest scullion or slave as this Heavenly imployment exceedeth his These wretches had no delight in Praising God on earth their recreations and pleasures were of another nature and now when the Saints are singing his prayses and imployed in magnifying the Lord of Saints then shall the ungodly be denyed this happiness and have an imployment suitable to their natures and deserts Their hearts were full of Hell upon earth in stead of God and his Love and Fear and Graces there was Pride and self-love and lust and unbelief And therefore Hell must now entertain those Hearts which formerly entertained so much of it Their Houses on Earth were the resemblances of Hell in stead of worshipping God and calling upon
of those forlorn wretches How they will even tear their own hearts and be Gods Executioners upon themselves I am perswaded as it was none but themselves that committed the sin and themselves that were the onely meritorious cause of their sufferings so themselves will be the chiefest executioners of those sufferings God will have it so for the clearing of Justice and the aggravating of their distress even Satan himself as he was not so great a cause of their sinning as themselves so will he not be so great an instrument as themselves of their torment And let them not think here that if they must torment themselves they will do well enough they shall have wit enough to ease and favor themselves and resolution enough to command down this violence of their passions Alas poor souls They little know what passions those will be and how much beyond the power of their resolutions to suppress Why have not lamenting pining self-consuming persons on earth so much wit or power as this Why do you not thus perswade despairing soul who lye as Spira in a kinde of Hell upon earth and dare not eat nor drink nor be merry but torment themselves with continual terrors Why do you not say to them Sir why will you be so mad as to be your own Executioner and to make your own life a continual misery which otherwise might be as joyful as other mens Cannot you turn your thoughts to other matters and never think of Heaven or Hell Alas how vain are all these perswasions to him how little do they ease him you may as well perswade him to remove a mountain as to remove these hellish thoughts that feed upon his spirit it is as easie to him to stop the stream of the Rivers or to bound the overflowing waves of the Ocean as to stop the stream of his violent passions or to restrain those sorrows that feed upon his soul. O how much less then can those condemned souls who see the Glory before them which they have lost restrain their heart-renting self-tormenting Passions So some direct to cure the Toothach Do not think of it and it will not grieve you and so these men think to ease their pains in Hell O but the loss and pain will make you think of it whether you will or no. You were as Stocks or Stones under the threatnings but you shall be most tenderly sensible under the execution O how happy would you think your selves then if you were turned into Rocks or any thing that had neither Passion nor Sense O now how happy were you if you could feel as lightly as you were wont to hear and if you could sleep out the time of Execution as you did the time of the Sermons that warned you of it But your stupidity is gone it will not be SECT V. 5. MOreover it will much increase the torment of the damned in that their Memories will be as large and strong as their Understandings and Affections which will cause those violent Passions to be still working Were their loss never so great and their sense of it never so passionate yet if they could but lose the use of their Memory those passions would dye and that loss being forgotten would little trouble them But as they cannot lay by their life and beeing though then they would account annihilation a singular mercy so neither can they lay aside any part of that beeing Understanding Conscience Affections Memory must all live to torment them which should have helped to their Happiness And as by these they should have fed upon the Love of God and drawn forth perpetually the Joys of his Presence so by these must they now feed upon the wrath of God and draw forth continually the dolours of his absence Therefore never think that when I say the hardness of their hearts and their blindness dulness and forgetfulness shall be removed that therefore they are more holy or more happy then before No but Morally more vile and hereby far more miserable O how many hundred times did God by his Messengers here call upon them Sinners consider whether you are going Do but make a stand a while and think where your way will end what is the offered Glory that you so carelesly reject will not this be bitterness in the end And yet these men would never be brought to consider But in the later days saith the Lord they shall perfectly consider it when they are ensnared in the work of their own hands when God hath Arrested them and Judgment is past upon them and Vengeance is poured out upon them to the full then they cannot chuse but consider it whether they will or no. Now they have no leasure to consider nor any room in their Memories for the things of another life Ah but then they shall have leasure enough they shall be where they have nothing else to do but consider it their Memories shall have no other imployment to hinder them it shall even be engraven upon the Tables of their Hearts God would have had the Doctrine of their eternal State to have been written on the posts of their doors on their houses on their hands and on their hearts He would have had them minde it and mention it as they rise and lye down as they sit at home and as they walk abroad that so it might have gone well with them at their latter end And seeing they rejected this counsel of the Lord therefore shall it be written always before them in the place of their thraldom that which way soever they look they may still behold it Among others I will briefly lay down here some of those Considerations which will thus feed the anguish of these damned wretches SECT VI. FIrst It will torment them to think of the greatness of the Glory which they have lost O if it had been that which they could have spared it had been a small matter or If it had been a losse repairable with any thing else If it had been health or wealth or friends or life it had been nothing But to lose that exceeding Eternall weight of Glory SECT VII SEcondly It will torment them also to think of the possibility that once they were in of obtaining it Though all things considered there was an impossibility of any other event then what did befall yet the thing in it self was possible and their will was left to act without constraint Then they will remember The time was when I was in as faire possibilitie of the Kingdome as others I was set up on the stage of the world If I had plaid my part wisely and faithfully now I might have had possession of the inheritance I might have been amongst yonder blessed Saints who am now tormented with these damned fiends The Lord did set before me life and death and having chosen death I deserve to suffer it The prize was once held out before me If I had run well I
who are bound to obey And dare these men think that they are wiser then God Do they know better then he what men must do to be saved These are the men that ask us Whether we be wiser then all the world besides and yet they will pretend to be wiser then God What do they less when God bids us take the most diligent course and they tell us It is more ado then needs Mark well the language of the Laws of God and see how you can reconcile it with the language of the world Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth Violence and the Violent take it by force Or as it is in Luke 16.16 Every one presseth into it Luke 13.24 Strive to enter in at the strait gate for many shall seek to enter in and not be able So Mat. 7.13.14 Eccles. 9.10 Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do do it with thy Might for there is no Work nor device nor knowledg nor Wisdom in the Grave whither thou goest 1 Cor. 9.24 Know ye not that they which run in a race run all but one receiveth the prize so run that ye may obtain 2 Tim. 2.5 If a man strive for masteries yet he is not crowned except he strive lawfully that is powerfully and prevailingly Phil. 2.12 Work out your Salvation with fear and trembling 2. Pet. 1.10 Give Diligence to make your Calling and Election Sure 1 Pet. 4.18 If the righteous scarcely be saved where shall the ungodly and the sinner appear So Phil. 1.27 3.14 1 Tim. 6.12 18 19. Deut. 6.5 c. This is the constant language of Christ And which shall I follow God or men yea and that the worst and most wicked men Shall I think that every ignorant worldly sot that can only call a man Puritan knows more then Christ and can teach him to make Laws for his Church or can tell God how to mend the Scriptures Let them bring all the seeming Reasons that they can against the holy violent strivings of the Saints and this sufficeth me to confute them all That God is of another mind and he hath commanded me to do much more then I do And though I could see no Reason for it yet his Will is Reason enough to me I am sure God is worthy to govern us if we were better then we are Who should make Laws for us but he that made us and who should line out the way to Heaven but he that must bring us thither and who should determine on what Conditions we shall be saved but he that bestows the gift of Salvation So that let World or Flesh or Devil speak against a holy laborious course this is my Answer God hath commanded it SECT XVIII 17. MOreover It is a course that all men in the world either do or will approve of There 's not a man that ever was or is or shall be but shall one day justifie the Diligence of the Saints and give his verdict in the approbation of their wisdom And who would not go that way which every man shall applaud It is true it 's now a way every where spoken against and hated but let me tell you 1. Most that speak against it do in their judgments approve of it onely because the practice of godliness is against the pleasures of the flesh therefore do they against their own judgments resist it They have not one word of Reason against it but reproaches and Railing are their best Arguments 2. Those that now are against it whether in Judgment or Passion will shortly be every man of another mind If they come to Heaven their minde must be changed before they come there If they go to Hell their Judgment will then be altered whether they will or no. If you could speak with every Soul that suffereth those Torments and ask their Judgments Whether it be possible to be too Diligent and Serious in seeking Salvation you may easily conjecture what answer they would return Take the most bitter derider or persecuter of godliness even those that will venture their lives for to overthrow it If those men do not shortly eat their own words and wish a thousand times that they had been the most holy diligent Christians on Earth then let me bear the shame of a false Prophet for ever SECT XIX 18. COnsider They that have been the most Serious Painful Christians when they come to dye do exceedingly lament their negligence Those that have wholy addicted themselves to the work of God and have made it the main business of their lives and have sleighted the world and mortified the flesh and have been the wonders of the world for their Heavenly Conversations yet when Conscience is let loose upon them and God withdraws the sense of his Love how do their failings wound them and disquiet them What terrors do the Souls of many undergo who are generally admired for their godliness and innocency Even those that are hated and derided by the world for being so strict and are thought to be almost besides themselves for their extraordinary diligence Yet commonly when they lie a dying do wish Oh that they had been a thousand times more holy more heavenly more laborious for their Souls What a case then will the negligent World be in when their Consciences are awaked When they lie dying and look behinde them upon a lazy negligent life and look before them upon a severe and terrible Judgment What an esteem will they have of a holy life For my own part I may say as Erasmus Accusant quod nimium fecerim verùm Conscientia mea me accusat quod minus fecerim quodque lentior fuerim They accuse me for doing too much but my own Conscience accuseth me for doing too little and being too slow And it is far easier bearing the scorns of the World then the scourges of Conscience The World speaks at a distance without me so that though I hear their words I can chuse whether I will feel them but my Conscience speaks within me at the very heart so that every check doth pierce me to the quick Conscience when it is reprehended justly is the Messenger of God but ungodly Revilers are but the voyce of the Devil I had rather be reproached by the Devil for seeking Salvation then be reproved of God for neglecting it I had rather the World should call me Puritan in the Devils name then Conscience should call me Loyterer in Gods name As God and Conscience are more useful friends then Satan and the World so are they more dreadful irresistible Enemies SECT XX. 19. COnsider how far many a man goes and what a deal of pains he takes for Heaven and yet misseth it for want of more When every man that striveth is not crowned 2 Tim. 2.5 and many shall seek to enter in and not be able Luk. 13.24 and the very Children of the Kingdom shall be shut out Matth. 13.41 and they that have heard the Word and
would fill mens ears with the constant lamentations of their miserable state and despairing accusations against themselves as if they had been the most humble people in the world and yet be as passionate in the maintaining their innocency when another accuseth them and as intolerably peevish and tender of their own reputation in any thing they are blamed for as if they were the proudest persons on earth still denying or extenuating every disgraceful fault that they are charged with This cherishing of sin doth hinder Assurance these four ways 1. It doth abate the degree of our Graces and so makes them more undiscernable 2. It obscureth that which it destroyeth not for it beareth such sway that Grace is not in Action nor seen to stir nor scarce heard speak for the noise of this Corruption 3. It puteth out or dimmeth the eye of the Soul that it cannot see its own condition and it benummeth and stupifieth that he cannot feel its own case 4. But especially it provoketh God to withdraw himself his Comforts and the Assistance of the Spirit without which we may search long enough before we have Assurance God hath made a separation betwixt Sin and Peace Though they may consist together in remiss degrees yet so much as Sin prevaileth in the Soul so much will the Peace of that Soul be defective As long as thou dost favour or cherish thy Pride and Self-esteem thy aspiring projects and love of the world thy secret lusts and pleasing the desires of the flesh or any the like unchristian practise thou expectest Assurance and Comfort in Vain God will not encourage thee by his precious gifts in a course of sinning This worm will be crawling and gnawing upon thy Conscience It will be a freting devouring canker to thy Consolations Thou mayst steal a spark of false comfort from thy worldly prosperity or delights or thou mayst have it from some false Opinions or from the delusions of Satan But from God thou wilt have no more Comfort then thou makest Conscience of sinning However an Antinomian may tell thee That thy Comforts have no such dependance upon thy Obedience nor thy discomforts upon thy disobedience and therefore may speak as much Peace to thee in the course of thy sinning as in thy most conscionable walking yet thou shalt find by experience that God will not do so If any man set up his Idols in his Heart and put the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face and cometh to a Minister or to God to enquire for Assurance and Comfort God will Answer that man by himself and in stead of comforting him he will set his Face against him he will Answer him According to the multitude of his Idols Read Ezek. 14.3 4 5 6 7 8 9. SECT XVIII 9. ANother very great and common Cause of want of Assurance and Comfort is When men grow Lazy in the spiritual part of duty and keep not up their Graces in constant and lively Action As Dr Sibbs saith truly It is the lazy Christian commonly that lacketh Assurance The way of painful duty is the way of fullest Comfort Christ carryeth all our Comforts in his hand If we are out of that way where Christ is to be met we are out of the way where Comfort is to be had These three ways doth this Laziness debar us of our Comforts 1. By stopping the Fountain and causing Christ to withhold this blessing from us Parents use not to smile upon children in their neglects and disobedience So far as the Spirit is Grieved he will suspend his Consolations Assurance and Peace are Christ's great Encouragements to faithfulness and obedience And therefore though our Obedience do not Merit them yet they usually rise and fall with our Diligence in duty They that have entertained the Antinomian dotages to cover their Idleness and Viciousness may talk their non-sence against this at pleasure but the laborious Christian knows it by experience As prayer must have Faith and Fervency to procure its success besides the Bloodshed and Intercession of Christ Jam. 5.15 16. so must all other parts of our Obedience He that will say to us in that Triumphing day Well Done Good and Faithful Servant c. Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord Will also clap his Servants upon the back in their most Affectionate and Spiritual Duties and say Well Done Good and Faithful Servant take this Fore-taste of thy Everlasting Joy If thou grow seldom and customary and cold in Duty especially in thy secret Prayers to God and yet findest no abatement in thy Joys I cannot but fear that thy Joys are either Carnal or Diabolical 2. Grace is never apparent and sensible to the Soul but while it is in Action Therefore want of Action must needs cause want of Assurance Habits are not felt immediately but by the freeness and facility of their Acts Of the very Being of the Soul it self nothing is felt or perceived if any more Be but only its Acts. The fire that lyeth still in the flint is neither seen nor felt but when you smite it and force it into Act it is easily discerned The greatest Action doth force the greatest Observation whereas the dead or unactive are not remembred or taken notice of Those that have long lain still in their graves are out of mens thoughts as well as their sight but those that walk their streets and bear Rule among them are noted by all It is so with our Graces That you have a Habit of Love or Faith you can no otherwise know but as a consequence by reasoning but that you may have the Acts you may know by Feeling If you see a man lie still in the way what will you do to know whether he be drunk or in a swoun or dead Will you not stir him or speak to him to see whether he can go Or feel his pulse or observe his breath Knowing that where there is life their is some kind of motion I earnestly beseech thee Christian observe and practise this excellent Rule Thou now knowest not whether thou have Repentance or Faith or Love or joy Why be more in the Acting of these and thou wilt easily know it Draw forth an Object for Godly sorrow or Faith or Love or Joy and lay thy heart flat unto it and take pains to provoke it into suitable action and then see whether thou have these Graces or no. As Doctor Sibbs observeth There is somtimes Griefe for sin in us when we think there is none it wants but stirâ—ing up by some quickening word The like he saith of Love and may be said of every other Grace You may go seeking for the Hare or Partridge many hours and never find them while they lie close and stir not but when once the Hare betakes him self to his legges and the bird to her wings then you see them presently So long as a Christian hath his Graces in lively Action so long for the most
thither and that were wont to despise their counsel that bid them Try and make sure And to say They made no doubt of their Salvation 2. Yea and many that have excelled in worldly wisdom yet have been befooled in this great business and they that had wit to deceive their neighbours were yet deceived by Satan and their own hearts Yea men of strongest head-pieces and profoundest learning who knew much of the secrets of Nature of the courses of the Planets and motions of the Spheres have yet been utterly mistaken in their own hearts 3. Yea Those that have lived in the clear light of the Gospel and heard the difference between the Righteous and the Wicked plainly laid open and many a Mark for Tryal laid down and and many a Sermon pressing them to Examine and directing them how to do it yet even these have been and dayly are deceived 4. Yea those that have had a whole life's time to make sure in and have been told over and over that they had their lives for no other end but to provide for Everlasting Rest and make sure of it have yet been deceived and have wasted that life-time in forgetful security 5. Yea those that have Preached against the negligence of others and pressed them to Try themselves and shewed them the danger of being mistaken have yet proved mistaken themselves And is it not then time for us to rifle our hearts and search them to the very quick SECT III. 2. TO be mistaken in this great Point is also very Common as well as easie So common that it is the case of most in the world In the old world we find of none that were in any fear of Judgement and yet how few persons were not deceived So in Sodom So among the Jews And I would it were not so in England Almost all men amongst us do verily look to be saved You shall scarce speak with one of a thousand that doth not And yet Christ telleth us That few find the strait gate and narrow way that leads to Life Do but reckon up the several sorts of men that are mistaken in thinking they have title to Heaven as the Scripture doth enumeraâ—e them and what a multitude will they prove 1. All that are ignorant of the Fundamentals of Religion 2. All Heretick who maintain false doctrines against the Foundation or against the necessary means of Life 3. All that live in the practice of gross sin 4. Or that love and regard the smallest sin 5. All that harden themselves against frequent reproof Prov. 29.1 6. All that minde the Flesh more then the Spirit Rom. 8.6.7.13 Or the world more then God Phil. 3.18 19. 1 John 2.15.16 7. All that do as the most do Luk. 13.23 24 25. 1 John 5.19 8. All that are deriders at the Godly and discourage others from the way of God by their reproaches Pro. 1.22 c. 3.34 19.29 9. All that are unholy And that never were Regenerate and born anew 10. All that have not their very hearts set upon Heaven Mat. 6.21 11. All that have a Form of Godliness without the Power 12. And all that love either parents or wife or children or house or lands or life more then Christ. Luk. 14.26 Every on of these that thinketh he hath any Title to Heaven is as surely mistaken as the Scripture is true And if such multitudes are deceived should not we search the more diligently lest we should be deceived as well as they SECT IV. 3. NOthing more dangerous then to be thus mistaken The Consequents of it are lamentable and desperate If the Godly be mistaken in judging their state to be worse then it is the consequents of this mistake will be very sad But if the ungodly be mistaken the Danger and Mischief that followeth is unspeakable 1. It will exceedingly confirm them in the service of Satan and fasten them in their present way of death They will never seek to be recovered as long as they think their present state may serve As the Prophet saith Isa. 44.20 A deceived heart will turn them aside that they cannot deliver their own soul nor say Is there not a lye in my right hand 2. It will take away the efficacy of means that should do them good Nay it will turn the best means to their hardening and ruine If a man mistake his bodily disease and think it to be clean contrary to what it is will he not apply contrary remedies which will increase it So when a Christian should apply the Promises his mistake will cause him to apply the threatenings and when an ungodly man should apply the Threatenings and Terrors of the Lord this mistake of his estate will make him apply the promises And there is no greater strengthener of sin and destroyer of the soul then Scripture misapplyed Wordly delights and the deceiving words of sinners may harden men most desperately in an unsafe way But Scripture misapplied will do it far more effectually and dangerously 3. It will keep a man from compassionating his own soul. Though he be a sad object of pity to every understanding man that beholdeth him yet will he not be able to pity himself because he knoweth not his own misery As I have seen a Physician lament the case of his Patient when he hath discerned his certain death in some small beginning when the Patient himself feared nothing because he knew not the mortal nature of his disease So doth many a Minister or godly Christian lament the case of a carnal wretch who is so far from lamenting it himself that he scorns their pity and biddeth them be sorry for themselves they shall not answer for him and taketh them for his enemies because they tell him the truth of his danger As a man that seeth a beast going to the slaughter doth pity the poor creature when it cannot pity it self because it little thinketh that death is so neer So is it with these poor siners and all long of this mistaking their Spiritual state Is it not a pitiful sight to see a man laughing himself when his understanding friends stand weeping for his misery Paul mentioneth the voluptuous men of his time and the worldlings with weeping but we never read of their weeping for themselves Christ standeth weeping over Jerusalem when they know not of any evil that was towards them nor give him any thanks for his pity or his tears 4. It is in a case of greatest moment and therefore mistaking must needs be most dangerous If it were in making an ill bargain yet we might repair our loss in the next Scipio was wont to say It was an unseemly absurd thing in Military cases to say I had not thought or I was not aware The matter being of so great concernment every danger should be thought of that you may be aware Sure in this weighty case where our everlasting Salvation or
those that were my delight and that I looked for daily comfort and refreshing from when these shall be my grief and as thorns in my sides who can bear it Answ. 1. Who ever is the instrument the Affliction is from God and the provoking cause from thy self And were it not fitter then that thou look more to God and thy self 2. Didst thou not know that the best men are still sinful in part and that their hearts are naturally deceitful and desperately wicked as well as others And this being but imperfectly cured so far as they are fleshly the fruits of the flesh will appear in them which are strife hatred variance emulations wrath seditions heresies envyings c. So far the best is as a brier and the most upright of them sharper then a thorny hedg Learn therefore a better use from the Prophet Micah 7.4 5 6 7. Trust not too much in a friend nor put confidence in a guide Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom c. But look rather for the Lord and wait for the God of thy Salvation It is likely thou hast given that Love and Trust to Saints which was due onely to God or which thou hast denied him and then no wonder if he chastise thee by them Or perhaps the observation of the excellencies of Grace hath made thee forget the vileness of Nature and therefore God will have thee take notice of both Many are tender of giving too much to the dead Saints that yet give too much to the living without scruple Till thou hast learned to suffer from a Saint as well as from the Wicked and to be abused by the Godly as well as the Ungodly never look to live a contented or comfortable life nor never think thou hast truly learned the Art of Suffering Do not think that I vilifie the Saints too much in so saying I confess it is pity that Saints must suffer from Saints And it is quite contrary to their holy Nature and their Masters Laws who hath left them his Peace and made Love to be the Character of his Disciples and to be the first and great and new Commandment And I know that there is much difference between them and the world in this point But yet as I said they are Saints but in part and therefore Paul and Barnabas may so fall out as to part asunder and upright Asa may imprison the Prophet call it persecution or what you please Josephs Brethren that cast him into a pit and sold him to strangers for a slave I hope were not all ungodly Jobs wife and friends were sad comforters Davids Enemy was his familiar friend with whom he had taken sweet counsel and they had gone up together to the House of God And know also that thy own nature is as bad as theirs and thou art as likely thy self to be a grief to others Can such ulcerous leprous sinners as the best are live together and not infest and molest each other with the smell of their sores Why if thou be a Christian thou art a dayly trouble to thy self and art molested more with thy own corruptions then with any mans else And dost thou take it so hainously to be molested with the frailties of others when thou canst not forbear doing more against thy self For my part for all our Graces I rather admire at that wisdom and goodness of God that maintaineth that order and union amongst us as is and that he suffereth us not to be still one anothers executioners and to lay violent hands on our selves and each other I dare not think that there is no one gracious that hath labored to destroy others that were so in these late dissentions Sirs you do not half know yet the mortal wickedness of depraved Nature If the best were not more beholden to the Grace of God without them then to the habitual Grace within them you should soon see That men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be put in the ballance they are lighter then vanity it self Psal. 62.7 8 9. For what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity like water Job 15.14 15 16. Object 5. Oh but if I had that consolation which you say God reserveth for our suffering times I should suffer more contentedly but I do not perceive any such thing Answ. 1. The more you suffer for Righteousness sake the more of this blessing you may expect and the more you suffer for your own evil doing the longer you must look to stay till that sweetness come When we have by our folly provoked God to chastise us shall we presently look that he should fill us with comfort That were as Mr Paul Bayn saith to make Affliction to be no Affliction What good would the bitterness do us if it be presently drowned in that sweetness It is well in such sufferings if you have but supporting Grace and your sufferings sanctified to work out your sin and bring you to God 2. Do you not neglect or resist the comforts which you desire God hath filled Precepts and Promises and other of his Providences with matter of comfort If you will over-look all these and make nothing of them and pore all upon your sufferings and observe one cross more then a thousand mercies who maketh you uncomfortable but your selves If you resolve that you will not be comfortable as long as any thing aileth your flesh you may stay till death before you have comfort 3. Have your Afflictions wrought kindly with you and fited you for comfort Have they humbled you and brought you to a faithful confession and reformation of your beloved sin and made you set close to your neglected Duties and weaned your hearts from their former Idols and brought them unfeignedly to take God for their Portion and their Rest If this be not done how can you expect Comfort Should God binde up the sore while it festereth at the bottom It is not meer Suffering that prepares you for Comfort but the success and fruit of Sufferings upon your hearts I shall say no more on this Subject of Afflictions because so many have written on it already Among which I desire you especially to read Mr Bayns Letters and Mr Hughes his Dry Rod blooming and fruit-bearing and Young's COUNTERPOYSON CHAP. XI An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it that they would do all that possibly they can to help others to it also The fifth Vse SECT I. HAth God set before us such a glorious prize as this Everlasting Rest of the Saints is And hath he made man capable of such an unconceiveable Happiness Why then do not all the children of this
temper of the person All meats are not for all stomacks One man will vomit that up again in your face which another will digest 1. If it be a learned or ingenious rational man you must deal more by convincing Arguments and less by passionate perswasions 2. If it be one that is both ignorant and stupid there is need of both 3. If one that is convinced but yet is not converted you must use most those means that rouze up the affections 4. If they be obstinate and secure you must reprove them sharply 5. If they be of timorous tender natures and apt to dejections or distraction they must be tenderly dealt with All cannot bear that rough dealing as some can Love and Plainness and Seriousness takes with all but words of terror some can scarce bear This is as we say of stronger Physick Hellebore Colloquintida c. nec puero nec seni nec imbecillo sed robusto c. not fit for every complexion and state 3. You must be wise also in using the aptest expressions Many a Minister doth deliver most excellent necessary matter in such unsavory harsh and unseemly language that it makes the hearers loath the food that they should live by and laugh at a Sermon that might make them quake Especially if they be men of curious ears and carnal hearts and have more common wit and parts then the speaker And so it is in private Exhortation as well as publique If you cloath the most amiable beautiful Truth in the sordid rags of unbeseeming language you will make men disdain it as monstrous and deformed though it be the off-spring of God and of the highest nature SECT X. 7. LEt all your Reproofs and Exhortations be backed with the Authority of God Let the sinner be convinced that you speak not from your selves or of your own head Shew them the very words of Scripture for what you say Turn them to the very Chapter and Verse where their sin is condemned and where the duty is commanded Press them with the Truth and Authority of God Ask them whether they beleeve that this is his Word and that his Word is true So much of God as appeareth in our Words so much will they take The voyce of man is contemptible but the voyce of God is awful and terrible They can and may reject your words that cannot nor dare reject the words of the Almighty Be sure therefore to make them know that you speak nothing but what God hath spoken first SECT XI 8. YOu must also be Frequent with men in this Duty of Exhortation It is not once or twice that usually will prevail If God himself must be constantly solicited as if importunity could prevail with him when nothing else can and therefore require us always to pray and not to wax faint the same course no doubt will be most prevailing with men Therefore are we commanded to Exhort one another dayly and with all long-suffering As Lypsius saith The fire is not always brought out of the flint at one stroke nor mens affections kindled at the first exhortation And if they were yet if they be not followed they will soon grow cold again Weary out sinners with your loving and earnest entreaties Follow them and give them no rest in their sin This is true Charity and this is the way to save mens Souls and a course that will afford you comfort upon review SECT XII 9. STrive to bring all your Exhortations to an Issue Stick not in the work done but look after the success and aim at that end in all your speeches I have long observed it in Ministers and private men that if they speak never so convincing powerful words and yet their hearts do not long after the success of them with the hearers but all their care is over when they have done their speech pretending that having done their duty they leave the Issue to God these men do seldom prosper in their labors But those whose very heart is set upon the work and that long to see it take for the hearers conversion and use to enquire how it speeds God usually blesseth their labors though more weak Labor therefore to drive all your speeches to the desired Issue If you are reproving a sin cease not till if it may be you have got the sinner to promise you to leave it and to avoyd the occasions of it If you are exhorting to a Duty urge the party to promise you presently to set upon it If you would draw them to Christ leave not till you have made them confess that their present unregenerate state is miserable and not to be rested in and till they have subscribed to the necessity of Christ and of a change and till they have promised you to fall close to the use of means O that all Christians would be perswaded to take this course with all their Neighbors that are yet in the flesh that are enslaved to sin and strangers to Christ SECT XIII 10. LAstly Be sure that your Examples may Exhort as well as your words Let them see you constant in all the Duties that you perswade them to Let them see in your lives that difference from sinners and that excellency above the world which you perswade them to in your speeches Let them see by your constant Labors for Heaven that you do indeed beleeve that which you would have them to beleeve If you tell others of the admirable Joys of Heaven and your selves do nothing but drudg for the world and are as much taken up in striving to be rich or as quarrelsom with your Neighbors in a case of commodity as any others who will then beleeve you or who will be perswaded by you to seek the everlasting riches Will they not rather think that you perswade them to look after another world and to neglect this that so you might have the more of it to your self Let not men see you proud while you exhort them to be humble nor to have a seared Conscience in one thing while you would have theirs tender in another An innocent life is a continual powerful reproof to the wicked And the constant practice of a holy and heavenly life is a constant disquietment to the Conscience of a Worldling and a constant solicitation of him to change his course And thus I have opened to you the first and great part of this Duty consisting in private familiar Exhortation for the helping of poor Souls to this Rest that are out of the way and have yet no Title to it and I have shewed you also the maner how to perform it that you may succeed I will now speak a little of the next part SECT XIV BEsides the duty of private admonition you must do your utmost endevors to help men to profit by the publique Ordinances And to that end you must do these things 1. Do your endevors for the procuring of Faithful Ministers where
they come to their reckoning One sumptuous feast or one costly suit of apparel would maintain a poor boy a year or two at the University who perhaps might come to have more true worth in him then many a glittering sensual Lord and to do God more service in his Church then ever they did with all their estates and power SECT XVI 3. ANd when you do enjoy the blessing of the Gospel you must yet use your utmost diligence to help poor Souls to receive the fruit of it To which end you must draw them constantly to hear and attend it Mind them often of what they have heard Draw them if it be possible to repeat it in their families If that cannot be then draw them to come to others that do repeat it that so it may not dye in the hearing The very drawing of men into the company and acquaintance of the godly besides the benefit they have by their endeavors is of singular use to the recovery of their Souls Association breedeth familiarity and familiarity breedeth love and familiarity and love to the godly doth lead to familiarity and love to God and godliness It is also a means to take off prejudice by confuting the worlds slanders of the ways and people of God Use therefore often to meet together besides the more publique meeting in the Congregation not to vent any unsound opinions nor yet in distaste of the publique meeting nor in opposition to it nor at the time of publique worship nor yet to make a groundless Schism or to separate from the Church whereof you are members nor to destroy the old that you may gather a new Church out of its ruines as long as it hath the essentials and there is hope of reforming it nor yet would I have you forward to vent your own supposed gifts and parts in teaching where there is no necessity of it nor to attempt that in the interpretation of difficult Scriptures or explication of difficult controversies which is beyond your ability though perhaps pride will tell you that you are as able as any But the work which I would have you meet about is this To repeat together the Word which you have heard in publique to pour out your joynt prayers for the Church and pour selves to joyn in chearful singing the praises of God to open your scruples and doubts and fears and get resolution to quicken each other in Love and Heavenliness and Holy walking and all this not as a separated Church but as a part of the Church more diligent then the rest in redeeming time and helping the Souls of each other Heaven-ward I know some careless ones think this course needless and I know some Formalists do think it Schismatical who have nothing of any moment to say against it Against both these if I durst so far digress I could easily prove it warrantable and useâ—ul I know also that many of late do abuse private meetings to Schism and to vilifie Gods Ordinances and vent the windy issue of their empty brains But betwixt these extreams I advise you to walk and neither to forsake the assembling of your selves together as the manner of some is but exhort one another Heb. 10.25 Nor yet to be carryed about with divers and strange doctrines But let all your private meetings be in subordination to the publique and by the approbation and consent of your spiritual guides and not without them of your own heads where such guides are men of knowledg and godliness remembring them which have the Rule over you which speak to you the Word of God following their faith and as men whose hearts are stablished with grace considering the whole end of a Christians conversation Jesus Christ the same yesterday and to day and for ever Heb. 13.7 8 9 17. And I beseech you Brethren Mark them which cause Divisions and Offences contrary to the doctrine which you have learned and Avoyd them For they that are such serve not our Lord Jesus Christ but their own belly and by good words and fair speeches deceive the hearts of the simple Rom. 16.17 18. I would you would ponder every one of these words for they are the precious advice of the Spirit of God and necessary now as well as then SECT XVII 4. ONe thing more I advise you concerning this If you would have Souls converted and saved by the Ordinances Labour still to keep the Ordinances and Ministry in Esteem No man will be much wrought on by that which he despiseth The great causes of this contempt are a perverted Judgment and a Graceless heart It is no more wonder for a Soul to loath the Ordinances that savoureth not their spiritual nature nor seeth God in them nor is throughly wrought on by them then it is for a sick man to loath his food Nor is it any wonder for a perverted understanding to make a Jest of God himself much less to set light by his Ordinances Oh what a rare blessing is a clear sound sanctified Judgment Where this is wanting the most hellish vice may seem a vertue and the most sacred Ordinance of divine Institution may seem as the waters of Jordan to Naaman If any enemies to Gods Ordinances assault you I refer you to the reading of Mr Hen Lawrences late book for Ordinances The prophane Scorners of Ministry and Worship heretofore were the means of keeping many a Soul from Heaven but the late generation of proud ignorant Sectaries amongst us have quite out-stripped in this the vilest persecutors Oh how many Souls may curse these wretches in Hell for ever that have by them been brought to contemn the means that should save them By many years experience in my conversing with these men I can speak it knowingly that the chiefest of their zeal is let out against the faithful Ministers of Christ he is the ablest of their preachers that can rail at them in the most devillish language it is their most common discourse in all companies both godly and prophane to vilifie the Ministry and make them odious to all partly by slanders and partly by scorns Is this the way to win Souls Whereas formerly they thought that if a man were won to a love of the Ministry and Ordinances he was in a hopeful way of being won to God now these men are as diligent to bring all men to scorn them as if this were all that were necessary to the saving of their Souls and he only shall be happy that can deride at Ministers and Discipline If any doubt of the truth of what I say he is a stranger in England and for his satisfaction let him read all the books of Martin Marpriest and tell me whether the Devil ever spoke so with a tongue of flesh before For you my dear friends I acknowledg to Gods praise that you are as far from the contempt of Ordinances or Ministry as any people I know in the Land I shall confirm you herein not
None in the world hath that interest in their hearts as you You will receive that counsel from an undoubted friend that you would not do from an enemy or a stranger VVhy now your children cannot choose but know that you are their friends and advise them in love and they cannot choose but love you again Their love is loose and arbitrary to others but to you it is determinate and fast nature hath almost necessitated them to love you O therefore improve this your interest in them for their good 3. You have also the greatest authority over them You may command them and they dare not disobey you or else it is your owne fault for the most part for you can make them obey you in your business in the world Yea you may correct them to inforce obedience Your authority also is the most unquestioned authority in the world The authority of Kings and Parliaments hath been disputed but yours is past dispute And therefore if you use it not to constrain them to the works of God you are without excuse 4. Besides their whole dependance is on you for their maintenance and livelihood They know you can either give them or deny them what you have and so punish or reward them at your pleasure But on Ministers or neighbors they have no such dependance 5. Moreover you that are parents know the temper and inclinations of your children what vices they are most inclined to and what instruction or reproof they most need But Ministers that live more strange to them cannot know this 6. Above all you are ever with them and so have opportunity as to know their faults so to apply the remedy You may be still talking to them of the word of God and minding them of their state and duty and may follow and set home every word of advice as they are in the house with you or in the shop or in the feild at work O what an excellent advantage is this if God do but give you hearts to use it Especially you mothers remember this you are more with your children while they are little ones then their fathers be you therefore still teaching them as soon as ever they are capable of learning You cannot do God such eminent service your selves as men but you may train up children that may do it and then you will have part of the comfort and honor Bathsheba had part of the honor of Solomons wisdom Pro. 31.1 for she taught him And Timothe's mother and grandmother of his piety Plutrach speaks of a Spartan woman that when her neighbors were shewing their apparel and jewels she brought out her children vertuous and well taught and said These are my ornaments and Jewels O how much more would this adorn you then your bravery What a deal of pains are you at with the bodies of your children more then the fathers And what do you suffer to bring them into the world and will not you be at as much pains for the saving of their souls You are naturally of more tender affections then men and will it not move you to think that your children should perish for ever O therefore I beseech you for the sake of the children of your bowels teach them admonish them watch over them and give them no rest till you have brought them over to Christ. And thus I have shewed you reason enough to make you diligent in teaching your children if reason will serve as me thinks among reasonable creatures it should do SECT XII LEt us next hear what is usually objected against this by negligent men Object 1. We do not see but those children prove as bad as others that are taught the Scriptures and brought up so holily And those prove as honest men and good neighbors that have none of this ado with them Answ. 1. O who art thou man that disputest against God Hath God charged you to teach your children diligently his word speaking of it as you sit at home and as you walk abroad as you lye down and as you rise up Deut. 6.6 7 8. and dare you reply that it is as good let it alone VVhy this is to set God at defiance and as it were to spit in his face and give him the lye VVill you take it well at your servants if when you command them to do a thing they should return you such an answer that they do not see but it were as good let it alone VVretched worm darest thou thus lift up thy head against the Lord that made thee and must judg thee Is it not he that commandeth thee If thou dost not believe that this Scripture is his word thou dost not believe in Jesus Christ for thou hast nothing else to tell thee that there is a Christ. And if thou do believe that this is the word of God how darest thou say It is as good disobey it This is devillish pride indeed when such sottish sinful dust shall think themselves wiser then the living God take upon them to reprove and cancel his word 2. But alas you know not what honesty is when you say that the ignorant are as honest as others You think those are the honestest men that best please you But I know those are the most honest that best please God Christ saith in Luk 8.15 that an honest heart is that which keepeth the word of God and you say they are as honest that reject it God made men to please himself and not to please you And you may know by his Laws who please him best The Commandments have two Tables and the first is Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and the second Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self First seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Mat. 6.33 3. And what if some prove naught that are well brought up It is not the generality of them will you say that Noahs family was no better then the drowned world because there was one Chaus in it Nor Davids because there was one Absalom Nor Christs because there was one Judas 4. But what if it were so Have men need of the less teaching or the more you have more wit in the matters of this world you will not say I see many labor hard and yet are poor and therefore it is as good never labor at all you will not say Many that go to School learn nothing and therefore they may learn as much though they never go Or many that are great tradesmen break and therefore it is as good never trade at all Or many great eaters are as lean as others and many sick men recover no strength though they eat and therefore it is as good for men never to eat more Or many plow and sow and have nothing comes up and therefore it is as go 〈…〉 to plow more VVhat a fool were he that should reaso◠thus And is not he a thousand times worse that shall reason thus for mens
fruit perhaps we should be sooner drawn unto them and we should itch as the Bethshemites to be looking into this Ark. Sure I am where God hath forbidden us to place our thoughts and our delights thither it is easâ—y enough to draw them If he say Love not the World nor the things of the World we dote upon it never the less We have love enough if the world require it and thoughts enough to pursue our profits How delightfully and unweariedly can we think of vanity and day after day imploy our mindes about the Creature And have we no thoughts of this our Rest How freely and how frequently can we think of our pleasures our friends our labors our flesh our lusts our common studies or news yea our very miseries our wrongs our sufferings and our seats But vvhere is the Christian vvhose heart is on his Rest Why Sirs vvhat is the matter vvhy are vve not taken up vvith the vievvs of Glory and our souls more accustomed to these delightful Meditations Are vve so full of joy that vve need no more or is there no matter in Heaven for our joyous thoughts or rather are not our hearts carnal and blockish Earth vvill to Earth Had vve more Spirit it vvould be othervvise with us As the Jews use to cast to the ground the Book of Esther before they read it because the Name of God is not in it And as Austin cast by Ciceroes writings because they contained not the Name of Jesus So let us humble and cast dovvn these sensual hearts that have in them no more of Christ and Glory As we should not own our duties any further then somewhat of Christ is in them so should we no further own our hearts And as we should delight in the creatures no further then they have reference to Christ and Eternity so should we no further approve of our own hearts If there were little of Christ and Heaven in our mouths but the world were the onely subject of our speeches then all would account us to be ungodly why then may we not call our hearts ungodly that have so little delight in Christ and Heaven A holy tongue will not excuse or secure a profane heart Why did Christ pronounce his Disciples eyes and eares so blessed but as they were the doors to let in Christ by his Works and Words into their hearts O blessed are the eyes that so see and the ears that so hear that the heart is thereby raised to this blessed heavenly frame Sirs so much of your hearts as is empty of Christ and heaven let it befilled with shame and sorrow and not with ease SECT II. BUt let me turn my Reprehension to Exhortation That you would turn this Conviction into Reformation And I have the more hope because I here address my self to men of Conscience that dare not wilfully disobey God and to men whose Relations to God are many and neer and therefore methinks there should need the fewer words to perswade their hearts to him Yea because I speak to no other men but onely them whose portion is there whose hopes are there and who have forsaken all that they may enjoy this glory and shall I be discouraged from perswading such to be heavenly-minded why fellow Christians if you will not hear and obey who will well may we be discouraged to exhort the poor blinde ungodly world and may say as Moses Exod. 6.12 Behold the Children of Israel have not hearkned unto me how then shall Pharoah hear me Who ever thou art therefore that readest these lines I require thee as thou tendrest thine Allegiance to the God of Heaven as ever thou hopest for a part in this glory that thou presently take thy heart to task chide it for its wilful strangeness to God turn thy thoughts from the pursuit of Vanity bend thy soul to study Eternity busie it about the life to come habituate thy self to such contemplations and let not those thoughts be seldom and cursory but settle upon them dwell here bathe thy soul in heavens Delights drench thine affections in these rivers of pleasure or rather in this sea of Consolation and if thy backward soul begin to flag and thy loose thoughts to fly abroad call them back hold them to their work put them on bear not with their lasiness do not connive at one neglect and when thou hast once in obedience to God tried this work and followed on till thou hast got acquainted with it and kept a close guard upon thy thoughts till they are accustomed to obey and till thou hast got some mastery over them thou wilt then finde thy self in the suburbs of Heaven and as it were in a new world thou wilt then finde indeed that there is sweetness in the work and way of God and that the life of Christianity is a life of Joy Thou wilt meet with those abundant consolations which thou hast prayed and panted and groaned after and which so few Christians do ever here obtain because they know not this way to them or else make not conscience of walking in it You see the work now before you This this is it that I would fain perswade your souls to practise Beloved friends and Christian neighbors who hear me this day let me bespeak your consciences in the name of Christ and command you by the Authority I have received from Christ that you faithfully set upon this weighty duty and fix your eye more stedfastly on your Rest and daily delight in the fore-thoughts thereof I have perswaded you to many other duties and I bless God many of you have obeyed and I hope never to finde you at that pass as to say when you perceive the command of the Lord that you will not be perswaded nor obey if I should it were high time to bewail your misery Why you may almost as well say we will not obey as sit still and not obey Christians I beseech you as you take me for your Teacher and have called me thereto so hearken to this Doctrine if ever I shall prevail with you in any thing let me prevail with you in this to set your heart where you expect a Rest and Treasure Do you not remember that when you called me to be your Teacher you promised me under your hands that you would faithfully and conscionably endeavor the receiving every truth and obeying every command which I should from the Word of God manifest to you I now charge your promise upon you I never delivered to you a more apparent Truth nor prest upon you a more apparent duty then this If I knew you would not obey what should I do here preaching Not that I desire you to receive it chiefly as from me but as from Christ on whose Message I come Me thinks if a childe should shew you Scripture and speak to you the Word of God you should not dare to disobey it Do not wonder that I perswade you so earnestly though
sea and land and no difficulty can keep them back when they think of an uncertain perishing treasure O what life then would it put into a Christians endeavors if he would frequently forethink of his everlasting Treasure We run so slowly and strive so lazily because we so little minde the prize When a Christian hath been tasting the hidden Manna and drinking of the streams of the Paradise of God what life doth this Ambrosia and Nectar put into him How fervent will his spirit be in prayer when he considers that he prayes for no less then Heaven If Henoch Elias or any of the Saints who are now in Heaven and have partaked of the vision of the living God should be sent down to the earth again to live on the tearmes as we now do would they not strive hard and pray earnestly rather then lose that blessed Rest No wonder for they would know what it is they pray for It s true we cannot know it here so throughly as they yet if we would but get as high as we can and study but that which may now be known it would strangely alter both our spirits and our duties Observe but the man who is much in heaven and you shall see he is not like other Christians There is somewhat of that which he hath seen above appeareth in all his duty and conversation Nay take but the same man immediatly when he is returned from these views of Bliss and you shall easily perceive that he excels himself as if he were not indeed the same as before If he be a Preacher how heavenly are his Sermons what clear descriptions what high expressions what savory passages hath he of that Rest If he be a private Christian what heavenly conference what heavenly prayers what a heavenly carriage hath he May you not even hear in a preachers Sermons or in the private duties of another when they have been most above When Moses had been with God in the mount he had derived so much glory from God that made his face to shine that the people could not behold him Beloved friends if you would but set upon this employment even so would it be with you men would see the face of your conversation shine and say surely he hath been with God As the body is apt to be changed into the temper of the air it breaths in and the food it lives on so will your spirits receive an alteration according to the objects which they are exercised about If your thoughts do feed on Christ and heaven you will be heavenly if they feed on Earth you will be earthly It s true a heavenly Nature goes before this heavenly imployment but yet the work will make it more heavenly There must be life before we can feed but our life is continued and increased by feeding Therefore Reader let me here inform thee That if thou lie complaining of deadness and dulness that thou canst not love Christ nor rejoyce in his Love that thou hast no life in prayer nor any other duty and yet never tryedst this quickning course or at least art careless and unconstant in it Why thou art the cause of thy own complaints thou deadest and dullest thine own heart thou deniest thy self that life which thou talkst of Is not thy life hid with Christ in God Whither must thou go but to Christ for it and whither is that but to Heaven where he is Thou wilt not come to Christ that thou maist have life If thou wouldst have light and heat why art thou then no more in the Sunshine If thou wouldst have more of that Grace which flows from Christ why art thou no more with Christ for it Thy strength is in Heaven and thy life in Heaven and there thou must daily fetch it if thou wilt have it For want of this recourse to heaven thy soul is as a candle that is not lighted and thy duties as a sacrifice which hath no fire Fetch one coal daily from this Altar and see if thy offering will not burn Light thy candle at this flame and feed it daily with Oyl from hence and see if it will not gloriously shine Keep close to this reviving fire and see if thy affections will not be warm Thou bewailest thy want of love to God and well thou maist for its a hainous crime a killing sin why lift up thy eye of Faith to Heaven behold his beauty contemplate his excellencies and see whether his amiableness will not fire thy affections and his perfect goodness ravish thy heart As the eye doth incense the sensual affections by its overmuch gazing on alluring objects so doth the eye of our Faith in meditation inflame our affections towards our Lord by the frequent gazing on that highest beauty Whoever thou art that art a stranger to this imployment be thy parts and profession never so great let me tell thee Thou spendest thy life but in trifling or idleness thou seemest to live but thou art dead I may say of thee as Seneca of idle Varia Scis latere vivere nescis Thou knowest how to lurk in idleness but how to live thou knowest not And as the same Seneca would say when he passed by that sluggards dwelling Ibi fitâ—s est Varia so may it be said of thee There lies such a one but not there lives such a one for thou spendest thy days liker to the dead then the living One of Draco's Laws to the Athenians was That he who was convict of idleness should be put to death Thou dost execute this on thy own soul whilest by thy idleness thou destroyest its liveliness Thou maist many other ways exercise thy parts but this is the way to exercise thy Graces They all come from God as their Fountain and lead to God as their ultimate End and are exercised on God as their chiefest Object so that God is their All in All. From Heaven they come and heavenly their nature is and to Heaven they will direct and move thee And as exercise maintaineth appetite strength and liveliness to the body so doth it also to the soul. Vse limbs and have limbs is the known Proverb And use Grace and Spiritual Life in these heavenly exercises and you shall finde it quickly cause their increase The exercise of your meer abilities of Speech will not much advantage your graces but the exercise of these heavenly soul exalting gifts will unconceivably help to the growth of both For as the Moon is then most full and glorious when it doth most directly face the Sun so will your souls be both in gifts and graces when you do most neerly view the face of God This will feed your tongue with matter and make you abound and overflow both in Preaching Praying and Conferring Besides the fire which you fetch from Heaven for your Sacrifices is no false or strange fire As your liveliness will be much more so will it be also more sincere A man may have a
shall now lay thee down some positive helps and conclude with a Directory to the 〈◊〉 in duty it self But first I expect that thou resolve against the forementioned impediments that thou read them seriously and avoid them faithfully or else thy labor will be all in vain thou dost but go about to reconcile Light and Darkness Christ and Belial and to conjoyn Heaven and Hel in thy spirit thou maist sooner bring down Heaven to earth then do this I must tell thee also that I here expect thy promise faithfully to set upon the helps which I shall prescribe thee and that the Reading of them will not bring heaven into thy heart but in their constant practice the Spirit will do it It were better for thee I had never written them and thou hadst never seen this Book nor read them if thou do not buckle thy self to the duty As thou valuest then the delights of these foretastes of Heaven make conscience of performing these following duties SECT II. 1. KNow Heaven to be the onely Treasure and labor to know also what a Treasure it is be convinced once that thou hast no other happiness and then he convinced what happiness is there If thou do not soundly believe it to be the chiefest good thou wilt never set thy heart upon it and this conviction must sinke into thy affections for if it be onely a notion it will have little operation And sure we have reason enough to be easily convinced of thiâ—â—s as you may see in what hath been spoken already Read over the Description and Nature of this Rest in the beginning of this Book and the Reasons against thy Resting below in Chapter First and conclude That this is the onely Happiness As long as your judgments do undervalue it your affections must needs be cold towards it If your judgments do mistake Blear-eyed Leah for Beautiful Rachel so will your affections also mistake them If Evah do once suppose she sees more worth in the forbidden fruit then in the love and fruition of God no wonder if it have more of her heart then God If your judgments once prefer the delights of the Flesh before the delights in the Presence of God its impossible then your hearts should be in heaven as it is the ignorance of the emptiness of things below that makes men so overvalue them so it is ignorance of the high delights above which is the cause that men so little minde them If you see a purse of gold and believe it to be but Stones or Counters it will not intice your affections to it it is not a things excellency in it self but it s an excellency known that provokes desire If an ignorant man see a Book containing the secrets of Arts or Sciences yet he values it no more then a common piece because he knows not what is in it but he that knows it doth highly value it his very minde is set upon it he can pore upon it day and night he can forbear his meat and drink and sleep to read it As the Jews enquired after Elias when Christ tells them that verily Elias is already come and ye knew him not but did unto him whatsoever ye listed so men enquire after Happiness and Delight when it is offered to them in the promise of Rest and they know it not but trample it under foot and as the Jews killed the Messiah while they waited for the Messiah and that because they did not know him For had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Acts 13.27 1 Cor. 2.8 So doth the world cry out for Rest and busily seek for Delight and Happiness even while they are neglecting and destroying their Rest and Happiness and this because they throughly know it not for did they know throughly what it is they could not so sleight the everlasting Treasure SECT II. 2. LAbor as to know Heaven to be the onely happiness so also to be thy happiness Though the knowledg of excellency and suitableness may stir up that love which worketh by desire yet there must be the knowledg of our interest or propriety to the setting awork of our love of complacency We may confess Heaven to be the best condition though we despair of enjoying it and we may desire and seek it if we see the obtainment to be but probable and hopeful But we can never delightfully rejoyce in it till we are somewhat perswaded of our title to it What comfort is it to a man that is naked to see the rich attire of others or to a man that hath not a bit to put in his mouth to see a feast which he must not taste of What delight hath a man that hath not a house to put his head in to see the sumptuous buildings of others Would not all this rather increase his anguish and make him more sensible of his own misery So for a man to know the excellencies of Heaven and not to know whether he shall ever enjoy them may well raise desire and provoke to seek it but it will raise but little joy and content Who will set his heart on another mans possessions If your houses your goods your cattel your children were not your own you would less minde them and delight less in them O therefore Christians rest not till you can call this Rest your own sit not down without assurance get alone and question with thy self bring thy heart to the bar of tryal force it to answer the interrogatories put to it set the conditions of the Gospel and qualifications of the Saints on one side and thy performance of those conditions and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side and then judg how neer they resemble Thou hast the same word before thee to judg thy self by now by which thou must be judged at the great day Thou art there before told the questions that must then be put to thee put these questions now to thy self Thou mayst there read the very Articles upon which thou shalt be tryed why try thy self by those Articles now Thou mayst there know beforehand on what terms men shall be then acquit and condemned why try now whether thou art possessed of that which will acquit thee or whether thou be upon the same terms with those that must be condemned and accordingly acquit or condemn thy self Yet be sure thou judg by a true touchstone and mistake not the Scriptures description of a Saint that thou neither acquit nor condemn thy self upon mistakes For as groundless hopes do tend to confusion and are the greatest cause of most mens damnation so groundless doubtings do tend to discomforts and are the great cause of the disquieting of the Saints Therefore lay thy grounds of tryal safely and advisedly proceed in the work deliberately and methodically follow it to an issue resolutely and industriously suffer not thy heart to give thee the â—lip and get away before a judgment
therefore the best digestion is there While Truth is but a speculation swimming in the Brain the Soul hath not half received it nor taken fast hold of it Christ and Heaven hath various Excellencies and therefore God hath formed the soul with a power of divers wayes of apprehending that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers Excellencies in Christ even as the creatures having their severall uses God hath given us several senses that so we might enjoy the delights of them all What the better had we been for the pleasant oderiferous flowers and perfumes if we had not possessed the sense of Smelling or what good would Language or Musick have done us if God had not given us the sense of hearing or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks or sweetest things if we had been deprived of the sense of tasting Why so what good could all the glory of Heaven have done us or what pleasure should we have had even in the goodness and perfection of God himself if we had been without the affections of Love and Joy whereby we are capable of being delighted in that Goodness so also what benefit of strength or sweetness canst thou possible receive by thy Meditations on Eternity while thou dost not exercise those Affections which are the senses of the soul by which it must receive this sweetness and strength This is it that hath deceived Christians in this business They have thought that Meditation is nothing but the bare thinking on Truths and the rolling of them in the Understanding and Memory when every School-Boy can do this or persons that hate the things which they think on Therefore this is the great task in hand and this is the work that I would set thee on to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection and thou maist feel them revive thee and warm thee at the heart and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on There are two accesses of Contemplation saith Bernard one in Intellection the other in Affection one in Light the other in Heat one in Acquisition the other in Devotion If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest and shouldst have thy thoughts at command to turn them hither on every occasion and yet shouldst proceed no further then this this were not the Meditation that I intend nor would it much advantage or better thy soul as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here I have shewed you in the beginning of this Treatise how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory to wit by knowing by loving and joying in him why the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here So much as thy Understanding and Affections are sincerely acted upon God so much dost thou enjoy him And this is the happy Work of this Meditation So that you see here is somewhat more to be done then barely to remember and think of Heaven as Running and Ringing and Moving and such like labors do not onely stir a hand or a foot but do strain and exercise the whole body so doth Meditation the whole soul. As the Affections of Sinners are set on the world and turned to Idols and faln from God as well as the Understanding so must the Affections of men be reduced to God and taken up with him as well as the Understanding and as the whole was filled with sin before so the whole must be filled with God now as St. Paul saith of Knowledg and Gifts and Faith to remove mountains that if thou have all these without Love Thou art but as sounding Brass or as a tinkling Cymbal so I may say of the exercise of these If in this work of Meditation thou do exercise Knowledg and Gifts and Faith of Miracles and not exercise Love and Joy thou dost nothing thou playest the childe and not the man the Sinners part and not the Saints for so will Sinners do also If thy Meditation tends to fill thy Note-Book with notions and good sayings concerning God and not thy heart with longings after him and delight in him for ought I know thy Book is as much a Christian as thou Mark but Davids description of the blessed man Psal. 1.3 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night SECT VI. 4. I Call this Meditation Set and Solemn to difference it from that which is Occasional and Cursory As there is Prayer which is solemn when we set our selves wholly to the duty and Prayer which is sudden and short commonly called Ejaculations when a man in the midst of other business doth send up some brief request to God so also there is Meditation solemn when we apply our selves onely to that work and there is Meditation which is short and cursory when in the midst of our business we have some good thoughts of God in our mindes And as solemn Prayer is either First See when a Christian observing it as a standing duty doth resolvedly practise it in a constant course or secondly Occasional when some unusual occasion doth put us upon it at a season extraordinary so also Meditation admits of the like distinction Now though I would perswade you to that Meditation which is mixt with your common labors in your callings and to that which special occasions do direct you to yet these are not the main thing which I here intend But that you would make it a constant standing duty as you do by Hearing and Praying and Reading the Scripture and that you would solemnly set your selves about it and make it for that time your whole work and intermix other matters no more with it then you would do with prayer or other duties Thus you see as it is differenced by its act what kinde of Meditation it is that we speak of viz. It is the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the Soul SECT VII THe second part of the Difference is drawn from its object which is Rest or the most blessed estate of man in his everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven Meditation hath a large field to walk in and hath as many objects to work upon as there are matters and lines and words in the Scripture as there are known Creatures in the whole Creation and as there are particular discernable passages of Providence in the Government of the persons and actions through the world But the Meditation that I now direct you in is onely of the end of all these and of these as they refer to that end It is not a walk from Mountains to Valleys from Sea to Land from Kingdom to Kingdom from Planet to Planet But it is a walk from Mountains
or the frequency of the understandings apprehensions this Truth doth make a deeper impression so is longer retained which impâ—â—ssion and retention we call memory And as truth is thus variously presented to the understanding and received by it so also is the goodness of the object variously represented to the will which doth accordingly put forth its various acts When it appeareth only as good in it self and not good for us or suitable it is not the object of the will at all but only this Enuntiation It is good is passed upon it by the Judgment and withal it raiseth an admiration at its excellency If it appeare evil to us then we Nill it But if it appear both good in it self and to us or suitable then it provoketh the affection of Love If the good thus loved do appear as absent from us then it exciteth the passion of Desire If the good so Loved and Desired do appear possible and feasible in the attaining then it exciteth the passion of Hope which is a compound of Desire and Expectation when we look upon it as requiring our endeavor to attain it and as it is to be had in a prescribed way then it provokes the passion of courage or boldness and concludes in resolution Lastly if this good be apprehended as present then it provoketh to delight or Joy If the thing it self be present the Joy is greatest If but the Idea of it either through the remainder or memory of the good that is past or through the fore-apprehension of that which we expect yet even this also exciteth our Joy And this Joy is the perfection of all the rest SECT II. SO that by this time I suppose you see both what are the objects that must move our affections and what powers of the soul apprehend these objects you see also I doubt not what affections you must excite and in what order it is to be done Yet for your better assistance I will more fully direct you in the several particulars 1. Then you must by cogitation go to the memory which is the Magazine or Treasury of the understanding thence you must take forth those heavenly doctrines which you intend to make the subject of your Meditation for the present purpose you may look over any promise of eternal life in the Gospel any description of the glory of the Saints or the very Articles of the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting some one sentence concerning those Eternal Joyes may afford you matter for many yeers Meditation yet it will be a point of our wisdom here to have always a stock of matter in our memory that so when we should use it we may bring forth out of our treasury things new and old For a good man hath a good Treasury in his heart from whence he bringeth forth good things Luke 6.45 and out of this abundance of his heart he should speak to himself as well as to others Yea if we took things in order and observed some Method in respect of the matter and did Meditate first on one Truth concerning Eternity and then another it would not be amiss And if any should be barren of Matter through weakness of memory they may have notes or books of this subject for their furtherance SECT III. 2. WHen you have fetcht from your memory the matter of your Meditation your next work is to present it to your Judgment open there the case as fully as thou canst set forth the several ornaments of the Crown the several dignities belonging to the Kingdom as they are partly laid open in the beginning of this Book Let judgment deliberately view them over and take as exact a survey as it can Then put the question and require a determination Is there happiness in all this or not Is not here enough to make me blessed Can he want any thing who fully possesseth God Is there any thing higher for a creature to attain Thus urge thy judgment to pass an upright sentence and compel it to subscribe to the perfection of thy Celestial happiness and to leave this sentence as under its hand upon Record If thy senses should here begin to mutter and to put in a word for fleshly pleasure or profits let judgment hear what each can say weigh the Arguments of the world and flesh in one end and the Arguments for the preheminence of Glory in the other end and judg impartially which should be preferred Try whether there be any comparison to be made which is more excellent which more manly which is more satisfactory and which more pure which freeth most from misery and advanceth us highest and which dost thou think is of longer continuance Thus let deliberate judgment decide it and let not Flesh carry it by noise and by violence And when the sentence is passed and recorded in thy heart it will be ready at hand to be produced upon any occasion and to silence the flesh in its next attempt and to disgrace the world in its next competition Thus exercise thy Judgment in the contemplation of thy Rest thus Magnifie and Advance the Lord in thy heart till a holy admiration hath possessed thy Soul SECT IV. 3. BUt the great work which you may either promise or subjoyn to this as you please is To exercise thy belief of the truth of thy Rest And that both in respect of the truth of the Promise and also the truth of thy own Interest and Title As unbelief doth cause the languishing of all our Graces so Faith would do much to revive and actuate them if it were but revived and actuated it self Especially our belief of the verity of the Scripture I conceive as needful to be exercised and confirmed as almost any point of Faith But of this I have spoken in the Second Part of this Book whither I refer thee for some confirming Arguments Though few complain of their not believing Scripture yet I conceive it to be the commonest part of unbelief and the very root of bitterness which spoileth our Graces Perhaps thou hast not a positive belief of the contrary nor dost not flatly think that Scripture is not the Word of God that were to be a down-right Infidel indeed And yet thou maist have but little belief that Scripture is Gods Word and that both in regard of the habit and the act It s one thing not to beleeve Scripture to be true and another thing positively to beleeve it to be false Faith may be idle and suspend its exercise toward the Truth though it do not yet act against the Truth It may stand still when it goes not out of the way it may be asleep and do you little service though it do not directly fight against you Besides a great deal of unbelief may consist with a small degree of Faith If we did soundly beleeve That there is such a Glory that within a few days our eyes shall behold it O what passions would it
canst and say to it Behold the Ancient of days the Lord Jehovah whose name is I am This is he who made the Worlds with his Word this is the Cause of all Causes the Spring of Action the Fountain of Life the first Principle of the Creatures Motions who upholds the Earth who ruleth the Nations who disposeth of events and subdueth his foes who governeth the depths of the great Waters and boundeth the rage of her swelling Waves who ruleth the Winds and moveth the Orbs and causeth the Sun to run its race and the several Planets to know their courses This is he that loved thee from Everlasting that formed thee in the Womb and gave thee this Soul who brought thee forth and shewed thee the Light and ranked thee with the chiefest of his earthly Creatures who endued thee with thy understanding and beautified thee with his gifts who maintaineth thee with life and health and comforts who gave thee thy preferments and dignified thee with thy honors and differenced thee from the most miserable and vilest of men Here O here is an object now worthy thy love here shouldst thou even pour out thy soul in love here thou maist be sure thou caust not love too much This is the Lord that hath blest thee with his benefits that hath spred thy table in the sight of thine enemies and caused thy cup to overflow This is he that Angels and Saints do praise and the Host of Heaven must magnifie for ever Thus do thou expatiate in the Praises of God and open his Excellencies to thine own heart till thou feel the life begin to stir and the fire in thy brest begin to kindle As gazing upon the dusty beauty of flesh doth kindle the fire of carnal love so this gazing on the Glory and Goodness of the Lord will kindle this Spiritual love in the-soul Bruising will make the Spices odoriferous and rubbing the Pomander will bring forth the sweetness Act therefore thy soul upon this delightful object toss these cogitations frequently in thy heart rub over all thy Affections with them as you will do your cold hands till they begin to warm What though thy heart be Rock and Flint this often striking may bring forth the fire but if yet thou feelest not thy love to work lead thy heart further and shew it yet more shew it the Son of the living God whose name is Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace shew it the King of Saints on the Throne of his Glory who is the first and the last who is and was and is to come who liveth and was dead and behold he lives for evermore who hath made thy peace by the blood of his Cross and hath prepared thee with himself an Habitation of Peace His office is to be the great Peace-Maker his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Peace his Gospel is the Tydings of Peace his Voice to thee now is the Voice of Peace Draw neer and behold him Dost thou not hear his voyce He that called Thomas to come neer and to see the print of the Nailes and to put his finger into his Wounds He it is that calls to thee Come neer and view the Lord thy Saviour and be not faithless but believing Peace be unto thee fear not It is I He that calleth Behold me behold me to a rebellious people that calleth not on his Name doth call out to thee a Believer to behold him He that calls to them who pass by to behold his Sorrow in the day of his Humiliation doth call now to thee to behold his Glory in the day of his Exaltation Look well upon him Dost thou not know him why it s He that brought thee up from the pit of hell It s He that reversed the sentence of thy Damnation that bore the Curse which thou shouldest have born and restored thee to the blessing that thou hadst forfeited and lost and purchased the Advancement which thou must inherit for ever And yet dost thou not know him why his Hands were pierced his Head was pierced his Sides were pierced his Heart was pierced with the sting of thy sins that by these marks thou mightest always know him Dost thou not remember when he found thee lying in thy blood and took pitty on thee and drest thy wounds and brought thee home and said unto thee Live Hast thou forgotten since he wounded himself to cure thy wounds and let out his own blood to stop thy bleeding Is not the passage to his heart yet standing open If thou know him not by the face the voyce the hands if thou know him not by the tears and bloody sweat yet look neerer thou maist know him by the Heart That broken-healed heart is his that dead-revived Heart is his that soul-pittying melting Heart is his Doubtless it can be none 's but his Love and Compassion are its certain Signatures This is He even this is He who would rather dye then thou shoulst dye who chose thy life before his own who pleads this blood before his Father and makes continual intercession for thee if he had not suffered O what hadst thou suffered what hadst thou been if he had not Redeemed thee whether hadst thou gone if he had not recalled thee there was but a step between thee and Hell when he stept in and bore the stroak He slew the Bear and rescued the prey he delivered thy soul from the roaring Lyon And is not here yet fuell enough for Love to feed on Doth not this Loadstone snatch thy heart unto it and almost draw it forth of thy breast Canst thou read the History of Love any further at once Doth not thy throbbing heart here stop to ease it self and dost thou not as Joseph seek for a place to weep in or do not the tears of thy Love bedew these lines Go on then for the field of Love is large it will yield thee fresh contents for ever and be thine eternal work to behold and love thou needest not then want work for thy present Meditation Hast thou forgotten the time when thou wast weeping and he wiped the tears from thine eyes when thou wast bleeding and he wiped the blood from thy soul when pricking cares and fears did grieve thee and he did refresh thee and draw out the Thorns Hast thou forgotten when thy folly did wound thy soul and the venomous guilt did seize upon thy heart when he sucked forth the mortal poyson from thy soul though therewith he drew it into his own I remember it s written of good Melancthon that when his childe was removed from him it pierced his heart to remember how he once sate weeping with the Infant on his knee and how lovingly it wip't away the tears from the fathers eyes how then should it pierce thy heart to think how lovingly Christ hath wip't away thine O how oft hath he found thee sitting weeping like Hagar
your hope dieth your duties die yours endevors die your joyes die and your souls die And if your hope be not acted but lie asleep its next to dead both in likeness and preparation Therefore Christian Reader when thou art winding up thy affections to Heaven do not forget to give one lift at thy Hope remember to winde up this peg also The object of Hope hath four qualifications First It must be good secondly Future thirdly Difficult fourthly yet Possible For the goodness of thy Rest there is somewhat said before which thou maist transfer hither as thou findest it useful so also of the difficulty and futurity Let Faith then shew thee the truth of the Promise and Judgment the goodness of the thing promised and what then is wanting for the raising of thy hope Shew thy soul from the Word and from the Mercies and from the Nature of God what possibility yea what probability yea what certainty thou hast of possessing the Crown Think thus and reason thus with thine own heart Why should I not confidently and comfortably hope when my soul is in the hands of so compassionate a Saviour and when the Kingdom is at the disposal of so bounteous a God Did he ever manifest any backwardness to my good or discover the least inclination to my ruine Hath he not sworn the contrary to me in his Word that he delights not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should repent and live Have not all his dealings with me witnessed the same Did he not minde me of my danger when I never feared it and why was this if he would not have me to escape it Did he not minde me of my happiness when I had no thoughts of it and why was this but that he would have me to enjoy it How oft hath he drawn me to himself and his Christ when I have drawn backward and would have broken from him What restless importunity hath he used in his suit how hath he followed me from place to place and his Spirit incessantly sollicited my heart with winning suggestions and perswasions for my good And would he have done all this if he had been willing that I should perish If my soul were in the hands of my mortal foes then indeed there were small hopes of my salvation yea if it were wholly in my own hands my flesh and my folly would betray it to damnation But have I as much cause to distrust God as to distrust my foes or to distrust my self Sure I have not Have I not a sure Promise to build and rest on and the Truth of God engaged to fulfil it Would I not hope if an honest man had made me a promise of any thing in his power And shall I not hope when I have the Covenant and the Oath of God It s true the glory is out of sight we have not beheld the Mansions of the Saints Who hath ascended up to discover it and descended to tell us what he had seen why but the Word is neer me Have I not Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles Is not the promise of God more certain then our sight it is not by sight but by hope that we must be saved and hope that is seen is not hope for if we see it why do we yet hope for it but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Rom. 8.24 25. I have been ashamed of my hope in the arm of flesh but hope in the promise of God maketh not ashamed Rom. 5.5 I will say therefore in my greatest sufferings with the Church Lam. 3.24 c. The Lord is my portion therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him It is good that I both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth I will sit alone and keep silence because I have born it upon me I will put my mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope For the Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Though I languish and die yet will I hope for he hath said The righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Though I must lie down in dust and darkness yet there my flesh shall rest in hope Psal. 16.9 And when my flesh hath nothing in which it may rejoyce yet will I keep the rejoycing of hope firm to the end Heb. 3.6 For he hath said The hope of the righteous shall be gladness Prov. 10.28 Indeed if I had lived still under the Covenant of Works and been put my self to the satisfying of that Justice then there had been no hope But Christ hath taken down those impossibilities and hath brought in a better hope by which we may now draw nigh to God Heb. 7.19 Or if I had to do with a feeble Creature there were small hope for how could he raise this Body from the dust and lift me up above the Sun But what is this to the A mighty Power who made the Heavens and Earth of nothing Cannot that same power that raised Christ raise me and that hath glorified the Head also glorifie the Members Doubtless by the blood of Christs Covenant will God send forth his prisoners from the pit wherein is no water therefore will I turn to this strong hold as a prisoner of hope Zach. 9.11 12. And thus you see how Meditation may excite your Hope SECT VIII 4. THe next Affection to be acted is Courage or Boldness which leadeth to Resolution and concludeth in Action When you have thus mounted your Love and Desire and Hope go on and think further thus with your selves And will God indeed dwell with men And is there such a glory within the reach of hope O why do I not then lay hold upon it where is the cheerful vigor of my spirit why do I not gird up the loyns of my minde and play the man for such a prize why do I not run with speed the race before me and set upon mine enemies on every side and valiantly break through all resistance why do I not take this Kingdom by force and my fervent soul catch at the place do I yet sit still and Heaven before me If my Beast do but see his Provender if my greedy senses perceive but their delightful objects I have much ado to stave them off And should not my soul be as eager for such a blessed Rest why then do I not undauntedly fall to work what should stop me or what should dismay me Is God with me or against me in the work will Christ stand by me or will he not If it were a way of sin that leads to death then I might expect that God should resist me and stand in my way with
the drawn sword of his displeasure or at least overtake me to my grief at last But is he against the obeying of his own commands is perfect good against any thing but evil doth he bid me seek and will he not assist me in it doth he set me awork and urge me to it and will he after all be against me in it It cannot be And if he be for me who can be against me In the work of sin all things almost are ready to help us and God onely and his Servants are against us and how ill doth that work prosper in our hands But in my course to Heaven almost all things are against me but God is for me and how happily still doth the work succeed Do I set upon this work in my own strength or rather in the strength of Christ my Lord And cannot I do all things through him that strengthneth me was he ever foiled or subdued by an enemy He hath been assaulted indeed but was he ever conquered Can they take the sheep till they have overcome the Shepherd why then doth my flesh lay open to me the difficulties and urge me so much with the greatness and troubles of the work It is Christ that must answer all these Objections and what are the difficulties that can stay his power Is any thing too hard for the Omnipotent God May not Peter boldly walk on the Sea if Christ do but give the word of command and if he begin to sink is it from the weakness of Christ or the smalness of his Faith The water indeed is but a sinking ground to tread on but if Christ be by and countenance us in it if he be ready to reach us his hand who would draw back for fear of danger Is not Sea and Land alike to him shall I be driven from my God and from my Everlasting Rest as the silly Birds are feared from their food with a man of clouts or a loud noise when I know before there is no danger in it How do I see men daily in these wars adventure upon Armies and Forts and Cannons and cast themselves upon the instruments of death and have not I as fair a prize before me and as much encouragement to adventure as they What do I venture my life is the most and in these prosperous times there is not one of many that ventures that VVhat do I venture on are they not unarmed foes A great hazzard indeed to venture on the hard thoughts of the world or on the scorns and slanders of a wicked tongue Sure these Serpents teeth are out these Vipers are easily shaken into the fire these Adders have no stings these Thorns have lost their prickles As all things below are silly comforters so are they silly toothless enemies Bugbears to frighten fools and children rather then powerful dreadful foes Do I not well deserve to be turned into Hell if the scorns and threats of blinded men if the fear of silly rotten Earth can drive me thither do I not well deserve to be shut out of Heaven if I will be frighted from it with the tongues of sinners Surely my own voice must needs condemn me and my own hand subscribe the sentence and common Reason would say that my damnation were just VVhat if it were Father or Mother or Husband or VVife or the neerest Friend that I have in the world if they may be called Friends that would draw me to damnation should I not run over all that would keep me from Christ VVill their friendship countervail the enmity of God or be any comfort to my condemned soul shall I be yielding and pliable to the desires of men and onely harden my self against the Lord Let men let Angels beseech me upon their knees I will slight their tears I will scorn to stop my course to behold them I will shut mine ears against their cryes Let them flatter or let them frown let them draw forth tongues and swords against me I am resolved to break through in the might of Christ and to look upon them all as naked dust If they would entice me with preferment with the Kingdoms of the world I will no more regard them then the dung of the Earth O Blessed Rest O most unvaluable Glorious State who would sell thee for dreams and shadows who would be enticed or affrighted from thee who would not strive and fight and watch and run and that with violence even to the last breath so he might but have hope at last to obtain thee Surely none but those that know thee not and beleeve not thy glory Thus you see with what kinde of Meditations you may excite your Courage and raise your Resolutions SECT IX 5. THe last Affection to be acted is Joy This is the end of all the Rest Love Desire Hope and Courage do all tend to the raising of our Joy This is so desirable to every man by nature and is so essentially necessary to the constituting of his happiness that I hope I need not say much to perswade you to any thing that would make your life delightful Supposing you therefore already convinced That the pleasures of the flesh are brutish and perishing and that your solid and lasting joy must be from Heaven in stead of perswading I shall proceed in directing Well then by this time if thou hast managed well the former work thou art got within the ken of thy Rest thou believest the Truth of it thou art convinced of the excellency of it thou art faln in Love with it thou longest after it thou hopest for it and thou art resolved couragiously to venture for the obtaining it But is here any work for joy in this we delight in the good which we do possess It s present good that is the object of joy but thou wilt say alas I am yet without it Well but yet think a little further with thy self Though the Real presence do afford the choicest joy yet the presence of its imperfect Idea or image in my understanding may afford me a great deal of true delight Is it nothing to have a deed of gift from God Are his infallible promises no ground of joy Is it nothing to live in daily expectation of entring into the Kingdom Is not my assurance of being glorified one of these dayes a sufficient ground for unexpressible joy Is it no delight to the Heir of a Kingdom to think of what he must hereafter possess though at present he little differ from a servant Am I not commanded to rejoyce in hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 12.12 Here then Reader take thy heart once again as it were by the hand Bring it to the top of the highest Mount if it be possible to some Atlas above the clouds shew it the Kingdom of Christ and the glory of it say to it All this will thy Lord bestow upon thee who hast believed in him and been a worshipper of him It
till they were loosed from this flesh as I must be And thus you see how the familiar conceiving of the state of blessedness as the spirit hath in a condescending language expressed it and our strong raising of suppositions from our bodily senses will further our Affections in this Heavenly work SECT III. 2. THere is yet another way by which we may make our senses here serviceable to us and that is By comparing the objects of sense with the objects of faith and so forcing sense to afford us that Medium from whence we may conclude the transcendent worth of Glory By arguing from sensitive delights as from the less to the greater And here for your further assistance I shall furnish you with some of these comparative Arguments And first You must strongly argue with your hearts from the corrupt delights of sensual men Think then with your selves when you would be sensible of the joyes above Is it such a delight to a sinner to do wickedly and will it not be delightful indeed then to live with God Hath a very drunkard such delight in his cups and companions that the very fears of damnation will not make him forsake them Hath the bruitish whoremaster such delight in his whore that he will part with his credit and estate and salvation rather then he will part with her Sure then there are high delights with God! If the way to hell can afford such pleasure what are the pleasures of the Saints in Heaven If the coveteous man hath so much pleasure in his wealth and the ambitious man in his power and titles of honor what then have the Saints in the everlasting treasures and what plasure do the Heavenly honors afford where we shall be set above principalities and powers and be made the glorious spouse of Christ What pleasure do the voluptuous finde in their sensual courses how closely will they follow their hunting and hawking and other recreations from morning to night How delightfully will they sit at their Cards and Dice hours and dayes and nights together O the delight that mustneeds then be in beholding the face of the Living God and in singing forth praises to him and the Lamb which must be our recreation when we come to our Rest SECT IIII. 2. COmpare also the delights above with the lawfull delights of moderated senses Think with thy self how sweet is food to my taste when I am hungry especially as Isaac said that which my soul loveth that which my temperature and appetite do incline to What delight hath the taste in some pleasant fruits in some well relished meates and in divers junkets O what delight then must my soul needs have in feeding upon Christ the living bread and in eating with him at his table in his Kingdom VVas a mess of pottage so sweet to Esau in his hunger that he would buy them at so dear a rate as his birth-right How highly then should I value this never perishing food How pleasant is drink in the extremity of thirst The delight of it to a man in a feaver or other drought can scarcely be expressed It will make the strength of Sampson revive O then how delightful will it be to my soul to drink of that fountain of living water which who so drinks shall thirst no more So pleasant is wine and so refreshing to the spirits that it s said to make glad the heart of man How pleasant then will that wine of the great marriage be even that wine which our water was turned into that best wine which will be kept till then How delightful are pleasant odors to our smel how delightful is perfect musick to the ear how delightful are beauteous sights to the eye such as curious pictures sumptuous adorned well-contrived buildings handsome necessary rooms walks prospects Gardens stored with variety of beauteous and odoriferous flowers or pleasant Medows which are natural gardens O then think every time thou seest or remembrest these what a fragrant smell hath the pretious ointment which is poured on the head of our glorified Saviour and which must be poured on the heads of all his Saints which will fill all the room of heaven with its odor and perfume how delightful is the musick of the heavenly host how pleasing will be those real beauties above and how glorious the building not made with hands and the house that God himself doth dwell in and the walkes and prospects in the City of God and the beauties and delights in the Celestial Paradise Think seriously what these must needs be The like may be said of the delight of the sense of Feeling which the Philosopher saith is the greatest of all the rest SECT V. 3. COmpare also the delights above which the delights that are found in natural knowledg This is far beyond the delights of sense and the delights of heaven are further beyond it Think then can an Archimedes be so taken up with his Mathematical invention that the threats of death will not take him off but he will dye in the midst of these his natural contemplations Should I not much more be taken up with the delights of Glory and dye with these contemplations fresh upon my soul especially when my death will perfect my delights but those of Archimedes dye with him What a pleasure is it to dive into the secrets of nature to finde out the mystery of Arts and sciences to have a clear understanding in Logick Physicks Metaphysicks Musick Astronomy Geometry c. If we make but any new discovery in one of these or see a little more then we saw before what singular pleasure do we finde therein VVhy think then what high delights there are in the knowledg of God and Christ his Son If the face of humane learning be so beautifull that sensual pleasures are to it but base and bruitish how beautiful then is the face of God VVhen we light of some choice and learned book how are we taken with it we could read and study it day and night we can leave meat and drink and sleep to read it what delights then are there at Gods right hand where we shall know in a moment all that is to be known SECT VI. 4. COmpare also the delights above with the delights of Morality and of the natural affections VVhat delight had many sober Heathens in the rules and Practice of Moral duties so that they took him onely for an honest man who did well through the love of Vertue and not onely for fear of punishment yea so highly did they value this moral Vertue that they thought the chief happiness of man consisted in it VVhy think then what excellency there will be in that rare perfection which we shall be raised to in heaven and in that uncreated perfection of God which we shall behold what sweetness is there in the exercise of natural Love whether to Children to Parents to Yoakfellows or to Friends
frequently finde a motion to have done art thou not ready to be up as soon almost as thou art down on thy knees Why so it will be also in thy contemplations of Heaven As fast as thou gettest up thy heart it will be down again it will be weary of the work it will be minding thee of other business to be done and stop thy Heavenly walk before thou art well warm Well what is to be done in this case also why the same authority and resolution which brought it to the work and observed it in the work must also hold it to it till the work be done Charge it in the Name of God to stay do not so great a work by the halves say to it VVhy foolish heart If thou beg a while and go away before thou hast thy alms dost thou not lose thy labor if thou stop before thou art at the end of thy journey is not very step of thy travel lost Thou camest hither to fetch a walk to Heaven in hope to have a sight of the glory which thou must inherit and wilt thou stop when thou art almost at the top of the Hill and turn again before thou hast taken thy survey Thou camest hither in hope to speak with God and wilt thou go before thou hast seen him Thou camest to bathe thy self in the streams of Consolation and to that end didst uncloath thy self of thy Earthly thoughts and wilt thou put a foot in and so be gone Thou camest to spie out the Land of Promise O go not back without the bunch of Grapes which thou maist shew to thy Brethren when thou comest home for their Confirmation and Encouragement till thou canst tell them by experience That it is a Land flowing with Wine and Oyl with Milk and Honey Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Wine by the gladness of thy heart and that thou hast been anointed with the Oyl by the cheerfulness of thy countenance Let them see that thou hast tasted of the Milk of the Land by thy feeding and by thy milde and gentle disposition and of the Honey by the sweetness of thy words and conversation The views of Heaven would heal thee of thy sinfulness and of thy sadness but thou must hold on the Plaister that it may have time to work This Heavenly fire would melt thy frozen heart and refine it from the dross and take away the earthy part and leave the rest more spiritual and pure but then thou must not be presently gone before it have time either to burn or warm Stick therefore to the work till something be done till thy graces be acted thy affections raised and thy soul refreshed with the delights above or if thou canst not obtain these ends at once ply it the closer the next time and let it not go till thou feel the blessing Blessed is that servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Matth. 24.46 CHAP. XIII The Abstract or Sum of all for the use of the weak SECT I. THus I have by the gracious assistance of the Spirit directed you in this work of Heavenly Contemplation and lined you out the best way that I know for your successful performance and lead you into the path where you may walk with God But because I would bring it down to the capacity of the meanest and help their memories who are apt to let slip the former particulars and cannot well lay together the several branches of this method That they may reduce them to practice I shall here contract the whole into a brief sum and lay it all before you in a narrower compass But still Reader I wish thee to remember that it is the practice of a duty that I am directing thee in and therefore if thou wilt not practise it do not read it The sum is this As thou makest conscience of praying daily so do thou of the acting of thy Graces in Meditation and more especially in meditating on the joyes of Heaven To this end Set apart one hour or half hour every day wherein thou maist lay aside all worldly thoughts and with all possible seriousness and reverence as if thou were going to speak with God himself or to have a sight of Christ or of that blessed place so do thou withdraw thy self into some secret place and set thy self wholly to the following work If thou canst take Isaacs time and place who went forth into the Field in the Evening to meditate But if thou be a servant or poor man that cannot have that leisure take the fittest time and place that thou canst though it be when thou art private about thy labors When thou setst to the work look up toward Heaven let thine eie lead thee as neer as it can remember that there is thine Everlasting Rest study its excellency study its reality till thy unbelief be silenced and thy Faith prevail If thy judgment be not yet drawn to admiration use those sensible helps and advantages which were even now laid down Compare thy heavenly joyes with the choicest on earth and so rise up from Sense to Faith If yet this meer consideration prevail not which yet hath much force as is before expressed then fall a pleading the case with thy heart Preach upon this Text of Heaven to thy self convince inform confute instruct reprove examine admonish encourage and comfort thy own soul from this Celestial Doctrine draw forth those several considerations of thy Rest on which thy several affections may work especially that Affection or Grace which thou intendest to act If it be Love which thou wouldst act shew it the loveliness of Heaven and how suitable it is to thy condition if it be Desire consider of thy absence from this lovely object if it be Hope consider the possibility and probability of obtaining it if it be Courage consider the singular assistance and encouragements which thou maist receive from God the weakness of the enemy and the necessity of prevailing if it be Joy consider of its excellent ravishing glory of thy interest in it and of its certainty and the neerness of the time when thou must possess it Urge these considerations home to thy heart whet them with all possible seriousness upon each affection If thy heart draw back force it to the work if it loyter spur it on if it step aside command it in again if it would slip away and leave the work use thine authority keep it close to the business till thou have obtained thine end Stir not away if it may be till thy Love do flame till thy Joy be raised or till thy Desire or other Graces be lively acted Call in assistance also from God mix Ejaculations with thy Cogitations and Soliloquies Till having seriously pleaded the case with thy heart and reverently pleaded the case with God thou have pleaded thy self from a clod to a flame from a forgetful sinner to a mindful lover from a lover of
and height of my spirit discover my title to this promised land shall I be the adopted Son of God and coheir with Christ of that blessed inheritance and daily look when I am put into possession and shall not this be seen in my joyful countenance What if God had made me commander of the earth What if the mountains would remove at my command What if I could heal all diseases with a word or a touch What if the infernal spirits were all at my command Should I not rejoyce in such priviledges and honors as these yet is it my Saviours command not to rejoyce that the divels are subject to us but in this to rejoyce that our names are written in heaven I cannot here enjoy my parents or my neer and beloved friends without some delight especially when I did too freely let out my affections to my friend how sweet was that very exercise of my love O what will it then be to live in the perpetual love of God! For brethren here to live together in Unity how good and pleasant a thing is it To see a family live in love husband wife parents children servants doing all in love to one another To see a Town live together in love without any envyings brawlings heart-burnings or contentions scornes law-suits factions or divisions but every man loving his neighbor as himself and thinking they can never do too much for one another but striving to go beyond each other in love O how happy and delectable a sight is this O sweetest bands saith Seneca which binde so happily that those that are so bound do love their binders and desire still to be bound more closely and even reduced into one O then what a blessed society will be the Family of Heaven and those peaceable Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem where is no division nor dissimilitude nor differing Judgments nor disaffection nor strangeness nor deceitful friendship never an angry thought or look never a cutting unkinde expression but all are one in Christ who is one with the Father and live in the love of Love himself Cato could say That the soul of a Lover dwelleth in the person whom he loveth and therefore we say The soul is not more where it liveth and enlighteneth then where it loveth How neer then will my soul be closed to God and how sweet must that conjunction be when I shall so heartily strongly and uncessantly love him As the Bee lies sucking and satiating her self with the sweetness of the Flower or rather as the childe lies sucking the Mothers brest inclosed in her arms and sitting in her lap even so shall my loving soul be still feeding on the sweetness of the God of Love Ah wretched fleshly unbelieving heart that can think of such a day and work and life as this with so low and dull and feeble joyes But my enjoying Joyes will be more lively How delectable is it to me to behold and study these inferior works of God to read those Anatomical Lectures of Du Bartas upon this great dissected body what a beautiful fabrick is this great house which here we dwell in The floor so drest with various Herbs and Flowrs and Trees and watered with Springs and Rivers and Seas the roof so wide expanded so admirably adorned Such astonishing workmanship in every part The studies of an hundred Ages more if the world should last so long would not discover the mysteries of divine skill which are to be found in the narrow compass of our bodies What Anatomist is not amazed in his Search and Observations What wonders then do Sun and Moon and Stars and Orbs and Seas and VVindes and Fire and Aire and Earth c. afford us And hath God prepared such a house for our silly sinful corruptible flesh and for a soul imprisoned and doth he bestow so many millions of wonderful rarities even upon his enemies O then what a dwelling must that needs be which he prepareth for pure refined spiritual glorified ones and which he will bestow onely upon his dearly beloved children whom he hath chosen out to make his mercy on them glorified and admired As far as our perfected glorified bodies will excel this frail and corruptible flesh so far wil the glory of the New Jerusalem exceed all the present glory of the creatures The change upon our Mansion will be proportionable to the change upon our selves Arise then O my soul by these steps in thy Contemplation and let thy thoughts of that glory were it possible as far in sweetness exceed thy thoughts of the excellencies below Fear not to go out of this body and this world when thou must make so happy a change as this but say as Zuingerus when he was dying I am glad and even leap for joy that at last the time is come wherein that even that mighty Jehovah whose Majesty in my search of Nature I have admired whose Goodness I have adored whom in faith I have desired whom I have sighed for will now shew himself to me face to face And let that be the unfained sense of thy heart which Camerarius left in his VVill should be written on his Monument Vita mihi mors est mors mihi vita nova est Life is to me a Death Death is to me a new Life Moreover how wonderful and excellent are the works of Providence even in this life to see the great God to engage himself and set a work his Attributes for the safety and advancement of a few humble despicable praying persons O what a joyful time will it then be when so much Love and Mercy and VVisdom and Power and Truth shall be manifested and glorified in the Saints glorification How delightful is it to my soul to review the workings of Providence for my self and to read over the Records and Catalogues of those special mercies wherewith my life hath been adorned and sweetned How oft have my prayers been heard and my tears regarded and my groaning troubled soul relieved and my Lord hath bid me Be of good cheer He hath healed me when in respect of means I was uncurable He hath helped me when I was helpless In the midst of my supplications hath he eased and revived me He hath taken me up from my knees and from the dust where I have lain in sorrow and despair even the cries which have been occasioned by distrust hath he regarded what a support are these experiences to my fearful unbelieving heart These clear Testimonies of my Fathers Love do put life into my afflicted drooping spirit O then what a blessed day will that be when I shall have all mercy perfection of mercy nothing but mercy and fully injoy the Lord of Mercy himself When I shall stand on the shore and look back upon the raging Seas which I have safely passed when I shall in safe and full possession of glory look back upon all my pains and troubles and feares and tears and upon all the
with sharp Sight are winged as those Saraphims that waited on Christ when ten Calamities and utter destruction was told for the low Jerusalem They of this City are not as Israel after the flesh which would not see for all the Wonders that our Lord did but these Redeemed with his pretious blood are full of Eyes lightned by Lamps the glory of Jehovah and behold Christ through all the Prophets a performer of our Faith sealed of God Sealer of all Vision opener of Seals for the Stories of the Church Here is the true Light where the saved walk hither Kingdoms bring their glory hither the blessed Nations carry their Jewels This is a Kingdom uncorrupted which shall not be given to a strange and unclean people they must be written in the Book of the Lamb and chosen of eternity sanctified of God which here are Citizens Through this there gusheth a stream better then the four in Eden a stream of lively waters by belief in Christ as those waters flowing from Lebanon Here is that Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God with leaves to heal the Nations that will be cured while it is said to day with twelve fruits to give food continually to such as feed also upon the hidden Manna who after death receive the Crown of Justice and Life the morning star white Cloathing and the white Stone wherein a name is written equal to all the Law Deut. 27 2. The first seat of the first Adam in the first Paradise was glorious this is better and as Moses began with the Terrestrial so the holy Word endeth in the Celestial that to Wheels full of eyes may the Writ of Truth be compared The full concent and melody of Prophets and Apostles how their Harps are tuned on Mount Sion it will sully appear in the full sight of Peace when our bodies are made conformable to Christ his glorious body in the world to come and our eyes shall see the Lord in that Sicâ— For that Coming O thou whom my soul loveth be like to the Roe upon the mountains Amen Even so come Lord Jesus Then we shall in perfect holiness worship thee to whom the Angels alway give holy Worship saying Praise and Glory and Wisdom and Thanks and Honor and Power and Might be unto our God for evermore Amen A Poem of Master I. Herberts in his Temple HOME COme Lord my head doth burn my heart is sick While thou dost ever ever stay Thy long deferrings wound me to the quick My spirit gaspeth night and day O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee How canst thou stay considering the pace The blood did make which thou didst waste When I behold it trickling down thy face I never saw thing make such hast O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee When man was lost thy pity look't about To see what help in th' earth or skie But there was none at least no help without The help did in thy bosome lye O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee There lay thy Son and must he leave that nest That hive of sweetness to remove Thraldome from those who would not at a feast Leave one poor apple for thy love O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee He did he came O my Redeemer dear After all this canst thou be strange So many yeers baptiz'd and not appear As if thy Love could fail or change O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee Yet if thou stayest still why must I stay My God what is this world to me This world of wo Hence all ye clouds away Away I must get up and see O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee What is this weary world This meat and drink That chain 's us by the teeth so fast What is this woman-kinde which I can wink Into a blackness and distaste O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee With one small sigh thou gav'st me th' other day I blasted all the joyes about me And scouling on them as they pin'd away Now come again said I and flout me O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee Nothing but drought and dearth but bush and brake Which way so ere I look I see Some may dream merrily but when they wake They dress themselves and come to thee O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee We talk of Harvests there are no such things But when we leave our Corn and Hay There is no fruitful yeer but that which bring 's The last and lov'd though dreadful day O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee O loose this frame this knot of man unty That my free soul may use her wing Which now is pinion'd with mortality As an entangled hamper'd thing O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee What have I left that I should stay and grone The most of me to Heav'n is fled My thoughts and joyes are all pack't up and gone And for their old acquaintance plead O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee Come dearest Lord pass not this holy season My flesh and bones and joints do pray And even my verse when by the rhyme and reason The word is Stay say's ever Come O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee FINIS If you will reade nothing but What Was intended by the Author amend these misprintings The rest are but small PAge 8. line 14. blot out Sect 7. p. 9. for your reade their p. 81. l. 3. for prop r. proper p. 85. l. 15. r. Colluvione p. 87. l. 21. after be add so p. 95. l. 5. for when r. whom p. 96. l. 37. for in r. to p. 97. l. 8. blot out to p. 99. l. ult after Rest add is p. 145. l. 10. blot out with p. 161. l. 22. before thee put making p. 200. l. 21. for former r. formall and in the Margin l. 19. for sed r. suae p. 240. l. 37. for which r. what p. 242. l. 26. for Monensis r. Aponensis and in the Margin for Grainerius r. Guainerius p. 269. l. 14. for mortall r. morall p. 389. l. 23. for Promises r. Premises p. 394. l. 21 for distinguished r. extinguished p. 517. l. 23. for Pebugius â— Pâ—stugius p. 530. l. 7. before think write that p. 543. l. 18. for your r. our p. 648. l. 15. for Heavenly blessing r. Heavenly believer p. 669. l. 20. for things r. this p. 674. l. 18. for waiting r. writing p. 720. l. 9. for they r. the p. 763. l. 15. for which r. with p. 776. l. 16. for whose r. whole p. 728. l. 2. for promise r. premise §. 1. §. 2. * Heb. 10.30 Micah 2.8 2 Pet. 2.20 Joh 2.23 Heb 6.4 5 6. Heb. 10.29 30 Joh. 15.2 6. Mat 13.41 Joh. 17.12 §. 3. §. 4. 1 Theirs by Purpose before
conversion Acts 13.48 2 Theirs in Law-title or by promise after conversion Quum aequilibrium illud hoc uâ—um praestat juxta Arminium ut reddaâ— salutem hominum â—em contingentem libratane in ancipiti isne rem tantam impâ—â—se affectasse dicendus est qui vult esse collo catam in loco tam lubrico ac veluti tenui filo pendentem adco ut vâ—l levissimo momentâ— impellatur ad perniciem Amyral Desens doctr Calvini pag. 115. §. 1. Definit § 2. §. 3. §. 4. Col. 1.12 Act. 26.18 Act. 20.32 Joh. 15.19 Mat. 10.38 Luk. 14 27. Heb. 10.36.6.15 §. 5. §. 6. Q. Whether to make Salvation our end be not mercenary or Legal As if the very seeking of life at all were the surest way to miss of it Clean contrary to the whole tenor of Scripture §. 7. * Viz. by way of merit strictly so called * Believed for us legally or so far as the Law required Faith but not as it is the Condition or Command of the New Covenan◠§. 8. I speâ—k the moâ—e of this because I find that many moderate men who think they have found the mean between the Antinomâ—an and the Legalist yet do fouly err in this point As Mr F. in the Marrow of Modern Divinity a book applauded by so many eminent Divines in their commendatory Epistles before it And because the doctrine That we must Act from Life but not For Life or in thankfulness to him that hath saved us but not for the obtaining of Salvation is of such dangerous consequence that I would advise all mâ—n to take heed of it that regard their Salvation 1 Cor 15. ult 2 Cor. 4.17 5.10 11. I here undertake to prove that this forementioned doctrine reduced to practise will certainly be the damnation of the practâ—ser But I hope many Antinomians do not practise their own doctrine §. 9. * Christ hath put no such questions to us nor bid us put such to our selves Christ had rather that men would enquire after their true willingness to be saved then their willingness to be damned §. 10. * The Scriptures before cited do prove both Joh. 1.12 See more of this hereafter §. 1. §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. I speak all this of men of age converted by the Word not of those sanctified in Infancy §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. * Some think That the pravity of nature containeth a want of the â—otentia as well as of the habit Some say The potentia prima Others The Potentia secunda Some think The work of the spirit doth but make an impression on the internal sense answerable to that qualicas 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae passionem officit in sensibus c. It seemeth yet to me that Grace is that Potentia secunda per quam prima naturalis in actum producitur Vid. de hoc Parkeri Theses §. 8. §. 9. Dr Crispe §. 10. Mat 11.12 Mâ—â— 7.13 Luk. 13.24.25 1 Pet 4 18 * See Doctor Jennison on this Subject James 5.16 1 Pet. 3.21 Gal. 3 3. Mat. 24.13 Mark 13.13 22. §. 11. §. 12. Prov. 4.6 Mat. 11.30 1 John 5.3 2 Cor. 12.4 Num 24.15 16 5. Deut. 34.1 2 3 4. Math. 13.44 45 46. Act. 7.55 56. §. 1. 1. Cessation from all that action which hath the nature of means 1 Cor. 13.8 1. Knowledg 2. Faith How far 3 Prayer 4 So Fasting Weeping Watching Preaching Sacraments §. 2. 2. Perfect freedom from Evil. 1 Sin Rev. 21.27 2 Sorrow and suffering Joh. 16.20 21 22. §. 3. 3. Personal perfection in the highest degree both of Soul Body Gen. 2.15 Dan. 12.3 §. 4. 4. Chiefly the neerest fruition of God the chief Good 1 Joh. 3.2 O qui perpetua mundum ratio ne gubernas Tetrarum coelique saâ—or qui tempus ab aevo Ire jubes stablisque manâ—ns das cuâ—cta moveri Principium â—ector dux semita terminus idem Tu requies tranquilla piis te cernere finis Boetius Vide Gerson part 3. Alphabet divini Amoris cap. 14. egregie de attributis c excellentiis divinis expatiantem 1 Kings 1â— 8 Some inâ—erpret most of those Scriptures in the Revelations of the Churches glory on earth then it would hold a minori Tu es Recreator omnium qui dixisti Venite ad me omnes qui laboratis c. Anima enim quae est in te radicata in centro suo recreata quiâ—tata est quae vero in te non est multâ—s Vanis phanâ—asmatibus fatigatur Tu sufficientis simus es Qui te habet totum habet qui non mendicus est pauper quia quicquid preter te est non reâ—icit non sufficit Gerson part 3. Alphabet amoris divini cap. 14. * Psalm 36.9 Acts 2 28 * Psalm 33.1 John 1.12 1 John 1.3 1 Joh. 4.15 16 Psalm 148. I take not the word Real as opposite to feigned but to Relative See Mr Wallis Answer to the L. Brook fully on this Q. How do we enjoy God §. 5. 5. A sweet and constant Action of all the powers of the Soul in the fruition of God 1 Of the Senses I think the Apostle speaks of flesh and blâ—od in a proper sense and not of sin Yea the Body The Tongue in praising Psal. 33.1 2 and 147.1 §. 6. 2. Of the soul. 1 God shall be enjoyed by our knowledg * Scalig. Exercit. 107 sect 3. Dicit Voluntatem nihil aliud esse quam intellectum extentum ad habâ—ndum faâ—iendum id quod cognoscit Vide D. Makowski Colleg. in dâ—sp 18. vitâ— Pibonis de Justif. Passiva And for my part I think not That the Soul is divisible into several faculties but rather as Dorbell is c. Dr Jackson Mr Pemble c. the Understanding and Will be the same with the Soul and one another Or distinct Acts of the same Soul not faculties * Lord Brook Union of the Soul Truth Hosea 6.2 3. Rev. 2 5. and 3.2 * Scoti glossa est vera vâ—z 〈◊〉 Cognoscam te Aâ—â—â—do Frucado Vide Scotum in 4. â— sentea distruct 48. Q 1 p. 256 §. 7. 2. Memory Luke 1 19. 2 10. Acts 13.32 Luke 16 25. §. 8. 3. Affections 1. Love * I know it 's commonly said That Justification hath no degrees but yet it is taken for several Acts whereof that of Christ absolving and acquitting us at the last Judgment is the most compleat Justification Psal. 119.97 John 11.33.35 36. Cant. 1.5 5.2 6.9 4.9 10 c. 1 Pet. 1.12 Eph. 3.18 §. 9. 2. By Joy Rev. 2.17 Prov. 14.10 Joh. 15.11 and 16.24 and 17.13 Psa 94.12 13 1 Thes. 5.16 Psa 32.11 33.1 c. Mat. 9.15 Mat. 25. §. 10. God will joy in us as well as we in him 2 Thes. 1 10. So the Lord is said to Rejoice and to take pleasure in his people Psal. 147 11. and 149 4. Luk. 24 37 38 39. Mark 16.7 §. 11. Job 42 3. Levit.
tantae devotionis est insipida Bernard Serm 23. Non cap o me pre lativa quia illi Mayâ—tas naturam â—uim naturae â—â—ae carnts so gaints subvâ—lat me insâ—â—um in divilias gloriae suae non ad horam sed in sempternum includit Fit scater meâ—s doâ—inus mens Et timâ—â— domini fratris vincit affectus Domine Jesu Christe Lâ—benter audio te â—egnantem in coelis libentiâ—s nascentem in terris liboutis sime crucem clavos lanceam sustinentem Haec siquidem effusio rapit affictum meum istorum memoria incalescit cor meum Berna Serm 23. in die Nata * John 20 16. Mat. 28 9. John 20.13 2 Sam 23.16 17. 1 Sam. 21.9 1 Sam. 18.4 * By the redundancy of which merit after satisfaction thereby made unto his Fathers Justice for our debt there is further a purchase made of Grace and Glory and of al good things in our behalf M Reinoldes Life of Christ Pag. 402. Isa. 27.4 Lam. 3.33 Ezek. 18.23.32 2 §. 2. 2 It is Freely given us 1 King 7.17 Rev. 5.4 5. Jam. 2.5 1 Cor. 9.4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13. 1 Cor. 9.18 19. Rom. 14.13 15 20 21. Rom. 15.1 2. 1 Cor. 914 12 ver 15. 1 Tim 5 17. 1 Cor. 4.10 11 12 1 Cor. 9.16 § 3. 8 It is the Saints peculiar John 14.22 Luk 4.24 25 26 27. Rev. 11.9.10 Rev. 16.5.6 Rev. 19 7.2 Rev. 18.20 2 Chro. 6.29 Psal. 67.6 33.12 78.71 16.5 §. 4. 4 It is a Rest with Angels and perfect Saints * Socrates Critoni vehementâ—r suadâ—nti ut si vitam ipse suam negligeret certe liberis estiamâ—â— parvulis amicis ab ipso pendentibus se servaret incolumem Liberi inquit Deo qui mihi cos dedit curae erunt amicos hinc discedens inveniam vobis ant similes aut etiam meliores ne vestra quidem consuetudinediucariturus quando quidem vos brevi eodem est is commigraturi Eras. apoth lib. 3. ex Platone Zenop. 2 Cor. 5.16 Melchi Adam in vita Lutheri Act. 12.15 Matt. 18.10 Luke 16.22 Luke 15.10 Heb. 1.7 c. Psal. 119.63 Heb. 12.22 23 24. § 5. 5 It is Immediate from God and in him Gen. 44.12 §. 6. 6 It will be a seasonable Rest. Mark 12.2 Luke 20.10 Psal. 1.3 Isa. 50.4 Gal 6 9. Jere. 5 4. and 33.20 Exod. 12 40 41. Jere. 8.7 Acts. 27.7 9. Dan. 6.19 c. Levit. 10.3 Psal. 39.9 2 Sam. 15.25 26. * Secundum quid 1 Cor. 11.30 32. Luk. 19.17 18 19. Job 5.26 Mr. Capell Temp. * Secundum quid § 7. 7 It will be a Rest suitable 1 To our Natures 1 Pet. 1.18 23. 2 To our Desires Gal. 5.24 3 To our necessities Luke 8.43 Mark 5.25 § 8. 8 It will be a perfect Rest. 1 In the sincerity of it 1 Cor. 12.7 1 Joh 4.18 2 In the Universality of it 1 In regard of good enjoyed 2 In regard of the evils we shall be freed from 1 We shall Rest from sin Revel 21.27 Ephes. 5.27 1 Joh. 3 8. 2 Cor. 6.14 1 From sin in the understanding * If a man should defer his Study of any Art or Science till the Writers thereof did fully and unitedly consent It would be as vain a thing as if a man did purpose his journey from London to York but should make a vow not to set forward till all the Clocks in London strike together Fulbecks Directions to study the Law pag. 26. The Writers in all â—ciences differ not from the uncertainty of the Sciences but theiâ— own imperfection yea in History which reporteth matter of Fact Livy against Pâ—lâ—bâ—us Plutarch against Livy Sigonius against Plutarch Ziphilinus against Dio whom he interpreted and abridgeth Non est litigiosa Juris Scientia sed Ignorantia Cicero de Finibus 〈◊〉 2. The best and most grave Man will confess That he is ignorant of many things saith Cicero Tuscul. 3. Selon was not ashamed to say That in his old age he was a Learner And Juâ—â—â—an the Lawyer said That when he had one Foot in the Grave yet he would have the other in the school 2 From sin of Will Affection and Conversation Josh 23.13 Gen. 21.9 Heb. 4.10 § 9. 2 From suffering 1 From doubts of Gods Love * Dr. Preston of effectual Faith pag. 24. § 10. 2 From all sense of Gods displeasure Job 3. 13.26 16.12 13 14. 7.20 Psal. 38. Psal. 69.3 Psal. 77.2 3. Psal. 88.7 § 11. 3 From Satans Temptations 1 Tim. 3.7 2 Tim. 2.26 Ephes. 6.11 Matth. 6.13 26.41 Revel 3.10 § 12. 4 From temptations of the World and Flesh. 2 Cor. 11.3 1.12 c. Deut. 12.30 7.25 Hosea 9.8 Psal. 69.22 Prov. 20.25 22.25 29.6 25. 1 Tim. 6.9 Job 8.8 10. Psal. 124.6 7. § 13. 5 From abuses and persecutions of the world Revel 6.9 10. 2 Tim. 3.12 Rom. 8.17 Matth 10.22 24.9 2 Thes. 1.9 10. John 15.19 17.14 John 7 7. 15.18 20. 5.23 17.22 1 Cor. 4 9.13 Lam. 3.45 Heb. 10.43 Isai. 8.18 Luke 6.22 Agesilaus dicere solitus est se vehementer admirari eos non haberi in Sacrilegorum numero qui laederenâ— eos qui Deo supplicarent vel Deum venerarentur Quo innuit eos non tantum Sacrilegos esse qui Deos ipsos aut templorum ornatum spoliarent sed eos maximè qui Deorum Ministros praecones contumeliis afficiunt Aemyl Prob. Luke 16.24 Psal. 83.4 Psal. 2.4 Judges 5.23 Psalm 9.12 John 7.34.36 8.21 22. Revel 12.16 Heb. 11. Matth. 27.29 30. Luke 21.19 Job 31.36 Heb. 11.25 James 1.2 Dan. 3.17 2 Thes. 1 7. 1 Pet. 3.17 4.14 15. Jude 8. 2 Pet. 2.10 1 Pet. 4.14 Luke 14.26 27 33. 2 Thes. 3.2 § 14. 6 From our Divisions and Dissentions Melch Adam in vitâ Grynai a Two books full of the language of Hell in bitterrest scornes at the Ministry and Discipline thought to be written by one Overton b Quemadmodum vero in multas varias sectas scissa est Catabaptistarum haerefis ita in hoc omnes unanimiter consentiunt ut praedicatoribus veritatis negotium exhibeant eos erga auditores tanquam seductores suspectos reddant Epistol Leo. Judae ante Bullingerum contra Catabap c Si Calvinus quam a natura insitam habebat vehementiam ca ipse adversus perditos sophistas usus est ut interdum etiam modum non tenuisse videri possit rogo moderatissimos istos homines quibus nimium incalescere videntur quicunque ipsorum more non frigent ut pro quo in quem dicatur paulo attentius expendant neque haereticos istos spiritus ex ingâ—niâ— suo metiantur Beza in Epistola praefat ante Calvini Tractatus Theologicos d Me quoque non latet turbulentos homines mâ—vendis seditionibus Satanae esse â—â—abella ut in Evangelii odium placidos alioqui homines inflammet Ita nostro seculu
Justin Martyr said He would not beleeve Christ himself if he had preached any other God besides him who is the Creator of all so may I say I would not beleeve the Spirit that should take me off my duty and obedience to God Vid. Nicephor Eccles histor tom 1. lib. 4. cap. 6. 1 Sam. 14.29 §. 3. ☜ §. 4. Rev. 1.10 §. 5. Joh. 15.5 As Gerson in the forecited place saith This Art or way of Meditation is not learned chiefly out of Books but the spirit of God bestoweth it as he pleaseth on some more plentifully on some more sparingly §. 6. Gen. 8.8 9. Joh. 16 21. §. 7. Deut. 32 49 50. Read Master Symmonds Deserted soul. p. 225 226 227. §. 8. Vide Gerson ubi infra cap. 24. * Dominus docet nos ut opera sua imitemur sicut ipse secit ita et nos saciamus Ecce oraturus erat asceâ—dit in montem Oportet etiam nos a negotijs otiosos orare non in medio multorum sed pernoctantes ne statim ut caeperimus cessemus The ophylact in Luc. c. 6. Yet the principal secrecie and silence must be in the soul within rather then without that is that the soul shut out of it self all humane worldly cares all vaine and hurtful thoughts and whatsoever may hinder it from reaching to the end which it doth intend For it oft falls out that a man is alone separated from the company of men and yet by fantasies thoughts and melancholies doth suffer the most grievous and burdensome company in himself Which fantasies do beget him various tumults and conferences and pratlings bringing before the eyes of his understanding sometime one thing sometime another leading him sometime into the Kitchin sometime into the Market bringing thence to him the unclean delights of the flesh shewing him dances and beauties and songs and such kinde of vanities drawing to sin As Saint Jerom humbly confesseth of himself That when he was in the wilderness without any company save wild beasts and Scorpions yet he was often in his thoughts in dances and in the company of the Ladyes at Rome So these fantasies will make the soul even when it is alone to be angry and quarrel with some one that is absent as if he were present To be counting money It will pass over the seas it will fly abroad the land sometime it will be in high dignities and so of innumerable fancies the like such a soul is not secret nor alone Nor is a devout soul in contemplation alone For it is never lesse alone It is in the best company even with God and Saints by holy desires and cogitations Gerson par 3. fol 382. De monte contemplationis cap. 23. §. 9. §. 10 Jer. 5.22 §. 1. Matth. 22.4 Luke 14.17 Luke 14.23 §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 1. * For I am 〈…〉 I call them diâ—stinct faculties because it is the common Judgment and not my own §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. John 4.32 §. 5. * He that doubteth whether the Philosophers themselves did acknowledg these Divine Excellencies Let him read Fernel De abditis Rerum causis cap 9. Plato in Epinom Deos asserit scire videre audireque omnia nihil ipsos fugere quod aut sensu aut mente percipi posset Eos omnia posse quaecunque mortales immortalesve possunt Bonos illos immo optimos esse Quicquid mortale est quicquid vivit spirat quicquid usquam est coelum terram maria ab iis omnia facta esse possideri Et in Parmenide Nullum nisi Deum supremam habere rerum scientiam neque illarum cognitione privandum Et in Epinomide Ego assero Deum causam omnium esse nec aliter peri posse Lege etiam Aristotel de caelo lib. 1. Jum nona Psal. 23.4 5. Isai. 9.6 Luke 24.36 37 38 39. Joh. 7.27 Isai. 59.1 Joh. 20.19.21.26 Lam. 1.12 Ezek. 16.6 7 8.9 Luke 10 30. c. If the Love of God in us were but as the love of the world in others it would make us wholly despise this world and forget it as worldly love maketh men forget God and it would be so strong and ardent and rooted a in mans heart that he would not be able voluntarily and freely to think of any thing else He would not fear contempt nor care for disgrace or the reproaches of persecutions nor would he be afraid of death it self because of this Love of God and all the things of this world which he seeth and heareth would bring God to his memory and themselves would seem to him but as a dream or a fable and he would esteem them as nothing in respect of God and his Glory And to be short in the judgment of the world he would be taken for a fool or a drunken man because he so little careth for the things of this world This is that Love of God to which we should aim to attain by this contemplative life Gerson de monte Contemplationis in parte operum tertia fol. 382. Melanc Epist. 457. Memini cum infantula mihi lacrimas a genis detergeret suo indusiolo quo uno aerat induta mane Hic gestus penetravit in animum meum c. Gen. 21.15 16 17 18 19. 1 Kings 19.9 2 Kings 6.16 17. Matth. 14.37 Luke 22.45 46. Matth. 26.41 Luke 22.61 Cant. 2 3 4 5. John 21.15 16 17. §. 6. * 〈…〉 Si in Cor hominis non ascendit Cor hominis illuc ascendat Cor ibi habeamus surfum Corda levemus ne putrescant in terra quoniam placet nobis quod ibi aguct angeâ—â— August â— 3 de Symb. c 11. Melch Adam in vitâ Zuingeri inter vitas Medicorum Germanorum Judg. 18.24 Beza in tit Calvin Luk. 8.20 21. §. 7. Ezek. 18.32 33.11 §. 8. 1 Tim. 6.12 19. 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 12.1 1 Cor. 9.24 Matth. 11.12 Rom. 8.31 §. 9. Gal. 4.1 Psal. 87.3 Psal. 46.4 §. 10. §. 1. Gen 49.6 Judg. 5.21 Psalm 16.2 Jer. 4.19 §. 2. 1 Explication 2 Confirmation 3 Application 1 Vse of Information 2 Vse of Instruction 3 Of Examination 4 Of Reproof §. 3. Object §. 4. LXX Legunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Ludendum se exercendum sed alienè inquit Paraeus §. 5. §. 1. 1 Fetch help from Sense * Quantalibet intentione se humana mens extenderit etiamsi phantasiaes imaginum corporalium a cognitione compescat si omnes circumscriptos spiritu ab oculis cordis admoveat adhuc tamen in carne mortali pasita videre gloriam Dei non valet sicut est Sed quicquid de illa quod in mente resplendet similitudo non ipsa est Greg. sup hom 8. * Aequum est meminisse mi qui disseram vos qui judicabitis homines esse ut si probabilia dicentur nihil ulterius requiratis Plato in Timaeo Idem in Epistola ad Dionys monet ut eos
his name there was scorning at his worship and swearing by his name And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their former impieties and blasphemies Can it probably be expcted that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth in deriding the persons and families of the godly for their frequent worshiping and praising God should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven and joyn with those Saints in those more perfect praises Surely without a sound change upon their hearts before they go hence it is utterly impossible It is too late then to say Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are out Let us now enter with you to the marriage feast let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody You should have joyned in it on earth if you would have joyned in Heaven As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts and your voices turned to another tune As the doors of heaven will be shut against you so will that joyous imployment be denied to you There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome Those that go down to the pit do not praise him Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows And who can be glad in the land of confusion God suits mens imployments to their natures The bent of your spirits was another way your hearts were never set upon God in your lives you were never admirers of his Attributes and works nor ever throughly warmed with his love you never longed after the enjoyment of him you had no delight to speak or to hear of him you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long you had rather have continued on earth if you had known how you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment or lands and lordships or a feast or sports or your cups or whores then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy or an Ass to build a City or govern a Kingdom or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise SECT VI. FOurthly They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels and glorified Saints Instead of being companions of those happy spirits and numbred with those Joyful and Triumphing Kings they must now be members of the corporation of hell where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality While they lived on earth they loathed the Saints they imprisoned banished them and cast them out of their societies or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings And therefore they shall not now be their companions in their Glory Scorning them and abusing them hating them and rejoycing in their calamities was not the way to obtain their blessedness If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father you should have joyned with them in their holiness and faith and painfulness and patience you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ the common stock and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members and walked with them in singleness of heart and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation in faithfull admonitions in conscionable reformation in prayer and in praise you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate through the Red Sea and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ as well as the name prefession of Christians and rejoyced with them in suffering persecution and tribulation All this if you had faithfully done you might now have been triumphing with them in glory and have possessed with them their masters joy But this you could not you would not endure your souls loathed it your flesh was against it and that flesh must be pleased though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly and endure but what you were foretold you must endure and are shut out of that company from which you first shut out your selves and are separated but from them whom you would not be joyned with You could not endure them in your houses nor in your Towns nor scarce in the Kingdom you took them as Ahab did Elias for the troublers of the land and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down If any thing fell out amiss you thought all was long of them When they were dead or banished you were glad they were gone and thought the Countrey was well rid of them They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences to see them so far excell your selves and to condemn your loosness by their strictness and your prophaness by their conscionable lives and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families but it was a vexation to you And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter I have heard of those that have said that if the Puritans were in Heaven and the good fellows in Hell they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven And can they think much to have their desires granted them The day is neer when they will trouble you no more betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set that those that would pass from thence to you if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water cannot neither can they pass to them who would go from you for if they could there would none be left behinde Luk. 16.26 Even in this life while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities cloathed with the same frail flesh as other men and were mocked destitute afflicted and tormented yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost they were such of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellowship in their Glory CHAP. II. The aggravations of the loss of Heaven to the ungodly SECT I. I Know many of the wicked will be ready to think If this be all they do not much care they can bear it well enough what care they for losing the perfections above What care they for losing God his favor or his presence they lived merrily without him on earth and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter And what care they for being deprived of that Love and Joy and
Praising of God They never tasted sweetness in things of that nature Or what care they for being deprived of the Fellowship of Angels and Saints They could spare their company in this world well enough and why may they not be without it in the world to come To make these men therefore to understand the truth of their future condition I will here annex these two things 1. I will shew you why this forementioned loss will be intollerable and will be most tormenting then though it seem as nothing now 2. I will shew you what other losses will accompany these which though they are less in themselves yet will now be more sensibly apprehended by these sensual men And all this from Reason and the truth of Scripture 1. Then That this loss of heaven will be then most tormenting may appear by these considerations following First The Understandings of the ungodly will be then cleared to know the worth of that which they have lost Now they lament not their loss of God because they never knew his excellency nor the loss of that holy imployment and society for they were never sensible what they were worth A man that hath lost a Jewel and took it but for a common stone is never troubled at his loss but when he comes to know what he lost then he lamenteth it Though the understandings of the damned wil not then be sanctified as I said before yet will they be cleared from a multitude of errors which now possess them and mislead them to their ruine They think now that their honor with men their estates their pleasures their health and life are better worth their studies and â—â—â—our then the things of another world which they never saw but when these things which had their hearts have left them in misery and given them the slip in their greatest need when they come to know by experience the things which before they did but read and hear of they will then be quite in another minde They would not believe that water would drown till they were in the sea nor that the fire would burn till they were cast into it but when they feel it they will easily believe All that error of their minde which made them set light by God and abhor his worship and vilifie his people will then be confuted and removed by experience their knowledg shall be increased that their sorrows may be increased as Adam by his fall did come to the knowledg of Good and Evil so shall all the damned have this increase of knowledg As the knowledg of the excellency of that Good which they do enjoy and of that Evil which they have escaped is necesâ—sary to the glorified Saints that they may rationally and truly enjoy their glory so is the knowledg of the greatness of that good which they have lost and of that evil which they have procured to themselves necessary to the tormenting of these wretched sinners for as the joyes of heaven are not enjoyed so much by the bodily senses as by the intellect and affections so it is by understanding their misery and by affections answerable that the wicked shal endure the most of their torments for as it was the soul that was the chiefest in the guilt whether positively by leading to sin or onely privatively in not keeping the Authority of Reason over Sense the Understanding be guilty I will not now dispute so shall the soul be chiefest in the punishment doubtless those poor souls would be comparatively happy if their understandings were wholly taken from them if they had no more knowledg then Ideots or bruit beasts or if they knew no more in hell then they did upon earth their loss and misery would then less trouble them Though all knowledg be Physically good yet some may be neither Morally good nor good to the owner Therefore when the Scripture saith of the wicked that They shall not see life Joh 3.36 nor see God Heb. 12.14 The meaning is they shall not possess life or see God as the Saints do to enjoy him by that sight they shall not see him with any comfort nor as their own but yet they shall see him to their terror as their enemy and I think they shall have some kinde of eternal knowledg or beholding of God and heaven and the Saints that are there happy as a necessary ingredient to their unutterable calamity The rich man shall see Abraham and Lazarus but afar off as God beholdeth them afar off so they shal they behold God afar off Oh how happy men would they now think themselves if they did not know that there is such a place as heaven or if they could but shut their eyes and cease to behold it Now when their knowledg would help to prevent their misery they will not know or will not read and study that they may know Therefore then when their knowledg will but feed their consuming fire they shall know whether they will or no as Toads and Serpents know not their own vile and venemous nature nor the excellent nature of man or other creatures and therefore are neither troubled at their own nor desirous of ours so is it with the wicked here but when their eyes at death shall be suddenly opened then the case will be suddenly altered They are now in a dead sleep and they dream that they are the happiest men in the world and that the godly are but a company of precise fools and that either heaven will be theirs as sure as anothers or else they may make shift without it as they have done here but when death smites these men and bids them awake and rowseth them out of their pleasant dreams how will they stand up amazed and confounded How will their judgments be changed in a moment and they that would not see shall then see and be ashamed SECT II. 2. ANother reason to prove that the loss of heaven will more torment them then is this Because as the Understanding will be cleared so it will be more enlarged and made more capacious to conceive of the worth of that Glory which they have lost The strength of their apprehensions as well as the truth of them will be then encreased What deep apprehensions of the wrath of God of the madness of sinning of the misery of sinners have those souls that now endure this misery in comparison of those on earth that do but hear of it what sensible apprehensions of the worth of life hath the condemned man that is going to be executed in comparison of what he was wont to have in the time of his prosperity Much more will the actual deprivation of eternal blessedness make the damned exceeding apprehensive of the greatness of their loss and as a large Vessel will hold more water then a shell so will their more enlarged understandings contain more matter to feed their torment then now their shallow capacity can do SECT III. 3.
unjust aspersions and the Church from her reproach and confusion Have not Ministers work enough of their own to do O that you knew what it is that lieth on them And if besides this you wil cast upon them the work of every Master and Parent in the Parish it is like indeed to be well done How many sorts of Workmen must there be to the building of an house and if all of them should cast it upon one and themselves do nothing you may judg how much were like to be done If there be three or four Schoolmasters in a School amongst three or four hundred Scholars all the lower that should fit them for the higher Schools should do nothing at all but send all these Scholars to the highest Schoolmaster as ignorant as they received them would not his life be a burden to him and all the work be frustrate and spoiled Why so it is here The first work towards the reforming and making happy of Church and Commonwealth lies in the good education of your children the most of this is your work and if this be left undone and then they come to Ministers raw and ignorant and hardned in their sins alas what can a Minister do whereas if they came trained up in the Principles of Religion and the practice of godliness and were taught the fear of God in their youth O what an encouragement would it be to Ministers and how would the work go on in their hands I tell you seriously this is the cause of all our miseries and unreformedness in Church and State even the want of a holy education of children Many lay the blame on this neglect and that but there is none hath so great a hand in it as this what a School must there needs be where all are brought raw as I said to the highest School what a house must there needs be built when Clay is brought to the Masons hands in stead of Bricks What a Commonwealth may be expected if all the Constables and Justices should do nothing but cast all upon King and Parliament And so what a Church may we expect when all the Parents and Masters in the Parish shall cast all their duty on their Ministers Alas how long may we Catechise them and preath to them before we can get them to understand the very Principles of the Faith This this is the cause of our Churches deformities and this is the cause of the present difficulty of Reformation It s in vain to contend about Orders and Disciâ—pline if the persons that live under it be not prepared Perhaps you 'l say the Apostles had not their hearers thus prepared to their hands Is not the word the first means of conversion Answ. 1. The Apostles preached to none at first but Infidels and Pagans And are you no better Will you do no more for your children then they 2. All the success of their labors was to gather here and there a Church from among the world of unbelievers but now the Kingdoms of the world are become the Kingdoms of the Lord and his Christ. 3. And yet the Apostles were extraordinarily qualified for the work and seconded it by Miracles for the convincing of their hearers 4. I do verily believe that if Parents did their duty as they ought the word publikly preached would not be the ordinary means of Regeneration in the Church but only without the Church among Infidels Not that I believe Doctor Burges and Master Bedfords doctrine of Baptismal Regeneration But God would pour out his grace so upon the children of his people and hear prayers for them and bless such endeavors for their holy education that we should see the promises made good to our seed and the unthankful Anabaptists that will not confesse that the children of the Saints are any neerer God or more beholden to him then Pagans so much as for the favor to be visible Church-members should by sweet experience be convinced of their error and be taught better how to understand that our children are holy II. I intreat you that are parents also to consider what excellent advantages you have above all others for the saving of your children 1. They are under your hands while they are young and tender and flexible But they come to Ministers when they are grown elder and stiffer and settled in their wayes and think themselves too good to be catechised and too old to be taught You have a twigg to bend and we an oake You have the young plants of sin to pluck up and we the deep rooted vices The consciences of children are not so seared with a custome of sinning and long resisting grace as others You have the soft and tender earth to plow in and we have the hard and stony wayes that have been trodden on by many yeers practice of evil When they are young ' their understandings are like a sheet of white paper that hath nothing written on and so you have opportunity to write what you will But when they are grown up in sin they are like the same paper written over with falshoods which must all be bloted out again and truth written in the place and how hard is that We have a double task first to unteach them and then to teach them better but you have but one We must unteach them all that the world and flesh and wicked company and the divel have been diligently teaching them in many yeers time We have hardened hearts to beat on like a Smiths Anvile that will not feel us We may tell them of death and Judgment heaven and hell and they hear us as if they were asleep or dead you have the soft clay to mold and we the hardened burned bricks You have them before they are possessed with prejudice and false conceits against the truth but we have them to teach when they have many yeers lived among those that have scorned at godliness and taught them to think Gods wayes to be foolish preciseness Custome hath not enâ—nared and engaged your little ones to contrary wayes But of old sinners the Lord himself hath said that if the Aethiopian can change his skin and the Leopard his spots then may those that are accâ—stomed to do evil learn to do well Jer. 13.23 Doth not the experience of all the world shew you the power of education What else makes all the Children of the Jews to be Jews and all the Children of the Turks to be Mahometans and of Christians to be in profession Christians and of each Sect or party in Religion to follow their parents and the custom of the place Why now what an advantage have you to use all this for the furtherance of their happiness and possess them as strongly beforehand against sin as else Satan would do for it and so Satan should come to them upon some of those disadvantages that now Christ comes on 2. Consider also that you have the affections of your Children more then any others