Theology sinds it but Religion possesseth it As Paul told the Athenians he declared unto them him whom they ignorantly worshipped So the Christian discovers that which the Heathen Moralist blindly pursues but it is only the Godly Man who hath his Soul throughly tinctured with true Grace that enjoyes this tranquility and hereby I mean a sedate calmnesse of affections whereby a man is freed from the terrors of an accusing Conscience and from the impetus and violence of unruly passions which make him as the troubled Sea casting up continually mire and dirt discovering in the effects of such vile affections the filthinesse that lies deep in the bottom of their hearts so foaming out their own shame these lusts like the Devil in the poor man that cast him sometimes into the fire and sometimes into the water or made him cut himself with stones hurry men with violence sometime into one extream sometimes into another and make them pierce themselves through with many sorrows and make dreadful wounds and gashes in their own Consciences rushing them into a thousand dangers as the unruly horse doth the Rider into the battel But I have already said enough of the diseases quarrels and other inconveniences that mens sins subject them to which are but the fulfilling of these importunate Lusts which will never let a man rest but are continually solliciting for satisfaction and can never be satisfied but enlarge themselves continually as Hell and those fleshly Lusts do not only war against the Soul but in the Soul against one another this is our unhappiness that we must serve divers Lusts so that a man is not only as one compares him like a Servant in an Inne where there are many Guests some calling with importunity one way some another some up stairs some down but like those that live on the Frontiers of a Kingdom bordering upon the Territories of another Prince or betwixt two Garrisons in a civil War his service is required of both he knows not whom to obey both require more taxes than he knows how to pay thus is miserable man tortured while he is a slave to his Lusts one calls one way another calls another way Pride puts him upon one thing Covetousnesse countermands Sensuality calls him another way Pride reclaims and tells him it will stain his reputation spot his honour Now for freeing a man from this basest slavery the Gospel is much more effectual than all the precepts of morality as it more clearly layes before us the expresse commands and peremptory will and pleasure of the Soveraign Law-giver as it inforceth these with promises and threatnings of such things as there is either a deep silence of amongst the Philosophers or which at least they descry but at a great distance and seem to make some imperfect discovery of which the Gospel doth evidently demonstrate And which is more than all this there doth a spirit of Life and Power accompany the Gospel where it is received which changeth the Soul into another form there is a Divine nature thereby communicated whereby men become as it were new Creatures have new thoughts and new affections whereby they now savour the things of the spirit as they did before the things of the flesh The Old Man is mortified by the spirit that as in old age desire fails as we have a proof in Barzillai that tasted not the sweetnesse of the Creatures as formerly so when a Mans Lusts are mortified he hath not a desire after forbidden vanities and the pleasures of sin as formerly Philosophy indeed hath one Polemo to boast of but the Gospel thousands whose natures have been so changed by its power that they have become quite other persons and whatever Morality can furnish us with to perswade the Gospel hath the same in greater evidence and much more besides a Christian may more truly say of the Gospel than one said of Philosophy he thereby learns to want what others enjoy not that any man hath more pleasure or finds more contentin what he possesseth than the Christian that hath all sweetened to him by the favour of God and knows that it is not his only portion as to others when they dye wo to you ye have received your consolation but he doth not disquiet himself with the desire of more than God hath given him and it is better to be content with a little than to have much and not to be satisfied better to enjoy perfect health and eat and drink no more than nature requires than to be troubled with the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or appetitus caninus and be continually eating or a Dropsie and be always drinking So for those natural evils which are the objects of our fear and sorrow as they are future and foreseen or present and selt the Christian hath the advantage of all others for bearing them not only as Hope Patience Meeknesse are the fruits of the spirit which he works by that special power and energy which he puts forth in Gods chosen ones but as the Gospel doth furnish him with moral arguments much more effectual to perswade to patience than any that are learned in the Schools of the Philosophers as it is in vain to be troubled at what we cannot help all good hath a mixture of evil and all evil hath a mixture of good There is a vicissitudo of fortunes so that in adversity a Man may hope that prosperity will succeed We should consider the condition of others who suffer the like things with our selves Bearing afflictions will harden us to undergo them better as Iron grows harder by being oft heated in the fire sometimes injuries prove advantagious to those who suffer them These and such like rational considerations may help to correct the excesse of Mens passions but it is only the Gospel which discovers the care and singular love of God to his people in all the eviss that befall them he being with them sympathizing with them so far as is consistent with his happinesse and perfection ordering all things by his wise and powerful Providence sitting as a refiner while he casts his Gold and Silver into the Furnace to purifie it ordering all things for the good of his chosen this may make us not only patient in tribulation but to glory in it not only to conquer in our sufferings but to be more then Conquerors Indeed all that assume to themselves the title of Christians enjoy not this tranquility for many arrogate this to themselves which belongs not to them those that are Christians indeed attain to this but by degrees none are absolutely perfect in this life and perfect peace of mind is not an absolute freedom from all passion not an apathy but tranquillitas ordinis when every affection keeps its own place and doth its proper work When Fear is the Souls Gentinel to warn it of approaching danger that being forewarned it may before-armed when Sorrow is the temper of the Soul or the ballast of it to keep
answer the hopes which God himself hath drawn us into And we may be most secure that he will not give such advantage to any Creature to enter into judgment with him Now let us consider what some of us have seen in the interviews perhaps of Princes the Coronation or marriage of Kings or on other occasions yet we have heard of more than we have seen We have heard of the Glory of Solomon and many other great Princes exceeding what our times have to boast of and yet we can enlarge our thoughts to something above these and let our minds wander into the four corners of the earth to fetch in the Glory and splendor of the World to make up to our selves an Idea of happinesse and yet when we have framed such an Vtopia such an imaginary Glory God who is too great and too good to deceive poor mortals hath given us to understand that his preparations for his Saints are somewhat above all this and that eye hath not seen nor ear heard non the heart of Man conceived what he hath laid up for those that love him In the next place let us consider that it is the blessed state of Angels which are first of more enlarged capacities than Men and yet they find a perfect felicity therein We should not make a judgment of the state and magnificence of a Princes Court by the reports of some poor Peasant who we might easily imagine would be ready to admire any thing which he should see above the pomp of his Landlords house where he used perhaps to labour or go sometimes to pay some poor rent but we should more easily believe some noble Courtier of a more raised mind or some Ambassador that hath seen the pomp of several Princes Courts and knows what belongs to State and greatnesse It had been no great matter to have heard Paul boast of what he saw in Paradise who was carryed from these poor Cottages of clay to the Court of Heaven like David from the Sheepfold to Sauls Court But the Angels continually adoring the Glory of their King and singing perpetual Hallelujahs to him doth easily perswade that the Glory of the Coelestial Court is far above what mortal eyes ever saw And besides the enlarged capacities of Angels we may consider that they are incorporeal so that these corporeal delights and pleasures which we have the most clear and lively apprehension of make up none of their happinesse but besides such delights which its likely we shall not want in Heaven there are more pure and spiritual delights enough to make an Angel happy which we can scarce conceive any thing of A further consideration which may argue the happinesse of that future state is the greatness and Glory of many wicked men here in this World Let us but consider how the great ones of the Earth many of which have been wicked men do bash themselves continually in Rivers of pleasure and enjoy for many years together whatever their hearts can wish and what we ordinarily see great ones now enjoy is little to the Glory of a Belshazzer a Darius an Alexander a Nerâ— the Grand Signior the Kings of China and yet all this is but as the crumbs that fall from the Childrens table What then can we imagine them to be fed with these are but the spillings or the overflowings of his bounty to his very Enemies how great then is that which he hath reserved for those to whom he hath purposed to shew the exceeding Riches of his Grace to give the World a proof of his bounty and Glory as a Prince that would make an entertainment for ostentation and shew his great respect to some of his special and most beloved friends We read often in Scripture of the preparations that God hath made for his Saints which is but a metaphorical expression of the greatnesse of that glory which he hath ordained them to as those entertainments which Men do long prepare for do far exceed what they on a sudden make being unawares surprized by the coming of their friends I will yet add another proof of the greatnesse of that Glory which we hope for taken from the fore-tasts which many have of it here which hath made them Glory in tribulations triumph in the flames and not only abated but wholly taken away the sense of the most exquisite torments that some Martyrs have felt no more in the fire than if they had been in a bed of Roses Some after long conflicts and terrors have had such ravishing joys that they have cryed to God to hold they could bear no more If such glimpses have so ravished them what is the full view and clear vision Let us imagine a confection the least drop of which distilled into a draught of Gall or Wormwood or whatever can be supposed to be more bitter and distastful should wholly alter the tast of it making it most pleasing and delicious how sweet would a full draught of it be without the least mixture of any thing distastful and unpleasing so if such drops of spiritual joys are able to sweeten the bitterest cup of afflictions what shall we think of bathing our selves and drinking our fill in those Rivers of pleasure at Gods right hand for evermore without the least mixture of any sorrow or trouble to allay the sweetnesse thereof I have hitherto in general shewed that the Glory of Heaven is like to be very great and inconceivable much more inexpressible but I have not yet attempted to shew what it is or wherein it consists and while I say it is not to be expressed if I should go about to set it forth fully there would be contradictio in terminis so that all I dare pretend to is some rude delineation of that state of happinesse Man is made up of two essential parts Soul and Body now though the Soul be the more noble part yet doubtlesse the body shall have its share in this felicity If God hath so far honoured them as to make them the Temples of the Holy Ghost and given Christ a charge that he should lose nothing of what he hath given him but raise up our scattered dust at the last day Job 6.39 he hath certainly reserved a reward for that which hath had so great a share in our sufferings here and he hath told us in general that he will by his Divine power change our vile bodies and make them like his glorious body but sure as we approach nearer to the nature of God in our souls so they shall have the greatest share of future Glory and in general it shall be with the Glory wherewith Christ was glorified from Eternity and after his suffering and this shall be by the enjoyment of God which is the acting of the perfected faculties and affections of our Souls upon him Every sense hath its proper object in the enjoyment of which it takes complacency according to the suitablenesse of the object thereto and according to
binds him to only Christianity directing us to right principles and ends in such actions makes them turn to our good account So that Christian Charity is the best Vsury God gives us bond for repayment Prov. 19.17 and he is a good pay-master If a Man would lay up somewhat against an evil day he cannot put it into better hands Eccles 11.2 If the worst come and the hand of violence should seize on his Estate yet he may say with him in Seneca I have that still which I have given away yea a Man of meer humanity and generosity cannot but have such a sympathy with others in their sufferings that in relieving them he relieves himself as Alexander when Darius sent a complement to him by his Ambassadors for his civility to his Wife Mother Daughters whom he had taken Captives returned him answer that it was in vain to complement with an Enemy and the favour he had shewed to them was not so much out of affection to him as to satisfie his own nature which could not insult over the misery of others For the charge of the service of God let shame for ever cloath them and confusion cover them as a Garment that complain of it Let an Heathen an Alexander condemn them who when Leonidas reproved him for spending so much incense in sacrifice to his Gods and told him he might do that when he had taken the Countries from whence it came having taken them sent him incense in abundance and sent him word that for the future he should not be sparing in his offerings to his Gods for he had found by experience that what was offered to them they paid with Vsury And further our expence now under the Gospel about the service of God is nothing to what it was formerly under the Law What I said before in respect of time I may say here in respect of Estate what Men spend upon Religious uses and works of charity is not comparable to what Men spend upon their Lusts And whoever call themselves Christians should disdain that any should be more free in the service of the Devil than they are in the service of Christ Neither is it Christian charity but blind zeal and superstition that makes men give away their Estates as is ordinary amongst the Papists to maintain others in ease and idlenesse under a pretence of devoting themselves to religious exercises and the imitation of I know not what pretended Saints Others are not ashamed to complain of that justice and equity that Religion doth oblige a man to observe in his commerce with others as hindering their thriving in the World but I have said enough already of the curse that follows injustice and oppression to shew how vain this objection is besides the punishment inflicted by Man for these sins which are the more odious to Men because they are against our neighbor immediately as many other sins are not so as men are more sensible of them and as much as they can avoid having any thing to do with such as are false and unjust in their dealings with others Some object further the sufferings which Religion exposeth a Man oftentimes to But to this I may answer as to the former Men ordinarily suffer more for sin The Devil hath had more Martyrs than Christ in most Ages of the World that is more have suffered for doing the Devils works and fulfilling his Lusts than for the service of Christ How many are there that suffer imprisonment banishment losse of goods yea of life for injustice oppression murther adultery sedition and other sins And I have oft thought it might be a great comfort to one imprisoned for the cause of Religion for Christs sake to think he might have suffered the same for his sin if he had been left to his Lusts as others or for his misery for Debt and Poverty whereas now he suffers the ordinary lot of Mankind in such a cause on such an occasion as it shall prove his greatest advantage God rewarding so bountifully whatever a Man undergoes for his sake both with present spiritual comforts and future everlasting Glory Lastly experience may be objected against all that I have said it being observed that the followers of Christ have the least share ordinarily in the things of the World But I answer to this it is not because Religion is any way prejudicial to Mens worldly Estates but because God in his free and wise Providence doth for the most part choose the poor of the World to be the Heirs of his Kingdom both that he may confound the wisdom of Men and stain the Pride of their glory choosing contrary to Mans ordinary judgment and choice and also because out of his bounty he is pleased to give many a portion in this Life to whom he intends none hereafter Further however God doth not many times give his Children superfluities he ordinarily provides for their necessities and many may make Davids observation that they have not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging their bread Yea I may add as Psal 37.16 A little that a righteous Man hath is better than great Treasures of many wicked because he is satisfied with what he hath The vanity of the Creature proceeds from the vanity of Mens minds when Men will make the Creature their chief happinesse they must needs find it vanity and vexation of spirit because it doth not answer their expactations from it they looking for more from it than ever God put in it But a Godly Man having something else for his chief good which is sufficient to fill his most enlarged desires and to answer the highest expectations that he can have from it he makes use of the Creature only for the end to which God hath appointed it to supply his bodily necessities to be a Viatioum in this his Pilgrimage towards Heaven which end it is sufficient to answer so that there is none can rejoyce and take pleasure in the Creature more than a Godly Man SECT V. The influence which Religion hath even upon our bodies how far it conduceth to our health Diseases of the body ordinarily proceed from the distempers of the Soul That Temperance Diligence in our callings and moderation of our passions which the Gospel requires and teaches is the best remedy against them THE next interest of Man which I shall speak of doth yet more nearly concern him and that is Health which is not only as one calls it the Paradise of all sensual pleasures wherein they grow and flourish but the Salt that seasons all our worldly comforts without which we can find very little sayour in them yea are not only incapable of enjoying all other things but of enjoying our selves yea the want of it makes us as unable to do good as to enjoy good but only as we may be examples of Faith and Patience to others Now though Religion chiefly concerns the Soul and seems to have little influence on Mens bodies yet I
will confidently affirm what may seem a Paradox to many that the precepts of Christ well observed would free as many from Diseases as his Miracles they would prevent as many diseases as his miracles cured How many are there whose bodies are filled with the sins of their souls which they have tired and worn out in the service of their insatiable Lusts which are like furious Riders that tire out their Beasts they ride on before they be tired themselves Though Men are not presently sensible of decayes in their health by riot drunkennesse and such like sins they lay in daily the seeds of those diseases which many groan under in their old age though others feel them sooner We ordinarily say that excesse kills more than the Sword By excesse we are not to understand only eating and drinking to surfeiting and drunkenness or till nature be so oppressed that it dischargeth it self of its burden but when Men make their appetite not their reason the measure of their allowance It would require the skil of a Physician to enumerate the Diseases which are the effects of Mens sins but every one may easily observe that the ordinary Rules which the best Physicians prescribe for the preservation of Health require nothing more than Temperance and exercise the former Religion strictly injoyns and though it do not require the later as such or under such a notion yet in effect it requires it of most commanding diligence in Mens callings and condemning idlenesse which is the source of so many diseases as daily experience will evince it being obvious to the observation of all that Health is the poor Mans priviledge and sicknesse most common among the Rich who live in idlenesse though they have many other advantages above the poor for the preservation of their health besides those two causes of sicknesse there is a third which religion doth remove or at least much correct and that is inordinate passions such as Anger Fear Sorrow Envy which have a very malignant influence upon the Body and there is scarce any thing which tends so much to the poizing and ballancing of the humors of the body which is so necessary for the preservation of the health as a well composed temper of mind and calmnesse and quietness in the Soul which Religion doth not only teach but which is more doth in a great measure effect and therein exceeds the morals of Phylosophers as we shall in due place more fully see SECT VI. Religion forbids us not any pleasures which are agreeable to nature reason or Mans own interest None can more freely enjoy pleasures than a Godly Man THere is yet another thing which many account their great interest and their great prejudice against Religion is that they conceive it inconsistent therewith and that is Pleasure Now if we take Pleasure in a large sence as it is taken in Scripture that inward Joy Comfort and satisfaction which accompanies an holy Life and those everlasting pleasures at Gods right hand which a holy Life leads to will fall afterwards under consideration And as for those bodily pleasures which in this place are chiefly intended Religion doth not at all forbid them nor deprive a Man of them and it is an unjust calumny of some that God hath put inclinations into mans nature to such things as he hath forbidden him and that this is the chief cause of so much sin in the World But these men know not what spirit they are of It was the suggestion of the Devil to Man in Paradise that God as if he envyed mans happinesse had laid a restraint on them to keep them from that which as the Devil would perswade them he knew might better their condition and advance them to an equality with himself as if it had been a small matter that he had allowed them such liberty to enjoy all the pleasures of Paradise and to eat of all the fruit of it save only that in the midst of the Garden But they received a just recompence for believing the Devil rather than God It is the same spirit which now perswades Men that God hath dealt hardly with us to interdict us the enjoyment of that wherein we might find such pleasure and satisfaction whereas he hath rather manifested his goodnesse to Man in that he hath put into him such inclinations as he may take pleasure in those things which are necessary for the propagation of the species or for the conservation of the individuals of Mankind and he doth not forbid our pleasure in these but only forbids Gluttony and Drunkennesse which is excess in the use of meats and drinks and Adultery which is the misplacing of these desires which he hath provided for the satisfaction of mankind without sin and we have no cause to complain of Gods bounding of us in these things but rather wonder that there should be any need of any Laws to forbid such irregularities therein as we should wonder that any should make Laws strictly to forbid Men to burn their own houses to cut their own flesh to drink poyson if we consider the mischiefs that ensue upon our exceeding the limits which God hath yet set us in these things in impairing our Health wasting our Estates staining our honour breeding discords in Families depriving us of reason and turning us into Bruits exposing us sometimes to Mans rage sometimes to the penalty of human Laws In short God hath not only provided for the supply of our necessities but for our delight and comfort Psal 104.15 2ly Religion allows a Man to enjoy and take comfort in these things which God hath given us Eccl. 2.24 25 26.5.18.9.7 8 9. Yea requires we should rejoyce in them Deut. 12.7.12.18 cap. 14.26 cap. 16.11 14. cap. 26.11 3ly There is none can take more pleasure in these things than a Christian Eccl. 2.25 Solomon might hasten as much as any to such pleasure not so much as he was a King and had all things in abundance but as he was a good Man and in the favour of God Eccl. 9.7 But this I have elsewhere touched Sect. 4. and sect 8. If any account it hard to be restrained from unnatural pleasures I may say as Joash of Baal Judges 6.31 Will you plead for these He that will plead for these let him presently be put to Death He that cannot content himself with moderate pleasures without excesse let him go and learn of Bruit-beasts that will not eat and drink to Gluttony and Drunkennesse He that cannot satisfie himself unless he may wholly prostitute himself to pleasure and spend his whole time therein as if he were put into the World as the Leviathan into the Sea to play therein Psal 104.26 Let them learn of a Heathen who would say He is not worthy the name of a Man thà t would spend a whole day in pleasure So that Religion restrains us no more in the use of Pleasures than nature reason or our own interest restrains us but rather teacheth us
how we may enjoy them more pure and refined without any sting of guilt or check of Conscience which may allay the sweetnesse of them SECT VII The advantage which we have by Religion in respect of our Souls First in being thereby restored to the image of God and that spiritual beauty which hath been defaced by sin I Now come yet nearer to our selves to that Divine part whereby we hold intelligence with the upper World have our Conversation in Heaven with God and Angels to these our bodies are but as a box a case to a precious Jewel and the advantages which I have hitherto spoken of are not worthy to be compared with these that Godlinesse brings to the Soul And I will first speak of what a Godly Man hath thereby in enjoyment and possession then of what he hath in hopes and reversion and I will begin with the restoration of man to the condition from which he fell or the renewing of the image of God in him To have seen that great Monarch Dan. 4. in the greatest Glory priding himself in his Majesty and after to have seen him not only devested of his Glory degraded from his dignity but deprived of his reason and putting on the manners of Beasts of the Field and conversing amongst them would have moved a Mans compassion though he it is likely was no more sensible of his own unhappinesse being bereaved of humanity than those in the fable that being by the enchantments of Circe turned into Beasts disdained the offer of Vlysses to have them restored to their former shape being debased in their souls as well as metamorphosed in their bodies and so not understanding the felicity of the rational life but such were the more to be pityed by how much the lesse they could pity themselves This is the condition of Mankind We are all of a good house well descended of a noble stock and Divine Original but are fallen into decay have lost the lustre of that Family from which we came being the off-spring of God and we are become like the Beasts which perish Psal 49.21 So some understand that place Man being in honor continued not soon fell from his Estate of dignity and happiness and became bruitish in his knowledge and affections Satan that old Magician by his enchantments hath bewitched us from that form wherein we were at first created into the form of Beasts so that Men are become Lions for rage cruelty oppression Foxes for subtilty in evil Swine for silthinesse and uncleanness Dogs for envy and malice Wolves for rapine yea as the wild Asses Colt for folly and stupidity the Scripture accounts it neither incivility nor calumny to describe Men by such compellations Now it is only true Godlinesse and that regeneration which miserable Man doth as little understand and much despise as those even now mentioned did the offer of Vlysses which must restore us to our former state The Gospel as a spiritual charm brings us to that shape and form which our first Parents lost And though poor ignorant Men neither understand their own deformity nor that beauty of holinesse which adorns the souls of those who are renewed according to the Image of God as the Jews despised Christ and esteemed him not as seeing no form nor comliness in him though he was to those who had a spiritual discerning and an eye of Faith to see that Divine excellency and perfection that was in him the chiefest of ten thousands and altogether lovely yet there is an inward beauty of the Soul obvious only to the eyes of God that regards the hidden Man of the heart and those who have a spiritual discerning to discern spiritual things which as the beauty of the outward man consists in colour proportion and perfection of parts stands in a due regard of every faculty and affection of the soul to its proper object and a just subordination to each other the superior irradiated by a Divine light to judge of every thing as the matter requires and accordingly to command the inferior which by an obsequious subjection yields to the authority and executes the commands of the superior and is not like a bone out of a joynt which is not subject to the commands of the locomotive faculty and the whole tinctured with a Divine holiness justice and goodness It would be a sad spectacle to behold a Man bowed together that he could not look up his eyes closed up with filthy putrid matter his lips black and swelled as if they were poysoned his breath stinking to the offence of all that come near him Lame of his feet that he could not go his bowels hanging out In a word from head to foot full of bruises and putrifying sores thus is man by nature to the eyes of God bowed down to the earth minding earthly things his understanding darkened and the eyes thereof closed by vile and corrupt affections his lips breaking out with filthy communication as if the poyson of Asps were under them his throat like an open Sepulchre sending forth such unsavory discourse as is offensive to pure ears that knows not how to tread a right step in the way of Gods commandments void of the bowels of pity and compassion and the plague of his heart his natural in-bred corruption breaking forth daily into sinful actions which are as so many botches and sores to render a Man loathsom in the sight of God to whom our inward Man is as naked and open as our outward Man to eyes of flesh A form of Godliness and the paint or varnish of an outward profession may help to conceal some of this deformity from the eyes of Man but it is only that Fountain set open to the house of David and the Inhabitants of Jerusalem to wash in for sin and for uncleaness that will restore to Man his primitive soundness and beauty as Naamans flesh by washing in Jordan was restored as the flesh of a young Child This is the immediate effect of Regeneration and though the work is not persected at once as to degrees yet it will be as the light that shines clearer and clearer till the perfect day we being transformed daily more and more into the Image of God from Glory to Glory by his Spirit SECT IX Tranquility of mind the priviledge of the Godly Man A due ordering of the affections not a stoical Apathy necessary thereto Peace of Conscience unknown to the Heathen Philosophers and attainable only by true Religion Objectionsgrounded on the moroseness and inward troubles of Christians answered THE next advantage of the Soul in this World by Godlinesse is Tranquility of Mind whereby a Man is exempted from the importunity of inordinate passions and from the secret though severe lashes of an accusing terrifying Conscience which wound deeper than Scorpions This the Philosophers cry up as the sum of a happy life but what is said of happinesse in general I may apply to this part of it Philosophy seeks it
things the more careful he is to make sure of them the more fearfull to be deceived about them Tarda solet magnis rebus in esse fides And further when Satan who before kept all things in peace sees himself in danger of being dispossessed he rageth the more as he rent the poor man out of whom he was cast almost to death And God gives him leave sometimes to winnow his dearest Children for their tryal but for the most part God leaveth them to such disquietment of spirit and terrors of conscience for some sin which they have fallen into as in Davids case and then their trouble is not because of their piety but of their defect in it or else it is before he intends to raise them to some great eminency or fill them with some extraordinary joy as we may observe where Men have been raised exceeding high their foundation hath been laid very low in some deep abasement and so God brings them as a King our of Prison to reign and ordinarily when God layes his people low either by extraordinary outward afflictions or inward temptations he doth recompence them for it by those inward consolations which are the fore-tasts of Heaven hence proceeds that joy the Apostle speaks of which is unspeakable and full of Glory which he that hath tasted the sweetnesse of it would not want to be exempted from all those Temptations and tryals which he hath been exercised with The peace of wicked Men is but an agreement with Hell which shall be disanulled a Covenant with death which shall be broken as the mirth of a Drunken Man who whilst his spirits are raised feels not his wounds but afterwards feels the smart of them when his reason returns to him That will be the woful end of the carnal mans security if he be laid in the Bonds or Fetters of afflictions and so come to himself and feel the wounds which he hath by sin made in his own conscience he is a Magor missa bib terror round about that is the reason of such horror many times on sick beds which yet is better than to be hushed asleep by the charming pleasures of sin and not awake till he be amidst the everlasting flames So that we may say with the Prophet The work of righteousnesse is peace and the effecti of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever It is only by the righteousnesse of Jesus Christ imputed to us by faith that we have peace with God and so peace of Conscience which is as a continual feast daily to entertain us as a brazen wall alwayes to secure us that we may alwayes sind that within wherewith we may solace our selves and need not fear that any thing shall disturb or disquiet the tranquillity which we have in our own souls SECT IX The reward which Godly Men have after this life the chief advantage of Religion The excellency thereof demonstrated from Scripture from the satisfaction which the Angels have in it from the glory which wicked Men enjoy in this World from the sweet fore-tasts which Godly men have of it in this life Wherein it consists the glory of the body the happiness of the Soul in the enjoyment of God in communion with the whole number of perfected Saints and that for ever ALL that I have hitherto said of the advantage of Godlyness is little in respect of what remains to be spoken The estate of Man after this life is of more important consideration as it is usually said there is no proportion betwixt finite and infinite as there is betwixt two things that are finite though at the greatest distance in respect of their natures quality quantity so there is a proportion between a minute and a thousand years and minutes may easily be multiplyed to such a quantity but there is no proportion betwixt a thousand years and Eternity So that if the misery of Christians in this life were answerable to wicked mens prejudice and the happiness of wicked men answerable to their own desires and if both might live in these two different estates a thousands years twice told yea and suppose that after this life wicked men were to be happy to seven and Godly men but to eight as the Philosophers speak of the degrees of heat and cold or that Godly men should be as miserable as wicked men abating only one degree yet the consideration of an Eternity would easily praeponderate in comparing the several states of these persons The Apostle saith that if in this life only we have hope we are of all men the most miserable not that a wicked man hath more real joy or comfort in this life than a Godly man but we must consider that the Apostle is disputing against such as denied the Resurrection in a popular Rhetorical stile wherein words are not to be subjected to a rigid interpretation but to be expounded in a greater latitude and it is usual in several languages to expresse a thing with the greater Emphasis by the Superlative degres as if he had said we are very miserable men if our hope be only in this life Again there may be an Emphasis in the Pronoun q. d. we who are the off-scouring of all things in the eyes of the World and have in these times of Persecution run such hazards and quitted our worldly enjoyments for the hopes of a glorious Resurrection are miserably deceived if there be no Resurrection And further though Christians have that inward peace and comfort in outward tribulations which doth more than counterballance them yet this joy is in hope of the Glory of God and but an anticipation of that joyful Resurrection which hereafter they expect And now I shall come to speak something of the certainty of it of the the nature of it and of the strictnesse of holiness necessary to those who would enjoy it that we may raise our thoughts to hold some proportion with the greatnesse of that glory though it be not possible for poor Mortals to have an adequate conception thereof First let us consider the great things that God himself hath spoken of it and how he hath throughout the Scripture propounded it as a sufficient and an abundant recompence for whatsoever we can do and suffer for him in comparison where with all the afflictions of this life are but light and inconsiderable The Apostle tells us God is not ashamed to be called the God of his people having prepared a City for them The preparations that he hath made for them are answerable to the bounty and munificence of such a Majesty though they here mourn whilst others rejoyce and though he here make them bear the Cross whilst his professed Enemies wear the Crown Now it would be much below the greatnesse and glory of such a Majesty to boast of his own gifts above the real worth of them and flatter men into his service by possessing them with high expectations of great matters which the enjoyment of will not
us yet go a step further and consider the apprehensions which the Devils have of this condition for they and wicked men as was before observed are fellow heirs of the same misery and these tremble at the thoughts of it that is have dread full amazing apprehensions at the expectation of it the consequent in that place being put for the antecedent according to the usual phraseology of Scripture they seem not to have so much reason to be troubled at the thoughts of it as men have their sins perhaps may have some aggravations which the sins of Men have not yet I think there is nothing can aggravate it so as the contempt of the Gospel which they are not guilty of They had not a board after Shipwrack whereon they might have saved themselves if it had not been their own fault Again they have no bodies to be tormented as we have many cannot apprehend how the Soul should be capable of any considerable torment and they think they could laugh at any punishment that could be inflicted on the Soul were it not for bodily sufferings which they have a clearer apprehonsion and a more lively sense of but besides all that we are capable of suffering in our bodies we are capable of suffering the same in our souls which the Devils are said to tremble at the belief of but it is with us as it is with little Children who are pleased perhaps with the pomp of their Fathers or Mothers Funeral and proud of their mourning Cloaths but are not sensible of their own losse when those that are grown up to years of reason and judgement wring their hands to think of what sad consequence such a losse will be to them And in this respect it is said Wisdom arms misery against it self We glory in that which is our shame and the cause of our misery while the Devils tremble who know what it is to lose Heaven having been already in it and know what Hell is because they have felt it they certainly believe these things having more understanding to apprehend the clear demonstrations of the truth of them they have their minds more fixed on these things which are the matter of their torment being more in act and lesse in Power than we are We know not now what it is to lose God and Heaven but we shall know when we shall see them not to enjâ—y them but to envy them We are ready to flaâ—ter our selves into hopes that these things may not be trâ—e or our thoughts are ordinarily diverted to other things And the Devil keeps that out of our minds which he knows not how to keep out of his own lest considaring well of it we should be induced thereby to believe and so obtain salvation Luke 8.14 For a conclusion of these general demonstrations I might add Christs importunate presâ—ing of Men to flee from the wrath to come though through so many hardships and difficulties which he calls them to he wept over sinners and was grieved for the hardnesse of their hearts as sometimes Jeremy was or as Aidanus a good man in this Nation wept to think of the miseries which were coming upon it Sinners go on carelesly and securely like an Ox to the Slaughter or a fool to the correction of the stocks but Christ passionately pleads with them to divert them from their own wayes knowing how little they consider the misery of those devouring flames which they are casting themselves into Now for proving more particularly that this misery which ungodly men shall endure is very sad and dreadful First we shall not only know as I before intimated the worth of that Glory which we have lost but we shall be convinced that we have lost it through our own fault Many think now to harden themselves at the day of judgement against God and impeach him of rigor and injustice if he should doom them to an Eternal Hell but then when their Consciences are awakened they will own their guilt and say as Judas I have sinned Mat. 27.4 though he did nothing but by the determinate counsel and fore-knowledge of God and that which Satan had put into his heart John 13.2 Act. 2.23 And it will be an aggravation of Mens misery that they should lose Heaven through their own carelessenesse and exchange it for a trifle should a Man have a dear Wife dangerously sick and give her poyson to kill her instead of Physick to cure her meerly through his own negligence surely he would bury himself with her when he should see his own oversight or should he in a drunken fit stab his Children certainly his first work after he should come to himself again would be to stab himself but what are these to our souls our darlings our only ones Psal 22.10 which we wound worse than the poor Lunatick man that cut himself with stones we shall come to our selves and have far different apprehensions of all things as soon as our souls look out of these dark prisons of our bodies and begin to see by the light of another World A child that should have the writings of a fair Estate and sell them for trifles looking but upon the bulk of paper or parchment not regarding the contents of them and afterwards when he comes to be a Man should live in disgrace and misery whiles he sees another bear high in the World with his Estate would bewail too late his own childish vanity but what is this to our selling of our hopes of Heaven for the pleasures of sin in the midst of which the heart is sorrowful and the end of which is heavinesse regarding the Gospel no more than a story out of Pliny looking on the Scriptures but as wast papers Cleopatra's prodigality in drinking a little Pearl at one draughtt was nothing to ours we were never put to it as Lisymachus to lose a Kingdom and subject our selves to perpetual slavery for a draught of water Oh! with what indignation shall we reflect upon our own folly and madnesse when we shall have time and occasion to settle these things in our hearts we shall need no Devils to torment us no fire to burn us our own consciences will continually scourge us and we shall for ever be our own tormenters when we shall be awakened to smite upon our thigh and say what have I done there will be yet a further punishment of sense the Scripture calls it Fire and Brimstone which if we understand literally and in a proper sense we may easily imagine the dreadfulnesse of such a punishment or at least learn to understand it by holding our hand in a hot furnace but for one minute and this is fire which shall not suddenly devour or annthilate us as some imagine but prey eternally upon men and never consume them otherwise the Devils with whom as I have observed we shall share in the same misery would rather rejoyce than tremble at the thoughts of the last judgement if they should
the nature of the object and the capacity of the sense for receiving it or acting upon it such is the pleasure that it finds therein and the more noble the faculty and the object are the more noble is the delight which ariseth from the Union betwixt them so that all Philosophers are agreed that intellectual delights exceed sensual pleasures Now in Heaven our Souls shall be perfected according to the capacity of a finite being otherwise they would be no more capable of enjoying God than a deaf man of being delighted with musick or a blind man in the most perfect beauty therefore we are said to be made meet to be partakers of an inheritance with the Saints in light sanctification qualifying us naturally for Heaven as justification doth morally and God himself shall be the object of our happinesse whom we shall see as he is and love him and delight in him according to his goodnesse and glory I know it is hard for us to conceive what it is to enjoy God but to help us in the conception of it let us consider a little what it is to enjoy a friend to have an absent friend is a comfort but to be with him is a great addition to our contentment to receive the expressions of their love and to testifie ours to them Those who are of a more noble and generous complexion find more true satisfaction herein than in whatever else this World can afford them and what is it that endears another to us but Love and Lovelinesse where there are amiable endowments in persons of worth they command an esteem from us though they know us not and though we are never the better for them but where they have a particular affection to us take us into their bosom make us of their entire friends this doth much more endear them to us Now as I have already said we find in God in a far more eminent degree that which renders the Creatures amiable and lovely Besides his goodnesse towards the whole Creation which the Earth is full of his special favour to Mankind and it may be to us above many thousands of others the exceeding Riches of Grace towards the Elect which Men and Angels shall admire to the days of Eternity there is that Beauty that is intellectual beauty or such Beauty as is objected to the understanding which will ravish the whole intellectual Creation His Wisdom is unsearchable his Power irresistable and his Grace and Clemency as far exceeding what is to be found in the Creature as his Majesty and Glory Job had heard of God but when he came to see him abhorred himself to see the infinite distance betwixt the Soveraign Creator and a poor Mortal that durst dispute the case with him Oh! what thoughts shall we have of God when we come to see him as he is What astonishment will seize upon us what confusion will cover us when we see what a God it is whose grace we have so oft despised whose patience we have so long abused whose authority we have so boldly contemned and yet see that he who had us alwayes at his mercy and could at his pleasure avenge himself on us should pardon us for his own sake and make such glorious preparations for us We shall then perfectly understand all the dimensions of his love and continually as it were read the stories of it We may the better conceive of it by fancying to our selves what a singular favour it would be to have some great Prince take a singular affection to us though we did the least of any in the World deserve it and had dis-obliged him by a thousand provocations if he should take us home to his house and maintain us alwayes at his table keep us alwayes in his presence this would fall infinitely short of that love which God will manifest to us and what an addition will it be to our happinesse to see him in his Glory who hath loved us and washed us from our sins in his blood the story of whose love we have so oft read over a sight of whose Face though but through the Glass of Faith we have so oft so long desired and lamented a feer to have the society of the innumerable company of Angels and the general assembly of just men made perfect a meeting of the Saints of all Ages and places and these perfected both in Grace and Glory so that they shall have no infirmities no Pride Ignorance self-seeking to exercise our charity or patience no sufferings to move our pity or compassion and we shall never need to disquiet our selves with the thoughts of such a sad parting as Paul had Acts 20.39 We shall keep an everlasting Holy-Day the marriage of the Lamb shall be for ever celebrated by all his Friends and as Eternity will perpetuate our happinesse and make it the greater extensivè so the assurance and consideration hereof will heighten it and make it greater intensivè and every moment of our felicity will be more sweet to us in that we shall never be disquieted with the thoughts that our condition as happy as it is will one day have an end SECT X. The necessity of holiness to salvation proved by many plain Scriptures Objections answered The imprudence of being but formal half Christians and the advantages that stict serious Christians have above such THere is yet another consideration which will much enhance the glory of Heaven but before I come to speak of that I must shew how necessary an holy conversation is to the enjoyment of it Many have entertained a suspition that some morose Men peevishly envious against the happinesse and contentment of Mankind and too superstitiously precise would lay upon them a yoke which neither they nor their Fathers were able to bear confining their liberty to too narrow bounds and frighting them from Religion by exacting so much strictnesse and severity Now that I may not seem to any to make the way to Heaven more narrow than God hath made it I will but set down the plain words of God himself not to speak of what those have attained to who yet are plainly declared to be under the sentence of condemnation and in a state of wrath I shall only instance in some places where the Scripture sets down what is indispensibly necessary to salvation or what doth plainly argue a Man to be in the state of damnation Math. 5.20 I say unto you that except your righteousnesse exceed the righteousnesse of the Scribes and Pharisees who yet went a great way in the Profession of Religion and in both Moral and Ceremonial righteousnesse you shall in no wise enter into the Kingdom of Heaven Cap. 6.20 Where your Treasure is there will your heart be also Cap. 7.13 Enter ye in at the strait Gate for wide is the Gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction and there be many which go in thereat but strait is the Gate and narrow is the Way that