Souls better to draw us off from all our Idols and to draw us nearer to himself and to prevent our sinning here and our condemnation with the World hereafter O blessed gracious Ends our heavenly Father hath in all his Chastisements of us now it 's our Duty to comply with these his Ends and pursue them with utmost diligence Quest But how shall we pursue those Ends Answ First by deep and serious Meditation upon those few special things fit to be thought on in Affliction 1. Think seriously on the meritorious Causes of your Affliction search for your Sins let your Spirits make diligent search for your Sins for now God is searching for your Sins Job 10. 6. and we should set in with him and think how greatly you have provoked him how unkindly you have dealt with him against what Light and Love and Mercy you have sinned and think also upon the desert of your Sins you are now under outward Afflictions but where had you been â—f God had dealt with you according to your Deserts Call to mind your Sins and repent and reform 2. Think seriously on the Designs of God in all your Troubles what good Intentions God hath in them that he aims at nothing but your real spiritual and eternal good It he break your earthly Comforts waste your Estates and Bodies it is for the good of your Souls be perswaded of this consider it and lay it to heart 3. Think seriously of the Love of God in Christ to you in all your Afflictions they come from his Fatherly Love he sees that you need them that your Souls will perish without them and that he doth chastise you because he loves you and because you are his Children 4. Think also how infinitely better God deals with you than with others whom he chastnâ—â— not here but reserves them for the Wrath to come unto everlasting Destruction in comparison of which all your heaviest Afflictions here are not as much as Flea-bitings 5. Think also upon the many exceeding great and precious Promises which God hath made tâ— you for your support As that he will be â—â— you will never leave you that all shall work togethâ—â— for your good that he will uphold you and maâ— such 6. Think seriously and deeply on that â—â— more exceeding and eternal weight of glory for whiâ—â— all your Afflictions do prepare you Thus be mâ—â— in Meditation on those things Lastly Think upon the Sufferings of Christ foâ— you his bitter Agony and bloody Sweat in the Garden his cruel cursed shameful painful Death on thâ— Cross Isa 53. 10. Thus if we exercise our Thought in these Considerations it will help us to thâ— attaining the gracious Ends of God in his Chastisements Secondly As by Meditation so by Prayer we must pursue God's Ends Now pray pray continually pray without ceasing pray most earnestly most fervently strive and wrestle with God in Prayer as Jacob did for the Blessing so should we pray and continue instant in prayer that God would accomplish all his blessed Designs upon our Souls and perform his whole Work Thirdly By Faith in Christ and in the Promises for no Blessing comes to the Soul any way but in and by Jesus Christ and only in and through him are the Promises fulfilled Therefore in all our Afflictions we must look unto Jesus as unto him through whose hands the Affliction comes upon us for all our Afflictions come through his hand and the blessing of them comes through his hand also act Faith on all that Jesus hath done and suffered for you and upon what he is doing for you in Heaven and upon what gracious Promises he hath made to you and the more you can act Faith on Christ the more you will love him and the more you love him the more patiently and comfortably you will bear his Chastisements as knowing that they proceed from his Love to you Rev. 3. 19. III. The last Vse is for Consolation The Text and Doctrine is very full of Comfort If this be a Truth that I have held out That the perishings and wastings of the outward man of the People of God tend to the renewing of their inward man then let none of God's People be discouraged or dejected whatever Afflictions befal them Poverty Sickness Restraint loss of Relations Estates Remember and consider what great Spiritual Good all shall certainly produce to you and what a gracious issue all your Afflictions shall have upon you and therefore faint not nor be weary but be quiet and comforted Quest But when may we take Comfort in our Afflictions Answ 1. When God's smiting you works iâ— you true turning unto God Isa 9. 13. Jer. 31. 1â— 19 20. for then Affliction proceeds from God Love and turns to your good O the yerning Bowels of God towards returning Sinners 2. When by Chastisements we are made partakers of God's Holiness made more holy anâ— more conformable to Christ than formerly Heâ— 12. 10. 3. When God's Soveraignty works in us Sâ—lence and submission as in Eli David as others 4. When God's Rods on us make us morâ— obedient to his Law Psalm 94. 12 13. as 119. 67. 71. 5. When God's Righteousness in what he doth gives quietness and satisfaction to the Soul a Dan. 9 14. Nehem. 9. 33. 6. When Afflictions put us upon Self-examination and searchings for our Sins Lam. 3. 4. Gen. 42. 21. 7. When in Afflictions we can see God's faithfulness making good his Promises Psalm 119. 75. He hath promised to withhold no good thing 8. When we hope and believe that God wilâ— give us more and better things than those he takes from us 2 Chron. 25. 9. Psalm 90. 14 15. Isa 35. 6. 9. When God's Wisdom contents us that because God is only wise and knows best what is beâ—â— for us this contents us Isa 28. 27 28. Infinite Wisdom hath ordered it 10. When we can firmly believe that God's Love is in all his Chastisements Heb. 12. 6. All these things will produce Comfort in all our Afflictions especially when we can see these Effects in some measure brought forth in us we may conclude that God's gracious Design prospers in us Could we but find that our inward man grows better and that we grow and flourish in Grace when our outward man doth decay and perish we should not faint The good Lord grant that this may be the good Effect of all my Afflictions Amen So much of the First Part. PART II. Orthodox Paradox OR THE Greatest Temporal Evil working the greatest Eternal Good 2 COR. iv 17. For our light Affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory THIS the Apostle brings in as a Reason of that holy Courage that he and the Primitive Christians had under all their Troubles that they did not faint but rather they got strength and as their outward man perished their Souls their better part flourished and prospered as in the foregoing Verse
I will confess you before my Father and the holy Angels This will be the joyful day indeed the day of our full Redemption the time of refreshing indeed the fore-thoughts of this day should support us under all our present Troubles 4. The Fourth Preparative is the Saints solemn Coronation and receiving into the Kingdom of their Father Now the Crown of Righteousness of Life of Glory which was promised them from the beginning of the World and purchased for them by the most precious Blood of Jesus and laid up in Heaven for them shall by the Lord the righteous Judge he given them at that day they have been faithful unto Death and therefore shall receive the Crown of Life The Lord Jesus will then say to all his Saints Come ye blessed of my Father inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world Every word is full of joy and comfort COME will Christ say Approach this exceeding Glory come is near as you will for the way to it is open for you I have made your passage plain by my blood Christ will not say then Come take up your Cross and follow â—â— but Come now and receive your Crown COME YE BLESSED In the world ye were accursed but now ye are blessed and shall be blessed for ever OF MY FATHER You are the objects of my Father's love he loveth you as he loveth me INHERIT You are the heirs of the promises the heirs of the kingdom the heirs of salvation No less than the Kingdom of Heaven You shall reign with me for ever and ever PREPARED Eternal Love hath laid the Foundation He prepares the Kingdom for us and then prepares us for the Kingdom FOR YOU for you all poor penitent Believers called Regenerate Souls for all you that received me by Faith and persevered therein to your death Thus much for the Preparatives to this far more excceeding and eternal weight of Glory II. Secondly I shall speak a little also of the Properties of this Glory but oh how short and shallow are my Apprehensions of this also Lord enlighten my Understanding and affect enlarge and quicken my Heart 1. This glorious state of Happiness is called The Purchased Possession Eph. 1. 14. It is the Friâ—â— of the Love and Blood of our dear Redeemer whom we shall in Heaven behold and enjoy We shall have our Redeemer alwaies before our Eyes and the liveliest sense and freshest Remembrance of that bleeding-dying-bleeding-dying-love still upon our Souls Oh how will it fill our Souls with perpetual Ravishments to think that in the Streams of this Blood we have swam through the violence of the World the snares of the Devil the seducements of the Flesh the curse of the Law the wrath of aâ— offended God the Accusations of a guilty Conscience and the vexing doubts and fears of an unbelieving Heart and are passed through all and are safely arrived at the Bosom of God O think and think again what weight of Woâ—â— and Wrath of Sin and Sorrow lay upon the Soul and Body of our most dear Lord to purchase foâ— us this exceeding weight of glory His Soul was oppressed exceedingly oppressed his Body broken his Blood shed to purchase this Glory We value things by the Price they cost If any thing we enjoy were purchased by the Life of our deareâ—â— Friend how would we esteem it Certainly thâ— bitter Death and Blood of our Lord will everlastingly sweeten our Heavenly Glory Oh that the Joy we shall then leave those Hearts of Stone and Rock behind us the Sin that here so close hâ— sets us and the sottish Unkindness that followeâ— 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 Now his Heart is open to us and ours shut to him but when his Heart is open and our hearts open too oh what a weight of Joy will there then be What a passionate meeting was there between our new-risen Lord and the first-sinful silly Woman that he appears unto How did Love struggle for expression Mary saith Christ Master saith Mary and presently she clasps about his Feet having her Heart as near 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 short only this I believe that it will be the singular Praise of our Glory 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 2. Secondly This Glory also is most free it was dear to Christ but free to us Silver and Gold could not purchase this Glory nothing but the precious Blood of the Son of God but we have it freely for nothing without Mony and without Price It 's true this Glory is promised on Conditions but the Condition is but hearty Acceptance and to take him for our Lord who hath redeemed us especially when the Condition is also given as it is by God to all his Chosen Faith which is the main Condition is the gift of God O the everlasting admiration which must needs surprize the Saints to think of the freeness of their Glory O what did the Lord see in me to count me meet for such a state That I a poor diseased despised Wretch should be cloathed in the brightness of this Glory That I a silly worthless Worm should be advanced to this high Dignity That I who was but lately groaning weeping dying should now be so full of Joy as my Heart can hold Yea should be taken from the Grave where I was rotting and stinking and from the Dust and Darkness where I seemed forgotten and here sit before the Throne of God in Glory when the poor self-denying self-accusing humble Soul that thought himself unworthy the ground he trod on unworthy the air he breathed in unworthy to eat drink or live that this Soul shall find himself wrapt up into Heaven closed in the Arms of Christ crowned with Glory in a moment Dâ— but think with your selves what a transporting astonishing thing this will be surely our Unworthiness shall not hinder our Glory God hath chosen the Poor of this World rich in Faith to be Heirs of that Kingdom Grace is most free so is Glory As we pay nothing for our Pardon so nothing for our Glory What an astonishing thought will it be to think of the unmeasurable difference between our Deservings and our Receivings between the state we should have been in and the state we are in to look down upon Hell and see the vast difference between us and them to see the Inheritance which we were born to so different from that we are adopted to O what pangs of Love will it cause within us to think yonder in that dreadful place in those
for the flesh and blood the Scripture gives us many Epithetes of it as Houses of Clay Earthly Tabernacles Dust and Ashes earthen vessels c. And these Bodies are 1. Vile bodies Phil. 3. 21. because made of vile and base materials subject to vile diseases to vile abuses to vile abominations and to a vile dissolution at last sowen indishonour shall end in Corruption great hinderances to the Soul many waies 2. The outward Man is the mortal Man that of Necessity must dye and return to dust from whence it came this cannot possibly live alway There is an irreversible Sentence of Death past upon it Hebr. 9. 27. and for these reasons the Body is the worst part of Man the worst by far and should be least esteemed and such as is the Body even such are all bodily Comforts and Accommodations Health Strength Beauty Liberty Friends Honours Estate c. all mortal mutable decaying fading dying things daily experience confirmeth this I need say no more 2. But for the inner Man the Soul that is 1. Precious so precious that it is more worth than all the World Math. 16. 26. Psal 49. 8. having the blessed Image of the glorious God stamped on it at first being capable of knowing and injoying the true and living God and when sin had spoil'd and captivated it it could not be redeemed but by the precious Blood of the Son of God So are all the Concernments of the Soul precious also 2. It is immortal also it never dies it lives for ever None can nothing can kill the Soul that is cause it not to be and for these reasons it is the noblest chiefest and best part of Man and hence also the Concernments of the Soul are more excellent more noble and precious than those of the outward Man the Graces and Comforts the Strength and Beauty of the Soul the Priviledges and Peace and Wellfare of the Soul are more excellent and precious as will more appear in the next particular 2. The second thing to be considered is That the outward Man is subject to decline and perish The Body it self all its Beauty Strength Health c. is subject to decay The Bodies even of the best Saints that shall one day be made like unto Christ's glorious Body are subject to vile Infirmities and Diseases What is become of Sampson's Strength and Saul's Beauty Job and David will tell us of their decays in all these their Friends Estates Relations their Health and all their outward Comforts failed them and how can we possibly hope that we shall keep them All outward things are dying Vanities we are all of us travelling to the Land of forgetfulness They that live longest go the farthest way about and they that dye soonest gâ— the shortest way home Our greatest Care should be to be sure that we are in the right way to Eternal Life But now the inner Man is capable of growing increasing and renewing our inner Man is reneweâ— day by day saith the Text Grace and Peace Spiritual Life inward Strength and Comfort are capable of increasing For 1. This God commandeth That Christian should grow and increase 2. Pet. 1. 5. and 3. 1â— and that they should abound and go forward and be strengthned 2. This is God's Promise to his People that they shall grow and flourish Psal 92. 14. Isa 14. 40. 29 30 31. They that wait on the Lorâ— shall renew their strength 3. This is the Character of a gracious Soul Prov. 4. 18. and 24. 5. Coll. 1. 10. and 2. 1â— Eph. 4. 16. And this the Apostle prays for 1 Thess 3. 12. and 4. 16. 3 Epist Johnâ— This the Soul is capable of being deformed iâ— sin and God's Image defaced on it it is capable of being renewed and of having God's blesse Image repaired on it which is begun in Regeneration and is still carried on and promoted â—â— God 's Ordinances and his Providences his Spiâ— working in them and with them upon his People All afflictions being intended for and sanctifie unto this end to make Souls more and more 〈◊〉 unto Jesus Christ Those weaknings and pershings of the outward Man being by the love at wisdome of God designed to strengthen repair and better the inner Man that the Soul may bâ— made and must be made more holy more humble more heavenly more like God it must group in all things like unto Christ Ephes 4. 12 13. The Soul the inner Man may and must get more strength against Corruption and Temptation it must get more Victory over the World and over it self it must grow in self-denyal in faith in patience in hope in Communion with God it must increase in knowledge and experience it must get nearer God and more weaned from the World and better prepared to put off this earthly Tabernacle of the Body Wherefore is the Christian train'd up in Christ's Schools his School of Ordinances and of Providences but that the Soul the inner Man may be made better That Grace may grow for it is the Growth of Grace that evidenceth the Truth of it And why doth our heavenly Father chastise us in our outward Comforts but to better us in our inward Man But before I proceed let me pause a little and commune with my own heart O my Soul Thou hast been under the blastings and witherings of thy outward Man these many years thou hast been in the School of Correction Thy God hath made many breaches upon thy earthly Comforts stript thee of thy dearest Relations of thy Liberty of thy Estate of opportunities of serving thy God in thy place deprived thee of thy Health and Strength c. yet hath he dealt with thee infinitely better than thy Sins have deserved It is his mercy thou art not consumed not in Hell not in thy Grave but O my Soul what art thou the better for all those stroaks upon thy outward Man What hast thou gained by all thy losses It is true Afflictions are dry Rods and my heart a dead heart there can be no blossoms nor fruit without God's Blessing and the Word and Spirit 's working in and by Affliction but what blessing upon all thy troubles canst thou discern What good to the inner Man have these afflictions done thee Art thou more sensible of the evil of Sin more weary of it and more grieved with it Is thy Heart more tender thy Spirit more humble thy will more subdued to Gods will Art thou more Crucified to the Creature thy inordinate Affections mortified thy unruly Passions subdued Art thou more meek and patient Are thy Affections raised and more inlarged after God and Christ and Heaven Is Jesus Christ more precious to thee And dost thou pant and thirst more after the manifestations of his Love to thy Soul Art thou more watchful over thy thoughts words and actions More careful to please God more fearful to displease him More tender of his Honour More sensible of the Afflictions of Joseph More diligent in holy
man perished 3ly It hinders communion with God which is the very life of gracious Souls their Heaven upon Earth Communion with God in holy Ordinances and holy Duties as Prayer Praises Meditation c. is that which fattens and prospereth the Souls of God's people but outward prosperity hinders communion with God in these for then even while outward comforts are present God and his company and presence are not so much sound wanting nor so much valued desired and panted after as in a barren Wilderness where no waters of worldly comforts are Psalm 64. 1 2 3. Psalm 42. 1 2 3. When David was in great straits stript of his earthly Comforts bedewed all with Tears then his Soul panted after God when he was in the Valley of Baca then he looks unto the Mountains of Myrrh the Garden of Spices Psalm 84. 1 2 3 4. Is it not so with God's People when their Liberty Friends Health Estate c. are gone then God is sought for and communion with him earnestly longed and thirsted for more than ever and then usually most enjoyed By Acts of Communion with God Souls converse commerce and trade with God trade in Heaven and that turns greatly to their advantage We can never take a Voyage to Heaven by Prayer or Meditation but it will turn to account first or last some gain to our Souls will accrue by every act of communion We cannot touch Christ by our Faith or Love but some Vertue will flow from him to our Souls Psalm 145. 18. God will fulfil the desires of them that fear him He will satisfie the hungry with good things Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Every groan of a gracious Soul after Grace every pant and breathing after God in truth is observed and recorded in Heaven Mal. 3. 16. A book of remembrance for them that thought upon his Name O the transcendent goodness of our most gracious God to take notice of such poor things He will not despise the day of small things and what an encouragement is this to us to spend our most serious thoughts on God But Prosperity in the World doth stop and interrupt the Soul's converse and trade with God by estranging the heart from God and heavenly things and so it becomes very prejudicial to the prosperity of the inward man It is very hard for a man to have much of the World in his hands and much of Heaven in his heart also to have much converse with and much enjoyment of Creature-comforts and to have his Conversation in Heaven too And when do our Souls thrive and flourish best but when we are trading above conversing with God Now these great Mischiefs I have named to the inner man are promoted by the prosperity of the outward man thus 1. By making us forgetful of those things that we should necessarily remember in order to the good of our Souls Prosperity spoils the Memory exceedingly as to heavenly and spiritual things and that in these particulars Prosperity breeds 1. Forgetfulness of God the chief good and surely that Soul can never thrive that forgets God who is the Fountain of all its Life Grace and Comfort The remembrance of God brought sweetness and satisfaction to David's Soul Psalm 63. 5 6. but Prosperity makes us forgetful of God Deut. 6. 11 12. and Deut. 8. 14 19 20. Yea fulness of outward things makes men to deny God of which good Agur was afraid Proverb 30. 9. 2. Forgetful of their best part their Souls the Soul is then mostly forgotten when the Body is mostly minded 3. Forgetful of their Duties to God and Man so it was with Pharoah's Butler 4. Of the Affliction of Joseph Amos 6. 6. When we our selves are at liberty how apt are we to forget them that are in Bonds 5. Of Sin that usually is most remembred in time of Affliction as in Joseph's Brethren 6. Of God's Word that is too much forgotten in Prosperity the Precepts of God not obeyed nor the Promises so relished and believed not Threatnings feared 7. Prosperity makes us forgetful of Death Judgment the World to come Eternity The Evil Day is put far off All these Seven Things should be always remembred by us and have our frequent Thoughts and Meditations for the remembrance of them is very advantageous to the welfare of the inner man and will tend to the good of our Souls but the flourishing of the outward man breeds too much forgetfulness of all these things and the forgetfulness of these things drives us from God and God from us keeps us at a distance from him casts him out of our Minds and Thoughts makes us unserviceable to him and hinders our communion with him 2ly The flourishing of the outward man begets Pride Wantonness Security Envy Ambition Contention negligence in God's Service contempt of others and many hurtful Lusts Deut. 32. 15. Experience proves this 3ly It consumes precious Time and Strength wastes the Spirits Thoughts and Affections being placed on earthly things which should all be spent on God principally and but so much on other things as may fit us for his Service and in subordination to him But while men are contriving how to get how to manage how to spend c. This fills up their Time Hearts Thoughts Minds Spirits and all so that there is no place nor room left for God or the concerns of their Souls Therefore the wife God in great Love and Mercy to the Souls of his People breaks their outward Prosperity which otherwise would ruine their Souls removing those things that hinder the welfare of the Soul for when outward Prosperity is gone then the Soul flies to God it draws nigh to God Prosperity kept it at a distance before it forgot God before now it remembers him seeks God early serves him diligently Now it seeks communion with God pants after his Favour and the sense of his Love Now the Soul is awakened and enlightned and now it remembers God and it self and Sion and its former miscarriages it now minds Death and Eternity more seriously than ever and is more diligent in preparation for them and now the Soul that lay languishing and pining before while the outward man flourished begins to be in a thriving way for these things promote the welfare of the Soul And this is the first way how the perishings of the outward man help towards the renewing and strengthning of the inner Secondly The Adversity of the outward man promotes the Prosperity of the inner by being a means of bringing in Light and Conviction into the Soul Prosperity shuts Men's Eyes and deafens their Ears but vexatio dat visum Affliction opens Men's Eyes so that they see what they did not before and they see things otherwise than before dark Dispensations bring Light with them Afflictions put God's People upon the search Lamen 3. 40. Then they retire and look within themselves then they find out the filthiness vanity frowardness pride earthliness of their
Flesh and Fleshly Relations fail us our Outward-man perisheth daily our Bodily strength decays our Friends fail us our own Hearts fail us this should comfort us that our Lord is gone to Heaven to prepare a place for us and he is now preparing us for that place by his Spirit by his Word and Rod and when he hath prepared us he will come again and take us to himself that where he is we may be also And where is that but at his Father's right hand in Glory Col. 3. 3 4. 2. The second Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great and glorious Work of Christ in raising our Bodies from the Dust and uniting them again to our Souls the wonderful Effect of Almighty Power and Love Read 1 Cor. 15. 1 Thess 4. 15. Death shall not dissolve the Union between Christ and us not turn away his Affections from us but in the morning of Eternity he will send his Angels yea come himself and roll away the Stone and unseal our Graves and awake us out of our long sleep and call us forth to receive our own Souls again and oh what a joyful Meeting will that be and what unspeakable comfort will that produce The Devil had the power of Death till he was overcome by Death Heb. 2. 14 15. but he that liveth and was dead and is alive for evermore hath now the Keys of Death and Hell Rev. 1. 18. The Saints Resurrection to Glory is only the fruit of Christ's Death and this fruit they shall certainly partake of The Promise is sure Joh. 5. 28. All that are in the graves shall hear his voice and come forth Joh. 6. 39. And this is the Father's will which hath sent Christ that of all which he hath given him he should lose nothing but should raise it up at the last day So Ver. 40. Joh. 14. 19. As sure as Christ is risen we shall rise also because he lives we shall live also Besides this mortal life we now live we have a life that 's hid with Christ in God And when Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in glory Col. 3. 3 4. Oh then beloved Fellow-christians Let us be stedfast unmovable alwaies abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as we know our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. Let us never look at the Grave but let us look to the Resurrection beyond it Let us contentedly commit these Carcasses to the Dust that dark Prison shall not long contain them Let us lye down in Peace and take our Rest it will not be an everlasting Night nor endless Sleep no no there will come a most joyful and glorious Morning What if we go out of the Stirs and Troubles of this World and enter into those Chambers of Dust and the Doors be shut upon us and we hide our selves as it were for a little moment until the indignation be overpast as sure as we awake in the morning after we have slept out the night so sure shall we then awake And what if in the Grave we become loathsome Dust cast out of the sight of Men as not fit to be endured among the Living What if our Bones be digged up and scattered about the Pits brink and Worms consume our Flesh yet we know our Redeemer liveth and we shall see him with these Eyes And why should we be loth to lay down these Bodies of Flesh how comely or fair soever they are they have been but the Prisons of our Souls Clogs and Hinderances to our Souls in the Work of God and Way to Heaven What care labour grief and sorrow have they cost us How many a weary painful tedious Day and Night Grudge not O my Soul that God should disburthen thee of all this and free thee from thy Fetters and break open thy Prison door remember that when this Earthly House of thy Tabernacle is dissolved thou hast a Building of God an House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens O my Soul labour now to have thy part in the first Resurrection now labour to get into Christ and to live in him by Faith and Love now labour to know O my Soul the Power of his Death and Resurrection in thy dying to Sin and living to Righteousness now act thy Faith on Jesus and thy Love to him and let Jesus live in thee and manifest his Life in thy mortal Flesh and let thy Thoughts and Affections be set on things above let thy Conversation be in Heaven and let thy Heart be where thy Treasure is now live to him that dyed for thee and rose again and then fear not Death but be confident that as sure as Jesus dyed and rose again so sure shall all they that sleep in Jesus rise also and that altho' thy Body be sown in Dishonour it shall be raised in Glory 1 Cor. 15. 43. This is the Second Preparative 3. The Third Preparative to this far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory is that great Assize and general Judgment when the Lord Jesus shall sit upon the Throne of his Glory with all the innumerable Host of glorious Angels about him and all the Sons and Daughters of Men that ever lived upon Earth shall stand before him Rom. 2. 16. 14. 10. to be judged by him and to receive their final Doom Rev. 20. 12 13. Matth. 25. 31. at which time there will be made an exact separation between the Sheep and the Goats between the precious and the vile and then the Saints shall be first acquitted and justified and then with Christ shall judge the World Those that have truly repented and sincerely believed in the Lord Jesus they that have chosen the Lord for their God and Chief Good and Portion placing all their Happiness in him and have unfeignedly accepted of the Lord Jesus for their only Lord and Saviour and have unfeignedly given themselves wholy up to his Government by his Word and Spirit and entred cordiasly into Covenant with him and became entirely his these shall sit on his Right hand these have often judged themselves iâ— Heart-breaking Confessions and therefore shall not be then judged to Condemnation by the Lord for there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh hut after the spirit Rom. 8. 1. Who shall lay any thing to the charge of God's Elect Shall the Law These are not under the Law but under Grace their Surely hath fulfilled and satisfied the Law for them the Law of the Spirit of Life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of Sin and Death it is God that justifieth who shall condemn The Judge himself hath said That he that believeth is him shall not perish but shall have everlasting life he shall not come into condemnation Joh. 3. 16 17 36. but will say to all such You have confessed me before men and
the Lord taketh up his Rod he will never lay it down if he have Love to thy Soul he will smite thee deeper and deeper until he have stript thee of all thy dearest Enjoyments and leave thee stark naked that he may separate thee and thy Sin But when the Lord intends to punish a Soul eternally in Hell he will not do so but whom he loves and intends to save eternally he will smite and smite and never leave smiting until he separate them and their Lusts 7. Lastly give up your whole Hearts entirely to God in Christ for this end God cuts off our choicest earthly Mercies that we may entirely give up our selves to Christ These things stood in the way of Jesus Christ therefore God removes them and so makes room in the Heart for himself and for Christ O now say O my Soul thou hast wasted too much of thine Affections on those poor perishing things this Mercy and that Enjoyment hath taken off thy Heart from Jesus Christ this Relation hath lain between thy Heart and Christ Well now the Lord hath taken these away oh now my Soul let Jesus Christ stand in the Breach that is made and let him fill it up Let him come in the room of that Mercy that is gone If we labour thus to make up the Breach the stroke will be a stroke of Love and by this we may know that Affliction comes in love to our Souls when it makes us love God better and stick faster to God than before and cleave more to Duty than before That which endeth in our Love to God did come from God's Love to us These are the strokes from a Father's Hand and he will heal them in his due time which is the best time So much of the Second Thirdly If we would improve our Afflictions so as that they may be means of preparing us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory we must carefully avoid the usual Extreams that men are liable to in times of Affliction that is neither to slight them nor to sink under them Prov. 3. 11. Despise not thou the chastnings of the Lord neither faint when thou art corrected of him 1. Slight not Afflictions but value them for Afflictions are of God's sending they arise not oâ—â— of the Dust they are God's Messengers yea sufferings for Christ are God's gifts Phil. 1. 29. 2. They are Love-tokens sent us from a loving Father Heb. 12. 6. Whom he loveth he corrected 3. They are wholsom Physick needful for us to cure the mortal Diseases of our Souls sent us from a most wise and faithful Physician who prescribes and orders every Ingredient in our Potioâ— 4. They are Marks of the true way to Heaven Act. 14. 22. 5. Preservatives against the Venoâ— of Sin to prevent the infection of it 6. They are Covenant-Mercies Psal 89. 32. 7. Means tâ— prepare us for glory and to prevent our eternal condemnation 1 Cor. 11. 32. Oh could we bâ—â— thus receive our Afflictions and so take and bâ—â— them and so improve them after this manner what singular good would they do us and what Comfort might we have in them And as we must not despise them so we must not faint under them neither but patiently and quietly submit to the holy will of God and resign up our selves to his Good-will and Pleasure â—â— was shewed before Fourthly We improve Afflictions when we are exercised by them Heb. 12. 10. then we shall reap the Fruit of them Now this Exercise consists as a worthy Divine observes in these things Jer. 9. 24. Ezek. 22. 29. Isa 64. 5. to wit 1st About the Affliction that smarts 2dly About our Hearts that feel 3dly About the Hand that smites 1st About the Affliction itself the Rod that is upon us we must be exercised in hearing Work in bearing Work and in doing work 1. In hearing Work Mic. 6. 9. Hear ye the rod and him that hath appointed it The voice of the Rod is the whole Word of God Three words saith he especially the Rod speaks 1. Thou hast sinned 2. God is displeased 3. Return and Repent We must hear and obey these Voices 2dly In bearing Work Mic. 7. 9. I will bear the indignation of the Lord. Jam. 1. 4. Lam. 3. 27. Bear thy affliction feelingly freely willingly Jerem. 10. 24. waitingly not growing weary 3dly In doing Work three things are to be done 1. Kiss the Rod in your Father's Hand honour it as your Father's Scepter fear it as his Sword love it as his Physick 2. Cast away the Sin that hath provoked it Isa 30. 22. Hos 14. 8. Job 34. 31. 3. Embrace the Covenant of God for which he pleads Thus must we be exercised about our Affliction Secondly We must be exercised about our Hearts thus 1. Heart-Consideration of the Rod Eccles 7. 14. Weigh well what it is we suffer whence it comes by what provoked and to what intended of which before 2. Heart-breaking under it Jer. 4. 3. Hos 10. 12. 3. Heart-bending Our Spirits must stoop to the Will of God Thirdly We must be exercised about the Hand that smites Isa 24. 15. to glorifie God in the Fires 1st By abasing our selves Job 42. 5 6. I abhor my self in dust and ashes said holy Job 2ly By justifying God in all his Dealings Jer. 12. 1. Lam. 3. 39. Righteous art thou O Lord. 3ly By yielding Reverence Fear Obedience Faith 4ly Going to God for the Blessing of the Rod And thus exercising our selves these ways we shall improve our Afflictions for our spiritual Advantage Q. 3. But who are the People interested in this great Priviledge that those short and light Afflictions shall work for them and work them for this far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory Answ Surely not all that are afflicted all shall not receive this Blessing for some grow worse by Affliction but only the Saints and true Believers such only as are the Children of God and such as hold forth the Life of Christ in their mortal Flesh as Vers 10 11. of this 2 Cor. 4. such as walk as Christ walked that follow his Steps such as look aim at and follow after invisible eternal things principally and chiefly as Verse 18 even such and such only as are exercised by Affliction as was shewed before they and they only shall reap the quiet and peaceable Fruits of Righteousness here and receive that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory hereafter They that bear Afflictions as Christians and improve them as Christians and partake of the Blessings of them they shall partake of this Priviledge of being prepared by them for this weight of glory The Application First for Information 1 Inf. I. Then God's Children must take heed that they do neither despise the Chastnings of the Lord nor faint when they are rebuked of him Prov. 3. 11. Seeing they are designed for such good â—â—ds as to fit us for glory we should not slight the â—ast Affliction
out more after God to love God more to fear to please to follow after God more it is in love If thou are more fearful of Sinning against God and more careful to glorifie him it is in love Psal 116. 1 2 3 4 5. 2. If you enjoy the gracions Presence of God with you in your Affliction his teaching strengthning sanctifying quieting satisfying humbling comforting Presence with you then you may conclude it is in love Isa 43. 2. Psal 94. 19. 2 Cor. 4. 16. when your inward man is renewed as your outward perisheth 3. If your Afflictions make you more conformable to Christ in Meekness Humility Heavenlyness Patience Self-denyal c. 4. If you be taught by the Spirit and Word when afflicted by the Rod how to hate Sin more to dye to Self and the Vanities of the World more how to dye to all Relations and Creature-Comforts mâ—re and how to list up Christ more and love him more to prepare for Death more and mind Heaven more then you are afflicted in Love Blessed are they that are thus taught by Affliction Psal 94. 12. 5. If God lay no more on you than he enables you to bear Isa 27. 8. Jer. 30. 11. 46. 28. 1 Cor. 10. 13. 6. If you can be willing to lye in the Furnace until your dross be consumed Job 23. 10. Mic. 7. 9. Can you cry out Lord remove the Cause rather than the Effect take away my Corruption rather than my Affliction A Cure Lord a Cure of the Distempers of my vile Heart good Lord a Cure 7. If you can live by Faith on the Promises in your Affliction Isa 41. 10. 43. 1 2 3. 57. 15. 1 Tim. 1. 15. Psal 50. 15. Joh. 10. 17 27 28. Isa 26. 3. Matth. 11. 28 29. Heb. 12. 10. Hos 2. 14. Heb. 13. 5. Rom. 8. 28. Zech. 13. 9. Psal 34. 8. 84. 11. Let us labour to find these sweet Fruits of God's Fatherly Love to us in our Afflictions and then we shall not grow weary 2 Obj. But my Afflictions have been long upon me Ans 1. Not so long as thy Mercies have been Canst thou number the days of thy Health Have not thy good days been many more than thy evil days 2. Nor so long as thy Sins have been Thou hast been a Transgressor from the Womb a Sinner from thy Conception Psal 51. 5. 3. Nor so long as the Afflictions of others it may be far better than you See the 77th and 88th Psalms Gen. 15. 12 13. Four hundred years Exod. 12. 40 41. Job 21. 25. Some have not had a day of health or pleasure many years no not in their Lives Oh how should this quiet us under our Troubles that we may not complain that they are long 4. The longer thy Afflictions have been on thee the sweeter will Heaven at last be to thee Psal 126. 1 2 5 6. compared The longer the Storm the sweeter the Calm the longer in the Tempest the more welcome the Harbour 5. Thy Afflictions are not long but short if compared with that Eternity of Glory reserved in Heaven for you as in the Text Everlasting Habitations Eternal Life a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away Have an Eye fixed on the Crown while thou bearest the Cross One moments being in the Bosom of Christ will make thee forget all thy Misery oh long for that good hour 6. The longer you are in Afflictions the more spiritual Experiences you have of the Love and Care of Christ towards you 2 Cor. 1. 5. 2 Cor. 12. 5. O the Love-tokens that Christ sends his Spouse in the Furnace of Affliction then he speaks most kindly to her The blessed Martyn found it so 7. Long Afflictions are but Preparatives sometimes to long-liv'd Mercies as in Joseph and David Isa 54. 11 12 13 14. If by my long Affliction God make more room in my Heart for himself Son and Spirit his Word if he crucifie my Affections more to the World and make me more conformable to Christ I shall for ever bless his Name for them 8. The more Afflictions here the more Glory hereafter 2 Cor. 4. 16. Matth. 5. 10. For 1st the more Affliction the more Grace is exercised and the more Grace here the more Glory hereafter 2dly The more Afflictions the more religious Duties will be performed Psal 109. 4. Isa 26. 16. Psal 42. 1 2 3. Now God will reward every into according to his works though not for them 1 Cor. 15. last 2 Cor. 9. 6. 9. Impatience will but lengthen our Affliction God's time is the best for deliverance Affliction shall last no longer than need Act. 27. 13 15. Psal 23. 1 2. 94. 9. Rom. 8. 28. Moreover that we may bear up as Christians and not grow weary and so may find that all our Afflictions are blessed to us to prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory let us dwell on a few more Considerations 1. That these our Troubles are all the Hell we shall have 2. Think much on the real spiritual Advantages we shall have by Affliction Have we not had some bless God for them 3. Your choicest and chiefest Treasure is safe your God your Christ your Portion your Crown your Inheritance is safe your Graces your Souls are safe 4. Consider it is our unmortified Lust that is the sting of all our Afflictions its Sin adds gall to our wormwood Let us set our selves in earnest to the mortifying of our Sins apply the Blood of Christ beg his Spirit Rom. 8. 13. 5. That all our Afflictions come to us through the Covenant of Grace Psal 89. 30 c. 6. That they do but reach our worser our baser part our Bodies 2 Cor. 4. 6. our Souls may grow better 7. Labour to live by Faith and keep it as much in exercise as possible for Faith in exercise 1st shews the extreme vanity of all earthly things for the Soul by Faith seeth them as God seeth them to be all vanity and vexation and so it overcometh the World 1 Joh. 5. 4. 2dly Faith presents to the Soul greater sweeter better things in God and Christ than can possibly be found in the Creature Faith looks and feeds on Invisibles 3dly By enabling the Soul to center it self on God and to be satisfied with the naked enjoyment of him God is All to the Soul that trusteth in him Joh. 14. 8. Psal 17. 15. Phil. 3. 8 9. 8. Labor every day to be more humble low and little in your own Eyes Who am I I am not worthy of the least of God's Mercies I have forfeited all I have improved none it is Pride only that brings Discontent 9. Consider the worst that God doth to his People here is but to do them good in the latter end Hos 2. 14. Heb. 12. 10. 10. What God wills is best God is Wisdom it self and he is Goodness it self when he sends Sickness Sickness is best 11. That God will be with us
I could converse more with God and have my Conversation more above Thus holy Souls pant and breath after God and Heavenly things 4. In esteeming prizing valuing those invisible eternal things above all earthly temporal things Psal 30. In God's favour is life Psal 63. 3. His loving-kindness is better than life Psal 4. 6. Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance upon us This will put gladness into our hearts more than the encrease of corn and wine 5. In applying and appropriating these invisible eternal things to our own Souls My Lord and my God my Jesus The kingdom prepared for me the crown belongs to me 6. In frequent conversing with them by meditation contemplation consideration spreading and spending our most serious Thoughts and our most fixed and deepest Cogitations on them and never leave thinking and thinking pondering musing ruminating and dwelling on them until our Hearts be warmed and our Affections kindled our Desires enlarged and our Delights raised Psal 37. 5. Delight thy self in the Lord. Psal 104. 34. My meditation of him shall be sweet Alas we have so few and such short and inconstant and unfixed Thoughts of God and Christ of Heaven and Glory that our Hearts are not affected nor raised and enflamed 7. And lastly In a conversation suitable to those invisible eternal things Phil. 3. 20. the Apostles and Primitive Christians had their Conversations in Heaven This alone is true real minding of and conversing with those Heavenly things when we live the life of God live like God like Jesus walk in the Spirit to be holy in all manner of conversation 2 Pet. 3. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 18 19. To be like Christ in Meekness and Humility Matth. 11. 28. and in Purity 1 John 3. 3. in contempt of the World and Vanities of it in Heavenly-mindedness And thus we ought to look unto and mind invisible and eternal things and this will bring true Joy and perfect Peace Isa 26. 3. Psal 112. 6 7. Moreover I conceive that the Apostle and Primitive Christians did look also unto the invisible eternal Evil things and spent some Thoughts upon them as The Terrour of the Lord Everlasting Destruction Eternal Death the Wrath to come c. These things they minded two ways 1. By way of Praise and Thanksgiving admiring the Love and Grace of God in Christ by which they were delivered from those invisible eternal Miseries which their Sins had deserved as we find often in their Praises 2. In their Diligence to escape those eternal Evils labouring for the assurance of their full deliverance from them constantly exhorting all men to give all Diligence that they might not fall short of their Everlasting Rest But principally I think they looked unto those invisible eternal Good things to secure their Title to them and Interest in them and so minding them as still to press forward towards the Mark of the Price of the high Calling and with the fore-thoughts and fore-sights of them did support their Spirits under their Troubles and sweeten their passage through this present evil World So much for the Doctrinal part The Application First For Information 1 Inference Hence appears the extream Folly and Madness of People by Nature who look at mind and aim only at visible temporal things but totally neglect Invisible eternal things God Christ Heaven is not in all scarce in any of their Thoughts Lovers of themselves of their own things of Profits and Pleasures more than of God Phil. 1. 21. 2 Tim. 3. 4. that make themselves the Mark they aim at but the Glory and Honour of God the pleasing and enjoying him are strange things to them things they never minded never thought on God complains of this against the Jews Hos 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my Law but they counted them as strange things So may Jesus Christ justly complain of Men under the Gospel I have revealed the great and glorious Mysteries of the Kingdom of Heaven the Mysteries of Salvation the unsearchable Riches of the Grate and Love of God in the Gospel Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel the true and only way to Heaven and Eternal Life to Everlasting Happiness is clearly made known in the Gospel the only Means to get an Interest in the great God in Jesus Christ in the New Covenant how to get Pardon of Sin Peace with God how to be justified saved and glorified for ever All these things are fully and clearly revealed in the Gospel The invisible eternal things of the World to come which are the greatest Realities and Excellencies the choicest greatest and best things But woe and alas how little are those things minded It is Corn Wine and Oyl Who will shew us any good any visible temporal good Now is not this extream Folly and Madness for reasonable Creatures made for God made capable of enjoying God and all those invisible eternal good things for them thus to labour and pant after the Dust of the Earth to spend their Thoughts Minds and Strengths upon that which cannot satisfie which will not endure but thus to waste precious Time and Breath and Spirits for perishing fading things and neglect invisible eternal things the incorruptible Crown that fadeth not away the undefiled Inheritance the everlasting Kingdom eternal Life and Salvation not to look on those nor mind them nor labour for them Yet this is the common neglect of the World It is amazing Madness astonishing Folly Thus God expresseth Jer. 2. 11 12 13. Be astonished O ye heavens at this be ye horribly afraid be ye very desolate saith the Lord For my people have committed two evils they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed out Cisterns broken Cisterns that can hold no water Prov. 1. 20 21 22. Yet such is the Madness of all by Nature and it is greatly to be lamented This shews also the blindness and darkness of Men by Nature that they cannot see the excellency of those invisible eternal things nor their own absolute necessity of them and concernment in them The God of this World hath blinded the minds of them which believe not lest the Light of the glorious Gospel of Christ who is the Image of God should shine into them This glorious light shines upon them and shines into many of their Heads this Light they cannot resist but it shines not into their Hearts to transform and change them as it doth into the Hearts of God's Elect and it 's greatly to be lamented 2 Cor. 4. 4. 2. Inf. Secondly Hence appears the beguiling bewitching nature of the World that it should so strangely win and gain the Hearts and Affections of Men and Women and so easily prevail with them while God and Christ are offered to them and are not embraced Heaven gates are opened to them and they invited entreated perswaded by Promises by Threatnings commanded to come and enter but they will not they make light of it no
work to converse with God and Heaven in the Creatures As for instance When we sit down at Table remember there is a time coming when we shall sit down with Christ and eat and drink at his Table in his Kingdom that is we shall enjoy free and intimate Communion with him in Heaven And let us labour to raise our Hearts from temporal to spiritual things and be much in praising adoring and admiring God in the Creatures 6. Be convinced also that all our happiness and comfort both here and hereafter for ever lyeth not in any or all of the sensible temporal things but all lyeth in those invisible eternal things It lyeth not in having Honours Riches Pleasures c. for a man may be happy without them as Job and Lazarus were and miserable with them as Haman Ahab Dives and others were Psal 144. 15. Yea happy are the people whose God is the Lord. Happy indeed if God Christ and Heaven be ours happy for ever or else miserable for ever 7. And Lastly Let us labour to be renewed in the Spirit of our Minds or else we shall never seriously and heartily mind invisible eternal things as was shewed before We must get those invisible eternal Principles of Renewing Grace planted in our Hearts the Divine Nature the Life of God the Spirit of our heavenly Father to renew our Spirits or else we shall never mind those things in good earnest for which purpose let us go to God call cry to him for Renewing Grace Psal 51. 10. Let us look up to and lay hold on God's Covenant Ezek. 11. 19. go to the Promise Luke 11. 13. If you being evil know how to give good things to your children how much more will your heavenly Father give his spirit to those that ask him A precious Promise indeed let us rest upon this Promise and most earnestly beg God to perform it to us Old Bottles will not hold new Wine nor old Hearts retain Heavenly things New Hearts we must have heavenly holy Hearts or we shall never mind heavenly things as we ought III. Motives to this Duty 1. Consider that thus to look unto and mind invisible eternal things is the express Character of every true Christian No man can approve himself to be a true Christian and be a total Stranger to this Work for to be a true Christian is to be like Christ Now Jesus Christ minded those invisible eternal things as is most evident in the whole course of his Life his Heart was in Heaven while his Body was on Earth John 3. 13. Shall we profess our selves Christians and not be like Christ nor have the Character of Christians 2. Consider this will be a sure sign and clear evidence to us of our interest in and title to all those invisible eternal good things in the other World Matth. 6. 20 21. Where the Heart is there the Treasure is If our Hearts and Minds Thoughts and Affections are on God on Christ and Heaven it is a sure sign that these are ours An heavenly Mind is as good a sign that we belong to Heaven as any is as was also shewed before 3. This will begin our Heaven upon Earth these heavenly things minded affected delighted in will yield such joy and comfort as to begin our very Heaven here when Faith and Hope Joy and Praise Love Desire and Delight are exercised on God and on Christ and Glory we shall be filled with Joy and Peace as Rom. 15. 13. 1 Pet. 1. 8. Psal 31. 7. Oh then let us labour to begin our Heaven here by our Heavenly-mindedness 4. This will yield Contentment and Comfort Satisfaction and Peace to our Souls in every condition It will sweeten every bitter Cup To think on God as our Father and on Christ as our Redeemer Head and Husband and on all the sweet Promises of which we are Heirs what comfort will this bring to our Souls Lam. 3. 33. He doth not afflict willingly nor grieve the children of men Isa 63. 9. In all their afflictions he was afflicted and the Angel of his presence saved them in his love and in his pitty he redeemed them and he bare them and carried them all the days of old Rom. 8. 28. All things shall work together for good to them that love God With many other exceeding great and precious Promises which our good God hath made that our Faith might feed upon them and find satisfaction or else our Souls would faint 5. This will fit us for every Duty to God and man The more we think on God and heavenly things the more conscientious shall we be in our Duties to Man because it is for the Lord's sake from whom we look for the Reward as the Apostle speaks to Servants Eph. 6. 5 6 7. And for Duties to God it will make us serve God cheerfully delightfully and constantly having the Glory of God the enjoyment of him and the Recompence of Reward in our Eye Oh how will it quicken raise animate and encourage us For why are all those great and glorious invisible eternal things proposed and promised to us but that we should mind them aim at them and live in the lively hopes and comfortable expectations of enjoying them Heb. 11. 6 24. 1. 1 2 3. 1 Cor. 15. last Therefore be stedfast unmovable always abounding in the work of the Lord forasmuch as ye know your labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. 6. This will serve to encrease and strengthen Grace for the more we mind those invisible eternal things the stronger will be our Love our Faith our Hope and our Patience yea the more heavenly and spiritual we shall grow and the more useful savory and profitable in all our Discourses By our heavenly-mindedness we shall smell of Heaven in all our Converses and Communications to the advantage of others 7. This is one principal way of enjoying Communion with God here in this World for by this we open our hearts to God raise up our Desires after him spend our Thoughts and Affections upon him and in these heavenly Meditations God communicates his Light and Love his Grace and Peace to our Souls By these Meditations on invisible eternal things our Souls converse with God talk with God walk with God have our conversations with God and this is most sweet and contentful to gracious Souls this is to live in God and to live the Life of God and it is the sum of all our happiness here and hereafter The enjoyment of God's good presence here in acts of Communion with him will produce greatness of Joy and the enjoyment of God's glorious presence hereafter in the uninterrupted Acts of Communion with him in Heaven will produce fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore Psal 16. last 8. By this looking to and affectionately minding invisible eternal things we shall be more and more changed into the image and likeness of them 2 Cor. 3. 18. We all with open face beholding as in
a glass the glory of the Lord are changed into the same image from glory to glory even as by the spirit of the Lord. These believing loving sights of heavenly things will change us into the image of them 9. By this we shall be made more and more willing and desirous to leave this World and to go to a better Compare this Text with the beginning of the next Chapter 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3. the Apostle having said We look not on visible temporal things but on those things which are not seen which are eternal presently adds for we know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens for in this House we groan earnestly to be clothed upon with our House which is from Heaven And this made Paul desire to be dissolved that he might be with Christ which was far better or best of all Phil. 3. Certainly such as really apprehend and truly believe those invisible eternal things and their title to them and portion in them will be really willing to dye that they may enjoy them knowing that they lye on the other side of Death and cannot be enjoyed but by dying and after Death Death being the In-let to all that purchased promised Glory Now the more we do seriously think and meditate on those glorious things the more willing we shall be to leave all those fading vain and vexing Comforts to enjoy those eternal Delights And it is a great Mercy and sweet Priviledge to be willing to dye and I know nothing will more effect this willingness in us Now let all those Motives effectually perswade us to draw off our hearts from those visible temporal things and to set our Affections upon things above How long shall vain Thoughts lodge within us how long shall this present evil World gnaw and feed upon our Spirits consuming and wasting them and eating out our time and strength how long shall the God of this World blind our Minds and the Dust of it fill our Eyes how long shall we misplace our Affections and mistake our Rest Our Rest is not here our Heaven and Happiness is not here Earth is going from us and we from it and shall we hug what we cannot hold Shall we kiss and embrace that which is withering in our hands and dying in our arms Are there not infinitely-better things to be minded Duke de Alva wickedly said when one told him of an Eclipse that was then present I have so much to do on Earth I have no leisure to mind Heaven O that it may not be so said of any of us Let us call to mind what those invisible eternal things are aforementioned as God Christ the Holy Ghost the Promises the Purchased Inheritance the Glory of Heaven c. withal let us mind Christ's second Coming to Judgment the manner and end of it 2 Thess 1. 6 7 8 9 10. which the Apostle often spoke and wrote of and minded Tit. 2. 13 14. the glorious Appearing of the great God and our Saviour the Resurrection of the Body and the manner of it 1 Cor. 15. the full Redemption and glorious Manifestation of the Sons of God the happy uniting of the Souls and Bodies of the Saints after so long a Separation and the uniting and solemn Marriage of both to Christ the King of Glory the passing of the Saints into Heaven with Christ in Triumph their living for ever with God seeing his Face and knowing him as we are known Oh that we could mind these things and set our Faith and Love our Hopes Dâ—stres and Delights on work upon these things what sweet Contentment what Soul-refreshing Joy and Comfort would such thoughts yield to our Souls even in the midst of all our Troubles No wonder we are such Strangers to the Joy of the Lord because we are such Strangers to God himself and to the great things of his Kingdom I shall conclude this Use with that of the Apostle 2 Pet. 3. 14. Wherefore beloved seeing that ye look for such things be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace without spot and blameless Be diligent to prepare for the enjoyment of all those great and glorious things and to secure our title to them which Preparation consists in two things mainly as exprest in that Scripture 1. In a state of Reconciliation with God 2. In a spotless blameless Conversation 1. In a state of Reconciliation with God Be diligent that ye may be found of him in peace There will be a most strict and accurate search made at the last day all those that look for those invisible eternal good things at last must be exceeding careful about this to make this the Mark Design and Aim all their Life and at Death that they may be found in a reconciled state in a state of Peace with God This is the critical point the main hinge whereupon hangs all the safety and happiness of a Man or Woman for Eternity Not whether rich or poor high or low honourable or contemptible in this World the Differences and Distinctions will signifie nothing then nor whether Presbyterian or Independent c. but whether reconciled to God or no. This strict search will be made by the Lord who cannot be blinded nor deceived And the consideration of the issue of this search should quicken us to diligence in our Preparation which shall be 1st on them that shall then be found not reconciled the danger will be to their whole man Soul and Body Depart ye cursed c. most dreadful and most intolerable 2dly On them that are found reconciled their Comfort will be unspeakable the Lord Jesus will own them all as the Purchase of his Blood and will embrace them all Come ye blessed of my Father c. and will commend them Well done c. and will crown them with a Diadem of Eternal Glory Oh then let us presently engage all the Powers of our Souls in striving to be found of God in Peace And if we will be found of God in Peace at that day we must 1. Fall out with all Sin and make an open breach with all Ungodliness and all Worldly lusts Tit. 2. 11 12. No Peace with God so long as we have Peace with any Sin We must search for our Sins of Heart and Life heartily repent of them declare open War against them all not regarding any Iniquity in our Hearts but hating and mortifying all Go to God to give you sound Repentance Acts 5. 31. 3. 19. 2. Fall in and close unfeignedly with Jesus Christ the only Peace-maker accepting him on his Terms taking him for Only Lord and Saviour resigning up our whole selves unto him in all things giving him the Preheminence in us and over us and heartily submitting to his government by his Word and Spirit Thus by true Repentance and Faith we are to make our Peace with God And this
we minded and loved them â—o much and lived so much upon them and that â—e lived so little upon God in them and enjoyed â— little of God and his Love in them and this â—ill be the Sting and Burthen of our Souls then â—ut now to live on God and his Love in our â—njoyments will prevent this Trouble of Troubles â—nd support us under all our Troubles because our God and his Love which we lived upon before remain still God is everlasting and his Love unchangable The Foundation remains the â—pring of all our Mercies remains But woe and â—as what Strangers are we to this living upon God and his Love in Christ David lived enâ—rely upon God Psal 73. 24 25 26. Whom have â—in Heaven but thee and there is none upon earth that desire besides thee My flesh and my heart faileth but God is the strength of my heart and my portion for ever 2dly By this we may begin our Heaven upon Earth out of Heaven even in the Hell of the Troubles and Miseries of this World for this is the â—ery Happiness of Heaven to be continually with God and to live upon God that God may be all in all 1 Cor. 15. 28. This is Heavens Happiness to live upon that infinite Fountain of goodness and to live with God And so far as we can thus live upon God by Faith Love Meditation Holy Confidence and Dependance Holy Resignation of our selves and all our concerns to him so far we are entred into Heaven and Heaven is entred into us already The kingdom of Heaven is within you said our Lord. And what support will this be to us in all our Afflictions 3dly This is the way to lose nothing of all our Earthly Comforts for what we lose in the Creature we shall find in the Creator If we enjoyed God in the Creature in Relations Friends Estate Liberty Health c. we may enjoy him as well when these Creature-comforts are gone and it may be better than before for the Fountain it self is purer than the Streams All the little good the small comfort the slender and short satisfaction the little mixed sweetness that we have in or from any Creature comes not from the Creature it self distinct from God for then all that enjoy the Creature would have that Comfort and Content the bad as well as the good which we know is not so for many have had large Portions of the best of the Creatures that have had no comfort or contentment in them Solomon himself is a Witness But that very little Comfort or Content that any one hath in the Creature it is distilled and derived to him through the Creature from God and from him alone It God put sweetness into any Creature-comfort and bless it to us it shall be sweet to us If He convey any goodness or content to us through any Creature-chanel we shall have it not else But if he put bitterness into any Creature-comfort and with-hold his Blessing it will yield us no content at all This is a most experienc'd Truth That it is God's Love his Blessing in a Mercy that is The Mercy and it is that only which brings any Comfort or Content to us that have it What Content had Ahab in his Kingdom or Haman in his Honour Surely none at all Prov. 10. 22. The blessing of the Lord it maketh rich and he adds no sorrow with it The Blessing of the Lord maketh the Poor in this World rich and with this Blessing comes no Sorrow as there doth with all other Blessings This is the Blessing that goes with The Blessing the inward Blessing that goes with the outward Blessing whether little or much the love of God is in it to his People and that maketh rich that contents the Soul and yields sweetness to it and this Contentment is the Blessing without which Godliness it self is not Gain Now when the outward Blessing is gone the Creature-blessing gone the inward Blessing may be continued the Love of God and inward Contentment may be continued when the Cabinet is worn out the Jewel may be as good as ever And if this continue with us namely the Blessing which is the Love of God if that remain towards us when the outward Blessing is taken away we have no cause of Disquietment But this remains always to the true Christian for it is God's Covenant which cannot be broken Psal 89. 34 35. My loving-kindness I will not utterly take from him nor suffer my faithfulness to fail My covenant will I not break c. Oh that we could look more at the invisible eternal Blessing the sure Mercies of David in all our outward Blessings which remains when all the visible temporal things are gone Yea further this invisible everlasting Blessing doth not only remain with us when all other Blessings are gone but which is wonderful then even then our everlasting Father doth usually communicate and manifest more of his Love which is the Blessing indeed to the Souls of his People than when they had the enjoyment of their outward Blessings When had Ezekiel and John such glorious Visions of God but in Captivity and Exile When God brings his People into the Wilderness then he speaks comfortably unto them then he speaks to their Hearts Hos 2. 14. as in the Wilderness in the absence of Creature-comforts the Spouse leans on her Beloved Cant. 8. 5. fixeth her Loves and Desires most intimately and heartily upon him so even then her Beloved manifests most of his tender love to her and when the World frowns he smiles upon her So that this looking up to God in all our Enjoyments living upon Him and enjoying all in him and for him will wonderfully support us under all our Trouble because by this means we shall lose nothing but what we lose in the Stream we shall find in the Fountain what we want in the Creature we shall find in God yea and in all our losses for Christ and his Truths we are assured to have an hundred fold Matth. 19. 29. So much for the first Counsel Look to God in all our Enjoyments II. The second Counsel Resign up your wills entirely to the will of God in all your Afflictions It is an Argument of an excellent Spirit when all Self-respects are drowned in the Will of God and there is nothing lost therein for our best safety is in the Will of God our Happiness is more in God than in our selves and His Will is infinitely better than ours We may be sure of this that a man shall never have setled Peace and Comfort until he have cordially committed and resigned up all his Will and Way all his Concerns and Interests and Ends to the holy Will of God Psal 37. 5 7. Commit thy way unto the Lord trust also in him and he shall bring it to pass Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for him Prov. 16. 3. Commit thy works unto the Lord and thy thoughts shall be established
Duties More frequent in Self examination in heavenly Meditation in heavenly discourse Art thou O my Soul ashamed of and grieved for thy former Miscarriages thy mis-spending time Breath Liberty Strength c. More diligent in preparing for thy Dissolution and more contented with thy present Condition Dost thou endeavour now to go to the Fountain for all Supplies And dost thou labour with all thy might in the strength of God to make up all thy losses and breaches in God and in his Covenant through Christ Dost thou prize the promises and labourest to live upon them by Faith Is God and Christ more in thy thoughts and affections than heretofore And dost thou labour to get out the blessing of thy Afflictions and art most earnest with God for the blessing Dost thou labour to cast all thy care upon God and to trust him with all If any of these things appears let God have all the Glory and blessed be God for any weak desires after these sweet Fruits Deny not what God hath done for thee but be ashamed and grieved that thou art no better Cry to God mightily wrestle with him for his blessing upon thy afflictions 3. The third Particular is That the Decaying and Perishing of the outward Man to God's people tends to the strengthning the prospering and renewing of the inner Man The Adversity of the Body proves the Prosperity of the Soul to all gracious Persons and to them only The Soul and Body of a Saint is like the House of David and Saul as the one grows weaker and weaker the other grows stronger and stronger and where it is so there is good ground of Comfort under all outward troubles and where it is not so there is little ground of Comfort for the present although there may be a growing in the Soul when it is not discerned as there is of the Babe in the Womb and of the Corn in the Earth under the Clods both grow even when they are not discerned but in due time will appear But more of this afterward Quest But how comes this to pass What Efficacy and Influence have the perishings of the outward Man to help forward the increasings of the inward Man How the Sicknesses Pains Troubles Losses Crosses upon the outward Man should greatly contribute to the Strengthning and Renewing of the inward Man is the Question which great Truth resolved clearly apprehended firmly believed and experienced will tend very much to a poor Christians Consolation Ans 1. By the Decays and Witherings of the outward Man those Hinderances are removed which did very much obstruct the Growth Strength and Comfort of the inward Man When Davidâ— outward Man flourished When he had his Honour Health Ease Liberty and the confluence of earthly Comforts about him he was weak in his Soul that lay languishing in sinful Security he was so weak in his Soul that he could not resist the least Temptation but was shamefully conquered by the glance of his Eye Ordinarily our Souls are in the worst case when our Bodies are in the besâ— case It is pitty we say that fair weather should do hurt yet so it is The welfare of the outward Man tends to the ill-fare of the inward Man without a more than ordinary measure of Grace For first Ordinarily the Prosperity of the outward Man interposeth betwixt God and the Soul and keeps God at a distance from the Soul and the Soul at a distance from God Jesus Christ loves not to lye in their arms who embrace other Lovers God will be uppermost or not at all neare the heart or not at all there He deserves Best and will have the Best or will accept of nothing While the outward Man is fixt on the Creature the inner is not far off from it and then it is so in divided from God 2 Cor. 5. 6. While thâ— Soul is at home in the Body it is absent from power Lord and the reason is Because of that power the Body hath upon the Soul to draw it down tâ— it self and even sink it into it self and to participate with it It is hard for a poor Bird to flye uâ— that hath weights tyed to his feet and harder â—â— a poor Soul to Mount up or indeed to move wiâ—â— any speed heaven-ward that hath such a weighâ— of Clay hanging on it And this made godly Agâ— afraid of fulness Prov. 30. 8 9. Usually Prosperity begets Pride and Pride sets us at a distance from God God resisteth the proud he sees the proud afar off Christians are never so far from God as when they are nearest to their outward Comforts and Enjoyments God is then but in few of their thoughts Now it is the Presence or Absence of God that makes Summer and Winter in the Soul as it is the presence and absence of the Sun that makes Summer and Winter on the Earth Now if Prosperity does withdraw our hearts from God as too often it doth it causeth God to withdraw from us though we may not find him wanting while earthly Comforts continue with us it must needs do us a great deal of hurt for if God withdraw or withold the influences of his Grace from us our Souls must needs be in a sickly and languishing condition How weak and feeble must we be when God doth not continue his Grace to us Prosperity lies betwixt God and our Souls which we all know by woful Experience and our God our gracious Father knows it and therefore in tender love to our Souls many times breaks our outward Prosperity that our Souls may not be drown'd in it and perish by it 2. Secondly The welfare of the outward Man hinders the inner Man from that serious diligent hearty intent and Spiritual Service that it should perform to God in which the Soul might have had many sweet meetings with God and many Communications of Love and Grace from him which through the defects of his duties are suspended from him Isai 64. 5. and this must needs tend to the weakning of the Soul What Strength Life Comfort have God's People found in holy Duties How have their Souls been refresht their Hearts raised and quickned and enlarged after God many times but then they have been serious earnest fervent in Spirit in these Duties Now in Prosperity what careless heartless service do we perform How soon weary secretly glad when the work is over How ready upon the least occasion to neglect a Duty or an Ordinance Not so fearful to dispense with some Service that God calls for nor so fearful to draw nigh a Temptation O how cold dead and heartless are we in Duty All this is too true O my Soul see it lament and bewail and bless the Lord for time to do it and bless him more for an heart to do it What bad service did Manasses do to God Or rather what great service did he do the Devil when he was in his prosperity never minding his God or his Soul till his outward
own hearts more than ever they saw before then they find and feel their Spiritual Wants Diseases Dangers the treachery falseness deceitfulness of their own Hearts their often grieving quenching resisting of God's Spirit in time of Prosperity their inordinate Self-love Flesh-pleasing and Gratifyings then they see their former spiritual sloth and negligence their backwardness to and weariness in God's Service their formality deadness customariness in holy Duties their impatience of reproof their hastiness of Spirit their want of tenderness towards and of sympathy with those that were afflicted not weeping with those that wept their censuring and judging others their want of Charity then they see how badly they improved their healthful and youthful time their Talents and their Enjoyments with many other Evils are discovered As also in times of Affliction there is a discovery of the vanity and emptiness of the Creature when all Comforts of Life fail as Health Wealth Friends Liberty Estate c. then the Soul is convinced of the vanity and uncertainty of all these The Rod discovers both Heart and Life and what the Creature is And also then the Souls of God's People come to see the surpassing Excellency of God and Christ and of the Promises and of the great Importance of the things of the World to come O now the Soul can prize an Interest in God and in his Christ and his Covenant and is hereupon stirred up to mind God more and Heaven more and to bestir it self in the use of all Means and to get Assurance of an Interest in God Now all this tends very much to the Welfare of the inner man and if we well and wisely consider this Benefit which our merciful Father grants us by blasting and withering our outward Comforts thus to enlighten and convince us of all those things we shall have cause to Adore and Admire his Goodness towards us in taking such course with us and to cry out with Job 7. 17 18. What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment Thirdly The Adversity of the outward man promotes the Prosperity of the inner man by taking away the Idols of the Soul which divided the Soul from God The best of us are apt to make Idols of every Creature-enjoyment very apt to let out our Hearts in inordinate Affection to Husbands Wives Children c. and suffer them to have more of our Hearts Loves and Delights than God and Christ and Heaven over-prizing and over-loving them taking too much content in them and expecting too much from them and so make Idols of them and then God withdraws his gracious Influences from us those quickning strengthning and comfortable Influences of his Spirit from us and hides his face and then our poor Souls languish and we grow weak and feeble so it was with David Psalm 30. 6 7. but this withdrawing of God from us we do not many time perceive and feel while our earthly Comfort continue with us though our Graces be weak Faith and Love weak our Passions and Corruptions strong and are too often too hard for us and we are carried captive by them and although wâ— decay in spiritual strength and grow dead in holy Duties careless and watchless in our Conversations and want that vigour spirit and life which sometime we had which are the effects of the absence of God's Spirit that we grow cold in on Affections to heavenly things I say these saâ— effects of God's withdrawment from us are noâ— perceived and felt by us so long as our bodiâ—â— Comforts continue with us but then it pleased our gracious God to send some awakening Providences upon us he sends Adversity and remove these our Idols and then through God's assisting Grace we come to see our sin and the fruits of it then we see our folly in letting out of our Hearts upon the vain Creature and that then God did withdraw and that our Souls did wither and languish upon which by the special Grace of God we lament our folly beg forgiveness through the blood of Christ and the Lord being gracious and merciful returns to the Soul again and then the Soul begins to recover it self and to grow better Fourthly Adversity is a means of bringing afresh to our Remembrance those particular special Sins which in Prosperity were forgot and which while they lye on us without Repentance they waste and weaken hurt and corrupt our Souls Adversity as was said before puts God's People upon the search of their Hearts and Lives now they say unto themselves what have we done now their Spirits do or should make diligent search now they do or should commune with their own Hearts and examine their ways and seek for the plague of their Hearts their Dalilah's their Jonah's their darling their beloved Sins which they did not or would not see in their Prosperity nor were willing to be reproved for but did over-look them or forgot them or look'd on them as little ones and common Infirmities humane Frailties and could study shifts to cover and excuse them Such as Pride and Passion inordinate Affection Unthankfulness Hypocrisie Covetousness Selfishness vain Thoughts idle Words Omissions Unfaithfulness breaking Vows and Promises Earthly mindedness Security hardness of Heart unprofitableness under the means of Grace and many other Heart-evils that scarce appear in time of Prosperity that in time of trouble upon a through search we may find out as our Unbelief want of love to God and Christ want of love to God's Word insensibleness of Sin and want of hatred to it want of fervent Charity to others with many others which upon a consciencious search and by the help of God's Spirit we shall find out in our selves which lay hid in us corroding and putrifying our poor Souls which were never so heartily confess'd and lamented as they should But when the Spirit and the Word comes with Affliction there is a discovery made of those lurking Lusts the filthy corners of our false Hearts opened and every gracious Soul is willing to be convinced of every sin and begs God heartily to search him and to rip him up and to shew him all the Evils of his Heart and Life with all their aggravating Circumstances being committed against much Love and Light against Conscience Conviction Resolution after many Confessions of them before the Lord and many times those Sins are brought to remembrance which were quite forgotten as sins of Youth fleshly Lusts excess in Meat Drink Apparel Disobedience to Parents mispending Time foolish jesting rash Anger sinful Silence Cowardize in God's Cause neglect of Reproof neglect of relational Duties Sabbath-sins with multitudes of others which will appear upon a diligent search many omissions of Spiritual Duties as Heavenly Meditations Self-examination self-denial Watchfulness all which the gracious Soul being convinced of repents of mourns for before the Lord and by Faith in the
blood of Jesus obtains Pardon of them and by the Spirit of Jesus obtains power against them and so the Soul being pardoned and healed recovers and is renewed day by day whereas before it lay pining and laâ—â—â—ithing this blessed fruit is produced by the blessing of our most gracious God upon the perishings and wastings of our outward man Fifthly By disingaging and weaning the Hearts of God's People from all the things of this World mortifying and crucifying their Affections to things below drawing off the Heart from Creature-comforts weaning the Soul from those dry Breasts In Prosperity the best of us think little on Mortification and on crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts of it although the very Life and power of true Christianity lies in these as Rom. 8. 13. Galat. 5. 24. but then we are for pleasing and gratifying the flesh Oh how tender are we of our flesh and how loth to be cross'd how deeply are our Affections engaged to the Vanities of the World how do our Hearts cleave and cling to the Creature even as our Skin to our Body how seldom do we think seriously of parting with our Relations our Health c. or of putting off our earthly Tabernacles and of our â—ying down our Heads in the dark Grave How are we afraid of Dangers to our outward man and troubled at evil tydings how thoughtfully careful to preserve our Creature-comforts with us not taking so much care to enâ—oy God in them and to enjoy them for God as to enjoy them our selves and for our selves How â—ear do they lie to our Hearts Now our loving Father seeing all this he takes it very ill at our â—ands that the Creature should be so near and â—ear to us and have so much room in our Hearts and therefore in love to our Souls blasts and wastes these our Comforts to draw off our Hearts from them that we may not set our Affections upon them Sixthly The perishing of the outward man furthers the flourishings of the inward man not only by bringing our Sins to our remembrance as was shewed but now but also as being a means of God's appointment and blessing both to purge away Sin past and to prevent Sin for the future as Isa 27. 9. the Lord speaking of Afflictions there upon the Church saith By this therefore shall the iniquity of Jacob be purged and this is all the fruit to take away his Sin O blessed design of our good and gracious God O blessed fruit So Job 33. 17 18. To withdraw man from his purpose and to hide Pride from Man Are not many of God's People sensible of this how that be their Afflictions they have been kept from many Sins that without their Afflictions they haâ—â— been liable to have fallen into and committed Surely they will acknowledge it and give Goâ— thanks Sin is the Sickness and plague of the Souâ— which corrupts the Spirit wounds the Conscience weakneth Grace now in time of Prosperity wheâ— there is no Plague nor Sickness in Town or Couâ—try but all things belonging to the outward mâ—â— flourish even then is the very Air most spiritual infectious and most places then and most peoples breath then most infectious then the conâ—gion of Sin spreads most let a man then go in what place he will into what Company almost I will his Soul is in danger of Infection by Siâ— what Contentions Pride Envy Censuring Bad biting unjust Dealing and at best but vain idiâ— unprofitable Discourse is to be heard among most and how little of promoting the power of Godliness or mutual edification Now in such a time the poor Soul gets falls and wounds gets many a disease and Spiritual distemper which it perceives not now it gathers much Rust much Dross and it may carry the infection of sin a long time and is weakned and wasted by it which it may be others see by him more than himself his Passions and Corruptions get ground upon him and he pines day by day he grows more worldly froward proud c. and yet perceives it not and thus the inner Man is much damnified by the advantages of the outward All this the wise God seeth and observeth and out of his pity and tender compassion to the precious Souls of his poor Servants seeing them thus captivated by their Corruptions and diseased with so many spiritual Distempers and that they stand in great need of Physick lest they should perish thinks fit to break their worldly prosperity to give them the bitter purge of affliction to cast them into the Furnace that they may be purified and purged and so recovered and saved Zachar. 13. 9. Thus God ordereth the fire of affliction as a means to cleanse and purify his people from their filthiness and to make them pure and white Dan. 11. 35. Seventhly By exercising the Graces of God's people which in time of their prosperity were as it were laid asleep and for want of use and exercise did decay and scarce appear for it is not Grace â—n the habit that doth so much comfort the Soul â—s Grace in exercise now Adversity serves to draw â—ut Grace into act and exercise as Faith Repentance Hope Patience and other Graces now if ever the Christian labours to put forth his faith on God in Christ and on the Covenant and Promises Oh! now God and Christ and the Covenant and the promises signify something indeed to the Soul to these the poor Soul now flies as it was with Micah 7. 7. When all outward Comforts failed then he acted his Faith Hope and Patience I will look unto God I will wait for the God of my Salvation my God will hear me So Habb 3. 17. 18. Then also God's People renew their Repentance search their Hearts and Ways and turn to God as Ephraem Jerem. 31. 18 19. And then they act their Hope upon the promises of future Glory and then their Patience appears and standâ— them in great stead and their tender-heartedness their love to God his Word and People their contempt of the World yea every Grace is exercised mostly in time of affliction and this is the rare and special excellency of true Grace that â— thrives most and prospers best in the worst time for the most part Grace is strengthned and faâ—ned when sensible Comforts are withered anâ— starved and thus the inner man is renewed wheâ— the outward doth decay and perish Eightly The perishings of the outward Man he forward the flourishing of the inward by makit room and place and preparation in the Souls oâ— God's People for the gracious Communications Spiritual Mercies to them as is evident from thaâ— Scripture Hos 2. 6. and 14 compared Theâ—â— Creature-enjoyments stood in the way before fillâ— up all the room in the Hearts now these must bâ— removed to make way for better Mercies the too-well-beloved guests must be discarded that thâ— King of Glory may come in Other lovers had thâ— heart before these must be divorced that
thâ— Lord Jesus may the more fully and sweetly manifest his love to the Souls of his people See Mr. Burr on the Second of Hos Verse 9 10 11 12 13. There are many heavy Judgments threatned the taking away all the Comforts of the outward Man Where we may note God's absolute Soveraignty over all our enjoyments and his propriety in them all So Ezek. 16. 18 21. All we have is the Lord's and his gracious sweet and blessed ends and purposes in threatning and executing those terrible things and that is wonderful as Verse 14. Therefore Behold I will allure her and bring her into the Wilderness and speak comfortably to her It was to make way for the communications of glorious Mercies The gracious God hath gracious Ends in all his taking Providences towards his poor people to make the wastings fadings totterings perishings of their outward Man to prove helpful to the increasing prospering and flourishing of the inner Man Outward Takings make way for inward Givings I will take away saith God all her Lovers dry up all her Cisterns that I may open to her the Fountain I will strip her naked of all her outward Comforts that I may speak comfortably to her Soul Now I will allure her now I have brought her into the Wilderness now my poor peoples hearts are taken off from the Creature I will see now to win them to my self I may now win their love and gain their hearts to me seeing they are stript of the earthly comforts O what support should this be to God's afflicted People O that we could believe it and improve it that God's design in all his takings from us is but to make way that he may bestow greater and better Mercies upon us This Argument our Lord used to comfort his Disciples with John 16. 6 7. Of all earthly Comforts the bodily presence of Christ with his Disciples was the best yet he tells them he must leave them and withal assures then for their comfort that it was for their advantage and that it was expedient for them that he should leave them that the Comforter might come which should abundantly supply his absence and who would not come to them if he did not go away This would be enough to quiet and comfort â—â— in all sinking providences that these takings an intended to make way for the giving of Spirituâ—â— Mercies if our unbelief distrust despondencâ— and impatience do not hinder Oh could we but drink in this truth and firmly believe it that God's takings from us are iâ— order to his givings to us as God took from Daviâ— an Infant begot in Adultery and gave him Solomon in its room and that his Castings of â— down are in order to his Raisings of us up hâ— witherings of our outward intended for the reneâ—ings of our inner how patiently and comfortablâ— should we bear our troubles yea and how fervently should we pray that God would bring pass all those his gracious purposes upon oâ— Souls I shall conclude this particular by setting dowâ— an Instance of our times which I had from a Person of Quality and Honesty tho' I never use â— record Reports but this upon the credit of tâ— relator I shall for once and it is very remarkable There was some years since in London a veâ—â— Godly Gentleman and his Wife who had a veâ—â— fair Estate both of them very zealous professors Religion eminent for Piety and Charity who had lived together many years but had never a Child which they much desired and often sought the Lord to build their Family for them and at last God was pleased to give them a Son to their great joy which lived and grew up to be three or four Years Old exceeding fair and witty very delightful and pleasant tractable and teachable and they having but this one Child their affections were much set upon him and likely too much The Husband and Wife lived exceeding lovingly together insomuch that many observed their sweet Carriage to each other he being of a lovely disposition and every way well bred and a Man of good Parts and of an Holy Life so amiable and tender to his Wife that her Life was even bound up in his In the midst and height of this their Prosperity the Gentleman fails Sick and Dies which was so heavy a stroak to his poor Wife that she could not bear up under it her Spirit sinks and she refused to be comforted many Prayers were put up to God for her in the publick Congregations and many pious Ministers and godly Friends visited her to Comfort her but to no purpose for she had no regard to her self or did care to Eat or Drink but for meer necessity but would sit in the Chimney-corner all day sighing and weeping and hanging downher head seldom giving an answer to any body Upon a certain day some godly Ministers with Christian Friends by agreement met at her House to Fast and Pray and seek God for her and it came to pass that after they had ended their work walking up and down where this disconsolate Widow was her lovely Child playing there in the Room of whom she took no noice had got a Joint-steel and carrying it up and down at last he turns the Stool upside down and immediately fell or thrust himself into it no Person present knew how but the Stool and the Child overturning together the Childs head being downward he brake his Neck they sent presently for Physicians and Chirurgeons but the Child died presently and no means would avail at all to get so much as one breath from him which was most amazing and astonishing to all the beholders the Chamber being then full The poor Mother sat there all this while in her usual posture but when she saw her Child was really dead she arose up and before them all uttered these words or words to this purpose most of them are the very words O! blessed Jesus will nothing please thee but the heart of thy poor Creature and the whole heart and the whole love now take it Lord take it thou hast won it thou art worthy of it I give thee my whole heart Lord take it take it fill it with thy Love and possess it for ever And from that very moment she was filled with joy and comfort and walked very chearfully and comfortably several Months even until God took her unto himself Here we see the truth of what I have been treating of the Lord made the blastings and breakings of her outward Man the means of refreshing and comforting her inner I should not have set this down but that I depend upon the Credit of the Relator O Lord how unsearchable are thy Judgments and thy ways past finding out 4. The last particular proposed was that for a Christian to be renewed in the inner Man when the outward Man doth decay and perish is the Character and Comfort of gracious Persons That it is their Character appears because the
Fruits of the Spirit in us as the Work of true and sound illumination true Conviction of our Sin and Misery and of the Creatures Vanity of our own impotency and utter insufficiency to help 〈…〉 our selves and of Christ's Excellency All-sufficiency and willingness to save all such as come unto him and are heartily willing to take him for their onely Lord and Saviour all this is the work of the Spirit As also sound Conversion from all Sin unto God as the chief good the Spirit enabling the Soul to repent and turn to God and also working in the Soul the Grace of Faith enabling it to come to Christ to receive him accept of him rest upon him and to resign it self up sincerely to him and to his Government by his Word and Spirit The Spirit works Sanctification in the Soul destroying the old corrupt Principles of Nature and implanting new Principles of spiritual Life making it partaker of the Divine Nature mortifying in it the lusts of the flesh and quickning it to newness of life repairing the Image of God upon it and working all those other Graces which are the Conditions of Pardon and Justification as true love to God and Christ to his Word and People true Fear of God sorrow for and hatred of Sin producing those Fruits mentioned Galat. 5. 22 23. as Patience Meekness Humility and the like Also the Spirit helps the Soul to act those Graces and to perform those Duties required of us in order to our Salvation It guides and leads and teacheth us helps our Infirmities teacheth us to pray and carrieth on the whole work of Sanctification in us And this I take to be the Seal of the Spirit when those saving Impressions and Habits of Grace and Holiness are wrought in and upon the Soul whereby the Soul is made in some measure like unto Christ Jesus being by the Spirit united to him planted and grafted in him and by vertue of its union with him made partakers of his Life and Grace whereby it lives and grows until it come to the State of Perfection in the other World This Spirit thus savingly working is God's Seal upon our Hearts the Seal of his everlasting love to our Souls and of his everlasting Covenant which he hath entred into with us which he will never deface or blot out and it is also the Earnest of our Inheritance that thereby we may confidently conclude to our great comfort that as sure as he hath given us his Spirit thus savingly to work in us those gracious Works this gracious Change this true Repentance and Faith and Love and Holiness and other Graces even so sure he will give us the Inheritance in Heaven at last as surely as he hath sanctified us so surely he hath justified us and will glorifie us For this is the Seal this is the Earnest And upon this account saith the Apostle Having this Seal this Earnest this comfortable Assurance of a better state and of a better life after this we groan earnestly to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven That we may possess that glorious purchased Inheritance of which we now have the earnest we long to enjoy the full Harvest of which we have received the First-fruits and consequently we that have received these First-fruits this blessed Earnest have no cause to be troubled or disquieted when these our earthly Tabernacles begin to decay and perish because we are wrought by God's Spirit for a better state and as was said not only the Spirit of God worketh this willingness to die by working those Graces in the Soul as you see but also accompanying Afflictions and blessing them to crucifie our Affections to earthly things and helps to Holiness in order to our eternal Happiness and therefore also ought the more patiently to be endured Seventhly Then it is the chiefest wisdom in the World for every one of us to labour to become real Saints to get into a state of saving Grace and often to search and try our selves and never to give over searching and trying until we come to some well-grounded Assurance That we are indeed truly Regenerated and that we have a real Interest in Jesus Christ for this Assurance may be attained and we are commanded to give all diligence to attain it 2 Pet. 1. 10. It is not bare wishes or desires will serve the turn but we must labour and strive after it and be much in self-examination 2 Cor. 13. 5. How is it possible we can have any true comfort living or dying if we have no Assurance of a better Life and so long as we know not whether we shall go to Heaven or Hell when we die We all have been too negligent in labouring after this Assurance let us lament it and let us all now begin to bestir our selves and in God's strength lay out our utmost care and pains in the use of all means to get the clear evidences of our peace with God and that we are in a pardoned and reconciled state for upon this Assurance we shall have this Advantage above all others that we shall not be troubled nor much disquieted when our outward man doth decay and perish our earthly comforts fail us our bodily Members wither because all these decays and wastings do but make way and prepare us for the happiness of our Souls Whereas on the contrary it must needs be an uncomfortable thing to look upon a decaying Body and be altogether uncertain what will become of the Soul when it leaves this Body It must needs make Death terrible But when we know that our Souls at death shall enter into our Master's joy we shall bid Death welcom The Eighth Inference From what hath been said we may draw one Rule of Tryal to us all whereby we may know whether we be true real Christians or no or only nominal and but formal Professors viz. by the real good to our Souls that our Afflictions have done us we all have had Afflictions of one kind or other let us examine what spiritual good we have got by them look over the former Particulars and apply them It is a true sign of a Child of God to be the better for Prosperity and Adversity and commonly more the better for Adversity than or Prosperity But lest we should be mistaken I grant that Affliction may work some good in the hypocritical Professors as on Ahab and Nineveh But note these Differences First On the Godly Afflictions work good mostly on their inward man on their Souls although they work good also on their Conversations the sweet fruits of Afflictions appear also in their Lives But on others if Afflictions do work any good at all it is mostly on their outward man they may by them be outwardly reclaimed and reformed but not inwardly renewed and sanctified Now there is a vast difference between outward Reformation and inward Renovation 2dly The fruit of Affliction on the Godly is continually increasing and growing
real Union of the Saints with the Blessed God and the Blessed Jesus such a Union as is between the Head and the Members and between Husband and Wife yea such as is between God and Christ and a participation of the same Glory that Christ himself doth possess and an enjoyment of the same Love that Christ himself doth enjoy yea the Saints shall then be made like unto Christ both in Soul and Body Lord help me to believe all this and to be fully perswaded of it that my Heart may be kindly affected and filled with enflamed affections towards my Blessed Jesus who hath purchased all this Glory for us with his most precious Blood Oh let me attain the full assurance of my true Title thereto that I may praise thee and may long for the full possession of it O my base unbelieving Heart Lord subdue my unbelief Oh what pains should we take to be assured of this Glory and how patiently and cheerfully should we bear our Afflictions that are designed to prepare us for it But I cannot break off here This weight of Glory is by the Holy Ghost in the Scripture represented to us by all the most excellent and delightful things among Men speaking to our Capacities and after the manner of Men. Hence it is called a Kingdom It is your Father's good pleasure saith our Lord to give you a Kingdom I appoint unto you a kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me a kingdom The Kingdom of Heaven a Kingdom that cannot be moved a Kingdom of Glory a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away a Crown of Righteousness a Crown of Life Christ hath made us Kings and Priests to God Here in this World the Saints have the Cross Fire Faggot Halters Gibbets c. let them wait but a while and they shall hear the Judge of the whole World say unto them Come ye blessed of my Father enter into the kingdom prepared for you from the beginning of the world Now you are abused reproached imprisoned impoverished despised shortly you shall all be crowned This Glory is called the Inheritance of the Saints in light an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for you You that now may have no House nor Home of your own no certain Dwelling-place and you that now dwell in Houses of Clay tottering every moment being the Children of God you shall shortly enter into everlasting Habitations and possess those glorious Mansions in the Father's House you shall shortly inhabit that House not made with hands eternal in the Heavens God hath prepared for you a City that hath Foundations of his own building and making Hold out Faith and Patience you shall shortly be translated into the Paradise of GOD above the reach of Men and Devils Moreover for methinks it is good to be here when Christ who is our Life shall appear we shall also appear with him in Glory with Palms in our Hands and Crowns on our Heads and with everlasting Joy and Songs of Praises in our Hearts and Mouths This Glory is called Life Everlasting Life Eternal Salvation Everlasting Peace and Everlasting Rest the purchased Possession that which cost the most precious Blood of the only Son of God to procure surely it must be a far more exceeding weight of Glory that cost such a price this Glory is the Fruit of Christ's Blood and of all his cruel Sufferings Oh that some Beams of it might be darted in upon my dark Heart by the Spirit while I am writing this to quicken and enlarge it It is Everlasting Rest Rest from all Sin the greatest burden to a gracious Soul and from all Sufferings from all doubts of God's love from all sense of God's Displeasure from all Temptations of Satan of the World and Flesh Rest from all Persecutions Now they that have suffered with Christ shall be glorified with him no Prisons Banishments Burnings Hangings Quarterings then Rest from all our sad and sinful Divisions and from all our personal Sufferings Pains Diseases Losses of dear Relations ill Tydings Rest from all Vain Thoughts from all the pain of Duty from all our Labours Let us a little further consider I. The Preparatives to this Glory and II. The Properties of it that so our Hearts may be the more affected with it and the more carried out with all Love and Desires after him that purchased it for us and with all labour and diligence to secure our title to it and may also the better bear all our Afflictions which prepare us for it and lead us to it I. Of the Preparations to this Glory and these are 1. The glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 13. Our blessed Lord will most certainly come again from Heaven with Power and great Glory attended by his mighty Angels to receive his People to himself that where he is there they may be also Joh. 14. 3. to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all those that believe 2 Thess 1. 10. Alas what Comfort should we have in this life if it were not for the Hope of Christ's second coming He will not leave us here still sinning suffering groaning dying no no the day of our full Redemption will come our Lord will come again and set all his poor Captives free but a little while and he that shall come will come and will not tarry He will come for our Salvation Heb. 9. 28. And for our great Comfort let us know and believe that however we now live as Lambs amongst Wolves when our glorious Lord Jesus the Lord of Glory and the Prince of the Kings of the Earth the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a crown of glory that fedeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. It should be then the Character of a Christian as it is his Duty to love to long and look and wait for the Son of God from â—eaven even Jesus whom he raised from the dead which by bearing the most dreadful Wrath of his Father hath delivered us from the Wrath to come 1 Thess 1. 10. Act. 1. 12. And while we are on Earth we should have our conversations in Heaven and from thence look for the Saviour the Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body Phil. 3. 20 21. being assured that then we shall receive that Crown of Righteousness which the righteous Judge shall give at that day to all those that love his appearing 2 Tin 4. 8. Oh then seeing we look for such things what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy Conversation and Godliness giving all diligence that we may be found of him in Peace without spot and blameless O what unspeakable Comfort will the Coming of Christ bring to all his poor suffering Saints the fore-thoughts of which should support us under all our present Troubles Although it may be now we are destitute of all Creature-comforts our
the least Cross or Disappointment that doth befal us for how little soever it be it is 〈◊〉 Father's Rod his Messenger his Hand Nor â—ould we faint under any Affliction how great and â—eavy soever it be because he that lays it on doth â— in love to our Souls and will lay on no more than he will enable us to bear for he will uphold tâ— with his Hand 1. We must not despise them as noted before â—â— which I shall add this We are said to despise Messenger sent us when we do not bid him welcome nor comply with his Message but turn him 〈◊〉 without his Errands end We must not deal â—â— with any Affliction any of God's Messengers â—e must not be unwilling of Affliction nor be discontented at them but thankfully receive them â—â— Tokens of our Father's Love to us and as his wholesome Physick which our Souls stand in need â—â— as was also before noted and to which I shall â—dd a little more because it is an hard thing to bid affliction welcome and to bless God for taking as well as for giving as Job did And though we have no warrant to pray for Affliction although we may pray that God would use all means to do our Souls good and to prepare us for glory yet they must be thankfully received then God sends them and God is to be praised for them This is a hard Lesson to Flesh and Blood who can bear it Yet it is our express Duty Jam 1. 2. Count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations which I think mainly respects the Sufferings of the Saints for Christ in which we are bound to rejoice and be glad Matth. 5. 12. yet not excluding other Afflictions So 2 Cor. 6. 10. Rom. 6. 2 3. glory in Tribulations Job 1. last Obj. But is it possible that when Afflictions come on us as loss of our dear Relations loss of our Estate and Liberty loss of Health when grievous Pains are on our Bodies is it possible we can bid these welcome and rejoice in them Or if it be possible is it necessary Ans 1. God himself grants that the Afflictions of his People are not for the present joyous but grievous Heb. 12. 11. not to be delighted in God allows his poor People to complain and grieve under them which notes his Tenderness towards them He himself takes notice of their Afflictions Exod. 2. 25. Jer. 31. 18. Psal 56. 8. he telleth their Wandrings and puts their Tears into his Bottle He himself is grieved for their Afflictions Judg. 10. 16. his bowels work towards them and in all their afflictions he is afflicted Isa 63. 9. Now if our Afflictions be grievous to God it will not displease him if they be grievous to us Nay God expects that we should grieve for grieving him by our Sins We never find in Scripture God's People to be blamed for their grieving and complaining of their Afflictions unless they were immoderate God doth not forbid the workings of Nature nay God loves to see Nature work orderly and regularly Aaron's Case and Ezekiel's was extraordinary and not to be drawn into Example Chastening is a displeased Father's Rod therefore there must be a Child-like grief shame and sorrow Numb 12. 14. it is the Rod of Love There must be Grief and Love in us his Children He rebukes and loves we must grieve and love So that It must be granted that in the pain and smart and trouble that is on us simply considered we cannot rejoice nor bid the Burthen welcome A Man should have an Heart worse than of a Beast to do so Nor is it required but the contrary is required namely to humble our selves under the mighty Hand of God and to be sensible of his strokes to be afflicted and weep and mourn Jam. 4. 8. 2. But the sweet Fruit the Blessing of Affliction that God intends Affliction shall bring forth in us which we must pray for hope for believe for and to which we must have an Eye as soon as the Affliction comes this is that we must rejoyce in and bless God for and so in prospect of this good Fruit of this Blessing and in hope of it we must entertain our Afflictions thankfully as thus I am afflicted in my Relations in my Estate in my Body here are grievous painful sad strokes but Lord I hope all this is in love to my Soul I hope the Fruit will be good and therefore in hope of the good Fruit I 〈◊〉 and bless thy Name and most earnestly but th◠〈…〉 of all thy Chastisements So that if we 〈◊〉 consider and firmly believe that our Afflictions we Testimonies of God's Fatherly Love to uâ— and care for us as Heb. 11. Rev. 3. 19. Whom I 〈◊〉 I rebuke and chasten saith our Lord it being 〈…〉 taken of God's Wrath not to be afflicted 〈…〉 Let them alone saith God I will not 〈…〉 Luk. 6. 22. And if we could 〈…〉 Afflictions are the signs of our Sonship and the signs of the true way to Heaven that they are for our profit to make us conformable to Christ and to prevent our eternal condemnation and that we have need of them and that they shall prepare us for eternal glory I say these things firmly believed and duly considered we shall be able thankfully to receive our Afflictions and to bless the Lord in hope to receive those singular Blessings from them Rejoycing in Hope patient in Tribulation Rom. 12. 12. It is our want of Faith in God's Promises concerning those sweet Fruits of Affliction that we do not cheerfully bear them Lord encrease our Faith our Hope our Patience There is Joy and Peace in believing Rom. 15. 13. Had we more Faith we should have more joy and less grief in our Afflictions We are glad when our Physick works though it put us to pain in hope of Relief and Benefit by it let us do so when God's Physick works and we shall be sure to have Benefit by all Obj. But are not Afflictions Tokens of God's Displeasure and can we or ought we to rejoice in them then Ans They are so indeed against the Wicked and so are all the Mercies they enjoy And they are Tokens of God's Displeasure against the Sins of his People but Tokens of Love to their Souls Psl 99. 8. Thou answeredst them O Lord our God that wast a God that forgavest them though thou tookest vengeance on their inventions Isa 57. 17 18. and so are Mercies too Isa 38. 17. Q. Can we rejoyce when God takes away our choicest Earthly Comforts our dearest Enjoyments from us Ans Yes after we have been sensible of God's Hand and have been humbled under it and if it make way for better Mercies and God be pleased to bestow more of himself more of his Spirit more of his Grace and Love upon us then we shall have cause to rejoyce and to be thankful So much of the first part of our Duty in our Afflictions That
good as 1. Life Animal Life one of the best good things in the World yet very short and very uncertain Job 14. 1. James 4. 14. What is our life It is but a Vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away Psal 39. 4 5. 2. The Accommodations of Life as Riches but uncertain 1 Tim. 6. 17. Corruptible 1 Pet. 1. 17 18. Deceitful Matth. 13. 22. 3. Pleasures they are but for a season Heb. 11. all lawful Pleasures such as Solomon had all but vanity and vexation Health and Strength Friends and Relations all are but for a time a very short uncertain time Abraham had his Sarah and David his Jonathan and Jacob his Rachel but for a time daily Experience proves all this all visible good is but temporal 2. Evil things that are visible are but temporal also Heaviness endureth but for a moment Sickness Pain Poverty Disgrace Persecution Afflictions are but for a moment Tribulation ten days an hour of Temptation Desertion but a little moment and because this is the Nature and Property of all visible things that they are transitory temporal things not lasting much less everlasting therefore we that are enlightned by Grace and that have true understandings and right apprehensions of these things and which have also had the experience of their shortness and uncertainty both of the good and evil things of this World we do not look unto them that is we look beyond them and above them those visible temporal things do not lye so near our Hearts nor take up so much room in our Minds nor so much place in our Affections as invisible eternal things do nor as those visible temporal things do in the Hearts and Minds of others whose Hope and Portion is in this Life and whose Minds the God of this World hath blinded No no we look not upon those earthly things with such an Eye of Love Desire and Delight the visible good things of this World do not raise or delight our Souls nor seek we that content in them that others do nor have we such dreadful thoughts of the evil things of this World as to perplex our selves with the fears of them before they come nor with immoderate sorrow and grief when they come nor are we so dejected and troubled when we part with the visible Comforts of this Life because we have right Apprehensions of them and therefore we faint not under our Afflictions From hence two Points of Doctrine are observable 1 Doct. That because all visible things are Temporal and of no long continuance therefore gracious Souls engage not their Hearts too much in them nor concern themselves too much for them or about them 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things will help much to support and uphold the Lord's Servants in and under all the Afflictions of this Life 1 Doct. 1. First That because all visible things are temporal but for a short time therefore they must not be much minded nor regarded This is the Character and the Duty of all gracious Souls 1 Cor. 7. 29 30. Because the time is short therefore they that have wives must be as if they had none and they that weep as if they wept not c. Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth And Phil. 4. 6. Be careful in nothing c. Q. But must we cast off all care of earthly things 〈◊〉 not mind them at all Ans Not so neither for we are commanded to work and use lawful Callings and to abide in our Callings but the meaning is 1. That we must not mind and regard visible things earthly things Then when we are to mind invisible and heavenly things see Isa 58. 13. Upon the holy day of God and when we are in holy Duties praying hearing reading meditating then our Hearts Thoughts and Minds should be wholly taken up with invisible heavenly things and visible earthly things laid aside 2. Nor must we mind them so heartily seriously delightfully as we must mind heavenly things we must be fervent in Spirit serving the Lord Rom. 12. 11. and strive as in an Agony to enter in at the â—â—ait gate Luk. 13. 24. and give all diligence to make your calling and election sure and to serve the Lord with our whole heart and with all our might but we are never commanded to mind and pursue the things of the World so nor with such eagerness and fervency The Lord chargeth it as a grievous Crime on Israel that they panted after the Dust of the Earth Amos 2. 7. But gracious souls pant after God Psal 42. 1 2. 63. 1 2 8. Their souls follow hard after God and blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness Matth. 5. Not they that hunger and thirst after the Honours Pleasures and Riches of this World 1 John 2. 14 15. Love not the world nor the things of the world 3. Nor must we mind these visible temporal things firstly principally and chiefly but only secondarily and in subserviency to heavenly things Matth. 6. 33 34. First seek the kingdom of God first in the beginning of your Life first in the morning of the day first in your Affections 4. Nor mostly God is to be loved with all our hearts with all our souls with all our minds and with all our strength Matth. 22. 37. Psal 16. 8. I have set the Lord always before me as the most worthy object of my continual love desire fear and delight 5. Nor must we so mind visible things at all as to be taken off from minding heavenly things or to be hindred from or to be unficted for minding heavenly things 6. Nor must we mind them but with heavenly Hearts and for heavenly ends still minding God in them how to glorifie him by them 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God Q. But when do we mind visible temporal things us much Ans 1st When we mind them unseasonably as noted before 2dly When we mind them inordinately out of order that is firstly and principally 3dly When we mind them immoderately Let your moderation be known unto all men saith the Apostle Phil. 4. Q. But when do we mind them immoderately Ans 1. When our minding of these visible temporal things hinders us from minding those invisible and eternal things This was the Sin of Demas his embracing this World made him forsake Paul So that when the Service of Christ must give place to the Service of the World when the Farm the Oxen the Wife must be preferred before the Feast and good Duties laid aside while the World is served when the call of God is neglected and the call of the World obeyed then do we mind Earthly things immoderately In some cases I confess that is in Cases of Necessity to shew Mercy to any in Misery to save or preserve Life God will have mercy and not sacrifice but out of those
may be poor in this World yet rich in Faith and an Heir of the Kingdom as James 2. 5. and a man may be rich in this World yet poor in Soul and an Heir of Hell as we see in Dives 6. Faith is a powerful a victorious conquering Grace This is the victory that overcometh the world even our Faith Stephen was full of Faith and Power Acts 6. 8. The work of faith with power 2 Thess 1. 11. Faith brings all visible temporal things under the Believer's Feet it gives the Believer power to use the World and not to abuse it not seeking Rest and Contentment in it to use it moderately without damage and detriment to the Soul to use it for God's honour it s own spiritual advantage and the good of others and power to keep it out of the Heart Christ dwelling there by Faith to use the World and not losing our Hearts our Peace nor our Consciences in it Faith gives the Soul power to withstand the Threats and Temptations of the World and power to be willing to leave it and to go to a better World Oh the mighty power of Faith and by the Power of this Faith gracious Souls are taken off from those visible temporal things And so much for the Doctrinal Part. The Application follows First for Information If it be the Character and Duty of gracious Souls because visible things are temporal therefore they must not they do not much mind or regard them I. It follows then that Earthly-mindedness worldliness is a great Evil and very unbecoming true Christians for their minds and conversations are it Heaven Phil. 3. 19 20. There is the discriminating Character both of the gracious and ungracious a vast difference between them the one mind Earthly things the otherâ— have their conversation it Heaven Most People look on those things which are seen all seek their own things those that they count their own and those are mostly â—hiefly and principally minded as appears manifestly thus 1. By the stream of their Thoughts which runs steddily upon visible temporal things having vain Minds 2. By the common current of their Discourses their Talk is all of the World 3. By the tide of their Affections Love Joy Fear Sorrow Delight all run strongly Worldâ—â—rd 4. By the course of their Actions their Time Pain Care all is spent about the World rising early going to Bed late eating the Bread of Carefulness and all about the World This is a great Evil because expresly forbidden Matth. 6. 19. Lay not up for your selves treasures on earth Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth Col. 3. 2. Set your affections upon things above and not upon things below And this Worldly-mindedness is contrary to the Practice of true Christians as in the Text We look not on those things which are seen So Phil. 3. 20. And it is the Character of such as are in a state of Nature and that cannot please God Rom. 8. 5 8. They that are after the flesh do mind in things of the flesh Such are not crucified to the World but conquered and captivated by it yea crucified by it conquered by the Profits Honours and Pleasures of it and meer Slaves to these and crucified by the Crosses and Losses of the World their Hearts and Spirits lye under the Feet of these and are at the beck of these their Hopes and Comforts lye all at the Courtesie of the World and this is a woful Bondage Remember this we can never conclude that we are truly gracious until we have Grace enough to keep God and our Hearts together and to keep the World and our Hearts asunder 1 John 2. 14 15. Love not the world nor the things of the world for he that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him Woe to them that have their Portion in this World Psal 17. 14. who have their good things here who have laid up their Treasures upon Earth and there have their Heart That Text Phil. 3. 19. is enough to terrifie aâ— such Their end is destruction who mind earthâ—â— things Inf. II. It follows from the Premises that Contentment with our Condition and with any portion of visible temporal things is a great Virtue and well becoming Christians Discontent proceeds from our over-minding and over-valuing and over-loving earthly things and it is a very great Evil for it practically denies God's All-sufficiency his Wisdom Soveraignty Faithfulness and Mercy it disgraceth the Gospel and Godliness and is in it self a great Plague Q. But how shall I do to be content content to be deprived of my dear Relations Estate Health Liberty c A. Read Mr. Burroughs's Book of Christian Contentment Take also these Directions 1. Labour to make God your own and then you will have a full and sufficient Ballance to all your Losses He is God All-sufficient Weigh well those two Scriptures 1 Sam. 30. 6. 2 Sam. 23. 5. 2. Labour to make Christ your own he offers himself to you in the Gospel with all he is and with all he hath And in him dwelleth all fulness he is all in all Psal 23. 1. The Lord is my shepherd I shall not want said David 3. Search the Scriptures and be acquainted with the many exceeding great and precious Promises that are there suitable to every Condition you can be in Act your Faith on them and apply them lye upon and suck those full Breasts of Consolation 4. Pray for Contentment and pray earnestly for the manifestation of God's Love to your Souls and that will so satisfie and content you that any measure of earthly things will content you 5. Be much in Heavenly Meditations look upon invisible and eternal things spend serious frequent fixed Thoughts on them 6. Consider your Deserts No person in the World how little soever he hath of the good things of the World but hath much more than he deserveth and more than he doth well improve and how much soever he hath of the evil things of the World he hath infinitely less than he deserved for every thing out of Hell is a Mercy It 's of the Lord's Mercy we are not consumed 7. Consider if you be true Christians you have the Spirit of Christ in you Rom. 8. 9. Jesus Christ had a most contented Spirit Contentment is the inseparable Companion of true Godliness 1 Tim. 6. 8. Having food and raiment let us be content Let us that are Christians who have the Great GOD for our Portion and Blessed Jesus for our Treasure and Heaven for our Inheritance having Food and Raiment any Food any Raiment though never so coarse let us be content content with such things as we have Heb. 13. 5. Inf. III. Thirdly hence it follows also that great is the Folly of all by Nature and great is their Blindness which appears in this that they value prize mind and follow after visible temporal things much more eagerly and earnestly than after invisible eternal things
Words and Actions have reference to invisible eternal things If they be good and holy they have reference to eternal glory if bad and wicked they have reference to eternal Misery for such as is our Heart and Life here such shall be our eternal state hereafter 3 Direct Thirdly Be much in the Meditation of Heavenly Things if we firmly believe and are fully perswaded that there are indeed such great and glorious such excellent things in the other World as the God of Truth assures us of in the Word of Truth and if we believe or have good ground to hope that we have a title to them and shall shortly enjoy them why are they not more in our Thoughts why do we not more meditate on them Our frequent fixed Meditations on Heavenly things will so sweeten and delight our Souls and yield such satisfaction to us as to take off our Minds from Earthly things And to Meditation add Prayer That God would raise and lift up your Hearts to mind things above 4 Direct Fourthly Discourse frequently and feelingly of the vanity and emptiness of visible temporal things and of the reality and excellency of invisible eternal things If Heaven and Glory be in your Hearts they will be in your Mouths Consider also the shortness of the time you have to converse with visible temporal things 1 Cor. 7. 31. and study a crucified Christ more by that you will come to be crucified to the World and the World to you Gal. 6. 14. 5 Direct Fifthly Consider you that are Christians are not at home you are in a strange Country you are but on your Journey in your passage to your Father's house to your long home and therefore you should not much mind the things of this World 6 Direct Sixthly Consider what you lose all the while you are inordinately minding earthly things you lose not only your precious time but much inward joy and peace and much sweet communion with God which you might have in minding of and meditating upon Heavenly things Psal 63. 4 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marâ—â—â— and fatness When I remember thee open my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches 7 Direct Seventhly Let us work a few more serious Considerations into our Hearts and Minds to take them from Earthly things 1. That whatever any Man or Woman hath of visible temporal things Death will put a full end to them all and after Death they all shall partake of invisible and eternal things Matth. 25. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal 2. That every Man and Woman in the World is either made for ever or undone for ever as they are related and entituled unto the invisible eternal good things or evil things of the other World they are made for ever if related and entituled to the invisible God and Glory and undone for ever if not So that our Eternal Happiness or Misery depends not on our relation or title to visible but to invisible things 3. Such as is our Title and Estate now to the one or other such it will be to all Eternity As the tree falls so it lies as death leaves us so will judgment find us 4. This looking off from earthly things is the way to grow and encrease in Grace for Worldly Cares do choak deaden and weaken Grace cloying the Affections entangling and encumbring the Thoughts much hindring the exercise of Faith and Love which are the principal Graces whereby holy Souls enjoy Communion with God 5. By this you will have more Communion with God for the less we look downward the more we shall look upward and the more we look upward to God and Christ in the actings of our Faith and Love the more will God and Christ manifest themselves and their love to our Souls 6. This will support us in Affliction and comfort us in a dying hour when our Affections are crucified to the World we shall not be unwilling to part with it Col. 3. 3. We are dead saith the Apostle that is to the World And this supported those in this Chapter they were crucified to all visible temporal things therefore they could easily part with them 3 Vse Thirdly by way of Examination By this gracious frame of Spirit we may know our spiritual state whether we be born of God or no whether in Christ or no to wit by this Whether our Hearts and Minds are more set on God Christ and Heaven or on the World Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus they are safe come Plague Sword Fire Faggot But who are in Christ Jesus He tells us They that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So Ver. 5 6. They that are spiritually minded they that have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. Col. 3. 1 2. They are risen with Christ So Psal 73. 25 26. If we be born from Heaven we are bound for Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is as good an Evidence for Heaven as any is and Earthly-mindedness is as ill a Character as can be Let us now try our selves by this Where are our Hearts and Minds and Affections mostly set on Heaven or Earth on Christ or the Creature Let our Consciences speak Surely this one Rule of Tryal will help us to know in what state we are Lastly For Consolation to Believers in respect of outward Losses and Troubles that they are all visible and temporal things that we can lose and but temporal things that we can suffer which are but light and short as we have seen but our invisible eternal Mercies they are all sure and can never be lost If we had enjoyed our earthly Comforts a little longer it could have been but a little longer they and we must have parted All visible things are but temporal our fairest Flowers are fading our sweetest earthly Mercies are perishing And here is our Comfort that if we be in Christ we shall be delivered from Eternal Death from Everlasting Destruction from the Wrath to come If we have our part in the first Resurrection the Second Death shall have no power on us Let this comfort us that the Comforts we lose here are but temporal Comforts and the Troubles we suffer here are but temporal Troubles And this brings us to the second Point observed from the Text which was 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things will help to support the Lord's Services under their Afflictions Of which I shall speak but briefly because much of what hath been said in the former point 〈◊〉 confirm this Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the 〈…〉 their Goods And why but because 〈…〉 in themselves they had in Heaven 〈…〉 a more enduring substance They 〈…〉 Judgment both of Earth and Heaven 〈…〉 Earthly and of Heavenly Things and 〈…〉 infinite worth and value of 〈…〉 they knew that Heavenly things were 〈…〉 real the most substantial the most
〈…〉 and that Earthly things were temporal 〈…〉 and therefore not so â—e command 〈…〉 less to be valued or 〈…〉 Heavenly things Q. 1. But how 〈…〉 of Earthly things A. 1. We must judge of 〈…〉 only wise judgeth of them 〈…〉 judge truly and rightly of them Now God hath declared in his Word his Judgment of them Isa 4. 6 7. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken this The voice said Cry and he said What shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth Psal 39. 5 6. Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Surely every man walketh in a vain shew Psal 103. 14 15. we are but Dust As for man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Job 14. 1 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not So 1. Pet. 1. 24. Jam. 1. 10. 4. 14. What is our life It is but even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away This is the Judgment of God concerning Man all Men They are but Dust but a Shadow but Grass and the Life of Man very short and full of trouble but even as a bubble but a vapour and we may be sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And then for all the things of this World Solomon by the Spirit of God hath declared what they all are Eccles 1. 2. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity Vanity and Vexation Riches Honours Pleasures Relations Friends Liberty all pleasant Accommodations all is vanity and vexation of spirit This is the true and right Judgment we should have of all earthly things 2. We must judge of these earthly things by the experience of the best and wisest men that ever lived upon Earth they will tell us from their own experience that they are all vanity and vexation So Solomon Job David Moses Psal 90 4 5 6. Yea we all know this by our own Experiences every day that all flesh is as grass and as the flower of the field How soon do all our earthly Comforts wither and perish our dearest and nearest Relations wither and dye away our Health and Strength our Life and all still withering and perishing See largely of this in Dr. Reynold 's Three Treatises the first part concerning the vanity of the Creature 3. Once more judge of Earthly things by the evil use we make of them while we have them through Satan's Temptations and our own Corruptions as was shewed before and also what cloggs and hinderances they are to our Souls in our way to Heaven Altho' Life and all the Accommodations of Life as Health Strength Liberty Estate Friends are good things in themselves and given us to be helps to Holiness and to Heaven yet we must confess to our shame that all our Earthly Comforts yea and our animal Life it self doth very much most times hinder our Communion with God hinder us in the Service of God keep our Hearts at too great a distance from God and many more Evils they bring upon us all which considered we have but little reason so to value them as we do nor to let our Hearts and Affections so to run out after them Thus let us take a right judgment of all Earthly things It is true that so far forth as these Earthly things are useful to us in the Service of God and further the good of our Souls so far forth we ought to love and prize them and praise God for them and pray for the continuance of them but so far forth as they are hinderances to us in Holiness and bring Sin and Guilt on our Souls as too oft they do so far forth and in that respect we had better be without them than with them their Room would be better than their Company And when they prove Snares to us and like Solomon's Wives draw away our Hearts from God and like Dalilah to Sampson betray our Souls into the hands of our spiritual Enemies then surely it is the goodness of God to separate them from us and strip us of them and we shall have cause to bless God for so doing Sickness and Weakness improved is better for our Souls than Health and Strength abused Restraint and Confinement improved better than Liberty abused Solitariness improved is better than a Family and Company abused Poverty improved better than Riches abused c. Thus you may get a right Judgment of Earthly things Q. 2. But how will this right Judgment of Earthly things help us to bear our Troubles in this World A. 1. By acting our Faith upon the Word of God Believe and be fully perswaded of the truth which God the God of Truth hath spoken concerning all Earthly things Believe that all flesh is grass that life is but a vapour c. here lies the root of all our Impatience and Discontent under our Losses and Earthly Comforts even our Unbelief we do not fully and firmly believe they are such vain things that we are deprived of out grass but as the flowers of the field Just like a man that finds a Box or Bag of Counters and takes them to be all pure Gold and greatly rejoycech in what he hath found then after a short time he loseth his Counters and then he is exceedingly troubled for the loss of them because all this while he took them for Gold but if once he comes to believe that it was but a Box or Bag of Counters then he grieves no more So it is with us we believe not that all our Comforts are vanity and vexation we look not on them to be so but that there is much contentment and sweetness and satisfaction to be had in them And therefore we grieve immoderately when we lose our Counters but if we did firmly believe they are but Counters Shadows Grass Vapours we should not be so cast down 2. Meditation and Consideration of the true nature of all Earthly things as God hath shewed us in his Word often thinking pondering and meditating on their vanity uncertainty transitoriness and deceitsulness Without this due and serious Meditation a right Judgment of them will do us no good When God smites our Comforts maketh our fairest Flowers to wither blasteth our flourishing Grass then let us consider what God hath smitten and blasted nothing but grass but flowers What have we lost Nothing but Shadows but Counters This deep Consideration will support us under our Losses Consider also the Experience of the Saints who in all Ages have found these things to be but vanity and vexation 3. Add Prayer to God That He will throughly convince your Minds of the
his Providences to observe and comply with them answering them by suitable Duty 2. Secondly We look unto our Blessed Jesus the Image of the Invisible God the eternal Son of God He was once visible and seen in the Flesh and shall be so again at his second coming Acts 1. But now we see him not yet now we believe in him and look on him by Faith And that we may look upon and behold this unseen Jesus and by Faith and Love to enjoy Union and Communion with him to know him living in us and to have fellowship with him in his Death and Resurrection and in his Life to receive of his fulness Grace for Grace This the Saints aim at and spend their Thoughts and Cares about and make this the main and principal work of their Lives Phil. 3. 8 9 10. That they may be joyned to Christ married to him engrafted into him partake of his Spirit Life and Grace that they may be conformable to him and enabled to walk as he walked that he may sup with them and they with him that he may dwell in their Hearts by Faith and take up his abode with them and manifest his Love unto them that they may grow up in all things like unto him These are the Aims Intentions Desires Prayers Longings and constant Endeavours of truly-gracious Souls Not to be rich and great and honourable in the World but to partake of the unsearchable Riches of Christ to get and possess Jesus this Pearl of greatest 〈◊〉 to be rich in Faith to have a clear Title to â—e Crown of Life which Jesus hath purchased â—â— promised to live in Christ and to please hoâ—â—ur and enjoy Jesus This is their Chief Laâ—â—ur 3. The holy Spirit is invisible and eternal the â—â—cious Influences and Operations of the Holy â—host on the Hearts and Spirits though the â—ects may in some sense be said to be visible â—â— of eternal efficacy yet the Operations are in 〈◊〉 sence invisible the Graces of the Spirit â—â—ch I take to be those Waters of Life which our â—â—d speaks of John 4. which spring up to Eterâ—al Life the Joy the Comforts of the Spirit the â—aintings teachings guidings of the Spirit the â—â—iness and sealings of the Spirit all these are inâ—â—able and eternal things and these are the things â—hat natural men cannot know nor discern 1 Cor. 2. â—1 13 14. Strangers intermeddle not with this by because Strangers to it It is hidden Manna â—â—at these are the unseen things that gracious â—als mind seek and breath after and always â—â—g for Oh that they may be filled with the â—pirit filled with the Graces and Comforts of the Spirit and enjoy Communion with the Spirit 4. The Word of God the glorious Gospel that is invisible and eternal not in the Letter of it for that is to be seen in the Book but the Mysteries of â—t are hidden Mysteries Matth. 11. 25. These things are hid from the wife and prudent of the World It 's true the sound of the Gospel is gone â—ut abroad throughout the World but the power and efficacy the vertue and inward workings of it the sweetness of it that is invisible to the Eye of the Body and hidden to the World 1 Cor. 2. 9 10. God reveals those things to his People by his Spirit The infinite Beauty of Christ his transcendent Excellencies the Beauty of Holiness the surpassing sweetness of the Promises the glory of Heaven with many many other unspeakable Excellencies which are held out in the Gospel all which bodily Eyes cannot see nor carnal Hearts understand The powerful enlightning quickning transforming nourishing strengthning refreshing and comforting power and vertue of the Gospel but very few see and feel none but such as are spiritualized and whose Understandings are savingly enlightned Eph. 1. 17 18 19. There are great and glorious things represented in the Gospel but Men's Understandings must be enlightned before they can see them Life and Immortality is brought to light by the Gospel Heaven and Hell opened in the Gospel but not to be seen by the bodily Eye Hence the Gospel is said to be hid 2 Cor. 4. 4. and this word abideth for ever 1 Pet. 1. 25. and it is an everlasting Gospel Now saith the Apostle we look to the Word of God and mind the glorious Mysteries of the Gospel and feel the sweet and powerful effects of it we desire the sincere milk of the Word that we may grow thereby we esteem the Word of God above our necessary food Job 23. 12 13. and it is sweeter to us than the hony or hony-comb Psal 19. 9. 5. We look unto and mind all the exceeding great and precious Promises which are in the Word of God the vertue sweetness and good of them are all invisible to carnal Eyes Tell a carnal man of the goodness and sweetness of the Promises it is a Riddle to him give him present Enjoyments he never tasted any sweetness in them but true Christians look on them as exceeding rich things and look up to them and embrace them and live upon them they could not â—re without them The Promises are dry Breasts â—â— carnal Hearts they can draw no vertue from them but they are full Breasts to gracious Souls â—â—il 27. 13. I had fainted unless I had believed that â—â— in the Promises to see the goodness of God in the 〈◊〉 of the living The Promises That God will be our God in Christ and our Portion and exceeding great Reâ—ard Gen. 17. 1. That He will be a Sun and a â—ield to us give us Grace and Glory and will with-hold no good thing from us Psal 84. last â—romises of Pardon of Peace of Holiness and â—â—essedness of Rest for our Souls Mat. 11. 28 29. Promises of his good Presence with us in all our â—roubles of Supports Supplies and of a gracious 〈◊〉 out of all gracious Souls trade in the Promises converse with the Promises these they mind â—nd rest upon and find Sweetness and Comfort in 6. And Lastly We look unto all those great and glorious things which the Great God hath prepared for us from the foundation of the World and which our most dear Lord Jesus hath purchased for us by his most precious Blood Oh the great and glorious things which God our Father â—ath prepared for us that blessed Vision of God that Kingdom of Heaven that Life eternal that Crown of Glory of Life of Righteousness that inheritance incorruptible undefiled and that saâ—â—th not away that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory that everlasting Rest all these things are invisible and eternal And unto these â—â—seen and eternal things we saith the Apostle 〈◊〉 and set our mind upon And also the great and glorious things which our Lord hath purchased as Peace with God his Favour Acceptance with him Adoption Sonship Heirship Remission of Sins an heavenly Inheritance these are all invisible and eternal things great and wonderful things things of the greatest
Perswasions will prevail they turn the deaf Ear to all But for the World how soon are People perswaded to embrace it to follow hard after it to count no Time nor Pains too much to attain it What is there in those visible temporal things in those glittering vanities that should so allure entice and seduce rational Souls and such as profess that they believe all those better things But indeed they do not believe them whatever they profess Infidelity is the Root of all Men do not believe what they profess to believe It were impossible that the World should be so heartily so eagerly follow'd and pursued if the vanity and vexation of it the emptiness and insufficiency of it the uncertainty and transitoriness of it were indeed believed It were impossible that the great and glorious God the Alsufficient Good that blessed Jesus that Heaven and Eternal Happiness should be so slighted and neglected if they were truly really and heartily believed It is most strange and yet most true that People should yield up their Hearts unto and spend their best Affections upon the things of this present evil World and can think and speak delightfully of them but have no mind to think or speak of eternal things Oh this beguiling bewitching and deceiving World and oh these corrupt carnal deceitful Hearts of ours that suffer the World thus to deceive us It cost the Heart-blood of Christ to deliver his People from this present evil World Gal. 1. 4. Could we apprehend the Mischief this World hath done us and doth still do us we should have but little kindness for it and if once we could attain the Assurance of our title to that World above we should not care how soon we were gone out of this 3 Inf. Thirdly Hence appears the Unreasonableness of immoderate Worldly Joy Sorrow Fear Cares about visible temporal things Being they are but temporal passing transient momentany things why then so much care to get and keep them Why so much fear of losing them Why so much Joy in possessing and why so much Trouble in parting with them Why so much Care and Fear about Life it self which is but a Vapour Jam. 4. 14. Alas we rejoice in things of nought and are grieved for the loss of Shadows for such and no better at best are all visible temporal things in comparison of invisible eternal things Let us all bewail this Folly O when shall we be wise How long shall we simple ones love this our sinful Simplicity Prov. 1. 22. Oh how long e're we be able to discern between Good and Evil till we know the one thing needful and approve and pursue the things which are most excellent and give up our Hearts entirely to God and Christ 4 Inf. Fourthly Hence appears the absolute Necessity of Regeneration Seeing we are by Nature so ignorant dark blind stupid and dead that we cannot see nor understand the things of God nor the things that belong to our own Eternal Peace Therefore we should earnestly seek and pray for Renewing Grace and that Christ would give us the Light of Life and that God would beget us anew and give us his sanctifying quick'ning Spirit and infuse new spiritual Principles of the Divine Nature into our Hearts and thereby take us off from inordinate minding visible temporal things and turn our minds another way even towards Himself and towards Christ and Heaven that there we may center and place all the Affections of our Hearts all the Desires and Delights of our Souls This must be done by the mighty power of God and we must seek him diligently to effect this work upon us and we must also attend on his Word preached and read and diligently and conscientiously read the Word searching the Scriptures for this very end and purpose and servently beg God's Blessing on the Word that it may prove to us a Word of Grace a renewing converting sanctifying Word the Seed of Regeneration Jam. 1. 17 18. Of his own will begat he us by the word of truth John 17. 17. Thus must we Labour to be regenerated or else we shall never get off our Minds from earthly things Second Vse by way of Examination We All hope to go to Heaven when we dye and to enjoy all those invisible eternal good things do we not Let us be so kind to our own Souls as to try our Title and the grounds of our Hopes Sure here is one Mark by which we may know whether our Hopes be well grounded or no to wit by our Heavenly-mindedness What do we aim at mainly mind chiefly look on and look after principally Is it Heaven or Earth Visibles or Invisibles Let us examine our selves Which way runs the Stream of our Thoughts the Current of our Affections the Tide of our Discourses Which way runs it strongest steddiest Put this Question close to our Consciences and require a direct Answer Let us not dally and shuffle but be serious Our Apostle makes this a discriminating Character of a Child of God of one in Christ and above the power of Condemnation of one that is born again Rom. 8. 5. They that are after the flesh do mind the things of the flesh the Profits Honours Pleasures Ease Health Liberty of the Flesh that is they mind these things mainly mostly principally chiefly most heartily most seriously most affectionately most delightfully These visible temporal things lye most upon their Thoughts and lye nearest their Hearts This is their Character and it appears in all their Words and Actions But they that are after the Spirit that is are born of the Spirit born of God are in Christ they mind the things of the Spirit the grace the work the witness the comfort and joy or the Spirit they mind the things which the Spirit hath revealed in the Word God and Peace with him Christ and Union with him God's Covenant and Interest therein Eternal Life and Title thereto these invisible eternal things they mind these mainly chiefly mostly principally most heartily affectionately and most delightfully and constantly This is their Character and this is manifest also in their Words and Actions Now let us try our selves What Character have we Which of these two If we will not do so much for our own Souls as to take a little pains in trying we have not much love to them A man may know very much of his State by this And is it not worth a little Labour to know whether we be in Christ or no and whether we shall be Saved or Damned eternally Let us put it home to our Consciences Say O my Soul what dost thou mind most What are thy Thoughts most exercised about Whereupon are thy Affections most fixedly set This is a searching mark oh that we did all try our selves by it we should be much more heavenly than we are The best of us all will have cause of shame and sorrow cause of self-suspicion and jealousie when we strictly compare our selves with
the Reality of those things Who hath believed our Report Isa 53. 1. and to whom is the arm of the Lord revealed to make Souls believe and to work effectual Faith in them Surely to very few A very bare historical Faith is wanting but much more a cordial practical Perswasion of those things for by true Faith we come to have an Interest in all these eternal good things and if we had an Interest in them we should mind them more Those invisible eternal things spoken of in the holy Scripture signifie no more to most of us than those Mountains of Spices and Mines of Gold do that are in the Indies which we never hope to see or possess and for which none of us will part with our poor Cottages Alas alas it were impossible if we did really believe those things above and that they may be had by us but that we should take more pains to get a Title to them and having once got a Title surely we should mind them more than we do Now the grand Reasons why we that profess that we know and believe those great things of the other World yet take so little pains to be assured of our Right to them are these viz. our false Faith our false Hope and our inordinate Love of the World Cou'd we get these three Thieves out of our hearts it wou'd be otherwise with us 1. Our False Faith building our Faith on the Mercy of God and Merits of Christ in general not considering whether those Conditions are wrought in us to which the Mercy of God is promised and to which the Merits of Christ do belong Isa 1. 16. 55. 7. Rom. 8. 9. 2 Cor. 5. 17. 1 Cor. 6. 17. Heb. 5. 9. Matth. 11. 28 29. 16. 24. 10. 34. By all which places we shall find that the Mercy of God belongs to the penitent returning Sinner and that those only can truly claim an Interest in Christ that submit to his Yoke that have his Spirit that are new Creatures that deny themselves and give up themselves to the Government of Christ 2. Our False Hope that deceived those eminent Professors in Matth. 7. 21. and the foolish Virgins Matth. 25. and which deceives all Hypocrites and formal Christians that build their Hopes upon outward Profession Priviledges the performance of religious Duties outward Reformation c. not minding that express word in 1 John 3. 3. Every one that hath this hope that is to see Christ in Glory and to be made like unto him purifieth himself even as he is pure Col. 1. 27. Christ in you the hope of glory Not Christ without you professed by you but Christ in you formed in you dwelling in your Hearts by Faith living and reigning in you by his Word and Spirit that is the Hope of Glory the true and only ground of true Hope of Glory 3. Inordinate Love of the World 1 John 2. 14 15. If we be friends of this world we are enemies to God Too much love of Life Liberty Ease Relations c. our Hearts are let out strongly after these therefore our good God doth oftentimes strip his dearest Children of these in love to their Souls to take off their Affections from them that they may place them on better things where they are better bestowed III. It is Lamentable also that those invisible eternal great and glorious things should be no more minded thought upon considered and spoken of by Professors that hope shortly to enjoy them God Christ Glory Heaven are seldom in mens Minds and Thoughts What are most Peoples Morning and Evening Thoughts Psal 49. 11. What vain Thoughts lodge in our Hearts Jer. 4. 14. Oh how little talk is there of these things amongst us Is God our Father Is Christ our Head and Husband Is the Holy Ghost our Counsellour and Comforter Is the Word of God our Rule and Guide our spiritual Food and Nourishment our Comfort and Consolation Are the Promises our great Charter Heaven and Glory our Inheritance And do we indeed hope to enjoy all these things for ever and ever and yet think no more and speak no more of them Can this be so Can our hopes be good and well grounded Let us not deceive our selves IV. It is Lamentable that those great things should be no more laboured after Joh. 6. 27. Labour not for that meat which perisheth but for that which endureth to eternal life Prov. 2 2 3 4. Isa 55. 2 3. We labour for that which is not Bread not Bread for our Souls and spend that which is better than Mony our Spirits and Time for that which doth not cannot satisfie Why should visible temporal things have so much of our hearts heads tongues hands time strength and all and those invisible eternal things have so little Is there any colour of Reason for it Are not those invisible eternal things infinitely better than the other Certainly it is because they are not known nor believed nor minded that they are no more laboured after How do we dishonour God and Christ and the Promises how do we undervalue Christ's Purchase and Eternal Life when we lay out our selves so much for the World and so little for these How shall we escape if we neglect so great salvation Heb. 2. 3. V. It 's lamentable also that the loss of the means of the discovery of those invisible eternal things should no more affect and trouble us Lam. 1. 7. Jerusalem remembred in the days of her affliction all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old A Famine of the Word is the worst Amos 8. VI. And it is lamentable that those who know believe desire and labour after those things themselves should be no forwarder and readier to commend those things to others and should take no more pains to perswade and draw others to look after them Oh how few cry out to others with holy David Come and I will tell you what God hath done for my soul VII And no less lamentable is it that those who claim an Interest in all those great and glorious good things and hope to enjoy them hereafter that those persons should no more express the power of them in their Lives that they should no more rejoyce in them and be no more raised in their Spirits and gladded in their Hearts with the fore-thoughts of them and that they should live no more comfortably upon them It 's sad that those thus interested in God and Christ and Glory and that are the Expectants of that far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory should not live better lives more exemplary shining profitable joyful lives We that look for such things what manner of persons ought we to be in all manner of holy conversation It 's sad also that such should bear up with no more strength holy courage and confidence in the midst of the Troubles of this short Life seeing they hope for such glorious things in the other World
spirit Second Vse by way of Exhortation to all Christians Would you have sweet Support under all your Discouragements and sinking Troubles then stedfastly and fixedly look upon invisible eternal things Labour to live in the believing views and prospects of and in a serious hearty minding and meditating upon invisible eternal things Oh that we could draw off our Thoughts and Affections from visible temporal things and that we could set them upon things above Oh what Peace and Sweetness should we find in our Spirits Q. But how shall we be able to do this A. I. By looking to God in all our Mercies II. By resigning up our Wills to God in all our Miseries III. By aiming at Communion with God and Conformity to him in all our Actions I. Let us look to God in all our Mercies He is the God of our Lives and of all the Comforts of Life The power vertue and comfort of all created good comes from the Created good even GOD alone for in him we live and move and have our being This Health Ease Liberty Relations Rest Sleep that we have and all those comfortable Accommodations that we enjoy are from the Lord. It was truly said of one That many love the Creature in opposition to God Most love it in competition with him and almost All love the Creature in a way of separation from him But more particularly let us labour 1st To look unto and acknowledge with Heart and Tongue that our Heavenly Father in Christ is the Author and Giver of all the Mercies we enjoy When we have Health Ease Liberty Rest or any other Mercy we should look to him from whom they come and to him through whom they come we should eye the hand of a Father the heart and love of a Father and consider also that all these Mercies come to us through the Blood of a Redeemer this will make every morsel every drop and crumb to be sweet and pleasant to us A Dinner of green Herbs Barley-bread and cold Water with the Love of God will be sweet Q. But when shall we know that we have these from the Love of God and with the Love of God Ans Then we may conclude these outward Mercies come from the Love of God to us when we are truly thankful for the least Mercy we receive and are stirred up to love God more and to be more careful to serve please and trust God the more Let us look thorough our visible Comforts to the invisible giver of them and to that eternal Love from whence they come 1 Chron. 29. 12 13 16. It is our great evil that we love the gifts of God for themselves and not for the giver of them if we could see and taste Divine love and goodness in our Relations Health Estate c. Oh how sweet would they be unto us But this is our Folly and Fault we overlook and forget God and look no further than our visible sensible temporal Comforts even when we speak of God with our Mouths our Hearts are but too far from him Our Hearts hang loose from him and lye at too great a distance from him our Hearts are not engaged with Love and Desire and Delight in him nor enlarged after him and so we miss the Comfort and Sweetness which we might find in him To delight in the God of Mercy more than in the Mercies of God is a true Christian frame and an high pitch of Grace and a special way of enjoying sweet Communion with God a thing wholly strange to most and experienced but by few Q. But how shall I know when I do this Ans 1. By real practical hearty acknowledgment and owning God's Propriety in all our Mercies These Relations Friends this Health Ease Liberty Safety c. these are all the Lords as Jacob said Gen. 33. 5. These are the things that the Lord hath graciously given me We should always look on God as the proper owner of us and them and all that we have are but lent to us and we are but Tenants at his will 2. By labouring to draw up our Hearts and Loves to God by those Mercies we receive from God to make them as Cords and Bands of Love to draw our Hearts nearer to God and to bind our Hearts faster and closer to God by them to make those Mercies as steps to raise up our Souls higher towards God in all the ways of obedience and holy confidence we should pant and pray thus Oh that this Creature-comfort may draw my Heart nearer to God and not lye as an Idol between my Heart and God oh that this temporal Blessing may raise my Heart some degrees higher towards God oh that it may help me to advance God more Oh that it may not divide my Heart from God nor make me forgetful of him nor hinder me in my Duty to him but oh that every Mercy I receive from God may endear God to me and engage my Heart more to him Such pantings and breathings of Soul should be in us then we shall enjoy God in our Mercies and then they will be sweet unto us 3. By labouring to use and improve all our Mercies for God our Health Ease Liberty Estate and all for God to lay all out for his Service If we have any Talent let it be improved for God if any Candle of Comfort lighted in our Habitation let it burn for God if any Ease after Pain any Strength after Weakness lay it out for God Let us be thinking and studying what use and service we can put our Mercies to for God Let us spend Time Health Strength and all for God 4. By labouring to be willing to part with all our outward Mercies when God calls for them As we should desire and wish for no Comfort otherwise than as we may have it with the love of God and as it may help us and not hinder us in our way to God so likewise we should not desire the continuance of any outward Comfort any longer than with the Love of God and when he is pleased to call for them willingly to surrender them to him This is not to love any thing above God nor in competition with him nor in separation from him 1 John 2. 14 15. For he that loveth any thing in the world otherwise the love of the Father is not in him And in so doing we evidence that we love the God of Mercies more than the Mercies of God And this way we may enjoy and maintain much sweet communion with God here in this Life namely by our hearty acknowledgment of God our Father in Christ to be the Author of all our Mercies looking to his Love in them owning his Propriety in them all making them as Cords of Love to draw up our Hearts to God using them for God and willing to part with them at his call This is to look to God in all our Mercies Secondly Let us labour to look unto and live upon God
in every Creature-comfort that we enjoy Not only look unto God in our Mercies as was said before in the other particular but let us labour to ascend higher and that is let us labour and learn to live upon God and his Love in those Mercies Let this be minded by us That it is not the Creature but God in the Creature that we must love and live upon The Creature should not content us without some sense of God's Love in it If we have Health Wealth Liberty Friends we should put this Question to our selves Do we enjoy God's Love with these A great Question yet seldom ask'd It is surely the Love of God in a Mercy that doth sanctifie and sweeten the Mercy to us as is evident in that famous Instance of Hezekiah Isa 38. 17. Thou hast in love to my soul delivered me from the pit of corruption Then Deliverance is sweet when it comes from God's Love to our Souls Q. But how may we know that A. As Hezekiah did For saith he thou hast cast all my sins behind thy back When Pardon of Sin comes with a Mercy 't is a Mercy indeed a double Mercy Note When a Soul-mercy comes with a Bodily Mercy a Soul-mercy with Ease Recovery c. then that outward Mercy comes from the Love of God indeed And thus many times our Lord Jesus distributed his Mercies in the days of his Flesh upon the Earth healing Souls and Bodies together forgiving their Sins and curing their Diseases all at once Q. But how shall we know that our Sins are forgiven as well as our Trouble removed Ans 1. When the Soul is stirred up to suitable praising of God as in Hezekiah so in David Psal 103. 1 2 3. the sense of God's Mercies to them enlarged their Hearts with Thankfulness 2. We may know that our Sins are forgiven us if those Conditions are wrought in us unto which forgiveness of Sins is promised and those are chiefly Repentance and Faith Acts 3. 19. Repent ye therefore and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord. Acts 10. 43. To him namely to Jesus do all the Prophets witness that through his name whosoever believeth in him shall receive remission of sins Now if after Mercies God gives us Hearts to repent and believe we may certainly conclude that those Mercies come to us from the love of God We follow hard in our Prayers and Desires and Endeavours after earthly Mercies when we want them whereas our Souls should follow hard after God in them Psal 63. 8. 31. 23. In every Ordinance Priviledge Duty Providence in every Enjoyment it is the Love of God in it that our Souls should thirst after as David did Psal 63. 1 2 3 My soul thirsteth for God for the living God So Psal 84. 1. Thee thee Lord my soul longeth for He longed for God's Ordinances too but chiefly for God in them So should we cry Health and Ease and Liberty and Deliverance with thy self Lord and with thy Love Peace and Plenty with thy Love Lord not without it Better be without these Mercies than without the Love of God in them Jude 21. Keep your selves in the love of God Gal. 2. 20. Psal 62. 10. If riches Friends Ease c. encrease set not your hearts â—â— them but on God in them To look through and beyond and above a Mercy unto the God of that Mercy is a Mercy in that Mercy and a choice one too for none but God's Chosen ones can do it And so to do argues much Grace and much Communion with God Col. 3. 1 2. Let us look up look up to God in all our Mercies Stay not on the Mercy be not content with the outward Mercy for that is but the Shell but look up to God and long to see and taste his Love in it for that is the Kernel his Love in Christ feed on that by Faith Love Meditation O let us labour to have God in all our Thoughts for to look to love and live upon Creature-comforts meerly barely only is but to live upon Husks Ashes Wind and Vanity these are no Bread for the Soul Isa 55. 2. Psal 143. 6. I stretch forth my hands unto thee my soul thirsteth after thee as a thirsty land When we taste and see the earthly Comforts we have if we can also taste and see the Love of God in them we enjoy a double sweetness an outward and an inward a visible and an invisible sweetness Oh what sweetness then may we taste for both Faith and Sense are fed at once And we may further know that any Mercy comes to us in Love when our Souls are the better for that Mercy more endeared to God and more enlarged after God 3. We must labour to use and enjoy all our Mercies for God for his Honour and Service as was hinted before This is God's end in giving them and it should be ours in using them 1 Cor. 10. 31. Whether ye eat or drink or whatever ye do do all to the glory of God This great End should always be minded by us We should judge all that good that leads us nearer to God and all that evil that draws us farther from him Prov. 16. 4. The Lord hath made all things for himself We have lost most of our Comforts for want of this to wit our not enjoying them in God and for God and God in them We feed on them but not on God in them and this provokes God to remove them and to take away our best outward Mercies from us even his Gospel for our not using it and not improving it for God and for contenting our selves barely with it without God in it Bare Ordinances bare Duties without God in them are but dry Breasts without Milk which Souls may lye upon all their days and starve and perish notwithstanding if they meet not God in them But now if we thus eye and look unto God and seriously mind the invisible eternal God we shall hereby be sweetly supported under all our Troubles For 1st This will take out the gall and wormwood of our Troubles which is our inordinate love of the Creature for there is no immoderate Sorrow for the loss of any thing but of that which was inordinately loved So that if God had had our Hearts and Affections when we had our Creature-Comforts he will have them much more then they are removed for God remains the â—ime still every way as full and as All-sufficient â—â— supply and support us So that if we had lived â—â—on God the Fountain when we had the Cisterns â— shall live more immediately upon him when the â—â—sterns are broken and shall then have our Comforts more pure and more refreshing And this is not all but if we be truly gracious â— will grieve us to the very Heart when our earthâ—â— Comforts are gone that we set our Hearts so much upon them that
God's Almightiness and All-sufficiency will work in us an holy awe and filial fear of Him Who would not fear such a God Luke 12. 5. And also it will breed an holy confidence in him Psal 9. 10. They that know thy name will put their trust in thee for thou Lord hast not forsaken them that seek thee O my Soul look up to God's All-sufficiency He can in a moment turn thy Darkness into Light thy Sorrow into Joy He can make dry Bones live He that breaks can bind up He that takes can give This is the best way to glorifie God in the day of our Visitation to trust in him and relye upon him though He kill all our Comforts yet to believe He can supply He can provide as said Abraham so Psal 107. 33 35. Whatever our case be let us take heed that we despond not nor cast away our confidence but rest upon God's All-sufficiency Trust in the Lord for ever for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength Isa 26. 2 3. Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on thee because he trusteth in thee 6ly Let us eye and own the infinite Wisdom of the invisible eternal God He that sends and orders all our Afflictions is the Wise God the Only-wise God the very Fountain of all Wisdom 1 Tim. 1. 17. He shews his Wisdom not only in his general Providence governing the whole World but in all his special Providences towards his People and that in respect of their Afflictions For 1. God knows best how to order our Afflictions to us and that 1. as to Time when to send them 2. as to Kind what sort of Affliction to send 3. as to Measure how much to send 4. as to Duration how long to continue them Rev. 2. 10. and to what end and purpose He is a most wise God 2. He knows best how to support and comfort his People under all their Afflictions and when to comfort them He knows their Frame He knows their Souls in Adversity He knows their Need and their Strength and hath regard to all this 2 Cor. 1. 4. He is the God of all consolation 3. He knows best when to deliver even then when it shall make most for his own glory and his Peoples greatest good 2 Pet. 2. 9. and surely that must be the best time 4. He knows best how to make Afflictions work most for our good how to bless them and to make them Blessings to us that we may have cause to bless him for them Now we eye and own the Wisdom of God in our Afflictions when by the consideration of it we are kept from maligning and fretting at the Instruments or Causes of our Afflictions saying in our Hearts and Tongues Let Shimei curse let Enemies persecute and plunder c. All these are but Swords Staffs Rods in our most wise and loving Father's Hand These Losses Sicknesses c. do but execute the Will and Wisdom of God and when we make no haste to get out of our Troubles nor use any unlawful means but quietly and contentedly referr all to the Holy Will and Wisdom of God and when we can wait with Patience upon God and stay his time and hope in Him only for an happy issue resigning up our Wills to his Will and Wisdom to do with us to dispose of us and of all our Comforts as He pleaseth By so doing we shall be sweetly supported under all our Troubles Lord God of thy abundant Grace and by thy Almighty Power work in us this blessed frame and keep us in it till Death that thou maist be glorified by us 7ly and lastly Let us eye and own the love and goodness of God in all our Afflictions We are apt to look mostly to the Anger and Displeasure of God in our Troubles which indeed we ought to be sensible of and deeply affected with because we have sinned against Him and therefore ought we patiently to bear the effects of his indignation Mic. 7. 9. and to humble our selves under his mighty Hand to repent of and turn from our evill ways Lam. 3. 40. This we must do but this is not all our Duty but we must also look up to the love of God and to his goodness from which our Afflictions come Psal 89. 33. Heb. 12. 6. Whom the Lord loveth he chastneth Psal 25. 10. All the paths of the Lord are mercy and truth For as our Afflictions have a bad Cause as bad as may be even our Sins Lam. 3. Wherefore doth the living man complain a man for the punishment of his sins Yet they proceed from a good Root even the Love of God As many as I love I rebuke and chasten saith our loving Lord Jesus Rev. 3. 19. He loves when he takes as well as when he gives He takes in love and this believed and considered will very much sweeten every bitter Cup The believing consideration that the love of our Father the love of the Mediator is in every Affliction that every Cup that comes to us passeth first through his Hands who loved us and gave himself for us for through him are all things this consideration will support us Lord encrease our Faith So much of the second Counsel viz. To resign up our Wills to the Will of God in all our Miseries III. The last Counsel to Christians in order to their support and comfort in their Afflictions is this Aim at Communion with God and Conformity to him in all your Actions Look unto the invisible eternal God and labour for Communion with him and conformity to him It is conformity to God that fits us for communion with him The more conformity to him to his holy Nature and to his holy Will the more communion we shall have with him and the more we are like him the more will he manifest himself unto us and the more we obey him the more fellowship we shall have with him John 14. 21 23. And also the more communion we have with him the more communications we have from him the more conformable we shall be to him and the more we shall be like him 2 Cor. 3. 18. Communion with God will transform and change us into his Image more and more and the more we have of his Image the more pleasure will he take in us and the more delight will he take to communicate himself to us The more holy heavenly humble meek patient loving merciful peaceable we are the more like him we are and the more we are like him the more of his love and likeness will he continually work in us and manifest unto us This is the Life of true Religion this is to live the Life of God to live in communion with him panting and longing after constant Influences and Communications of his Life Spirit Love Grace Peace and Comfort from him and giving up surrendring up of our Hearts and Souls to him spending our best thoughts desires affections hopes trust joy and
delight upon him Always minding that it is God in Christ that we must thus look unto and mind in all these particulars God in Christ not God singly considered but God in Christ for God cannot be comfortably thought upon out of Christ our Mediator in whom alone he is well pleased No Communion with God but in Christ no Communication of any good from God to us but in Christ and by his Spirit It is the invisible eternal God by the invisible eternal Son of God and through the invisible eternal Spirit that we must make all our Addresses unto and expect all Communications of good from It is Christ alone that must bring God and the Soul together In Christ we are reconciled to him even by the Blood of his Cross 2 Cor. 5. 19. Col. 1. 21. And being reconciled to God by him we have Peace with God and then have Communion with him In Christ God's Nature becomes lovely to us and ours to God otherwise there is an utter Enmity betwixt his pure and our impure Nature Christ hath made up the vast gulf between God and us He drank of the brook in the way Psal 110. last Aim at and thirst after Communion with God in Christ in all your receipts of Mercies from him and in all your returns of Duty to him Pray and pant that all that you receive from him may come to you from his Love in Christ Oh that this Mercy that this Affliction may proceed from God's Fatherly Love in Christ Jesus so in all your Approaches to God in Ordinances and Duties pray and pant after Communion with God in Christ Oh that I may meet with God in this Ordinance and in this Duty without which we should not be satisfied in any Ordinances and Duties and all outward Blessings are but visible temporal things we must look beyond them and above them unto God in Christ for the invisible eternal love and grace and blessing of God in them So holy David Psal 63. 1 2 3. That I may see thy power and thy glory saith he And Vers 8. My soul followeth hard after God to see God's power and love and grace in Ordinances So Psal 42. 1 2. My soul thirsteth for God for the living God This is the marrow and fatness of God's Ordinances and this is that will satisfie the Soul therefore this is the thing that our Souls should long and breath after that we may have sights sweet sights of the invisible eternal God in Christ in Ordinances and Duties and tasts of his love and goodness in them And if we have Communion with God in our Mercies we shall be able thankfully to receive them and fruitfully to improve them for God And also we shall be enabled patiently and comfortably to bear all our Afflictions and profitably to improve them Now if we would have Communion with God in Christ we must look well to these things viz. 1st We must labour to be pure in Heart for such as are pure in Heart and they only shall see God God in his Son God in his Ordinances in his Providences and in Glory at last If we regard Iniquity in our Hearts God will not hear our Prayers nor afford us any Communion with him Mat. 5. 8. A pure Heart is a new Heart an Heart purged by the Blood of Christ from the guilt of Sin and purified by his Spirit Acts 15. 9. An Heart renewed and sanctified a single sincere and upright Heart that hath pure Principles planted in it the Spirit of God the Fear of God the Love of God Faith in God and Christ Christ formed there the Image of God stamped there the Kingdom of God set up there These are the true Principles of Purity of Heart and Life and also an Heart set and bent by the Rules of God's pure Word that pure Rule and that acteth for pure ends to please God to bring Glory to him to do good to others and to enjoy God in our Salvation Such may expect sweet Communion with God 2 Cor. 6. 16 17. the Lord God Almighty will walk and dwell with such 2ly We must labour to be poor in Heart poor in Spirit Mat. 5. 3. broken in Heart contrite in Spirit Isa 57. 15. O the wonderful condescension of the high and lofty one who dwelleth in the Heavens that He should stoop so low as to dwell in the broken Heart to revive such Hearts such Spirits O the Revivings of God they are Soul-satisfying things The Consolations of God are not small Happy indeed are those Souls in whom the great and glorious God dwells Blessed Souls that are the Temple of the holy God Habitations of God by the Spirit 1 Cor. 3. 16. Eph. 2. 22. Isa 66. 2. To the man will God look that is poor and of a contrite Spirit and God's looks on such are sweet looks Love-looks such shall have much communion with God and Christ for Christ was sent to bind up the broken hearted Luke 4. 18. What a comfortable support is this to a poor afflicted Christian that is poor in this World destitute of Friends and earthly Comforts restrained and shut up in Prison or otherwise confined to Chamber or Sick-bed and withal is poor in Spirit is content in this condition Yet now in this his desolate condition he may have Communion with the great God he may enjoy the blessed and sweet Company of the Lord Jesus by day and by night even when Lover and Friend is put far from him even then his God is near him his everlasting Father is with him his dear Lord and Redeemer his â—â—eet Saviour and loving Husband is with him Psal 25. 15 16 17. Psal 102. 17. He will regard â—e prayer of the destitute and not despise their prayer He will never leave them nor forsake them Yea He will then speak most comfortably to their poor Souls Hos 2. 14. He will speak to their Hearts He knows their Souls best in Adversity and their Souls know him best then Jesus Christ will then â—hew them his Love and manifest it unto them and support them 3ly If we would have Communion with God â—n every condition we must labour to be upright in Heart Psal 125. The Lord is nigh unto them that call upon him in truth they shall have Communion with him He loveth truth in the inner parts He that walketh uprightly shall dwell in God's tabernacle and abide in his holy hill Psal 15. 1 2. God hates Hypocrisie Oh the guile and falshood of our hearts let us bewail it and cry to God with David Make my heart sound in thy statutes 4ly Be heavenly in heart be heavenly-minded such shall have sweet Communion with God such as have their Conversation in Heaven have converse with God Phil. 3. 20. We must be very watchful that the World do not lye too near our hearts nor lodge too long in our hearts for that will steal away our hearts from God and hinder our Communion with him We must take
heed that our hearts be not at any time over-charged with the Cares of this Life but let us labour to keep the World and our Hearts asunder for those things that are visible and temporal will darken our sight of God if we let them into our hearts and they will drive God out of our hearts if we entertain the inordinate love of them Covetousness is Idolatry because it sets up the Creature for a God in the Heart 1 John 2. 14 15. He that loveth the world the love of the Father is not in him Keep a strong Watch then against this present evil World and suffer it not to get into your Hearts if you will maintain your Communion with God in Christ 5ly Be much in the acting of Faith Love Hope Joy in the Lord Be much in praising God By the exercises of these graces we enjoy God and God communicates himself to us Oh labour to live in the lively exercise of Faith Christ dwells in the Heart by Faith Eph. 3. 17. Gal. 2. 20. Labour to believe the Love of God in Christ to your Souls in giving his Son to be a Sin-offering for us John 3. 16. 2 Cor. 5. 21. And this believing it will warm and enflame your Hearts with Love to God again and so you may enjoy much sweet Communion with God and Christ John 14. 21 23. In the Actings of our Love to God we shall meet with more Manifestations of God's Love to us Where and when we open our Hearts to God and Christ and give them our Loves there and then will God and Christ open their Hearts to us and give us their Loves Cant. 1. 2 3. Cant. 7. 10 11. There is a mutual Manifestation of Love to each other no Love is lost between Christ and his Spouse If any man open to me saith Christ I will come in unto him and sup with him and he with me Rev. 3. 18. Now by the exercise of Faith and Love we open to Christ he is always ready to come in Open your everlasting doors that the king of glory may come in Ps 24. 6ly Be very watchful Watch and keep your hearts with all diligence Prov. 4. 23. Take heed let not the World nor Vain Thoughts lodge there Take heed of wandring from God watch your words watch your steps take heed grieve not quench not resist not the Holy Spirit for by him God communicates himself to your Souls carefully observe all his Motions and still beg his assistance in all your Duties and rest upon his Aid without which you can do nothing 7ly And lastly If we would maintain our Communion with God which is our Heaven upon Earth we must look well to our whole Conversation that that be ordered aright for to such God will shew his salvation Psal 50. 23. God looks for a well-order'd Conversation a Life order'd by the Rule of his Word setting narrow Steps to our Feet looking straight on not turning aside to the right or left hand Prov. 4. 25 26 27. nor wickedly departing from his way Psal 18. 21 22 23. but to be righteons just honest saithful upright charitable in all our dealings with Men and carefully performing all our Duties to GOD and Man in singleness and integrity of Heart This is a well-order'd Conversation Also in our Conversation we must mind two things 1. That we have no fellowship with the unfruitful Works of Darkness Ephes 5. 11. that is no more than need no intimate Familiarity and Communion with them lest thereby we lose our Communion with God no more Communion with the Wicked than Piety Charity and Necessity will allow Too many have lost Communion with GOD by their too intimate Communion with the Wicked Away from me saith holy David all ye workers of iniquity 2. That we break not Fellowship with nor withdraw Communion from the People of God from those that bear his Image although differing from us in some circumstances In the Communion of Saints we may have Communion with God Psal 16. 2. God is among his People he walks in them and dwells in them Our Love must be not only to those of our own Opinion but to all Saints and professing Christians and must hold Communion with all those with whom we may charitably judge that Christ holds Communion were this well minded it would do much to heal our sad and sinful Breaches Heb. 10. 24 25. And thus we have seen how that our looking unto invisible eternal things especially unto God in Christ and maintaining our Communion with them we may be sweetly born up and comfortably supported under all our Troubles O Most holy most merciful most gracious Lord God Father Almighty and my most loving and tender-hearted Father in my most dear and sweet Redeemer Jesus Christ I render Thee my most humble and hearty Thanks and Praise for lengthning my days and for supporting me with thy Special Goodness in this poor Work for giving me sometimes hours sometimes half-hours and sometimes days of some Strength and Ease between those many sad and painful Distempers upon me since I began it And I most humbly beseech thee to write these Truths on my Heart and keep them there that by the assistance of thy good Spirit they may be effectual to spiritualize raise and fix my poor cold dead carnal Heart upon thy blessed Self in Christ and be pleased to vouchsafe me sweet sensible and constant Communion with thy self in Christ for thy Mercies sake that thereby I may glorifie thee in this my day of thy Visitation and may be throughly sanctified by and comfortably supported under all my Troubles Amen TO ALL MY Christian Friends IN DARTMOVTH Or elsewhere That desire to know the true state of their never-dying Souls In order to their making clear and sure their Interest in the Lord Jesus Grace and Peace BEfore I had finish'd the foregoing Treatise there came to my hands by God's good Providence some Papers of very great concernment to all our Souls for Eternity being the Conclusion of a Discourse by that Eminent Learned and Pious Servant of the Lord Jesus Mr. John Flavel whose Works praise him and of whose Presence and Labours we that knew him by Face or Works have continual cause to lament our Loss which Discourse was from 2 Cor. 13. 5. concerning Self-examination about a Man's Interest in Christ Which Papers when I viewed and reviewed I bless God I felt so much power in the Contents of them and so much sweetness that I thought not fit to eat my Morsels alone but was strongly imprest to make them publick which here by the consent of his dear Relations I presume to do hoping it will awaken those that did hear those close-trying Truths to be more exact in their trying Work and may also excite others to due diligence in that so profitable and too much neglected Duty of Self-examination Those Characters in this will help us against Self-deceiving Do not read only but pray earnestly for
promised prepared Inheritance they live in hope of Eternal Life Tit. 1. 2. and rejoyce in hope of glory Rom. 5. 2 They live in hope of a better Resurrection they groan after their House in Heaven they seek a Country an heavenly and therefore they cannot but mind and intend look unto and aim at those invisible eternal things Our natural Life much less our spiritual Life doth not consist in the things which we possess that is in visible temporal things for in God we live move and have our being VI. Because these invisible eternal things are the only things that are suitable and satisfying to the Souls of gracious persons Earthly things are not suitable to Heaven-born Souls Riches Honours Pleasures not suitable nor satisfying to immortal Souls which are begotten of God Earthly things are no Bread for Souls Isa 55. 2 3 4. John 6. 27. They are all but Ashes but Wind Husks Chaff not Food for Souls these are suitable to the Body Meats for the Belly and the Belly for Meats but God and Christ and the Word c. for the Soul for the renewed gracious Soul other things will not content it VII Because these invisible eternal things are the best the choicest the chiefest the most excellent things the principal things as all will confess and therefore most worthy to be minded and looked after Phil. 4. 8. GOD and Glory Heaven and Happiness are the best things for certain Heb. 10. 34. 11. 16. The Saints Happiness lies in those invisible eternal things They may be happy without visible temporal things but they can never be happy without the other And indeed all visible temporal things are not worth minding at all in comparison of the other Oh that we could believe this and act accordingly VIII Because those things are most sure and certain incorruptible and undefiled and that fade not away Matth. 6. 19. nor moth nor rust nor thieves can spoil us of these 1 Cor. 9. 25. Heb. 11. 9 10. 13. 14. 1 Pet. 1. 4. Psal 48. 14. This God will be our God for ever None can say so of Relations or Possessions of Health Wealth or Liberty Jesus Christ is the Believer's for ever their Joy is everlasting none can take it from them their Peace is everlasting their Kingdom everlasting IX Because by minding of and by setting their Affections upon those invisible eternal things they are much freed and discharged from the Snares Fears Cares Sorrows Entanglements Incumbrances and Temptations that accompany the minding of those visible temporal things Nil sentit in Nervo cum Anima sit in Coelo Oh the intolerable Burthens the unavoidable Snares Cares and Fears that attend these earthly things how are the Minds of Men rack'd tortured distracted distempered macerated with these while they mind them eagerly and inordinately What cross Passages fall out what Disappointments do they meet with how strangely are mens Minds bewitched with these things what unruly Passions are oftentimes stirred up and thence they break out into many uncomely words and actions piercing themselves thorow with many Sorrows 1 Tim. 6. 10. Against this our Lord caution'd his Disciples Luk. 21. 34. Take heed lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness and cares of this life And by these worldly entanglements many times God is forgotten Conscience wounded Peace broken Guilt contracted Duty neglected and Sorrows multiplied But now when we can get off our Hearts from Earthly things and can get them up above these things and can fix our Minds upon those high and heavenly things how are our Spirits discharged and disburthened and our Minds eased and quieted Psal 63. 5 6. My soul shall be satisfied as with marrow and fatness When I remember thee upon my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches O the sweet Peace and Tranquility of Mind that those enjoy that look above and live above and have their conversation in Heaven who walk with God and talk with God and constantly converse with things above To be spiritually minded is life and peace Rom. 8. 6. X. Because by this minding Heavenly things the Saints get good Proof and Evidence of their Title unto and of their Interest in God and Christ and to those invisible eternal things 1 Joh. 5. 4. Col. 3. 1 2 3. Joh. 3. 6. 1 Cor. 15. 48. This is a good Proof that we belong to God and Heaven because we mind them and set our Hearts upon them XI Because by the minding of those things above the People of God are wonderfully supported under all their Troubles in this Life and by their Heavenly-mindedness their Troubles are alleviated and sweetned to them as in the Text and Context We faint not while we look not at those things which are seen for they are temporal but at those things which are not seen for they are eternal By our looking off from temporal things and by our looking on upon eternal things we are supported under all our Sufferings XII And Lastly Because this is the way to salvation For if the end of those who mind earthly things be Destruction as Phil. 3. 19. then the end of those who mind Heavenly things must be Salvation Thus much for the grounds of the Point Q. But wherein consists this Duty of looking unto invisible eternal things What is this minding of them And how must this Work be managed Ans 1. It consists in the distinct knowing and right understanding of those invisible eternal things to know God and Christ the Mystery of God and Godliness Col. 2. 3. Ephes 1. 17 18. Let us pray as the Apostle doth there That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ the Father of glory would give unto us the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him That the eyes of our understandings may be enlightned c. 2. In a full perswasion of Heart of the Reality and transcendent Excellency of those invisible eternal things that they are indeed the most real the most substantial and the most excellent things infinitely surpassing all temporal things Phil. 3. 8 9. Psal 73. 25. If we believe not this and be not fully perswaded of this that Heavenly things are incomparably better than Earthly things we shall never set our Hearts upon them 3. In the frequent and lively Actings of Faith Love Desire Hope Hungrings Thirstings Pantings Breathings Longings and Expectations upon and after those Heavenly things Psal 42. 1 2. 63. 1 2 3 8. Isa 26. 9. Oh that I had a clearer fuller sight of God more acquaintance with my Blessed Jesus more spiritual relish of Divine things more experience of the saving workings of the Holy Spirit more sense of the fatherly love of God in Christ Oh that I had clearer Evidences of my title to Everlasting Rest Oh that the Love of God may be shed abroad on my Heart abundantly Oh that I could taste more sweetness and feel more Power in the Word and Promises Oh that