call you from the Land of the living was come I was then for some time daily with your Lordship and all the desires you expressed for life were That you might live to do God service here God then spared your life and now my Lord I beseech your Honor to give me leave to minde your Lordship of these desires and those Covenants you made with God if ever he restored you Surely the Vows of God are upon you God hath now put an opportunity into your hand to fulfil them and all other you have ever made unto him and now he expects the performance of them now there are opportunities of that service that may draw forth all that nobility of your spirit wherein you may give testimony of thankfulness for all mercies so abundantly heaped upon you and be faithful in performing of all your vows and blessed be God for this opportunity This is your honor to account opportunity of service for God and his people your greatest honor upon earth Go on and prosper and the Lord recompence all that respect you have shewn to his servants and amongst others to my self Wherefore in duty to you I here present your Honor with this Treatise of Moses his Choice which ventures to come to the view of the world for furtherance and encouragement in such a happy choice blessed with such a happy reward as the eye of Moses in this his choice was fixed upon And herein I gladly take the occasion to make an honorable mention of your Name that I might testifie not onely to your Honor but to all the world my thankful remembrance and due acknowledgement of your Lordships undeserved respects toward me who am and ever shall be Your Honors in all humble and due observance Jeremiah Burroughs THE CONTENTS OF THE CHAPTERS CHAP. I. GOd will sometimes be honored rather with the sufferings of men in high places then with their services Page 1 Chap. 2. The opening of the words with the several doctrines in this Text 7 Chap. 3. Gods people though dear to God yet usually have been in an afflicted estate 9 Chap. 4. What use we should make of Gods sparing us from the woful afflictions which have befaln and do befal others 25 Chap. 5. The Reasons of the afflicted estate of Gods people from the malice of the Devil and wicked men 31 Chap. 6. Many Reasons why God order things in his providence so as his beloved should be under sore afflictions in this world 38 Chap. 7. What use we should make of Gods ordering his people to an afflicted condition 60 Chap. 8. Eleven Rules for preparation to suffer afflictions 71 Chap. 9. Duties required of us when God calls us to an afflicted condition 86 Chap. 10. Wicked men have pleasures in ways of sin while Gods people endure much hardship in ways of holiness 99 Chap. 11. Afflicted godliness is better then delightful wickedness 106 Chap. 12. Who are the truly wise men with encouragement to the Saints in the happy choice they have made 132 Chap. 13. The evil of an ill choice discovered 145 Chap. 14. The drawing mens hearts to a happy choyce 158 Chap. 15. The true pleasantness of all the ways of godliness 169 Chap. 16. A spiritual eye can see an excellency in Gods people though under great affliction 199 Chap. 17. What we are to learn from that high esteem a gracious heart hath of the Saints in their sorest afflictions 215 Chap. 18. A gracious heart will appear for the people of God whatsoever sufferings may follow upon it 228 Chap. 19. Enjoyment of communion with Gods people is worth the enduring much affliction 243 Chap. 20. Perswasions to draw to the joyning with the people of God in the nearest communion 265 Chap. 21. Objections against joyning with Gods people answered 274 Chap. 22. Instructions to those who are joyned in communion with Gods people 291 Chap. 23. How should Gods people so walk as to draw others in love with their communion 293 Chap. 24. We should satisfie our selves in communion with the Saints and improve it to the utmost advantage we can 307 Chap. 25. Whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart 314 Chap. 26. Perswasions to take off the heart from temporal things 322 Chap. 27. Exhortation to seek after eternal things 334 Chap. 28. How we should know how it will be with us for eternity and what we should do that it may be well with us eternally 340 Chap. 29. The review of Moses choice 345 Chap. 30. The condition of Gods people is a repoached condition 348 Chap. 31. What use there is to be made of the reproaches the Condition of Gods people is liabe to 362 Chap. 32. How we are to bear reproaches 375 Chap. 33. What we should do that we may be able to bear reproach 395 Chap. 34. The reproaches of Gods people are the reproaches of Christ 404 Chap. 35. Sixteen several Consolutions arising to the Saints from this consideration c. 412 Chap. 36. The dreadful evil there is in reproaching the Saints 424 Chap. 37. Seeing Christ makes our sufferings his we should make his sufferings ours 431 Chap. 38. A gracious heart hath a high esteem of reproaches in the cause of Christ 439 Chap. 39. There is a glorious reward for the people of God 477 Chap. 40. How far we may aim at the recompence of reward in what we do 485 Chap. 41. What is this Recompence of Reward 494 Chap. 42. The differences between that good we receive here from God and that we shall have hereafter 501 Chap. 43. The perfection of the bodies and souls of the Saints in glory 512 Chap. 44. The glory that shall be put upon the Saints at the great day 523 Chap. 45. The Saints enjoyment of God to be their portion Their happiness in having his presence 529 Chap. 46. The happiness of the beatifical Vision discovered 535 Chap. 47. The blessedness of Union with God 547 Chap. 48. The blessedness of communion with God 554 Chap. 49. The happiness of the Saints in their fruition of God and their perfect rest in him 569 Chap. 50. The Saints happiness in communion with Christ 579 Chap. 51. The happiness of enjoying communion with the Saints in glory 585 Chap. 52. The happiness of Gods people in the perpetual Sabbath that they shall enjoy 591 Chap. 53. Wherein the power and efficacy of eying the recompence of reward consists 606 Chap. 54. Gods people to be highly honored 653 Chap. 55. To whom the Recompence of reward appertains 660 Chap. 56. Christians should live and dye as becomes heirs of such a glorious estate 698 Chap. 57. The great things of eternity to be much sought after 706 Chap. 58. How the Recompence of reward may be attained 717 Moses his Choice HEB. 11. 25. Chusing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season CHAP. I. God will sometimes be honored rather with the sufferings of
the men of the world Gal. 1. 4. It is said that Christ hath given himself to deliver us from this present evil world it is a part of the purchase of Christ to be wholly freed from all the evils of this present world and this purchase of Christ we shall have Under the highest regions are the tempests and storms but above there are none so in this world the Saints meet with tempests and storms but above are none As the Psalmist says In thy light O God we shall see light so in the light of God we shall see nothing but light now when Gods light does shine into us it does discover darkness but time will come though Gods light shall shine never so brightly we shall see no darkness but altogether light We read concerning Moses and Elias in Luke 9. in the transfiguration of Christ the Text says They did confer about his decease that should be accomplished at Jerusalem the Saints of God shall meet together and Moses and Elias and the Patriarchs and shall confer no more about deceases about troubles and sufferings that shall be accomplished all those evils shall be done away We may say of evils all as Moses did to the people of Israel concerning the Egyptians Those your enemies that now you see you shall never see any more So we may say to Gods people that go out of the world to partake of the recompence of reward be quiet be still those evils of sin of sorrow that now you see and feel you shall never see never feel any more that is something though it be negatively Secondly comparatively and herein are three things First to compare the good the happiness that shall be hereafter with all the good and happiness that we have here Secondly compare it with the condition of Adam in the estate of innocency Thirdly compare it with the happiness of the Angels CHAP. XLII The differences between that good we receive here from God and that we shall have hereafter FIrst we will compare that we have here with that we shall have hereafter Brethren though we receive many mercies from God yet look what difference there is between that close place of the womb that the infant is in before it be born and this space of the world that the childe comes into when it is born such difference is between all this world and any good and happiness here and the world that is to come this and much more then this First here we receive good from without First unto our outward senses and by them it comes into the soul but now hereafter God shall first let out good unto the soul unto the rational part and from the redundancy of that good and glory that God shall communicate unto the rational soul there shall flow glory and sweetness and good to the body and outward senses whereas here we see from without and so it comes in there shall be a spring and a fountain of good within the soul the kingdom of heaven shall be within and more good shall be in the heart and flow from thence outwardly then to be received from without and so to come inwardly for us to receive something in our sences and so to convey it to the soul this is but a low way but to have a spring and fountain of all good and happiness to be within the soul and so spread it self and flow out this shews wonderfully the blessedness of Gods people when God shall communicate himself to them in that way Secondly here the excellency and eminency of an object does destroy the faculty if the faculties of our souls be exercised about objects that are very high above us that are full of excellency and glory they destroyed the faculty as now though light be the most pleasing to the eye of all things in the world yet the excellency and glory of light destroys the eye so sound is the proper object of the ear but if the sound be too great it makes one deaf but it is otherwise in heaven the more excellent the object is the more perfect will the faculty be the object shall not onely delight the faculty but perfect and strengthen the faculty nature as in a glass but thus far that as we see good in the creature now then we shall see them by knowing God himself more then by knowing the creature And the reason is because all excellency and good that is in the creature is eminently in God for all the good of the effects must needs be eminently in all the principles and the good of all principles in the first principle If all good in the creature be eminently in God and the souls of the blessed shall come perfectly to know God so far as their created understandings shall be capable of then they must needs see the excellency of the creature in God We shall know as we are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. Upon this a learned man hath this note We shall know as we are known now God knows all his works by knowing himself by knowing his own power and will and nature and so we shall know as we are known because we shall know the creatures by knowing God Fourthly here the mercies and good that we have from God are sweetned unto us by the sense of our wants But hereafter we shall prize them and have the sweetness of them in regard of their own fulness not from such a low relation as our wants and our necessities when God would have us prize any mercy here he first makes us sensible of the want of the mercy and so it comes to be sweet to us and scarce any mercy comes to be sweet unless we feel the want of it first for else we would prize the mercy at any time but in that we do not prize all mercies always alike it appears the great commendation of Gods mercy is from our wants but hereafter the prizings and the relish and the sweet of all shall be from the fulness of the goodness that we finde in God Gods goodness to us here is but the supplying of some defect but hereafter Gods goodness shall be the glorifying of perfect nature Fifthly here when we do enjoy any comfort from God we are much sensible of it at the present enjoyment but after we have had it a little while we grow to be less sensible we begin to be cloyed with it as the most beautiful sight that we did admire at first if we see it every day it does not affect us as who is affected at the sight of the Sun because he sees it every day but suppose we had lived all our days in a dark dungeon and this had been the first day we were brought out of the dungeon and now see the Sun and the Earths and Seas how mightily would we be taken with the sights that we see but now it is not so with us because we have the Sun every day
natures shall be raised unto and in that consider these three things First the perfection of their bodies Secondly the perfection of their souls Thirdly the perfection of the whole man First the perfection of the bodies of the Saints is no little matter and because so long as we are in the flesh and live by sense they are bodily things that do affect us therefore I will shew a little the perfection of the bodies of the Saints they shall have much of the recompence of the reward in their bodies In the general their bodies shall be made like the glorious body of Jesus Christ Phil. 3. 21. Certainly the body of Christ is very glorious in the transfiguration of Christ which was but a little glimpse of his glory how glorious was the body of Christ In Rev. 1. Saint John had a little glimpse of the representation of Christ and how glorious is it set forth the body of the meanest Saint shall be like the glorious body of Christ What is that I will go no further then that I finde in 1 Cor. 15. 42 43 44. and there are four things that set forth the glory of the bodies of the Saints when they come to attain the recompence of reward First it is raised in incorruption Secondly it is raised in glory Thirdly it is raised in power Fourthly it is raised a spiritual body First every Saint of God shall have an incorruptible body there shall be no more death it shall be made incorruptible in regard of that fulness of the presence of God with it If spices enbalming of dead bodies can keep them so long as they do sometime from smelling surely the glorious presence of God with the body shall have infinite more power to keep the bodies of the Saints incorruptible What would we give if a Physitian were able to give us a potion to make our bodies incorruptible that they should never dye yet as they are now it is hardly worth the desiring to have them incorruptible but when they shall be glorified and incorruptible too that is glorious They shall be incorruptible not subject to any suffering as God is able to binde up the active power of a creature that it shall not be able to act so he can binde up the corruptible power that it shall not work to corruption as in fire God can binde up the power of fire that it cannot burn so God can binde up the power of any creature that hath any corruptible power that there should not be the least passion that tends to corruption All sufferings come from the prevailing of the stronger agent over the patient and when any suffer it comes from some kinde of inability of the form of the patient whereby it begins to leave the matter in some degree now the bodies of the Saints shall be so formed with such an excellent form and so filled with the glory of it as that there can be no power external or internal that shall prevail against this form to weaken it And besides the reason that is given why the Heavens are incorruptible may be given why the bodies of the Saints shall be incorruptible the Heavens are of so excellent a form that the capacity of the matter is fully filled up and there may be truth in that reason so the bodies of the Saints being in their blessed estate into which they shall be raised they shal have such full satisfaction with the form wherewith they are informed that there shall not be the least propension to receive any other from Secondly it is raised in glory and that consists in these two things First in the admirable beauty of it Secondly in the wonderful lustre and splendor of it First in the admirable beauty of it having all parts in proportion and exact temper whatsoever can make one beautiful shall be in the bodies of the Saints if we could extract all the beauty of all the men and women in the world and put them into one it were but as a deformed thing in regard of the meanest of the bodies of the Saints in Heaven and much of the beauty will be not onely from their exact temper and comeliness that God shall put upon them but likewise from the excellency of their souls within them and from the unspeakable joy and cheerfulness of the heart And then the splendor and the lustre of their bodies says the Scripture They shall shine as the stars in the Firmament look what splendor is in the stars such shall be in these clay bodies of ours Daniel 12. 3. Yea they shall be in greater splendor then the stars they shall be as the Sun Matthew 13. 43. He that hath ears to hear let him hear and believe this that it shall be so that the bodies of the Saints shall shine more glorious then the Sun in its strength You will say How is it possible that this should be yes this is but according to that expression in Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile bodies that it may be fashioned according to his glorious body according to the working whereby he is able to subdue all things unto himself It does not require a greater power to raise from the least degree of glory to the highest possibility as it is to make a thing out of nothing and therefore the making of the least creature out of nothing will argue more power then making the bodies of the Saints to shine brighter then the Sun in the Firmament Now certainly God in the glorifying of the Saints will manifest that power that he did in the creating of the world and if it does not require so much power to raise their bodies into such a glorious condition as to create a creature out of nothing then there is no reason why we should not believe this We know when Moses had been but forty days on the Mount with God when he came down among the Israelites his face did so shine that they were not able to behold it surely the glorified bodies of the Saints being eternally present with God shall shine far more gloriously then Moses face did and that is for the splendor of them Thirdly it is sown in weakness and raised in power now the strength and power of them appears in these four things First in that the body shall be able for to attend the soul in the most high operations here if the soul be exercised about any high and glorious object the body presently fails as in the extasies of the Prophet when God revealed himself extraordinarily to Daniel his body failed He fainted and was many days sick Dan. 8. 27. But there shall be that power in the body as it shall be serviceable to the soul in the most high and glorious operations that it shall have when God shall manifest himself in the fullest way that possibly can be Secondly in that it it shall every moment to all eternity without any intermission be exercised in
you too If you love your bodies be godly if you did believe these things were so would not these make you love godliness if I should come unto you and shew you how you might get some good for your bodies then I should prevail with you give some credit to that we say now if you will not believe these things I may say unto you as the Prophet said unto the Noble man that would not believe there could be great plenty says he Thou shalt see the great plenty with thine eyes but thou shalt not eat of it so if you will not believe the great things that the Ministers of God speak of in his name to you your eyes shall one day see those despicable contemptible bodies of the Saints in this glory though you shall not be partakers of any of it Now for the perfection of the soul As the soul is of a far larger extent then the body so it is more capable of happiness then the body is and that being the proper seat of godliness so it shall be the more rewarded What splendor shall the soul have says Bernard when the body shall shine gloriously as the Sun All that we can say for the soul for the present because we understand so little of the soul is That the soul shall not depend upon the body as it does now for its operation And the soul shall no way be hindred by the body as now it is hindred here And all the faculties of the soul shall be extended to the utmost Now if an infinite power can extend the least degree of power to such an heighth in the members of the body much more can an infinite power extend the faculties of an immortal soul that is capable of a great deal more power then the body is Besides as the faculties are extended so all the graces of Gods Spirit that the Saints of God have here shall be extended to the heighth and they are capable of a higher extention then any thing that is natural for the more spiritual a thing is the more capable it is of extention As the plant is more capable to be drawn out to an higher excellency then a stone and the sensitive creature to an higher excellency then the plant and the rational creature to an higher excellency then the sensitive and grace which is supernatural can be extended to an higher excellency then the natural Besides what increated excellency we might imagine could possibly be put upon it shall be who could have thought that the humane nature should have had an hypostatical union with the body of Christ and as God hath done for the bodies of men more then all the Angels could have invented so there is to be communicated to the soul more then can be invented Thirdly the perfection of body and soul does consist in the majesty of the person being united together you know when Christ was here in the flesh in the estate of his humility when he did let out but one beam of his majesty those who came to apprehend him were not able to stand but fell backward if Christ by letting out some small beams of his majesty could make men fall backward how glorious must he needs be when those full beams of his majesty shall be let out the majesty of the Saints shall have some proportion with his and that very great which must needs follow from that which hath been said We read of Stephen that when he stood before the Councel arraigned as a malefactor it is said They looked upon his countenance and it was as the face of an Angel O what majesty will appear in the countenances of the Saints hereafter And as in Adam in the estate of Innocency there was such majesty in his countenance that all the beasts were afraid of him what will be the majesty of God in his Saints then as they shall be hereafter It is said of Basil when he was sent for to be taken by his Persecutors being in holy exercises there appeared such a majesty in his countenance that those that came to take him were not able to stand before him There is a majesty in the countenance of Gods people when they walk close with God but how much more will there be majesty in their countenances hereafter So that you see Gods people shall not onely be glorious within as the Kings daughter is glorious within but they shall be glorious outwardly And so much for the first thing The perfection of the natures of the Saints CHAP. XLIV The glory that shall be put upon the Saints at the Great Day SEcondly the glory that shall be put upon them at the day of Judgement First the glory of the day it self shall be their glory for it shall be nothing else but the solemnity of the marriage of the Lamb Here there is a contract between the Lamb and his Bride but the solemnity of the marriage is reserved to that great day and all the glory of the day shall be to set out the solemnity of it and God himself shall appear in his glory to make the day glorious As the Parents upon the marriage day appear in as much glory as they can that they may honor the day so God shall appear in his glory in the solemnizing of the marriage between Christ and his Spouse And as the Bridegroom comes forth in his glory so Christ will come in his glory with all his Angels in their glory As all the servants of the Bridegroom put on their best array upon the marriage day so all the Angels shall appear in their lustre and beauty and this sets out the wonderful glory of the Saints that shall be at that day notwithstanding all the glory of the Father and Christ and the Angels that shall be then yet they shall not lose their glory The Stars lose their shining lustre when the Sun rises because their light is nothing in comparison of the great light but the lustre of the Saints shall be bright shining and glorious even in the presence of the glory of the Father and of Jesus Christ and of all the blessed Angels Great things will be done that day there will be the Great Supper that God will make for the solemnizing of the Marriage and the great meeting of the Saints with Christ O what salutations can you imagine will there be between Christ and his members and being met the sentence of Absolution shall be pronounced before men and Angels Christ shall honor the Saints before all the world and say These are they these are the men for whom the eternal counsels of my Father did work to make them glorious these are they for whom I came into the world and shed my blood and laid down my life these are they in whom I am to be glorified for ever Again the glory of the day shall be in setting of the Saints with Christ upon thrones in judgement to judge the whole world
delight to a man when he goes about a work if he have his end though a man have some benefit by his work yet if he be crost in his last end all his joy is taken away and this is the evil of sin sin seeks to cross God in his highest end that he aims at but the Saints in heaven shall give God his full end God shall have the highest end that he did aim at he shall see it accomplished and fulfilled in them now those objects in which God 's highest end is fulfilled he must needs take delight in and that shall be in the Saints Again the delight of God must be full because God hath no other object but rational creatures Angels and Saints to let out his delight to if God does take any delight in any creature here it is in order to the Angels and the Saints Now when God hath no other object to himself and his Son and his Spirit to let out his delight unto but the rational Creatures Saints and Angels joyned in one for the Lord Christ shall be the head of the Saints and Angels surely his delight in them shall be full Thirdly this delight shall be actual and that is necessary to communion for though there be delight yet if it should lie dead in the habits there is no communion If two friends have habitual delight one in another they are not said to have communion but when it is actual so this delight shall be actual the nature of delight is to be lively and active even in us though it be but an affection in us but God being a pure act there will be an infinite activity in his delight and it is always vigorous and fresh so as God shall make the souls of his people to be sensible of the activity of his delight Fourthly this delight shall be mutual it shall be on the Saints part as well as on Gods part As God delights in the persons of the Saints so they delight in God himself not in that they receive from God but their greatest delight is in the being of God himself and as God delights in their glory so they do delight in all the glory of God in essential glory that they see in God and in all the glory that is reflected upon God by his creatures and they delight in his presence in being with him and in his love and in that they can give any glory to him they delight in all they have more because God hath glory by it then in that themselves are blessed in it And it is full likewise the delight of the Saints of God is full as well as the delight of God in the Saints is full and that for the very same grounds that the delight of God in them is full namely The fulness of Gods delight in them is their relation to Christ so the ground of their full delight in God is because God is the Father of the Lord Jesus Christ and because they see their likeness in God what ever excellency they have in themselves they see it to be infinitely in God and as God delights in them because of his works he sees in them so the Saints shall see all the good that ever they have done does redound to the glory of God howsoever the works of Gods people for the present seem to be mean yet it shall appear all the gracious works of the people of God shall be the most glorious things in the world For God shall own them for the setting out of his glory as the greatest things in the world and this should be an infinite encouragement to us to be abundant in good works because God will glorifie our good works and as the fulness of the delight of God in the Saints is because God attains his end in them how full must the delight of the Saints in God be because the Saints do attain their end in God the end of all their thoughts and ways and performances and they shall have no other object to let out their delight to but onely God here though we have some grace yet the stream is divided we let out so much to one creature and so much to another the children so much to the Parents and the Parents so much to the children and husband so much to the wife and the wife so much to the husband and so much to our friends that the stream we let out to God is but little but when all the delight that we let out to the creatures shall be taken away and God shall be the onely object of our delight then our delight must be full And as this delight is mutual so it shall be continual for being withdrawn from all other objects it will work upon that both of them Gods delight in the Saints and the delight of the Saints in God shall be for ever the Saints shall be an eternal excellency in which God shall delight and God shall be an eternal excellency in which they delight they shall be always keeping that feast of the Lamb. We read of Ahasuerus he kept a glorious feast and the gloriousness of it is set forth by the continuance of it Esther 1. 4 5. it is observable the difference between the feast that he made with his Nobles and the feast that he made with the common people and that may lively set out the difference of the goodness of God that he lets out to his own people and that he lets out to other common people he made a feast of a hundred and fourscore days to his Nobles and but seven days to the common people so when God comes to make a feast of joy to his people it shall be everlasting Men in the world have some content but it is but for a little time but the comfort and joy that is to be between God and the Saints in Heaven is to be eternal because it is such a feast as is made to his Nobles and to shew the riches of his glorious Kingdom and the honor of his Majesty Secondly in communion there is a mutual wishing and willing of good to one another now God shall will all good to the Saints and they wish all good to God It is true that God from all eternity did will all good unto his people but here his people are not of a capacity to receive much there is a great deal of difference in willing and determining good to them before they were in being or before they were capable of receiving this good and willing good to them when they shall be made vessels fit to receive good the bodies and souls either of the Saints or the wicked being united after the resurrection they shall be vessels infinitely enlarged capable of abundantly more then they are here and then to have God will good to them is far better then to have good willed to them here The men of the world would fain have good here
And what union have you with God What union of grace What mystical union between God and your souls And what fruition have you of God Is it God that you enjoy in the creature and God in all things God in the Ordinances and what rest do your souls finde in God though you be tost up and down in regard of the uncertainty of the creature yet is God your rest yea do you enjoy your selves in God the beginning of all these are now for the present And likewise for communion with Jesus Christ what communion and converse is there between your souls and Jesus Christ Is it not a riddle to you Are you delighted in the communion of the Saints Are the Sabbaths your delight as a beginning of the eternal Sabbath you shall keep in Heaven Therefore now do you ask Who shall have Heaven and Who shall ascend into the Mount Those whom the Mount now comes down unto Many hope they shall have God when they dye but surely if God be not so merciful as to give you spiritual mercies for the present he will not be so merciful as to give you eternal mercies hereafter if he do not give you mercies of grace here he will not give you mercies of glory hereafter Fifthly what are the apprehensions that you have of this reward there may be a special note drawn from thence whereby you may see whether this reward shall be yours or no. What is it that you apprehend to be the heighth and excellency of that reward and glory that you expect Is it that spiritual and supernatural good that is in Heaven Do you not apprehend Heaven after a carnal and natural way when you hear speaking of Crowns and dignity and happiness and glory and the like but hath God shewed you that the heighth and top of all consists in those spiritual and supernatural things in the image of God and in communion with God and those things that have been opened are your hearts more after these then after any thing else then it is like that Heaven is for you for these things are kept hid from those that Heaven is not for Sixthly consider what your hopes are for this recompence of reward First where hopes are true they are such as are wrought by the power of the Holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes First they are such hopes as are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost Rom. 15. 13. Certainly hopes of such great things as these must be raised by a great power they are hopes that could never be raised by any natural apprehensions by any work of Reason you have hopes of Heaven and of the glorious reward How came you by them What almighty power of the holy Ghost have you felt that hath raised these hopes If you have no other hopes but those that may spring out of nature natural conceits and apprehensions you are far short of this recompence of reward but this recompence of reward being glorious it hath a glorious principle to raise hopes such hopes as can bear down strong difficulties that shall oppose them the holy Ghost does stretch out the hopes of the soul beyond that which nature can do In the Hebrew that word that signifies hope signifies a line because by hope the heart is stretched out as in a line to the thing it hopes for now the hopes that nature raises is but in a short line and they stretch out the heart but a little way but the hopes that are wrought by the power of the holy Ghost are such hopes as the heart is stretched out very far by them and there must be a mighty stretching out of the heart and that by a mighty power to make it hope for such great things as these that God should bring such a poor worm to such high things as these are Ordinary base drossie hopes that have nothing in them they are not stretched out to these things they have some confused apprehensions and slight opinions about heaven they are loth to think they should be damned for ever and cast from God and therefore they will have some conceits it shall be well with them and they hope well but to have their hearts stretched out to expect these blessed things as the happiness of their souls and as the real substantial and onely good this is by the mighty power of the holy Ghost Secondly they are purging hopes 1 John 3. 3. And every man that hath this hope in him purifieth himself even as he is pure It is a lively working hope 1 Pet. 1. 3. Blessed be God who hath begotten us again to a lively hope As a fountain that hath dirt cast into it it being a living fountain it works and works and never leaves till it hath got the dirt out cast dirt into a puddle and it lies there and putrifies And this is the difference between the sin of one that is natural and one that hath hope of eternal life When sin comes into a carnal natural heart it lies there and putrifies but where sin comes into a gracious heart that hath hope of eternal life such a heart by these hopes are as a living fountain that will never leave working till it be pure again Such a soul as apprehends it self a vessel of such rich and glorious mercies as these do labor to cleanse it self to the utmost if you have a vessel that you put ordinary water into you care not though there be some dust in the bottom but if you will put in some precious liquor you will cleanse it again and again and will not suffer any dust to be there So carnal hearts that do not know what great things God hath laid up for his people that are not vessels of mercy but onely look for some common things they can suffer their hearts to filled with noysom lusts but where the soul does apprehend it self a vessel of mercy such a one as God will fill with these glorious things it would not have any filth and corruption abiding in it In 2 Tim. 2. 21. The Apostle speaks of two sorts of vessels that are in Gods House that is in the Church Vessels of honor and Vessels of dishonor But how shall we know we are vessels of honor or of dishonor if therefore a man purge himself from these he shall be a vessel of honor a vessel of dishonor is an unclean vessel a vessel of honor is a clean vessel If therefore your hopes be such as can stand with any beloved sin against knowledge you are vessels of dishonor And here is the liveliness of this hope if thou hast a hope to be a vessel of honor it purges you from filth and by that purging from filth there comes to be a readiness and preparation to every good work here is such a one as shall ascend up into the holy Hill of God This is the sixth note Seventhly examine what thy claim is whether thy
befal me there save that the holy Ghost witnesseth in every city saying that bonds and afflictions abide me It is our wisdom thus to make an account of afflictions that when they come they may be no other then were expected before As is reported of Anaxagoras that when news came to him of the death of his Son and it was thought he would have been much troubled at it he answered I begat him mortal so when any troubles befal us we should entertain them with these thoughts I knew my condition was to be an afflicted condition I entred upon the ways of godlines upon these terms to be willing to be in an afflicted condition this is Gods ordinary way towards his people it is Gods mercy it is no worse I expect yet greater tryals then these If we make use of the Scriptures foretelling troubles beforehand we cannot for shame complain when we meet with those we acknowledge we were foretold of It is a good expression Augustine hath in one of his Epistles to Victorianus We must not be so contrary to our selves as to believe what we read and yet to complain when the same things are fulfilled If we make account of evils aforehand we may have time to gather together the forces of our mindes which being united are strong otherwise they will come upon us when our strength is scattered and so be very grievous unto us and likely to prevail against us Those evils says Seneca that others overcome by a long time suffering as being used to them the wise man overcomes by thinking before hand Secondly the rule of Christ that we have Matt. 16. 26. is of great use If any will follow me let him deny himself and so take up his cross Where self is renounced the cross is easily born it is self that makes the cross pinch things puft up with wind break when they come to the fire so those who are puft up and filled with self the soul emptied of its self is onely fit to suffer there is a six fold self that must be denyed First self-opinion We must be willing to lie quietly under the truth to be convinced and to be guided by it Secondly self-counsels and self reasonings must be denyed we must take heed of conferring with flesh and blood as it was the care of Saint Paul Gal. 1. 16. immediately I conferred not with flesh and blood if he had begun to do it he had been in danger Thirdly self-excellencies our parts our priviledges our credits and all those things that are great in our own eyes and that make us great in the eyes of the world Fourthly self-will We must not think it so grievous a thing to have our wills crossed we must not expect to have our conditions brought to our wills and therefore it is our wisdom whatsoever our condition be that we bring our wills unto them As it is reported of Socrates that when the Tyrant threatned death unto him he answered He was willing nay then says he You shall live against your will he answers again Nay whatsoever you do with me it shall be my will How much more ought Christians to have their wills bow to the holy and blessed will of God in every thing the providence of God discovers his will as well as his word Fifthly self-comforts Those who give liberty to themselves to satisfie themselves to the utmost although in lawful comforts will be unfit to suffer hardship when God shall call thereunto Tertullian hath such an expression in his Treatise de cultu foeminarum I fear that neck that is used to pearl chains that it will not give it self to the sword Sixthly self-ends must be denied we must aim at God and not at our selves in all our ways and then how easie will it be for us to bear crosses considering that Gods ends do go on though our ends be crossed Thirdly be sure to lay a good foundation in a through work of humiliation the more thou art willing to bear Gods hand in the work of humiliation for sin the lighter will all the burthens of afflictions be unto thee the seed that fell upon the stony ground withered and although for a while it was received with joy yet when tribulation and persecution ariseth by and by he is offended Mat. 13. 21. Mark the expression of the Holy Ghost there by and by he is presently offended and all because there was not depth of earth there was not a through work of humiliation We read Acts 9. 16. that God would shew S. Paul what great things he must suffer for his Names sake and how did God prepare his heart You shal finde in the former part of the Chapter that God smote him down to the ground his heart was smote lower then his body he comes trembling and astonished before the Lord saying Lord what wilt thou have me to do He was three days without sight and neither did eat nor drink this was a great preparation of his heart to those great things he suffered afterwards You think the burthens of afflictions great because you never felt what the weight and burthen of sin meant I dare pawn my life for that soul who constantly exerciseth it self in the work of humiliation for sin who burthens it self with the weight of its sins and is willing to lie under it for the further breaking of spirit that it shall be able to endure crosses and stand under strong afflictions and this must needs be so First because the soul is acquainted with the sense of an evil infinitely greater then any evil it can meet withal in afflictions the sense whereof must needs swallow up the sense of lesser evils as those who are acquainted with the pains of the stone and strangury and other dreadful diseases account lesser pains which yet are very grievous unto others as nothing Secondly a soul exercised in the work of humiliation by it is put under the power of Gods soveraignty dreadful authority and infinite majesty it is not man that can terrifie that soul from duty that lies under the power of these Thirdly this burthen of sin felt in the work of humiliation mortifies those inward lusts puls down the strength of them which are so ready to rise against and withdraw the heart from the truths and ways of God Fourthly this soul knows how dear comfort is if it hath any comfort it cost dear before it was got and therefore it will not easily be parted withal Fiftly where conscience by this is throughly wounded and deeply struck it cannot easily gather any such film upon it as not to remain tender but it soon feels the evil yea it is sensible of the danger of the least sin Sixthly if ever God hath manifested any love in Christ unto it the souls love to God and Christ must needs be exceeding great Fourthly be careful to preserve your inward peace
prepare him for the burning of his whole body A patient bearing of less troubles for the present will prepare the heart for the bearing of greater afterwards Seventhly enjoy all your comforts of prosperity as from God and God in them and them all for God First from God therefore whatsoever he takes away it is but his own and what are we that we must always have comfort and content who are poor beggerly creatures who have nothing of our own Secondly enjoy God in all the enjoyment of God in all is a mystery the world is not acquainted with onely a gracious heart knows what it is it looks at all creatures but as the pipe of conveyance the sweet and comfort and blessing is God in them therefore in any affliction that befals so long as God may be enjoyed the comfort and sweet and blessing of all is not lost although the creature be lost Thirdly all for God Why then should not God have the glory of all his own way We in the general acknowledge God should have glory from all that we are or have but we would have him have it our way so as may stand with our ease with our liberties peace and ends but God must have the honor of all that way that is good in his own eye And againe if all we have be for God then when he is honored by any thing we do enjoy it hath its end and perfection a comfort is then the most perfect comfort when God hath the glory of it when it is resigned to him either in a way of service or suffering as he calls for it And lastly if our comforts be enjoyed for God then our hearts are not let out to any of them further then leads us to God and if so then when God calls for the parting with them in a suffering way the enjoyment of them cannot lead to God any further but would draw off the spirit from God and therefore such a heart is willing now to part with them it is not grievous to it to leave them because the excellency of them is not now in the enjoyment of them but in the parting with them Eighthly be often renewing your resignations of all unto God and your covenant with him to be at his dispose that so when any trouble comes at any time this resignation of heart and renewal of covenant may be fresh upon your spirits the soul will be ready to suffer much if it be called to it when an actual resignation and renewing of covenant hath been a little before and the power of it is now fresh upon the heart sometimes immediately after a day of solemn humiliation where this hath been the soul thinks then it could do or suffer any thing but in a little time except this be renewed again the heart grows drossie and cleaves to present things and mingles it self with them the often renewing of this keeps the heart very loose from the creature a thing that hangs loose from another may soon be taken off from it but if it cleaves to it it is not taken off without difficulty it oftner rends in the taking off thus it is when the heart cleaves to any creature-content Ninthly lay up provision against an evil day There is a threefold provision we should treasure up to prepare us for our afflictions First treasure up the consolations of God that he affords upon occasion that at any time you feel in the performance of duties in the exercises of graces in the use of Ordinances Secondly treasure up the experiences of Gods ways towards you and his gracious dealings with you in former straights Thirdly treasure up soul-supporting soul-quickning soul-reviving soul-comforting promises and that of several kindes sutable to several afflictions for thou knowest not what kinde of afflictions thou mayest meet with Tenthly labor much to strengthen every grace it is strong grace that is suffering grace a strong wing will flye against the wind as it is said of the horse Job 33. because he hath strength he mocketh at fear and is not affrighted neither turneth he back for the sword ver 22. A candle will hold light in the house but if we go abroad in the air there is need of a torch there must be a stronger light there weak grace may serve turn to uphold us now but in time of afflictions it had need be strong a little grace will soon be spent then as a candle is soon spent when it stands in the wind Lastly set much before you the example of Christ and Gods people who have endured very hard things In the example of Christ consider first who it was that suffered the Son of God who was God blessed for ever the glory of the Father when we suffer base worms worthy to be trodden under foot suffer Secondly what he suffered even the wrath of God and the curse of the Law he was made a curse in the abstract as the Scripture speaks which was another maner of thing then any of our afflictions Thirdly for whom he suffered it was for us vile worms wretched sinful creatures who were enemies to him we suffer for God who is infinitely blessed to whom we owe all we are or have Fourthly how freely he suffered it was of his own accord his own free grace moved him to it he laid down his life none could take it from him it is not in our liberty whether we will suffer or no we are under the power of another Fifthly how meekly he suffered he was as a sheep before the shearer his suffering no way disquieted his spirit but it kept in a sweet quiet frame in the middest of all Sixthly consider how his strength is with you in your sufferings And lastly how he is honored in them He strives with us in the combate he joyns with us in the fight of our agony he crowns and is crowned says Cyprian Bernard would have us never to let go out of our mindes the thoughts of a crucified Christ Let these says he be meat and drink unto you let them be your sweetness and consolation your honey and your desire your reading and your meditation your contemplation your life death and resurrection Would you learn obedience would you learn contempt of honors would you see the highest patience set a suffering Christ before you Sureus reports of a noble Earl Elzearius when his wife wondred at his exceeding patience under fore afflictions he answers her thus What good will it be to be angry and impatient certainly none at all but I will open my heart unto you you know sometimes my heart is ready to rise with indignation against such as wrong me but I presently turn me to the thoughts of the wrongs offered to Christ and I say thus to my self desiring to imitate him Although my servants should pull my beard and strike me on the face these were
secrets of all hearts shall be opened of being shy of the ways of Religion because of affliction many when they see they must suffer in those ways although they be convinced of them yet they are ready to say with Augustine as he confesses of himself I do not love to pass through those straits it is too hard and narrow away for them If such thoughts work in thee at any time take these considerations for the rebuking of thy self and the raising of thy heart to a more Christian magnanimity of spirit First at what a low rate doest thou prize the ways of God the glory of God that such and such more low comforts must not be laid down for them that such light afflictions must not be endured for the maintenance of them Secondly consider if Christ had stood upon such terms as to have said I could be content indeed that these poor creatures might be delivered from misery but seeing such grievous evils must be suffered for their deliverance let them perish I am not willing to be their deliverer upon such hard terms What had become of us if Christ had reasoned thus if this argument had prevailed with him against us as it prevails with us against him Thirdly thou who art so shy of suffering mayest be forced to suffer in spight of thy heart and what a sad thing will that be to thee What a sad thing was it to Cranmer after he had recanted for fear of sufferings yet he was forced to suffer what a darkning was it to this spirit his cause and name Mr. Fox relates of a Smith in King Edwards time who was the means of conversion of a friend of his who in Queen Maries time was cast into prison whereupon he sends to this Smith who had been the means of his conversion wondring that he hears not of his apprehending and imprisonment this Smith sends him word again that it was true that he had taught him such and such things and those things were certain truths but for his part he could not burn but a while after the house of this Smith was on fire and he was burnt in it God made him burn whether he would or no and so may he make you suffer whether you will or no who refuse to suffer for his truth Fourthly whatsoever prosperity thou enjoyest when God calls thee to suffer for him is cursed unto thee if thou blessest thy self in thy estate thy liberty thy name thy life that thou enjoyest having avoided the way of suffering that God called thee unto thou deceivest thy self for there is no blessing in them they are all accursed unto thee Fifthly all duties of Religion that now thou performest out of a suffering condition are not now accepted of God thou must not think now having avoided suffering for Gods truth that because thou art willing to perform duties to be diligent in some service for God that God now accepts of thee No it was another work that God called thee unto a work of suffering seeing thou hast refused this do what thou canst God casts it as dung in thy face and regards it not this is a sad condition What joy can such a man have of his life if he hath an enlightned conscience Sixthly what intolerable pride and delicacy is this in thee that thou wilt not venter the loss of any thing the enduring of any thing for God and his truth the least truth of God is worth more then heaven and earth and what is thy ease thy liberty thy name thy life to it Thou art too delicate O Christian says Tertullian who must have pleasure in this world Seventhly How vile is the unbelief of thy heart who darest not trust God with thy name estate liberty How canst thou trust God with thy soul thy eternal estate How lightly doest thou regard all the faithfulness the mercy goodness wisdom power of God working for his people in their suffering conditions Of what little account are all these gracious blessed promises of the Lord for their encouragement herein thy base shyness and cowardise of spirit is such as if there were no God no faithfulness mercy wisdom power to help as if there were no promise to support and relieve thee Eighthly there is a necessity of thy miscarrying in the ways of eternal life for if God hath so ordered things in his providence as that such ways must be in ways of affliction and thy heart cannot bear affliction how is it possible but that thou must needs miscarry in them It is a woeful thing to have a mans heart opposite to Gods order in any thing but much more in things of infinite consequence if afflictions be a block to thee in the way of life you must have this block Ninthly How little love is there in thine heart to God when thou art so shy of any thing to be suffered for God love rejoyces in suffering for the beloved The avoiding hell and the getting Heaven are no great things says Chrysostome where the love of God is then surely the avoiding outward troubles and the enjoyment of outward comforts would be no great matter to us if the love of God were in us Tenthly Did you never suffer affliction in your ways of sin and will you not now be willing to suffer as much in the ways of God Shall your sins have a greater testimony of respect to them from you then God himself Art thou nor confounded at the mention the thought of such a thing as this so unreasonable so vile Eleventhly What honor should God have in the world where would there be any witness to truth against the rage and malice of devil and wicked men if all should do as thou doest If there be any Christian blood left in thee if any spirit worthy of thy profession be ashamed of thy baseness this way and be not so shy of afflictions Secondly when thou art under afflictions let there be an humble contented frame of spirit as beseems a Christian seeing thou art now under an Ordinance of God take heed of the least murmuring repining against God as if he were a hard Master or as if his ways were hard and burthensom because of the afflictions thou meetest withal when thy spirit begins any way to rise in such workings charge thy soul to be silent unto God it is a great shame for a Christian not to be well skilled in that art instructed in that mystery of Christian contentation Say with thy Savior Shall not I drink of that cup my Father hath given me to drink It is Gods appointment that his people should be in an afflicted estate in this world it is the cup of my Father and shall not I quietly and contentedly drink of that cup Now thou hast an opportunity to manifest the power and excellency of thy grace to shew what thy grace can enable thee to do strength of reason
Christ Fifthly while I walk in these ways I shall be safe for eternity I shall not be in danger there and when the fear of eternity falls upon the heart it sees it is a most dreadful thing to miscarry to eternity the thoughts of eternity work mightily upon my spirit let me be safe for eternity whatsoever become of me in these ways It is reported of one Myrogenes when great gifts were sent unto him he sent them back I onely desire this one thing at your Masters hand to pray for me that I may be saved for eternity Now in these ways of godliness I shall walk with God I shall have peace of conscience I shall have that I have in love I shall enjoy communion with the Father with Christ and with the holy Ghost and I shall be safe for eternity surely there can be no evil that can countervail this good whatsoever I suffer whatsoever I endure in this world yet my soul shall say It is good for me to draw near to God sure I shall choose and like well of the ways of godliness whatsoever I endure But you look onely upon the best side of godliness but turn the other side you shall finde a great many afflictions that attend the ways of godliness and when you see them you will not be so in love with these ways A gracious heart is willing to examine both sides What are the afflictions you speak of that will discourage any from delighting in Gods ways First they are but such as are upon the body those things that do afflict the godly are bodily things they do therefore but bring pain and trouble to this carcase to this body of clay to this lump of earth to this body of sin to that body that is to be beaten down in this world to that body of vileness for so it is called Phil. 3. 21. Who shall change our vile body in the Original it is this body of vileness It was the speech of a Heathen when as by the Tyrant he was commanded to be put into a morter and be beaten to pieces with an Iron pestel he cryes out to his persecutors You do but beat the vessel of Anaxarchus you do not beat me You do but beat the Case and Vessel that contains another thing yea the word in the Greek that Clemens Alex hath relating the Story signifies a husk his body was to him but as a husk A Heathen counted his body but the Case the husk he counted his soul himself If a man had a precious Jewel in a Case and the Case was torn in pieces and the Jewel be safe it is no matter and so by all these afflictions a gracious heart knows it is but the Case that is torn in pieces the Jewel is safe Fear not says Christ those that can kill the body and do no more Christ would have us know afflictions that do but reach the body are but slight things And for these troubles let them be the most terrible that can be they are such as may stand with Gods love the dearest of Gods love such as the dearest of Gods people have met withal says God in Ieremiah I gave the dearly beloved of my soul into the hands of her enemies Indeed if they were such as could not fal but from Gods hatred it were another matter but they may stand with Gods love yea with the very same love wherewithal God the Father did love Jesus Christ and would you have better love then that you may be sure that all your afflictions that you do endure for godliness and the ways of godliness they are not such but you may have them in the same love that God loved Jesus Christ and one would think that were enough to satisfie any soul in the world John 17. ult there Christ prays that his Disciples might be loved with the same love wherewith he was loved now notwithstanding the love of the Father to the Son he was afflicted and suffered as much trouble as you are like to suffer and if you in suffering may be in no worse case then he was and may have the same love that he had notwithstanding your sufferings sure your sufferings are no great matter there is no more evil in your sufferings then may stand with the love of God to your souls the same love wherewith God loved Christ and if a soul knows this it will not be discouraged from the ways of godliness notwithstanding afflictions indeed if in affliction there were the venome of Gods wrath and the curse of the Law it were something but the sting and venome is taken out and there is no great evil Again these afflictions that the world so speak of they may not onely stand with Gods dearest love but are such as may proceed from Gods dearest love as thus they may come as fruits of the love of God and therefore sure they are no great discouragements from the ways of godliness you heard what abundance of good God brought out of the afflictions of his people and therefore there may be abundance of love from whence they come they may be onely but to fit and square and fashion the soul to be fit to be laid in the highest place of new Jerusalem The stones that are laid below in some mean place are not hewed and hacked as the stones that are in the highest part of the building or the forefront of the building to the view of all those that are most for the beauty of the building are most hacked and framed and so those that God does intend to be the most beautiful stones in that glorious Temple that is in Heaven God suffers them here to be fashioned and hacked most afflicted and therefore they may come from love Besides they are no great matter take them at the worst they are but little things these light afflictions there is no such grievous burthen in them as the world thinks there is for there is the hand of Christ to hold them up in all their afflictions they are but such things as rather seem grievous then are grievous indeed as Heb. 12. 11. No chastening for the present seemeth to be joyous but grievous they are things that are grievous in appearance and in shew onely rather then in truth as the prosperity of the wicked is but in shew so the affliction of Gods people are rather shews they do rather seem grievous then have any realty of grief in them and therefore they are not so much to be feared Again they are but for a little time but for a moment As it was the speech of Athanasius when he was banished and his friends came to bewail his misery says he It is but a little cloud and will quickly be gone All the time of the rage and malice of wicked men is but as an hour says Christ This is their hour and the power of darkness it is but an hour and is
yet their glorious end raiseth their worth exceeding high and a spiritual eye looks much at the end and issue of things and therefore looking upon the Saints in regard of the issue of all they cannot but have a high esteem of them Eye hath not seen nor ear heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive the excellent things that God hath prepared for them that love him 1 Cor. 2. 9. And now a spiritual eye can see these things which a natural eye cannot as if they were present the glorious things that are to come and the glorious condition that such a one shall be in a spiritual eye cannot but fasten upon such a one and bless him as the blessed of the Lord. We do use to look upon great heirs that are appointed for great things and shall have great possessions with honorable respect though now they be meanly clothed in russet cloth or eating course bread and playing with beggars children so Gods servants howsoever they are in the esteem of the world yet those that know what they are to inherit what they shall receive hereafter cannot but look upon them as honorable A spiritual eye sees that that body that is now clothed so meanly within a few years shall shine more bright then the Sun in the firmament and that soul that is weak in parts and gifts it sees it as a vessel that shall be filled to the brim with all the glory of God and the Image of God to be made perfect and to have perfect knowledge of God and of the blessed Trinity and the mystery of the Gospel and all the great works of God A spiritual eye can see within a little while when Christ shall come in his glory he will own them before men and Angels and tell men and Angels These are those for whom the eternal councels of my Father did work and I was content to shed my blood for them and all that was intended in the great work of Redemption was for these A spiritual eye can see that within a while they shall be taken up with our Savior to judge the whole world to judge the Angels with Crowns upon their heads and palms in their hands triumphing ascending up with Christ to see the Father and to enjoy him everlastingly And if these things be seen as real and certain they cannot but raise esteem there is so much in Gods people here as not onely does convince a gracious heart but sometimes will convince one that hath but natural principles of their excellency Some men and women that do sometime rail at Gods people if we could see into their bosoms do sometimes bless them and wish that their condition were such as theirs shall be As Balaam wished he might dye the death of the Righteous and John the Baptist though he was mean for outwards yet Herod reverenced him because he saw some glimmerings of the excellency that was in him And that is observable that we have of Joash King of Israel 2 Kings 13. 14. he was a wicked man yet when he comes to Elisha and sees the Prophet was to dye says he O my Father my Father the Chariots of Israel and the Horsemen thereof this is the speech of one that was ungodly he had a reverend esteem of Elisha and it seems he walked so as he gained mighty esteem from wicked men as in 2 King 3. 12. three Kings came down to the Prophet to speak with him they do not send for him True it is one of them was a good man but the other two were wicked it was indeed in the time of their affliction yet it was a mighty honor the Prophet had from them It is reported of the Emperor Severus when Origen came to him he came very meanly cloathed onely one garment Severus sent him a Chariot and change of garments to come in pomp to him he refused to come in pomp and yet when he saw the piety and gravity of the man he was mightily convinced and it gained much respect from him The godly will gain respect from wicked men much more from a gracious heart that can judge as God judges and see the ends of things CHAP. XVII What we are to learn from that high esteem a gracious heart hath of the Saints in their sorest afflictions HEnce we see what a difference is between the men of the world and Gods people The men of the world are such as in all their outward pomp and bravery are base and wretched and Gods people in all their baseness and meanness are precious and honorable The wicked men are so vile as all the glory that the world hath cannot make them blessed and Gods people are so blessed as that all the evil of the world cannot make them any way miserable If a man had his hearts desire in all things that are here below he may remain as a base cursed creature but let him be gracious and godly and let him have all the misery that can be put upon him in the world he is one that God and the Angels and Saints look upon as the glory of the earth That is very observable we have of Antiochus Epiphanes in Dan. 11. 21. In his estate shall stand up a vile person and yet he was the great King of Assyria And Josephus reports the Samaritans wrote to him because he tormented the Jews to excuse themselves that they were no Jews and they writ Antiochus the mighty God and his name Epiphanes in English does signifie one that is illustrious and famous above others Though he was the great King of Assyria and by flattery was called the Mighty God and by his name called Illustrious famous above others yet by the holy Ghost he is called a Vile person But David speaking of Gods people whom he should do good unto says They are the excellent of the earth in whom is my delight Psal 16. the word signifies the magnificent of the earth The one is called The vile of the earth in the Psalm before and the other called The magnificent in this Psalm God hath made a separation between the wicked and the godly and therefore Moses says in Exod. 33. ver 16. Thou hast separated between us and other people the word that is translated separated is thou hast wonderfully separated between us and other people so God hath wonderfully separated between us and the world that the one should be so cursed that all the good of the world cannot make them blessed and the other so blessed as all the evil of the world cannot make them miserable When Agrippa was so admired that the people cryed The voyce of God and not of man God gives an Angel authority to smite him and he was eaten up with worms John though he was mean in the world the Holy Ghost calls him the greatest that was born of a woman Secondly this rebukes those that can see no excellency in those that are godly
of the world do envy one another because the good they look upon as their last end is so strait that if one have much room the other is straitned but the godly need not be straitned their good is in God and they have place enough to expatiate themselves and satisfie themselves If men were riding or sailing in a narrow passage they would envy him that were sailing before them that hinders but in the Sea they do not envy them because they have room enough to sail So in Christians that place their happiness in God where there is room enough there should not be envy Fourthly take heed of pettishness and frowardness or passions these do darken communion the meek spirit is fit for communion Moses suffered much for communion with Gods people and indeed he was fit to get good and to do good by communion he was the meekest man upon earth Fifthly take heed of self-ends in communion when men are so politick as to wheel about their own ends and not seem to aym at such things this hinders the sweetness of communion and though such may carry things a while as not to be discerned yet at last they will be discerned to have self-ends and all will be shy of them If you would have sweet communion indeed labor for open hearts to one another that you may trust one another Sixthly labor so to improve your communion now as every time you do enjoy it it may make your hearts to spring putting you in minde of that blessed communion you shall have with God and his people and think thus If we finde so much joy in enjoying communion with Gods people here what will there be in that communion our souls shall have in Heaven when we shall not onely have communion with some few of Gods servants but with all Abraham Isaac and Jacob and all the Prophets and Patriarchs As Cicero hath a notable speech concerning the happiness of his death O famous day that I shall go to the counsels of those famous men that I shall go from this rout of people and go and converse with those famous men But brethren for us to think that we through Gods mercy here have communion with Gods people and shall hereafter enjoy communion with the Saints of God for ever what is it worth the enduring if it were but the enjoying of communion with Moses alone it were worth all you have endured and therefore comfort your selves for the present in that you have and let your hearts be raised in hope of better things hereafter when you shall have them perfect Now we rejoyce that we are with Gods people if they be conferring about any thing of God and Christ but hereafter we shall see nothing but God in his Saints we shall see the full glory of God shining in them then the very bodies of the Saints shall shine more glorious then the Sun How glorious shall their souls be then There shall then be no more danger of fallings out and frampold carriages no more jealousies and suspitions but we shall see the image of God perfectly in them and we shall have perfect love to rejoyce in the salvation of any as in your own salvation and then we shall be with them in all holy exercises It is good to be with Gods people to trade with them but better to be with them to pray with them to receive Sacraments with them the better the exercise is the better it is to be with them Then what is it to enjoy communion with them and to be always in holy exercises always singing praises to the Lamb and giving glory to him that sitteth on the Throne for evermore blessing God for the great Mystery of the Gospel And therefore improve your communion so here as not onely to put you in minde of your communion hereafter but to prepare and fit your souls for it And thus is this point finished and now we are come to the seventh and last Doctrinal point out of Moses his Choice which is from the last words of the Verse Then to enjoy the pleasures of sin for a season The Doctrinal Conclusion is this CHAP. XXV Whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart THat whatsoever is but for a season cannot satisfie a gracious heart Or Nothing but that which is eternal can satisfie a gracious heart Moses if he would have been satisfied with any thing that abided but for a season he might have had satisfaction enough but his heart was set upon eternity and therefore could have no satisfaction in things that were but for a season St. Paul says in 2 Cor. 4. 18. We look not at things that are seen but at the things which are not seen for the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal We do not so much as look at things seen for they are temporal but there are other things that our hearts are upon which are eternal we look not at things that are seen but at things not seen The word notes these two things especially not onely that we believe things that are not seen eternal things but we look at them we minde them we do not much minde things that are temporal but eternal things are minded of us Secondly we do not make things that are seen that are temporal to be our scope and aim that which satisfies the heart is that which is looked at as the end and aim and scope of the spirit so that if a man could look at things seen as his aim and scope they would satisfie him but nothing that is seen can be the scope and aim of a gracious heart but eternal things are his scope and aim and therefore they satisfie him That nothing which is but for a season can satisfie a heart rightly principled appears First because there is no proportion between an immortal soul and fading transitory things indeed the sensitive soul that does depend upon the present temper of the body that is satisfied onely with present things and the reason is because it depends upon that which is present but the rational soul being immortal and not depending upon any such thing whatsoever it be that continues not for ever cannot satisfie it Secondly a gracious heart knows the things of eternity after another maner then any other does God hath revealed eternal things to it and upon the sight of those eternal things it comes to know it is taken off from all temporal things for all temporal things be they never so glorious yet in comparison of eternal they are but as the point of a centre to an infinite circumference Indeed while a man knows no better then temporal things the heart is let out upon them as the greatest good but when it comes to know the things of eternity the heart is greatned and all temporal things are but small to that soul when it comes to
not hell This is the great complaint of a soul in the time of trouble O how long shall it be for ever But so we cannot say of any afflictions here in this world that they shall be for ever In Dan. 11. 25. speaking of the great affliction of the Church this is brought to alleviate all yet the end shall be at the time appointed so long as a man can look to the end of an evil it is not much it is for a season if he can but see banks he is well Yea and the evils that we do endure here as they are but for a little season so they are but in the due season they are in this season and that is that which should comfort us because there is not so much danger in any thing we suffer here while we suffer it in this season Suppose any of you had your Ship leak if it leaks when it comes into harbor though it be an evil to you and brings trouble yet you comfort your selves in this It is not in the main Ocean though If I had had this leak in the main sea what had become of me and so for troubles and sorrows you may say It is upon me but blessed be God it is upon me here Indeed if it should prove to be upon me eternally hereafter it were a great evil but it is here S. Augustine said Here Lord cut me do what you will with me but spare me hereafter It was the prayer of Fulgentius Lord grant patience here and pardon hereafter though I have never so much affliction here it is no great matter so I shall have pardon hereafter Yea the enduring of affliction in this season shall be that which may deliver us from enduring evils eternally hereafter God ayms at it and he hath no other end but onely to deliver from eternal sorrows We are chastened that we might not be condemned with the world 1 Cor. 11. And that he does by causing a man or woman when any afflictions are upon them to think thus Lord is this evil and pain so grievous to me that lasts but for a while what will eternal evils be to me Drexelius reports of a yong man that was given to his lust and pleasure and could not endure to be crossed but of all things he could not bear it To be kept from sleep and to awake in the dark and being sick he was kept awake in the night and could not sleep and he began to have these thoughts and think What is it so tedious for to be kept from sleep one night and to lie a few hours here in the dark O what is it to be in torments and darkness everlastingly I am here in my house upon a soft bed in the dark kept from sleep but one night O to lie in flames and in darkness for ever and ever how dreadful will that be And this was the means of the conversion of that yong man that was given to all maner of lusts before O that the Lord would settle this argument upon you so as to work it every way to be useful for your pleasures they are but for a season why should I set my heart upon them And for sorrows if those be grievous if a fit of the Stone or of the Strangury or the Fever be so grievous what will that be to be eternally scalding in the wrath of God Thus you see the consideration That things are but for a season how useful it is for to take our hearts from them and to uphold our hearts in any evils and troubles that we should endure CHAP. XXVII Exhortation to seek after eternal things THe last Use is an Use of Exhortation that seeing nothing that is for a season can satisfie the heart what remains but that we should seek after that which is beyond a season for the satisfaction of our hearts Look at the things that will satisfie an immortal soul let it be of the largest extent that can be these cannot upon this ground because they are but for a season Then let our hearts be after eternal things I am this day to speak to divers hundreds of you here that must every one of you live in eternity one way or other yong and old you must live in a time beyond this season Now having to speak to you that must live eternally this is that which I have to do To get your hearts up to seek after eternal things and O that this might be done if I should never preach more and you should never hear more yet if this should be obtained that you should live eternally that you should have your hearts got up to eternal things you should be blessed and I should think my self happy Philip King of Macedon would have a man come and cry to him every morning You are mortal this is that which I should rather choose that you might daily here a voyce that You are immortal The better part of you must live eternally Were it that eternity were presented to us in the reality of it how mightily would it work to draw our hearts to eternal things Certainly our thoughts are not upon eternity the thoughts of eternity are mighty prevailing thoughts they are over-awing thoughts soul ballacing thoughts that would ballast our hearts they are infinite pertinent thoughts that do infinitely concern us You that have had a company of sleight thoughts and have set the strength of your spirits in thinking of chaffy things O this day here is an object presented to you to help you against sleight thoughts This one word Eternity and the thoughts of this word may be enough for you to banish vain and chaffy thoughts away for ever it concerns us to have the strength of our spirits busied about this There is a request that I have to every one of you and I will put it as fair and easie and low as may be because I would not have it denyed that is That every one that God by his providence hath brought this day here into this Assembly would resolve in their own thoughts and covenant with God to spend but one half quarter of an hour in meditating of eternity every day there is no such great difficulty in it to have such thoughts as these renewed every day This body of mine though frail and mortal it must live for ever and this soul of mine it must live eternally I have spent a great deal of time in seeking after contentment to my flesh for the present but O Lord what have I done to provide for eternity The renewing of this daily and setling of this daily upon the heart what might it do It cannot be imagined what it might do Precious are the thoughts of eternity so precious that there is many a soul that would not for a thousand worlds but have had those thoughts to be setled upon them so precious as many souls are now in Heaven magnifying and blessing of God that they
you no good and if this argument prevail to get off your hearts beyond things that are for a season there will arise these two questions O that I did but know how it should go with me eternally O how shall I get eternal things to be my portion CHAP. XXVIII How we should know how it will be with us for eternity and what we should do that it may be well with us eternally IF you say How shall I know how it shall be with me for eternity shall it be well or not well with my soul when I am beyond things that are for a season You may have some guess by those thoughts you have had upon things for eternity you that have given liberty to your selves to satisfie your selves in the things of the flesh and your hearts have been fully satisfied in the things of the world and this point is a strange point to you you have cause to conclude with your selves that you are in a miserable condition for eternity but if your consciences can testifie that this point the getting of your hearts from things that are but for a season and setting them upon the things that are eternal is that which the Lord hath setled upon your hearts for many years when you wake in the night or in the morning the same thoughts that are presented to me by the Word the Lord hath presented to me by his Spirit the strength and chief of my thoughts have been busied about this argument It is a good sign that God does intend good for that soul to eternity whom he is pleased to possess with the thoughts of it so deeply for the present Again consider could you not wish in your hearts that you might live always and that the content and delight in this world in meat and drink and sports do satisfie you and you think your selves happy in the enjoyment of them certainly God hath not yet savingly made known the things of eternity to you Those that God does prepare for his eternal mercies in Heaven God does take off their hearts from all things in the world that if it were put to your choice though you might have a thousand worlds you would not have them for your portion no there are more glorious more excellent things for my soul to have and therefore God forbid I should have my portion in these things though they were to endure Augustine brings in Plotinus acknowledging it the mercy of God to man that his soul is in a mortal body that the body is not immortal but that after a little time the bodies of men may be dissolved and so their souls be there for ever where the soul of the world is that is his expression 3. A third Argument that it shall be well with you for eternity is this To know what seeds of eternity God hath begun to plant in your hearts This is a certain truth There is no soul that God intends eternal life unto but God begins eternal life in this world You know what St. John says He that hates his brother hath not eternal life abiding in him Eternal life is begun in this world in all that shall be saved therefore think with your selves What seeds of eternity have I put into my soul All common graces and moral vertues are not a seed that will grow up to eternal life but saving grace will though it be under the clods for the present it will grow up eternity Fourthly Examine the Scriptures look into the book of God and see whether the Scripture speaks well on your side because that in this Book in this Scripture there God hath revealed the eternal counsels of his will and the great things about mans eternal estate there is little in all the Book of the Creature the Book of Creation revealed of the counsels of Gods will about bringing man to his eternal estate but in this Book of the Scripture he hath revealed his will concerning this and therefore confider does this speak well of your side Thus by these arguments you may know how it shall be with you for eternity But what shall we do to get a portion in those things that shall be eternal First labor to bring all things in subordination to eternity do not make other things your scope make them an underling and take no further content in them then that they may further your souls to eternity Suppose you have an estate encreasing more then another what will you do with it how will you use it wherein do you count the good of it to consist that by these things I have coming from God I hope to make use of them to fit me for eternal mercies and to treasure up eternal mercies by a sanctified holy use of these things but when temporal things come in and your hearts rest upon them without subordination to eternal things this is infinitely dangerous Secondly make conscience of the little time you have O it is but a little time you have let that be consecrated and devoted to God it is eternal happiness that you look for hereafter why should you not be willing to spend as much of this little time for it as can be Thirdly labor to be exact in all that you do for you are working for eternity As Zeuxis the Painter when he was askt why he was so accurate in his Painting says he I Paint for eternity Let us in our Christian profession be exact in our way because we live for eternity There is nothing that does make men so accurate in their way as this and let the men of the world know that this is the reason of the exactness of the ways of Gods people because they know they live to eternity Hypocrites who in Religious duties aim onely at some present some temporal good they are not exact they rest in outsides but the Saints who make eternity their aym are exact in all things especially those things that have a more immediate influence into eternity Fourthly be sure all you do you do upon divine and eternal grounds take heed of being carnal and earthly in your spiritual services but in all duties in Gods worship look to an eternal God and let your principles aims grounds and intentions be eternal The Temple was called Bethgnolam the house of Eternity do all you do in the house of God in his Ordinances in order to eternity that it may indeed be an house of eternity unto you Lastly be sure you be constant abide constantly to the end do not onely begin and now and then in a good mood have some thoughts of a good life and providing for your souls but abide be constant And if you take these ways by this you shall come to choose Moses Choice O that now in my winding up of all by all that hath been said some soul or other may have cause to bless God in being inclined to choose the same
and said He that could save others let him come down and save himself Again consider the great mercy of God in concealing the secret sins of your thoughts there are none let them be never so innocent in the world yet there is so much filth and baseness within the heart that if God should but turn the inside outward and discover all to the world certainly it would make them ashamed of the society of men make them ashamed to come into the Congregation what confusion and what matter of reproach would there be then Now seeing God in his goodness favors his people so far as he keeps in much secret evil that he could discover before the world if he should withdraw himself a little from you he could let you fall into such sins as your secret sins should be discovered but God favors your names so as that he hath kept in that secret evil that you have had secret inclinations unto now the consideration of Gods goodness in tendring you so far may very well quiet your hearts when you begin to be troubled for every reproach that is cast upon you Now I see my adversaries are fain to watch and search and pry for occasion of reproach God might have given them matter enough and therefore its mercy they have such little matter as they have It is a great work of nature to keep the filth of the body when it is in a man from being unsavory unto others so the filth of the soul though it be unsavory to God yet it is Gods mercy that keeps it from that unsavoriness that it might be to men Fifthly consider how much reproach the name of God hath endured for your sakes and is it so great a matter for your names to be reproached for his sake It is a notable speech Chrysostom hath That for us and for our life our Lord should be blasphemed is worse then if we perished Hath not the name of God been reproached for your sakes not onely in the time of your ignorance but since have there not been occasion given by you to cause others to reproach the name of the blessed God and if God comes to you in your names do you take it so ill Again consider who those are that do reproach you and for what it is It is the speech of an Ancient That a reproacher is beneath a man but the reproached that bear it well are equal to the Angels The Hebrew word that signifies scorners hath many other significations which set out the vileness the dangerous evil there is in a scornful spirit the Seventy besides that of scorning have five other words to shew the signification of it as first 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the first Psalm in the chair of scorners they translate it by a word that signifies the plague in the chair of plagues because scorners are a plague to the place where they live and do infect many a second word that they use to express it by is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 20. 1. which signifies incorrigible that which cannot be tamed because scorners are such Wine is a scorner res indomita an unruly thing that cannot be tamed because it makes men to be so and so are scorners there is little hope of such Thirdly sometimes they translate it 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 9. 12. as such as are given up to all kinde of vice and so are scorners And fourthly by a word that signifies proud 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Prov. 3. 34. for such likewise are scorners Fifthly by a word that signifies to deal unjustly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Psal 119. 51. because scorners are injurious Thus you see what kinde of men those who scorn and reproach the ways and professors of Religion are But besides they are especially such as have been brought up superstitiously or prophanely such as have been bred in superstitious Popish families are many times bitter scorners and reproachers of those who are most forward in the ways of godliness We read 2 Kings 2. 23. when Elisha went to Bethel there came forth little children out of the city and mocked him and said unto him Go up thou bald head go up thou bald head that is observable they came out of Bethel which was that idolatrous city in Israel where the Calf of Jeroboam was set up that place was full of scorners at the Prophets of the Lord you may know the temper of the place by the disposition of the little children they usually heard their parents and those who were elder scorn at the Prophets of the Lord they were brought up in that way and because it was at Bethel the curse of God was the rather upon their children to destroy them although they were but children yet two and forty of them were presently destroyed Hosea 7. 5. we read of those who were elder the great ones in that City even Jeroboam himself and his Courtiers what scorners they were In the day of our King the Princes have made him sick with bottles of wine he stretched out his hand with the scorners The Princes Nobles Officers great ones of the Countrey jeered and scorned at those who would not yield to that way of worship that Jeroboam had set up namely of the Calves O they must be so precise as no worship will serve their turn but going up to Jerusalem to worship there such as ventured the loss of their estates their offices their liberties they accounted them fools and reproached them as a company of simple silly people And as superstition is a cause of this so prophaneness and sensuallity causeth it likewise that is observable in the forenamed place of Hosea when he was made sick with wine then he streched out his hand with scorners when wicked men pamper themselves with good cheer and their hearts are hot with wine then they scorn at Religion and reproach such as are more strict and forward then others blessing themselves in the brave life they live contemning the ways of godliness and the professors of them as such who want those brave delights they enjoy and in regard of that they scorn at and reproach the ways of God and his people at those times Psalm 35. 16. with hypocritical mockers in feasts they gnashed upon me with their teeth the most cruel scornful reproaches against the Saints are at feasts That place is observable Deut. 32. 33 34. Their wine is the poyson of dragons and the cruel venom of asps because of the bitterness of their spirits against those who are godly when they are at their cups but mark what follows Is not this laid up in store and sealed up among my treasures to me belongeth vengeance and recompence their foot shall slide in due time God will remember this it is laid up in store with him it is surely sealed up and shall certainly be brought forth one day And yet further Who are your reproachers They are those that
running up and down from one witness to another but a gracious heart hath other ways to help it self it cryes to God most high and looks for help from Heaven God sends forth his mercy and truth to help and there is help indeed Fifthly another help is this if you can but get your hearts quietly and kindely to lament the condition of your reproachers this will be a marvellous means tosweeten the heart and to help to bear reproaches It was the answer of Socrates to one who wondred at his patience towards one who reviled him If we should meet one says he whose body were more unsound then ours should we be angry with him and not rather pity him why then should we not do the like to him whose soul is more diseased then ours The folly of our reproachers should cause us to pity them to be patient towards them and pass by the wrong they do unto us this was one of the arguments that Abigail brought to David to quiet his spirit that was so stirred against Nabal because of that reproach he cast upon him Nabal saith she is his name and folly is with him it is his folly rather pity him it is too low a thing for such a spirit as Davids is to be stirred with it Instead of being troubled with the reproaches that are upon you your spirits should be most troubled for their sin Now there is infinite cause we have to be troubled for their sin more then for any evil that befals us An evil tongue devours and is an abomination and in Prov. 8. 13. God says The froward mouth he hates Now if you have any love you should think thus This poor man what hath he done he hath brought himself under the hatred of God now this should mightily affect the hearts of the godly As he is an abomination to God so he is an abomination to men Prov. 24. 9. The scorner is an abomination to men scornful spirits love to cast shame and ignominy upon others And in Prov. 18. 7. A fools mouth is his destruction and his lips are the snare of his soul we should think he hath but ensnared his own soul and so fall a lamenting of his wretched condition And so in Isa 33. 10. Your breath as fire shall devour you If the breath of any man devours him the breath of revilers and reproachers and slanderers does The Heathens called a reproacher A three tongued man because he hurts three at once he hurts him that he reproaches and him that heard the reproach and himself worst of all do but get power over your hearts to bewail this sin and your reproach will not be so troublesom Trilinguis Gallesius a writer upon Exod. 22. ver 28. observes the exceeding patience of those three Emperors Theodosius Honorius Arcadius towards those who spake evil of them they would have them subject to no punishment for they said If it comes from lightness of spirit it is to be contemned if from madness it is worthy of pity if from injury it is to be pardoned wrongs are to be forgiven Again labor to possess your souls with the reality of the sweet of and the honor there is in the ways of God so no reproach will be grievous to you As it is said of the covetous man when some told him Such and such hiss at thee but says he I care not I rejoyce in what I have at home that I have so much money in my chest So it should be with a gracious heart he should say I have sweet enough in my own heart what need I trouble my self with what others think or say Seventhly labor to satisfie your souls in the glory of God and Christ Though my name be cast out as filth yet the name of God and Christ is blessed and glorious and so shall be for ever let Devils and wicked men do what they can against it It was a good speech of Luther writing to his friend Spalatinus bemoaning his condition to him because of the scorn and contempt he suffered yet comforting himself in this that Christ lived and reigned Luther is accounted even a Devil but Christ lives and reigns he addes his Amen to it Thirdly it is not enough to bear reproaches patiently but we must bear them fruitfully a christian should think he hath not done that which belongs to a christian unless he hath got some good by them a christian should not think it enough to free himself from the scorn of the tongue but he must improve it for good by it First consider what ends God aims at by it and labor to work them upon your selves that you may attain to those ends Secondly labor to draw what good instructions you can from the reproaches of others As namely thus when I hear men reproach and revile O what a deal of evil is there secretly in the heart of man that is not discovered till it have occasion I did not think that such and such could ever have been reproachers if they had not been provoked Again do I see another so vigilant over me to finde me out to reproach me how vigilant should I be over my self to finde out what is in me to humble me Again is there so much evil to be under the stroke of mans tongue what a great evil is it to be under the stroke of Gods justice Lastly to be fruitful that is set upon what duty God calls for at the present surely this is one great general duty that the less credit I see I have in the world let me labor to have the more credit in Heaven I see there is a breach of my name here let me seek to make up my name in Heaven 4. And then they must be born joyfully but we shall speak of that afterwards in the third point that a gracious heart is not onely willing to bear reproach when God calls unto it but in the cause of CHRIST to triumph and rejoyce in his reproaches 5. Lastly we should return good for evil then you come to the top of Christianity This is a sign of great progress in Religion If I be weak saith Ambrose perhaps I may pardon one charging me falsly but if I have profited although not altogether perfect though he flows in upon me with reproaches I hold my peace and answer nothing but if I be perfect I then bless him that reviles me according to that of St. Paul Being reviled we bless If you can do thus if you can heartily pray for your reproachers and desire good to them and be willing to take notice of any good in them to clear up their innocency where there is iust cause if you can be ready to offer any offices of love and respect and kindeness to them and so heap coals of fire upon them this is a great sign of grace you have made a good progress indeed in Gods way Mat. 5. 44
reproaches of Christ then certainly Christ is wonderfully reproached in the world none so reproached as Christ is because he is not onely reproached himself but all the reproaches that fall upon all his people in the world not onely since Moses time but from the beginning of the world they are all the reproaches of Christ none suffers so much as he consider we then with our selves how we can love this Christ a reproached Christ Is Christ notwithstanding all his reproaches dear and precious to us howsoever he be to the world yet can your souls say with the Church He is altogether lovely as the Apostle Peter says 1 Pet. 2. 7 8. He is a rock and a stone of offence to those that do not believe but to you precious and so Christ though he be a reproached Christ yet to you he is precious to a godly and gracious heart how precious is Jesus Christ There is a notable place concerning the reproaches of Christ and yet of the high esteem that Gods people have of him notwithstanding he is reproached Isa 52. 14 15. His visage was so marred more then any mans and his form more then the sons of men what then is there none therefore that shall prize him yes at the fifteenth verse So shall he sprinkle many Nations the Kings shall shut their mouthes at him for that which had not been told them shall they see and that which they had not heard shall they consider that is there shall yet come a time when as the Lord shall sprinkle many nations by the work of his Spirit and draw many Kings so as they shall shut their mouthes whereas they contemned him and despised him now they shall shut their mouthes in a way of admiration that that had not been told them which they see as St. Paul he knew Christ onely after the flesh but when he came to know him after another maner he thought otherwise of him So when God does sprinkle any with his Spirit that they know Christ though his visage he marred more then any mans and he is reproached more then any man yet they shall prize him and delight in him and the more he is reproached the more they shall delight in him It is a notable speech of Bernard By so much the more Christ is vile for me by so much the more he is dearer to me CHAP. XXXV Sixteen several Consolatións arising to the Saints from this consideration That their sufferings are Christs sufferings SEcondly the consideration of this point is of admirable use for the consolation of all the people of God in all their sufferings and reproaches If reproaches and sufferings be the reproaches of Christ Christ is engaged in them more then you there may be many branches of comfort to Gods people from hence That Christ is so engaged in all their sufferings as they are accounted Christs own it is a great matter when any one suffers any thing if they know this that any great man is engaged in their sufferings if a subject should have a King so engaged in any thing he undertakes that he can say Whatsoever I suffer in this is the suffering of the King this is a great comfort to him so here there are several branches of comfort that may be drawn from this Our sufferings are the sufferings of Christ First it is a great deal of comfort that God does take notice of our reproaches This was the comfort of the Psalmist in Psal 69. 19. Thou hast known my reproach and my shame and my dishonor my adversaries are all before thee If a man suffer reproach and disgrace and trouble for his friends while he is abroad from them O says he Did but my friends know what I suffer and suffer for them it would comfort me If it be comfort to be known much more when they shall be accounted their own Christ is acquainted with all the sufferings of every member and therefore do not say I am a poor creature who takes notice of my sufferings Heaven takes notice of your sufferings Christ takes notice of them better then your selves Secondly if they be the sufferings of Christ they are no other but such as are predetermined for you from the beginning of the world for certainly the sufferings of Christ are determined It may be said of these sufferings as truly as of those he suffered in his own person Act. 2. 23. They are by the determinate counsel foreknowledge of God therefore it is not in the liberty of man to reproach you as he pleases but all is by the fore-determinate counsel of God Thirdly certainly you do not want compassion in your sufferings neither for one to suffer much and to be reproached and no body to have compassion is grievous but surely you have compassion enough Christ must needs take compassion on you and it is not a forced compassion but a natural compassion was there ever any that was not sensible of the sufferings of his own flesh unless it be dead Indeed if you be a dead member of a Church it may be Christ does not compassionate your sufferings but if you be a living member Christ does compassionate your sufferings and pity you in every lye and slander that is told of you many times when we hear of the servants of God and especially those we know to be godly to have such strange reports of them our hearts begin to break and to yern towards them If one member have compassion of another much more the head the head is more sensible of the evils done to the body then the other members are Fourthly all these reproaches and sufferings do not argue your rejection they may stand with the infinite love of God many of Gods people are ready to draw sad conclusions from their reproaches surely God would not suffer this if he loved them they may stand with the same love wherewith the Father loved the Son for they are the reproaches of the Son Fifthly they must needs be sanctified to you those that are the sufferings of Christ are fanctified sufferings certainly Christ will not suffer them to go away unsanctified Christ is so holy that if they come near to him he will make them holy and therefore your bodies and souls having union with Christ they come to be sanctified so all your conditions and sufferings come to be sanctified by union with Christ he is the blessed one of God and therefore all your sufferings must be blessed from him Sixthly if they be the reproaches of Christ then you are not left to bear the burthen of them alone you have but the lighter end of the staff if a burthen be never so heavy at one end and a strong man is under that and the other be light though a weak man be under that he does not care so the weight and burthen of reproaches lie upon the shoulders of Christ and therefore when you think it is hard
things not seen so that the work of faith is there seen Whosoever speaks of the reward that is in heaven if the glory of the world be not darkned in their eyes it argues there is no true saving faith A second difference is a gracious heart looks upon the reward by some experimental sweet and good that he findes in himself as the beginning of that eternal good he expects whereas others look upon the reward as a thing onely to come unto them hereafter He reads in the word and hears Preachers say so and so he can speak of them but it is not from any experimental sweetness that he findes of the beginning of eternal life wrought in him That place is very remarkable for this in Heb. 10. 34. Knowing in your selves that ye have in heaven a better and enduring substance Other men may know in others in books that there is a reward but a gracious heart knows in himself by that experimental sweetness of the beginning of eternal life that he findes in himself A third difference is The eye that a gracious heart hath unto the recompence of reward is a fixed eye a setled constant eye Another man that is an hypocrite may have a flash of lightning even from heaven it self that may discover something unto him of the glorious condition of the people of God as Balaam Let me dye the death of the righteous and let my last end be like his This was more then natural I may call it a supernatural work that was upon Balaam yet not saving and gracious It appeared not to be saving because it had not a saving power went with it and it was not constant and so many hypocrites that are unfound when they have enlargement in prayer they may have some flashes of lightning let into their hearts they may have some glimmerings of the glorious things of heaven and as the Holy Ghost speaks in Heb. 6. 5. they may have a taste of the powers of the world to come but a gracious heart hath it not as a flash of lightning but as a constant light that is set up in his soul and as that light which does transform his spirit into light and makes him to be a childe of light Fourthly there is a great deal of difference in this the eye that a gracious heart hath is truly spiritual the other is but carnal A spiritual eye what is that that is he looks at the reward as a spiritual thing a carnal heart looks at it carnally O the flashes of joy to have a crown and a kingdom but a spiritual heart looks at the reward spiritually time is coming when I shall be wholly free from the body of sin and death time is coming when as the image of God shall be made perfect in my soul time is coming when I shall behold the blessed face of God and live to the praise of that blessed God without any intermission joyning with those blessed creatures that are eternally blessing God Now the heart that looks at it thus spiritually and looks at the top of it to be a spiritual good such an one sees the reward after another maner then any carnal heart doth The last difference is the eye of the gracious heart is a believing eye such an eye as he looks upon the glorious and blessed things of heaven as the things that his soul hath an interest in as the things wherein his riches and happiness does consist another may look upon them as glorious things that may be desired but for an eye to be fixed upon the promise so as to be content to venture all upon the bare word of God for such great things so as to count his riches to consist in these things that he hath but a bare word for such a believing eye as this is not the eye of a carnal heart CHAP. XLI What is this recompence of reward NOw the third thing that we are to come to is to shew what this reward is we can but give you a little glimpse of it Whatsoever will be said it will rather even darken it then otherwise in regard of the wonderful excellency of it all the stars in heaven if they were all Suns they would be but a dark shadow to set out this reward and therefore it is reserved to eternity to be known but yet because the Lord hath been pleased to let out a beam of light unto us in his word we shall endeavor to give a little glimpse of it to you so that the hearts of Christians may be revived in their way and they may gather up their feet to go on chearfully in their course having respect with a discerning experimental spiritual fixed believing eye unto the glorious recompence of reward First take all the beauty excellency the sweet and good that there is in all the world if there could be a confluence and extract of the quintessence of all good in all creature in this world and all to be communicated to one man yet it were but as a dark shadow of the glory that is to be revealed Secondly this reward certainly it is that which is beyond all the expression that we have in Scripture of it Great things are spoken in the word but there is more to be revealed and to be enjoyed then is yet revealed in all the Book of God Isa 64. 4. For since the beginning of the world men have not heard nor perceived by the ear neither hath the eye seen O God besides thee what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him And therefore in 2 Thess 1. 10. it is said Christ shall come to be glorified in his Saints and to be admired in all them that believe Now the cause of admiration it is the sight of something more then was known before that was not thought of and was not understood even then at the first coming of Christ he shall appear in so much glory as he shall be admired as if the Saints should say We heard much concerning Christ and his glory but we never thought that there was so much glory in Jesus Christ as now we finde and therefore we stand admiring at the glory of Christ Thirdly all those consolations those admirable soul-ravishing comforts that the Saints of God have ever had in this world have all been but the first fruits of those glorious things that are hereafter to to be revealed they are but as the Clusters of grapes that that blessed Land of Canaan is so full of Fourthly then all the expressions that man can give of those things that are to be hereafter must needs be but dark resemblances of what shall be revealed hereafter As the infant in the womb knows not what the light the glory and beauty of the world is so we while we are in this darkness know little of the beauty and glory of heaven St. Augustine speaking concerning what we can say of it says It is
let out immediately from God and this is indeed the special difference of all from whence flow many excellent consequences which would even require a particular of it self I may hereafter enlarge my self in this in some other Treatise And thus you may see the blessed condition of Gods people when they come to the recompence of reward We have something here and we rejoyce in it and bless God for it but those ways that God hath to communicate himself to his people hereafter are glorious ways O that our hearts were raised to look after that communication of God that we shall have hereafter O those base and drossie spirits that we have Because we receive some goodness of God here we are ready to be quieted here and rest here as if God had nothing to communicate to the Children of men but that we have here See the vileness of our hearts we are here ready to rest upon the lowest things that God communicates and do not so much as rise in our hearts to the highest things that are communicated here but a christian heart should rise higher then the most excellent things that are here in the world namely to the most blessed things that are hereafter let us shew our selves that we are men of hopes to enjoy God after another maner then here Many do not desire enjoyment of God let them have the creature they never think of any communication of God so much as through the creature whereas a true Christian that hath grace he receives nothing in the world but he thinks with himself how have I God here how does God communicate himself to me in meat and drink and cloathes and friends and the like it is well if you go thus far but you must go higher are there not choyce mercies O yes there are blessed things communicated through the ordinances through prayer and the word and sacraments there are blessed things few mens hearts look so high as to look to the communication of Gods choyce mercies in this world but a gracious heart rises higher does as it were bathe it self with those refreshments that are to come through Gods mercy I have the creature and the communication of God through that and I have the ordinances and Gods choyce mercies communicated through them but there are glorious things to be communicated hereafter and those my soul rejoyces in Now God does communicate himself onely in that way which is suitable to our condition now we are but narrow vessels and have but narrow mouthes and are not capable of that greatness of Gods communication but time will come when as God will communicate himself in a more glorious maner and in that I bless my self and therefore I will not regard any of Gods communication of himself to me here but in order unto that glorious communication of God to me hereafter And thus we have seen something of the recompence of reward comparing it with what we have here Now secondly we are to compare it with the condition of Adam in the estate of Innocency As for the estate of Adam in Paradise it was a blessed condition yet far under the happiness of the Saints in the recompence of the reward For Adams body was but natural and his Paradise was but a natural Paradise and a possibility there was he might lose his happiness and if he should have stood there should not have been that glorious distinct working of the three Persons of the Trinity about mans happiness that there now is and therein especially lies the difference Thirdly compare it with the Angels and you shall finde in Scripture some expressions of the happiness of the Saints beyond the happiness of the blessed Angels themselves For the union that the Saints shall have with the Deity is a nearer union in divers respects then the union that the Angels have with the Deity and the righteousness wherewith the Saints stand righteous before the Lord is an higher righteousness then Adam or the Angels should have been in First the union that the Saints have with the Deity is a nearer union then that of the Angels First the humane nature in general that is advanced to an higher dignity then all the glory of the Angels put together Because there is an Hypostatical union between the humane Nature and the Divine in Christ Again we have many expressions in Scripture of the union of Saints with the Deity whereby it appears their union is nearer then the union of the Angels They are called the friends of Christ They are said to have fellowship with Iesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 9. They are the Brethren of Christ They are Co-heirs with Jesus Christ There are no such expressions of the Angels And yet there are nearer expressions of their union they are the Spouse of Christ the Bride the Angels are but as the servants They are the members of Christ and are made one with Christ They are those that are to be one with the Father as the Father and the Son are one Iohn 17. 21. Christ there prays As thou Father art in me and I in thee that they also may be one in us he never prayed so for the Angels Lastly they are said to be loved of the Father with the very same love wherewith he loved the Son now though God loves the Angels yet it is not said that he loved them with the same love that he loved his Son These are the expressions we finde in Scripture concerning the near union that the Saints have with the Deity in some respects beyond the Angels but of the union of the Saints with the Deity we shall speak of more when we come to speak of the reward positively And then the righteousness wherewith they stand righteous before God is greater then the righteousness of Adam in Paradise or the Angels because it is the righteousness of the second Person of the Trinity and that is of an higher nature and a more glorious righteousness then the righteousness of any meer creature Now the righteousness of the Angels though it be perfect in its kinde yet it is not a righteousness of such an high nature as that righteousness which is the Son of God And thus of this recompence of reward comparatively CHAP. XLIII The perfection of the bodies and souls of the Saints in glory NOw thirdly let us consider it positively now in this positive consideration these things are to be followed First the perfection of their natures that they shall be raised to Secondly the glory that shall be put upon them at the day of Judgement Thirdly the possession of Heaven Fourthly the having God to be their Portion Fifthly their blessed communion with Jesus Christ Sixthly their communion with the Saints and Angels Lastly the eternal Sabbath that they are to keep in Heaven Under these seven heads all that we have to say concerning the positive reward of the Saints may be contained First the perfection that their
the highest things that a body can be in without any weariness Thirdly there must be a great deal of power to be able to bear the weight of glory that shall be put upon them 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our light affliction which is but for a moment worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory such a weight as certainly if the body were not by the power of God upheld it were impossible it should bear it here we finde when there is great joy in the heart the body is not able to bear it but then there shall be a power to bear the weight of glory they shall have And the last is that which I finde expressed in Luther namely The bodies of the Saints shall have that power as to toss the greatest mountains in the world like a Ball. And I finde it in an expression of Anselem It shall be such power as they shall be able to shake the whole earth at their pleasure and we cannot think this incredible upon that ground that was named before there is not so much difference between the raising a thing from the lowest degree of power to the highest possibility as in raising a thing from nothing to the lowest degree of power Suppose a creature had but so much power now as to stir the least mote that is in the Sun to raise this power so high as to stir the whole earth does not require so much power as to make a thing out of nothing and if God do intend to manifest his power in glorifying the Saints and in making of them powerful why should we not think that God will extend that possibility of power that is in the body to that heighth certainly glorious shall be the power of the bodies of the Saints and that is the third thing Fourthly it is sowen a natural body and it shall be raised a spiritual body not that it shall be turned into a spirit It shall remain a body but the spiritualness consists in three particulars First that it shall be in a spiritual condition they shall have no more need of meat or drink or clothes or marriage or the like that now the body stands in need of the Angels themselves shall have as much need of meat and drink and clothes as their bodies shall so says Christ They shall not be married nor given in marriage but they shall be as the Angels in Heaven Secondly the spiritualness of the body consists in the absolute subjection of the body to the spirit as to be fully and absolutely serviceable to the spirits of the Saints which here they are not Here many times is a strife between the spirit and the flesh the spirit is willing when the flesh is not but then there shall be an absolute subjection of the body to the spirit As here the spirit of a carnal man is called flesh because his soul is serviceable to the flesh to make provision for the sins of the flesh his soul is counted carnal the wisdom of the flesh is enmity against God As the soul now is as it were carnal because it is serviceable to the flesh so the body shall be spiritual because it shall be serviceable to the spirit for you to have such a body as to be serviceable to your souls as you would desire it were a great blessing time will come when it shall be so Thirdly the spiritualness of the body consists in the agility of the body the ability it shall have to move up and down which way it will and that suddenly they shall move in the Heavens as the birds do in the ayr I remember an expression that Luther hath that the body shall move up and down like a thought And Augustine saith They shall move to any place they will as soon as they will These words we do not finde in Scripture but lay this for a ground that whatsoever we can expect for the excellency of a body it is that we speak of or beyond it and then we have a great deal of liberty to invent what expressions we can for our comfort certainly there shall be that happiness of the body that shall come to that we speak of or to more Fourthly some make the spiritualness of the body to consist in the transparency of it Aquinas says It shall be so clear and transparent that all the veins and humors and nerves and bowels shall be seen as in a glass Now brethren the reasons why God will reward the Saints in this part are First because humane bodies as well as humane souls have an hypostatical union with the second person of the Trinity and therefore God rejoyces to raise humane bodies as well as humane souls unto happiness Secondly Christ suffered so much in his body therefore God will glorifie the bodies of the Saints Thirdly our bodies are part of the members of Christ our bodies are joyned in a mystical union with Jesus Christ Fourthly our bodies are the temples of the Holy Ghost and God will glorifie his own temples Fifthly our bodies are in part sanctified as well as our souls and therefore shall also be glorified Lastly our bodies shall be glorified for the further terror and confusion of the damned because they in their bodies shall see the glory of the Saints and be confounded Here you see a way to get your bodies in a blessed condition here is a stir for clothing of our bodies but there shall be a cloathing with immortality you that have sickly and weak bodies remember this you shall one day receive your bodies in another maner then you have them now Eusebius tels us of one of the children of the Macchabees that were put to death for the profession of the truth when they cut off his members says he I have received these from Heaven and now I do give them unto the God of Heaven and I hope I shall have them again Let us be willing to put our bodies to pain if our bodies suffer hunger or thirst or nakedness or be tyred or suffer Imprisonment or any violence be offered to our bodies in the cause of God What great matter is it we shall receive our bodies in another maner The overcoming of the flesh is the destruction of it but the overcoming the flesh is the glory of it When we speak of the happiness of our souls we are not so capable of it but when we speak of the happiness of our bodies we are sensible of that Now certainly there shall be much more for our bodies here is a way to provide for your bodies Lay up provision for your flesh is spoken as an argument of a carnal heart in Rom. 13. 14. the Apostle exhorts them not to make provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof but there is a way of laying up provision for the flesh that is lawful and that this day I exhort
the Monarchs and great ones of the earth and so to be honored in the eyes of those that were their enemies and contemned and reproached them and vilified them before and likewise their glory shall be in this to rejoyce in the execution of the sentence that is pronounced upon those that are condemned Lastly their glory shall be in their glorious ascension with Christ into the highest heavens ranked in their comely order with triumph and joy singing Stand open ye gates and be ye open ye everlasting doors that the King of glory and all his redeemed ones may come in Thirdly the possession of heaven the Kingdom of heaven shall be theirs the heaven of heavens great things are spoken of that there are these things considerable in it First it is the third heaven there is the heaven that is the space between the visible firmament and the earth the second heaven is the Orbes wherein the Sun and Moon and Stars are and then there is an heaven above them which is the seat of the blessed which is of an infinite heighth above all now it as a sweet confideration for the people of God when you are going out in the evening and seeing the firmament spangled with the Stars to have such thoughts as these What shall one day this body of mine be lifted up beyond yonder place Though now you lie low in some dark hole there is a time when God shall lift you up to be above that spangled firmament that spangled firmament is but the pavement of your Fathers house it is but the outside and if the outside and footstool of Gods house be so glorious how glorious is it within how glorions is the presence Chamber This world is made for Dogs for the Enemies of God and those that are more vile then any creatures he does not think much to have swine live here but you do not suffer swine to come into the presence Chamber or into the Dining-room now heaven is the presence Chamber and Dining-room for that eternal feast to be solemnized in and that must needs be glorious Secondly it is called our Fathers house This is not our Fathers house though we should be caught up where the Stars are that is not our Father house that is but the out-room Says Christ In my Fathers house there are many Mansions God was from all eternity a heaven to himself before the world was then he created the highest heavens to be the place of his presence not that he is comprehended there but that he would have a place for his glory more fully to shine in Again it is a place prepared from the beginning of the world and Christ is gone to prepare it for us If there were such a building here that all the men of the world had been building from the beginning of the world and they had all the pearls and jewels of the world to set into it and all the inventions and strength of men and Angels to help them to build it would be glorious but in comparison it is but a dungeon to this The brightness of this is exceeding glorious says Chrysostom when you see a sumptuous pallace you look upon it and are taken with it but it is but as a dungeon to your Fathers house The light of that shall be of another nature then the light of the world the light that we have here is a material light but the whole body of heaven is of an higher nature then the body of the Sun and there shal be such a glorious presence of God as there shall need no Sun Moon and Stars to enlighten it and then with the brightness of the body of Christ and the brightness of the bodies of the Saints there shall be a glorious lustre And for the large extent of it the lowest heavens are but as a prick of the center in comparison to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick of the center to the highest heaven Men boast here if they have but a few clods of land as Socrates put a scorn upon Alcebiades that boasted of his lands he brought him to the Map of the whole world and prayed him to shew them there and there was not one prick vouchsafed for them in it What is a little land to a countrey and what is a countrey to the world and the world is but as a prick to the lowest heaven and the lowest heaven is but as a prick to the starry heaven and the starry heaven is but as a prick to the highest heaven and the Saints shall possess all that You that have no possessions here know there is a possession hereafter that is more then if you had all the Lands in the world Besides it is of an incorruptible nature it is an inheritance incorruptible The reason why the heavens and so the soul is incorruptible is because it is not made out of pre-existing principles it was made out of nothing and nothing but an infinite power can annihilate a thing as well as make a thing out of nothing Much is said of that place for the description of it Jerusalem was but a Type of it and the Land of Canaan was but a Type of it and Paradise was but a Type of this glorious place that is provided for the Saints of God Let us therefore raise up our hearts to consider of this And as we read in Gen. 13. 14 15. where God shewed to Abraham the Land of Canaan says God look Northward and Southward and Eastward and Westward for all the land which thou seest to thee will I give it and to thy seed So consider the vastness of the Heavens and the exceeding extent of them and consider this is the Inheritance of the Saints We know we have an abiding eternal inheritance our bodies shall abide eternally and the Heavens themselves are eternal this should quiet our hearts when we finde any discontent in our habitations it is no matter in what Countrey we are here there is a glorious Countrey we are going to Christ our elder Brother is already gone and hath taken possession of Heaven for us as if so be there were some great inheritance did befal you here and you cannot go to possess it and if you hear one is there for you who hath taken quiet possession for you and you shall be sent for in time convenient will you not be content So we are not fitted for Heaven but Christ is gone before to take possession and within a while we shall go and live with him The earth is too mean a place for the Saints and yet the world is not worthy of the Saints of God in a mean condition then the world shall not be worthy of the Saints in their glorious condition and therefore there must be a place above the world Yet know Heaven is not enough for the Saints the Saints of God are of such spiritual raised spirits as
that they cannot be satisfied with any thing but God himself Suppose God should cause all the Emperors and Kings of the world to come and cast down their Crowns before the Saints and say All these are yours An heart that is truly raised would say This is not enough this is not God himself Suppose God should bring all the splendors of all the creatures in heaven and earth and they should be cast at the feet of the Saints they would say This is not enough for this is not God Suppose God should cause all the glory of heaven not onely of Sun Moon and Stars but of the highest heaven to be laid before the Saints they would say This is not enough this is not God If all the Angels should come and say We are sent to put all our glory upon you they would say This is not enough this is not God and therefore when God hath given them heaven he must give them himself to or else they are not happy And that is the fourth thing CHAP. XLV The Saints enjoyment of God to be their portion their happiness in having his presence GOd himself will be the portion of the Saints Augustine says of the happiness of the Saints If God gives such good things to wicked men does he keep nothing for the Saints Yes he keeps heaven it self but says he Surely I speak of too low a thing when I speak of heaven he will give himself to them Heaven is beautiful but more beautiful is God himself the God of heaven Therefore God must give himself to them or else their souls are not satisfied It is a sweet and excellent expression that Bernard hath Lord as whatsoever we give unto thee unless we give our selves cannot satisfie thee so Lord Whatsoever thou givest to us unless thou givest thy self we cannot be satisfied The Lord said to Abraham Fear not I am thy exceeding great reward but says Abraham What wilt thou give me seeing I go childeless Surely he had respect to Christ or else it could not but be a fault that Abraham should not be fully satisfied in what God said for as God does make the Saints to be his portion so God is the portion and the inheritance of the Saints The enjoyment of God is Heaven it self and therefore in Scripture God is called heaven I have sinned against heaven In this there are these seven things First the presence of God Secondly the blessed vision of God Thirdly the happy union with God Fourthly the glorious communion with God Fifthly the fruition of God Sixthly the rest that their souls shal have in God Seventhly the enjoyment of themselves in God O beloved for preparation to hear these things that we had spiritual hearts says one It is not for your carnal base sensual voluptuous spirits to hear of those things For those that know no better things then to eat and drink and to be unclean what is it for them to hear of such excellent things As for the pleasures of the flesh they do infect and defile the soul and make it unfit for the hearing of such things we had need of spiritual ears to hear them God says to Abraham in Genes 13. 16. I will make thy seed to be as the dust of the earth afterward in Gen. 15. 5. he says He will make his seed as the stars of heaven The seed of Abraham are of two sorts Some are of the seed of Abraham that are visible members of a Church and yet have earthly hearts but there are others of his seed and they are as the stars of Heaven of spiritual hearts now as we are of the seed of Abraham outwardly in profession let us not be of that seed that are of the dust of the earth onely fit to hear of earthly things but let us shew that we are of the seed of Abraham that are as the stars of Heaven and shall hereafter come to enjoy the God of Heaven For the first the presence of God that glorious presence that the Saints shal have of God in Heaven is a great part of their happiness Heaven it were not Heaven without the presence of God The presence of God in the most miserable place that can be were a greater happiness then the absence of God in the most glorious place that can be David would not be afraid though he walked in the valley of the shadow of death so that God were with him Psal 23. Luther would rather be in Hell with Gods presence then in Heaven God being absent If the presence of God takes away the dread of the shadow of the valley of death and makes Hell to be more desired then Heaven what will the presence of God make Heaven to be The three Children in the fiery furnace with Gods presence were happy how happy then are the Saints with Gods presence in Heaven The Saints desire Gods presence even when he is angry they are loth to be out of his presence then It is very observable that we have recorded of David Psal 51. ver 9. he cryes to God to hide his face from his sins for Gods face was then an angry face against him yet ver 11. he cryes again Cast me not away from thy presence he was not willing to be out of Gods presence howsoever upon which St. Auguhath this expression Whose face he fears even his face he invocates God made rich promises to Moses yet he could not be satisfied without the presence of God If thy presence be not with us bring us not hence And the Apostle when he would set out the misery of those that are damned in 2 Thess 1. 9. says the Text They shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord now the presence of God must needs be the happiness of the Saints First because this must needs draw out all their graces in all the sweet savor of them Cant 1. 12. While the King sitteth at his table my spikenard sendeth forth the smell thereof As it is with the Sun it draws forth all the vertue that there is in the plant and makes a sweet savor in things so the presence of God must much more draw forth the fragrancy of all the graces of his Spirit in the souls of his Saints Secondly the presence of God must needs quicken all the comforts of the souls of his people and keep them always in vigor and activity for as we know the Sun it does quicken things that lay dead so the presence of God hath a wonderful quickning power it keeps the comforts of Gods people fresh so long as we have the presence of God all our comforts are green and lively The Saints in heaven have always the presence of God and therefore their comforts are always vigorous and lively When they shall be presented faultless before the presence of his glory it shall cause exceeding joy Jude 24. the word there signifies leaping springing exalting joy
Thirdly the presence of God in heaven shall be the accomplishing of all that sweet and good that ever they have had in Gods presence in this world they have had by pieces many sweet manifestations of God unto them but often God hath been absent and they have been fain to seek for their Beloved but now all those pieces as we may so speak which they have had some at one time and some at another shall be all joyned together and they shall have the accomplishment of all in one and the perfection of all in one and so for ever enjoy it Fourthly the presence of God must needs fill their souls and bodies with glory for it fills the heaven with glory much more it must needs fill an immortal soul with glory because that is more capable of glory then the heaven If the Sun can put a glory upon these poor dark creatures here below much more can the presence of God put glory upon the glorified bodies and souls of the Saints Further the presence of God must needs be very glorious unto the souls of the Saints in regard of the maner of the bringing into Gods presence for they shall be brought into it by the hand of Christ the Bridegroom he shall as it were take the Saints by the hand and lead them to the Father he shall say Come now I will shew you my Father that I have spoken so much of to you before to that end that the Father may delight in you As suppose the Prince were married to one and upon their marriage he takes his Spouse by the hand to lead her unto his father to that end his father may take notice of her and manifest respect unto her so this coming into the presence of God shall be by the hand of Christ There is a glorious leading of our souls into the presence of God in this world Eph. 3. 12. In whom we have boldness and access the word signifies A leading by the hand and in Canticles 1. 4. it is said of Christ That he brings the Spouse into the Chambers He brings the Church the souls of his people into the Presence-Chamber and that makes the presence of God sweet unto the Church but hereafter there shall be a more glorious leading of the Saints unto God by Christ how much more shall the presence of God be sweet unto them then Sixthly what a blessed security must there needs be to the souls of the Saints in the presence of God To be under the shadow of the Almighty is a secure condition to be hid in the secrets of Gods presence is a secure condition but to be in the glorious presence of the Almighty as it shall be in heaven O the happy security then A childe when it is gotten into the presence of his father or mother thinks it self safe the Saints then that shall always be in the presence of God must needs be in an happy security Lastly hence will follow an holy boldness the Saints of God shall stand in the presence of God with an holy boldness they shall have nothing whereof they shall be ashamed though the light of God shall shine most gloriously upon them yet it shall not discover any thing in them that shall cause any shame or fear in them It is the promise of God to the diligent They shall stand before Kings Those that are now diligent in making their calling and election sure in providing for their eternal estate this is the blessing of them they shal stand before the King of glory before the King of heaven with an holy boldness And this is the first thing which the Saints shall have in having God to be their portion The presence of God CHAP. XLVI The happiness of the beatifical vision discovered SEcondly they shall have the Beatifical Vision of God we shall be where he is and we shall see his face Says Christ Father I will that those which thou hast given me be where I am that is a blessing but in Rev. 22. 4. it is said They shall see his face and that is more They shall know as they are known 1 Cor. 13. 12. It is the promise of the pure in heart that they shall see God 1 Iohn 3. 2. Behold now we are the sons of God and it doth not yet appear what we shall be but we know that when he shall appear we shall be like him for we shall see him as he is It is the happiness of the Angels that they behold the face of God so it shall be the happiness of the Saints to behold the face of God in heaven As for me I will behold thy face in righteousness I shall be satisfied when I awake with thy likeness Psal 17. 15. and so we may have the help of divers Scriptures to shew that this is the happiness of the Saints The glory of this may appear in these particulars First to see God as the first being of all or the principle of all good is a most blessed thing to see Adam the first father or Eve the first mother of mankinde or for a childe to see his father or mother out of whose loyns and bowels he came whom he hath not seen in many years this is a joy and comfort but to see the Creator the first Principle of all things that must be a great an infinite contentment and to see him that hath done all the good in the world hath much satisfaction in it We would rejoyce to see a man that hath been an instrument to do great things in some Countrey as the King of Sweden or the like but to see God that hath done all the great things in the world what a blessed joy and contentment will that be The rational creature does naturally desire to know the causes and principles of things no other creature looks at the principles and causes of things but the rational creature If other creatures may have that which is suitable to sense they look no farther but a rational creature cannot be satisfied in whatsoever it hath unless it knows something of the principles and causes of the thing it hath and when it knows the cause of one thing it would know the cause of that and nothing will quiet it till it comes to see the cause of all and when it comes to know that it hath full contentment Shew us the Father and it sufficeth Secondly they shall see God in his unity whereas now we understand God onely according to his several Attributes as the manifestation of the Infinite Simple First being in one way we call Power in another way we call Mercy and Bounty in another way Justice and so we apprehend God according unto the several Attributes that God hath manifested himself in whereas there are not many things in God but all those several Attributes that we apprehend diversly are but one excellency in God as one beam of the Sun
third union that the Saints have with God is a union of love love is an uniting grace and there is a most entire love between God and every Saint and so their hearts are close united and mingled by love Again in this life there is a mystical Union and that is an union higher then any other an union with Christ being made members of the Son of God and so they come to have union with the Son of God according to that expression in 1 John 1. 3. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you that ye also may have fellowship with us and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son Iesus Christ There is a mystical union between us and Christ and so we come to have union with God the Father also and to be joyned to the Lord we are one Spirit with him Now for the union that the Saints have with God in Heaven there are many intricate notions that some of the Schoolmen have about this as that the soul shall be turned into the same Idea that God made it of and that there shall be an Illapsus of God into the soul but we must know there can be no union with God but it must be by vertue of the influence of some good from God for speak of what union you will God cannot in his Essence be more present with the creature then he is here but onely in regard of some manifestation or communication of himself in some gift or good thing but certainly there will be a wonderful glorious union between God and the soul in Heaven and that upon these four grounds First there is not such distance between God and the soul but that it is capable of union with God One would think how is it possible that God should be so united to the soul being there is such an infinite distance between God and it but there is not such an infinite distance between God and the soul of man as that there should not be a glorious union between them there is a great deal of likeness between God and the soul First in the spirituality God is a Spirit the soul is a Spirit Secondly in immortality God is immortal the soul is immortal Thirdly in the high excellency of God the understanding and will the soul is endued with understanding and will the perfection of God as we can conceive is his understanding and will and so it is in the soul Fourthly in the several operations that the soul hath and herein there is more likeness between God and mans soul then is between God and Angels in that one rational soul should perform so many works as the same God the same Excellency working upon the creature works in one thing one way and in another thing another way so the soul represents God in this in that one rational soul hath such variety of workings in the body for understanding for sense for vegetation which Angels have not Again the soul resembles God in the infiniteness the soul is not onely infinite in duration but in regard of the infiniteness of the working of it and here is a mighty difference between the soul of man between rational creatures and all other creatures for the sensitive creature that onely works about some particular thing that concerns its own preservation and its own good within its narrow compass but the object of mans soul is universal infinite it is not any particular truth that will satisfie the understanding let there be never so many truths revealed yet the understanding desires infinitely more if there be any truth that is not revealed it would have that Let the sense have some particular object before it suitable to sense it looks no further as if the eye have colour it goes no further nor the ear goes no further then sound but the understanding hath desire to all truth And so for good the sensitive creature hath no desire of good but onely that which does preserve sense but the will of man is for good in general and this shews how capable the soul is to be raised to such an excellency as to have communion with God if we knew what our souls were capable of we would not think we could satisfie them with such things as bruit beasts are satisfied with Secondly there may well be a glorious union between God and and the souls of the Saints because God shall see nothing but himself in the souls of the Saints now when God shall see nothing but his own in such a creature this is a full ground of Gods near and most glorious union with it as when a man comes to see in another much of his own his heart is united to him things that are of a like nature do unite Bring an hot fire-brand to the fire and it does unite presently because the fire does finde something of it self there if there were some moisture in the brand it would not so fully unite And so here we cannot have full union with God because though God sees somewhat of his own in us yet there is a great deal in us that is not Gods but when we shall be wholly free from sin and God shall see nothing but his own in us that must needs be a ground of a most glorious union Thirdly in Heaven there shall be nothing in God but shall be suitable to the nature of a glorified Saint and suitableness is the cause of union if there be not a suitableness there cannot be union There cannot be suitableness between God and other creatures but between a glorified Saint and God there shall be an infinite suitableness and therefore an infinite glorious union Again there shall be an infinite inflamed love here is an union of love but in Heaven there will be a further degree of love and love being enflamed there must needs be a most glorious union Fifthly if you consider what the bond of connexion of the soul and God together is namely the mediation of the Son the second person of the Trinity there must needs be an infinite close and glorious union of the Saints with God This vision and union with God is enough to cause the souls of Gods people to be so satisfied as to say Let all things be taken from me it is enough I have somewhat of Gods presence here but I shall have the glorious presence and vision of God and union with God hereafter and though my eyes should never see good day after or never see comfortable object in the world this is enough I shall see God and have full union with God Though there be a separation between me and all temporal comforts in the world though God should rend this creature or that creature the dearest husband or the dearest wife or the dearest comfort in the world and those things that my soul do most cleave to here from me yet it is enough that
while their hearts are narrow and they cannot receive much from God but the Saints look for good hereafter when their hearts shall be enlarged when as the wicked when their souls shall be enlarged they shall have nothing but misery There is a twofold love when one shall will onely good to himself by another or will good to another now the love of good will is most glorious in God and it is mutual God shall will his good to the creature and the Saints shall will all good to God What good can they will to God It is true there can be no addition to the essential goodness of God but they can will that this his goodness be honored and praised and this shall be in the blessed communion between God and his Saints in the mutual working of their wills Thirdly in communion there is the communication of what one have unto another where there is right communion there is a communication on both parts if on receive good and the other do not labor to communicate it is not communion Now there is a glorious communication on Gods part First immediate Secondly full Thirdly free Fourthly everlasting First immediate whereas here God communicates himself through creatures or through ordinances there are conduits of conveyance for there is such distance between God and us that we cannot expect that immediate conveyance of Gods goodness and of himself to us here as we shall have in heaven Secondly the fulness of Gods communication Suppose that God should draw out all that beauty sweetness goodness and power that he hath communicated in all creatures in the world and bring the quintessence of all and communicate that unto the soul of one Saint certainly it would not serve the turn for the happiness of one Saint there must be a greater communication But conceive if we see one creature have so much power in it by its influence upon the dunghil as to produce such a glorious creature as life which is the most glorious thing that ever God did make Saint Augustine says There is more glory in the life of a flie then in the Sun in the Firmament Now if the Sun have such power to produce life from a piece of dirt what power shall the influence of an infinite God have upon a glorified soul No marvel though the Scripture says That eye hath not seen neither ear hath heard neither hath it entred into the heart of man to conceive what God hath prepared for them that love him Thirdly it is free as free as the Sun lets out its beams It is natural to a good thing to communicate much more for goodness it self certainly God being goodness in the abstract his communication must needs be free Fourthly it is everlasting the letting out of himself to the Saints shall preserve their strength that he may let out himself unto them as if there were that power in some excellent liquor that is let out into a vessel not onely to sweeten it but perpetually to preserve it that it may be letting out it self into it so God does everlastingly in communicating himself unto his people preserve them that he may communicate himself And then the Saints of God do communicate to God in the same way that God does to them They are always worshipping God immediately not through ordinances as they shall not receive any thing of God through ordinances so they shall not worship God through ordinances but as they receive immediately so they shall worship God immediately and their communication shall be full but as they cannot will any essential good to God so they cannot communicate any essential good but they shall communicate themselves and all that they are or have to God or if they were able to make a thousand worlds they would make them all for the glory of God but because that is beyond the power of any creature therefore they communicate themselves and all that they are or have or can do to God as a drop of water is let out into an infinite Ocean so they are let out unto God as into an infinite Ocean And then the communication is free having the divine nature made perfect in them that do flow to God when they see his divine nature and this communication shall be everlasting God letting out himself to them and they letting out themselves to God This is the reward of the Righteous and this is that which Moses had an eye unto and all Gods people that have an eye beyond the vail behold it with infinite soul-satisfaction Fourthly in communion with God there is a familiar converse between God and the Saints And herein are these particulars First God manifesting himself in a suitable way to the conditions of his people so as it were condescending to their condition that though his Majesty be infinite yet it shall no way be a terror unto them Here if a Saint of God sees but an Angel he is amazed but because God would have his people enjoy holy familiarity with himself therefore he will manifest himself so as though there be an infinite glory yet there shall be no amazement but that they shall be able familiarly to converse with him as one friend does with another The Scripture speaks of the familiar converse that God hath with his people here that they are called friends Abraham was called The friend of God and the Disciples were called friends but hereafter the friendship shall be much more full and sweet Job shall have his desire O that the terror of God may not fall upon me Here when God spake by himself many of the dearest of his Saints have been afraid but when we come to be made partakers of this blessed Recompence of reward all such fear shall be done away Again another thing in familiar converse is the mutual opening of themselves one to another much is said of Gods opening of himself to his people here Psal 25. 14. Prov. 3. 32. 1 Cor. 2. 16. John 15. 15. and that is the reason why they are brought into the Chamber spoken of in Cant. 1. 4. because their secrets are discovered as they said to the King of Judah concerning the Prophet The Prophet that is in Israel does reveal whatsoever thou doest in thy bed-chamber because in them Kings reveal their secrets The mysteries of the Kingdom are revealed to the Saints here much more in heaven there are many secret things that God hath to tell his people when they come to have familiarity with him When a man comes to a woman a stranger he does not tell her his secrets but when she is marryed to him then he tells her his secrets so in heaven God will reveal his secrets and they shall not onely see his face but they shall see Gods heart And they shall open their hearts to God for they shall have nothing in their hearts that they shall be ashamed of As the Sun-flower when the
laid in water reserved till we shall come to be planted in Heaven and there to flourish There is much difference between Gods people what they are here and what they shall be in Heaven as there is between a plant that is bound up and laid in water to be kept alive and when it is in the Orchard green and flourishing and bringing forth fruit Fourthly to have communion with them when we shall know one another perfectly It is an opinion of Thomas as you heard That the bodies of the Saints shall be so transparent that they shall be able to see through one anothers bodies as through a glass Howsoever that be yet the souls of one another and the graces and goodness of one another shall be fully made known to one another If now we did converse with a company of people that we knew certainly had all true grace and were all elected from all eternity what an admirable comfort would this be our communion is comfortable because we have some hopes of their election and we see some signs of grace but if we were certain of this if God should speak from Heaven concerning the poorest member of a Church and say This man or woman is the man or woman that I have had thoughts upon from all eternity and have elected to everlasting glory would we not prize such a one and rejoyce to have such a one in our families and houses Now when we come to Heaven we shall certainly know every one was elected from all eternity and so shall live with us to eternity we shall never have any fears or suspitions of them lest they should be hypocrites as there are fears and suspitions given of one another now And then to have communion with them when there shall be perfect love and union of heart to one another that one shall love another as well as himself and rejoyce in the glory and prosperity of one another as well as his own If one have more glory then another he that hath least glory shall rejoyce in him that hath more glory as if it were his own and therefore there shall not be any want of glory to any says Anselm Every Saint shall love God above himself and love one another as himself and God shall love them all more then they either love themselves or one another and he gives the reason of it says he They love both themselves and one another for God and by God and God loves himself and them for himself and by himself and therefore as they shall love God above themselves so they shall love one another like themselves and rejoyce in the happiness of another as in their own happiness Now what an heaven upon earth is it to have brethren live together in unity if it be in family communion or in Church communion to have entire love without any breaches this is a blessing but howsoever while we are in this world there will be breaches yet there is an heavenly Jerusalem coming where we shall live without breaches And then likewise to have communion one with another always in holy exercises To have communion one with another in our civil converse to eat and drink at one anothers tables and in recreating our selves this is sweet but communion in holy ordinances and holy duties that is sweetest Men love communion and society here that they may play together and eat and drink together indeed if it be in a moderate Christian way there may be some delight in it but know it is an evident sign of a carnal heart when as thy chief affections shall be let out in the exercising thy self that way If the chief joy of your hearts be not in exercising your selves in holy duties your hearts are carnal There is a great deal of difference between that day in which a company of gracious men have communion with one another in recreating themselves and that day wherein they shall have communion with one another in exercising themselves in holy ordinances in praying together and hearing the Word together and therefore examine whether you finde a day of communion with Gods people in holy exercises better then a day of communion in outward society Again it is such a communion as we shall never part with such a communion as we shall always enjoy Here we have communion but it is often darkned because we are often in our dumps and many times there is an occasion of sorrow given but to have communion where there shall be always joy continual being at the feast the supper of the Lamb that must needs be sweet Therefore that Text you have of Lazarus in Abrahams bosom sets out the continual feast of the Lamb that the Saints shall have because that was the maner of the Jews feasting to lean in the bosom of one another and therefore John when he sate to eat with Christ he leaned in his bosom noting that the Saints shall be always as the children of the Bride-Chamber There is a question made by some of the knowing of one anoanother in heaven It is reported of Luther the night before he dyed he was reasonable well and sate with his friends at the Table and the matter of their discourse was Whether they should know one another in heaven or no whether the father should know the childe or the childe the father Luther held it affirmatively and this was one reason he gave As it was with Adam as soon as he saw Eve he knew what Eve was not by discourse but by the Spirit of God telling him what she was and so we being filled with the Spirit of God we shall come to know one another we shall sit down with Abraham Isaac and Iacob we shall have communion with them not onely as godly men but as with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and if with them why not with others This we have in Scripture that spiritual relations shall adde much to the glory of the people of God in Heaven though natural relations shall be taken away as the Father if he know the childe there shall not be that natural affection to the childe as is now yet the Scripture seems to speak of spiritual relations that they shall continue even in Heaven for the glory of the Saints and therefore St. Paul says to the Philippians You are our crown and our rejoycing in the day of Christ It shall be known who were converted by such a Ministery and it shall be a crown to a Minister that such were converted and edified and built up by him But we need not trouble our selves about this question because we have one thing that will satisfie us about all questions that are not clear Either we shall have all that happiness we do think in our thoughts or can think or else we shall have that we being our own judges and choosers that shall be as good or better so that if a Parent thinks what an happiness were it for me
exercised in holy duties with others it is good to consider of their weakness whether they be able to hold out and joyn with us but there we shall not need fear weariness in our selves or any others Again we shall see nothing else done by no body else Here we get together and sing and pray and hear the Word and this is comfortable but we see the Sabbath broken by others and that damps our hearts but there is a Sabbath coming shall be so kept as we shall see none break it but every one we have to deal withal shall keep it But yet by the way it is better in a place where it is not altogether so well kept and is in a rising way then in a place where it is better kept for the present but is in a declining way but though it be a grief to us to see the Sabbath broken yet know there is a Sabbath coming that we shall keep and none shall break it Again the happiness of the Sabbath consists in this to keep this Sabbath in these high exercises when so many thousands shall be yelling and roaring under the wrath of an infinite God they shall consider we are now in the presence of God keeping a Sabbath unto him as the children of the Bride-chamber singing songs of triumph to him that sits upon the throne for ever whereas others are cast out from God and are roaring and yelling under the burthen of the wrath of an infinite God and that might have been our portion This addes to the glory of the Saints and therefore the Scripture hath this expression Without shall be dogs That expression is taken from the maner of the Iews marriages usually they were in the night and the Bridegroom and his Bride and their company were taken in with torches and delight into the Bride-chamber others were without without light not taken into the chamber so in Heaven some shall be taken to be exercised in these glorious things and others are cast out as would it not adde much to ones happiness to think thus with ones self I am now going into a place where I shall have abundance of mirth and joy with my friends and others in the mean time lie in the cold starving in the dungeon and I might have been there as well as they if a man should go along with the King in triumph and be at the right hand of the King in glory and as he goes by he should hear a company of poor wretches out of a dungeon crying yelling this sets out his glory so to be at that time thus exercised in those heavenly employments when as others shall be cursing themselves and the time that they were born and blaspheme the name of God it is a comfort to a company of gracious hearts when they are got together in holy exercises to think there are others in the Tavern drinking and swilling and blaspheming what difference is between our condition this day and their condition this does mightily refresh ones heart and enlarge it to praise God for his mercy and so in Heaven the Saints shall know every instant when they are keeping this Sabbath others are howling under the wrath of God and cursing the time they were born Lastly this Sabbath is to be kept in our Fathers house we shall not sing the songs of Zion in a strange Land but in our Fathers house Those godly persons in the times of the Maccabees accounted themselves happy that they might worship and serve God though in the Dens and Caves of the Earth it will be more happiness to serve God in Heaven and in our Fathers House I remember I read of one Marcellus a godly man being cast into a stinking place he did make that his Temple to God and perfumed it with his prayers and after the Christians built a Temple in that place and so we may make a filthy dungeon a Temple but if it be comfortable to be exercised in holy duties in the most filthy and vile places much more comfortable shall it be when we come to Heaven in our Fathers house In Rev. 15. we read of those that sung the song of Moses they stood upon the sea of glass mingled with fire to sing the song of Moses though it be upon the sea of glass this uncertain life of ours full of trouble it is comfortable but to sing it in our Fathers house will be comfortable indeed though we do meet with troubles here yet if we can enjoy the Sabbath we comfort our selves but we shall have a better Sabbath then these even a perpetual Sabbath in our Fathers house put these together and you shall see what this perpetual Sabbath is that Gods people shall have in heaven Now put all together that we have said negatively comparatively and positively the perfection of their natures their bodies and souls and whole persons their glory at the day of judgement their possession of heaven their having God to be their portion their communion with Christ their communion with the Angels and Saints and this perpetual Sabbath that they shall keep and do but apprehend what infinite joy must flow from all these these are as the several streams of this Paradise of God In Gen. 2. we read of Paradise that God made for Adam and there were four streams that were to water it this Paradise of Heaven have these seven streams to water it to make the Saints happy do but consider what infinite joy must flow from all these put together every one does cause joy but put them all together and the joy that comes from hence is a most pure joy and a most spiritual joy and a full joy and a divine joy First pure that is not onely free from any mixture of sorrow but without any thing that should sully it without any sin Here all our pleasures are mixed And spiritual If it were to rejoyce in the good that our bodies shall have it were admirable joy but the joy shall not be so much in regard of the happiness of our bodies but in regard that God is our portion it shall be spiritual yea the happiness of our bodies shall be spiritual and supernatural And it shall be full How full must it needs be they shall enter into their joy because the joy cannot enter into them We rejoyce in believing with joy unspeakable and glorious If the seed time be so glorious how glorious will the harvest be says Cyprian They shall not taste but they shall be abundantly satisfied with the fatness of thy house The fatness of Gods house in the world does abundantly satisfie the souls of Gods people but the fatness of Gods house hereafter how will that satisfie them The people of God shall have such objects to rejoyce in as is the essential glory of God and all the glory that is put upon him by all his creatures and all the good they have by Gods
appears to be in others prating of him but now when men do not understand any great good in themselves then they account the evil of the world despising them a great evil Many men judge of themselves rather by the esteem other men have of them then by any good they know in themselves and no marvel though these men be so much troubled at other mens despising of them If a Merchant have a Ship come home laden with many thousand pounds worth of rich Commodities though his Servant should do something amiss that day he would not be froward at it but pass it by because he hath such great profit and good coming in so the evils of the world are nothing in comparison to that soul that knows the great things of the Kingdom of God to be its own Thirdly there is a mighty deal of power in it because this respect unto the recompence of reward does so much take up the faculties of the soul the intention of the minde being taken up about so great an object other things are not minded in comparison and this is the reason why those that are in a phrensie are insensible of what you do unto them because their mindes are taken up about that which they apprehend so strongly as nothing else is minded by them and if there was any object made known to take up the minde of man it must be such great things as these made certain and real to the soul by faith It is a property peculiar to God that though he hath many glorious things that he exercises his wisdom about yet he does minde the least thing the least creature in the world as much as if there were nothing else to minde but no creature can do so no creature can minde great things with intention of minde and yet minde inferior things with any strength of intention too but if he mindes great things with intention other things must be lightly minded An Ecclesiastical Historian tells us of the Christians they did so minde the glory of God and the glory of Heaven as that the pains they suffered were as in the bodies of other men and not in their own bodies It is reported of Archimides who was a great Mathematician that when the City was taken wherein he was and the Warlike instruments of death clattering about his ears and all was in a tumult yet he was so busie about drawing his lines that he did not know there was any danger and heard no noise If such objects as these can take up the intention of the minde so as not to minde other things then much more such an object as eternal life and eternal glory and happiness And therefore that place is very observable in 2 Cor. 4. 16. We faint not in our sufferings because we look not at things that are seen but at things that are not seen We are so intense about Heaven and the glory of God that we do not give a look at things that are seen So in Heb. 11. 15 16. They were not so much as mindeful of that Countrey from whence they came because they sought a Countrey that was better and heavenly It is a notable expression that Basil hath concerning the Martyrs says he They do not look at the danger they are in but at the crown And again he says They do not look at the Officers and Executioners that are whipping of them but they look to the Angels that are giving acclamations and that are encouraging of them As a carnal heart a man that mindes earthly things his minde is so taken up about them because they are an object suitable to him as when all the glory of God and of Christ and of Heaven is set before him he lets it pass without any minding so a gracious heart that by faith can see into the reality of the glory of Heaven and eternal life so taken up with them as not to minde earthly things and that is the third particular Fourthly the respect unto the recompence of the reward hath a mighty power to carry on the soul in a way of suffering because the soul by this comes to see how infinitely well pleased God is with it and with that it undertakes for his names sake in suffering any thing in his cause and this does mightily prevail with a gracious heart If God does but give his command to do a thing this might be enough to shew Gods good pleasure in that action but when with command God reveals such infinite glorious things that he will reward that action withal this discovers more of the infinite good pleasure of God so that the soul in this does not onely see its own happiness but sees the infinite good pleasure of God in it and reasons thus How hath God set his heart upon me And what infinite good pleasure is it that he takes in that I poor worm shall suffer for his names sake when he does not onely tell me it is according to his will but he hath such infinite glorious things to reward that I do except his heart were much upon it taken with it there would never such great and glorious things have been for the rewarding of it but in that these things are so revealed and I in some measure see them I cannot but think God takes infinite delight in these sufferings for his names sake God forbid that any thing in the world should take off my heart from that which I see God takes such infinite pleasure in when a gracious heart shall see God holding forth a crown to set on his head in suffering it sets the soul on fire in suffering for God if thou hadst onely given forth thy command it had been enough to make all creatures obedient to thee but that thou shouldest manifest thy self thus to crown them with this glory and to lay up these treasures of the riches of thy glory for them Who would not do and suffer any thing in thy cause O blessed God! The fifth particular wherein the power of this argument consists is the abundance of sweet that there is in the hope of this reward to fill the heart with joy and peace the more joy and peace the heart is filled withal the more certainly it is able to do great things So Nehemiah tells the people when he would have them rejoyce The joy of the Lord is your strength Neh. 8. 10. When as the heart is strengthned with joy it is able to do mighty things now the hope of these glorious things do mightily fill the heart with joy and so strengthens the heart A man that hath his body strong he can endure cold and bear great burthens that a weak body cannot bear and nothing strengthens the heart more then this joy of the Lord where the heart is filled with it Vessels that are empty will soon be broke with the heat of the fire which they will not be if they be full this hope
can be their consciences cannot but accuse them that they undertake the ways of Religion to employ them for no more then for the attaining such low ends Yea many that are now in Heaven and have this glorious reward did not finde so much difficulty in the ways of Religion as many Hypocrites do There are three Reasons for it First that they do is by their own strength and when one comes to perform the duties of Religion by his own strength they are hard to him a gracious heart hath strength from Heaven and from Christ now when a man hath received strength he can do that with ease that was difficult before A man that hath a base unclean heart the ways of Religion must be tedious to such a one as a mans body being corrupted whatsoever he does is tedious to him if he were sound it would not be so tedious and so the ways of Religion are tedious to an hypocrite because he does all in his own strength and his soul is corrupted Besides the ways of Religion are not suitable to his principles but he is fain to force himself to them and all forced things are tedious but a gracious heart goes on in the ways of Religion as suitable to his principles Besides an Hypocrite hath not those comforts as those that are gracious have in their ways they have the assurance of Gods acceptance and the light of God shining upon them which Hypocrites have not so that the ways of God are more difficult to Hypocrites then to the godly and yet they get nothing by them but some base ends and the godly that do not endure so much difficulty get Heaven and immortality and a Crown of glory and all because their ends are different O be sure your ends be right you see what vast difference mens ends may make As if two should go to sea it may be they go out both together and one endures as much tempest and storm as the other and they are at the like charge perhaps yet the one comes home richly laden and the other brings nothing but Cockle shells and a little gravel when he that brought home the Cockle shells and the gravel shall see the difference between him and the other when as they were at like charge and endured the same difficulty how will he be ashamed This is the difference between a gracious heart and an hypocrite both go out in Religion the one makes as much stir as the other and suffers as much disgrace and contempt as the other the one enjoys all the riches of the Kingdom of God the other what does all his profession come to he gains a little respect from some that this body or that body says He is a man of good parts and here is all O miserable voyage that such as these are have made when all their profession comes but to this Yea it may be they do not so much as gain respect from those that are wise and judicious but onely from a company of pratlers that will speak well of you when you please them and when you do not please them they will speak as ill of you like a great blaze that a little fire will make in straw for the present and when it is past you see nothing but a few black ashes so many Professors make a great blaze and a great noise and shew and all that it comes to is that they get a little esteem in the world or like Kites they will flutter up a little but their eye is upon the carrion so many seem to be above in the ayr in the profession of Religion and yet their eyes are upon the carrion they make things below their aym What dishonor is this unto the ways of godliness those ways that are the most precious things in the world all the world is nothing to the profession of godliness and those ways that God hath appointed to lead to such glorious things as these are how are they vilified and abased you do not onely vilifie your selves but you vilifie Gods ways when as they tend to such a glorious end you put them under your base ends If a man were a Nobleman by birth what greater dishonor could be done to him then to make him serviceable to a drudge So the ways of God that are so glorious to make them serviceable to your base ends what dishonor is put upon the ways of God in this Certainly God cannot take it well at your hands to make the meanest creature of God our own civil actions serviceable to our lusts is a great sin but to make Prayer and the Word and the Sacraments and the ways of godliness to be serviceable to our lusts this is most horrible impiety Again how do you pollute that which is holy The way of God is a holy thing and take heed of polluting of it by having such low ends in it Again consider how you do take the name of God in vain the name of God is in the ways of Religion and for you to have no higher ends in Religion but such base ones you take Gods name in vain and God will not hold you guiltless These two men a gracious heart and a hypocrite may be compared to two men that follow the King one that follows the King for some Dukedom and place of Office to obtain some great thing from the King and a begger that knows not the King but runs after him for an alms and if he may have six pence or a shilling he goes away quieted So in the ways of Religion both seem to follow God a gracious heart follows God and knows what God is he knows that God is a blessed God a glorious God and that there are wonderful great and glorious things to be communicated from God to the souls of his people and therefore he follows God for great things for heaven and eternity and glory and immortality an hypocrite he knows little of God and he follows God that he may have a little credit and content for a while and he looks no higher O base ignoble spirits that have no higher thoughts in the ways of God! though we must take heed of high thoughts of our selves yet in the ways of God we must lift up our selves and have high thoughts and high ayms O what difference is there between an hypocrite and a true gracious heart A gracious heart hath high ends for God in the meanest actions in eating and drinking and an hypocrite hath low ends in his highest actions in the most solemn duties of divine worship Secondly those hypocrites are to be rebuked that go on fairly in the profession of Religion and make conscience of secret sins and not onely in shews but really are escaped many pollutions of the world and yet at last lose all for cleaving to some one sin but there is a great deal of difference between a real escaping and true sanctifying escaping many may really forsake
have felt the work of God regenerating your souls upon which you have followed me you shall sit upon twelve thrones Some do interpret this place Regeneration the estate of the Gospel and so make it not to be the work of God upon the soul but the work of God upon the world to make a new world as the glorious estate of the Church under the Gospel is called a new heaven and a new earth and so take it Ye that have followed me in this new world ye shall sit upon twelve thrones c. but I rather take it the other way not wholly excluding this they are onely those that follow Christ in the Regeneration that shall have this reward It is called the new birth because there is such a strange change there is a new spirit and a new life put into a man Suppose a rational soul were put into a beast what a change would be in that creature Suppose an Angelical nature were put upon us what a change would there be By the change that is wrought in regeneration there is a greater difference the highest degree of glory in heaven is not so different from the lowest degree of grace here as the lowest degree of grace here is different from the highest excellency of nature because the difference between the highest degree of the glory of heaven from the lowest degree of grace is but a gradual difference but the difference that is between the lowest degree of grace and the highest excellency of nature is a specifical difference Therefore you that hope for glory know there must be a regeneration that work of God upon your souls that must cause a greater difference in you from that you were by nature then there is in the glorified Saints that have the highest degree of glory from the meanest Saint in the world as the reward is a mighty glorious thing so the work of God in preparing a soul for this reward is a mighty glorious work And therefore do not content your selves in every poor slight thought of heaven know heaven lies upon that which is a mighty work of God in you Thirdly if you ever come to Heaven there is a principle of heaven put into your souls here that is a heavenly principle that carries you heavenward I mean the work of God causing you to have heavenly mindes and heavenly hearts Our conversation is in heaven says the Apostle In Cant. 3. 6. the Church is compared to pillars of smoke that ascend upward to heaven Though the Church be black and dark in regard of her infirmities yet it hath a principle to carry it upward to heaven The Saints are compared to Eagles that fly aloft towards heaven though their bodies are not there their hearts and souls are there if our treasures be in heaven our hearts are there already I read of Edward the first who had a mighty desire to go to the holy Land to Ierusalem and because he was hindred and could not get thither he gave his Son a charge upon his death-bed to carry his heart thither and he prepared Two and thirty thousand pound to carry his heart thither So the Saints though they have not their bodies in heaven their hearts are there and they take much pains and are at great charges to get their hearts thither All things in nature have a principle to carry them to their proper place because the place of fire is on high therefore fire hath a principle to carry it on high and because the place of earth is below therefore earth hath a principle to carry it downward So if the place and center of the heart be in Heaven then certainly it hath a principle to move naturally thither to move upward to heaven and therefore that soul that hath nothing but a principle to carry it downward to the earth and to the lusts of it to these things below heaven is not the proper place for such a soul and when the soul goes out of the body it wil not go to Heaven Take earth and close it in a vessel and take fire and put into a vessel open the vessels and let them out and they go both to their places so the souls of men when they are gone out of the body they go to the place whither they had a principle to carry them therefore do not think the principle shall be put into them when you dye but you must have a principle before if your hearts be prest down by earthly things when you dye they will fall down and therefore observe which way your souls work Can you say as in the presence of God My soul works heavenward though I have weights of corruption that would weigh me down yet I have a principle that does work to Heaven But the consciences of many tell them their souls work downward to vanity and sensuality and you have no other principle and therefore when your souls depart they fall downward Fourthly what soul soever hath an interest in heaven heaven is in that soul already The kingdom of God is in them and they have taken hold of eternal life now eternal life abides in them Whom he hath justified he hath glorified already they have the glory of heaven begun you heard what that was In heaven there is the perfection of our natures the image of God shall be renewed now is the image of God begun hath God marked you and set the stamp of his image upon you There is no soul that God does intend to put glory upon but he marks that soul and stamps his image upon it in the work of conversion and says Here is a soul I set the stamp of my image upon because I mark it out to glory if ever you come to Heaven God must see his own Image and Superscription upon you As the Beast set his mark upon men and would suffer none to trade but those that had his mark so God will set his mark upon his people and none shall come into his Kingdom but those that have his mark now a mans Image is upon a thing when by beholding of it I am put in minde of him that it is an Image of so if you have this Image and stamp of God a man that knows God as soon as he looks upon you as soon as he beholds your conversation he is put in minde of God and he says I have heard and read much of God of the holiness and righteousness of God and by this mans conversation I am put in minde of that holiness and righteousness of God the brightness of which I see shining here Again in Heaven you know God himself is the portion of the Saints they have the presence of God What presence of God do you enjoy here Were your souls ever acquainted with the presence of God in the Ordinances What blessed vision have you of God here Those who come to Heaven God gives a sight of himself here
Recompence of Reward may be attained BUt what is to be done that we may attain to this glorious recompence of reward I answer Are your hearts serious in asking this question Do your souls ask this question indeed in the earnestness of them as they did Men and brethren what shall we do to be saved so as to be willing to yield to whatsoever God shall reveal If you have such a resolution know this comes from Heaven and if it be followed to purpose it will bring you to Heaven But for direction if you would make your selves partakers of this reward First consider the infinite distance that is between you and Heaven naturally That blessed Martyr Mr. Hooper though he was a gracious man yet he cryed out Lord thou art Heaven and I am hell If he cryed out so how much more may many of you whose consciences may accuse you Lord thou art heaven but I am one not onely that deserve hell but that am hell it self What ever wickedness is in hell is in every mans heart naturally when as any are cast into hell certainly hell puts no new sin into them there is but the venting of that sin which was there before and all the wickedness of mens hearts that was restrained is now let open Now look what infinite distance is between hell and all this glory and the glorious thoughts of God for the salvation of a poor creature the same difference is between this glory and that condition a man is in naturally O labor to see this and be convinced of this and work this upon your hearts what is that reward that you do deserve make your hearts truly sensible of that Secondly it concerns us much if we would not miscarry here to acquaint our selves with the mystery of the Covenant of Grace for it is upon that your eternal estate depends more then any thing else onely in the Covenant of Grace is revealed the counsels of God concerning bringing mankinde to eternal happiness and how he will bring about this glory and without some knowledge of the Covenant of Life and Grace in Christ all that can be done in the world can never bring any soul to Heaven and that soul is in a very good forwardness to eternal life that is acquainted with the Covenant of Grace Thirdly consider what is the special sin that your heart is naturally most inclined unto and you finde the corruption of your hearts vent it self most in and look to that take heed that be not your bane in the conclusion let there be a renouncing of that or else all is to no purpose all your serving of God is nothing St. Paul when he spoke concerning his running the race and attaining an incorruptible crown says I therefore so run not as uncertainly and so fight I as not one that beateth the air as if he should say I hope my labors and endeavors after Heaven and this incorruptible Crown shall not be in vain as one that beateth the air How so because I keep under my body and bring it into subjection lest that by any means when I have preached to others my self should be cast away He was afraid of that body of his wherein corruption did stir and his giving way to some bodily fleshly content that he found stirring in him should disappoint him and therefore says he I keep down my body in the Original it is I beat my body black and blew I club it down his conscience was convinced of Gods ways but he felt the flesh and body of his working in some sinful way and his conscience began so far to reflect upon himself as to think if I do not look to this body of mine I shall lose this incorruptible crown and I shall but beat the ayr therefore says he I keep under my body What shall St. Paul such a glorious Apostle so filled with the grace of God as he was have such thoughts for fear he should labor after Heaven and the incorruptible crown as one that beateth the ayr what shall become of a company of wretched creatures that do nothing but satisfie the flesh minde nothing but to give full satisfaction to the desires of the flesh every way their thoughts are after nothing else but to make provision for the flesh If you will not labor after heaven as one that beats the ayr beat down your bodies if you do not beat down your bodies there is little hope of the salvation of your souls it was St. Pauls care let it be yours Again further if you would have this recompence of reward labor to unsnarl your selves from the creature labor to get your hearts loose and untangled from whatsoever is in the world from all earthly engagements It is a speech that I have read of one Demades when the Emperor sent to his Countreymen of Athens to give him Divine honor and they were loth to yield unto it but consulted about it says he Take heed you be not so busie about heavenly matters as to lose your earthly possessions that indeed is the voyce of a carnal heart Let not me look after the high conceits of heavenly matters as to lose my earthly possessions but rather turn it the other way Take heed you be not so busie about earthly matters as to lose your heavenly possessions I have read of Antipater King of Macedonia that when one presented him a Book treating of happiness his answer was 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I have no leisure you have been presented with Sermons and now with a Book treating of heavens happiness take heed that no earthly entanglements so take your heart that you should put off all with such a thought I must minde and follow my occasions let no other things take up your heads or hearts that you should have no liberty to your spirits to seek after these glorious things or at least not so to seek after them as becomes things of such a high and glorious nature as these are The Apostle in 1 Tim. 6. 19. says They that will be rich fall into a temptation and a snare and into many foolish and hurtful lusts which drown men in destruction and perdition they that set their hearts upon the creature they must have so much of the creature they drown themselves in the creature As a man when he is drowning he catcheth hold of any thing that is next him and by fastening upon that which is next him he loses fastening upon that which might save his life So those that have their hearts engaged to the creature and resolve they must have so much of the creature they are drowning in perdition and they catch hold upon that which is next them some present content and pleasure and though something be cast to deliver them they let that go We in the Gospel cast forth a line to you to help you from drowning for every man naturally is sinking in perdition but because