contrary with thee or if no such work be found within thee but thy soul be a stranger to all this and thy conscience tell thee it is none of thy case The Lord have mercy on thy soul and open thine eyes and do this great work upon thee and by his mighty power overcome thy resistance For in the case thou art in there is no hope What ever thy deceived heart may think or how strong soever thy false hopes be or though now a little while thou flatter thy soul in confidence and security Yet wilt thou shortly finde to thy cost except thy through conversion do prevent it that thou art none of these people of God and the Rest of the Saints belongs not to thee Thy dying hour draws neer apace and so doth that great day of separation when God will make an everlasting difference between his people and his enemies Then wo and for ever wo to thee if thou be found in the state that thou art now in Thy own tongue will then proclaim thy wo with a thousand times more dolor and vehemence then mine can possibly do it now O that thou wert wise to consider this and that thou wouldst remember thy latter end That yet while thy soul is in thy body and a price in thy hand and day light and opportunity and hope before thee thine ears might be open to instruction and thy heart might yield to the perswasions of God and thou mightest bend all the powers of thy soul about this great work that so thou mightest Rest among his People and enjoy the inheritance of the Saints in Light And thus I have shewed you who these People of God are SECT VII ANd why they are called the People of God you may easily from what is said discern the Reasons 1. They are the People whom he hath chosen to himself from eternity 2. And whom Christ hath redeemed with an absolute intent of saving them which cannot be said of any other 3. Whom he hath also renewed by the power of his grace and made them in some sort like to himself stamping his own Image on them and making them holy as he is holy 4. They are those whom he embraceth with a peculiar Love and do again love him above all 5. They are entered into a strict and mutual Covenant wherein it is agreed for the Lord to be their God and they to be his People 6. They are brought into neer relation to him even to be his Servants his Sons and the Members and Spouse of his Son 7. And lastly They must live with him for ever and be perfectly blessed in enjoying his Love and beholding his Glory And I think these are Reasons sufficient why they particularly should be called his People The Conclusion ANd thus I have explained to you the subject of my Text and shewed you darkly and in part what this Rest is and briefly who are this People of God O that the Lord would now open your eyes and your hearts to discern and be affected with the Glory Revealed That he would take off your hearts from these dunghil delights and ravish them with the views of these Everlasting Pleasures That he would bring you into the state of this Holy and Heavenly People for whom alone this Rest remaineth That you would exactly try your selves by the foregoing Description That no Soul of you might be so damnably deluded as to take your natural or acquired parts for the Characters of a Saint O happy and thrice happy you if these Sermons might have such success with your Souls That so you might die the death of the Righteous and your last End might be like his For this Blessed Issue as I here gladly wait upon you in Preaching so will I also wait upon the Lord in Praying FINIS THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. The Second Part. Containing the Proofes of the Truth and Certain futurity of our REST. And that the Scripture promising that Rest to us is The perfect infallible Word and Law of God For the Prophesie came not in old time by the will of man but holy men of God spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost 2 Pet. 1.21 Verily I say unto you till heaven and earth pass one jot or one title shall in no wise pass from the Law till all be fulfilled Mat. 5.18 They have Moses and the Prophets let them hear them If they hear not Moses and the Prophets neither will they be perswaded though one rose from the dead Luk. 16.29 31. Ego solis iis Scripturarum libris qui jam Canonici appellantur didici hunc timorem honoremque deferre ut nullum eorum authorum scribendo aliquid errasse firmissimè credam Aug. Ep. 9. ad Hieron Major est hujus Scripturae Authoritas quam omnis humani ingenii perspicacitas August li. 15. super Genes ad liter London Printed by Rob. White for T. Vnderhill and F. Tyton and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in great Woodstreet and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1649. To my dearly beloved Friends The Inhabitants of BRIDGNORTH Both Magistrates and People Richard Baxter Devoteth this Part of this TREATISE In Testimony of his unfeigned love to them who were the first to whom he was sent as fixed to publish the Gospel And in thankfulness to the Divine Majesty who there priviledged and protected him HUmbly beseeching the God of Mercy both to save them from that spirit of Pride Separation and Levity which hath long been working among them and also to awake them throughly from their negligence and security by his late heavy judgments on them And that as the flames of War have consumed their houses so the Spirit of God may consume the sin that was the cause And by those flames they may be effectually warned to prevent the everlasting flames And that their new-built houses may have new-born Inhabitants And that the next time God shall search and try them he may not finde one house among them where his Word is not daily studied and obeyed and where they do not fervently call upon his Name TO THE READER IT was far from my thoughts when I first begun it to have so enlarged this as to be a Part entire Most of it dropt from my Pen besides my first purpose Had I intended to say so much of the Authority of Scripture I should have stayed till I had the benefit of a Library that I might have furnished it better with Humane Testimony which I here insist on as so necessary Though our History of the first and second Century be lamentably imperfect yet much for the ends here mentioned may be produced I would not have young Students begin with the large Volumns of later Fathers but I could wish they would read betime the Writers of the three first Centuries especially those that argue for the Christian Faith or mix matters of Fact with their
None in the world hath that interest in their hearts as you You will receive that counsel from an undoubted friend that you would not do from an enemy or a stranger VVhy now your children cannot choose but know that you are their friends and advise them in love and they cannot choose but love you again Their love is loose and arbitrary to others but to you it is determinate and fast nature hath almost necessitated them to love you O therefore improve this your interest in them for their good 3. You have also the greatest authority over them You may command them and they dare not disobey you or else it is your owne fault for the most part for you can make them obey you in your business in the world Yea you may correct them to inforce obedience Your authority also is the most unquestioned authority in the world The authority of Kings and Parliaments hath been disputed but yours is past dispute And therefore if you use it not to constrain them to the works of God you are without excuse 4. Besides their whole dependance is on you for their maintenance and livelihood They know you can either give them or deny them what you have and so punish or reward them at your pleasure But on Ministers or neighbors they have no such dependance 5. Moreover you that are parents know the temper and inclinations of your children what vices they are most inclined to and what instruction or reproof they most need But Ministers that live more strange to them cannot know this 6. Above all you are ever with them and so have opportunity as to know their faults so to apply the remedy You may be still talking to them of the word of God and minding them of their state and duty and may follow and set home every word of advice as they are in the house with you or in the shop or in the feild at work O what an excellent advantage is this if God do but give you hearts to use it Especially you mothers remember this you are more with your children while they are little ones then their fathers be you therefore still teaching them as soon as ever they are capable of learning You cannot do God such eminent service your selves as men but you may train up children that may do it and then you will have part of the comfort and honor Bathsheba had part of the honor of Solomons wisdom Pro. 31.1 for she taught him And Timothe's mother and grandmother of his piety Plutrach speaks of a Spartan woman that when her neighbors were shewing their apparel and jewels she brought out her children vertuous and well taught and said These are my ornaments and Jewels O how much more would this adorn you then your bravery What a deal of pains are you at with the bodies of your children more then the fathers And what do you suffer to bring them into the world and will not you be at as much pains for the saving of their souls You are naturally of more tender affections then men and will it not move you to think that your children should perish for ever O therefore I beseech you for the sake of the children of your bowels teach them admonish them watch over them and give them no rest till you have brought them over to Christ. And thus I have shewed you reason enough to make you diligent in teaching your children if reason will serve as me thinks among reasonable creatures it should do SECT XII LEt us next hear what is usually objected against this by negligent men Object 1. We do not see but those children prove as bad as others that are taught the Scriptures and brought up so holily And those prove as honest men and good neighbors that have none of this ado with them Answ. 1. O who art thou man that disputest against God Hath God charged you to teach your children diligently his word speaking of it as you sit at home and as you walk abroad as you lye down and as you rise up Deut. 6.6 7 8. and dare you reply that it is as good let it alone VVhy this is to set God at defiance and as it were to spit in his face and give him the lye VVill you take it well at your servants if when you command them to do a thing they should return you such an answer that they do not see but it were as good let it alone VVretched worm darest thou thus lift up thy head against the Lord that made thee and must judg thee Is it not he that commandeth thee If thou dost not believe that this Scripture is his word thou dost not believe in Jesus Christ for thou hast nothing else to tell thee that there is a Christ. And if thou do believe that this is the word of God how darest thou say It is as good disobey it This is devillish pride indeed when such sottish sinful dust shall think themselves wiser then the living God take upon them to reprove and cancel his word 2. But alas you know not what honesty is when you say that the ignorant are as honest as others You think those are the honestest men that best please you But I know those are the most honest that best please God Christ saith in Luk 8.15 that an honest heart is that which keepeth the word of God and you say they are as honest that reject it God made men to please himself and not to please you And you may know by his Laws who please him best The Commandments have two Tables and the first is Thou shalt love the Lord with all thy heart and the second Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thy self First seek the Kingdom of God and his Righteousness Mat. 6.33 3. And what if some prove naught that are well brought up It is not the generality of them will you say that Noahs family was no better then the drowned world because there was one Chaus in it Nor Davids because there was one Absalom Nor Christs because there was one Judas 4. But what if it were so Have men need of the less teaching or the more you have more wit in the matters of this world you will not say I see many labor hard and yet are poor and therefore it is as good never labor at all you will not say Many that go to School learn nothing and therefore they may learn as much though they never go Or many that are great tradesmen break and therefore it is as good never trade at all Or many great eaters are as lean as others and many sick men recover no strength though they eat and therefore it is as good for men never to eat more Or many plow and sow and have nothing comes up and therefore it is as go 〈…〉 to plow more VVhat a fool were he that should reaso◠thus And is not he a thousand times worse that shall reason thus for mens
did not Christ dye to save sinners Never trouble your head with these thoughts but believe and you shall do well Thus do they follow the Soul that is escaping from Satan with restless cries till they have brought him back Oh how many thousands have such chaâ—ms kept a sleep in deceit and security till death and Hell have awaked and better informed them The Lord calls to the sinner and tells him The Gate is strait the way is narrow and few find it Try and examine whether thou be in the faith or no give all diligence to make sure in time And the world cries out clean contrary Never doubt Never trouble your selves with these thoughts I intreat the sinner that is in this strait to consider That it is Christ and not their fathers or mothers or neighbors or friends that must judge them at last and if Christ condemn them these cannot save them and therefore common Reason may tell them that it is not from the words of Ignorant men but from the word of God that they must fetch their comforts and hopes of Salvation When Ahab would enquire among the multitudes of flattering Prophets it was his death They can flatter men into the snare but they cannot tell how to bring them out Oh take the counsel of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 5.6 7. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them And Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation SECT VIII 3. BUT the greatest hinderances are in mens own hearâ—s 1. Some are so Ignorant that they know not what Self-Examination is nor what a Minister means when he perswadeth them to Try themselves Or they know not that there is any Necessity of it but think every man is bound to Believe that God is his Father and that his sins are pardoned whether it be true or false and that it were a great fault to make any Question of it Or they do not think that Assurance can be attained or that there is any such great differences betwixt one man and another but that we are all Christians and therefore need not to trouble our selves any further Or at least they know not wherein the difference lies nor how to set upon this searching of their hearts nor to find out its secret motions and to judge accordingly They have as gross Conceits of that Regeneration which they must search for as Nicodemus had John 3.5 And when they should Try whether the Spirit be in them they are like those in Act. 19.2 That knoew not whether there were a Holy Ghost to be received or no. 2. Some are such Infidels that they will not Believe that ever God wil make such a difference betwixt men in the life to come and therefore will not search themselves whether they differ here Though Judgment and Resurrection be in their Creed yet they are not in their Faith 3. Some are so Dead-hearted that they perceive not how neerly it doth concern them let us say what we can to them they lay it not to heart but give us the hearing and there 's an end 4. Some are so possessed with Self-love and Pride that they will not so much as suspect any such danger to themselves Like a proud Tradesman who scorns the motion when his friends desire him to cast up his Books because they are afraid he will Break. As some fond Parents that have an over-weening conceit of their own Children and therefore will not believe or hear any evil of them such a fond self-Self-love doth hinder men from suspecting and trying their states 5. Some are so guilty that they dare not try They are so fearful that they shallâ—find their estates unsound that they dare not search into them And yet they dare venture them to a more dreadful Tryal 6. Some are so far in love with their sin and so far in dislike with the way of God that they dare not fall on the Tryal of their ways least they be forced from the course which they love to that which they loath 7. Some are so Resolved already never to change their present state that they neglect Examination as a useless thing Before they will turn so precise and seek a new way when they have lived so long and gone so far they will put their Eâ—ernal state to the venture come of it what will And when a man is fully resolved to hold on his way and not to turn back be it right or wrong to what end should he enquire whether he bâ— right or no 8. Most men are so taken up with their worldly affairs and are so busie in driving the trade of providing for the flesh that they cannot set themselves to the Trying of their title to Heaven They have another kind of happiness in their eye which they are pursuing which will not suffer them to make sure of Heaven 9. Most men are so clogged with a Laziness and Slothfulness of Spirit that they will not be perswaded to be at the paines of an hours Examination of their own hearts It requireth some labour and diligence to accomplish it throughly and they will rather venture all then set about it 10. But the most common and dangerous impediment is that false Faith and Hope commonly called Presumption which bears up the hearts of the most of the world and so keeps them from suspecting their danger Thus you see what abundance of difficulties must be overcome before a man can closely set upon the Examining of his heart I do but name them for brevity sake SECT IX AND if a man do break through all these impediments and set upon the Duty yet assurance is not presently attained Of those few who do enquire after Marks and Means of Assurance and bestow some pains to learn the difference between the sound Christian and the unsound and look often into their own hearts yet divers are deceiv'd and do miscarry especially through these following causes 1. There is such a Confusion and darkness in the Soul of man especially of an unregenerate man that he can scarcely tell what he doth or what is in him As one can hardly finde any thing in a house where nothing keeps his place but all is cast on a heap together so is it in the heart where all things are in disorder â—specially when darkness is added to this disorder so that the heart is like an obscure Cave or Dungeon where there is but a little crevise of light and a man must rather grope then see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heart and so miscarry in judging of their estates 2. And the rather because most men do accustom themselves to be strangers at home and are little taken up with observing the temper and motions of their own hearts All their studies are imployed without them and they are no where less
them to God and the Redeemer 17. That the means by which Christ worketh and preserveth this Grace is the Word Read and Preached together with frequent â—ervent Prayer Meditation Sacraments gracious Conference and it is much furthered also by special Providences keeping us from temptations fitting Occurrences to our advantage drawing us by Mercies and driving us by Afflictions and therefore it must be the great and daily care of every Christian to use faithfully all the said Ordinaces and improve the said providences 18. That though the new Law or Covenant be an easie yoak and there is nothing to be grievous in Christs Commands yet so bad are our hearts and so strong our temptations and so diligent our enemies that whosoever will be saved he must strive and watch and bestow his utmost care and pains and deny his flesh and forsake all that would draw him from Christ and herein continue to the end and overcome And because this cannot be done without continual supplies of Grace whereof Christ is the onely Fountain therefore we must live in continual dependance on him by Faith and know That our life is hid with God in him 19. That Christ will thus by his Word and Spirit gather him a Church of all the elect out of the world which is his body and spouse and he their head and husband and will be tender of theâ— as the apple of his eye and preserve them from dangers and continue among them his presence and ordinances And that the members of this Church must live together in most entire Love and Peace delighting themselves in God and his worship and the fore-thoughts and mention of their everlasting happiness forbearing and forgiving one another and â—â—â—ieving each other in need as if that which they have were their brothers And all men ought to strive to be of this society Yet will the visible Churches be still mixt of good and bad 20. That when the fall number of these elect are called home Christ will come down from heaven again and raise all the dead and set them before him to be judged And all that have loved God above all and believed in Christ and been willing that he should reign over them and have improved their mercies in the day of grace them he will Justifie and sentence them to inherit the Everlasting Kingdom of Glory and those that were not such he will condemn to Everlasting fire Both which sentences shall be then executed accordingly This is the Creed or brief sum of the doctrine which you 〈◊〉 teach your children SECT XVIII THen for matter of practice teach them the meaning of the Commandments especially of the great Commands of the Gospel shew them what is commanded and forbidden in the first table and in the second toward God and men in regard of the inward and the outward man And here shew them 1. The Authority commanding that is the Almighty God by Christ the Redeemer They are not now to look at command as coming from God immediatly meerly as God or the Creator but as coming from God by Christ the Mediator who is now the Lord of all and only Lawgiver seeing the father now Judgeth no man but hath committed all Judgment to the Son John 5.22 23 24. 2. Shew them the tearms on which duty is required and the ends of it 3. And the nature and duties and the way to perform them aright 4. And the right order that they first love God above all and then their neighbor first seek the Kingdom of God and his righteousness 5. Shew them the excellencies and delights of Gods service 6. And the flat necessity 7. Especially labor to get all their hearts and teach them not only to speak the words And for sin shew them its evil and danger and watch over them against it Especially 1. The sins that youth is commonly addicted to 2. And which their nature and constitution most leads them to 3. And which the time and place do most strongly tempt to 4. But specially be sure to kill their killing sins those that all are prone to and are of all most deadly as Pride Worldliness Ignorance Profaneness and Flesh-pleasing And for the manner you must do all this 1. Betime before sin get rooting 2. Frequently 3. Seasonably 4. Seriously and diligently 5. Affectionatly and tenderly 6. And with authority compelling where commanding will not serve and adding correction where instruction is frustrate And thus I have done with this Use of exhortation to do our â—tmost for the Salvation of others The Lord give men compassionate hearts that it may be practiced and then I doubt not but he will succeed it to the increase of his Church FINIS THE SAINTS Everlasting REST. The Fourth Part. Containing a Directory for the getting and keeping of the Heart in Heaven By the diligent practice of that Excellent unknown Duty of Heavenly Meditation Being the main thing intended by the Author in the writing of this Book and to which all the rest is but subservient And Isaac went out to meditate in the Field at the Eventide Gen. 24 63. In the multitude of my Thoughts within me thy Comforts delight my soul Psal. 94.19 When I wake I am still with thee Psal. 139 18. For our Conversation is in Heaven from whence also we look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ Who shall change our vile body that it may be fashioned like unto his glorious Body according to the working whereby he is able even to subdue all things to himself Phil. 3.20 21. For where your Treasure is there will your Heart be also Matth. 6.21 Master it is good for us to be here Mark 9.5 London Printed by Rob. White for T. Vnderhill and F. Tyton and are to be sold at the sign of the Bible in great Woodstreet and at the three Daggers in Fleetstreet 1649. TO MY Dearly beloved friends in the Lord The Inhabitants of the Town of SHREWSBVRY Both Magistrates Ministers and People As also Of the Neighbouring Parts Rich. Baxter Devoteth this Practicall Part of this Treatise As a Testimony of his Love to his Native Soyl And to his many Godly and Faithfull Friends there living HEartily praying the Lord and Head of the Church to keep them in Unity Peace Humility Vigilancy and Stedfastness in the Truth and to cause them to contribute their utmost endeavours for the setting up of able faithfull Teachers and building up the House of God which hath so long been neglected and which hath now so many hands imployed to divide and demolish it And that the Lord would save them in this hour of Temptation that they may be approved in this tryall and not be found Light when God shall weigh them And that he would acquaint them with the daily serious exercise of this most precious spirituall soul-exalting work of HEAVENLY MEDITATION and that when the Lord shall come he may finde them so doing The Introduction IN the former Part I have
indeed if we were truly reasonable in spiritual things as we are in common it would be a real wonder that men should need so much perswasion to so sweet and plain a duty but I know the emplyment is high the heart is earthly and will still draw back the temptations and hinderances will be many and great and therefore I fear before we have done and laid open more fully the nature of the Duty that you will confess all these perswasions little enough The Lord grant they prove not so too little as to fail of success and leave you as they finde you Say not we are unable to set our own hearts on heaven this must be the work of God onely and therefore all your Exhortation is in vain for I tell you though God be the chief disposer of your hearts yet next under him you have the greatest command of them your selves and a great power in the ordering of your own thoughts and for determining your own wills in their choice though without Christ you can do nothing yet under him you may do much and must do much or else it will be undone and you undone through your neglect Do your own parts and you have no cause to distrust whether Christ will do his Do not your own consciences tell you when your thoughts fly abroad that you might do more then you do to restrain them and when your hearts lye flat and neglect Eternity and seldom minde the Joys before you that most of this neglect is wilful If you be to study a set Speech you can force your thoughts to the intended Subject if a Minister be to study a Sermon he can force his thoughts to the most saving Truths and that without any speciall grace might not a true Christian ther minde more the things of the life to come if he did not neglect to exerciâ—e that authority over his own thoughts which God hath given him especially in such a work as this where he may more confidently expect the assistance of Christ who useth not to forsake his people in the work he sets them on If a carnal Minister can make it his work to study about Christ and heaven through all his life time and all because it is the trade he lives by and knows not how to subsist without it why then me thinks a spiritual Christian should study as constantly the Joys of heaven because it is the very business he lives for and that the place he must be in for ever If the Cook can finde in his heart to labor and sweat about your meat because it is the trade that maintains him though perhaps he taste it not himself Me thinks then you for whom it is prepared should willingly bestow that daily pains to taste its sweetness and feed upon it and if it were about your bodily food you would think it no great pains neither a good stomack takes it for no great labor to eat and drink of the best till it be satisfied nor needs it any great invitation thereto Christians if your souls were sound and right they would perceive incomparably more delight and sweetness in Knowing Thinking Believing Loving and Rejoycing in your future Blessedness in the fruition of God then the soundest stomack findes in its food or the strongest senses in the enjoyment of their objects so little painful would this work be to you and so little should I need to press you to it it s no great pains to you to think of a friend or any thing else that you dearly love and as little would it be to think of Glory if your love and delight were truly there if you do but see some Jewel or Treasure you need not long exhortations to stir up your desires the very sight of it is motive enough if you see the fire when you are cold or see a house in a stormy day or see a safe harbor from the tempestuous seas you need not be told what use to make of it the sight doth presently direct your thoughts you think you look you long till you do obtain it Why should it not be so in the present case Sirs one would think to shew you this Crown and Glory of the Saints should be motive enough to make you desire it to shew you that Harbor where you may be safe from all dangers should soon teach you what use to make of it and should bend your daily studies towards it but because I know while we have flâ—sh about us and any remnants of that carnal minde which is enmity to God and to this noble work that all motives are little enough And because my own and others sad experiences tell me how hardly the best are drawn to a constancy and faithfulness in this duty I vvill here lay down some moving Considerations vvhich if you vvill but vouchsafe to ponder throughly and deliberately vveigh vvith an impartial judgment I doubt not but they vvill prove effectuall vvith your hearts and make you resolve upon this excellent duty I pray you friends let them not fall to the ground but take them up and try them and if you finde they concern you make much of them and obey them accordingly SECT III. 1. COnsider a heart set upon heaven will be one of the most unquestionable evidences of thy sincerity and a clear discovery of a true work of saving grace upon thy soul. You are much in enquiring after Marks of sincerity and I blame you not its dangerous mistaking when a mans salvation lies upon it You are oft asking How shall I know that I am truly sanctified Why here is a mark that will not deceive you if you can truly say that you are possessed of it Even a heart set upon Heaven Would you have a sign infallâ—ble not from me or from the mouth of any man but from the mouth of Jesus Christ himself which all the enemies of the use of Marks can lay no exception against Why here is such a one Mat. 6.21 Where your treasure is there will your hearts be also Know once assuredly where your heart is and you may easily know that your treasure is there God is the Saints Treasure and happiness Heaven is the place where they must fully enjoy him A heart therefore set upon heaven is no more but a heart set upon God desiring after this full enjoyment And surely a heart set upon God through Christ is the truest evidence of saving grace External actions are easiest discovered but those of the heart are the surest evidences When thy learning will be no good proof of thy grace when thy knowledg thy duties and thy gifts will fail thee when Arguments from thy tongue and thy hand may be confuted yet then will this Argument from the bent of thy heart prove thee sincere Take a poor Christian that can scarce speak true English about Religion that hath a weak understanding a failing memory a stammering tongue yet his heart is set on God
same and if we took the right course for fetching in our comfort from these sure our comforts would be more setled and constant though not always the same Whoever thou art therefore that Readest these lines I intreat thee in the name of the Lord and as thou valuest the life of constant Joy and that good conscience which is a continual feast that thou wouldest but seriously set upon this work and learn this Art of Heavenly-mindedness and thou shalt finde the increase a hundred fold and the benefit abundantly exceed thy labor But this is the misery of mans Nature Though every man naturally abhorreth sorrow and loves the most merry and joyful life yet few do love the way to Joy or will endure the pains by which it is obtained they will take the next that comes to hand and content themselves with earthly pleasures rather then they will ascend to heaven to seek it and yet when all is done they must have it there or be without it SECT VI. 4. COnsider A heart in heaven will be a most excellent preservative against temptations a powerful means to kill thy corruptions and to save thy conscience from the wounds of sin God can prevent our sinning though we be careless and keep off the temptation which we would draw upon our selves and sometime doth so but this is not his usual course nor is this our safest way to escape When the minde is either idle or ill imployed the devil needs not a greater advantage when he finds the thoughts let out on Lust Revenge Ambition or Deceit what an opportunity hath he to move for Execution and to put on the Sinner to practise what he thinks on Nay if he finde the minde but empty there 's room for any thing that he will bring in but when he finds the heart in heaven what hope that any of his motions should take Let him entice to any forbidden course or shew us the baite of any pleasure the soul will return Nehemiaes Answer I am doing a great work and cannot come Neh. 6.3 Several ways will this preserve us against Temptations First By keeping the heart imployed Secondly By clearing the Understanding and so confirming the Will Thirdly By prepossessing the Affections with these highest delights Fourthly And by keeping us in the way of Gods blessing First By keeping the heart employed when we are idle we tempt the devil to tempt us as it is an encouragement to a Thief to see your doors open and no body within and as we use to say Careless persons make Theeves or as it will encourage an High-way Robber to see you unweaponed so may it encourage Sathan to find your hearts idle but when the heart is taken up with God it cannot have while to hearken to Temptations it cannot have while to be lustful and wanton ambitious or worldly If a poor man have a suit to any of you he will not come when you are taken up in some great mans company or discourse that 's but an ill time to speed If you were but busied in your lawful Callings you would not be so ready to hearken to Temptations much less if you were busied above with God Will you leave your Plow and Harvest in the Field or leave the quenching of a fire in your houses to run vvith children a hunting of Butterflies vvould a Judg be perswaded to rise from the Bench vvhen he is sitting upon life and death to go and play among the Boys in the streets No more will a Christian vvhen he is busie vvith God and taking a survey of his eternal Rest give ear to the alluring charms of Sathan Non vacat exiguis c. is a Character of the truly prudent man the children of that Kingdom should never have vvhile for trifles but especially vvhen they are imployed in the affairs of the Kingdom and this employment is one of the Saints chief preservatives against temptations For as Gregory saith Nunquam Dei amor otiosus est operatur enim magna si est Si verò operari renuit non est amor The Love of God is never idle it vvorketh great things vvhen it truly is and vvhen it vvill not vvork it is not love Therefore being still thus working it is still preserving Secondly A heavenly minde is the freest from sin because it is of clearest understanding in spiritual matters of greatest concernment A man that is much in conversing above hath truer and livelyer apprehensions of things concerning God and his soul then any reading or learning can beget Though perhaps he may be ignorant in divers controversies and matters that less concern salvation yet those truths vvhich must stablish his soul and preserve him from temptation he knows far better then the greatest Scholars he hath so deep an insight into the evil of sin the vanity of the creature the brutishness of fleshly sensual delights that temptations have little power on him for these earthly vanities are Satans baites which though they may take much with the undiscerning world yet with the clear-sighted they have lost their force In vain saith Salomon the net is spread in the sight of any bird Pro. 1.17 And usually in vain doth Satan lay his snares to entrap the soul that plainly sees them when a man is on high he may see the further we use to set our discovering Centinels on the highest place that 's neer unto us that he may discern all the motions of the Enemy In vain doth the Enemy lay his Ambuscado's when we stand over him on some high Mountain and clearly discover all he doth When the heavenly-minde is above with God he may far easier from thence discern every danger that lyes below and the whole method of the devil in deceiving Nay if he did not discover the snare yet were he likelier far to escape it then any others that converse below A net or baite that 's laid on the ground is unlikely to catch the bird that flyes in the Air while she keeps above she 's out 〈◊〉 of the danger and the higher the safer so is it with us Sathans temptations are laid on the earth earth is the place and earth the ordinary baite How shall these ensnare the Christian who hath left the earth and walks with God But alas we keep not long so high but down we must to the earth again and then we are taken If conversing with wise and learned men is the way to make one wise and learned then no wonder if he that converseth with God become wise If men that travel about the earth do think to return home with more experience and wisdom how much more he that travels to heaven As the very Air and Climate that we most abide in do work our bodies to their own temper no wonder if he that is much in that sublime and purer Region have a purer soul and quicker sight and if he have an understanding full of light who liveth with
clay to totter Look on thy glass and see how it runs Look on thy watch how fast it getteth what a short moment is between us and our Rest what a step is it from hence to Everlastingness While I am thinking and writing of it it hasteth neer and I am even entring into it before I am aware While thou art reading this it pâ—steth on and thy life will be gone as a tale that is told Mayst thou not easily foresee thy dying time and look upon thy self as ready to depart It s but a few dayes till thy friends shall lay thee in the grave and others do the like for them If you verily believed you should dye to morrow how seriously would you think of Heaven to night The condemned prisoner knew before that he 〈◊〉 dye and yet he was then as Jovial as any but when he hears the sentence and knows he hath not a week to live then how it sinkes his heart within him So that the true apprehensions of the neerness of Eternity doth make mens thoughts of it to be quick and piercing and put life into their fears and sorrowes if they are unfitted and into their desires and Joyes if they have assurance of its glory When the Witches Samuel had told Saul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this quickly worked to his very heart and laid him down as dead on the earth And if Christ should say to a believing soul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this would be a working word indeed and would bring him in spirit to Heaven before As Melanchton was wont to say of his uncertain station because of the persecution of his enemies Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio 40. annos et nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse i. e. I have now been here this fourty yeers and yet could never say or be sure that I shall tarry here for one week so may we all say of our abode on earth As long as thou hast continued out of heaven thou canst not say thou shalt be out of it one week longer Do but suppose that you are still entring in it and you shall finde it will much help you more seriously to minde it SECT IV. 4. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is To be much in serious discoursing of it especially with those that can speak from their hearts and are seasoned themselves with an heavenly nature It s pitty saith Mr. Bolton that Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in Heaven or the way to it before they part Its pitty so much pretious time is spent among Christians in vain discourses foolish janglings and useless disputes and not a sober word of Heaven among them Methinks we should meet together of purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our Rest. To hear a Minister or private Christian set forth that blessed Glorious State with power and life from the Promises of the Gospel Methinks should make us say as the two Disciples Did not our hearts burn within us while he was opening to us the Scripture while he was opening to us the windows of Heaven If a Felix or wicked wretch will tremble when he hears his judgment powerfully denounced why should not the believing soul be revived when he hears his Eternal Rest revealed Get then together fellow Christians and talk of the affairs of your Country and Kingdom and comfort one another with such words 1 Thess. 4.18 If Worldlings get together they will be talking of the World when Wantons are together they will be talking of their Lusts and wicked men can be delighted in talking of wickedness and should not Christians then delight themselves in talking of Christ and the heirs of heaven in talking of their Inheritance This may make our hearts revive within us as it did Jacobs to hear the Message that called him to Goshen and to see the Chariots that should bring him to Joseph O that we were furnished with skil and resolution to turn the stream of mens common discourse to these more sublime and pretious things And when men begin to talk of things unprofitable that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven and say as Peter of his bodily food Not so for I eat not that which is common and unclean this is nothing to my eternal Rest O the good that we might both do and receive by this course If it had not been needful to deter us from unfruitful conference Christ would not have talked of giving an account of every idle word at judgment say then as David when you are in conference Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest mirth And then you shall finde the truth of that Prov. 15.4 A wholsom tongue is a Tree of Life SECT V. 5. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is this Make it thy business in every duty to winde up thy affections neerer Heaven A mans attainments and receivings from God are answerable to his own desires and ends that which he sincerely seeks he findes Gods end in the institution of his Ordinances was that they be as so many stepping stones to our Rest and as the staires by which in subordination to Christ we may daily ascend unto it in our affections Let this be thy end in using them as it was Gods end in ordaining them and doubtless they will not be unsuccessful though men be personally far asunder yet they may even by Letters have a great deal of entercourse How have men been rejoyced by a few lines from a friend though they could not see him face to face what gladness have we when we do but read the expressions of his Love or if we read of our friends prosperity and welfare Many a one that never saw the fight hath triumphed and shouted made Bonefires and rung Bels when he hath but heard and read of the Victory and may not we have entercourse with God in his Ordinances though our persons be yet so far remote May not our spirits rejoyce in the reading those lines which contain our Legacy and Charter for heaven with what Gladness may we read the expressions of Love and hear of the state of our Celestial Country with what triumphant shoutings may we applaud our Inheritance though yet we have not the happiness to behold it Men that are separated by sea and land can yet by the meer entercourse of Letters carry on both great and gainful trades even to the value of their whole estate and may not a Christian in the wise improvement of duties drive on this happy trade for Rest Come not therefore with any lower ends to duties Renounce Formality Customariness and Applause When thou kneelest down in secret or publike prayer let it be in hope to get thy heart neerer God before
The delight which a pair of special faithful friends do finde in loving and enjoying one another is a most pleasing sweet delight It seemed to the Philosophers to be above the delights of Natural or Matrimonial friendship and I think it seemed so to David himself so he concludes his Lamentation for him I am distressed for thee my brother Jonathan very pleasant hast thou been unto me thy love to me was wonderful passing the love of women 2 Sam. 1.26 Yea the soul of Jonathan did cleave to David Even Christ himself as it seemeth had some of this kinde of love for he had one Disciple whom he especially loved and who was wont to lean on his brest why think then if the delights of close and cordial friendship be so great what delight shall we have in the friendship of the most High and in our mutual amity with Jesus Christ and in the dearest love and consort with the Saints Surely this will be a closer and stricter friendship then ever was betwixt any friends on earth and these will be more lovely and desirable friends than any that ever the Sun beheld and both our affections to our Father and our Saviour but especially his affection to us will be such as here we never knew as Spirits are so far more powerful then Flesh that one Angel can destroy an Host so also are their affections more strong and powerful we shall then love a thousand times more strongly and sweetly then now we can and as all the Attributes and Works of God are incomprehensible so is the attribute and work of Love He will love us many thousand times more then we even at the perfectest are able to love him what joy then will there be in this mutuall Love SECT VII 5. COmpare also the Excellencies of heaven with those glorious works of the Creation which our eyes do now behold What a deal of wisdom and power and goodness appeareth in and through them to a wise Observer What a deal of the Majesty of the great Creator doth shine in the face of this fabrick of the world surely his Works are great and admirable sought out of them that have pleasure therein This makes the study of natural Philosophy so pleasant because the Works of God are so excellent VVhat rare workmanship is in the body of a man yea in the body of every beast which makes the Anatomical studies so delightful what excellency in every Plant we see in the beauty of Flowers in the nature diversity and use of Herbs in Fruits in Roots in Minerals and what not But especially if we look to the greater works if we consider the whole body of this earth and its creatures and inhabitants the Ocean of waters with its motions and dimensions the variation of the Seasons and of the face of the earth the entercourse of Spring and Fall of Summer and Winter what wonderful excellency do these contain Why think then in thy Meditations if these things which are but servants to sinful man are yet so full of mysterious worth what then is that place where God himself doth dwell and is prepared for the just who are perfected with Christ VVhen thou walkest forth in the Evening look upon the Stars how they glissen and in what numbers they bespangle the Firmament If in the day time look up to the glorious Sun view the wide expanded encompassing heavens and say to thy self what glory is in the least of yonder Stars what a vast what a bright resplendent body hath yonder Moon and every Planet O what an unconceiveable glory hath the Sun Why all this is nothing to the glory of Heaven yonder Sun must there be laid aside as useless for it would not be seen for the brightness of God I shall live above all yonder glory yonder is but darkness to the lustre of my Fathers House I shall be as glorious as that Sun my self yonder is but as the wall of the Pallace-yard as the Poet â—aith If in Heavens outward Court such beauty be What is the glory which the Saints do see So think of the rest of the Creatures This whole earth is but my Fathers footstool this Thunder is nothing to his dreadful voice these winds are nothing to the breath of his mouth So much wisdom and power as appeareth in all these so much and far much more greatness and goodness and loving delights shall I enjoy in the actual fruition of God Surely if the Rain which rains and the Sun which shines on the just and unjust be so wonderful the Sun then which must shine on none but Saints and Angels must needs be wonderful and ravishing in glory SECT VIII 6. COmpare the things which thou shalt enjoy above with the excellency of those admirable works of Providence which God doth exercise in the Church and in the World What glorious things hath the Lord wrought and yet we shall see more glorious then these Would it not be an astonishing sight to see the Sea stand as a Wall on the right hand and on the left and the dry Land appear in the midst and the people of Israel pass safely through and Pharoah and his people swallowed up what if we should see but such a sight now If we had seen the ten Plagues of Egypt or had seen the Rock to gush forth streams or had seen Manna or Quails rained down from Heaven or had seen the Earth open and swallow up the wicked or had seen their Armies slain with Hailstones with an Angel or by one another Would not all these have been wondrous glorious sights But we shall see far greater things then these And as our sights shall be more wonderful so also they shall be more sweet There shall be no blood nor wrath intermingled we shall not then cry out as David Who can stand before this Holy Lord God Would it not have been an astonishing sight to have seen the Sun stand still in the Firmament or to have seen Ahaz Dyal go ten degrees backward Why we shall see when there shall be no Sun to shine at all we shall behold for ever a Sun of more incomparable brightness Were it not a brave life if we might still live among wonders and miracles and all for us and not against us if we could have drought or rain at our prayers as Elias or if we could call down fire from Heaven to destroy our enemies or raise the dead to life as Elisha or cure the diseased and speak strange languages as the Apostles Alas these are nothing to the wonders which we shall see and possess with God! and all those wonders of Goodness and Love We shall possess that Pearl and Power it self through whose vertue all these works were done we shall our selves be the subjects of more wonderful mercies then any of these Jonas was raised but from a three days burial from the belly of the Whale in the deep Ocean but
for thy disobedience Wretched unbelieving heart Tell a fool or tell a Tyrant or tell some false and flattering man of drawing their subjects by false promises and procuring obedience by deceitful means But do thou not dare to charge the Wise Almighty Faithful God with this Above all men it beseems not thee to doubt either of this Scripture being his infallible Word or of the performance of this Word to thy self Hath not Argument convinced thee may not thy own experience utterly silence thee How oft hath this Scripture been verified for thy good how many of the promises have been performed to thee hath it not quickened thee and converted thee hast not thou felt in it something more then humane would God perform anothers promise or would he so powerfully concur with a feigned word If thou hadst seen the miracles that Christ and his Apostles wrought thou wouldst never sure have questioned the truth of their doctrine why they delivered it down by such undoubted testimony that it may be called Divine as well as Humane Nay hast thou not seen its Prophecies fulfilled hast thou not lived in an age wherein such wonders have been wrought that thou hast now no cloak for thy unbelief hast thou not seen the course of Nature changed and works beyond the power of nature wrought and all this in the fulfilling of this Scripture hast thou so soon forgotten since nature failed me and strength failed me and blood and spirits and flesh and friends and all means did utterly fail and how Art and Reason had sentenced me for dead and yet how God revoked the sentence and at the request of praying believing Saints did turn thee to the Promise which he verified to thee And canst thou yet question the truth of this Scripture hast thou seen so much to confirm thy faith in the great actions of seven yeers past and canst thou yet doubt Thou hast seen signes and wonders and art thou yet so unbelieving O wretched heart Hath God made thee a promise of Rest and wilt thou come short of it and shut out thy self through unbelief Thine eyes may fail thee thy ears deceive thee and all thy senses prove delusions sooner then a promise of God can delude thee Thou maist be surer of that which is written in the Word then if thou see it with thine eyes or feel it with thy hands Art thou sure thou livest or sure that this is Earth which thou standest on art thou sure thine eyes do see the Sun As sure is all this glory to the Saints as sure shall I be higher then yonder stars and live for ever in the Holy City and joyfully sound forth the praise of my Redeemer if I be not shut out by this evil heart of unbelief causing me to depart from the living God And is this Rest so sweet and so sure O then what means the careless world Do they know what it is they so neglect did they ever hear of it or are they yet asleep or are they dead Do they know for certain that the Crown 's before them while they thus sit still or follow trifles undoubtedly they are quite beside themselves to minde so much their provision in the way and strive and care and labor for trifles when they are hasting so fast to another world and their eternal happiness lies at stake Were there left one spark of VVit or Reason they would never sell their Rest for toil nor sell their Glory for worldly vanities nor venture Heaven for the pleasure of a sin Ah poor men That you would once consider what you hazard and then you would scorn these tempting baits O blessed for ever be that love that hath rescued me from this mad bewitching darkness Draw neerer yet then O my soul bring forth thy strongest burning Love here 's matter for it to work upon here 's something truly worth thy loving O see what beauty presents it self Is it not exceeding lovely is not all the beauty in the world contracted here is not all other beauty deformity to it Dost thou need to be perswaded now to love Here 's a feast for thine eyes a feast for all the powers of thy soul dost thou need to be intreated to feed upon it Canst thou love a little shining Earth canst thou love a walking piece of clay and canst thou not love that God that Christ that Glory which is so truly and unmeasurably lovely Thou canst love thy friend because he loves thee And is the love of thy friend like the love of Christ Their weeping or bleeding for thee doth not ease thee nor stay the course of thy tears or blood But the tears and blood that fell from thy Lord have all a soveraign healing vertue and are waters of Life and Balsam to thy faintings and thy sores O my soul If love deserve and should procure love what incomprehensible love is here before thee Pour out all the store of thy affections here and all is too little O that it were more O that it were many thousand times more Let him be first served that served thee first let him have the first born and strength of thy love who parted with strength and life in love to thee If thou hast any to spare when he hath his part let it be imparted then to standers-by See what a Sea of love is here before thee cast thy self in and swim with the arms of thy love in this Ocean of his love Fear not least thou shouldst be drowned or confirmed in it Though it seem as the scalding furnace of lead yet thou will finde it but mollifying oyle Though it seeme a furnace of fire and the hottest that ever was kindled upon earth yet is it the fire of love and not of wrath a fire most effectual to extinguish fire never intended to consume but to glorifie thee venture into it then in thy believing meditations and walk in these flames with the Son of God when thou art once in thou wilt be sorry to come forth again O my soul what wantest thou here to provoke thy love Dost thou love for excellency why thou seest nothing below but baseness except as they relate to thy enjoyments above Yonder is the Goshen the region of light this is a Land of palpable darkness Yonder twinkling Stars that shining moon the radiant Sun are all but as the Lanthorns hanged out at thy fathers house to light thee while thou walkest in the dark streets of the earth But little dost thou know ah little indeed the glory and blessed mirth that is within Dost thou love for suitableness why what person more suitable then Christ his Godhead his manhood his fulness his freeness his willingness his constancy do all proclaime him thy most suitable friend What state more suitable to thy misery then that of mercy or to thy sinfulness and baseness then that of honor and perfection What place more suitable to thee then heaven Thou hast had a sufficient
tryal of this world Dost thou finde it agree with thy nature or desires are these common abominations these heavy sufferings these unsatisfying vanities suitable to thee or dost thou love for interest and neer relation Why where hast thou better interest then in heaven or where hast thou neerer relation then there Dost thou love for acquaintance and familiarity Why though thine eyes have never seen thy Lord yet he is never the further from thee If thy son were blinde yet he would love thee his father though he never saw thee Thou hast heard the voice of Christ to thy very heart thou hast received his benefits thou hast lived in his bosome and art thou not yet acquainted with him It is he that brought thee seasonably and safety into the world It is he that nursed thee up in thy tender infancy and helped thee when thou couldst not help thy self He taught thee to go to speak to read to understand He taught thee to know thy self and him he opened thee that first window whereby thou sawest into heaven Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he did quicken it and hard and stubborn and he did soften it and made it yeeld when it was at peace and he did trouble it and whole till he did break it and broken till he did heal it again Hast thou forgotten the time nay the many very many times when he found thee in secret all in tears when he heard thy dolorous sighes and groans and left all to come and comfort thee when he came in upon thee and took thee up as it were in his armes and asked thee Poor soul what doth aile thee dost thou weep when I have wept so much Be of good cheer thy wounds are saving and not deadly It is I that have made them who mean thee no hurt Though I let out thy blood I will not let out thy life O me thinks I remember yet his voice and feel those embracing armes that took me up How gently did he handle me how carefully did he dress my wounds and binde them up Me thinks I hear him still saying to me Poor sinner though thou hast dealt unkindly with me and cast me off yet will not I do so by thee though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies yet both I and All are thine what wouldst thou have that I can give thee and what dost thou want that I cannot give thee If any thing I have will pleasure thee thou shalt have it If any thing in heaven or earth will make the happy why it is all thine own Wouldst thou have pardon thou shalt have it I freely forgive thee all the debt wouldst thou have grace and peace thou shalt have them both wouldst thou have my self why behold I am thine thy friend thy Lord thy brother thy husband and thy head wouldst thou have the Father why I will bring thee to him and thou shalt have him in and by me These were my Lords reviving words These were the melting healing raising quickening passages of love After all this when I was doubtful of his love me thinks I yet remember his overcoming and convincing Arguments Why sinner have I done so much to testifie my Love and yet dost thou doubt Have I made thy believing it the condition of enjoying it and yet dost thou doubt Have I offered thee my self and love so long and yet dost thou question my willingness to be thine VVhy what could I have done more then I have done At what dearer rate should I tell thee that I love thee Read yet the story of my bitter passion wilt thou not believe that it proceeded from love Did I ever give thee cause to be so jealous of me Or to think so hardly of me as thou dost Have I made my self in the Gospel a Lyon to thine enemies and a Lamb to thee and dost thou so over-look my Lamb like nature Have I set mine arms and heart there open to thee and wilt thou not believe but they are shut why if I had been willing to let thee perish I could have done it at a cheaper rate what need I then have done and suffered so much what need I follow thee with so long patience and intreating what dost thou tell me of thy wants have I not enough for me and thee and why dost thou foolishly tell me of thy unworthiness and thy sin I had not died if man had not sinned if thou wert not a sinner thou wert not for me if thou wert worthy thy self what shouldst thou do with my worthiness Did I ever invite the worthy and the righteous or did I ever save or justifie such or is there any such on earth Hast thou nothing art thou lost and miserable art thou helpless and forlorn dost thou believe that I am a sufficient Saviour and wouldst thou have me why then take me Lo I am thine if thou be willing I am willing and neither sin nor devils shall break the match These O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his Gospel spoke unto me till he made me cast my self it his feet ye into his arms and to cry out My Saviour and my Lord Thou hast broke my heart thou hast revived my heart thou hast overcome thou hast wone my heart take it it is thine if such a heart can please thee take it if it cannot make it such as thou wouldst have it Thus O my soul maist thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ therefore if acquaintance will cause affection O then let out thy heart unto him it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness that hath cooled thy heats and eased thy pains and refreshed thy weariness and removed thy fears He hath been always ready when thou hast earnestly sought him He hath given thee the meeting in publike and in private He hath been found of thee in the Congregation in thy house in thy chamber in the field in the way as thou wast walking in thy waking nights in thy deepest dangers O if bounty and compassion be an attractive of Love how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him All the mercies that have filled up my life do tell me this all the places that ever I did abide in all the societies and persons that I have had to deal with every condition of life that I have passed through all my imployments and all my relations every change that hath befaln me all tell me That the Fountain is Overflowing Goodness Lord what a summ of love am I indebted to thee and how doth my debt continually increase how should I love again for so much love But what shall I dare to think of making thee requital or of recompencing all thy love with mine will my mite requite thee for thy golden Mines my seldom wishes for thy constant bounty or mine which is nothing or not mine for thine which is infinite and thine own shall I
and height of my spirit discover my title to this promised land shall I be the adopted Son of God and coheir with Christ of that blessed inheritance and daily look when I am put into possession and shall not this be seen in my joyful countenance What if God had made me commander of the earth What if the mountains would remove at my command What if I could heal all diseases with a word or a touch What if the infernal spirits were all at my command Should I not rejoyce in such priviledges and honors as these yet is it my Saviours command not to rejoyce that the divels are subject to us but in this to rejoyce that our names are written in heaven I cannot here enjoy my parents or my neer and beloved friends without some delight especially when I did too freely let out my affections to my friend how sweet was that very exercise of my love O what will it then be to live in the perpetual love of God! For brethren here to live together in Unity how good and pleasant a thing is it To see a family live in love husband wife parents children servants doing all in love to one another To see a Town live together in love without any envyings brawlings heart-burnings or contentions scornes law-suits factions or divisions but every man loving his neighbor as himself and thinking they can never do too much for one another but striving to go beyond each other in love O how happy and delectable a sight is this O sweetest bands saith Seneca which binde so happily that those that are so bound do love their binders and desire still to be bound more closely and even reduced into one O then what a blessed society will be the Family of Heaven and those peaceable Inhabitants of the New Jerusalem where is no division nor dissimilitude nor differing Judgments nor disaffection nor strangeness nor deceitful friendship never an angry thought or look never a cutting unkinde expression but all are one in Christ who is one with the Father and live in the love of Love himself Cato could say That the soul of a Lover dwelleth in the person whom he loveth and therefore we say The soul is not more where it liveth and enlighteneth then where it loveth How neer then will my soul be closed to God and how sweet must that conjunction be when I shall so heartily strongly and uncessantly love him As the Bee lies sucking and satiating her self with the sweetness of the Flower or rather as the childe lies sucking the Mothers brest inclosed in her arms and sitting in her lap even so shall my loving soul be still feeding on the sweetness of the God of Love Ah wretched fleshly unbelieving heart that can think of such a day and work and life as this with so low and dull and feeble joyes But my enjoying Joyes will be more lively How delectable is it to me to behold and study these inferior works of God to read those Anatomical Lectures of Du Bartas upon this great dissected body what a beautiful fabrick is this great house which here we dwell in The floor so drest with various Herbs and Flowrs and Trees and watered with Springs and Rivers and Seas the roof so wide expanded so admirably adorned Such astonishing workmanship in every part The studies of an hundred Ages more if the world should last so long would not discover the mysteries of divine skill which are to be found in the narrow compass of our bodies What Anatomist is not amazed in his Search and Observations What wonders then do Sun and Moon and Stars and Orbs and Seas and VVindes and Fire and Aire and Earth c. afford us And hath God prepared such a house for our silly sinful corruptible flesh and for a soul imprisoned and doth he bestow so many millions of wonderful rarities even upon his enemies O then what a dwelling must that needs be which he prepareth for pure refined spiritual glorified ones and which he will bestow onely upon his dearly beloved children whom he hath chosen out to make his mercy on them glorified and admired As far as our perfected glorified bodies will excel this frail and corruptible flesh so far wil the glory of the New Jerusalem exceed all the present glory of the creatures The change upon our Mansion will be proportionable to the change upon our selves Arise then O my soul by these steps in thy Contemplation and let thy thoughts of that glory were it possible as far in sweetness exceed thy thoughts of the excellencies below Fear not to go out of this body and this world when thou must make so happy a change as this but say as Zuingerus when he was dying I am glad and even leap for joy that at last the time is come wherein that even that mighty Jehovah whose Majesty in my search of Nature I have admired whose Goodness I have adored whom in faith I have desired whom I have sighed for will now shew himself to me face to face And let that be the unfained sense of thy heart which Camerarius left in his VVill should be written on his Monument Vita mihi mors est mors mihi vita nova est Life is to me a Death Death is to me a new Life Moreover how wonderful and excellent are the works of Providence even in this life to see the great God to engage himself and set a work his Attributes for the safety and advancement of a few humble despicable praying persons O what a joyful time will it then be when so much Love and Mercy and VVisdom and Power and Truth shall be manifested and glorified in the Saints glorification How delightful is it to my soul to review the workings of Providence for my self and to read over the Records and Catalogues of those special mercies wherewith my life hath been adorned and sweetned How oft have my prayers been heard and my tears regarded and my groaning troubled soul relieved and my Lord hath bid me Be of good cheer He hath healed me when in respect of means I was uncurable He hath helped me when I was helpless In the midst of my supplications hath he eased and revived me He hath taken me up from my knees and from the dust where I have lain in sorrow and despair even the cries which have been occasioned by distrust hath he regarded what a support are these experiences to my fearful unbelieving heart These clear Testimonies of my Fathers Love do put life into my afflicted drooping spirit O then what a blessed day will that be when I shall have all mercy perfection of mercy nothing but mercy and fully injoy the Lord of Mercy himself When I shall stand on the shore and look back upon the raging Seas which I have safely passed when I shall in safe and full possession of glory look back upon all my pains and troubles and feares and tears and upon all the
my Aphorisms of Justification shew which I wrote to cut the unobserved Sinews of Antinomianism and open the true Scripture Mean in that point and which I am more confirmed in the truth of now then ever by the weakness of all that I can yet hear against it and yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others and seek to make a partie for it and disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear lest I should prove a fire-brand in Hell for being a fire-brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I here charge you That if God should give me up to any factious Church-rending course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for Peace with one another follow it with all your might If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your brest take them as kindled by the Divel from Hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in Censoriousness Reproaches and hard Speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were fire in the Thatch of your houses For why should your houses be dearer to you then the Church which is the house of God or then your souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost If any heart-burnings arise do not keep strange but go together and lovingly debate it or pray together that God would reconcile you or refer the matter to your Minister or others and let not the Sun go down on your wrath Hath God spoke more against any sin then unpeaceableness If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you which made Endovicus Crocius say That this is the measure and essential propertie of the lest degree of true Faith Syntag. lib. 4. cap. 16. If you love not each other you are no Disciples of Christ nay if you love not your enemies and bless not them that curse you and pray not for them that hurt and persecute you you are no Children of God The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. Jam. 3.17 O remember that piercing example of Christ who washed his Disciples feet to teach us that we must stoop as low to one another Sure God doth not jest with you in all these plain Scriptures I charge you in the Name of Christ if you cannot have peace otherwise That you suffer wrongs and reproaches that you go and beg peace of those that should beg it of you yea that you beg it on your knees of the poorest beggar rather then lose it And remember Rom. 16.17 18. 7. Above all be sure you get down the pride of your hearts Forget not all the Sermons I preached to you against this sin No sin more natural more common or more deadly A proud man is his own Idol onely from pride cometh contention There is no Lâ—ving in peace with a proud person Every disrespect will cast them into a Feaver of discontent If once you grow wise in your own eyes and love to be valued and preferred and love those best that think highliest of you and have secret heart-risings against any that disregard you or have a low esteem of you and cannot endure to be flighted or spoke evil of never take your selves for Christians if this be your case To be a true Christian without Humilitie is as hard as to be a man without a Soul O poor England How low art thou brought by the Pride of Ignorant Zealots Dear Friends I can foretel you without the gift of prophecy That if any among you do fall from the Truth mark which are the proudest that cannot endure to be contradicted and that vilifie others and those will likely be they And if ever you be broke in pieces and ruined Pride will be the cause 8. Be sure you keep the mastery over your flesh and senses Few ever fall from God but flesh-pleasing is the cause Many think that by flesh the Scripture means onely our in-dwelling sin when alas it is this sensitive appetite that it chargeth us to subdue Nothing in the world damneth so many as flesh-pleasing while men generally chuse it as their Happiness in stead of God O remember who hath said If ye live after the flesh ye shall die and Make no provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom 8.5 6 7. and 13.14 Think of this when you are tempted to drunkenness and gluttony and lustfulness and worldliness and when you would fain have your dwellings and states more delightful You little think what a sin it is even to please your flesh further then it tends to help you in the service of God 9. Make conscience of the great duty of reproving and exhorting those about you Make not your souls guilty of the oaths ignorance and ungodliness of others by your silence Admonish them lovingly and modestly but be sure you do it and that seriously This is the first step in Discipline Expect not that your Minister should put any from the Sacrament whom you have not thus admonished once and again Punish not before due process 10. Lastly Be sure to maintain a constant delight in God and a seriousness and spirituality in all his Worship Think it not enough to delight in Duties if you delight not in God Judg not of your duties by the bulk and number but by this sweetness You are never stable Christians till you reach this Never forget all those Sermons I preached to you on Psal 37.4 Give not way to a customary dulness in duty Do every duty with all thy might especially be not slight in secret Prayer and Meditation Lay not out the chief of your zeal upon externals and opinions and the smaller things of Religion Let must of your daily work be upon your hearts Be still suspicious of them understand their mortal wickedness and deceitfulness and trust them not too far Practise that great duty of daily watching pray earnestly That you be not lead into temptation Fear the beginings and appearances of sin Beware lest Conscience once lose its tenderness Make up every breach between God and your consciences betime Learn how to live the life of Faith and keep fresh the sense of the love of Christ and of your continual need of his Blood Spirit and Intercession And how much you are beholden and engaged to him Live in a constant readiness and expectation of death and be sure to get acquainted with this Heavenly Conversation which this Book is written to direct you in which I commend to your use hoping you will be at the pains to read it as for your sakes I have been to write it And I shall beg for you of the Lord while I live on this Earth That he will perswade
necessary That thy Lord had sweeter ends and meant thee better then thou wouldst believe And that thy Redeemer was saving thee as well when he crossed thy desires as when he granted them and as well when he broke thy Heart as when he bound it up Oh no thanks to thee unworthy Self but shame for this received Crown But to Jehovah and the Lamb be Glory for ever Thus as the memory of the wicked will eternally promote their torment to look back on the pleasures enjoyed the sin committed the Grace refused Christ neglected and time lost So will the Memory of the Saints for ever promote their Joys And as it 's said to the wicked Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst Thy good things So will it be said to the Christian Remember that thou in thy life time receivedst thine evils but now thou art comforted as they are tormented And as here the Remembrance of former good is the occasion of encreasing our grief I remembred God and was troubled I called to Remembrance my Songs in the night Psal. 77.3 6. So there the Remembrance of our former sorrows addeth life to our Joys SECT VIII BUt Oh the full the near the sweet enjoyment is that of the Affections Love and Joy It 's near for Love is of the Essence of the Soul and Love is the Essence of God For God is Love 1 John 4.8 16. How near therefore is this Blessed Closure The Spirits phrase is God is Love and he that dwelleth in Love dwelleth in God and God in him Vers. 16. The acting of this affection wheresoever carryeth much delight along with it Especially when the object appears deserving and the Affection is strong But O what will it be when perfected Affections shall have the strongest perfect incessant actings upon the most perfect object the ever Blessed God Now the poor soul complains Oh that I could love Christ more but I cannot alas I cannot Yea but then thou canst not chuse but love him I had almost said forbear if thou canst Now thou knowest little of his Amiableness and therefore lovest little Then thine eye will affect thy heart and the continual viewing of that perfect beauty will keep thee in continual ravishments of Love Now thy Salvation is not perfected nor all the mercies purchased yet given in But when the top stone is set on thou shalt with shouting cry Grace Grace Now thy Sanctification is imperfect and thy pardon and Justification not so compleat as then it shall be Now thou knowest not what thou enjoyest and therefore lovest the less But when thou knowest much is forgiven and much bestowed thou wilt Love more Doth David after an imperfect deliverance sing forth his Love Psal. 116.1 I love the Lord because he hath heard my voyce and supplications What think you will he do eternally And how will he love the Lord who hath lifted him up to that Glory Doth he cry out O how I love thy Law My delight is in the Saints on earth and the excellent Psal. 16.3 How will he say then O how I love the Lord and the King of Saints in whom is all my delight Christians doth it not now stir up your love to remember all the experiences of his Love To look back upon a life oâ— mercies Doth not kindness melt you and the Sun-shine of Divine Goodness warm your frozen hearts What will it do then when you shall live in Love and have All in him who is All O the high delights of Love of this Love The content that the heart findeth in it The satisfaction it brings along with it Surely Love is both work and wages And if this were all what a high favour that God will give us leave to love him That he will vouchsafe to be embraced by such Arms that have embraced Lust and Sin before him But this is not all He returneth Love for Love nay a thousand times more As perfect as we shall be we cannot reach his measure of Love Christian thou wilt be then brim full of Love yet love as much as thou canst thou shalt be ten thousand times more beloved Dost thou think thou canst overlove him What! love more then Love it self Were the Arms of the Son of God open upon the Cross and an open passage made to his Heart by the Spear and will not Arms and Heart be open to thee in Glory Did he begin to love before thou lovedst and will he not continue now Did he love thee an enemy thee a sinner thee who even loathedst thy self and own thee when thou didst disclaim thy self And will he not now unmeasurably love thee a Son thee a perfect Saint thee who returnest some love for Love Thou wast wont injuriously to Question his Love Doubt of it now if thou canst As the pains of Hell will convince the rebellious sinner of Gods wrath who would never before believe it So the Joys of Heaven will convince thee throughly of that Love which thou wouldst so hardly be perswaded of He that in love wept over the old Hierusalem neer her Ruines with what love will he rejoyce over the new Hierusalem in her Glory O methinks I see him groaning and weeping over dead Lazarus till he force the Jews that stood by to say Behold how he loved him Will he not then much more by rejoycing over us and blessing us make all even the damned if they see it to say Behold how he loveth them Is his Spouse while black yet comely Is she his Love his Dove his undefiled Doth she ravish his heart with one of her eyes Is her Love better then wine O believing soul study a little and tell me What is the Harvest which these first fruits foretel and the Love which these are but the earnest of Here O here is the Heaven of Heaven This is the Saints fruition of God! In these sweet mutual constant actings and embracements of Love doth it consist To Love and be beloved These are the Everlasting Arms that are underneath Deut. 33.27 His left hand is under their heads and with his right hand doth he embrace them Cant. 2.6 Reader stop here and think a while what a state this is Is it a small thing in thine eyes to be beloved of God to be the Son the Spouse the Love the delight of the King of Glory Christian believe this and think on it Thou shalt be eternally embraced in the Arms of that Love which was from everlasting and will extend to everlasting Of that Love which brought the Son of Gods Love from Heaven to Earth from Earth to the Cross from the Cross to the Grave from the Grave to Glory That Love which was weary hungry tempted scorned scourged buffetted spit upon crucified pierced which did fast pray teach heal weep sweat bleed dye That Love will eternally embrace thee When perfect created Love and most perfect uncreated love meet together O the blessed meeting It will
not be like Joseph and his Brethren who lay upon one anothers necks weeping It will break forth into a pure Joy and not such a mixture of joy and sorrow as their weeping argued It will be Loving and rejoycing not loving and sorrowing Yet will it make Pharoahs Satans court to ring with the News that Josephs Brethren are come that the Saints are arrived safe at the bosom of Christ out of the reach of hell for ever Neither is there any such love as Davids and Jonathans shutting up in sorrows and breathing out its last into sad lamentations for a forced separation No Christ is the powerful attractive the effectual Loadstone who draws to it all like it self All that the Father hath given him shall come unto him even the Lover as well as the Love doth he draw and they that come unto him he will in no wise cast out John chap. 6. vers 37 39. For know this Beleever to thy everlasting comfort that if these Arms have once embraced thee neither sin nor hell can get thee thence for ever The Sanctuary is inviolable and the Rock impregnable whither thou art fled and thou art safe lockt up to all Eternity Thou hast not now to deal with an unconstant creature but with him with whom is no varying nor shadow of change even the Immutable God If thy happiness were in thine own hand as Adams there were yet fear But it 's in the keeping of a faithful Creator Christ hath not bought thee so dear to trust thee with thy self any more His Love to thee will not be as thine was on earth to him seldom and cold up and down mixed as Aguish bodies with burning and quaking with a Good day and a bad No Christian he that would not be discouraged by thine enmity by thy loathsom hateful nature by all thy unwillingness unkinde Neglects and churlish resistances he that would neither cease nor abate his Love for all these Can he cease to love thee when he hath made thee truly Lovely He that keepeth thee so constant in thy love to him that thou canst challenge tribulation distress persecution famine nakedness peril or sword to separate thy Love from Christ if they can Rom. 8.35 How much more will himself be constant Indeed he that produced these mutual embracing Affections will also produce such a mutual constancy in both that thou mayst confidently be perswaded as Paul was before thee That neither Death nor Life nor Angels nor Principalities nor Powers nor things present nor things to come nor heighth nor depth nor any other creature shall be able to separate us from the Love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord Vers. 38 39. And now are we not left in the Apostles admiration What shall we say to these things Infinite Love must needs be a mystery to a finite capacity No wonder if Angels desire to pry into this mystery And if it be the study of the Saints here to know the heighth and bredth and length and depth of this Love though it passeth knowledg This is the Saints Rest in the Fruition of God by Love SECT IX LAstly The Affection of Joy hath not the least share in this Fruition It 's that which all the rest lead to and conclude in even the unconceiveable Complacency which the Blessed feel in their seeing knowing loving and being beloved of God The delight of the Senses Here cannot be known by expressions as they are felt How much less this Joy This is the white stone which none knoweth but he that receiveth And if there be any Joy which the stranger medleth not with then surely this above all is it All Christs ways of mercy tend to and end in the Saints Joys He wept sorrowed suffered that they might rejoyce He sendeth the Spirit to be their Comforter He multiplieth promises he discovers their future happiness that their Joy may be full He aboundeth to them in mercies of all sorts he maketh them lie down in green pastures and leadeth them by the still waters yea openeth to them the fountain of Living Waters That their Joy may be full That they may thirst no more and that it may spring up in them to everlasting life Yea he causeth them to suffer that he may cause them to rejoyce and chasteneth them that he may give them Rest and maketh them as he did himself to drink of the brook in the way that they may lift up the head Psal. 110.7 And lest after all this they should neglect their own comforts he maketh it their duty and presseth it on them commanding them to rejoyce in him alway and again to rejoyce And he never brings them into so low a condition wherein he leaves them not more cause of Joy then of Sorrow And hath the Lord such a care of our comfort Here where the Bridegroom being from us we must mourn Oh what will that Joy be where the Soul being perfectly prepared for Joy and Joy prepared by Christ for the Soul it shall be our work our business eternally to rejoyce And it seems the Saints Joy shall be greater then the Damneds torment for their Torment is the torment of creatures prepared for the Devil and his Angels But our Joy is the Joy of our Lord even our Lords own Joy shall we enter And the same Glory which the Father giveth him doth the Son give to them Joh. 17.22 And to sit with him in his Throne even as he is sit down in his Fathers Throne Revel 3.21 What sayst thou to all this Oh thou sad and drooping Soul Thou that now spendest thy days in sorrow and thy breath in sighings and turnest all thy voyce into groanings who knowest no garments but sackcloth no food but the bread and water of Affliction who minglest thy bread with tears and drinkest the tears which thou weepest what sayest thou to this great change From All Sorrow to more then All Joy Thou poor Soul who prayest for Joy waitest for Joy complainest for want of Joy longest for Joy why then thou shalt have full Joy as much as thou canst hold and more then ever thou thoughtest on or thy heart desired And in the mean time walk carefully watch constantly and then let God measure out thy times and degrees of Joy It may be he keeps them till thou have more need Thou mayst better lose thy comfort then thy safety If thou shouldst dye full of fears and sorrows it will be but a moment and they are all gone and concluded in Joy unconceiveable As the Joy of the Hypocrite so the fears of the upright are but for a moment And as their hopes are but golden dreams which when death awakes them do all perish and their hopes dye with them so the Saints doubts and fears are but terrible dreams which when they dye do all vanish and they awake in Joyful Glory For Gods Anger endureth but a moment but in his favor is Life
weeping may endure for a night darkness and sadness go together but Joy cometh in the morning Psal. 30.5 Oh blessed morning thrice blessed morning Poor humble drooping Soul how would it fill thee with Joy now if a voyce from Heaven should tell thee of the Love of God of the pardon of thy sins and should assure thee of thy part in these Joys Oh what then will thy Joy be when thy actual Possession shall convince thee of thy Title and thou shalt be in Heaven before thou art well aware When the Angels shall bring thee to Christ and when Christ shall as it were take thee by the hand and lead thee into the purchased possession and bid thee welcom to his Rest and present thee unspotted before his Father and give thee thy place about his Throne Poor Sinner what sayest thou to such a day as this Wilt thou not be almost ready to draw back and to say What I Lord I the unworthy Neglecter of thy Grace I the unworthy dis-esteemer of thy blood and slighter of thy Love must I have this Glory Make me a hired servant I am no more worthy to be called a son But Love will have it so therefore must thou enter into his Joy SECT X. ANd it is not Thy Joy onely it is a Mutual Joy as well as a Mutual Love Is there such Joy in Heaven at thy Conversion and will there be none at thy Glorification Will not the Angels welcom thee thither and congratulate thy safe Arrival Yea it is the Joy of Jesus Christ For now he hath the end of his undertaking labor suffering dying when we have our Joys When he is Glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve We are his seed and the fruit of his Souls travel which when he seeth he will be satisfied Isa. 53.10 11. This is Christs Harvest when he shall reap the fruit of his labors and when he seeth it was not in vain it will not repent him concerning his sufferings but he will rejoyce over his purchased inheritance and his people shall rejoyce in him Yea the Father himself puts on Joy too in our Joy As we grieve his Spirit and weary him with our iniquities so is he rejoyced in our Good Oh how quickly Here doth he spy a Returning Prodigal even afar off how doth he run and meet him and with what compassion falls he on his neck and kisseth him and puts on him the best robe and ring on his hands and shoes on his feet and spares not to kill the fatted Calf that they may eat and be merry This is indeed a happy meeting But nothing to the Embracements and the Joy of that last and great Meeting Yea more yet as God doth mutually Love and Joy so he makes this His Rest as it is our Rest. Did he appoint a Sabbath because he rested from six days work and saw all Good and very Good What an eternal Sabbatism then when the work of Redemption Sanctification Preservation Glorification are all finished and his work more perfect then ever and very Good indeed Oh Christians write these words in letters of Gold Zeph. 3.17 The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty He will Save He will Rejoyce over thee with Joy He will Rest in his Love He will Joy over thee with Singing Oh well may we then Rejoyce in our God with Joy and Rest in our Love and Joy in him with Singing See Isai. 65.18 19. And now look back upon all this I say to thee as the Angel to John What hast thou seen Or if yet thou perceive not draw neerer Come up hither Come and see Dost thou fear thou hast been all this while in a Dream Why these are the true sayings of God Dost thou fear as the Disciples that thou hast seen but a Ghost in stead of Christ a Shadow in stead of Rest Why come neer and feel a Shadow contains not those Substantial Blessings nor rests upon the Basis of such Foundation-Truth and sure word of Promise as you have seen these do Go thy way now and tell the Disciples and tell the humble drooping Souls thou meetest with That thou hast in this glass seen Heaven That the Lord indeed is risen and hath here appeared to thee and behold he is gone before us into Rest and that he is now preparing a place for them and will come again and take them to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14.3 Yea go thy ways and tell the unbeleeving world and tell thy unbeleeving heart if they ask What is the hope thou boastest of and what will be thy Rest Why this is my Beloved and my Friend and this is my Hope and my Rest. Call them forth and say Behold what Love the Father hath bestowed upon us that we should be the Sons of God 1 Joh. 3.1 and that we should enter into our Lords own Rest. SECT XI BUt alass my fearful heart dare scarce proceed Methinks I hear the Almighties voyce saying to me as Elihu Job 38.2 Who is this that darkeneth counsel by words without knowledg But pardon O Lord thy Servants sin I have not pryed into unrevealed things nor with audacious wits curiously searched into thy counsels but indeed I have dishonored thy Holiness wronged thine Excellency disgraced thy Saints Glory by my own exceeding disproportionable pourtraying I bewail from heart that my conceivings fall so short my Apprehensions are so dull my thoughts so mean my Affections so stupid and my expressions so low and unbeseeming such a Glory But I have onely heard by the hearing of the Ear Oh let thy Servant see thee and possess these Joys and then I shall have more suitable conceivings and shall give thee fuller Glory and abhor my present self and disclaim and renounce all these Imperfections I have now uttered that I understood not things too wonderful for me which I knew not Yet I beleeved and therefore spake Remember with whom thou hast to do what canst thou expect from dust but Levity or from corruption but defilement Our foul hands will leave where they touch the marks of their uncleanness and most on those things that are most pure I know thou wilt be sanctified in them that come nigh thee and before all the people thou wilt be glorified And if thy Jealousie excluded from that Land of Rest thy servants Moses and Aaron because they sanctified thee not in the midst of Israel what then may I expect But though the weakness and unreverence be the fruit of mine own corruption yet the fire is from thine Altar and the work of thy commanding I looked not into thine Ark nor put forth my hand unto it without thee Oh therefore wash away these stains also in the blood of the Lamb and let not Jealousie burn us up lest thou affright thy people away from thee and make them in their discouragement to cry out How
they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
Now we are stupified with vile and sensless hearts that can hear all the story of this Bloody Love and read all the dolors and sufferings of Love and hear all his sad complaints and all with dulness and unaffected He cries to us Behold and see Is it nothing to you O all ye that pass by Is there any sorrow like unto my sorrow Lamen 1.12 and we will scarce hear or regard the dolorous voyce nor scarce turn aside to view the wounds of him who turned aside and took us up to heal our wounds at this so dear a rate But Oh then our perfected Souls will feel as well as hear and with feeling apprehensions flame again in Love for Love Now we set his picture wounded and dying before our eyes but can get it no neerer our hearts then if we beleeved nothing of what we read But then when the obstructions between the eye and the understanding are taken away and the passage opened between the head and the heart surely our eyes will everlastingly affect our heart and while we view with one eye our slain-revived Lord and with the other eye our lost-recovered Souls and transcendent Glory these views will eternally pierce us and warm our very Souls And those eyes through which folly and lust hath so often stole into our hearts shall now be the Casements to let in the Love of our dearest Lord for ever Now though we should as some do travel to Jerusalem and view the Mount of Olives where he prayed and wept and see the Dolorons way by which he bare his Cross and enter the Temple of the Holy Grave yea if we should with Peter have stooped down and seen the place where he lay and behold his Relicts yet these Bolted doors of sin and flesh would have kept out the feeling of all that Love But Oh! that 's the Joy we shall then leave these hearts of stone and Rock behinde us and the sin that here so close besets us and the sottish unkindness that followed us so long shall not be able to follow us into that Glory But we shall behold as it were the wounds of Love with eyes and hearts of Love for ever Suppose a little to help our apprehensions that a Saint who hath partaked of the Joys of Heaven had been translated from as long an abode in Hell and after the experience of such a change should have stood with Mary and the rest by the Cross of Christ and have seen the Blood and heard the Groans of his Redeemer What think you Would love have stirred in his Brest or no Would the voyce of his dying Lord have melted his heart or no Oh that I were sensible of what I speak With what astonishing apprehensions then will Redeemed Saints everlastingly behold their Blessed Redeemer I will not meddle with their vain audacious Question who must needs know whether the glorified body of Christ do yet retain either the wounds or scars But this is most certain that the memory of it will be as fresh and the impressions of Love as deep and its workings as strong as if his wounds were still in our eyes and his complaints still in our ears and his blood still streaming afresh Now his heart is open to us and ours shut to him But when his heart shall be open and our Hearts open Oh the Blessed Congress that there will then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first sinful silly woman that he appears to How doth Love struggle for expressions and the straitned fire shut up in the brest strive to break forth Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his feet having her heart as neer to his heart as her hands were to his feet What a meeting of Love then will there be between the new glorified Saint and the Glorious Redeemer But I am here at a loss my apprehensions fail me and fall so short Onely this I know it will be the singular praise of our inheritance that it was bought with the price of that blood and the singular Joy of the Saints to behold the purchaser and the price together with the possession Neither will the views of the wounds of Love renew our wounds of sorrow He whose first words after his Resurrection were to a great sinner Woman why weepest thou knows how to raise Love and Joy by all those views without raising any cloud of sorrow or storm of tears at all He that made the Sacramental Commemoration of his Death to be his Churches Feast will sure make the real enjoyment of its blessed purchase to be marrow and fatness And if it afforded Joy to hear from his mouth This is my Body which is given for you and This is my Blood which was shed for you What Joy will it afford to hear This Glory is the fruit of my Body and my Blood and what a merry feast will it be when we shall drink of the fruit of the Vine new with him in the Kingdom of his Father as the fruit of his own Blood David would not drink of the waters which he longed for because they were the blood of those men who jeoparded their lives for them and thought them fitter to offer to God then to please him But we shall value these waters more highly and yet drink them the more sweetly because they are the Blood of Christ not jeoparded onely but shed for them They will be the more sweet and dear to us because they were so bitter and Dear to him If the buyer be judicious we estimate things by the price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased with the life of our dearest friend how highly should we value it Nay if a Dying Friend deliver us but a token of his Love how carefully do we preserve it and still remember him when we behold it as if his own name were written on it And will not then the Death and Blood of our Lord everlastingly sweeten our possessed Glory Methinks England should value the plenty of the Gospel with their Peace and Freedom at a higher rate when they remember what it hath cost How much precious blood How many of the Lives of Gods worthies and our most dear friends besides all other cost Methinks when I am with freedom preaching or hearing or living I see my dying friends before mine eyes whose blood was shâ—d for this and look the more respectively on them yet living whose frequent dangers did procure it Oh then when we are rejoycing in Glory how shall we think of the blood that revived our Souls and how shall we look upon him whose sufferings did put that Joy into our hearts How carefully preserve we those prizes which with greatest hazard we gained from the enemy Goliahs sword must be kept as a Trophie and layd up behinde the Ephod and in a time of need David says There 's none to that Surely when
their hands of cruelty I am perswaded the next generation that knew them not will scarcely believe the fury of their rage Blessed be the Guardian of the Saints who hath not suffered the prevalency of that Wrath which would I believe have made the Gun-powder Treason the Turkish Slavery the Spanish Inquisition the French Massacres to have seemed acts of clemency But the Lord of Hosts hath brought them down and his Power and Justice hath abated their fury and raised to his Name an everlasting Trophee and set up a Monument of Remembrance in England which God forbid should ever be forgotten So let all thine uncurable enemies perish O Lord. When the Lord maketh inquisition for blood he will remember the precious blood which they have shed and the Earth shall not cover it any more Their hopes are that they shall yet again have a prevailing day It is possible though improbable If they should we know where their rage will stop They shall pursue but as Pharaoh to their own destruction and where they â—all there shall we pass over safely and escape them for ever For our Lord hath told them That whither he goes they cannot come When their flood of persecution is dryed up and the Church called out of the Wilderness and the new Jerusalem come down from Heaven and Mercy and Justice are fully glorified then shall we feel their fury no more There is no cruel mockings and scourgings no bonds or imprisonments no stoning or sawing asunder tempting or slaying with the sword wandring in Sheep-skins or Goat skins in Deserts or Mountains Dens or Caves of the Earth no more being destitute afflicted or tormented We leave all this behinde us when once we enter the City of our Rest the names of Lollard Hugonots Puritan Roundheads are not there used the Inquisition of Spain is there condemned the Statute of the six Articles is there Repealed and the Law De Haeretiâ—is comburendis more justly executed the date of the Interim is there expired Subscription and Conformity no more urged Silencing and Suspending are there more then suspended there are no Bishops or Chancelors Courts no Visitations nor High Commission Judgments no Censures to loss of Members perpetual Imprisonment or Banishment Christ is not there cloathed in a Gorgeous Robe and blindfolded nor do they smite him and say Read who struck thee Nor is truth clothed in the Robes of Error and smitten for that which it most directly contradicteth nor a Schismatick wounded and a Saint found bleeding nor our Friends smite us whilest they mistake us for their enemies There is none of all this blinde mad work there Dear Brethren you that now can attempt no work of God without resistance and finde you must either lose the love of the World and your outward comforts or else the Love of God and your eternal Salvation consider You shall in Heaven have no discouraging company nor any but who will further your work and gladly joyn heart and voyce with you in your everlasting joy and praises Till then possess your souls in patience Binde all reproaches as a crown to your heads Esteem them greater riches then the worlds treasures Account it matter of Joy when you fall into tribulation You have seen in these days that our God can deliver us but this is nothing to our final conquest He will recompence tribulation to them that trouble you and to you who are troubled Rest with Christ. Onely see to this Brethren That none of you suffer as an evil doer as a busie-body in other mens matters as a resister of the commands of lawful Authority as ingrateful to those that have been Instruments of our good as evil-speakers against Dignities as opposers of the Discipline and Ordinances of Christ as scornful revilers of your Christian Brethren as reproachers of a laborious judicious conscientious Ministry c. But if any of you suffer for the Name of Christ happy are ye for the Spirit of God and of Glory resteth upon you And if any of you begin to shrink and draw back because of opposition and are ashamed either of your Work or your Master let such a one know to his face That he is but a base-spirited cowardly wretch and cursedly undervalueth the Saints Rest and most foolishly over-valueth the things below and he must learn to forsake all these or else he can never be Christs Disciple and that Christ will renounce him and be ashamed of him before his Father and the Angels of Heaven But for those that have held fast their integrity and gone through good report and evil report and undergone the violence of unreasonable men Let them hear the word of the Lord Your Brethren that hated you that cast you out for my Names sake said Let the Lord be glorified they had good words and godly pretences but he shall appear to your joy and they shall be ashamed Isai 66.5 Your Redeemer is strong the Lord of Hosts is his Name he shall throughly plead your cause that he may give rest to his people and disquietness to their enemies Jere. 50.34 SECT XIIII 6. WE shall then Rest also from all our sad Divisions and unchristian like quarrels with one another As he said who saw the Carkasses lie together as if they had embraced each other who had been slain by each other in a Duel Quantâ se invicem amplectuntur amicitiâ qui mutuâ implacabili inimicitiâ periêre How lovingly do they embrace one another being dead who perished through their mutual implacable enmity So how lovingly do thousands live together in Heaven who lived in Divisions and Quarrels on Earth or as he said Who beheld how quietly and peaceably the bones and dust of mortal enemies did lie together Non tantâ vivi pace essetis conjuncti You did not live together so peaceably So we may say of multitudes in Heaven now all of one minde one heart and one imployment You lived not on Earth in so sweet familiarity There is no contention because none of this Pride Ignorance or other Corruption Paul and Barnabas are now fully reconciled There they are not every man conceited of his own understanding and in love with the issue of his own Brain but all admiring the Divine perfection and in love with God and one another As old Grynaeus wrote to his friend Si te non ampliùs in his terris videam ibi tamen conveniemus ubi Lutherus cum Zuinglio optimè jam convenit If I see you no more on Earth yet we shall there meet where Luther and Zuinglius are now well agreed There is a full reconciliation between Sacramentarians and Vbiquitarians Calvinists and Lutherans Remonstrants and Contra-Remonstrants Disciplinarians and Anti Disciplinarians Conformists and Non-Conformists Antinomians and Legalists are terms there not known Presbyterians and Independents are perfectly agreed There is no Discipline erected by State Policy nor any disordered popular
rule No Government but that of Christ All things are established Jure Divino No bitter Invectives nor voluminous reproaches The Language of Martin is there a stranger and the sound of his eccho is not heard No Recording our Brethrens infirmities nor raking into the sores which Christ died to heal How many Sermons zealously Preached how many Books studiously compiled will then by the Authors be all disclaimed How many back-biting slanderous speeches How many secret dividing contrivances must then be laid on the score of Christ against whom and his Saints they were committed The zealous Authors dare not own them They would then with the Athenians burn their books Acts 19.19 and rather lose their labor then stand to it There 's no ploting to strengthen our party nor deep designing against our Brethren And is it not shame and pity that our course is now so contrary Surely if there be sorrow or shame in Heaven we shall then be both sorry and ashamed to look one another there in the face and to remember all this carriage on earth Even as the Brethren of Joseph were to behold him when they remembred their former unkinde usage Is it not enough that all the world is against us but we must also be against one another Did I ever think to have heard Christians so to reproach and scorn Christians and men professing the fear of God to make so little conscience of censuring vilifying slandering and disgracing one another Could I have believed him that would have told me five years ago that when the scorners of Godliness were subdued and the bitter prosecutors of the Church overthrown that such should succeed them who suffered with us who were our intimate friends with whom we took sweet counsel and went up together to the house of God Did I think it had been in the hearts of men professing such zeal to Religion and the ways of Christ to draw their swords against each other and to seek each others blood so fiercely Alas if the Judgment be once perverted and error have possessed the supream faculty whither will men go and what they will do Nay what will they not do O what a potent instrument for Satan is a misguided Conscience It will make a man kill his dearest friend yea father or mother yea the holiest Saint and think he doth God service by it And to facilitate the work it will first blot out the reputation of their holiness and make them take a Saint for a Devil that so they may vilifie or destroy him without remorse O what hellish things are Ignorance and Pride that can bring mens souls to such a case as this Paul knew what he said when he commanded that a Novice should not be a Teacher lest being lifted up with Pride he fall into the Condemnation of the Devil 1 Tim 3.6 He discerned that such young Christians that have got but a little smattering knowledg in Religion do lie in greatest danger of this Pride and Condemnation Who but a Paul could have foreseen that among the very Teachers and Governors of so choice a Church as Ephesus that came to see and hear him that pray and weep with him there were some that afterwards should be notorious Sect-masters That of their own selves men should arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them Acts 20.30 VVho then can expect better from any Society now how knowing and holy soever To day they may be Orthodox unanimous and joyned in Love and perhaps within a few weeks be divided and at bitter enmity through their doting about Questions that tend not to edifie VVho that had seen how loving the godly in England did live together when they were hated and scorned of all would have believed that ever they would have been so bitter against one another That when those who derided us for Preaching for Hearing for constant Praying in our Families for singing Psalms for sanctifying the Lords day for repeating Sermons for taking Notes for desiring Discipline c. had their mouthes stopped we should fall upon one another for the very same duties and that Professors of Religion should oppose and deride almost all that worship of God out of Conscience which others did before them through prophaneness Did I not think that of all other the scorning at the worshippers of Christ had been a sure sign of a wicked wretch But I see now we must distinguish between scorners and scorners or else I fear we shall exclude almost all I read indeed in Pagan VVriters That these Christians were as cruel as Bears and Tygers against one another Ammianus Marcellinus gives it as the Reason of Julians policy in proclaiming Liberty for every party to Profess and Preach their own Opinions because he knew the cruel Christians would then most fiercely fall upon one another and so by Liberty of Conscience and by keeping their Children from the Schools of Learning he thought to have rooted out Christianity from the Earth But I had hoped this accusation had come from the malice of the Pagan VVriter Little did I think to have seen it so far verified Lord what Divels are we unsanctified when there is yet such a Nature remaining in the sanctified Such a Nature hath God in these days suffered to discover it self in the very Godly that if he did not graciously and powerfully restrain they would shed the blood of one another and no thanks to us if it be not done But I hope his design is but to humble and shame us by the discovery and then to prevent the breaking forth Object But is it possible such should be truly Godly Then what sin will denominate a man ungodly Answ. Or else I must believe the doctrine of the Saints Apostasie or believe there are scarce any godly in the world O what a wound of dishonor hath this given not onely to the stricter profession of holines but even to the very Christian name Were there a possibility of hiding it I durst not thus mention it O Christian If thou who readest this be guilty I charge thee before the living God That thou sadly consider how far is this unlike thy Copy Suppose thou hadst seen the Lord Jesus girded to the service stooping to the Earth washing his Disciples dirty feet and wiping them and saying to them This I have done to give you an example That if I your Lord and Master have washed your feet you also ought to wash one anothers Would not this make thee ashamed and tremble Shall the Lord wipe the feet and the fellow-servant be ready to cut the throat would not thy proud heart scorn to stoop to thy Masters work Look to thy self it is not the name of a professor nor the zeal for thy opinions that will prove thee a Christian or secure thee from the heat of the consuming fire If thou love not thine enemy much more thy Christian friend thou canst
give them such rejoycings in it and yet never bestow it on them It cannot be Nay doth he give them the earnest of the inheritance Eph. 1.14 And Seal them with the Holy Spirit of promise Eph. 1.13 And yet will he deny the full possession These absurdities may not be charged on an ordinary man much less on the Faithfull and Righteous God SECT VI. SIxthly And Lastly The Scripture mentioneth particularly and by name those who have entered into this Rest. As Henoch who was taken up to God So Abraham Lazarus the thief that was crucified with Christ c. And if there be a Rest for these sure there is a Rest for all believers CHAP. II. Motives to study and preach the Divine Authority of Scripture SECT I. THus much may suffice where the Scripture is believed to confirm the truth of the point in hand viz. The certain futurity of the Saints Rest. And for Pagans and Infidels who believe not Scripture it is besides the intention of this discourse to endeavor their conviction I am endeavouring the consolation and edification of Saints and not the information and conversion of Pagans Yet do I acknowledg the subject exceeding necessary even to the Saints themselves for Sathans assaults are oft made at the foundation and if he can perswade them to question the verity of Scripture they will soon cast away their hopes of Heaven But if I should here enter upon that task to prove Scripture to be the infallible word of God I should make too broad a digression and set upon a work as larg as the maine for whose sake I should undertake it Neither am I insensible of how great difficulty it would prove to manage it satisfactorily and how much more then my ability is thereto requisite Yet lest the tempted Christian should have no relief nor any Argument at hand against the temptation I shall adventure upon a confirming Argument or two but I shall premise first a word of entreaty to my brethren of the Ministery to preach this a little more to their people And that not any body but some of the choicest whom God hath especially furnished for such a task would be pleased in a full Treatise to undertake it To which end I give them some of the Reasons of my request entreating the Lord to enable and perswade some of them to the work 1. I desire them to consider whether any thing yet published be neer compleat or such as the weight of the subject requires Whether much more may not be said and is necessary to be said then is yet said by any that hath writ on this subject 2. Whether if Christians who have opportunity do their duty would it not be a singular part of their work to endeavour the conversion of Pagans and Infidels And as I said before without some Arguments to demonstrate to them the verity of Scripture how are we furnished for such a work Or what have we to say but naked affirmation Yea how can we maintain the credit of Christianity if we were put to dispute the case with an unbeliever 3. Whether the assertion of some of our Divines that a naturall man without the extraordinary Testimony of the Spirit cannot be perswaded of the verity of Scripture notwithstanding all Arguments that can be produced be not very derogatory to the Authority of Scripture and do not justifie the world in their unbeliefe for it is not their sin to deny assent to that which hath not sufficient evidence As if we confessed to them we have not Arguments to convince you but you must be convinced by the Spirit without Arguments as if the Spirit did not deal with us as rationall creatures and did perswade without Argument and not by it As if many wicked men did not believe the truth of Scripture Yet I confesse ther 's great difference betwixt naturall and Spirituall beliefe 4. Is not this the ground-work of the whole Fabrick of Christianity And the very foundation of our faith And therefore should it not be timely and soundly laid and frequently and clearly taught 5. Is not Faith a rational Act of a rational Creature And so the Understanding proceeds discursively in its production And is not that the strongest Faith which hath the strongest Reasons to prove the Testimony to be valid upon which it resteth and the clearest apprehension and use of those Reasons And the truest Faith which hath the truest Reasons truly apprehended and used And must not that on the contrary be a weak or false faith which receives the Verity and Validity of the Testimony from weak or false Grounds though the Testimony of it self be the truest in the world Our Divines use to say concerning love to Christ that it is not to be measured by the degree of Fervor so much as by the Grounds and Motives so that if a man should love Christ upon the same Reasons as a Turk loves Mahomet it were no true love if he love him upon false grounds it must needs be a false love and if upon common grounds it can be but a common love And is it not then as clear that to believe in Jesus Christ upon the grounds that a Turk believes in Mahomet or to believe Scripture upon the same reasons that the Turk believes the Alcoran is no true Faith Supposing that both have the like verity of their Reasons 6. Is the generality of Christians able to give any better then some such common reason to prove the verity of Scripture Nay are the more exercised Understanding sort of Christians able by sound Arguments to make it good if an Enemy or a Temptation put them to it Nay are the ordinary sort of Ministers in England able to do this Let them that have tried judg 7. Can the Superstructure be firm where the Foundation is Sandy And can our Affections and Actions be sound and strong when our belief of Scripture is unsound or infirm Sure this Faith will have influence into all For my own part I take it to be the greatest cause of coldness in Duty weakness in Graces boldness in Sinning and unwillingness to die c. that our Faith is either unsound or infirm in this point Few Christians among us for ought I finde have any better then the Popish implicit faith in this point nor any better Arguments then the Papists have to prove Scripture the Word of God They have received it by Tradition godly Ministers and Christians tell them so it is impious to doubt of it and therefore they believe it And this worm lying at the root causeth the languishing and decay of the whole yet is it usually undiscerned for the root lieth secret under ground But I am apt to judg that though the most complain of their uncertainty of salvation through want of assurance of their own Interest and of the weakness of the applying Act of Faith yet the greater cause of all
and Earth where we now are yea or Heaven which is offered us then certainly we have received Mercy Yea if the Blood of the Son of God be Mercy then are we engaged to God by Mercy for so much did it cost him to recover us to himself And should a people of such deep engagements be lazy in their returns Shall God think nothing too much nor too Good for us and shall we think all too much that we do for him Thou that art an observing sensible man who knowest how much thou art beholden to God I appeal to thee Is not a loytering performance of a few heartless duties an unworthy requital of such admirable kindness For my own part when I compare my slow and unprofitable life with the frequent and wonderful mercies received it shames me it silenceth me and leaves me unexcusable SECT VIII 7. A Gain consider All the Relations which we stand in toward God whether common or special do call upon us for our utmost diligence Should not the pot be wholly at the service of the Potter and the creature at the service of his great Creator Are we his Children and do we not owe him our most tender affections and dutiful obedience Are we the Spouse of Christ and do we not owe him our observance and our Love If he be our Father where is his honour and if he be our Master where is his fear Mal. 1.6 We call him Lord and Master and we do well but if our industry be not answerable to our assumed relations we condemn our selves in saying we are his children or his servants How will the hard labour and dayly toyl that servants undergo to please their Masters judg and condemn those men who will not labour so hard for their Great Master Surely there 's none have a better or more honourable Master then we nor can any expect such fruit of their labours 1 Cor. 15. ult SECT IX 8. COnsider What haste should they make who have such Rods at their backs as be at ours And how painfully should they work who are still driven on by such sharp Afflictions If either we wander out of the way or loyter in it how surely do we prepare for our own smart Every creature is ready to be Gods Rod to reduce us or to put us on Our sweetest mercies will become our sorrows Or rather then he will want a Rod the Lord will make us a scourge to our selves Our diseased bodies shall make us groan our perplexed minds shall make us restless our conscience shall be as a Scorpion in our bosom And is it not easier to endure the labour then the spur Had we rather be still thus afflicted then to be up and going Alas how like are we to tired horses that will lie down and groan or stand still and let you lay on them as long as you will rather then they will freely travel on their journey And thus we make our own lives miserable and necessitate God if he love us to chastiâ—e us It is true those that do most do meet with Afflictions also but surely according to the measure of their peace of Conscience and faithfulness to Christ so is the bitterness of their Cup for the most part abated SECT X. 9. HOw close should they ply their work who have such great preparations attending them as we have All the world are our servants that we may be the Servants of God The Sun and Moon and Stars attend us with their light and influence The Earth with all its furniture is at our service How many thousand plants and flowers and fruits and birds and beasts do all attend us The Sea with its inhabitants the Air the wind the frost and snow the heat and fire the clouds and rain all wait upon us while we do our work Yea the Angels are ministring Spirits for the Service of the Elect. And is it not an intolerable crime for us to trifle while all these are employed to assist us Nay more The Patience and Goodness of God doth wait upon us The Lord Jesus waiteth in the offers of his blood The Holy Ghost waiteth in striving with our backward hearts Besides all his Servants the Ministers of his Gospel who study and wait and preach and wait and pray and wait upon careless sinners And shall Angels and Men yea the Lord himself stand by and look on and as it were hold thee the Candle while thou dost nothing Oh Christians I beseech you when ever you are upon your knees in prayer or reproving the transgressors or exhorting the obstinate or upon any duty do but remember what attendance you have for this work and then Judg how it behoves you to perform it SECT XI 10. SHould not our Affections and Endeavors be answerable to the acknowledged Principles of our Christian Profession Sure if we are Christians indeed and mean as we speak when we profess the Faith of Christ we shall shew it in Affections and Actions as well as Expressions Why the very fundamental Doctrines of our Religion are That God is the chief Good and all our Happiness consists in his Love and therefore it should be valued and sought above all things That he is our only Lord and therefore chiefly to be served That we must Love him with all our heart and soul and strength That the very business that men have in the world and the only errand that God sent them about is to Glorifie God and to obtain Salvation c. And do mens duties and conversations second this profession Are these Doctrines seen in the painfulness of mens practise Or rather do not their works deny what their words do confess One would think by mens Actions that they did not believe a word of the Gospel to be true Oh sad day when mens own tongues and professions shall be brought in against them and condemn them SECT XII 11. HOw forward and painful should we be in that work where we are sure we can never do enough If there were any danger of over-doing then it might well cause men to moderate their endeavors But we know that if we could do all we were but unprofitable servants much more when we are sure to fail in all It is true a man may possibly pray too much or preach too much or hear or reprove too much though I have known few that ever did so but yet no man can obey or serve God too much For one duty may be said to be too long when it shuts out another and then it ceaseth indeed to be a duty So that though all Superstition or service of our devising may be called a Righteousness-over-much yet as long as you keep your service to the rule of the Word that so it may have the true nature of obedience you never need to fear being Righteous too much For else we should reproach the Lord and Law-giver of the Church as if he had commanded us
to do too much Ah if the world were not mad with malice they could never be so blind in this point as they are to think that faithful diligence in serving Christ is folly and singularity and that they who set themselves wholy to seek eternal life are but precise Puritans The time is near when they will easily confess that God could not be loved or served too much and that no man can be too busie to save his Soul For the world you may easily do too much but here in Gods way you cannot SECT XIII 12. IT is the nature of every Grace to put on the Soul to diligence and speed If you Loved God you would make haste and not delay or trifle you would think nothing too much that you could possibly do you would be ambitious to serve him and please him still more Love is quick and impatient it is active and observant If you Loved Christ you would keep his Commandments and not accuse them of too much strictness So also if you had Faith it would quicken and encourage you If you had the Hope of Glory it would as the spring in the watch set all the wheels of your Souls agoing If you had the Fear of God it would rouze you out of your slothfulness If you had Zeal it would inflame you and eat you up God hath put all his Graces in the Soul on purpose to be oyl to the wheels to be life to the dead to mind men of their duty and dispose them to it and to carry them to himself So that in what degree soever thou art sanctified in the same degree thou wilt be serious and laborious in the work of God SECT XIV 13. COnsider They that trifle in the way to Heaven do but lose all their Labour when serious endeavors do obtain their End The Proverb is As good never a whit as never the better If two be running in a race he that runs slowest had as good never have run at all for now he loseth the prize and his labour both Many like Agrippa are but Almost Christians will find in the end they shall be but Almost Saved God hath set the rate at which the Pearl must be bought if you bid a peny less then that rate you had as good bid nothing As a man that is lifting at some weighty thing if he put too almost strength enough but yet not sufficient it is as good he had put too none at all for he doth but lose all his labour Oh how many Professors of Christianity will find this true to their sorrow Who have had a mind to the ways of God and have kept up a dull task of duty and plodded on in a formal liveless profession but never came to serious Christianity How many a duty have they lost for want of doing them throughly and to the purpose Perhaps their place in Hell may be the easier and so their labour is not lost but as to the obtaining of Salvation it is all lost Many shall seek to enter and not be able who if they had striven might have been able Oh therefore put to a little more diligence and strength that all be not in vain that you have done already SECT XV. 14. FUrthermore We have lost a great deal of precious Time already and therefore it is reason that we labor so much the harder If a traveller do sleep or trifle out the most of the day he must travel so much the faster in the Evening or else he is like to fall short of his Journeys end With some of us our child-hood and youth is gone with some also their middle age is past and the time before us is very uncertain and short What a deal of Time have we slept away and talkt away and plaid away What a deal have we spent in worldly thoughts and labours or in meer Idleness Though in likelihood the most of our time is spent yet how little of our work is done And is it not time now to bestir our selves in the evening of our days The time which we have lost can never be recalled Should we not then Redeem it by improving the little which remaineth You may receive indeed an equal recompence with those that have born the burden and heat of the day though you came not in till the last hour but then you must be sure to labour soundly that hour It is enough sure that we have lost so much of our lives let us not now be so foolish as to lose the rest 1 Pet. 4.2 3 4. SECT XVI 15. COnsider The greater are your layings out the greater will be your comings in Though you may seem to lose your labour at the present yet the time cometh when you shall find it with advantage The Seed which is buried and dead will bring forth a plentiful increase at the Harvest Whatever you do and whatever you suffer this Everlasting Rest will pay for all There is no repenting of Labours or Sufferings in Heaven None says Would I had spared my pains and prayed less or been less strict and precise and done as the rest of my neighbors did There is never a such a thought in Heaven as these But on the contrary it will be their Joy to look back upon their labours and tribulations and to consider how the mighty Power of God did bring them through all Who ever complained that he came to Heaven at too dear a Rate or that his Salvation cost him more labour then it was worth We may say of all our labours as Paul of our sufferings Rom. 8.18 For I reckon that the sufferings and labours of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the Glory which shall be revealed in us We labour but for a moment but we shall Rest for ever Who would not put forth all his strength for one hour when he may be a Prince while he lives for that hours work Oh what is the duty and sufferings of a short frail life which is almost at an end as soon as it begins in respect of the endless Joys with God Will not all our tears be then wip'd away and all the sorrow of our duties forgotten But yet the Lord will not forget them for he is not unjust to forget our work and labour of Love Heb. 6.10 SECT XVII 16. COnsider Violence and laborious Striving for Salvation is the way that the Wisdom of God hath directed us to as best and his Soveraign Authority appointed us as necessary Who knows the way to Heaven better then the God of Heaven When men tell us that we are too strict and precise whom do they accuse God or us If we do no more then what we are commanded nor so much neither they may as well say God hath made Laws which are too strict and precise Sure if it were a fault it would lie in him that commands it and not in us
for ought thou knowest to the contrary thy case hereafter may be as bad as his I know not what thou thinkest of thy own state but for my part did I not know what a desperate blind dead piece a carnal heart is I should wonder how thou dost to forget thy misery and to keep off continual horrors from thy heart And especially in these cases following 1. I wonder how thou canst either think or speak of the dreadful God without exceeding terror and astonishment as long as thou art uncertain whether he be thy Father or thy Enemy and knowest not but all his Attributes may be imployed against thee If his Saints must rejoyce before him with trembling and serve him in fear If they that are sure to receive the unmoveable Kingdom must yet serve God with reverence and godly fear because he is a consuming fire How then should the remembrance of him be terrible to them that know not but this fire may for ever consume them 2. How dost thou think without trembling upon Jesus Christ when thou knowest not whether his blood hath purged thy Soul or not and whether he will condemn thee or acquit thee in Judgment nor whether he be set for thy rising or thy fall Luk. 2.34 nor whether he be the corner Stone and Foundation of thy happiness or a stone of stumbling to break thee and grind thee to powder Mat. 21.44 Methinks thou shouldst be still in that tune as Job 31.23 Destruction from God is a terror to me and by reason of his Highness I cannot endure 3. How canst thou open the Bible and read a Chapter or hear a Chapter read but it should terrifie thee Methinks every leaf should be to thee as Belshazzars writing upon the wall except only that which draws thee to try and reform If thou read the Promises thou knowest not whether ever they shall be fulfilled to thee because thou art uncertain of thy performance of the Condition If thou read the Threatnings for any thing thou knowest thou dost read thy own sentence I do not wonder if thou art an enemy to plain preaching and if thou say of it and of the Minister and Scripture it self as Ahab of the Prophet I hate him for he doth not prophecy good concerning me but evil 1 Kings 22.8 4. I wonder how thou canst without terror approach God in prayer or any duty When thou callest him thy Father thou knowest not whether thou speak true or false When thou needest him in thy sickness or other extremity thou knowest not whether thou hast a friend to go to or an enemy When thou receivest the Sacrament thou knowest not whether thou take thy blessing or thy bane And who would wilfully live such a life as this 5. What comfort canst thou find in any thing which thou possessest Methinks friends and honors and house and lands should do thee little good till thou know that thou hast the love of God with all and shalt have Rest with him when thou leavest these Offer to a prisoner before he know his sentence either musick or clothes or lands or preferment and what cares he for any of these till he know how he shall scape for his life and then he will look after these comforts of life and not before for he knows if he must dye the next day it will be small comfort to dye rich or honorable Methinks it should be so with thee till thou know thine eternal state Dost not thou as Ezek. 12.18 Eat thy bread with quaking and drink thy drink with trembling and carefulness and say Alas though I have these to refresh my body now yet I know not what I shall have hereafter Even when thou liest down to take thy rest methinks the uncertainty of thy Salvation should keep thee waking or amaze thee in thy dreams and trouble thy sleep and thou shouldst say as Job in a smaller distress then thine Job 7.13 14. When I say My bed shall comfort me my couch shall ease my complaint then thou scarest me through dreams and terrifiest me through visions 6. Doth it not grieve thee to see the people of God so comfortable when thou hast none thy self and to think of the Glory which they shall inherit when thou hast no assurance thy self of ever enjoying it 7. What shift dost thou make to think of thy dying hour Thou knowest it is hard by and there 's no avoyding it nor any medicine found out that can prevent it Thou knowest it is the King of terror Job 18.14 and the very inlet to thine unchangeable state The godly that have some assurance of their future welfare have yet much ado to submit to it willingly and find that to dye comfortably is a very difficult work How then canst thou think of it then without astonishment who hast got no assurance of the Rest to come If thou shouldst dye this day and who knows what a day may bring forth Prov. 27.1 thou dost not know whether thou shalt go straight to Heaven or to Hell And canst thou be merry till thou art got out of this dangerous state Methinks that in Deut. 28.25 26 27. should be the looking-glass of thy heart 8. What shift dost thou make to preserve thy heart from horror when thou remembrest the great Judgment day and the Everlasting flames Dost thou not tremble as Felix when thou hearest of it and as the Elders of the Town trembled when Samuel came in it saying Comest thou peaceably So methinks thou shouldst do when the Minister comes into the Pulpit And thy heart when ever thou meditatest of that day should meditate terror Isai. 33.18 And thou shouldst be even a terror to thy self and all thy friends Jer. 20.4 If the keepers trembled and became as dead men when they did but see the Angels Mat. 28.3 4. how canst thou think of living in Hell with Devils till thou hast got some sound assurance that thou shalt escape it Or if thou seldom think of these things the wonder is as great what shift thou makest to keep these thoughts from thy heart and to live so quietly in so doleful a state Thy bed is very soft or thy heart is very hard if thou canst sleep soundly in this uncertain case I have shewed thee the danger let me next proceed to shew thee the Remedy SECT II. IF this general uncertainty of the world about their Salvation were constrained or remediless then must it be born as other unavoidable miseries and it were unmeet either to reprove them for it or exhort them from it But alas the Common Cause is Wilfulness and Negligence Men will not be perswaded to use the Remedy though it be easie and at hand prescribed to them by God himself and all necessary helps thereunto provided for them The great means to conquer this Uncertainty is Self-Examination or the Serious and diligent trying of a mans heart and state by the rule of Scripture This Scripture
acquainted then in their own brests 3. Besides many come to the work with forestalling conclusions They are resolved what to judge before they Try They use the duty but to strengthen their present conceits of themselves and not to find out the truth of their condition Like a bribed Judge who examines each party as if he would Judge uprightly when he is resolved which way the cause shall go before hand Or as perverse disputers who argue only to maintain their present opinions rather then to try those opinions whether they are right or wrong Just so do men examine their hearts 4. Also men are partial in their own Cause They are ready to think their great sins small and their small sins to be none their gifts of nature to be the work of Grace and their gifts of common grace to be the special grace of the Saints They are straight ways ready to say All these have I kept from my youth And I am rich and increased c. Rev. 3.17 The first common excellency that they meet with in themselves doth so dazle their eyes that they are presently satisfied that all is well and look no further 5. Besides most men do search but by the halves If it will not easily quickly be done they are discouraged and leaveoff Few set to it and follow it as beseems them in a work of such moment He must give all diligence that means to make sure 6. Also men try themselves by false Marks and Rules not knowing wherein the truth of Christianity doth consist some looking beyond and some short of the Scripture standard 7. Moreover there is so great likeness betwixt the lowest degree of special grace and the highest degree of Common Grace that it is no wonder if the unskilful be mistaken It is a great Question whether the main difference between special grace and common be not rather gradual then specifical If it should be so as some think then the discovery will be much more difficult However to discern by what principle our affections are moved and to what ends and with what sincerity is not very easie there being so many wrong Ends and motives which may excite the like Acts. Every grace in the Saints hath its counterfeit in the Hypocrite 8. Also men use to Try themselves by unsafe Marks either looking for a high degree of grace instead of a lower degree in sincerity as many doubting Christians do or else enquiring only into their outward Actions or into their inward Affections without their ends motives and other qualifications The sure evidences are Faith Love c. that are Essential parts of our Christianity and that lie neerest to the heart 9. Lastly Men frequently miscarry in this work by setting on it in their own strength As some expect the Spirit should do it without them so others attempt it themselves without seeking or expecting the help of the Spirit both these will certainly miscarry in their Assurance How far the Spirits Assistance is necessary is shewed before and the several Acts which it must perform for us SECT X. FUrther Causes of doubting among Christians Because the Comfort of a Christians life doth so much consist in his Assurance of Gods Special Love and because the right way of obtaining it is so much controverted of late I will here proceed a little further in opening to you some other Hinderances which keep true Christians from Comfortable Certainty besides the forementioned Errors in the Work of Examination Though I would still have you remember and be sensiâ—le That the neglect or slighty performance of that great duty and not following on the seaâ—ch with Seriousness and Constancy is the most common Hinderance for ought I have yet found I shall add now these Ten more which I find very ordinary Impediments and therefore desire Christians more carefully to Consider and Beware of them 1. One Common and great Cause of doubting and uncertainty is The weakness and small measure of our Graces A little Grace is next to None Small things are hardly discerned He that will see a small needle a hair a mote or atome must have clear light and good eyes But houses and Towns and Mountains are easily discerned Most Christians content themselves with a small measure of Grace and do not follow on to spiritual strength and manhood They Believe so weakly and Love God so little that they can scarce find whether they Believe and Love at all Like a man in a swoun whose pulse and breathing is so weak and obscure that it can hardly be perceived whether they move at all and consequently whether the man be alive or dead The chief Remedy for such would be To follow on their duty till their Graces be increased Ply your work Wait upon God in the use of his prescribed means and he will undoubtedly bless you with Increase and Strength Oh that Christians would bestow most of that time in getting more Grace which they bestow in Anxious doubtings whether they have any or none And that they would lay out those Serious Affections in Praying and seeking to Christ for more Grace which they bestow in fruitless Complaints of their supposed Gracelesness I beseech thee Christian take this advice as from God And then when thou Believest strongly and Lovest fervently thou canst not doubt whether thou do Believe and Love or not No more then a man that is burning hot can doubt whether he be warm or a man that is strong and lusty can doubt whether he be alive Strong Affections will make you feel them Who loveth his friend or wife or child or any thing strongly and doth not know it A great measure of Grace is seldom doubted of Or if it be you may quickly find when you seek and try SECT XI 2. ANother Cause of uncomfortable living is That Christians look more at their present Cause of Comfort or Discomfort then they do at their Future Happiness and the way to attain it They look afâ—er Signs which may tell thâ—m what they are more then they do at Pâ—ecepts which tell them what they should do They are very desirous to know whether they are Justified and beloved or not but they do not think what course they should take to be Justified if they be not As if their present Case must needs be their Everlasting Case and if they be now unpardoned there were no Remedy Why I beseech thee consider this Oh doubting Soul What if all were as bâ—d as thou dost fear and none of thy sins were yet pardoned Is not the Remedy at hand May not all this be done in a moment Dost thou not know that thou mayst have Christ and pardon when ever thou wilt Call not this a loose or strange doctrine Christ is willing if thou be willing He offereth himself and all his benefits to thee He presseth them on thee and urgeth thee to accept them He will condemn thee and destroy thee if thou
part he is assured of them How can you doubt whether you love God in the Act of Loving Or whether you believe in the very Act of Believing If therefore you would be assured whether this Sacred Fire be kindled in your hearts blow it up get it into a flâ—me and then you will know Believe till you feel that you do believe and Love till you feel that you love 3. The Action of the Soul upon such excellent Objects doth naturally bring Consolation with it The very Act of Loving God in Christ doth bring unexpressible sweetness with it into the Soul The Soul that is best furnished with Grace when it is not in Action is like a Lute well string'd and tun'd which while it lieth still doth make no more Musick then a common piece of wood but when it is taken up and handled by a skilful Lutist the melody is most delightful Some degree of comfort saith that comfortable Doctor followes every good Action as heat accompanies fire and as beams and influences issue from the Sun which is so true that very heathens upon the discharge of a good Conscience have found comfort and peace answerable This is Praemium ante Praemium a Reward before the Reward As a man therefore that is cold should not stand still and say I am so cold that I have no minde to Labour but labour till â—is coldness be gone and heat excited So he that wants assurance of the truth of his graces and the comfort of Assurance must not stand still and say I am so doubtful and uncomfortable that I have no minde to duty but ply his duty and exercise his Graces till he finde his Doubts and Discomforts to vanish SECT XIX 10. LAstly another ordinary Nurse of Doubtings and Discomfort is The prevailing of Melancholly in the body whereby the brain is continually troubled and darkened the Fancy hindered and Reason perverted by the distempering of its instruments and the Soul is still clad in mourning weeds It is no more wonder for a Consciencious man that is overcome with Melancholly to doubt and fear and despair then it is for a sick man to groan or a child to cry when he is beater This is the case with most that I have known lie long in doubting and distress of Spirit With some their Melancholly being raised by Crosses or distemper of body or some other occasion doth afterwards bring in trouble of Conscience as its companion With others trouble of mind is their first trouble which long hanging on them at last doth bring the body also into a Melancholly habit And then trouble increaseth Melancholly and Melancholly again increaseth trouble and so round This is a most sad and pitiful state For as the disease of the body is chronical and obstinate and physick doth seldom succeed where it hath far prevailed so without the Physician the labours of the Divine are usually in vain You may silence them but you cannot comâ—fort them You may make them confess that they have some Grace and yet cannot bring them to the comfortable Conclusiâ—ons Or if you convince them of some work of the Spirit upon their souls and a little at present abate their sadness yet as soon as they are gone home and look again upon their souls through this perturbing humour all your convincing Arguments are forgotten and they are as far from comfort as ever they were All the good thoughts of their estate which you can possibly help them to are seldom above a day or two old As a man that looks through a black or blew or red glass doth think things which he sees to be of the same colour and if you would perswade him to the contrary he will not believe you but wonder that you should offer to perswade him against his eye-sight So a Melancholly man sees all things in a sad and fearful plight because his Reason looketh on them through this black humour with which his brain is darkened and distempered And as a mans eyes which can see all things about them yet cannot see any imperfection in themselves so is it almost impossible to make many of these men to know that they are Melancholly But as those who are troubled with the Ephialtes do cry out of some body that lyeth heavy upon them when the disease is in their own blood and humors so these poor men cry out of sin and the wrath of God when the main cause is in this bodily distemper The chief part of the cure of these men must be upon the body because there is the chief part of the disease And thus I have shewed you the chief causes why so many Christians do injoy so little Assurance and Consolation CHAP. VIII Containing an Exhortation and Motives to Examine SECT I. HAving thus discoverd the Impediments to Examination I would presently proceed to direct you to the performance of it but that I am yeâ— jealous whether I have fully prevailed with you wills and whether you are indeed Resolved to set upon the Duty I have found by long experience as well as from Scripture That the main difficulty lieth in bringing men to be willing and to set themselves in good earnest to the searching of their hearts Many love to hear and read of Marks and signs by which they may Try but few will be brought to spend an hour in using them when they have them They think they should have their Doubts resolved as soon as they do but hear a minister name some of these Signes and if that would do the work then Assurance would be more common But when they are informed that the work lies most upon their own hands and what pains it must cost them to search their hearts faithfully then they give up and will go no further This is not only the case of the ungodly who commonly perish through this neglect but multitudes of the godly themselves are like Idle Beggars who will rather make a practice of begging and bewailing their misery then they will set themselves to labour painfully for their relief So do many spend days and years in sad complaints and doubtings that will not be brought to spend a few hours in Examination I intreat all these persons what condition soever they are of to consider the weight of these following Arguments which I have propounded in hope to perswade them to this duty SECT II. 1. TO be deceived about your Title to Heaven is exceeding easie and not to be deceived is exceeding difficult This I make manifest to you thus 1. Multitudes that never suspected any falshood in their hearts have yet proved unsound in the day of Tryal and they that never feared any danger toward them have perished for ever Yea many that have been confident of their integrity and safety I shall adjoyn the proofes of what I say in the Margin for brevity sake How many poor souls are now in Hell that little thought of comming
thou hast a building with God not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens 2 Cor. 5.1 2. It would therefore better become thee earnestly to groan desiring to be cloathed upon with that house Is thy flesh any better then the flesh of Noah was And yet though God saved him from the common deluge he would not save him from common death Or is it any better then the flesh of Abraham or Job or David or all the Saints that ever lived Yet did they all suffer and dye Dost thou think that those Souls which are now with Christ do so much pity their rotten or dusty corps or lament that their ancient habitation is ruined and their oneâ— comely bodies turned into earth Oh what a thing is strangeness and disacquaintance It maketh us afraid of our dearest friends and to draw back from the place of our only happiness So was it with thee towards thy chiefest friends on earth While thou wast unacquainted with them thou didst withdraw from their society but when thou didst once know them throughly thou wouldst have been loath again to be deprived of their fellowship And even so though thy strangeness to God another world do make thee loath to leave this flesh yet when thou hast been but one day or hour there if we may so speak of that Eternity where is neither day nor hour thou wouldst be full loath to return into this flesh again Doubtless when God for the Glory of his Son did send back the Soul of Lazarus into its body he caused it quite to forget the Glory which it had enjoyed and to leave behind it the remembrance of that happiness together with the happiness it self Or else it might have made his life a burden to him to think of the blessedness that he was fetched from and have made him ready to break down the prison doors of his flesh that he might return to that happy state again Oh then impatient Soul murmur not at Gods dealings with that body but let him alone with his work and way He knows what he doth but so dost not thou He seeth the End but thou seest but the beginning If it were for want of love to thee that he did thus chastise thy body then would he not have dealt so by all his Saints Dost thou not think he did not love David and Paul or Christ himself Or rather doth he not chasten because he loveth and scourgeth every Son whom he receiveth Heb. 12.4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11. Believe nor the Fleshes reports of God nor its commentaries upon his Providences It hath neither Will nor Skill to interpret them aright Not Will for it is an enemy to them They are against it and it is against them Not Skill for it is darkness It savoreth only the things of the flesh but the things of the Spirit it cannot understand because they are spiritually discerned Never expect then that the flesh should truly expound the meaning of the rod. It will call Love Hatred and say God is destroying when he is saving and murmur as if he did thee wrong and used thee hardly when he is shewing thee the greatest mercy of all Are not the foul steps the way to Rest as well as the fair Yea are not thy sufferings the most necessary passages of his providence And though for the present they are not Joyous but Grievous yet in the End do they bring forth the Quiet fruits of Righteousness to all those that are exercised thereby Hast thou not found it so by former experience when yet this flesh would have perswaded thee otherwise Believe it then no more which hath mis-informed thee so oft For indeed there is no believing the words of a wicked and ignorant enemy Ill-will never speaks well But when malice viciousness and Ignorance are combined what actions can expect a true and fair interpretation This flesh will call Love Anger and Anger Hatred and Chastisements Judgments It will tell thee That no mans case is like thine and if God did Love thee he would never so use thee It will tell thee That the promises are but deceiving words and all thy prayers and uprightness is vain If it find thee sitting among the ashes it will say to thee as Jobs wife Dost thou yet retain thine integrity Job 2. 8 9 10. Thus will it draw thee to offend against God and the generation of his Children It is a party and the suffering party and therefore not fit to be the Judg. If your Child should be the Judg when and how oft you should chastise him and whether your chastisement be a token of fatherly love you may easily imagine what would be his Judgment If we could once believe God and Judg of his dealings by what he speaks in his Word and by their usefulness to our Souls and reference to our Rest and could stop our ears against all the clamours of the flesh then we should have a truer Judgment of our Afflictions SECT VII 6. LAstly Consider God doth seldom give his people so sweet a fore-taste of their Future Rest as in their deep Afflictions He keepeth his most precious cordials for the time of our greatest faintings and dangers To give such to men that are well and need them not is but to cast them away They are not capable of discerning their working on their worth A few drops of Divine Consolation in the midst of a world of pleasure and contents will be but lost and neglected as some precious spirits cast into a vessel or river of common waters The Joys of Heaven are of unspeakable sweetness But a man that overflows with earthly delights is scarce capable of tasting their sweetness They may easilier comfort the most dejected Soul then him that feeleth not any need of comfort as being full of other comforts already Even the best of Saints do seldom-taste of the delights of God and pure spiritual unmixed Joys in the time of their prosperity as they do in their deepest troubles and distress God is not so lavish of his choice favours as to bestow them unseasonably Even to his own will he give them at so fit a time when he knoweth that they are needful and will be valued and when he is sure to be thanked for them and his people rejoyced by them Especially when our sufferings are more directly for his cause then doth he seldom fail of sweetening the bitter cup. Therefore have the Martyrs been possessors of the highest Joys and therefore were they in former times so ambitious of Martyrdom I do not think that Paul and Silas did ever sing more Joyfully then when they were sore with scourgings and were fast in the inner prison with their feet in the stocks Acts 16.24 25. When did Christ preach such comforts to his Disciples and leave them his Peace and assure them of his providing them mansions with himself but when he was ready to leave them and their hearts
those that were my delight and that I looked for daily comfort and refreshing from when these shall be my grief and as thorns in my sides who can bear it Answ. 1. Who ever is the instrument the Affliction is from God and the provoking cause from thy self And were it not fitter then that thou look more to God and thy self 2. Didst thou not know that the best men are still sinful in part and that their hearts are naturally deceitful and desperately wicked as well as others And this being but imperfectly cured so far as they are fleshly the fruits of the flesh will appear in them which are strife hatred variance emulations wrath seditions heresies envyings c. So far the best is as a brier and the most upright of them sharper then a thorny hedg Learn therefore a better use from the Prophet Micah 7.4 5 6 7. Trust not too much in a friend nor put confidence in a guide Keep the doors of thy mouth from her that lieth in thy bosom c. But look rather for the Lord and wait for the God of thy Salvation It is likely thou hast given that Love and Trust to Saints which was due onely to God or which thou hast denied him and then no wonder if he chastise thee by them Or perhaps the observation of the excellencies of Grace hath made thee forget the vileness of Nature and therefore God will have thee take notice of both Many are tender of giving too much to the dead Saints that yet give too much to the living without scruple Till thou hast learned to suffer from a Saint as well as from the Wicked and to be abused by the Godly as well as the Ungodly never look to live a contented or comfortable life nor never think thou hast truly learned the Art of Suffering Do not think that I vilifie the Saints too much in so saying I confess it is pity that Saints must suffer from Saints And it is quite contrary to their holy Nature and their Masters Laws who hath left them his Peace and made Love to be the Character of his Disciples and to be the first and great and new Commandment And I know that there is much difference between them and the world in this point But yet as I said they are Saints but in part and therefore Paul and Barnabas may so fall out as to part asunder and upright Asa may imprison the Prophet call it persecution or what you please Josephs Brethren that cast him into a pit and sold him to strangers for a slave I hope were not all ungodly Jobs wife and friends were sad comforters Davids Enemy was his familiar friend with whom he had taken sweet counsel and they had gone up together to the House of God And know also that thy own nature is as bad as theirs and thou art as likely thy self to be a grief to others Can such ulcerous leprous sinners as the best are live together and not infest and molest each other with the smell of their sores Why if thou be a Christian thou art a dayly trouble to thy self and art molested more with thy own corruptions then with any mans else And dost thou take it so hainously to be molested with the frailties of others when thou canst not forbear doing more against thy self For my part for all our Graces I rather admire at that wisdom and goodness of God that maintaineth that order and union amongst us as is and that he suffereth us not to be still one anothers executioners and to lay violent hands on our selves and each other I dare not think that there is no one gracious that hath labored to destroy others that were so in these late dissentions Sirs you do not half know yet the mortal wickedness of depraved Nature If the best were not more beholden to the Grace of God without them then to the habitual Grace within them you should soon see That men of low degree are vanity and men of high degree are a lye to be put in the ballance they are lighter then vanity it self Psal. 62.7 8 9. For what is man that he should be clean and he that is born of a woman that he should be righteous Behold he putteth no trust in his Saints and the Heavens are not clean in his sight How much more abominable and filthy is man that drinketh up iniquity like water Job 15.14 15 16. Object 5. Oh but if I had that consolation which you say God reserveth for our suffering times I should suffer more contentedly but I do not perceive any such thing Answ. 1. The more you suffer for Righteousness sake the more of this blessing you may expect and the more you suffer for your own evil doing the longer you must look to stay till that sweetness come When we have by our folly provoked God to chastise us shall we presently look that he should fill us with comfort That were as Mr Paul Bayn saith to make Affliction to be no Affliction What good would the bitterness do us if it be presently drowned in that sweetness It is well in such sufferings if you have but supporting Grace and your sufferings sanctified to work out your sin and bring you to God 2. Do you not neglect or resist the comforts which you desire God hath filled Precepts and Promises and other of his Providences with matter of comfort If you will over-look all these and make nothing of them and pore all upon your sufferings and observe one cross more then a thousand mercies who maketh you uncomfortable but your selves If you resolve that you will not be comfortable as long as any thing aileth your flesh you may stay till death before you have comfort 3. Have your Afflictions wrought kindly with you and fited you for comfort Have they humbled you and brought you to a faithful confession and reformation of your beloved sin and made you set close to your neglected Duties and weaned your hearts from their former Idols and brought them unfeignedly to take God for their Portion and their Rest If this be not done how can you expect Comfort Should God binde up the sore while it festereth at the bottom It is not meer Suffering that prepares you for Comfort but the success and fruit of Sufferings upon your hearts I shall say no more on this Subject of Afflictions because so many have written on it already Among which I desire you especially to read Mr Bayns Letters and Mr Hughes his Dry Rod blooming and fruit-bearing and Young's COUNTERPOYSON CHAP. XI An Exhortation to those that have got Assurance of this Rest or title to it that they would do all that possibly they can to help others to it also The fifth Vse SECT I. HAth God set before us such a glorious prize as this Everlasting Rest of the Saints is And hath he made man capable of such an unconceiveable Happiness Why then do not all the children of this
it If in case of his bodily distress you must not bid him go and come again to morrow when you have it by you and he is in want Prov. 3.27 28. how much less may you delay the succor of his Soul If once death snatch him away he is then out of the reach of your Charity SECT VI. 3. LEt thy Exhortation proceed from Compassion and Love and let the manner of it clearly shew the person thou dealest with that it hence proceedeth It is not jeering or scorning or reproaching a man for his faults that is a likely way to work his reformation Nor is it the right way to convert him to God to rail at him and vilifie him with words of disgrace Men will take them for their enemies that thus deal with them And the words of an enemy are little perswading Lay by your Passion therefore and take up compassion and go to poor sinners with tears in your eyes that they may see you indeed believe them to be miserable and that you do unfeignedly pity their case Deal with them with earnest humble intreatings Let them see that your very bowels do yearn over them and that it is the very desire of your hearts to do them good Let them perceive that you have no other end but the procuring of their everlasting Happiness and that it is your sense of their danger and your love to their Souls that forceth you to speak even because you know the terrors of the Lord and for fear lest you should see them in eternal torments Say to them Why friend you know it is no advantage of my own that I seek The way to please you and to keep your friendship were to sooth you in your way or to speak well of you or to let you alone but Love will not suffer me to see you perish and be silent I seek nothing at your hands but that which is necessary to your own happiness It is your self that will have the gain and comfort if you come in to Christ c. If men should thus go to every ignorant wicked neighbor they have and thus deal with them Oh what blessed fruits should we quickly see I am ashamed to hear some lazy hypocritical wretches to revile their poor ignorant neighbors and separate from their company and communion and proudly to judg them unfit for their society before ever they once tryed with them this compassionate Exhortation Oh you little know what a prevailing course this were like to prove and how few of the vilest drunkards or swearers would prove so obstinate as wholy to reject or despise the Exhortations of Love I know it must be God that must change mens hearts But I know also that God worketh by means and when he meaneth to prevail with men he usually fitteth the means accordingly and stirreth up men to plead with them in a prevailing way and so setteth in with his grace and maketh it successful Certainly those that have tryed can tell you by experience that there is no way so prevailing with men as the way of Compassion and Love So much of these as they discern in your Exhortation usually so much doth it succeed with their hearts And therefore I beseech those that are faithful to practise this course SECT VII 4. ANother Direction I would give you is this Do it with all possible plainness and faithfulness Do not dawb with men and hide from them their misery or danger or any part of it Do not make their sins less then they are nor speak of them in an extenuating language Do not encourage them in a false hope or faith no more then you would discourage the sound hopes of the righteous If you see his case dangerous tell him plainly of it Neighbor I am afraid God hath not yet renewed your Soul and that it is yet a stranger to the great work of Regeneration and Sanctification I doubt you are not yet recovered from the power of Satan to God nor brought out of the state of wrath which you were born in and have lived in I doubt you have not chosen Christ above all nor set your heart upon him nor unfeignedly taken him for your Soveraign Lord. If you had sure you durst not so easily disobey him you could not so neglect him and his worship in your family and in publique you could not so eagerly follow the world and talk of almost nothing but the things of this world while Christ is seldom mentioned or sought after by you If you were in Christ you would be a new Creature old things would be passed away and all things would become new you would have new thoughts and new talk and new company and new endeavors and a new conversation Certainly without these you can never be saved You may think otherwise and hope better as long as you will but your hopes will all deceive you and perish with you Alas it is not as you will nor as I will who shall be saved but it is as God will and God hath told us That without holiness none shall see him and except we be born again we cannot enter into his Kingdom and that all that would not have Christ raign over them shall be brought forth and destroyed before him Oh therefore look to your state in time Thus must you deal roundly and faithfully with men if ever you intend to do them good It is not hovering at a distance in a general discourse that will serve the turn It is not in curing mens Souls as in curing their bodies where they must not know their danger lest it sadden them and hinder the cure They are here agents in their own cure and if they know not their misery they will never bewail it nor know how much need they have of a Saviour If they know not the worst they will not labour to prevent it but will sit still or loiter till they drop into perdition and will trifle out their time in delays till it be too late And therefore speak to men as Christ to the Pharisees till they knew that he meant them Deal plainly or you do but deceive and destroy them SECT VIII 5. ANd as you must do it Plainly so also Seriously Zealously and Effectually The exceeding stupidity and deadness of mens hearts is such that no other dealing will ordinarily work You must call loud to awake a man in a Swoun or Lethargy If you speak to the common sort of men of the evil of their sin of their need of Christ of the danger of their Souls and of the necessity of Regeneration they will wearily and unwillingly give you the hearing and put off all with a sigh or a few good wishes and say God forgive us we are all sinners and there 's an end If ever you will do them good therefore you must sharpen your exhortation and set it home and follow it with their hearts till you have rouzed them up and made
it be only the voice of a Cain to say Am I my brothers keeper I would have one of these men that are so loath that private men should teach them to tell me What if a man fall down in a swoon in the streets though it be your father or superior would you not take him up presently and use all means you could to recover him Or would you let him lye and dye and say It is the work of the Physitian and not mine I will not invade the Physitians calling In two cases every man is a Physitian First In case of necessity and when a Physitian cannot be had and secondly in case the hurt be so small that every man can do it as well as the Physitian And in the same two cases every man must be a Teacher Object Some will further object to put off this duty That the party is so ignorant or stupid or careless or rooted in sin and hath been so oft exhorted in vain that there is no hope Ans. How know you when there is no hope Cannot God yet cure him and must it not be by means and have not many as far gone been cured should not a mercifull Physitian use means while there is life and is it not inhuman cruelty in you to give up your friend to the divel and damnation as hopeless upon meer backwardness to your duty or upon groundless discouragements What if you had been so given up your self when you were ignorant Object But we must not cast pearls before Swine nor give that which is holy to Dogs Ans. That is but a favorable dispensation of Christ for your own safety When you are in danger to be torn in pieces Christ would have you forbear but what is that to you that are in no such danger As long as they will hear you have encouragement to speak and may not cast them off as contemptuous Swine Obj. O but it is a friend that I have all my dependance on and by telling him of his sin and misery I may lose his love and so be undone Answ. Sure no man that hath the face of a Christian will for shame own such an objection as this Yet I doubt it oft prevaileth in the heart Is his love more to be valued then his safety or thy own benefit by him then the salvation of his soul Or wilt thou connive at his damnation because he is thy friend Is that thy best requital of his Friendship Hadst thou rather he should burn for ever in Hell then thou shouldst lose his favor or the maintenance thou hast from him Object But I hope though he be not regenerate and holy that he is in no such danger Ans. Nay then if thou be one that dost not believe Gods word I have no more to say to thee Joh. 3.3 Heb. 12.14 I told you before that this unbelief was the root of all TO conclude this Use that I may prevaile with every soul that feareth God to use their utmost diligence to help all about them to this blessed Rest which they hope for themselves let me intreat you to consider of these following Motives 1. Consider Nature teacheth the communicating of good and grace doth especially dispose the soul thereto The neglect therefore of this work is a sin against both Nature and Grace He that should never seek after God himself would quickly be concluded graceless by all And is not he as certainly graceless that doth not labor the salvation of others when we are bound to love our neighbour as our self Would you not think that man or woman unnaturall that would let their own children or neighbors famish in the streets while they have provision at hand And is not he more unnatural that will let his children or neighbors perish eternally and will not open his mouth to save them Certainly this is most barbarous cruelty Pity to the miserable is so natural that we account an unmerciful cruel man a very monster to be abhored of all Many vicious men are too much loved in the world but a cruel man is abhorred of all Now that it may appear to you what a cruel thing this neglect of souls is do but consider of these two things First How great a work it is Secondly And how small a matter it is that thou refusest to do for the accomplishing of so great a work First It is to save thy brother from eternal flames that he may not there lye roaring in endless remediless torments It is to bring him to the Everlasting Rest where he may live in unconceivable happiness with God Secondly And what is it that you should do to help him herein Why it is to teach him and perswade him and lay open to him his sin and his duty his misery and the remedy till you have made him willing to yield to the offers and commands of Christ. And is this so great a matter for to do to the attaining of such a blessed End If God had bid you give them all your estates to win them or lay down your lives to save them sure you would have refused when you will not bestow a little breath to save them Is not the soul of a Husband or Wife or Childe or Neighbor worth a few words It is worth this or it is worth nothing If they did lye dying in the streets and a few words would save their lives would not every man say that he were a cruel wretch that would let them perish rather than speak to them Even the covetuous hypocrite that James reproveth would give a few words to the poor and say go and be warmed be cloathed What a barbarous unmerciful wretch then art thou that wilt not vouchsafe a few words of serious sober admonition to save the soul of thy neighbor or friend Cruelty and unmercifulness to mens bodies is a most damnable sin but to their souls much more as the soul is of greater worth then the body and as eternity is of greater moment then this short time Alas you do not see or feel what case their souls are in when they are in Hell for want of your faithful admonition Little know you what many a soul may now be feeling who have been your neighbors and acquaintance and dyed in their sins on whom you never bestowed one hours sober advice for the preventing of their unhappiness If you did know their misery you would now do more to bring them out of hell but alas it is too late you should have done it while they were with you it is now too late As one said in reproach of Physitians that they were the most happy men because all their good deeds and cures were seen above ground to their praise but all their mistakes and neglects were buried out of sight so I may say to you many a neglect of yours to the souls about you may be now buried with those souls in Hell out of your sight and hearing and
therefore now it doth not much trouble you but alas they feel it though you feel it not May not many a Papist rise up in judgment against us and condemn us They will give their lands and estates to have so many Masses said for the souls of their deceased friends when it is too late to bring them out of a feigned Purgatory And we will not ply them with perswasions while we may to save them from real threatned condemnation Though this cheaper means may prove effectual when that dearer way of Papists will do no good Jeremy cryed out My bowels My bowels I cannot hold my peace because of a temporall destruction of his people And do not our bowels yearn and can we hold our peace at mens eternall destruction 2. Consider What a rate Christ did value souls at and what he hath done towards the saving of them He thought them worth his blood and sufferings and shall not we then think them worth the breath of our mouths VVill you not set in with Christ for so good a work Nor do a little where he hath done so much 3. Consider What fit objects of pity they are It is no small misery to be an enemy to God unpardoned unsanctified strangers to the Churches special priviledges without hope of salvation if they so live and dye And which is yet more they are dead in these their trespasses and miseries and have not hearts to feel them or to pity themselves If others do not pity them they will have no pity for it is the nature of their disease to make them pitiâ—less to their own souls yea to make them the most cruel destroyers of themselves 4. Consider It was once thy own case Thou wast once a slave of Satan thy self and confidently didst go on in the way to condemnation What if thou hadst been let alone in that way Whither hadst thou gone and what had become of thee It was Gods Argument to the Israelites to be kinde to strangers because themselves were sometime strangers in Egypt so may it perswade you to shew compassion to them that are strangers to Christ and to the hopes and comforts of the Saints because you were once as strange to them your selves 5. Consider The Relation that thou standest in toward them It is thy neighbor thy brother whom thou art bound to be tender of and to love as thy self He that loveth not his brother whom â—e seeth daily most certainly doth not love God whom he never saw And doth he love his brother that will stand by and see him go to hell and never hinder him 6. Consider What a deal of guilt this neglect doth lay upon thy soul. First Thou art guilty of the murder and damnation of all those souls whom thou dost thus neglect He that standeth by and seeth a man in a pit and will not pull him out if he can doth drown him And he that standeth by while theeves rob him or murderers kill him and will not help him if he can is accessory to the fact And so he that will silently suffer men to damn their souls or will let Satan and the world deceive them and not offer to help them will certainly be Judged guilty of damning them And is not this a most dreadful consideration O Sirs how many souls then have every one of us been guilty of damning What a number of our neighbors and acquaintance are dead in whom we discerned no signs of sanctification and we never did once plainly tell them of it or how to be recovered If you had been the cause but of burning a mans house through your negligence or of undoing him in the world or of destroying his body how would it trouble you as long as you lived If you had but killed a man unadvisedly it would much disquiet you We have known those that have been guilty of murder that could never sleep quietly after nor have one comfortable day their own consciences did so vex and torment them O then what a heart maist thou have that hast been guilty of murdering such a multitude of pretious souls Remember this when thou lookest thy friend or carnal neighbor in the face and think with thy self Can I finde in my heart through my silence and negligence to be guilty of his everlasting burning in Hell Me thinks such a thought should even untye the tongue of the dumb 2. And as you are guilty of their perishing so are you of every sin which in the mean time they do commit If they were converted they would break off their course of sinning and if you did your duty you know not but they might be converted As he that is guilty of a mans drunkenness is guilty of all the sins which that drunkenness doth cause him to commit So he that is guilty of a mans continuing unregenerate is also guilty of the sins of his unregeneracie How many curses and oathes and scornes at Gods wayes and other sins of most hanious nature are many of you guilty of that little think of it You that live godlily and take much pains for your own souls and seem fearful of sinning would take it ill of one that should tell you that you are guilty of weekly or daily whoredomes and drunkenness and swearing and lying c. And yet it is too true even beyond all denial by your neglect of helping those who do commit them 3. You are guilty also as of the sin so of all the dishonor that God hath thereby And how much is that And how tender should a Christian be of the Glory of God the least part whereof is to be valued before all our lives 4. You are guilty also of all those Judgments which those mens sins do bring upon the town or countrey where they live I know you are not such Atheists but you believe it is God that sendeth sickness and famine and war and also that it is only sin that moveth him to this indignation What doubt then is there but you are the cause of Judgments who do not strive against those sins which do cause them God hath stayed long in patience to see if any would deal plainly with the sinners of the times and so free their own souls from the guilt But when he seeth that there is almost none but all become guilty no wonder then if he lay the Judgment upon all We have all seen the drunkards and heard the swearers in our streets and we would not speak to them we have al lived in the midst of an Ignorant worldly unholy people and we have not spoke to them with earnestness plainness and love No wonder then if God speak in his wrath both to them and us Eli did not commit the sin himself and yet he speaketh so coldly against it that he also must bear the punishment Guns and Canons speak against sin in England because the inhabitants would not speak God pleadeth with us with fire and sword because
If God were not more willing of our company then we are of his how long should we remain thus distant from him And as we had never been sanctified if God had stayed till we were willing so if he should refer it wholly to our selves it would at least be long before we should be glorified I confesse that Death of it self is not desirable but the souls Rest with God is to which death is the common passage And because we are apt to make light of this sin and to plead our common nature for to patronize it let me here set before you its aggravations and also propound some further considerations which may be useful to you and my self against it SECT II. ANd first consider What a deal of gross infidelity doth lurk in the bowels of this sin Either paganish unbelief of the truth of that eternal blessedness and of the truth of the Scripture which doth promise it to us or at least a doubting of our own interest or most usually somewhat of both these And though Christians are usually most sensible of the latter and therefore complain most against it yet I am apt to suspect the former to be the main radicall master sin and of greatest force in this business O if we did but verily believe that the promise of this glory is the word of God and that God doth truly mean as he speaks and is fully resolved to make it good if we did verily believe that there is indeed such blessedness prepared for believers as the Scripture mentioneth sure we should be as impatient of living as we are now fearful of dying and should think every day a yeer till our last day should come We should as hardly refrain from laying violent hands on our selvs or from the neglecting of the means of our health and life as we do now from overmuch carefulness and seeking of life by unlawful means If the eloquent oration of a Philosopher concerning the souls immortality and the life to come could make his affected hearer presently to cast himself head long from the rock as impatient of any longer delay what would a serious Christians belief do if Gods Law against self murder did not restrain Is it possible that we can truly believe that death will remove us from misery to such glory and yet be loth to dye If it were the doubts of our own interest which did fear us yet a true belief of the certainty and excellency of this Rest would make us restless till our interest be cleared If a man that is desperately sick to day did believe he should arise sound the next morning or a man to day in despicable poverty had assurance that he should to morrow arise a prince would they be afraid to go to bed Or rather think it the longest day of their lives till that desired night and morning come The truth is though there is much faith and Christianity in our mouths yet there is much infidelity and paganisme in our hearts which is the maine cause that we are so loth to dye SECT III 3. ANd as the weakness of our Faith so also the coldness of our Love is exceedingly discovered by our unwillingness to dye Love doth desire the neerest conjunction the fullest fruition and closest communion Where these desires are absent there is only a naked pretence of Love He that ever felt such a thing as Love working in his brest hath also felt these desires attending it If we love our friend we love his company his presence is comfortable his absence is troublesome when he goes from us we desire his return when he comes to us we entertain him with welcome and gladness when he dyes we mourn and usually over-mourn to be separated from a faithful friend is to us as the renting of a member from our bodyes And would not our desires after God be such if we really loved him Nay should it not be much more then such as he is above all friends most lovely The Lord teach us to look closely to our hearts and take heed of self-deceit in this point For certainly what ever we pretend or conceit if we love either Father Mother Husband Wife Childe Friend Wealth or life more then Christ we are yet none of his sincere Disciples When it comes to the tryall the question will not be Who hath preached most or heard most or talked most but who hath loved most when our account is given in Christ will not take Sermons Prayers Fastings no nor the giving of our goods nor the burning of our bodies in stead of love 1 Cor. 13.1 2 3 4 8 13. 16.22 Ephes. 6.24 And do we love him and yet care not how long we are from him If I be deprived of my bosom friend me thinks I am as a man in a wilderness solitary and disconsolate And is my absence from God no part of my trouble and yet can I take him for my chiefest friend If I delight but in some Garden or Walk or Gallery I would be much in it If I love my Books I am much with them and almost unweariedly poaring on them The food which I love I would often feed on the clothes that I love I would often wear the recreations which I love I would often use them the business which I love I would be much employed in And can I love God and that above all these and yet have no desires to be with him Is it not a far likelier sign of hatred then of love when the thoughts of our appearing before God are our most grievous thoughts and when we take our selves as undone because we must die and come unto him Surely I should scarce take him for an unfeigned friend who were as well contented to be absent from me as we ordinarily are to be absent from God Was it such a joy to Jacob to see the face of Joseph in Egypt and shall we so dread the sight of Christ in glory and yet say we love him I dare not conclude that we have no love at all when we are so loth to die But I dare say were our love more we should die more willingly Yea I dare say Did we love God but as strongly as a worldling loves his wealth or an ambitious man his honor or a voluptuous man his pleasure yea as a drunkard loves his swinish delight or an unclean person his bruitish lust We should not then be so exceeding loth to leave the world and go to God O if this holy flame of love were throughly kindled in our brests in stead of our pressing fears our dolorous complaints and earnest prayers against death we should joyn in Davids Wilderness-lamentations Psal. 42.1 2. As the Hart panteth after the water-brooks so panteth my soul after thee O God My soul thirsteth for God for the living God when shall I come and appear before God The truth is As our knowledg of God is exceeding
he hath chosen him for his Portion his thoughts are on Eternity his desires there his dwelling there he cryes out O that I were there he takes that day for a time of imprisonment wherein he hath not taken one refreshing view of Eternity I had rather dye in this mans condition and have my soul in his souls case then in the case of him that hath the most eminent gifts and is most admired for parts and dutie whose heart is not thus taken up with God The man that Christ will finde out at the last day and condemn for want of a wedding Garment will be he that wants this frame of heart The question will not then be How much you have known or professed or talked but How much have you loved and where was your heart Why then Christians as you would have a sure testimony of the love of God and a sure proof of your title to Glory labor to get your hearts above God will acknowledg that you really love him and take you for faithful friends indeed when he sees your hearts are set upon him Get but your hearts once truly in Heaven and without all question your selves will follow If sin and Satan keep not thence your affections they will never be able to keep away your persons SECT IIII. 2. COnsider A heart in Heaven is the highest excellency of your spirits here and the noblest part of your Christian disposition As there is not only a difference between men and beasts but also among men between the Noble and the Base so there is not only a common excellency whereby a Christian differs from the world but also a peculiar nobleness of spirit whereby the more excellent differ from the rest And this lyes especially in a higher and more heavenly frame of spirit Only man of all inferior creatures is made with a face directed heaven-ward but other creatures have their faces to the earth As the Noblest of Creatures so the Noblest of Christians are they that are set most direct for Heaven As Saul is called a choice and goodly man higher by the head then all the company so is he the most choice and goodly Christian whose head and heart is thus the highest Men of noble birth and spirits do mind high and great affairs and not the smaller things of low poverty Their discourse is of the councels and matters of State of the Government of the Common-wealth and publike things and not of the Countrey-mans petty imployments O to hear such an heavenly Saint who hath fetcht a journey into heaven by faith and hath been wrapt up to God in his contemplations and is newly come down from the veiws of Christ what discoveries he will make of those Superior regions What ravishing expressions drop from his lips How high and sacred is his discourse Enough to make the ignorant world astonished and say Much study hath made them mad And enough to convince an understanding hearer that have seen the Lord and to make one say No man could speak such words as these except he had been with God this This is the noble Christian. As Bucholcers hearers concluded when he had preached his last Sermon being carried between two into the Church because of his weakness and there most admirably discoursed of the Blessedness of souls departed this life Caeteros concio naetores a Bucholcero semper omnes illo autem die etiam ipsum a sese superatum That Bucholcer did ever excel other preachers but that day he excelled himself so may I conclude of the heavenly Christian He ever excelleth the Rest of men but when he is neerest Heaven he excelleth himself As those are the most famous mountains that are highest and those the fairest trees that are talest and those the most glorious Pyramides and buildings whose tops do reach neerest to Heaven so is he the choisest Christian whose heart is most frequently and most delightfully there If a man have lived neer the King or have travelled to see the Sultan of Persia or the great Turk he will make this a matter of boasting and thinks himself one step higher then his private neighbors that live at home What shall we then judg of him that daily travels as far as Heaven and there hath seen the King of Kings That hath frequent admittance into the Divine presence and feasteth his soul upon the tree of life For my part I value this man before the ablest the richest the most learned in the world SECT V. 3. COnsider A heavenly minde is a joyful minde This is the neerest and the truest way to live a life of comfort And without this you must needs be uncomfortable Can a man be at the fire and not be warm or in the Sun-shine and not have light Can your heart be in Heaven and not have comfort The countreys of Norway Island and all the Northward are cold and frozen because they are farther from the power of the Sun But in Egypt Arabia and the Southern parts it is far otherwise where they live more neer its powerful rayes What could make such frozen uncomfortable Christians but living so far as they do from heaven And what makes some few others so warm in comforts but their living higher then others do and their frequent access so neer to God When the Sun in the Spring draws neer our part of the earth how do all things congratulate its approach The earth looks green casteth off her mourning habit the trees shoot forth the plants revive the pretty birds how sweetly sing they the face of all things smile upon us and all the creatures below reioyce Beloved friends if we would but try this life with God and would but keep these hearts above what a Spring of joy would be within us and all our graces be fresh and green How would the face of our souls be changed and all that is within us rejoyce How should we forget our winter sorrows and withdraw our souls from our sad retirements How early should we rise as those birds in the spring to sing the praise of our Great Creator O Christian get above Believe it that Region is warmer then this below Those that have been there have found it so and those that have come thence have told us so And I doubt not but that thou hast sometime tryed it thy self I dare appeal to thy own experience or to the experience of any soul that knows what the true Joys of a Christian are When is it that you have largest comforts Is it not after such an exercise as this when thou hast got up thy heart and converst with God and talkt with the inhabitants of the higher world and veiwed the mansions of the Saints and Angels and filled thy soul with the forethoughts of Glory If thou know by experience what this practice is I dare say thou knowest what spiritual Joy is David professeth that the light of Gods countenance would make his
heart more glad then theirs that have Corn and VVine and Oyl Psal. 4.6 7. Act. 2.28 out of Psal. 16. Thou shalt fill me full of Joy with thy countenance If it be the countenance of God that fills us with Joy then sure they that draw neerest and most behold it must needs be fullest of these Joyes Sirs if you never tryed this Art nor lived this life of heavenly contemplation I never wonder that you walk uncomfortably that you are all complaining and live in sorrows know not what the Joy of the Saints means Can you have comfort from God and never think of him Can Heaven rejoyce you when you do not reâ—member it Doth any thing in the world glad you when you think not on it Must not every thing first enter your judgment and consideration before it can delight your heart and affection If you were possest of all the treasure of the earth if you had title to the highest dignities and dominions and never think on it sure it would never rejoyce you Whom should we blame then that we are so void of consolation but our own negligent unskilful hearts God hath provided us a Crown of Glory and promised to set it shortly on our heads and we will so much as think on it He holdeth it out in the Gospel to us and biddeth us Behold and Rejoyce we will not so much as look at it And yet we complain for want of Comfort What a perverse course is this both against God and our own Joyes I confesse though in fleshly things the presenting of a comforting object is sufficient to produce an answerable delight yet in spirituals we are more disabled God must give the Joy it self as well as afford us matter for Joy But yet withal it must be remembred that God doth work upon us as men and in a rational way doth raise our comforts He enableth and exciteth us to minde and study these delightful objects and from thence to gather our own comforts as the Bee doth gather her honey from the flowers Therefore he that is most skilful and painful in this gathering Act is usually the fullest of this spiritual sweetness Where is the man that can tell me from experience that he hath had solid and usual Joy in any other way but this and that God worketh it immediatly on his affections without the means of his understanding and considering It is by beleeving that we are filled with Joy Peace Rom. 15.13 and no longer then we continue our believing It is in hope that the Saints Rejoyce yea in this hope of the glory of God Rom. 5.2 and no longer then they continue hoping And here let me warn you of a dangerous snare an opinion which will rob you of all your comfort some think if they should thus fetch in their own comfort by believing and hoping and work it out of Scripture promises and extract it by their own thinking and studying that then it would be a comfort only of their own hammering out as they say and not the genuine Joy of the Holy Ghost A desperate mistake raised upon a ground that would overthrow almost all duty as well as this which is their setting the workings of Gods Spirit and their own spirits in opposition when their spirits must stand in subordination to Gods They are conjunct causes cooperating to the producing of one and the same effect Gods Spirit worketh our comforts by setting our own spirits awork upon the promises and raising our thoughts to the place of our comforts As you would delight a covetuous man by shewing him gold or a voluptuous man with fleshly delights so God useth to delight his people by taking them as it were by the hand and leading them into Heaven and shewing them himself and their Rest with him God useth not to cast in our Joys while we are idle or taken up with other things It is true he sometime doth it suddenly but yet usually in the foresaid order leading it into our hearts by our judgment and thoughts And his sometime sudden extraordinary casting of comforting thoughts into our hearts should be so far from hindring our endeavors in a meditateing way that it should be a singular motive to quicken us to it even as a tast given us of some cordial or choiser food will make us desire and seek the Rest. God feedeth not Saints as birds do their young bringing it to them and putting it into their mouths while they lye still in the nest and only gape to receive it But as he giveth to man the fruits of the earth the increase of their land in Corn and wine while we plow and sow and weed and water and dung and dress and then with patience expect his blessing so doth he give the joys of the soul. Yet I deny not that if any should so think to work out his own comforts by meditation as to attempt the work in his own strength and not do all in subordination to God nor perceive a necessity of the Spirits assistance the work would prove to be like the workman and the comfort he would gather would be like both even meer vanity Even as the husband mans labor without the sun and rain and blessing of God So then you may easily see that close meditation on the matter and cause of our Joy is Gods way to procure solid Joy For my part if I should finde my joy of another kinde I should be very prone to doubt of its sincerity If I finde a great deal of comfort in my heart and know not how it came thither nor upon what rational ground it was raised nor what considerations do feed and continue it I should be ready to question how I know whether this be from God And though as the Cup in Benjamins sack it might come from Love yet it would leave me but in fears and amazement because of the uncertainty As I think our love to God should not be like that of fond lovers who love violently but they know not why so I think a Christians Joy should be a grounded rational Joy not to rejoyce know not why Though perhaps in some extraordinary case God may cast in such an extraordinary kinde of joy yet I think it s not his usual way And if you observe the spirits of most forlorn uncomfortable despairing Christians you shall finde the Reason to be their ungrounded expectation of such unusual kinde of joys and accordingly are their spirits variously tossed and most unconstantly tempered Sometime when they meet with such Joys or at least think so then they are cheerful and lifted up but because these are usually short-lived Joys therefore they are strait as low as hell and ordinarily that is their more lasting temper And thus they are tossed as a vessel at sea up and down but still in extream whereas alas God is most constant Christ the same Heaven the same and the Promise the
you were but banished into a strange Land how frequent thoughts would you have of home how oft would you think of your old companions which way ever you went or what company soever you came in you would still have your hearts and desires there you would even dream in the night that you were at home that you saw your Father or Mother or Friends that you were talking with Wife or Children or Neighbors And why is it not thus with us in respect of Heaven Is not that more truly and properly our home where we must take up our everlasting abode then this which we are looking every hour when we are separated from and shall see it no more VVe are strangers and that is our Countrey Heb. 11 14 15. VVe are heirs and that is our Inheritance even an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 VVe are here in continual distress and want and there lies our substance even that better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 VVe are here fain to be beholden to others and there lies our own perpetual Treasure Matth. 6.20 21. Yea the very Hope of our souls is there all our hope of relief from our distresses all our hope of happiness when we are here miserable all this hope is laid up for us in Heaven whereof we hear in the true VVord of the Gospel Col. 1.5 VVhy beloved Christians have we so much interest and so seldom thoughts have we so near relation and so little affection are we not ashamed of this Doth it become us to be delighted in the company of strangers so as to forget our Father and our Lord or to be so well pleased with those that hate and grieve us as to forget our best and dearest friends or to be so besotted with borrowed trifles as to forget our own possession and treasure or to be so taken up with a strange place as not once a day to look toward home or to fall so in love with tears and wants as to forget our eternal Joy and Rest Christians I pray you think whether this become us or whether this be the part of a wife or thankful man why here thou art like to other men as the heir under age who differs not from a servant but there it is that thou shalt be promoted and fully estated in all that was promised Surely God useth to plead his propriety in us and from thence to conclude to do us good even because we are his own people whom he hath chosen out of all the world And why then do we not plead our interest in him and thence fetch Arguments to raise up our hearts even because he is our own God and because the place is our own possession Men use in other things to over-love and over-value their own and too much to minde their own things O that we could minde our own inheritance and value it but half as it doth deserve SECT XIIII 12. LAstly consider There is nothing else that 's worth the seting our hearts on If God have them not who or what shall have them if thou minde not thy Rest what wilt thou minde As the Disciples said of Christ John 4.32 33. hath any man given him meat to eat that we know not of So say I to thee Hast thou found out some other God or Heaven that we know not of or something that will serve thee in stead of Rest Hast thou found on Earth an Eternal happiness where is it and what is it made of or who was the man that found it out or who was he that last enjoyed it where dwelt he and what was his name or art thou the first that hast found this treasure and that ever discovered Heaven on Earth Ah wretch trust not to thy discoveries boast not of thy gain till experience bid thee boast or rather take up with the experience of thy forefathers who are now in the dust and deprived of all though sometime they were as lusty and jovial as thou I would not advise thee to make experiments at so dear rates as all those do that seek after happiness below least when the substance is lost thou finde too late that thou didst catch but at a shadow least thou be like those men that will needs search out the Philosophers stone though none could effect it that went before them and so buy their experience with the loss of their own estates and time which they might have had at a cheaper rate if they would have taken up with the experience of their Predecessors So I would wish thee not to disquiet thy self in looking for that which is not on Earth least thou learn thy experience with the loss of thy soul◠which thou mightest have learned at easier terms even by the warnings of God in his VVord and loss of thousands of souls before thee It would pity a man to see that men will not beleeve God in this till they have lost their labor and Heaven and all Nay that many Christians who have taken Heaven for their resting place do lose so many thoughts needlesly on Earth and care not how much they oppress their spirits which should be kept nimble and free for higher things As Luther said to Melancthon when he over-pressed himself with the labors of his Ministery so may I much more say to thee who oppressest thy self with the cares of the world Vellem te adhuc decies plus obrui Adeo me nihil tui miseret qui toties monitus ne onerares teipsum tot oneribus nihil audis omnia benè monita contemnis Erit cum sero stultum tuum hunc zelum frustra damnabis quo jam ardes solus omnia portare quasi ferrum aut saxum sis it were no matter if thou wert oppressed ten times more so little do I pity thee who being so often warned that thou shouldst not load thy self with so many burdens dost no whit regard it but contemnest all these wholsom warnings Thou wilt shortly when it is too late condemn this thy foolish forwardness which makes thee so desirous to bear all this as if thou wert made of Iron or Stone Alas that a Christian should rather delight to have his heart among these thorns and bryars then in the bosom of his crucified glorified Lord Surely if Satan should take thee up to the Mountain of Temptation and shew thee the Kingdoms and glory of the world he could shew thee nothing that 's worthy thy thoughts much less to be preferred before thy Rest. Indeed so far as duty and necessity requires it we must be content to minde the things below but who is he that contains himself within the compass of those limits And yet if we bound our cares and thoughts as diligently as ever we can we shall finde the least to be bitter and burdensom even as the least VVasp hath a sting and the smallest Serpent hath his poyson As
tell me what difference between this fools expressions and thy affections I doubt not but thou hast more wit then to speak thy minde just in his language but man remember thou hast to do with the searcher of hearts It may be thou holdst on in thy course of duty and prayest as oft as thou didst before it may be thou keepest in with good Ministers and with godly men and seemest as forward in Religion as ever But what is all this to the purpose Mock not thy soul man for God will not so be mocked What good may yet remain in thee I know not but sure I am thy course is dangerous and if thou follow it on will end in dolor Methinks I see thee befooling thy self and tearing thy hair and gnashing thy teeth when thou hearest thy case laid open by God Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul from thee and then whose are all these things Certainly so much as thou delightest and restest on Earth so much is abated of thy delights in God Thine earthly minde may consist with thy profession and common duties but it cannot consist with this Heavenly duty I need not tell thee all this if thou wouldst deal impartially and not be a traitor to thy own soul thou knowest thy self how seldom and cold how cursory and strange thy thoughts have been of the joyes hereafter ever since thou didst trade so eagerly for the world Methinks I even perceive thy conscience stir now and tell thee plainly that this is thy case hear it man O hear it now least thou hear it in another maner when thou wouldest be full loth O the cursed madness of many that seem to be religious who thrust themselves into multitude of employments and think they can never have business enough till they are loaded with labors and clogged with cares That their souls are as unfit to converse with God as a man to walk with a mountain on his back and till he hath even transformed his soul almost into the nature of his drossie carkass and made it as unapt to soare aloft as his body is to leap above the Sun And when all is done and they have lost that Heaven they might have had upon Earth they rake up a few rotten arguments to prove it lawful and then they think that they have salved all though these sots would not do so for their bodies nor forbear their eating or drinking or sleeping or sporting though they could prove it lawful so to do though indeed they cannot prove it lawful neither They miss not the pleasures of this Heavenly Life if they can but quiet their Consciences while they fasten upon lower and baser pleasures For thee O Christian who hast tasted of these pleasures I advise thee as thou valuest their enjoyment as ever thou wouldst taste of them any more take heed of this gulf of An earthly minde For if once thou come to this that thou wilt be rich thou fallest into temptation and a snare and into divers foolish and hurtful lusts it is Saint Pauls own words 1 Tim 6.9 Set not thy minde as Saul on the Asses when the Kingdom of Glory is before thee Keep these things as thy upper Garments still loose about thee that thou maist lay them by when ever there is cause But let God and Glory be next thy heart yea as the very blood and spirits by which thou livest Still remember that of the Spirit The friendship of the World is enmity with God Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the World is the enemy of God Jam. 4.4 And 1 John 2.15 Love not the world nor the things in the world If any man love the world the love of the Father is not in him This is plain dealing and happy he that faithfully receives it SECT III. 3. A Third hinderance which I must advise thee to beware is The company of ungodly and sensual men Not that I would disswade thee from necessary converse or from doing them any office of Love especially not from endeavouring the good of their souls as long as thou hast any opportunity or hope Nor would I have thee conclude them to be Dogs and Swine that so thou maist evade the duty of Reproof Nor yet to judg them such at all as long as there is any hope of better or before thou art certain they are such indeed much less can I approve of the practice of those who because the most of the world are naught do therefore conclude men Dogs or Swine before ever they faithfully and lovingly did admonish them yea or perhaps before they have known them or spoke with them and hereupon they will not communicate with them in the Lords Supper but separate from them into distinct Congregations I perswade thee to no such ungodly separation As I never found one word in Scripture where either Christ or his Apostles denied admittance to any man that desired to be a Member of the Church though but onely prosessing to Repent and Believe so neither did I ever there finde that any but convicted Hereticks or scandalous ones and that for the most part after due admonition were to be avoided or debarred our fellowship And whereas it is urged That they are to prove their interest to the priviledges which they lay claim to and not we to disprove it I Answer if that were granted yet their meer professing to Repent and Believe in Christ is a sufficient evidence of their interest to Church member-ship and admittance thereto by Baptism supposing them not admitted before and their being Baptized persons or members of the universal visible Church into which it is that they are Baptized is sufficient evidence of their interest to the Supper till they do by Heresie or Scandal blot that Evidence which Evidence if they do produce yea though they are yet weak in the Faith of Christ who is he that dare refuse to receive them And this after much doubting dispute and study of the Scriptures I speak as confidently as almost any truth of equal moment So plain is the Scripture in this point to a man that brings his Understanding to the model of Scripture and doth not bring a model in his brain and reduce all he reades to that model The door of the visible Church is incomparably wider then the door of heaven and Christ is so tender so bountiful and forward to convey his grace and the Gospel so free an offer and invitation to all that surely Christ will keep no man off if they will come quite over in spirit to Christ they shall be welcome If they will come but onely to a visible Profession he will not deny them admittance there because they intend to go no further but will let them come as neer as they will and that they come no further shall be their own fault and so it is not his readiness to admit such nor the openness of the door of his visible Church
delight thereof and taking up in the tune and melody and suffering the heart to be all the while idle which must perform the chiefest part of the work and which should make use of the melody for its reviving and exhilerating SECT VIII 8. IF thou wouldest have thy heart in Heaven keep thy soul still possessed with true believing thoughts of the exceeding infinite love of God Love is the attractive of love No mans heart will be set upon him that hates him were he never so excellent nor much upon him that doth not much love him There is few so vile but will love those that love them be they never so mean No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life to have hard and doubtful thoughts of God to conceive of him as a hater of the Creature except onely of obstinate Rebels and as one that had rather damn us then save us and that is glad of an opportunity to do us a mischief or at least hath no great good will to us This is to put the Blessed God into the similitude of Satan And who then can set his heart and love upon him When in our vile unbelief and ignorance we have drawn the most ugly picture of God in our imaginations then we complain that we cannot love him and delight in him This is the case of many thousand Christians Alas that we should thus belie and blaspheme God and blast our own joyes and depress our spirits Love is the very essence of God The Scripture tells us That God is Love it telleth us That Fury dwelleth not in him that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he repent and live Much more hath he testified his love to his chosen and his full resolution effectually to save them O if we could always think of God but as we do of a friend as of one that doth unfeignedly love us even more then we do our selves whose very heart is set upon us to do us good and hath therefore provided us an everlasting dwelling with himself it would not then be so hard to have our hearts still with him Where we love most heartily we shall think most sweetly and most freely And nothing will quicken our love more then the belief of his love to us Get therefore a truer conceit of the loving Nature of God and lay up all the experiences and discoveries of his love to thee and then see if it will not further thy heavenly-mindedness SECT IX 9. ANother thing I would advise you to is this Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit and fearful of quenching its motions or resisting its workings If ever thy soul get above this earth and get acquainted with this living in heaven the Spirit of God must be to thee as the Chariot to Elijah yea the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend O then grieve not thy Guide quench not thy Life knock not off thy Chariot-wheels if thou do no wonder if thy soul be at a loss and all stand still or fall to the earth you little think how much the life all your Graces and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial Obedience to the Spirit When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer and thou refusest obedience when he forbids thee thy known transgressions and yet thou wilt go on when he telleth thee which is the way and which not and thou wilt not regard no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange if thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ and to thy duty how should it lead thee to heaven and bring thy heart into the presence of God O what supernatural help what bold access shall that soul finde in its approaches to the Almighty that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit And how backward how dull and strange and ashamed will he be to these addresses who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him Even as stiffe and unfit will they be for this Spiritual motion as a dead man to natural I beseech thee Christian Reader learn well this lesson and try this course let not the motions of thy body onely but also the very thoughts of thy heart be at the Spirits beâ—k Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion to retire from the world and draw neer to God O do not now disobey but take the offer and hoâ—se up sail while thou mayst have this blessed gale When this wind blows strongest thou goest fastest either forward or backward The more of this Spirit we resist the deeper will it wound and the more we obey the speedier is our pace As he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face and he easiest that hath it in his back SECT X. 10. LAstly I advise as a further help to this heavenly work That thou neglect not the due care for the health of thy body and for the maintaining a vigorous cheerfulness in thy spirits nor yet over-pamper and please thy flesh Learn how to carry thy self with prudence to thy body It is a useful servant if thou give it its due and but its due It is a most devouring tyrant if thou give it the mastery or suffer it to have what it unreasonably desireth And 〈◊〉 as a blunted Knife as a Horse that is lame as thy Ox that is famished if thou injuriously deny it what is necessary to its support When we consider how frequently men offend on both extreams and how few use their bodies aright we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their heavenly conversing Most men are very slaves to their sensitive appetite and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh which they can give it on easie rates without much shame or loss or grief The flesh thus used is as unfit to serve you as a wilde colt to ride on When such men should converse in Heaven the flesh will carry them to an Alehouse or to their sports to their profits or credit or vain company to wanton practices or sights or speeches or thoughts It will thrust a whore or a pair of Cards or a good bargain into their mindes in stead of God Look to this specially you that are young and healthful and lusty As you love your souls remember that in Rom. 13.14 which converted Austin Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires and that Rom. 8.4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14. Some few others do much hinder their heavenly joy by over rigorous denying the body its necessaries and so making it unable to serve them But the most by forfeiting and excess do overthrow and disable it You love to have your knife keen and every instrument you use in order when your horse goes lustily how cheerfully do you travel As much need hath the soul of a sound and cheerful body If they who
no truer nor greater cause then their ignorance and unconscionable neglect of Meditation If a man have the Lientery that his meat pass from him as he took it in or if he vomit it up as fast as he eates it what strength and vigor of body and senses is this man like to have Indeed he may well eat more then a sounder man and the small abode that it makes in the stomack may refresh it at the present and help to draw it out a lingering languishing uncomfortable unprofitable life And so do our hearers that have this disease perhaps they hear more then otherwise they needed and the clear discovery and lively delivery of the Truth of God may warm and refresh them a little while they are hearing and perhaps an hour or two after and it may be it may linger out their Grace in a languishing uncomfortable unprofitable life But if they did hear one hour and meditate seven if they did as constantly digest their Sermons as they hear them and not take in one Sermon before the former is well concocted they would finde another kinde of benefit by Sermons then the ordinary sort of the forwardest Christians do I know many carnal persons do make this an Argument against frequent preaching and hearing who do it meerly from a lothing of the word and know far less how to Meditate then they know how understandingly to hear Only they pretend Meditation against often hearing because that beeing a duty of the minde you cannot so easily discern their omission of it These are sick of the Anorexia and Apepsy they have neither appetite nor digeston the other of the Boulimos they have appetite but no digestion SECT III. 2. BUt because Meditation is a general word and it is not all Meditation that I hear intend I shall therefore lay thee down the difference whereby this Meditation that I am urging thee to is discerned from all other sorts of Meditation And the difference is taken from the Act and from the object of it 1. From the Act which I call The set and solemn acting of all the powers of the soul. 1. I call it the Acting of them for it is Action that we are directing you in now and not relations or dispositions yet these also are necessarily presupposed It must be a soul that is qualified for the work by the supernatural renewing grace of the spirit which must be able to perform this Heavenly exercise It s the work of the Living and not of the dead It s a work of all others most spiritual and sublime and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that 's meerly carnal and terrene Also they must necessarily have some relation to heaven before they can familiarly there converse I suppose them to be the sons of God when â— perswade them to love him and to be of the family of God yeâ— the spouse of his Son when I perswade them to press into his presence and to dwell with him I suppose them to be such as have title to Rest when I perswade them to rejoyce in the Meditation of Rest. These therefore being all presupposed are not the duty here intended and required But it is the bringing of their sanctified dispositions into Act and the delightful reveiwing of theiâ— high relations Habits and Powers are but to enable us to Action To say I am able to do this or I am disposed to do it doth neiâ—ther please God nor advantage our selves except withal we really do it God doth not regenerate thy soul that it may be able to know him and not know him or that it may be able to believe and yet not believe or that it may be able to love him and yet not love him But he therefore makes thee able to know to believe and love that thou mayest indeed both know believe and love him What good doth that power which is not reduced into Act Therefore I am not now exhorting thee to be an able Christian but to be an Active Christian according to the degree of that ability which thou hast As thy store of money or food oâ— rayment which thou lettest lye by thee and never usest doth theâ— no good but to please thy fancy or raise thee to an esteem in the eyes of others so all thy gifts and powers and habits which lye still in thy soul and are never Acted do profit or comfort thee little or nothing but in satisfying thy fancy and raising thee to the repute of an able man so far as they are discernable to the standers by SECT IV. 1. I Call this Meditation The acting of the powers of the Soul meaning the soul as Rational to difference it from the cogitations of the soul as Sensitive the Sensitive soul hath a kinde of Meditation by the common sense the Phantasie and Estimation The fleshly man mindeth the things of the flesh If it were the work of the Ear or the Eye or the Tongue or the Hands which I am setting you on I doubt not but you would more readily take it up but it is the work of the soul for bodily exercise doth here profit but little The soul hath its labor and its ease its business and its idleness its intention and remission as well as the body And diligent students are usually as sensible of the labor and weaâ—â—ness of their spirits and brain as they are of that of the members of the body This action of the soul is it I perswade thee to SECT V. 3. I Call it the acting of All the powers of the soul To difference it from the common Meditation of Students which is usually the meer imployment of the Brain It is not a bare thinking that I mean nor the meer use of Invention or Memory but a business of a higher and more excellent nature when Truth is apprehended only as Truth this is but an unsavory and loose apprehension but when it is apprehended as Good as well as True this is a fast and delightful apprehending As a man is not so prone to live according to the Truth he knows except it do deeply affect him so neither doth his soul enjoy its sweetness except Speculation do pass to Affection The Understanding is not the whole soul and therefore cannot do the whole work As God hath made several parts in man to perform their several Offices for his nourishing and life so hath he ordained the faculties of the soul to perform their several Offices for his spiritual life the Stomack must chy lisy and prepare for the Liver the Liver and Spleen must sanguify and prepare for the Heart and Brain and these must beget the vital and animal spirits c. so the Understanding must take in Truths and prepare them for the Will and it must receive them and commend them to the Affections The best digestion is in the bottome of the Stomack the Affections are as it were the bottome of the soul and
or the frequency of the understandings apprehensions this Truth doth make a deeper impression so is longer retained which impâ—â—ssion and retention we call memory And as truth is thus variously presented to the understanding and received by it so also is the goodness of the object variously represented to the will which doth accordingly put forth its various acts When it appeareth only as good in it self and not good for us or suitable it is not the object of the will at all but only this Enuntiation It is good is passed upon it by the Judgment and withal it raiseth an admiration at its excellency If it appeare evil to us then we Nill it But if it appear both good in it self and to us or suitable then it provoketh the affection of Love If the good thus loved do appear as absent from us then it exciteth the passion of Desire If the good so Loved and Desired do appear possible and feasible in the attaining then it exciteth the passion of Hope which is a compound of Desire and Expectation when we look upon it as requiring our endeavor to attain it and as it is to be had in a prescribed way then it provokes the passion of courage or boldness and concludes in resolution Lastly if this good be apprehended as present then it provoketh to delight or Joy If the thing it self be present the Joy is greatest If but the Idea of it either through the remainder or memory of the good that is past or through the fore-apprehension of that which we expect yet even this also exciteth our Joy And this Joy is the perfection of all the rest SECT II. SO that by this time I suppose you see both what are the objects that must move our affections and what powers of the soul apprehend these objects you see also I doubt not what affections you must excite and in what order it is to be done Yet for your better assistance I will more fully direct you in the several particulars 1. Then you must by cogitation go to the memory which is the Magazine or Treasury of the understanding thence you must take forth those heavenly doctrines which you intend to make the subject of your Meditation for the present purpose you may look over any promise of eternal life in the Gospel any description of the glory of the Saints or the very Articles of the Resurrection of the body and the Life everlasting some one sentence concerning those Eternal Joyes may afford you matter for many yeers Meditation yet it will be a point of our wisdom here to have always a stock of matter in our memory that so when we should use it we may bring forth out of our treasury things new and old For a good man hath a good Treasury in his heart from whence he bringeth forth good things Luke 6.45 and out of this abundance of his heart he should speak to himself as well as to others Yea if we took things in order and observed some Method in respect of the matter and did Meditate first on one Truth concerning Eternity and then another it would not be amiss And if any should be barren of Matter through weakness of memory they may have notes or books of this subject for their furtherance SECT III. 2. WHen you have fetcht from your memory the matter of your Meditation your next work is to present it to your Judgment open there the case as fully as thou canst set forth the several ornaments of the Crown the several dignities belonging to the Kingdom as they are partly laid open in the beginning of this Book Let judgment deliberately view them over and take as exact a survey as it can Then put the question and require a determination Is there happiness in all this or not Is not here enough to make me blessed Can he want any thing who fully possesseth God Is there any thing higher for a creature to attain Thus urge thy judgment to pass an upright sentence and compel it to subscribe to the perfection of thy Celestial happiness and to leave this sentence as under its hand upon Record If thy senses should here begin to mutter and to put in a word for fleshly pleasure or profits let judgment hear what each can say weigh the Arguments of the world and flesh in one end and the Arguments for the preheminence of Glory in the other end and judg impartially which should be preferred Try whether there be any comparison to be made which is more excellent which more manly which is more satisfactory and which more pure which freeth most from misery and advanceth us highest and which dost thou think is of longer continuance Thus let deliberate judgment decide it and let not Flesh carry it by noise and by violence And when the sentence is passed and recorded in thy heart it will be ready at hand to be produced upon any occasion and to silence the flesh in its next attempt and to disgrace the world in its next competition Thus exercise thy Judgment in the contemplation of thy Rest thus Magnifie and Advance the Lord in thy heart till a holy admiration hath possessed thy Soul SECT IV. 3. BUt the great work which you may either promise or subjoyn to this as you please is To exercise thy belief of the truth of thy Rest And that both in respect of the truth of the Promise and also the truth of thy own Interest and Title As unbelief doth cause the languishing of all our Graces so Faith would do much to revive and actuate them if it were but revived and actuated it self Especially our belief of the verity of the Scripture I conceive as needful to be exercised and confirmed as almost any point of Faith But of this I have spoken in the Second Part of this Book whither I refer thee for some confirming Arguments Though few complain of their not believing Scripture yet I conceive it to be the commonest part of unbelief and the very root of bitterness which spoileth our Graces Perhaps thou hast not a positive belief of the contrary nor dost not flatly think that Scripture is not the Word of God that were to be a down-right Infidel indeed And yet thou maist have but little belief that Scripture is Gods Word and that both in regard of the habit and the act It s one thing not to beleeve Scripture to be true and another thing positively to beleeve it to be false Faith may be idle and suspend its exercise toward the Truth though it do not yet act against the Truth It may stand still when it goes not out of the way it may be asleep and do you little service though it do not directly fight against you Besides a great deal of unbelief may consist with a small degree of Faith If we did soundly beleeve That there is such a Glory that within a few days our eyes shall behold it O what passions would it
canst and say to it Behold the Ancient of days the Lord Jehovah whose name is I am This is he who made the Worlds with his Word this is the Cause of all Causes the Spring of Action the Fountain of Life the first Principle of the Creatures Motions who upholds the Earth who ruleth the Nations who disposeth of events and subdueth his foes who governeth the depths of the great Waters and boundeth the rage of her swelling Waves who ruleth the Winds and moveth the Orbs and causeth the Sun to run its race and the several Planets to know their courses This is he that loved thee from Everlasting that formed thee in the Womb and gave thee this Soul who brought thee forth and shewed thee the Light and ranked thee with the chiefest of his earthly Creatures who endued thee with thy understanding and beautified thee with his gifts who maintaineth thee with life and health and comforts who gave thee thy preferments and dignified thee with thy honors and differenced thee from the most miserable and vilest of men Here O here is an object now worthy thy love here shouldst thou even pour out thy soul in love here thou maist be sure thou caust not love too much This is the Lord that hath blest thee with his benefits that hath spred thy table in the sight of thine enemies and caused thy cup to overflow This is he that Angels and Saints do praise and the Host of Heaven must magnifie for ever Thus do thou expatiate in the Praises of God and open his Excellencies to thine own heart till thou feel the life begin to stir and the fire in thy brest begin to kindle As gazing upon the dusty beauty of flesh doth kindle the fire of carnal love so this gazing on the Glory and Goodness of the Lord will kindle this Spiritual love in the-soul Bruising will make the Spices odoriferous and rubbing the Pomander will bring forth the sweetness Act therefore thy soul upon this delightful object toss these cogitations frequently in thy heart rub over all thy Affections with them as you will do your cold hands till they begin to warm What though thy heart be Rock and Flint this often striking may bring forth the fire but if yet thou feelest not thy love to work lead thy heart further and shew it yet more shew it the Son of the living God whose name is Wonderful Counsellor The Mighty God The Everlasting Father The Prince of Peace shew it the King of Saints on the Throne of his Glory who is the first and the last who is and was and is to come who liveth and was dead and behold he lives for evermore who hath made thy peace by the blood of his Cross and hath prepared thee with himself an Habitation of Peace His office is to be the great Peace-Maker his Kingdom is a Kingdom of Peace his Gospel is the Tydings of Peace his Voice to thee now is the Voice of Peace Draw neer and behold him Dost thou not hear his voyce He that called Thomas to come neer and to see the print of the Nailes and to put his finger into his Wounds He it is that calls to thee Come neer and view the Lord thy Saviour and be not faithless but believing Peace be unto thee fear not It is I He that calleth Behold me behold me to a rebellious people that calleth not on his Name doth call out to thee a Believer to behold him He that calls to them who pass by to behold his Sorrow in the day of his Humiliation doth call now to thee to behold his Glory in the day of his Exaltation Look well upon him Dost thou not know him why it s He that brought thee up from the pit of hell It s He that reversed the sentence of thy Damnation that bore the Curse which thou shouldest have born and restored thee to the blessing that thou hadst forfeited and lost and purchased the Advancement which thou must inherit for ever And yet dost thou not know him why his Hands were pierced his Head was pierced his Sides were pierced his Heart was pierced with the sting of thy sins that by these marks thou mightest always know him Dost thou not remember when he found thee lying in thy blood and took pitty on thee and drest thy wounds and brought thee home and said unto thee Live Hast thou forgotten since he wounded himself to cure thy wounds and let out his own blood to stop thy bleeding Is not the passage to his heart yet standing open If thou know him not by the face the voyce the hands if thou know him not by the tears and bloody sweat yet look neerer thou maist know him by the Heart That broken-healed heart is his that dead-revived Heart is his that soul-pittying melting Heart is his Doubtless it can be none 's but his Love and Compassion are its certain Signatures This is He even this is He who would rather dye then thou shoulst dye who chose thy life before his own who pleads this blood before his Father and makes continual intercession for thee if he had not suffered O what hadst thou suffered what hadst thou been if he had not Redeemed thee whether hadst thou gone if he had not recalled thee there was but a step between thee and Hell when he stept in and bore the stroak He slew the Bear and rescued the prey he delivered thy soul from the roaring Lyon And is not here yet fuell enough for Love to feed on Doth not this Loadstone snatch thy heart unto it and almost draw it forth of thy breast Canst thou read the History of Love any further at once Doth not thy throbbing heart here stop to ease it self and dost thou not as Joseph seek for a place to weep in or do not the tears of thy Love bedew these lines Go on then for the field of Love is large it will yield thee fresh contents for ever and be thine eternal work to behold and love thou needest not then want work for thy present Meditation Hast thou forgotten the time when thou wast weeping and he wiped the tears from thine eyes when thou wast bleeding and he wiped the blood from thy soul when pricking cares and fears did grieve thee and he did refresh thee and draw out the Thorns Hast thou forgotten when thy folly did wound thy soul and the venomous guilt did seize upon thy heart when he sucked forth the mortal poyson from thy soul though therewith he drew it into his own I remember it s written of good Melancthon that when his childe was removed from him it pierced his heart to remember how he once sate weeping with the Infant on his knee and how lovingly it wip't away the tears from the fathers eyes how then should it pierce thy heart to think how lovingly Christ hath wip't away thine O how oft hath he found thee sitting weeping like Hagar
to conceive And doubtless as the Spirit doth speak so we must hear and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings Those conceivings and expressions which we have of Spirits and things meerly Spiritual they are commonly but second Notions without the first but meer names that are put into our mouths without any true conceivings of the things which they signifie or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms are meerly negative what things are not rather then what they are As when we mention Spirits we mean they are not corporeal substances but what they are we cannot tell no more then we know what is Aristotles Materia Prima It is one reason of Christs assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead that we might know him the better when he is so much neerer to us and might have more positive conceivings of him and so our mindes might have familiarity with him who before was quite beyond their reach But what is my scope in all this is it that we might think Heaven to be made of Gold and Pearl or that we should Picture Christ as the Papists do in such a shape or that we should think Saints and Angels do indeed eat and drink No Not that we should take the Spirits figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety or have fleshly conceivings of Spiritual things so as to beleeve them to be such indeed But thus To think that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety is utterly beyond our reach and capacity and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections but not to pervert them and use these low notions as a Glass in which we must see the things themselves though the representation be exceeding imperfect till we come to an immeditae and perfect sight yet still concluding That these phrases though useful are but borrowed and improper The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of Creatures as anger repenting willing what shall not come to pass c. Though these be improper drawn from the maner of men yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet then in this glass and which we can no better conceive of then in such notions or else the Holy Ghost would have given us better I would the Judicious Reader would on the by well weigh also how much this conduceth to reconcile us and the Arminians in those ancient and like-to-be continuing Controversies SECT II. 1. GO too then When thou settest thy self to meditate on the joyes above think on them boldly as Scripture hath expressed them Bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense Excellency without familiarity doth more amaze then delight us Both Love and Joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance When we go about to think of God and Glory in proper conceivings without these Spectacles we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon We set God and Heaven so far from us that our thoughts are strange and we look at them as things beyond our reach and beyond our line and are ready to say That which is above us is nothing to us To conceive no more of God and Glory but that we cannot conceive them and to apprehend no more but that they are past our apprehension will produce no more love but this To acknowledg that they are so far above us that we cannot love them and no more joy but this That they are above our rejoycing And therefore put Christ no further from you then he hath put himself least the Divine Nature be again inaccessible Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified think of our fellow Saints as men there perfected think of the City and State as the Spirit hath expressed it onely with the Caution and Limitations before mentioned Suppose thou were now beholding this City of God and that thou hadst been companion with John in his Survey of its Glory and hadst seen the Thrones the Majesty the Heavenly Hosts the shining Splendor which he saw Draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present that which God hath in Prophecies revealed and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long Suppose therefore with thy self thou hadst been that Apostles fellow-traveller into the Celestial Kingdom and that thou hadst seen all the Saints in their White Robes with Palms in their hands Suppose thou hadst heard those Songs of Moses and of the Lamb or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the Living God If thou hadst seen these things indeed in what a rapture wouldst thou have been And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thy self the more will the Meditation elevate thy heart I would not have thee as the Papists draw them in Pictures nor use mysterious significant Ceremonies to represent them This as it is a course forbidden by God so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart But get the liveliest Picture of them in thy minde that possibly thou canst meditate of them as if thou were all the while beholding them and as if thou were even hearing the Hallelujahs while thou art thinking of them till thou canst say Methinks I see a glympse of the Glory methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise methinks I even stand by Abraham and David Peter and Paul and many more of these triumphing souls methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom methinks I even hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father and even see them go rejoycing into the Joy of their Lord My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me and should not these just suppositions affect me much more What if I had seen with Paul those unutterable things should I not have been exalted and that perhaps above measure as well as he What if I had stood in the room of Stephen and seen Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones O that I might but see what he did see though I also suffered what he did suffer What if I had seen such a sight as Michaiah saw The Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his left Why these men of God did see such things and I shall shortly see far more then ever they saw
the duty When thou hast perhaps but an hours time for thy Meditation the time will be spent before thy heart will be serious This doing of duty as if we did it not doth undo as many as the flat omission of it To rub out the hour in a bare lazie thinking of Heaven is but to lose that hour and delude thy self Well what is to be done in this case why do here also as you do by a loitering servant keep thine eye always upon thy heart look not so much to the time it spendeth in the duty as to the quantity and quality of the work that is done You can tell by his work whether your servant hath been painful ask what affections have yet been acted how much am I yet got neerer Heaven Verily many a mans heart must be followed as close in this duty of Meditation as a Horse in a Mill or an Ox at the Plow that will go no longer then you are calling or scourging If you cease driving but a moment the heart will stand still and perhaps the best hearts have much of this temper I would not have thee of the judgment of those who think that while they are so backward it is better let it alone and that if meer love will not bring them to the duty but there must be all this violence used to compel it that then the service is worse then the omission These men understand not first That this Argument would certainly cashiere all Spiritual obedience because the hearts of the best being but partly sanctified will still be resisting so far as they are carnal Secondly Nor do they understand well the corruptness of their own natures Thirdly Nor that their sinful undisposedness will not baffle or suspend the commands of God Fourthly Nor one sin excuse another Fifthly Especially they little know the way of God to excite their Affections and that the love which should compel them must it self be first compelled in the same sense as it is said to compel Love I know is a most precious grace and should have the chief interest in all our duties But there be means appointed by God to procure this love and shall I not use those means till I can use them from love that were to neglect the means till I have the end Must I not seek to procure love till I have it already There are means also for the increasing of love where it is begun and means for the exciting of it where it lieth dull And must I not use these means till it is increased and excited Why this reasoning considering-duty that we are in hand with is the most singular means both to stir up thy love and to increase it and therefore stay not from the duty till thou feel thy love constrain thee that were to stay from the fire till thou feel thy self warm but fall upon the work till thou art constrained to love and then love will constrain thee to further duty My jealously least thou shouldst miscarry by these sotish opinions hath made me more tedious in the opening of its error Let nothing therefore hinder thee while thou art upon the work from plying thy heart with constant watchfulness and constraint seeing thou hast such experience of its dulness and backwardness let the spur be never out of its side and when ever it slacks pace be sure to give it a remembrance SECT III. 3. AS thy heart will be loitering so will it be diverting It will be turning aside like a carless servant to talk with every one that passeth by When there should be nothing in thy minde but the work in hand it will be thinking of thy calling or thinking of thy afflictions or of every bird or tree or place thou seest or of any impertinency rather then of Heaven Thy heart in this also will be like the Husbandmans Ox or Horse if he drive not he will not go and if he guide not he will not keep the furrow and it is as good stand still as go out of the way Experience will tell thee thou wilt have much ado with thy heart in this point to keep it one hour to the work without many extravagancies and idle cogitations The cure here is the same with that before to use watchfulness and violence with your own imaginations and as soon as they step out to chide them in Say to thy heart What did I come hither to think of my business in the world to think of places and persons of news or vanity yea or of any thing but Heaven be it never so good what canst thou not watch one hour wouldst thou leave this world and dwell in Heaven with Christ for ever and canst thou not leave it one hour out of thy thoughts nor dwell with Christ in one hours close Meditation Ask thy heart as Absalom did Hushai Is this thy love to thy friend Dost thou love Christ and the place of thy Eternal Blessed abode no more then so When Pharaohs Butler dreamed That he pressed the ripe Grapes into Pharaohs Cup and delivered the Cup into the Kings hand it was a happy dream and signified his speedy access to the Kings presence But the dream of the Baker That the Birds did eat out of the Basket on his head the baked meats prepared for Pharaoh had an ill omen and signified his hanging and their eating of his flesh So when the ripened Grapes of Heavenly Meditation are pressed by thee into the Cup of Affection and this put into the hands of Christ by delightful praises if thou take me for skilful this is the interpretation That thou shalt shortly be taken from this prison where thou liest and be set before Christ in the Court of Heaven and there serve up to him that Cup of praise but much fuller and much sweeter for ever and for ever But if the ravenous fowls of wandring thoughts do devour the Meditations intended for Heaven I will not say flatly it signifieth thy death but this I will say That so far as these intrude they will be the death of that service and if thou ordinarily admit them That they devour the life and the joy of thy thoughts and if thou continue in such a way of duty to the end It signifies the death of thy soul as well as of thy service Drive away these birds of prey then from thy sacrifice and strictly keep thy heart to the work thou art upon SECT IV. 4. LAstly Be sure also to look to thy heart in this That it cut not off the work before the time and run not away through weariness before it have leave Thou shalt finde it will be exceeding prone to this like the Ox that would unyoke or the Horse that would be unburdened and perhaps cast off his burden and run away Thou maist easily perceive this in other duties If in secret thou set thy self to pray is not thy heart urging thee still to cut it short dost thou not
the world to a thirster after God from a fearful coward to a resolved Christian from an unfruitful sadness to a joyful life In a word What will not be done one day do it the next till thou have pleaded thy heart from Earth to Heaven from conversing below to a walking with God and till thou canst lay thy heart to rest as in the bosom of Christ in this Meditation of thy full and Everlasting Rest. And this is the sum of these precedent Directions CHAP. XIV An Example of this Heavenly Contemplation for the help of the unskilful There remaineth a Rest to the people of God SECT II. REst How sweet a word is this to mine ears Methinks the sound doth turn to substance and having entred at the ear doth possess my brain and thence descendeth down to my very heart methinks I feel it stir and work and that through all my parts and powers but with a various work upon my various parts to my wearied senses and languid spirits it seems a quieting powerful Opiate to my dulled powers it is spirit and life to my dark eyes it is both eye-salve and a prospective to my taste it is sweetness to mine ears it is melody to my hands and feet it's strength and nimbleness Methinks I feel it digest as it proceeds and increase my native heat and moisture and lying as a reviving cordial at my heart from thence doth send forth lively spirits which beat through all the pulses of my soul. Rest Not as the stone that rests on the earth nor as these clods of flesh shall rest in the grave so our beast must rest as well as we nor is it the â—atisfying of our fleshly lusts nor such a rest as the carnal world desireth no no we have another kinde of rest then these Rest we shall from all our labors which were but the way and means to Rest but yet that is the smallest part O blessed Rest where we shall never rest day or night crying Holy holy holy Lord God of Sabbaths when we shall rest from sin but not from worship from suffering and sorrow but not from solace O blessed day when I shall rest with God when I shall rest in the Arms and Bosome of my Lord when I shall reâ—t in Knowing Loving Reâ—oycing and Praising when my perfect soul and body together shall in these perfect actings perfectly enjoy the most perfect God! when God also who is Love it self shall perfectly love me yea and rest in his Love to me as I shall rest in my love to him and rejoyce over me with joy and singing as I shall rejoyce in him How neer is that most blessed joyful day it comes apace even he that comes will come and will not tarry Though my Lord do seem to delay his coming yet a little while and he will be here What is a few hundred years when they are over How surely will his sign appear and how suddenly will he seize upon the careless world Even as the lightning that shines from East to West in a moment He who is gone hence will even so return Methinks I even hear the voyce of his foregoers Methinks I see him coming in the clouds with the attendants of his Angels in Majesty and in Glory O poor secure sinners what will you now do where will you hide your selves or what shall cover you mountains are gone the earth and heavens that were are passed away the devouring fire hath consumed all except your selves who must be the fuel for ever O that you could consume as soon as the earth and melt away as did the heavens Ah these wishes are now but vain the Lamb himself would have been your friend he would have loved you and ruled you and now have saved you but you would not then and now too late Never cry Lord Lord too late too late man why dost thou look about can any save thee whether dost thou run can any hide thee O wretch that hast brought thy self to this Now blessed Saints that have Believed and Obeyed This is the end of Faith and Patience This is it for which you prayed and waited Do you now repent your sufferings and sorrows your self-denying and holy walking Are your tears of Repentance now bitter or sweet O see how the Judg doth smile upon you there 's love in his looks The titles of Redeemer Husband Head are written in his amiable shining face Heark doth he not call you He bids you stand here on his right hand fear not for there he sets his Sheep O joyful Sentence pronounced by that blessed mouth Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the Kingdom prepared for you from the foundations of the world see how your Saviour takes you by the hand go along you must the door is open the Kingdom 's his and therefore yours there 's your place before his Throne The Father receiveth you as the Spouse of his Son he bids you welcome to the Crown of Glory never so unworthy crowned you must be this was the project of free redeeming Grace and this was the purpose of eternal Love O blessed Grace O blessed Love O the frame that my soul will then be in O how Love and Joy will stir but I cannot express it I cannot conceive it This is that Joy which was procured by Sorrow this is that Crown which was procured by the Cross my Lord did weep that now my tears might be wip't away he did bleed that I might now rejoyce he was forsaken that I might not now be forsaken he did then dye that I might now live This weeping wounded Lord shall I behold this bleeding Saviour shall I see and live in him that dyed for me O free Mercy that can exalt so vile a wretch free to me though dear to Christ Free Grace that hath chosen me when thousands were forsaken when my companions in sin must burn in hell and I must here rejoyce in Rest here must I live with all these Saints O comfortable meeting of my old acquaintance with whom I prayed and wept and suffered with whom I spoke of this day and place I see the Grave could not contain you the sea and earth must give up their dead the same love hath redeemed and saved you also This is not like our Cottages of Clay nor like our Prisons or earthly Dwellings This voyce of Joy is not like our old complainings our groans our sighes our impatient moans nor this melodious praise like our scorns and revilings nor like the oathes and curses which we heard on earth this body is not like the body we had nor this soul like the soul we had nor this life like the life that then we lived we have changed our place we have changed our state our cloathes our thoughts our looks our Language we have changed our company for the greater part and the rest of our company is changed it self Before a Saint was weak and despised so full of
dare to contend in love with thee or set my borrowed languid spark against the Element and Sun of Love Can I love as high as deep as broad as long as Love it self as much as he that made me and that made me love that gave me all that little which I have both the heart the hearth where it is kindled the bellows the fire the fuel and all were his As I cannot match thee in the works of thy Power nor make nor preserve nor guide the worlds so why should I think any moreof matching thee in Love No Lord I yield I am unable I am overcome O blessed conquest Go on victoriously and still prevail and triumph in thy love The Captive of Love shall proclaim thy victory when thou leadest me in triumph from Earth to Heaven from Death to Life from the Tribunal to the Throne my self and all that see it shall acknowledg that thou hast prevailed and all shall say Behold how he loved him Yet let me love thee in subjection to thy Love as thy redeemed Captive though not thy Peer shall I not love at all because I cannot reach thy measure or at least let me heartily wish to love thee O that I were able O that I could feelingly say I love thee even as I feel I love my friend and my self Lord that I could do it but alas I cannot fain I would but alas I cannot Would I not love thee if I were but able Though I cannot say as thy Apostle Thou knowest that I Love thee yet can I say Lord thou knowest that I would love thee but I speak not this to excuse my fault it is a crime that admits of no excuse and it is my own it dwelleth as neer me as my very heart if my heart be my own this sin is my own yea and more my own then my heart is Lord what shall this sinner do the fault is my own and yet I cannot help it I am angry with my heart that it doth not love thee and yet I feel it love thee never the more I frown up on it and yet it cares not I threaten it but it doth not feel I chide it and yet it doth not mend I reason with it and would fain perswade it and yet I do not perceive it stir I rear it up as a carkass upon its legs but it neither goes nor stands I rub and chafe it in the use of thine Ordinances and yet I feel it not warm within me O miserable man that I am unworthy soul is not thine eye now upon the onely lovely object and art thou not beholding the ravishing glory of the Saints and yet dost thou not love and yet dost thou not feel the fire break forth why art thou not a soul a living spirit and is not thy love the choicest piece of thy life Art thou not a rational soul and shouldst not thou love according to Reasons conduct and doth it not tell thee that all is dirt and dung to Christ that earth is a dungeon to the celestial glory Art thou not a spirit thy self and shoulst thou not love spiritually even God who is a Spirit and the Father of Spirits Doth not every creature love their like why my soul art thou like to fleshâ— or gold or stately buildings art thou like to meat and drink or cloathes wilt thou love no higher then thy horse or swine hast thou nothing better to love then they what is the beauty that thou hast so admired canst thou not even wink or think it all into darkness or deformity when the night comes it is nothing to thee while thou hast gazed on it it hath withered away a Botch or Scab the wrinkles of consuming sickness or of age do make it as loathsom as it was before delightful suppose but that thou sawest that beautiful carcass lying on the Bier or rotting in the grave the skull dig'd up and the bones scattered where is now thy lovely object couldst thou sweetly embrace it when the soul is gone or take any pleasure in it when there is nothing left thats like thy self Ah why then dost thou love a skinful of dirt and canst love no more the heavenly Glory What thinkest thou shalt thou love when thou comest there when thou seest when thou dost enjoy when the Lord shall take thy carcass from the grave and make thee shine as the Sun in glory and when thou shalt everlastingly dwell in the blessed presence shalt thou then love or shalt thou not is not the place a meeting of lovers is not the life a state of love is it not the great marriage day of the Lamb when he will embrace and entertain his Spouse with love is not the imployment there the work of love where the souls with Christ do take their fill O then my soul begin it here be sick of love now that thou maist be well with love there keep thy self now in the love of God Jude 21. and let neither life nor death nor any thing separate thee from it and thou shalt be kept in the fulness of love for ever and nothing shalt imbitter or abate thy pleasure for the Lord hath prepared a city of love a place for the communicating of love to his chosen and those that love his Name shall dwell there Psal. 69.36 Awake then O my drowsie soul who but an Owl or Mole would love this worlds uncomfortable darkness when they are called forth to live in light to sleep under the light of Grace is unreasonable much more in the approach of the light of Glory The night of thy ignorance and misery is past the day of glorious Light is at hand this is the day-break betwixt them both Though thou see not yet the Sun it self appear methinks the twilight of a promise should revive thee Come forth then O my dull congealed spirits and leave these earthly Cels of dumpish sadness and hear thy Lord that bids thee Rejoyce and again Rejoyce thou hast lain here long enough in thy prison of flesh where Satan hath been thy Jaylor and the things of this world have been the Stocks for the feet of thy Affections where cares have been thy Trons and fears thy Scourge and the bread and water of Affliction thy food where sorrows have been thy lodging and thy sins and foes have made the bed and a carnal hard unbelieving heart have been the iron gates bars that have kept thee in that thou couldst scarce have leave to look through the Lattices and see one glimpse of the immortal light The Angel of the Covenant now calls thee and strikes thee and bids thee Arise and follow him up O my soul and cheerfully obey and thy bolts and bars shall all fly open do thou obey and all will obey follow the Lamb which way ever he leads thee Art thou afraid because thou knowst not whither Can the place be worse then where thou art Shouldst thou fear to follow
my corruptions quite removed and my soul perfected and my body also raised to so high a state as I now can neither desire nor conceive Surely as health of body so health of soul doth carry an unexpressible sweetness along with it VVere there no reward besides yet every gracious act is a reward and comfort Never had I the least stirring of Love to God but I felt a heavenly sweetness accompanying it even the very act of loving was unexpressibly sweet VVhat a happy life should I here live could I but love as much as I would and as oft and as long as I would Could I be all love and always loving O my soul what wouldst thou give for such a life O had I such true and clear apprehensions of God and such a true understanding of his words as I desire Could I but trust him as fully in all my streights Could I have that life which I would have in every duty Could I make God my constant desire and delight I would not then envy the world their honors or pleasures nor change my happiness with a Caesar or Alexander O my soul what a blessed state wilt thou shortly be in when thou shalt have far more of these then thou canst now desire and shalt exercise all thy perfected graces upon God in presence and open sight and not in the dark and at a distance as now And as there is so much worth in one gracious soul so much more in a gracious society and most of all in the whole body of Christ on earth If there be any true beauty on earth where should it be so likely as in the Spouse of Christ It is her that he adorneth with his Jewels and feasteth at his table and keepeth for her always an open house and heart he revealeth to her his secrets and maintaineth constant converse with her he is her constant guardian and in every deluge incloseth her in his Ark He saith to her Thou art all beautiful my beloved And is his Spouse while black so comely Is the afflicted sinning weeping lamenting persecuted Church so excellent O what then will be the Church when it is fully gathered and glorified VVhen it is ascended from the valley of tears to Mount Sion VVhen it shall sin no more nor weep nor groan nor suffer any more The Stars or the smalest candle are not darkened so much by the brightness of the Sun as the excellencies of the first Temple will be by the celestial Temple The glory of the old Jerusalem will be darkness and deformity to the glory of the New It is said in Ezr. 3.12 that when the foundations of the second Temple were laid many of the ancient men who had seen the first house did weep i.e. because the second did come so far short of it what cause then shall we have to shout for joy when we shall see how glorious the heavenly Temple is and remember the meaness of the Church on earth But alas what a loss am I at in the midst of my contemplations I thought my heart had all this while followed after but I see it doth not And shall I let my Understanding go on alone or my tongue run on without Affections what life is in empty thoughts and words Neither God nor I finde pleasure in them Rather let me turn back again and look and finde and chide this lazy loytering heart that turneth off from such a pleasant work as this Where hast thou been unworthy heart while I was opening to thee the everlasting Treasures Didst thou sleep or wast thou minding something else or dost thou think that all this is but a Dream or Fable or as uncertain as the predictions of a presumptuâ—ous Astrologer Or hast thou lost thy life and rejoycing power Art thou not ashamed to complain so much of an uncomfortable life and to murmur at God for filling thee with sorrows when he offereth thee in vain the delights of Angels and when thou treadest under foot these transcendent pleasures Thou wilfully pinest away in grief and art ready to charge thy Father with unkindness for making thee onely a vessel of displeasure a sink of sadness a skinful of groans a snow ball of tears a channel for the waters of affliction to run in the fuell of fears and the carcass which cares do consume and prey upon when in the mean time thou mightest live a life of Joy Hadst thou now but followed me close and believingly applyed thy self to that which I have spoken and drunk in but half the comfort that those words hold forth it would have made thee revive and leap for joy and forget thy sorrows and diseases and pains of the flesh but seeing thou judgest thy self unworthy of comfort it is just that comfort should be taken from thee Lord what 's the matter that this work doth go on so heavily Did I think my heart had been so backward to rejoyce If it had been to mourn and fear and despair it were no wonder I have been lifting at this stone and it will not stir I have been pouring Aqua Vitae into the mouth of the dead I hope Lord by that time it comes to heaven this heart by thy Spirit will be quickned and mended or else even those Joyes will scarce rejoyce me But besides my darkness deadness and unbelief I perceive there is something else that forbids my full desired Joyes This is not the time and place where so much is given The time is our Winter and not our Harvest The place is called the Valley of tears there must be great difference betwit the Way and the End the Work and Wages the small foretastes and full fruition But Lord Though thou hast reserved our Joyes for Heaven yet hast thou not so suspended our Desires They are most suitable and seasonable in this present life therefore O help me to desire till I may possess and let me long when I cannot as I would rejoyce There is love in Desire as well as in Delight and if I be not empty of Love I know I shall not long be empty of Delight Rowse up thy self once more then O my soul and try and exercise thy spiritual Appetite though thou art ignorant and unbelieving yet art thou reasonable and therefore must needs desire a Happiness and Rest Nor canst thou sure be so unreasonable as to dream of attaining it here on earth Thou knowest to thy sorrow that thou art not yet at thy Rest and thy own feeling doth convince thee of thy present Unhappiness and dost thou know that thou art restless and yet art willing to continue so Art thou neither happy in deed nor in Desire Art thou neither well nor wouldest be well when my flesh is pained and languisheth under consuming sickness how heartily and frequenly do I cry out O when shall I be eased of this pain when shall my decaying strength be recovered Ther 's no dissembling nor formality in these Desires
having lost their strength and Afflictions less grievous as having lost their sting and every Mercy will be better known and relished Reader it is under God in thine own choice now whether thou wilt live thus blessed or not and whether all this pains which I have taken for thee shall prosper or be lost If it be lost through thy laziness which God forbid be it known to thee thou wilt prove the greatest looser thy self If thou value not this Heavenly Angelical life how canst thou say that thou valuest Heaven And if thou value not it no wonder if thou be shut out The power of godliness lieth in the actings of the soul Take heed that thou stick not in the vain deluding form O man VVhat hast thou to minde but God and Heaven Art thou not almost out of this world already Dost thou not look every day when one disease or other will let out thy soul Doth not the Bier stand ready to carry thee to the Grave and the VVorms wait to feed upon thy face and heart What if thy Pulse must beat a few strokes more and what if thou have a few more breathes to fetch before thou breathe out thy last and what if thou have a few more nights to sleep before thou sleep in the dust Alas what will this be when it is gone And is it not almost gone already Very shortly thou wilt see thy glass run out and say thy self My life is done my time is gone its past recalling there 's nothing now but Heaven or Hell before me O where then should thy heart be now but in Heaven Didst thou but know what a dreadful thing it is to have a strange and doubtful thought of Heaven when a man lies dying it would sure rowze thee up And what other thoughts but strange can that man have that never thought seriously of Heaven till then Every mans first thoughts are strange about all things Familiarity and acquaintance comes not in a moment but is the consequent of Custom and frequent Converse And strangeness naturally raiseth dread as familiarity doth delight What else makes a Fish or a wilde Beast flie from a man when domestick Creatures take pleasure in his company So wilt thou flie from God if thou knewest how who should be thy onely happiness if thou do not get this strangeness removed in thy life time And is it not pity that a childe should be so strange to his own Father as to fear nothing more then to go into his presence and to think himself best when he is furthest from him and to flie from his face as a wilde Creature will do from the face of a man Alas how little do many godly ones differ from the world either in their comforts or willingness to die and all because they live so strange to the place and Fountain of their comforts Besides a little verbal or other outside duties or talking of controversies and doctrines of Religion or forbearing the practice of many sins how little do the most of the Religious differ from other men when God hath prepared so vast a difference hereafter If a word of Heaven fall in now and then in their conference alas how slightly is it and customary and heartless And if their Prayers or Preaching have heavenly expressions they usually are fetcht from their meer invention or memory or Books and not from the experience or feeling of their hearts O what a life might men live if they were but willing and diligent God would have our joyes to be far more then our sorrows yea he would have us to have no sorrow but what tendeth to joy and no more then our sins have made necessary for our good How much do those Christians wrong God and themselves that either make their thoughts of God the in-let of their sorrows or let these offered joyes lie by as neglected or forgotten Some there be that say It is not worth so much time and trouble to think of the greatness of the joyes above so we can make sure they are ours we know they are great But as these men obey not the Command of God which requireth them to have their Conversation in Heaven and to set their Affections on things above so do they wilfully make their own lives miserable by refusing the delights that God hath set before them And yet if this were all it were a smaller matter if it were but the loss of their comforts I would not say so much But see what abundance of other mischiefs do follow the absence of these Heavenly Delights First It will damp if not destroy our very love to God so deeply as we apprehend his bounty and exceeding love to us and his purpose to make us eternally happy so much will it raise our love Love to God and delight in him are still conjunct They that conceive of God as one that desireth their blood and damnation cannot heartily love him Secondly It will make us have seldom and unpleasing thoughts of God for our thoughts will follow our love and delight Thirdly And it will make men to have as seldom and unpleasing speech of God For who will care for talking of that which he hath no delight in What makes men still talking of worldliness or wickedness but that these are more pleasant to them then God Fourthly It will make men have no delight in the service of God when they have no delight in God nor any sweet thoughts of Heaven which is the end of their services No wonder if such Christians complain That they are still backward to Duty that they have no delight in Prayer in Sacraments or in Scripture it self If thou couldst once delight in God thou wouldst easily delight in duty especially that which bringeth thee into the neerest converse with him But till then no wonder if thou be weary of all further then some external excellency may give thee a carnal delight Doth not this cause many Christians to go on so heavily in secret duties like the Ox in the Furrow that will go no longer then he is driven and is glad when he is unyoaked Fifthly Yea it much endangereth the perverting of mens judgments concerning the ways of God and means of Grace when they have no delight in God and Heaven Though it be said Perit omne judicium cum res transit in affectum That Judgment perisheth when things pass into Affection yet that is but when Affection leadeth the Judgment and not when it followeth Affection holdeth its object faster then bare Judgment doth The Soul will not much care for that Truth which is not accompanied with suitable goodness and it will more easily be drawn to believe that to be false which it doth not delightfully apprehend to be good which doubtless is no small cause of the ungodlies prejudice against the ways of God and of many formal mens dislike of extemporate Prayers and of a strict observation of the Lords day Had they a true
delight in God and heavenly Things it would rectifie their judgments better then all the arguments in the world Lose this delight once and you will begin to quarrel with the Ordinances and Ways of God and to be more offended at the Preachers imperfections then profited by the Doctrine Sixthly And it is the want of these Heavenly Delights in God that makes men so entertain the delights of the flesh This is the cause of most mens voluptuousness and flesh-pleasing The Soul will not rest without some kinde of delights If it had nothing to delight in either in hand or in hope it would be in a kinde of Hell on Earth vexing it self with continual sorrow and despair If a Dog have lost his Master he will follow somebody else Men must have their sweet Cups or delicious Fare or gay Apparel or Cards or Dice or Fleshly Lasts to make up their want of delight in God How well these will serve in stead of God our fleshly youths will be better able to tell me when we meet at Judgment If men were acquainted with this Heavenly Life there would need no Laws against Sabbath breaking and riotousness nor would men need to go for mirth to an Alehouse or a Tavern They would have a far sweeter pastime and recreation neerer hand Seventhly also This want of Heavenly Delights will leave men under the power of every Affliction they will have nothing to comfort them and ease them in their sufferings but the empty uneffectual pleasures of the flesh and when that is gone where then is their delight Eighthly Also it will make men fearful and unwilling to die For who would go to a God or a place that he hath no delight in or who would leave his pleasure here except it were to go to better O if the people of God would learn once this Heavenly Life and take up their delights in God whilest they live they would not tremble and be disconsolate at the tidings of death Ninthly Yea this want of Heavenly Delight doth lay men open to the power of every Temptation A little thing will tice a man from that which he hath no pleasure in Tenthly Yea it is a dangerous preparative to total Apostacy A man will hardly long hold on in a way that he hath no delight in nor use the means if he have no delight in the end But as a Beast if you drive him a way that he would not go will be turning out at every gap If you be Religious in your actions and become over to God in your outward Conversaâ—ion and not in your delight you will shortly be gone if your trial be strong How many young people have we known who by good education or the perswasion of friends or for fear of Hell have been a while kept up among Prayers and Sermons and good company as a Bird in a Cage when if they durst they had rather have been in an Alehouse or at their sports and at last they have broke loose when their restraint was taken off and have forsaken the way that they never took pleasure in You see then that it is not a matter of indifferency whether you entertain these Heavenly Delights or not nor is the loss of your present comfort all the inconvenience that follows the neglect And now Christian Friends I have here lined you out a Heavenly precious Work would you but do it it would make you men indeed To delight in God is the work of Angels and the contrary is the work of devils If God would perswade you now to make conscience of this duty and help you in it by the blessed influence of his Spirit you would not change your lives with the greatest Prince on the Earth But I am afraid if I may judg of your hearts by the backwardness of my own that it will prove a hard thing to perswade you to the work and that much of this my labor will be lost Pardon my jealousie it is raised upon too many and sad experiments What say you Do you resolve on this Heavenly course or no Will you let go all your sinful fleshly pleasures and daily seek after these higher delights I pray thee hear shut the Book and consider of it and resolve on the duty before thou go further Let thy Family perceive let thy Neighbors perceive let thy Conscience perceive yea let God perceive it that thou art a man that hast thy daily Conversation in Heaven God hath now offered to be thy daily delight Thy neglect is thy refusal What Refuse delight and such a Delight If I had propounded you onely a course of Melancholy and Fear and Sorrow you might better have demur'd on it Take heed what thou dost Refuse this and refuse all Thou must have Heavenly Delights or none that are lasting God is willing that thou shouldst daily walk with him and fetch in consolations from the Everlasting Fountain if thou be unwilling even bear thy loss And one of these days when thou liest dying then seek for comfort where thou canst get it and make what shift for contentment thou canst Then see whether thy fleshly delights will stick to thee or give thee the slip and then Conscience in despight of thee shall make thee remember That thou wast once perswaded to a way for more excellent pleasures that would have followed thee through death and have lasted thee to Everlasting What man will go in rags that may be clothed with the best or feed on pulse that may feed of the best or accompany with the vilest that may be a companion to the best and admitted into the presence and favor of the greatest And shall we delight so much in our clothing of flesh and feed so much on the vain pleasures of Earth and accompany so much with sin and sinners When Heaven is set open as it were to our daily view and God doth offer us daily admittance into his presence O how is the unseen God neglected and the unseen Glory forgotten and made light of and all because they are unseen and for want of that Faith which is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things that are not seen But for you sincere Beleevers whose hearts God hath weaned from all things here below I hope you will value this Heavenly Life and fetch one walk daily in the New Jerusalem I know God is your Love and your desire and I know you would fain be more acquainted with your Saviour and I know it is your grief that your hearts are not more neer him and that they do no more feelingly and passionately love him and delight in him As ever you would have all this mended and enjoy your desires O try this Life of Meditation on your Everlasting Rest Here is the Mount Ararat where the fluctuated Ark of your Souls must Rest. O let the World see by your Heavenly Lives That Religion lieth in something more then Opinions and Disputes and a
4. punct 4. * That it is not properly any act of faith at all much less the Justifying Act to Believe that my sins are pardoned or that Christ dyed in a special sence for Me or that I am a Believer or that I shall be saved Besides what I have said in the Appendix to my Aphorisms of Justification I refer you for satisfaction to Judicious Mr Anth Wotton de Reconciliat Part. 1. Lib. 2. Cap. 15. N. 3 4 5 6 7 8. Pag. 87 88 89 90 c. * I use the word Evidence all along in the vulgar sence as the same with Signs and not in the proper sence as the Schools do * Therefore that saying of Cajetane is not so much to be valued as by some of our Divines it is Certitudine fidei quilibet scit certo se habere donum infusum fidei idque absque formidine alterius partis Except he take Certitudo fidei in a very large improper sence * Read Gataker Shadows without Substances pag. 83 84. * The distinction in the Schools used of Certitudo fidei Certitudo Evidentiae I deny not But that hath a quite different sence from this as it is used * Therefore I say not that our first Comfort much less our Justification is procured by the sight of Evidences But our Assurance is * Their common Error That Justifying faith is nothing else but a perswasion more or less of the Love of God to us is the Root of this and many more mistakes To Justifie us and to Assure us that we are Justified are quite different things and procured by different ways and at several times usually Vid. Aquin. ad 1. Sent. dist 17. art 1.2 3. q. 112. Scotum ad 3. Sent. dis 23. q. unicâ Bonavent 1. Sent. q. 17. Biel in 2. Sent. dist 27. q. 3. §. 5. * Yet I believe that their divines have some of them made the difference betwixt us and the Papists seem wider then it is as do these words of one of them Ex hoc unico articulo quantumvis minutus a plerisque reputari queat universus Papatus Lutheranismus dependet Martinus Eisengrenius initio Apolog. de Cert Salv. And so have some of our Divines on the other side as Luther in Gen. 41. Etiamsi nihil preterea peccatum esset in doctrina pontificia just as habemus causas cur ab ecclesia infideli nos sejungeremus §. 6. Hindrances of Examination 1. Satan Judg. 4.19 21. Judg. 16.21 §. 7. Read on thâ—s Subject Mr. Young his Books which handle it fully Luke 13.24 2 Cor. 13.5 2 Pet. 1.10 1 King 22.5 6 §. 8. * Or as Mr. Saltmarsh saith every man is bound to believe but no man to Question whether he believe or no. p. 92 93 And this Faith he saith is a being perswaded more or less of Christs love p. 94. So that by this Doctrine every man is bound to believe that Christ loveth him and not to question his belief If it were only Christs common love he might thus believe it but a special love to him is no where written §. 9. Hinderances which keep many that do Examine from attaining strong Assurance cause many to be deâ—ceived Mat. 19.20 §. 10. Some further Hinderances which keep some Christians without Assurance and Comfort Remedy §. 11. You sit poreing â— searching for pillers of hope within you be-bestow much pains to answer your own fears but the ready way to make the business clear is by going to Christ. Stand not so much upon this Question Whether you have believ'd in truth or no but put al out of doubt by a present faith The door is open enter live You may more easily build a new fabrick of comfort by 〈…〉 then repair your old dwâ—lling and clear all suits that are brought against your tenure Simonds Deserted Soul pag. 554. Flowings of Christs Blood c. pag. 95. §. 12. Mr Paul Bayne I think one of the holiest choicest men that ever England bred yet describeth the temper of his spirit thus I thank God in Christ sustentation I have but Su vâ—ties Spiritual I taste not any In his Letters §. 13. In watchfulness and dâ—ligence we sooner meet with comfort then in idle complaining Our Care therefore should be to get sound Evidence of a good estate then to keep those Evidences clear Dâ— Sibbs Preface to Souls Conflict As if a poor man should complain for want of money when a chest full stands by him and he may take what he wil Is it not better take it out then lie complaining for want §. 14. God wil keep the rich store of consistent and abiding comforts till the great day that when all the family shall come together he may pour out the fulness of his hidden treasures on them We are now in the morning of the day the feast is to come a breakefast must serve to stay the stomack till the King of Saints with all his friends sit down together Simonds Deserted Soul pag. 507. §. 15. So some think they are Gods people because they are of such a party or such a strict opinion and when they change their opinion they change their comfort Some that could have no comfort while they were among the Orthodox as soon as they have turned to such or such a Sect have comfort in abundance partly through Satans delusion and partly because they think their change in Opinion hath set them right with God and therefore they rejoyce So many Hypocrites whose Religion lieth only in their Opinions hâ—ve their Comfort also only there §. 16. §. 17. When men dally with sin and will be playing with snares and baits allow a secret liberty in the heart to sin conniving at many workings of it and not setting upon mortification with earnest endeavors though they be convinced yet they are not perswaded to arise with all their might against the Lords enemies but do his work negligently which is an accursed thing for this God casteth them upon sore straits Simonds Deserted Soul c. pag. 521.522 Some would have men after the committing of gross sin to be presently comfortable and believe without humbling themselves at all Indeed when we are once in Christ we ought not to question our state in him c. But yet a guilty conscience will be clamorous and full of Objections and God will not speak peace to it till it be humbled God will let his best children know what it is to be too bold with sin c. Dr Sibbs Souls Conflict Preface §. 18. See Dr Sibs Souls Conflict pag. 480 481. ☜ Souls Conflict pag. 480 481. Men experimentally feel that comfort in doing that which belongs unto them which before they longed for and went without Dr Sibbs Souls Conflict pag. 45. * Preface to Souls Conflict §. 19. Non est mirum si â—imenâ— Melancholici quia causam timoris continuo secum portant Anima enim estiâ—voluta cum caligine tenebrosa et
quia anima sequitur corporis passiones seu complexiones ideo timent c Galenus in fine quartae partic de Morbo * Timor et pusillanimitas si multum tempus habuerint Melancholicum faciunt Hippocrat §. 1. §. 2. Motive 1. Mat. 7.22.26.27 c. Prov. 14.12 Luk. 13.25 26 Luk. 18.21 11 Rev. 3.17 So Ananias and Saphira The rich man in Luk. 16. c. Ahitophel Gehezi Ananias and Saphira Pharisees Jesuites c. Rom. 1.22 Judas and the Jews that heard Christ. Mat 7.22 Rom. 2.21 1 Cor. 9.27 §. 3. Motive 2. Gal. 6.3 4 7. Mat. 7.21 Ephes. 4 18. Hosea 4.6 Isai. 27.11 2 Cor. 4.3 Rev. 2.6 20. Titus 2 19. 1 Cor. 6.9 15.50 Eph. 5.4 5 6. Psal. 66.18 Jam 4 4 5. Heb. 12.14 John 3.3 2 Tim. 3.5 James 1.22 Mark 13.5 6. Matth. 10.37 John 12 25. §. 4. Acts 7.54 Acts 22.22 Phil. 3.17 18. Luke 19. Turpe est in re Militari dicere Non putarem §. 5. §. 6. Pro. 26.18 19. §. 7. 1 Cor. 11.30 31. Acts 22.14 Quâ—d profuerit 〈◊〉 si sociis câ—cumstantibus sâ—â—am innocentiam prohaverit câ—m cum Judâ—x crâ—minis convicâ—uâ— tâ—neat 〈◊〉 nos sâ—mper ad Christi 〈…〉 siâ—â—amus ei nos probimuâ— op ram demus ut nos ipsos pertentemuâ— penetume ut aliis sic nobis impunamuâ— Cartrit Harmon vol. 2 pag. 231. §. 8. Dan. 2.29 46 4â— Mat. 26. Mat. 24. John 4.29 2 Kings 1 2 Dan. 9.23 10.11 19. Rom 10.15 Heb. 10.22 19 Rom. 8.28 Heb 12.6 7. Psal. 75.76 Num 23.10 1 Cor. 15.58 Psal. 116.1 18.1 2. 1 Thes 4.17 18 Psal. 118.28 Isai 25.1 §. 9. §. 1. §. 2. Job 10.6 §. 3. Mark 1. Psal. 119.57 142.5 Lam. 3 24. §. 4. Mark 3. §. 1. §. 2. * As Bildad said to Job Chap. 18.4 Shall the Earth be forsaken for Thee or the Rock be removed out of his place So must God pervert his stablished Order for Thee §. 3. Psa. 30.6 7. §. 4. Itaque statuamus eos in media vegeta valetudine aegrotare qui valetudine abutuntur contra eos aegrotos bene habere qui ad Deum ex animo convertuntur ab ipsis morbis petunt adversus peccata medicinam Sadeel in Psal. 32. pag. 27. Most Christians can unfold Mr Herberts Riddle by experience A poor mans Rod when thou dost ride Is both a weapon and a guide Psa. 119.71 75 §. 5. §. 6. 1 Kings 22. 8. 1 Cor. 9.26 27. Acts 16. Rom. 8.12 Heb. â—2 23 Vers. 3 4. Mat. 16.23 Rom. 8 6 7 8. 1 Cor. 2.10 11 12 13 14. Heb. 12.11 Psal. 116.11 Psal. 73.13 14 15. §. 7. Joâ— 14. 15 16. 17. John 20. §. 8. Gal. 5 19 20 21. * If we could use our Friends as Friends God would make them our helps and comforts But when once we make them our gods by excessive love delight and trust then he suffers them to prove Satans to us and to be our accusers and tormentors It is more safe to me to have any creature a Satan then a God to be tormented by them then to Idolize them Joh. 14 27. 13 34.35 15.12 17. Mat. 22.37 39 1 Joh. 3.11 14 17 18 23 4.7 11 12 20 21 c. Act. 15 38 39 2 Chron. 16.10 15.17 Psa. 41.8 9. Read Psa. 55.12 13 14. §. 1. §. 2. Siquiâ— dicat quia infi mihi sunt 〈…〉 Resp. Cum Augustino 〈…〉 â—sse Christum pâ—opter 〈◊〉 cum â—â—fiâ—mus â—â—ligendu sit praeter Christum Danda potius est opera ut proficiant fiâ—miores evadant in domino muniendi sunt ne seducantur monendi nequis pretextu infirmitatis superbo carnis indulgeat Denique Ecclesiae interest ut infirmi bene sentiant de suis doctoribus pastoribus Boger in Epist. ante Annot. in Grotii Pier. * Beatus qui venas susurrii divini percipis in silentio quam bonum utique est homini dominum expectare Uaum cave ne abundari incipias in sersu tuo velis plus sapere quam oporteâ— sapere ne forte dum lucem Sectaris impingas in tenebras illudâ—nte tibi demonio meriâ—â—ano Bernard Serm. 90. Gen. 31.1 Psalm 41 7. 1 Sam 22.9 Dan. 6 3. Rom 1.29 30. John 7.51 Prov. 25.23 §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. Heb. 12.14 Joh. 3 3. Luk. 19 27. §. 8. 1 Sam. 23. 1 Kings 22.8 §. 9. §. 10. ut drachmam auri fine imagine principis sic verba hortantis sine authoritate Dei contemnunt homines c. Lypsius §. 11. Luk. 18.1 Heb. 3.13 2 Tim. 4.3 ut ignis â— silice non uno ictu c. §. 12. §. 13. Nec sic inflectâ—re sensus Humanos edicta valent quam vita râ—gentis Primus jussa subi tunc observantior aequi fit Populus Loripedem rectus derideat Aeâ—biopem al bus Quis tulerit Gracchos de seditione querentes Si fur displiceat Verri homicida Miloni c. Siquis opprobriis dignum latraverit integer ipse c. §. 14. Rom. 10.14 2 Cor. 4.3 Prov. 29.18 By sleight or by force they so muzzle the poor laboring Ox that they make an Asâ— of him Tho. Scot in his Projector pag. 31. Sacril gio poena est neque ei soli quâ—â—e sacro abstulerit sed etiam ci qui sacro commendatum Cicero li. 1. de Legib. Cum diis pugnant sacrilegi Qu. Curtius lib. 7. * Hath not England already been as the Eagles nest that was set on fire with a coal that sticked to the flesh which was stoln from the Altar De Ecclesia qui aliquid suratur Judae proditori comparatur Aug. in Johan The Arguments used of late to excuse this hainous sin are much of the nature of those which Dionisius senior was wont to use in the like case ut vid. in Valerii Maximi lib. 1. ca. 2. Et Justin. l. 21. * To make up that number of Ministers that the church should have now the maintenance is taken away I would rich men would study enter into the Ministry who can maintain themselves so do the work freely Let them know to their faces that it is a work that the greatest Lord in the land is not too good for See what Hieron saith ad Damasum Clericos illo convenit ecclesiae stipendiis sustentari quibus parentum amicorum nulla suffra gantur stipendia Quiautem bonis parentum opibus sustentari possâ—â—t si quod pauperum est accipiunt sacriligium profecto incurrant committunt And besides it would bear up the credit of the office and take oft much prejudice from the people §. 15. * And almost as few that are well skilled in managing known truths upon the Conscience ☞ For Gods sake and the sake of poor Souls Gentlemen put this in practise presently See Capels Epistle Dedis before Mr Pemble on the Sacrament §. 16. §. 17. * To them that think I speak too harshly I
till they were loosed from this flesh as I must be And thus you see how the familiar conceiving of the state of blessedness as the spirit hath in a condescending language expressed it and our strong raising of suppositions from our bodily senses will further our Affections in this Heavenly work SECT III. 2. THere is yet another way by which we may make our senses here serviceable to us and that is By comparing the objects of sense with the objects of faith and so forcing sense to afford us that Medium from whence we may conclude the transcendent worth of Glory By arguing from sensitive delights as from the less to the greater And here for your further assistance I shall furnish you with some of these comparative Arguments And first You must strongly argue with your hearts from the corrupt delights of sensual men Think then with your selves when you would be sensible of the joyes above Is it such a delight to a sinner to do wickedly and will it not be delightful indeed then to live with God Hath a very drunkard such delight in his cups and companions that the very fears of damnation will not make him forsake them Hath the bruitish whoremaster such delight in his whore that he will part with his credit and estate and salvation rather then he will part with her Sure then there are high delights with God! If the way to hell can afford such pleasure what are the pleasures of the Saints in Heaven If the coveteous man hath so much pleasure in his wealth and the ambitious man in his power and titles of honor what then have the Saints in the everlasting treasures and what plasure do the Heavenly honors afford where we shall be set above principalities and powers and be made the glorious spouse of Christ What pleasure do the voluptuous finde in their sensual courses how closely will they follow their hunting and hawking and other recreations from morning to night How delightfully will they sit at their Cards and Dice hours and dayes and nights together O the delight that mustneeds then be in beholding the face of the Living God and in singing forth praises to him and the Lamb which must be our recreation when we come to our Rest SECT IIII. 2. COmpare also the delights above with the lawfull delights of moderated senses Think with thy self how sweet is food to my taste when I am hungry especially as Isaac said that which my soul loveth that which my temperature and appetite do incline to What delight hath the taste in some pleasant fruits in some well relished meates and in divers junkets O what delight then must my soul needs have in feeding upon Christ the living bread and in eating with him at his table in his Kingdom VVas a mess of pottage so sweet to Esau in his hunger that he would buy them at so dear a rate as his birth-right How highly then should I value this never perishing food How pleasant is drink in the extremity of thirst The delight of it to a man in a feaver or other drought can scarcely be expressed It will make the strength of Sampson revive O then how delightful will it be to my soul to drink of that fountain of living water which who so drinks shall thirst no more So pleasant is wine and so refreshing to the spirits that it s said to make glad the heart of man How pleasant then will that wine of the great marriage be even that wine which our water was turned into that best wine which will be kept till then How delightful are pleasant odors to our smel how delightful is perfect musick to the ear how delightful are beauteous sights to the eye such as curious pictures sumptuous adorned well-contrived buildings handsome necessary rooms walks prospects Gardens stored with variety of beauteous and odoriferous flowers or pleasant Medows which are natural gardens O then think every time thou seest or remembrest these what a fragrant smell hath the pretious ointment which is poured on the head of our glorified Saviour and which must be poured on the heads of all his Saints which will fill all the room of heaven with its odor and perfume how delightful is the musick of the heavenly host how pleasing will be those real beauties above and how glorious the building not made with hands and the house that God himself doth dwell in and the walkes and prospects in the City of God and the beauties and delights in the Celestial Paradise Think seriously what these must needs be The like may be said of the delight of the sense of Feeling which the Philosopher saith is the greatest of all the rest SECT V. 3. COmpare also the delights above which the delights that are found in natural knowledg This is far beyond the delights of sense and the delights of heaven are further beyond it Think then can an Archimedes be so taken up with his Mathematical invention that the threats of death will not take him off but he will dye in the midst of these his natural contemplations Should I not much more be taken up with the delights of Glory and dye with these contemplations fresh upon my soul especially when my death will perfect my delights but those of Archimedes dye with him What a pleasure is it to dive into the secrets of nature to finde out the mystery of Arts and sciences to have a clear understanding in Logick Physicks Metaphysicks Musick Astronomy Geometry c. If we make but any new discovery in one of these or see a little more then we saw before what singular pleasure do we finde therein VVhy think then what high delights there are in the knowledg of God and Christ his Son If the face of humane learning be so beautifull that sensual pleasures are to it but base and bruitish how beautiful then is the face of God VVhen we light of some choice and learned book how are we taken with it we could read and study it day and night we can leave meat and drink and sleep to read it what delights then are there at Gods right hand where we shall know in a moment all that is to be known SECT VI. 4. COmpare also the delights above with the delights of Morality and of the natural affections VVhat delight had many sober Heathens in the rules and Practice of Moral duties so that they took him onely for an honest man who did well through the love of Vertue and not onely for fear of punishment yea so highly did they value this moral Vertue that they thought the chief happiness of man consisted in it VVhy think then what excellency there will be in that rare perfection which we shall be raised to in heaven and in that uncreated perfection of God which we shall behold what sweetness is there in the exercise of natural Love whether to Children to Parents to Yoakfellows or to Friends