world to come are so overmastered by the powers of this present world and objects of sense so much outweigh those of Faith And is not this apparently the case with the Christians of the present age Do not your thoughts run the same course with theirs that meditated nothing but sitting on the right and left hand of Christ in an earthly dominion while they never dream't of drinking of his Cup or being baptized with his Baptism How many vain dreamers have we of golden mountains and I know not what earthly felicity whose pretended Prophesies about a supposed near approaching prosperity to the Church on earth gain easier belief or are more savory and taking with too many then all that the Sacred Oracles discover about its glorious state in heaven Hence are our shoulders so unfitted to Christs yoke like the unaccustomed Heifer and the business of suffering will not enter into our hearts Methinks the belief and expectation of such a state hereafter should make us even regardless of what we see or suffer here and render the good or evil things of time as indifferent to us Yet neither plead I for an absolute Stoical Apathy but for patience A great follower of that Sect acknowledges It is not a vertue to bear what we feel not or have no sense of Stupidity under Providence is not a Christian temper as that Moralist sayes of the wise man 'T is not the hardness of stone or iron that is to be ascribed to him But least any should run into that more dangerous mistake to think that by the patience we have been all this while perswading to in the expectation of the blessedness yet to come is meant a love of this present world and a complacential adherence of heart to the earth which extream the terrene temper of many souls may much encline them to It will be necessary upon that account to adde in reference also to the yet future expected season of this blessedness this further and concluding instruction viz. That however we are not to repine at our being held so long in this world in an expecting state yet we let not our souls cleave too close to their terrestrial stations nor be too much in love with the body and this present low state of life on earth For evident it is that notwithstanding all the miseries of this expecting state the most are yet loath to leave the world and have hearts sordidly hankering after present things And surely there is much difference between being patient of an abode on earth and being fond of it Therefore since the true blessedness of Saints consists in such things as we have shewn and cannot be enjoy'd till we awake not within the compass of time and this lower world It will be very requisite to insist here a while in the prosecution of this last Rule And what I shall say to it shall be by way of Caution Inforcement 1. For Cautionâ—s that we misapprehend not that temper and disposition of Spirit we are in this thing to endeavour and aim at And it especially concerns us to be cautious about the Inducements Degree Of that desire of leaving this world or concontempt of this present life which we either aspire to or allow our selves in First Inducements Some are desirous others at least content to quit the world upon very insufficient or indeed wicked considerations 1. There are who desire it meerly to be out of the way of present troubles whereof they have either too impatient a sense or an unworthy and impotent fear Many times the urgency and anguish of incumbent trouble impresses such a sense and utters it self in such a language as that Now O Lord take I beseech thee my life from me for it is better for me to die then to live Or that My soul chuseth strangling and death rather then life Makes men long for death and dig for it as for hid treasures rejoyce and be exceeding glad when they can find the grave Yea and the very fear of troubles that are but impendent and threatning make some wish the Grave a Sanctuary and render the Clods of the Valley sweet unto their thoughts They lay possibly so humoursom and phansiful stress upon the meer circumstances of dying that they are earnest to dye out of hand to avoid dying so and so as the Poet would fain perswade himself it was not Death he feared but Shipwrack It would not trouble them to dye but to dye by a violent hand or to be made a publick spectacle they cannot endure the thoughts of dying so Here is nothing commendable or worthy of a Christian in all this It were a piece of Christian bravery to dare to live in such a case even when there is a visible likelihood of dying a sacrifice in the midst of flames How much this glory was affected in the earlier days of Christianity is sufficiently known Though I confess there were excesses in that kind altogether unimitable But if God call a man forth to be his Champion and witness to lay down a life in it self little desirable in a truly worthy cause The call of his Providence should be as the sound of the Trumpet to a truly Martial Spirit it should fill his soul with a joyful courage and sense of honour and be comply'd with cheerfully with that apprehension and resentment a stout Souldier would have of his Generals putting him upon some very hazardous piece of service viz. he would say My General hath not as the Morallist expresses his sense for him deserved ill of me but it appears he judged well It should be counted all joy to fall into such tryals that is when they become our lot by a providential disposition not by a rash precipitation of our selves And as it is a wickedness inconsistent with Christianity to be of that habitual temper to chuse to desert such a cause for the saving of life so it is a weakness very reproachful to it to lay down ones life in such a case with regret as unwilling in this kind to glorifie him who laid down his for us we are no more to dye to our selves then to live to our selves Our Lord Jesus hath purchased to himself a Dominion over both states of the living and dead and whether we live we must live to him or dye we must dye to him T is the glory of a Christian to live so much above the world that nothing in it may make him either fond of life or weary of it 2. There are others who are at least indifferent and careless how soon they dye out of either a worse than paganish infidelity disbelieving the concernments of another world or a bruitish stupidity not apprehending them or a gross conceited ignorance misunderdanding the terms of the Gospel and thinking themselves to be in a good condition as to eternity when the case is much otherwise with them Take heed thy willingness to dye
glory of God Your hearts being bent thitherward and made willing to run through whatsoever difficulties of life or death to attain it Do not think that Christ came into the world and dyed to procure the pardon of your sins and so translate you to heaven while your hearts should still remain cleaving to the earth He came and returned to prepare a way for you and then call not drag you thither That by his Precepts and Promises and Example and Spirit he might form and fashion your Souls to that glorious state And make you willing to abandon all things for it And low now the God of all grace is calling you by Jesus Christ unto his eternal Glory Direct then your eyes and hearts to that marke the Prise of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus 'T is ignominious by the common suffrage of the civiliz'd world not to intend the proper business of our Callings To your Calling to forsake this world and mind the other make hast then to quit your selves of your entanglements of all earthly dispositions and affections Learn to live in this world as those that are not of it that expect every day and wish to leave it whose hearts are gone already 'T is dreadful to dye with pain and regret To be forced out of the Body To dye a violent death and go away with an unwilling refluctant heart The wicked is driven away in his wickedness Fain he would stay longer but cannot He hath not power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death He must away whether he will or no. And indeed much against his will So it cannot but be where there is not a previous knowledge and love of a better state where the Soul understands it not and is not effectually attempered and framed to it O get then the lovely Image of the future glory into your minds keep it ever before your eyes Make it familiar to your thoughts Imprint daily there these words I shall behold thy face I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And see that your souls be inrich't with that righteousness Have inwrought into them that holy rectitude that may dispose them to that blessed state Then will you dye with your own consent and go away not driven but allur'd and drawn You will go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon their heads As those that know whether you go even to a state infinitely worthy of your desires and choice and where 't is best for you to be You will part with your souls not by a forcible separation but a joyful surrender and resignation They will dislodge from this earthly Tabernnacle rather as putting it off then having it rent and torn away Loosen your selves from this body by degrees as we do any thing we would remove from a place where it sticks fast Gather up your spirits into themselves Teach them to look upon themselves as distinct thing Inure them to the thoughts of a dissolution Be continually as taking leave Cross and disprove the common maxime and let your hearts which they use to say are wont to dye last dye first Prevent death and be mortifi'd towards every earthly thing beforehand that death mave have nothing to kill but your body And that you may not die a double death in one hour and suffer the death of your body and of your love to it both at once Much less that this should survive to your greater and even incurable misery Shake off your Bands and Fetters the terrene affections that so closely confine you to the house of your bondage And lift up your heads in expectation of the approaching Jubilee the day of your redemption when you are to go out free and enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When you shall serve and groan and complain no longer Let it be your continual song and the matter of your daily praise that the time of your happy deliverance is hastening on that ete long you shall be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That he hath not doom'd you to an everlasting imprisonment within those closs and clayie walls wherein you have been so long shut up from the beholding of his sight and glory In the thoughts of this while the outward man is sensibly perishing let the inward revive and be renewed day by day What Prisoner would be sorry to see the walls of his Prison House so an Heathen speaks mouldering down and the hopes arriving to him of being delivered out of that darkness that had buried him of recovering his liberty and injoying the free air and light What Champion inur'd to hardship would stick to throw off rotten rags rather expose a naked placid free body to naked placid free air The truly generous soul to be a little above never leaves the body against its will Rejoyce that it is the gracious pleasure of thy good God thou shalt not always inhabit a Dungeon nor lie amid'st so impure and disconsolate darkness that he will shortly exchange thy filthy Garments for those of Salvation and Praise The end approaches As you turn over these leaves so are your days turned over And as you are now arrived to the end of this Book God will shortly write Finis to the Book of your Life on Earth and shew you your names written in Heaven in the Book of that Life which shall never end FINIS Senec. * Pruritus disputandi scobies Ecclesia * Ut ulcera quaedam nocituras manus apoetunt tactu gaudent faedam corporum scabiem delectat quicquid â—xâ—sperâ—t Non alitè◠dixerim his mâ—ntibus in quas voluptates velut mala ulcera crupê unt voluptati esse laborem vexâ—tionemque Sâ—n. de tranquillitate anâ—â—â— Sen de Brev. vit * Nihil est Deo similius aut gratius quam vir animo perfectè bonus c. Apul. de Deo Soâ—â—atis * Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est conciliante virtute amicitiam dico etiam necessitudâ— similitudâ— c. Sca de prov * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Minâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dyonys Halicar Antiq. Rom. lib. 8. Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. * Rom. 16 18. Phil. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vâ—lgar Latine Eâ—oautem 〈…〉 appaâ—câ—o â—oâ—spectui 〈◊〉 satiabo◠〈◊〉 â—â—pâ—â—uâ—riâ— gloâ—ia tua Exactly following the Seventy as doth the Ethiopique the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little the Arabique lesse the Syâ—iâ—ck mistook it seem◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so read that word saith which we read likenesse Hieronymus juxta Hebr. reads the words exactly as we do Ego in justiâ—iâ viâ—â—bo faciâ—m tuam implebor cum evigilavero similitudine tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seems best to be rendered here by or through righteousness as by the condition
and he that peâ—ceiveth the operations of a strong effectual Lovâ— hath an acquaintance with God and Heaven whiâ—â— is above that of believing Faith seeth the Feaâ—â— but Love is the tasting of it And therefore it that the Holiest souls sticks closest unto God because though their reâ—soning faculty may be dâ—fective they know him by the highest and mâ— Tenacious kind of knowledge which this Worâ—â—ffâ—rdeth as I have lately shewed elsewhere â— Here you have described to you the true witness the spirit Not that of supposed Internal Voiceâ— which they are usually most taken up with whâ— have the smallest knowledge and Faith and Love and the greatest self esteem or spiritual pride with the strongest phantasies and pâ—ssiâ—ns But the objective and the sealing Testimony the Divinâ— Nature the renewed Image of God whose Children are known by being like to their Heavenly Father even by being Holy as he is Holy This is the Spirit of Adoption by which we are inclined by Holy Love to God and confidence in him to cry Abba Father and to flie unto him The Spirit of Sanctification is thereby in us the Spirit of Adoption For both signifie but the giving us that Love to God which is the filial nature and our â—athers Image And this Treatise doth happily direct thee to â—â—at faithful beholding God in Righteousness which â—ust here begin this blessed Assimilation which full â—tuition will for ever perfect It is a happy sign that God is about to repair our â—ins and divisions when he stirreth up his serâ—ants to speak so much of Heaven and to call â— the minds of impatient complainers and conâ—tious censurers and ignorant self conceited diâ—ders and of worldly unskilful and unmerciful â—stors to look to that state where all the godly shall one and to turn those thoughts to the furtherance Holiness to provoke one another to Love and to â—od works which two many lay out upon their hay â—â—d stubble And to call men from judging and â—spising each other and worse then both those out their Meats and Drinks and Dayes to study â—â—ghteousness and Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost â—r he that in these things serveth Christ in which â— Kingdom doth consist is acceptable to God and proved of men that are wise and good Let us â—â—erefore follow after the things which make for â—ace and things wherewith one may edifie anoâ—â—er whilest the contentious for meat will destroy â—e work of God Rom. 14. 17 18 19 20. The â—ion between Peace and Holiness is so strict that he â—o truly promoteth one promoteth both Heb. 12. â—4 Jam. 3. 17. The true way of our Union is exâ—lently described Eph. 4. 11 12 13 14 15 â—6 If any plain unlearned Readers shall blame the â—curateness of the stile they must remember that those persons have not the least need to hear of Heâ—ven and to be drawn up from the vanities of earâ—â— who cannot digest a looser stile As God hath endued the worthy Authour with more thâ—n ordinary measure of judiciousness 〈◊〉 soundness and accurateness of understanding 〈◊〉 seriousness spirituality and a heavenly mind we have for our common benefit the effects of these happy qualifications in this judicious heâ—venly discourse And if my recommendations mâ— in any measure further your acceptance in provement and practising of so edifying a Treatâ—â— it will answer the ends of him who waiteth with 〈◊〉 in hope for the same Salvation Rich. Baxter Acton May 30. 1668 THE BLESSEDNESSE OF THE RIGHTEOUS A Proemial Discourse to the intended Subject THe continual mixture of Good and Evil in this present state of things with its uncertain fluctuations and subjection to perpetual changes do naturally prompt a considering mind to the belief and hope of another that may be both more perfect and more permanent For certainly it could never be a design adequate or any way agreeable to the Divine Wisdom and goodness that the blessed God should raise such a thing as this lower Creation out of nothing Only to give himself the temporary pleasure of beholding the alternate Joys and Sorrows of the best part thereof his reasonable creature seated in it Nor a delight at all proportionable to an eternal happy being when he hath connaturalliz'd such a creature to this sensible world onely to take notice how variously the passions he hath planted in him may be mov'd and stir'd by this variety of occasions which he shal thence be presented with And what suddain and contrary impressions may be made upon his easie passive senses by the interchanged strokes and touches of contrary objects How quickly he can raise him into a transport of high contentment and pleasure and then how soon he can again reduce him to a very Paroxism of anguish and despair It would discover us to have very vile and low thoughts of God if we did not judge it altogether unanswerable to his perfections to design no further thing in creating this world and placing such a creature as man in it then onely to please himself for a while with such a spectacle and then at last clear the Stage and shut up all again in an eternal Silent darkness If we could suppose a man furnished with such power he would surely adde little to the reputation of his being wise or good beyond other men by a design so to use it Much less can we think it worthy of God to perpetuate such a state of things as this and continue a succession of such persons and actions as we now behold in the world through eternal generations onely to perpetuate to himself the same pleasure in the exercise of his immense power upon created natures over which he hath so infinite advantage And indeed nothing can be more unconceivable then that the great Creatour and Authour of all things should frame a Creature of so vast comprehension as the Spirit of man put into it a capacity of knowing and conversing with himself give it some prospect of his own glory and blessedness raise thereby in many boundless unsatisfied desires after him and an unexpressible pleasure in the preconceived hope of being received into the communion of that glory and blessedness and yet defeat and blast so great an expectation by the unsuspected reducement of the very subject of it again to nothing Yea and that he should deal herein as in that case he must the most hardly with the best And that such souls whose meer love and devotedness to him had made them abandon the pleasures of this life and run thorough whatsoever difficulties for his sake should fare worse then the very worst were beyond all the rest most utterly unimaginable and a thought which Pagan-reason hath not known how to digest or entertain If saith one and he speaks the sense of many another as well as his own with the dissolution of our bodies the essence of the Souls whatsoever that be should be dissolved too and for ever cease to be any thing I know not how
not uncapable of them or that hath its powers bound up by a stupifying sleep It s the rest of hope perfected in fruition not lost in despair of satisfied not defeated expectation Despair may occasion rest to a mans body but not to his mind or a cessation from further endeavours when they are constantly found vain but not from trouble and disquiet It may suspend from action but never satisfie This satisfaction therefore speaks both the realitie and nature of the souls rest in glory that it rests and with what kind of rest CHAP. V. The relative consideration of these three ingredients of the Saints blessedness Where it is propounded to shew particularly 1. What relation Vision hath to Assimilation 2. What both these have to Satisfaction The relation between the two former inquired into an entrance upon the much larger Discourse what relation and influence the two former have towards the third What Vision of Gods Face or glory contributes towards Satisfaction Estimated from the consideration 1. Of the Object the glory to be beheld as 't is divine entire permanent appropriate THUS far have we view'd the parts or necessary concurrents of which the blessedness of the Saints must be composed absolutely and severally each from other We proceed Secondly to consider them relatively viz. in the mutual respects they bear one to another as they actually compose this blessed state wherein we shall shew particularly 1. The relation by way of inâ—luence and dependence between Vision and Assimilatioâ— 2. Between both these and the satisfaction that insues Which latter I intend more to dwell upon and only to touch the former as a more speculative and lesse improvable subject of Discourse in my way to this 1. First It may be considered what relation there may be between vision of God and assimilation or being made like to him and it must be acknowledged according to what is commonly observed of the mutual action of the understanding and will that the sight of God and likeness to him do mutually contribute each towards other The sight of God assimilates makes the soul like unto him that likeness more disposes it for a continued renewed vision It could never have attained the beatifical vision of God had it not been prepared thereto by a gradual previous likeness to him For righteousness which we have shewn qualifies for this blessedness consists in a likeness to God and it could never have been so prepared had not some knowledge of God introduced that conformity and yielding bent of heart towards him For the entire frame of the new man made after the image of God is renewed in knowledge But as notwithstanding the circular action of the understanding and will upon one another there must be a beginning of this course some-where and the understanding is usually reckon'd the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first mover the leading faculty So notwithstanding the mutual inâ—luence of these two upon each other seeing hath a natural precedency and must lead the way unto being like Which is sufficiently intimated in the Text I shall behold thy face and then I shall be satisfied with thy likeness and more fully in that parallel Scripture We shall â—e like him for we shall see him c. From whence also and from the very nature of the thing we may fitly state the relation of the first of these to the second to be that of a cause to its effect Sight begets likeness is antecedent to it and productive of it That is the face or glory of God seen that glory in conjunction with our vision of it for the vision operates not but according to the efficaciousness of the thing seen nor can that glory have any such operation but by the intervention of vision T is therefore the glory of God seen as seen that assimilates and impresses its likeness upon the beholding Soul and so its causality it is that of an objective cause which whether it belong to the efficient or final I shall not here dispute that operates onely as it is apprehended so introducing its own form and similitude into the subject it works upon Such a kind of cause were Jacobs streaked rods of the productions that ensued and such a cause is any thing whatever that begets an impression upon an apprehensive subject by the mediation and ministry whether of the phancy or understanding This kind of causality the word hath in its renewing transforming work and the Sacraments wherein they are 〈◊〉 of real physical mutations on the Subjects of them So much of the Image of God as is here imprest upon souls by Gospel dispensations so much is imprest of his glory The work of grace is glory begun And now as glory initial and progressive in this life enters at the eye beholding as in a glasse the glory of the Lord we are changed so doth perfect and consumate glory in the other life For we have no reason to imagine to our selves any alteration in the natural order the powers of the soul have towards each other by its passing into a state of glory The Object seen is unspeakably efficacious the Act of intuition is full of lively vigour the Subject was prepared and in a disposition before and what should hinder but this glorious effect should immediately ensue as the Sun no sooner puts up its head above the Hemisphere but all the vast space whether it can diffuse its beams is presently transformed into its likenesse and turned into a Region of light What more can be wanting to cause all the darkness of Atheism carnality and every sting of sin for ever to vanish out of the awaking soul and an intire frame of holiness to succeed but one such transforming sight of the face of God one sight of his glorioâ—â— Majesty presently subdues and works it to 〈◊〉 full subjection one sight of his purity makes 〈◊〉 pure one sight of his lovelinesse turns it into 〈◊〉 and such a sight alwayes remaining the impress remains alwayes actually besides that it is in it self most habitual and permament in the souls now confirmed state fresh and lively The Object hath quite another aspect upon a wicked soul when it awakes and the act of seeing is of another kind therefore no such effect follows besides the subject is otherwise disposed and therefore as the Sun inlightens not the inward parts of an impervious dung-hill but it inlightens air so the sight of God transforms and assimilates at last not a wicked but it doth a godly soul. That which here makes the greatest difference in the temper of the subject is Love I look upon the face of a stranger and it moves me not but upon a friend and his face presently transforms mine into a lively cheerful aspect As iron sharpens iron so doth the face of a man his friend puts a sharpness and a quickness into his looks The soul that loves God opens it self to him admits his influences and impressions
here to be understood by it which indeed sleeping would more aptly signifie than awaking but what is co-incident therewith in the same period the exuscitation and revival of the soul. When the body falls asleep then doth the Spirit awake and the eye-lids of the morning even of an eternal day do now first open upon it 1. Therefore we shall not exclude from this season the introductive state of blessedness which takes its beginning from the blessed souls first entrance into the invisible state And the fitness of admitting it will appear by clearing these two things 1. That its condition in this life even at the best is in some sort but a sleep 2. That when it passes out of it into the invisible Regions 't is truly said to awake 1. It s abode in this mortal body is but a continual sleep its senses are bound up a drowsie slumber possesses and suspends all its faculties and powers Before the renovating change how frequently doth the Scripture speak of sinners as men a sleep Let not us sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead c. They are in a dead sleep under the sleep of death They apprehend things as men asleep How slight obscure hovering notions have they of the most momentous things and which it most concerns them to have thorough real apprehensions of All their thoughts of God Christ Heaven Hell of Sin of Holiness are but uncertain wild guesses blind hallucinations incoherent phansies the absurdity and inconcinnity whereof they no more reflect upon then men asleep They know not these things but only dream of them They put darkness for light and light for darkness have no senses exercised to discern between good and evil The most substantial realities are with them meer shadowes and chemaera's Phansied and imagined dangers startle them as 't is wont to be with men in a dream real ones though never so near them they as little fear as they The creature of their own imagination the Lion in the way which they dream of in their slothful slumber affrights them but the real roaring Lion that is ready to devour them they are not afraid of And conversion doth but relax and intermit it doth not totally break of this sleep It as it were attenuates the consopiting fumes doth not utterly dispel them What a difficulty is it to watch but one hour There are some lucid and vivid intervals but of how short continuance how soon doth the awakened soul close its heavy eyes and fall asleep again how often do temptations surprize even such in their slumbring fits while no sense of their danger can prevail with them to watch and pray with due care and constancy least they enter thereinto Hither are most of the sins of our lives to be imputed and referr'd not to meer ignorance that we know not sin from duty or what will please God and what displease him but to a drowsie inadvertency that we keep not our spirits in a watchful considering posture Our eyes that should be ever towards the Lord will not be kept open and though we resolve we forget our selves before we are aware we find our selves overtaken Sleep comes on upon us like an armed man and we cannot avert it How often do we hear and read and pray and meditate as persons asleep as if we knew not what we were about How remarkable useful providences escape either our notice or due improvement amidst our secure slumbers How many Visits from heaven are lost to us when we are as it were between sleeping and waking I sleep but my heart waketh and hardly own the voice that calls upon us till our beloved hath withdrawn himself Indeed what is the whole of our life here but a dream The entire scene of this sensible world but a vision of the night where every man walks but in a vain shew where we are mockt with shadows our credulous sense abus'd by impostures and delusive appearances nor are we ever secure from the most destructive mischievous deception further than as our souls are possest with the apprehensions that this is the very truth of our case and thence instructed to consider and not to prefer the shadows of time before the great realities of eternity Nor is this sleep casual but even connatural to our present state the necessary result of so strict an union and commerce with the body which is to the in-dwelling Spirit as a dormitory or charnel-house rather than a mansion A soul drench't in sensuality a Leâ—â—e that hath too little of fiction in it and immur'd in a sloathful putid slesh sleeps as it were by fate not by chance and is only capable of full relief by suffering a Dissolution which it hath reason to welcome as a jubilee and in the instant of departure to sacrifice as he did with that easie and warrantable change to make a Heathen expression Scriptural Jehovae liberatori to adore and praise its great Deliverer At least accounts being once made up and a meetness in any measure attained for the heavenly inheritance c. hath no reason to regret or dread the approaches of the eternal day more than we do the return of the Sun after a dark and long-some night But as the sluggard doth nothing more unwillingly than forsake his bed nor bears any thing with more regret than to be awak't out of his sweet sleep though you should intice him with the pleasures of a Paradise to quit a smoky loathsome Cottage so fares it with the sluggish soul as if it were lodg'd in an inchanted Bed 't is so fast held by the charms of the body all the glory of the other world is little enough to tempt it out than which there is not a more deplorable Symptome of this sluggish slumbring state So deep an oblivion which you know is also naturally incident to sleep hath seiz'd it of its own Countrey of its alliances above its relation to the Father and world of Spirits It takes this earth for its home where 't is both in exile and captivity at once And as a Prince stoln away in his infancy and bred up in a beggers shed so little seeks that it declines a better state This is the degenerous torpid disposition of a soul lost in flesh and inwrapt in stupifying clay which hath been deeply resented by some Heathens So one brings in Socrates pathetically bewailing this oblivious dreaming temper of his soul which saith he had seen that pulchritude you must pardon him here the conceit of its pre-existence that neither humane voice could utter nor eye behold But that now in this life it had only some little remembrance thereof as in a dream being both in respect of place and condition far removed from so pleasant sights prest down into an earthly station and there encompast with all manner of dirt and filthiness c. And to the same purpose Plato often speaks
supreme desire till it attain to the fulness thereof We have here a plainly-implyed description of the posture and tendencies of such a soul even of a sanctified holy Soul which had therefore undergone this blessed change towards this state of blessedness I shall saith he be satisfied with thy likeness q. d. I cannot be satisfied otherwise We have seen how great a change is necessary to dispose the Soul to this blessedness which being once wrought nothing else can now satisfie it Such a thing is this blessedness I speak now of so much of it as is previous and conducing to satisfaction or of blessedness materially considered the Divine Glory to be beheld and participated 'T is of that nature it makes the Soul restless it lets it not be quiet after it hath got some apprehension of it till it attain the full enjoyment The whole life of such a one is a continual seeking Gods face So attractive is this glory of a subject rightly disposed to it While others crave Corn and Wine this is the summe of the holy Souls desires Lord lift thou up the light of thy countenance c. The same thing is the object of its present desires that shall be of its eternal satisfaction and enjoyment This is now it s one thing the request insisted on to behold the beauty of the Lord c. and while in any measure it doth so yet 't is still looking for this blessed hope still hoping to be like him see him as he is the expectation of satisfaction in this state implies the restless working of desire till then for what is this satisfaction but the fulfilling of our desires the perfecting of the souls motions in a complacential rest Motion and rest do exactly correspond each to other Nothing can naturally rest in any place to which it was not before naturally inclin'd to move and the rest is proportionably more compos'd and steady according as the motion was stronger and more vigorous By how much the heavier any body is so much the stronger and less resistible is its motion downward and then accordingly it is less moveable when it hath attained its resting place 'T is therefore a vanity and contradiction to speak of the Souls being satisfied in that which it was not before desirous of And that state which it shall ultimately and eternally acquiesse in with a rest that must therefore be understood to be most composed and sedate towards it must it needs move with the strongest and most unsatisfied desire a desire that is supreme prevalent and triumphant over all other desires and over all obstructions to it self least capable of diversion or of pitching upon any thing short of the terme aimed at Ask therefore the holy Soul What is thy Supreme desire and so far as it understands it self it must answer to see and partake the divine glory to behold the blessed face of God till his likeness be transfused through all my powers and his entire image be perfectly formed in me present to my view what else you will I can be satisfied in nothing else but this Therefore this leaves a black note upon those wretched souls that are wholly strangers to such desires that would be better satisfied to dwell always in dust that shun the blessed face of God as Hell it self and to whom the most despicable vanity is a more desirable sight then that of divine glory Miserable souls consider your state can that be your blessedness which you desire not or do you think God will receive any into his blessed presence to whom it shall be a burden methinks upon the reading of this you should presently doom your selves and see your sentence written in your breasts compare your hearts with his holy mans See if there be any thing like this in the temper of your Spirits and never think well of your selves till you find it so 5. The knowledge of God and conformity to him are in their own nature apt to satisfie the desires of the soul and even noâ— actually do so in the measure wherein they are attained Some things are not of a satisfying nature there is nothing tending to satisfaction in them And then the continual heaping together of such things doth no more towards satisfaction then the accumulating of Mathematical Points would towards the compacting of a solid body or the multiplication of Ciphers only to the making of a summe But what shall one day satisfi hath in it self a Power and aptitude thereto The act when ever it is supposes the power Therefore the hungry craving soul that would sain be hâ—ppy but knows not how needs not spend its dayes in making uncertain guesses and fruitless attempts and trials It ma◠〈◊〉 â—ts hovering thoughts and upon afâ—â—â—◠〈◊〉 given say I have now found at 〈…〉 satisfaction may be had and have 〈◊〉 this to do to bend all my powers hither and intend this one thing the possessing my self of this blessed rest earnestly to inâ—e 〈◊〉 and patiently to wait for it Happy discovery welcome tidings I now know which waâ— to turn my eye and direct my pursuit I shall no longer spend my â—â—if in dubious toilsome wandrings in anxious vaâ—n inquiries I have found I have found blessedness is here If I can but get a lively efficacious sight of God I have enough Shew me the Father and it suffices Let the weary wandring soul bethink it self and retire to God he will not mock thee with shadows as the world hath done This is eternal life to know him the onely true God and Jesâ—â— Christ whom he hath sent A part from Christ thou canst not know nor see him with fruit and comfort but the Gospel revelation which is the Revelation of God in Christ gives thee a lovely prospect of him His Glory shines in the face of Jesus Christ and when by beholding it thou art changed into the same likeness and findest thy self gradually changing more and more from glory to glory thou wilt find thy self accordingly in a gradual tendency towards satisfaction and blessedness That is do but seriously set thy self to study and contemplate the Being and Attributes of God and then look upon him as through the Mediatour he is willing to be reconcil'd to thee and become thy God and so long let thine eye fix and dwell here till it affect thy heart and the proper impress of the Gospel be by the Spirit of the Lord instamp't upon it till thou find thy self wrought to a compliance with his holy will and his image formed in thee and thou hast soon experience thou art entring into his est and wilt relish a more satisfying 〈◊〉 in this blessed change then all thy 〈◊〉 sensual injoyments did ever afford thee before Surely if the perfect vision and perception of his glorious likeness will yield a compleat satisfaction at last the initial and progressive tendencies towards the former will proportionably infer the latter 'T is obvious hence to
been all this while a sleep we saw the light that shone upon us we heard the voice that called to us wherewith shall we then excuse our selves that our desires were not mov'd that our Souls were not presently in a flame was it then that we thought all a meer fixion that we durst not give credit to his word when it brought us the report of the everlasting Glory will we avow this Is this that we will stand by or what else have we left to say have we a more plausible reason to alledge that the discovery of such a glory mov'd us not to desire it then that we believed it not sure this is the truth of our case We should feel this heavenly fire alwayes burning in our breasts If our Infidelity did not quench the coal If we did believe we could not but desire But doth not the thoughts of this shake our very souls and fill us with horrour and trembling We that should be turn'd into indignation and ready to burn our selves with our own flame and all about us if one should give us the lie that we should dare to put the lye upon the Eternal Truth upon him whose Word gave stability and being to the world who made and sustains all things by it That awful Word That Word that shivers Rocks and melts down Mountains that make the inanimate Creation tremble that cna in a moment blast all things and dissolve the frame of Heaven and Earth which in the mean time it upholds is that become with us fabulous lying breath Those God-breath'd Oracles those Heavenly Records which discover and describe this blessed state are they false and foolish Legends must that be pretended at last if men durst that is so totally void of all pretence what should be the gain or advantage accrewing to that Eternal All-sufficient being What accession should be made to that infinite self-fulness by deluding a Worm Were it consistent with his Nature what could be his design to put a cheat upon poor mortal dust If thou dare not impute it to him such a deception had a beginning but what Author canst thou imagine of it or what end did it proceed from a good mind or a bad could a good and honest mind form so horribly wicked a design to impose an universal delusion and lye upon the world in the name of the true and holy God or could a wicked mind frame a design so directly level'd against wickedness or is there any thing so aptly and naturally tending to form the World to sobriety holiness purity of conversation as the discovery of this future state of glory and since the belief of future felicity is known to obtain universally among men who could be the Author of so common a deception If thou had'st the mind to impose a lie upon all the world what course would'st thou take how would'st thou lay the design or why dost thou in this case imagine what thou knowest not how to imagine And dost thou not without scruple believe many things of which thou never had'st so unquestionable evidence or must that Faith which is the foundation of thy Religion and eternal hopes be the most suspected shaking thing with thee and have of all other the least stability and rootedness in thy soul If thou can'st not excuse thy infidelity be ashamed of thy so cold and sluggish desires of this glorious state And doth it not argue a low sordid Spirit not to desire and aim at the perfection thou art capable of not to desire that blessedness which alone is suitable and satisfying to a reasonable and spiritual being Bethink thy self a little how low art thou sunk into the dirt of the earth how art thou plunged into the mity Ditch that even thine own clothes might adhor thee Is the Father of Spirits thy Father Is the world of Spirits thy Country Hast thou any relation to that Heavenly Progeny Art thou ally'd to that blessed Family and yet undesirous of the same blessedness Can'st thou savour nothing but what smells of the Earth Is nothing grateful to thy Soul but what is corrupted by so vicious and impure a tincture are all thy delights centred in a Dunghill and the polluted pleasures of a filthy world better to thee then the eternal visions and enjoyments of Heaven what art thou all made of Earth Is thy soul stupifi'd into a Clod hast thou no sense with thee of any thing better and more excellent can'st thou look upon no glorious thing with a pleased eye Are things onely desirable and lovely to thee as they are deformed O consider the corrupted distempered state of thy Spirit and how vile a disposition it hath contracted to it self Thine looks too like the Mundan◠Spirit The Spirit of the World The Apostle speaks of it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by way of distinction we have not received the Spirit of the world but the Spirit that is from God that we might know or see and no doubt 't is desire that animates that eye 't is not bare speculative intuition and no more the things freely given us of God Surely he whose desire doth not guide his eye to the beholding of those things hath received the Spirit of the world onely A Spirit that conforms him to this world makes him think onely thoughts of this world and drive the designs of this world and speak the language of this world A Spirit that connaturalizes him to the world makes him of a temper suitable to it He breathes onely worldly breath carries a worldly aspect is of a worldly conversation O poor low spirit that such a world should with-hold thee from the desire and pursuit of such glory Art thou not ashamed to think what thy desires are wont to pitch upon while they decline and wave this blessedness Methinks thy very shame should compel thee to quit the name of a Saint or a Man To forbear numbring thy self with any that pretend to immortality and go seek Pasture among the Beasts of the Field with them that live that low animal life that thou dost and expect no other And while thou so fallest in with the world how highly dost thou gratifie the pretending and usurping God of it The great fomentor of the sensual worldy genius The Spirit it self that works in the children of disobedienence and makes them follow the course of the world hold them fast bound in worldly lusts and leaves them captive at his will causes them after his own Serpentine manner to creep and crawl in the dust of the Earth He is most intimate to this apostate world informs it as it were and actuates it in every part i◠even one great soul to it The whole world lies in that wicked one as the body by best Philosophers is said to be in the Soul The world is said to be convicted when he is judged He having fall'n from a state of blessedness in God hath involv'd the world with himself
the notice and observation of the world Moreover how can it escape thy serious reflection that if thou pretend it otherwise with thee 't is but to adde one sin to another and cover thy Carnality with Hypocrisie and Dissimulation yea while thou continuest in that temper of Spirit not to desire this blessedness as thy Supreme end the whole of thy Religion is but an empty shew an artificial disguise it carries an appearance and pretence as if thou wast aiming at God and Glory while thy heart is set another way and the bent of thy soul secretly carries thee a counter-course Hath not Religion an aspect towards Blessedness what mean thy Praying thy Hearing thy Sacramental Communion if thou have not a design for Eternal Glory what makest thou in this way if thou have not thy heart set towards this end Nor is it more dishonest and unjust then it is foolish and absurd that the disposition and tendency of thy soul should be directly contrary to the only design of the Religion thou professest and doest externally practice Thy profession and practice are nothing but self-contradiction Thou art continually running counter to thy self outwardly pursuing what thou inwardly declinest Thy real end which can be no other then what thou really desirest and settest thy heart upon and thy visibly way are quite contrary So that while thou continuest the course of Religion in which thou art engaged having taken down from before thine eyes the end which thou should'st be aiming at and which alone Religion can aptly subserve Thy Religion hath no design or end at all none at least which thou would'st not be ashamed to profess and own Indeed this temper of heart I am now pleading against an undesirousness or indifferencie of Spirit towards the eternal glory renders Religion the vainest thing in the world For whereas all the other actions of our lives have their stated proper ends Religion hath in this case none at all none to which it hath any designation in its nature or any aptness to subserve This monstrous absurdity it infers and how strange is it that it should not be reflected on That whereas if you ask any man of common understanding what he doth this or that action for especially if they be stated actions done by him in an ordinary course he can readily tell you for such and such an end But ask him why he continues any practice of Religion he cannot say in this case for what For can any man imagine what other end Religion naturally serves for but to bring men to blessedness which being no other thing then what hath been here described such as are found not to desire it really and Supremely as their end can have no real attainable end of their being religious at all To drive on a continued course and series of actions in a visible pursuit of that which they desire not and have no mind to is such a piece of folly so fond and vain a trifling that as I remember Cicero reports Cato to have said concerning the South-sayers of his time he did wonder they could look in one anothers faces and not laugh being conscious to each others impostures and the vanity of their profession so one would as justly wander that the generality of carnal men who may shrewdly guess at the temper of one anothers minds do not laugh at each other that they are joyntly engaged in such exercises of Religion to the design whereof the common and agreed temper of their Spirits do so little correspond As if all were in very good earnest for Heaven when each one knows for himself and may possibly with more Truth then Charity suppose of the rest that if they might alwayes continue in their earthly stations they had rather never come there And therefore that they desire it not Supremely and so not as their end at all consider it then that thy no-desire of this blessed state quite dispirits thy Religion utterly ravishes away its Soul leaves it a dead foolish vain thing renders it an idle impertinency not a mean to a valuable end This desire is that life of Religion all duties and exercises of piety are without it but empty Formalities Solemn pieces of Pageantrie Every service done to God but the Sacrifice of a Fool if not animated by the desire of final blessedness in him and be not part of our way thither a means designed to the attainment of it Which nothing can be that we are not put upon by the vertue of the desired end Without this Religion is not it self A continuance in well doing is as it were the body of it and therein a seeking honor glory and immortality the Soul and Spirit The desire of an Heavenly Country must run through the whole course of our Earthly Pilgrimage It were otherwise a continued errour an uncertain wandring no steady tending towards our end So that thou art a meer Vagrant if this desire do not direct thy course towards thy Fathers house And methinks all this should make thee even ashamed of thy self if thou canst not find this desire to have a settled residence and a ruling power in thy Soul then 2. Sense of praise should signifie something too as the Apostle Whatsoever things are pure lovely c. if there be any vertue any praise think of these things And hath not the eternal glory those characters upon it of purity and loveliness beyond all things Is it not a laudable and praise-worthy thing to have a mind and heart set upon that The blessed God puts a note of excellency upon this temper of Spirit But they desire a better Country that is an Heavenly Wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God c. This renders them a people worthy of him who hath called them to his kingdom and glory fit for him to own a relation to Had they been of low terrene Spirits he would have accounted it a shame to him to have gone under the name and cognisance of their God But in as much as they desire the Heavenly Country have learned to trample this terrestrial world cannot be contained within this lower Sphere nor satisfie themselves in earthly things they now discover a certain excellency of Spirit in respect whereof God is not ashamed to own a relation to them before all the world to be called their God to let men see what account he makes of such a Spirit Yea this is the proper genuine Spirit and temper of a Saint which agrees to him as he is such He is begotten to the eternal inheritance A disposition and therein a desire to it is in his very nature the new nature he hath received implanted there from his original He is born Spirit of Spirit and by that birth is not intituled onely but adopted and suited also to that pure and Spiritual state of blessedness That grace by the appearance whereof men are made Christians teaches also instructs unto this very thing to
visions of this Makers face that chuses thus to entertain it self on earth rather then partake the effusions of Divine glory above That had rather creep with Worms then soar with Angels associate with Bruits then with the Spirits of just men made perfect who can solve the Phaenomenon or give a rational account why there should be such a Creature as man upon the Earth abstructing from the hopes of another world who can think it the effect of an infinite wisdom or account it a more worthy design then the representing of such a Scene of actions and affairs by Puppets on a Stage for my part upon the strictest enquiry I see nothing in the life of man upon earth that should render it for it self more the matter of a rational election supposing the free option given him in the first moment of his being then presently again to cease to be the next moment Yea and is there not enough obvious in every mans experience to incline him rather to the contrary choice and supposing a future blessedness in another world to make him passionately desirous with submission to the Divine pleasure of a speedy dismission into it Do not the burdens that press us in this earthly taâ—ernacle teach our very sense and urge opprest nature into involuntary groans while as yet our consideration doth intervene And if we do consider is not every thought a sting making a much deeper impression then what only toucheth our flesh and bones Who can reflect upon his present state and not presently be in pangs The troubles that follow humanity are many and great those that follow Christianity more numerous and grievous The sickness pains losses disappointments and whatsoever afflictions that are in the Apostles language humane or common to men as are all the external sufferings of Christians in nature and kind though they are liable to them upon an account peculiar to themselves which there the Apostle intimates are none of our greatest evils yet even upon the account of them have we any reason to be so much in love with so unkind â— world Is it not strange our very Bridewel should be such a Heaven to us But these things are little considerable in comparison of the more Spiritual grievances of Christians as such that is those that afflict our Souls while we are under the conduct of Christ designing for a blessed eternity if we indeed make that our business and do seriously intend our spirits in order thereto The darkness of our beclouded minds The glimmering ineffectual apprehension we have of the most important things the inconsistency of our shattered thoughts when we would apply them to Spiritual Objects The great difficulty of working off an ill frame of heart and the no less difficulty of retaining a good our being so frequently tost as between Heaven and Hell when we sometimes think our selves to have even attained and hope to descend no more and are all on a suddain plung'd in the Ditch so as that our own Clothes might abhor us fall so low into an earthly temper that we can like nothing Heavenly or Divine and because we cannot are enforced justly most of all to dislike our selves Are these things little with us How can we forbear to cry out of the depths to the Father of our Spirits that he would pity and relieve his own Off-spring yea are we not weary of our crying and yet more weary of holding in How do repell'd Temptations return again and vanquished Corruptions recover strength We know not when our work is done We are miserable that we need to be always watching and more miserable that we cannot watch but are so often surprized and overcome of evil We say sometimes with our selves we will seek relief in retirement but we cannot retire from our selves or in converse with Godly friends but they sometimes prove snares to us and we to them Or we hear but our own miseries repeated in their complaints would we pray How faint is the breath we utter How long is it ere we can get our Souls possest with any becoming apprehensions of God or lively sense of our own concernments Would we meditate We sometimes go about to compose our thoughts but we may as well assay to hold the Windes in our fist If we venture forth into the world how do our Senses betray us How are we mockt with their impostures Their neerer objects become with us the onely realities and eternal things are all vanisht into airie shadowes Reason and Faith are laid asleep and our Sense dictates to us what we are to believe and do as if it were our only guide and Lord. And what are we not yet wearie Is it reasonable to continue in this State of our own choice Is misery become so natural to us so much our element that we cannot affect to live out of it Is the darkness and dirt of a dungeon more grateful to us then a free open air and sun Is this Flesh of ours so lovely a thing that we had rather suffer so many deaths in it then one in putting it off and mortality with it While we carry it about us our Souls impart a kind of life to it and it gives them death in exchange Why do we not cry out more feelingly O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Is it not grievous to us to have so cumbersome a yoke-fellow to be tied as Mezentius is said to have done the living and the dead together Do not we find the Distempers of our Spirits are mostly from these bodies we are so in love with either as the proper Springs or as the occasion of them From what cause is our drowsy sloth our eager passions our aversion to Spiritual objects but from this impure Flesh or what else is the Subject about which our vexatious cares or torturing fears our bitter griefs are taken up day by day And why do we not consider that 't is onely our love to it that gives strength and vigour to the most of our temptations as wherein it is more immediately concern'd and which makes them so often victorious thence to become our after-afflictions He that hath learn'd to mortifie the inordinate love of the Body will he make it the business of his life to purvey for it Will he offer violence to his own Soul to secure it from violence will he comply with mens Lusts and humors for its advantage and accommodation or yeild himself to the tyranny of his own avarice for its future or of his more-sensual Lusts for it s present content Will it not rather be pleasing to him that his outward man be exposed to perish while his inward man is renewed day by day He to whom the thoughts are grateful of laying it down will not though he neglect not duty towards it spend his days in its continual Service and make his Soul an hell by a continual provision for the flesh and
he might still be debarr'd of the long expected fruit of the travail of his Soul that the name of God might be still subjected to the blasphemy and and reproach of an Atheistical world who have long ago said with derision where is the promise of his coming Would we have all his Designs to be still unfinisht and so mighty wheeles stand still for us while we sport our selves in the dust of the earth And indulge our sensual inclination which sure this bold desire must argue to be very predominant in us and take heed it argue not its habitual prevalency At least if it discover not our present sensuality it discovers our former Sloth and Idleness It may be we may excuse our aversness to dye by our unpreparedness that is one fault with another though that be besides the case I am speaking of what then have we been doing all this while What were the affairs of thy Soul not thought of till now Take then thy repro of from a Heathen that it may convince thee the more No one saith he divides away his money from himself but yet men divide away their very life but doth it not shame thee he after adds to reserve only the reliques of thy life to thy self and to devote that time only to a good mind which thou canst employ upon no other thing How late is it to begin to live when we should make an end and deser all good thoughts to such an Age as possible few do ever reach to The truth is as he speaks we have not little time but we lose much we have time enough were it well employ'd therefore we cannot say we receive a short life but we make it so we are not indigent of time but prodigal what a pretty contradiction is it to complain of the shortness of time and yet do what we can to precipitate its course to hasten it by that we call pastime If it have been so with thee art thou to be trusted with more time But as thy case is I cannot wonder that the thoughts of death be most unwellcome to thee who art thou that thou shouldst desire the day of the Lord I can onely say to thee hasten thy preparation have recourse to Rule 2. and 3d. and accordingly guide thy self till thou find thy Spirit made more suitable to this blessedness that it become savory and grateful to thy soul and thy heart be set upon it Hence thou may'st be reconciled to the grave and the thoughts of death may cease to be a terror to thee And when thou art attained so far consider thy great advantage in being willing and desirous to dye upon this further account that thy desire shall now be pitch't upon a thing so certain Thine other desires have met with many a disappointment Thou hast set thy heart upon other things and they have deceived thy most earnest thirsty expectations Death will not do so Thou wilt now have one certain hope One thing in reference whereto thou may'st say I am sure Wait a while this peaceful sleep will shortly seize thy body and awaken thy soul. It will calmly period all thy troubles and bring thee to a blessed rest But now if onely the meer terrour and gloominess of dying trouble thy thoughts this of all other seems the most inconsiderable pretence against a willing surrender of our selves to death Reason hath overcome it natural courage yea some mens Atheism shall not Faith Are we not ashamed to consider what confidence and desire of death some Heathens have exprest some that have had no preapprehension or belief of another state though there were very few of them and so no hope of a consequent blessedness to relieve them have yet thought it unreasonable to disgust the thoughts of death What would'st thou think if thou had'st nothing but the Sophisms of such to oppose to all thy dismal thoughts I have met with one arguing thus Death which is accounted the most dreadful of all evils is nothing to us saith he because while we are in being Death is not yet present and when Death is present we are not in being so that it neither concerns us as living nor dead for while we are alive it hath not touch't us when we are dead we are not Moreover saith he the exquisite knowledge of this that Death belongs not to us makes us injoy this mortal life with comfort not by adding any thing to our uncertain time but by taking away the desire of immortality Shall they comfort themselves upon so wretched a ground with a little Sophistry and the hope of extinguishing all desire of immortality and shall not we by cherishing the blessed hope of injoying shortly an immortal glory Others of them have spoken magnificently of a certain contempt of this bodily life and a not onely not fearing but desiring to dye upon a sixed apprehension of the distinct and purer and immortal nature of the soul and the preconcieved hope of a consequent felicity I shall set down some of their words added to what have been occasionally mentioned amongst that plentiful variety wherewith one might fill a volume purposely to shame the more terrene temper of many Christians The Soul saith one of them is an invisible thing and is going into another place suitable to it self that is noble and pure and invisible even into Hades indeed to the good and wise God whether also my Soul shall shortly go if he see good But this he saith in what follows belongs only to such a Soul as goes out of the body pure that draws nothing corporal along with it did not willingly communicate with the body in life but did even fly from it and gather up it self into it self always meditating this one thing A soul so affected shall it not go to something like it self divine and what is divine is immoâ—tal and wise whether when it comes it becomes blessed free from errour ignorance fears and wild or enormous loves and all other evils incident to men One writing the life of that rare person Plotinus sayes that he seemed as if he were in some sort ashamed that he was in body which however it would less become a Christian yet in one that knew nothing of an incarnate Redeemer it discovered a refined noble Spirit The same person speaks almost the language of the Apostle concerning his being rapt up into the third heaven and tells of such an alienation of the soul from the body That when once it finds God whom he had before been speaking of under the name of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the beauty shining in upon it it now no longer feels its body or takes notice of its being in the body but even forgets its own being that it is a man or a living creature or any thing else whatsoever for it is not at leisure to mind any thing else nor doth it desire to be Yea and having sought him out he
immediately meets it presenting its self to him It onely views him instead of it self and would not now change its state for any thing not if one could give it the whole heaven in exchange And else where discussing whether life in the body be good and desirable yea or no he concludes it to be good not as it is an union of the soul and body but as it may have that vertue annex't to it by which what is really evil may be kept off But yet that that death is a greater good That life in the body is in it self evil but the soul is by vertue stated in goodness not as enlivening the body with which it is compounded but as it severs and so joyns it self from it meaning so as to have as little communion as possible it can with it To which purpose is the expression of another That the soul of an happy man so collects and gathers up it self out from all things into it self that it hath as it were separated it self from the body while it is yet contained in it And that it was possest of that fortitude as not to dread its departure from it Another gives this character of a good man that as he liv'd in simplicity tranquility purity not being offended at any that they believed him not to live so he also comes to the end of his life pure quiet and easie to be dissolved disposing himself without any constraint to his lot Another is brought in speaking thus If God should grant me to become a Child again to send forth my renewed infant-cries from my Cradle and having even run out my race to begin it again I should most earnestly refuse it for what profit hath this life and how much toil Yet I do not repent that I have lived because I hope I have not liv'd in vain And I now go out of this life not as out of my dwelling house but my Inn. O blessed day when I shall enter into that Council and Assembly of souls and depart from this rude and disorderly rout and crew c. I shall adde another of a not much unlike strain and rank that discoursing who is the Heir of Divine things as being either not an open or no constant friend to Christianity Saith he cannot be who is in love with this animal sensitive life but only that purest mind that is inspired from above that partake of an Heavenly and Divine portion that onely despises the body c. with much more of like import Yea so have some been transported with the desire of immortality that being wholly ignorant of the sin of self-murder they could not forbear doing violence to themselves Among the Indians two thousand years ago were a sort of wise men as they were called that held it a reproach to dye of age or a disease and were wont to burn themselves alive thinking the flames were polluted if they came amidst them dead The story of Cleombrotus is famous who hearing Plato discourse of the immortality of the soul by the Sea side leapt from him into the Sea that he might presently be in that state And 't is storied that Nero refused to put Apollonius to death though he were very much incenst against him only upon the apprehension he had that he was very desirous to dye because he would not so far gratifie him I onely make this improvement of all this Christian Principles Rule do neither hurry nor misguide men but the end as we have it revealed should much more powerfully and constantly attract us Nothing is more unsuitable to Christianity our way nor to that blessedness the end of it then a terrene Spirit They have nothing of the true light and impress of the Gospel now nor are they ever like to attain the Vision of the blessed face of God and the impress of his likeness hereafter that desire it not above all things and are not willing to quit all things else for it And is it not a just exprobration of our earthliness and carnality if meer Philosophers and Pagans shall give better proof then we of a spirit erected above the world and alienated from what is temporary and terrene Shall their Gentilism outvy our Christianity Methinks a generous indignation of this reproach should inflame our souls and contribute somewhat to the refining of them to a better and more Spiritual temper Now therefore O all you that name your selves by that worthy name of Christians that profess the Religion taught by him that was not of the earth earthly but the Lord from heaven you that are partakers of the heavenly calling Consider the great Apostle and High-priest of your profession who only took our flesh that we might partake of his Spirit bare our earthly that we might bare his heavenly Image descended that he might cause us to ascend Seriously bethink your selves of the Scope and end of his Apostleship and Priesthood He was sent out from God to invite and conduct you to him to bring you into the Communion of his glory and blessedness He came upon a Message and Treaty of peace To discover his Fathers love and win yours To let you know how kind thoughts the God of love had conceived to you-wards And that however you had hated him without cause and were bent to do so without end he was not so affected towards you To settle a friendship and to admit you to the participation of his eternal glory Yea he came to give an instance and exemplifie to the world in his own Person how much of heaven he could make to dwell in mortal flesh how possible he could render it to live in this world as unrelated to it How gloriously the divine life could triumph over all the infirmities of frail humanity And so leave men a certain proof and pledge to what perfections humane nature should be improv'd by his grace and Spirit in all them that should resign themselves to his conduct and follow his steps That heaven and earth were not so far asunder but he knew how to settle a commerce and intercourse between them That an heavenly life was possible to be transacted here and certain to be gloriously rewarded hereafter And having testifi'd these things he seals the Testimony and opens the way for the accomplishment of all by his death Your heavenly Apostle becomes a Priest and a Sacrifice at once That no doubt might remain among men of his sincerity in what even dying he ceased not to profess and avow And that by his own propitiatory bloud a mutual reconciliation might be wrought between God and you that your hearts might be won to him and possest with an ingenuous shame of your ever having been his enemies And that his displeasure might for ever cease towards you and be turned into everlasting friendship and love That eternal redemption being obtained heaven might be opened to you and you finally be received to the
homini datum est quando primum creatus est rectus potuit non peccare sed potuit peccare Hoc autem novissimum eâ— potentius erit quò peccare noa potuit Aug de Civitat Dei lib. 22. c. 30. Libertas nâ—stâ—a inhaerâ—t divina ut exemplari in pâ—â—pâ—luâ ejus imitatâ—one versatur sive ortum sive pâ—â—gressum sive conâ—â—mmâ—tionem ejus intue 〈◊〉 libertas nostra in oâ—tu est capacitas Dei In progressu libertas res est longe câ—arâ—or progress â—senim atâ—â—nditur pâ—nes accessâ—m hominis ad Dâ—â—m qâ—i quidem 〈…〉 sed imitatione â—ssâ—â—latione câ—nstâ—t eâ—t utiquc imâ—â—atioâ—e assiâ—il itioâ— secuadum quam siâ—ut Deus est sablimis excelsus seipso ita homo est sublimis excelsus Deo altitudo ejus Deus est ut inquit D Augustinuâ— Consummatio denique libertatis est cum homo in Deum felicissimo gloriae coelestis statu transformatur deus omnia illi esse incipit Qui quidem postremus status co dissert à priore quippe homo tum non modo inalligatus est creaturis sed nec circaillas negotiatur etiam referendo in finem nec in creaturis se insundit nec per illas procedit ut faciâ—bat cum esset viator sed in solo Deo conquiescit effundit se placidissimè motits ejus cum sit ad presentissimum conjunctissimum bonum similior est quieti quà m mâ—tui Gib l. 2. c. 14. Omnes turbulae tempestates quae procul à Deoâ—rum coelestium tranquilitate exulant c. Apuleius de Deis Sâ—câ—atis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Max. Tyâ— disser 1. Quod desideras autâ—m magâ—â—m summum 〈◊〉 Deoque vicinum noa concuti Sâ—n. de trâ—nquil Animi Psal. 116. Sen. de tranquill anim Phil. 4. 7. Act. 20. 24. Isa. 26. 3. Psal. 112. 7. Rom. 15. 13. 2 Cor. 5. 5. 2 Cor. 4. 6. Prov. 4 18. Phil. 2 7. 2 Pet. 1. 4. 2 Cor. 3. 18. Psal 126. 6. * I would fain know what the Tertium shall be resulting from the Physical union some speak of Joh. 17. 11. ver 11. Ver. 21. 1 Cor. 6. 16. Gal. 6 7 8. Dr. Hâ—rv de Ovo * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Rom. 15. 13. Gâ—â—◠〈◊〉 in Christa â—â—â—â—â—mus homâ—â—â—â— c. Orat. 1 Matth. 5. 6. 1 Thes. 5 6. Ephes 5. 14. * So well doth the Apostles watchword suit our case awake to righteousness and sin not c. 1 Cor. 15 34. Cant. 5 2. Psal. 39 6. * Viz. 〈◊〉 Who at the time of his death sprinkled water upon the servants about him addita voâ—e se liquorem illâ—m libare Joâ—i lâ—beratori Tacit Annal. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 * In Phaedro Cant. 6. 12 Rom. 13 11. Arelius Beza c. Psal. 30. 5. * In his Saints rest p. 2. c. 10 Luke 23. 43. 2 Cor. 5 8. Phil. 1. 23. Heb. 12. 23. 'T is true that divers of the Fathers and others have spoken some dubiously some very diminishingly of the blessedness of separate souls many of whose words may be seen together in that elaborate Tractate of the learned Parker de descens lib secâ—nâ— p. 77. Yea and his own assertion in that very page be it spoken with reverence to the memory of so worthy a person argues something gross and I conceive unwarrantable thoughts of the souls dependance on a body of Earth His words are Tertium vulnus speaking of the prejudices the Soul receives by its separation from the body omnes operationes etiam suas quae sunt praesertim ad extra extinguit Where he makes it a difficulty to allow it any operations at all as apears by the praesertim inserted He first indeed denies it all operations and then more confidently and especially those ad extra And if he would be understood to exclude it only from its operations ad extra if he take operations ad extra as that Phrase is wont to be taken he must then mean by it all such operations as have their objects not only those that have their terms to which without the Agent i. e. not only all transient but all immanent acts that have their object without them As when we say all Gods acts ad extra are free we mean it even of his immanent acts that have their objects without him though they do not poâ—â—re terminum extra deum as his election his love of the elect And so he must be understood to deny the separate souls and that with a praesertim too the operations of knowing God of loving him and delighting in him which are all operations ad extra as having their objects extra animam though their terminus ad quâ—m be not so which makes the condition of the separate souls of Saints unspeakably inferiour to what it was in the body and what should occasion to dismal thoughts of that state of separation I see not Scripture gives no ground for them but evidently enough speaks the contrary Reason and Phylosophy offers nothing that can â—ender the sense we put upon the forementioned plain Scriptures self contradâ—ctions or impossible Yea such as had no other light or guide have thought the facility of the souls operations being separate from its earthly body much greater by that very separation And upon this score doth Saint Augustine with great indignation inveigh against the Pâ—ilosophers Plaâ—o more especially because they judg'd the separation of the Soul from the body necessary to its blessedness Quia videlicct ejus perfectâ—m beatitudinem tunc illi fieri exâ—stimâ—at cum omni prorsus corpore exuta ad Deum sâ—nâ— lex solâ— quodommodo nuda redierit De civit Dei l. 13 c. 16. unto which purpose the words of Philolâ—us Pythâ—goricus of Plato of Porphyrius are cited by Ludovicus vives in his Comment upon that bovementioned passage The first speaking thus Deposito corpore hominem Deum immortalem fieri The second thus Trahi nos à corpore ad ima à cogitatione superarum rerum subinde revocari ideo relinquendum corpus hîc quantum possumus in alterâ vitâ vitâ prorsum ut liberi expediti verum ipsi videamus optimum amemus The third denies Aliter fieri bâ—atum quenquam posse nisi relinquat corpus affigatur Deo I conceive it by the way not improbable that the severity of that Pious Father against that Dogma of the Philosophers might proceed upon this ground that what they said of the impossibilitie of being happy in an earthly body he understood meant by them of an impossibilitie to be happy in any body at all when 't is evidently the common opinion of the Platonists that the soul is alwayes united with some body or other and that even the Daeâ—oâ—s have bodies aereal or etherial ones which Plato himself is observed by St. Augustine to affirm whence he would fasten a contradiction on him ibid. not considering 't is likely that
is easily moulded and wrought to his will yeilds to the transforming power of his appearing glory There is no resistent principle remaining when the love of God is perfected in it and so overcoming is the first sight of his glory upon the awaking soul that it perfects it and so his likenesse both at once But enmity fortifies the soul against him as with bars and doors averts it from him carries with it an horrid guilty consciousness which fils it with eternal despair and rage and enraps it in the blackness of darknesse for ever 2. Both the vision of God and likeness to him must be considered in their relation to the consequent satisfaction and the influence they have in order thereto I say both for though this satisfaction be not expressely and directly referred by the letter of the text to the sight of Gods face yet its relation thereto in the nature of the thing is sufficiently apprehensible and obvious both mediate in respect of the influence it hath towards the satisfying assimilation and immediate which we are now to consider as it is so highly pleasurable in it self and is plainly enough intimated in the text being applied in the same breath to a thing so immediately and intimately conjunct with this vision as we find it is Moreover supposing that likeness here do as it hath been granted it may signifie objective glory also as well as subjective and repeat what is contained in the former expression the face of God the reference satisfaction hath to this vision which the remention of its object though under a varied form of expression supposes will be more expresse therefore we shall shew 1. What the vision of the divine glory contributes to the satisfaction of the blessed soul and what felicity it must needs take herein which cannot but be very great whether we respect The glory seen the object of this vision or The act of vision or intuition it self 1. The Object the glory beheld what a spring of pleasure is here what rivers of pleasure flow hence In thy presence saith the Psalmist is fulnesse of joy at thy right hand are pleasures for evermore The awaking soul having now past the path of life drawn through Sheol it self the state of deadly head appears immediately in this presence and what makes this presence so joyous but the pleasant bâ—â—ghtness of this face to be in the presence of any one and before his face in conspectu are eqâ—iâ—alent expressions therefore the Apostle 〈◊〉 this passage renders it thus Thou hast 〈◊〉 me with gladness by thy countenance Now in this glorious presence or within view of the face of God is fulness of joy i. e. joy unto satiâ—fâ—ction And the Apostle Jude speaking of this presence under this name a presence of glory tels us of an exceeding joy a jubilation an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that shall attend the presentment of Saints there The holy Soul now enters the divine Shechinah the Chamber of presence of the great King the haâ—itation of his holiness and glory The place where his honour dwelleth Here his glory surrounds it with incircling beams 't is beset with glory therefore surely also fill'd with joy When the vail is drawn aside or we are within the vail in that very presence whither Jesus the forerunâ—â—◠〈◊〉 for uâ— entred through that path of life O the satisfying overcoming pleasure of this sight Now that it is to us revealed or unvailed glory which was hidden before Here the glory set in Majesty as the expression is concerning the glory of the Temple is presented to view openly and without umbrage Gâ—d is now no longer seen through an obscurâ—â—g medium They are not now shadowed â—â—mmerings transient oblique glances but the direct beams of full ey'd glory that shine upon us The discovery of this glory is the ultimate product of that infinite wisedom and love that have been working from eternity and for so many thousand years through all the successions of time towards the heirs of salvation The last and compleat issue of the great atchievments sharp conflicts glorious victories high merits of our mighty Redeemer All these end in the opening of Heaven the laying of this glory as it were common to all believers This is the upshot and close of that great design will it not think ye be a satisfying glory The full blessedness of the redeemed is the Redeemers reward He cannot be satisfied in seeing his seed if they should be unsatisfied He cannot behold them with content if his heart tell him not that he hath done well enough for them God would even be ashamed to be called their God had he not made provision for their entertainment worthy of a God T is the season of Christs Triumphs and Saints are to enter into His joy T is the appointed jubilee at the finishing of all Gods works from the Creation of the world when he shall puposely shew himself in his most adorable Majesty and when Christ shall appear in his own likenesse he appeared in another likeness before surely glory must be in in its exaltation in that day But take a more distinct account how grateful a sight this glory will be in these following particulars 1. It is the Divine glory Let your hearts dwell a little upon this consideration 'T is the gâ—ory of God i. e. the glory which the blessed God both enjoyes and affords which he contemplates in himself and which raies from him to his Saints 't is the felicity of the divine Being It satisfies a Deity will it not a worm 'T is a glory that results and shines from him and in that sense also divine which here I mainly intend the beauty of his own face the lustre of Divine perfectioâ—s every Attribute bears a part all concur to make up this glory And here pretermitting those which are lesse liable to our apprehension his Eternity Immensity Simplicity c. of which not having their like in us we are the more uncapable to form distinct conceptions and consequently of perceiving the pleasure that we may hereafter upon the removal of other impediments find in the contemplation of them let us bethink our selves how admirable and ravishing the glory will be 1. Of his unsearchable wisdom which hath glory peculiarly annext and properly belonging to it Glory is as it were by inheritance due to wisdom The wise shall inherit glory And here now the blessed souls behold it in its first seat and therefore in its prime glory wisedom counsel understanding are said to be with him as if no where else Twice we have the Apostle ascribing glory to God under the notion of only wise which is but an acknowledging him glorious in this respect Wisdom we know is the proper and most connatural glory of intellectual nature whether as it relates to speculation when we call it knowledge or action when 't is prudence How pleasant will the contemplation be of the
intermingled frowns the light of that pleasing countenance be obscured by no intervening cloud when goodness which is love issuing into benefaction or doing good grace which adds freeness unto goodness mercy which is grace towards the miserable shall conspire in their distinct and variegated appearances to set off each other and enhance the pleasure of the admiring soul when the wonted doubts shall all cease and the difficulty vanish of reconciling once necessary fatherly severity with Love When the full sense shall be unfolded to the life of that description of the divine nature God is Love and the soul be no longer put to read the love of God in his name as Moses was when the sight of his face could not yet be obtained shall not need to spell it by letters and syllables but behold it in His very nature it self and see how intimately Essential it is to the divine Being How glorious will this appearance of God be we now hear something of the glory of his grace and how satisfying the intuition of that glory Now is the proper season for the full exercise and discovery of Love This day hath been long expected and lo now 't is dawned upon the awaking soul It 's now called forth its senses unbound all its powers inspirited on purpose for love visions and enjoyments 't is now to take its fill of loves The Apostles extatical prayer is now answered to the highest degree possible with respect to such a one He is now according to the riches of divine glory strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height to know the love that passeth knowledge c. He shall now no longer stand amazed spending his ghesses What manner of love this should be and expecting fuller discoveries further effects of it that did not yet appear but sees the utmost all that his soul can bear or wish to see He hath now traced home the rivulets to their fountain the beams to the very Sun of Love He hath got the prospect at last into that heart where where the great thoughts of love were lodg'd from everlasting where all its counsels and designs were formed He sees what made God become a man what cloathed a Deity with humane flesh what made Eternity become the birth of time when come to its parturient fulness what mov'd the heart of the Son of God to pitch his Tabernacle among men what ingaged him to the enterprize of redeeming sinners what mov'd him so earnestly to contest with a perishing world led him at last to the Cross made him content to become a sacrifice to God a spectacle to Angels and men in a bitter reproachful death inflicted by the Sacrilegious hands of those whom he was all this while designing to save The amazed soul now sees into the bottom of this design understands why it self was not made a prey to Divine revenge whence it was that it perish't not in its enmity against God that he was not provoked by the obstinacy of its disobedience and malice of its unbelief beyond the possibility of an atonement why he so long suffered its injurious neglects of him and unkind repulses of a merciful Saviour and perswaded till at last he overcame made the averse heart yield the careless disaffected soul cry out Where is my God now a Christ or I perish All this is now resolved into love And the adoring soul sees how well the effects agree to their cause and are owned by it Nothing but heaven it self that gives the sense can give the notion of this pleasure 4. Nor will the glory of holiness be less resplendent that great Attribute which even in a remote descent from its original is frequently mentioned with the adjunct of beauties What loveliness will those beauties add to this blessed face Not here to insist which is besides my purpose upon the various notions of holiness Real holiness Scripture states in purity an alienation from sin 't is set in opposition to all filthiness to all moral impurity and in that notion it best agrees to God and comprehends his righteousness and veracity and indeed whatever we can conceive in him under the notion of a moral excellency This may therefore be styl'd a transcendental attribute that as it were runs through the rest and casts a glory upon every one 'T is an attribute of attributes Those are fit predications holy power holy truth holy love c. And so it is the very lustre and glory of his other perfections He is glorious in holiness Hence in matters of greatest moment he is sometimes brought in Swearing by his holiness which he is not wont to do by any one single attribute as though it were a fuller expression of himself an adaequalior conceptus than any of the rest What is of so great account with him will not be of least account with his holy ones when they appear in his glorious presence Their own holiness is a conformity to his the likeness of it And as their beholding it forms them into that likeness so that likeness makes them capable of beholding it with pleasure Divine holiness doth now more ravish than affright This hath been the language of sinful dust Who can stand before this holy God when holiness hath appeared arm'd with terrors guarded with flames and the Divine Majesty been represented as a consuming fire Such apprehensions sin and guilt naturally beget The sinners of Sion were afraid But so far as the new man is put on created after God and they who were darkness are made light in the Lord he is not under any notion more acceptable to them than as he is the holy one They love his Law because holy and love each other because holy and hate themselves because they are no more so Holiness hath still a pleasing aspect when they find it in an Ordinance meet it in a Sabbath every glimpse of it is lovely But with what triumphs hath the holiness of God himself been celebrated even by Saints on earth Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness There is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee Sing unto the Lord all ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness What thoughts will they have of it when their eyes can behold that glory when they immediately look on the archetypal holiness of which their own is but the image and can view that glorious pattern they were so long in framing to How joyfully will they then fall in with the rest of the heavenly hoast and joyn in the same adoration and praise in the same acclamation and triumphant song holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth How unconceiveable is the pleasure of this sight when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first pulchritude the original beauty offers it self to view
power of beholding it and by how much the more of power so much the more of pleasure in this Vision Weak sight would afford but languid joy But when the whole soul animated with divine power and life shall seat it self in the eye when it shall be as it were all eye as one said of God whom now it perfectly imitates and be wholly intent upon Vision apply it self thereto with all its might as its only business what satisfying joyes doth it now taste renewed by every repeated view How doth it now as it were prey upon glory as the eye of the Eagle upon the beams of the Sun we meet with the expression of aures bibulae here will be oculi bibuli thirsty eyes A soul ready to drink in glory at the eye If vision be by intermission what attractive eyes are here drawing in glory feeding upon glory If by extramission what piercing darting eyes sending forth the soul at every look to embrace the glorious object There is a great power that now attends reallizing thoughts of God whether it appear in the consequent working of the soul directly towards God or by way of reflection upon it self If directly towards God how mightily is he admired who is a God like unto thee If by reflection upon our own sin and vileness how deeply doth it humble Now mine eye seeth thee therefore I abhor myseâ—f Wo is me I am undone mine eyes have seen the Lord of glory If by way of reflection upon our interest in him or relation to him how mightily doth it support and comfort I will look to the Lord my God will hear me How full of rich sense is that Scripture They looked to him and were lightned one look cloath'd them with light cast a glory upon their souls fill'd them with life and joy 't was but a thought the cast of an eye and they were as full as hearts could hold O the power then of these heavenly visions when we dwell in the views of that transforming glory 2. This will be a comprehensive intuâ—tion as its object is entire glory I mean comparatively not absolutely comprehensive More of the divine glory will be comprehended unspeakably than before 'T is called we know by the Schoolmen the knowledge of comprehensors in contradistinction to that of viators we shall better be able to discern the divine excellencies together have much more adequate conceptions a fuller and more compleat notion of God We shall see him as he is 'T is too much observable how in our present state we are prejudiced by our partial conceptions of him and what an inequality they cause in the temper of our Spirits For wicked men the very notion they have of God proves fatal to their souls or is of a most destructive tendency because they comprehend not together what God hath revealed of himself Most usually they confine those few thoughts of God they have only to his mercy and that exclusively as to his holiness and justice hence their vain and mad presumption The notion of an unholy or a not-holy and not-just God what wickedness would it not induce Thou thought'st I was altogether such a one as thy self A God after their own hearts then the reigns are let loose More rarely when the conscience of guilt hath arrested the self-condemned wretch God is thought of under no other notion than of an irreconcileable enemy and avenger as one thirsting after the blood of Souls and that will admit of no atonement so without all pretence and so slatly contrary to all his discoveries of himself do men dare to affix to him black and horrid characters forged only out the radicated and inveterate hatred of their own hearts against him That never takes up good thoughts of any one only because they have no mind to acquaint themselves with him and that they may have some colour for their affected distance and so perhaps never return but perish under an horrid wilful despair And even the people of God themselves are too apt sometimes so wholly to fix their eye upon love and grace that they grow into an unbecoming uncreaturely familiarity while the thoughts of Infinite Majesty adorable greatness and glory are asleep sometimes possibly apprehend vindicative justice the indignation and jealousie of God against sin precluding meanwhile the consideration of his indulgent compassions towards truly humble and penitent souls to that degree of affrightment and dread that they grow into an unchildlike strangness towards him and take little pleasure in drawing nigh to him But when now our eye shall take in the discovery of divine glory equally how sweet and satisfying a pleasure will arise from that grateful mixture of reverent love humble joy modest confidence meek courage a prostrate magnanimity a triumphant veneration a soul shrinking before the divine glory into nothing yet not contenting it self with any less enjoyment than of him who is all in all There 's nothing here in this complexion or temper of Soul but hath its warrant in the various aspect of the face of God comprehensively beheld nothing but what is even by its suitableness highly grateful and pleasing 3. 'T will be fixed steady intuition as its object is permanent glory The vision of God can neither infer nor admit weariness The eye cannot divert its act is eternally delectable and affords an unvariable undecaying pleasure Sensual delights soon end in loathing quickly bring a glutting surfet and degenerate into torments when they are continued unintermittent A Philosopher in an Epistle which he writes to a friend from the Court of Dionysius where he was forceably detained thus bemoans himself We are unhappy O Antisthenes beyond measure and how can we but be unhappy that are burdened by the Tyrant every day with the most sumptuous feasts plentiful compotations precious ointments gorgeous apparel and I knew as soon as I came into this Island and City how unhappy my life would be This is the nature and common condition of even the most pleasing sensible objects They first tempt then please a little then disappoint and lastly vex The eye that beholds them blast's them quickly risles and deâ—lowers their glory and views them with no more delight at first than disdain afterwards Creature enjoyments have a bottom are soon drained drawn dry hence there must be frequent diversions Other pleasures must be sought out and are chosen not because they are better but because they are new This demonstrates the emptiness and vanity of the Creature Affectation of variety only proceeds from sense of want and is a confession upon trial that there is not in such an enjoyment what was expected Proportionably in the state of glory a constant indesicient fulness renders the blessed soul undesirous of any change There is no need of varieties or diversions what did once please can never cease to do so This glory cannot fade or lose any thing of its attractive power The faculty cannot languish
or lose the disposition by which it is contempered and made proportionable thereto Hence no weariness can ensue What a soul in which the love of God is perfected grow weary of beholding him The Sun will sooner grow weary of shining The touch'd Needle of turning its self to its wonted point every thing will sooner grow weary of its centre and the most fundamental Laws of Nature be sooner antiquated and made void for ever The eye of the fool Solomon tells us is in the ends of the earth his only is a rolling wandring eye that knows not where to fix wisdom guides and fixes the eye of the holy soul determines it unto God only I will bless the Lord who hath given me counsel my reines â—â—so instruct me I have set the Lord alwayes â—efore me Surely heaven will not render it less capable of dijudication of passing a right judgment of the excellency worth of things And here a rational judgment will find no want an irrational will find no place Therefore as permanent glory will certainly infer a perpetual vision perpetuated vision will as certainly perpetuate thesouls satisfaction and blessedness 4. 'T will be a possessive intuition as 't is an appropriate glory which it pitches upon 'T will be the language of every look this glory is mine The Soul looks not upon it shily as if it had nothing to do with it or with slight and careless glances but the very posture of its eye speaks its interest and proclaimes the pretentions it hath to this glory With how different an aspect doth a stranger passing by and the owner look upon the same house the same lands A mans eye layes his claim for him and avowes his right A grateful object that one can say is his own he arrests it with his eye So do Saints with appropriative looks behold their God and the Divine Glory Even with such an eye as he was wont to behold them To this man will I look c. that is as the place of my rest mentioned before he designes him with his eye which is the import of that expression The Lord knows who are his His eye markes them out owns them as his own As concerning others whom he disowns the phrase is I know you not And how vastly different is such an intuition from that when I look upon a thing with an hungry lingring eye which I must never enjoy or never expect to be the better for This vision is fruitive unites the soul with the blessed object Which kind of sight is meant when actual blessedness is so often exprest by seeing God We see then what vision the sight of Gods face contributes to the satisfaction of blessed souls CHAP. VII Wherein assimilation the likeness or glory of God imprest contributes unto satisfaction Where is particularly propounded to be shewn what pleasure it involves what it disposes to What it involves in the esse of it what in the cognosci 1. The pleasure of being like God discovered 1. Shewing concerning the Image of God generally considered that it is the souls health and soundness restored that it is a vital an intimate a connatural a perfect image OUr next business is to discover what assimilation or the impressed likeness of God may further add to this satisfied state or what satisfying pleasure the blessed soul finds in this that it is like God And here we are distinctly to enquire into The pleasure which such an assimilation to God involves in it self tends and disposes to 1. The pleasure it involves in it self or which is taken in it abstractly considered which we may more particularly unfold by shewing The pleasure involved 1. In being like God 2. In knowing or reflecting upon the same The Esse Cognosci Of this assimulation 1. The pleasure in being like God which may be discovered both by a general consideration hereof and by instancing in some particulars wherein blessed souls shall be like him 1. It is obvious to suppose an inexpressible pleasure in the very feeling the inward sensation the holy soul will have of that happy frame in general whereinto it is now brought That joyful harmony that intire rectitude it finds within it self You may as soon separate light from a Sun-beam as pleasure from such a state This likeness or conformity to God is an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a perfect temperament an athletique health ness a strong sound constitution of soul Do but imagine what it is to a mans body after a wasting sickness to find himself well Frame a notion of the pleasure of health and soundness when both all the parts and members of the body are in their proper places and proportions a lively active vigour a sprightly strength possesses every part and actuates the whole how pleasant is this temper If we were all body there could be no greater felicity than this But by how much the more noble any creature is so is it capable of more exquisite paines or pleasures Sin is the sickness and disease of the soul infeebles all its powers exhausts its vigour wasts its strength You know the restless tossings the weary rollings to fro of a diseased languishing body such is the case of a sinful soul. Let it but seriously bethink it self and then speak its own sense but here is the malignity of the disease it cannot be serious it always raves what will it be O I can take no rest The way of wickedness is called a way of pain Sinners would find it so if the violence of the disease had not bereft them of sense Nothing savors with me I can take comfort in nothing The wicked is as a troubled Sea as their name imports that cannot rest Whose waters c. The Image of God renewed in holiness nad righteousness is health restored after such a consuming sickness which when we awake when all the drowsiness that attends our disease is shaken off we find to be perfect The fear of the Lord an ordinary paraphrase of holiness or piety is said to be health to the navel and marrow to the bones Our Lord Jesus invites wearied sinners to come to him to take his yâ—ke on them to learn of him that is to imitate him to be like him and promises they shall finde rest to their souls How often do we find grace and peace in conjunction in the Apostles salutations and benedictions We are told that the wayes of divine wisdom i. e. which it prescribeth are all pleasâ—ntness and peace That in keeping the Commandments of God is great reward That they are not grievous i. e. for there seems to be a Meiosis in the expression are joyous pleasant And what are his Commandments but those expresses of himself wherein we are to be like him and conform to his will The Kingdom of God that holy order which he settles in the spirits of men his Law transcribed and imprest upon
the soul which is nothing else but its conformation and likeness to himself is righteousness and then peace The 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 That notion and judgment and sâ—vour of things that excellent temper of mind and heart for that is the extent of the expression whereof the holy Spirit of God is both the author and pattern is life and peace involves them in it self When one thing is thus in casu recto predicated of another it speaks their most intimate connexion as Rom. 14. 7. above so 1 Joh. 5. 3. This is love that c. So here such a mind is life and peace though the copula be not in the original it is fitly supply'd in the translation you cannot separate q. d. life and peace from such a mind It hath no principle of death or trouble in it Let such as know any thing of this blessed temper and complexion of soul compare this Scripture and their own experience together when at any time they find their souls under the blessed Empire and dominion of a Spiritual mind when wholly spirituality rules and denominates them are not their souls the very region of life and peace both these in conjunction life and peace not raging life not stupid peace but a placid peaceful life a vital vigorous rest and peace 't is not the life of a furie nor peace of a stone Life that hath peace in it and peace that hath life in it Now can the soul say I feel my self well all is now well with me nothing afflicts the Spiritual mind so far and while 't is such 'T is wrapt up and cloath'd in its own innocency and purity and hereby become invulnerable not liable to hurtful impressions Holiness under the name of light for that is by the context the evident meaning of the word there is by the Apostle spoken of as the Christians armour Put on saith he the armour of light in opposition to the works of darkness which he had mentioned immediately before strang armour that a man may see through A good mans armour is that he needs none his armour is an open breast that he can expose himself is fearless of any harm Who is he that shall harm you if ye be followers of that which is good It should be read imitators so the word signifies and so where as following is either of a pattern or an end the former must be meant hear by the natural importance of that word and hence by that which is good is not to be understood created goodness for 't is not enough to imitate that goodness for so we must be good but the words are capable of being read him that is good or which is all one the good And so 't is the increate good the blessed God himself formally considered under the notion of good Nothing can harm you if you be like God that 's the plain sense of this Scripture Likeness to God is armour of proof i. e. an imitation of him viz. in his moral goodness which holiness as a general name of it comprehends A person truly like God is secure from any external violence so far as that it shall never be able to invade his Spirit He is in Spirit far raised above the tempestuous stormie region and converses where winds and clouds have no place Nor can so far as this temper of soul prevails any evil grow up to such a mind within it self It is life and peace It is light and purity for 't is the image the similitude of God God is light and with him is no darkness at all Holy souls were darkness â—ut they are light in the Lord. He the Father of lights They the children of light They were darkness not in the dark but in the abstract darkness as if that were their whole nature and they nothing else but an impure masse of coâ—globated darkness So ye are light as if they were that and nothing else nothing but a Sphere of light Why suppose we such a thing as an entire Sphere of nothing else but pure light what can work any disturbance here or raise a storm within it A calm serene thing perfectly homogeneous void of contrariety or any self-repugnant quality how can it disquiet it self We cannot yet say that thus it is with holy souls in their present state according to the highest literal import of these words ye are light But thus it will be when they awake when they are satisfied with this likeness They shall then be like God fully and throughout O the joy and pleasure of a soul made after such a similitude Now glory is become as it were their being they are glorified Glory is revealed into them transfused throughout them Every thing that is conceivable under the notion of an excellency competent to created nature is now to be found with them and they have it inwrought into their very beings So that in a true sense it may be said that they are light they not only have such excellencies but they are them As the Moralist saith of the wise or vertuous man that he not so properly hath all things as is all things 'T is said of man in respect of his naturals he is the image and glory of God As for his supernatural excellencies though they are not essential to man they are more expressive of God and are now become so inseparable from the nature of man too in this his glorified state that he can assoon cease to be intelligent as holy The image of God even in this respect is not separable from him nor blessedness surely from this image As the divine excellencies being in their infinite fulness in God are his own blessedness so is the likeness the participation of them in the soul that now bears this image its blessedness Nothing can be necessary to its full satisfaction which it hath not in it self by a gracious vouchsafement and communication The good man in that degree which his present state admits of Solomon tells us is satiâ—fied from himself he doth not need to traverse the world to seek his happiness abroad He hath the matter of satisfaction even that goodness which he is now enrich't with in his own breast and bosom yet he hath it all by participation from the fountain-goodness But that participated goodness is so intimately one with him as sufficiently warrants and makes good the assertion he is satisfied from himself viz. from himself not primarily or independently but by derivation from him who is all in all and more intimate to us than we to our selves and what is that participated goodness but a degree of the divine likeness But when that goodness shall be fully participated when this image and imitation of the divine goodness shall be compleat and intire then shall we know the rich exuberant sense of those words How fully will this image or likeness satisfie then And yet more
distinctly we may apprehend how satisfying this likeness or image imprest will be if a little further deferring the view of the particulars of this likeness which we have defigned to instance in we consider these general properties of it 1. 'T is a vital image not the image only of him that lives the living God but it is his living and soul quickning image 'T is the likeness of him in that very respect an imitation and participation of the life of God by which once revived the soul lives that was dead before 'T is not a dead picture a dumb shew an unmoving Statue but a living speaking walking image that wherewith the Child is like the Father the very life of the subject where it is and by which it lives as God speaks and acts comformably to him An image not such a one as is drawn with a Pencil that expresses only colour and figure but such a one as is seen in a Glass that represents life and motion as was noted from a worthy Author before 'T is even in its first and more imperfect draught an analogical participation as we must understand it of the divine nature before which first tincture those preludious touches of it upon the Spirit of man his former state is spoken of as an alienation from the life of God as having no interest no communion therein The putting on of the new man which after God is created in righteousness and true holiness is presently mentioned in direct opposition to that dismal state implying that to be a participation of the divine life And certainly so far as it is so 't is a participation of the divine blessedness too 2. 'T is an image most intimate therefore to its subject Glory it is but not a superficial skin-deep glory such as shone in Mâ—sâ—s his face which he covered with a Vail 'T is througâ—y transformative changes the soul throughout not in external appearance but in its very nature All outward imbellishments would add little felicity to a putrid corrupt soul. That would be but painting a Sepulchre Thiâ— adds â—rnament unto life and both especially to the inward man 'T is not pâ—int in the 〈◊〉 while dâ—â—th is at the heart but 't is 〈…〉 of such a principle within as will soon form and attemper the man universally to it self 'T is glory blessedness participated brought home and lodged in a mans own soul in his own bosom he cannot then but be satisfied A man may have a rich stock of outward comforts and while he hath no heart to enjoy them be never the happier But 't is impossible that happiness should be thus lodged in his Soul made so intimate and one with him and yet that he should not be satisfied not be happy 3. An image connatural to the Spirit of man Not a thing alien and forraign to his nature put into him purposely as is were to torment and vex him but an ancient well-known inhabitant that had place in him from the beginning Sin is the injurious intruder which therefore puts the soul into a commotion and permits it not to rest while it hath any being there This Image calms it restores it works a peaceful orderly composure within returns it to it self to its pristine blessed state being reseated there as in its proper primitive subject For though this image in respect of corrupted nature be supernatural in respect of institute and undefiled nature it was in a true sense nâ—tural as hath been demonstrated by divers of ours against the Papists and upon the matter yielded by some of the more modeâ—â—â—e among themselves At least it was 〈…〉 with humane nature consentaneâ—us to it and perâ—ective of it We are speaking it must be remembred of that part of the divine Image that consists in moral excellencies there being another part of it as hath been said that is even in the strictest sense natural There is nothing in the whole moral Law of God in conformity where unto this Image did ab origine consist nothing of what he requires from man that is at all distructive of his being prejudicial to his comforts repugnant to his most innate principles nothing that clashes with his reason or is contrary to his interest or that is not most directly conservative of his being and comfors agreeable to his most rational principles subservient to his best and truest interest For what doth God the Lord require but fear and love service and holy walking from an intire and undivided Soul What but what is good not only in it self but for us and in respect whereof his Law is said to be holy just and good And what he requireth he impresseth This Law written in the heart is this likeness How grateful then will it be when after a long extermination and exile it returns and repossesses the Soul is recognâ—zed by it becomes to it a new nature yea even a divine a vitâ—l living Law The Law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus What grievance or burden is it to do the dictates of nature actions that easily and freely slow from their own principles and when blessedness it self is infolded in those very acts and inclinations How infinitely satisfying and delightful will it be when the soul shall find it self connaturallized to every thing of its duty and shall have no other duty incumbent on it than to be happy when it shall need no arguments and exhortations to love God nor need be urged and prest as heretofore to mind him to fear before him When love and reverence and adoration and praise when delight and joy shall be all natural acts Can you separate this in your own thoughts from the highest satisfaction 4. This Image will be now perfect Every way fully perfect First In all its parts as it is in the first instant of the souls entrance into the state of regeneration the womb of Grace knows no defective maimed births And yet here is no little advantage as to this kind of perfection For now those lively lineaments of the new creature all appear which were much obscured before every line of glory is conspicuous every character legible the whole entire frame of this Image is in its exact Symmetrie and apt proportions visible at once And 't is an unspeakable addition to the pleasure of so excellent a temper of Spirit that accrews from the discernable intireness of it Heretofore some gracious dispositions have been to seek through the present prevalence of some corruption or temptation when there was most 〈…〉 occasion for their being reduced 〈…〉 Hâ—nce the reward and pleasure of 〈…〉 and improvement of the principle were lost together Now the Soul will be equally disposed to every holy exercise that shall be suitable to its state It s temper shall be even and Symmetral Its notions uniform and agreeable nothing done out of season Nothing seasonable omitted for want of a present disposition of Spirit thereto
that are incommunicable as hath been more distinctly opened in the Propositions concerning this likeness Which being premised I shall give instances of both kinds to discover somewhat of the inexpressible pleasure of being thus conformed to God And here pretermitting the impresse of knowledge of which we have spoken under the former head of vision we shall instance 1. In a dependent frame of Spirit which is the proper impress of the divine all-sufficiency and self-fulness duly apprehended by the blessed soul. It is not easie to conceive a higher pleasure than this competible to a creature The pleasure of dependence Yea this is a higher than we can conceive Dependence which speaks the creatures 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or habitude to its principle as the subserviency which imparts its habitude to its end is twofold 1. Natural which is common and essential to all creatures Even when no such thing is thought on or considered by them The Creatures live move and have their beings in God whether they think of it or no. 2. Voluntary or rational which is de facto appropriate and de jure common to reasonable creatures as such A dependence that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Elective and with a foregoing reason which I understand by elective not a liberty of doing or not doing it and concomitâ—nt consideration of what we do and animadversion of our own act when knowingly and willingly understanding our selves in what we do we go out of our selves and live in God This is the dependence of which I speak And it cannot but be attended with transcendent pleasure in that other State when that knowledge and animadversion shall be clear and perfect Both as this dependence imports A Nullifying of self Magnifying I may call it omnifying of God a making him all in all As it imports which it doth most evidently a self-annihilation A pure nullifying of self 'T is a continual recognition of my own nothingness A momently iterated confession that my whole being is nothing but a meer puff of precarious breath a bubble rais'd from nothing by the arbitrary fict of the great Creator reducible had he so pleased any moment to nothing again These are true and just acknowledgments and to a well-tempered soul infinitely pleasant when the state of the ca is throughly understood as now it is and it hath the apprehension clear how the creation is sustained how and upon what terms its own being life and blessedness are continued to it that it is by its self nothing and that it is every moment determinable upon the constancy of the Creators Will that it is not simply nothing 'T is not possible that any thing should hinder this consideration from being eternally delightful but that diabolical uncreaturely Pride that is long since banisht Heaven and banisht its very subjects thence also Nothing can sute that temper but to be a God to be wholly independent to be its own sufficiency The thoughts of living at the will and pleasure of another are grating but they are only grating to a proud heart which here hath no place A soul naturallized to humiliations accustomed to prostrations and self-abasements trained up in acts of mortification and that was brought to glory through a continued course and series of self-denyall That ever since it first came to know it self was wont to depend for every moments breath for every glimpse of light for every fresh influence I live yet not I with what pleasure doth it now as it were vanish before the Lord what delight doth it take to diminish it self and as it were disappear to contract and shrivel up it self to shrink even into a point into a nothing in the presence of the divine glory that it may be all in all Things are now pleasant to the soul in its right-mind as they are sutable as they carry a comliness and congruity in them And nothing now appears more becoming than such a self-annihilation The distances of Creator and Creature of Infinite and Finite of a necessâ—ry and arbitrary being of a self-originated and a derived being of what was from â—verâ—â—sting and what had a beginning are now better understood than ever And the soul by how much it is now come nearer to God is more apprehensive of its distance And such a frame and posture doth hence please it best as doth most fitly correspond thereto Nothing is so pleasing to it as to be as it ought That temper is most grateful that is most proper and which best agrees with its state Dependence therefore is greatly pleasing as it is a self-nullifying thing And yet it is in this respect pleasing but as a means to a further end The pleasure that attends it is higher and more intense according as it more immediately attains that end Viz. The magnifying and exalting of God which is the most connatural thing to the holy soul. The most fundamental and deeply imprest Law of the New Creature Self gives place that God may take it becomes nothing that he may be all It vanishes that his glory may shine the brighter Dependence gives God his power glory 'T is the peculiar honour and prerogative of a Deity to have a world of Creatures hanging upon it staying themselves upon it to be the fulcrum the centre of a lapsing Creation When this dependence is voluntary and intelligent it carries in it a more explicite owning acknowledgment of God By how much more this is the distinct and actual sense of my soul Lord I cannot live but by thee So much the more openly and plainly do I speak it out Lord thou art God alone thou art the fulness of life and being the only root and spring of life The Everlasting I Am. The being of beings How unspeakably pleasant to a holy soul will such a perpetual agnition or acknowledgment of God be when the perpetuation of its being shall be nothing else than a perpetuation of this acknowledgment when every renewed aspiration every motion every pulse of the glorified soul shall be but a repetition of it when it shall find it self in the eternity of life that everlasting state of life which it now possesses to be nothing else than an everlasting testimony that God is God He is so for I am I live I act I have the power to love him none of which could otherwise â—e When amongst the innumerable myriads of the heavenly hoast this shall be the mutual alternate testimony of each to all the rest throughout eternity will not this be pleasant When each shall feel continually the fresh illapses and incomes of God the power and sweetness of divine influences the inlivening vigour of that vital breath and find in themselves thus we live and are sustained and are yet as secure touching the continuance of this state of life as if every one were a God to himself and did each one possess an intire God-head When their sensible dependence on him in their glorified state shall
be his perpetual triumph over all the imaginary Deities the phansied Numina wherewith he was heretofore provoked to jealousie And he shall now have no rival left but be acknowledged and known to be all in all How pleasant will it then be as it were to loose themselves in him and to be swallowed up in the overcoming sense of his boundless alsufficient every where flowing fulness And then add to this they do by this dependence actually make this fulness of God their own They are now met in one common principle of life and blessedness that is sufficient for them all They no longer live a life of care are perpetually exempt from solicitous thoughts which here they could not perfectly attain to in their earthly state They have nothing to do but to depend to live upon a present self-fufficient good which alone is enough to replenish all desires else it were not self-sufficient How can we divide in our most abstractive thoughts the highest pleasure the fullest satisfaction from this dependence 'T is to live at the rate of a God a God-like life A living upon immense fulness as he lives 2. Subjection which I place next to dependence as being of the same allay The product of imprest Soveraignty as the other of all-sufficient fulness Both impressions upon the creature corresponding to somewhat in God most incommunicably appropriate to him This is the souls real and practical acknowledgement of the Supream Majesty Its homage to its Maker Its self-dedication Than which nothing more suits the state of a creature or the Spirit of a Saint And as it is suit-table 't is pleasant 'T is that by which the blessed Soul becomes in its own sense a consecrated thing a devoted thing sacred to God It s very life and whole being refer'd and made over to him With what delightful relishes what sweet gusts of pleasure is this done while the soul tasts its own act approves it with a full ungainsaying judgment apprehends the condignity and fitness of it assents to its self herein and hath the ready suffrage the harmonious concurrence of all his powers When the words are no sooner spoken Worthy art thou O Lord to receive glory honour and power for thou hast created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created but they are resounded from the penetralia the inmost bowels the most intimate receptacles and secret chambers of the Soul O Lord thou art worthy worthy that I and all things should be to thee worthy to be the Omega as thou art the Alpha the last as thou art the first the end as thou art the beginning of all things the Ocean into which all being shall slow as the Fountain from which it sprang My whole self and all my powers the excellencies now implanted in my being the priviledges of my now glorified state are all worth nothing to me but for thee please me only as they make me fitter for thee O the pleasure of these Sentiments the joy of such raptures when the soul shall have no other notion of it self than of an everlasting sacrifice always ascending to God in its own flames For this devotedness and subjection speak not barely an act but a state A Being to the praise of grace A Living to God And t is no mean pleasure that the sincere soul finds in the imperfect beginnings the first Essayes of this life the enitial breathings of such a Spirit its entrance into this blessed state when it makes the first tender and present of it self to God as the Apostle expresses it when it first begins to esteem it self an hallowed thing separate and set apart for God Its first act of unfeigned self-resignation when it tells God from the very heart I now give up my self to thee to be thine Never was marriage covenant made with such pleasure with so complacential consent This quitting claim to our selves parting with our selves upon such terms to be the Lords for ever O the peace the rest the acquiescence of Spirit that attends it When the poor soul that was weary of it self knew not what to do with it self hath now on the sudden found this way of disposing it self to such an advantage there is pleasure in this Treaty Even the previous breakings and relentings of the soul towards God are pleasant But O the pleasure of consent of yielding our selves to God as the Apostles expression is when the Soul is overcome and cryes out Lord now I resign I yield possess now thy own right I give up my self to thee That yielding is subjection self-devoting in order to future service and obedience To whom ye yield your selves servants to obey c. And never did any man enrol himself as a servant to the greatest Prince on earth with such joy What pleasure is there in the often iterated recognition of these transactious in multiplying such bonds upon a mans own soul though done faintly while the fear of breaking checks its joy in taking them on When in the uttering of these words I am thy servant O Lord thy servant the son of thine handmaid i. e. thy born servant allâ—ding to that custom and Law among the Jews Thy servant devoted to thy fear a man finds they fit his spirit and are aptly expressive of the true sense of his soul is it not a grateful thing And how pleasant is a state of life consequent and agreeable to such transactions and Covenants with God! when 't is meat and drink to do his will When his zeal eats a man up and one shall find himself secretly consuming for God! and the vigour of his soul exhaled in his service Is it not a pleasant thing so to spend and be spent when one can in a measure find that his will is one with Gods transformed into the divine will that there is but one common will and interest and end between him and us and so that in serving God we raign with him in spending our selves for him we are perfected in him Is not this a pleasant life Some Heathens have spoken at such a rate of this kind of life as might make us wonder and blush One speaking of a vertuous person saith he is as a good Souldier that bears wounds and numbers skars and at last smitten through with darts dying will love the Emperour for whom he falls he will saith he keep in mind that ancient precept follow God But they that complain cry out and groan and are compelled by force to do his commands and hurried into them against their will and what a madness is it saith he to be drawn rather than follow And presently after subjoyns we are born in a Kingdom to obey God is liberty The same person writes in a Letter to a friend If thou believe me when I most freely discover to thee the most secret fixed being of my soul in all things my mind is thus formed I obey not God so properly as
I assent to him I follow him with all my heart not because I cannot avoit it And another Lead me to whatsoever I am appointed and I will follow thee chearfully but if I refuse or be unwilling I shall follow notwithstanding A Soul cast into such a mould formed into an obediential subject frame what sweet peace doth it enjoy how pleasant rest every thing rests most composedly in its proper place A bone out of joynt knows no ease nor lets the body enjoy any The creature is not in its place but when 't is thus subject is in this subordination to God By flying out of this subordination the world of mankind is become one great disjoynted body full of weary tossings unacquainted with ease or rest That soul that is but in a degree reduc't to that blessed state temper is as it were in a new world so great and happy a change doth it now feel in it self But when this transformation shall be compleated in it and the will of God shall be no sooner known than rested in with a complacential approbation and every motion of the first and great mover shall be an efficacious law to guide and determine all our motions and the lesser-wheeles shall presently run at the first impulse of the great and master-wheel without the least rub or hesitation when the law of sin shall no longer check the law of God when all the contentions of a rebellious flesh all the counter-strivings of a perverse ungovernable heart shall cease for ever O unconceivable blessedness of this consent the pleasure of this joyful harmony this peaceful accord Obedience where 't is due but from one creature to another carries its no small advantages with it and conducibleness to a pleasant unsolicitous life To be particularly prescribed to in things about which our minds would otherwise be tost with various apprehensions anxious uncertain thoughts how great a priviledge is it I cannot forget a pertinent passage of an excellent person of recent memory And saith he for pleasure I shall profess my self so far from doting on that popular Idol liberty that I hardly think it possible for any kind of obedience to be more painful than an unrestrained liberty Were there not true bounds of Magistrates of Laws of piety of reason in the heart every man would have a fool I add a mad Tyrant to his Master that would multiply him more sorrows than bryars and thorns did to Adam when â—e was freed from the bliss at once and the restraint of Paradise and was sure greater slave in the wilderness than in the inclosure would but the Scripture permit me that kind of Idolatry the binding my faith and obedience to any one visible infallible Judg or Prince were it the Pope or the Mufti or the grand Tartar might it be reconcilible with my Creed it would be certainly with my interâ—st to get presently into that posture of obedience I should learn so much of the Barbarian Ambassadors in Appian which came on purpose to the Romans to negotiate for leave to be their servants 'T would be my policy if not my piety and may now be my wish though not my faith that I might never have the trouble to deliberate to dispute to doubt to chuse those so many profitless uneasinesses but only the favour to receive commands and the meekness to obey them How pleasurable then must obedience be to the perfect will of the blessed God when our wills shall also be perfectly attempered and conformed there unto Therefore are we taught Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven What is most perfect in its kind gives rule to the rest 3. Love This is an eminent part of the image or likeness of God in his Saints As it is that great Attribute of the divine being that is alone put to give us a notion of God God is love This is an excellency consider it whether in its original or copie made up of pleasantnesses All love hath complacency or pleasure in the nature and most formal notion of it To search for pleasure in love is the same thing as if a man should be solicitous to find water in the Sea or light in the body of the Sun Love to a friend is not without high pleasure when especially he is actually present and injoye'd Love to a Saint rises higher in nobleness and pleasure according to the more excellent qualification of its object 'T is now in its highest improvement in both these aspects of it where whatsoever tends to gratifie our nature whether as humane or holy will be in its full perfection Now doth the soul take up its stated dwelling in Love even in God who is Love and as he is Love 't is now enclosed with Love encompas'd with Love 't is conversant in the proper region and element of Love The Love of God is now perfected in it That Love which is not only participated from him but terminated in him That perfect Love casts out tormenting Fear So that here is pleasure without mixture How naturally will the blessed soul now dissolve and melt into pleasure It is new fram'd on purpose for Love-imbraces and injoyments It shall now love like God as one composed of Love It shall no longer be its complaint and burden that it cannot retaliate in this kind that being beloved it cannot love 4. Purity Herein also must the blessed soul resemble God and delight it self Every one that hath this hope viz. of being hereafter lâ—ke God and seeing him as he is purifieth himself as he is pure A God-like purity is intimately connext with the expectation of future blessedness much more with the fruition Blessed are the pure in heart besides the reason there annext for they shall see God which is to be considered under the other head the pleasure unto which this likeness disposes that proposition carries its own reason in it self It is an incomparable pleasure that purity carries in its own nature As sin hath in its very nature besides its consequent guilt and sorrow trouble and torment beyond expression Whatsoever defiles doth also disturb Nor do any but pure pleasures deserve the name An Epicurus himself will tell us there cannot be pleasure without wisdom honesty and righteousness 'T is least of all possible there should when once a person shall have a right knowledge of himself and which is moral impurity whereof we speak the filthiness of sin I doubt not but much of the torment of Hell will consist in those too-late and despairing self-loathings those sickly resentments the impure wretches will be possessed with when they see what hideous deformed monsters their own wickedness hath made them Here the gratifications of sense that attend it bribe and seduce their judgments into another estimate of sin but then it shall be no longer thought of under the more favourable notion of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 they shall taste nothing but
in the name of the same person and particularly of the winged stati of the good soul when apart from the body carried in its triumphant flying Chariot of which he gives a large description somewhat resembling Solomons rapturous Metaphor Before I was aware my soul made me as the Chariots of Aminnadib But being in the body 't is with it as with a Bird that hath lost its wings it falls a sluggish weight to the earth Which indeed is the state even of the best in a degree within this Tabernacle A sleepy torpose stops their flight They can fall but not ascend the remaines of such a drowsiness do still hang even about Saints themselves The Apostle therefore calls upon such to awake out of sleep from that consideration as we know men are not wont to sleep so intensely towards morning that now their salvation was nearer then when they believed i. e. as some judicious Interpreters understand that place for that they were nearer death and eternity than when they first became Christians though this passage be also otherwise and not improbably interpreted However 2. The holy souls release and dismission from its earthly body which is that we propounded next to be considered will excusse and shake off this drowsie sleep Now is the happy Season of its awaking into the heavenly vital light of God The blessed morning of that long desired day is now dawned upon it the cumbersome night-vail is laid aside and the garments of salvation and immortal glory are now put on It hath past through the trouble darkness of a wearisome night and now is joy arrived with the morning as we may be permitted to allude to those words of the Psalmist though that be not supposed to be the peculiar sense I conceive my self here not concern'd operously to insist in proving that the souls of Saints sleep not in the interval between death and the general resurrection but enjoy present blessedness It being besides the design of a practical discourse which rather intends the propounding and improvement of things acknowledg'd and agree'd for the advantage and benefit of them with whom they are so then the discussing of things dubious and controversible And what I here propound in order to a consequent improvement and application should methinks pass for an acknowledg'd truth among them that professedly believe and seriously read and consider the Bible For meer Philosophers that do not come into this account 't were impertinent to discourse with them from a Text of Scripture and where my design only obliges me to intend the handling of that and to deliver it from what may fitly be supposed to have its ground there unless their allegations did carry with them the Species of demonstrating the simple impossibility of what is asserted thence to the power of that God whose word we take it to be which I have not found any thing they say to amount to That we have reason to presume it an acknowledged thing among them that will be concluded by Scripture That the Soul doth not sleep when it ceases to animate its earthly body many plain Texts do evince which are amassed together by the reverend Mr. Baxter some of the principal whereof I would invite any that waver in this matter seriously to consider As the words of our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That of the Apostle We are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And that I am in a straight having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. That passage The Spirits of just men made perfect c. Which are expressions so clear that it is hard for an industrious Caviller to find what to except to them and indeed the very exceptions that are put in are so frivolous that they carry a plain confession there is nothing colourable to be said Yea and most evident it is from those Texts not only that holy souls sleep not in that state of separation but that they are awaked by it as out of a former sleep into a much more lively and vigorous activity than they enjoyed before And translated into a state as much better then their former as the tortures of a Cross are more ungrateful then the pleasures of a Paradise these joyes fuller of vitalitie then those sickly dying faintings As the immediate presence and close imbraces of the Lord of life are more delectable then a mournful disconsolate absence from him which the Apostle therefore tells us he desired as far better and with an Emphasis which our English too faintly expresses for he uses a double comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by much more better and as a perfected i. e a crowned triumphant Spirit that hath attained the end of its race as the words import in the agonistical notion is now in a more vivid joyous state then when lately toyling in a tiresome way it languished under many imperfections And it is observable that in the three former Scriptures that phrase of being with Christ or being present with him is the same which is used by the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 17. to express the state of blessedness after the resurrection intimating plainly the sameness of the blessedness before and after And though this phrase be also used to signiâ—ie the present injoyment saints have of Gods gracious presence in this life which is also in nature and kind the same yet it is plainly used in these Scriptures the two latter more especially to set out to us such a degree of that blessedness that in comparison thereof our present being with Christ is a not being with him our presence with him now an absence from him While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and I am in a strait betwixt two desiring to depart or having a desire unto desolution and to be with Christ c. How strangely mistaken and disappointed had the blessed Apostle been had his absence from the body his dissolution his release set him further off from Christ or made him less capable of converse with him then before he was And how absurd would it be to say the spirits of the just are perfected by being cast into a stupifying sleep yea or being put into any state not better then they were in before But their state is evidently far better The body of death is now laid aside and the wights of sin that did so easily beset are shaken off flesh and sin are laid down together the soul is rid of its burdensome bands and shackles hath quitted its filthy darksome prison the usual place of lasiness and sloth is come forth of it's drowsie dormitory and the glory of God is risen upon it 'T is now come into the world of realities where things appear as they are no longer as in a drean or vision of the night
satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it may do so is not altogether unapprehensible Admit that a Spirit had it never been imbodied might be as well without a body or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials 't is no unreasonable supposition that a connate aptitude to a body should render humane souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations And how much doth relation and propriety endear things otherwise mean and inconsiderable or why should it be thought strange that a soul connaturallized tâ— matter should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof So as that it should appropriate such a part and say 't is mine And will it not be a pleasure to have a vitalitâ— diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me to have every thing belonging to the Supposition perfectly vindicated from the Tyrannous dominion of death The returnâ—ing of the Spirits into a benumb'd or sleeping toe or finger adds a contentment to a maâ— which he wanted before Nor is it hence neâ—cessary the Soul should covet a re-union wiâ—â— every effluvious particle of its former body A desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient not whâ— shall be cumbersome or monstrous And how pleasant will it be to comtemplatâ— and admire the wisdom and power of thâ— great Creatour in this so glorious a change when I shall find a Clod of Earth an Heaâ— of Dâ—st refined into a Celestial purity anâ— brightness when what was sown in corruptiâ—â— shall be raised in incorruption what was sown 〈◊〉 dishonour is raised in glory what was sown in weakness is raised in power what was sown a natural body is raised a Spiritual body When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal an immortality and death be wholly swallowed up in victory So that this awaking may well be understood to carry that in it which may bespeak it the proper season of the Saints consummate satisfaction and blessedness But besides what it carries in it self there are other more extrinsical concurrents that do further signalize this season and import a great increase of blessedness then to Gods holy ones The body of Christ is now compleated the fulness of him that filleth all in all and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in perfection and reflected glory of the whole There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner though he have a troublesome Scene yet to pass over afterwards in a tempting wicked unquiet world how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together The designes are all now accomplished and wound up into the most glorious result and issue whereof the Divine Providence had been as in travel for so many thousand years 'T is now seen how exquisite wisdom govern'd the world and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed Methods of Providence had to one stated and most worthy end Specially the constitution administration and ends of the Mediatours Kingdom are now beheld in the exact aptitudes order and conspicuous glory when so blessed an issue and success shall commend and crown the whole undertaking The Divine Authority is now universally acknowledged and adored his Justice is vindicated and satisfied his Grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost The whole assembly of Saints solemnly acquitted by publique sentence presented spotless and without blemish to God and adjudged to eternal blessedness 'T is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation upon the finishing of all Gods works from the creation of the world wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe Upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediatours Kingdome all the ends being now attained that the Father â—imself may be immediately all in all How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God the more glorious display of all his Attributes the larger and more abundant Effusions of himself reserv'd as the best Wine to the last unto this joyful day Created perfections couldnot have been before so absolute but they might admit of improvement Their capacities not so large but they might be extended further and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so CHAP. XI An Introduction to the use of the Doctrine hitherto proposed The Use divided into Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty 1. Inference That Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment 2. Inference The Spirit of man since 't is capable of so high a Blessedness a Being of high excellency AND now is our greatest work yet behind the improvement of so momentous a truth to the affecting and transforming of hearts That if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing they may taste the sweetness feel the power and bear the impresse and image of it This is the work both of greatest necessity difficulty and excellency and unto which all that hath been done hitherto is but subservient and introductive Give me leave therefore Reader to stop thee here and demand of thee ere thou go further hast thou any design in turning over these leaves of bettering thy Spirit of getting a more refined heavenly temper of soul art thou weary of thy dross and earth and longing for the first fruits the beginnings of glory dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described What is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton rolling eye hunting for novelties or what may gratifie a prurient wit a coy and squeamish fancy Go read a Romance or some piece of Drollery know here 's nothing for thy turn and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious Spirit read not another line till thou have sighed out this request Lord keep me from trifling with the things of Eternity Charge thy soul to consider that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day 'T is amazing to think with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of Religion are entertained amongst Christians Things that should swallow up our souls drink up our Spirits are heard as a tale that is told disregarded by most scorned by too many What can be spoken so important or of so tremendous consequence or of so confessed truth or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection and this by persons avowing themselves Christians We seem to have little or no advantage in urging men upon their own principles and with things they most readily and professedly assent to Their hearts are as much untouch't and void of impression by the
Christian Doctrine as if they were of another Religion How unlike is the Christian world to the Christian Doctrine The seal is fair and excellent but the impression is languid or not visible Where is that serious godliness that heavenliness that purity that spirituality that righteousness that peace unto which the Christian Religion is most aptly designed to work and form the Spirits of men we think to be saved by an empty name and glory in the shew and appearance of that the life and power whereof we hate and deride 'T is a reproach with us not to be called a Christian and a greater reproach to be one If such and such Doctrines obtain not in our professed Belief we are Hereticks or Infidels if they do in our practice we are precisians and fools To be so serious and circumspect and strict and holy to make the practice of godliness so much our business as the known and avowed principles of our Religion do plainly exact from us yea though we come as we cannot but do unspeakably short of that required measure is to make ones self a common derision and scorn Not to be professedly religious is barbarous to be so in good earnest ridiculous In other things men are wont to act and practise according to the known Rules of their several Callings and Professions and he would be reckon'd the common fool of the neighbour-hood that should not do so The Husbandman that should sow when others reap or contrive his Harvest into the depth of Winter or sow Fitches and expect to reap Wheat The Merchant that should venture abroad his most precious Commodities in a leaky bottom without Pilot or Compass or to places not likely to afford him any valuable return In Religion only it must be counted absurd to be and do according to it s known agreed Principles and he a fool that shall but practise as all about him professe to believe Lord whence is this apprehended inconsistency between the profession and practise of Religion what hath thus stupify'd and unman'd the world that seriousness in Religion should be thought the character of a fool that men must visibly make a mockery of the most Fundamental Articles of Faith onely to save their reputation and be afraid to be serious least they should be thought mad Were the Doctrine here opened believed in earnest were the due proper impresse of it upon our Spirits or as the Pagan Moralists expression is were our mind transfigured into it what manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness But 't is thought enough to have it in our Creed though never in our hearts and such as will not deride the holiness it should produce yet indeavour it not nor go about to apply and urge truths upon their own souls to any such purpose What should turn into Grace and Spirit and Life turns all into Notion and Talk and men think all is well if their head be fill'd and their tongues tipt with what should transform their souls and govern their lives How are the most awful Truths and that should have greatest power upon mens Spirits trifled with as matters only of speculation and discourse They are heard but as empty airy words and presently evaporate pass away into words again like food as Seneca speaks that comes up presently the same that it was taken in which as he saith profits not nor makes any accession to the body at all A like case as another ingeniously speaks as if sheep when they have been feeding should present their Shepherds with the very grass it self which they have cropt and shew how much they had eaten No saith he they concoct it and so yield them Wool and Milk And so saith he do not you viz. when you have been instructed presently go and utter words among the more ignorant meaning they should not do so in a way of ostentation to shew how much they knew more than others but works that follow upon the concoction of what hath been by words made known to them Let Christians be ashamed that they need this instruction from heathen Teachers Thy words were found and I did eat them saith the Prophet and thy word was to me the joy and rejoycing of my heart Divine truth is only so far at present grateful or useful for future as 't is received by faith and consideration and in the love thereof into the very heart and there turned in succum sanguinem into real nutriment to the soul So shall man live by the word of God Hence is the application of it both personal and ministerial of so great necessity If the Truths of the Gospel were of the same alloy with some parts of Philosophy whose end is attained as soon as they are known If the Scripture Doctrine the whole entire System of it were not a Doctrine after godliness if it were not designed to sanctifie and make men holy or if the hearts of men did not reluctate were easily receptive of its impressions our work were as soon done as such a Doctrine were nakedly proposed But the state of the case in these respects is known and evident The tenour and aspect of Gospel truth speaks its end and experience too plainly speaks the oppositeness of mens Spirits All therefore we read and hear is lost if it be not urgently apply'd The Lord grant it be not then too Therefore Reader let thy mind and heart concur in the following improvement of this Doctrine which will be wholly comprehended under these Two heads Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty that are consequent and connatural thereto 1. Inferences of Truth educible from it 1. True Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment The blessedness of a man can be but one Most onely one He can have but one highest and best good And its proper character is that it finally satisfies and gives rest to his Spirit This the face and likeness of God doth his glory beheld and participated Here then alone his full blessedness must be understood to lye Therefore as this might many other wayes be evinced to be true so it evidently appears to be the proper issue of the present truth and is plainly proved by it But alas it needs a great deal more to be pressed than proved O that it were but as much considered as it is known The experience of almost 6000. years hath one would think sufficiently testified the incompetency of every worldly thing to make men happy that the present pleasing of our senses and the gratification of our animal part is not blessedness that men are still left unsatisfied notwithstanding But the practice and course of the world is such as if this were some late and rare experiment which for curiosity every one must be trying over again Every age renews the inquiry after an earthly felicity the design is intail'd as the Spanish designs are said to be and reinforc'd with as great a confidence and vigor
correctioâ—s what awakenings and terrours what remorses what purposes what tasts and relishes do some find in their own hearts that yet are blasted and come to nothing How many miserable abortions after travailing pangs and throwes and fair hopes of an happy birth of the new Creature Often somewhat is produced that much resembles it but is not it No gracious principle but may have its counterfeit in an ungracious heart whence they deceive not others only but themselves and think verily they are true converts while they are yet in their sins How many wretched souls that lie dubiously strugling a long time under the contrary alternate impressions of the Gospel on the one hand and the present evil world on the other and give the day to their own sensual inclinations at last In some degree escape the corruptions of the world by the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ but are again intangled and overcome so as their latter end is worse then their beginning Such a man is so far from being advantaged by his former faint inclinations towards God that he will be found at last under this aggravated wickedness beyond all other men that when others wandred from God through inadvertency and inconsideration this man will be found to have been his enemy upon deliberation and again the various strivings of his convinced heart to the contrary This is more eminently victorious and raigning enmity such a one takes great pains to perish Alas 't is not a slight touch an overly superficial tincture some evaned sentiments of piety a few good thoughts or wishes that bespeak a new man a new creature 'T is a thorough prevailing change that quite alters the habitual posture of a mans soul and determines it towards God so as that the after course of this life may be capable of that denomination a living to God a living after the Spirit That exalts the love of God into that Supremacy in him that it becomes the governing principle of his life and the reason and measure of his actioâ—s that as he loves him above all things else better then his own life so he can truly though possibly sometimes with a doubtful trembling heart resolve the ordinary course of his daily walking and practice into that love as the directive principle of it I pray I read I hear because I love God I desire to be just sober charitable meek patient because I love God This is the perfection and end of the love of God therefore that must needs be the principle hereof obedience to his will Herein appears that power of godliness denied God knowes by too many that have the form The Spirit of love power and of a sound mind That onely is a sound mind in which such love rules in such power Is not love to God often pretended by such that when ever it comes to an actual competitioâ— discover they love their own flesh a gâ—eat deal more that seldom ever cross their own wills to do his or hazard their own fleshly interest to promote his interest we may justly say as the Apostle in a case fitly enough reducible hiâ—her how dwells the love of God 〈◊〉 that man Notwithstanding such a subdued ineffectual love to God such a one shall be denominated and dealt with as an enemy 'T is not likely any man on earth hates God so perfectly as those in Hell And is not every quality not yet perfect in its kind and that is yet growing more and more intense in the mean time allayed by some degree of its contrary Yet that over-mastered degree denominates not its subject nor ought a man from such a supposed love to God have the name of a â—over of him That principle only is capable of denominating the man that is prevalent and practical that hath a governing influence on his heart and life He in whom the love of God hath not such power and rule whatever his fainter inclinations may be is an ungodly man And now methinks these several considerations compared and weighed together should contribute something to the settling of right thoughts in the minds of secure sinners touching the nature and necessity of this heart-change and do surely leave no place for the forementioned vain pretences that occasioned them For to give you a summary view of what hath been propounded in those foregoing considerations It now plainly appears that the holy Scripture requires in him that shall injoy this blessedness a mighty change of the very temper of his soul as that which must dispose him thereto and which must therefore chiefly consist iâ— the right framing of his heart towards God towards whom it is most fixed averse and therefore not easily susceptible of such a change And that any slighter or more feeble inclination toward God will not serve the turn but such onely whereby the soul is prevalently and habitually turned to him And then what can be more absurd or unsavory what more contrary to Christian Doctrine or common Reason then instead of this necessary heart-change to insist upon so poor a Plea as that mentioned above as the onely ground of so great a hope How empty and frivolous will it appear in comparison of this great Soul-transforming change if we severally consider the particulars of it As for Orthodoxie indoctrinals 't is in its self an highly laudible thing and in respect of the Fundamentals for therefore are they so called indispensibly necessary to the blessedness As that cannot be without holiness so nor holiness without truth But Besides that this is that which every one pretends to is every thing which is necessary sufficient As to natural necessity which is that we now speak to reason an intellectual nature are also necessary shall therefore all men yea and Devils too be saved Besides are you sure you believe the grand Articles of the Christian Religion consider a little The Grounds Effects of that petended Faith First its grounds every assent is as the grounds of it are Deal truly here with thy soul. Can you tell wherefore you are a Christian what are thy inducements to be of this Religion are they not such as are common to thee with them that are of a false Religion I am here happily prevented by a worthy Author to which I recommend thee but at the present a little bethink thy self Is it not possible thou may'st be a Christian for the same reasons for which one may be a Jew or a Mahometan or a meer Pâ—gâ—â— as viz. Education Custome Law Example Outward advantage c. Now consider if thou â—ind this upon enquiry to be thy case the Motives of thy being a Christian admit of being cast together into this form of reasoning That Religion which a Mans Forefathers were of which is established by Law or generally obtains in the Country where he lives The Profession whereof most conduces to or best consists with his credit and other outward advantages that Religion he is
substance The most hazardous services undertaken even an Apostleship to a despised Christ. In the hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised All difficulties encountred and overcome while the heâ—met is the hâ—pe of salvâ—tion things reserved for Saints in general Faith can go no further for the Word of Promise goes no further and so serves instead of eyes in the Divine Light to view those glories or it presents them as so many substantial realities demonstrates them submits them to view whence Hope reaches forth to them contends against and triumphs over all attending difficulties and possesses them gives the soul an early anticipated fruition of them for its present support and relief So that it rejoyces in the hope of the glory of God It might well therefore be said I had fainted if I had not believed or who can express how sad my case had been if I had not believed for there is an elegant Aposiopesis in the Hebrew Text the words I had fainted being supplyed in the translation If I had not believed what had become of me then q. d. In as much as faith feeds as it were those hopes which more immediately the Lord makes use of for the strengthening his peoples hearts as it is intimated in the following words compared with Psal. 31. 24. In the present case Faith ascertains the heart of the truth of the Promises so that thus the Soul states the case to it self Though I have not walkt to and fro in 〈◊〉 upper regions nor taken a view of the heavenly 〈◊〉 though I have not been in the third 〈◊〉 us and seen the ineffable glory yet the 〈…〉 which hath brought life and immortality to light the word of the eternal God who hath 〈◊〉 me this is the state of things in the other world cannot but be true my faith may therefore be to me instead of eyes and the Divine testimony must supply the place of light both together give methinks a fair prospect of those far distant glorious objects which I have now in view Now this awakens hope and makes it revive and run to imbrace what Faith hath discovered in the Promise In hope of eternal life which God that cannot lie hath promised 'T is the Word of God that causes the soul to hope i. e. believed for disbelieved it signifies nothing with it and that not onely as it contains a narration but a promise concerning the future estate I may without much emotion of heart hear from a Traveller the description of a pleasant Country where I have not been but if the Lord of that Country give me besides the account of it an assurance of enjoying rich and ample possessions there this presently begets an hope the pleasure whereof would much relieve a present distressed estate and which nothing but that of actual possession can exceed That 't is not more so with us here admits of no excuse Is God less to be believed then a man will we deny him the priviledge of being able to discover his mind and the truth of things credibly which we ordinarily allow to any one that is not a convicted Lier Christ expects his Disciples should very confidently assure themselves of the preparations made for them in another world upon that very ground alone that he had not told them the contrary Let not your hearts be troubled ye believe in God believe also in me In my Fathers House are many mansions if it were not so I would have told you I go to prepare c. Intimating to them they ought to have that opinion of his plainness and sincerity as never to imagine he would have proselyted them to a Religion that should undo them in this world if there were not a sufficient recompence awaiting them in the other but he would have certainly have let them know the worst of their case much more might he expect they should be confident upon his so often and expresly telling them that so it is If his silence might he a ground of hope much more his word And surely so grounded an hope cannot but be consolatory and relieving in this sad interval till the awaking hour Lastly Since this blessedness of the righteous is as to the season of it future not expected till they awake we may infer That 't is great wisdom and sagacitie that guides the righteous mans choice while he waves a present and temporary and chuses this future expected blessedness 'T is true that Philosophy hath been wont to teach us that choice or election hath no place about the end because that is but one and choice always implyes a competition But that very reason evinces that in our present state and case choice must have place about the end That Philosophy might have suited better the state of innocent Adam when there was nothing to blind and bribe a mans judgment or occasion it to deliberate about the supreme end then it might be truly said deliberation it self was a defection nor to pervert and misincline his will and so its action in proposing its end would be simple intention not choice But so hath the Apostasie and sin of man blinded and befooled him that he is at a loss about nothing more then what is the chief good And though S. Augustine reduce Varro's 288. differing Sects about it to 12. that 's enough to prove but daily experience doth it more convincingly and sadly a real though most unjust competition Therefore a sinner can never be blessed without chusing his blessedness and therein it highly concern's him to chuse aright and that a Spirit of Wisdom and Counsel guide his choice While Man had not as yet fal'n to deliberate whether he should adhere to God or no was a gradual declension the very inchoation of his fall but having fal'n necessity makes that a vertue which was a wickâ—nâ—sâ— before There 's no returning to God without considering our ways The so much altered state of the case quite alters the nature of the things It was a consulting to do evil before now to do goâ—d And hence also chusing the Lord to be our God becomes a necessary duty Which is to make choice of this very blessedness that consists in the knowledge likeness and enjoyment of him And now in as much as this blessedness is not fully attained by the longing soul till time expire and its eternity commence here 's a great discovery of that Wisdom which guides this happy choice There is great wisdom in prospection in taking care of the future and at how much the further distance one can provide so much the greater reputation of wisdom it justly acquired to him Yea we seem to place the summe of practical wisdom in this one thing while we agree to call it providence under the contracted name of prudence The wise man makes it at least an evidence or part of wisdom when he tells us the prudent
thy Soul then with this question again and again art thou yet certain yea or no. 2. Is it a comfortable state to be uncertain or to have before thee apparent grounds of a rational and just doubt For causeless doubts may sooner vanish when their causelesness is once discovered and so they are less likely to keep a person that is capable of understanding his own case under a stated discomfort But I suppose thee in order to the answering the foregoing Querie to have in some measure considered thy case and that with a preponderating apprehension of danger in it thou returnest it uncertain Uncertain man and what wilt thou remain uncertain wilt thou sit still so till thou perish shall thy life hang in doubt and thy soul be in jeopardy every hour till the everlasting flames resolve the doubt and put the matter out of question with thee What course canst thou apply thy self to but to inquire and search further into thy own state to avoid the torture of thy own fears the pangs and dreadful expectations of a palpitating misgiving heart 't is tru that inquisitive diligent doubtfulness hath hope and comfort in it But doubtfulness joyned with a resolution of casting off all further care is utterly desperate and disconsolate what remains to thee in that case but a fearful looking for a fiery indignation how canst thou pass an hour in peace while thou apprehendest it unlikely thou see the face and be satisfied with the image of God do not thy own thoughts represent to thee the amazing sights the horrid images which shall for ever entertain and possess thy soul Art thou not daily haunted with Divine Horrors when thou sayest at night thy bed shall refresh thee art thou not terrified with dreams and affrighted with visions Dost thou not say in the morning would to God it were evening and in the evening say would to God it were morning And while thou knowest not what else to do meditate onely changes instead of remedies Or if thou find no such trouble invading thy mind let me further ask 3. Is it reasonable to be secure in such a state of uncertainty Debate this matter a little while with thy self Is it thy reason or thy sloth that makes thee sit still and forbear to look into thy Spiritual affairs Is it any rational consideration or not rather the meer indisposition of a Soul affraid to know its own state that suspends thee from inquiring what hast thou to say that looks like a reason Is it that it will disturbe thy thoughts interrupt thy pleasures fill thee with anxious cares and fears which thou art as loath to admit as burning coals into thy bosome Is it that thou canst not endure to look upon so dreadful an object as the appearing danger or possibility of thy being miserable to eternity And art thou therefore resolved to shut thine eyes and cry peace peace This is to avoid a present inconvenience by an eternal mischief a gross overstraining of the Paradox for avoiding the present fear of Hell to run into it as if because a man cannot bear the thoughts of dying he should presently cut his own throat Vain man canst thou not bear the thoughts of eternal misery how wilt thou bear the thing And how long-liv'd dost thou think that peace shall be that thou purchasest upon so dear and hard tearms canst thou promise thy self an hour may'st thou not lose thy purchase and price together the next moment canst thou defer thy misery by forgetting it or will thy judgment linger and thy damnation slumber while thou securely lingerest and slumberest canst thou wink Hell into nothing and put it out of being by putting it out of thy thoughts Alas man open thy eyes when thou wilt thou shalt find thou hâ—st nâ—t bettered thy case by having kept them â—â—st closed The bitterness of death is not yet past The horrid image is still before thee This is not a phansied evil which a man may dream himself into and eadem operâ with as little difficultie dream himself out of it again no thy case is miserable and dangerous when thou composest thy self to sleep if thou awakest thou wilt find it still the same onely thou did'st not apprehend it before for then thou wouldest not have slept As the Drunkard that kills a man and after falls asleep in his drunken fit he awakes and understands his wretched case Would his sleeping on till the Officers arrest had awak't him have mended the matter with him But thou wilt possibly say is it not better here to have a little quiet now then to be miserable by sad thoughts here and miserable by actual suffering hereafter too Is not one death enough why should one kill himself so often over and hasten misery as if it came on too slowly Better man an hard choice Supposing thou art to be eternally miserable If thou understand'st that word eternity The good or evil of this little inch of time will signifie so little with thee as hardly to weigh any thing in the Scale of a rational judgment But what art thou now dreaming while thou thus reasonest Dost thou yet no better understand thy case Art thou not under the Gospel Is it not the day of thy hope and of the Lords grace and patience towards thee It was said that sleeping would not better thy case but it was not said that awaking would not but all that is here said is designed to the awakening of thee that thou may'st know thy case and indeavour a redress Dost thou think any man in his sober wits would take all this pains thus to reason with thee if that were the acknowledged and agreed state of thy case that it were already taken for granted thou must perish We might as well go preach to Devils and carry down the Gospel into Hell But dost thou think the holy merciful God sent his Son and his Ministers to mock men and to treat with them about their eternal concernments when there is no hope Were that thy case thou hadst as good a pretence as the Devil had to complain of being tormented before thy â—im But if thou be not wilfully perverse in mistaking the matter we are reasoning about thou may'st understand Thy reason is here appealed to in this whether having so fair hopes before thee as the Gospel gives of this blessedness we are discoursing of it be not reasonable from the apprehension of a meer possibility of miscarrying which can only be through thy wilful security and neglect to give up thy self to a supine negligence and indulge that security which is so sure to ruine thee and exchange possible hâ—ped heaven for a certain Hell or whether rather it be not reasonable to stir up thy soul to consider in what posture thou art towards the attainment of this blessedness that thou may'st accordingly steer thy course in order to it If an Accusation or a Disease do threaten thy life or a suspected slaw thy
put your consciences clossely to it whether when they have told you as no doubt they will that such things deserve your consideration it be impossible to you to use your considering power thus and imploy it even about these things Do but make this easie tryal and then say whether it be impossible See if you cannot select one hour on purpose wherein to it down by yourselves alone with this resolution Well I will now spend this hour in considering my eternal concernments When you have obtained so much of your self set your thoughts on work you will find them voluble and unfixt very apt to revolt and fly off from things you have no mind to but use your authority with your self Tell your soul or let it tell it self these things concern thy life At least taking this prepared matter along with thee that â—hou mayst not have this pretence thou knowest not what to think of try if thou canst not think of these things now actually suggested and offered to thy thoughts as namely Consider that thou hast a reasonable immortal soul which as it is liable to eternal misery â—o it is capable of eternal blessedness That this blessedness thou dost understand to consist onely in the vision of the blessed God in being made like to him and in the satisfaction that â—s thence to result and acrue to thee Consider what thy very objection supposeth that thou findest the temper of thy Spirit to be altogether indisposed and averse to such a blessedness Is it not so is not this thy very case feel now again thy heart try is it not at least coldly affected towards this blessed state Is it not then obvious to thee to consider that the temper of thy Spirit must be changed or thou art undone That inasmuch as thy blessedness lyes in God this change mustly in the alteration of thy dispositions and the posture of thy Spirit towards him Further Canst thou not consider the power and fixedness of thy aversation from God and with how mighty a weight thy heart is carried and held down from him Try lift at thy heart see if it will be raised God-ward and Heaven-ward dost thou not find it is as if thou wert lifting at a Mountain that it lies as a dead weight and stirs not ponder thy case in this respect And then Is it not to be considered that thy time is passing away apace that if thou let thy self alone 't is likely to be as bad with thee to morrow as this day and as bad next day as to morrow And if thy time expire and thou be snatcht away in this state what will become of thee And dost thou not therefore see a necessity of considering what ever may be most moving and most likely to incline thy heart God-ward of pleading yet more lowdly and importunately with thy self And canst thou not consider and reason the matter thus O my soul what 's the reason that thou so drawest back and hangest off from thy God that thou art so unwilling to be blessed in him that thou shouldest venture to run thy self upon eternal perdition rather what cause hath he ever given thee to disaffect him what is the ground of thy so mighty prejudice Hath he ever done thee hurt Dost thou think he will not accept a returning soul that is to give the lie to his Gospel and it becomes not a perishing wretch so to provoke him in whom is all its hope Is the eternal glory an undesirable thing or the everlasting burnings tolerable canst thou find a way of being for ever blessed without God or whether he will or no or is there a sufficient present pleasure in thy sinful distance from God to outweigh Heaven and Hell Darest thou venture upon a resolution of giving God and Christ their last refusal or say thou wilt never hearken to or have to do with them more or darest thou venture to do what thou darest not resolve and act the wickedness thou canst not think of scorn eternal Majestie and love spurn and trample a bleeding Saviour Commune thus awhile with thy self but if yet thou find thy heart relent nothing Thou canst yet further consider that it lies not in thy power to turn thy own heart or else how comest thou thus to object And hence Canst thou avoid considering this is a distressed case that thou art in great straits liable to perish yea sure to do so if thou continue in that ill temper of Spirit and wholly unable to help thy self Surely thou canst not but see this to be a most distressed case I put it now to thy conscience whether being thus led on thou canst not go thus far See whether upon trial thy Conscience give thee leave to say I am not able thus to do or think and be not here so foolish as to separate the action of the first cause and the second in judging thy ability Thou may'st say no I cannot think a good thought without God true so I know thou canst not move thy finger without God but my meaning in this appeal to thy Conscience is whether upon trial thou findest not an assistance sufficient to carry thee thus far Possibly thou wilt say yea but what am I the better I am onely brought to see my self in a dristressed perishing condition and can get no further I answer 't is well thou art got so far if thou do indeed see thy self perishing and thy drowsie soul awake into any sense of the sadness of thy case But I intend not thus to leave thee here Therefore let me furthermore demand of me What course would'st thou take in any other distress wherein thou knowest not what to do to help thy self would not such an exigencie when thou findest thy self pinch't and urg'd on every side and every way is shut up to thee that thou art beset with calamities and canst no way turn thy self to avoid them would not such an exigencie force thee down on thy knees and set thee a crying to the God of mercy for relief and help would not Nature it self prompt to this Is it not Natural to lift up Hands and Eyes to Heaven when we know not what to do Therefore having thus far reasoned with thee about thy considering power Let me demand of thee if thou canst not yet go somewhat further then considering that is in short Is it impossible to thee to obey this dictate of nature I mean represent the deplorable case of thy soul before him that made it and crave his merciful relief Do not dispute the matter thou canst not but see this is a possible and a rational course as thy case is Should not a people seek unto their God Fall down therefore low before him prostrate thy self at the footstool of his mercy-seat Tell him thou understandest him to be the Father of Spirits and the Father of Merciâ—s that thou hast heard of his great mercy and pitty towards the spirits of men in their forlorn
could not be content with the light of the Sun without the help of a candle or a spark and speaking of the constancy of the vertuous man saith he They do ill that say such an evil iâ— tolerable to him such a one intolerable anâ— that confine the greatness of his mind within certain bounds and limits Adversity he tells us overcomes us if it be not wholly overcome Epicurus saith he the very patron of your sloth acknowledges yet thiâ— unhappy events can seldom disturb the minâ— of a vertuous person and he adds how haâ— he almost uttered the voice of a man pray saith he speak out a little morâ— boldly and say he is above them altogether Such apprehensions the more vertuous Heathen have had of the efficacy and defensative poweâ— of Moral goodness however defective theiâ— notion might be of the thing it self Hencâ— Sâ—crates the Pâ—gan Martyr is reported to havâ— cryed out when those persons were perseâ—cuting him to death Anytus and Meletus can kill me but they cannot hurt me And Anaxarchus the Phylosopher having sharply reproved Nicoerean and being by him ordered to be beaten to death with iron Malets bids strike on strike on thou may'st saith he break in pieces this vessel of Anaxarchus but Anaxarchus himself thou canst not touch Shall Christianity here confess it self out-vy'd shall we to the reproach of our Religion yield the day to Pagan-morality and renew the occasion of the ancient complaint That the Faith of Christians is out-done by the Heathen infidelity It is I remember the challenge of Cecilius in Minucius There is Socrates saith he the Prince of Wisdom whosoever of you Christians is great enough to attempt it let him imitate him if he can Methinks we should be ambitious to tell the world in our lives for Christians should live great things not speak them that a greater then Socrates is here to let them see in us our represented pattern to shew forth higher vertues then those of Socrates even his who hath called us out of darkness into his glorious and marvellous light Certain it is that the Sacred Oracles of the Gospel set before us a more excellent pattern and speak things not less magnificent but much more modest and perspicuous With less pomp of words they give us a much clearer account of a far more excellent temper of mind and prescribe the direct and certain way of attaining it Do but view over the many passages of Scripture occasionally glanc't at Chap. 7. But we grope as in the dark for blessedness we stumble at noon day as in the night and wander as if we had no eyes we mistake our business and lay the Scene of an happy state at a great distance from us in things which we cannot reach and which if we could it were to little purpose Not to speak of grosser sensualists whom at present I have less in my eye Is there not a more refined sort of persons that neglecting the great business of inspecting and labouring to better and improve their spirits are wholly taken up about the affairs of another Sphere that are more solicitous for better times for a better world then better spirits That seem to think all the happiness they are capable of on earth is bound up in this or that external state of things Not that the care of all publique concernments should be laid aside Least of all a just solicitude for the Churches welfare but that should not be pretended when our own interest is the one thing with us And when we are really solicitous about the Churches interests we should state them aright God designs the afflictions of his people for their Spiritual good therefore that is a much greater good then their exemption from suffering these evils otherwise his means should eat up his end and be more expensive then that will countervail which were an imprudence no man of tolerable discretion would be guilty of We should desire the outward prosperity of Sion for it is a real good but in as much as it hath in it the goodness not of an end but onely and that but sometimes neither of a means not a constant but a mutable goodness not a principal but a lesser subordinate goodness we must not desire it absolutely nor chiefly but with submissive limited desires If our hearts are grieved to hear of the sufferings of the Church of God in the world but not of their sins If we more sensibly regret at any time the persecutions and opressions they undergo than their spiritual distempers their earthliness pride cold love to God fervent animosities towards each other It speaks an uninstructed carnal mind We take no right measure of the interests of Religion or the Churches welfare and do most probably mistake our selves as much in judging of our own and measure theirs by our own mistaken model And this is the mischievous cheat many put upon their own souls and would obtrude too often upon others too that overlooking the great design of the Gospel to transform mens spirits and change them into the Divine likeness they think 't is Religion enough to espouse a party and adopt an Opinion and then vogue themselves friends to Religion according to the measure of their zeal for their own party or Opinion And give a very pregnant proof of that zeal by magnifying or inveighing against the times according as they favour or frown upon their empty unspirited Religion It being indeed such a secret consciousness whereof they herein bewray as hath no other life in it then what it owes to external favour and countenance And therefore all publique rebukes are justly apprehended mortal to it whereas that substantial Religion that adequately answers the design and is animated by the Spirit of the Gospel possesses the Souls of them that own it with a secure confidence that it can live in any times and hold their Souls in life also Hence they go on their way with a free unsolicitous chearfulness enjoying silently in their own bosomes that repose and rest which naturally results from a sound and well composed temper of Spirit They know their happiness depends upon nothing without them That they hold it by a better tenure then that of the worlds courtesie They can be quiet in the midst of storms and abound in the want of all things They can in patience possess their own souâ— and in them a vital spring of true pleasure when they are driven out of all other possessions They know the living sense of these words that the good man is satisfied from himself that to be Spiritually minded is life and peace that nothing can harm them that are followers of the good That the way to see good dayes is to keep their tongue from evil and their lips from speaking gâ—â—le to depart from evil and do good to seek peace and pursue it They cannot live in bad times They carry that about them that will make the worst
days good to them Surely they can never be happy in the best times that cannot be so in any Outward prosperity is quite besides the purpose to a distempered Soul when nothing else troubles it will torment it self Besides we cannot command at pleasure the benigne aspects of the world the smiles of the times we may wait a lifes time and still find the same adverse posture of things towards us from without What dotage is it to place our blessedness in something to us impossible that lies wholly out of our power nd in order whereto we have nothing to do but sit down and wish and either faintly hope or ragingly despair We cannot change times and seasons nor alter the course of the world create new Heavens and new Earth Would we not think our selves mock't if God should command us these things in order to our being happy 'T is not our business these are not the affairs of our own Province blessed be God 't is not so large further then as our bettering our selves may conduce thereto and this is that which we may do and ought 't is our proper work in obedience and subordination to God as his instruments to govern and cultivate our own spirits to intend the affairs of that his Kingdom in us where we are his Authoriz'd Vice-Royes that consists in righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Ghost We can be benigne to our selves if the world be not so to us cherish and adorn our inward man that though the outward man be exposed daily to perish which we cannot help and therefore it concerns us not to take thought about it the inward may be renewed day by day We can take care that our souls may prosper that through our oâ—citant neglect they be not left to languish and pine away in their own iniquities They may be daily fed with the Heavenly hidden Manna and with the Fruits of the Paradise of God they may enjoy at home a continual feast and with an holy freedom luxuriate in Divine Pleasures the joyes wherewith the strangers intermeddles not if we be not unpropitious and unkind to our selves And would we know wherein that sound and happy complexion of Spirit lies that hath so much of Heaven in it 'T is a present gradual participation of the Divine likeness It consists in being conformed to God 't is as the Moralists tells us If one would give a short compendious Module of it Such a temper of mind as becomes God or to give an account of it in his own words who prescribes it and who is himself the highest Pattern of this blessed Frame 'T is to be transformed in the renewing of our minds so as to be able to prove what is the good and perfect and acceptable will of God That is experimentally to find it in our selves imprest and wrought into our own spirits so as to have the complacential rellish and savour of its Goodness Excellency and Pleasantness diffused thorow our souls Where remember this was written to such as were supposed Saints whence it must be understood of a continued progressive transformation a renewing of the inward man day by day as is the Apostles expression elsewhere 'T is a more perfect reception of the impress of God revealing himself in the Gospel the growth and tendency of the New Creature begotten unto the eternal blessedness towards its mature and most perfect state and stature in the fruition thereof And 't is this I am now pressing in as much as some account hath been already given according as we can now imperfectly guesse at it and spell it out what the constitution of the holy soul is in its glorified state when it perfectly partakes the Divine likeness that when we find in our selves any principles and first elements of that blessed frame we would endeavour the gradual improvement thereof and be making towards that perfection This therefore being our present work let it be remembred wherein that participated likeness of God hath been said to consist and labour now the nearest approach to that pitch and state Your measures must be taken from what is most perfect come now as near it as you can and as that Pagans advice is If yet thou art not Socrates however live as one that would fain be Socrates Though yet thou art not perfect live as one that aims at it and would be so Onely it must be considered that the conformity to God of our present state is in extent larger and more comprehensive then that of our future though it be unspeakably less perfect in degree For there is no Moral Excellency that we have any present knowledge of belonging to our glorified state which is not in some degree necessarily to be found in Saints on earth But there are some things which the exigency of our present state makes necessary to us here which will not be so in the state of glory Repentance Faith as it respects the Mediatour patience of injuries pity to the distressed c. These things and whatsoever else whose objects cease must be understood to cease with them In short here is requisite all that Moral good which concerns both our end and way there what concerns our end onely Yet is the whole compass of that gracious frame of spirit requisite in this our present state all comprehended in conformity to God Partly in as much as some of these graces which will cease hereafter in their exercise as not having objects to draw them forth into act have their pattern in some communicable Attributes of God which will cease also as to their denomination and exercise their objects then ceasing too as his patience towards sinners his mercy to the miserable Partly in as much as other of those graces now required in us though they correspond to nothing in God that is capable of the same name as Faith in a Saviour Repentance of sin which can have no place in God They yet answer to something in this nature that goes under other names and is the reason wherefore he requires such things in us He hath in his nature that faithfulness and All sufficient fulness that challenges our faith and that hatred of sin which challenges our repentance for it having been guilty of it His very nature obliges him to require those things from us the state of our case being considered So that the summe even of our present duty lies in receiving this entire impression of the Divine likeness in some part invariably and eternally necessary to us in some part necessary with respect to our present state And herein is our present blessedness also involved If therefore we have any design to better our condition in point of blessedness it must be our business to endeavour after a fuller participation of all that likeness in all the particulars it comprehends You can pitch your thoughts upon no part of it which hath not an evident direct tendency to the repose and rest
in the same Apostacy and Condemnation and labours to keep them fast in the bands of death The great Redeemer of Souls makes this his business to lose and dissolve the work of the Devil With that wicked one thou complyest against thy own Soul and the Redeemer of it while thou neglectest to desire and pursue this blessedness This is thy debasement and his triumph thy vile succumbency gives him the day and his will upon thee He desires no more then that he may suppress in thee all heavenly desires and keep thee thus a slave and a prisoner confin'd in thy Spirit to this low dark dungeon by thy own consent While thou remainest without desire after Heaven he is secure of thee as knowing then thou wilt take no other way but what will bring thee unto the same eternal state with himself in the end He is jealous over thee that thou direct not a desire nor glance an eye Heaven-ward while thou dost not so thou art entirely subject and givest as full obedience to him as thy God requires to himself in order to thy blessedness But is it a thing tollerable to thy thoughts that thou should'st yeild that heart obedience to the Devil against God And this being the state of thy case what more significant expression canst thou make of thy contempt of Divine goodness O the love that thou neglectest while the most glorious issue and product of it is with thee an undesired thing Yea this the thing it self speaks were there no such competition What that when eternal love have conceived and is travelling to bring forth such a birth that when it invites thee to an expectation of such glory shortly to be reveal'd the result of so deep counsels and wonderful works this should be the return from thee I desire it not Is this thy gratitude to the Father of Glory the requital of the kindness yea and of the blood of thy Redeemer If this blessedness were not desirable for it self methinks the offerers hand should be a sufficient endearment But thou can'st not so deride or abstract it consists in beholding and bearing his Glorious likeness who invites thee to it and therefore in the neglect of it thou most highly affrontest him Yea further is it not a monstrous unnaturalness towards thy self as well as impiety towards God not to desire that perfect final blessedness Doth not every thing naturally tend to its ultimate perfection and proper end what creature would not witness against thee if thou neglect in thy own capacity and kind to aim at thine Surely thou canst not allow thy self to think any thing beneath this worthy to be owned by thee under that notion of thy highest good and thy last end But that thy Spirit should labour under an aversion towards thy highest good towards thy blessedness it self is not that a dismal token upon thee If thou did'st disaffect and nauseate the things in which thy present life is bound up and without which thou can'st not live would'st thou not think thy case deplorate what dost thou think will become of thy soul whose everlasting life is bound up in that very good which thou desirest not Which cannot live that life without that good nor with it if thou hast no desire to it O the Eternal Resentments thy Soul will have of this cruelty To be withheld from that wherein its life lies would'st thou not judge him unnatural that should kill his Brother assassine his Father starve his Child what shall be said of him that destroys himself How may that soul lament that ever it was thine and say O that I had rather been of any such lower kind to have animated a Fly to have inspirited a vile Worm rather then to have serv'd a reasonable beast that by me knew the good it would never follow and did not desire But if thou hast any such desires in a low degree after this blessedness as thou thinkest may intitle thee to the name thou bearest of a Saint a Christian. Is it not still very unnatural to pursue a good approved by thy stated judgment as â—ast in it self and for thee with so unproportionable so slothful desires For the same reason thou dost desire it at all thou should'st desire it much yea and still more and more till thou attain it and be swallowed up into it Thy best and last good thou canst never desire too much And let it be considered by thee that the temper thou thinkest thy self innocent of an habitual prevalent disaffection to the true blesedness of Saints may for ought thou knowest be upon thee while it appears thou art so very near the borders of it and it appears not with such certainty that thou partakest not in it It is not so easie a matter critically to distinguish and conclude of the lowest degree in Hypothesi or with application to thy own case of that desire which is necessary to qualifie thee for the enjoyment of this blessedness And is it not a matter both of shame and terrour that thou should'st desire thy blessedness so faintly as not to know whether thou truly desire it at all 'T is true that a certainty amongst such as may be sincere is very little common but whence proceeds it but from their too common induldulged sloth out of which all this is designed to awaken thee And the commonness whereof doth as little detract from the reproach and sinfulness as from the danger of it 't is but a poor defence for what is intrinsically evil in it self that it is common But further as the case is this is so reproachful a thing even in common estimate not to desire Heaven and Eternal Glory or to desire it with very cold and careless desires that there are few will profess it or own it to be their temper much fewer that will undertake to excuse or justifie it 'T is so evilly thought of that among meerly sober rational men it can never find an advocate or any that will afford it Patronage The generality pretend a desire of going to Heaven and being with God If any be so observant of themselves as to know and so ingenious as to confess it otherwise with them they complain of it as their fault and say they would fain have it redrest but are far from assuming that confidence to defend or plead for it Consider then wilt thou persist in such a temper and disposition of mind as all men condemn and be guilty of so odious a thing as shall be censured blamed by the common concurrent vote and judgment of mankind Thou would'st be ashamed to stand forth and profess openly to men that thou desirest an earthly felicity more then a blessedness in Heaven or at least that thou art so indifferent and the scales hang even with thee that thou canst hardly tell which way they incline most And art thou not ashamed that this should be thy usual temper how much soever thou conceal it from
look for this blessed hope the glorious appearing of the great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. That which you know consummates that blessedness For when Christ who iâ— their life shall appear then shall they also appear with him in glory by the participation of the divine nature their Spirits escape and get up above this corrupt impure world That new nature is a holy flame that carries theâ—r hearts upwards towards heaven Further such desires appear hence to be of divine originall an infusion from the blessed God himself That nature is from him immediately in which they are implanted The Apostle speaking of his earnest panting desire to have mortality swallowed up of life presently add's He that wrought us to the self same thing is God They are obedient desires The souls present answere to the heavenly call by which God calls it to his kingdom and glory This glory is as hath been formerly noted the very term of that calling The God of all grace hath called us into his eternal glory by Christ Jesus The gloriâ—ied state is the marke the price of the high calling of God in Christ. T is the matter of the Apostles thanksgiving unto God on the behalf of the Thessalonians that they were called by his Gospel to the obtaining of the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ when the soul desires this glory it obediently answers this call This is a complyance and subjection of heart to it How Lovely and becoming a thing is this when God touches the heart with a stamp and impress of glory and it forthwith turnes it self to that very point and stands directly bent towards the state of glory if not wayward or perverse but here in yield it self to God and complyes with the divine pleasure Such desires have much in them of a child-like ingenuity To desire the sight of a Fathers face when this is this intimate sense of the soul show me the Father and it suffices To desire the fullest conformity to his nature and will to be perfect as that heavenly Father is perfect what doth better become a child They are generous desires they aim at perfection the highest that created nature is capable of not contented to have had some glances of divine glory some stroaks and lines of his image but aspiring to full-eyd visions a perfect likeness They are victorious desires they as it were ride in triumph over the world and every sublunarie thing they must be supposed to have conquered sensual inclinations to have got the mastery over terrene dispositions and affections With what holy contempt and scorn of every earthly thing doth that loftie soul quit thiâ— dirty world and ascend that is powerfully carryed by its own desire towards the blessed state The desire of such a knowledge of Christ as might transform into his Likeness and pass the soul through all degrees of conformity to him till it attain the resurrection of the dead and become like a risen glorified Jesus Such a desire I say if it make all things seem as loss and dung in comparison even a formal Spirit less religion it self will it not render this world the most despicable dunghill of all the rest Try such a soul if you can tempt it down to injoy a flattering kind world or to please it when angry and unkind When desires after this glory are once awakn'd into an active lively vigour when the fire is kindled and the flame ascends and this refined Spirit is joyfully ascending therein see if you can draw it back and make it believe this world a more regardable thing Why should not all those considerations make thee in love with this blessed frame of Spirit and restless till thou find thy self uncapable of being satisfied with any thing but divine likeness 6. That while we cannot as yet attain the mark and end of our desires we yeild not to a comfortless despondency in the way but maintain in our hearts a lively joy in the hope that hereafter we shall attain it We are not all this while perswading to the desire and pursuit of an unattainable good Spiritual desires are also rational and do therefore involve hope with them and that hope ought to infer and cherish joy Hopeless desire is full of torment and must needs banish joy from that breast which it hath not the possession of T is a disconsolate thing to desire what we must never expect to enjoy and are utterly unlikely ever to compass But these desires are part of the new creature which is not of such a composition as to have a principle of endless trouble and disquiet in it self The Father of mercies is not so little merciful to his own child to lay it under a necessity from its very natural constitution of being for ever miserable by the desire of that which it can never have It had been very unlike the workmanship of God to make a creature to which it should be necessarie to desire and empossible to enjoy the same thing Not but as he hath given holy souls as to the present case great incentives of desire so doth he afford them proportionable encouragements of hope also and that hope intervening can very well reconcile desire and joy and lodge them together in the same bosome So that as it is a thing capable of no excuse to hear of this blessedness and not desire it so it would be to desire and not expect it to expect it and not rejoyce in it even while we are under that expectation And it must be a very raised joy that shall answer to the expectation of so great things If one should give a stranger to Christianity an account of the Christian hopes and tell him what they expect to be and enjoy erelong he would sure promise himself to find so many angells dwelling in humane flesh and reckon when he came among them he should be as amidst heavenly Quire every one ful of joy and praise He would expect to find us living on earth as the inhabitants of heaven also many pieces of immortal glory lately dropt down from above and shortly again returning thither He would look to find every where in the Christian world incarnate glory sparkling through the over-shaddowing vail and wonder how this earthly sphere should be able to contain so many great souls But when he draws nearer to us and observs the course and carriage of our lives when he sees us walk as other men and considers the strange disagreement of our daily conversation to our so great avowed hopes and how little sense of joy and pleasure we discover our selves to conceive in them would he not be ready to say sure some or other willing only to amuse the world with the noise of strange things have composed a Religion for these men which they themselves understand nothing of If they do adopt and own it for theirs they understand not their own pretences they are taught to speak
som big words or to give a faint or seeming assent to such as speak them in the names but t is impossible they should be in good earnest or believe themselves in what they say and profess And what reply then should we be able to make for who can think that any who acknowledge a God and understand at all what that name imports should value at so low a rate as we visibly do the eternal fruition of his glory and a present Sonship to him the pledge of so great an hope He that is born Heir to great Honours and Possessions though he be upon great uncertainties as to the enjoyment of them for how many interveniencies may prevent him yet when he comes to understand his possibilities and expectancies how big doth he look and speak what grandieur doth he put on His hopes form his Spirit and Deportment But is it Proportionably so with us Do our hopes fill our hearts with joy our mouths with praise and clothe our faces with a cheerful aspect and make an holy alacrity appear in all our conversations But let not the design of this discourse be mistaken 'T is â—oâ— a presumptuous confidence I would encourage nor a vain ostentation nor a disdainful overlooking of others when we fancie our selves to excel Such things hold no proportion with a Christian Spirit His is a modest humble exaltation a serious severe joy suitable to his solid stable hope His Spirit is not puft up and swol'n with air 't is not big by an inflation or a light and windy humour but 't is really fill'd with effectual pre-apprehensions of a weighty glory His joy accordingly exerts it self with a steady lively vigour equally removed from vain lightness and stupidity from conceitedness and insensibleness of his blessed state He forgets not that he is less then the least of Gods mercies but disowns not his title to the greatest of them He abases himself to the dust in the sense of his own vileness but in the admiration of Divine Grace he rises as high as Heaven In his humiliation he affects to equal himself with worms in his joy and praise with angels He is never unwilling to diminish himself but affraid of detracting any thing from the love of God or the issues of that love But most of all he magnifies as he hath cause this its last and most perfect issue And by how much he apprehends his own unworthiness he is the more rapt up into a wondering joy that such blessedness should be his designed portion But now how little do we find in our selves of this blessed frame of spirit How remote are we from it Let us but enquire a little into our own Souls Are there not too apparent Symptomes with us of the little joy we take in the forethoughts of future blessedness For First How few thoughts have we of it what any delight in they remember often 'T is said of the same person that his delight is in the Law of the Lord and that in his Law he doth meditate day and night And when the Psalmist professes his own delight in Gods statutes he adds I will not forget thy Word Should we not be as unapt to forget Heaven if our delight were there But do not dayes pass with us wherein we can allow our selves no leasure to mind the eternal glory when yet vanities throng in upon us without any obstruction or check And what is consequent hereupon How seldom is this blessed state the subject of our discourse How often do Christians meet and not a word of Heaven O heavy carnal hearts Our home and eternal blessedness in this appears to be forgotten among us How often may a person converse with us e're he understand our relation to the Heavenly Country If Exiles meet in a Forraign Land what pleasant discourse have they of home They suffer not one another to forget it Such was their remembrance of Sion who sate together bemoaning themselves by the Rivers of Babylon a making mention of it as the Phrase is often used And methinks even as to this remembrance it should be our common resolution too If we forget thee O Jerusalem If we forget to make mention of thee O thou City of the living God Let our right hand forget her cunning our tongue shall sooner cleave to the roof of our mouth and so it would be did we prefer that Heavenly Jerusalem above our chief joy Again how little doth it weigh with us It serves not to out-weigh the smallest trouble if we have not our eternal desire in every thing gratified if any thing fall out cross to our inclinations this glory goes for nothing with us Our discontents swallow up our hopes and joyes and heaven is reckon'd as a thing of naught If when outward troubles afflict or threaten us we could have the certain prospect of better dayes that would sensibly revive and please us Yea can we not please our selves with very uncertain groundless hopes of this kind without promise or valuable reason But to be told of a recompense at the resurrection of the just of a day when we shall see the face of God and be satisfied with his Likeness this is insipid and without favor to us and affords us but cold comfort The uncertain things of time signifie more with us then the certain things of eternity Can we think t is all this while well with us can we think this a tollerable evil or suffer with patience such a distemper of Spirit Methinks it should make us ever weary of our selves and solicitous for an effectual speedy redress The redress must be more in our own doing striving with our souls and with God for them then in what any man can say Most of the considerations under the foregoing rule are with little variation applicable to this present purpose I shall here annex only some few subordinate directions which may lead us into this blessed state of life and give us some joyful foretasts of the future blessedness according as our spirits shall comply with them But expect not to be cured by prescriptions without using them or that heavenly joy can be the creature of mortal unregarded breath we can onely prescribe means and methods through which God may be pleased to descend and in which thou art diligently to insist and wait And because I cannot well suppose the ignorant where much is said to this purpose I shall therefore say little 1. Possess thy soul with the apprehension that thou art not at liberty in this matter but that there is a certain spiritual delectation which is incumbent on thee as indispensable duty Some whose moroser tempers do more estrange them from delights think themselves more especially concern'd to banish every thing of that kind from their religion and phansie it onely to consist in sowr and rigorous severities Others seem to think it arbitrary and indifferent or that if they live in a continual sadness and dejection
is not yet come i. e. till God shall vouchsafe to translate us from our present earthly state we compose our Spirits to a patient expectation of it Upon a twofold account the exercise of patience is very requite in the present case viz. both in respect of this very expectation it self and also in respect of the concomitant miseries of this expecting state In the former respect an absent good is the matter of our patience in the latter present and incumbent evil It falls more directly in our way to speak to the exercise of patience upon the former account yet as to the latter though it be more collateral as to our present purpose it cannot be unseasonable briefly to consider that also First Therefore the very expectation it self of this blessedness renders patience very requisite to our present state Patience hath as proper and necessary an exercise in expecting the good we want and desire as in enduring the evil that is actually upon us The direction it must be remembred intends such onely as apprehend and desire this blessedness as their greatest good whose souls are transported with earnest longings fully to enjoy what they have foretasted I am apprehensive enough that others need it not There is no use of patience in expecting what we desire not But as to those who desire it most and who therefore are most concerned in this advice It may possibly become a doubt how since there is sin in our present ignorance of God and unlikeness to him this can be the matter of any patience We must therefore know that as our knowledge of God and conformity to him are both our duty and blessedness the matter both of our endeavour and of Gods vouchsafement So our ignorance of him and unlikeness to him are both our sin and our misery which misery though God have graciously removed it in part yet also he continues it upon us in part as our sad experience tells us by his just and wise dispensation which we cannot except against Now therefore looking upon the defect of our knowledge of God and likeness to him under the former notion Though we are to reflect upon our selves with greater displeasure and indignation yet looking on them in the latter notion we are to submit to the righteous dispensation of God with a meek unrepining patience By this patience therefore I mean not a stupid succumbencie under the remaining disease and distemper of our Spirits in this our present state a sensless indifferency and oscitant cessation from continual endeavours of further redress but a silent and submissive veneration of Divine Wisdom and Justice and Goodness that are sweetly complicated in this procedure with us with a quiet peaceful expectation of the blessed issue of it This being premised I shall briely shew That we have need of patience That we have reason for it in this present case 1. That we have need of it supposing our souls are intent upon glory that we are in earnest in this pursuit will appear upon sundry accounts First The greatness of the thing we expect To behold the face of God to be satisfied with his likeness What serious heart apprehensive of its own concerns can without much patience hold out under such an expectation How do Lovers that expect the marriage day tell the hours and chide the Sun that it makes no more hast But how can that soul contain it self that expects the most intimate fruition of the Lord of glory Again consider the continued representation and frequent inculcations of this glory It s vigorous powerful beams are by often repealed pulsations continually beating upon such souls as are intent towards it Life and Immortality are brought to light in the Gospel and they are obliged by command and inclination to attend its discoveries The eye that 's once smitten looks again and again 't is not satisfied with seeing and every renewed look meets with still fresh raies of glory They have frequent foretasts and prelivations which still give life to new desires To lie under the direct stroke of the power of the world to come this requires much patience to sustain the burden of such an expectation Life it self were otherwise a bitter and a wearisome thing And the want of such foretasts for alass they are not constant makes desire sometimes more restless and expectation more bitter and grievous Moreover consider the nature and Spring of these desires that work in heavenly souls towards this glory They are of a Divine Nature and Original He that hath wrought us to this self same thing is God 2 Cor. 5. 5. Observe the tenour of this Proposition God is not the subject of predication but the predicate The action is not predicated of God as it would in this form of words God hath wrought us c. but God is predicated of this agent q. d. This is the work of a Deity none but God could be the Author of such desires That a Soul should be acted towards glory by the alone power of an Almighty hand here needs a Divine Patience to sustain it and make it strong and able to endure such a motion where there is Divine Power to act and move it forward The Frame could not hold it else it must desolve The Apostle therefore praying for the Thessalonians That God would direct their hearts into the love of himself which could not but enflame their souls with a desire of a perfect vision and injoyment presently adds and into the patient waiting for of Christ. Where we cannot by the way but reflect upon the admirable constitution and equal temper of the new Creature as to the principles that are ingredient into the composition of it fervent desire allayed with meek submission mighty love with strong patience If we consider it in actu signato or in its abstract Idea this is its temperament and of these there is a gradual participation where ever you find it actually existing God had otherwise formed a creature the prime of his creatures so as by its most intrinsecal constituent principles to be a torment to it self Lastly The tiresâ—me nature of expectation in it self is not least considerable It carries 't is true pleasure if it be hoping expectation with it but not without a great admixture of pain It brings a kind of torture to the mind as a continued exertion or stretching forth of the neck by which it is exprest doth to the body Therefore it 〈◊〉 most significantly said by the wise man Hope deferr'd makes the heart sick All these I say together discover the truth of what the Apostle tells us We have need of patience that when we c. we may inherit the Promise 2. And as we have need of it so we have also reason for it upon many accounts 'T is no piece of rigorous severity to be put upon the exercise of some patience to be kept awhile in a waiting posture for the completion of
be from no such inducements but a meer desire of being with God and of attaining his perfection and blessedness which he hath ingaged thee in the pursuit and expectation of And then having made sure it be right as to the rise and principle Be careful It be not under in point of degree i. e. a cold intermittent velleity is too little on the one hand And a peremptory precipitant hasting is too much on the other The middle and desirable temper here is a complacential submission to the Divine will in that affair with a preponderating inclination on our part towards our eternal home if the Lord see good For we have two things to attend in this business and by which our Spirits may be sway'd this way or that i. e. the goodnss of the object to be chosen and the will of God which must guide and over-rule our choice the former whereof we are permitted to eye in subordination to the Latter and not otherwise Now our apprehension of the desirableness and intrinsique goodness of the object ought to be such we are Infidels else if we have not that account of it that nothing we can eye under the notion of a good to us may be reckon'd so eligible as that viz. our final and compleat blessedness in the other world which because we know we cannot enjoy without dying death also must be judged more eligible then Life that is Our Blessedness must be judged eligible for it self and Death as requisite to make it present So that the entire object we are discoursing of being present Blessedness Consider it in comparison with any thing else that can be lookt upon by us as a good which we our selves are to enjâ—y it ought to be preferr'd and chosen out of hand in as much as nothing can be so great a present good to us as that And this ought to be the proper habitual inclination of our Spirits their constant frame and bent as they respect onely our own interest and welfare But considering Gods Dominion over us and interest in our Lives and Beings and that as well ingenuity as necessity binds us to be Subject to his pleasure we should herein patiently suffer our selves to be over-ruled thereby and not so abstractly mind our own interest and contentment in this matter as if we were altogether our own and had no Lord over us Plato who abounds in discourses of the desirableness of dying and of the blessed change it makes with them that are good Yet hath this apt expression of the subjection weâ—â—ght â—â—ght to be into the Divine pleasure as to this matter That the soul is in the body as souldiers in a garrison from whence they may not withdraw themselves without his order and direction who placed them there And expostulates thus If saith he a slave of yours should destroy his own Life without your consent would you not be displeas'd and if there had been any place left for revenge been apt enough to that too So he brings in Socrates discoursing and discovers himself herein to have had more Light in this matter touching that subordinate interest only men have in their own lives and the unlawfulness of self murther as he had in other things too then most heathens of the more refined Sect ever arrived to If therefore God would give us leave to dye we should upon our own account be much more enclin'd to chuse it but while he thinks fit to have it defer'd should yeild to his will with an unrepining submission Onely it ought not to rest at all on our part or that as to our selves we find any thing more grateful to us in this world that we are willing to stay a day longer in it That for our own sakes we should affect a continuance here would argue a terrene sordid Spirit But then such should be our dutiful filial Love to the Father of our Spirits that in pure devotedness to his interests we would be content to dwel if he would have it so a Methuselahs age in an earthly tabernacle for his service that is that we may help to preserve his memorial in a elapsed world over-run with Atheisme and ignorance of its Maker and win him hearts and love to our uttermost among his apostate disloyal creatures and in our capacities be helpful to the encouragement of such as he continues in the world for the same purposes This is the very temper the Apostle expresses when in that strait which way the poise of his own Spirit enclin'd him in the consideration of his own interest and what was simply more eligible to him He expresses with High Emphasis to be with Christ saith he is more desirable to me for there are two comparatives in the Greek Text and therefore he professes his own desire in order thereto to be dissolved but that private desire was not so peremptory and absolute but he could make it yeild and give place to his duty towards God and his Church as it follows So we know 't is possible that respects to a friend may oversway a mans own particular inclination and the inclination remain notwithstanding but is subdued onely otherwise had any reason or argument that did respect my self perswaded me to change it I should then follow but my own proper inclination still and so my friend hath nothing to thank me for So it ought to be with us here our inclination should preponderate towards a present change of our state onely our devotedness to his interest and pleasure whose we are should easily over-rule it This is the Lovely temper of a gracious Spirit as to this thing that to dye might be our choice and to live in the mean time submitted to as our duty As an ingenuous son whom his father hath employ'd abroad in a forrain Country though duty did bind him cheerfully therein to comply with his fathers will and the necessity of his affairs yet when his Father shall signifie to him that now he understands no necessity of his longer continuance there and therefore he may if he please return but he shall have leave to follow his own inclination T is not hard to conjecture that the desire of seeing a Fathers face would soon determine the choice of such a son that way But how remote are the generality of them that profess themselves God's Children from that pious ingenuity We have taken root in the earth and forgotten our heavenly originals and alliances We are as inhabitants here not pilgrims hardly perswaded to entertain with any patience the thoughts of leaving our places on earth which yet do we what we can shall shortly know us no more In short then that vile temper of Spirit against which I professedly bend my self in the following discourse is when men not out of any sense of duty towards God or sollicitude for their own Souls but of a meer sordid love to the body and affixedness of heart to the Earth and terrene things
he would much less have made a difficultie to concede such bodies also to humane souls after they had lost their terrestial ones as his sectators do not who hold they then presently become Daemons In the mean time 't is evident enough the doctrine of the separate souls present blessedness is not destitute of the patronage and suffrage of Philosophers And 't is indeed the known opinion of as many of them as ever held its immortality which all of all Ages and nations have done a very few excepted for in as much as they knew nothing of the resurrection of the bodie they could not dream of a slâ—epiâ—g interval And 't is at least a shrewd presumption that nothing in reason lies against it when no one instance can be given among them that professedly gave up themselves to its only guidance of any one that granting the immortality of the soul and its separableness fâ—om its terrestrial body ever denied the immediate blessedness of good souls in that state of separation Nor if we look into the thing it self is it at all more unapprehensible that the soul should be independent on the body in its operations then in its exist 〈◊〉 If it be possible enough to form an unexceptionable notion of a spiritual being distinct and separable from any corporeal substance which the learned Doctor More hath sufficiently demonstrated in his Treatise of the immortalitie of the Soul with its proper attributes and powers peculiar to it self what can reasonablely with-hold me from assenting that being separate from the body it may as well operate alone I mean exert such operations as are pâ—oper to such a being as exist alone That we find it here de facto in its present state acting only with dependence on a bodie will no more infer that it can act no otherwise then its present existence in a body will that it can never exist out of it neither whereof amounts to more then the trifling exploded argument à non esse ad non posse and would be as good sense as to say such a one walks in his clothes therefore out of them he cannot move a foot Yea and the very use it self which the soul now makes of corporeal organs and instruments plainlie â—vinces that it doth exert some action wherein they assist it not For it supposes an operation upon them antecedent to any operation by them Nothing can be the instrument which is not first the subject of my action as when I use a pen I act upon in order to my acting by it i. e. I impress a motion upon it in order whereunto I use not that or any other such instrument And though I cannot produce the designed effect leave such characters so and so figured without it my hand can yet without it perform its own action proper to it self and produce many nobler effects When therefore the soul makes use of a bodily organ its action upon it must needs at last â—e without the ministry of any organ unless you multiply to it bodie upon bodie in infiniâ—um And if possibly it perform not some meaner and grosser pieces of drudgerie when out of the body wherein it made use of its help and service before that is no moâ—e a disparagement or dimunution then it s to the Magistrate that law and decency permit him not to apprehend or execute a Malefactor with his own hand It may yet perform those operations which are proper to it self that is such as are more noble and excellent and immediately conducive to its own felicitie Which sort of actions as Cogitation for instance and Dilection though being done in the body there is conjunct with them an agitation of the Spirits in the brain and heart It yet seems to me more reasonable that as to those acts the Spirits are rather subjects then instruments at all of them that the whole essence of these Acts is antecedent to the motion of the Spirits and that motion certainly but accidentally consequent only by reason of the present but soluble union the soul hath with the body And that the purity and refinedness of those Spirits doth only remove what would hinder such acts rather than contribute positively thereto And so little is the alliance between a thought and any bodily thing even those very finest Spirits themselves that I dare say whoever sets himself closely and strictly to consider and debate the matter with his own faculties will find it much more easily apprehensible how the acts of intellection and volition may be performed without those very corporeal Spirits then by them However suppose them never so indispensably necessarie to those more noble operations of the soul it may easilie be furnisht with them and in greater plentie and puritie from the ambient aire or aether than from a dull torpid body with some part of which air if we suppose it to contract a vital union I know no rational principle that is wronged by the supposition though neither do I know any that can necessarily infer it As therefore the doctrine of the souls activitie out of this earthly body hath favour and friendship enough from Philosophers so I doubt not but upon the most strict and rigid disquisition it would be as mâ—ch befriended or rather righted by Philosophie it self And that their reason would afford it as direct and more considerable defence then their Authority In the mean time it deserves to be considered with some resentment that this Doctrine should find the generality of Learned Pagans more forward Advocates then some learned and worthy Patrons of the Christian Faith which is only imputable to the undue measure and excess of an otherwise jâ—st zeal in thâ—se latter for the resurrection of the body so far transporting them that they became willing to let go one Truth that they might hold 〈◊〉 the â—â—ster and to ransome this at the too deare and unnecessary expence of the former Accounting they could never make sure enough the resurrection of the bodie without making the souls dependence on it so absolute and necessarie that it should be able to do nothing but sleep in the mean while Whereas it seems a great deal more unconceiveable how such a being as the soul is once quit of the entanglements and encumbrances of the body should sleep at all then how it should act without the body * See Dr. Hammonds annot in loc Dan 12 2 Joh. 14 12. 2 Cor. 15. 2 Thes. 4. c. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Phil 3. 20 21. 1 Thes. 4. 14 15 16. Chap. 14. 14. 1 Cor. 15. 2 Thes 1. 1 Cor. 15. Use. Dissoluti est hominis in rebus sâ—riis quaerere voluptatem Arnob. â—cientiam qui â—idicit faâ—enda viâ—nda percepit â—â—dum sapiens 〈◊〉 nisi in ea quae â—dicit transfiâ—ratus est aniâ—â—s Sen. Ep. â—4 Non prodest cibus nec corpori accedit qui statim sumptus emittitur Sen Epist. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Epitlet Psal. 49. *
in no suspence puzled with no doubts whether such consequencies withhold such conclusions be rightly infer'd anâ— so are not retarded from giving a present unwavering assent Here are no perplexing intricacies no dubious hallucinations or uncertain guesses we see things as they are by â— simple and undeceiving light with both subjective and objective certainty being secure both from doubt and error 2. Faith How magnificent things doth Scripture speak of this grace which the experience also of such as have been wont to liâ—â— by it i. e. to make it the governing principle of their lives doth abundantly confirm Hoâ— clear are its apprehensions 't is the evidence â— things not seen how sweet its enjoyments whom not seeing ye love and though now you 〈◊〉 him not yet believing ye rejoyce with joy unspeakable and full of glory Even the Heathen Theology hath magnifie it above knowledge What is it saith one that unites us with the self-goodness and 〈◊〉 joyns us thereto that it quiets or gives reâ—â— to all our action and motion I will expressâ— it in one word 't is faith it self which unâ—speakably and after a hidden manner doâ— unite and conjoyn happy souls with the selâ— good For saith he it concerns us neither in a way of Science or with any iâ— perfection to enquire after the good but 〈◊〉 behold our selves in the divine light and 〈◊〉 shutting our eyes to be placed in thâ— unknown and secret unity of beings And a latter writer gives us this as a conclusion from that former Author That as Faith which is credulity is below Science so that Faith which is truly so called is super-substantially above Science and intelligence immediately uniting us to God But 't is evident intuitive knowledge far exceeds even faith also 1. 'T is more distinct and clear Faith is taking a thing upon report Who hath believed â—ur report And they are more general languid apprehensions we have of things this way Faith enters at the â—ar it comes by hearing And if we comâ—â—re the perceptions of these two external 〈◊〉 that of hearing and sight the latter is unspeakably more clear and satisfying He that hath knowledge of a forreign Country only by report of another hath very indistinct apprehensions of it in comparison of him who hath travell'd it himself While the Queen of Sheba only heard of Solomons glory she could not satisfie her self without an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 â—â—ght of her own eye and when she saw it 〈◊〉 â—aith the one half was not told her of whâ—â— she now beheld The Ear more slowly and gradually receives and the Tongue more defectively expresses to another an account of things than ones ocular inspection would take it in But as to the excellency of this 〈…〉 above Faith the comparison 〈…〉 knowing by the ministry of a more 〈◊〉 sense and a less noble but knowing by dependance on a less noble and without dependence upon any at all When God hath been pleased to afford discoveries in that way of Vision to men in the body his Prophets c. he hath usually bound up all their senses by sleep or trances sense hath had no part or lot in this matter unto believing it must necessarily concurr 2. More affective What we see even with our external eye much more powerfully moves our heart than what we onely give credit to upon hearsay The Queen of Sheba much admired no doubt Solomons famed splendor and magnificence while she only heard of it but when she saw it it puts her into an extasie it ravish'd away her soul she had no more spirit c. What would the sight of the Divine glory do if God did not strengthen with all might were there not as well glorious power to support as powerful glory to transform Job had heard of God by the hearing of the ear but when once his eye saw him whether that were by the appearance of any sensible glory which is probable enough for 't is said the Lord answered him out of the whirlewind or whether by a more immediate revelation 't is less-material what work did it make in his soul The Devils believe and tremble so impressive are the pre-apprehensions of Judgment to come and the consequents thereof with them yet their present torment thence is no torment in comparison art thou come to torment us before the time of what they expect Let wicked men consider this they will have their intuitions in hell too were your belief and terror thereupon with reference to the eternal Judgment and the impendent wrath of God equal to what the Devils themselves have upon the same account actual sensation will make you more exceed your selves in point of misery than the Devils do now exceed you There is no doubt a proportionable difference between the impressions of present faith and future vision with holy souls Now not seeing yet believing they rejoyce with joy unspeakable their present joy cannot be spoken their future then cannot be thought Experience daily tells us how greatly sensible present objects have the advantage upon us beyond those that are spiritual and distant though infinitely more excellent and important When the tables are turned the now sensible things disappear a new scene of things invisible and eternal is immediately presented to our view the excellency of the objects the disposedness of the subjects the nature of the act shall all multiply the advantages on this part How affective will this vision be beyond what we have ever found the faint apprehensions of our so much disadvantaged faith to amount to A kind message from an indulgent Father to his far-distant Son informing of his welfare and yet continuing love will much affect but the sight of his Fathers face will even transport and overcome him with joy But further consider this intuition a little more particularly and absolutely in it self So you may take this somewhat distincter account of it in some few particulars corresponding to those by which the object the glory to be beheld was lately characterized 1. It will be a vigorous efficacious intuition as that which it beholds is the most excellent even the divine glory such an object cannot be beheld but with an eye full of lively vigour a sparkling a radient eye A weak eye would be struck blind would fail and be closed up at the first glance We must suppose then this Vision to be accompanied with the highest vitality the strongest energy A mighty plenitude of Spirit and Power no lesse than the divine nothing but the divine power can sufficiently fortifie the soul to behold divine glory When the Apostle speaks only of his desire of glory he that hath wrought us to this self same thing saith he is God he that hath moulded us suitably framed us for this thing as the word signifieth is God 't is the work of a Deity to make a Soul desire Glory certainly then 't is his work to give the
the Lusts of it That is cruel Love that shall enslave a man and subject him to so vile and ignoble a servitude And it discovers a sordid temper to be so imposed upon How low are our Spirits sunk that we disdain not so base a vassalage God and nature have obliged us to live in bodies for a time but they have not obliged us to measure our selves by them to confine our desires and designs to their compass to look no further then their concernments to entertain no previous joyes in the hope of being one day delivered from them No such hard law is laid upon us But how apt are we to become herein a most oppressive Law to our selves and not only to lodge in filthy earthen cottage but to love them and confine our selves to them loath so much as to peep out T is the apt expression of a Philosopher upbraiding hat base low temper The degenerous Soul saith he buried in the Body is as a slothful creeping thing that loves its hole and is loath to come forth And methinks if we have no love for our better and more noble self we should not be altogether unapprehensive of an obligation upon us to express a dutiful love to the Author of our beings doth it consist with the love we owe to him to desire always to lurk in the dark and never come into his blessed presence Is that our love that we never care to come nigh him Do we not know that while we are present in the body we are absent from the Lord should we not therefore be willing rather to be present with the Lord and absent from the body should we not put on a confidence an holy fortitude as 't is there exprest we are confident or of good courage and thence willing c. that might carry us through the Grave to him As is the brave Speech of that last mentioned Philosopher God will call thee ere long expect his call Old age will come upon thee and shew thee the way thither and death which he that is possest with a base fear laments and dreads as it draws on but he that is a lover of God expects it with joy and with courage meets it when it comes Is our love to God so faint and weak that it dares not encounter Death nor venture upon the imaginary terrours of the Grave to go to him How unsuitable is this to the character which is given of a Saints love And how expresly are we told that he who loves his life better then Christ or that even hates it not for his sake as certainly he cannot be said to do that is not willing to part with it to enjoy him cannot be his Disciple If our love to God be not Supreme 't is none or not such as can denominate us lovers of him and will we pretend to be so when we love a putide flesh and this base earth better then him And have we not professedly as a fruit of our avowed love to him surrendred our selves Are we not his devoted ones will we be his and yet our own or pretend our selves dedicated to his holy pleasure and will yet be at our own dispose and so dispose of our selves too as that we may be most ungrateful to him and most uncapable of converse with him How doth this love of a perishing life and of a little animated clay stop all the effusions of the Love of God suspends its sweet and pleasant fruits which should be always exerting themselves towards him Where is their fear obedience joy and praise who are through the fear of death all their lives subject to bondage And kept under a continual dismal expectation of an unavoidable dissolution But must the great God lose his due acknowledgements because we will not understand wherein he deals well with us Is his mercy therefore no mercy As we cannot nullify his truth by our unbelief so nor his goodness by our disesteem But yet consider doth it not better become thee to be grateful then repine that God will one day unbind thy Soul and set thee free Knock of thy Letters and deliver thee out of the house of thy bondage Couldst thou upon deliberate thoughts judge it tollerable should he doom thee to this earth forever He hath however judged otherwise as the Pagan Emperour and and Philosopher excellently speaks who is the Author both of the first composition of thy present being and now of the dissolution of it thou wert the cause of neither therefore depart and be thankful for he that dismisseth thee dealeth kindly with thee If yet thou understandest it not yet remember It is thy Father that disposes thus of thee how unworthy is it to distrust his Love What child would be afraid to compose it self to sleep in the Parents bosom It expresses nothing of the duty and ingenuity but much of the frowardness and folly of a child They sometimes cry vehemently in the undressing but should their cryes be regarded by the most indulgent Parent or are they fit to be imitated by us We have no excuse for this our frowardness The Blessed God hath told us his gracious purpose concerning us and we are capable of understanding him What if he had totally hidden from us our future state and that we know nothing but of going into an eternal silent-darkness The Authority of a Creator ought to have awed us into a silent submission But when we are told of such a glory that 't is but drawing aside this fleshly vaile and we presently behold it methinks the Blessed hour should be expected not with patience only but with ravishing joy Did we hear of a country in this world where we might live in continual felicity without toyl or sickness or grief or fear who would not wish to be there though the passage were troublesome have we not heard enough of Heaven to allure us thither Or is the eternal truth of suspected credit with us Are Gods own reports of the future glory unworthy our belief or regard How many upon the credit of his word are gone already triumphantly into glory That only seeing the promises afar off were perswaded of them and embraced them and never after owned themselves under any other notion then of Pilgrims on earth longing to be at home in their most desirable Heavenly Country We are not the first that are to open Heaven The main Body of Saints is already there 't is in comparison of their number but a scattering remnant that are now alive upon the earth How should we long to be associated to that glorious Assembly Methinks we should much more regret our being so long left behind But if we should desire still to be so why may not all others as well as we And as much expect to be gratified as we And then we should agree in desiring that our Redeemers triumph might be defer'd that his Body might yet remain incompleat that