buried in Oblivion And thus having laid him in his Grave let us read his Epitaph made by the same Hand Epitaphium Jos Cooper qui obiit Anno Aetatis 41. 16â—â— Here lye's a Saint call'd hence to company With chanting Quires and winged Hierarchy Cooper's Name Ambassadour Divine Nature's great Torch and Learning's Magazine The EPISTLE To the CANDID READER THOUGH all Men by an Innate Appetite do desire Blessedness and have that before them as their * Vivere Omnes beate volunt sed ad Perridendum quid sit quod Beatam Vitam efficiam Caligant Sen. de vit Beat cap 1. pag. 627. Ultimate End in some kind of general undistinct and confus'd Intention Yet iâ—possible it is for any Man ever to enjoy Blessedness and to have it in full Fruition if not Guided thereunto by a Light from Heaven True Happiness is not to be discerned by Nature's Dim Eye Though it be a Tree of Life yet the Fruit thereof grows so High that Nature's Hand can never Reach it As the Sun that glorious Eye of the World is not to be Seen but by it's own proper Light Ten Thousand Torches though Lighted up and uniting All their Beams in One Flame cannot shew us the Sun So it is not all the Natural Reason in the World though Clarified and Improved to the utmost Reach of all Humane Understanding that can bring us to any Saving Acquaintance with God as our Happiness and Reward without some bright shining Beam of Divine Revelation from Himself Nature may shew Men some Dark and Cloudy Discoveries of Happiness at a distance just as that Blind Person who when his Sight began to return saw Men walking like Trees But to give Men a Clear Prospect of this Fruitful Land and to Direct them sufficiently in their Way thither This Nature can no more do than a Star of the least Magnitude can make Day in the World Happiness is indeed the Harbour for which We are all bound but we shall certainly Lose ourselves and Miserably make Ship-wreck by the way if ever we put to Sea without ¶ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexan. Admonit ad Gent. p. 19. our Card and Compass of Wisdom from above to help us in Steering a right Course towards this wished Shore There is nothing that can ever lead us to God as our End but that which comes from God as the Beginning of our Strength in the Saving Knowledge of our chiefest Good In every Man there are Two Prime Faculties aâ— Understanding capable of more Truth and a Will desirous of more Good than what the universal Confluence of all Created Beings can possibly afford God therefore who is the First Truth and the Chiefest Good must first Enlighten the Understanding with the Saving Knowledge of Himself before ever the Will can tell how to Move Regularly towards Him as her Center or Enjoy Him for her full Satisfaction He must Guide the Soul by his Counsel on Earth or else she can never come to Heavenly Glory Psal 73.24 We are sure to lye down in Darkness and to Dye in the Wilderness of our own Folly if the Lord direct us not as by a Pillar of Fire through the Night and Thick Darkness of all our Ignorance into the Heavenly Canaan of true Happiness There is no Proportion betwixt a Natural Eye and a Supernatural Happiness and so no possibility that such an Object should be seen by such an Organ The great God hath Ordained Man to a far more Noble End than what his Natural Faculties can either Merit for him or Discover to him That Glorious and Ultimate End in the Acquisition whereof and not otherwise the Heart of Man can rest Satisfied it 's as far above the Reach of our most Soaring and Sublimated Thoughts as it is for Worth and Excellency beyond all our Deserts Since the Infernal Raven pick'd out the Eyes of our Understanding with a Splinter of the Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil we have all like the Sodomites been Groping in the Dark for the Tree of Life Deut. 32.32 But should never have been able to Distinguish It from the Vine of Sodom all whose Grapes are Grapes of Gall and Clusters Bitter had not God himself given us a Taste thereof from Heaven by the Hand of Christ The Patrons of Universal Grace I confess would turn the whole World into an Eden and have the Tree of Life to be found in every Garden as well as in the Paradise of God But the Vanity of that Opinion is Written in Legible Characters upon that confused Chaos that heap and crowd of Contradictions about the Summum Bonum in the Ruines whereof the most improved Reasons of the Heathen Philosophers and the most raised Wisdom of the World 's Learned Sages lyes Buried to this Day 'T was the common Aim of all the Philosophers as ‖ Omnium Philosophorum commune studium erat quaeâ—endo studendo disputando vivendo Beatitudinem apprehendere Aug. Tom. 6. Tract de Epicur et Stoic Cap. 4. Austin hath Observed of all the Heathen Sages by Seeking Studying Disputing and Living to find out and lay hold upon Happiness But yet so Dreadful were their Misapprehensions about it and the Means conducing thereto that if Varro may be Credited or * Aug. de Civit. Dei Lib. 19. Cap. 1. Austin after him they Disputed themselves into no less than Two Hundred Eighty and Eight Sects some placing Happiness in this thing and some in that according to their several Inclinations Humours and Conditions together with the different Projects they had to drive on in the World So that there is no Possibility of finding out the way to True Happiness at Athens amongst the Philosophers who sought it only by Human Reason but in Jerusalem amongst the Prophets and Apostles Men inspired with Divine Wisdom from Heaven they will tell us the Truth That our Happiness stands not in the Quint-Essence of Any nor in the general Collection of All Created Good Things but in the having of the Lord JEHOVAH for our Portion and our exceeding great Reward MEN may Fancy much Happiness where Garners are Full affording all manner of Store where their Flocks are Fruitful and their Oxen are Strong to Labor where there is no Breaking in nor Complaining in their Streets But David a Man after God's own Heart by an holy Epanonthesis Contradicts that gross Mistake Psal 144.15 and stands like a Beacon upon an Hill to give Aim at the Mark of True Blessedness pronouncing that People alone to be Happy whose God is the Lord. Let Men dive into the bottom of Nature's Sea yet they will be able to bring up from thence nothing but Hands full of Sand and Gravel this One Pearl of Great Price is no where Engendred in the Bowels of the Earth When the Enquiry was Where shall Wisdom be found and Where is the place of Vnderstanding The Depth said It is not in me and the Sea said It is not with me
fearing the Shame and not knowing well how to spare so much Mony as was needful in the case To all other Duties he finds mighty impulsions to close with any opportunity for them and against every Temptation to sin strong aversations and reluctances so that he feels the Law of the Spirit of Life within his own Bowels though too often alass too often he is disobedient to it 3 He measures all Persons Places Employments by their subserviency to the Divine Life in his Soul and still comes off with Shame and great Heaviness where he spends one Hour without some spritual advantage 4 He hath a real compassion for all Men making it his Heart's Desire to God that they may be saved but his delight lies in those that have most of the Image and likeness of God upon them those that are begotten by the same immortal seed formed into the same divine Nature acted and fed by the same Almighty Spirit of Life with himself these are his Beu'ah's his Hepthsibahs he thinks â—he could not live in the World without â—hem 5 This notwithstanding he still finds himself out of his Proper Center he is daily under powerful tendencies and restless desires after the full enjoyment of and the nearest conjunction with the blessed God in Christ Jesus which desires are mightily strengthned by a deep Sense of his present misery under hard bondage the impetuousness of in-dwelling Corruption and violent Temptations which make every Day of his Life a bloody Warfare so that his Soul almost chooseth Strangling and Death rather than Life he loaths it he would not live always at such distance from the blessed God in such incessant and dangerous conflicts with World Flesh and Devil for a thousand Worlds so far as he is willing under the Tears and tediousness the Conflicts and Dangers of this Mortal Life by way of pure Compliance with the Will of God he really judgeth the greatest act of Self-denial that he is capable of performing 6 To sweeten a Life so much in the Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity he makes it his Business to be much with God through an Almighty Redeemer and much in the Fellowship of the Holy-Ghost and this not only at the stated times of publick private and secret Duties but especially of secret Duties where he sets himself no bounds but takes all opportunities which he finds his Heart fit to comply with many times in company and employment of another Nature he is weary of forbearing and his Heart restless till he find room for such retirement for he hath found that Life and Power that divine solace and sweetness in it with which all the Delights of Sense are no more worthy to be compared than a Dunghil with the Sun And oh when Heaven hath thus come down in Smiles to him and filled him with Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost how often hath he been afraid to make an end of the Duty How often when rising off his Knees hath he fallen down again not willing to leave his sweetness and his Fatness so and so doubled the Time of his Duty Thus was his whole Sheet of Paper filled whether there was any thing more written of this kind we cannot find The preservation of this Sheet seems to be an intimation of Divine Providence that he shou'd be shewed to the World in those colours that he had lay'd on himself He lived till the Non-conformists had a little Smile from the Court after a Decad of Severity and Frowns And now having got a little Liberty by the Licences the King granted to those of his Station he took the Gale of Opportunity to be more abundant in the work of the Lord. And that in the Age of his full Vigour and Strength Yet even now see he is at leisure to think of Death and being Poetically given composed this Dialogue betwixt a Person dying and Death Thus prefacing it Oppress'd with Pain I groan'd as one unwise Death's horrid Aspect did my Soul surprize This frightful Picture ghastly to behold Did all his Terror on my Thoughts unfold At first confounded all amaz'd I stand But gaining confidence thus I demand Moriens or Person Dying Are you that King of Terrors which they say Doth conquer Empires and great Kings dismay Death The very same Sir Death both name and thing My Looks kill some all die that feel my Sting Person Dying Poor Death your looks speak not your strength but fear You cannot live I guess self-judg'd you are Death And would it not torment the greatest Powers My Empire large as Nature Grace devours Person Dynig What that 's the reason of your hollow Eyes Of all the paleness on your Cheeks that lies You have some secret Wound if I guess right Your vital Blood is gone you look so white Death My vital Blood was Poyson and my Sting Did give me Power and create me King Person Dying Your Poyson who destroy'd Christ on the Cross Your Sting great Jesus dying caus'd this loss How came this Palsie in your trembling Hand For fear of losing Scepter and Command Scepter Poor Death it is a Spade I judge No sign of Majesty but of a Drudge Go dig my Grave I would repose in Dust Death you must help to scower off my Rust This Mortal Life will kill me Welcome Grave My hidden Life in Christ is all I have Death do your Office Heaven calls away Dissolve my Bonds my Soul shall win the Day I cannot live indeed unless I die Such is Death's Triumph such his Victory Neither did he forget to think on Heaven upon which he hath bestowed a larger Poem as also others upon Faith Hope Repentance c. which shew the way thither Which possibly the Reader may find in some other place For he delighted to fetter his Thoughts in Verse And though he hath not such high flights as some may expect yet there is in his Poems the devout Breathings of a Divine Poet he wrote not for the Stage nor a King Arthur But that which speaks his Heart most to have been in Heaven is not a Poem but what his serious Reflections and Meditations wrote in Prose in the Treatise following God is pleased to exercise many of his Servants with thoughts of Heaven as it were to prepare them for it immediately before he call them to it Thus Mr. Bolton was writing de quatuor novissimis particularly of Heaven when he dyed Thus the late Reverend Dr. Bates had finished his last Treatise of spiritual Perfection not long before he had expired the last words of which Book are Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. Many more might be named But our own Author must not be forgotten who had taken much pains to transcribe what he had preached and fitted for the Press his Meditations upon this Subject It may be there are few Subjects more cultivated and none on which more is to be said God and Heaven fall under no Hyperbole A late Doctor
or Field by Night where he would furrow his Cheaks with Tears solemnly vow and covenant with God and yet break through all again into his former course till at last he apprehended this covenanting and unfaithfulness in it did but bind a far more exceeding and eternal weight of wrath upon him with this he was so terrified that he durst covenant no more This course lasted from about seven to seventeen Years of Age in what manner Corruption acted before he remembers not After this time living an idle Life and being travelled with bad Company he cast off his allegiance to Parents and took a Wife before nineteen Years of Age for which his Father justly cast him off and he wonders the holy God did not also cast him into Hell But contrary to his demerit and to manifest that our heavenly Father can pardâ—n what earthly Parents cannot God took him in provided a comfortable subsistence for him and without any seeking of his fed this wretched Prodigal with Food convenient that was ready to perish upon a Dunghil This kindness of Divine Providence considered he could no longer resist this brake his Heart in pieces like a Potsheard dissolved him like Snow melted him like wax before the Sun Now his old Resolutions revived with more strength than ever and as a piece of pennance whereby to escape Hell and purchase Heaven he could be content to leave his Sins though still the remembrance of them was grateful to his Nature and he thought them a pleasant Morsel but that Hell stood at the farther end of them But he could have no admission upon these unworthy terms the Spirit of God falls to work with his Conscience as in a voice of Thunder and with terrors more dreadful than all that ever were solemnized upon Mount Sinai singles out his delicate darling corruption swallows him up into the confounding thoughts of it reads the Law charges Guilt and Wrath upon him and thereby slew him so that now he lies bleeding under reprobate astonishment dreading every moment when the Hand the avenging Hand of God would cast him into Hell And so violent was the Agony that he thinks that had not a gleam of Gospel Light come in offering relief and redemption through the free Grace of God in Christ that either Soul and Body had been torn asunder through the great violence of the storm or else he fears he should have destroyed himself to avoid it This notwithstanding he thinks he had some worse corruptions than what the Spirit of God now fastned upon his Conscience as many a bad Lord hath Slaves worse than himself though they all pay suit and service to him as his other Lusts did to this peccatum in deliciis Against this therefore he bent his whole strength little considering for some Years the state of his Soul as to other corruptions which lay dormant their General being so watcht that he could not command them out upon their devilish Service as he was wont Yet the great thing minded was Pardon for a long time with a resolution not to gratifie it though every denyal were a present Death Having thus in time obtained some rest from his hard bondage under it and guilty fears gendred by it he began to consider the great happiness of victory over corruption and to judge that what Poyson what Plague what Death and loathsome Ulcers are to the Body Sin is that to the Soul and infinitely worse which was all now set home upon him both by rational conviction and his own doleful experience This engaged him wholly to attend the business of mortification but chiefly of this Lust to cut off all provisions from it to deny its importunate cravings and to maintain a constant watch against it all which notwithstanding he often received wounds and bruises by it But having a little respite to examine himself as to other Corruptions Death comes upon him again he finds all manner of concupiscence working in him thinks himself a Babel a Sodom an Hell for all confounding and raging Lusts So that had he not by this time better understood whence to fetch Sanctifying Grace as them formerly he must have despaired But he had now learnt to go to the Lord Jesus not only as giving Remission of Sins through Faith in his Blood but likewise saving from Sin by the efficacy of his own Almighty Spirit Hither he never applied himself in believing manner but he obtained help from God through whose help â—he now saith that what was his darling Sin is dead to him and hath no power to command any entertainment in so much as one indulgent Thought though as for natural abilities he is as capable of Pleasure in it as ever His other Sins â—he finds daily to be dying and doth now find the like inclinations to spiritual things that he was wont to find to fleshly things and as strong aversations and eluctances against the lust of the Eyes c. as ever â—he found against the Holy ways of God so that were there no Hell to punish a Life of Flesh-pleasing but what is shut up in the very Nature of it he could not but hate it and fly from it as Men do from the Plague though there be no Law provided that Jesus is his Saviour that he hath saved him out of spiritual Darkness and out of Bondage under Sin given him a new Nature and made him to center wholly upon the blessed God to dwell with him to delight above all things in him and cleave to him as his Life Happiness and resting place Since brought thus far he hath found it with himself as followeth 1 He dare build his confidence for salvation upon nothing but the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus apprehended by Faith his Anchor is upon this Rock of Ages his Life is bound up with this Prince of Life and though through the Corruption of his own Heart and prepossessions of Errour about the Nature of Redeeming Grace he find it aâ— hard thing to believe yet his Heart is now possessed with Good and Honourable apprehensions of God He in good measure is freâ— from all imbittered thoughts of him hâ— believes that God hath given him Eternaâ— Life in his Son and that the Son is ablâ— to save to the utmost all that come to Goâ— through him in this and not in any workâ— of Righteousness which he hath done is hiâ— whole Hope Living and Dying and he believeâ— such Hope will not make him ashamed 2 He hath a regard to all Righteousness so far as his present imperfections will permit it to fulfil it and this from such â— Principle as he eats and drinks a new Nature within him which is not gratified with any thing more than Holy and Righteouâ— Actions In particular whereas when â— Boy he had injured several Persons in robbing their Orchards he hath confessed hiâ— Sin begged their Pardon with Shame anâ— Tears and made restitution this he waâ— often urged to before he performed it
will readily grant but that Christ should lay down his Life and die in our stead that we through Faith in his Blood might escape the Damnation of Hell and so have an entrance into heavenly Glory they will not abide They make him like Job upon the Dunghil or Stephen the Proto-martyr under a storm of Stones a rare pattern of patience in his Death but as for the Treasury of his Merit to Life and eternity of Glory that they do wholly reject The most that they will allow concerning the Death and Sufferings of Christ our Redeemer is only this that he died as a famous Martyr to confirm the Doctrin he preached and to be an example unto us that we might walk in all patience and self-denial before God But as for that expiatory Sacrifice which in his Death he offered up to God the Father and that full satisfaction which he made thereby to Divine Ju tice against this they bend all their strength as Men that were industriously resolved to undermine the whole Work of our Redemption and to reduce themselves into the same estate of hopeless and everlasting unpreventable misery with lapsed Angels that are now shut up in everlasting Chains under Darkeness However there is a sufficiency of Scripture-evidence shining forth with most clarified Beams of brightness enough to satisfy all those whose eyes the God of this World hath not blinded that Christ died by way of Satisfaction to Divine Justice that he laid down his Life in our stead and that in all his sufferings he designed the purchasing of Life and eternal Salvation for us Hence besides the several Types and daily hibastical Sacrifices under the Old Testament all prefiguring that Jesus Christ was by his Death to make an Attonement for Sin we have the Holy Ghost every where in holy Writ asserting this as the grand end of Christ's coming into the World and of his becoming obedient unto Death that he might save Sinners that he might make satisfaction to Divine Justice that he might reconcile us unto God that he might impetrate the forgiveness of Sins for us and so put us at length in possession of endless Glory As the Lord doth naturally hate Sin so likewise he is naturally inclined to punish it and though there be a Remnant according to the election of Grace that shall be saved yet in order hereunto the Lord stands upon terms of satisfaction to his own Justice resolving to have an adequate satisfactory price deposited or the Captive shall never be released (a) Rom. 3.25 26. To declare therefore the righteousness of God that he might be just Jesus Christ was set forth to be a propitiation for our Sins redeeming us out of the hands of Divine Justice which once being violated becomes inexorable till full Satisfaction be given not with Silver or Gold or any such corruptible thing but with his own precious Blood as of a Lamb undefiled and without spot In our first and grand Apostacy from God the Fountain of our Life and Happiness we together with the light of Gods countenance did miserably lose our selves (b) Luke 19.10 1 Tim 1.15 For this end therefore Christ came into the World that he by the Sacrifice of himself might seek and save us Though before the Fall there was a sweet accord a blessed Covenant of Love and Friendship betwixt God and Man yet no sooner did our first Parents prevaricate but this peaceful League was changed into a dissentious and mutual enmity God for Sin hating Man and Man through Sin hating God To make up therefore this sad breach to compose this unsociable difference Christ humbles himself unto Death that so this dissentious Flame which threatned to involve the whole Race of Mankind in one general conflagration being by the effusion of his own Blood supprest there might be a mutual Reconciliation and an unjarring indissoluble League of Love betwixt God and Man established The Socinian I know will tell you that the enmity was not mutual betwixt God and Man and that Christ by his Death did not pacify God reconciling him to lost Sinners but only destroyed the enmity that was in our Natures against God shewing us thereby that the Lord was already reconciled unto us and ready to receive us into the bosom of his eternal Love But though 't is true that the very coming of Christ into the World was an evident demonstration of that Philanthropy and Stupendious Love of Benevolence whereby the Lord stood inclined to do good to lost Man yet without the propitiatory Sacrifice of Christ upon the Cross there was no Love of complacency but the Wrath of God abiding upon us Reconciliation as Chrysostom observes well presupposing enmity and pacification some kind of hostile opposition Hence Christ our Redeemer is so often called the Propitiation for our sins * 1 John 2.2 4 10. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Significat peccatorum expiationem ipsam propitiationem seu id quo propter quod tum pâ—ccata expiantur consequenter Deus placatur Zanch. Christus dicitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 non quod reddat Deo homines propitios sed quod Deum reddat hominibus propitium Maccov which word doth properly signify somewhat whereby the anger of another is pacified and so he is induced to become propitious favourable and merciful towards the Party offending A time there was when Man stood not obnoxious to any guilt but sate enthroned in spotless Innocency so that Divine Justice it self could then bring in no black charges nor any Bills of Indictment against him but since first our first Parents touched the forbidden Fruit we stand every moment obnoxious to the Arrests of Divine Vengeance are involved in an universal guiltiness of nature and must eternally lie under the Dint of Gods heavy displeasure had we not †Ephes 1.7 Redemption through Faith in the Blood of Christ even the forgiveness of our Sins Had not Adam and we in him apostatized from God the Death of Christ would have been needless but now by reason of that first prevarication and our own supperadded Iniquities we could not otherwise escape the damnation of Hell since without the shedding of Blood there was no * Heb. 9.22 remission of Sins If Christ undertake to blot out and cover the black lines of sin he must draw them all over with the red lines of his own Blood 'T is not that unbloody Sacrifice of the Mass so much extolled in the Roman Synagogue that can expiate our guilt and cleanse us from Sin but if the deep stain of Sin be fetched out of our Souls and our Robes washed white it must be in the †Rev. 7.14 Blood of the Lamb. A Popes Indulgence may be of efficacy to send some ignorant People to Hell with more chearfulness and security than otherwise they would have gone thither but that Pardon which will prove effectual indeed to calm your Consciences when estuated through the guilt of sin
eternal Glory look not therefore upon yourselves for so doing as carnal but as spiritual as hypocritical but as upright and sincere in God's own account To be encouraged to obedience by the consideration of that eternal reward which follows after is to make use of the Spirit 's own Motives and to be sure the more you are affected with the Spirit 's Motives the more sublime ingenuous and spiritual doth it argue the frame of your Hearts to be â—s therefore he that is most acted in God's service by secular respects and carnal considerations seeking Great things for himself in the World is the most carnal earthly minded Christian so he that is most encouraged to obedience by Heavenly considerations seeking life immortality and eternal Glory together with everlasting Soul-intransing communion with God in Heaven he is the most Seraphique the most generous the most noble spirited and Heavenly Christian and then surely no hypocritical disingenuous and sordid Person in God's account What a needless jealousie is it then for God's People to suspect and make sad Inferences against themselves as if they were carnal hypocritical and mercenary upon that very account which indeed doth most eminently distinguish them from all carnal Gospellers speaking all their Graces to be of a most spiriâ—ual untainted and generous graceful complexion What cannot Moses have a respect to the recompence of the reward anticipating for his encouragement by Faith the Glory Happiness and Spiritual Pleasures of the heavenly Câ—naan but he must presently forfeit his Integrity and undergo the censure of a Mercenary Fear not poor jealous trembling Christian That for which in this interval of mortality thou suspectest thy own Sincerity shall be owned another day as a good evidence of thy uprightness and integrity before the Lord. For the Soul to go up with Christ into the Mount of Transfiguration for the Soul to be still looking out at its Windows towards the Temple of God in Sion for the Soul to breath after fulness of Communion with God in Glory for the Soul to warm it self in the Sun-beams and bright irradiations of heavenly Bliss for the Soul to long after the ripe and generous Clusters of Canaan for the Soul to fix its Eye upon Eternity encouraging itself with the assured hope of eternal Rest after all its Labours in the Land of Promise to be sure Christian this does not bespeak adulterous glances nor does it make any just forfeiture of thy uprightness and ingenuity but it rather argues thee to be one of those true Nathaniels whose Praise is not of Man but of God! 2 This gives to understand the wonderful condescension and matchless goodness of the God whom we worship who suffers us not to go without our Spiritual Cordials but allows us the strong consolation of respect to the recompence of the reward in all our obediential and holy walking before hiâ— The Lord considering his absolute Sovereignty over us might have exacted Obedience at our Hands without making any Proposals of Life and Eternal Glory for our better encouragement thereto But such is his matchless condescension and remunerative Goodness that he sweetens our Work with Wages allowing us whilst our Hand is at Work in his Vineyard sowing to the Spirit to have our Eye upon the recompence of the reward upon that joyful Harvest that full Crop of Eternal Life and Glory which will follow after Though after all we have done and suffered for God (a) Luke 17.10 we must acknowledge ourselves unprofitable Servants as being everlastingly unable to add so much as one cubit to the Stature of his infinite Happiness and surpassing Glory yet such is his bounty and the riches of his Grace that if a Crown of Life if a Kingdom of Eternal Glory if a fulness of Joy * Cor. 15.58 and everlasting Pleasures at his own right Hand can make us stedfast unmovable always abounding in the Work of the Lord we shall never want encouragement †O magna bonitas Dei cui cum pro conditione reddere debeamus obsequia utpote servi domino famuli Deo subjecti potenti mancipia redemptori amicitiarum nobis praemia repromittit ut à nobis obsequia debita servitutis extorqueat ut quos nolle servâ—â—e conspicit sponte suorum beneficiorum possit promissionibus invitare quorum voluntates à se conspicit alienas â—orum mentes praemiorum liberalitatibus constituat suas Aug. in Johan 15.14 Here then is a glorious Specimen of Divine remunerative Goodness that though we are unavoidably subject to God our Creator and are indebted upon that account in all possible Obedience to his righteous Will though since we can in nothing be profitable to him there were no reward to be expected from him Yet he makes proposal of such friendly and glorious Rewards extorting from us by a kind of holy Violence the debt of Service that seeing us unwilling to serve him of our own accord he may invite us thereto by the promises of Heavenly Benefits and that seeing our Wills averse from his wages he may captivate us wholly to himself by the largeness of his ample gifts and munificent bestowances wherewith he is pleased to crown us So then there is an Eterna Rest there is Life and everlastingly glorious Felicity set before us striving lawfully as a Blessed (a) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil in Psal 114. Reward wherewith all our Labours shall be crowned Yet not through any condigne merit of our own but through the glorious Munificence and Goodness of the God whom we worship and in whom we have hoped It hath been indeed the way of unbelievers in all Ages to bring an evil report upon the wages of God opening their opprobrious calumnies against Heaven it self as if the Lord were not a bounteous * Mal. 3.14 Rewarder of those that diligently seek him nor his service at all advantagious and profitable to such as exercise themselves therein But if we duly consider the remunerative Goodness of God to those that fear him what a full reward what transporting Joy what an Heavenly Kingdom what an undefiled inheritance what an immarcescible Crown of Life what a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory the Lord sets before his People in all their obedience allowing them to solace their Hearts and to encourage themselves whilst wandring through the inhospitable Wilderness of this World with the Hope of an everlasting Glorious Rest in the Celestial Canaan it will sufficiently wipe off the reproach and make us all stand admiring those innumerable Hyperbolies and Miracles of Love and Condescention and Bounty that do all meet together in the Divine remunerative Goodness Oh what manner of Consideration what wonderful matchless Goodness is this our God that whereas by Nature we are Enemies to him despising his Sovereign Authority making light of his Divine Favour though better than life it self and running in a full Career towards Hell and Eternal Destruction he should prevent
the Prodigal be feeding upon Husks when there is Bread enough to spare in your Fathers House Will you still be building Tabernacles for your selves on Earth when the Lord shews you such Mansions of Glory prepared in Heaven Foolish Children When such an eternally glorious Reward is held out to you by the Hand of your heavenly Father how can you with any patience behold the World or think it worthy that you should spend so much as one thought upon it You should live Christians in the highest Region of an heavenly Conversation leaving those to scramble for the World that have nothing else to live upon (g) Sua sibi habeant regna reges suas divitias divites suam verò prudentiam prudentes relinquant nobis stultitiam nostram Lact. de Just lib. 5. cap. 12. pag. 493. That of Lactantius was a brave heroick Spirit which if throughly imbibed would make you all say with him let the Kings of the Earth have their Kindoms let â—â—e Rich Men have their Riches and the Prudent of this World let them have their Prudence to themselves so that they will only leave us the folly of seeking by patient continuance in well-doing Glory and Honour and Immortality and Eternal Life Get your Hearts fixed upon your Treasure in Heaven and I dare say it will never grudge you to see the Lord filling the Bellies of the Wicked with his hidden Treasure on Earth It matters not much what they have in hand so long as God allows you to have always an immarcessible Crown of Glory in you to Eye Oh this is the Happiness of Gods People even in this present World that having gotten their Hearts once weaned from earthly Comforts they live in the suburbs of the heavenly Jerusalem When once they leave off to feed with delight upon the Garlick and Onions of Aegypt they shall then sit down under the shadow of Gods dearest Love in Canaan and there find his Fruit sweet to their tast When once they turn away their Eyes from beholding worldly Vanities they may behold with delight the promised reward and have their Eyes continually feasted with the bright entrancing beams of Heavenly Glory (h) Quis non illius vitae desiderio praesentem vitum despierat Quis non illius abundantiae delectamento divitias temporis labentis exhorreat Quis non illius regni dilectione omnia terrena Regna contemnat Fulgent ad Theodor. epist 6. pag. 551. Who then for the desire of such a Life would not despise this present World Who for the delight of that abundance would not even fear the Riches of gliding time Who for the Love of that glorious Kingdom would not contemn as things of no value all earthly Kingdoms Oh believe it Christians you will have Meat to eat which the World knows not of living Heavenly-minded The World can never feast her greatest Favourites with those redundancies of Joy and Comfort which you may expect getting weaned affections to things below and living above Let therefore the Price of earthly Commodities fall and the price of heavenly Commodities rise in your thoughts And tho you be absent from your Treasure in Body yet see that you be always present therewith in Spirit In vain doth God afford you a prospect of Glory on Earth if it prove not a spiritual Load-stone to attract and draw up your Hearts as high as Heaven 8 WALK patiently as well satisfied to suffer and bear the worst of Afflictions that at length you may come to Heaven the best of Rewards Their Hearts may well be established with divine Patience in every condition whose Eyes God allows to be fixed in every Duty upon heavenly Glory And truly the condition of God's People in this present World doth evince the great necessity of Divine Patience to all that will live Godly in Christ Jesus Luther makes it the very definition of a Christian to be a Crucian who denying himself must take up his Cross and follow Christ The Lord Jesus hath two Crowns the one of Thorns the other of Glory They that would enjoy the latter and be crowned with Glory they must first undergo the former and be crowned with Thorns What the Holy Ghost said of Christ that it behoved him to suffer and so to enter into his Glory the very same holds true of all his People (i) Acts. 14.22 who through many afflictions must enter into the Kingdom of God The stones in Solomon's Temple were first hewen and polished and then set up into a stately Building So God's People first they must be hewen and carved by sufferings before they can be fit to build the Temple of God in the heavenly Jerusalem To all the People of God this World is a Wilderness not a Canaan an Egypt not a Paradise a troublesome Sea not an Harbour of Rest The day that is without clouds the light that is without Darkness the Joy that hath no sorrow is reserved for Heaven So then the misery of our present condition may well let us see the necessity of Christian Patience to suffer and wait upon God in it Without Patience every burden will seem too heavy every Cup that our heavenly Father puts into our Hand too bitter and every affliction too long But get Patience and that will lighten every burden have Patience and that will sweeten the bitterest potion lengthen Patience and that will make the time of all your afflictions seem short There is â— passive obedience required of all Christians that they may quietly suffer and 't is patience must help them If we bring evil upon our selves then we should afflict our Souls with Godly Sorrow but if the Lord bring evil upon us then we must exercise Patience both quietly hoping (k) Lam 3.26 and waiting for his salvation Christian Patience is not only a comely Grace making misery it self by a pious deportment under it seem amiable but 't is also a necessary Grace making the very worst of Miseries seem tolerable by framing a Mans mind to his present condition when his condition is not to his mind There are many Men professing the Christian Faith who if deliverance come not at their own Time they presently grow impatient of waiting God's time resolving to trade for it in their own way But were their Hearts established with divine Patience they would never thus precipitate their Mercies nor think that deliverance worth the having which only springs up out of the ruines of Faith and a good Conscience 'T is the nature of Christian Patience to make a Man tenacious of his integrity working in him a strong resolution not to purchase the greatest good with the commission of any the least evil This makes a Man the same in Prison as at Liberty the same in Poverty as when abounding with Riches the same when under reproach persecution and sorest calamities in the World as when the Sun of outward prosperity shone bright upon him Let what Storms will bluster abroad in the
as he had it what then will be the end of every wicked Servant who hath embezelled his Lords Talent spending it riotously upon Harlots This Man must certainly expect more dreadful aggravations of Punishment than the other That slothful Servant shall have a milder Cup of Wrath when this wicked Servant shall drink up the dregs of Divine Fury If the unprofitable Servant be avenged seven-fold surely then the rebellious Servant must be avenged seventy times Seven-fold (a) Quòd si sterilitas in ignem mittitur rapacitas quid meretur Aut quid recipiet qui alienum tucerit si semper ardebit qui de suo non dederit Et si judicium sine misericordia erit illi qui non facit misericordiam quale judicium erit illi qui fecerit rapinam Fulgent Serm. de dispens Dom. p. 615. If Divine Justice whip the one with Rods 't will certainly whip the other with Scorpions If sterility be cast into the Fire who can tell the Wrath the fiery Flames of Tophet into which rapacity shall be thrown If he that relieved not others with what was his own must burn for ever what Vengeance of Eternal Fire may those look for who have extorted from others what was not their own What will be the end of the cruel who grind the Faces of the Poor if he shall have judgment without mercy who shewed no mercy If not doing the thing which is good will shut out of heavenly Glory doubtless then working that which is evil and abominable in the sight of God will for ever sink Men in unsufferabl hellish Torments 10 AND lastly be much upon your knees at the throne of Grace imploring with all earnestness and holy Importunity the help of Heaven whereby you may be duly qualified and fitted for it Our endeavours after Life and Glory they must ever be succeeded with the Grace of God effectually working in us or else we must lose our Reward Nothing of ours will ever bring us to God as the end and quietative Centre of our Souls except we first receive it from God as the Author of every good and perfect Gift (a) Jam. 1.17 If ever we come to Canaan 't is the God of Israel that must lead us by the Hand and by the Arm of his Omnipotency put us in full possession of it (b) Col. 1.12 There is an Inheritance of Saints in Light but unless God the Father of Lights by a sufficiency of discriminating Grace do first qualify and meeten us for it we are like to abide in everlasting Darkness The Stone hath no power to mount upward but what it wholly receives from the strength and impress of the Arm throwing it Nor have we whose Hearts by Nature are as Stones any Power to move Heaven-ward but what we do wholly receive from the irresistible Strength and Divine Energy of God's holy Spirit carrying us that Way Free will to what is spiritually good is a plain Soloecism in the School of free Grace So that whoever by the good use hereof thinks to get the Reward to be sure he shall never enjoy any fellowship in Christ's Colledge nor have the least degree of preferment in the University of Heaven Our Estate by (c) Rom. 5.6 Nature is without any strength So that we are no more able to do the Works of a Spiritual than a dead Man to do the Works of a natural Life (d) Ephes 2.1 By Nature we are blind and cannot therefore see the things of the Spirit of God unless he first gives us a (z) 1 Cor. 2.14 spiritual Eye We are alienated from the Life of Christ and must never look to have any saving acquaintance with him if the Father draw us not The Lord 's drawing is not by destroying the Will but by Sanctifying of it and inclining it to what is good He puts forth the Arm of his Grace to apprehend us and that creates in us an Arm of Faith to apprehend him They do but flatter and miserably comply with sinful corrupt Nature against Grace who assert any such Power in Man whereby he may prepare himself for special Grace So prodigeous is our Impotency by Nature that we have not the power of a good Thought of a Sigh of one hearty Groan after God and Christ and eternal Glory in our own hands To talk of an universal Grace that is only determined and made effectual by the good improvement of our own free will antecedently consenting thereto before any effectual change wrought upon us by the Spirit of Regeneration is indeed to deny God's discriminating Love and instead of that to set up an Idol of our own If so be that the same Grace be granted to all then 't is not God but every Man (a) 1 Cor. 4.7 that improves this Grace who makes himself to differ from another contrary to the true intent of the Apostle's Question For that which is common to all Men doth never make a difference betwixt any You must know then that we do not difference our selves from others by improving the same Talent better than others did But 't is God alone who doth difference us from others from the vilest of Sinners from the damned in Hell by giving us that Talent of Grace to Trade with and a Will to improve it which he never gave to them He is (b) Heb. 12.2 no less the Author than the Finisher of our Faith And he alone must work (c) Sicut sancti viri se post primi parentis lapsum de corruptibili stirpe editos non virtute propriâ sed praeveniente gratiâ supernâ ad meliora se vota vel opera commutatos Greg. lib. Mor. 22. c. 10. Grace in us to make us Holy as well as bestow Glory upon us to make us happy We do not prevent God loving him first but he prevents us first Circumcising our Heart that we may love him Were the Grace of God merely suasory and by moral Arguments making Tenders of Life and Glory to us but giving us no (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat. epist ad Rom. pag. mihi 84. power to accept of them nor renewed Hearts to close with them well we might hear the glad Tidings of eternal Life but most certainly for all that we must die in our Sins and be damned for ever For as a learned Divine of our own hath it there is so much Perverseness and devilish Antipathy in our Hearts by Nature that neither the Promises of Heaven can allure us nor the Blood and Passions of Christ perswade nor all the flames of Hell affright us out of our Sins till the Lord by the sweet and glorious Power of his holy Spirit subdue and conquer the Will to himself The Apostle therefore speaking to this purpose contents not himself to say it is God that commands you that exhorts and persuades you both to will and to do But saith he 't is God that works in you both to will