A SERMON Preached at the FUNERAL OF Mr. THOMAS GRIGG B. D AND Rector of St. Andrew-Vndershaft Septemb. 4. 1670. By Symon Patrick D. D. HEB. 13. 14. Here we have no continuing City but we seek one to come LONDON Printed by Robert White for Francis Tyton at the Sign of the three Daggers in Fleet-street 1670. Imprimatur Rob. Grove R. P. Humfr. D no. Episc Lond. Ã sac Dom. Octob. 4. 1670. To the RELATIONS and FRIENDS of the DECEASED TO satisfie your desires I have transcribed this Discourse as soon as my other occasions would suffer and exposed it to the publick view The main Body of it is printed just as it was delivered but I have taken liberty to add the Preface and some part of the Application which then I was constrained to omit If it prove effectual to the furtherance and joy of any ones Faith I doubt not but that very thing will help to mitigate the sorrow which you have conceived for the loss of so worthy a Person A man of so amiable a temper such an unbiassed judgement prudent simplicity unfeigned charity and discreet zeal that it is not to be expected you should ever think of his departure from us without a sigh But the more useful he was to the world and delightful to you the greater will your vertue be in humbly submitting to the will of God by whose order he is removed to a better place We must not teach him how to dispose of us nor repine at his wise appointments no nor suffer the just grief which we feel on such sad occasions to extinguish quite our joy in him who would have us rejoyce in the Lord alwayes What cause we have to do so the ensuing Meditations will in some measure demonstrate Which are plain but solid truths able to support and satisfie our Spirits if we lay them up not only in our Memories to keep safe but in our Understandings to consider and our wills to love and imitate Let us but often ruminate on them and press them on our hearts and live by the faith of the Son of God and there is no disaster in the world so great but we shall be able at least to possess our souls in patience when it threatens to overwhelm us Now our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God even our Father which hath loved us and given us everlasting consolation and good hope through Grace comfort your hearts and establish you in every good word and work Covent-Garden Octob. 15. 1670. Yours to serve you S. P. A Funeral Sermon UPON II CORINTH V. I. For we know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens THE Apostle being at the time of his writing this Epistle in great troubles and dangers for the Testimony of Jesus professes himself notwithstanding so abundantly satisfied with the Ministry he had undertaken that he did not faint at aIl nor grow weary of it as you read in the first Verse of the foregoing Chapter That which made him so courageous as to preach under so many discouragements which he mentions V. 8 9. was the same Spirit of Faith which had ever been in the people of God but was now more lively and strong in him through the Resurrection of the Lord Jesus from the dead as he tells us V. 13 14. For this cause saith he we faint not c. V. 16. It was no fool-hardiness that made them expose themselves to so many calamities but the belief of some better things which would reward their sufferings For our light affliction saith he V. 17 18. which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory While we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen c. And if any one should think that these sufferings might end at last in death and bring them down to their Graves he would have them think withal that it was no great matter Let these Miseries proceed so far as to take away our lives this is the worst of it the best is We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens These sufferings it is true may pull down our present habitation but that is all they can do there is a better building which they cannot touch Besides we shall be no great losers by the demolishing of this dwelling for it is but an Earthly House Nay we shall be great gainers for we shall the sooner enter into the coelestial and eternal mansions THis is the sense of the words In which we may consider these three Things 1. The description which the Apostle makes of the present state in which we now are it is in our earthly house of this tabernacle which must be dissolved 2. His description of the future state in which the faithful shall be hereafter they have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens 3. The Certainty of that happy state It is a thing as evident in its kind as the other is As we know that this house of ours is to be dissolved so we know there is a building of God when it is thrown down which stands for ever The one is certain as well as the other Of the two first I have discoursed elsewhere upon the like occasion with this that hath now brought us together Shewing how poor and mean the dwelling is in which our souls lodge while they remain in this world and what goodly preparations our Lord hath made for them in the next There seems to be an opposition here of the one state to the other in five respects 1. We are here only in an house but there is a building for us 2. This is an house of ours but that is a building of God 3. We are now but an house of a Tabernacle then we shall have an house not made with bands 4. And this is an earthly house whereas that is in the Heavens 5. This is to be dissolved but that is eternal in the Heavens As much as to say We are here confined to a very strait and narrow room in which the nobler thoughts and affections of our souls are apt to be choak't and stifled And no wonder considering the meaneness of its original and the poorness of its beginning Our body was once a very small pile so small that it could be inclosed in our Mothers Womb. Then and a long time after our souls were so pent up that they could not find themselves They were forc'd to stay many years before they could gain so much liberty as to turn about reflect on themselves and know that they had a Being Nay so pitifully were they cooped up that the rational Spirit could not breathe or give any sign at all of life And though now
indeed this house is raised and advanced to a greater bigness yet besides that it is of no huge dimensions and a great many years were spent in rearing it to such an height it is but like a Tabernacle A place subject to continual changes the Scene of perpetual alterations by which it hath both its subsistence and destruction It is lyable also to outward violence as well as inward pains and diseases And at its best state is but a vile and forbid habitation An house of Clay or Dirt into which it will at last be resolved It cannot stand long though we under-prop it never so much but as it calls for daily repairs so in the end it will utterly fall to ruine This is the miserable condition of souls in their present abode which should make them one would think not very fond of it nor to set an high esteem on those pleasures which are limited to so small a space and crowded into such a narrow compass Nunquam magnis ingeniis chara in corpore mora est No great Minds ever held their bodies in great esteem nor would purchase their stay in them at too great a price They rather groan earnestly as the Apostle speaks in the next Verse when they feel the burdens and pressures of this state to be translated to that blessed Countrey where they shall be better entertain'd For there all faithful souls shall feel themselves in fairer and more spatious Mansions and possess a building of greater capacity and larger reception In which they shall enjoy as much liberty and freedome as heart can desire spreading themselves in a vast and unbounded blessedness It cannot be otherwise seeing it is a building of God a Fabrick wholly of his own rearing And therefore must needs be a beautiful and stately work that shall bear some marks of the excellency of the Builder and declare the Greatness Wisdom and Magnificent Goodness of our Creator and Redeemer There can be no time conceived there wherein we shall be to seek for our happiness but at our first entrance into that blessed place we shall find our thoughts full of God our hearts exceedingly ravished with his love and all our troublesome Passions turned into joy that we have made such a gainful change Nor shall we meet with any thing either to trouble our delights or to divert and interrupt those happy enjoyments We shall not stand in need of so much as meat and drink and clothes whereby we support and repair this present Tabernacle but as that house is made without hands so it will subsist unchangeably without those helps which we now require For it is a building in the Heavens the dwelling place of God himself Who will one day refine our very body and make it like the purest Sky so that it shall have no spot nor wrinkle nor any such thing but be of a clear and transparent beauty like that of the Glorious Body of our Saviour This will secure the incorruption and eternity of it There will be no heaviness in it to incline it to this dull earth again no such weight as shall sink us down to these lower Regions But being translated to the Countrey of Spirits it will become in a manner a spiritual body which shall neither grow old nor suffer any decay but remain in a constant youth and freshness eternally in the Heavens These are great and glorious things as I then distinctly shewed So great that they who do not believe them cannot but wish they should be true For men naturally abhor to think that any thing of them should perish and dye for ever and they as passionately desire to be in a better condition than now they find themselves They would all be more happy if they knew how than the whole world can make them and never by their good wills have any period put to their enjoyments Which is the very thing that the Apostle here gives us hope of the General sense of whose words is this That there is a never ending felicity for good Christians not only for their souls but their bodies too in the other world For their souls presently in those heavenly Mansions which our Lord spoke of in his Fathers house and for their bodies at the day of his appearing again when he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall raise up us also by Jesus as the Apostle speaks in Ver. 14. of the former Chapter But what certainty is there of such things may some say May we not abuse our selves if we look for that which no man ever saw Is not this to build Castles in the Air as the common saying is and to feed our selves with vain and empty Promises out of our own imagination Why should we hope for any such Glorious state who are so unworthy even our present Being What made it enter into the heart of man to think of being so happy and to entertain their minds with the expectation of such matters as seem too good and too great to be true The Apostle answers to such surmises here in my Text. We know that we have a building of God c. We have good reason for what we preach we do not flatter our selves and you when we speak of these things our hopes are not built on the Sand or the Air but stand on a firm foundation We have solid grounds for this perswasion and such certain arguments on which to found this belief that it amounts to a knowledge We doubt no more of it than of those things of which we have a certain assurance but as we know that we must dye so we know by other means that after we are dissolved there is a better dwelling for us This shall be the subject of my Discourse at this time And here are five things worthy of our notice which make up the evidence which the Apostle had for this building and eternal possessions in the Heavens I. He saith it was a thing known a matter that was demonstrable by proper Arguments II. A thing generally known for he speaks in the Plural Number Not a private Doctrine but the common sense of all the followers of Jesus III. They knew this so that they made it the scope of all their endeavours That the Particle FOR bids us consider which refers to the words immediately foregoing IV. More than this they were so sure of it that for its sake they quitted their present dwelling and ventured their very lives to come at it For so he will tell you if you look but a little further back to the 16. 11. and 10 â—h Verses of the fourth Chapter of which he here also gives the reason V. Lastly They were so perfectly perswaded of it that they esteemed themselves in a sort possessed of this building For he saith 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 WE HAVE a building of God in the Heavens I. I begin with the first the knowledge which the Apostles had of this happy state in a greater freedom
lightsome heavenly and spiritual according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself 1 Cor. 15. 49. Phil. 3. 21. VI. And this truly they knew as well as any thing else that he lives for evermore and can make good his kind intentions and gracious promises According to his own words which he spake to St. John when he appeared to him Rev. 1. 18. I am he that liveth and was dead and behold I live for evermore Amen and have the keyes of Hell and Death That he promised such glorious things they were very certain for they heard him speak them with their own ears That it was his goodness and kindness alone which moved him to engage himself in those promises they were well assured for nothing else could perswade him to it And that his power was equal to his will they had abundant demonstration for they saw him open the eyes of him that was born blind and raise Lazarus out of his Grave to behold the light of the Sun and all the beauties of this world Now what reason had they to imagine that his goodness was lessened when his Glory was encreased since there is no good man but is still growing better Or how could they suspect any defect in his power now that he was made Lord of all and they felt him also every where present to work such wonders at their word that they raised the dead to life again as he himself had done What greater evidence could they desire of his ability to make good all his promises of raising up themselves to a more glorious life They might very well trust his word that as the Father hath life in himself so hath he given to the Son to have life in himself John 5. 26. that be came that they might have life and that they might have it more abundantly John 10. 10. and that because he lived they should live also John 14. 19. VII Especially since they knew by the strange change that he had wrought already in every one of their souls that he could easily do as much for their bodies It was no harder for him they knew to give a luminous body than it was so marvellously to illuminate their minds to turn this earthly house into an heavenly than to fill the spirits of common men with the Spirit and Wisdom of God That pureness agility and incorruption of the body which they looked for was as easie to be effected in the twinkling of an eye as it was for their souls to receive on a sudden such quickness of thoughts the light of Prophecy the gift of Languages and all the other excellent endowments which they found themselves possessed of He that had converted their minds into a kind of Angelical understanding they knew could raise them still to what degree he pleased and convert their other part into as high a glory So that the Angels should as much admire the change of the one as they did of the other and as now they desired to look into the goodly state of the Christian Church so hereafter they should be very much surprized with the greater splendor of it when they saw the dead raised and made equal to themselves Marcion indeed and other ancient Hereticks vilified the body so much that they thought it unworthy of the Care of God But as Tertullian smartly replyed they loved it too well though they despised and undervalued it so much and as for God he will never despise the work of his own hands And it is not one of his ordinary works neither but the work of his Counsel The receptacle of a noble Spirit that which ministers to the Most High and doth him service that which is offered and sacrificed to him by the holy Martyrs that which the Son of God himself did not despise Therefore Absit absit ut Deus ingenii sui curam c. Far be it from God far be it from him to abandon and cast away the care of his Counsel and admirable contrivance the receiver of his breath the Queen of his Creation the Heir of his Liberality the Priest and Minister of his Religion the Souldier of his Testimony which witnesses to him by sufferings and in one word the Sister of Christ Jesus which he hath purchased also with his blood He will not forsake it and leave it for ever in its ruines He will make it the subject of more of his care and bestow on it more of his Counsel He will make it far better and turn it into a Nobler Being And though the Apostles did not now feel the beginning of a change in it as they did in their Spirits yet the wonderful advancement which they felt in them forced them to conclude that he could as easily raise and improve their mortal bodies And it was a proof also that he would for one Promise being fulfilled of sending the Spirit upon them it was an earnest of the other Promise that he would turn these earthly bodies into heavenly Planè accepit hîc Spiritum Caro sed arrabonem as the same Tertullian speaks The Flesh it self also hath plainly here received the Spirit but as an earnest only What God poured out upon their souls was a pledge of his love to their bodies Their flesh hereby received a testimony that it should be made spiritual and incorruptible VIII To conclude they knew likewise there had been some alteration already made upon occasion in the body of some of them and that others also felt an higher elevation of their soul As for the body St. Steven's face was seen as it had been the face of an Angel Acts 6. ult Angelicum jam fastigium induer at as the fore-named Author speaks he had already put on the Angelical state and dignity he was arrayed for a time with their brightness and glory It was not the Author of this Religion only which was transfigured but his followers also in some measure And as that transfiguration of our Saviour on the holy Mount was to fore-shadow his glory in the Heavens so might this of St. Steven's be to shew what God would do for his faithful servants there St. Paul was more than ordinarily assured of it for he was lifted up in soul at least to the third Heavens and carried likewise into Paradise as he tells us in Chap. 12. of this Epistle In which places he heard among the heavenly company there unexpressible words which it was not possible for him to utter and relate to others when he came down to conceive with his brain and speak with his tongue again But this ecstasie of Spirit or translation of his thither gave him a high fore-taste of the bliss of the coelestial inhabitants And clearly demonstrated what unspeakable joy and pleasures our souls are capable of when they remove into those Mansions and to what a pitch of glory both soul and body shall be promoted at the resurrection of the dead It was manifest
and liberty joy and pleasure constancy and settlement than our present condition affords It was a matter of certainty which they made no scruple to assert It was not a probable opinion but an undoubted conclusion There were sound Arguments which led them to this strong perswasion necessary causes which made them of this unmovable belief What they were must be our enquiry at this time And upon due examination I make no question we shall find that their judgement was setled upon substantial Reasons and that they did not pretend to a knowledge without such solid grounds as were able to sustain so great a confidence as they express in all their writings and actions 1. For they knew that Jesus their Master who made discovery of these things to them had certain knowledge of them himself and could not deceive them They knew I mean that he came out from God that he descended from Heaven to lay open that place and shew us what God hath provided there for those that love him This was very effectual to perswade them of a building of God because one that came from God assured them of it and they doubted not of an house in the Heavens because they were told it by one that had been there himself and knew very well the state of that Heavenly Countrey which he described He was not like to many idle persons who draw Mapps of such Territories as they never saw wherein they paint Chimaera's and whatsoever extravagant fancies come into their minds but he was acknowledged by more than themselves to be a Teacher that came from God and therefore acquainted with the glory of the other world and the happy condition which God intends for souls there This he set before their eyes to their great satisfaction both because the heavenly Countrey was described by him that had been in it and which is more by him that was the owner and possessor of it How could they refuse to surrender their belief to such a person To him that came down from Heaven even the Son of man who is in Heaven John 3. 13. That which our Saviour saith to Nicodemus in that place V. 11. was their assurance in all cases Verily verily I say unto thee we speak that we do know and testifie that we have seen This he told them over and over again that he had seen the Father that he was the living bread which came down from Heaven and that thither he should ascend up where he was before John 6. 46 51 62. and divers other places Nor did he only say it but he proved it too by doing such things as none could do but one that had the power of Heaven Which made Nicodemus say John 3. 2. We know that thou art a Teacher come from God for no man can do these Miracles that thou dost except God be with him And the blind man also concludes John 9. 32 33. That if he were not of God he could not have done such a thing as was never heard of since the world began These and such like wonders made the Apostles cry out We believe and are sure that thou art Christ the Son of the living God Joh. 6. 69. We know that the Son of God is come and hath given us understanding that we may know him that is true This is the true God and eternal life 1 John 5. 20. And the certainty of this made them sure of all the rest For why should they question the words of such a Master Why should they make any doubt of that which was averred by one of such credit If they questioned any thing it must be whether he came from Heaven or no. But this being granted they might very well say they knew they had a building of God eternal there Now of that they had assurance by Voices from Heaven by Miraculous Works by his Resurrection from the dead and by the Holy Ghost sent down from thence Before which coming of the Holy Ghost they were confident of this and therefore much more after they had received it For that our Saviour testified of them in his Prayer to the Father before his departure John 17. 8. I have given unto them the words which thou gavest me and they have received them and have known surely that I came out from thee and have believed that thou didst send me II. They knew likewise that this person who could not but speak the truth had promised to purified souls that they should see God It is one of the first encouragements that he gave to them in his Sermon on the Mount Matth. 5. 8. to become his followers From whence they could not but plainly discern not only that there is a felicity hereafter for holy men but that it is so exceeding great and glorious that we must be very much heightned and inlarged in all our faculties before we can be capable to enjoy it We must be strangely changed they knew both in soul and body neither of which he promised should perish before we can be rendred fit for conversation with the Most High and Holy One the blessed and only Potentate who only hath immortality dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto whom no man hath seen nor can see For in this body we cannot bear the sight of an Angel in his brightness The lustre of one of those coelestial creatures dazzles the eyes of flesh and made men anciently think they should exspire presently when they were admitted to their company The reason of which perhaps was that they concluded this earthly state in this corruptible body was not strong enough to endure such manifestations from above How can we behold then the Glory of God unless we be made over again and moulded into a new shape How can we be able to look upon the Splendor of the Divine Majesty unless all our powers be mightily raised widened and fortified beyond the highest of our present conceptions We must shine forth as the Sun according to our Saviours Promise Matth. 13. 43. in the Kingdom of the Father That transforming sight of God which the Apostle speaks of which shall so alter our souls as to render us like unto him must be in an habitation where we shall be capable to know more of him and look longer and more stedfastly upon him than we can in this dark and narrow dwelling For though it doth not fully appear what we shall be yet thus much we know saith St. John 1 Epist 3. 2. that when he shall appear we shall be like him because we shall see him as he is III. Of this change they saw an instance in our Lord himself Whose very body as soon as he was raised from the grave was so clarified and refined that they could not but be sensible of a marvellous transmutation to be made in themselves and of a better dwelling which their souls should one day have Especially since his Resurrection also was the great thing to
which he appealed for a proof of the truth of all his Promises They perceived a manifest difference in his condition now from what it was before and that his body was become more subtil and aiery than it was when he dwelt among them For on a sudden he appeared in the midst of them and again in a moment he vanished out of their fight His body was now in a preparation to an higher state and therefore though they felt really flesh and bones yet he shewed them by the hasty disappearance of it into what a pure substance it was shortly to be turn'd They saw it was to be so thin and rarified that it would be a Spirit rather than a body and was to suffer such a change that now it was not fit for them to converse withal while they were in this earthly tabernacle This was the reason that he came to them only at certain seasons and continued not alwayes with them and that he charged Mary not to touch him John 20. 17. as if she mean't to hold him fast and keep him with her For though he intended to afford them some of his company being not yet ascended to the Father yet he would have her know they must not expect his stay with them after his wonted manner but go to his Brethren the Disciples and say to them I ascend to my Father and your Father and to my God and your God IV. Accordingly they knew that he did ascend up to Heaven forty dayes after his Resurrection For they themselves saw him transported thither and had his own word for it that he went to prepare a place for them and would come again and receive them unto himself that where he was there they might be also John 14. 3. For this they had also the word of two of the Heavenly Court who stood by them in bright rayment as they gazed upon him when he was taken up saying This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manâ—â—â— as ye have seen him go into Heaven Acts 1. 10. And how glorious his body was made after he came thither they also very well knew For St. Stephen at his tryal saw the Heavens opened and beheld the glory of God and Jesus standing at the right hand of God This he openly testified to the whole Council before whom he stood accused Acts 7. 55 56. and it signifies the illustrious condition wherein he was for as he was the Son of man he stood next to the Divine Majesty and was arrayed with the glory of God St. Paul also who so little believed Steven's words that he was consenting to his death as if he had been a Blasphemer saw our Saviour not long after this as he was journeying to Damascus But he beheld him in such an astonishing brightness that it struck him to the ground and put out his eyes which were not able to endure the glory of it Acts 9. 3 4 c. Which in his Apology to the people he calls a great light that shone round about him Acts 22. 6. and in his Apology to Agrippa a light from Heaven at mid-day above the brightness of the Sun Acts 26. 13. To these two you may add the Testimony of the beloved Disciple who when he was in the Isle of Patmos for the testimony of Jesus saw him in a Majestick shape and his countenance was as the Sun shineth in his strength And when he saw him he was so dismayed that he fell as dead at his feet Rev. 1. 16 17. By these means they knew to what an amazing glory they should one day be exalted a little glimpse of which in this mortal nature they were not strong enough to bear V. For they knew withal that their very bodies should be made like unto his 1. They remembred how he called them Brethren and told them that his Father was their Father and his God their God and therefore doubted not that what was done for him should be done for them 2. And how he prayed that they might be with him where he was and behold i. e. enjoy his glory which the Father hath given him John 17. 24. 3. And how he assured them it was the will of him that sent him that every one who seeth the Son and believeth on him may have everlasting life and he should raise him up at the last day John 6. 40. Which made the Apostle say as you heard in the Chapter before my Text V. 14. they knew that he who raised up the Lord Jesus would raise us up by Jesus 4. And being raised up they knew that they should be carried into the air to meet the Lord 1 Thess 4. 17. Now these bodies which we wear at present are not of an aërial nature but altogether of an earthly They are not fit to be transported beyond this lower Region nor were made to live in any other Element than that in which they are Nay it would be a great terror to us in this body to be caught and lifted up above we should be in continual dread of falling down to this earth whether the heaviness of them doth incline us And therefore they must be changed if we go to meet the Lord in the air as he hath promised we shall For the Apostle saith he spake this by the word of the Lord V. 15. 5 And he promised by the same word that so we shall be ever with him Ib. V. 17. Which we cannot conceive how this earthly body should endure It would soon be weary of that strange place and groan and sigh there as much as the soul doth here It would be pined for want of meat and drink as the Spirit now is often too much stifled with them And therefore in pursuance of his Promise they must be made another kind of bodies fitted to that Countrey to which they shall be transported Where there is no earth nor water nor such creatures as live in them but pure light of unconceivable brightness Lastly they knew that the Members must needs be made conformable to the head and therefore his body being glorious so must this vile body of ours be made too as the Apostle tells us Phil. 3. 21. It would be but an ugly sight among us to behold an hansome beautiful face of the purest complexion joyned to a body black and sooty whose limbs were all deformed and dis-proportioned And much more ill-favoured to see an head of light glistering like the Sun and all the Members dark as pitch resembling this sluggish Earth They made no question therefore but that when he should appear again visibly with them attending on him they should be conformed to the condition and quality of his person to whom they related as members of his body that so he might be admired in his Saints and glorified in all that believe They look't for him to come from Heaven and fashion them after his own image i. e. to make them
body which in the Platonical opinion is but a Prison in the Apostolical is a Temple when it is in Christ When our Lord possesses and governs it he elevates the condition of this vile body even while it is upon the earth He makes it a place where God dwells where God is worshipped and glorified where God appears and manifests himself What a strong invitation is this to all that believe to turn from every evil way and to be holy as he that hath called us is holy in all manner of conversation Whereby they will be turned into such beautiful and glorious Tabernacles as to become the habitation of God through the Spirit 4. And what can more powerfully move us than all these considerations to be stedfast and unmoveable in the work of the Lord if any temptation assault us and begin to shake the constancy of our Christian resolution The Apostle might well beseech us to stand fast as a body doth that is firmly seated upon a good basis and foundation for we know saith he that our labour shall not be in vain in the Lord. As we know that the temptations which flatter us are very inviting to our fleshly appetites as we feel the allurements of the pleasures and advantages of this world so we know if we be believers that there are infinitely better things to counter-ballance and weigh down the fairest of all the temptations which sollicite us We are assured if we keep our station and preserve our selves holy and undefiled that we have a building with God that is unmoveable and cannot be shaken Let us keep our selves therefore in our seat let us not be moved by any of the enticements of the world nor by any shock which violent hands may give us for we are built upon the foundation of the Apostles and Prophets who were sent by the will of God according to the promise of life which is in Christ Jesus Ephes 2. 20. 2 Tim. 1. 1. Our hope stands fast let us do so too and building up our selves in our most holy faith praying in the Holy Ghost keep our selves in the love of God looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life Jude 20 21. There are but these three things my beloved to be done for the attaining of this heavenly condition First Strongly to believe that there is such an happy state Secondly To believe that they only shall enjoy it who love God and live in obedience to the Gospel of Christ And Thirdly To be led by this faith and act according to the necessary direction of it Now how easie is that when we have convinced our selves thoroughly of the two former All the difficulty and labour is to believe seriously and stedfastly to perswade our selves of the truth of those things which God hath prepared for those that love him When they are become sensible to us and we look constantly for the mercy of our Lord unto eternal life we cannot chuse but endeavour to attain them more than the best condition that this world affords And when we see that they cannot be possessed without an holy life what should hinder us from having our fruit unto holiness whose end is everlasting life It is manifest that as the nature of man is formed to chuse that which is deemed good and to leave and eschew that which is apprehended to be evil so it is made to preferr a great good before a little and to abandon a trifling enjoyment if by that means we may escape a sore mischief and gain a more noble and illustrious happiness Now it is no less apparent that a Royal Pallace is more desirable in all mens eyes than a little hovel of Turf and Straw an everlasting building that will need no repairs nor ever fall to the ground to be chosen before a tottering frame which every gust of wind shakes and must shortly tumble into the dust upon which it stands What is the matter then that men preferr the condition of a Beggar before that of a Prince That they set their hearts upon that which is built upon a dung-hill before that whose foundations are in Heaven and stands upon the immutable Promise and Power of God I mean that the pleasures and enjoyments of this life gain an higher esteem in their thoughts than the delitious joyes of the world to come And the dull entertainments of this body are advanced and lifted up to an higher place in their affections than all the entertainments of the soul yea and those which God hath provided for the body it self if we would manage and order all its desires according to his holy will There can no cause be assigned of this preposterous choice but only this that they feel these present things but have no feeling of those that are to come They let sense prevail above faith and what here addresses it self to them they receive with a greater affection than they do the reports of those heavenly things which our Saviour hath brought to light by his Gospel They taste the pleasures of meat and drink and all the enjoyments of a fleshly Nature but have little or no rellish at all of those delights which are spiritual for the hope of which our Lord and his Apostles despised the other as not worthy to be compared with the pleasures that are at Gods right hand for evermore They feel this Body wherein they now are and though it be heavy and burdensome in some conditions of life yet it is better a great deal than none at all And such the heavenly building seems to be because our souls are not united to it and have no sense of it but look upon it as a thing that is not and never shall be bestowed on them We must perswade our selves then of the reality and certainty of the state which is to come we must labour to touch it and live in a constant sense and expectation of it By faith we must bring our minds to some such union and conjunction with that house not made with hands as they have with this tabernacle wherein they now inhabit We must let our thoughts as they say dwell upon it for though a thing be never so certain in it self yet if we do not apprehend it so to be it will no more move us than if it were not at all And according as the reasons and motives that we have of faith are little or great so will our perswasisions be weak and feeble or strong and powerfull If we would have our Faith then do any thing worthy of the Gospel and produce any good effects in our hearts we must firmly lay the grounds of it and keep them alwayes visible naked and bare to our eye and we must often look upon them and diligently consider them else all that we build upon it will shake and waver and be apt upon every temptation to be overthrown That is we must constantly represent to our selves the Lord Jesus as