were these Kenites How long since was his kindeness shewed What was this kindeness For the first The Kenites were the posterity of Jethro Moses his Father in Law this you may see Judges 1. 16. For the second This kindeness was four hundred and twenty years before this time at the least for so long it was from the Children of Israels being then in the wilderness and this time of Sauls reign For the third It is thought of some to be the kinde visit of Iethro visiting his son in law and Israel in the wilderness and besides directing him in a way of government of the people that he might not wear away himself which was a great blessing to Israel at that time And further whereas Moses desired him to go with him to direct him in the way of the wilderness where they should go it is like he did it in part but though he did not stay with him but returned to his Country yet it is probable that some of his children staid and went along with Israel and were helpful to them in their way for Iudges 1. 16. The children of the Kenite are said to go up out of the city of palm-trees with the children of Iudah now this is by Jericho the first City the Israelites took in Cannan as appears Deut. 34. 3. therefore it s like that they accompanied Israel along in the wilderness and so shewed kindeness unto them which the Lord here remembers Ye who are willing to shew kindeness to Gods people in their affliction know there is mercy laid up in store for you and your posterity that childe not yet born may many years hence have the blessing of this your love Let no vain objections therefore no carnal reasonings hinder you in this great and honorable service of Christ for appearing for for defending of rejoycing in the persecuted despised afflicted Saints of God be not ashamed of them look not shy upon them deal not ruggedly with them let your hearts and houses be open to them let their spirits be comforted their bowels be refreshed their names vindicated their cause maintained their persons honored their sorrows eased their burthens lightened by what you have or can do by your selves or others If there be any consolation in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the Spirit if any bowels and mercies if any hope any desire that Jesus Chirst should know your souls in the day of your adversity fulfil this truth now opened before you applyed unto you this duty urged upon you It may be some of you have been Moses's such as have been drawn out of the water out of great afflictions be you now Moses's to others seek to draw them out if it may be howsoever to relieve and help them while they are in the waters and the blessing not of Moses but of Jesus Christ the mighty Savior the great stander up for and comforter of his people in times of straights be upon you CHAP. XIX Enjoyment of communion with Gods people is worth the enduring much affliction WE are now come to the sixth doctrinal Point that we have here in this part of Moses choice That the enioyment of communion with Gods people is worth the enduring of a great deal of affliction Moses chooses to suffer affliction with the people of God he saw they were Gods people and that it was a good thing to be with them and therefore rather then he would not be with them he was content to lose all the honors of Pharaohs Court and put himself under the sorest affliction that he could meet withal nothing should hinder him from joyning with them In the worst times of the Church wherein the hardest things were to be suffered in joyning with Gods people yet even then would those who had gracious hearts choose to be with them upon the hardest terms rather then to be from them with all outward ease and carnal delight It was a very ill time when there was a separation between the ten Tribes and the rest when the ten Tribes left the Temple left the Ordinances of God and followed after Jeroboam this was a very hard time and the rather because Jeroboam set watchers to observe who would go from him unto Judah to joyn with Gods people there for there remained the true Church And this is the meaning of that place Hos 5. 1. Hear ye this O Priests and hearken ye house of Israel and give ye ear O house of the king for judgement is towards you because you have been a snare on Mizpah and a net spread upon Tabor Now these two places were places that were between Samaria the ten Tribes and Jerusalem whosoever should go from them to Ierusalem to joyn with Gods people there in the true worship of God those that were set at Mizpah and Tabor would spy them and so they were ready to be taken This was the hard condition of Gods people then and they did mightily scorn at those that would go to Jerusalem to worship and to joyn with them in that way of worship And therefore Amaziah said to Amos Chap. 7. ver 12. O thou Seer go flee thee away into the land of Judah and there eat bread and prophesie there as if Amaziah should say Judah is a fitter place for you then this you are so precise and strict you had need be gone to Judah we are Idolaters here and no true Church but in Judah such as you are had better be gone to Judah And so it is usual for those that are carnal and prophane to scorn at those that are godly Yet though things were so hard in these times that there were watches and spies set to watch over them and they did contemn those that did look towards Judah yet those that were godly would not be discouraged but would go and joyn with Gods people notwithstanding all this and therefore you have it in 2 Chron. 11. 16. what was the way of Gods servants in that time when it was such a difficult thing to joyn with Gods people All such as set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel there were a company of them that would stay in Samaria that might have good wishes that times were better and things were better but would not suffer any thing to go and joyn with Gods people where they might have the Ordinances in a pure maner but all such as set their hearts to seek the Lord and resolved whatsoever came of it they would have God in the purity of his Ordinances they went up to Jerusalem And So it was in the Primitive times they were very hard times for Gods people and the people of God and Christians were discovered by their meetings together if so be all of them would have separated one from another and kept their Religion to themselves they might not have been discovered but though it were with hazard of their lives they would joyn together and meet together and
he will joy over thee with singing One word is heaped upon another to set out the abundance of delight that God takes in his people Hence the Church hath that name given her Hephzibah because God delighteth in her Isaiah 62. 4. And in Deut. 33. 3. it is said He loved his people there is a general love All his Saints are in his hand and they sate down at his feet that is more particular and in Cant. 4. 9. Thou hast ravished my heart my sister my Spouse c. One would think by the reading of the words they were rather the speech of the Spouse to Christ but it is the speech of Christ to his Spouse And so again in Cantic 5. 2. Open to me my sister my love my dove my undefiled these are the expressions of the delight that God hath in his people The Lord loves the gates of Zion more then all the ling places of Jacob that is God delights in the publike communion of his people more then in all their private dwellings If we be of Gods minde and have Gods Spirit our hearts must be where God is Gods bowels yern towards them I am afflicted with thee in all thy afflictions and how shall I give thee up There is a notable expression in Hosea 9. 10. where God sets out much of his delight in his Church I found Israel like grapes in the wilderness as a traveller wearied parched in the wilderness if he findes bunches of grapes O how sweet and refreshing are they to him so says God was Israel to me and further I saw your fathers as the first ripe in the fig-tree at her first time Fruit when it comes at the first and is dainty how is it prized some will give an incredible price for some kinde of timely fruit when it is rare at the first Thus God sets out his delight never Longer did delight more in some timely rare fruit then God does in his Saints God takes delight you see in his people above all others and therefore it is good to be with them Sixthly Consider the glorious titles that in Scripture are put upon the Saints in a way of Church communion as 1. They are Gods portion Deut. 32. 9. The Lords portion is his people 2. His pleasant portion Jer. 12. 10. They have made my pleasant portion a desolate wilderness 3. His inheritance Isaiah 19. 25. other people are the work of Gods hands but Israel is his inheritance 4. The dearly beloved of his soul Jer. 12. 7. He gave the dearly beloved of his soul into the hands of their enemies 5. His treasure his peculiar treasure Exod. 19. 5. Ye shall be a peculiar treasure to me above all people for all the earth is mine that is called peculium which the son and heir of the house hath of his own besides the right of his fathers inheritance which he may dispose of as he thinks good so though the earth be the Lord Christs by inheritance by right of creation yet he hath a special interest in his Church above all other God hath treasure in the works of nature and it is called his good treasure Deut. 28. 12. The Lord shall open to thee his good treasure but this is his peculiar treasure 6. His glory Isaiah 46. 13. I will place salvation in Zion for Israel my glory 7. The house of Gods glory Isa 60. 7. 8. A crown of glory Isa 62. 3. 9. The throne of God Exod. 17. 16. The words may be read thus because the hand upon the throne of the Lord and so by many they are translated and then the sense is because Amaleks hand was upon the Church the throne therefore God threatens war against them vea 10. The Throne of glory Jer. 4. 21. 11. The Ornament of God Ezek. 7. 20. 12. The beauty of his ornament Ezek. 7. 20. 13. The beauty of his ornament set in majesty Ezek. 7. 20. 14. A royal Diadem Isaiah 62. 3. Many other such expressions you may meet with in Scripture but put these together and you see it is desireable to be with the Saints in their communion Seventhly There is a special presence of God amongst them and to be there where God is in his especial presence it is worth the enduring of a great deal of affliction God is there in a special maner as in the last words of the prophesie of Ezekiel the Church is called by that name Iehova Shammah the Lord is there And the Lord filled his Tabernacle with his presence the Tabernacle was a type of the Church and did typifie his especial presence with his people in Church-communion And as God is there present so observe the expressions of his especial presence he is said to dwell there Psal 76. 2. In Salem is his Tabernacle and his dwelling place in Zion Now it is good keeping house with God You are his house saith the Apostle the Church of God is his house and it is good to be in Gods house But though it be his dwelling Is it a dwelling that is lovely to him Yes for it is that his soul desires to be in as if so be God counted it a kinde of honor as we may speak with holy reverence to have such a habitation Psal 132. 14. Here will I dwell for I have desired it as if he should say If I might have but a dwelling among my people I desire no better habitation in the world Now you that are fain to be put into mean holes for your dwellings if you may be with Gods people do not think it much for God dwells there and desires no better habitation It is strange that God that hath Heaven to be his habitation should desire to dwell with his people yet says he I desire to dwell there and I will dwell there If a man make a house to do some mean business in he does not take much delight there but in that house where the Kings Majesty is manifested that is the greatest place in the Kingdom now in Psal 26. 8. it is Lord I have loved the habitation of thy house where thy honor dwelleth as if this were the chief house that God had that God delighteth in this above all other dwellings his honor dwells here But will God stay here Yea it is the place that he will dwell in for ever Psal 132. 13 14. Surely our hearts may rest where God rests and we should not be weary where God is not weary And he does not onely dwell here but he hath his delightful walks here the walks of God are amongst his people 2 Cor. 6. 16. If a man have a house that he rejoyces in he will have his garden as near his house as he can that he may have some walks to delight in and so the Church of God is such a house as hath not onely room for God to rest in and set his honor in but he walks there and walks in them saith the Apostle Thus the
let out immediately from God and this is indeed the special difference of all from whence flow many excellent consequences which would even require a particular of it self I may hereafter enlarge my self in this in some other Treatise And thus you may see the blessed condition of Gods people when they come to the recompence of reward We have something here and we rejoyce in it and bless God for it but those ways that God hath to communicate himself to his people hereafter are glorious ways O that our hearts were raised to look after that communication of God that we shall have hereafter O those base and drossie spirits that we have Because we receive some goodness of God here we are ready to be quieted here and rest here as if God had nothing to communicate to the Children of men but that we have here See the vileness of our hearts we are here ready to rest upon the lowest things that God communicates and do not so much as rise in our hearts to the highest things that are communicated here but a christian heart should rise higher then the most excellent things that are here in the world namely to the most blessed things that are hereafter let us shew our selves that we are men of hopes to enjoy God after another maner then here Many do not desire enjoyment of God let them have the creature they never think of any communication of God so much as through the creature whereas a true Christian that hath grace he receives nothing in the world but he thinks with himself how have I God here how does God communicate himself to me in meat and drink and cloathes and friends and the like it is well if you go thus far but you must go higher are there not choyce mercies O yes there are blessed things communicated through the ordinances through prayer and the word and sacraments there are blessed things few mens hearts look so high as to look to the communication of Gods choyce mercies in this world but a gracious heart rises higher does as it were bathe it self with those refreshments that are to come through Gods mercy I have the creature and the communication of God through that and I have the ordinances and Gods choyce mercies communicated through them but there are glorious things to be communicated hereafter and those my soul rejoyces in Now God does communicate himself onely in that way which is suitable to our condition now we are but narrow vessels and have but narrow mouthes and are not capable of that greatness of Gods communication but time will come when as God will communicate himself in a more glorious maner and in that I bless my self and therefore I will not regard any of Gods communication of himself to me here but in order unto that glorious communication of God to me hereafter And thus we have seen something of the recompence of reward comparing it with what we have here Now secondly we are to compare it with the condition of Adam in the estate of Innocency As for the estate of Adam in Paradise it was a blessed condition yet far under the happiness of the Saints in the recompence of the reward For Adams body was but natural and his Paradise was but a natural Paradise and a possibility there was he might lose his happiness and if he should have stood there should not have been that glorious distinct working of the three Persons of the Trinity about mans happiness that there now is and therein especially lies the difference Thirdly compare it with the Angels and you shall finde in Scripture some expressions of the happiness of the Saints beyond the happiness of the blessed Angels themselves For the union that the Saints shall have with the Deity is a nearer union in divers respects then the union that the Angels have with the Deity and the righteousness wherewith the Saints stand righteous before the Lord is an higher righteousness then Adam or the Angels should have been in First the union that the Saints have with the Deity is a nearer union then that of the Angels First the humane nature in general that is advanced to an higher dignity then all the glory of the Angels put together Because there is an Hypostatical union between the humane Nature and the Divine in Christ Again we have many expressions in Scripture of the union of Saints with the Deity whereby it appears their union is nearer then the union of the Angels They are called the friends of Christ They are said to have fellowship with Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 9. They are the Brethren of Christ They are Co-heirs with Jesus Christ There are no such expressions of the Angels And yet there are nearer expressions of their union they are the Spouse of Christ the Bride the Angels are but as the servants They are the members of Christ and are made one with Christ They are those that are to be one with the Father as the Father and the Son are one Iohn 17. 21. Christ there prays As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us he never prayed so for the Angels Lastly they are said to be loved of the Father with the very same love wherewith he loved the Son now though God loves the Angels yet it is not said that he loved them with the same love that he loved his Son These are the expressions we finde in Scripture concerning the near union that the Saints have with the Deity in some respects beyond the Angels but of the union of the Saints with the Deity we shall speak of more when we come to speak of the reward positively And then the righteousness wherewith they stand righteous before God is greater then the righteousness of Adam in Paradise or the Angels because it is the righteousness of the second Person of the Trinity and that is of an higher nature and a more glorious righteousness then the righteousness of any meer creature Now the righteousness of the Angels though it be perfect in its kinde yet it is not a righteousness of such an high nature as that righteousness which is the Son of God And thus of this recompence of reward comparatively CHAP. XLIII The perfection of the bodies and souls of the Saints in glory NOw thirdly let us consider it positively now in this positive consideration these things are to be followed First the perfection of their natures that they shall be raised to Secondly the glory that shall be put upon them at the day of Judgement Thirdly the possession of Heaven Fourthly the having God to be their Portion Fifthly their blessed communion with Jesus Christ Sixthly their communion with the Saints and Angels Lastly the eternal Sabbath that they are to keep in Heaven Under these seven heads all that we have to say concerning the positive reward of the Saints may be contained First the perfection that their
means that are used to attain this end and rest as namely the work of God in sending the second person in the Trinity to take mans nature upon him and all the works of God in Election in Redemption in Adoption in Justification in Sanctification yea all the works of God in creation in providence the designing the Holy Ghost to that office he is designed to and all the Ordinances of God look what preciousness is in all these works of God and means it sets out unto us the preciousness and excellency and glory that there is in the last end whereunto Gods people shall attain and that rest they shall have The seventh and last thing in having God to be their portion is the enjoyment of themselves in God as they shall enjoy God and God in themselves so they shall enjoy themselves in God living in God continually the fish does not more truly live in the water and move in the water then the souls of the Saints shall live in God and move in God Col. 3. 3. Your life is hid with Christ in God the life of Saints here is an hidden life and it is hidden in God but then it shall be a revealed life and revealed in God and enjoyed in God Hence is that Phrase Enter into your masters joy that enters not into you but you must enter into it it is your masters joy not onely that joy that your master gives but the same joy your master hath that you shall enter into and live in It is said of Saint John in Rev. 1. that he was on the Lords day in the Spirit it is not said that the Spirit was in him but it is said he was in the Spirit that was as a beginning of the glorious condition of the Saints of God that they shall be in the Spirit of God not onely God in them but they in God as a drop of water in the Sea swallowed up in it Put a drop of wine into the Sea it is changed into the nature of the Sea and so though we cannot be changed into the Divine Nature yet we shall be swallowed up in God so as we shal not any further minde our selves our own good as a created thing nor our selves as creatures but altogether God our mindes shall be so wholly upon God as if they were wholly emptyed of any created good and had nothing to do but with an increated good it shall not will any thing to it self nor to any other creature but all to God and so wholly taken upon with God and upon that ground because they have that likeness unto God and partake of the Divine Nature Here we do good to others because of their likeness to our selves But the Saints shall will all good to God not because God is like them but because they are like to God so that they shall love themselves for God There are three degrees of love to God loving of God for our selves and loving God for himself and loving our selves for God the one is but a natural love the second is a gracious love the third is a love of the glorified Saints First to love God for our selves so an hypocrite may love God because he hath gifts and many blessings from God this is but a natural love But grace goes further then nature that is to love God for himself though we should never have any thing yet if we be gracious we love God for himself but the glorified Saints go further then grace and that is to love themselves for God whereas heretofore we did onely love God for our selves or for himself now we come to love our selves for God and in this kinde of love of God and enjoyment of our selves in him the soul shall be ravished with God and be in a kinde of extasie eternally Now there is a twofold extasie one that is through the weakness of the inferior faculties of the soul when the minde of a man is taken up about an high object seriously the other faculties being weak they fail and so men come to be in a trance and extasie many have had great joy that they have even dyed with it the heart hath so dilated it self as the vital spirits have flown out But there is an extasie comes from the excellency of the object that the minde is busied about but without any weariness of any inferior faculty If then we put all together that hath been said about God and the enjoyment of God and having God to be the portion of the Saints you see the principal part of Heaven and the spiritual part of the glory of the Saints Here is faith called for and why should not our faith go beyond reason to rectifie reason as reason rectifies sense these things be high and great mysteries When as reason says How can this be as when Christ was speaking of the new birth says Nicodemus How can this be let but faith get as far above reason as reason hath got above sense and we may easily see how they can be by sense If a man look up to the Firmament and see the Sun shine he would think it were little bigger then a Bushel or the like now reason will tell men otherwise reason that tells men that this creature that appears to be but in this bigness it is many hundred times bigger then the Earth now if reason can rectifie sense so far Why should not faith go beyond reason as far Now reason will tell us of much happiness that may be had We may conceive by reason by understanding that the rational creature is capable of abundance of glory but when you hear things delivered by the word which are more then reason can conceive let us get faith to rectifie reason and we shall not call those truths into question and yet know that our glory will be beyond our faith as our faith is beyond our reason Here you may see that most people in the world mistake Heaven and look at Heaven in a sensual maner when we speak of Heaven where have we a man or woman that looks at Heaven in these spiritual excellencies about enjoying God in this maner As the Jews looked for a carnal Messiah whose Kingdom should be in the earth and whose glory should be external not considering the Spiritual Kingdom of Christ so most in the world look but for a carnal Heaven It is a good evidence of the truth of grace if you can look to Heaven with a right eye in a right maner to look at the spiritual part and spiritual excellency in Heaven But that which makes people to call these things in question is first because they are not acquainted with God but are sensual their hearts are acquainted with nothing but sensual and earthly things and therefore their hearts are not raised to these things but they look at them as notions but that soul that is acquainted with God and the counsels of God and
of the glorious reward fills the heart with precious liquor that you may set it by the fire and put it into troubles it will not break As a Gyant refreshed with wine hath great strength to undertake any thing so the soul that is filled with this comfort of the hope of Heaven and glory can go forth as a Gyant refreshed with wine and make nothing of those things that others make great matters of When the heart is filled with joy hope of believing and so filled with light within whatsoever darkness is abroad it cares not As Oecolampadius when he was to dye and they spoke of the light without says he What is the light without I have light enough within And so a gracious heart says there is enough within to strengthen me let there be without what there will When Alexander gave away great things almost all he had one of his Officers aked him what he would have left for himself says he Hope so says a gracious heart though all things be gone yet it is enough to fill my heart with joy that I have hope of the glory that is to be reveald A natural chearful spirit can be able to undergo great things that one that is naturally timorous cannot the Wise man saith The Spirit of a man shall sustain his infirmities A man that hath a natural chearful spirit is able to sustain many infirmities that others cannot As for melancholy spirits every thing that comes cross to them is ready to sink them and they cannot undergo those troubles which a chearful spirit can because they want the sweetness within What strength is there then in the filling the heart with joy in believing of these things As a man that hath his bones filled with marrow and hath abundance of good blood and fresh spirits in his body he can endure to go with less cloathes then another because he is well lined within so it is with a heart that hath a great deal of fat and marrow joy and peace within though such a one hath not many cloathes and outward comforts to strengthen him he will go through troubles well enough Proverbs 14. 14. A good man is satisfied from himself And it is enough for good men to know within themselves that they have an enduring substance Heb. 10. 34. A tree that hath a great deal of sap within can bear great weights and burthens that others cannot and that is the fifth ground because the hope of these things does fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A sixth thing wherein the power of having respect to the recompence of reward appears is in that it hath a great deal of power to resist any temptation of Satan and to quench the fiery darts of Satan In Ephes 6. where the spiritual armor is spoken of the helmet the armor that is for the head and keeps that from being hurt with any stroke is the hope of salvation and the hope of glory so that whatsoever temptations of the Devil comes by this helmet they are kept off that they do not so much as take the judgement As we might instance in the several temptations that the Devil hath to keep one from sufferings as when he comes and says Why will you undo your selves in such a way as this Presently the hope of salvation is held up and the soul answers It is so far from undoing of me that it is the onely way to provide for my self He that will save his life shall lose it and he that will lose his life for my sake shall save it If the Devil comes with this temptation Surely God does not require such things of his people to be brought into such straits and suffer such hard things The soul that hath the hope of his glory holds it up and makes this answer Why seeing the Lord hath laid up such glorious things hereafter why should I not think that God may require hard things for the present If he comes with this temptation Why will you go on in a singular way from others A gracious heart upon this argument answers I expect choice and singular mercies from God and why should I think much to go on in a way that is singular though others do otherwise it may be they shal never be partakers of such singular things If the Devil comes and say Surely God does not love you if he did he would not suffer such great calamities and sore troubles to befal you and if it were his cause he would assist you in it the soul answers Hath the Lord laid up such glorious things for me hereafter and shall I call Gods love in question because I am deprived of these mean things and undergo such afflictions as these certainly those things that God hath laid up for me shall so uphold my heart as that I shall never call in question Gods love though I suffer never so much here and that is the sixth particular Seventhly there is a great deal of power in this argument to help on the soul in a way of suffering because by looking at this recompence of reward the soul comes to see what glorious things sufferings do prepare for hasten unto and work to the encrease of First what glorious things sufferings prepare for As it is a notable expression Mr. Hawks hath in a Letter he writ to encourage Mr. Philpot being cast into the Bishops Cole-house says he This Bishops Cole-house is but to scour you and make you bright and to fit you to be set up upon the high shelf meaning Heaven as when you would set up vessels of brass or iron you first take cinders or ashes and scour them and by rubbing them with such things they are fit to be set up so all sufferings are but the means that God uses to scour his people to make them bright to set them up on high God will not set up his servants on the high shelf till first he hath made them bright and he uses this way to do it and then they hasten to great things the more one suffers the nearer he comes to glory and to Heaven Let the world do the worst it can it can but take away your estates and meat and drink and put you in the cold and hasten death and the hastening of death is the hastening of glory The greatest sufferings of Gods people are but as the fiery Chariots to carry Gods people home in This was the answer of Basil to the Emperors Lieutenant when he threatned death to him Death is a benefit to me it will send me sooner to God to whom I live to whom I desire to hasten And then they do encrease glory it is but a trade of less things to encrease greater all sufferings are the seeds of glory Eighthly there is a great deal of power in this to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because it does mightily enflame the soul with love to God
call you from the Land of the living was come I was then for some time daily with your Lordship and all the desires you expressed for life were That you might live to do God service here God then spared your life and now my Lord I beseech your Honor to give me leave to minde your Lordship of these desires and those Covenants you made with God if ever he restored you Surely the Vows of God are upon you God hath now put an opportunity into your hand to fulfil them and all other you have ever made unto him and now he expects the performance of them now there are opportunities of that service that may draw forth all that nobility of your spirit wherein you may give testimony of thankfulness for all mercies so abundantly heaped upon you and be faithful in performing of all your vows and blessed be God for this opportunity This is your honor to account opportunity of service for God and his people your greatest honor upon earth Go on and prosper and the Lord recompence all that respect you have shewn to his servants and amongst others to my self Wherefore in duty to you I here present your Honor with this Treatise of Moses his Choice which ventures to come to the view of the world for furtherance and encouragement in such a happy choice blessed with such a happy reward as the eye of Moses in this his choice was fixed upon And herein I gladly take the occasion to make an honorable mention of your Name that I might testifie not onely to your Honor but to all the world my thankful remembrance and due acknowledgement of your Lordships undeserved respects toward me who am and ever shall be Your Honors in all humble and due observance Jeremiah Burroughs THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. GOd will sometimes be honored rather with the sufferings of men in high places then with their services Page 1 Chap. 2. The opening of the words with the several doctrines in this Text 7 Chap. 3. Gods people though dear to God yet usually have been in an afflicted estate 9 Chap. 4. What use we should make of Gods sparing us from the woful afflictions which have befaln and do befal others 25 Chap. 5. The Reasons of the afflicted estate of Gods people from the malice of the Devil and wicked men 31 Chap. 6. Many Reasons why God order things in his providence so as his beloved should be under sore afflictions in this world 38 Chap. 7. What use we should make of Gods ordering his people to an afflicted condition 60 Chap. 8. Eleven Rules for preparation to suffer afflictions 71 Chap. 9. Duties required of us when God calls us to an afflicted condition 86 Chap. 10. Wicked men have pleasures in ways of sin while Gods people endure much hardship in ways of holiness 99 Chap. 11. Afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness 106 Chap. 12. Who are the truly wise men with encouragement to the Saints in the happy choice they have made 132 Chap. 13. The evil of an ill choice discovered 145 Chap. 14. The drawing mens hearts to a happy choyce 158 Chap. 15. The true pleasantness of all the ways of godliness 169 Chap. 16. A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction 199 Chap. 17. What we are to learn from that high esteem a gracious heart hath of the Saints in their sorest afflictions 215 Chap. 18. A gracious heart will appear for the people of God whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it 228 Chap. 19. Enjoyment of communion with Gods people is worth the enduring much affliction 243 Chap. 20. Perswasions to draw to the joyning with the people of God in the nearest communion 265 Chap. 21. Objections against joyning with Gods people answered 274 Chap. 22. Instructions to those who are joyned in communion with Gods people 291 Chap. 23. How should Gods people so walk as to draw others in love with their communion 293 Chap. 24. We should satisfie our selves in communion with the Saints and improve it to the utmost advantage we can 307 Chap. 25. Whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart 314 Chap. 26. Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things 322 Chap. 27. Exhortation to seek after eternal things 334 Chap. 28. How we should know how it will be with us for eternity and what we should do that it may be well with us eternally 340 Chap. 29. The review of Moses choice 345 Chap. 30. The condition of Gods people is a repoached condition 348 Chap. 31. What use there is to be made of the reproaches the Condition of Gods people is liabe to 362 Chap. 32. How we are to bear reproaches 375 Chap. 33. What we should do that we may be able to bear reproach 395 Chap. 34. The reproaches of Gods people are the reproaches of Christ 404 Chap. 35. Sixteen several Consolutions arising to the Saints from this consideration c. 412 Chap. 36. The dreadful evil there is in reproaching the Saints 424 Chap. 37. Seeing Christ makes our sufferings his we should make his sufferings ours 431 Chap. 38. A gracious heart hath a high esteem of reproaches in the cause of Christ 439 Chap. 39. There is a glorious reward for the people of God 477 Chap. 40. How far we may aim at the recompence of reward in what we do 485 Chap. 41. What is this Recompence of Reward 494 Chap. 42. The differences between that good we receive here from God and that we shall have hereafter 501 Chap. 43. The perfection of the bodies and souls of the Saints in glory 512 Chap. 44. The glory that shall be put upon the Saints at the great day 523 Chap. 45. The Saints enjoyment of God to be their portion Their happiness in having his presence 529 Chap. 46. The happiness of the beatifical Vision discovered 535 Chap. 47. The blessedness of Union with God 547 Chap. 48. The blessedness of communion with God 554 Chap. 49. The happiness of the Saints in their fruition of God and their perfect rest in him 569 Chap. 50. The Saints happiness in communion with Christ 579 Chap. 51. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory 585 Chap. 52. The happiness of Gods people in the perpetual Sabbath that they shall enjoy 591 Chap. 53. Wherein the power and efficacy of eying the recompence of reward consists 606 Chap. 54. Gods people to be highly honored 653 Chap. 55. To whom the Recompence of reward appertains 660 Chap. 56. Christians should live and dye as becomes heirs of such a glorious estate 698 Chap. 57. The great things of eternity to be much sought after 706 Chap. 58. How the Recompence of reward may be attained 717 Moses his Choice HEB. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season CHAP. I. God will sometimes be honored rather with the sufferings of
great deal of evil and misery and wrath in being suffered to go on with delight and pleasure in a sinful way Bernard says when God spares men in a sinful way it is because God is not onely angry with men but hates them he calls his mercy more cruel then all indignation Origen in his Sermon upon Ex. 20. quotes that place Hos 4. 14. I will not punish your daughters when they commit whoredom and he hath this pathetical expression upon it God chastiseth every soul whom he loveth but would you hear the terrible voyce of Gods indignation hear him by the Prophet Hosea when he had reckoned up many wicked things which the people had committed and he adds this I will not visit your daughters when they commit whoredom this is terrible this is in the height And Bernard speaking of the same thing in the 42 Sermon upon the Canticles At the hearing onely of this says he I tremble then God is most angry when he shews no anger God keep me from this mercy this kinde of mercy is worse then all anger Luther hath an expression much like upon the 37. of Genesis O unhappy and miserable men whom God leaves to themselves not resisting their lusts wo to them whose sins God seems to wink at And Jerome writing to a sick friend hath this expression I account it a part of unhappiness not to know adversity I judge you to be miserable because you have not been miserable Bernard in his Book de consolat cap. 3. Freedom from punishment is the mother of security the step-mother of vertue the poyson of Religion the moth of holiness Yea this was seen by the purblinde eyes of the Heathen Seneca in his fourth Chapter of his Book of Providence hath the same words that before was said of Jerome I judge him miserable that was never miserable And Demetrius Nothing seems more unhappy to me then he to whom no adversity hath happened It were easie to multiply abundance in this kinde it may be testimonies of men may have some force to prevail with such who are given up by God to their pleasures to the enjoyment of earthly prosperity and sensual delights certainly they are not so happy as they judge themselves to be that which God denies to another in mercy he may give thee in wrath And thus much for this I come to that which is a main thing in Moses choyce CHAP. XI Afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness NOtwithstanding both these though Gods people are afflicted and the wicked have pleasure yet afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness It is better to joyn with Gods people in a way of godliness in all afflictions then to enjoy all the pleasures that possibly any man in the world can have in any way of sin the tears of the godly are better then all the jollities of the wicked it is an expression of an Ancient The very tears of those that are seeking of God are more sweet then the joys that any have in the world the worst part of godliness is better then the best part of any way of sin though Christ be a crucified Christ and bring never such afflictions hard things to his people yet he is more delightful to them then all the pleasures that are in the earth and delightful in another way It is a notable speech Luther hath I had rather fall with Christ then stand with Caesar rather suffer any thing in the world with Christ then stand and enjoy all the pleasure of Caesars Court. Thus a godly man a gracious heart considering and musing of things and laying one thing with another had rather have affliction with the people of God then enjoy all the pleasures of the world for a season Now the main work in this point is to shew unto you how a godly heart doth reason with its self and cast about its self as it were to bring himself and his thoughts to this issue to choose rather afflicted godliness then all the pleasure of sin First it casts about what the ways of godliness are Secondly what those afflictions are that do attend the ways of godliness Thirdly it casts about what the ways of sin are and what the afflictions and pleasures are that do attend upon them and puts them into a ballance and compares them both together and so makes its choyce First a gracious heart considers the ways of godliness If I walk in them then I walk with God I live to the honor of the blessed God who is infinitely worthy of all honor and praise from his Creature those ways are the ways of infinite wisdom they are the ways of holiness of righteousness in those ways I attain to that end for which I was made Secondly in those ways I enjoy peace peace of conscience to my soul whatsoever trouble I meet withal abroad I am sure I shall have peace within a little with outward peace is better then a great deal where outward peace is wanting Eccles 4. 6. Better is a handful with quietness then both the hands full with travel and vexation of spirit A little with outward quiet is better then a great deal with vexation if a man be in a quiet family a little there is better then to be where there is a great deal with frowardness and vexation surely a little is better with inward peace with peace of conscience then a great deal without wherefore these ways wherein I walk with Gods people though the world may rage and persecute I shall have joy in my own spirit A good conscience will be a continual feast while they rail conscience will encourage Thirdly again when I walk in these ways my soul shall enjoy the love of God and that little I have I shall have it in love and from the love of God Now thy love O Lord is better then wine better then all the comforts of the world The Lord satisfies his people with love as with marrow and fatness a little that the soul hath that comes from the love of God by vertue of a promise how sweet is it how sweet is sleep when it comes from that promise Thou wilt give thy beloved sleep and all comes this way I have all in the love of God though I have but a little in the world and though I be in affliction am short of that which others have Fourthly and in those ways my soul shall enjoy communion with God God will let out himself to me in a gracious maner he will reveal the secrets of heavenly joys to my soul and one beam of the light of his face is more worth then all the world and is able to carry through all the hardships of the world My soul shal have communion with Jesus Christ and Cursed is that man says that noble Marquess Galeacius that counts all the world comparable to one days enjoyment of communion with
the wood of Lebanon He made the Pillars thereof of silver the bottom thereof of gold the covering of it of purple the midst thereof being paved with love A strange expression that the midst of Chariot should be paved with love the chariot whereby Christ does carry his people up and down in the world and bring them to himself is such a Chariot as the midst thereof is paved with love At the 7. ver he speaks of the bed of Solomon and here of his Chariot Divines interpret these two places his bed to set out the rest and glory that the Saints shall have with Christ eternally and the Chariot of Solomon that is those ways wherein Christ carries his people up and down in the world to himself and the midst thereof is love there must needs then be delight in those ways Eighthly the ways of God are full of pleasantness because they are such as are delightful to God Now they must be pleasant when they are such as God takes delight in they are such as the Church knows Christ takes much delight in What admirable expressions hath that Book of the Canticles of Gods delight in the graces of his people and in the ways of godliness Now there is no man loves a friend but accounts every good thing that his friend loves to be a double good Now that which God himself accounts pleasantness and is his delight must needs be the delight and pleasure of a gracious heart because there is so much nearness between God and a gracious heart Ninthly Yet further there is abundance of pleasantness in the ways of God in regard of the many encouraging delights that God hath provided for his people while they do live here and walk with him in these ways to make their lives to be sweet unto them God provides his Paradise here for them to encourage them they walk in the garden of God God hath his Eden his garden The Covenant of Grace and the glorious things prepared are as the Eden and Paradise of God in which the souls of his people walk wherein they have delightful hills and dales In the Scripture there are the high mysteries of godliness and the plain and easie truths of Religion as valleys and hills to delight them in their way They have the sweet springs and rivers of Ordinances that are appointed as sweet streams to refresh them and the blessed promises delightful trees to behold The tree of life Christ himself and a feast of fat things in the Ordinances wine upon the lees making melody in their hearts they go no further for that and therefore sure their ways are ways of pleasantness there being so many encouraging delightful things that God hath provided for them in their way Tenthly Further ways of pleasantness they are because that Religion does enable them to draw out more delight and pleasure from the creature it self then any other possibly can do there is no principle that can enable to draw out delights from the creature as godliness does enable a man to do for take any other carnal natural man he can draw out nothing from the creature but that which is carnal and natural but Gods people have a principle to draw out more and we are to know this that every creature hath a natural delight in it and there is somewhat more in it to a gracious heart then a natural delight as it was with Manna when Manna fell there was a dew that fell together with it and so with our meat and drink and clothes and estate and delights in the world it is true they are Manna and we feed upon them as the carnal Israelites fed upon Manna but we do not see the dew a carnal heart is not acquainted with the dew that fals with the Manna but those that are godly and religious and walk in these ways of wisdom they have a principle to discern and relish the dew that falls with this Manna a secret blessing of God that their souls are enabled to close with in the enjoyment of the creature in meat and drink and clothes and recreations they finde a secret influence of GOD together with them Take a flower if a flie come to it it cannot get out that good which a Bee can do If we take a flower we can get out the smell but there is a honey dew and if we had that principle a Bee hath we might get out more then the smell So carnal people have many sweet flowers which are pleasant to the smell but there is a honey dew that onely the godly can get out So that he hath not onely the use of all lawful pleasure to the full that any other hath but he can go and take them as his own as those that are purchased by the blood of Christ as those his Father allows him If he see the glory of the creature and delights in it he looks upon it as Gods own delight that he gives him and looks upon all creatures as his Fathers he sees no ground but he says it is his Fathers ground and he sees springs and rivers and delights in the creatures as they are his Fathers A wicked man that takes delight in the creature he travels and walks up and down and sees other creatures but it is as if a man were walking in the Orchard and Garden of his deadly enemy Suppose a man have a deadly enemy and he hath a pleasant garden that hath many fair walks and trees in his garden and he walks in it as others do But where am I now I am walking here and compassed in the garden that is mine enemies and what if he meet me here it may cost me my life And so it is with all carnal men in the world but the people of God enjoy the outward delights of the world and see the sweet walks and delightful pleasures that are here and it is their Fathers garden the garden of him that is their God that they have an interest in so that they have more delight in the creatures then any else Yea not onely so godliness does not only enable to draw more delight from the creatures then others but raises all natural pleasures on high and makes them spiritual it puts a spiritual excellency upon that which is natural it does not rest in having content to the eye or ear or taste in any natural delight but spiritualizeth all there is that vertue in godliness to spiritualize all natural things to raise the excellency of them Yea not onely so but in the last place there is that vertue in godliness to turn all evil into good if it meet with any thing that hath bitterness godliness is like that wood that made the bitter waters sweet it hath that excellency to turn evil and make it not onely profitable but delightful So that all these being put together concerning the commendation of the ways of wisdom we must either put out our eyes or
and danger and hazard himself in joyning with your childe in his affliction and danger you would take it well at his hands Secondly they hold out the honor of God in the world in their sufferings they are Gods witnesses Isaiah 44. 8. They stand for God in appearing therefore for them and their cause ye appear for God himself the cause is yours as well as theirs if God be yours Thirdly they need encouragement especially in the time of their affliction the best have flesh and blood and if they be deserted in their cause much advantage is given to temptation Wo to him that is alone If any should fail if any should miscarry through your deserting or not coming in and joyning with them it will prove a sore and a fearful evil against you If any of Gods servants in affliction shall go to God and make their means to him and in the grief of their souls tell him how you have left them how they are alone in so great a cause whereas such and such might have afforded much help and encouragement surely this will witness fearfully against you and it will go ill with you Certainly you bring much guilt upon your souls in deserting the Saints in the time of their affliction Hence Paul prayed that God would not lay to the charge of those in Asia that left him in his first answer Fourthly not appearing is a betraying the truth It is a speech of Zuinglius in his third Epistle We may as well with Dioclesian worship at the Altar of Jupiter or Venus as hide our faith under Antichrist He that is not with me is against me says Christ Fifthly Christ appears most for his people in their afflictions when they are at the lowest Isaiah 63. 9. In their affliction he was afflicted the Angel of his presence was then with them his love and his pity was towards them he bare them and carried them Psal 69. 9. The Zeal of thine house hath eaten me up the reproaches of them that reproached thee are faln upon me You know the place is spoken of Christ and these words were spoken when the Church was in a very ill case as appears in the Psalm Sixthly times of affliction are the especial times to manifest our true love to the Saints which are near to us in many bonds It is an ill part of a wife or friend to forsake husband or friend when in affliction Josephus reports of Herodias wife to Herod the Tetrarch who when the Emperor had deprived her husband of his Tetrarchy and banished him annexing his Tetrarchy to Agrippa his kingdom understanding that Herodias was Agrippa's sister the Emperor gave her her husbands substance supposing that she would not accompany her husband but she answered the Emperor There is a cause that hinders me from partaking the benefit of your bounty the affection I bear to my husband whom if I should forsake in this his misery it would very ill beseem me in that I have been a partner with him in his felicity the Emperor displeased with her answer banished her likewise with her husband a brother a friend a wife is for the time of adversity Especially hence it is recorded of Davids brethren and fathers house 1 Sam. 22. 1. When David was persecuted and came to the Cave of Adullam when they heard it they went down thither to him they ventured the displeasure the rage of Saul the forfeiting all their estates to go down to David their brother both his father and mother was there though very old now as appears ver 3. Basils forwardness in appearing for his friend in danger mightily affected Chrysostom he tells of him that he hazarded himself much to deliver his friend in danger and being blamed by some for venturing so much he gave this answer I have not learned to love otherwise I know not how to manifest my love but thus Seventhly when Gods people suffer most in Gods cause it is then most honorable to be called forth to appear for it to assist in it Amongst the Persians the left hand is accounted the most honorable Xenophon reports of Cyrus that those whom he honored most he placed at his left hand upon this ground because that hand was weakest and most subject to danger the most honorable of the kingdom were set to defend where there was most weakness and most danger If the people of God be brought low if they be brought under by affliction if the cause of God in them seem to be in danger then to come in and appear to stand by them and for them this is honorable Eighthly this appearing for the Saints and joyning with them in their affliction shall be highly rewarded of God When David was in his affliction persecuted by Saul Abiathar fled to him with the Ephod and abode with him Although self-respects might move him Saul having slain his father and fourscore and four priests of the Lord and if he had not escaped he had gone to it too yet because he was with David in his affliction mark how Solomon respects him for it 1 Kings 2. 26. Thou art worthy of death but I will not put thee to death but go to Anathoth to thine own fields because thou barest the Ark of the Lord God before my father David and because thou hast been afflicted in all wherein my father was afflicted Josephus reports of Agrippa that being bound with chains and sent to prison by Tiberius for wishing Caius in the Empire one Thaumastus one of Caius his Servants carrying a pitcher of water met him and Agrippa being very thirsty desired him to give him drink which he willingly did upon which Agrippa said This service thou hast done in giving me drink shall do thee good another day afterwards when Caius was Emperor and Agrippa was made King he first begged Thaumastus his liberty of the Emperor and made him a free man then he made him his chief Officer over all his affairs and after his decease he took order he should continue in the same office with his son This Agrippa was a wicked man who thus rewarded him that relieved him in his affliction it was the same Agrippa whom the Angel smote and was eaten up of worms because he gave not glory unto God How much more then will Christ reward those who shall give him in his members cups of water in their affliction yea who shall so joyn with them as to hazard themselves for them surely they shall not go without their reward when Christ comes in his glory he will own them But how must we appear what doth this point require of us First when Gods servants and their cause are accused and condemned you must not be silent you must not let it pass as being afraid to be accounted one belonging to them Luther in an Epistle to Staupitius a German Divine says That when Jesus Christ is condemned and
and rules and have the same ends and affections hopes and desires and joys and where there is such a suitableness surely there must needs be a great deal of comfort for all comforts come from a suitableness between the heart and the object if the thing be never so good if there be not a suitableness between the heart and it there is no comfort but no such suitableness as between Gods people and therefore no such comfort Fifthly no such joy as is to be had in communion with them because of their entireness of love entireness of love is a lovely sight Dionisius seeing two entire friends together wished himself the third Cant. 6. 9. My Dove is but one and it follows the daughters saw her and blessed her an oneness of heart is a blessed thing no such entireness such oneness any where as amongst the Saints their love is spiritual and not upon base grounds as the love of others is there is not that base aiming at self as in others a carnal heart cannot love another but in some base respect to himself but now it is not self self that is the the ground of the love between those that are truly gracious and godly but God that is between them and with them the ground of their love is more spiritual and therefore it is a kinde of divine love and not so drossie as others Sixthly no communion so comfortable in regard of their faithfulness they dare trust one another They call themselves brethren and they will dye for another says Tertullian the men of the world cry out Of all men I would not trust those that are so precise Indeed if you do take all refuse that make profession you may say so but a gracious heart can savor who is godly and will not trust every one that talks of Religion but such as are truly godly they dare trust them and venture their lives with them no communion in which we can ease our selves of our burthens as where there are a company of true gracious humble Saints in communion one with another So that put these together and you see the second reason why it is worth the enduring so much affliction to have communion with the people of God Thirdly it is worth the enduring a great deal of affliction to have communion with them because it is in their communion in which the solemn worship of God is set up now it is worth the enduring of a great deal to be where that is In Judah is God known and his name is great in Israel he hath honor by others but his name is great in Israel in his Church What a comfortable thing is it and blessed and worth the enduring of much to have multitudes of Gods people joyn with one heart in setting out the praises of God sitting at his Table sitting before him lifting up the name of the great God making his praise glorious When the Saints are gathered together for this end in this work Christ is there present with them praising God he joyns with them in this work Heb. 2. 12. In the midst of the Church will I praise thee this is spoken of Christ it is quoted out of Psal 22. 22. which is prophetical of Christ who would not be in such acts of worship to joyn with such as Christ joyns with If God be our God and dear to our souls his worship is dear to us and if there be any people in the world among whom God is truly worshipped it is a great affliction not to be with them It is the observation of one Interpreter upon that place in Isa 6. where the Cherubims cryed Holy holy holy Lord God of hosts the earth is full of thy glory the Prophet cryes out Wo unto me I am undone because I am a man of unclean lips unfit to joyn with those that are praising of God howsoever the meaning of that place be yet thus we may make use of it to be a great affliction and cause there is to cry out Wo to our selves when we hear of Gods people crying out Holy holy holy Lord God of Hosts if we be not amongst them though it be in the wilderness yet if Gods worship be set up the people of God have a feast When the Israelites were to go from Egypt into the wilderness Moses says they must go thither to keep a feast unto the Lord What was that feast in the wilderness but the setting up the worship of God Fourthly no communion no society in which there is so much profit and benefit as to be amongst these As Abigail said to David The Lord shall binde up the soul of my Lord in the bundle of life to be amongst Gods people is to be bound up in the bundle of life much good we enjoy in them and the more communion we have the more interest we have in all their gifts and graces and prayers and therefore we read of Daniel when he had a great work to do how he makes use of that interest he had in the prayers of the godly Daniel 2. 17 18. It is a great blessing to have an interest in the prayers of the Saints and so in all their gifts 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. Whether Paul or Apollos or Cephas c. all are yours and you are Christs as if he should say there need no such envying one at another to say I am of Paul and another of Apollos and another of Cephas for all are yours all the gifts and graces of all the worthies of the Lord are all yours they are all for your good and you have interest in them all in communion with the Saints there is watching over one another and quickning one another and admonishings and wholesome counsels and stirring up the graces of God that are in one another Have you not felt your selves when you have come away from a spiritual communion to come away with hearts raised and spirits inflamed for God and so strengthened that your resolutions have been up to do or suffer any thing for the Lord as in Mal. 3. 16. Those that feared the Lord spake often to one another quickned the hearts of one another and so in Acts 18. 5. And when Silus and Timotheus was come from Macedonia Paul was pressed in spirit and testified to the Iews that Iesus was Christ Certainly in their converse together S. Paul found his spirit wrought upon and refreshed so that the Text says when Timotheus was come Paul was pressed in spirit Fifthly it is good being with Gods servants though it be in suffering affliction because God takes so much delight in them if God takes delight in being with them certainly there is great cause we should take delight in them there are admirable expressions of Gods taking delight in them Zeph. 3. 17. The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty he will save thee he will rejoyce over thee with joy he will rest in his love
no partner But that this might not be an offence so as to keep us from joyning in Communion with the people of God let us know if this might have been offence enough to keep men from joyning with them it would have kept men in all times from joyning with the Churches since Christs time You know what difference was between Paul and Barnabas two Apostles And so the Apostles do complain of the dissentions and divisions in the Church of Corinth in the Primitive times and if that had been enough to keep out men from joyning with them then there had been no joyning with the Church of Corinth and other Churches Basil complains I have lived now to the age of a man and I see more union in Arts and Sciences then in Divinity for in the Church I see such dissentions as do dissipate it and rend it asunder And so between Chrysostom and Epiphanius the one wished the other might never dye a Bishop and the other wished that he might never go home alive And between Jerome and Ruffinus and Luther and Oecolampadius There is a most sad story we have of those that fled to Frankford from England in Queen Maries time and when they came there though they fled for Religion and for their lives yet there were such grievous breaches as they sought the lives of one another picking out some words against the Emperor in a Sermon that Master Knox had preached in England long before and now accusing him for them to the Magistrates of Frankford upon which divers of them were fain to flee This is through the malice of the Devil in sowing tares and therefore if you will be offended in this way of scandal you must be offended Yet we must all take heed of giving offence for though offences will come yet wo to them by whom they come Howsoever there fall out offences through the sinful distempers of mens hearts let not the Ordinance of God be challenged as the cause of these offences Joyning in Church-fellowship is a special Ordinance of God to maintain love and peace amongst his people yet by the abuse of it many times divisions and dissentions are stronger and more bitter in the Church then elsewhere let not Gods Ordinance be accused as the cause of it nor declined for this but let the wickedness of mens hearts be accused let us seek to have it purged Christ came into the world to dissolve the works of the Devil and yet the Devil never more raged then in Christs time and a while after We never read of men so possessed of the Devil before Christ came as they were then Shall we therefore accuse Christ for bringing the Devil into the world for being the cause of mens being possessed of the Devil Those who thus reason against the Ordinance of Christ because of this evil that falls out by accident upon it may as well yea and certainly would as readily reason against Christ if they lived in his time because of such possession of Devils which never was so before he came as it was then but as the true reason why the Devil thus prevailed upon Christs coming was the just judgement of God against men for contemning and rejecting Christ who came amongst them so it is here the judgement of God for the evil of mens hearts in abusing such a blessed Ordinance of love and peace So likewise the Sacrament of the Lords Supper is a Sacrament appointed by God to maintain love and peace in the Church it is an Ordinance for communion it hath the denomination from thence it is called communion Yet what hath occasioned such dissentions in the Christian world as the controversies about the Sacrament Shall therefore this Ordinance be accused as the cause of dissention O let us for ever learn this truth that whatsoever evil falls out Gods Ordinances be not blamed but mans corruption let that be condemned and purged Origen writing to Celsus says If you will take offence at the dissentions in Christian Religion then you may take offence at dissentions in other things Valens the Emperor objected the same against Christians Nicephorus 11. 45. brings in one Themistius answering that those of the Graecian superstition had as great dissentions amongst them There is dissention amongst Merchants and other Trades you do not say therefore I will not binde my childe to that Trade they dissent amongst themselves If there be profit and accommodations in the Trade men will not be hindred by this plea but joyn with them notwithstanding And so come you and joyn with the Saints though there be some dissentions though there may be some rigid distemper'd hot spirited men that may cause some trouble yet there is not so much union and love in all the world as with them set but aside some and there are a company if you be gracious your soul may take pleasure in and bless God for and therefore away with all such stumbling blocks and reasonings against the Ordinances of God come you thirsting after the Ordinances of God and my soul for yours if you do not finde that sweetness in communion with them as never was found before There are many objections against this way and many are a long time ensnared in them but Isa 57. 13. where God promises the inheritance of his holy Mountain ver 14. he promises to make the way plain to it And Exod. 15. 13. God guides his people in his strength to his holy habitation it must be the strength of God that must carry through all objections all difficulties over all stumbling blocks to Gods habitation Thus much to those that yet are not joyned in that nearness of communion with Gods people which they may be CHAP. XXII Instructions to those who are joyned in communion with Gods people SEcondly if it be such a blessed thing to enjoy communion with Gods people then there are many things that are to be said to those that are joyned in communion First labor to approve to God and your own souls that you are indeed Gods people particularly you are his people in a way of outward profession and to men you do approve your selves so far as we hope you are Gods people but you must approve your selves to God and to your consciences If you be conscious to your selves of any secret filth and yet dare come and deceive the people of God in joyning with them you bring your selves in more danger then you are aware We read Deut. 22. ver 21. that if a damsel having defiled her self before marriage and so deceiving a man he marries with her when this is discovered she is to be stoned to death Uncleanness in such as were single was not by the Law to be punished with death but she must dye although her uncleanness was while she was single because she deceived the man in marrying to him in her defilement So know your filth in not joyning to Gods people is not so evil and
lane and such a craggy mountain though he would be glad they were not yet when he comes at them he is glad because they are signs of the way he must go Straight is the gate and narrow is the way that leads to life Master Bradford made use of that place when he came to the Stake and looked upon his sufferings as an evidence to him that he was in the right way Secondly they are an evidence to him of that difference that God hath made between others and him there was a time when as other men could close with me and agree with me now see what a difference there is they nothing but contemn me and despiseme I might have gone on and have been a scorner and a mocker as they are O the difference that God hath made between me and them that God should call me from them who was as vile as they and suffer them to be reproachers of godliness and make me a sufferer for godliness Jerome writ to Augustine that it was a great sign of glory to him that all Hereticks did hate him Thirdly it is an evidence of the sincerity and the power of his grace and his love that he bears to Christ and this is great riches for a gracious heart says Lord try me Lord prove me he would fain have an opportunity to manifest the truth of his love to Christ all the while I go on in a way of prosperity and have the desire of my heart wherein appears my love to Christ but now when I am called to suffering and to part with much for Christ here is an opportunity to shew I love Christ for himself that my love to him does not depend upon any thing that I gain by him in the world The Apostle says The tryal of your grace he speaks of faith is more precious then silver and gold and not onely your grace is more precious but the tryal of grace is more precious then gold and silver A gracious heart does rejoyce much in evidencing love to Christ as any dear friend rejoyces much in any opportunity of manifesting his love to another friend and the greater the opportunity is the more does he rejoyce And likewise the power of grace is manifested as David said to the King Achish Thou shalt know what thy servant can do and so a gracious heart thinks here is an opportunity to manifest the strength and power that is in grace Fourthly they are an evidence that much good is done that Satans kingdom is shaken in sufferings we see the rage of the Devil and he rages then most when he sends most opposition to his kingdom wherefore those against whom he rages most may have hereby evidence that they were most instrumental against him I rejoyce says Luther That Satan does so rage and blaspheme as often as I do but touch him he took it as an argument that much good was done otherwise the Devil would not have been so vexed he would not have raged so much Fifthly a gracious heart hath an evidence to it self that God will spare him when others shall suffer from his wrath Certainly the more any one is called to suffer in the cause of God and when he findes his heart ready and willing to yield to God in suffering the more evidence may he have to his soul that when others shall be called to suffer from Gods wrath he shall be spared and this is the bottom of the prayer of the Psalmist Psal 89. 50. Remember Lord the reproach of thy servants how I do bear in my bosom the reproach of the mighty people I read of one Escelus being condemned to be stoned to death and all the people were ready to cast stones at him and his brother came and run in and shewed that he had but one hand and the other hand he had lost for the defence of his countrey and then none would stone him and so the marks of the Lord Jesus are notable marks to safeguard thee in the time of trouble when the Lord goes out in his wrath he will set his mark upon those that he will save and none more notable marks then the reproaches and sufferings they bear for Christ This was Jeremiahs plea before the Lord chap. 15. ver 5. O Lord thou knowest remember me and visit me know that for thy sake I have suffered rebuke Lastly it is an evidence of salvation Phil. 1. 28. not that all that suffer shall be saved but a gracious heart that suffers in a gracious Christian maner hath God sealing to him by his spirit in his sufferings his salvation Put these together and we see one cause why we should count the reproaches of Christ great riches yea this is greater riches then the riches of Egypt Secondly the reproaches and sufferings which we endure for Christ are riches of preferment It was a speech of Ignatius when he was to suffer It is better for me to be a Martyr then a Monarch Epist 12. ad Romanos Euseb l. 8. c. 7. To be preferred to honor is counted great riches now there is a preferment of Gods people here these three or four ways Basil upon that famous Martyr Bar-aam says he rejoyced in stripes as in honors he exulted in the severest punishments as if praeclara bravia acceperet First the Saints look upon this as high preferment because it is a testimony that God hath a high esteem of them God does not use to call those that are weak and mean to great sufferings but his servants that are most eminent God will dispose of the conditions of his people suitable to their dispositions therefore he will not call those to the strongest work that are weakest A Captain does not call out his mean Soldiers to a notable enterprize but he calls out his most able couragious Soldiers and the more desperate the enterprize is the more honor the Soldier thinks it to be called out so the greater work God calls one to the more preferment is in it and we have cause to admire that God should deal so with us his poor creatures rather then others as if we were fitter then ' others though we cannot say we are fitter because we are conscious to our selves of so much weakness but God honors us as if it were so Secondly by this we come to be honorable in the eyes of the Churches and the Saints of God nothing makes Gods people more honorable in the eyes of the Saints then when they are called to suffer much for God And so in the Primitive times they esteemed much of the Martyrs even too much Chrysostom speaking of Babylas the Martyr calls him a great man a man to be admired and says if I may call him a man and Tertullian writing to some of the Martyrs says I am not worthy to speak to you he writes that it was a custom of some in those times to creep to the Chains
third union that the Saints have with God is a union of love love is an uniting grace and there is a most entire love between God and every Saint and so their hearts are close united and mingled by love Again in this life there is a mystical Union and that is an union higher then any other an union with Christ being made members of the Son of God and so they come to have union with the Son of God according to that expression in 1 John 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ There is a mystical union between us and Christ and so we come to have union with God the Father also and to be joyned to the Lord we are one Spirit with him Now for the union that the Saints have with God in Heaven there are many intricate notions that some of the Schoolmen have about this as that the soul shall be turned into the same Idea that God made it of and that there shall be an Illapsus of God into the soul but we must know there can be no union with God but it must be by vertue of the influence of some good from God for speak of what union you will God cannot in his Essence be more present with the creature then he is here but onely in regard of some manifestation or communication of himself in some gift or good thing but certainly there will be a wonderful glorious union between God and the soul in Heaven and that upon these four grounds First there is not such distance between God and the soul but that it is capable of union with God One would think how is it possible that God should be so united to the soul being there is such an infinite distance between God and it but there is not such an infinite distance between God and the soul of man as that there should not be a glorious union between them there is a great deal of likeness between God and the soul First in the spirituality God is a Spirit the soul is a Spirit Secondly in immortality God is immortal the soul is immortal Thirdly in the high excellency of God the understanding and will the soul is endued with understanding and will the perfection of God as we can conceive is his understanding and will and so it is in the soul Fourthly in the several operations that the soul hath and herein there is more likeness between God and mans soul then is between God and Angels in that one rational soul should perform so many works as the same God the same Excellency working upon the creature works in one thing one way and in another thing another way so the soul represents God in this in that one rational soul hath such variety of workings in the body for understanding for sense for vegetation which Angels have not Again the soul resembles God in the infiniteness the soul is not onely infinite in duration but in regard of the infiniteness of the working of it and here is a mighty difference between the soul of man between rational creatures and all other creatures for the sensitive creature that onely works about some particular thing that concerns its own preservation and its own good within its narrow compass but the object of mans soul is universal infinite it is not any particular truth that will satisfie the understanding let there be never so many truths revealed yet the understanding desires infinitely more if there be any truth that is not revealed it would have that Let the sense have some particular object before it suitable to sense it looks no further as if the eye have colour it goes no further nor the ear goes no further then sound but the understanding hath desire to all truth And so for good the sensitive creature hath no desire of good but onely that which does preserve sense but the will of man is for good in general and this shews how capable the soul is to be raised to such an excellency as to have communion with God if we knew what our souls were capable of we would not think we could satisfie them with such things as bruit beasts are satisfied with Secondly there may well be a glorious union between God and and the souls of the Saints because God shall see nothing but himself in the souls of the Saints now when God shall see nothing but his own in such a creature this is a full ground of Gods near and most glorious union with it as when a man comes to see in another much of his own his heart is united to him things that are of a like nature do unite Bring an hot fire-brand to the fire and it does unite presently because the fire does finde something of it self there if there were some moisture in the brand it would not so fully unite And so here we cannot have full union with God because though God sees somewhat of his own in us yet there is a great deal in us that is not Gods but when we shall be wholly free from sin and God shall see nothing but his own in us that must needs be a ground of a most glorious union Thirdly in Heaven there shall be nothing in God but shall be suitable to the nature of a glorified Saint and suitableness is the cause of union if there be not a suitableness there cannot be union There cannot be suitableness between God and other creatures but between a glorified Saint and God there shall be an infinite suitableness and therefore an infinite glorious union Again there shall be an infinite inflamed love here is an union of love but in Heaven there will be a further degree of love and love being enflamed there must needs be a most glorious union Fifthly if you consider what the bond of connexion of the soul and God together is namely the mediation of the Son the second person of the Trinity there must needs be an infinite close and glorious union of the Saints with God This vision and union with God is enough to cause the souls of Gods people to be so satisfied as to say Let all things be taken from me it is enough I have somewhat of Gods presence here but I shall have the glorious presence and vision of God and union with God hereafter and though my eyes should never see good day after or never see comfortable object in the world this is enough I shall see God and have full union with God Though there be a separation between me and all temporal comforts in the world though God should rend this creature or that creature the dearest husband or the dearest wife or the dearest comfort in the world and those things that my soul do most cleave to here from me yet it is enough that
delight to a man when he goes about a work if he have his end though a man have some benefit by his work yet if he be crost in his last end all his joy is taken away and this is the evil of sin sin seeks to cross God in his highest end that he aims at but the Saints in heaven shall give God his full end God shall have the highest end that he did aim at he shall see it accomplished and fulfilled in them now those objects in which God 's highest end is fulfilled he must needs take delight in and that shall be in the Saints Again the delight of God must be full because God hath no other object but rational creatures Angels and Saints to let out his delight to if God does take any delight in any creature here it is in order to the Angels and the Saints Now when God hath no other object to himself and his Son and his Spirit to let out his delight unto but the rational Creatures Saints and Angels joyned in one for the Lord Christ shall be the head of the Saints and Angels surely his delight in them shall be full Thirdly this delight shall be actual and that is necessary to communion for though there be delight yet if it should lie dead in the habits there is no communion If two friends have habitual delight one in another they are not said to have communion but when it is actual so this delight shall be actual the nature of delight is to be lively and active even in us though it be but an affection in us but God being a pure act there will be an infinite activity in his delight and it is always vigorous and fresh so as God shall make the souls of his people to be sensible of the activity of his delight Fourthly this delight shall be mutual it shall be on the Saints part as well as on Gods part As God delights in the persons of the Saints so they delight in God himself not in that they receive from God but their greatest delight is in the being of God himself and as God delights in their glory so they do delight in all the glory of God in essential glory that they see in God and in all the glory that is reflected upon God by his creatures and they delight in his presence in being with him and in his love and in that they can give any glory to him they delight in all they have more because God hath glory by it then in that themselves are blessed in it And it is full likewise the delight of the Saints of God is full as well as the delight of God in the Saints is full and that for the very same grounds that the delight of God in them is full namely The fulness of Gods delight in them is their relation to Christ so the ground of their full delight in God is because God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and because they see their likeness in God what ever excellency they have in themselves they see it to be infinitely in God and as God delights in them because of his works he sees in them so the Saints shall see all the good that ever they have done does redound to the glory of God howsoever the works of Gods people for the present seem to be mean yet it shall appear all the gracious works of the people of God shall be the most glorious things in the world For God shall own them for the setting out of his glory as the greatest things in the world and this should be an infinite encouragement to us to be abundant in good works because God will glorifie our good works and as the fulness of the delight of God in the Saints is because God attains his end in them how full must the delight of the Saints in God be because the Saints do attain their end in God the end of all their thoughts and ways and performances and they shall have no other object to let out their delight to but onely God here though we have some grace yet the stream is divided we let out so much to one creature and so much to another the children so much to the Parents and the Parents so much to the children and husband so much to the wife and the wife so much to the husband and so much to our friends that the stream we let out to God is but little but when all the delight that we let out to the creatures shall be taken away and God shall be the onely object of our delight then our delight must be full And as this delight is mutual so it shall be continual for being withdrawn from all other objects it will work upon that both of them Gods delight in the Saints and the delight of the Saints in God shall be for ever the Saints shall be an eternal excellency in which God shall delight and God shall be an eternal excellency in which they delight they shall be always keeping that feast of the Lamb. We read of Ahasuerus he kept a glorious feast and the gloriousness of it is set forth by the continuance of it Esther 1. 4 5. it is observable the difference between the feast that he made with his Nobles and the feast that he made with the common people and that may lively set out the difference of the goodness of God that he lets out to his own people and that he lets out to other common people he made a feast of a hundred and fourscore days to his Nobles and but seven days to the common people so when God comes to make a feast of joy to his people it shall be everlasting Men in the world have some content but it is but for a little time but the comfort and joy that is to be between God and the Saints in Heaven is to be eternal because it is such a feast as is made to his Nobles and to shew the riches of his glorious Kingdom and the honor of his Majesty Secondly in communion there is a mutual wishing and willing of good to one another now God shall will all good to the Saints and they wish all good to God It is true that God from all eternity did will all good unto his people but here his people are not of a capacity to receive much there is a great deal of difference in willing and determining good to them before they were in being or before they were capable of receiving this good and willing good to them when they shall be made vessels fit to receive good the bodies and souls either of the Saints or the wicked being united after the resurrection they shall be vessels infinitely enlarged capable of abundantly more then they are here and then to have God will good to them is far better then to have good willed to them here The men of the world would fain have good here
while their hearts are narrow and they cannot receive much from God but the Saints look for good hereafter when their hearts shall be enlarged when as the wicked when their souls shall be enlarged they shall have nothing but misery There is a twofold love when one shall will onely good to himself by another or will good to another now the love of good will is most glorious in God and it is mutual God shall will his good to the creature and the Saints shall will all good to God What good can they will to God It is true there can be no addition to the essential goodness of God but they can will that this his goodness be honored and praised and this shall be in the blessed communion between God and his Saints in the mutual working of their wills Thirdly in communion there is the communication of what one have unto another where there is right communion there is a communication on both parts if on receive good and the other do not labor to communicate it is not communion Now there is a glorious communication on Gods part First immediate Secondly full Thirdly free Fourthly everlasting First immediate whereas here God communicates himself through creatures or through ordinances there are conduits of conveyance for there is such distance between God and us that we cannot expect that immediate conveyance of Gods goodness and of himself to us here as we shall have in heaven Secondly the fulness of Gods communication Suppose that God should draw out all that beauty sweetness goodness and power that he hath communicated in all creatures in the world and bring the quintessence of all and communicate that unto the soul of one Saint certainly it would not serve the turn for the happiness of one Saint there must be a greater communication But conceive if we see one creature have so much power in it by its influence upon the dunghil as to produce such a glorious creature as life which is the most glorious thing that ever God did make Saint Augustine says There is more glory in the life of a flie then in the Sun in the Firmament Now if the Sun have such power to produce life from a piece of dirt what power shall the influence of an infinite God have upon a glorified soul No marvel though the Scripture says That eye hath not seen neither ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly it is free as free as the Sun lets out its beams It is natural to a good thing to communicate much more for goodness it self certainly God being goodness in the abstract his communication must needs be free Fourthly it is everlasting the letting out of himself to the Saints shall preserve their strength that he may let out himself unto them as if there were that power in some excellent liquor that is let out into a vessel not onely to sweeten it but perpetually to preserve it that it may be letting out it self into it so God does everlastingly in communicating himself unto his people preserve them that he may communicate himself And then the Saints of God do communicate to God in the same way that God does to them They are always worshipping God immediately not through ordinances as they shall not receive any thing of God through ordinances so they shall not worship God through ordinances but as they receive immediately so they shall worship God immediately and their communication shall be full but as they cannot will any essential good to God so they cannot communicate any essential good but they shall communicate themselves and all that they are or have to God or if they were able to make a thousand worlds they would make them all for the glory of God but because that is beyond the power of any creature therefore they communicate themselves and all that they are or have or can do to God as a drop of water is let out into an infinite Ocean so they are let out unto God as into an infinite Ocean And then the communication is free having the divine nature made perfect in them that do flow to God when they see his divine nature and this communication shall be everlasting God letting out himself to them and they letting out themselves to God This is the reward of the Righteous and this is that which Moses had an eye unto and all Gods people that have an eye beyond the vail behold it with infinite soul-satisfaction Fourthly in communion with God there is a familiar converse between God and the Saints And herein are these particulars First God manifesting himself in a suitable way to the conditions of his people so as it were condescending to their condition that though his Majesty be infinite yet it shall no way be a terror unto them Here if a Saint of God sees but an Angel he is amazed but because God would have his people enjoy holy familiarity with himself therefore he will manifest himself so as though there be an infinite glory yet there shall be no amazement but that they shall be able familiarly to converse with him as one friend does with another The Scripture speaks of the familiar converse that God hath with his people here that they are called friends Abraham was called The friend of God and the Disciples were called friends but hereafter the friendship shall be much more full and sweet Job shall have his desire O that the terror of God may not fall upon me Here when God spake by himself many of the dearest of his Saints have been afraid but when we come to be made partakers of this blessed Recompence of reward all such fear shall be done away Again another thing in familiar converse is the mutual opening of themselves one to another much is said of Gods opening of himself to his people here Psal 25. 14. Prov. 3. 32. 1 Cor. 2. 16. John 15. 15. and that is the reason why they are brought into the Chamber spoken of in Cant. 1. 4. because their secrets are discovered as they said to the King of Judah concerning the Prophet The Prophet that is in Israel does reveal whatsoever thou doest in thy bed-chamber because in them Kings reveal their secrets The mysteries of the Kingdom are revealed to the Saints here much more in heaven there are many secret things that God hath to tell his people when they come to have familiarity with him When a man comes to a woman a stranger he does not tell her his secrets but when she is marryed to him then he tells her his secrets so in heaven God will reveal his secrets and they shall not onely see his face but they shall see Gods heart And they shall open their hearts to God for they shall have nothing in their hearts that they shall be ashamed of As the Sun-flower when the
speak of the Triumphant Church The Angels shall admire at it O that these poor worms should be raised from this low estate to such a glorious condition they pry into the mystery of Salvation Then the love of Christ shall be enflamed to his people that love which caused him to plead with God for his people from all eternity that caused him to undertake this great work for his people from this love there will be most glorious embracements If at one salutation of the mother of our Lord John Baptist springs in the Womb for joy how shall the heart of a glorified Saint spring at the glorious embracements of Christ himself when he is in his glory And when we shall be in such a condition as we shall be fitted for communion with him we shall be able to understand Christ in another way we shall know the hypostatical union of his two natures and know Christ fully and be fitter to entertain the manifestation of his love whereas here we are not able to entertain much Christ looks through the lattess and we have but some few drops of his love but then when his love shall be enflamed and fully let out we shall be fitted for it And it shall be such a communion with Christ as we shall never leave but follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes There shall be no moment to all eternity wherein Christ shall be out of the sight of so many thousand thousands of Saints And though that Text in the Revelations be meant of the Church in this world and the following of Christ wheresoever he goeth here following of him in the ordinances but if it be an happiness here to follow the Lamb wheresoever he goes much more in heaven You that are willing to suffer any thing to follow the Lamb in his ordinances here know there is enough to pay for all you shall be always following the Lamb in heaven and you shall always be in the company of Christ and this is the fifth particular namely The communion that the souls of Gods people shall have with Christ There are yet two things to be opened in this branch to shew what the recompence of reward of Gods people is and they are the enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints and the keeping a perpetual Sabbath in Heaven The enjoyment of communion with the Angels and Saints The Angels and Saints are joyned together under one head the Angels rejoyce here in being ministring spirits unto the Saints O what rejoycing will there be then in communion with them the Saints of God shall enjoy communion with the Angels in a familiar way they shall be fitted for communion with God and Christ himself much more fitted for communion with Angels yea the Angels shall account it part of their happiness to have communion with the Saints The sight of an Angel to us now in the flesh though he comes to bring good tidings is a great amazement but then the sight of the Angels shall be no amazement but we shall look upon them as our fellow creatures to have communion with them Heb. 12. 23. Ye are come vnto Mount Sion and to the City of the living God the heavenly Jerusalem and to the company of innumerable Angels This is spoken of the priviledge of the Gospel before by the Law there was nothing but terror that made Moses to fear and quake now we are not to come to Mount Sinai but to Mount Zion and unto the City of the living God Before without Christ we were vagabonds wandring up and down in the wilderness of the Word but by Christ we are gathered unto the City of the living God and the heavenly Ierusalem there were nothing but troubles before but now they are gathered to Ierusalem into peace and to an innumerable company of Angels Before the Angels were as Gods Host ready to revenge the quarrel of God upon us but now we are come to the innumerable company of Angels who are ministring spirits to us here and we shall enjoy communion with them The Angels are full of wisdom and therefore when the Scripture would set forth the excellency of wisdom it sets it forth by the wisdom of the Angels Doctor Taylor the Martyr rejoyced that he came into prison with Master Bradford that Angel Bradford though he was but one that had the likeness of an Angel and in prison yet he rejoyced in being with him What rejoycing will there be to be with all the Angels that are Angels indeed and that in our Fathers house The way and maner of the converse of Saints with Angels is very obscure how spirits do converse one with another we know but little we converse one with another by speaking there can be no such way of converse with Spirits The Schoolmen say By the act of their wills they come to make known what is in their mindes but we shall know more of the maner of converse with them afterwards CHAP. LI. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory BUt it is more familiar to us to know our excellency in the converse with the Saints Heb. 12. 23. To the general Assembly and Church of the first-born which are written in heaven c. To enjoy communion with the Saints here is sweet to enjoy communion with all the Saints with all the Patriarchs Abraham Isaac and Iacob and Moses and Aaron and Ioshua and all the good Prophets and the good Kings and all Martyrs and Worthies of the Lord If to have communion with one or two be sweet then to have communion with all at once must needs be sweet it is worth the enduring much to get to heaven if it were onely to have communion with the Saints Secondly to have communion with none but them to have communion with the Saints is sweet though we are forced to have communion with the world but to have communion with the choicest of Gods servants with none else that is sweet indeed Thirdly to have communion with them made perfect The best now have many weaknesses and many frampold moods and offensive carriages that there must be a great deal born in communion with the best but then we shall be delivered from imperfections there shall be no ignorance but we shall have communion with those that are knowing and perfectly glorified The life of my Lord shall be bound up in the bundle of life it is the blessing of Abigail to David Now Interpreters expound it thus It is a Metaphor taken from binding up of yong plants that are removed from one place to be set in another Now there is a great deal of difference between a bundle of plants laid in the water to preserve them till they be set in the garden and those plants growing and flourishing in the garden It is a great blessing to be bound up amongst Gods people here that are plants that have life but we are here but as plants bound up and