O Lord my God are thy wonderful Works which thou hast done and thy thoughts which are to us-ward they cannot be reckoned up in order unto thee If I should declare and speak of them they are more then can be numbred and being ravish'd into an Holy Admiration thou wilt say in the language of the same Prophet O God who is like unto thee who when thou hadst made me see many distresses and evils at last thou hast restored me to Life and drawn me out of the depths of the Earth Psal 71. Thou shalt increase my greatness again thou wilt comfort me And elsewhere What shall I render unto the Lord for all the benefits that he hath done unto me Psal 116. 18. The Consideration of God's redeeming us doth chiefly require us to deny our selves and consecrate our selves to his service for the Slave don't belong to himself but to him that hath redeemed him and paid his ransom As when God had deliver'd the Children of Israel from the bondage of Egypt he gave unto them his Law and his Ordinances in Mount Sinai Thus God hath redeemed us from the Tyranny of the Devil of the World of Sin of Death of Hell and from the power of all our Enemies that we might serve him without fear in Holiness and Righteousness all the days of our life Luk 1. He hath given himself a ransom for us that we might become a peculiar people to him given to good Works Tit. 2. You are bought with a price Glorify then God in your Bodies and your Souls that belong unto God 1 Cor. 6. 19. One love must kindle another the Sacred Fire that is come from Heaven must enflame our hearts with an Holy Zeal for his Glory God hath loved us so much that he hath given his Holy Son that believing we might not perish but have everlasting life He hath not spared him who is the brightness of his Glory and the express Image of his Person He hath deliver'd him to death for us yea to the ignominious death of the Cross And is it not just that we should love him above all worldly things a God so good and merciful Is it not just that we should love nothing but him and for his sake Is it not reasonable that we should offer unto him our Bodies and Souls as a Living and Holy Sacrifice pleasing to his Eye And if we have any Lust that offends him is it not just that we should willingly leave it betimes when it should appear as useful to us as our Hands and Feet and as dear as the Apple of our Eyes Whosoever he be that doth not deny himself is not worthy of him Matt. 10. 20. We must treat the body of Sin which the Holy Scripture stiles the Old man and the First Adam almost in the same manner as Christ the New Man and the Second Adam was treated upon the Cross Rom. 6. Instead of flattering it and seeking to satisfy its Lusts we must deprive it of all its pleasures make it drink Vinegar and Gaul teare its Head with Thorns bind and chain its Affections and nail them to the Cross of our Lord Jesus Christ with all its inordinate and brutish desires Mortify therefore your Members that are upon Earth Fornication Uncleanness inordinate Affection evil Concupiscence and Covetousness which is Idolatry Gal. 5. Coloss 3. 21. To live in sin and to delight our selves in iniquity is to frustrate as much as in us lies our good Lord from that principal end which he designed in leaving for a while the Celestial Abode of his Glory and Immortality for he is come into the World to destroy the Works of the Devil Now the chief Work of the Devil the great Enemy of our Salvation in which he takes most Delight and Glory is Sin with which he ensnares Mankind for by Sin Death and all kind of Calamities are enter'd into the World John 3. Rom. 5. 22. It is to trample upon the only Son of God to affront the Spirit of Grace and esteem the Bloud of the Covenant a prophane thing It is to destroy the Fruits of the Death and Passion of our good Redeemer and pull down his Cross for he hath carried our Sins in his Body upon the Cross that dying unto Sin we might live unto Righteousness He hath given himself for his Church to sanctify it and to render it a Glorious Church not having spot or wrinkle nor any such thing If the Bloud of Bulls and of Goats and the Ashes of an Heifer sprinkled did Sanctify the uncleanness of the Flesh how much more shall the Bloud of Christ who through the Eternal Spirit offer'd himself without spot to God purge your Consciences from dead Works to serve the living God Heb. 9. 23. Our Lord and Saviour was not only Dead but also buryed to teach us to bury also with him our sins and shut up in his Sacred Tomb all our carnal Lusts Don't you know all ye that have been baptized in Jesus Christ that you have been baptized in his Death we are then buried with him in his death by Baptisme 24. This Glorious Saviour is risen from the Dead and hath left his Sepulchre with his Funeral Attire to teach us to rise to newness of Life and to leave in our Grave that sin that encompasseth us and the ties of our corruption that bind us so fast To speak in St. Paul's language As Jesus Christ is risen from the dead by the Glory of the Father we also ought to walk in newness of life for if we are made one Plant with him by a conformity to his Death we shall also be One by a conformity to his Resurrection and as Christ who is risen from the Dead dies no more Death hath no more Dominion over him Likewise we ought not to apply our Members as instruments of iniquity unto sin but we ought to apply them unto God as being made alive from the dead Rom. 6. He is dead and risen again that he might have dominion over the dead and the living If any be in Jesus Christ let him be a new Creature old things are passed away behold all things are become new Rom. 14. 2 Cor. 5. 25. Jesus Christ after his Glorious Resurrection is ascended up into Heaven to lift up thither our Hearts and to draw thither our affections and to teach us to reform our manners to live an Holy Angelical and Celestial life If you are risen with Christ seek those things that are above where Jesus Christ is sitting at the right hand of God think upon things above and not upon things upon Earth Coloss 3. 26. There is nothing in the World so lovely as Vertue It is the delight and pleasure of Heaven it is the Daughter of the living God and the true and lively Image of our great Creator O blessed decking of a Christian Soul O rich and precious Ornament of God's Children O Heavenly Grace what rare and strong Charms hast thou to win the
in time In short we must not only quit and abandon all our Honors Dignities Treasures and Riches but we must also quit this Body this Flesh and Bones cover'd with this beautiful Skin O Man remember that thou art but dust and that thou shalt return to Dust 16. Saladine the famous Sultan of Egypt hath left to posterity an illustrious Testimony of the vanity of all Riches and worldly Grandeur for upon his Death-bed he Commanded that his Winding-sheet should be carried at the end of a Lance by an Herauld who was to proclaim Here is all that this great Prince hath carried away of his Riches Glory Principalities and Lordships which he hath enjoyed on Earth 17. Consider that it is a great cause of grief that we know not who shall inherit the Fruits of all our Labors which we keep with so much care and restless fears Who knows but our greatest Enemies and that which is worse Gods enemies shall cloath themselves with our spoils and that which we have been so long gathering many years shall be spent in a moment of this vanity and evil the Royal Prophet complains in the 39 Psalm Surely every man walketh in a vain shew surely they are disquieted in vain he heapeth up Riches and knoweth not who shall gather them 18. Consider well Christian people the dangerous effects wrought in us by the love of the World and the deceitfulness of Riches it stifles in our Hearts the good seed of the Gospel Matt. 3. it hinders it from growing up to salvation it keeps many from glorifying God and making an open profession of the truth As it is said of some of the chief Pharisees that they believed in our Lord Jesus Christ but they would not confess him before Men because they did love more the glory of Men than the glory of God therefore when Cyrus made Proclamation that the Children of Israel should have full liberty into their own Countrey to rebuild Jerusalem to repair God's Temple and to re-establish his neglected service there were many Jews that cared not to obey this Prince's Command nor God's Call because they were setled in Babylon they were too much wedded to the pleasures and delights of that City and therefore loath to part with their Concerns there for Jerusalâ—m for the same cause that young man mentioned before would not follow the Saviour of the World nor obey his Command because he had much Riches and had setled his Heart and affections upon them As God's Ark and Dagon cannot dwell together under one roof 1 Sam. 5. so the love of God and the love of the World can never subsist together therefore St. John adviseth us Love not the world nor the things that are in the world If any man love the World the love of the Father is not in him 1 Joh. 2. 19. Take notice that this is the passion that stops so many in their first beginnings of Piety for as Lots wife was changed into a Statue of Salt assoon as she had looked behind her so when God sends us his Angels to take us by the hand and drag us out of the spiritual Sodom there is nothing more dangerous than to look with regret and longings for carnal Delights and worldly advantages which we are then totally to quit that alone is able to stop our proceeding forward to stifle our zeal and to cause all our pious intentions to vanish into the Air Therefore we must imprint in our minds this excellent sentence of our Saviour No body that puts his hand to the Plow and doth look back is fit for the kingdom of God 20. From hence it is that so many persons esteem'd well-grounded in Religion and Piety are perswaded at last to turn their backs to God and to make shipwrack of their faith What was the cause of the Israelites murmuring so often and desiring to return into Egypt was it not as we have already taken notice because their Hearts and Affections were setled and fixed in that cursed Land from whence God had deliver'd them by so many miracles and wherefore did Demas leave St. Paul and Christ's Gospel It was because he loved too much this present World In short our own experience confirms to us the saying of our Saviour No man can serve two Masters for he will hate the one and love the other or he will cleave to the one and despise the other you cannot serve God and Mammon 21. Consider that if these worldly Goods and Honors don't produce in us these woful and lamentable effects they produce them in our posterity many would live happier in the World and be honester Men if their Parents had not left them so much Riches and so many Honors to possess Their Riches and Honors therefore do occasion many evils and oft-times they cast them headlong into several debaucheries and insolencies it is that which fills them full of a ridiculous vanity and of an unsufferable pride that renders them hateful to God and Man In a word it is that which makes them forget God and unmindful of the Treasuries and advantages of his Kingdom Prov. 30. Therefore Agar presented this excellent Prayer unto God Give me neither poverty nor Riches feed me with food convenient for me lest I be full and deny thee and say who is the Lord or lest I be poor and steal and take the name of my God in vain Wretched Man to what purpose dost thou labor so carefully to gather up Riches for thy Children It may be that these Riches which thou dost snatch from others or which thou dost get with the loss of thy Soul shall serve but to get Golden Calves be the substance of infamous Idols as Gideon's Gold plunder'd upon the Midianites was employed in an Ephod which became a snare to his House and to all Israel Thus it happens many times that the Goods which are gotten with the expence of much blood and sweat and the Honors unto which we climb up with so much earnestness and passion become snares to our posterity they cast them headlong in an Abysse of misery 22. I should not forget that death is a kind of sleep therefore in Holy Scripture to dye and to fall asleep are to be understood in the same sence now as we cannot conveniently fall asleep unless we set aside and forget all the troublesome affairs of the World Likewise it is altogether impossible to dye comfortably and peaceably if we don't banish out of our hearts betimes all the foolish fancies that disturb us and all the cutting cares that undermine and consume us 23. To this purpose profane History tells us of a remarkable passage of Cyneas a great Minister of State to Pyrrhus King of Epirus That when he saw his Master so busy in raising of an Army to march against the Romans he began to argue with him in this manner Sir If it please God to grant you the victory over the Romans how will you employ your self next The
conformable to the Image of his Son that he might be the first-born amongst many Brethren Now the Soul and the Body of this onely begotten of the Father that were separated by Death have been joyned again in his glorious Resurrection and received into Heaven therefore our Soul that departs out of the World to enter into Paradise must return again to its Body that we may ascend up to Heaven both in Soul and Body All the difference that appears between Christ and us is that the precious Body of our noble Chieftain could not be subject to corruption but was raised again as soon as it fell because of that strict and personal Union between his Humanity and Divinity whereas the most part of all other bodies are corrupt and reduced to Ashes Sixteenth We have the same holy Spirit and Divine vertue dwelling in us which was in our Lord Jesus Christ the efficient cause of his Resurrection although not in the same measure and degree therefore it will produce in us the same effect and raise our bodies also from the dust St. Paul makes use of this Reason in the 8 of the Romans if the Spirit of him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you he that raised up Christ from the dead shall also quicken your mortal bodies by his Spirit that dwelleth in you Seventeenth The dead body that touched the bones of the Prophet Elisha revived again on a sudden We have more cause to expect the Resurrection of our bodies because our bodies don't onely touch Jesus Christ dead and risen again but we are become one body with him flesh of his flesh and bone of his bone I am said he the Resurrection and the life he that liveth and believeth in me shall never die and he that believeth in me though he were dead yet shall he live Eph. 5. John 11. Eighteenth God hath imprinted upon our bodies his own Signet and the marks of his love he hath given to them visible and palpable assurances of their future blessedness Under the Old Testament believers carried the Seal of the Covenant of God in their flesh for Circumcision was the Seal of the righteousness obtained by Faith and hope of a blessed immortality they did also eat the flesh of the Paschal Lamb which was a type of Jesus Christ the true Lamb of God that taketh away the sins of the World Likewise under the New Covenant God consecrates to himself our Bodies by the Waters of Baptisme and by the Bread and Wine of the Lords Supper So by this means he assures them of a Joyfull and glorious Resurrection For if by eating of this Bread and drinking of this Wine we eat and drink spiritually the flesh and the Blood of Jesus Christ it is an infallible assurance that this Divine Saviour will raise us up again at the end of the World as he himself promiseth Whoso eateth my flesh and drinketh my Blood hath eternal life and I will raise him up at the last day St John 6 54. Nineteenth The body of believers endures many assaults and evils for Christs sake and for his holy profession it is often exposed to the most shamefull and most cruel torments and partakes on the same sufferings as he did on Earth therefore it is just that it should partake in his triumphs glory and eternal happiness It is a faithful saying for if we be dead with him we shall also live with him if we suffer we shall also raign with him We always bear about in our bodies the dying of the Lord Jesus that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh 2 Tim. 2. 2 Cor 4. Twenty There is nothing that God doth in vain he never bestowes upon us useless desires therefore to what purpose hath he kindled in us such an earnest desire to see this wretched Body out of the misery and corruption into which sin hath enthralled it and the fruition of glory and immortality As St. Paul tels us in these words The creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the creature it self also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the Children of God He adds immediately after For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travelleth in pain together until now and not onely they but our selves also which have the first fruits of the Spirit even we our selves groane within our selves waiting for the Adoption to wit the Redemption of our Body Rom. 8. Finally Seeing that whatsoever God hath appointed in his eternal Councel must be fulfilled in time and that all things in the World attain to those ends for which he made them and seeing that he created our Souls not to be alone but to live in the company and fellowship with the Body therefore this Body which falls down by Death must needs rise again at the Resurrection that the immortal Soul might return to and dwell with it for ever To say that the Resurrection of our bodies is impospossible is the greatest and most abominable Atheism in the World 'T is to deny with impudency the infinite power of God and the sacred History of the Worlds Creation For if things are in their beings as they are in workings and if their operations are correspondent to their natures we must of necessity conclude That if there be a God of an infinite being he must needs have a power answerable to his being And by consequence that this Almighty God may without difficulty raise the dead If thou believest that God calls the things that are not as if they were Wherefore dost thou not also believe that this same God will also call the things that have been already to restore them that being which they have formerly enjoyed from his Almighty Hand If thou believest that God hath fashioned Eve out of one of her Husbands ribs that he made Man of the dust and created this dust out of nothing canst thou not also believe that God is able at the day of the Resurrection to make again thy body of that dust into which it is reduced by Death If thou believest that God hath breathed into Adams Nostrils the breath of Life that he hath created thy Soul and infused it into thy Body where it was never before How canst thou question his power of returning one day the same Soul into the same Body where it formerly made its abode In short if thou believest that the holy Ghost by moving upon the Waters hath caused so many beautiful and noble Creatures to appear and that he hath made light to shine out of darkness canst thou not be also perswaded that this same holy Ghost can shew his Power amongst the Graves and fetch thy Body out of the dark shadows of Death to introduce it â—nto the light of the living Thou seest by experience that every day a new House 〈◊〉 built up
appointed unto me Luk 22. In another place he speaks to all his Church in general Fear not little flock for it is your Fathers pleasure to give you the Kingdom Luk 20. And at the last day he will say Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the World Matth. 25. And to the Angel of his Church in Smyrns and to all faithful Souls this Divine Saviour makes this promise Be thou faithful unto death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Revel 2. And to the Angel of the Church of Laodicea To him that over cometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne Revel 3. And St. Paul tels us That we run to obtain an uncorruptible Crown 1 Cor. 6. And when he saw himself at the end of his Race he cries out I have fought the good fight I have finished my course I have kept the faith henceforth there is laid up for me a Crown of Righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge shall give me at that day and not to me only but unto all them also that love his appearing 2 Tim. 4. And St. James speaks in the same Language Blessed is the man that endureth temptation for when he is tried he shall receive the Crown of Life which the Lord hath promised to them that love him Jam. 1. Finally we read that the glorified Saints have Palms in their Hands and Crowns of Gold upon their Heads and in their Songs of Praise they speak thus to our Saviour Thou hast redeemed us to God by thy bloud out of every kindred and tongue and people and nation and hast made us to our God Kings and Priests and we shall reign on the Earth Revel 4.4 The great Men of the World delight in gorgeous Apparel some in perfum'd Garments therefore the Holy Ghost condescends to this weakness of Man and promiseth in Heaven Robes more flagrant than the perfumes of Arabia he promiseth a Garment whiter than Snow and brighter than the Light it self And Solomon when he considers his Spouse as the Type of the Church he saith The Kings daughter is full of glory within her clothing is of wrought Gold she shall be brought unto the King in raiment of needle work And when God himself speaks of the glory of his Church which he begins now and will consummate hereafter he saith that he adorned her with Gold Silver and precious Stones that he hath clothed her with fine Linnen with Silk and Needle-work therefore the Church speaks in this manner I will greatly rejoyce in the Lord my Soul shall be joyful in my God for he hath clothed me with the Garments of Salvation he hath covered me with the Robes of Righteousness as a Bridegroom decketh himself with Ornaments and as a Bride adorneth her self with her Jewels And if you take notice of such as stand before the Throne of God and in the presence of the Lamb that worship him day and night in his Temple you shall find them clothed with long Robes whitened in the Bloud of the Lamb. Look also upon that Glorious Woman of the Revelations the true Type and representation of the Church and you shall see her clothed with the Sun and a Crown of twelve Stars upon her Head In a word hearken to the Song of the glorified Saints and you shall hear them speaking to one another Let us be glad and rejoyce and give honor to God for the Marriage of the Lamb is come and his Wife hath made her self ready and to her was granted that she should be arayed in fine Linnen clean and white for the fine Linnen is the righteousness of Saints Men commonly love good cheer to partake of sumptuous Feasts therefore the Heavenly Delights are represented to us under the notion of rare Meats and exquisite Drinks of Noble Feasts and Magnificent Banquets In this manner the Royal Prophet speaks of them in the 36 Psalm How excellent is thy loving kindness O God! therefore the children of men put their trust under the shadow of thy wings they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy House and thou shalt make them drink of the River of thy pleasures And in the 65 Psalm Blessed is the man whom thou choosest and causest to approach unto thee that he may dwell in thy Courts he shall be satisffed with the goodness of thy house even of thy holy Temple And the Prophet Isaiah speaks in the same language In this Mountain shall the Lord of Hosts make unto all people a Feast of fat things a Feast of Wine on the Lees of fat things full of Marrow of Wines on the Lees well refined This consideration causeth a Doctor in the Gospel to say Blessed is he that shall eat Bread in the Kingdom of Heaven And our Saviour himself saith that many shall come from the East and from the West and shall sit at Table in the Kingdom of Heaven with Abraham Isaac and Jacob. Ahasuerus's Feast continued 180 days but the Feast of which we shall be partakers in Heaven and which hath been preparing from the foundation of the World shall continue for all Eternity Of all Feasts such as are prepared for Nuptial Solemnities are most esteem'd when they are for Kings and Princes of the Earth for in such occasions there are the greatest and the most extraordinary rejoycings therefore the happiness of Heaven is expressed by a Marriage our Saviour himself makes use of this comparison in the 22 Chapter of St. Matthew The Kingdom of God saith he is like unto a King which made a Marriage for his Son This caused the glorified Church to speak in this manner Let us rejoyce and be glad and give glory to the Lord our God for the Marriage of the Lamb is come Finally The Holy Ghost hath Commanded to Write and Record these words for ever Blessed are those that are called to the Marriage-Feast of the Lamb. Some persons are very much delighted with the sweet and pleasant Consorts of Musick Therefore the Holy Ghost to signify unto us That in Heaven there shall be all manner of pleasures and nothing wanting tells us that about God's Throne millions of Angels and glorified Saints shall sing forth the Divine Praise Besides it acquaints us with the substance of their Heavenly Songs when Isaiah mentions these wonderful Seraphims that fly round about God's Glorious Throne he saith That they cry one to another Holy Holy Holy Lord God of Hosts the whole Earth is full of thy glory And when St. John speaks of those glorified Saints he saith that they stand before this magnificent Throne playing with their Harps and singing a new Song that is to say a most rare and excellent Song and that they have always in their mouths the song of Moses and of the Lamb and that Heaven it self resounds with their Sacred Halelujah's which signifies Praise
of the Soul from God our Creator for he being the Soul of our Souls and the Light of our Life assoon as we depart from this source of Light and Life we fall into an Abysse of Darkness and Death For all those that depart from God shall perish Psal 73. As the Members when they are cut off from the Body do commonly rot and as the Twig withers when it is separated from the Vine so in a separation from God we can neither live move nor have a Being and as it is with the Body separated from the Soul it nourisheth a nest of Worms that devour it and sends forth a most insufferable stench so it is with our Soul when it is at a distance from God it brings forth a multitude of evil affections that torment and consume it and the ill scent of its crimes are odious to Heaven and Earth of this kind of death our Saviour speaks to the Jews in this manner If you do not believe that I am he you shall dye in your sins John 8. And to the Angel of the Church of Sardis Thou hast a name that thou livest and art dead Rev. 3. This same Death St. Paul mentions in the 2 Chap. of the Coloss and 2 of the Ephes When you were dead in your trespasses and sins God hath quickened us together with Christ and elsewhere he exhorts a sinfull man Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead and Christ shall give thee Light Eph. 5. And it is of the same kind of Death that St. Paul speaks of concerning the Lecherous Widow that She is dead while she liveth 1 Tim. 5. It was this kind of Death that Adam suffered assoon as he had tasted of the forbidden Fruit according to Gods threatening In the day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt dye the death For not only his body became subject to Death and Corruption but his Soul also was cast into the death of Sin and enslaved to corruption It happened to him as to a Lamp newly put out the snuff yields a most ill-favour'd scent As the life of Grace is a preparation to the life of Glory as it furnisheth us with a fore-tast of the Heavenly joys so on the contrary the Spiritual Life is as it were the Suburbs of Hell it is the first beginning of an Eternal death and the mouth of the infernal Pit The Eternal Death is nothing else but an entire and irrecoverable separation of the Soul and Body from God accompanied with infinite Torments Torments indeed unto which all the sufferings of this mortal life are but light and inconsiderable scratches nevertheless as the spirit of God doth represent the Heavenly joys and felicities by the things that are most pleasant and delightful thus to express unto us Hells Torments it borrows the things that are the most dreadful and painful in this life We are told of an Abysse or Furnace full of flames a bottomless pit burning with fire and brimstone The Scripture mentions Chaines of darkness an Eternal night and an Hell fire where there are weeping and knashing of Teeth it tels us that Tophet is ordained of old yea for the King it is prepared he hath made it deep and large the pile thereof is fire and much wood the breath of the Lord like a stream of Brimstone doth kindle it Isai 30.33 Fancy to your selves a Man devoured with Worms burning in hot Flames who is broken and tortured continually in whose wounds kindled Brimstone is poured without intermission with boyling Lead and burning Pitch and if there be any other Torment more grievous and horrid fancy it also All this will give us but a light and an imperfect image of Hell torments for all the pangs of the Body are nothing in comparison to the horrors troubles and incredible griefs that shall for ever rack and torture the damned Souls in Hell As sname doth aggravate our sufferings and render them more terrible the damned shall be loaden with Shame and Infamy for all Eternity their names shall be hateful to God and his Holy Angels and they shall be cursed with an endless Curse And as it is an increase to our Torment to suffer in the company of abominable Varlets and to become a companion of the most infamons Executioner they shall suffer with Hells Executioner and shall be sent to the fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels All their senses shall share in these horrid Torments they shall be crusht in the Wine-press of Gods Eternal Wrath and they shall feel for ever and ever the stroaks of Gods vengeance and of his Almighty hand They shall then learn by experience what a terrible thing it is to fall into the hands of the living God and how unsufferable that fire is that shall consume his Enemies their Eyes shall perceive nothing but the bottomless pit the Devils image and the Furies of Hell their Ears shall hear nothing but the horrible outcries and fearful roarings of the Tormented Devils and damn'd souls They shall be choakt with the noisome smell and fumes of the bottomless pit they shall then drink the very Dregs and the bottom of Gods anger and indignation and they shall suck the venom of his Arrows Fire and Brimstone shall be the portion of their Cup. Psal 11. The sufferings of this life are but short and for a moment but the Torments of the damned shall never end Their Worm dieth not and their fire shall never be quenched Mar. 9. Revel 20. They shall be tormented day and night for all Eternity when they shall have suffer'd as many thousand Ages as there be drops of water in the Sea or grains of Sand on the shore it shall be but the beginning of their grief they shall live for ever to dye continually and they shall dye and never be consum'd in the midst of those hot flames they shall beg a drop of water to cool their tongue Luk. 16. but we may say of this Fire that shall torture the damned what the Spouse in the Canticles saith of the Divine love that had enflamed her Soul Many waters cannot quench it neither can the flouds drown it Cant. 8. And St. Paul tels us that the things that God hath prepared for them that love him eye hath not seen ear hath not heard nor did it ever enter into the heart of man 1 Cor. 2. So on the contrary we may say that those things that God hath prepared for them that hate him Eye hath not seen Ear hath not heard nor did never enter into the Heart of man From hence shall proceed their Rage Madness and despair they shall cry in Cains Language My punishment is greater then I can bear Gen. 4. when they shall see nothing but an extream misery and woful darkness they will curse God the King of all Creatures Isai 8. In their fury and rage they will eat their Tongues and blaspheme the great God of Heaven and Earth It had been far better for such
an affliction I am unworthy of all thy favors seeing thou dost take from me such a precious jewel which was shewn to me as a Lightning I am afraid to have been wanting in my Duty and that this death that kills me is the effect of my stupidity and blindess Methinks I could have hinder'd this doleful accident for if I had behav'd my self otherwise than I have done my Life and Soul should not be now in its Grave O God of all comfort pardon my excessive grief pacify my sighs stop the currant of my Tears remove all these vain displeasures that consume me deliver my Soul from this unmerciful grief and torment that it suffers and from these troubles that are more than humane Instead of looking to these inferior Causes and to the circumstances of the death of this person that I did love as mine own Soul give me grace to remember that the least things as well as the greatest are govern'd and rul'd by thy wise Providence and that the good and the evil proceed from thy Divine appointment Give me Grace to consider that thou dost hold in thine Almighty hand the Keys of Life and Death and that thou alone dost cast us into the Grave and lift us up from thence again Thou O Soveraign Monarch of the Vniversal World who dost not only let death loose but dost also appoint all the means to talke us out of the World make me truly submissive unto thy Sacred Pleasure and to put the Finger upon my Lips because it is thy doing If I open them let it be to adore thy Justice and sing forth thy Praises the person for whom I lament so much was nearly related to me like another my self but it was also thy Creature thy Child and a Member of our Saviours mystical Body We for our parts believe to have the right of disposing of our Workmanship and of that which we have bought with our Money and hast not thou O God the liberty to dispose of that which thou hast created after thy likeness bought not with corruptible things as with Gold and Silver but by the precious Blood of the Lamb without spot or blemish Thou hadst a Son who is the brightness of thy Glory and the express image of thy person whom thou hast not spared for me and shall I Lord refuse thee my Heart and my Bowels Thy only begotten Son came down upon Earth to suffer the most cruel and ignominious Death of the Cross but thou hast taken up into Heaven the person whom my soul did love to crown it with a glorious and ever happy Immortality Shall his or her Felicity be the cause of my Misery and that his or her Rest occasion my displeasure It is the property of true love to prefer the happiness of the beloved Persons to our own satisfactions Therefore our Saviour told his Apostles If you did love me you would rejoyce because I go to my Father for my Father is greater than I. Between thee O great and living God and us miserable Worms of the Earth there is a vast difference as there is between the innocent and harmless delights of this world and the unspeakale pleasures of thy presence for these are but as drops of Water that are dried up with the least wind whereas the satisfactions of Heaven are like a bottomless Sea of Delights in which we shall swim for ever Do I therefore weep for him or for her whose tears thou hast wip'd away Do I wear a mourning Apparel and a black Scarf for him who is now cover'd with a Glorious Attire of Joy and Gladness and who is adorned with an Habit as white as Snow Do I delight my self in darkness and doth he solace himself at the Fountain of Light and Glory Do I seek a solitary and melancholly Retreat and doth he rejoyce amongst the thousands of Angels and the Glorious company of the immortal Spirits I sigh and groan and he sings a new song the Song of the Blessed which is always in his mouth All my complaints and groanings cannot bring him back upon Earth but when that were possible it is not just to attempt it my kindness would be cruel and my love most inhumane How could I resolve to make him leave the Haven of Eternal Felicity to expose him again to the furious Waves and storms of this troublesom Sea of the World How can I have the heart to pull him down from his Triumphing Chariot and from the magnificent Throne unto which thou hast raised him to engage him in new and fresh encounters and to bind him again with a chain of misery how could I pluck off from him the Habits of Light and Glory to cloath him with darkness and cover him with our infirmities Is it possible that I should be so inhumane to draw him out of Rivers of pleasures to cast him again into a Sea of Gaul and Bitterness to take from him the Bread of thine Heavenly Kingdom and the Fruits of the Tree of Life to give him the Bread of affliction and the Apples of Sorrow and grief Can I be so cruel to pluck him from thy bosom from the Breasts of thy most tender favours and from that fulness of Joy which he hath in the sight of thy Countenance to make him languish in our embraces swallow the poison of this miserable Life and groan under the burden of our mortal afflictions In short can I be so senseless as to remove him out of that Eternal Life to cause him to become again the sport of Death He is pass'd from Death to Life is it my desire that he should return back from Life into the merciless hands of Death we shall go to him but he cannot come to us seeing that this life is so short that it is spent and gone as a thought we shall see one another shortly in the light of the Living O Lord how wonderful art thou in thy Works how Magnificent in the means that thou employest and how various is thy Wisdom in all things I see that what thou hast done is not only for thy Glory and for the advantage of this happy Creature a that thou hast received into thy Rest but it is also for my happiness and the instruction of my neighbors for in taking from me my most dearly Beloved my Joy my Pleasure and my Hopes thou hast put my Obedience and faith to a Tryal As thou didst heretofore try the Father of the faithful in requiring from him his only Son Isaac in whom thou hadst promised to bless all the Nations of the World I confess good Lord to the praise of thy Grace and Goodness that my tryal is loss than his for thou didst command Abraham to sacrifice his Son with his own hands to spill his Blood in thy presence and to reduce his Body into Ashes but thou requirest of me no other Sacrifice but that of my Obedience and of my Submission to thy Holy Will Thou wilt have me say with
good Heli It is the Lord let him do what seemeth him good or with thy Servant Job The Lord gave the Lord hath taken away blessed be the name of the Lord. Thou hast pluckt out that strong root that did tye me to this Earth and hast out the pleasant string that did bind me so fast to the world that thou mightest transplant my heart in Heaven and lift up my affections to the things above A part of my self which I lookt upon as my Treasure is already with thee and the wings of Divine Love that enflames me caries me thither also at every moment Instead of continuing in my Sighs Groans and Tears for him or for her that I loved with all the affection and tenderness that I am capable of Give me Grace to employ my self in preparing to depart out of this earthly Tabernacle Enable me to imitate the Piety Zeal Faith and Constancy and all the other Noble Vertues of those whom thou hast received into thine Eternal Rest and crowned with Glory Let me dye the death of the Righteous and let my last End be like his Amen CHAP. 10. The fourth Remedy against the fears of Death to separate our Hearts from the World THe Children of Israel did leave the Wilderness with a ready mind and went joyfully over the River of Jordan when God Commanded them so to do The cause of this their readiness was an earnest longing for the Land of Canaan and their unsetled condition in the Wilderness having nothing but Tents to live in Death is to us the same in regard of our Heavenly Paradise as the River of Jordan was to the Children of Israel in respect of the promised Land Therefore from hence it appears that the best means of obliging our selves to a resolution of entring into this passage willingly is to free our selves from all those things which might incumber as stop or tye us to the World and to keep our selves always in a readiness to depart For that purpose it is not necessary that we should go out of the World but that the World should be banished and driven out of us and that we should renounce all the vanities and unruly affections so that we may be able to speak with the Apostle The world is crucified to me and I am crucified to the world for there be many who depart out of the World but leave there their Hearts and most tender Affections as Lot's Wife that went out of Sodom but left therewith her Treasures and Delights her most earnest desires as the Israelites who when they went out of Egppt left behind them their cursed affections with their pots of Flesh and Onions The same thing happens to many who separate themselves without any necessity from the acquaintance of Mankind and who affect a strange and austere kind of life They leave the society of wise and vertuous persons and the lawful use of the Blessings which Heaven hath vouchsafed to them and they deprive themselves of all that deserves our esteem and the means of glorifying God and edifying our neighbors but many times they carry with them their Corruptions their Vices and a legion of wicked Thoughts and carnal Desires By this means they give place to the Devil and expose themselves to all his temptations for that wicked Serpent delights himself rather in the Dens of Wild Beasts and in the Caves of the Earth than in the Palaces and Dwellings of Princes and Kings The most horrid and abominable Vices creep and breed rather in the Desarts and places of Retreat than in Publick and in the great Cities that are full of Inhabitants Lot remain'd chast in the most execrable City that was in the World but when he went aside to the foot of a Mountain and into a Cave to dwell he defiled himself with a monstruous Incest When Satan intended to tempt our Saviour Christ he carried him into a Desart and to the top of a Mountain From hence we may gather that this subtil Enemy of Mankind hath learnt by his long experience that the places of Retreat and the most solitary are the fittest for to lay his snares If our Saviour who was wholly innocent and free from Sin hath been able to overcome all manner of Temptations we are not of the same temper we are not furnished with such Armor as he was of Proof against all the enflamed Darts of the Devil for our miserable Flesh delights in its own destruction it opens the Ears and the Heart wide to the deceitful promises of Satan and suffers it self to be cheated by his damnable Enchantments It flatters us and causeth us to be â—ull'd aslcep in its bosom then like a treacherous Dalilah it betrays us into the unmerciful hands of our great Enemy Some cloath themselves with Hair and wear at their Girdle a knotted Cord whom the Devil drags to Hell with the invisible Chains of Lust Others climb up to the top of frozen Mountains and yet their Hearts do burn with impure Flames Some fret themselves in a mournful solitariness whose desires and longings are for the world and its vanities Others have their hands lifted up to Heaven whose mind is enslaved to the Earth and rooted in the rotten and filthy pleasures of the Times Some have a Lamp burning before them whose understanding is wrapt in gross darkness more palpable than that of Egypt Others have an empty Stomach whose Soul is full of abominable Passions In short Some live in appearance like Angels and yet they are possessed by legions of infernal Spirits Other seem to have no concernment in the World and yet lodge the whole World in their Hearts Under a course Habit there dwells oftimes more Envy more Vanity and Ambition than under the glorious attire of Silk and Gold Through a torn cloathing some Souls may be perceived swell'd with Pride and Arrogancy and in the company of Beggars are to be found many times the Designes of Kings and the lofty thoughts of the greatest Monarchs To speak plainly the good things and advantages of this life don't stop and wed us of themselves to this World but rather that Love and Affection which we bear to them for without doubt there be many that are more earnest and affectionate for the things that they want than others that enjoy them Some poor people have a far greater longing for Riches than ever Solomon had in the midst of all his great Treasures Some silly Women that are covered with old Rags and some contemptible Joanes have more Vanity and Pride in their Brains than ever had Queen Esther in her Richest and most Glorious Attire The Prophet Daniel was rais'd to an high and eminent Honour for he was the Governor of the third part of the Monarchy of the Persians and of the Medes nevertheless he was no more concerned in Babylon than if he had had there but a Sepulcre and worn the Chains of a Slave he sends forth as many Sighs and pours as many Tears
Holy Fire that never saith that it is enough Prov. 10. As the Prophet Moses after that he had been 40 days and 40 nights conversing with God in his Holy Mountain came down with a Glorious Countenance shining as bright as the Light with two Tables of the Law in his hands Likewise a Christian Soul that hath bin lifted up to God by fervent Prayers and bin conversing with him in devout Meditations cannot hide its spiritual Joys and its unspeakable Delights it burns with an earnest desire of glorifying God and of pleasing him in all things when the Apostle St Peter saw our Saviour transfigured upon Mount Tabor he was ravish'd and transported in such a manner that he cryed out Lord it is good for us to dwell here let us make three Tabernacles Thus the good Christian who is enlightned from above is never weary in the company of his God when he should live several ages he would not believe that he hath too much time to serve his Creator to worship his Divine Majesty and to refresh himself with the unspeakable pleasures of his presence As the time of Jacob's service seem'd to him but a few days because of the love that he had for Rachel thus the days that we spend in the service of God seem to be but of a few hours or moments in case our love for God be earnest and sincere 38. Represent unto your selves the fearful curse denounced against the wicked and the prophane Gen. 29. they carry about them every where the Works of God's anger and just revenge they are the objects of his hatred and execrable to the publick they who flatter and fawn upon them most for their own advantage do abominate and curse them in the bottom of their hearts and they who out of a servile fear seem to honor and worship them in the light of the Sun would be many times very joyful to dance upon their Graves and erect a Gallows to hang them thereon 39. It is not so with good Men they are honoured by God and Man and their greatest Enemies admire their Vertues let us be never so poor and contemptible in the World we are rich and noble enough if we fear God as we ought and obey his Holy Will for the fear of the Lord is our chief Treasure it is our Crown our Diadem and our greatest Ornament 40. The wicked Man is frighted and troubled of his own accord he trembles in the midst of his Guards and he flies when no man pursues all things scare him he is jealous and distrusts his best friends his Children are suspected and in the embraces of his dearest Wife he slumbers with an unquiet Soul 41. It is otherwise with a good Man he marcheth every where with an Head lifted up and his Heart rejoyceth in a perfect tranquility of mind for there is no Bulwark like that of a good Conscience it is like a Wall of Brass that abides and withstands the injuries of the times and seasons He that fears God is free from all other fears Psal 125. The finger of God that hath setled in his Soul the dread of his Holy Name banisheth all other apprehensions Psal 112. He is like Mount Sion that cannot be moved he fears no ill report his Soul is firmly setled upon God in the midst of his greatest dangers and violent storms he saith with David The Lord is my light and my deliverance of whom should I be afraid the Lord is the strength of my life whom then should I fear O God thou art a Buckler round about me my Glory and the lifter up of my Head I have laid my self down I have slept and I have awak'd for the Lord upholds me I will not fear thousands of People when they should sett themselves round about against me when a whole Army should camp against me my heart would never fear Psal 117. 42 Let the wicked be never so great and honourable and never so highly advanc'd in the world their Fame shall perish Eternally 'T is to no purpose that they rear up stately Trophies and fill whole Volumes with the remarkable passages of their lives making the Marbles to speak forth their Praises whatsoever they do to render their Glory Eternal their name shall be always abominable to God and all his Holy Angels and Mankind shall never remember it but with curses and detestation these infamous persons are like unto a stinking Lamp that gives light for a time but when it is put out it leaves a most odious stink they may be also compar'd to certain Devils that never go out of a place without causing an ill smell to be behind them 43. It is otherwise with good Men their Fame shall flourish for ever and like the Palm the more Men press it down the more it will rise their name is Engraven in Heaven it self in the Glorious Temple of Eternity it shall always be blessed by God and the Angels of his Glory and the example of their Christian Vertues shall remain after them for a Model for their posterity to imitate a faithful Christian whose Soul is sanctified by the Spirit of the Lord Jesus is like to the Alablaster-box af Ointment which when it was broken spilt upon our Saviour's Head a precious Liquor that perfum'd all the room for such an one lives after his death when his Body is broken and reduc'd to Ashes his good name spreads abroad to the Glory of God and the edification of his Church Mary Magdalene's Perfume filled only the Chamber where they were sitting and was soon spent but the good Perfume of an innocent and Holy life fills both Heaven and Earth with a sweet scent and continues for ever and ever 44. I judge that another powerful means to withdraw us from Vice and to induce us to Vertue is to represent unto our selves at every moment the Excellency and Dignity of our Calling to take a delight in beholding with the Eyes of our Soul the white Stone where our new Name is written which none knowâ— but he who receives it It is the noble and high quality of the Children of God and of Believers which he bestows upon none but upon such whom he hath elected from all Eternity for the eternal enjoyment of Bliss in his glorious Kingdom It is reported of a certain young Prince that when he had a designe to disgrace himself by lustful actions and debauchery a wise Philosopher reclaim'd him from his wicked purpose by telling him Remember that thou art a Kings Son Thus you Christian Souls when Satan the Flesh and the World shall tempt you to filthy and unjust actions or to any other sin call to your remembrance that you are the Children of the King of Kings Take heed you defile not such a precious Crown and as our Saviour said to him who should have followed him but was desirous first to go and bury his Father suffer the dead to bury the dead likewise we say unto you devout
up to the Throne of his Glory but according to his promise he hath not left us destitute but hath sent us the Comsorter to dwell with us for ever namely the Spirit of Truth whom the world seeth not nor cannot know John 14. Christs Corporal presence was enjoyed but by a small number of People but this Divine Spirit is like a large River that swells and runs over every where John 7. This Holy Spirit is not only with us but also within us He is poured out into our Hearts He Seals us for the day of Redemption He is the earnest of our Inheritance until the full consummation of the Glory reserved for us in Heaven Therefore when this merciful Saviour saw his Apostles afflicted in an extraordinary manner for his Leaving of the World he speaks to them in this Language Because I have said these things unto you Sorrow hath filled your Hearts Nevertheless I tell you the truth it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away the Comforter will not come unto you But if I depart I will send him unto you John 16. When St. Paul took his last farewel of the Elders and People of the Church of Ephesus they wept bitterly being grieved to the Heart because he had said That none of them should see his face any more But to comfort them he assures them that in Heaven they had a Father and a Protector and such a Shepherd as would never forsake them I commend you said he To God and to the word of his Grace which is able to build you up and to give you an inheritance among all them which are sanctified Act. 20. Remember therefore O Man of God seriously to consider all these things If the Lord who hath called thee to the Sacred Function of the Ministry continues thee in the world labor with courage and diligence in thine Holy employment Be not tired in the service of this good Master and merciful Saviour fight the good fight of the Faith endure patiently all manner of Labors as a good Soldier of Jesus Christ be as earnest and as careful for the Lord's Sheep as Jacob was for those of Laban Here what he professed of himself In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night and my sleep departed from mine eyes Gen. 20. Jacob endured patiently these grievous pains and labor and the time of his service seem'd to him to be but of a few days because of the love that he did bear unto Rachel Likewise thou wilt joyfully endure the troubles of thine Office digest with patience all the inconveniencies if thou dost sincerely love the Lord Jesus and his Heavenly Spouse If thou dost esteem the salvation of Souls for whom Jesus Christ hath suffered death if thou hast well understood the Excellency of thine Heavenly Reward and the Glory prepared for thee when thou shalt have finished the time of thy painful and difficult service and of thy mortal Race for they who bring many to Righteousness shall shine as the Stars for ever and ever Dan. 12. Jacob had to do with a deceitful and unfaithful man But God is not as Man that he should Lye or as the Son of Man that he should Repent Gen. 23. Be thou faithful until Death and he will give thee the Crown of Life Revel 2. If it is the Lord's pleasure to lessen thy task so that instead of employing thee in his Vineyard he intends to take thee up into his Kingdom to drink there of his new Wine if at the time that thou thinkest of sowing with Tears thou art transported to the place where thou mayest reap with Songs of Triumph If in lieu of the opposition which thou must suffer from sinners God will grant to thee his Eternal Consolations and receive thee into the harmonious Societies of the Church Triumphant adore his Goodness and his infinite Mercy cast thy self into his hands and resolve chearfully to will what is pleasing to him if during thine abode in this Valley of Tears God hath given thee a livelyhood and if thou hast found in him thy joy thy satisfaction and thy greatest comfort Death will be thy greatest advantage thou shalt find in thy Saviour thy Rest thy Glory and Eternal Delights Phil. 1. Meditate often upon the words of the Holy Apostle St. Peter The Elders which are among you I exhort who am also an Elder and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of the Glory that shall be revealed feed the Flock of God which is among you taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly not for filthy Lucre but of a ready mind neither as being Lords over God's Heritage but being ensamples to the Flock and when the chief Shepheard shall appear ye shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. You also who are afraid to leave behind you a desolate afflicted and comfortless Widow Come and learn this Lesson to relye upon the goodness and tender compassions of the Father of Mercies who never fails to comfort the forlorne in all their afflictions and who is always near to them that call upon him in their distresses 2 Cor. 1. Psal 145. He bears so much favor to the Widows that he calls himself The Judge of the Widows Psal 68. that is the Protector of their integrity and right and severe revenger of the wrongs that they suffer Therefore God tells us in express words That he maintains the Widow and establisheth her Borders Prov. 15. Seeing Job was so merciful as to cause the Widows Heart to sing Job 28. How much more may we expect from God's goodness he will doubtless fill her with his Heavenly joys and the ravishing comforts of his Holy Spirit I mean not the foolish Widows that seek for nothing but pleasure worldly diversion and carnal pastimes who live in the delights of the Age and who are dead whilst they live But I mean the wise Widows who being left alone by their Husbands death have their confidence and trust in God continuing in Prayer day and night Our great God and merciful Lord hath not only said in general that he is the Judge the Protector and Comforter of the Widow But he hath vouchsafed unto some his most signal Favors and extraordinary Blessings In the Reign of Abab while a cruel Famine overspread the Land God sent the Prophet Elijah to a poor Widow of Sarephtah who was preparing her self and her Son to dye as soon as they had eaten a little remnant of Meal and Oil that was left but the Holy Prophet comforted her in this manner Thus saith the Lord the God of Israel the barrel of Meal shall not waste neither shall the cruse of Oil fail until the day that the Lord sendeth Rain upon the Earth 1 King 5. Many Widows have been comforted in such a miraculous manner for God hath so ordered it that their provisions have not failed although it may
out the Heavens and Commanded the succession of the Seasons and who is the Author and Lord of thy Life We need not tempt God as the Philistins did of old and require from him a miracle to know if it be his hand for God assures us that he himself inflicts the Wound and binds it up that his hand strikes and heals again 1 Sam. 5. Affliction cometh not forth of the Dust neither doth trouble spring out of the ground Job 5. Who is able to say that these things are come to pass and the Lord hath not commanded them doth not evil and good proceed from the appointment of the most High There is no evil in the City but God hath done it that is to say that there is no distemper nor affliction but he over-rules and governs it by his wonderful Providence This perswasion will stop our murmuring in the midst of our greatest troubles and violent paines it will cause us to say with David I have held my peace Lord and have not open'd my Lips because it was thy doing Or if we offer to speak it shall be in the language of a blessed Servant of God Lord thou troublest me but it is sufficient for me to know that it is thy hand Job 2. As if he should have said this Physick is very bitter O great Physitian of my Soul and Body but I will freely drink it up because thou hast prescribed it It is not just to receive good at the hand of God and refuse evil to complain of a disease that he hath sent us for a few days instead of blessing him for the health which he hath continued unto us many years In short when our Souls should be troubled with the anguish of death when drops of bloud should come out of our veins we must in such a case lift up our Eyes to Heaven and say with our Lord and Saviour Father if it please thee that this Cup should not pass away from me except I drink it Nevertheless O Father not my Will but thy Will be done Luk 21. This same consideration will keep us from falling into despair and from fancying that the evils will swallow us up For seeing God sends both evil and good and that he is faithful and just that he is true and merciful he will not suffer us to be tempted that is that we should be afflicted above that we are able but with the temptation he will make away to escape that we may be able to bear it 1 Cor. 10. He kindles not all his wrath at once and employs not all his fury he discovers not all the strength of his Arm Psal 78. but when his anger is hottest he remembers to have pity and compassion on the afflicted for he knows of what we are made that we are but Dust and Ashes Hab. 3. He remembers that we are but Flesh that is to say weakness it self a wind that passeth away and returneth not again Psal 103. He regulates his chastisements not according to the horridness of our sins but according to our great weaknesses Gen. 18. Psal 78. Therefore when God speaks of David's Son the true and lively Image of the Holy Seed with which he hath concluded an Eternal Covenant he speaks in this manner If he commits sin I will chastise him with the Rod of Men and with the stripes of the Children of men but my mercy shall not depart away from him 2 Sam. 7. And St. Paul speaking in general of the afflictions with which God visits his Children 1 Cor. 10. he stiles them Humane temptations to assure us that they shall never exceed the strength and power of our weak Nature The wise and experienced Physitian appoints neither Physick nor Bleeding to the Patient until he hath well examined his Pulse and understood thereby the disposition of his Body and shall not God's Eternal Wisdom that never acts without good reason and that perfectly knows the Pulse and Temper of our Souls that searcheth our Reins and that sees our very Heart proportion his Physick and Remedies to our weaknesses for his design is to heal and not to destroy us He once inflicted punishments upon Babylon by measure and numbred the Viols of his Wrath which he poured upon the seat of the Beast and shall not this good God measure the Rods and weigh the Afflictions with which he reproves his Children shall not he number their Sighs and Tears This consideration comforts King David Thou saith he O God tellest my wandrings put thou my tears into thy bottle are they not in thy Book Ps 56. Although Flesh and Bloud may think otherwise I am perswaded that Diseases may be looked upon as the sweetest and most favourable afflictions It was David's perswasion for when he was to chuse one of these three Plagues either War Famine or Plague which is the most grievous most hated and dreadful of all distempers he chose the Plague We should never forget the reason of his choise Let us fall now said he to the Prophet Gad into the hands of the Lord for his Mercies are great and let me not fall into the hand of Man The evils which God sends to us are expressions of his Love and of his Fatherly Care of us for God begins his Judgements that is his Chastisements at his own House and shews most severity to the Servants whom he loves best 1 Pet. 4. Therefore he tells the Angel of the Church of Laodicea As many as I love I rebuke and chasten Revel 3. The greatest affliction that can happen to us in the World is never to be afflicted and the most grievous temptation is never to be tempted St Paul to the Hebrews speaks most excellently upon this subject Forget not saith he the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto Children my Son despise not thou the chastening of the Lord nor faint when thou art rebuked of him for whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth If ye endure chastening God dealeth with you as with Sons for what Son is he whom the Father chasteneth not but if ye be without chastisement whereof all are partakers then are ye Bastards and not Sons Heb. 12. All things work together for good to them that love God Rom. 8. The Diseases of the Body are the Physick of the Soul The Aches which thou seelest in thy Body are Instructions of thy Mind God intends to make thee sigh for thy sins water thy Couch with thy Tears and abhor the remembrance of thy former miscarriages Psal 6. The causes of thy present pain and grief He intends to make thee partaker of his Holiness Heb. 12. If it please God to sanctify his afflictions to thee thou wilt be able to say with David It was good for me that I was afflicted that I might learn thy Commandments Before that I was afflicted I went astray but now I keep thy Word Psal 119. Although our Lord and Saviour was the only Son and
Spring of Comfort that can never be stopt nor dried up Let the Storms and Flouds beat against thee Let the defluxions endeavour to check thee Is 58. thou mayest say with King David I have set the Lord always before me because he is at my right hand I shall not be moved Psal 16. When I should walk in the valley of the shadow of Death when I should have no other help nor assistance in the World when there should be no more strength remain in my Body I would not fear for O God thy staff and thy Rod will comfort me Is 26. God will not only draw near to thy bed of Sickness but he will embrace and receive thee into his protection he will kiss thee with the kisses of his mouth and make thee taste of the sweetness of his Divine Comforts Cant. 1. He will cherish thee as a Mother doth her Child to pacify it and make thee so sensible of his Love that thou mayest say with the Spouse his left hand is under my head and his right doth embrace me With his Gracious Hand he will wipe off thy cold sweat and into his bosom he will receive thy sighs thy groans and thy tears he will gather up into his most precious bottles And as it happened when our Lord and Saviour was in his Agony when drops of Bloud fell from him the Holy Angels appeared to comfort him Luk 22. Likewise in our greatest and most difficult encounters when thou shalt be at handy-blows with death it self his faithful Ministers hâ—s Messengers the Angels of his right hand shall visit thee to supply thee with spiritual Comforts 2 Cor. 5. Revel 5. And when these earthly Comforters shall fail he will send to thee some of those powerful Spirits that wait before his Glorious Throne Dan. 7. O good God if we could but perceive the things that are of themselves invisible and if thou didst but give us eyes like unto those of the Holy Prophet we should behold Legions of immortal Spirits flying about in the houses of Sorrow with an intent to comfort the Christian Souls Is 6. 2 King 6. Finally as the Sun with its Light and the strength of its Beams drives away the thickest Clouds and comforts with its delightful countenance the face of the whole Earth Thus Jesus Christ the Sun of Righteousness that carries healing under his wings banisheth all sadness with the light of his Divine Graces Mal. 3. and with the presence of his Holy Spirit he drives away the most sensible griefs and fills us with unspeakable joy and with the Peace of God which passeth all understanding A Prayer and Meditation for a sick Person who desires to prepare for Death O Almighty and Gracious God! who hast created both light and darkness and who dost by the wisdom of thy Providence bestow good and evil things upon us I acknowledge that thine Hand hath cast me upon this bed of sickness and that this disease proceeds not so much from the disorder of my Body 〈◊〉 from the corruption and extravagancy of my Soul far be it from me to complain of thy justice I adore thy Goodness and Wisdom O Lord how favourable are thy punishments if compared with my deservings I have miserably abused thy former Mercies mispent that time of health that I received from thee in whom we live move and have our Being I confess that I have loved the vanities of the World and the satisfaction of this wretched Flesh more than the Glory of thy great Name 〈◊〉 the Salvation of my Soul therefore I could willingly water this Couch with my Tears O God who understandest all things thou knowest that my weeping proceeds not from any fretful humour but out of a sincere displeasure of having offended so good a Father and merciful Lord In thâ—â— thy chastisement I feel the workings of thy tender compassion and I perceive thy most wonderful Love I see thâ— thou dost not rebuke me in thy wrath nor dost not correâ— me in thy fury Thou dost not punish me as a Judge bâ— dost chastise me as a Father so that this disease is a tesâ—â—mony of thy Love and of thy Fatherly care of me 〈◊〉 thou dost correct all them whom thou lovest and causest tâ—â—â—â— to feel the smart of thy Rod whom thou ownest for 〈◊〉 Children therefore if we were without reproof wh◠〈◊〉 all are partakers we should be no longer Children but bastards If this chastisement is at present grievous and painful one day it will produce the Peaceable Fruits of Righteousness and as at the end of Jonathan 's Rod he tasted Honey that comforted him and opened his Eyes Likewise when I shall have felt the Rods of thy displeasure I shall taste the sweet comforts and unspeakable joys of thine Holy Spirit and my understanding shall be more enlightened O Almighty and ever wise God who drawest Light out of Darkness and causest that all things work together for good to them â—hat love thee it matters not how thou orderest this disease so that it may advance thy Glory and further my Salvation Thou beholdest mine affliction and poverty and thou knowest better than I can what is good and expedient for me O great God I know that thou canst do all things and that thou givest the wound and bindest it up thou strikest and thy hands must heal thou castest into the Grave and bringest up again The most desperate and irrecoverable diseases thou canst cure the dead thou canst bring to life again and call the things that are not as if they were O Almighty Physitian thou canst not only vouchsafe thy Blessing to these Remedies prescribed and administred to me but if thou speakest the word I shall be perfectly whole and well again But if thou judgest expedient to continue this disease upon me continue O merciful Lord unto me and increase thy Fatherly assistances and the comforts of thine Holy Spirit Strengthen me with a Christian patience and with a resolution worthy of my hâ—nourable Profession seeing that thou art the Soveraign Physitian both of Soul and Body I beseech thee my God if thou dost not remove the distemper of my Body at least pluck out of my Heart and mind all the grief and displeasure that torments me Fill my Soul with thy Peace Joy Love and Heavenly Comforts while my Body languisheth upon this Earth and while I am kept from my former societies of Men. Let my mind be lifted up to Heaven Let my Soul delight it self in a familiarity with thee I have lost too much time already about the affairs of the World that is nothing but vanity and vexation of Spirit Give me Grace to employ now these few moments of leasure which thou dost grant to me to think seriously upon my sins to beg thy pardon with an earnest Repentance Give me Grace to meditate upon thine unspeakable and eternal Mercy to embrace it with a true and lively Faith upon thy Glory and the Happiness of thy Kingdom
O Heavenly Father not my Will but thy Will be done Pluck this Thorn out of my Flesh or vouchsafe unto me sufficient strength to endure its deadly wounds with patience O good God thou knowest that my Spirit is willing but my Flesh is weak and that my misery is heavier than the Sand of the Sea-shore but thou that quickenest the dead wilt accomplish thy Vertue in mine Infirmities Therefore instead of speaking in Cain's Language My punishment is greater than I can bear I will say with St. Paul I can do all things in Christ that strengthens me O Lord punish me not in thy wrath nor correct me in thy heavy displeasure but chastise me in reason that I may not be reduced to nothing When thou didst wrestle with Jacob thou tookest upon thee an Humane Body and didst strengthen thy Servant by the vertue of thy Divine Spirit O Merciful and Graciouus God let thy punishments be proportionable to my great weaknesses suffer not any temptation to seize upon me but only Humane and give me with the temptation an happy issue that I may support it that neither Death nor Life nor Pain nor Torment may ever separate me from thy Love or pluck me out of thine Hand Good Lord forsake me not that I may never forsake thee but enable me with Strength Patience and Constancy to bear my burden and make me more than Conqueror by Jesus Christ our Lord. Merciful God pity thy servant or rather thine adopted Child Awaken thy jealousie and let thy Bowels that are hardened against me move thee to compassion Strengthen me in this encounter with the assistance of the good Angels that comforted thine only Son in the night of his most bitter affliction cause this black night of my Sorrows to pass speedily away or rather in the midst of these dark shadows cause me to see the ravishing beams of thy Mercy Heal my grievous wounds or else pour into them the refreshing Balm of thy most tender and Divine Consolations my Heart and my Flesh fail and faint away but look upon me with a Gracious Eye and receive me into the embraces of thine Eternal Mercy Declare I beseech thee how sensible thou art of my affliction by a present relief receive my Sweat and Tears and put them into thy Bottles O good God thou seest that I am fainting and that my Soul is weary within me comfort me therefore with thy Cordials and with thy most Divine refreshments Give me to drink of the Wine of thy most effectual Consolations that may restore unto me my spirits apply the right hand of thy Mercy that it may strengthen my Soul and drive from thence all poison and infection Let thine Holy Spirit the Spiritual Dove light upon me to bring joy unto me O living God thou seest that I dye but give me some of that living Water whereof if a man drink he shall live Eternally my Friends are grieved with me and weep for my bitter affliction but can give me no assistance but thine only look would be able to deliver me O my God either pull me out of this Sea of Trouble into which thou hast cast me or cause me to pass through these waves to the Inheritance prepared for me from the foundation of the World Quench these violent Flames that burn and consume me or let them serve as fiery Chariots to carry me in triumph to Heaven O how mad and senseless should I be if I did fear Death seeing that it will put an end to my torments it will break in pieces my grievous Chains it will wipe away all Tears from mine Eyes and banish all grief from my Heart O my God when shall all my Cries my Sighs and Groans be changed into Songs of Praise and Thanksgiving when shall I see my self in the Glorious company of the Blessed who are come out of the great tribulation and who have wash'd and cleansed their Garments in the Bloud of the Lamb. Draw me and I shall run after thee and Glorify thee for ever in thine Heavenly Temple Amen CHAP. 14. The second Consolation against the fears of Death is to look upon God as a merciful Father and to trust upon his infinite Goodness THere is no Child well descended but desires earnestly to see his Fathers Face and especially the Face of a Good and Gracious Father A great Princes Son who hath been brought up in a Forreign Countrey rejoyceth at his own Happiness when his Father sends for him to make him partaker of the Glory and Dignity of his Empire he is not then grieved nor troubled he seeks not to delay his going but rather he embraceth with transports of joy the Messenger of such good news he thinks of nothing but of hasting his departure if he could borrow wings he would fly with an unspeakable swiftness to his Fathers Palace Now we are the Children of the Great God whose Throne is Heaven and whose Footstool is the Earth for our Faith that looks upon Jesus Christ as our Saviour and Redeemer considers God as our God and Father for to them who have received this only Son of the Father hath been granted the priviledge of being the Sons of God to them who believe in his name 1 Job 1. So that we have just cause to be transported in an Holy Excess of Joy with the Apostle St. John Behold what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be called the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3. We were by nature Children of Wrath as others but God who is rich in Mercy hath predestinated us unto the adoption of Children by Jesus Christ to himself according to the good pleasure of his Will Eph. 2. He gives us the Gracious assurances of this free adoption in this life for as we are Children he hath sent the Spirit of his Son in our Hearts to cry Abba Father Eph. 1. This Holy Spirit bears witness with our Spirits that we are the Children of God If we be Children then Heirs of God and Co-heirs with Christ Gal. 4. Yea if we suffer with him that we may be also Glorified with him Rom. 8. That we might be the Children of God he hath not only adopted us by Jesus Christ but also regenerated us by uncorruptible Seed We are not born of Flesh and of Bloud but we are born of God His infinite Goodness perswaded him first to grant us a Being and his incomprehensible love hath moved him to reform our Beings and reprint his Divine Image in our Hearts John 1. 1 Pet. 1. He hath begotten us by his pure Grace by the word of his Truth that we might be the First Fruits of his Creatures Jam. 1. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ which according to his abundant Mercy hath begotten us again unto a lively hope by the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead to an inheritance uncorruptible and undefiled and that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.
Mercy rejoyceth against Judgement his Justice is like an exceeding high Mountain but his Mercy may be compared to the bottomless deep Psal 39. Therefore Moses who had seen God more than any living Man cannot be satisfied to extol and magnify his infinite Mercy and the overflowing Riches of his love Psal 36. He names him but once Just but many times he calls him Merciful Gracious Long suffering abundant in Goodness and Truth Exod. 4. It is not unworthy of our observation that the word Righteous or Just attributed to God doth often signify also Merciful Gracious and Loving in the Holy Tongue It is true God holds in his hand the sword of his Justice but he is girded and cloathed with his Mercy as with a Garment In short God is not only Good and Merciful but he is also Goodness and Mercy it self 1 John 4. His compassion and tenderness is far greater than that of the best Fathers or Mothers as he himself declares by the Prophet Can a Woman forget her Sucking-Child that she should not have compassion on the Son of her Womb yea they may forget yet will not I forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my Hands yea in the bottom of my Heart Is 49. These fatherly Compassions force him to let fall the sword of his justice as he tells us in Hosea How shall I make thee as Admah how shall I set thee as Zeboim mine heart is turned within me my repentings are kindled together I will not execute the fierceness of mine anger Chap. 11. Therefore David had good cause to be perswaded That when his Father and Mother should forsake him the Lord would receive him When all Love Kindness and Mercy were totally banished from the Earth when all natural affections should be extinct my God will not forsake me while I live and at the hour of my death he will receive me into his bosom and cover me with his wings Christian Souls Let not the sad remembrance of your former sins and miscarriages discourage you for when we appear before the Throne of Gods Majesty we must not trust upon our own Righteousness nor be pust up with the fancy of our merits but we must place all our assurance and hope in the Mercy of God alone we must imitate Daniel who speaks thus of himself and of his proceedings We do not present our supplications before thee for our Righteousnesses but for thy great Mercies Dan 9. The compassions of God are our Mercies while God hath store of compassions we shall not want merits St. Bern. Now God's Mercies and Compassions can never fail they renew every morning his faithfulness is very excellent Lam. 3. As I live saith the Lord God I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked but that the wicked turn from his way and live Ezek. 33. I am he I am he that blots out all thy sins for mine own sake and will not remember thy transgressions Isai 45. Although our sins and iniquities appear to us with all the deformity and ugliness of Hell Be not overcome with grief nor cast your selves into despair Let us rather say with the Prophet Jeremiah Wherefore doth a living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Let us search and try our ways and turn again to the Lord. Let us lift up our Heart with our Hands unto God in the Heavens Or let us speak in the language of Micah Who is a God like unto thee that pardoneth iniquity and passeth by the transgressions of the remnant of his Heritage he retaineth not his anger for ever because he delighteth in Mercy He will come again he will have compassion upon us he will subdue our iniquities and thou wilt cast out their sins into the depths of the Sea Micah 7. Let us comfort our selves with the words of the Prophet Daniel To the Lord our God belongs Mercies and Forgivenesses though we have rebelled against him Dan. 7. Tell me not again I know that God is Good and Merciful but I have offended him too much to believe that he will vouchsafe me a Pardon and have Mercy upon me After many repented Vows after many Groans Sighs and Tears of Repentance I have returned as the Dog to his Vomit and as the Swine to wallow in the Mire 2 Pet. 2. But wretched sinner learn for thy comfort that when thy sins should be as many as the Sand of the Sea-shore or as the Stars of the Sky Is 44. If thou dost now sincerely repent of them with a contrite Soul God will blot them out as the Cloud and will cast them into the Sea for God's Mercy hath no bounds and his Compassions are infinite Micah 7. When thy Brother hath offended thee if he aske forgiveness the Lord Commands that thou shouldest pardon him not only seven times but seventy and seven times Matth. 17. How much more reason hast thou to believe that God of his infinite Goodness and Mercy will pardon thee more sins and oftener therefore instead of murmuring over thy miscarriages accept of the precious Balm of his Divine Consolations and say with the Royal Prophet Bless the Lord O my soul and all that is within me bless his Holy Name Bless the Lord O my Soul and forget not all his benefits who forgiveth all thine iniquities who healeth all thy diseases who redeemeth thy life from destruction who crowneth thee with loving kindnesses and tender mercies who satisfieth thy mouth with good things so that thy youth is renewed like the Eagles The Lord executeth Righteousness and Judgement for all that are oppressed the Lord is merciful and gracious slow to anger and plenteous in mercy He will not always chide neither will he keep his anger for ever he hath not dealt with us after our sins nor rewarded us according to our iniquities for a the Heaven is high above the Earth so great is his mercy towards them that fear him as far as the East is from the West so far hath he removed our transgressions from us Like as a Father pitieth his Children so the Lord pitieth them that fear him Psal 103. Don't answer me that your sins are so grievous and abominable that you cannot expect a Pardon for when they should be as high as the proudest Mountains if thou art really sensible of their weight if they make thee to sigh and groan God's infinite Mercy like a Deluge shall cover and wash them away Lam. 5. or like a Torrent it shall transport them out of his sight for when sin abounds God's Grace will super-abound in case there be true Repentance Is 1 When your sins should be as Scarlet they shall be as white as Snow when they should be as red as Vermilion they shall become as white as Wooll All the offences that you are guilty of since you are in the World are finite and limited but God's Mercy is infinite O Lord if thou shouldest mark iniquities who shall stand but there is
not wrath very sore O Lord neither remember iniquity for ever behold see we beseech thee we are all thy People By this gracious and loving Title of Father the prodigal Son is perswaded to be able to oblige his Father to have compassion of him I will rise and go to my Father and will say unto him Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee and am no more worthy to be called thy Son make me as one of thy hired Servants Thus although we have forsaken our Heavenly Father mispent the Riches of his Grace and lived a filthy and a prophane Life Nevertheless if we can be but moved with a serious and a true repentance and say to him from our hearts Father I have sinned against Heaven and against thee I am no more worthy to be called thy Son He will forget all the miscarriages of our youth and will pass by all the offences that we have committed out of ignorance or mistake nay he will blot out all our wilful and deliberate sins he will not only embrace us when we shall cast our selves at his feet and in the arms of his Mercy but he will meet and receive us as his dearest Children he will kiss us with the blessed kisses of his Fatherly love he will give unto us his Holy Spirit that shall seal us for the day of Redemption and shall assure us that we are admitted to the liberty and all the priviledges of his Children he will shooe our Feet with the preparation of the Gospel of Peace and will give us all the assurances of our entire and perfect reconciliation He will cloath us here upon Earth with the Robes of Righteousness and Holiness and in Heaven he will bestow upon us uncorruptible Robes of immortality and Glory In this life he will give us the foretasts of Eternal Happiness and in the life to come he will lead us by the hand into the Banqueting Chamber and will cause us to sit there at Table with Abraham Isaack and Jacob and with all the First-born whose names are written in Heaven Out of this celestial abode all murmurings and complaints shall be banished but here shall be rejoycing and gladness for the conversion of poor sinners and for their admittance into the Kingdom of Heaven God himself shall invite the Holy Angels and blessed Spirits to share in these publick rejoycings saying to them We must rejoyce for these my Children were dead but now they are alive they were lost but now they are found again Let the miserable slaves of the Devil and of their filthy Lusts tremble at the approaches of death and let them look upon God as a dreadful Judge Rom. 2. For our parts we have not the spirit of Bondage to be again in fear but we have the spirit of Adoption whereby we may cry Abba Father Let the Sons and Daughters of Adam who have no other Being nor Life but that which they have received with their corrupted Nature fly from God's Presence for our parts we that are Regenerated by the Spirit of the second Adam we will draw near to him with boldness We will not say as that wretched Soul disturbed and frighted at the consideration of its crimes I heard thy voice I was afraid and hid myself Gen. 3. But rather having been brought up in the Schools of the Prophets and Apostles and having learn'd that we must prefer our Obedience to God's Will to all other things whatsoever we shall say unto him with Samuel Speak Lord for thy servant heareth 1 Sam. 8. Or rather we will speak unto him in plainer terms O my God and Heavenly Father speak when thou wilt for thy servant is ready and resolved to obey thy Commands we will stay till God shall call the fourth time as that Holy Man Numb 31. Who because of his tender and unexperienced years could not distinguish between God's voice and that of a Man but we will have our Ears always open to his Divine Orders and at the first motion and summons of his Will we shall be ready to follow him as the Children of Israel were in the Wilderness when they raised their Camp and marched according to God's directions Numb 3. And as when the Levites stopt and put down the Ark in its own place 2 Chron. 3. Moses did commonly pray O Lord give rest to the thousands of Israel Likewise you believing Souls whom God hath chosen for his Ark and Temple assoon as you shall perceive that this wise Governor of Mankind intends to put a period to your painful Journey and laborious Race that is to say assoon as you shall perceive the least signe of death speak with an Holy confidence and joy Rejoyce O my Soul the time of thy freedom and of thine Eternal Rest approacheth Here is the Messenger of good news here is Death that will usher me in to the Glorious Palace of my Heavenly Father Father the hour is come Glorify thy Son that thy Son may Glorify thee John 17. When the hour was come that our Lord Jesus Christ was to go out of this World to the Father he said unto his Disciples who were grieved for his going from them If ye loved me ye would rejoyce because I said I go unto the Father for my Father is greater than I John 13. John 14. Christian Souls speak in this manner at the hour of your departing If such as are about you happen to weep and lament if they endeavour to move and stop you by the considerations of Flesh and Bloud tell them why are you grieved at my deliverance and at the end of my misery why would you hinder and retard my Glory and Happiness O how cruel is your Love how blind and unconsiderate is your Affection Certainly if ye did love me as ye ought ye would prefer my satisfaction and the accomplishment of my happiness to the small advantages that ye might gather from my abode with you ye should consider that the least part of the joy that I shall feel in my Heavenly Fathers House is a thousand times more worth than all the Pleasures of the Earth than the Honors of the Age and the Pomp and Glory of the World My friends or rather my enemies let me go for I go to my Father I go to behold his Face which is the most Divine satisfaction I go to take possession of that Inheritance prepared for me from the foundations of the World John 20. Matth. 21. A Prayer and Meditation for a believing Soul that strengthens it self against the fears of Death by an Assurance and Trust upon God's Fatherly Goodness and Infinite Mercy MY God and Creator I perceive that the time of my departure draweth near and that Death presseth sore upon me It summons me to appear before thy dreadful Tribual it frights me when it brings to my remembrance all my former sins and represents unto me the hainousness of my crimes O Great God when I seriously think upon what I am
any time we begin to sink and that our Soul is frighted this almighty Lord who hath not only delivered himself but is the Saviour and Deliverer of his Church will speak unto us as to his Apostle O Man of little Faith why didst thou doubt knowest thou not that I command the Winds that I can still the Waves and drive from thee the Tempest knowst thou not that I have in my hands the Keys of Hell and of Death When a person is to go to a place of rest and happiness and that he cannot pass to it but through a painful and thorny passage he marcheth with resolution and courage when a friend of his is gone before and stretcheth out unto him his hand to help him Now it is not possible to attain to the glories of Heaven and the joys of Paradise but through the passage of Death a passage very uneasie and grievous to our present seeming But Jesus Christ who loves us with an eternal Love hath gone through this passage before us he is past from this World to the Father he is gone to his God and to our God And that we might go to him he hath sent the Light of his holy Word to direct us John 2. he vouchsafes unto us his Staff and his Rod to comfort us Ps 23. and stretcheth out the right hand of his Almighty power to cause us to pass from Death to Life where I am saith he there shall also my Servant be Joh. 12. When the Apostles went up to Jerusalem and Jesus went before them Mark 9. they were terrified and frighted but we that go up to the Heavenly Jerusalem and tred upon the footsteps of this mighty Saviour ought to be full of boldness and Christian confidence This great God and Saviour Reigns in Heaven he Commands in the Earth the Sea and the Deep therefore we may Dye without Fear and with an holy Joy For who would not rejoyce to enter into the Glorious Palace of Immortality where we should see not only the Patriarchs Prophets Apostles Martyrs the holy and blessed Virgin with all the Saints of Paradice but we shall see face to face our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ whom so many Kings and Prophets have desired to see and hear While we remain in these Bodies we are absent from the Lord therefore we rather desire to be absent from the Body and to be with Christ this Consideration causeth the holy Apostle to confess That his desire was to depart and to be with Christ which was far better for him Phil. 11. The Queen of Sheba left her Kingdom and came from a corner of the Earth to see King Solomon who was but a Type of Christ and who had but a little of his wisdom and glory and is there any Treasure on Earth any Honour in this Age or pleasure in this Life that might hinder us from going to see our Saviour Jesus Christ When he was in his Infancy the Shepherds left their Flocks and made hast towards Bethlehem to look upon him the wise Men came from the East to adore him and if he were yet on Earth we should undertake a tedious Pilgrimage to the ends of the World and part with our dearest enjoyments to see him But the little Village of Bethlehem is nothing in comparison of the celestial Jerusalem and what is the sight of the Lord Jesus in swadling Cloathes lying in a Manger and in the Arms of his Blessed Mother in comparison of the sight of a Christ cloathed with Light Crowned with Glory and sitting at the right hand of God the Father upon a Magnificent Throne Worshiped by all the Angels and the glorified Spirits The Father of the Faithful was transported with Joy when he saw in Spirit the day of the Lord and the Spouse in the Canticles was exceeding glad when she heard him knocking at her door and old Simon was ravished above measure when he held Christ in his Arms how much more shall we be transported and ravished into admiration and Joy when we shall look upon him as he is now in the highest Glory and raised to the most magificent Estate when we shall enjoy him never to leave him again When St. Stephen beheld the Heavens open and Jesus Christ sitting at the right hand of God the Father his face became radiant as that of an Angel Therefore how luminous and shining shall our Countenances be when we shall be entered into these places of Light and when we shall behold with open face this â—iessed Redeemer for ever When old Jacob heard that Joseph was alive and Reigning 〈◊〉 Egypt whom he had so tenderly loved and for whom he had shed so many tears he was most passionately â—esirous to see again this dear Son and to behold his glorâ— It is enough saith he Joseph is yet alive I will go and see him before I dye Gen. 45. And what think you believing Souls when you understand that your true Josâ—ph whom you heartily love Lives and Raigns above in â—â—eâ—ven and that he is there Worshipped by all the glorified Spirits do not you earnestly desire to see his Face and â—o behold his Divin Glory and Happiness This old Father was weak and feeble through Age and oppressed with Grief but his Spirit did revive when he saw the Wagons that Joseph hâ—d sent to fetch him and you my Christian Brethren when old Age and Sickness have weakened your bodies and grief and displeasure have undermined your Hearts do not you feel your selves revive when Death draws near and you perceive with the eye of Faith the Horses and Charriots which Christ hath sent ot carry you away to the Paradice of his Glory Seeing that Joseph received his Father and Brethren with Tears of Joy and all the House of Pharoah rung with outward expressions of gladness with what Joy with what kindness and love will Christ embrace us and what Joy will there be in Heaven at our arrival it is not to be expressed but with the Tongues of Angels Joseph fed his Father and his Brethren but he never yielded up unto them any part of his Glory Whereas our Lord Jesus Christ who excells Joseph as much in Power and Glory as in Love and Mercy shall not only feed us with the Bread of his Kingdome and give us to Drink of the Rivers of his Pleasures but he will also impart unto us some of his Glory and Magnificence as he promised to his Apostles I appoint unto you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me Luke 22. To him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in my Throne even as I also overcame and am set down with my Father in his Throne be thou faithfull untill Death and I will give thee a Crown of Life Rev. 3. Josephs Brethren notwithstanding his Glory and Power became afterward Slaves but Jesus Christ will place upon our Head a Crown of pure Gold Joseph could never defend his Brethren from Death they all Died
we may conclude that although in Heaven we shall know one another we shall have nothing of that carnal love which we have at present and which causeth us to put so much difference between one person and another A father may know his Children but his love shall not be grounded upon considerations of flesh and blood he shall love them only because they are amongst the Children of God and the Heirs of his Kingdom and because he shall see them appear in the Image of the Heavenly Father cloathed with his Light and Crowned with his Immortal Glory Finally we shall love no body but in God and for his sake as they shall be in God and God in them In this manner it shall not be possible to love them more or less Charity or Love the Queen of Vertues shall then sit upon its Throne and attain to its highest degree and perfection If you think seriously upon this Christians you shall easily find arguments to answer the vain objections of such as say that if we come to the knowledge of one another in Heaven that shall be able to disturb our satisfaction and rest for as it will be a comfort and joy to meet there with our Parents and Friends in like manner it will be a trouble and dissatisfaction not to find there all such whom we have formerly loved We may retort the same objection in a stronger manner against those that believe that we shall not know one another in Heaven for we may say also that if we know not the persons we shall not know whether our Parents or our Friends are there and that this is as likely to disturbe and trouble the quiet and satisfaction of our minds But to argue in this gross manner is to confound Heaven with the Earth Grief and displeasure can never be admitted in a Paradice of joy and perfect happiness In this glorious condition our knowledge shall be so clear our Charity so pure our Love for God so servent that as we shall love all things which God shall love and where his Image shall appear so it shall not be possible for us to love them whom God shall hate them who shall bear the marks and similitudes of the Devil When David was yet here on Earth he said unto God Lord shall not I hate them that hate thee I hate them with a perfect hatred they have been to me as mine Enemies Ps 39. In the same manner we shall rather speak in Heaven in the estate of perfection when God shall be in us all in all and we shall be all in God Some there are that inquire what kind of language we shall speak in Heaven some reply that we shall speak the Language of Angels grounding their opinion upon what St. Paul speaks to the Corinthians When I should speak with the Tongues of Men and Angels If I have not charity I am become as sounding Brass and a tinkling Simbal But this is a Chimerian opinion for as the Angels are pure Spirits by consequence they can have no Tongue nor proper language I confess in some holy Apparitions Angels have spoken to Men but it was by moving the Tongues of their borrowed Bodies or by employing some other corporal Organ then they did speak in the Language of those unto whom they were sent they had no particular or proper Dialect But if Angels did speak their Language would excell as much that of Men as the Angelical Nature excells the Humane by the Tongues of Angels therefore our Apostle understands an excellent Tongue better then that of Men. Others fancy that in Heaven we shall speak no other Language but the Hebrew because say they that it is the Tongue which God hath Sanctified from the beginning of the World in which he spoke to the Patriarcks and Holy Prophets in which he proclaimed his Law upon Mount Sina in the audience of all the People of Israel and in which he hath Recorded his Sacred Law with his own Finger They say that it is the Language which Adam did speak in the Earthly Paradice in the state of innocency and which all the Inhabitants of the World did speak before God sent amongst them a Division of Tongues Others are yet of opinion that as then we shall attain to all Knowledge and Sciences we shall not be ignorant of all kind of Languages but that we shall speak them all in a most perfect manner and that with them we shall declare the wonderful Works of God as the Apostles did at the day of Pentecost As the holy Scripture is silent upon this matter I shall affirm nothing But in general terms I may say that as God caused a division of Tongues to punish Mans insolency and pride and that as the differing Languages of People is an effect of their Sin it is most certain that this confusion and difference shall be altogether taken away and that nothing shall be said in Heaven but shall be very well understood by all the glorified Saints I may add moreover that in case we should speak so well all manner of Languages which have been in the World it is nevertheless very likely that we shall all speak but one Language that we may all praise God with the same voice but whether this shall be the Holy Language or another more perfect and majestick which God shall sanctifie for this purpose we cannot know until God of his infinite Mercy shall have raised us to this estate of Glory and perfect Happiness From what we have already said Christians you may easily understand that our happiness hath three steps or degrees the first is attainable in this Life the second at the Egress of the Soul out of the Body the third at the great day of our glorious Resurrection for already in this Life God bestows upon us the First-Fruits of his Glory and the fore-tasts of Heaven The Spirit of God and of his Glory rests at present upon us which fills us full of an unspeakable glorious joy and with the peace of God which surpasseth all understanding When our Souls depart out of this wretched and crasie Body God gathers them up into the bundle of Life he introduceth them into the blessed company of the Angels and Glorified Spirits and admits them to the Contemplation of his Face which is fulness of Joy But in this joyful day when Christ shall come down from Heaven to judge the quick and the dead he will carry us both in Soul and Body to the highest Glory and Happiness whereof we are capable for this reason the Name of Glory is ascribed to this high degree of happiness which is promised to us at the blessed appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ as in the 8 Chap. to the Romans where the Apostle saith That the Creature was made subject to vanity not willingly but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope because the Creature it self shall be delivered from the Bondage of Corruption into