review of which intire work there is no doubt but his soul may take comfort And it is not to be made so light of as most do nor put by with a wet finger That Scripture doth so ordinarily put Repentance before Faith and make them joyntly conditions of the Gospel Which Repentance contains those acts of the Wills aversion from sin and Creatures before exprest It is true if we take Faith in the largest sense of all then it contains Repentance in it but if we take it strictly no doubt there is some acts of it go before Repentance and some follow after Yet is it not of much moment which of the acts before mentioned we shall judg to precede Whether our aversion from sin and renouncing our Idols or our right receiving Christ seeing it all composeth but one work which God doth ever perfect where he beginneth but one step and layeth but one stone in sincerity And the moments of time can be but few that interpose between the several acts Yet though the disposition to all gracious acts be given at once I conceive in our Actual turning the term from which in order of nature is considerable before the term to which we turn If any object That every Grace is received from Christ and therefore must follow our receiving him by Faith I answer There be receivings from Christ before believing and before our receiving of Christ himself Such is all that work of the Spirit that brings the soul to Christ There is a passive receiving before the active Both power and act of Faith are in order of Nature before Christ actually received and the power of all other gracious acts is as soon as that of Faith Though Christ give pardon and Salvation upon condition of believing yet he gives not a new heart a soft heart Faith it self nor the first true Repentance on that condition No more then he gives the Preaching of the Gospel the Spirits motions to believe c. upon a pre-requisite condition of believing SECT V. 4. ANd as the Will is thus averted from the fore-mentioned objects so at the same time doth it cleave to God the Father and to Christ. Its first acting in order of Nature is toward the whole Divine Essence and it consists especially in electing and desiring God for his portion and chief Good Having before been convinced That nothing else can be his happiness he now findes it is in God and there looks toward it But it is yet rather with desire then hope For alas the sinner hath already found himself to be a stranger and enemy to God under the guilt of sin and curse of his Law and knows there is no coming to him in peace till his case be altered And therefore having before been convinced also That onely Christ is able and willing to do this and having heard this mercy in the Gospel freely offered his next act is Secondly to accept most affectionately of Christ for Saviour and Lord. I put the former before this because the ultimate end is necessarily the first intended and the Divine Essence is principally that ultimate end yet not excluding the humane nature in the second person But Christ as Mediator is the way to that end and throughout the Gospel is offered to us in such terms as import his Being the means of making us happy in God And though that former act of the soul toward the Godhead do not justifie as this last doth yet is it I think as proper to the people of God as this nor can any man unregenerate truly chuse God for his Lord his portion and chief good Therefore do they both mistake They who onely mention our turning to Christ and they who onely mention our turning to God in this work of Conversion as is touched before Pauls preaching was Repentance toward God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ. And life eternal consists first in knowing the onely true God and then Jesus Christ whom he hath sent John 17.3 Though Repentance Assent Good works c. are required to our full Justification as subservient to or concurrent with Faith yet is the true nature of this justifying Faith it self contained in this most affectionate accepting of Christ for Saviour and Lord. And I think it necessarily contains all this in it Some plead it is the Assenting act some a Fiducial adherence or recumbency I call it Accepting it being principally an act of the Will but yet also of the whole soul. This Accepting being that which the Gospel presseth to and calleth the receiving of Christ I call it an Affectionate accepting though Love seem another act quite distinct from Faith and if you take Faith for any one single act so it is yet I take it as essential to that Faith which justifies To accept Christ without Love is not justifying Faith Nor doth Love follow as a Fruit but immediately concur nor concur as a meer concomitant but essential to a true accepting For this Faith is the receiving of Christ either with the whole soul or with part â—â—t with part onely for that is but a partial receiving And 〈◊〉 clear Divines of late conclude That justifying Faith resides â—â—rn in the Understanding and the Will therefore in the whole soul and so cannot be one single act All those Affections that are for the receiving and entertainment of Good called the concupiscible must receive and entertain Christ. I adde it is the most affectionate accepting of Christ because he that loves Father Mother or any thing more then him is not worthy of him nor can be his Disciple and consequently not justified by him And the truth of this Affection is not to be judged so much by feeling the pulse of it as by comparing it with our affection to other things He that loveth nothing so much as Christ doth love him truly though he finde cause still to bewail the coldness of his Affections I make Christ himself the Object of this Accepting it being not any Theological Axiom concerning himself but himself in person I call it an Accepting him for Saviour and Lord. For in both relations will he be received or not at all It is not onely to acknowledg his sufferings and accept of pardon and glory but to acknowledg his soveraignty and submit to his Government and way of saving and I take all this to be contained in justifying Faith The work which Christ thus accepted of is to perform is to bring the sinners to God that they may be happy in him and this both really by his Spirit and relatively in reconciling them and making them sons and to present them perfect before him at last and to possess them of the Kingdom This will Christ perform and the obtaining of these are the sinners lawful ends in receiving Christ And to these uses doth he offer himself unto us 5. To this end doth
the goats on the left and so on as you may read in the Text. But why tremblest thou Oh humble gracious Soul Cannot the enemies and slighters of Christ be foretold their doom but Thou must quake Do I make sad the Soul that God would not have sad Doth not thy Lord know his own sheep who have heard his voyce and followed him He that would not lose the family of one Noah in a common deluge when him onely he had found faithful in all the earth He that would not over-look one Lot in Sodom nay that could do nothing till he were forth Will he forget thee at that day Thy Lord knoweth now to deliver the godly out of temptations and to reserve the unjust to the day of Judgment to be punished He knoweth how to make the same day the greatest for terror to his foes and yet the greatest for joy to his people He ever intended it for the great distinguishing and separating day wherein both Love and Fury should be manifested to the highest Oh then let the Heavens rejoyce the Sea the Earth the Floods the Hills for the Lord cometh to judg the Earth With Righteousness shall he judg the World and the People with Equity But especially let Sion hear and be glad and her children rejoyce For when God ariseth to judgment it is to save the meek of the Earth They have judged and condemned themselves many a day in heart-breaking confession and therefore shall not be judged to condemnation by the Lord For there is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit And who shall lay any thing to the charge of Gods Elect Shall the Law Why whatsoever the Law saith it saith to them that are under the Law but we are not under the Law but under Grace For the Law of the Spirit of life which is in Christ Jesus hath made us free from the Law of sin and death Or shall Conscience Why we were long ago justified by faith and so have peace with God and have our hearts sprinkled from an evil conscience and the Spirit bearing witness with our spirits that we are the children of God It is God that justifieth who shall condemn If our Judg condemn us not who shall He that said to the Adulterous woman Hath no man condemned thee neither do I condemn thee He will say to us more faithfully then Peter to him Though all men deny thee or condemn thee I will not Thou hast confessed me before men and I will confess thee before my Father and the Angels of Heaven He whose first coming was not to condemn the world but that the world through him might be saved I am sure intends not his second coming to condemn his people but that they through him might be saved He hath given us Eternal Life in Charter and Title already yea and partly in possession and will he after that condemn us When he gave us the knowledg of his Father and himself he gave us Eternal Life And he hath verily told us That he that heareth his word and beleeveth on him that sent him hath everlasting life and shall not come into condemnation but is passed from death to life Indeed if our Judg were our enemy as he is to the world then we might well fear If the Devil were our Judg or the Ungodly were our Judg then we should be condemned as Hypocrites as Heretiques as Schisinatiques as proud or covetous or what not But our Judg is Christ who dyed yea rather who is risen again and maketh request for us For all power is given him in Heaven and in Earth and all things delivered into his hands and the Father hath given him authority to execute judgment also because he is the Son of man For though God judg the world yet the Father immediately without his Vicegerent Christ judgeth no man but hath committed all judgment to the Son that all men should honor the Son even as they honor the Father Oh what inexpressible joy may this afford to a Beleever That our Dear Lord who loveth our Souls and whom our Souls love shall be our Judg Will a man fear to be judged by his dearest friend By a Brother By a Father Or a Wife by her own Husband Christian Did he come down and suffer and weep and bleed and dye for thee and will he now condemn thee Was he judged and condemned and executed in thy stead and now will he condemn thee himself Did he make a Bath of his blood for thy sins and a garment of his own Righteousness for thy nakedness and will he now open them to thy shame Is he the undertaker for thy Salvation and will he be against thee Hath it cost him so dear to save thee and will he now himself destroy thee Hath he done the most of the work already in Redeeming Regenerating and Sanctifying Justifying preserving and perfecting thee and will he now undo all again Nay hath he begun and will he not finish Hath he interceded so long for thee to the Father and will he cast thee away himself If all these be likely then fear and then rejoyce not Oh what an unreasonable sin is unbelief that will charge our Lord with such unmercifulness and absurdities Well then fellow Christians let the terror of that day be never so great surely our Lord can mean no ill to us in all Let it make the Devils tremble and the wicked tremble but it shall make us to leap for Joy Let Satan accuse us we have our answer at hand our surety hath discharged the debt If he have not fulfilled the Law then let us be charged as breakers of it If he have not suffered then let us suffer but if he have we are free Nay our Lord will make answer for us himself These are mine and shall be made up with my Jewels for their transgressions was I stricken and cut off from the earth for them was I bruised and put to grief my Soul was made an offering for their sin and I bore their transgressions They are my seed and the travel of my Soul I have healed them by my stripes I have justified them by my knowledg They are my sheep who shall take them out of my hands Yea though the humble Soul be ready to speak against it self Lord when did we see thee hungry and feed thee c. yet will not Christ do so This is the day of the Beleevers full Justification They were before made just and esteemed Just and by Faith justified in Law and this evidenced to their consciences But now they shall both by Apology be maintained Just and by Sentence pronounced Just actually by the lively voyce of the Judg himself which is the most perfect Justification Their Justification by Faith is a giving them Title in Law to that Apology and Absolving
Prince of Darkness who having taken them in his snares did lead them captive at his will They were once within a step of Hell who must be now advanced as high as Heaven And though I mention their lost condition before their predestination yet I hereby intend not to signifie any precedency it hath either in it self or in the divine consideration Though I cannot see yet how Dr. Twisses Arguments against the corrupted mass being the object of predestination can be well Answered upon the common acknowledged grounds Yet that Question I dare not touch as being very suspicious that its high Arrogancy in us to dispute of precedency in the Divine Consideration and that we no more know what we talk of then this paper knows what I write of VVhen we confess that all these Acts in God are truly one and that there is no difference of time with him Its folly to dispute of priority or posteriority in nature 3. That they are but a small part of this lost Generation is too apparent in Scripture and experience It s the little flock to whom its the fathers good pleasure to give the Kingdom If the sanctified are few the saved must needs be few Fewer they are then the world imagines yet not so few as some drooping Spirits deem who are doubtful that God will cast off them who would not reject Him for all the world and are suspitious that God is unwilling to be their God when yet they know themselves willing to be his people 4. It is the design of Gods eternal decree to glorifie his Mercy and Grace to the highest in this their salvation and therfore needs must it be a great salvation Every step of mercy to it was great how much more this end of all those mercies which stands next to Gods ultimate end his Glory God cannot make any low or meane worke to be the great business of an eternal purpose 5. God hath given all things to his Son but not as he hath given his chosen to him The difference is clearly expressed by the Apostle He hath made him Head over all things to his Church Ephes. 1.21.22 And though Christ is in some sense A Ransome for All yet not in that special maner as for his people He hath brought others under the Conditional Gospel-Covenant but them under the Absolute He hath according to the tenor of his Covenant procured Salvation for All If they will believe but he hath procured for his Chosen even this Condition of believing 6. Nor is the Redeeming of them by death his whole task but also the effecting of their full Recovery He may send his Spirit to perswade others but he intends absolutely his prevailing only with his Chosen And as truly as he hath accomplished his part on the cross for them so truly will he accomplish his part in Heaven for them and his part by his Spirit also upon them And of all that the Father hath thus given him he will lose nothing SECT II. BUt this is but a piece of their description containing Gods work for them and on them Le ts see what they are also in regard of the working of their own Souls towards God and their Redeemer again These people of God then are that 2 part of the â— externally called 3 who being by the 4 Spirit of Christ 5 throughly though 6 imperfectly regenerate are hereupon 7 convinced and 8 sensible of that 9 evil in sin 10 that misery in themselves that 11 vanity in the creature and that 12 necessity 13 sufficiency and 14 excellency of Jesus Christ that they 15 abhor that evil 16 bewail that misery and 17 turn their hearts from that vanity and most 19 affectionately 18 accepting of Christ for their 20 Saviour and 21 Lord to bring them unto 22 God the chief Good and present them 23 perfectly just before him do accordingly enter into a 24 Cordial Covenant with him and so 25 deliver up themselves unto him and herein 26 persevere to their lives End I shall briefly explain to you the branches of this part of the description also 1. I say they are a part of the Externally Called because the Scripture hath yet shewed us no other way to the Internal call but by the external For how shall they believe on him of whom they have not heard and how shall they hear without a preacher All divulging of the substance of the Gospel whether by Solemn Sermons by writing printing reading conference or any other meanes that have a rational sufficiency for information and conviction are this preaching though not all alike clear and excellent The knowledge of Christ is none of Natures principles The book of the Creatures is no meanes alone much less a sufficient means to teach the knowledge of Christ. It may discover mercy but gives not the least hint of the way of that mercy It speaks nothing of God incarnate of two natures in one person of Jesus the Son of Mary of Christs Suretiship and suffering for us rising ascending mediating returning of two Covenants and their several conditions and the reward of keeping them and penalty of breaking them c. It s utterly silent in these things And to affirm that the Spirit calls or teacheth men where the word is not and where the Creature or nature speaks not is I think a groundless fiction There is the light of the eye and the light of the Sun or some other substitute external light necessary to our seeing any object The Scripture and certain revelations from Heaven when and where such are is the sun or external light the understanding is our eye or internal light This eye is become blinde and this internal light in the best is imperfect but the external light of Scripture is now perfected Therefore the work of the Spirit now is not to perfect Scripture or to add any thing to its discovery or to be in stead of a Scripture where it is wanting much less where the Scripture is But to remove the darkness from our understanding that we may see clearly what the Scripture speaks clearly Before the Scripture was perfected the Spirit did enlighten the Prophets and penmen of Scripture both wayes But now I know no teaching of the Spirit save only by its illuminating or sanctifying work teaching men no new lesson nor the old without book but to read with understanding what Scripture Nature Creatures and providences teach The asserting of any more is proper to the Enthusiasts if the spirits teachings did without Scripture or tradition reveal Christ surely some of those millions of poor blinde Pagans would have before this believed and the Christian faith have been propagated among them Or if the Spirit did teach them any step toward Christ upon the receiving whereof he would teach them more and so more and more till they resist this teaching which is the evading doctrine of some then sure
some of those Kingdoms of Infidels would have harkened to the spirits teaching and being taught would have taught others especially if there be a sufficiency in that grace for the obtaining of its end Therefore how to apprehend a verity in their doctrine of universal sufficient grace to believe I know not Yet will I not affirm that the faith that is absolutely necessary among poor Indians is of the same extent in all its acts and dimensions with that required among us no more then that required of the world before Christs coming was Upon what tearmes then God will deal with those dark parts of the world I cannot yet reach to know The scripture speaks of no other way to life but Christ and of no way to Christ but faith But we are not their Judges they stand or fall to their own master But sure that great difference betwixt them and us must arise from Gods own pleasure For they have not abused Christ and Gospel which they never heard of nor can it be that they should be judged by that Gospel which neither before nor since the fall was taught them Christ himself saith plainly that if he had not come to them and spoke the words that no man else could speak and done the works that no man else could do they had not had sin He saith not as some would pervert the sense your sin had not been so great But none at all not speaking of their other sins but their unbelief which he had now in hand teaching us clearly That where there is not competent meanes to convince men of the truth of the Gospel there not believing is no sin For it was to them never forbidden nor the contrary duty ever required And the Apostle tells us those that have sinned without Law shall be judged without Law That place therefore Rom. 2.16 seemeth abused while they would make the sense to be that God will judg the secrets of all men according to the Gospel as the sentencing Law when the Apostle seems to intend but thus much According to my Gospel that is as I have in my preaching the Gospel taught you respecting the verity of what he speak Yet I think that they will be Judged according to Gospel-indulgence as they have been partakers of some mercies from Christ in this life 2. That these people of God are but a Part of those that are thus externally called is too evident in Scripture and experience Many are called but few chosen But the internally effectually called are all chosen For whom he called them he justified and whom he justified them he glorified The bare invitation of the Gospel and mens hearing the Word is so far from giving title to or being an evidence of Christianity and its priviledges that where it prevailes not to a through-Conversion it sinks deeper and casts under a double damnation 3. The first differencing work I affirm to be Regeneration by the Spirit of Christ taking it for granted that this Regeneration is the same with effectual Vocation with Conversion with Sanctification understanding Conversion and Sanctification of the first infusion of the principle of Spiritual life into the soul and not for the addition of degrees or the sanctifying of the conversation in which last sence its most frequently taken in Scripture It s a wonder to me that such a multitude of Learned Divines should so long proceed in that palpable mistake as to divide and mangle so groundlesly the Spirits work upon the soul to affirm that 1. precedes the work of vocation 2. this vocation infuseth faith only say some but faith and repentance say others 3. then must this faith by us be acted 4. by which act we apprehend Christs person and by that apprehension we are united to him 5. from which union proceeds the benefits 1. Of Justification 2. Of Sanctification 6. this Sanctification infuseth all other gracious Habits and hath two degrees 1. Regeneration 2. Renascentiam or the new birth What a multifarious division is here of that one single intire work which is called in Scripture the giving of the Spirit of holiness of the seed of God in us Which seed or life doth no more enter by piecemeal into the soul then the soul into the body And though to salve the Absurdity they tell us the difference is in nature and not in time yet that is impossible For there is mans act of believing intervenes who must have time for all his actions besides the division in order of nature is groundlesly asserted It much perplexeth them to resolve that doubt whether in sanctification faith and Repentance be infused over again which were before infused in vocation or whether all other graces are infused without them Dr. Ames seemes to resolve it in the Affirmative that they are infused again but with this difference 1. That faith in our vocation is not properly considered as a quality but in relation to Christ. 2. Nor is Repentance there looked at as a change of the disposition but as a change of the purpose and intent of the minde but in sanctification a reall change of qualities and dispositions is looked at Answer Strange doctrine for an Anti-Arminian However you consider it sure the habit or disposition is infused before those Acts are excited Act. 26.18 Or else what need we assert any habits at all If the spirit excites those holy acts of faith and repentance in an unholy Soul without any change of its disposition at the first why not ever after as well as then and so the soul be disposed one way and act another and so the Libertines doctrine be true That it is not we that believe and repent but the Spirit Or if these two solitary habits be infused in vocation why not the rest And why again in sanctification Doubtless that internal effectual Call of the spirit metaphorically so called is properly a real operation and that work hath the understanding and will for its object both being the Subject of faith in which the Habit is planted and faith now generally acknowledged to be an act of both And surely an unholy understanding and will cannot believe nor is faith an act of a dead but of a living soul Especially considering that a true spiritual knowledge is requisite either as a precedent act or essential part of true faith All which doth also warrant my putting of this Renewing work of the spirit in the first place and placing Sanctification in the sense before explained before justification The Apostle placeth clearly vocation before justification Rom. 8.30 Which vocation I have shewed is the same thing in a metaphorical term with this first Sanctification or Regeneration Though I know the stream of Interpreters do in explaining that Text make Sanctification to be included in Glorification when yet they can shew no real difference between it and effectual vocation before-named Certainly if Sanctification precede faith and faith precede Justification then
Sanctification must needs precede Justification But if we may call that work of the spirit which infuseth the principle of life or holiness into the soul Sanctification then sanctification must needs go before faith For faith in the habit is part of that principle and faith in the act is a fruit of it Gods order is clearly set down in Acts 26.18 He first opens mens eyes and turnes them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God and if they be yet unholy I know not what holiness is that they may receive remission of sins there 's their Justification and inheritance among the sanctified that which before was called opening their eyes and turning them is here called Sanctifying by faith that is in me the words by Faith is related to the Receiving of Remission of Sins and the Inheritance but not to the word Sanctified so also 2 Thes. 2.13 God hath before chosen you to salvation through sanctification of the spirit unto obedience obeying the Gospel is faith and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ there 's Justification so that you see to make faith precede sanctification and to bring in the habits of all other graces and for Justification to go between faith and them is quite against the Scripture order Indeed if Grevinchovius say true that there 's no Habits infused and the spirit work only as the Arminians affirm by an internal and external Swasion and no real physical alteration or infusing of new powers and habits then all this must be otherwise ordered In ascribing this Regeneration to the Spirit I do not intend to exclude the word yet I cannot allow it to be properly the Instrumental cause as the common opinion is Were it an instrument the Energy or Influx of the principal efficient must be first received into it and by it conveyed to the soul but that is an impossibility in Nature The voyce of the Preacher or Letters of the Book are not subjects capable of receiving Spiritual Life to convey to us the like also may be said of Sacraments None of the conditions of an Instrumental efficient cause are found in them The Principal and Instrumental produce one and the same effect But the word works not in the same way of causality with the Spirit yet doth it not follow that it is therefore useless or doth nothing to the work for both kindes of causality are necessary The Spirit works as the principal and onely efficient and hath no intervening instrument that can reach the soul but doth all his work immediately seeing it self alone can touch its object and so work by proper efficiency But the Word and Sacraments work morally onely by propounding the object in its qualifications as a man draws a Horse by shewing him his Provender And though there be some difficulty in resolving whether the propounding the object to the understanding by instruction and to the will and affections by perswasion do work under the efficient or under the final cause yet according to the common Judgment we here take the last for granted The Word then doth sanctifie by exciting of former principles to action which is a preparation to the receiving of the principle of Life and also by present exciting of the newly infused gracious principle and so producing our Actual converting and believing But how it can otherways concur to the infusing of that principle I yet understand not Indeed if no such principle be infused then the Word doth all and the Spirit onely enable the speaker or if any more its hard to discover what it is For whether there be any internal swasion of the Spirit immediately distinct from the external swasion of the Word and also from the Spirits efficacious changing Physical operation is a very great question and worth the considering But I have run on too far in this already This Spiritual Regeneration then is the first and great qualification of these People of God which though Habits are more for their Acts then themselves and are onely perceived in their Acts yet by its causes and effects we should chiefly enquire after To be the people of God without Regeneration is as impossible as to be the natural children of men without Generation seeing we are born Gods enemies we must be new-born his sons or else remain enemies still O that the unregenerate world did know or believe this In whose ears the new birth sounds as a Paradox and the great change which God works upon the soul is a strange thing Who because they never felt any such supernatural work upon themselves do therefore believe that there is no such thing but that it is the conceit and fantasie of idle brains Who make the terms of Regeneration Sanctification Holiness and Conversion a matter of common reproach and scorn though they are the words of the Spirit of God himself and Christ hath spoke it with his own mouth That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Alas how preposterous and vain is it to perswade these poor people to change some actions while their hearts are unchanged and to amend their ways while their natures are the same The greatest Reformation of Life that can be attained to without this new Life wrought in the Soul may procure their further Delusion but never their Salvation That general conceit that they were regenerated in their Baptism is it which furthers the deceit of many When there is an utter impossibility that Baptism should either principally or instrumentally work any Grace on the Soul of an Infant without a miracle for if it do it is either by a Physical and proper efficiency or else morally Not Physically which is more perhaps then the Papists say Because then first the water must be capable of receiving the Grace secondly And of approaching the soul in the application and conveyance both which are impossibilities in Nature Nor can it work morally where there is not the use of Reason to understand and consider of its signification The common shift is apparently vain to say That it works neither Physically nor Morally but Hyperphysically for though it may proceed from a supernatural cause and the work be such as nature cannot produce yet the kinde of operation is still either by a proper and real efficiency which is the meaning of the phrase of Physical operation or else improper and moral So that their Hyperphysical working is no third member nor overthrows that long received distinction if it were yet is not the water the capable instrument of this Hyperphysical operation God is a free agent and by meer concomitancy may make Baptism the season of Regenerating whom he please but that he never intended that Regeneration should be the end of Baptism I think may be easily proved and those two empty Treatises of Baptismal Regeneration as easily answered For men of age the matter
strength of Faith but ordinarily to the very beeing of Faith and Churches 20. Not that the present Possession of Scripture is of absolute necessity to the present beeing of a Church not that it is so absolute necessary to every mans salvation that he read or knew this Scripture himself But that it either be at present or have been formerly in the Church that some knowing it may teach it to others is of absolute necessity to most persons and Churches and necessary to the well-beeing of all 21. Though negative unbelief of the authority of Scripture may stand with salvation yet positive and universal I think cannot Or though Tradition may save where Scripture is not known yet he that reads or hears the Scripture and will not believe it to be the Testimony of God I think cannot be saved because this is now the clearest and surest Revelation And he that will not believe it will muchless believe a Revelation more uncertain and obscure 22. Though all Scripture be of Divine Authority yet he that believeth but some one Book which containeth the substance of the Doctrine of salvation may be saved much more they that have doubted but of some particular Books 23. They that take the Scripture to be but the Writings of godly honest men and so to be only a means of making known Christ having a gradual precedency to the Writings of other godly men and do believe in Christ upon those strong grounds which are drawn from his Doctrine Miracles c. rather then upon the Testimony of the Writing as being purely infallible and Divine may yet have a Divine and saving faith 24. Much more those that believe the whole Writing to be of Divine inspiration where it handleth the substance but doubt whether God infallibly guided them in every circumstance 25. And yet more those that believe that the Spirit did guide the Writers to Truth both in Substance and Circumstance but doubt whether he guided them in Orthography or whether their Pens were as perfectly guided as their minds 26. And yet more may those have saving Faith who onely doubt whether Providence infallibly guided any Transcribers or Printers as to retain any Copy that perfectly agreeth with the Autograph 27. Yet do all these in my judgment cast away a singular prop to their faith and lay it open to dangerous assaults and doubt of that which is a certain truth 28. As the Translations are no further Scripture then they agree with the Copies in the Original Tongues so neither are those Copies further then they agree with the Autographs or Original Copies or with some Copies perused and approved by the Apostles 29. Yet is there not the like necessity of having the Autographs to try the Transcripts by as there is of having the Original Transcripts to try the Translations by For there is an impossibility that any Translation should perfectly express the sense of the Original But there is a possibility probability and facility of true Transcribing and grounds to prove it true de facto as we shall touch anon 30. That part which was written by the Finger of God as also the substance of Doctrine through the whole Scriptures are so purely Divine that they have not in them any thing humane 31. The next to these are the words that were spoken by the mouth of Christ and then those that were spoken by Angels 32. The Circumstantials are many of them so Divine as yet they have in them something Humane as the bringing of Pauls Cloak and Parchments and as it seems his counsel about Marriage c. 33. Much more is there something Humane in the Method and Phrase which is not so immediatly Divine as the Doctrine 34. Yet is there nothing sinfully Humane and therefore nothing false in all 35. But an innocent imperfection there is in the Method and Phrase which if we deny we must renounce most of our Logick and Rhetorick 36. Yet was this imperfect way at that time all things considered the fittest way to divulge the Gospel That is the best Language which is best suited to the Hearers and not that which is best simply in it self and supposeth that understanding in the Hearers which they have not Therefore it was Wisdom and Mercy to fit the Scripture to the capacity of all Yet will it not therefore follow that all Preachers at all times should as much neglect Definition Distinction Syllogisme c. as Scripture doth 37. Some Doctrinal passages in Scripture are onely Historically related and therefore the relating them is no asserting them for truth and therefore those sentences may be false and yet not the Scripture false yea some falshoods are written by way of reproving them as Gehezies Lye Sauls Excuse c. 38. Every Doctrine that is thus related onely Historically is therefore of doubtful credit because it is not a Divine assertion except Christ himself were the Speaker and therefore it is to be tried by the rest of the Scripture 39. Where ordinary men were the Speakers the credit of such Doctrines is the more doubtful and yet much more when the Speakers were wicked of the former sort are the Speeches of Jobs friends and divers others of the later sort are the Speeches of the Pharisees c. and perhaps Gamaliels counsel Act. 5.34 40. Yet where God doth testifie his Inspiration or Approbation the Doctrine is of Divine Authority though the Speaker be wicked As in Balaams Prophesie 41. The like may be said of matter of Fact for it is not either necessary or lawful to speak such words or do such actions meerly because men in Scripture did so speak or do no not though they were the best Saints for their own speeches or actions are to be judged by the Law and therefore are no part of the Law themselves And as they are evil where they cross the Law as Josephs swearing the Ancients Polygamy c. so are they doubtful where their congruence with the Law is doubtful 42. But here is one most observable exception conducing much to resolve the great doubt whether Examples binde Where men are designed by God to such an Office and act by Commission and with a promise of Direction their Doctrines are of Divine Authority though we finde not where God did dictate and their Actions done by that Commission are currant and Exemplary so far as they are intended or performed for Example and so Example may be equivalent to a Law and the Argument a facto ad jus may hold So Moses being appointed to the forming of the old Church and Commonwealth of the Jews to the building of the Tabernacle c. his Precepts and Examples in these works though we could not finde his particular direction are to be taken as Divine So also the Apostles having Commission to Form and Order the Gospel Churches their Doctrine and Examples therein are by their general Commission warranted and their practice in stablishing the Lords Day in setling the
did not Christ dye to save sinners Never trouble your head with these thoughts but believe and you shall do well Thus do they follow the Soul that is escaping from Satan with restless cries till they have brought him back Oh how many thousands have such chaâ—ms kept a sleep in deceit and security till death and Hell have awaked and better informed them The Lord calls to the sinner and tells him The Gate is strait the way is narrow and few find it Try and examine whether thou be in the faith or no give all diligence to make sure in time And the world cries out clean contrary Never doubt Never trouble your selves with these thoughts I intreat the sinner that is in this strait to consider That it is Christ and not their fathers or mothers or neighbors or friends that must judge them at last and if Christ condemn them these cannot save them and therefore common Reason may tell them that it is not from the words of Ignorant men but from the word of God that they must fetch their comforts and hopes of Salvation When Ahab would enquire among the multitudes of flattering Prophets it was his death They can flatter men into the snare but they cannot tell how to bring them out Oh take the counsel of the Holy Ghost Ephes. 5.6 7. Let no man deceive you with vain words for because of these things commeth the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience Be not ye therefore partakers with them And Act. 2.40 Save your selves from this untoward generation SECT VIII 3. BUT the greatest hinderances are in mens own hearâ—s 1. Some are so Ignorant that they know not what Self-Examination is nor what a Minister means when he perswadeth them to Try themselves Or they know not that there is any Necessity of it but think every man is bound to Believe that God is his Father and that his sins are pardoned whether it be true or false and that it were a great fault to make any Question of it Or they do not think that Assurance can be attained or that there is any such great differences betwixt one man and another but that we are all Christians and therefore need not to trouble our selves any further Or at least they know not wherein the difference lies nor how to set upon this searching of their hearts nor to find out its secret motions and to judge accordingly They have as gross Conceits of that Regeneration which they must search for as Nicodemus had John 3.5 And when they should Try whether the Spirit be in them they are like those in Act. 19.2 That knoew not whether there were a Holy Ghost to be received or no. 2. Some are such Infidels that they will not Believe that ever God wil make such a difference betwixt men in the life to come and therefore will not search themselves whether they differ here Though Judgment and Resurrection be in their Creed yet they are not in their Faith 3. Some are so Dead-hearted that they perceive not how neerly it doth concern them let us say what we can to them they lay it not to heart but give us the hearing and there 's an end 4. Some are so possessed with Self-love and Pride that they will not so much as suspect any such danger to themselves Like a proud Tradesman who scorns the motion when his friends desire him to cast up his Books because they are afraid he will Break. As some fond Parents that have an over-weening conceit of their own Children and therefore will not believe or hear any evil of them such a fond Self-love doth hinder men from suspecting and trying their states 5. Some are so guilty that they dare not try They are so fearful that they shallâ—find their estates unsound that they dare not search into them And yet they dare venture them to a more dreadful Tryal 6. Some are so far in love with their sin and so far in dislike with the way of God that they dare not fall on the Tryal of their ways least they be forced from the course which they love to that which they loath 7. Some are so Resolved already never to change their present state that they neglect Examination as a useless thing Before they will turn so precise and seek a new way when they have lived so long and gone so far they will put their Eâ—ernal state to the venture come of it what will And when a man is fully resolved to hold on his way and not to turn back be it right or wrong to what end should he enquire whether he bâ— right or no 8. Most men are so taken up with their worldly affairs and are so busie in driving the trade of providing for the flesh that they cannot set themselves to the Trying of their title to Heaven They have another kind of happiness in their eye which they are pursuing which will not suffer them to make sure of Heaven 9. Most men are so clogged with a Laziness and Slothfulness of Spirit that they will not be perswaded to be at the paines of an hours Examination of their own hearts It requireth some labour and diligence to accomplish it throughly and they will rather venture all then set about it 10. But the most common and dangerous impediment is that false Faith and Hope commonly called Presumption which bears up the hearts of the most of the world and so keeps them from suspecting their danger Thus you see what abundance of difficulties must be overcome before a man can closely set upon the Examining of his heart I do but name them for brevity sake SECT IX AND if a man do break through all these impediments and set upon the Duty yet assurance is not presently attained Of those few who do enquire after Marks and Means of Assurance and bestow some pains to learn the difference between the sound Christian and the unsound and look often into their own hearts yet divers are deceiv'd and do miscarry especially through these following causes 1. There is such a Confusion and darkness in the Soul of man especially of an unregenerate man that he can scarcely tell what he doth or what is in him As one can hardly finde any thing in a house where nothing keeps his place but all is cast on a heap together so is it in the heart where all things are in disorder â—specially when darkness is added to this disorder so that the heart is like an obscure Cave or Dungeon where there is but a little crevise of light and a man must rather grope then see No wonder if men mistake in searching such a heart and so miscarry in judging of their estates 2. And the rather because most men do accustom themselves to be strangers at home and are little taken up with observing the temper and motions of their own hearts All their studies are imployed without them and they are no where less
guilty of all the sin that he committeth in his drunkenness VVill you resolve therefore to set upon this duty and neglect it no longer Remember Eli your children are like Moses in the basket in the water ready to perish if they have not help As ever you would not be charged before God for murderers of their souls and as ever you would not have them cry out against you in everlasting fire see that you teach them how to escape it and bring them up in holiness and the fear of God You have heard that the God of heaven doth flatly command it you I charge every one of you therefore upon your allegiance to him and as you will very shortly answer the contrary at your peril that you neither refuse nor neglect this most necessary work If you are not willing now you know it to be so plain and so great a duty you are flat Rebels and no true subjects of Christ. If you are willing to do it but know not how I will adde a few words of direction to help you 1. Teach them by your own example as well as by your words Be your selves such as you would have them be practice is the most effectual teaching of children who are addicted to imitation especially of their parents Lead them the way to prayer and reading and other duties Be not like base Commanders that will put on their Soldiers but not go on themselves Can you expect your children should be wiser or better then you Let them not hear those words out of your mouths nor see those practices in your lives which you reprove in them No man shall be saved because his children are godly if he be ungodly himself Who should lead the way in holiness but the father and master of the family It is a sad time when he must be accounted a good master or father that will not hinder his family from serving God but will give them leave to go to heaven without him I will but name the rest for your direct dutie for your Family 1. You must help to inform their understandings 2. To store their memories 3. To rectifie their wills 4. To quicken their affections 5. To keep tender their consciences 6. To restrain their tongues and help them to skill in gracious Speech 7. And to reform and watch over their outward conversation To these ends First Be sure to keep them at least so long at School till they can read English It is a thousand pities that a reasonable Creature should look upon a Bible as upon a Stone or a piece of Wood. Secondly Get them Bibles and good Books and see that they read them Thirdly Examine them often what they learn Fourthly Especially bestow the Lords day in this work and see that they spend it not in sports or idleness Fiftly Shew them the meaning of what they read and learn Josh. 4 6 21 22. Psal. 78.4 5 6 34.11 Sixthly Acquaint them with the godly and keep them in good company where they may learn good and keep them out of that company that would teach them evil Seventhly Be sure to cause them to learn some Catechism containing the chief Heads of Divinity as those made by the Assembly of Divines or Master Balls SECT XVII THe Heads of Divinity which you must teach them first are these 1. That there is one onely God who is a Spirit invisible infinite eternal Almighty good merciful true just holy c. 2. That this God is one in three Father Son and holy Ghost 3. That he is the Maker Maintainer and Lord of all 4. That mans happiness consisteth in the enjoying of this God and not in fleshly pleasure profits or honors 5. That God made the first man upright and happy and gave him a Law to keep with Conditions that if he kept it perfectly he should live happy for ever but if he broke it he should die 6. That man broke this Law and so forfeited his welfare and became guilty of death as to himself and all his Posterity 7 That Christ the Son of God did here interpose and prevent the full execution undertaking to die in stead of man and so to Redeem him whereupon all things were delivered into his hands as the Redeemer and he is under that relation the Lord of all 8. That Christ hereupon did make with man a better Covenant or Law which proclaimed pardon of sin to all that did but repent and believe obey sincerely 9. That he revealed this Covenant and Mercy to the world by degrees first in darker Promises Prophecies and Sacrifices then in many Ceremonious Types and then by more plain foretellings by the Prophetâ— 10. That in the fulness of time Christ came and took our Nature into Union with his Godhead being conceived by the holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary 11. That while he was on earth he lived a life of sorrows was crowned with Thorns and bore the pains that our sins deserved at last being Crucified to death and buried and so satisfied the Justice of God 12. That he also Preached himself to the Jews and by constant Miracles did prove the truth of his Doctrine and Mediatorship before thousands of Witnesses That he revealed more fully his New Law or Covenant That whosoever will believe in him and accept him for Saviour and Lord shall be pardoned and saved and have a far greater glory then they lost and they that will not shall lye under the curse and guilt and be condemned to the everlasting fire of hell 13. That he rose again from the dead having conquered death and took fuller possession of his Dominion over all and so ascended up into heaven and there reigneth in glory 14. That before his Ascention he gave charge to his Apostles to go Preach the foresaid Gospel to all Nations and persons and to offer Christ and Mercy and Life to every one without exception and to intreat and perswade them to receive him and that he gave them authority to send forth others on the same Message and to Baptise and to gather Churches and confirm and order them and to settle a course for a succeâ—â—â—on of Ministers and Ordinances to the end of the world 15. That he also gave them power to work frequent and evident Miracles for the confirmation of their Doctrine and the convincing of the world and to annex their writings to the rest of the Scriptures and so to finish and seal them up and deliver them to the world as his infallible Word and Laws which none must dare to alter and which all must observe 16. That for all this free Grace is offered to the world yet the heart is by Nature so desperately wicked that no man will believe and entertain Christ sincerely except by an Almighty power he be changed and born again and therefore doth Christ send forth his Spirâ—t with his Word which secretly and effectually worketh holiness in the hearts of the Elect drawing
lye by thee as if thou hadst forgot it O that our hearts were as high as our Hopes and our Hopes as high as these infallible Promises SECT XII 10. COnsider It is but equal that our hearts should be on God when the heart of God is so much on us If the Lord of Glory can stoop so low as to set his heart on sinful dust sure one would think we should easily be perswaded to set our hearts on Christ and Glory and to ascend to him in our daily affections who vouchsafeth to condescend to us O If Gods delight were no more in us then ours is in him what should we do what a case were we in Christian dost thou not perceive that the Heart of God is set upon thee and that he is still minding thee with tender Love even when thou forgettest both thy self and him Dost thou not finde him following thee with daily mercies moving upon thy soul providing for thy body preserving both Doth he not bear thee continually in the arms of Love and promise that all shall work together for thy good and suit all his dealings to thy greatest advantage and give his Angels charge over thee And canst thou finde in thy heart to cast him by and be taken up with the Joyes below and forget thy Lord who forgets not thee Fye upon this unkinde ingratitude Is not this the sin that Isaiah so solemnly doth call both heaven and earth to witness against The Ox knoweth his owner and the Ass his Masters Crib but Israel doth not know my People doth not consider If the Ox or Ass do straggle in the day they likely come to their home at night but we will not so much as once a day by our serious thoughts ascend to God When he speaks of his own respects to us hear what he saith Isai. 15.16 When Zion saith The Lord hath forsaken me my Lord hath forgotten me Can a woman forget her sucking childe that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb yea they may forget yet will I not forget thee Behold I have graven thee upon the palms of my hands thy walls are continually before me But when he speaks of our thoughts to him the case is otherwise Jer. 2.32 Can a Maid forget her Ornaments or a Bride her Attire yet my People have forgotten me days without number As if he should say you would not forget the cloathes on your backs you will not forget your braveries and vanities you will not rise one morning but you will remember to cover your nakedness And are these of more worth then your God or of more concernment then your eternal life and yet you can forget these day after day O brethren give not God cause to expostulate with us as Isai. 65.11 Ye are they that have forsaken the Lord and that forget my holy Mountain But rather admire his minding of thee and let it draw thy minde again to him and say as Job 7.17 What is man that thou shouldest magnifie him and that thou shouldest set thy heart upon him and that thou shouldest visit him every morning and try him every moment ver 18. So let thy soul get up to God and visit him every morning and thy heart be towards him every moment SECT XIII 11. COnsider Should not our interest in Heaven and our Relation to it continually keep our hearts upon it Besides that excellency which is spoken of before VVhy there our Father keeps his court Do we not call him our Father which art in Heaven Ah ungratious unworthy children that can be so taken up in their play below as to be mindless of such a Father Also there is Christ our Head our Husband our Life and shall we not look towards him and send to him as oft as we can till we come to see him face to face If he were by Transubstantiation in the Sacraments or other ordinances and that as gloriously as he is in Heaven then there were some reason for our lower thoughts But when the Heavens must receive him till the restitution of all things let them also receive our hearts with him There also is our Mother For Jerusalem which is above is that mother of us all Gal. 4.26 And there are multitudes of our elder Brethren There are our friends and our ancient acquaintance whose society in the flesh we so much delighted in and whose departure hence we so much lamented And is this no attractive to thy thoughts If they were within thy reach on earth thou wouldst go and visit them and why wilt thou not oftner visit them in Spirit and rejoyce beforehand to think of thy meeting them there again Saith old Bullinger Socrates gaudet sibi moriendū esse propterea quod Homerum Hesiodum alios praestantissimos viros se visurum crederet quanto magis ego gaudeo qui certus sum me visurum esse Christum servatorem meum aeternum Dei filium in assumtâ carne praeterea tot sanctissimos eximios Patriarchas c. Socrates rejoyced that he should die because he believed he should see Homer Hesiod and other excellent men how much more do I rejoyce who am sure to see Christ my Saviour the eternal Son of God in his assumed flesh and besides so many holy and excellent men When Luther desired to dye a Martyr and could not obtain it he comforted himself with these thoughts and thus did write to them in prison Vestra vincula mea sunt vestri carceres ignes mei sunt dum confiteor praedico vobisque simul compatior congratulor Yet this is my comfort your Bonds are mine your Prisons and Fires are mine while I confess and Preach the Doctrine for which you suffer and while I suffer and congratulate with you in your sufferings Even so should a Believer look to heaven and contemplate the blessed state of the Saints and think with himself Though I am not yet so happy as to be with you yet this is my daily comfort you are my Brethren and fellow Members in Christ and therefore your joyes are my joyes and your glory by this neer relation is my glory especially while I believe in the same Christ and hold fast the same Faith and Obedience by which you were thus dignified and also while I rejoyce in Spirit with you and in my daily meditations congratulate your happiness Moreover our house and home is above For we know if this earthly house of our Tabernacle were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the Heavens Why do we then look no oftner towards it and groan not earnestly desiring to be clothed upon with our house which is from Heaven 2 Cor. 5.1 2. Sure if our home were far meaner we should yet remember it because it is our home You use to say Home is homely be it never so poor and should such a home then be no more remembred If
tryal of this world Dost thou finde it agree with thy nature or desires are these common abominations these heavy sufferings these unsatisfying vanities suitable to thee or dost thou love for interest and neer relation Why where hast thou better interest then in heaven or where hast thou neerer relation then there Dost thou love for acquaintance and familiarity Why though thine eyes have never seen thy Lord yet he is never the further from thee If thy son were blinde yet he would love thee his father though he never saw thee Thou hast heard the voice of Christ to thy very heart thou hast received his benefits thou hast lived in his bosome and art thou not yet acquainted with him It is he that brought thee seasonably and safety into the world It is he that nursed thee up in thy tender infancy and helped thee when thou couldst not help thy self He taught thee to go to speak to read to understand He taught thee to know thy self and him he opened thee that first window whereby thou sawest into heaven Hast thou forgotten since thy heart was careless and he did quicken it and hard and stubborn and he did soften it and made it yeeld when it was at peace and he did trouble it and whole till he did break it and broken till he did heal it again Hast thou forgotten the time nay the many very many times when he found thee in secret all in tears when he heard thy dolorous sighes and groans and left all to come and comfort thee when he came in upon thee and took thee up as it were in his armes and asked thee Poor soul what doth aile thee dost thou weep when I have wept so much Be of good cheer thy wounds are saving and not deadly It is I that have made them who mean thee no hurt Though I let out thy blood I will not let out thy life O me thinks I remember yet his voice and feel those embracing armes that took me up How gently did he handle me how carefully did he dress my wounds and binde them up Me thinks I hear him still saying to me Poor sinner though thou hast dealt unkindly with me and cast me off yet will not I do so by thee though thou hast set light by me and all my mercies yet both I and All are thine what wouldst thou have that I can give thee and what dost thou want that I cannot give thee If any thing I have will pleasure thee thou shalt have it If any thing in heaven or earth will make the happy why it is all thine own Wouldst thou have pardon thou shalt have it I freely forgive thee all the debt wouldst thou have grace and peace thou shalt have them both wouldst thou have my self why behold I am thine thy friend thy Lord thy brother thy husband and thy head wouldst thou have the Father why I will bring thee to him and thou shalt have him in and by me These were my Lords reviving words These were the melting healing raising quickening passages of love After all this when I was doubtful of his love me thinks I yet remember his overcoming and convincing Arguments Why sinner have I done so much to testifie my Love and yet dost thou doubt Have I made thy believing it the condition of enjoying it and yet dost thou doubt Have I offered thee my self and love so long and yet dost thou question my willingness to be thine VVhy what could I have done more then I have done At what dearer rate should I tell thee that I love thee Read yet the story of my bitter passion wilt thou not believe that it proceeded from love Did I ever give thee cause to be so jealous of me Or to think so hardly of me as thou dost Have I made my self in the Gospel a Lyon to thine enemies and a Lamb to thee and dost thou so over-look my Lamb like nature Have I set mine arms and heart there open to thee and wilt thou not believe but they are shut why if I had been willing to let thee perish I could have done it at a cheaper rate what need I then have done and suffered so much what need I follow thee with so long patience and intreating what dost thou tell me of thy wants have I not enough for me and thee and why dost thou foolishly tell me of thy unworthiness and thy sin I had not died if man had not sinned if thou wert not a sinner thou wert not for me if thou wert worthy thy self what shouldst thou do with my worthiness Did I ever invite the worthy and the righteous or did I ever save or justifie such or is there any such on earth Hast thou nothing art thou lost and miserable art thou helpless and forlorn dost thou believe that I am a sufficient Saviour and wouldst thou have me why then take me Lo I am thine if thou be willing I am willing and neither sin nor devils shall break the match These O these were the blessed words which his Spirit from his Gospel spoke unto me till he made me cast my self it his feet ye into his arms and to cry out My Saviour and my Lord Thou hast broke my heart thou hast revived my heart thou hast overcome thou hast wone my heart take it it is thine if such a heart can please thee take it if it cannot make it such as thou wouldst have it Thus O my soul maist thou remember the sweet familiarity thou hast had with Christ therefore if acquaintance will cause affection O then let out thy heart unto him it is he that hath stood by thy bed of sickness that hath cooled thy heats and eased thy pains and refreshed thy weariness and removed thy fears He hath been always ready when thou hast earnestly sought him He hath given thee the meeting in publike and in private He hath been found of thee in the Congregation in thy house in thy chamber in the field in the way as thou wast walking in thy waking nights in thy deepest dangers O if bounty and compassion be an attractive of Love how unmeasurably then am I bound to love him All the mercies that have filled up my life do tell me this all the places that ever I did abide in all the societies and persons that I have had to deal with every condition of life that I have passed through all my imployments and all my relations every change that hath befaln me all tell me That the Fountain is Overflowing Goodness Lord what a summ of love am I indebted to thee and how doth my debt continually increase how should I love again for so much love But what shall I dare to think of making thee requital or of recompencing all thy love with mine will my mite requite thee for thy golden Mines my seldom wishes for thy constant bounty or mine which is nothing or not mine for thine which is infinite and thine own shall I
task of outward Duties Let men see in you what a Life they must aim at If ever a Christian be like himself and answerable to his Principles and Profession it is when he is most serious and lively in this Duty when as Moses before he died went up into Mount Nebo to take a survey of the Land of Canaan so the Christian doth ascend this Mount of Contemplation and take a survey by Faith of his Rest. He looks upon the glorious delectable Mansions and saith Glorious things are deservedly spoken of thee O thou City of God He heareth as it were the melody of the Heavenly Chore and beholdeth the excellent employment of those Spirits and saith Blessed are the people that are in such a case yea blessed are they that have the Lord for their God He next looketh to the glorified Inhabitants of that Region and saith Happy art thou O the Israel of God a people saved by the Lord the Shield of thy Strength the Sword of thine Excellency When he looketh upon the Lord himself who is their Glory he is ready with the rest to fall down and worship him that liveth for ever and say Holy holy holy Lord God Almighty which was and is and is to come Thou art worthy O Lord to receive Glory and Honor and Power When he looks on the Glorified Saviour of the Saints he is ready to say Amen to that new Song Blessing honor glory and power be to him that sitteth on the Throne and to the Lamb for ever and ever for he hath redeemed us out of every Nation by his blood and made us Kings and Priests to God When he looketh back on the Wilderness of this VVorld he blesseth the believing patient despised Saints he pitieth the ignorant obstinate miserable World and for himself he saith as Peter It is good to be here or as David It is good for me to draw neer to God for all those that are far from him shall perish Thus as Daniel in his captivity did three times a day open his window toward Jerusalem though far out of sight when he went to God in his Devotions so may the believing Soul in this captivity to the flesh look towards Jerusalem which is above And as Paul was to the Colossians so may he be with the Glorified Spirits Absent in the flesh but present in Spirit joying in beholding their Heavenly Order And as Divine Bucholcer in his last Sermon before his death did so sweetly descant upon those comfortable words John 3.16 Whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish but have Everlasting Life That he raised and ravished the hearts of his otherwise sad hearers So may the Meditating Beleever do through the Spirits assistance by his own heart And as the pretty Lark doth sing most sweetly and never cease her pleasant ditty while she hovereth aloft as if she were there gazing into the glory of the Sun but is suddenly silenced when she falleth to the Earth So is the frame of the Soul most Delectable and Divine while it keepeth in the views of God by Contemplation But alas we make there too short a stay but down again we fall and lay by our musick But O thou the Merciful Father of Spirits the Attractive of Love and Ocean of Delights draw up these drossie hearts unto thy self and keep them there till they are spiritualized and refined and second these thy Servants weak Endevors and perswade those that read these lines to the practice of this Delightful Heavenly Work And O suffer not the Soul of thy most unworthy Servant to be a stranger to those Joyes which he unfoldeth to thy people or to be seldom in that way which he hath here lined out to others But O keep me while I tarry on this Earth in daily serious Breathings after thee and in a Believing Affectionate Walking with thee And when thou comest O let me be found so doing not hiding my Talent nor serving my Flesh nor yet asleep with my Lamp unfurnished but waiting and longing for my Lords return That those who shall read these Heavenly Directions may not read onely the fruit of my Studies and the product of my fancy but the hearty breathings of my active Hope and Love That if my heart were open to their view they might there read the same most deeply engraven with a Beam from the Face of the Son of God and not finde Vanity or Lust or Pride within where the words of Life appear without That so these lines may not witness against me but proceeding from the heart of the Writer may be effectual through thy Grace upon the heart of the Reader and so be the savor of Life to both Amen Glory be to God in the highest On Earth Peace Good-wil towards Men. FINIS BROVGHTON In the Conclusion of His Concent of Scripture Concerning the New-Jerusalem and the Everlasting Sabbatism meant in my Text as begun here and perfected in Heaven THe Company of faithful Souls called to the blessed Marriage of the Lamb are a Jerusalem from Heaven Apoc. 3. and 21. Heb. 12. Though such glorious things are spoken concerning this City of God the perfection whereof cannot be seen in this Vale of Tears yet here God wipeth all tears from our eyes and each blessing is here begun The name of this City much helpeth Jew and Gentile to see the state of peace for this is called Jerusalem and that in Canaan hath Christ destroyed This Name should clearly have taught both the Hebrews not to look and pray daily for to return to Canaan and Pseudo-Catholikes not to fight for special holiness there We live in this by Faith and not by Eye-sight and by Hope we behold the perfection Of this City Salvation is a Wall goodly as Jasper clear as Crystal the foundations are in number twelve of twelve pretious stones such as Aaron ware on his brest all the Work of the Lambs twelve Apostles the Gates are twelve each of Pearl upon which are the names of the twelve Tribes of Israel of whose Faith all must be which enter in Twelve Angels are conductors from East West North and South even the Stars of the Churches The City is square of Burgesses setled for all turns Here God sitteth on a Throne like Jasper and Ruby Comfortable and Just The Lamb is the Temple that a third Temple should not be looked for to be built Thrones twice twelve are for all the Christians born of Israels twelve or taught by the Apostles who for dignity are Seniors for infinity are termed but four and twenty in regard of so many Tribes and Apostles Here the Majesty is Honorable as at the delivery of the Law from whose Throne Thunder Voyces and Lightnings do proceed Here oyl of Grace is never wanting but burning with seven Lamps the spirits of Messias of Wit and Wisdom of Counsel and Courage of Knowledg and Understanding and of the Fear due to the Eternal Here the Valiant Patient Witty and Speedy
of suffering for Christ when he usually appears most manifestly to his people Didst thou never see one walking in the midst of the fiery furnace with thee like to the Son of God If thou do know him value him as thy life and follow on to know him and thou shalt know incomparably more then this Or if I do but renew thy grief to tell thee of what thou once didst feel but now hast lost I counsel thee to Remember whence thou art fallen and Repent and do the first works and be watchful and strengthen the things which remain and I dare promise thee because God hath promised thou shalt see and know that which here thine Eye could not see nor thy Understanding conceive Beleeve me Christians yea beleeve God You that have known most of God in Christ here it is as nothing to that you shall know It scarce in comparison of that deserves to be called Knowledg The difference betwixt our knowledg now and our knowledg then will be as great as that between our fleshly bodies now and our spiritual glorified bodies then For as these bodies so that knowledg must cease that a more perfect may succeed Our silly childish thoughts of God which now is the highest we reach to must give place to a manly knowledg All this saith the Apostle 1 Cor. 13.8 9 10 11 12. Knowledg shall vanish away For we know in part c. But when that which is perfect is come then that which is in part shall be done away When I was a childe I spake as childe I thought as a childe I understood as a childe but when I became a man I put away childish things For now we see through a glass darkly but then face to face Now I know in part but then I shall know even as also I am known Marvel not therefore Christian at the sence of that place of John 17.3 how it can be life eternal to know God and his Son Christ You must needs know that to enjoy God and his Christ is eternal Life and the souls enjoying is in knowing They that savor only of earth and consult with flesh and have no way to try judg but by sense and never were acquainted with this Knowledg of God nor tasted how gracious he is these think it 's a poor happiness to know God let them have health and wealth and worldly delights and take you the other Alas poor men they that have made tryal of both do not grudg you your delights nor envy your happiness but pity your undoing folly and wish O that you would come near and taste and try as they have done and then Judg Then continue in your former mind if you can For our parts we say with that knowing Apostle though the speech may seem presumptuous 1 John 5.19 20. We know that we are of God and the whole world lieth in wickedness And we know that the Son of God is come and hath given us an understanding that we may know him that is True and we are in him that is True in his Son Jesus Christ This is the true God and eternal Life Here one verse contains the sum of most that I have said The Son of God is come to be our Head and Fountain of Life and so hath given us an understanding that the Soul may be personally qualified and made capable to know him God that is True the Prime Truth and we are brought so near in this enjoyment that we are in him that is True not properly by an essential or personal union but we are in him by being in his Son Jesus Christ. This we have mentioned is the only True God and so the fittest object for our understanding which chuseth Truth and this knowing of him and being in him in Christ is eternal life SECT VII ANd doubtless the Memory will not be Idle or useless in this Blessed work If it be but by looking back to help the soul to value its enjoyment Our knowledg will be enlarged not diminished therefore the knowledg of things past shall not be taken away And what is that knowledg but Remembrance Doubtless from that height the Saint can look behind him and before him And to compare past with present things must needs raise in the Blessed Soul an unconceiveable esteem and sense of its Condition To stand on that Mount whence we can see the Wilderness and Canaan both at once to stand in Heaven and look back on Earth and weigh them together in the ballance of a comparing sense and judgment how must it needs transport the soul and make it cry out Is this the purchase that cost so dear as the blood of God No wonder O blessed price and thrice blessed Love that invented and Condescended Is this the end of Believing Is this the end of the Spirits workings Have the Gales of Grace blown me into such a Harbour Is it hither that Christ hath enticed my Soul O blessed way and thrice blessed end Is this the Glory which the Scripture spoke of and Ministers preached of so much Why now I see the Gospel indeed is good tydings even tydings of peace and Good things tydings of great Joy to all Nations Is my mourning my fasting my sad humblings my heavy walking groanings complainings come to this Is my praying watching fearing to offend come to this Are all my afflictions sickness languishing troublesom physick fears of Death come to this Are all Satans Temptations the worlds Scorns and Jeers come to this And now if there be such a thing as Indignation left how will it here let fly O vile nature that resisted so much and so long such a blessing Unworthy Soul Is this the place thou camest so unwillingly towards Was Duty wearisom Was the world too good to lose Didst thou stick at leaving all denying all and suffering any thing for this Wast thou loath to dye to come to this O false Heart that had almost betrayed me to Eternal flames and lost me this Glory O base flesh that would needs have been pleased though to the loss of this felicity Didst thou make me to question the truth of this Glory Didst thou shew me Improbabilities and draw me to distrust the Lord Didst thou question the Truth of that Scripture which promised this Why my soul art thou not now ashamed that ever thou didst question that Love that hath brought thee hither That thou wast Jealous of the faithfulness of thy Lord That thou suspectest his Love when thou shouldst only have suspected thy self I hat thou didst not Live continually transported with thy Saviours Love and that ever thou quenchedst a motion of his Spirit Art thou not ashamed of all thy hard thoughts of such a God Of all thy mis-interpreting of and grudging at those providences and repining at those ways that have such an end Now thou art sufficiently convinced that the ways thou calledst Hard and the Cup thou calledst Bitter were
are used as Enemies still Oh when the Conquering Lion of the Tribe of Judah shall appear with all the Hoasts of Heaven when he shall surprize the careless world as a thief in the Night When as the Lightening which appeareth in the East and shineth even to the West so they shall behold him coming What a change will the sight of this Appearance work both with the World and with the Saints Now poor deluded World where is your Mirth and your Jollity Now where is your Wealth and your Glory Where is that prophane and careless heart that slighted Christ and his Spirit and out-sate all the offers of Grace Now where is that tongue that mocked the Saints and jeered the holy ways of God and made merry with his peoples Imperfections and theâ— own Slanders What was it not you Deny it if you can your heart condemns you and God is greater then your heart and will condemn you much more Even when you say Peace and Safety then Destruction cometh upon you as Travel upon a woman with childe and you shall not escape 1 Thess. 5.3 Perhaps if you had known just the day and hour when the Son of God would have come then you would have been found praying or the like But you should have watched and been ready because you know not the hour But for that faithful and wise servant whom his Lord when he comes shall finde so doing Oh blessed is that servant Verily I say unto you for Christ hath said it he shall make him ruler over all his Goods And when the chief Shepherd shall appear he shall receive a Crown of Glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5.4 Oh how should it then be the character of a Christian to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the Dead even Jesus which delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thess. 1.10 And with all faithful diligence to prepare to meet our Lord with joy And seeing his Coming is of purpose to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that beleeve 2 Thes. 1.10 Oh what thought should Glad our hearts more then the thought of that day A little while indeed we have not seen him but yet a little while and we shall see him For he hath said I will not leave you comfortless but will come unto you We were comfortless should he not come And while we dayly gaze and look up to Heaven after him let us remember what the Angels said This same Jesus which is taken up from you into Heaven shall so come in like manner as ye have seen him go into Heaven While he is now out of sight It is as a sword to our Souls while they dayly ask us Where is your God But then we shall be able to answer our enemies See O proud sinners yonder is our Lord. And now Christians should we not put up that Petition heartily Let thy Kingdom come for the Spirit and the Bride say Come and let every Christian that heareth and readeth say Come And our Lord himself saith Surely I come quickly Amen Even so Come Lord Jesus Revel 22.17 20. SECT II. THe second stream that leadeth to Paradise is that Great work of Jesus Christ in raising our Bodies from the dust and uniting them again unto the Soul A wonderful effect of infinite Power and Love Yea wonderful indeed saith Unbelief if it be True What saith the Atheist and Sadducee shall all these scattered bones and dust become a man A man drowned in the Sea is eaten by fishes and they by men again and these men by worms what is become of the body of that first man shall it rise again Thou fool for so Paul calls thee dost thou dispute against the power of the Almighty Wilt thou pose him with thy Sophistry Dost thou object difficulties to the Infinite Strength Thou blinde Mole Thou silly Worm Thou little piece of creeping breathing clay Thou dust Thou nothing Knowest thou who it is whose Power thou dost Question If thou shouldst see him thou wouldst presently dye If he should come and dispute his cause with thee couldst thou bear it Or if thou shouldst hear his voyce couldst thou endure But come thy way let me take thee by the hand and do thou a little follow me and let me with Reverence as Elihu plead for God and for that power whereby I hope to arise Seest thou this great massie body of the earth What beareth it and upon what foundation doth it stand Seest thou this vast Ocean of waters What Limits them and why do they not overflow and drown the Earth Whence is that constant Ebbing and Flowing of her Tides Wilt thou say from the Moon or other Planets and whence have they that power of effective influence Must thou not come to a Cause of Causes that can do all things and doth not Reason require thee to conceive of that cause as a perfect Intelligence and voluntary Agent and not such a blinde worker and empty notion as that Nothing is which thou callest Nature Look upward Seest thou that Glorious body of Light the Sun How many times bigger is it then all the Earth and yet how many thousand miles doth it run in one minute of an hour and that without weariness or failing a moment What thinkest thou Is not that power able to effect thy Resurrection which doth all this Dost thou not see as great works as a Resurrection every day before thine eyes but that the Commonness makes thee not admire them Read but the 37 38 39 40 41. Chapters of Job and take heed of disputing against God again for ever Know'st thou not that with him all things are possible Can he make a Camel go through the eye of a needle Can he make such a blinde Sinner as thou to see and such a proud heart as thine to stoop and such an Earthly minde as thine Heavenly And subdue all that thy fleshly foolish wisdom And is not this as great a work as to Raise thee from the Dust Wast thou any unlikelier to Be when thou wast Nothing then thou shalt be when thou art Dust Is it not as easie to raise the Dead as to make Heaven and Earth and all of Nothing But if thou be unperswadeable all I say to thee more is as the Prophet to the Prince of Samaria 2 King 7.20 Thou shalt see that day with thine Eyes but little to thy Comfort for that which is the day of relief to the Saints shall be a day of Revenge on thee There is a Rest prepared but thou canst not enter in because of unbelief Heb. 3.19 But for thee O Beleeving Soul never think to comprehend in the narrow capacity of thy shallow brain the Counsels and ways of thy Maker No more then thou canst contain in thy fist the vast Ocean He never intended thee such a Capacity when he made thee and gave thee that measure thou
they disobeyed whose Ministers they abused whose Servants they hated now sitting to judg them When their own Consciences shall cry out against them and call to their Remembrance all their misdoings Remember at such a time such or such a sin at such a time Christ sued hard for thy Conversion the Minister pressed it home to thy heart thou wast touched to the quick with the Word thou didst purpose and promise returning and yet thou casts off all When an hundred Sermons Sabbaths Mercies shall each step up and say I am witness against the Prisoner Lord I was abused and I was neglected Oh which way will the wretched sinner look Oh who can conceive the terrible thoughts of his heart Now the world cannot help him his old companions cannot help him the Saints neither can nor will onely the Lord Jesus can but Oh there 's the Soul-killing misery he will not Nay without violating the truth of his Word he cannot though otherwise in regard of his Absolute power he might The time was Sinner when Christ would and you would not and now Oh how fain would you and he will not Then he followed thee in vain with entreaties Oh poor Sinner what dost thou Wilt thou sell thy Soul and Saviour for a lust Look to me and be saved Return why wilt thou dye But thy Ear and heart was shut up against all Why now thou shalt cry Lord Lord open to us and he shall say Depart I know you not ye workers of iniquity Now Mercy Mercy Lord Oh but it was Mercy you so long set light by and now your day of Mercy is over What then remains but to cry out to the mountains fall upon us and to the hills O cover us from the presence of him that sits upon the Throne But all in vain For thou hast the Lord of Mountains and hils for thine enemy whose voyce they will obey and not thine Sinner make not light of this for as true as thou livest except a through change and coming in to Christ prevent it which God grant thou shalt shortly to thy unconceiveable horror see that day Oh Wretch Will thy cups then be wine or gall Will they be sweet or bitter Will it comfort thee to think of all thy merry days and how pleasantly thy time slipt away Will it do thee good to think how rich thou wast and how honorable thou wast or will it not rather wound thy very Soul to remember thy folly and make thee with anguish of heart and rage against thy self to cry out Oh Wretch where was thine understanding Didst thou make so light of that sin that now makes thee tremble How couldst thou hear so lightly of the Redeeming Blood of the Son of God How couldst thou quench so many motions of his Spirit and stifle so many quickening thoughts as were cast into thy Soul What took up all that Life's time which thou hadst given thee to make sure work against this day What took up all thy heart thy love and delight which should have been layd out on the Lord Jesus Hadst thou room in thy heart for the worâ—d thy friend thy flesh thy lusts and none for Christ Oh Wretch whom hadst thou to love but him What hadst thou to do but to seek to him and cleave to him and enjoy him Oh wast thou not told of this dreadful day a thousand times till the Commonness of that doctrine made thee weary How couldst thou slight such warnings and rage against the Minister and say he preacheth Damnation Had it not been better to have heard and prevented it then now to endure it Oh now for one offer of Christ for one Sermon for one day of Grace more But too late alass too late Poor careless Sinner I did not think here to have said so much to thee for my business is to refresh the Saints But if these lines do fall into thy hands and thou vouchsafe the reading of them I here charge thee before God and the Lord Jesus Christ who shall judg the quick and the dead at his appearing and his Kingdom that thou make hast and get alone and set thy self sadly to ponder on these things Ask thy heart Is this true or is it not Is there such a day and must I see it Oh what do I then Why trifle I Is it not time full time that I had made sure of Christ and comfort long ago should I sit still another day who have lost so many Had I not at that day rather be found one of the Holy faithful watchful Christians then a worldling a good-fellow or a man of honor Why should I not then choose it now Will it be best then and is it not best now Oh think of these things A few sad hours spent in serious fore-thoughts is a cheap prevention It 's worth this or It 's worth nothing Friend I profess to thee from the Word of the Lord That of all thy sweet sins there will then be nothing left but the sting in thy Conscience which will never out through all eternity except the blood of Christ beleeved in and valued above all the world do now in this day of grace get it out Thy sin is like a Beautiful Harlot while she is young and fresh she hath many followers but when old and withered every one would shut their hands of her she is onely their shame none would know her So will it be with thee now thou wilt venture on it what ever it cost thee but then when mens rebellious ways are charged on their Souls to death O that thou couldst rid thy hands of it O that thou couldst say Lord it was not I Then Lord when saw we thee hungry naked imprisoned How fain would they put it off Then sin will be sin indeed and Grace will be Grace indeed Then say the foolish Virgins Give us of your Oyl for our Lamps are ouâ— Oh for some of your faith holiness which we were wont to mock at But what 's the answer Go buy for your selves we have little enough would we had rather much more Then they will be glad of any thing like Grace and if they can but produce any external familiarity with Christ or Common gifts how glad are they Lord we have eat and drunk in thy presence prophecyed in thy name cast out devils done many wonderful works we have been baptized heard Sermons professed Christianity But alas this will not serve the turn He will profess to them I never knew you Depart from me ye workers of iniquity Oh dead hearted sinner is all this nothing to thee As sure as Christ is true this is true Take it in his own words Math. 25.31 When the Son of man shall come in his Glory and before him shall be gathered all Nations and he shall separate them one from another as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats and he shall set the sheep on the right hand and
For no man can give this Rest to us and none can take our Joy from us Joh. 16.22 SECT V. 5. ANother Rule is this That is ever better or best which maketh the owner or possessor himself better or best And sure according to this Rule there 's no state like Heaven Riches honor and pleasure make a man neither better nor best Grace here makes us better but not best That is reserved as the Prerogative of Glory That 's our Good that doth us Good and that doth us Good which makes us Good Else it may be Good in it self but no good to us External Good is at too great a distance to be our Happiness It is not bread on our Tables but in our stomacks that must nourish nor blood upon our clothes or skin but in the Liver heart and veins which is our Life Nay the things of the world are so far from making the owners Good that they prove not the least impediments thereto and snares to the best of men Riches and honor do seldom help to humility but of pride they occasionally become most frequent fomentors The difficulty is so great of conjoyning Graciousness with Greatness that it's next to an impossibility And their conjunction so rare that they are next to inconsistent To have a heart taken up with Christ and Heaven when we have health and abundance in the world is neither easie nor ordinary Though Soul and Body compose but one man yet they seldom prosper both together Therfore that 's our chief Good which will do us Good at heart and that 's our true Glory that makes us all Glorious within and that the Blessed day which will make us holy and blessed men which will not onely beautifie our House but cleanse our Hearts nor onely give us new Habitations and new Relations but also new Souls and new Bodies The true knowing living Christian complains more frequently and more bitterly of the wants and woes within him then without him If you over-hear his prayers or see him in his tears and ask him what aileth him he will cry out more Oh my dark understanding Oh my hard my unbeleeving heart rather then Oh my dishonor or Oh my poverty Therefore it is his desired place and state which affords a relief suitable to his necessities and complaints And surely that is onely this Rest. SECT VI. 6. ANother Rule is That the Difficulty of obtaining shews the Excellency And surely if you consider but what it cost Christ to purchase it what it costs the Spirit to bring mens hearts to it what it costs Ministers to perswade to it what it costs Christians after all this to obtain it and what it costs many a half-Christian that after all goes without it You will say that here 's Difficulty and therefore Excellency Trifles may be had at a Trivial rate and men may have damnation far more easily It is but lie still and sleep out our days in careless laziness It is but take our pleasure and minde the world and cast away the thoughts of Sin and Grace and Christ and Heaven and Hell out of your mindes and do as the most do and never trouble our selves about these high things but venture our Souls upon our presumptuous conceits and hopes and let the vessel swim which way it will and then stream and wind and tyde will all help us apace to the gulph of perdition You may burn an hundred houses easier then build one and kill a thousand men easier then make one alive The descent is easie the ascent not so To bring diseases is but to cherish sloth please the appetite and take what most delights us but to cure them will cost bitter pills loathsom potions tedious gripings absteinious accurate living and perhaps all fall short too He that made the way and knows the way better then we hath told us it is narrow and strait and requires striving And they that have paced it more truly and observantly then we do tell us it lies through many tribulations and is with much ado passed through Conclude then it is sure somewhat worth that must cost all this SECT VII 7. ANother Rule is this That is Best which not onely supplieth necessity but affordeth abundance By necessity is meant here that which we cannot live without and by abundance is meant a more perfect supply a comfortable not a useless abundance Indeed it is suitable to a Christians state and use to be scanted here and to have onely from hand to mouth And that not onely in his corporal but in his spiritual comforts Here we must not be filled full that so our emptiness may cause hungering and our hungering cause seeking and craving and our craving testifie our dependance and occasion receiving and our receiving occasion thanks-returning and all advance the Glory of the Giver But when we shall be brought to the Well-head and united close to the overflowing Fountain we shall then thirst no more because we shall be empty no more Surely if those Blessed Souls did not abound in their Blessedness they would never so abound in praises Such Blessing and Honor and Glory and Praise to God would never accompany common mercies All those Alleluja's are not sure the language of needy men Now we are poor we speak supplications And our Beggars tone discovers our low condition All our Language almost is complaining and craving our breath sighing and our life a laboring But sure where all this is turned into eternal praising and rejoycing the case must needs be altered and all wants suppplied and forgotten I think their Hearts full of Joy and their mouthes full of thanks proves their estate abounding full of Blessedness SECT VIII 8. REason concludes that for the Best which is so in the Judgment of the Best and wisest men Though it 's true the Judgment of imperfect man can be no perfect Rule of Truth or Goodness Yet God revealeth this Good to all on whom he will bestow it and hides not from his people the end they should aim at and attain If the Holiest men are the Best and Wisest then their Lives tell you their Judgments and their unwearied labor and sufferings for this Rest shews you they take it for the perfection of their Happiness If men of greatest experience be the wisest men and they that have tryed both estates then surely it 's vanity and vexation that 's found below and solid Happiness and Rest above If dying men are wiser then others who by the worlds forsaking them and by the approach of Eternity begin to be undeceived then surely Happiness is hereafter and not here For though the deluded world in their flourishing prosperity can bless themselves in their fools paradise and merrily jest at the simplicity of the Saints yet scarce one of many even of the worst of them but are ready at last to cry out with Balaam Oh that I might dye the death of the righteous
of few Cities The best Wheat may be cut down before its ripe Therefore it is promised to the Righteous as a blessing that they shall be brought as a shock of Corn into the Barn in season Nay it s possible he may die by his own hands Though some Divines think such Doctrine not fit to be taught least it encourage the tempted to commit the same sin but God hath left preservatives enough against sin without our devising more of our own neither hath he need of our lie in his glory He hath fixed that principle so deep in Nature that all should endeavor their own preservation that I never knew any whose understanding was not crazed or lost much subject to that sin even most of the Melancholly are more fearful to die then other men And this terror is preservative enough of that kinde That such committing of a hainous known Sin is a sad sign where there is the free use of Reason That therefore they make their Salvation more questionable That they die most woful scandals to the Church That however the sin it self should make the godly to abhor it were there no such danger or scandal attending it c. But to exclude from salvation of all those poor creatures who in Feavers Phrensies Madness Melancholly c. shall commit this sin is a way of prevention which Scripture teacheth not and too uncomfortable to the friends of the deceased The common argument which they urge drawn from the necessity of a particular repentance for every particular known sin as it is not universally true so were it granted it would exclude from salvation all men breathing For there was never any man save Christ who died not in some particular sin either of Commission or Omission great or small which he hath no more time to repent of then the sinner in Question But yet this may well be called untimely death But in the ordinary course of Gods dealings you may easily observe that he purposely maketh his peoples last hour in this life to be of all other to the flesh most bitter and in the Spirit most sweet and that they who feared death through the most of their lives yet at last are more willing of it then ever and all to make their Rest more seasonable Bread and drink are alway good but at such a time as Samarias siege to have plenty of food in stead of Doves dung in one nights space or in such a thirst as Ishmaels or Sampsons to have supply of water by miracle in a moment these are seasonable So this Rest is always good to the Saints and usually also is most seasonable Rest. SECT VII SEventhly A further excellency of this Rest is this As it will be a seasonable so a suitable Rest Suited 1. To the Natures 2. To the desires 3. To the necessities of the Saints 1. To their Natures If sutableness concur not with excellency the best things may be bad to us For it is that which makes things good in themselves to be good to us In our choice of friends we oft pass by the more excellent to chuse the more suitable Every good agrees not with every nature To live in a free and open air under the warming Rayes of the Sun is excellent to man because suitable But the flesh which is of another nature doth rather chuse another element and that which is to us so excellent would quickly be to it destructive The choicest dainties which we feed upon our selves would be to our Beast as an unpleasing so an insufficient sustenance The Iron which the Ostrich well digests would be but hard food for man Even among men contrary appetites delight in contrary objects You know the Proverb One mans meat is another mans poyson Now here is suitableness and excellency conjoyned The new nature of the Saints doth suit their Spirits to this Rest And indeed their holiness is nothing else but a sparke taken from this Element and by the Spirit of Christ kindled in their hearts the flame whereof as mindful of its own Divine original doth ever mount the soul aloft and tend to the place from whence it comes It worketh towards its own Center and makes us Restless till there we Rest. Gold and earthly Glory temporal Crowns and Kingdoms could not make a rest for Saints As they were not Redeemed with so low a price so neither are they indued with so low a nature These might be a portion for lower spirits and fit those whose natures they suit with but so they cannot a Saint-like nature As God will have from them a Spiritual VVorship suitable to his own Spiritual Being so will he provide them a spiritual Rest suitable to his peoples spiritual nature As Spirits have not fleshly substances so neither delight they in fleshly pleasures These are too gross and vile for them When carnal persons think of Heaven their conceivings of it are also carnal and their notions answerable to their own natures And were it possible for such to enjoy it it would sure be their trouble and not their Rest because so contrary to their dispositions A Heaven of good-fellowship of wine and wantonness of gluttony and all voluptuousness would far better please them as being more agreeing to their natures But a heaven of the knowledg of God and his Christ a delightful complacency in that mutual love an everlasting rejoycing in the fruition of our God a perpetual singing of his high praises this is a heaven for a Saint a spiritual Rest suitable to a spiritual nature Then dear friends we shall live in our own element We are now as the fish in some small vessel of water that hath only so much as will keep him alive but what is that to the full Ocean we have a little Air let in to us to afford us breathing but what is that to the sweet and fresh gales upon Mount Sion we have a beam of the Sun to lighten our darkness and a warm Ray to keep us from freezing but then we shall live in its light and be revived by its heat for ever O blessed be that hand which fetcht a coal and kindled a fire in our dead hearts from that same Altar where we must offer our Sacrifice everlastingly To be lockt up in Gold and in Pearl would be but a wealthy starving to have our Tables with Plate and ornament richly furnished without meat is but to be richly famished to be lifted up with humane applause is but a very airy felicity to be advanced to the Soveraignty of all the Earth would be but to wear a Crown of Thorns to be filled with the knowledg of Arts and Sciences would be but to further the conviction of our unhappiness But to have a nature like God his very Image holy as he is holy and to have God himself to be our happiness how well do these agree Whether that in 2 Pet. 1.4 be meant as is
not be Christs Disciple It is the common mark whereby his Disciples are known to all men That they love one another Is it not his last great Legacy My peace I leave with you my peace I give unto you Mark the expressions of that command If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 Follow peace with all men and holiness Heb. 12.14 O the deceitfulness of the heart of man That those same men who lately in their self-examination could finde nothing of Christ so clear within them as their love to the Brethren and were confident of this when they could scarce discover any other grace should now look so strangely upon them and be filled with so much bitterness against them That the same men who would have travelled through reproaches many miles to hear an able faithful Minister and not think the labor ill bestowed should now become their bitterest enemies and the most powerful hinderers of the success of their labors and travel as far to cry them down It makes me almost ready to say O sweet O happy days of persecution Which drove us together in a closure of Love who being now dryed at the fire of Liberty and Prosperity are crumbled all into dust by our contentions But it makes me seriously both to say and to think O sweet O happy day of the Rest of the Saints in Glory When as there is one God one Christ one Spirit so we shall have one Judgment one Heart one Church one Imployment for ever VVhen there shall be no more Circumcision and Uncircumcision Jew and Gentile Anabaptist or Poedobaptist Brownist Separatist Independent Presbyterian Episcopal but Christ is All and in All. We shall not there scruple our Communion nor any of the Ordinances of Divine Worship There will not be one for singing and another against it but even those who here jarred in discord shall all conjoyn in blessed concord and make up one melodious Quire I could wish they were of the Martyrs minde who rejoyced that she might have her foot in the same hole of the Stocks in which Master Philpots had been before her But however I am sure they will joyfully live in the same Heaven and gladly participate in the same Rest. Those whom one house could not hold nor one Church hold them no nor one Kingdom neither yet one Heaven and one God may hold One House one Kingdom could not hold Joseph and his Brethren but they must together again whether they will or no and then how is the case altered Then every man must strait withdraw while they weep over and kiss each other O how canst thou now finde in thy heart if thou bear the heart or face of a Christian to be bitter or injurious against thy Brethren when thou dost but once think of that time and place where thou hâ—pâ—â—t in the nearest and sweetest familiarity to live and rejoyce with them for ever I confess their infirmities are not to be loved nor sin to be tolerated because it s theirs But be sure it be sin which thou opâ—posest in them and do it with a Spirit of meekness and compassion that the world may see thy love to the Person while thou opposest the Offence Alas that Turks and Pagans can agree in wickedness better then Christians in the Truth That Bears and Lyons Wolves and Tygers can agree together but Christians cannot That a Legion of Devils can accord in one body and not the tenth part so many Christians in one Church Well the fault may be mine and it may be theirs or more likely both mine and theirs But this rejoyceth me That my old Friends who now look strangely at me will joyfully triumph with me in our common Rest. SECT XV. 7. WE shall then rest from all our dolorous houres and sad thoughts which we now undergo by participating with our Brethren in their Calamities Alas if we had nothing upon our selves to trouble us yet what heart could lay aside sorrows that lives in the sound of the Churches sufferings If Job had nothing upon his body to disquiet him yet the message of his Childrens overthrow must needs grieve the most patient soul. Except we are turned into steel or stone and have lost both Christian and humane affection there needs no more then the miseries of our Brethren to fill our hearts with successions of sorrows and make our lives a continued lamentation The Church on Earth is a meer Hospital which way ever we go we hear complaining and into what corner soever we cast our eyes we behold objects of pity and grief some groaning under a dark understanding some under a senseless heart some languishing under unfruitful weakness and some bleeding for miscarriages and wilfulness and some in such a Lethargy that they are past complaining some crying out of their pining Poverty some groaning under pains and Infirmities and some bewailing a whole Catalogue of Calamities especially in days of common Sufferings when nothing appears to our sight but ruine Families ruined Congregations ruined Sumptuous Structures ruined Cities ruined Country ruined Court ruined Kingdoms ruined Who weâ—ps not when all these bleed As now our friends distresses are our distresses so then our friends deliverance will be part of our own deliverance How much more joyous now to Joyn with them in their days of Thanksgiving and gladness then in the days of Humiliation in sackcloth and ashes How much then more joyous will it be to joyn with them in their perpetual praises and triumphs then to hear them bewailing now their wretchedness their want of light their want of life of joy of assurance of grace of Christ of all things How much more comfortable to see them perfected then now to see them wounded weak sick and afflicted To stand by the bed of their languishing as silly comforters being overwhelmed and silenced with the greatness of their griefs conscious of our own disability to relieve them scarce having a word of comfort to refresh them or if we have alas they be but words which are a poor relief when their sufferings are real Faine we would ease or help them but cannot all we can do is to sorrow with them which alas doth rather increase their sorrows Our day of Rest will free both them and us from all this Now we may enter many a poor Christians cottage and there see their Children ragged their purse empty their Cubbard empty their belly empty and poverty possessing and filling all How much better is that day when we shall see them filled with Christ cloathed with Glory and equalized with the richest and greatest Princes O the sad and heart-piercing spectacles that mine eyes have seen in four yeers space In this fight a dear friend fall down by me from another a precious Christian brought home wounded or dead scarce a moneth scarce a week without the sight or noise of blood Surely there is none of
as much less then a simple Unit Lay by thy perplexed and contradicting Chronological Tables and fix thine eye on this Eternity and the Lines which remote thou couldst not follow thou shalt see altogether here concentred Study less those tedious Volumns of History which contain but the silent Narration of Dreams and are but the pictures of the actions of shadows And in stead of all study frequently study throughly this one word Eternity and when thou hast learned throughly that one word thou wilt never loâ—k on Books again What! Live and Never die Rejoyce and Ever rejoyceâ— O what sweet words are those Never and Ever O happy souls in Hell should you but escape after millions of ages and if the Origenists Doctrine were but True O miserable Saints in Heaven should you be dispossessed after the age of a million of Worlds But O this word Everlasting contains the accomplished perfection of their Torment and our Glory O that the wicked sinner would but soundly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should startle him out of his deadest sleep O that the gracious soul would believingly study this word Everlasting Methinks it should revive him in his deepest Agony And must I Lord thus live for ever Then will I also love forâ—ever Must my Joyes be immortal And shall not my thanks be also immortal Surely if I shall never lose my glory I will also never cease thy praises Shouldst thou but renew my Lease of these first Fruits would I not renew thy Fine and Rent But if thou wilt both perfect and perpetuate me and my Glory as I shall be thine and not mine own so shall my Glory be thy Glory And as all did take their Spring from thee so all shall devolve into thee again and as thy glory was thine ultimate end in my glory so shall it also be mine end when thou hast crowned me with that Glory which hath no end And to thee O King Eternal Immortal Invisible the onely wise God shall be the Honor and Glory for ever and ever Amen 1 Tim. 1.17 SECT XX. ANd thus I have endevored to shew you a glimpse of the approaching Glory But O how short are my expressions of its excellency Reader if thou be an humble sincere believer and waitest with longing and laboring for this Rest thou wilt shortly see and feel the truth of all this then wilt thou have so high an apprehension of this blessed state that will make thee pity the ignorance and distance of Mortals and will tell thee then all that is here said is spoken but in the dark and falls short of the truth a thousand fold In the mean time let this much kindle thy desires and quicken thine endevors Up and be doing run and strive and fight and hold on for thou hast a certain glorious prize before thee God will not mock thee do not mock thy self nor betray thy soul by delaying or dallying and all is thine own What kinde of men doest thou think Christians would be in their lives and duties if they had still this Glory fresh in their thoughts What frame would their spirits be in if their thoughts of Heaven were lively and believing Would their hearts be so heavy And their countenance so sad Or would they have need to take up their comforts from below Would they be so loath to suffer And afraid to die Or would they not think every day a yeer till they did enjoy it The Lord heal our carnal hearts lest we enter not into his REST because of our unbelief CHAP. VIII The People of God described SECT I. HAving thus performed my first task of Describing and explicating the Saints Rest it remains that now I proceed unto the second and shew you what these People of God are and why so called for whom this Blessed Rest remaineth And I shall suit my speech unto the quality of the subject While I was in the Mount I felt it was good being there and therefore tarried there the longer and were there not an extream disproportion between my conceivings and that Subject yet much longer had I been And could my capacity have contained what was there to be seen I could have been contented to have built me a Tabernacle there Can a prospect of that happy Land be tedious or a discourse of eternity be too long except it should detain us from actual possession and our absence move us to impatiency But now I am descended from Heaven to Earth from God to man and must discourse of a Worm not six foot long whose life is but a span and his yeers as a post that hasteth by my discourse also shall be but a span and in a brief touch I will post it over Having read of such a high and unspeakable Glory a stranger would wonder for what rare Creature this Mighty Preparation should be and expect some illustrious Sun should now break forth but behold onely a shell full of Dust animated with an invisible rational soul and that rectified with as unseen a restored power of Grace and this is the Creature that must possess such Glory You would think it must needs be some deserving piece or one that bringeth a valuable price But behold One that hath nothing and can deserve nothing and confesseth this yet cannot of himself confess it neither yea that deserveth the contrary misery and would if he might proceed in that deserving but being apprehended by Love he is brought to him that is All and hath done and deserved All and suffered for all that we deserved and most affectionately receiving him and resting on him he doth in and through him receive All this But let us see more particularly yet what these People of God are They are a small part of lost mankinde whom God hath from Eternity predestinated to this Rest for the Glory of his Mercy and given to his Son to be by him in a special maner Redeemed and fully recovered from their lost estate and advanced to this higher Glory all which Christ doth in due time accomplish accordingly by himself for them and by his Spirit upon them To open all the parts of this half-description to the full will take up more time and room then is allowed me therefore briefly thus 1. I meddle onely with Mankinde not with Angels nor will I curiously enquire whether there were any other World of men created and destroyed before this had Being nor whether there shall be any other when this is ended All this is quite above us and so nothing to us Nor say I the sons of Adam onely because Adam himself is one of them 2. And as it s no more excellent a creature then Man that must have this possession so is it that man who once was lost and had scarcely left himself so much as man The heirs of this Kingdom were taken even from the Tree of execution and rescued by the strong hand of love from the power of the
Law of the most high God dishonorable to him and destructive to the sinner Now the sinner reads and hears no more the reproofs of sin as words of course as if the Minister wanted something to say to fill up his Sermon but when you mention his sin you stir in his wounds he feels you speak at his very heart and yet is contented you should shew him the worst and set it home though he bear the smart He was wont to marvel what made men keep such a stir against sin what harm it was for a man to take a little forbidden pleasure he saw no such hainousness in it that Christ must needs die for it and most of the world be eternally tormented in Hell He thought this was somewhat hard measure and greater punishment then could possibly be deserved by a little fleshly liberty or worldly delight neglect of Christ his Word or Worship yea by a wanton thought a vain word a dull duty or cold affection But now the case is altered God hath opened his eyes to see that unexpressable vileness in sin which satisfies him of the reason of all this 2. The Soul in this great work is convinced and sensible as of the evil of sin so of its own misery by reason of sin They who before read the threats of Gods Law as men do the old stories of forraign wars or as they behold the wounds and blood in a picture or piece of Arras which never makes them smart or fear Why now they finde it s their own story and they perceive they read their own doom as if they found their names written in the curse or heard the Law say as Nathan Thou are the man The wrath of God seemed to him before but as a storm to a man in the dry house or as the pains of the sick to the healthful stander-by or as the Torments of Hell to a childe that sees the story of Dives and Lazarus upon the wall But now he findes the disease is his own and feels the pain in his own bowels and the smart of the wounds in his own soul. In a word he findes himself a condemned man and that he is dead and damned in point of Law and that nothing was wanting but meer execution to make him most absolutely and irrecoverably miserable Whether you will call this a work of the Law or Gospel as in several senses it is of both the Law expressing and the Gospel intimating and implying our former condemnation Sure I am it is a work of the Spirit wrought in some measure in all the regenerate And though some do judg it an unnecessary bondage yet it is beyond my conceiving how he should come to Christ for pardon that first found not himself guilty and condemned or for life that never found himself dead The whole need not the Physitian but they that are sick Yet I deny not but the discovery of the Remedy as soon as the misery must needs prevent a great part of the trouble and make the distinct effects on the soul to be with much more difficulty discerned Nay the actings of the soul are so quick and oft so confused that the distinct order of these workings may not be apprehended or remembred at all And perhaps the joyful apprehensions of mercy may make the sense of misery the sooner forgotten 3. So doth the spirit also convince the soul of the creatures vanity and insufficiency Every man naturally is a flat Idolater our hearts turned from God in our first fall and ever since the Creature hath been our God This is the grand sin of Nature when we set up to our selves a wrong end we must needs erre in all the means The Creature is to every unregenerate man his God and his Christ. He ascribeth to it the Divine prerogatives and alloweth it the highest room in his soul Or if ever he come to be convinced of misery he flyeth to it as his Saviour and supply Indeed God and his Christ have usually the name and shall be still called both Lord and Saviour But the reall expectation is from the Creature and the work of God is laid upon it how well it will perform that work the sinner must know hereafter It is His Pleasure his profit and his Honour that is the natural mans Trinity and his Carnal self that is these in unity Indeed it is that Flesh that is the Principal Idol the other three are deified in their relation to our selves It was our first sin to aspire to be as Gods and it s the greatest sin that runs in our blood and is propagated in our nature from Generation to Generation When God should guide us we guide our selves when he should be our Soveraign we rule our selves The Laws which he gives us we would correct and finde fault with and if we had the making of them we would have made them otherwise When he should take care of us and must or we perish we will care for our selves when we should depend on him in daily receivings we had rather keep our stock our selves and have our portion in our own hands when we should stand to his disposal we would be at our own and when we should submit to his providence we usually quarrel at it as if we knew better what is good or fit for us then he or how to dispose of all things more wisely If we had the disposal of the events of Wars and the ordering of the affairs of Churches and States or the choice of our own outward condition it would be far otherwise then now it is and we think we could make a better disposal order and choice then God hath made This is the Language of a carnal heart though it do not always speak it out When we should study God we study our selves when we should minde God we minde our selves when we should love God we love our carnal selves when we should trust God we trust our selves when we should honor God we honor our selves and when we should ascribe to God and admire him we ascribe to and admire our selves And instead of God we would have all mens eyes and dependance on us and all mens thanks returned to us and would gladly be the onely men on Earth extolled and admired by all And thus we are naturally our own Idols But down falls this Dagon when God doth once renew the soul It is the great business of that great work to bring the heart back to God himself He convinceth the sinner 1. That the Creature or himself can neither be his God to make him happy 2. Nor yet his Christ to recover him from his misery and restore him to God who is his happiness This God doth not onely by Preaching but by Providence also Because words seem but winde and will hardly take off the raging senses therefore doth God make his Rod to speak and continue speaking till the
sinner hear and hath learned by it this great lesson This is the reason why affliction doth so ordinarily concur in the work of Conversion These real Arguments which speak to the quick will force a hearing when the most convincing and powerful words are slighted When a sinner made his credit his God and God shall cast him into lowest disgrace or bring him that idolized his riches into a condition wherein they cannot help him or cause them to take wing and flie away or the rust to corrupt and the thief to steal his adored god in a night or an hour what a help is here to this work of Conviction When a man that made his pleasure his god whether ease or sports or mirth or company or gluttony or drunkenness or cloathing or buildings or whatsoever a raging eye a curious ear a raging appetite or a lustful heart could desire and God shall take these from him or give him their sting and curse with them and turn them all into Gall and Wormwood what a help is here to this Conviction When God shall cast a man into languishing sickness and inflict wounds and anguish on his heart and stir up against him his own Conscience and then as it were take the sinner by the hand and lead him to credit to riches to pleasure to company to sports or whatsoever was dearest to him and say Now try if these can help you can these heal thy wounded conscience can they now support thy tottering cotage can they keep thy departing soul in thy body or save thee from mine everlasting wrath will they prove to thee eternal pleasures or redeem thy Soul from the eternal flames cry aloud to them and see now whether these will be instead of God and his Christ unto thee O how this works now with the sinner When sense it self acknowledgeth the truth and even the flesh is convinced of the Creatures vanity and our very deceiver is undeceived Now he despiseth his former Idols and calleth them all but silly Comforters Wooden Earthen Dirty gods of a few days old and quickly perishing He speaketh as contemptuously of them as Baruck of the Pagan Idols or our Martyrs of the Papists god of Bread which was yesterday in the Oven and is to morrow on the Dunghil He chideth himself for his former folly and pitieth those that have no higher happiness O poor Craesus Caesar Alexander thinks he how small how short was your happiness Ah poor riches base honors woful pleasures sad mirth ignorant learning defiled dunghil counterfeit righteousness poor stuff to make a god of simple things to save souls Wo to them that have no better a portion no surer saviours nor greater comforts then these can yield in their last and great distress and need In their own place they are sweet and lovely but in the place of God how contemptible and abominable They that are accounted excellent and admirable within the bounds of their own calling should they step into the throne and usurp Soveraignty would soon in the eyes of all be vile and insufferable 4. The fourth thing that the Soul is convinced and sensible of is The Absolute Necessity the Full Sufficiency and Perfect Excellency of Jesus Christ. It is a great Question Whether all the forementioned works are not common and onely preparations unto this They are preparatives and yet not common Every lesser work is a preparative to the greater and all the first works of Grace to those that follow so Faith is a preparative to our continual living in Christ to our Justification and Glory There are indeed common Convictions and so there is also a common Believing But this as in the former terms explained is both a sanctifying and saving work I mean a saving act of a sanctified Soul excited by the Spirits special Grace That it precedes Justification contradicts not this for so doth Faith it â—elf too Nor that it precedes Faith is any thing against it for I have shewed before that it is a part of Faith in the large sense and in the strict sense taken Faith is not the first gracious act much less that act of fiducial recumbency which is commonly taken for the justifying act Though indeed it is no one single act but many that are the condition of Justification This Conviction is not by meer Argumentation as a man is convinced of the verity of some inconcerning consequence by dispute but also by the sense of our desperate misery as a man in famine of the necessity of food or a man that hath read or heard his sentence of condemnation is convinced of the absolute necessity of pardon or as a man that lies in prison for debt is convinced of the necessity of a surety to discharge it Now the sinner findes himself in another case then ever he was before aware of he feels an insupportable burden upon him and sees there is none but Christ can take it off he perceives that he is under the wrath of God and that the Law proclaims him a Rebel and Out-law and none but Christ can make his peace he is as a man pursued by a Lyon that must perish if he finde not present sanctuary he feels the curse doth lie upon him and upon all he hath for his sake and Christ alone can make him blessed he is now brought to this Dilemma either he must have Christ to justifie him or be eternally condemned he must have Christ to save him or burn in Hell for ever he must have Christ to bring him again to God or be shut out of his presence everlastingly And now no wonder if he cry as the Martyr Lambert None but Christ none but Christ. It is not Gold but Bread that will satisfie the hungry nor any thing but pardon that will comfort the condemned All things are now but dross and dung and what we accounted gain is now but loss in comparison of Christ. For as the sinner seeth his utter misery and the disability of himself and all things to relieve him so he doth perceive that there is no saving mercy out of Christ The truth of the threatning and tenor of both Covenants do put him out of all such hopes There is none found in Heaven or Earth that can open the sealed Book save the Lamb without his blood there is no Remission and without Remission there is no Salvation Could the sinner now make any shift without Christ or could any thing else supply his wants and save his soul then might Christ be disregarded But now he is convinced that there is no other name and the necessity is absolute 2. And as the Soul is thus convinced of the necessity of Christ so also of his full sufficiency He sees though the Creature cannot and himself cannot yet Christ can Though the fig-leaves of our own unrighteous righteousness are too short to cover our nakedness yet the Righteousness of Christ is large enough Ours is
Doctrinals as Justin Martyr Irenaeus Origen against Celsus Tertullians Apolog. c. As Also Philo Josephus Eusebius and others for History Me thinks it is preposterous to see men study so long the meaning of Gods Word before they know whether it be Gods Word or not As the Italians Melancthon mentioneth That would prove Christ was in the Bread before they believed well that he was in Heaven It is no questioning the Truth of Scripture to perswade men to the rightest course to be assured of its Truth I confess my self much offended at some mens doctrine who cry down Reason and Tradition here as if they were enemies to God and his Word and cry up nothing but Scripture and the Spirit Just like the Antinomians in the doctrine of Certainty of Salvation who cry up the Witness of the Spirit and cry down the trying by Signes and Evidences of Sanctification As if these were contrary which are co-ordinate If I had wanted either Reason Tradition or the help of the Spirit I should never have beleeved the Truth of the Scripture I confess for my part I cannot boast of any such Testimony or Light of the Spirit nor Reason neither which without Tradition would have made me beleeve that the Book of Canticles is Canonical and writ by Solomon and the Book of Wisdom Apocryphal and writ by Philo as some think or that Saint Pauls Epistle to the Loadiceans which is in the end of Bruno and others were not Canonical as well as Johns second and third Some men as soon as they hear talk of Reason and Tradition here they zealously cry out It is Socinianism and Popery Scripture is Gods written infallible Law Reason is the Eye by which I must read it The Spirit is the Physitian to cure the blindness of this Eye and in a common sense The very Life and Spirits The Church is the chief but not the onely House where these Records are kept Tradition hath chiefly three Offices It is to the unlearned where Scripture is The Proclaimer of it It is to the learned the Hand that delivereth it to them It is to some that never heard of Scripture a Herauld to proclaim the doctrine which it containeth And why must these needs be set together by the ears May they not yea must they not stand together and further each other The name of Antichrist Socinianism Arminianism for the things I renounce my self hath almost affrighted some men out of their Faith and others out of their Wits Is it any derogation from the Law to say A man must receive it from the hand that bringeth it and read it with his eyes c. A learned godly Divine is offended with Canterbury for these words Reason and ordinary Grace superadded by the help of Tradition do sufficiently enlighten the Soul to discern That Scriptures are the Oracles of God and he saith Here is the Socinians sound or right Reason before the Illumination of the Spirit and to please the Arminians ordinary or universal Grace comes in and the name of Tradition to please the Popish party And what all these are like to do without the special Grace of the Holy Spirit I leave it to any Protestant to judg But what will any Christian deny that there is such a thing as ordinary Grace or that Tradition is necessary to deliver us the Scriptures or hath every man special Grace who beleeveth Scripture to be Gods Word Is it not possible for an unregenerate man to beleeve that What kinde of Preaching would such a man use to Indians Turks or Infidels Are not men sanctified by the Word and must they be sanctified by a Word which they beleeve not that so they may beleeve it Indeed he that saith we may not onely know but know perfectly or know to Salvation without special Grace is mistaken But usually a common Grace and common Knowledg go before Special The same godly Divine against these words of Master Chillingworth The Scripture is not to be beleeved finally for it self but for the matter contained in it So that if men did beleeve the Doctrine contained in the Scripture it should no way hinder their Salvation not to know whether there were any Scripture or no saith I thought it had been necessary to have received those material Objects or Articles of our Faith upon the Authority of God speaking in the Scriptures I thought it had been Anabaptistical to have expected any Revelation but in the Word of God c. I should rather for my part think thus That the immediate Revelation of Scripture from God was not to me but to the first Witnesses and Penmen The way of Conveyance to us is another thing and is a Revelation too The best way is by Scripture which without Tradition no man would ever see or hear of Where this is not to be had there meer Tradition may save and is a Revelation sufficient to Salvation and not Anabaptistical Though Traditional unwritten doctrines to make up the defects of Scripture I abhor And I should ask the Dissenter first Whether men were not saved before Moses without Scripture And as Doctor Usher well observeth One reason why they might then be without it was the facility and certainty of Tradition For Methuselah lived many hundred yeers with Adam and Sem lived long with Methuselah and Isaac lived fiftie yeers with Sem So that three men saw all from the Beginning of the World till Isaacs fiftieth yeer Secondly And were not many saved by the Apostles doctrine many yeers before the New Testament was written And Jews before while the old was almost lost Thirdly What if some Ethiopians Armenians or Papists should by meer Tradition beleeve in Christ and who dare say That they may not should they not be saved He that saith No contradicteth Christ who saith That whosoever beleeveth in him shall not perish which way soover he came by it Will you hear Irenaeus in this who lived before Popery was born Lib. 3. cap. 4. Quid enim siquib de aliqua modica quaestione disceptatio esset Nonne oporteret in antiquissimas recurrere Ecclesias Mark he saith not Ad Romanam Ecclesiam vel ad unam principem in quibus Apostoli conversati sunt ab eis de praesenti quaestione sumere quod certum re liquidum est Quid autem si neque Apostoli quidem Scripturas reliquissent nobis nonne oportebat ordinem sequi Traditionis quam tradiderunt iis quibus committebant Ecclesias Cui Ordinationi assentiunt multae gentes barbarorum eorum qui in Christum credunt sine charactere vel atramento Scriptam habentes per spiritum in cordibus suis salutem veterem Traditionem diligenter custodientes c. Hanc fidem qui sine literis crediderunt quantum ad Sermonem nostrum barbari sunt quantum autem ad sententiam consuetudinem conversationem propter fidem perquam sapientissimi sunt placent Deo c. Sic per illam
then by the blood of Jesus that we have entrance into the Holyest Heb. 10.19 Even all our entrance to the fruition of God both that by faith and prayer here and that by full possession hereafter Therefore do the Saints sing forth his praises who hath Redeemed them out of every Nation by his blood and made them Kings and Priests to God Rev. 5.9.10 Whether that 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in Eph. 1.14 which is translated the Redemption of the purchased profession do prove this or not yet I see no appearance of truth in their exposition of it who because they deny that salvation is purchased by Christ do affirme that its Christ himself who is there called the Purchased possession Therefore did God give his Son and the Son give his life and therefore was Christ lift up on the Cross as Moses lift up the Serpent in the Wilderness that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life John 3.15 16. So then I conclude either Christ must loose his blood and sufferings and never see of the travaile of his soul but all his pains and expectation be frustrate or els there remaineth a Rest to the people of God SECT III. THirdly And as this Rest is purchased for us so is it also promised to us As the Firmament with the Stars so are the sacred pages bespangled with the frequent intermixture of these Divine engagements Christ hath told us that it is his will that those who are given to him should be where he is that they may behold the Glory which is given him of the Father John 17.24 so also Luke 12.32 Fear not little flock it is your fathers good pleasure to give you the Kingdom q. d. Fear not all your enemies rage fear not all your own unworthiness doubt not of the certainty of the guift for it is grounded on the good pleasure of your Father Luke 22.29 I appoint to you a Kingdom as my Father hath appointed unto me a Kingdom That ye may eat and drink at my Table in my Kingdom But because I will not be tedious in the needless confirming an acknowledged truth I refer you to the places here cited 2 Thes. 1.7 Heb. 4.1 3. Mat. 25.34 13.43 2 Tim. 4.18 Jam. 2.5 2 Pet. 1.11 2 Thes. 1.5 Acts 14.22 Luke 6.20 13.28 29. 1 Thess. 2.12 Mat. 5.12 Mark 10.21 12.25 1 Pet. 1.4 Heb. 10.34 12.23 Col. 1.5 Phil. 3.20 21. Heb. 11. â—6 Eph. 1. â—0 1 Cor. 15. Rev. 2.7 11 17 c. SECT IIII. FOurthly All the means of Grace and all the workings of the Spirit upon the soul and all the gracious actions of the Saints are so many evident Mediums to prove that there remaineth a Rest to the people of God If it be an undeniable maxime that God and nature do nothing in vaine then is it as true of God and his Grace All these means and motions implie some End to which they tend or else they cannot be called means nor are they the motions of Wisdom or Reason And no lower End then this Rest can be imagined God would never have commanded his people to repent and beleeve to fast and pray to knock and seek and that continually to read and study to conferr and meditate to strive and labor to run and fight and all this to no purpose Nor would the Spirit of God work them to this and create in them a supernaturall power and enable them and excite them to a constant performance were it not for this end whereto it leads us Nor could the Saints reasonably attempt such employments nor yet undergo so heavy sufferings were it not for this desirable end But whatsoever the folly of man might do certainly Divine Wisdom cannot be guilty of setting awork such fruitless motions Therefore whereever I read of duty required whenever I finde the Grace bestowed I take it as so many promises of Rest. The Spirit would never kindle in us such strong desires after Heaven nor such a love to Jesus Christ if we should not receive that which we desire and love He that sets our feet in the way of Peace Luke 1.79 will undoubtedly bring us to the end of Peace How neerly is the means and end conjoyned Mat. 11.12 The Kingdom of Heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force or as Luke 16.16 every man presseth into it So that the violence apprehends the Kingdom Those whom he causeth to follow him in the regeneration he will sure provide them Thrones of judgement Mat. 19.28 SECT V. FIfthly Scripture further assures us that the Saints have the beginnings foretasts earnest and Seals of this Rest here And may not all this assure them of the full possession The very Kingdom of God is within them Luke 17.21 They here as is before said take it by force They have a beginning of that knowledg which Christ hath said is eternall life John 17.3 I have fully manifested that before that the Rest and Glory of the people of God doth consist in their Knowing Loving Rejoycing and Praising and all these are begun though but begun here therefore doubtless so much as we here know God so much as we Love Rejoyce and Praise so much we have of Heaven on earth so much we enjoy of the Rest of Souls And do you think that God will give the Beginning where he never intends to give the End Nay God doth give his people oftentimes such foresights and foretasts of this same Rest that their spirits are even transported with it and they could heartly wish they might be present there Paul is taken up into the third Heaven and seeth things that must not be uttered The Saints are kept by the power of God through faith unto that salvation ready to be revealed in the last time wherein they can greatly Rejoyce even in temptations 1 Pet. 1.5 6. And therefore the Apostle also tells us That they who now see not Christ nor ever saw him yet love him and Believing do Rejoyce in him with joy unspeakable and full of Glory Receiving the end of their faith the salvation of their souls 1 Pet. 1.8.9 Observe here First How God gives his people this foretasting joy Secondly How this joy is said to be full of Glory and therefore must needs be a beginning of the Glory Thirdly How immediatly upon this there follows Receiving the end of their Faith the Salvation of the soul. And Paul also brings in the Justified Rejoycing in hope of the Glory of God Rom. 5.2 And I doubt not but some poor Christians amongst us who have little to boast of appearing without have often these foretasts in their souls And do you think God will Tantalize his people Will he give them the first fruits and not the crop Doth he shew them Glory to set them a longing and then dâ—ny them the actuall fruition Or doth he lift them up so neer this Rest and
their sorrows and that which shakes the whole building is the weakness of their faith about the truth of Scripture though perhaps the other be more perceived and this taken notice of by few There may be great weakness and unsoundness of belief where yet no doubtings are perceived to stir Therefore though we could perswade people to believe never so confidently that Scripture is the very Word of God and yet teach them no more reason why they should believe this then any other book to be that Word as it will prove in them no right way of believing so is it in us no right way of teaching 8. There is many a one who feels his faith shake here who never discovers it To doubt of our Evidences is taken for no great disgrace and therefore men more freely profess such doubts nay and some perhaps who are not much troubled with them because they would be thought to be humble Christians But to question the truth of Scripture is a reproachful Blalphemy and therefore all that are guilty here speak not their doubts 9. Is not the greatest battery by all sort of enemies especially made against this Foundation The first place that the Papist assaults you in is here How know you the Scripture to be the Word of God The Seekers who are the Jesuits By blows though they yet know not their own father will accoast you with the like question How know you that your Scripture and your Ministery is of God The Familists and Libertines do spit their venom here And some Christians by experience are able to testifie that Satans temptations are most violent here Yea and our own carnal deluded Reason is aptest of all to stumble here They talk of a Toleration of all Religions and some desire that the Jews may have free commerce amongst us it will then be time for us I think to be well armed at this point Let the ordinary Professors of our Time who are of weak judgments and fiery spirits look to it how they will stand in such assaults least as now when they cannot answer a Separatist they yield to him and when they cannot answer an Antinomian they turn Antinomians so then when they can much less answer the subtil Arguments of a Jew against Christ and the Gospel they should as easily turn Jews and deny Christ and the verity of the Gospel The Libertines among us think it necessary that we should have such a Toleration to discover the unsound who hold their faith upon Tradition and Custome I am no more of their mindes in this then of his who would have a fair Virgin to lye with him and try his Chastity and make its victory more honorable But if we must needs have such a triall its time to look to the grounds of our belief that we may be ready to give a reason of our Hope 10. However though I were mistaken in all this yet certain I am that the strengthening of our faith in the verity of Scripture would be an exceeding help to the joy of the Saints and would advance their confident hopes of Rest. For my self if my faith in this point had no imperfection if I did as verily believe the Glory to come as I do believe that the Sun will rise again when it is set O how would it raise my desires and my joyes what haste should I make how serious should I be how should I trample on these earthly vanities and even forget the things below How restless should I be till I were assured of this Rest and then how restless till I did possess it How should I delight in the thought of death and my heart leap at the tidings of its approach How glad should I be of the bodies decaies to feel my prison moulder to dust Surely this would be the fruit of a perfect belief of the truth of the Promise of our eternal Rest. Which though it cannot be here expected yet should we use the most strengthening means and press on till we had attained SECT II. THus much I have purposely spoken as to stir up Christians to look to their faith so especialiy to provoke some choise servant of Christ among the multitudes of Books that are written to bestow their labors on this most needful Subject and all Ministers to preach it more frequently and clearly to their people Some think it is Faiths honor to be as credulous as may be and the weaker are the rational grounds the stronger is the faith and therefore we must believe and not dispute Indeed when it s once known to be a Divine Testimony then the most credulous soul is the best But when the doubt is whether it be the Testimony of God or no a man may easily be over-credulous Else why are we bid believe not every spirit but try them whether they be of God or not And how should the false Christs and false Prophets be known who would deceive were it possible the very Elect to be given up of God to believe a lye is one of the sorest of Gods Judgments Some think the onely way to deal with such temptations to Blasphemy is to cast them away and not to dispute them And I think the direction is very good so it be used with some distinction and caution The Rule holds good against reall Blasphemy known to be such but if the person know it not how shall he make use of this Rule against it Further it is supposed that he who knows it to be Blasphemy hath Arguments whereby to prove it such else how doth he know it Therefore here lyes the sin when a man is by sufficient evidence convinced or at least hath Evidence sufficient for conviction that it is a Divine Testimony and yet is still cherishing doubts or hearkning to temptations which may feed those doubts when a man like Balaam will take no answer But he who will therefore cast away all doubts before he hath Arguments sufficient against them or could ever prove the thing in Question he doth indeed cast aside the temptation but not overcome it and may expect it should shortly return again It is a methodicall cure which prevents a relapse Such a neglecter of temptations may be in the right and may as well be in the wrong but however it is not right to him because not rightly believed Faith alwayes implies a Testimony and the knowledg usually of the matter and Author of that Testimony Divine Faith hath ever a Divine Testimony and supposeth the knowledg of the matter when the Faith is particular but always of the Author of that Testimony An implicite Faith in God that is a believing that all is true which he testifieth though we see no reason for it from the evidence of the matter this is necessary to every true Believer But to believe implicitly that the Testimony is Divine or that Scripture is the Word of God this is not to believe God
that there was a fight at York c. to be of God though wicked men were the chief witnesses For I take it for an undeniable Maxime That there is no Truth but of God onely it is derived unto us by various means SECT V. 2. ANd as I have evideently discovered the full certainty of this Testimony of man concerning the forementioned matter of Fact So I will shew you why I chuse this for my first and main Argument and also that no man can believe without the foresaid Humane Testimony First then I demanded with my self By what Argument did Moses and Christ evince to the world the verity of their Doctrine And I finde it was chiefly by this of Miracles and sure Christ knew the best Argument to prove the divine Authority of his Doctrine and that which was the best then is the best still If our selves had lived in the dayes of Christ should we have believed a poor man to have been God the Saviour the Judg of the world without Miracles to prove this to us Nay would it have been our duty to have believed Doth not Christ say If I had not done the Works that no man else could do ye had not had sin That is Your not believing me to be the Messias had been no sin For no man is bound to believe that which was never convincingly revealed And to tell you my thoughts If you will but pardon the novelty of the Interpretation I think that this is it which is called the sin against the Holy Ghost when men will not be convinced by Miracles that Jesus is the Christ. That which some Divines judg to be the sin against the Holy Ghost an opposing the known Truth onely out of malice against it It s a Question whether Humane Nature be capable of it And whether all Humane opposition to Truth be not through ignorance or prevalency of the sensual lusts And so all malice against Truth is onely against it as conceived to be Falshood or else as it appeareth an enemy to our sensual desires Else how doth mans Understanding as it is an Understanding naturally chuse Truth either real or appearing for its object So that I think none can be guilty of malice against Truth as Truth And to be at emnity with Truth for opposing our sensuality is a sin that every man in the world hath been in some measure guilty of And indeed our Divines do so define the sin against the Holy Ghost that I could never yet understand by their definition what it might be some placing it in an Act incompatible with the Rational soul and others making it but gradually to differ from other sins which hath cast so many into terror of soul because they could never finde out that graduall difference The sense of the place which the whole context if you view it deliberately will shew you seems to me to be this As if Christ had said While you believed not the Testimony of the Prophets yet there was hope The Testimony of John Baptist might have convinced you yea when you believed not John yet you might have been convinced by my own Doctrine Yea though you did not believe my Doctrine yet there was hope you might have been convinced by my Miracles But when you accuse them to be the works of Beelzebub and ascribe the work of the Divine Power or Spirit to the Prince of Devils what more hope I will after my Ascention send the Holy Ghost upon my Disciples that they may work Miracles to convince the world that they who will believe no other Testimony may yet through this believe But if you sin against this Holy Ghost that is if they will not believe for all these Miracles for the Scripture frequently calls Faith by the name of Obedience and Unbelief by the name of sin there is no other more convincing Testimony left and so their sin of unbelief is incurable and consequently unpardonable And therefore he that speaketh against the son of Man that is denieth his Testimony of himself it shall be forgiven him if he yet believe by this Testimony of the Spirit but they that continue unbelievers for all this and so reproach the Testimony that should convince them as you do shall never be forgiven because they cannot perform the condition of forgiveness This I think to be the sense of the Text And the rather when I consider what sin it was that these Pharisees committed for sure that which is commonly judged to be the sin against the Holy Ghost I no where finde that Christ doth accuse them of but the Scripture seemeth to speak on the contrary that through ignorance they did it for had they known they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory And indeed it is a thing to me altogether incredible that these Pharisees should know Christ to be the Messiah whom they so desirously expected and to be the Son of God and judg of all men and yet to crucifie him through meer malice charge them not with this till you can shew some Scripture that chargeth them with it Obiect Why then there is no sin against the Holy Ghost now Miracles are ceased Answ. Yes though the Miracles are ceased yet their Testimony doth still live The death and Resurrection of Christ are past and yet men may sin against that death and Resurrection So that I think when men will not believe that Jesus is the Christ though they are convinced by undeniable Arguments of the Miracles which both himself and his disciples wrought this is now the sin against the Holy Ghost And therefore take heed of slighting this argument SECT VI. SEcondly And here I would have those men who cannot endure this resting upon humane Testimony to consider of what necessity it is for the producing of our Faith Something must be taken upon trust from man whether they will or no and yet no uncertainty in our Faith neither First The meer illiterate man must take it upon trust that the book is a Bible which he heares read for els he knows not but it may be some other book Secondly That those words are in it which the Reader pronounceth Thirdly That it is translated truly out of the originall languages Fourthly That the Hebrew and Greek Copies out of which it was translated are true Authentick Copies Fifthly That it was originally written in these languages Sixthly Yea and the meaning of divers Scripture passages which cannot be understood without the knowledg of Jewish customes of Chronologie of Geography c. though the words were never so exactly translated All these with many more the vulgar must take upon the word of their Teachers And indeed a faith meerly humane is a necessary preparative to a faith Divine in respect of some means and Praecognita necessary thereto If a Scholar will not take his masters word that such letters have such or such a power or do spell so or so or
thou shalt perish for ever except I had seen the Book of Life Why the Bible also is the Book of Life and it describeth plainly those that shall be saved and those that shall be condemned Though it do not name them yet it tels you all those signs and conditions by which they may be known Do I need to ascend up into heaven to know That without holiness none shall see God Heb. 12.14 Or That it is the pure in heart who shall see God Matth. 5.8 Or That except a man be born again he cannot enter into the Kingdom of God Joh. 3.3 Or That he that believeth not that is stoops not to Christ as his King and Saviour is condemned already and that he shall not see life but the wrath of God abideth on him Joh. 3.18.36 And that except you repent which includeth reformation you shall all perish Luke 13.3 5. With a hundred more such plain Scripture Expressions Cannot these be known without searching into Gods Counsels Why thou ignorant or wilful self-deluding Sot Hath thy Bible layn by thee in thy house so long and didst thou never read such words as these Or hast thou read it or heard it read so oft and yet dost thou not remember such passages as these Nay Didst thou not finde that the great drift of the Scripture is to shew men who they are that shall be saved and who not and let them see the conditions of both estates And yet dost thou ask me How I know who shall be saved what need I go up to heaven to inquire that of Christ which he came down to earth to tell us and sent his Spirit in his Prophets and Apostles to tell us and hath left upon Record to all the world And though I do not know the secrets of thy heart and therefore cannot tell thee by name whether it be thy state or no yet if thou art but willing and diligent thou maist know thy self whether thou be an heir of heaven or not And that is the main thing that I desire that if thou be yet miserable thou mayest discern it and escape it But canst thou possibly escape if thou neglect Christ and salvation Heb. 2.3 Is it not resolved on That if thou love father mother wife children house lands or thy own life better then Christ thou canst not be his disciple and consequently canst never be saved by him Is this the word of man or of God Is it not then an undoubted concluded case that in the case thou art now in thou hast not the least title to heaven Shall I tell thee from the Word of God It is as impossible for thee to be saved except thou be born again and made a new creature as it is for the devils themselves to be saved Nay God hath more plainly and frequently spoken it in the Scripture that such sinners as thou shall never be saved then he hath done that the devils shal never be saved And doth not this tidings go cold to thy heart Me thinks but that there is yet life and hope before thee and thou hast yet time and means to have thy soul recovered or else it should kill thy heart with terror and the sight of thy doleful discovered case should even strike thee dead with amazement and horror If old Ely fell from his seat and dyed to hear that the Ark of God was gone which was but an outward sign of his presence how then should thy heart be astonished with this tidings that thou hast lost the Lord God himself and all thy title to his eternal presence and delights If Rachel wept for children and would not be comforted because they were not How then shouldst thou now sit down and weep for the happiness and future life of thy soul because to thee it is not VVhen King Belshazzar saw but a piece of a hand sent from God writing over against him on the wall it made his countenance change his thoughts trouble him his loyns loosed in the joynts and his knees smite one against another Dan. 5.6 VVhy what trembling then should seaze on thee who hast the hand of God himself against thee not in a Sentence or two onely but in the very tenor and scope of the Scriptures not threatning thee with the loss of a Kingdom onely as he did Belshazzar but with the loss of thy part in the everlasting Kingdom But because I would fain have thee if it be possible to lay it close to thy heart I will here stay a little longer and shew thee first The greatness of thy loss and secondly The aggravations of thy unhappiness in this loss thirdly And the Positive miseries that thou maist also endure with their aggravations SECT III. FIrst The ungodly in their loss of heaven do lose all that glorious personal perfection which the people of God do there injoy They lose that shining lustre of the body surpassing the brightness of the Sun at noon day Though perhaps even the bodies of the wicked will be raised more spiritual incorruptible bodies then they were on earth yet that wil be so far from being a happiness to them that it onely makes them capable of the more exqâ—isite torments their understandings being now more capable of apprehending the greatness of their loss and their senses more capable of feelâ—ing their sufferings They would be glad then if every member were a dead member that it might not feel the punishment inflicted on it and if the whole body were a rotten carkass or might again lye down in the dust and darkness The devil himself hath an Angelical and excellent nature but that onely honoreth his skilful Creator but is no honor or comfort at all to himself The glory the beauty the comfortable perfections they are deprived of much more do they want that morâ—all perfection which the Blessed do partake of Those holy dispositions and qualifications of minde That blessed conformity to the Holiness of God that chearful readiness to do his Will that perfect rectitude of all their actions In stead of these they have their old ulcerous deformed souls that perversness of Will that disorder in their faculties that loathing of good that love to evil that violence of passion which they haâ— on earth It is true their understandings will be much cleared both by the ceasing of their temptations and deluding obâ—ects which they had on earth as also by the sad experience which they will have in hell of the falshood of their former conceits and delusions But this proceeds not from the sanctifying of their natures And perhaps their experience and too late understanding may restrain much of the evil motions of their wils which they had formerly here on earth but the evil disposition is never the more changed so also wil the conversation of the damned in hel be voyd of many of those sins which they commit here on earth They will be drunk no more and whore no more and
his name there was scorning at his worship and swearing by his name And now Hell must therefore be their habitation for ever where they shall never be troubled with that worship and duty which they abhorred but joyn with the rest of the damned in blaspheming that God who is avenging their former impieties and blasphemies Can it probably be expcted that they who made themselves merry while they lived on earth in deriding the persons and families of the godly for their frequent worshiping and praising God should at last be admitted into the Familie of Heaven and joyn with those Saints in those more perfect praises Surely without a sound change upon their hearts before they go hence it is utterly impossible It is too late then to say Give us of your oyl for our Lamps are out Let us now enter with you to the marriage feast let us now joyn with you in the joyfull Heavenly melody You should have joyned in it on earth if you would have joyned in Heaven As your eyes must be taken up with other kinde of sights so must your hearts be taken up with other kinde of thoughts and your voices turned to another tune As the doors of heaven will be shut against you so will that joyous imployment be denied to you There is no singing the songs of Zion in the land of your thraldome Those that go down to the pit do not praise him Who can rejoyce in the place of sorrows And who can be glad in the land of confusion God suits mens imployments to their natures The bent of your spirits was another way your hearts were never set upon God in your lives you were never admirers of his Attributes and works nor ever throughly warmed with his love you never longed after the enjoyment of him you had no delight to speak or to hear of him you were weary of a Sermon or Prayer an hour long you had rather have continued on earth if you had known how you had rather yet have a place of earthly preferment or lands and lordships or a feast or sports or your cups or whores then to be interessed in the Glorious Praises of God and is it meet then that you should be members of the Celestiall Quire A Swine is fitter for a Lecture of Philosophy or an Ass to build a City or govern a Kingdom or a dead Corps to feast at thy Table then thou art for this work of Heavenly Praise SECT VI. FOurthly They shall also be deprived of the Blessed society of Angels and glorified Saints Instead of being companions of those happy spirits and numbred with those Joyful and Triumphing Kings they must now be members of the corporation of hell where they shall have companions of a far different nature and quality While they lived on earth they loathed the Saints they imprisoned banished them and cast them out of their societies or at least they would not be their companions in labour and in sufferings And therefore they shall not now be their companions in their Glory Scorning them and abusing them hating them and rejoycing in their calamities was not the way to obtain their blessedness If you would have shined with them as Stars in the Firmament of their Father you should have joyned with them in their holiness and faith and painfulness and patience you should have first been ingraffed with them into Christ the common stock and then incorporated into the fraternity of the members and walked with them in singleness of heart and watched with them with oyl in your Lamps and joyned with them in mutuall exhortation in faithfull admonitions in conscionable reformation in prayer and in praise you should have travelled with them out of the Egypt of your naturall estate through the Red Sea and Wilderness of humiliation and affliction and have cheerfully taken up the Cross of Christ as well as the name prefession of Christians and rejoyced with them in suffering persecution and tribulation All this if you had faithfully done you might now have been triumphing with them in glory and have possessed with them their masters joy But this you could not you would not endure your souls loathed it your flesh was against it and that flesh must be pleased though you were told plainly and frequently what would come of it and now you pertake of the fruit of your folly and endure but what you were foretold you must endure and are shut out of that company from which you first shut out your selves and are separated but from them whom you would not be joyned with You could not endure them in your houses nor in your Towns nor scarce in the Kingdom you took them as Ahab did Elias for the troublers of the land and as the Apostles were taken for men that turned the world upside down If any thing fell out amiss you thought all was long of them When they were dead or banished you were glad they were gone and thought the Countrey was well rid of them They molested you with their faithfull reproving your sin Their holy conversations did trouble your consciences to see them so far excell your selves and to condemn your loosness by their strictness and your prophaness by their conscionable lives and your negligence by their unwearyed diligence You scarce ever heard them pray or sing praises in their families but it was a vexation to you And you envyed their liberty in the worshipping of God And is it then any wonder if you be separated from them hereafter I have heard of those that have said that if the Puritans were in Heaven and the good fellows in Hell they had rather go to Hell then to Heaven And can they think much to have their desires granted them The day is neer when they will trouble you no more betwixt them and you will be a great gulf set that those that would pass from thence to you if any had a desire to ease you with a drop of water cannot neither can they pass to them who would go from you for if they could there would none be left behinde Luk. 16.26 Even in this life while the Saints were imperfect in their passions and infirmities cloathed with the same frail flesh as other men and were mocked destitute afflicted and tormented yet in the judgment of the Holy Ghost they were such of whom the world was not worthy Heb. 11.36 37 38. Much more unworthy are they of their fellowship in their Glory CHAP. II. The aggravations of the loss of Heaven to the ungodly SECT I. I Know many of the wicked will be ready to think If this be all they do not much care they can bear it well enough what care they for losing the perfections above What care they for losing God his favor or his presence they lived merrily without him on earth and why should it be so grievous to be without him hereafter And what care they for being deprived of that Love and Joy and
exhortation which they were wont to hear will be hot burning words to their hearts upon this sad review It cost the Minister dear even his daily study his earnest prayers his compassionate sorrows for their misery his care his sufferings his spending weakning killing pains But O how much dearer will it cost these rebellious sinners His lost tears will cost them blood his lost sighs will cost them eternall groans and his lost exhortations will cause their eternall lamentations For Christ hath said it that if any City or people receive not or welcome not the Gospel the very dust of the messengers feet who lost his travaile to bring them that glad tidings shall witness against them much more then his greater pains And it shall be easier for Sodom and Gomorrah in the day of Judgement then for that City That Sodom which was the shame of the world for unnaturall wickedness the disgrace of mankind that would have committed wickedness with the Angels from Heaven that were not ashamed to prosecute their villany in the open street that proceeded in their rage against Lots admonitions yea under the very miraculous judgement of God and groped for the door when they were stricken blinde That Sodom which was consumed with fire from Heaven and turned to that deadly Sea of waters and suffers the vengeance of eternall fire Jud. 7. even that Sodome shall scape better in the day of Judgment then the neglecters of this so great Salvation It will somewhat abate the heat of their torment that they had not those full and plain offers of grace nor those constant Sermons nor pressing perswasions nor clear convictions as those under the sound of the Gospel have had I beseech thee who Readest these words stay here a while and sadly think of what I say I professe to thee from the Lord it is easier thinking of it now then it will be then What a dolefull aggravation of thy misery would this be that the food of thy soul should prove thy bane And that That should feed thy everlasting torment which is sent to save thee and prevent thy torments SECT XI SIxthly Yet further it will much add to the torment of these wretches to remember that God himself did condescend to intreat them That all the intreatings of the Minister were the intreatings God How long he did wait How freely he did offer how lovingly he did invite and how importunately he did solicite them How the spirit did continue striving with their hearts as if he were loath to take a denyall How Christ stood knocking at the door of their hearts Sermon after Sermon and one Sabbath after another crying out Open sinner open thy heart to thy Saviour and I will come in and sup with thee and thou with me Rev. 3.20 Why sinner â— Are thy lusts and carnall pleasures better then I Are thy worldly Commodities better then my everlasting Kingdom Why then dost thou resist me Why dost thou thus delay What dost thou mean that thou dost not open to me How long shall it be till thou attain to innocency How long shall thy vain thoughts lodge within thee Wo to thee O unworthy sinner wilt thou not be made clean Wilt thou not be pardoned and sanctified and made happy When shall it once be O that thou wouldst hearken to my word and obey my Gospel Then should thy peace be as the river and thy righteousness as the waves of the Sea though thy sins were as red as the Crimson or Scarlet I would make them as white as the Snow or Wooll O that thou were but wise to consider this and that thou wouldest in time remember thy latter end before the evil dayes do come upon thee and the yeers draw nigh when thou shalt say of all thy vain delights I have no pleasure in them Why sinner Shall thy Maker thus bespeak thee in vain shall the God of all the world beseech thee to be happy and beseech thee to have pitty upon thy own soul and wilt thou not regard him Why did he make thy ears but to hear his voice VVhy did he make thy understanding but to consider Or thy heart but to entertain the Son in obedientiall Love Thus saith the Lord of Hosts consider thy wayes O how all these passionate pleadings of Christ will passionately transport the damned with self-indignation That they will be ready to tear out their own hearts How fresh will the remembrance of them be still in their minds launcing their souls with renewed torments What self-condemning pangs will it raise within them to remember how often Christ would have gathered them to himself even as the Hen gathereth her Chickens under her wings but they would not Then will they cry out against themselves O how justly is all this befallen me Must I tire out the patience of Christ Must I make the God of Heaven to follow me in vain from home to the Assembly from thence to my Chamber from Alehouse to Alehouse Till I had wearied him with crying to me Repent Return Must the Lord of all the world thus wait upon me and all in vain O how justly is that Patience now turned into fury which falls upon my soul with irresistible violence when the Lord cryed out to me in his word How long will it be before thou wilt be made clean and holy My heart or at least my practice answered Never I will never be so precise And now when I cry out How long will it be till I be freed from this torment and saved with the Saints How justly do I receive the same answer Never Never O sinner I beseech thee for thy own sake think of this for prevention while the voice of mercy soundeth in thine ears Yet patience continueth waiting upon thee Canst thou think it will do so still yet the offers of Christ and life are made to thee in the Gospel and the hand of God is stretched out to thee But will it still be thus The spirit hath not yet done striving with thy heart But dost thou know how soon he may turn away and give thee over to a reprobate sense and let thee perish in the stubbornness and hardness of thy heart Thou hast yet life and time and strength and means But dost thou think this life will alwayes last O seek the Lord while he may be found and call upon him while he is neer He that hath an ear to hear let him hear what Christ now speaketh to his soul. And to day while it is called to day harden not your hearts lest he swear in his wrath that you shall never enter into his Rest. For ever blessed is he that hath a Hearing heart and ear while Christ hath a Calling voice SECT XII SEventhly Again it will be a most cutting consideration to these damned sinners to remember on what easie tearms they might have escaped their miserie and on what
be indeed the Justice of God The everlasting flames of Hell will not be thought too hot for the Rebellious and when they have there burned through millions of Ages he will not repent him of the evil which is befaln them O wo to the soul that is thus set up for a Butt for the wrath of the Almighty to shoot at and for a Bush that must burn in the flames of his Jealousie and never be consumed SECT III. 3. THe torments of the damned must needs be extream because they are the effect of Divine Revenge Wrath is terrible but Revenge is implacable When the great God shall say I will now be righted for all the wrongs that I have born from rebellious creatures I will let out my wrath and it shall be staied no more you shall now pay for all the abuse of my Patience Remember now how I waited your leasure in vain how I stooped to perswade you how I as it were kneeled to intreate you did you think I would alwayes be slighted by such miscreants as you O who can look up when God shall thus plead with them in the heat of Revenge Then will he be revenged for ever mercy abused for his creatures consumed in luxury and excess for every hours time mispent for the neglect of his word for the vilifying of his messengers for the hating of his people for the prophanation of his ordinances and neglect of his worship for the breaking of his Sabbaths and the grieving of his Spirit for the taking of his Name in vain for unmerciful neglect of his servants in distress O the numberless bils that will be brought in And the charge that will overcharge the soul of the sinner And how hotly Revenge will pursue them all to the highest How God will stand over them with the rod in his hand not the rod of fatherly chastisement but that Iron rod wherewith he bruiseth the rebellious and lay it on for all their neglects of Christ and grace O that men would foresee this And not put themselves under the hammer of revenging fury when they may have the treasure of happiness at so easie rates And please God better in preventing their woe SECT IIII. SECT IIII. 4. COnsider also how this Justice and Revenge will be the delight of the Almighty Though he had rather men would stoop to Christ and accept of his mercy yet when they persist in rebellion he will take pleasure in their execution Though he desire not the death of him that dyeth but rather that he repent and live yet when he will not repent and live God doth desire and delight in the execution of Justice conditionally so that men will repent he desires not their death but their life Ezek 33.11 yet if they repent not in the same place he uttereth his resolution for their death vers 8.13 He tels us Isai. 27.4 That fury is not in him yet he addeth in the next words Who would set the bryers and thorns against me in battel I would go through them I would burn them together What a doleful case is the wretched creature in when he shall thus set the heart of his Creator against him and he that made him will not save him and he that formed him will not have mercy upon him Isai. 27.11 How heavy a threatning is that in Deut. 28.63 As the Lord Rejoyced over you to do you good so the Lord will Rejoyce over you to destroy you and to bring you to nought Wo to the soul which God Rejoyceth to punish Yea he tels the simple ones that love simplicity and the scorners that delight in scorning and the fools that hate knowledg That because he called and they refused he stretched out his hand and no man regarded but set at nought all his counsel and would none of his reproof therefore he will also laugh at their calamity and mock when their fear cometh when their fear cometh as desolation and their destruction as a whirlwind when distress and anguish cometh upon them Then shall they call upon him but he will not answer they shall seek him early but shall not finde him for that they hated knowledg and did not choose the fear of the Lord Prov. 1.22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29. I would intreat thee who readest this if thou be one of that sort of men that thou wilt but view over seriously that part of the Chapter Prov. 1. from the 20. verse to the end and believe them to be the true words of Christ by his Spirit in Solomon Is it not a terrible thing to a wretched soul when it shall lie roaring perpetually in the flames of Hell and the God of mercy himself shall laugh at them When they shall cry out for mercy yea for one drop of water and God shall mock them in stead of relieving them When none in Heaven or earth can help them but God he shall rejoyce over them in their calamity why you see these are the very words of God himself in Scripture And most just is it that they who laughed at the Sermon and mocked at the Preacher and derided the people that obeyed the Gospel should be laughed at and derided by God Ah poor ignorant Fools for so this Text cals them they will then have mocking enough till their heart ake with it I dare warrant them them for ever making a jeast of Godliness more or making themselves merry with their own slanderous reports It is themselves then that must be the woful objects of derision and that of God himself who would have crowned them with glory I know when the Scripture speaks of Gods laughing and mocking it is not to be understood literally but after the maner of men but this may suffice us that it will be such an act of God to the tormenting of the sinner which vve cannot more fitly conceive or express under any other notion or name then these SECT V. 5. COnsider who shall be Gods Executioners of their Torment and that is First Satan Secondly Themselves First He that was here so successful in drawing them from Christ will then be the Instrument of their punishment for yielding to his temptations It was a pittiful sight to see the man possessed that was bound with chains and lived among the Tombs and that other that would be cast into the fire and into the water but alas that was nothing to the torment that Satan puts them to in Hel That is the reward he wil give them for all their service for their rejecting the commands of God and forsaking Christ and neglecting their souls at his perswasion Ah if they had served Christ as faithfully as they did Satan and had forsaken all for the love of him he would have given them a better reward Secondly and it is most just also that they should there be their own tormentors that they may see that their whole destruction is of themselves and they
who were wilfully the meritorious cause should also be the efficient in their own sufferings and then who can they complain of but themselves and they will be no more able to cease their self-tormenting then men that we see in a deep Melancholy that will by no Arguments be taken off from their sorrows SECT VI. 6. COnsider also how that their torment will be universal not upon one part alone while the rest are free but as all have joyned in the sin so must they all partake of the torment The soul as it was the chief in sinning shall be chief in suffering and as it is of a more spiritual and excellent nature then bodies are so will its torments as far exceed our present bodily sufferings As the joys of the soul do far surpass all sensual pleasures and corporal contentments so do the pains of the soul surpass these corporal pains and as the Martyrs did triumph in the very flames because their souls were ful of joy though their bodies were in pain so though these damned creatures could enjoy all their bodily pleasures yet the souls sufferings would take away the sweetness of them all And it is not onely a soul but a sinful soul that must suffer The guilt which still remains upon it will make it fit for the wrath of God to work upon as fire will not burn except the fuel be combustible but if the wood be dry or it light upon Straw how fiercely will it burn them Why the guilt of all their former sins will be as Tinder or Gunpowder to the damned soul to make the flames of hell to take hold upon them with fury And as the soul so also the body must bear its part that body that must needs be pleased whatsoever became of its eternal safety shall new be paid for all its unlawful pleasures That body which was so carefully looked to so tenderly cherished so curiously drest that body which could not endure heat or cold or an ill smell or a loathsome sight O what must it now endure How are its haughty looks now taken down How little will those flames regard its comliness and beauty But as Death did not regard it nor the Worms regard it but as freely feed upon the face of the proud and lustful Dames and the heart of the most ambitious Lords or Princes as if they had bin but beggers or bruits so wil their tormentors then as little pitty their tenderness or reverence their Lordliness when they shall be raised from their graves to their eternal doom Those eyes which were wont to be delighted with curious sights and to feed themselves upon beauteous and comely objects must then see nothing but vvhat shall amaze and terrifie them an angry sin-revenging God above them and those Saints vvhom they scorned enjoying the Glory vvhich they have lost and about them vvill be only Devils and damned souls Ah then how sadly wil they look back and say Are all our merry Meetings our Feasts our Playes our vvanton Toyes our Christmas Games and Revels come to this Then those Eares vvhich vvere vvont to be delighted vvith Musick shall hear the shriekes and cries of their damned companions Children crying out against their Parents that gave them incouragement and example in evil but did not teach them the fear of the Lord Husbands crying out upon their Wives and Wives upon their Husbands Masters and Servants cursing each other Ministers and People Magistrates and Subjects charging their misery upon one another for discouraging in Duty conniving at sin and being silent or formal when they should have plainly told one another of their misery and forewarned them of this danger Thus will Soul and Body be companions in Calamity SECT VII 7. ANd the greater by far will their Torments be because they shall have no one comfort left to help to mitigate them In this life when a Minister foretold them of Hel or Conscience begun to trouble their peace they had Comforters enough at hand to relieve them Their carnal friends were all ready to speak comfort to them and promise them that all should be well with them but now they have not a word of comfort either for him or themselves Formerly they had their business their company their mirth to drive away their fears they could drink away their sorrows or play them away or sleep them away or at least time did wear them away but now all these remedies are vanished They had a hard a presumptuous unbelieving heart which was a wall to defend them against troubles of minde but now their experience hath banished these and left them naked to the fury of those flames Yea formerly Satan himself was their comforter and would unsay all that the Minister said against them as he did to our first Mother Hath God said Ye shall not eat Yea shall not surely dye So doth he now Doth God tell you that you shall lye in Hell It is no such matter God is more merciful he doth but tell you so to fright you from sinning Who would lose his present pleasures for fear of that which he never saw Or if there be a hell what need you to fear it Are not you Christians And shall you not be saved by Christ was not his blood shed for you Ministers may tell you what they please they delight to fear men that they may be masters in their Consciences and therefore would make men believe that they shall all be damned except they will fit themselves to their precise humor Thus as the Spirit of Christ is the Comforter of the Saints so Satan is the Comforter of the wicked for he knows if he should now disquiet them they would no longer serve him or if fears and doubts should begin to trouble them they would bethink themselves of their danger and so escape it never was a theif more careful lest he should awake the people when he is robbing the house then Satan is careful not to awake a sinner And as a cutpurse will look you in the face and hold you in a tale that you may never suspect him while he is robbing your pockets so will Satan labour to keep men from all doubts or jealousies or sorrowfull thoughts But when the sinner is dead and he hath his prey and his stratagem hath had success then he hath done flattering and comforting them VVhile the sight of sin and misery might have helped to save them he took all the pains he could to hide it from their eyes but when it is too late and there is no hope left he will make them see and feel it to the utmost O which way will the forlorn sinner then look for comfort They that drew him into the snare and promised him safety do now forsake him and are forsaken themselves His ancient comforts are taken from him and the righteous God whose forewarnings he made light of will now make good his word against him to the least
2. If thou art able to wrastle with the indignation of the Almighty why then dost thou tremble at the signs of his Power or Wrath Do not the terrible Thunder-claps sometime fear thee or the Lightning flashes or that unseen Power which goes with it in renting in pieces the mighty Oakes and tearing down the strongest buildings If thou hadst been in the Church of Withicombe in Devonshire when the lightning broke in and scorched and burnt the people and left the brains and haire upon the pillars would it not have made thee afraid If thou be but in a place where the plague doth rage so that it comes to so many thousand a week doth it not astonish thee to see men that were well within a few dayes to be thrown into the graves by heaps and multitudes If thou hadst stood by when Pharoah and his people were so strangely plagued and at last drowned together in the Sea or when the earth swallowed up Dathan Abiram and their companies and the people fled away at the cry lest the earth should swallow them up also or when Elias brought fire from Heaven to consume the Captains and their compaines would not any of these sights have daunted thy spirit Why how then canst thou bear the hellish plagues Thirdly Tell me also if thou be so strong and thy heart so stout why do those small sufferings so dismay thee which befal thee here If thou have but a tooth ake or a fit of the gout or stone what groans dost thou utter What moan dost thou make The house is filled with thy constant complaints Thy friends about thee are grieved at thy pains and stand over thee condoling thy miserable state If thou shouldest but lose a leg or an arm thou wouldest make a greater matter of it If thou lose but a friend if thou lose thine estate and fall into poverty and beggery and disgrace how heavily wouldest thou bear any one of these And yet all these laid together will be one day accounted a happy state in comparison of that which is suffered in Hel. Let me see thee shake off the most painful sickness and make as light of Convulsive Epileptick Arthritick Nephritick pains or such like diseases when they selfe upon thee and then the strength of thy spirit will appear Alas how many such boasters as thy self have I seen made stoop and eat their words And when God hath but let out a little of his wrath that Pharaoh who before asked Who is the Lord that I should let all go for him have turned their tune and cryed I have sinned Fourthly If thy stout spirit do make so light of hel why then doth the approach of death so much affright thee Didst thou never finde the sober thoughts of death to raise a kind of dread in thy mind VVast thou never in a feaver or a consumption or any disease wherein thou didst receive the sentence of death If thou wast not thou wilt be before long and then when the Physitian hath plainly told thee that there is no hopes O how cold it strikes to thy heart VVhy is death to men the King of terrors else and the stoutest champions then do abate their courage O but the grave would be accounted a palace or a Paradise in comparison of that place of Torment which thou desperately slightest 5. If all this be nothing go try thy strength by some corporall torment As Bilney before he went to the stake would first try his finger in the candle so do thou Hold thy finger a while in the fire and feel there whether thou canst endure the fire of Hell Austin menâ—tioneth a chast Christian woman who being tempted to uncleanness by a lewd Ruffian she desireth him for her sake to hold his finger an hour in the fire he answereth It is an unreasonable request How much more unreasonable is it saith she that I should burn in Hell for the satisfying of your lust Lo say I to thee If it be an intollerable thing to suffer the heat of the fire for a yeer or a day or an hour what will it be to suffer ten thousand times more for ever VVhat if thou were to suffer Lawrence his death to be rosted upon a Gridiron or to be scraped or pricked to death as other Martyrs were Or if thou were to feed upon toads for a yeer together If thou couldest not endure such things as these how wilt thou endure the eeternal flames 6. Tell me yet again if Hell be so small a matter why canst thou not endure so much as the thoughts or the mention of it If thou be alone thou darest scarcely think of Hel for fear of raising disquietness in thy spirit If thou bein company thou canst not endure to have any serious speech of it lest it spoile the sport and mar the mirth and make thee tremble as Faelix did when Paul was discoursing of the Judgement to come Thou canst not endure to hear a Minister preach of Hell but thou gnashest thy teeth and disdainest him and reproachest his Sermon as enough to drive men to desperation or make them mad And canst thou endure the Torments when thou canst not endure so much as to hear of them Alas man to hear thy Judgment from the mouth of Christ and to feel the execution will be another kinde of matter them to hear it from a Minister 7. Furthermore what is the matter that the rich man in Hell mentioned in Luk. 16. could not make as light of it as thou dost VVas not he as likely a man to bear it as thy self VVhy doth he so cry out that he is tormented in the flames and stoop so low as to beg a drop of water of a beggar that he had but a little before despised at his gates and to be beholden to him that had been beholden to the dogs to lick his sores 8. Also what aileth thy companions who were as resolute as thy self that when they lye a dying their courage is so cooled and their haughty expressions are so greatly changed They who had the same spirits and language as thou hast now and made as light of all the threats of the word yet when they see they are going into another world how pale do they look how faintly do they speak how dolefully do they complain and groan They send for the Minister then whom they despised before and desire to be prayed for and would be glad to dye in the state of those whom they would not be perswaded to imitate in their lives Except it be here and there a desperate wretch who is given over to a more then Hellish hardness of heart VVhy cannot these make as light of it as thou 9. Yet further if thou be so fearless of that eternall misery why is the least foretast of it so terrible Didst thou never feel such a thing as a tormenting conscience If thou hast not thou shalt do Didst thou never see and speak with a
of their warning and they have not heard the voice of the rod which hath cryed up and down their streets Yet O England will ye not sanctifie my Sabbaths nor call upon my name nor regard my word nor turn from your worldliness and wickedness God hath given them a lash and a reproof a wound and a warning he hath as it were stood in their blood with the sword in his hand and among the heapes of the slain hath he pleaded with the living and said What say you Will you yet worship me and fear me and take me for your Lord And yet they will not Alas yet to this day England will not Let me here write it and leave it upon record that God may be justified and England may be shamed and posterity may know if God do deliver us how ill we deserved it or if he yet destroy us how wilfully we procured it And if they that passe by shall ask Why hath God done thus to a flourishing and prosperous land You may give them the true though sad answer They would not hear they would not regard He smit them down he wounded them he hewed them as wood and then he beseeched the remainder to consider and return but they never would do it They were weary of his wayes they polluted his Sabbaths they cast his word and worship out of their families they would not be at the pains to learn and obey his will nay they abhorred his Ministers and servants and holy paths and all this to the last breath When he had slain five thousand or eight thousand at a fight the rest did no more reform then if they had never heard of it Nay such a spirit of slumber is faln upon them that if God should proceed and kill them all save one man ask that one man Wilt thou yet seek me with all thy heart he would rather slight it Lord have mercy upon us What is gone with mens understanding and sense Have they renounced Reason as well as Faith Are they dead naturally as well as spiritually Can they not hear nor feel though they cannot believe That sad judgment is falâ— upon them mentioned in Isai. 42.24 25. Who gave Jacob for a spoil and Israel England to the robbers Did not the Lord He against whom we have sinned For they would not walk in his wayes neither were they obedient to his Laws Therefore he hath poured upon them the fury of his anger and the strength of battel and it hath set them on fire round about yet they knew it not it burned them yet they laid it not to heart Yea this much more let us leave upon Record against England They have been so far from Reforming and taking up the Worship of God with delight after all this that they have contrarily abhorred it at the very heart and fought against it as long as they could stand and when they have been wounded and overthrown in one Fight they have been as forward to the next and when they have been quite subdued in all parts of the Land they are as ready again for another war as if they had never felt the hand of God at all and to root out the sincere Worshippers and Worship of God they are ready to dye to the last man Lord how hast thou deserved so much ill at these mens hands what harm hath praying and reading and preaching painfully and sanctifying the Sabbath and fearing to offend done to England Have they suffered for these or for their enmity to these what evil do these wretches discern in the everlasting Kingdom that they do not only refuse to labor for it but so detest and resist the holy way that leads to it It is wel for them that they live in Gospel times when the patience of God doth wait on sinners and not in those severer days when fire from heaven destroyed the Captaines and their Companies that were commanded by the King to bring but one Prophet before him or when the Lyons destroyed fourty two children for calling a Prophet of God Bald-head Or rather it had bin better for these men to have lived in those times that though their temporal Judgments had been greater yet their eternal plagues might have bin the less Yet this much more let me leave upon Record to the shame of England That all this is not meerly through idleness because they will not be at the pains to serve God but it is out of a bitter enmity to his Word and wayes for they will be at more pains then this in any way that is evil or in any worship of mans devising They are as zealous for Crosses and Surplices Processions and Perambulations reading of a Gospel at a cross way the observation of Holidays and Fasting days the repeating of the Letany or the like forms in the Common Prayer the bowing at the naming of the word Jesus while they reject his Worship the receiving of the Sacrament when they have no right to it and that upon their knees as if they were more revererent and devout then the true laborious servants of Christ with a multitude of things which are onely the traditions of their Fathers I say they are as zealous for these as if eternal life consisted in them Where God forbids them there they are as forward as if they could never do enough and where God commands them they are as backward to it yea as much against it as if they were the commands of the Devil himself and for the discipline of Christ though all parts of the world have much opposed it yet where hath it been so fiercely and powerfully resisted The Lord grant that this hardned wilful malicious Nation fall not under that heavy doom Luke 19.27 But those mine enemies which would not that I should reign over them bring them hither and slay them before me SECT IV. 3. THe third sort that fall under this Reproof are those self-couzening formal lazie Professors of Religion who will be brought to any outward duty and to take up the easier part of Christianity but to the inward work and more difficult part they will never be perswaded They will Preach or hear or read or talk of heaven or pray customarily and constantly in their Families and take part with the persons or causes that are good and desire to be esteemed among the godly but you can never bring them to the more spiritual and difficult duties as to be constant and fervent in secret Prayer to be conscionable in the duty of self-examination to be constant in that excellent duty of Meditation to be heavenly minded to watch constantly over his heart and words and wayes to deny his bodily senses their delights to mortifie the flesh and not make provision for it to fulfil its lusts to love and heartily forgive an enemy to prefer his brethren heartily before himself and to think meanly of his own gifts and worth and to take it well
speak sense or reason But in a word our want of seriousness about the things of Heaven doth charme the souls of men into formality and hath brought them to this customary careless hearing which undoes them The Lord pardon the great sin of the Ministery in this thing and in particular my own And are the people any more serious then Magistrates and Ministers How can it be expected Reader look but to thy self and resolve the question Ask conscience and suffer it to tell thee truely Hast thou set thine Eternal Rest before thine eyes as the great business which thou hast to do in this world Hast thou studied and cared and watcht and labored and laid about thee with all thy might lest any should take thy Crown from thee Hast thou made hast lest thou shouldest come too late and dye before the work be done Hath thy very heart been set upon it and thy desires and thoughts run out this way Hast thou pressed on through crowdes of opposition towards the Mark for this price of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus still reaching forth unto those things which are before When you have set your hand to the work of God have you done it with all your might Can conscience witness your secret cries and groans or teares Can your families witness that you have taught them the fear of the Lord and warned them all with earnestness and unweariedness to remember God and their souls and to provide for Everlasting Or that you have done but as much for them as that damned Glutton would have had Lazarus do for his brethren on earth to warn them that they come not to that place of Torment Can your Ministers witness that they have heard you cry out What shall we do to be saved and that you have followed them with complaints against your corruptions and with earnest enquiries after the Lord Can your neighbors about you witness that you are still learning of them that are able to instruct you and that you plainly and roundly reprove the ungodly and take pains for the saving of your brethrens souls Let all these witnesses Judg this day between God and you Whether you are in good sadness about the affaires of Eternall Rest. But if yet you cannot discern your neglects Look but to your selves within you without you to the work you have done you can tell by his work whether your servant have loytered though you did not see him so you may by your selves Is your love to Christ your faith your zeal and other graces strong or weak What are your joyes what is your Assurance Is all right and strong and in order within you Are you ready to dye if this should be the day Do the souls among whom you have conversed bless you Why Judg by this and it will quickly appear whether you have been Labourers or Loyterers O Blessed Rest how unworthily art thou neglected O glorious Kingdom how art thou undervalued Little know the careless sons of men what a state they set so light by If they once knew it they would sure be of another minde CHAP. VI. An Exhortation to Seriousness in seeking Rest. SECT I. I Hope Reader by this time thou art somewhat sensible what a desperate thing it is to trifle about our Eternal Rest and how deeply thou hast been guilty of this thy self And I hope also that thou darest not now suffer this Conviction to dye but art resolved to be another man for the time to come What sayst thou Is this thy Resolution If thou were sick of some desperate disease and the Physitian should tell thee If you will observe but one thing I doubt not to cure you wouldst thou not observe it Why if thou wilt observe but this one thing for thy Soul I make no doubt of thy Salvation If thou wilt now but shake off thy sloath and put to all thy strength and ply the work of God unweariedly and be a down-right Christian in good sadness I know not what can hinder thy Happiness As far as thou art gone from God if thou wouldst but now return and seek him with all thy heart no doubt but thou shalt find him As unkindly as thou hast dealt with Jesus Christ if thou didst but feel thy self sick and dead and seek him heartily and apply thy self in good earnest to the obedience of his Laws thy Salvation were as sure as if thou hadst it already But as full as the Satisfaction of Christ is as free as the Promise is as large as the Mercy of God is yet if thou do but look on these and talk of them when thou shouldst greedily entertain them thou wilt be never the better for them and if thou loiter when thou shouldst labour thou wilt lose the Crown Oh fall to work then speedily and seriously and bless God that thou hast yet time to do it and though that which is past cannot be recalled yet redeem the time now by doubling thy diligence And because thou shalt see I urge thee not without cause I will here adjoyn a multitude of Considerations to Move thee yet do I not desire thee to take them by number but by waight Their intent and use is to drive thee from Delaying and from Loytering in seeking Rest And to all men do I propound them both Godly and ungodly Whoever thou art therefore I entreat thee to rouze up thy spirit and read them deliberately and give me a little while thy attention as to a message from God and as Moses said to the people Deut. 32.46 Set thy heart to all the words that I testifie to thee this day for it is not a vain thing but it is for thy Life Weigh what I here wright with the Judgment of a man and if I speak not Reason throw it back in my face but if I do see thou entertain and obey it accordingly and the Lord open thy heart and fasten his counsel effectually upon thee SECT II. 1. COnsider Our Affections and Actions should be somewhat answerable to the Greatness of the Ends to which they are intended Now the Ends of a Christians Desires and Endeavors are so Great that no humane understanding on earth can comprehend them whether you respect their proper Excellency their exceeding Importance or their absolute Necessity These Ends are The Glorifying of God The Salvation of our own and other mens Souls in our escaping the Torments of Hell and Possessing the Glory of Heaven And can a man be too much affected with things of such Moment Can he Desire them too Earnestly or Love them too Violently or Labour for them too Diligently When we know that if our prayers prevail not and our labour succeed not we are undone for ever I think it concerns us to seek and labour to the purpose When it is put to the Question Whether we shall live for ever in Heaven or in Hell and the Question must be resolved upon our Obeying
and God should turn you into the world again and try you with another life's time and say I will see whether yet thou wilt be any better What manner of persons would you be If you were to live a thousand years would you not gladly live as strictly as the precisest Saints and spend all those years in prayer and duty so you might but scape the Torment which you suffered How seriously then would you speak of Hell and pray against it and hear and read and watch and obey How earnestly would you admonish the carâ—less to take heed and look about them to prevent their ruine And will you not take Gods Word for the truth of this except you feel it Is it not your wisdom to do as much now to prevent it as you would do to remove it when it is too late Is it not more wisdom to spend this life in labouring for Heaven while you have it then to lie in Torment wishing for more time in Vain 10 Quest. What if you had been possessed but one year of the Glory of Heaven and there joyned with the Saints and Angels in the beholding of God and singing his Praise and afterwards should be turned into the world again What a life would you lead What pains would you take rather then be deprived of such incomparable Glory Would you think any cost too great or diligence too much If one of those that are now in Heaven should come to live on the Earth again what persons would they be What a stir would they make How seriously would they drive on the business of their Salvation The Country would ring of their exceeding Holy and Strict Conversations They would as far excel the Holiest Persons on Earth as they excel the careless world Before they would lose that Blessed Estate they would follow God with cries both day and night and throw away all and suffer every day a Death And should not we do as much to obtain it as they would do to keep it SECT XXV ANd thus I have said enough if not to stir up the lazy sinner to a serious working out his Salvation yet at least to silence him and leave him unexcuseable at the Judgment of God If thou â—anst after the reading of all this go on in the same neglect of God and thy Soul and draw out the rest of thy life in the same dull and careless course as thou hast hitherto done and if thou hast so far conquered and stupified thy Conscience that it will quietly suffer thee to forget all this and to trifle out the rest of thy time in the business of the world when in the mean while thy Salvation is in danger and the Judg is at the door I have then no more to say to thee It is as good speak to a post or a Rock Only as we do by our friends when they are dead and our words and actions can do them no good yet to test me our affections we weep and mourn for them so will I also do for these deplorable Souls It makes my heart sad and even tremble to think how they will stand sad and trembling before the Lord and how confounded and speechless they will be when Christ shall reason with them concerning their negligence and sloath When he shall say as the Lord doth in Jer. 2.5 9 11 12 13. What iniquity have your fathers or you found in me that ye are gone far from me and have walked after vanity c. Did I ever wrong you or do you any harm or ever discourage you from following my service Was my way so bad that you could not endure it or my service so base that you could not stoop to it Did I stoop to the fulfilling of the Law for you and could not you stoop to the fulfilling of the easie Conditions of my Gospel Was the world or Satan a better friend to you then I or had they done for you more then I had done Try now whether they will save you or whether they will recompence you for the loss of Heaven or whether they will be as good to you as I would have been Oh what will the wretched sinner answer to any of this But though man will not hear yet we may have hope in speaking to God Lord smite these Rocks till they gush forth waters Though these ears are deaf say to them Ephata be opened Though these Sinners be dead let that power speak which sometime said Lazarus arise We know they will be wakened at the last Resurrection Oh but then it will be only to their sorrow Oh thou that didst weep and groan in Spirit over a dead Lazarus pity these dead and sensless Souls till they are able to weep and groan for and pity themselves As thou hast bid thy Servant speak so speak now thy self They will hear thy voyes speaking to their hearts that will not hear mine speaking to their ears Long hast thou knocked at these hearts in vain now break the doors and enter in and pass by all their long resistance SECT XXVI YEt I will add a few more words to the Godly in special to shew them why they above all men should be laborious for Heaven and that there is a great deal of Reason that though all the world besides do sit still and be careless yet they should abhor that â—â—â—iness and negligence and should lay out all their strength on the work of God To this end I desire them also to answer soberly to these few Interrogatories 1 Quest. What manner of persons should those be whom God hath chosen out to be Vessels of Mercy and hath given them the very cream and quintescence of his blessings when the rest of the world are passed by and put off with common and temporal and left-hand-Mercies They who have the Blood of Christ given them and the Spirit for Sanctification Consolation and Preservation and the pardon of sins and Adoption to Son-ship and the guard of Angels and the Mediation of the Son of God and the special Love of the Father and the Promise and Seal of Everlasting Rest Do but tell me in good sadness what kind of lives these men should live 2 Quest. What manner of persons should those be who have felt the smart of their negligence so much as the godly have done In the new birth in their several wounds and trouble of Conscience in their doubts and fears in their sharp afflictions on body and state They that have groaned and cryed out so oft under the sense and effects of their negligence and are like enough to feel it again if they do not reform it sure one would think they should be so sloathful no more 3 Quest. What manner of persons should these be in holy diligence who have been so long convinced of the evil of laziness and have confessed on their knees a hundred and a hundred times both in publique and in private and have told God in
sincerely shall be Justified and Saved there is requisite in us 1. A Certainty of Knowledg That such a Proposition is written in Scripture 2. A Certainty of Assent or Faith That this Scripture is the Word of God and True Also in respect of the Minor Proposition But I do sincerely Believe or Love c. there is requisite 1. A Certainty of the Truth of our Faith in point of Being 2. And a Certainty of its Truth in point of Morality or Congruence with the Rule or its Right-being And then followeth Assurance which is the Certainty that the Conclusion Therefore I am Justified c. followeth necessarily upon the former Premises Here also you must carefully distinguish betwixt the several degrees of Assurance All Assurance is not of the highest degree It differs in strength according to the different degrees of Apprehension in all the forementioned Points of Certainty which are necessary thereunto He that can truly raise the foresaid Conclusion That he is Justified c. from the Premises hath some degree of Assurance though he do it with much weakness and staggering and doubting The weakness of our Assurance in any one point of the premises will accordingly weaken our Assurance in the Conclusion Some when they speak of Certainty of Salvation do mean only such a Certainty as excludeth all doubting and think nothing else can be called Certainty but this high degree Perhaps some Papists mean this when they deny a Certainty Some also maintain That Saint Paul's Plerophory or full Assurance is this Highest degree of Assurance and that some Christians do in this life attain to it But Paul calls it Full Assurance in comparison of lower degrees and not because it is perfect For if Assurance be perfect then also our Certainty of Knowledg Faith and Sense in the â—â—â—mises must be perfect And if some Grace perfect why not all and so we turn Novatians Catharists Perfectionists Perhaps in some their Certainty may be so great that it may overcome all sensible doubting or sensible stirrings of Unbelief by reason of the sweet and powerful Acts and Effects of that Certainty And yet it doth not overcome all Unbelief and Uncertainty so as to expel or nullifie them but a certain measure of them remaineth still Even as when you would heat cold water by the mixture of hot you may pour in the hot so long till no coldness is felt and yet the water may be far from the highest degree of heat So faith may suppress the sensible stirrings of unbelief and Certainty prevail against all the trouble of uncertainty and yet be far from the highest degree So that by this which is said you may Answer the Question What Certainty is to be attained in this Life and what Certainty it is that we press men to labour for and expect Furthermore you must be sure to distinguish betwixt Assurance it self and the Joy and Strength and other sweet Effects which follow Assurance or which immediately accompany it It is possible that there may be Assurance and yet no comfort or little There are many unskilful but self-conceited Disputers of late fitter to manage a club then an Argument who tell us That it must be the Spirit that must Assure us of our Salvation and not our Marks and Evidences of Grace That our comfort must not be taken from any thing in our selves That our Justification must be immediately believed and not proved by our Signs or Sanctification c. Of these in order 1. It is as wise a Question to ask Whether our Assurance come from the Spirit or our Evidences or our Faith c as to ask whether it be our meat or our stomack or our teeth or our hands that feed us Or whether it be our Eye-sight or the Sun-light by which we see things They are distinct Causes all necessary to the producing of the same Effect So that by what hath bin said you may discern That the Spirit and Knowledg and Faith and Scripture inward Holines and Reason and inward Sense or Conscience have all several parts and necessary uses in producing our Assurances which I will shew you distinctly 1. To the Spirit belong these particulars 1. He hath indited those Scriptures which contain the promise of our Pardon and Salvation 2. He giveth us the habit or power of Believing 3. He helpeth us also to Believe Actually That the Word is true and to receive Christ and the priviledges offered in the promise 4. He worketh in us those Graces and exciteth those Gracious Acts within us which are the Evidences or Marks of our interest pardon and Life He helpeth us to perform those Acts which God hath made to be the Condition of Pardon and Glory 5. He helpeth us to feel and discover these Acts in our selves 6. He helpeth us to compare them with the Rule and finding out their qualifications to Judg of their Sincerity and Acceptation with God 7. He helpeth our Reason to Conclude rightly of our State from our Acts. 8. He enliveneth and heighteneth our Apprehension in these particulars that our Assurance may accordingly be strong and lively 9. He exciteth our Joy and filleth with comfort when he pleaseth upon this Assurance None of all these could we perform well of our selves 2. The Part which the Scripture hath in this Work is 1. It affordeth us the Major Proposition That whosoever Believeth Sincerely shall be saved 2. It is the Rule by which our Acts must be tryed that we may Judg of their Moral Truth 3. The Part that Knowledg hath in it is to Know that the foresaid Proposition is written in Scripture 4. The Work of Faith is to Believe the Truth of that Scripture and to be the matter of one of our chief Evidences 5. Our Holiness and true Faith as they are Marks and Evidences are the very Medium of our Argument from which we Conclude 6. Our Conscience and internal Sense do acquaint us with both the Being and Qualifications of our inward Acts which are this Medium and which are called Marks 7. Our Reason or Discourse is Necessary to form the Argument and raise the Conclusion from the Premises and to compare our Acts with the Rule and Judg of their Sincerity c. So that you see our Assurance is not an Effect of any one single Cause alone And so neither meerly of Faith by Signs or by the Spirit From all this you may gather 1. What the Seal of the Spirit is to wit the Works or fruits of the Spirit in us 2. What the testimony of the Spirit is for if it be not some of the forementioned Acts I yet know it not 3. What the Testimony of Conscience is And if I be not mistaken the Testimony of the Spirit and the Testimony of Conscience are two concurrent Testimonies or Causes to produce one and the same Effect and to afford the Premises to the same Conclusion and then to raise our Joy thereupon So
wilt not accept them Why dost thou therefore stand whining and complaining that thou art not Pardoned and Adopted when thou shouldst take them being offered thee Were he not mad that would lie weeping and wringing his hands because he is not pardoned when his Prince stands by all the while offering him a pardon and intreating and threatning and perswading and correcting him and all to make him take it What would you say to such a man Would you not chide him for his folly and say If thou wouldst have Pardon and Life why dost thou not take it Why then do you not say the like to your selves Know ye not that Pardon and Adoption are offered you only on the Condition of your Believing And this Believing is nothing else but the Accepting of Christ for thy Lord and Saviour as he is offered to thee with his benefits in the Gospel And this Accepting is principally if not only the Act of thy Will So that if thou be willing to have Christ upon his own terms that is to Save and Rule thee then thou art a Believer Thy willingness is thy Faith And if thou have Faith thou hast the surest of all Evidences Justifying Faith is not thy Perswasion of Gods special Love to thee or of thy Justification but thy Accepting Christ to make thee Just and Lovely It may be thou wilt say I cannot Believe It is not so easie a matter to Believe as you make it Answ. Indeed to those that are not willing it is not easie God only can make them willing But to him that is willing to have Christ for King and Saviour I will not say Believing is easie but it is already performed for this is Believing Let me therefore put this Question to every doubting complaining Soul What is it that thou art complaining and mourning for What makes thee walk so sadly as thou dost Because thou hast not Christ and his benefits Why art thou willing to have them on the forementioned Condition or art thou not If thou be Willing thou hast him Thy Accepting is thy Believing To as many as Receive him that is Accept him to them he gives power to become the Sons of God even to them that Believe on his Name Joh. 1.12 But if thou art not Willing why dost thou Complain Methinks the tongue should follow the bent of the heart or Will And they that would not have Christ should be speaking against him at least against his Laws and Ways and not complaining because they do not enjoy him Dost thou groan and make such moan for want of that which thou wouldst not have If indeed thou wouldst not have Christ for thy King and Saviour then have I nothing to say but to perswade thee to be Willing Is it not madness then to lie complaining that we have not Christ when we may have him if we will If thou have him not take him and cease thy complaints Thou canst not be so forward and willing as he is And if He be Willing and thou be Willing who shall break the Match I will not say as Mr Saltmarsh most horridly doth That we ought no more to Question our Faith which is our first and foundation Grace then we ought to Question Christ the Foundation of our Faith But this I say That it were a more wise and direct course to Accept Christ offered which is Believing then to spend so much time in doubting whether we have Christ and Faith or no. SECT XII 3. ANother Cause of many Christians trouble is Their mistaking Assurance for the Joy that sometime accompanieth it or at least confounding them together Therefore when they want the Joy of Assurance they are as much cast down as if they wanted Assurance it self Doctor Sibbs saith well That as we cannot have Grace but by the work of the Spirit so must there be a further Act to make us Know that we have that Grace and when we Know we have Grace yet must there be a further Act of the Spirit to give us Comfort in that Knowledg Some Knowledg or Assurance of our Regenerate and Justified Estate the Spirit gives more ordinarily but that sensible Joy is more seldom and extraordinary We have cause enough to keep off doubtings and distress of spirit upon the bare sight of our Evidences though we do not feel any further Joys This these complaining Souls understand not and therefore though they cannot deny their willingness to have Christ nor many other the like Graces which are infallible Signs of their Justification and Adoption yet because they do not feel their spirits replenished with comforts they throw away all as if they had nothing As if a Child should no longer take himself for a son then he sees the smiles of his Fathers face or heareth the comfortable expressions of his mouth And as if the Father did cease to be a Father when ever he ceaseth those smiles and speeches SECT XIII 4. ANd yet further is the trouble of these poor Souls increased in that They know not the ordinary way of Gods conveying these expected Comforts When they hear that they are the free gifts of the Spirit they presently conceive themselves to be meerly passive therein and that they have nothing to do but to wait when God will bestow them Not understanding that though these Comforts are Spiritual yet are they Rational raised upon the Understandings apprehension of the Excellency of God our Happiness and of our Interest in him and by the rolling of this blessed Object in our frequent Meditations The Spirit doth advance and not destroy our Reason It doth rectifie it and then use it as its ordinary instrument for the conveyance of things to our Affections and exciting them accordingly and not lay it aside and Affect us without it Therefore our Joys are raised discoursively and the Spirit first revealeth our Cause of Joy and then helpeth us to Rejoyce upon those revealed grounds So that he who Rejoyceth groundedly knoweth why he Rejoyceth ordinarily Now these mistaken Christians lie waiting when the Spirit doth cast in these Comforts into their hearts while they sit still and labour not to excite their own Affections Nay while they Reason against the Comforts which they wait for These men must be taught to know that the matter of their Comfort is in the Promises and thence they must fetch it as oft as they expect it And that if they set themselves dayly and diligently to Meditate of the Truth of those Promises and of the rare excellency contained in them and of their own title thereto in this way they may expect the Spirits assistance for the raising of holy Comfort in their Souls But if they lie still bewailing their want of Joy while the full and free Promises lie by them and never take them and rip them up and look into them and apply them to their hearts by Serious Meditation They may complain for want of Comfort long
enough before they have it in Gods ordinary way of conveyance God worketh upon Men as Men as Reasonable Creatures The Joy of the Promises and the Joy of the Holy Ghost are one Joy And those Seducers who in their Ignorance mis-guide poor Souls in this point do exceedingly wrong them while they perswade them so to expect their comforts from the Spirit as not to be any authors of them themselves nor to raise up their own hearts by Argumentative means telling them that such Comforts are but hammered by themselves and not the genuine Comforts of the Spirit How contrary is this to the doctrine of Christ SECT XIV 5. ANother Cause of the trouble of their Souls is Their expecting a greater measure of Assurance then God doth usually bestow upon his people Most think as long as they have any doubting they have no Assurance They consider not that there are many degrees of Infallible Certainty below a perfect or an undoubting Certainty They must know that while they are here they shall Know but in part They shall be imperfect in their Knowledg of Scripture which is their Rule in Trying and imperfect in the Knowledg of their own obscure deceitful hearts Some strangeness to God and themselves there will still remain Some darkness will over-spread the face of their Souls Some Unbelief will be making head against their Faith And some of their grievings of the Spirit will be Grieving themselves and making a breach in their Peace and Joy Yet as long as their Faith is prevailing and their Assurance doth tread down and subdue their Doubtings though not quite expel them they may walk in Comfort and maintain their Peace But as long as they are resolved to lie down in sorrow till their Assurance be perfect their days on Earth must then be days of sorrow SECT XV. 6. AGain many a Soul lies long in trouble by taking up their Comforts in the beginning upon unsound or uncertain grounds This may be the case of a gracious Soul who hath better grounds and doth not see them And then when they grow to more ripeness of Understanding and come to find out the insufficiency of their former grounds of Comfort they cast away their Comfort wholy when they should only cast away their rotten props of it and search for better to support it with As if their Comfort and their Safety were both of a nature and both built on the same Foundation they conclude against their Safety because they have discovered the mistake of their former Comforts And there are many much applauded Books and Teachers of late who further the delusion of poor Souls in this point and make them believe that because their former Comforts were too Legal and their perswasions of their good estate were ill grounded therefore themselves were under the Covenant of Works only and their spiritual condition as unsound as their Comforts These men observe not That while they deny us the use of Marks to know our own state yet they make use of them themselves to know the states of others Yea and of false and insufficient Marks too For to argue from the Motive of our perswasion of a good estate to the goodness or badness of that estate is no sound arguing It followeth not that a man is unregenerate because he judged himself regenerate upon wrong grounds For perhaps he might have better grounds and not know it or else not know which were good and which bad Safety and Comfort stand not always on the same bottom Bad grounds do prove the Assurance bad which was built upon them but not always the Estate bad These Teachers do but toss poor Souls up and down as the waves of the Sea making them believe that their Estate is altered as oft as their conceits of it alter Alas few Christians do come to know either what are solid grounds of Comfort or whether they have any such grounds themselves in the infancy of Christianity But as an Infant hath life before he knoweth it and as he hath misapprehensions of himself and most other things for certain years together and yet it will not follow that therefore he hath no life or reason So is it in the case in hand Yet this should perswade both Ministers and Believers themselves to lay right grounds for their Comfort in the beginning as far as may be For else usually when they find the flaw in their Comforts and Assurance they will judg it to be a flaw in their Safety and Real Estates Just as I observe most persons do who turn to Errors or Heresies They took up the Truth in the beginning upon either false or doubtful grounds and then when their grounds are overthrown or shaken they think the doctrine is also overthrown and so they let go both together as if None had solid Arguments because They had not or none could manage them better then They. Even so when they perceive that their Arguments for their good estate were unsound they think that their Estate must needs be as unsound SECT XVI 7. MOreover many a Soul lyeth long under doubting Through the great Imperfection of their very Reason and exceeding weakness of their natural parts Grace doth usually rather turn our parts to their most necessary use and imploy our faculties on better Objects then add to the degree of their natural strength Many honest hearts have such weak heads that they know not how to perform the work of Self-Tryal They are not able rationally to argue the Case They will acknowledg the Premises and yet deny the apparent Conclusion Or if they be brought to acknowledg the Conclusion yet they do but fluctuate and stagger in their concession and hold it so weakly that every assault may take it from them If God do not some other way supply to these men the defect of their Reason I see not how they should have clear and setled Peace SECT XVII 8. ANother great and too common Cause of Doubting and Discomfort is The secret maintaining of some known sin When a man liveth in some unwarrantantable practise and God hath oft touched him for it and Conscience is galled and yet he continueth it It is no wonder if this person want both Assurance and Comfort One would think that a Soul that lieth under the fears of Wrath and is so tender as to tremble and complain should be as tender of sinning and scarcely adventure upon the appearance of evil And yet sad experience telleth us that it is frequently otherwise I have known too many such that would complain and yet sin and accuse themselves and yet sin still yea and despair and yet proceed in sinning and all Arguments and means could not keep them from the wilful committing of that sin again and again which yet they did think themselves would prove their destruction Yea some will be carryed away with those sins which seem most contrary to their dejected temper I have known them that
Condition and to enlighten thee in thy whole progress in the work 3. Make choyce of the most convenient Time and Place I shall not stand upon the particular Directions about these because I shall mention them more largely when I come to direct you in the duty of Contemplation Only thus in brief 1. Let the Place be the most private that you may be free from distractions 2. For the Time thus 1. When you are most solitary and at leasure You cannot cast accounts especially of such a nature as these either in a croud of company or of imployments 2. Let it be a set and choâ—en Time when you have nothing to hinder you 3. But if it may be let it be the present Time especially if thou have been a stranger hitherto to the work There is no delaying in matters of such weight 4. Especially when you have a more special call to search your selves as in publique calamities in time of sickness before Sacrament c. 5. When God is Trying you by some Affliction and as Job saith is searching after your sin then set in with him and search after them your selves 6. Lastly You should specially take such a Time when you are most fit for the work when you are not secure and stupid on one hand nor yet under deep desertions or Melancholly on the other hand for else you will be unfit Judges of your own states 4. When you have thus chosen the fittest Time and Place then draw forth either from thy Memory or in writing the forementioned Marks or Gospel-Conditions or Descriptions of the Saints Try them by Scripture and convince thy Soul throughly of their infallible Truth 5. Proceed then to put the Question to thy self But be sure to state it right Let it not be Whether there be any Good in thee at all for so thou wilt err on the one hand Nor yet Whether thou have such or such a degree and measure of Grace for so thou wilt err on the other hand But Whether such or such a Saving Grace be in thee at all in sincerity or not 6. If thy heart draw back and be loath to the work suffer it not so to give thee the slip but force it on Lay thy command upon it let Reason interpose and use its authority Look over the fore-going Arguments and press them home Yea lay the Command of God upon it and charge it to obey upon pain of his displeasure Set Conscience a work also let it do its office till thy lazy heart be spurred up to the work For if thou suffer it to break away once and twice c. it will grow so head-strong that thou canst not master it 7. Let not thy Heart trifle away the Time when it should be diligently at the work Put the Question to it seriously Is it thus and tâ—us with me or no Force it here to an Answer suffer it not to be silent nor to jangle and think of other matters If the Question be hard through the darkness of thy Heart yet do not give it over so but search the closer and study the case the more exactly And if it be possible let not thy Heart give over till it have Resolved the Question and told thee off or on in what case thou art Ask it strictly as Joseph examined his Brethren Gen. 43.7 how it stands affected Do as David Psal. 77.6 My spirit made Diligent Search If thy Heart strive to break away before thou art resolved wrestle with it till thou hast prevailed and say I will not let thee go till thou hast Answered He that can prevail with his own Heart shall also be a prevailer with God 8. If thou finde the work beyond thy strength so that after all thy pains thou art never the more resolved then seek out for help Go to some that is Godly experienced able and faithful and tell him thy case and desire his best advice and help Not that any can know thy heart so well as thy self But if thou deal faithfully and tell him what thou knowest by thy self he can tell thee whether they be sound Evidences or not and shew thee Scripture how to prove them so and direct thee in the right use of such Evidences and shew thee how to conclude from them Yea when thou canst get no further the very Judgment of an able Godly man should take much with thee as a probable Argument as the Judgment of a Physician concerning the state of thy body Though this can afford thee no full certainty yet it may be a great help to stay and direct thee But be sure thou do not make this a pretence to put off thy own duty of Examining But onely use it as one of the last remedies when thou findest thy own endevors will not serve Neither be thou forward to open thy case to every one or to a carnal flattering unskilful person But to one that hath wisdom to conceal thy secrets and tenderness to compassionate thee and skill to direct thee and faithfulness to deal truly and plainly with thee 9. When by all this pains and means thou hast discovered the truth of thy state then pass the Sentence on thy self accordingly A meer examination will do thee little good if it proceed not to a Judgment Conclude as thou findest Either that thou art a true Beleever or that thou art not But pass not this Sentence rashly nor with self-flattery nor from Melancholly terrors and fears But do it groundedly and deliberately and truly as thou findest according to thy Conscience Do not conclude as some do I am a good Christian or as others do I am a Reprobate or a Hypocrite and shall be damned when thou hast no ground for what thou sayst but thy own fancy or hopes or fears nay when thou art convinced by Scripture and Reason of the contrary and hast nothing to say against the Arguments Let not thy Judgment be any way by assed or bribed and so fore-stalled from sentencing aright 10. Labor to get thy heart kindly Affected with its discovered condition according to the sentence passed on it Do not think it enough to know but labor to feel what God hath made thee see If thou finde thy self undoubtedly graceless Oh get this to thy heart and think what a doleful Condition it is To be an Enemy to God! to be unpardoned unsanctified and if thou shouldst so dye to be Eternally damned One would think such a thought should make a heart of stone to quake On the contrary If thou finde thy self renewed and sanctified indeed Oh get this warm and close to thy heart Bethink thy self What a blessed state the Lord hath brought thee into To be his Childe his Friend to be pardoned justified and sure to be saved Why what needest thou fear but sinning against him Come war or plague or sickness or death thou art sure they can but thrust thee into Heaven Thus follow these Meditations till they have left
if he were sure that Heaven should be his own he would desire to depart and to be with Christ as being the best stâ—te of all And if God would set before him an Eternity of Earthly pleasures and contents on one hand and the Rest of the Saints on the other hand and bid him take his choyce he would refuse the world and chuse this Rest Psal. 16.9 10. Rom. 8.23 2 Cor. 5.2 3. Phil. 3.20 Thus if thou be a Christian indeed thou takest God for thy chiefest Good and this Rest for the most amiable and desireable state and by the foresaid means thou mayst discover it But if thou be yet in the flesh and an unsanctified wretch then is it clean contrary with thee in all these respects Then dost thou in thy Heart prefer thy worldly happiness and fleshly delights before God And though thy tongue may say that God is the chief Good yet thy Heart doth not so esteem him For 1. The world is the chief End of thy Desires and Endevors Thy very heart is set upon it Thy greatest Care and Labor is to maintain thy estate or credit or fleshly delights But the life to come hath little of thy care or labor Thou didst never perceive so much excellency in that unseen Glory of another world as to draw thy heart so after it or set thee a laboring so heartily for it But that little pains which thou bestowest that way it is but in the second place and not the first God hath but the worlds leavings and that time and labor which thou canst spare from the world or those few cold and careless thoughts which follow thy constant earnest and delightful thoughts of earthly things Neither wouldst thou do any thing at all for Heaven if thou knew'st how to keep the world But lest thou shouldst be turned into Hell when thou canst keep the world no longer therefore thou wilt do something 2. Therefore it is that thou thinkest the way of God too strict and wilt not be perswaded to the constant labor of conscionable walking according to the Gospel rule And when it comes to tryal that thou must forsake Christ or thy worldly happiness and the wind which was in thy back doth turn in thy face then thou wilt venture Heaven rather then Earth and as desperate Rebels use to say thou wilt rather trust Gods Mercy for thy Soul then mans for thy body and so wilfully deny thy obedience to God 3. And certainly if God would but give thee leave to live in health and wealth for ever on Earth thou wouldst think it a better state then Rest Let them seek for Heaven that would thou wouldst think this thy chiefest happiness This is thy case if thou be yet an unregenerate person and hast no Title to the Saints Rest. SECT IV. THe second Mark which I shall give thee to try whether thou be an Heir of Rest is this As thou takest God for thy chief Good so Thou dost heartily accept of Christ for thy onely Saviour and Lord to bring thee to this Rest The former Mark was the sum of the first and great Command of the Law of Nature Thou shalt Love the Lord with all thy heart or above all This second Mark is the sum of the Command or Condition of the Gospel which saith Beleeve in the Lord Jesus and thou shalt be saved And the performance of these two is the whole sum or essence of Godliness and Christianity Observe therefore the parts of this Mark which is but a Definition of Faith 1. Dost thou finde that thou art naturally a lost condemned man for thy breach of the first Covenant and dost beleeve that Jesus Christ is the Mediator who hath made a sufficient satisfaction to the Law and hearing in the Gospel that he is offered without exception unto all dost heartily consent that he alone shall be thy Saviour and dost no further trust to thy Duties and works then as conditions required by him and means appointed in subordination to him not looking at them as in the least measure able to satisfie the Curse of the Law or as a Legal Righteousness nor any part of it But art content to trust thy Salvation on the Redemption made by Christ 2. Art thou also content to Take him for thy onely Lord and King to govern and guide thee by his Laws and Spirit And to obey him even when he commandeth the hardest duties and those which most cross the desires of the flesh Is it thy sorrow when thou breakest thy resolution herein and thy Joy when thou keepest closest in obedience to him And though the world and flesh do sometime entice and over reach thee yet is it thy ordinary Desire and Resolution to Obey So that thou wouldst not change thy Lord and Master for all the world Thus it is with every true Christian. But if thou be an Hypocrite it is far otherwise Thou mayst call Christ thy Lord and thy Saviour But thou never foundest thy self so lost without him as to drive thee to seek him and trust him and lay thy Salvation on him alone Or at least thou didst never heartily consent that he should Govern thee as thy Lord nor didst resign up thy Soul and Life to be Ruled by him nor takest his Word for the Law of thy Thoughts and Actions It is like thou art content to be saved from Hell by Christ when thou dyest But in the mean time he shall command thee no further then will stand with thy credit or pleasure or worldly estate and ends And if he would give thee leave thou hadst far rather live after the world and flesh then after the Word and Spirit And though thou mayst now and then have a Motion or Purpose to the contrary yet this that I have mentioned is the ordinary desire and choyce of thy heart And so thou art no true Beleever in Christ For though thou confess him in words yet in works thou dost deny him being disobedient and to every Good Work a Disapprover and a Reprobate Tit. 1.16 This is the Case of those that shall be shut out of the Saints Rest. But especially I would here have you observe That it is in all this the Consent of your Hearts or Wills which I lay down in this Mark to be enquired after For that is the most essential Act of Justifying Faith Therefore I do not ask whether thou be Assured of Salvation nor yet whether thou canst beleeve that thy sins are pardoned and that thou art beloved of God in Christ These are no parts of Justifying Faith but excellent fruits and consequents which they that do receive are comforted by them but perhaps thou mayst never receive them whilest thou livest and yet be a true heir of Rest. Do not say then I cannot beleeve that my sin is pardoned or that I am in Gods favor and therefore I am no true Beleever This is a most mistaking conclusion The Question is Whether thou
poor Christian whom God will not suffer to be drowned in worldliness nor to take up short of his Rest is sometime bending his thoughts to thrive in wealth sometime he is enticed to some flesh-pleasing sin sometime he begins to be lifted up with applause and sometime being in health and prosperity he hath lost his relish of Christ and the Joys above Till God break in upon his riches and scatter them abroad or upon his children or upon his conscience or upon the health of his body and break down his mount which he thought so strong And then when he lieth in Manassâ—â— his fetters or is fastened to his bed with pining sickness Oh what an opportunity hath the Spirit to plead with his Soul When the World is worth nothing then Heaven is worth something I leave every Christian to judg by his own experience whether we do not over-love the World more in prosperity then in adversity and whether we be not loather to come away to God when we have what the flesh desireth here How oft are we sitting down on Earth as if we were loath to go any further till Affliction call to us as the Angel to Elijah Vp thou hast a great way to go How oft have I been ready to think my self at home till Sickness hath roundly told me I was mistaken And how apt yet to fall into the same disease which prevaileth till it be removed by the same cure If our dear Lord did not put these thorns into our bed we should sleep out our lives and lose our Glory Therefore doth the Lord sometime deny us an inheritance on Earth with our Brethren because he hath separated us to stand before him and minister to him and the Lord himself will be our inheritance as he hath promised as it is said of the Tribe of Levi Deut. 10.8 9. SECT IV. 3. COnsider also That Afflictions be Gods most effectual means to keep us from stragling out of the way to our Rest. If he had not set a hedg of Thorns on the right hand and another on the left we should hardly keep the way to Heaven If there be but one gap open without these Thorns how ready are we to finde it and turn out at it But when we cannot go astray but these Thorns will prick us perhaps we will be content to hold the way When we grow fleshly and wanton and worldly and proud what a notable means is Sickness or other Affliction to reduce us It is every Christian as well as Luther that may call Affliction one of his best School-masters Many a one as well as David may say by experience Before I was afflicted I went astray but now have I sincerely kept thy Precepts Psal. 119.67 As Phisicians say of bodily destruction so may we of spiritual That Peace killeth more then War Read Nehem. 9. Their case is ours When we have prosperity we grow secure and sinful Then God afflicteth us and we cry for mercy and purpose reformation But after we have a little Rest we do evil again Vers. 28. Till God take up the Rod again that he may bring us back to his Law vers 29. And thus prosperity and sinning and suffering and repenting and deliverance and sinning again do run all in around Even as Peace breeds Contention and that breeds War and that by its bitterness breeds Peace again Many a thousand poor recovered sinners may cry Oh healthful sickness Oh comfortable sorrows Oh gainful losses enriching poverty Oh Blessed Day that ever I was afflicted It is not onely the pleasant streams and the green pastures but his Rod and Staff also that are our Comfort Psal. 23. Though I know it is the Word and Spirit that do the main work Yet certainly the Time of Suffering is so opportune a season that the same word will take then which before was scarce observed It doth so unbolt the door of the heart that a Minister or a godly man may then be heard and the Word may have easier enterance to the Affections Even the Threats of Judgment will bring an Ahab or a Nineveh into their sackcloth and ashes and make them cry mightily unto GOD. Something then will the feeling of those Judgments do SECT V. 4. COnsider also That Afflictions are Gods most effectual Means to make us mend our pace in the way to our Rest. They are his Rod and his Spur What sluggard will not awake and stir when he feeleth them It were well if meer Love would prevail with us and that we were rather drawn to Heaven then driven But seeing our hearts so are bad that Mercy will not do it it is better be put on with the sharpest scourge then loyter out our time till the doors are shut Matthew the 25. Chap. and the 3 5 10 Verses Oh what a difference is there betwixt our prayers in health and in sickness betwixt our prosperity and our adversitiy-repentings He that before had not a tear to shed nor a groan to utter now can sob and sigh and weep his fill He that was wont to lie like a block in prayer and scarce minded what he said to God Now when affliction presseth him down how earnestly can he beg how doth he mingle his prayers and his tears how doth he purpose and promise reformation and cry out what a person he will be if God will but hear him and deliver him Alas if we did not sometime feel the spur what a slow pace would most of us hold toward Heaven and if we did not sometimes smart by Affliction how dead and blockish would be the best mens hearts Even innocent Adam is liker to forget GOD in a Paradise then Joseph in a prison or Job upon a dunghil Even a Solomon is like enough to fall in the midst of pleasure and prosperity when the most wicked Manasses in his Irons may be recovered As Doctor Stoughton saith We are like to childrens tops that will go but little longer then they are whipt Seeing then that our own vile natures do thus require it why should we be unwilling that GOD should do us good by so sharp a means Sure that is the best dealing for us which surest and soonest doth further us for Heaven I leave thee Christian to judg by thy own experience whether thou dost not go more watchfully and lively and speedily in thy way to Rest in thy sufferings then thou dost in thy more pleasing and prosperous state If you go to the vilest sinner on his dying bed and ask him Will you now drink and whore and scorn at the godly as you were wont to do you shall finde him quite in another minde Much more then will Affliction work on a gracious Soul SECT VI. 5. COnsider further It is but this Flesh which is troubled and grieved for the most part by Affliction And what Reason have we to be so tender of it In most of our sufferings the Soul is free further
him more eminently then in the saving of Souls He that will pronounce you blessed at the last day and sentence you to the Kingdom prepared for you because you fed him and clothed him and visited him c. in his Members will sure pronounce you blessed for so great a work as is the bringing over of souls to his Kingdom and helping to drive the match betwixt them and him He that saith The poor you have always with you hath left the ungodly always with you that you might still have matter to exercise your Charity upon O if you have the hearts of Christians 〈◊〉 or of men in you let them yearn towards your poor ignorant ungodly neighbors Alas there is but a step betwixt them and death and hell many hundred diseases are waiting ready to seise on them and if they dye unregenerate they are lost for ever Have you hearts of Rock that cannot pitty men in such a case as this If you believe not the Word of God and the danger of Sinners why are you Christians your selves If you do believe it why do you not bestir you to the helping of others Do you not care who is damned so you be saved If so you have as much cause to pitty your selves for it is a frame of spirit utterly inconsistent with Grace should you not rather say as the Leapers of Samaria Is it not a day of glad tidings and do we sit still and hold your peace Hath God had so much mercy on you and will you have no mercy on your poor neighbours You need not go far to finde objects for your pitty Look but into your streets or into the next house to you and you will probably finde some Have you never an ignorant unregenerate neighbor that sets his heart below and neglecteth Eternity O what blessed place do you live in where there there is none such If there be not some of them in thine own Family it is well and yet art thou silent Dost thou live close by them or meet them in the streets or labor with them or travel with them or sit and talk with them and say nothing to them of their souls or the life to come If their houses were on fire thou wouldest run and help them and wilt thou not help them when their souls are almost at the fire of Hell If thou knewest but a Remedy for their Diseases thou wouldest tell it them or else thou wouldest judge thy self guilty of their death Cardan speaks of one that had a Receipt that would suddenly and certainly dissolve the stone in the Bladder and he concludes of him that he makes no doubt but that man is in hell because he never revealed it to any before he dyed What shall we say then of them that know of the remedy for curing souls and do not reveal it nor perswade men to make use of it Is it not Hypocrisie to pray daily for their Conversion and Salvation and never once endeavor to procure it And is it not Hypocrisie to pray That Gods Name may be Hallowed and never to endeavor to bring men to Hallow it nor hinder them from prophaning it And can you pray Let thy Kingdom come and yet never labor for the coming or increase of that Kingdom Is it no grief to your hearts to see the Kingdom of Satan so to flourish and to see him lead captive such a multitude of souls You take on you that you are Souldiers in Christs Army and will you do nothing against his prevailing enemies You pray also daily That his Will may be done and should you not daily then perswade men to do it and disswade them from sinning against it You pray That God would forgive them their sins and that he would not lead them into Temptation but deliver them from evil And yet will you not help them against Temptations nor help to deliver them from the greatest evil nor help them to Repent and Believe that they may be forgiven Alas that your Prayers and your Practice should so much disagree Look about you therefore Christians with an eye of compassion on the ignorant ungodly sinners about you be not like the Priest or Levite that saw the man wounded and passed by God did not so pass by you when it was your own case Are not the souls of your neighbors faln into the hands of Satan Doth not their misery cry out unto you Help help As you have any compassion towards men in the greatest misery Help As you have the hearts of men and not of Tygers in you Help Alas how forward are Hypocrites in their Sacrifice and how backward to shew mercy How much in Praying and duties of worship and how little in plain Reproof and Exhortation and other duties of compassion And yet God hath told them That he will have mercy and not sacrifice that is mercy before sacrifice And how forward are these Hypocrites to censure Ministers for neglecting their duties yea to expect more duty from one Minister then ten can perform and yet they make no conscience of neglecting their own Nay how forward are they to separate from those about them and how censorious against those that admit them to the Lords Supper or that joyn with them and yet will they not be brought to deale with them in Christs way for their recovery As if other men were to work and they only to sit by and Judge Because they know it is a work of trouble and will many times set men against them therefore no perswasion will bring them to it They are like men that see their neighbors sick of the plague or drowning in the water or taken captive by the enemy and they dare not venture to relieve him themselves but none so forward to put on others So are these men the greatest expecters of duty and the lest performers SECT II. BUt as this duty lyeth upon all in general so upon some more especially according as God hath called or qualified them thereto To them therefore more particularly I will address my exhortation Whether they be such as have more opportunity and advantages for this work or such as have better abilities to perform it or such as have both And these are of severall sorts 1. All you that God hath given more learning and knowledg to and endued with better parts for utterance then your neighbors God expecteth his duty especially at your hand The strong are made to help the weak and those that see must direct the blind God looketh for this faithfull improvement of your parts and gifts which if you neglect it were better for you that you never had received them for they will but further your condemnation and be as useless to your own Salvation as they were to others SECT III. 2. ALl those that have special familiarity with some ungodly men and that have interest in them God looks for this duty at their hands Christ himself did eat and
it had been too late to complain Quia me vestigia terrent Omnia in adversum spectantia nulla retrorsum And some tast of the fruit of their projects we have lately had in England by which paw we may sufficiently conjecture of the Lyon So that as bad as we are our adversaries have little cause to reproach us But yet brethren let us impartially judg our selves for God will shortly Judg us impartially VVhat is it that hath occasioned so many Novices to invade the Ministery who being puffed up with pride are fallen into the snare of the devil 1 Tim. 3.6 and bring the work of God into contempt by their ignorance Hath not the ungodliness ambition of those that are more learned by bringing learning it self into contempt been the cause of all this Alas who can be so blinded by his charity as not to see the truth of this among us How many of the greatest wits have the most graceless hearts And relish Cicero Demosthenes or Aristotle better then David or Paul or Christ And even lothe those holy wayes which customarily they preach for That have no higher ends in entering upon the Ministery then gain and preferment And when the hopes of preferment are taken away they think it but folly to chuse such a toilsome and ungrateful work And thus the ball of reproach is tossed between the well meaning ignorants and the ungodly learned and between these two how miserable is the Church The one cryes out of unlearned Schismaticks The other cryes out of proud ungodly persecutors and say These are your learned men that study for nothing but a benefice or a Bishoprick that are as strange to the Mysteries of Regeneration and a holy life as any others And O that these reproaches were not too true of many God hath lessoned Ministers of late one would think sufficiently to beware of ambition and secular avocations But it is hard to hear God speak by the tongue of an enemy or to see and acknowledg his hand where the Instrument doth miscarry If English Examples have lost their force as being so neer your eyes that you cannot see them remember the end of Funcius that learned Chronologer who might have lived longer as a Divine but died as a Princes Counsellor and his Distich pronounced at his death Disce meo exemplo mandato munere fungi Et fuge ceu pestem 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like fate of Justus Jonas I.C. Son of that great Divine of the same name the next year whose last Verses were like the former Quid juvat innumeros scire at que evolvere casus si facienda fugis fi fugienda facis Study not therefore the way of rising but the way of righteousness Honesty will hold out when Honors will deceive you If your hearts be once infected with the fermentation of this swelling humour it will quickly rise up to your brain and corrupt your intellectuals and then you will be of that opinion which your Flesh thinks to be good and not that which your judgment thought to be true and you will fetch your Religion from the Statute Book and not from the Bible as the jest went of Agricola who turned from a Protestant to an Antinomian and being convinced of that error turned Papist into the other extream and Pebugius and Sidonius Authors of the Interim Chrysma ab eis oleum pontificium inter alia defenduntur ut ipsi discederent unctiores because they obtained Bishopricks by it O what a doleful case is it to see so many brave wits and men of profound Learning to be made as useless and hurtful to the Church of God by their pride and ungodliness as others are by their pride and Ignorance were a clear understanding conjoyned with an holy heart and heavenly life and were they as skilful in Spiritual as Humane Learning what a glory and blessing would they be to the Churches SECT X. 5. LAstly Be sure that you study and strive after Unity and Peace if ever you would promote the Kingdom of Christ and your peoples Salvation do it in a way of Peace and Love Publike wars and private quarrels do usually pretend to the Reformation of the Church to the vindicating of the Truth and the welfare of souls but they as usually prove in the issue the greatest means to the overthrow of all It is as natural for both wars and private contentions to produce Errors Schisms contempt of Magistraâ—y Ministry and Ordinances as it is for a dead carrion to breed Worms and Vermine Believe it from one that hath too many years experience of it both in Armies and Garrisons It is as hard a thing to maintain even in your godly people a sound understanding a tender consciences a lively gracious heavenly frame of spirit and an upright life in a way of war and contention as to keep your candle lighted in the greatest Storms or under the waters The like I may say of perverse and fierce Disputings about Baptism and the Circumstantials of Discipline or other Questions that are far from the foundation they oftener lose the Truth then finde it A Synod is as likely and lawful a means as any for such decisions and yet Nazianzen saith Se hactenus non vidisse ullius Synodi utilem 〈…〉 aut in quâ res male se habentes non magis exacerbaâ—â— quam 〈◊〉 fuerint With the vulgar he seems to be the Conqueror that hath the last word or at lest he that hath the most plausible deportment the most affecting tone the most earnest and confident expressions the most probable arguments rather then he that hath the most naked demonstrations He takes with them most that speaks for the Opinion which they like and are inclined to though he speak Non-sense and he that is most familiar with them and hath the best opportunities and advantages to prevail especially he that hath the greatest interest in their affections so that a disputation before the vulgar even of the godly is as likely a means to corrupt them as to cure them usually the most erroneous seducers will carry out their Cause with as good a face as fluent a tongue as great contempt and reproach of their opposers and as much confidence that the truth is on their side as if it were so indeed Paraeus his Master taught him that Certo certius in qualibet minutissima panis portione vere substantialiter integrum corpus Christi esset item in apud cum sub minutissima vini guttula adesset integer sanguis dominicus what confidence was here in a bad cause And if you depend on the most reverend and best esteemed Teachers and suffer the weight of their reputation to turn the Scales you may in many things be never the neerer to the Truth How many learned able men hath the name and authority of Luther mislead in the point of consubstantiation Vrsine was caried away with it a while till he was turned
dare search no further for fear of being counted a Novellist or Heretick or lest he bear their curse for adding to or taking from the common conceits So that Divinity is become an easier study then heretofore We are already at a Neplus ultra It seemeth vain when we know the opinions in credit to search any further We have then nothing to do but easily to study for popular Sermons nor is it safe so much as to make them our own by looking into and examining their grounds lest in so doing we should be forced to a dissent So that Scholars may easily be drawn to think that it is better to be at a venture of the common belief which may be with ease then to weary and spend themselves in tedious studies when they are sure beforehand of no better reward from men then the reputation of Hereticks Which is the lot of all that go out of the common rode So that who will hereafter look after any more truth then is known and in credit except it be some one that is so taken with admiration of it as to cast all his reputation overboard rather then make shipwrack of his self-prized Merchandize Yet most wonderful is it that my Christian especially so many godly Ministers should arrogate to themselves the high prerogatives of God! viz. to be the Rule and Standard of Truth I know they will say that Scripture is the Rule but when they must be the peremtory Judges of the sense of that Scripture so that in the hardest controversies none must swarve from their sense upon pain of being branded with Heresie or error what is this but to be the Judges themselves and Scripture but their servant The final ful decisive interpretation of Lawes belongeth to none but the Lawmakers themselves For who can know another mans meaning beyond his expressions but himself And yet it increaseth my wondering that these Divines have not forgotten the late arrogancy of the prelates in the same kinde under which some few of themselves did suffer Nor yet how constantly our Divines that write against the Papists do disclaim any such living final decisive Judge of controvesies but make Scripture the only Judg O what mischief hath the Church of Christ suffered by the enlarging of her Creed While it contained but twelve Articles believers were plain and peaceable and honest But a Christian now is not the samâ— thing as then Our heads shall swell so big like children that have the rickets that all the body fares the worse for it Every new Article that was added to the Creed was a new engine to stretch the brains of believers and in the issue to â—end out the bowels of the Church It never went so well with the Church since it begun as Erasmus saith of the times of the Nicene counsel reâ— ingâ—niosam fore Christianum esse to be a matter of so much wit and cunning to be a Christian. Not but that all our wit should be here imployed and controversies of difficulty may be debated but when the decision of these must be put into our Creed and a man must be of the faith that the Church is of it goes hard Me thinks I could read Aquinas or Scotus or Bellarmine with profit ut Philosophiam et Theologiam liberam but when I most make them all parts of my Creed and subscribe to all they say or else be no Catholick this is hard dealing I know now we have no Spanish inquisition to fire us from the truth But as Crynâ—us was wont to say Fontifici Romano Erasmum plus nocuiss◠〈◊〉 quam Lutherum stomachando so some mens reproaches may do more then other mens persecutions And it is not the least aggravation of these mens arrogancie that they are most violent in the points that they have least studyed or which they are most ignorant in Yea and that their cruel reproaches are usually so incessant that where they once fasten they scarce â—ver loose again having learned the old lesson to be sure to accuse boldly for the scarre will remain when the wound is healed Yea some will not spare the same of the dead but when their souls have the happiness of Saints with God their names must have the stain of Heresie with men More ingenuity had Charles the Emperor when the Spanish souldiers would have digged up the bones of Luther Sinite ipsum inquit quiescere ad diem resurrectionis et judicium omnium c. Let him rest saith he till the resurrection and the final Judgment if he were a Heretick he shall have as severe a Judg as you can desire These are the extreams which poor England groaneth under And is there no remedy Besides the God of Peace there is no remedy Peace is fled from mens Principles and Judgments and therefore it is a stranger to their Affections and practises no wonder then if it be a stranger in the Land both in Church and State If either of the forementioned extreams be the way to Peace we may have it or else where is the man that seeketh after it But I remember Luthers Oracle and fear it is now to be verified Hâ—c perdent Religionem Christianam 1. Oblivio beneficiorum ab Evangelio acceptorum 2. Securitas quae jam passim ubique regnat 3. Sapientia mundi quae vult omnia redigere in ordinem impiis mediis Ecclesiae paci consulere Three things will destroy the Christian Religion First Forgetfulness of the benefits we received by the Gospel Secondly Security Thirdly The wisdom of the world which will needs reduce all into Order and look to the Churches peace by ungodly means The zeal of my spirit after Peace hath made me digress here further then I intended But the sum and scope of all my speech is this Let every conscionable Minister study equally for Peace and Truth as knowing that they dwell both together in the golden mean and not at such a distance as most Hotspurs do imagine and let them believe that they are like to see no more success of their labors then they are so studious of Peace and that all wounds will let out both blood and spirits and both Truth and Godliness is ready to run out at every breach that shall be made among the people or themselves and that the time for the Pastures of Profession to be green and for the Field of true Godliness to grow ripe for the Harvest and for the Rose of Devotion and Heavenliness to be fragrant and flourish it is not in the blustering stormy tempestuous Winter but in the calm delightful Summer of Peace O what abundance of excellent hopeful fruits of Godliness have I seen blown down before they were ripe by the impetuous windes of wars and other contentions and so have layen troden under foot by Libertinism and sensuality as meat for Swine who else might have been their Masters deligh In a word I never yet saw the Work of the Gospel
chiefly pressed those Duties which must be used for the attainment of this Everlasting Rest. In this I shall chiefly handle those which are necessary to raise the heart to God and to our Heavenly and comfortable life on Earth It is a Truth too evident which an inconsiderate Zealot reprehended in Master CULVERWELL as an Error That many of Gods Children do not enjoy that sweet Life and blessed Estate in this World which God their Father hath provided for them That is Which he offereth them in his Promises and chargeth upon them as their duty in his Precepts and bringeth even to their hands in all his Means and Mercies God hath set open Heaven to us in his Word and told every humble sincere Christian That they shall shortly there live with himself in unconceiveable Glory and yet where is the person that is affected with this Promise whose heart leaps for joy at the hearing of the news or that is willing in hopes of Heaven to leave this World But even the godly have as strange unsavory thoughts of it as if God did but delude us and there were no such Glory and are almost as loath to die as men without hope The consideration of this strange disagreement between our Professions and Affections caused me to suspect that there was some secret lurking unbelief in all our hearts and therefore I wrote those Arguments in the second Part for the Divine Authority of the Scripture And because I finde another cause to be the carelesness forgetfulness and idleness of the Soul and not keeping in action that Faith which we have I have here attempted the removal of that cause by prescribing a course for the daily acting of those Graces which must fetch in the Celestial Delights into the heart O the Princely joyful blessed Life that the godly lose through meer idleness As the Papists have wronged the merits of Christ by their ascribing too much to our own Works so it is almost incredible how much they on the other extream have wronged the safety and consolation of mens Souls by telling them that their own endevors are onely for Obedience and Gratitude but are not so much as Conditions of their Salvation or Means of their increased Sanctification or Consolation And while some tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves for Acceptation with God or Comfort and so make that Acceptance and Comfort to be equally belonging to a Christian and a Turk And others tell them That they must look at nothing in themselves but onely as signes of their good Estate This hath caused some to expect onely Enthusiastick Consâ—lations and others to spend their days in enquiring after signes of their sincerity Had these poor Souls well understood that Gods way to perswade their wills and to excite and actuate their Affections is by the Discourse Reasoning or Consideration of their Vnderstandings upon the Nature and Qualifications of the Objects which are presented to them And had they bestowed but that time in exercising holy Affections and in serious Thoughts of the promised Happiness which they have spent in enquiring onely after Signes I am confident according to the ordinary Workings of God they would have been better provided both with Assurance and with Joyes How should the Heir of a Kingdom have the comfort of his Title but by fore-thinking on it It s true God must give us our Comforts by his Spirit But how by quickening up our souls to beleeve and consider of the promised Glory and not by comforting us we know not how nor why or by giving men the foretasts of Heaven when they never think of it I have here prescribed thee Reader the delightfullest task to the Spirit and the most tedâ—ous to the Flesh that ever men on Earth were imployed in I did it first onely for my self but am loath to conceal the means that I have found so consolaâ—ory If thou be one that wilt not be perswaded to a course so laborious but wilt onely go on in thy task of common formal duties thou mayest let it alone and so be destitute of delights except such as the World and thy Forms can afford thee but then do not for shame complain for want of comfort when thou dost wilfully reject it And be not such an Hypocrite as to pray for it while thou dost refuse to labor for it If thou say Thy comfort is all in Christ I must tell thee it is a Christ remembred and loved and not a Christ forgotten or onely talked of that will solidly comfort Though the Directory for Contemplation was onely intended for this Part yet I have now premised two other Uses The heart must be taken off from Resting on Earth before it will be fit to converse above The first Part of saving Religion is the taking God onely for our End and Rest. CHAP. I. USE VI. Reproving our Expectations of Rest on Earth SECT I. DOth this Rest remain How great then is our sin and folly to seek and expect it here Where shall we finde the Christian that deserves not this Reproof Surely we may all cry guilty to this accusation We know not how to enjoy convenient Houses Goods Lands and Revenues but we seek Rest in these enjoyments We seldom I fear have such sweet and heart contenting thoughts of God and Glory as we have of our earthly delights How much Rest do the voluptuous seek in Buildings Walks Apparel Ease Recreations Sleep pleasing Meats and Drinks merry Company Health and Strength and long Life Nay we can scarce enjoy the necessary Means that God hath appointed for our Spiritual good but we are seeking Rest in them Do we want Minister Godly Society or the like helps O think we if it were but thus and thus with us we were well Do we enjoy them O how we settle upon them and bless our selves in them as the rich fool in his wealth Our Books our Preachers Sermons Friends Abilities for Duty do not our hearts hug them and quiet themselves in them even more then in God Indeed in words we disclaim it and God hath usually the preheminence in our tongues and professions but it s too apparent that it s otherwise in our hearts by these Discoveries First Do we not desire these more violently when we want them then we do the Lord himself Do we not cry out more sensibly O my Friend my Goods my Health then O my God! Do we not miss Ministry and Means more passionately then we miss our God Do we not bestir our selves more to obtain and enjoy these then we do to recover our communion with God Secondly Do we not delight more in the Possession of these then we do in the fruition of God himself Nay be not those mercies and duties most pleasant to us wherein we stand at greatest distance from God We can read and study and confer preach and hear day after day without much weariness because in these we have to do with
dark and our faith in him exceeding feeble so is our love to him but little and therefore are our desires after him so dull SECT IV. 3. IT appears we are little weary of sinning when we are so unwilling to be freed by dying Did we take sin for the greatest evil we should not be willing of its company so long did we look on sin as our cruellest enemy and on a sinful life as the most miserable life sure we should then be more willing of a change But O how far are our hearts from our doctrinal profession in this point also We preach and write and talk against sin and call it all that naught is and when we are called to leave it we are loth to depart We brand it with the most odious names that we can imagine and all far short of expressing its vileness but when the approach of death puts us to the tryal we chuse a continuance with these abominations before the presence and fruition of God But as Nemon smote his Souldier for railing against Alexander his enemy saying I hired thee to fight against him and not to rail against him So may God smite us also when he shall hear our tongues reviling that sin which we resist so slothfully and part with so unwillingly Christians seeing we are conscious that our hearts deserve a smiting for this let us joyn together to chide and smite our own hearts before God do judg and smite them O foolish sinful heart Hast thou been so long a sink of sin a cage of all unclean lusts a fountain uncessantly streaming forth the bitter and deadly waters of transgression and art thou not yet aweary Wretched Soul hast thou been so long wounded in all thy faculties so grievously languishing in all thy performances so fruitful a soyl for all iniquities and art thou not yet more weary Hast thou not yet transgressed long enough nor long enough provoked thy Lord nor long enough abused love wouldst thou yet grieve the Spirit more and sin against thy Saviours blood and more increase thine own wounds and still lie under thy grievous imperfections Hath thy sin proved so profit able a commodity so necessary a companion such a delightful employment that thou dost so much dread the parting day Hath thy Lord deserved this at thy hands that thou shouldst chuse to continue in the Suburbs of â—ell rather then live with him in light and rather stay and drudg in sin and abide with his and thy own professed enemy then come away and dwell with God May not God justly grant thee thy wishes and seal thee a lease of thy desired distance and nail thy ear to these doors of misery and exclude thee eternally from his glory Foolish sinner who hath wronged thee God or sin who hath wounded thee and caused thy groans who hath made thy life so woful and caused thee to spend thy days in dolor is it Christ or is it thy corruption and art thou yet so loth to think of parting shall God be willing to dwell with man and the Spirit to abide in thy peevish heart and that where sin doth straiten his room and a cursed inmate inhabit with him which is ever quarrelling and contriving against him and shall man be loth to come to God where is nothing but perfect Blessedness and Glory Is not this to judg our selves unworthy of everlasting Life If they in Acts 13.46 who put the Gospel from them did judg themselves unworthy do not we who flie from life and glory SECT V. 4. IT shews that we are insensible of the vanity of the Creature and of the vexation accompanying our residence here when we are so loth to hear or think of a removal VVhat ever we say against the world or how grievous soever our complaints may seem we either beleeve not or feel not what we say or else we should be answerably affected to it VVe call the world our enemy and cry out of the oppression of our Task-masters and groan under our sore bondage but either we speak not as we think or else we imagine some singular happiness to consist in the possession of worldly things for which all this should be endured Is any man loth to leave his prison or to remove his dwelling from cruel enemies or to scape the hands of murderous robbers Do we take the world indeed for our prison our cruel spoyling murderous foe and yet are we loth to leave it Do we take this flesh for the clog of our spirits and a vail that 's drawn betwixt us and God and a continual in dwelling traitor to our souls and yet are we loth to lay it down Indeed Peter was smitten by the Angel before he arose and left his prison but it was more from his ignorance of his intended deliverance then any unwillingness to leave the place I have read of Josephs long imprisonment and Daniels casting into the Den of Lyons and Jeremies sticking fast in the Dungeon and Jonahs lying in the belly of the VVhale and David from the deep crying to God but I remember not that any were loth to be delivered I have read indeed That they suffered cheerfully and rejoyced in being afflicted destitute and tormented yea and that some of them would not accept of deliverance But not from any love to the suffering or any unwillingness to change their condition but because of the hard terms of their deliverance and from the hope they had of a better resurrection Though Paul and Sylas could sing in the stocks and comfortably bear their cruel scourgings yet I do not beleeve they were unwilling to go forth nor took it ill when God relieved them At foolish wretched soul Doth every prisoner groan for freedom and every Slave desire his Jubilee and every sick man long for health and every hungry man for food and dost thou alone abhor deliverance Doth the Seamen long to see the Land doth the Husbandman desire the Harvest and the laboring man to receive his pay doth the traveller long to be at home and the runner long to win the prize and the Souldier long to win the field And art thou loth to see thy labors finished and to receive the end of thy Faith and sufferings and to obtain the thing for which thou livest Are all thy sufferings onely seeming have thy gripes thy griefs and groans been onely dreams if they were yet methinks we should not be afraid of waking Fearful dreams are not delightful Or is it not rather the worlds delights that are all meer dreams and shadows Is not all its glory as the light of a Glow-worm a wandering fire yielding but small directing light and as little comforting heat in all our doubtful and sorrowful darkness or hath the world In these its latter days laid aside its ancient enmity Is it become of late more kinde hath it left its thorny renting nature who hath wrought this great change and who
great deal of fervor in Affections and Duties and all prove but common and unsound when it is raised upon common Grounds and motives your zeal will partake of the nature of those things by which it is acted The zeal therefore which is kindled by your meditations on Heaven is most like to prove a heavenly zeal and the liveliness of the Spirit which you fetch from the face of God must needs be the Divinest and sincerest life Some mens fervency is drawn onely from their Books and some from the pricks of some stinging affliction and some from the mouth of a moving Minister and some from the encouragement of an attentive Auditory but he that knows this way to heaven and it derives it daily from the pure Fountain shall have his soul revived with the water of Life and enjoy that quickning which is the Saints peculiar By this Faith thou maist offer Abels Sacrifice more excellent then that of common men and by it obtain winess that thou art righteous God testifying of thy gifts that they are sincere Heb. 11.4 when others are ready as Baals Priests to beat themselves and cut their flesh because their sacrifice will not burn then if thou canst get but the spirit of Elias and in the chariot of Contemplation canst soar aloft till thou approachest neer to the quickning Spirit thy soul and sacrifice will gloriously flame though the flesh and the world should cast upon them the water of all their opposing enmity Say not now How shall we get so high or how can mortals ascend to heaven For Faith hath wings and Meditation is its chariot Its office is to make absent things as present Do you not see how a little piece of Glass if it do but rightly face the Sun will so contract its beames and heat as to set on fire that which is behinde it which without it would have received but little warmth Why thy Faith is as the Burning-glass to thy Sacrifice and Meditation sets it to face the Sun onely take it not away too soon but hold it there awhile and thy soul will feel the happy effect The slanderous Jews did raise a foolish tale of Christ that he got into the Holy of Holies and thence stole the true name of God and lest he should lose it cut a hole in his thigh and sewed it therein and by the vertue of this he raised the dead gave sight to the blinde cast out divels and performed all his Miracles Surely if we can get into the Holy of Holies and bring thence the Name and Image of God and get it closed up in our hearts this would enable us to work wonders every duty we performed would be a wonder and they that heard would be ready to say Never man spake as this man speaketh The Spirit would possess us as those flaming tongues and make us every one to speak not in the variety of the confounded Languagues but in the primitive pure Language of Canaan the wonderful Works of God We should then be in every duty whether Prayer Exhortation or brotherly reproof as Paul was at Athens his Spirit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 was stirred within him and should be ready to say as Jeremy did Jer. 20.9 His word was in my heart as a burning fire shut up in my bones and I was weary with forbearing and I could not stay Christian Reader Art thou not thinking when thou seest a lively beleever and hearest his soul-melting Prayers and soul-ravishing discourse O how happy a man is this O that my soul were in this blessed plight Why I here direct and advise thee from God Try this forementioned course and set thy soul conscionably to this work and thou shalt be in as good a case Wash thee frequently in this Jordan and thy Leprous dead soul will revive and thou shalt know that there is a God in Israel and that thou mayst live a vigorous and joyous life if thou wilfully cast not by this duty and so neglect thine own mercies If thou be not a lazy reserved hypocrite but dost truly value this strong and active frame of Spirit shew it then by thy present attempting this heavenly exercise Say not now but thou hast heard the way to obtain this life into thy soul and into thy duties If thou wilt yet neglect it blame thy self But alas the multitude of Professors come to a Minister just as Naaman came to Elias they ask us How shall I know I am a childe of God How shall I overcome a hard heart and get such strength and life of Grace But they expect that some easie means should do it and think we should cure them with the very Answer to their Question and teach them a way to be quickly well but when they hear of a daily trading in Heaven and the constant Meditation on the joyes above This is a greater task then they expected and they turn their backs as Naaman on Elias or the young man on Christ and few of the most conscionable will set upon the duty Will not Preaching and Praying and Conference serve say they without this dweling still in Heaven Just as Countrey people come to Physitians when they have opened their case and made their moan they look he should cure them in a day or two or with the use of some cheap and easie Simple but when they hear of a tedious Method of Physick and of costly Compositions and bitter Potions they will hazard their lives with some sotish Empirick who tells them an easier and cheaper way yea or venture on death it self before they will obey such difficult counsel Too many that we hope well of I fear will take this course here If we could give them life as God did with a word or could heal their souls as Charmers do their bodies with easie stroaking and a few good words then they would readily hear and obey I entreat thee Reader beware of this folly fall to the work the comfort of Spiritual Health will countervail all the trouble of the Duty It is but the flesh that repines and gain-sayes which thou knowest was never a friend to thy soul If God had set thee on some grievous work shouldst thou not have done it for the life of thy soul How much more when he doth but invite thee Heaven-ward to himself SECT VIII 6. COnsider The frequent believing views of Glory are the most precious cordial in all Afflictions First To sustain our spirits and make our sufferings far more easie Secondly To stay us from repining and make us bear with patience and joy And thirdly to strengthen our resolutions that we forsake not Christ for fear of trouble Our very Beast will carry us more chearfully in travel when he is coming homeward where he expecteth Rest. A man will more quietly endure the lancing of his sores the cutting out the Stone when he thinks on the ease that will afterwards follow What then will not a beleever endure when
will not let us have our wils Sirs believe it this is the great reason of our mistakes impatience and censuring of God of our sadness of spirit at sickness and at death because we gaze on the evill it self but fix not our thoughts on what 's beyond it We look only on the blood and ruine and danger in our wars but God sees these with all the benefits to Souls Bodies Church State and Posterity all with one single view We see the Ark taken by the Philistines but see not their god falling before it and themselves returning it home with gifts They that saw Christ only on the Cross or in the Grave do shake their heads and think him lost but God saw him dying buryed rising glorified and all this with one view Surely faith will imitate God in this so far as it hath the glass of a promise to help it He that sees Joseph only in the pit or in the prison will more lament his case then he that sees his dignity beyond it Could old Jacob have seen so far it might have saved him a great deal of sorrow He that sees no more then the burying of the Corn under ground or the threshing the winnowing and grinding of it will take both it and the labour for lost but he that foresees its springing and increase and its making into bread for the life of man will think otherwise This is our mistake we see God burying us under ground but we foresee not the spring when we shall all revive we feel him threshing and winnowing and grinding us but we see not when we shall be served to our Masters table If we should but clearly see Heaven as the end of all Gods dealings with us surely none of his dealings could be so grievous Think of this I intreat thee Reader If thou canst but learn this way to Heaven and get thy soul acquainted there thou needest not be unfurnished of the choisest Cordials to revive thy spirits in every affliction thou knowest where to have them when ever thou wantest thou mayst have arguments at hand to answer all that the devil or flesh can say to thy discomfort Oh if God would once raise us to this life we should finde that though heaven and sin are at a great distance yet heaven and a prison or remotest banishment heaven and the belly of a Whale in the Sea heaven and a Den of Lions a consuming sickness or invading death are at no such distance But as Abraham so far off saw Christs day and rejoyced so we in our most forlorn estate might see that day when Christ shall give us Rest and therein rejoyce I beseech thee Christian for the honor of the Gospel and for the comfort of thy soul that thou be not to learn this heavenly Art when in thy greatest extremity thou hast most need to use it I know thou expectest suffering dayes at least thou lookest to be sick and dye thou wilt then have exceeding need of consolation why whence dost thou think to draw thy comforts If thou broach every other vessel none will come its only heaven that can afford thee store the place is far off the well is deep and if then thou have not wherewith to draw nor hast got thy soul acquainted with the place thou wilt finde thy self at a fearfull loss It s not an easie nor a common thing even with the best sort of men to die with Joy As ever thou wouldst shut up thy dayes in peace and close thy dying eyes with comfort dye daily live now above be much with Christ and thy own soul and the Saints about thee shall bless the day that ever thou tookst this Councell When God shall call thee to a sick bed and a grave thou shalt perceive him saying to thee as Isa. 26.20 Come my people enter into thy Chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast It s he that with Stephen doth see heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God who will comfortably bear the storm of stones Acts 7.56 Thou knowest not yet what tryals thou mayst be called to The Clouds begin to rise again and the times to threaten us with fearfull darkness Few Ages so prosperous to the Church but that still we must be saved so as by fire 1 Cor. 3.15 and go to heaven by the old road Men that would fall if the storm should shake them do frequently meet with that which tryes them Why what wilt thou do if this should be thy case Art thou fitted to suffer imprisonment or banishment to bear the loss of goods and life How is it possible thou shouldst do this and do it cordially and chearfully except thou hast a tast of some greater good which thou lookest to gain by losing these will the Merchant throw his goods overboard till he sees he must otherwise lose his life And wilt thou cast away all thou hast before thou hast felt the sweetness of that Rest which else thou must lose by saving these Nay and it is not a speculative knowledg which thou hast got onely by Reading or Hearing of heaven which will make thee part with all to get it as a man that onely heares of the sweetness of pleasant food or reads of the melodious sounds of Musick this doth not much excite his desires but when he hath tried the one by his taste and the other by his ear then he will more lay out to get them so if thou shouldst know onely by the hearing of the ear what is the glory of the inheritance of the Saints this would not bring thee through sufferings and death but if thou take this Trying tasting course by daily exercising thy soul above then nothing will stand in thy way but thou wouldest on till thou were there though through fire and water What State more terrible then that of an Apostate when God hath told us If any man draw back his soul shall have no pleasure in him Heb. 10.38 Because they take not their pleasure in God and fill not themselves with the delights of his wayes and of his heavenly paths which drop fatness Psal. 65.11 Therefore do they prove backsliders in heart and are filled with the bitterness of their own wayes Prov. 14.14 Nay If they should not be brought to trial and so not actually deny Christ yet they are still interpretatively such because they are such in disposition and would be such in action if they were put to it I assure thee Reader for my part I cannot see how thou wilt be able to hold out to the end if thou keep not thine eye upon the recompence of reward and use not frequently to taste this cordially or the less thy diligence is in this the more doubtful must thy perseverance needs be for the Joy of the Lord is thy strength and that Joy must he fetcht from the place of thy Joy and if
you were but banished into a strange Land how frequent thoughts would you have of home how oft would you think of your old companions which way ever you went or what company soever you came in you would still have your hearts and desires there you would even dream in the night that you were at home that you saw your Father or Mother or Friends that you were talking with Wife or Children or Neighbors And why is it not thus with us in respect of Heaven Is not that more truly and properly our home where we must take up our everlasting abode then this which we are looking every hour when we are separated from and shall see it no more VVe are strangers and that is our Countrey Heb. 11 14 15. VVe are heirs and that is our Inheritance even an Inheritance incorruptible and undefiled that fadeth not away reserved in Heaven for us 1 Pet. 1.4 VVe are here in continual distress and want and there lies our substance even that better and more enduring substance Heb. 10.34 VVe are here fain to be beholden to others and there lies our own perpetual Treasure Matth. 6.20 21. Yea the very Hope of our souls is there all our hope of relief from our distresses all our hope of happiness when we are here miserable all this hope is laid up for us in Heaven whereof we hear in the true VVord of the Gospel Col. 1.5 VVhy beloved Christians have we so much interest and so seldom thoughts have we so near relation and so little affection are we not ashamed of this Doth it become us to be delighted in the company of strangers so as to forget our Father and our Lord or to be so well pleased with those that hate and grieve us as to forget our best and dearest friends or to be so besotted with borrowed trifles as to forget our own possession and treasure or to be so taken up with a strange place as not once a day to look toward home or to fall so in love with tears and wants as to forget our eternal Joy and Rest Christians I pray you think whether this become us or whether this be the part of a wife or thankful man why here thou art like to other men as the heir under age who differs not from a servant but there it is that thou shalt be promoted and fully estated in all that was promised Surely God useth to plead his propriety in us and from thence to conclude to do us good even because we are his own people whom he hath chosen out of all the world And why then do we not plead our interest in him and thence fetch Arguments to raise up our hearts even because he is our own God and because the place is our own possession Men use in other things to over-love and over-value their own and too much to minde their own things O that we could minde our own inheritance and value it but half as it doth deserve SECT XIIII 12. LAstly consider There is nothing else that 's worth the seting our hearts on If God have them not who or what shall have them if thou minde not thy Rest what wilt thou minde As the Disciples said of Christ John 4.32 33. hath any man given him meat to eat that we know not of So say I to thee Hast thou found out some other God or Heaven that we know not of or something that will serve thee in stead of Rest Hast thou found on Earth an Eternal happiness where is it and what is it made of or who was the man that found it out or who was he that last enjoyed it where dwelt he and what was his name or art thou the first that hast found this treasure and that ever discovered Heaven on Earth Ah wretch trust not to thy discoveries boast not of thy gain till experience bid thee boast or rather take up with the experience of thy forefathers who are now in the dust and deprived of all though sometime they were as lusty and jovial as thou I would not advise thee to make experiments at so dear rates as all those do that seek after happiness below least when the substance is lost thou finde too late that thou didst catch but at a shadow least thou be like those men that will needs search out the Philosophers stone though none could effect it that went before them and so buy their experience with the loss of their own estates and time which they might have had at a cheaper rate if they would have taken up with the experience of their Predecessors So I would wish thee not to disquiet thy self in looking for that which is not on Earth least thou learn thy experience with the loss of thy soul◠which thou mightest have learned at easier terms even by the warnings of God in his VVord and loss of thousands of souls before thee It would pity a man to see that men will not beleeve God in this till they have lost their labor and Heaven and all Nay that many Christians who have taken Heaven for their resting place do lose so many thoughts needlesly on Earth and care not how much they oppress their spirits which should be kept nimble and free for higher things As Luther said to Melancthon when he over-pressed himself with the labors of his Ministery so may I much more say to thee who oppressest thy self with the cares of the world Vellem te adhuc decies plus obrui Adeo me nihil tui miseret qui toties monitus ne onerares teipsum tot oneribus nihil audis omnia benè monita contemnis Erit cum sero stultum tuum hunc zelum frustra damnabis quo jam ardes solus omnia portare quasi ferrum aut saxum sis it were no matter if thou wert oppressed ten times more so little do I pity thee who being so often warned that thou shouldst not load thy self with so many burdens dost no whit regard it but contemnest all these wholsom warnings Thou wilt shortly when it is too late condemn this thy foolish forwardness which makes thee so desirous to bear all this as if thou wert made of Iron or Stone Alas that a Christian should rather delight to have his heart among these thorns and bryars then in the bosom of his crucified glorified Lord Surely if Satan should take thee up to the Mountain of Temptation and shew thee the Kingdoms and glory of the world he could shew thee nothing that 's worthy thy thoughts much less to be preferred before thy Rest. Indeed so far as duty and necessity requires it we must be content to minde the things below but who is he that contains himself within the compass of those limits And yet if we bound our cares and thoughts as diligently as ever we can we shall finde the least to be bitter and burdensom even as the least VVasp hath a sting and the smallest Serpent hath his poyson As
that makes men Hypocrites but their own wickedness Christ will not keep such out among Infidels for fear of making Hypocrites but when the net is drawn unto the shore the fishes shall be separated and when the time of Harvest comes then the Angels shall gather out of his Kingdom all things that offend and them that work iniquity Matth. 13.41 There are many Saints or sanctified men that yet shall never come to heaven who are onely Saints by their separation from Paganism into fellowship with the visible Church but not Saints in the strictest sense by separation from the ungodly into the fellowship of the mystical body of Christ Heb. 10 29. Deut. 7.6 and 14 2 21. and 26.19 and 28.9 Exod. 19.6 1 Cor. 7.13 14. Rom. 11.16 Heb. 3.1 compared with ver 12. 1 Cor. 3.17 and 14.33 1 Cor. 1.2 compared with 11.20 21 c. Gal. 3.26 compared with Gal. 3.3 4. and 4.11 and 5.2 3 4. Joh. 15.2 Thus far I have digressed by way of Caution that you may not think that I disswade you from lawful converse but it is the unnecessary society of ungodly men and too much familiarity with unprofitable companions though they be not so apparently ungodly that I disswade you from There are many persons whom we may not avoid or excommunicate out of the Church no nor out of our private society judicially or by way of penalty to them whom yet we must exclude from our too much familiarity in way of prudence for preservation of our selves It is not onely the open prophane the swearer the drunkard and the enemies of godliness that will prove hurtful companions to us though these indeed are chiefly to be avoided but too frequent society with dead-hearted Formalists or persons meerly civil and moral or whose conference is empty unsavory and barren may much divert our thoughts from heaven and do our selves a great deal of wrong as meer idleness and forgetting God will keep a soul as certainly from Heaven as a profane licentious fleshly life so also will the usuall company of such idle forgetful negligent persons as surely keep our hearts from heaven as the company of men more dissolute and profane Alas our dulness and backwardness is such that we have need of the most constant and powerful helps A clod or a stone that lyes on the earth is as prone to arise and fly in the Air as our hearts are naturally to move toward heaven you need not hold nor hinder the earth and Rocks to keep them from flying up to the skies it is sufficient that you do not help them And surely if our spirits have not great assistance they may easily be kept from flying aloft though they never should meet with the least impediment O think of this in the choice of your company when you spirits are so powerfully disposed for heaven that you need no help to lift them up but as the flames you are alwayes mounting upward and carrying with you all that 's in your way then you may indeed be less careful of our company but till then as you love the delights of a heavenly life be careful herein As it s reported of a Lord that was neer to his death and the Doctor that prayed with him read over the Letany For all women labouring with childe for all sick persons and young children c. From lightning and tempest from plague pestilence and famine from battel murder and sudden death c. Alas saith he what is this to me who must presently dye c. So maist thou say of such mens conference who can talk of nothing but their Callings and vanity Alas what 's this to me who must shortly be in Rest and should now be refreshing my soul with its foretastes what will it advantage thee to a life with God to hear where the Fair is such a day or how the Market goes or what weather is or is like to be or when the Moon changeth or what news is stirring why this is the discourse of earthly men What will it conduce to the raising of thy heart God-ward to hear that this is an able Minister or that an able Christian or that this was an excellent Sermon or that is an excellent book to hear a violent arguing or tedious discourse of Baptism Ceremonies the power of the Keyes the order of Gods Decrees or other such controversies of great difficulty and less importance Yet this for the most part is the sweetest discourse that thou art like to have of a formal speculative dead-hearted Professor Nay if thou hadst newly been warming thy heart in the contemplation of the blessed Joys above would not this discourse benum thine affections and quickly freez thy heart again I appeal to the Judgment of any man that hath tryed it and maketh observations on the frame of his spirit Men cannot well talk of one thing and minde another especially things of such differing natures You young men who are most lyable to this temptation think sadly of what I say Can you have your hearts in Heaven on an Ale-house bench among your roaring singing swaggering companions or when you work in your Shops with none but such whose ordinary language is oaths or filthiness or foolish talking or jesting Nay let me tell you thus much more that if you choose such company when you might have better and finde most delight and content in such you are so far from a Heavenly conversation that as yet you have no title to heaven at all and in that estate shall never come there For were your Treasure there your heart would not be on things so distant Mat. 6.21 In a word our company will be part of our happiness in heaven and its a singular part of our furtherance to it or hinderance from it And as the creatures living in the several Elements are commonly of the temperature of the Element they live in as the fishes cold and moist like the water the worms cold and dry as the earth and so the rest So are we usually like the society which we most converse in He that never found it hard to have a heavenly minde in earthly company it is certainly because he never tryed SECT IIII. 4. A Fourth hinderance to a heavenly conversation is Too frequent disputes about lesser truths and especially when a mans Religion lyes only in his opinions a sure sign of an unsanctified soul. If sad examples be doctrinal to you or the Judgments of God upon us be regarded I need to say the lesse upon this particular It s legibly written in the faces of thousands It is visible in the complexion of our diseased nation This facies Hypocritica is our facies Hipocratica He that hath the least skill in Physiognomy may see that this complexlon is mortal and this picture-like shaddow-like visage affordeth our state a sad prognostick You that have been my companions in Armies and Garrisons in Cities and Countreyes I know have been
my companions in this observation That they are usually men least acquainted with a Heavenly life who are the violent disputers about the circumstantials of Religion He whose Religion is all in his opinions will be most frequently and zealously speaking his opinions And he whose Religion lyes in the Knowledg and love of God in Christ will be most delightfully speaking of that time when he shall enjoy God and Christ. As the body doth languish in consuming fevers when the native heat abates within and an unnatural heat inflaming the external parts succeeds so when the zeal of a Christian doth leave the internals of Religion and fly to ceremonials externals or inferior things the soul must needs consume and languish Yea though you were sure your opinions were true yet when the chiefest of your zeal is turned thither and the chiefest of your conference there laid out the life of grace decays within your hearts are turned from this heavenly life Not that I would perswade you to undervalue the least truth of God nor that I do acknowledg the hot disputers of the times to have discovered the truth above their Brethren but in case we should grant them to have hit on the Truth yet let every Truth in our thoughts and speeches have their due proportion and I am confident the hundreth part of our time and our conference would not be spent upon the now common Theams For as there is an hundred truths of far greater consequence which do all challenge the precedencie before these so many of those Truths alone are of an hundred times neerer concernment to our souls and therefore should have an answerable proportion in our thoughts Neither is it any excuse for our casting by these great fundamental Truths because they are common and known already For the chief improvment is yet behind and the soul must be daily refreshed with the Truth of Scripture and the goodness of that which it offereth and promiseth as the body must be with its daily food or else the known Truths that lye Idle in your Heads will no more nourish or comfort or save you then the bread that lies still in your Cupboards will feed you Ah he is a rare and pretious Christian who is skilled in the improving of well known truths Therefore let me advise you that aspire after this Joyous Life spend not too much of your thoughts your time your zeal or your speeches upon quarrels that less concern your souls But when hypocrits are feeding on huskes or shels or on this heated food which will burn their lips far sooner then warm and strengthen their hearts then do you feed on the Joys above I could wish you were all understanding men able to defend every truth of God and to this end that you would read and study controversie more and your understanding and stability in these dayes of tryal is no small part of my comfort and encouragment But still I would have the chiefest to be chiefly studyed and none to shoulder out your thoughts of Eternity The least controverted points are usually most weighty and of most necessary frequent use to our souls For you my neighbors and friends in Christ I bless God that I have so little need to urge this hard upon you or to spend my time and speeches in the Pulpit on these quarrels as I have been necessitated to my discontent for to do elsewhere I rejoyce in the wisdome and goodness of our Lord who hath saved me much of this labor 1. Partly by his tempering of your spirits to sincerity 2. Partly by the doleful yet profitable example of those few that went out from us whose former and present condition of spirit makes them stand as the pillar of Salt for a continual terror and warning to you and so to be as useful as they were like to be hurtful 3. Partly by the confessions and bewailings of this sin that you have heard from the mouth of the Dying advising you to beware of changing your fruitful society for the company of deceivers I do unfeignedly rejoyce in these providences and bless the Lord who thus establisheth his Saints Study well those precepts of the Spirit Rom. 14.1 Him that is weak in the faith receive but not to doubtful disputations 2 Tim. 2.23 But foolish and unlearned questions avoid knowing that they do gender strifes And the servant of the Lord must not strive Tit. 3.9 But avoid foolish questions and genealogies and contentions and strivings about the Law for they are unprofitable and vain 1 Tim. 6.3 4 5. If any man teach otherwise and consent not to wholesome words even the words of our Lord Jesus Christ and to the doctrine which is according to godliness he is proud knowing nothing but doting about questions and strifes of words whereof cometh envy strife railing evil surmisings perverse disputings of men of corrupt minds and destitute of the truth supposing that gain is godliness From such withdraw thy self SECT V. 5. AS you value the comforts of a heavenly Life take heed of a proud and lofty spirit There is such an Antipathy between this sin and God that thou wilt never get thy heart neer him nor get him neer thy heart as long as this prevaileth in it If it cast the Angels from heaven that were in it it must needs keep thy heart estranged from it If it cast our first parents out of Paradise and separated between the Lord and us and brought his curse on all the creatures here below it must needs then keep our hearts from Paradise and increase the cursed seperation from our God Believe it hearers a proud heart and a Heavenly heart are exceeding contrary Entercourse with God will keep men low and that lowliness will further their entercourse when a man is used to be much with God and taken up in the study of his glorious attributes he abhors himself in dust and ashes and that self-abhorrance is his best preparative to obtain admittance to God again Therefore after a soul-humbling day or in times of trouble when the soul is lowest it useth to have freest access to God and savour most of the life above He will bring them into the wilderness and there he will speak comfortably to them Hos. 2.14 The delight of God is in a humble soul even him that is contrite and trembleth at his word and the delight of a Humble soul is in God and sure where there is mutual delight there will be freest admittance and heartiest welcome and most frequent converse Heaven would not hold God and the proud Angels together but a humble soul he makes his dwelling and surely if our dwelling be with him and in him and his dwelling also be with us and in us there must needs be a most neer and sweet familiarity But the soul that is proud cannot plead this priviledg God is so far from dwelling in it that he will not admit it to any neer access
and the Spirit will help me to suck them from the brests of the promise and to walk for them daily to the face of God It was an established Law among the Argi That if a man were perceived to be idle and lazy he must give an account before the Magistrate how he came by his victuals and maintenance And sure when I see these men lazy in the use of Gods appointed means for comfort I cannot but question how they come by their comforts I would they would examine it throughly themselves for God will require an account of it from them Idleness and not improving the Truth in painful duty is the common cause of mens seeking comfort from Error even as the people of Israel when they had no comfortable answer from God because of their own sin and neglect would run to seek it from the Idols of the Heathens So when men-were falshearted to the Truth and the Spirit of Truth did deny them comfort because they denied him sincere obedience therefore they will seek it from a lying spirit A multitude also of professors there are that come and enquire for Marks and signs How shall I know whether my heart be sincere and they think the bare naming of some mark is enough to discover but never bestow one hour in trying themselves by the marks they hear So here they ask for directions for a Heavenly Life and if the hearing and knowing of these directions will serve then they will be heavenly Christians But if we set them to task and shew them their work and tell them they cannot have these delights on easier tearmes then here they leave us as the young man left Christ with sorrow How our comforts are only in Christ and yet this labor of ours is necessary thereto I have shewed you already in the beginning of this book and therefore still refer you thither when any shall put in that objection My advice to such a lazie sinner is this As thou art convict that this work is necessary to thy comfortable living so resolvedly set upon it If thy heart draw back and be undisposed force it on with the command of Reason and if thy Reason begin to dispute the work force it with producing the command of God and quicken it up with the consideration of thy necessity and the other Motives before propounded And let the enforcements that brought thee to the work be still in thy minde to quicken thee in it Do not let such an incomparable treasure lye before thee while thou lyest still with thy hand in thy bosom Let not thy life be a continual vexation which might be a continual delightful feasting and all because thou wilt not be at the pains When thou hast once tasted of the sweetness of it and a little used thy heart to the work thou wilt finde the pains thou takest which thy backward flesh abundantly recompensed in the pleasures of thy spirit Only â—it not still with a disconsolate spirit while comforts grow before thine eyes like a man in the midst of a Garden of Flowers or delightful Medow that will not rise to get them that he may partake of their sweetness Neither is it a few formal lazy running thoughts that will fetch thee this consolation from above No more then a few lazy formal words will prevail with God in stead of fervent prayer I know Christ is the fountain and I know this as every other gift is of God But yet if thou ask my advice How to obtain these waters of consolation I must tell thee There is something also for thee to do The Gospel hath its conditions and work though not such impossible ones as the Law Christ hath his yoak and his burden though easie and thou must come to him weary and take it up or thou wilt never finde Rest to thy soul. The well is deep and thou must get forth this water before thou canst be refreshed and delighted with it What answer would you give a man that stands by a Pump or draw-Well and should ask you How shall I do to get out the water Why you must draw it up or labor at the Pump and that not a motion or two but you must pump till it comes and then hold on till you have enough Or if a man were lifting at a heavy weight or would move a stone to the top of a mountain and should ask you How he should get it up Why what would you say but that he must put to his hands and put forth his strength And what else can I say to you in directâ—ing you to this Art of a Heavenly Life but this You must deal roundly with your hearts and drive them up and spur them on and follow them close till the work be done as a man will do a lazy unfaithful servant who will do nothing longer then your eye is on him or as you will your horse or ox at his labor who will not stir any longer then he is driven And if your heart lye down in the midst of the work force it up again till the work be done and let it not prevaile by its lazy polâ—â—es I know so far as you are spiritual you need not all this striving and violence but that is but in part and in part you are carnal and as long as it is so there is no talk of ease Though your renewed 〈◊〉 do delight in this work yea no delight on earth so great 〈…〉 so far as it is freshly and unrenewed will draw back and rest and necessitate your industry It was the Parthians custome the none must give their children any meat in the morning before thâ— saw the sweat on their faces with some labor And you shall finde this to be Gods most usual course not to give his children the tastes of his delights till they begin to sweat in seeking after them Therefore lay them both together and judg whether a heavenly 〈◊〉 or thy carnal ease be better and as a wise man make thy choice accordingly Yet this let me say to encourage thee Thou needâ—st not expend thy thoughts more then thou now dost it is but only to employ them better I press thee not to busie thy minde much more then thou dost but to busie it upon better and more pleasant objects As Socratâ—s said to a lazy fellow that would fain go up to Olympus but that it was so far off Why saith he walk but as far every day as thou dâ—st up and down about thy house and in so many dayes thou wilt be at Olympus So say I to thee Imploy but so many serious thoughts every day upon the excellent glory of the life to come as thou now imployest on thy necessary affairs in the world nay as thou daily losest on vanities and impertinencies and thy heart will be at heaven in a very short sâ—ace To conclude this As I have seldom known Christians perplexed with doubts of their estate for want
of knowing right evidences to try by so much as for want of skil and diligence in using them so have I seldom known a Christian that wants the joyes of this heavenly Life for want of being told the means to get it but for want of a heart to set upon the work and painfully to use the means they are directed to It is the field of the slothful that is overgrown with weeds Pro. 24.30 31 32 33 34. And the desires of the slothful killeth his Joyes because his hands refuse to labor Prov. 21.25 whiles he lyes wishing his soul lyes starving He saith There is a Lyon there 's difficulty in the way and turneth himself on the bed of his ease as a nor turneth on the hinges he bideth his hand in his bosome and it grâ—â—veth him to bring it to his 〈◊〉 though it be â—o feed himself with the food of life Prov. 26â— 13 14 15 16. what 's this bâ—â— espising the feast prepared and setting light by the dearâ—bough pleasures and consequently by the pretious blood that bough them and throwing away our own consolations For the Sâ—rit hath told us That he also that is slothful in his work is broâ—â—â—r to him that is a great waster Prov. 18.9 Apply this to thâ— spiritual Work and study well the meaning of it SECT VII 7. IT s alo a dangerous and secret hinderance to content our selâ—es with the meer preparatives to this heavenly Life while we are â—tter strangers to the life it self when we take up with the meer studies of heavenly things and the notions and thoughts of theâ— in our brain or the talking of them with one another as if this were all that makes us heavenly people Ther 's none in more danger of this snare then those that are much in publike duty especially Preachers of the Gospel O how easily may they be deceived here while they do nothing more then read of heaven and study of heaven and preach of heaven and pray and talk of heaven what is not this the heavenly Life O that God would reveal to our hearts the danger of this snare Alas all this is but meer preparation This is not the life we speak of but it s indeed a necessary help thereto I intreat every one of my Brethren in the Ministry that they search and watch against this Temptation Alas this is but gathering the materials and not the erecting of the building it self this is but gathering our Manna for others and not eating and digesting our selves as he that sits at home may study Geography and draw most exact descriptions of Countreys and yet never see them nor travel toward them so may you describe to others the joyes of heaven and yet never come neer it in your own hearts as a man may tell others of the sweetness of meat which he never tasted or as a blinde man by learning may dispute of light and of colours so may you study and preach most heavenly matter which yâ—â— never sweetned your own spirits and set forth to others that heavenly Light wherewith your own souls were never illightened and bring that fire for the hearts of your people that never once warmed your own hearts If you should study of nothing but heaven while you lived and preach of nothing but heaven to your people yet might your own hearts be strangers to it What heavenly passages had Balaam in his Prophesies yet little of it its like in his spirit Nay we are under a more subtil temptation then any other men to draw us from this heavenly life If our imployments did lye at a greater distant from heaven and did take up our thoughts upon worldly things we should not be so apt to be so contented and deluded but when we finde our selves imployed upon nothing else we are easier drawn to take up here Studying and preaching of heaven is likes to an heavenly Life then thinking and talking of the world is and the likeness is it that is like to deceive us This is to dye the most miserable death even to famish our selves because we have bread on our tables which is worse then to famish when we cannot get it and to die for thirst while we draw water for others thinking it enough that we have daily to do with it though we never drink it to our souls refreshing All that I will say to you more of this shall be in the words of my godly and â—udicious friend Mr. George Aâ—â—ot which I will transcribe lest you have not the Book at hand in his Vindiciae Sabathi pag. 147 148 149. And here let me in a holy Jealousâ—e annex an Exhortation to some of the Ministers of this Land for blessed be God it needs not to all that they would carefully provide and look that they do not build the Tabernacle on the Lords Day I mean that they rest not in the Opus operatum of their holy imployments and busying themselves about the carnall part of holy things in putting off the studying of their Sermons or getting them by heart except it be to work them upon the heart and not barely commit them to memory till that day and so though they take care to build the Tabernacle of Gods Church yet they in the mean time neglect the Temple of their own hearts in serving God in the Spirit and not in the Letter or outward performance onely But it were well if they would gather and prepare their Manna seeth it and bake it the day before that when the Sabbath came they might have nothing to do but to chew and concoct it into their own spirits and so spiritually in the experience of their own hearts not heads dish it out to their hearers which would be a happy means to make them see better fruit of their labors for commonly that which is not â—oâ—ally delivered is notionally received and that which is spiritually and powerfully delivered in the evidence of the Spirit is spiritually and savingly received for spirit begets spirit as fire begets fire c. It is an easie thing to take great pains in the outward part or performance of holy things which oft proves a snare causing the neglect of the spirit of the inner man for many are great laborers in the Work of the Lord that are starvelings in the Spirit of the Lord satisfying themselves in a Popish peace of conscience in the deed doing in stead of Joy in the Holy Ghost bringing indeed meat to their Guests but through haste or laziness eating none themselves or like Taylors make cloathes for other men to weare so they never assaying their own points how they 〈…〉 may suit with their own spirits but think it is their duty to â—each and other mens duty to do So far the Author CHAP. V. Some general helps to a Heavenly Life SECT I. HAving thus shewed thee the blocks in thy way and told thee what hinderances will resist thee in the Work I
shall now lay thee down some positive helps and conclude with a Directory to the 〈◊〉 in duty it self But first I expect that thou resolve against the forementioned impediments that thou read them seriously and avoid them faithfully or else thy labor will be all in vain thou dost but go about to reconcile Light and Darkness Christ and Belial and to conjoyn Heaven and Hel in thy spirit thou maist sooner bring down Heaven to earth then do this I must tell thee also that I here expect thy promise faithfully to set upon the helps which I shall prescribe thee and that the Reading of them will not bring heaven into thy heart but in their constant practice the Spirit will do it It were better for thee I had never written them and thou hadst never seen this Book nor read them if thou do not buckle thy self to the duty As thou valuest then the delights of these foretastes of Heaven make conscience of performing these following duties SECT II. 1. KNow Heaven to be the onely Treasure and labor to know also what a Treasure it is be convinced once that thou hast no other happiness and then he convinced what happiness is there If thou do not soundly believe it to be the chiefest good thou wilt never set thy heart upon it and this conviction must sinke into thy affections for if it be onely a notion it will have little operation And sure we have reason enough to be easily convinced of thiâ—â—s as you may see in what hath been spoken already Read over the Description and Nature of this Rest in the beginning of this Book and the Reasons against thy Resting below in Chapter First and conclude That this is the onely Happiness As long as your judgments do undervalue it your affections must needs be cold towards it If your judgments do mistake Blear-eyed Leah for Beautiful Rachel so will your affections also mistake them If Evah do once suppose she sees more worth in the forbidden fruit then in the love and fruition of God no wonder if it have more of her heart then God If your judgments once prefer the delights of the Flesh before the delights in the Presence of God its impossible then your hearts should be in heaven as it is the ignorance of the emptiness of things below that makes men so overvalue them so it is ignorance of the high delights above which is the cause that men so little minde them If you see a purse of gold and believe it to be but Stones or Counters it will not intice your affections to it it is not a things excellency in it self but it s an excellency known that provokes desire If an ignorant man see a Book containing the secrets of Arts or Sciences yet he values it no more then a common piece because he knows not what is in it but he that knows it doth highly value it his very minde is set upon it he can pore upon it day and night he can forbear his meat and drink and sleep to read it As the Jews enquired after Elias when Christ tells them that verily Elias is already come and ye knew him not but did unto him whatsoever ye listed so men enquire after Happiness and Delight when it is offered to them in the promise of Rest and they know it not but trample it under foot and as the Jews killed the Messiah while they waited for the Messiah and that because they did not know him For had they known him they would not have crucified the Lord of Glory Acts 13.27 1 Cor. 2.8 So doth the world cry out for Rest and busily seek for Delight and Happiness even while they are neglecting and destroying their Rest and Happiness and this because they throughly know it not for did they know throughly what it is they could not so sleight the everlasting Treasure SECT II. 2. LAbor as to know Heaven to be the onely happiness so also to be thy happiness Though the knowledg of excellency and suitableness may stir up that love which worketh by desire yet there must be the knowledg of our interest or propriety to the setting awork of our love of complacency We may confess Heaven to be the best condition though we despair of enjoying it and we may desire and seek it if we see the obtainment to be but probable and hopeful But we can never delightfully rejoyce in it till we are somewhat perswaded of our title to it What comfort is it to a man that is naked to see the rich attire of others or to a man that hath not a bit to put in his mouth to see a feast which he must not taste of What delight hath a man that hath not a house to put his head in to see the sumptuous buildings of others Would not all this rather increase his anguish and make him more sensible of his own misery So for a man to know the excellencies of Heaven and not to know whether he shall ever enjoy them may well raise desire and provoke to seek it but it will raise but little joy and content Who will set his heart on another mans possessions If your houses your goods your cattel your children were not your own you would less minde them and delight less in them O therefore Christians rest not till you can call this Rest your own sit not down without assurance get alone and question with thy self bring thy heart to the bar of tryal force it to answer the interrogatories put to it set the conditions of the Gospel and qualifications of the Saints on one side and thy performance of those conditions and the qualifications of thy soul on the other side and then judg how neer they resemble Thou hast the same word before thee to judg thy self by now by which thou must be judged at the great day Thou art there before told the questions that must then be put to thee put these questions now to thy self Thou mayst there read the very Articles upon which thou shalt be tryed why try thy self by those Articles now Thou mayst there know beforehand on what terms men shall be then acquit and condemned why try now whether thou art possessed of that which will acquit thee or whether thou be upon the same terms with those that must be condemned and accordingly acquit or condemn thy self Yet be sure thou judg by a true touchstone and mistake not the Scriptures description of a Saint that thou neither acquit nor condemn thy self upon mistakes For as groundless hopes do tend to confusion and are the greatest cause of most mens damnation so groundless doubtings do tend to discomforts and are the great cause of the disquieting of the Saints Therefore lay thy grounds of tryal safely and advisedly proceed in the work deliberately and methodically follow it to an issue resolutely and industriously suffer not thy heart to give thee the â—lip and get away before a judgment
clay to totter Look on thy glass and see how it runs Look on thy watch how fast it getteth what a short moment is between us and our Rest what a step is it from hence to Everlastingness While I am thinking and writing of it it hasteth neer and I am even entring into it before I am aware While thou art reading this it pâ—steth on and thy life will be gone as a tale that is told Mayst thou not easily foresee thy dying time and look upon thy self as ready to depart It s but a few dayes till thy friends shall lay thee in the grave and others do the like for them If you verily believed you should dye to morrow how seriously would you think of Heaven to night The condemned prisoner knew before that he 〈◊〉 dye and yet he was then as Jovial as any but when he hears the sentence and knows he hath not a week to live then how it sinkes his heart within him So that the true apprehensions of the neerness of Eternity doth make mens thoughts of it to be quick and piercing and put life into their fears and sorrowes if they are unfitted and into their desires and Joyes if they have assurance of its glory When the Witches Samuel had told Saul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this quickly worked to his very heart and laid him down as dead on the earth And if Christ should say to a believing soul By to morrow this time thou shalt be with me this would be a working word indeed and would bring him in spirit to Heaven before As Melanchton was wont to say of his uncertain station because of the persecution of his enemies Ego jam sum hic Dei beneficio 40. annos et nunquam potui dicere aut certus esse me per unam septimanam mansurum esse i. e. I have now been here this fourty yeers and yet could never say or be sure that I shall tarry here for one week so may we all say of our abode on earth As long as thou hast continued out of heaven thou canst not say thou shalt be out of it one week longer Do but suppose that you are still entring in it and you shall finde it will much help you more seriously to minde it SECT IV. 4. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is To be much in serious discoursing of it especially with those that can speak from their hearts and are seasoned themselves with an heavenly nature It s pitty saith Mr. Bolton that Christians should ever meet together without some talk of their meeting in Heaven or the way to it before they part Its pitty so much pretious time is spent among Christians in vain discourses foolish janglings and useless disputes and not a sober word of Heaven among them Methinks we should meet together of purpose to warm our spirits with discoursing of our Rest. To hear a Minister or private Christian set forth that blessed Glorious State with power and life from the Promises of the Gospel Methinks should make us say as the two Disciples Did not our hearts burn within us while he was opening to us the Scripture while he was opening to us the windows of Heaven If a Felix or wicked wretch will tremble when he hears his judgment powerfully denounced why should not the believing soul be revived when he hears his Eternal Rest revealed Get then together fellow Christians and talk of the affairs of your Country and Kingdom and comfort one another with such words 1 Thess. 4.18 If Worldlings get together they will be talking of the World when Wantons are together they will be talking of their Lusts and wicked men can be delighted in talking of wickedness and should not Christians then delight themselves in talking of Christ and the heirs of heaven in talking of their Inheritance This may make our hearts revive within us as it did Jacobs to hear the Message that called him to Goshen and to see the Chariots that should bring him to Joseph O that we were furnished with skil and resolution to turn the stream of mens common discourse to these more sublime and pretious things And when men begin to talk of things unprofitable that we could tell how to put in a word for heaven and say as Peter of his bodily food Not so for I eat not that which is common and unclean this is nothing to my eternal Rest O the good that we might both do and receive by this course If it had not been needful to deter us from unfruitful conference Christ would not have talked of giving an account of every idle word at judgment say then as David when you are in conference Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I prefer not Jerusalem above my chiefest mirth And then you shall finde the truth of that Prov. 15.4 A wholsom tongue is a Tree of Life SECT V. 5. ANother help to this Heavenly Life is this Make it thy business in every duty to winde up thy affections neerer Heaven A mans attainments and receivings from God are answerable to his own desires and ends that which he sincerely seeks he findes Gods end in the institution of his Ordinances was that they be as so many stepping stones to our Rest and as the staires by which in subordination to Christ we may daily ascend unto it in our affections Let this be thy end in using them as it was Gods end in ordaining them and doubtless they will not be unsuccessful though men be personally far asunder yet they may even by Letters have a great deal of entercourse How have men been rejoyced by a few lines from a friend though they could not see him face to face what gladness have we when we do but read the expressions of his Love or if we read of our friends prosperity and welfare Many a one that never saw the fight hath triumphed and shouted made Bonefires and rung Bels when he hath but heard and read of the Victory and may not we have entercourse with God in his Ordinances though our persons be yet so far remote May not our spirits rejoyce in the reading those lines which contain our Legacy and Charter for heaven with what Gladness may we read the expressions of Love and hear of the state of our Celestial Country with what triumphant shoutings may we applaud our Inheritance though yet we have not the happiness to behold it Men that are separated by sea and land can yet by the meer entercourse of Letters carry on both great and gainful trades even to the value of their whole estate and may not a Christian in the wise improvement of duties drive on this happy trade for Rest Come not therefore with any lower ends to duties Renounce Formality Customariness and Applause When thou kneelest down in secret or publike prayer let it be in hope to get thy heart neerer God before
thou risest off thy knees when thou openest thy Bible or other Books let it be with this hope to meet with some passage of Divine truth and some such blessing of the Spirit with it as may raise thine affections neerer Heaven and give thee a fuller taste thereof when thou art setting thy foot out at thy door to go to the publike Ordinance and Worship say I hope to meet with somewhat from God that may raise my affections before I returne I hope the Spirit will give me the meeting and sweeten my heart with those celestial delights I hope that Christ will appear to me in that way and shine about me with light from heaven and let me hear his instructing and reviving voyce and causa the scales to fall from mine eyes that I may see more of that glory then I ever yet saw I hope before I return to my house my Lord will take my heart in hand and bring it within the view of Rest and set it before his Fathers presence that I may return as the Shepherds from the heavenly Vision glorifying and praising God for all the things that I have heard and seen Luke 2.20 and say as those that behold his Miracles We have seen strange things to day Luke 5.26 Remember also to pray for thy Teacher that God would put some Divine Message into his mouth which may leave a heavenly relish on thy spirit If these were our ends and this our course when we set to duty we should not be so strange as we are to heaven When the Indian first saw the use of Letters by our English they thought there was sure some spirit in them that men could so converse together by a paper If Christians would take this course in their duties they might come to such holy fellowship with God and see so much of the Mysteries of the Kingdom that it would make the standers by admire what is in those Lines what is in that Sermon what is in this praying that fils his heart so full of joy and that so transports him above himself Certainly God would not fail us in our duties if we did not fail our selves and then experience would make them sweeter to us SECT VI. 6. ANother help is this Make an advantage of every object thou seest and of every passage of Divine providence and of every thing that befals in thy labor and calling to minde thy soul of its approaching Rest. As all providences and creatures are means to our Rest so do they point us to that as their end Every creature hath the name of God and of our final Rest written upon it which a considerate believer may as truly discern as he can read upon a post or hand in a cross way the name of the Town or City which it points to This spiritual use of creatures and providences is Gods great End in bestowing them on man And he that overlooks this End must needs rob God of his chiefest praise and deny him the greatest part of his thanks The Relation that our present mercies have to our great Eternal mercies is the very quintessence and spirits of all these mercies Therefore do they loose the very spirits of their mercies and take nothing but the huskes and bran who do overlook this Relation and draw not forth the sweetness of it in their contemplations Gods sweetest dealings with us at the present would not be half so sweet as they are if they did not intimate some further sweetness As our selves have a fleshly and a spiritual substance so have our mercies a fleshly and spiritual use and are fitted to the nourishing of both our parts He that receives the carnal part and no more may have his body comforted by them but not his soul. It is not all one to receive six pence meerly as six pence and to receive it in earnest of a thousand pound though the sum be the same yet I trow the relation makes a wide difference Thou takest but the bear earnest and overlookest the maine sum when thou receivest thy mercies and forgettest thy crown O therefore that Christians were skilled in this Art You can open your Bibles and read there of God and of Glory O learn to open the creatures and to open the several passages of providence and to read of God and Glory there Certainly by such a skilful industrious improvement we might have a fuller tast of Christ and Heaven in every bit of bread that we eat and in every draught of Beer that we drink then most men have in the use of the Sacrament If thou prosper in the world and thy labor succeed let it make thee more sensible of thy perpetual prosperity If thou be weary of thy labors let it make thy thoughts of Rest more sweet If things go cross hard with thee in the world let it make thee the more earnestly desire that day when all thy sorrows and sufferings shall cease Is thy body refreshed with food or sleep Remember thy unconceivable refreshings with Christ. Dost thou hear any news that makes the glad Remember what glad tydings it will be to hear the sound of the trump of God and the absolving sentence of Christ our Judg. Art thou delighting thy self in the society of the Saints Remember the Everlasting amiable fraternity thou shalt have with perfected Saints in Rest. Is God communicating himself to thy spirit Why remember that time of thy highest advancement when thy Joy shall be full as thy communion is full Dost thou hear the raging noise of the wicked and the disorders of the vulgar and the confusions in the world like the noise in a crowd or the roaring of the waters Why think of the blessed agreement in Heaven and the melodious harmony in that Quire of God Dost thou hear or feel the tempest of wars or see any cloud of blood arising Remember the day when thou shalt be housed with Christ where there is nothing but calmness and amiable union and where we shall solace our selves in perfect Peace under the wings of the Prince of Peace for ever Thus you may see what advantages to a Heavenly Life every condition and creature doth afford us if we had but hearts to apprehend and improve them As it s said of the Turkes that they 'l make bridges of the dead bodyes of their men to passe over the trenches or ditches in their way So might Christians of the very ruines and calamities of the times and of every dead body or misery that they see make a bridge for the passage of their thoughts to their Rest. And as they have taught their Pigeons which they call carriers in divers places to bear letters of entercourse from friend to friend at a very great distance so might a wise industrious Christian get his thoughts carried into Heaven and receive as it were returns from thence again by creatures of slower wing then Doves by the assistance of the Spirit the Dove of God
This is the right Daedalian flight and thus we may take from each bird a feather and make us wings and fly to Christ. SECT VII 7. ANother singular help is this Be much in that Angelical work of Praise As the most heavenly Spirits will have the most heavenly imployment so the more heavenly the imployment the more will it make the Spirit heavenly Though the heart be the Fountain of all our actions and the actions will be usually of the quality of the heart yet do those actions by a kinde of reflexion work much on the heart from whence they spring The like also may be said of our speeches So that the work of praising God being the most heavenly work is likely to raise us to the most heavenly temper This is the work of those Saints and Angels and this will be our own everlasting work if we were more taken up in this imployment now we should be liker to what we shall be then When Aristotle was asked what he thought of Musick he answers Jovem neque canere neque citharam pulsare That Jupiter did neither sing nor play on the Harp thinking it an unprofitable art to men which was no more delightful to God But Christians may better argue from the like ground that singing of praise is a most profitable duty because it is so delightful as it were to God himself that he hath made it his peoples Eternal work for they shall sing the Song of Moses and the Song of the Lamb. As Desire and Faith and Hope are of shorter continuance then Love and Joy so also Preaching and Prayer and Sacraments and all means for confirmation and expression of Faith and Hope shall cease when our Thanks and Praise and triumphant expressions of Love and Joy shall abide for ever The liveliest embleme of Heaven that I know upon Earth is When the people of God in the deep sense of his excellency and bounty from hearts abounding with Love and Joy do joyn together both in heart and voice in the cheerful and melodious singing of his praises Those that deny the lawful use of singing the Scripture Psalms in our times do disclose their unheavenly unexperienced hearts I think as well as their ignorant understandings Had they felt the heavenly delights that many of their Brethren in such duties have felt I think they would have been of another minde And whereas they are wont to question whether such delights be genuine or any better then carnal or delusive Surely the very rellish of Christ and Heaven that is in them the example of the Saints in Scripture whose spirits have been raised by the same duty and the command of Scripture for the use of this means one would think should quickly decide the controversie And a man may as truly say of these delights as they use to say of the testimony of the Spirit That they witness-themselves to be of God and bring the evidence of their heavenly parentage along with them And whereas they allow onely extemporate Psalms immediately dictated to them by the Spirit When I am convinced that the gift of extemporate singing is so common to the Church that any man who is spiritually merry can use it Jam. 5.13 And when I am convinced that the use of Scripture Psalms is abolished or prohibited then I shall more regard their judgment Certainly as large as mine acquaintance hath been with men of this Spirit I never yet heard any one of them sing a Psalm ex tempore that was better then Davids yea or that was tolerable to a judicious hearer and not rather a shame to himself and his opinion But sweet experience will be a powerful Argument and will teach the sincere Christian to hold fast his exercise of this soul-raising duty Little do we know how we wrong our selves by shutting out of our prayers the praises of God or allowing them so narrow a room as we usually do while we are copious enough in our Confessions and Petitions Reader I entreat thee remember this Let praises have a larger room in thy duties Keep ready at hand matter to feed thy praise as well as matter for Confession and Petition To this end study the excellencies and goodness of the Lord as frequently as thy own necessities and vileness study the mercies which thou hast received and which are promised both their own proper worth and their aggravating circumstances as often as thou studiest the sins thou hast committed O let Gods praise be much in your mouths for in the mouths of the upright his praise is comely Psal. 33.1 Seven times a day did David praise him Psal. 119.164 Yea his praise was continually of him Psal. 71.6 As he that offereth praise glorifieth God Psal. 50.23 So doth he most rejoyce and glad his own soul. Psal. 98.4 Offer therefore the sacrifice of praise continually Heb. 13.15 In the midst of the Church let us sing his praise Heb. 2.12 Praise our God for he is good sing praises unto his Name for it is pleasant Psal. 135.3 and 147.1 Yea let us rejoyce and triumph in his praise Psal. 106.47 Do you think that David had not a most heavenly Spirit who was so much imployed in this heavenly work Doth it not sometime very much raise your hearts when you do but seriously read that divine Song of Moses Deut. 32. And those heavenly iterated praises of David having almost nothing sometime but praise in his mouth How much more would it raise and refresh us to be skilled and accustomed in the work our selves I confess to a man of a languishing body where the heart doth faint and the spirits are feeble the cheerful praising of God is more difficult because the body is the souls instrument and when it lies unstringed or untuned the musick is likely to be accordingly but dull Yet a spiritual cheerfulness there may be within and the heart may praise if not the voice But where the body is strong the spirits lively the heart cheerful and the voice at command what advantage have such for this heavenly work with what alacrity and vivacity may they sing forth praises O the madness of healthful youth that lay out this vigor of body and minde upon vain delights and fleshly lusts which is so fit for the noblest work of man And O the sinful folly of many of the Saints who drench their spirits in continual sadness and wast their days in complaints and groans and fill their bodies with wasting diseases and so make themselves both in body and minde unfit for this sweet and heavenly work That when they should joyn with the people of God in his praises and delight their souls in singing to his Name they are questioning their worthiness and studying their miseries or raising scruples about the lawfulness of the duty and so rob God of his praise and themselves of their solace But the greatest destroyer of our comfort in this duty is our sticking in the carnal
delight thereof and taking up in the tune and melody and suffering the heart to be all the while idle which must perform the chiefest part of the work and which should make use of the melody for its reviving and exhilerating SECT VIII 8. IF thou wouldest have thy heart in Heaven keep thy soul still possessed with true believing thoughts of the exceeding infinite love of God Love is the attractive of love No mans heart will be set upon him that hates him were he never so excellent nor much upon him that doth not much love him There is few so vile but will love those that love them be they never so mean No doubt it is the death of our heavenly life to have hard and doubtful thoughts of God to conceive of him as a hater of the Creature except onely of obstinate Rebels and as one that had rather damn us then save us and that is glad of an opportunity to do us a mischief or at least hath no great good will to us This is to put the Blessed God into the similitude of Satan And who then can set his heart and love upon him When in our vile unbelief and ignorance we have drawn the most ugly picture of God in our imaginations then we complain that we cannot love him and delight in him This is the case of many thousand Christians Alas that we should thus belie and blaspheme God and blast our own joyes and depress our spirits Love is the very essence of God The Scripture tells us That God is Love it telleth us That Fury dwelleth not in him that he delighteth not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he repent and live Much more hath he testified his love to his chosen and his full resolution effectually to save them O if we could always think of God but as we do of a friend as of one that doth unfeignedly love us even more then we do our selves whose very heart is set upon us to do us good and hath therefore provided us an everlasting dwelling with himself it would not then be so hard to have our hearts still with him Where we love most heartily we shall think most sweetly and most freely And nothing will quicken our love more then the belief of his love to us Get therefore a truer conceit of the loving Nature of God and lay up all the experiences and discoveries of his love to thee and then see if it will not further thy heavenly-mindedness SECT IX 9. ANother thing I would advise you to is this Be a careful observer of the drawings of the Spirit and fearful of quenching its motions or resisting its workings If ever thy soul get above this earth and get acquainted with this living in heaven the Spirit of God must be to thee as the Chariot to Elijah yea the very living principle by which thou must move and ascend O then grieve not thy Guide quench not thy Life knock not off thy Chariot-wheels if thou do no wonder if thy soul be at a loss and all stand still or fall to the earth you little think how much the life all your Graces and the happiness of your souls doth depend upon your ready and cordial Obedience to the Spirit When the Spirit urgeth thee to secret prayer and thou refusest obedience when he forbids thee thy known transgressions and yet thou wilt go on when he telleth thee which is the way and which not and thou wilt not regard no wonder if heaven and thy soul be strange if thou wilt not follow the Spirit while it would draw thee to Christ and to thy duty how should it lead thee to heaven and bring thy heart into the presence of God O what supernatural help what bold access shall that soul finde in its approaches to the Almighty that is accustomed to a constant obeying of the Spirit And how backward how dull and strange and ashamed will he be to these addresses who hath long used to break away from the Spirit that would have guided him Even as stiffe and unfit will they be for this Spiritual motion as a dead man to natural I beseech thee Christian Reader learn well this lesson and try this course let not the motions of thy body onely but also the very thoughts of thy heart be at the Spirits beâ—k Dost thou not feel sometimes a strong impulsion to retire from the world and draw neer to God O do not now disobey but take the offer and hoâ—se up sail while thou mayst have this blessed gale When this wind blows strongest thou goest fastest either forward or backward The more of this Spirit we resist the deeper will it wound and the more we obey the speedier is our pace As he goes heaviest that hath the wind in his face and he easiest that hath it in his back SECT X. 10. LAstly I advise as a further help to this heavenly work That thou neglect not the due care for the health of thy body and for the maintaining a vigorous cheerfulness in thy spirits nor yet over-pamper and please thy flesh Learn how to carry thy self with prudence to thy body It is a useful servant if thou give it its due and but its due It is a most devouring tyrant if thou give it the mastery or suffer it to have what it unreasonably desireth And 〈◊〉 as a blunted Knife as a Horse that is lame as thy Ox that is famished if thou injuriously deny it what is necessary to its support When we consider how frequently men offend on both extreams and how few use their bodies aright we cannot wonder if they be much hindered in their heavenly conversing Most men are very slaves to their sensitive appetite and can scarce deny any thing to the flesh which they can give it on easie rates without much shame or loss or grief The flesh thus used is as unfit to serve you as a wilde colt to ride on When such men should converse in Heaven the flesh will carry them to an Alehouse or to their sports to their profits or credit or vain company to wanton practices or sights or speeches or thoughts It will thrust a whore or a pair of Cards or a good bargain into their mindes in stead of God Look to this specially you that are young and healthful and lusty As you love your souls remember that in Rom. 13.14 which converted Austin Make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its desires and that Rom. 8.4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14. Some few others do much hinder their heavenly joy by over rigorous denying the body its necessaries and so making it unable to serve them But the most by forfeiting and excess do overthrow and disable it You love to have your knife keen and every instrument you use in order when your horse goes lustily how cheerfully do you travel As much need hath the soul of a sound and cheerful body If they who
no truer nor greater cause then their ignorance and unconscionable neglect of Meditation If a man have the Lientery that his meat pass from him as he took it in or if he vomit it up as fast as he eates it what strength and vigor of body and senses is this man like to have Indeed he may well eat more then a sounder man and the small abode that it makes in the stomack may refresh it at the present and help to draw it out a lingering languishing uncomfortable unprofitable life And so do our hearers that have this disease perhaps they hear more then otherwise they needed and the clear discovery and lively delivery of the Truth of God may warm and refresh them a little while they are hearing and perhaps an hour or two after and it may be it may linger out their Grace in a languishing uncomfortable unprofitable life But if they did hear one hour and meditate seven if they did as constantly digest their Sermons as they hear them and not take in one Sermon before the former is well concocted they would finde another kinde of benefit by Sermons then the ordinary sort of the forwardest Christians do I know many carnal persons do make this an Argument against frequent preaching and hearing who do it meerly from a lothing of the word and know far less how to Meditate then they know how understandingly to hear Only they pretend Meditation against often hearing because that beeing a duty of the minde you cannot so easily discern their omission of it These are sick of the Anorexia and Apepsy they have neither appetite nor digeston the other of the Boulimos they have appetite but no digestion SECT III. 2. BUt because Meditation is a general word and it is not all Meditation that I hear intend I shall therefore lay thee down the difference whereby this Meditation that I am urging thee to is discerned from all other sorts of Meditation And the difference is taken from the Act and from the object of it 1. From the Act which I call The set and solemn acting of all the powers of the soul. 1. I call it the Acting of them for it is Action that we are directing you in now and not relations or dispositions yet these also are necessarily presupposed It must be a soul that is qualified for the work by the supernatural renewing grace of the spirit which must be able to perform this Heavenly exercise It s the work of the Living and not of the dead It s a work of all others most spiritual and sublime and therefore not to be well performed by a heart that 's meerly carnal and terrene Also they must necessarily have some relation to heaven before they can familiarly there converse I suppose them to be the sons of God when â— perswade them to love him and to be of the family of God yeâ— the spouse of his Son when I perswade them to press into his presence and to dwell with him I suppose them to be such as have title to Rest when I perswade them to rejoyce in the Meditation of Rest. These therefore being all presupposed are not the duty here intended and required But it is the bringing of their sanctified dispositions into Act and the delightful reveiwing of theiâ— high relations Habits and Powers are but to enable us to Action To say I am able to do this or I am disposed to do it doth neiâ—ther please God nor advantage our selves except withal we really do it God doth not regenerate thy soul that it may be able to know him and not know him or that it may be able to believe and yet not believe or that it may be able to love him and yet not love him But he therefore makes thee able to know to believe and love that thou mayest indeed both know believe and love him What good doth that power which is not reduced into Act Therefore I am not now exhorting thee to be an able Christian but to be an Active Christian according to the degree of that ability which thou hast As thy store of money or food oâ— rayment which thou lettest lye by thee and never usest doth theâ— no good but to please thy fancy or raise thee to an esteem in the eyes of others so all thy gifts and powers and habits which lye still in thy soul and are never Acted do profit or comfort thee little or nothing but in satisfying thy fancy and raising thee to the repute of an able man so far as they are discernable to the standers by SECT IV. 1. I Call this Meditation The acting of the powers of the Soul meaning the soul as Rational to difference it from the cogitations of the soul as Sensitive the Sensitive soul hath a kinde of Meditation by the common sense the Phantasie and Estimation The fleshly man mindeth the things of the flesh If it were the work of the Ear or the Eye or the Tongue or the Hands which I am setting you on I doubt not but you would more readily take it up but it is the work of the soul for bodily exercise doth here profit but little The soul hath its labor and its ease its business and its idleness its intention and remission as well as the body And diligent students are usually as sensible of the labor and weaâ—â—ness of their spirits and brain as they are of that of the members of the body This action of the soul is it I perswade thee to SECT V. 3. I Call it the acting of All the powers of the soul To difference it from the common Meditation of Students which is usually the meer imployment of the Brain It is not a bare thinking that I mean nor the meer use of Invention or Memory but a business of a higher and more excellent nature when Truth is apprehended only as Truth this is but an unsavory and loose apprehension but when it is apprehended as Good as well as True this is a fast and delightful apprehending As a man is not so prone to live according to the Truth he knows except it do deeply affect him so neither doth his soul enjoy its sweetness except Speculation do pass to Affection The Understanding is not the whole soul and therefore cannot do the whole work As God hath made several parts in man to perform their several Offices for his nourishing and life so hath he ordained the faculties of the soul to perform their several Offices for his spiritual life the Stomack must chy lisy and prepare for the Liver the Liver and Spleen must sanguify and prepare for the Heart and Brain and these must beget the vital and animal spirits c. so the Understanding must take in Truths and prepare them for the Will and it must receive them and commend them to the Affections The best digestion is in the bottome of the Stomack the Affections are as it were the bottome of the soul and
therefore the best digestion is there While Truth is but a speculation swimming in the Brain the Soul hath not half received it nor taken fast hold of it Christ and Heaven hath various Excellencies and therefore God hath formed the soul with a power of divers wayes of apprehending that so we might be capable of enjoying those divers Excellencies in Christ even as the creatures having their severall uses God hath given us several senses that so we might enjoy the delights of them all What the better had we been for the pleasant oderiferous flowers and perfumes if we had not possessed the sense of Smelling or what good would Language or Musick have done us if God had not given us the sense of hearing or what delight should we have found in meats or drinks or sweetest things if we had been deprived of the sense of tasting Why so what good could all the glory of Heaven have done us or what pleasure should we have had even in the goodness and perfection of God himself if we had been without the affections of Love and Joy whereby we are capable of being delighted in that Goodness so also what benefit of strength or sweetness canst thou possible receive by thy Meditations on Eternity while thou dost not exercise those Affections which are the senses of the soul by which it must receive this sweetness and strength This is it that hath deceived Christians in this business They have thought that Meditation is nothing but the bare thinking on Truths and the rolling of them in the Understanding and Memory when every School-Boy can do this or persons that hate the things which they think on Therefore this is the great task in hand and this is the work that I would set thee on to get these Truths from thy head to thy heart and that all the Sermons which thou hast heard of Heaven and all the notions that thou hast conceived of this Rest may be turned into the blood and spirits of Affection and thou maist feel them revive thee and warm thee at the heart and maist so think of heaven as heaven should be thought on There are two accesses of Contemplation saith Bernard one in Intellection the other in Affection one in Light the other in Heat one in Acquisition the other in Devotion If thou shouldst study of nothing but Heaven while thou livest and shouldst have thy thoughts at command to turn them hither on every occasion and yet shouldst proceed no further then this this were not the Meditation that I intend nor would it much advantage or better thy soul as it is thy whole soul that must possess God hereafter so must the whole in a lower measure possess him here I have shewed you in the beginning of this Treatise how the soul must enjoy the Lord in Glory to wit by knowing by loving and joying in him why the very same way must thou begin thy enjoyment here So much as thy Understanding and Affections are sincerely acted upon God so much dost thou enjoy him And this is the happy Work of this Meditation So that you see here is somewhat more to be done then barely to remember and think of Heaven as Running and Ringing and Moving and such like labors do not onely stir a hand or a foot but do strain and exercise the whole body so doth Meditation the whole soul. As the Affections of Sinners are set on the world and turned to Idols and faln from God as well as the Understanding so must the Affections of men be reduced to God and taken up with him as well as the Understanding and as the whole was filled with sin before so the whole must be filled with God now as St. Paul saith of Knowledg and Gifts and Faith to remove mountains that if thou have all these without Love Thou art but as sounding Brass or as a tinkling Cymbal so I may say of the exercise of these If in this work of Meditation thou do exercise Knowledg and Gifts and Faith of Miracles and not exercise Love and Joy thou dost nothing thou playest the childe and not the man the Sinners part and not the Saints for so will Sinners do also If thy Meditation tends to fill thy Note-Book with notions and good sayings concerning God and not thy heart with longings after him and delight in him for ought I know thy Book is as much a Christian as thou Mark but Davids description of the blessed man Psal. 1.3 His delight is in the Law of the Lord and therein doth he meditate day and night SECT VI. 4. I Call this Meditation Set and Solemn to difference it from that which is Occasional and Cursory As there is Prayer which is solemn when we set our selves wholly to the duty and Prayer which is sudden and short commonly called Ejaculations when a man in the midst of other business doth send up some brief request to God so also there is Meditation solemn when we apply our selves onely to that work and there is Meditation which is short and cursory when in the midst of our business we have some good thoughts of God in our mindes And as solemn Prayer is either First See when a Christian observing it as a standing duty doth resolvedly practise it in a constant course or secondly Occasional when some unusual occasion doth put us upon it at a season extraordinary so also Meditation admits of the like distinction Now though I would perswade you to that Meditation which is mixt with your common labors in your callings and to that which special occasions do direct you to yet these are not the main thing which I here intend But that you would make it a constant standing duty as you do by Hearing and Praying and Reading the Scripture and that you would solemnly set your selves about it and make it for that time your whole work and intermix other matters no more with it then you would do with prayer or other duties Thus you see as it is differenced by its act what kinde of Meditation it is that we speak of viz. It is the set and solemn acting of all the powers of the Soul SECT VII THe second part of the Difference is drawn from its object which is Rest or the most blessed estate of man in his everlasting enjoyment of God in Heaven Meditation hath a large field to walk in and hath as many objects to work upon as there are matters and lines and words in the Scripture as there are known Creatures in the whole Creation and as there are particular discernable passages of Providence in the Government of the persons and actions through the world But the Meditation that I now direct you in is onely of the end of all these and of these as they refer to that end It is not a walk from Mountains to Valleys from Sea to Land from Kingdom to Kingdom from Planet to Planet But it is a walk from Mountains
and drink yet your own Reason and experience will tell you that ordinarily you should observe a stated time Neither let the fear of customariness and formality deter you from this That Argument hath brought the Lords Supper from once a week to once a quarter or once a yeer and it hath brought family-duties with too many of late from twice a day to once a week or once a moneth and if it were not that man being proud is naturally of a Teaching humor and addicted to works of popularity and ostentation I beleeve it would diminish Preaching as much And will it deal any better with secret duties especially this of Holy Meditation I advise thee therefore if well thou maist to allow this duty a stated time and be as constant in it as in Hearing and Praying Yet be cautious in understanding this I know this will not prove every mans duty some have not themselves and their time at command and therefore cannot set their hours such are most servants and many children of poor or carnal parents and many are so poor that the necessity of their Families wil deny them this freedom I do not think it the duty of such to leave their labors for this work at certain set times no nor for Prayer or other necessary worship No such duty is at all times a duty Affirmatives specially Positives binde not semper ad semper When two duties come together and cannot both be performed it were then a sin to perform the lesser Of two duties we must chuse the greater though of two sins we must chuse neither I think such persons were best to be watchful to redeem time as much as they can and take their vacant opportunities as they fall and especially to joyn Meditation and Prayer as much as they can with the very labors of their callings There is no such enmity between laboring and meditating or praying in the Spirit but that both may conveniently be done together Yet I say as Paul in another case if thou canst be free use it rather Those that have more time a spare from worldly necessaries and are Masters to dispose of themselves and their time I still advise That they keep this duty to a stated time And indeed it were no ill husbandry nor point of folly if we did so by all other duties If we considered of the ordinary works of the day and â—â—ited out a fit season and proportion of time to every work and fixed this in our memory and resolution or wrote it in a Table and kept in our Closets and never brake it but upon unexpected or extraordinary cause If every work of the day had thus its appointed time we should be better skilled both in redeeming time and performing duty SECT II. 2. I Advise thee also concerning thy time for this duty That as it be stated so it be frequent Just how oft it should be I cannot determine because mens several conditions may vary it But in general that it be frequent the Scripture requireth when it mentioneth meditating continually and day and night Circumstances of our condition may much vary the circumstances of our duties It may be one mans duty to hear or pray oftner then anothers and so it may be in this Meditation But for those that can conveniently omit other business I advise That it be once a day at least Though Scripture tell us not how oft in a day we should eat or drink yet prudence and experience will direct us to twice or thrice a day according to the temper and necessities of our bodies Those that think they should not tie themselves to order or number of duties but should then onely meditate or pray when they finde the Spirit provoking them to it do go upon uncertain and unchristian grounds I am sure the Scripture provokes us to frequency and our necessity secondeth the voice of Scripture and if through my own neglect or resistance of the Spirit I do not finde it so to excite and quicken me I dare not therefore disobey the Scripture nor neglect the necessities of my own soul I should suspect that Spirit which would turn my soul from constancy in duty if the Spirit in Scripture bid me meditate or pray I dare not forbear it because I finde not the Spirit within me to second the command if I finde not incitation to duty before yet I may finde assistance while I wait in performance I am afraid of laying my corruptions upon the Spirit or blaming the want of the Spirits assistance when I should blame the backwardness of my own heart nor dare I make one corruption a plea for another nor urge the inward rebellion of my Nature as a Reason for the outward disobedience of my life And for the healing of my natures backwardness I more expect that the Spirit of Christ should do it in a way of duty which I still finde to be his ordinary season of working then in a way of disobedience and neglect of duty Men that fall on duty according to the frame of their spirits onely are like our ignorant vulgar or if you will like the Swine who think their appetite should be the onely rule of their eating When a wise man judgeth both of quantitie and qualitie by Reason and Experience least when his appetite is depraved he should either surfet or famish Our Appetite is no sure rule for our times of duty but the Word of God in general and our Spiritual Reason Experience Necessitie and convenience in particular may truly direct us Three Reasons especially should perswade thee to frequency in this Meditation on Heaven 1. Because seldom conversing with him will breed a strangeness betwixt thy soul and God Frequent society breeds familiarity and familiarity increaseth love and delight and maketh us bold and confident in our addresses This is the main end of this duty that thou maist have acquaintance and fellowship with God therein Therefore if thou come but seldom to it thou wilt keep thy self a stranger still and so miss of the end of the work O when a man feels his need of God and must seek his help in a time of necessity when nothing else can do him any good you would little think what an encouragement it is to go to a God that we know and are acquainted with O saith the heavenly Christian I know both whither I go and to whom I have gone this way many a time before now It is the same God that I daily conversed with it is the same way that was my daily walk God knows me well enough and I have some knowledg of him On the other side What a horror and discouragement to the soul it will be when it is forced to flie to God in streights to think Alas I know not whither to go I never went the way before I have no acquaintance at the Court of Heaven My soul knows not that God that I must speak to and
it The Lords Day What fitter day to ascend to heaven then that on which our Lord did arise from earth and fully triumph over death and hell and take possession of Heaven before us The fittest temper for a true believer is to be in the spirit on the Lords Day This was Saint Johns temper on that day And what can bring us to this ravishment in the spirit but the spiritual beholding of our ravishing glory Surely though an outward ordinance may delight the ear or tickle the fancy yet it is the viewes of God that must ravish the soul. There is a great deal of difference betwixt the receiving of the word with joy Mat. 13.20 and being in the spirit on the Lords Day Rev. 1 10. Two sorts of Christians I would entreat to take notice of this especially 1. Those that spend the Lords day only in publique worship either through the neglect of this spiritual duty of Meditation or else by their overmuch exercise of the publique allowing no time to private duty Though there be few that offend in this last kinde yet some there are and a hurtful mistake to the soul it is They will grow but in gifts and common accomplishments if they exercise but their gifts in outward performances 2. Those that have time on the Lords day for idleness and vain discourse and finde the day longer then they know how well to spend Were these but acquainted with this duty of contemplation they would need no other recreation nor pastime they would think the longest day short enough and be sorry that the night hath shortned their pleasure Whether this day be of positive Divine Institution and so to us Christians of necessary observation is out of my way to handle here I refer those that doubt to what is in Print on that subject especially Master George Abbot against Broad and above all Master Cawdrey and Master Palmer their Sabbatum Redivivum It s an encouragment to the doubtful to finde the generality of its rational opposers to acknowledg the usefulness yea necessity of a stated day and the fitness of this above all other days I would I could perswade those that are convinced of its morality to spend a greater part of it in this true spirituality But we do in this as in most things else think it enough that we believe our duty as we do the articles of our faith and let who will put it in practice VVe will dispute for duty and let others perform it As I have known some drunkards upon the Ale bench will plead for godly men while themselves are ungodly So do too many for the observation of the Lords day who themselves are unacquainted with this spiritual part of its observation Christians let heaven have some more share in your Sabbaths where you must shortly keep your everlasting Sabbath As you go from stair to stair till you come to the top so use your Sabbaths as steps to glory till you have passsed them all and are there arived Especially you that are poor men and servants that cannot take time in the week as you desire see that you well improve this day Now your labor lies not â—o much upon you now you are unyoaked from your common business Be sure as your bodyes Rest from their labors that your spirits seek after Rest with God I admonish also those that are possessed with the censorious divel that if they see a poor Christian walking privately in the fields on the Lords Day they would not Pharisaically conclude him a Sabbath breaker till they know more It may be he takes it as the opportunest place to withdraw himself from the world to God Thou seest where his body walkes but thou seest not where he is walking in the spirit Hannah was censured for a woman drunk till Eli heard her speak for her self and when he knew the truth he was ashamed of his censure The silent spiritual worshipper is most lyable to their censure because he gives not the world an account of his worship Thus I have directed thee to the fittest season for the ordinary performance of this heavenly work SECT V. 2. FOr the extraordinary performance these following are seasonable times 1. When God doth extraordinarily revive and enable thy spirit When God hath kindled thy spirit with fire from above it is that it may mount aloft more freely It is a choice part of a Christians skill to observe the temper of his own spirit and to observe the gales of grace and how the spirit of Christ doth move upon his VVithout Christ we can do nothing Therefore let us be doing when he is doing and be sure not to be out of the way nor asleep when he comes The sails of the wind-mill stir not without the wind therefore they must set them a going when the wind blowes Be sure that thou watch this wind and tide if thou wouldst have a speedy voyage to Heaven A little labor will set thy heart a going at such a time as this when another time thou mayest study and take pains to little purpose Most Christians do sometime finde a more then ordinary reviving and activeness of spirit take this as sent from heaven to â—alse thee thither And when the spirit is lifting thy heart from the earth be sure thou then lift at it thy self As when the Angel came to Peter in his prison and Irons and smoâ—e him on the side and raised him up saying Arise up quickly gird thy self â—inde on thy sandals and cast thy garment about thee and follow me And Peter arose and followed till he was delivered Act. 12.7.8 c. So when the spirit finds thy heart in prison and Irons and smites it and bids thee Arise quickly and follow me be sure thou then arise and follow and thou shalâ— finde thy chains fall off and all doors will open and thou wilt be at Heaven before thou art aware SECT VI. 2. WHen thou art cast into perplexing troubles of minde through suffering or fear or care or temptations then is it seasonable to address thy self to this duty VVhen should we take our cordials but in our times of fainting When is it more seasonable to walk to heaven then when we know not in what corner on earth to live with comfort or when should our thoughts converse above but when they have nothing but grief to converse with below Where should Noahs Dove be but in the Arke when the waters do cover all the earth and she cannot finde Rest for the sole of her foot What should we think on but our fathers house when we want even the husks of the world to feed on Surely God sends thee thy afflictions to this very purpose Happy thou poor man if thou make this use of thy poverty and thou that art sick if thou so improve thy sickness It is seasonable to go to the Promised Land when our burdens and taskes are increased in Egypt and when we endure
circumstances though to some they may seem small things doth much conduce to our hinderance or our help Christ himself thought it not vain to direct in this circumstance of private duty Mat. 6.4 6 18 If in private prayer we must shut our door upon us that our Father may hear us in secret so is it also requisite in this Meditation How oft doth Christ himself depart to some mountain or wilderness or other solitary place For occasional Meditation I give thee not this advise but for this daily set and solemn duty I advise that thou withdraw thy self from all society yea though it were the society of godly men that thou mayest a while enjoy the society of Christ If a student cannot study in a crowd who exerciseth only his invention and memory much lesse when thou must exercise all the powers of thy soul and that upon an object so far above nature When thy eyes are filled with the persons and actions of men and thine ears with their discourse its hard then to have thy thoughts and affections free for this duty Though I would not perswade thee to Pythagoras his Cave nor to the Hermets Wilderness nor to the Monks Cell yet I would advise thee to frequent solitariness that thou mayest sometimes confer with Christ and with thy self as well as with others We are fled so far from the solitude of superstition that we have cast off the solitude of contemplative devotion Friends use to converse most familiarly in private and to open their Secrets and let out their affections most freely Publike converse is but common converse Use therefore as Christ himself did Mark 1.35 to depart sometimes into a solitary place that thou maist be wholly vacant for this great employment See Mat. 14.23 Mark 6.47 Luke 9.18 36. John 6.15 16. We seldom read of Gods appearing by himself or his Angels to any of his Prophets or Saints in a throng but frequently when they were alone And as I advise thee to a place of retiredness so also that thou observe more particularly what place and posture best agreeth with thy spirit Whether within doors or without whether siting still or walking I beleeve Isaacs example in this also will direct us to the place and posture which will best suit with most as it doth with me viz. His walking forth to meditate in the field at the eventide And Christs own example in the places forecited gives us the like direction Christ was used to a solitary Garden that even Judas when he came to betray him knew where to finde him John 18.1 2. And though he took his Disciples thither with him yet did he separate himself from them for more Secret devotions Luke 22.41 And though his meditation be not directly named but onely his praying yet it is very clearly implied Matth. 26.38 39. His soul is first made sorrowful with the bitter meditations on his death and sufferings and then he poureth it out in prayer Mark 14.34 So that Christ had his accustomed place and consequently accustomed duty and so must we Christ hath a place that is solitary whither he retireth himself even from his own Disciples and so must we Christs meditations do go further then his thought they affect and pâ—erce his heart and soul and so must ours Onely there is a wide difference in the object Christ meditates on the suffering that our sins had deserved that the wrath of his Father even passed through his thoughts upon all his soul But the meditation that we speak of is on the glory he hath purchased that the love of the Father and the joy of the Spirit might enter at our thoughts and revive our affections and overflow our souls So that as Christs meditation was the sluce or flood-gate to let in Hell to overflow his Affections so our meditation should be the sluce to let in Heaven into our affections SECT IX SO much concerning the Time and Place of this duty I am next to advise thee somewhat concerning the preparations of thy heart The success of the work doth much depend on the frame of thy heart When mans heart had nothing in it that might grieve the Spirit then was it the delightful habitation of his Maker God did not quit his residence there till man did expel him by unworthy provocations There grew no strangeness till the heart grew sinful and too loathsom a dungeon for God to delight in And were this soul reduced to its former innocency God would quickly return to his former habitation yea so far as it is renewed and repaired by the Spirit and purged of its lusts and beautified with his Image the Lord will yet acknowledg it his own and Christ will manifest himself unto it and the Spirit will take it for his Temple and Residence So far as the soul is qualified for conversing with God so far it doth actually for the most part enjoy him Therefore with all diligence keep thy heart for from thence are the issues of life Prov 4.23 More particularly when thou fettest on this duty First Get thy heart as clear from the world as thou canst wholly lay by the thoughts of thy business of thy troubles of thy enjoyments and of every thing that may take up any room in thy soul. Get thy soul as empty as possibly thou canst that so it may be the more capable of being filled with God It is a work as I have said that will require all the powers of thy soul if they were a thousand times more capacious and active then they are and therefore you have need to lay by all other thoughts and affections while you are busied here If thou couldst well perform some outward duty with a piece of thy heart while the other is absent yet this above all I am sure thou canst not Surely if thou once address thy self to the business indeed thou wilt be as the covetous man at the heap of Gold that when he might take as much as he could carry away lamented that he was able to bear no more So when thou shalt get into the Mount in contemplation thou wilt finde there as much of God and Glory as thy narrow heart is able to contain and almost nothing to hinder thy full possession but onely the uncapableness of thy own Spirit O then wilt thou think that this understanding were larger that I might conceive more that these affections were wider to contain more it is more my own unfitness then any thing else which is the cause that even this place is not my Heaven God is in this place and I know it not This Mount is full of the Angels of God but mine eyes are shut and cannot see them O the words of love that Christ hath to speak O the wonders of love that he hath to shew But alas I cannot bear them yet Heaven is here ready at hand for me but my uncapable heart is unready for Heaven Thus wouldst thou lament that the
the remaining Work is onely to direct you how to use your hands and mouth to feed your stomack I mean how to use your â—nderstandings for the warming of your Affections and to fire your Hearts by the help of your Heads And herein it will be necessary that I observe this Method First to shew you what instrument it is that you must work by Secondly VVhy and how this way of working is like to succeed and attain its end Thirdly VVhat powers of the soul should here be acted and what are the particular Affections to be excited and what objective Considerations are necessary thereto and in what order you should proceed Fourthly By what acts you must advance to the height of the work Fifthly VVhat advantages you must take and what helps you must use for the facilitating your success Sixthly In what particulars you must look narrowly to your hearts through the whole And I will be the briefer in all left you should loâ—e my meaning in a crowd of words or your thoughts be carried from the VVork it self by an over-long and tedious Explication of it SECT II. 1. THe great Instrument that this Work is done by is Ratiocination Reasoning the case with your selves Discourse of minde Cogitation or Thinking or if you will call it Consideration I here suppose you to know the things to be considered and therefore shall wholly pass over thaâ— Meditation of Students which tends onely to Speculation or Knowing They are known Truths that I perswade you to consider for the grossly ignorant that know not the Doctrine of everlasting Life are for the present uncapable of this duty Mans soul as it receives and retains the Idea's or Shapes of things so hath it a power to chuse out any of these deposited Idea's and draw them forth and act upon them again and again even as a Sheep can fetch up his meat for rumination otherwise nothing would affect us but while the sense is receiving it and so we should be somewhat below the Bruits This is the power that here you must use To this choice of Idea's or subjects for your Cogitation there must necessarily concur the act of the Will which indeed must go along in the whole Work for this must be a voluntary not a forced Cogitation Some men do consider whether they will or no and are not able to turn away their own thoughts so will God make the wicked consider of their sins when he shall set them all in order before them Psal. 50.21.22 And so shall the damned consider of Heaven and of the excellency of Christ whom they once despised and of the eternal joyes which they have foolishly lost But this forced Consideration is not that I mean but that which thou dost willingly and purposely chose but though they will be here requisite yet still Consideration is the instrument of the Work SECT III. 2. NExt let us see what force Consideration hath for the moving of the affections and for the powerful imprinting of things in the heart Why First Consideration doth as it were open the door between the Head and the Heart The Understanding having received Truths layes them up in the Memory now Consideration is the conveyer of them from thence to the Affections There 's few men of so weak Understanding or Memory but they know and can remember that which would strangely work upon them and make great alterations in their spirits if they were not locked up in their brain and if they could but convey them down to their hearts Now this is the great work of Consideration O what rare men would they be who have strong heads and much learning and knowledge if the obstructions between the Head and the Heart were but opened and their Affections did but correspond to their Understandings why if they would but bestow as much time and pains in studying the goodness and the evil of things as they bestow in studying the Truth and Falshood of Enunciations it were the readiest way to obtain this he is usually the best Scholar who hath the quick the clear and the tenacious apprehension but he is usually the best Christian who hath the deepest piercing and affecting Apprehension He is the best Scholar who hath the readiest passage from the Ear to the Brain but he is the best Christian who hath the readiest passage from the Brain to the Heart now Consideration is that on our parts that must open the passage though the Spirit open as the principal cause inconsiderate men are stupid and senseless SECT IV. 2. MAtter 's of great weight which do neerly concern us are aptest to work most effectually upon the Heart now Meditation draweth forth these working Objects and presents them to the Affections in their worth and weight The most delectable Object doth not please him that sees it not nor doth the joyfullest news affect him that never hears it now Consideration presents before us those Objects that were as absent and brings them to the Eye and the Ear of the soul Are not Christ and Glory think you affecting Objects would not they work wonders upon the soul if they were but clearly discovered and strangely transport us if our apprehensions were any wâ—it answerable to their worth why by Consideration it is that they are presented to us This is the Prospective Glass of the Christian by which he can see from Earth to Heaven SECT V. 3. AS Consideration draweth forth the weightiest Objects so it presenteth them in the most affecting way and presseth them home with enforcing Arguments Man is a Rational Creature and apt to be moved in a Reasoning way especially when Reasons are evident and strong Now Consideration is a reasoning the case with a mans own heart and what a multitude of Reasons both clear and weighty are always at hand for to work upon the heart VVhen a Believer would reason his heart to this heavenly work how many Arguments do offer themselves from God from the Redeemer from every one of the Divine Attributes from our former Estate from our present Estate from Promises from Seals from Earnest from the Evil we now suffer from the Good we partake of from Hell from Heaven every thing doth offer it self to promote our joy now Meditation is the Hand to draw forth all these as when you are weighing a thing in the Ballance you lay on a little more and a little more till it weigh down so if your Affections do hang in a dull indifferency why due Meditation will add Reason after Reason till the scales do turn Or as when you are buying any thing of necessity for your use you bid a little more and a little more till at last you come to the sellers price so when Meditation is perswading you to Joy it will first bring one Reason and then another till it have silenced all your distrust and sorrows and your cause to rejoyce lyes plain before you If another mans reasons will
while thou gavest up thy state thy friends thy life yea thy soul for lost and he opened to thee a Well of Consolation and opened thine eyes also that thou mightest see it How oft hath he found thee in the posture of Elias sitting down under the tree forlorn and solitary and desiring rather to dye then to live and he hath spread thee a Table of relief from Heaven and sent thee away refreshed and encouraged to his VVork How oft hath he found thee in the trouble of the Servant of Elisha crying out Alas what shall we do for an Host doth compass the City and he hath opened thine eyes to see more for thee then against thee both in regard of the enemies of thy soul and thy body How oft hath he found thee in such a passion as Jonas in thy peevish frenzy aweary of thy life and he hath not answered passion with passion though he might indeed have done well to be angry but hath mildely reasoned thee out of thy madness and said Dost thou well to be angry or to repine against me How oft hath he set thee on watching and praying on repenting and beleeving and when he hath returned hath found thee fast asleep and yet he hath not taken thee at the worst but in stead of an angry aggravation of thy fault he hath covered it over with the mantle of Love and prevented thy over-much sorrow with a gentle excuse The Spirit is willing but the flesh is weak He might have done by thee as Epaminondas by his Souldier who finding him asleep upon the VVatch run him through with his Sword and said Dead I found thee and dead I leave thee but he rather chose to awake thee more gently that his tenderness might admonish thee and keep thee watching How oft hath he been traduced in his Cause or Name and thou hast like Peter denied him at lest by thy silence whilst he hath stood in sight yet all the revenge he hath taken hath been a heart-melting look and a silent remembring thee of thy fault by his countenance How oft hath Law and Conscience haled thee before him as the Pharisees did the adulterous woman and laid thy most hainous crimes to thy charge And when thou hast expected to hear the sentence of death he hath shamed away thy Accusers and put them to silence and taken on him he did not hear thy Inditement and said to thee Neither do I accuse thee Go thy way and sin no more And art thou not yet transported and ravished with Love Can thy heart be cold when thou think'st of this or can it hold when thou remembrest those boundless compassions Remembrest thou not the time when he met thee in thy duties when he smiled upon thee and spake comfortably to thee when thou didst sit down under his shadow with great delight and when his fruit was sweet to thy taste when he brought thee to his Banqueting House and his Banner over thee was Love when his left hand was under thy head and with his right hand he did embrace thee And dost thou not yet cry ouâ— Stay me comfort me for I am sick of Love Thus Reader I would have thee deal with thy heart Thus hold forth the goodness of Christ to thy Affections plead thus the case with thy frozen soul till thou say as David in another case My heart was hot within me while I was musing the fire burned Psal. 39.3 If these forementioned Arguments will not rouse up thy love thou hast more enough of this nature at hand Thou hast all Christs personal excellencies to study thou hast all his particular mercies to thy self both special and common thou hast all his sweet and neer relations to thee and thou hast the happiness of thy perpetual abode with him hereafter all these do offer themselves to thy Meditation with all their several branches and adjuncts Only follow them close to thy heart ply the work and let it not cool Deal with thy heart as Christ did with Peter when he asked him thrice over Lovest thou me till he was grieved and answers Lord thou knowest that I love thee So say to thy Heart Lovest thou thy Lord and ask it the second time and urge it the third time Lovest thou thy Lord till thou grieve it and shame it out of its stupidity and it can truly say Thou knowest that I love him And thus I have shewed you how to excite the affection of Love SECT VI. 2. THe next Grace or Affection to be excited is Desire The Object of it is Goodness considered as absent or not yet attained This being so necessary an attendant of Love and being excited much by the same forementioned objective considerations I suppose you need the less direction to be here added and therefore I shall touch but briefly on this If love be hot I warrant you desire will not be cold When thou hast thus viewed the goodness of the Lord and considered of the pleasures that are at his right hand then proceed on with thy Meditation thus Think with thy self Where have I been what have I seen O the incomprehensible astonishing Glory O the rare transcendent beauty O blessed souls that now enjoy it that see a thousand times more clearly what I have seen but darkly at this distance and scarce discerned through the interposing clouds What a difference is there betwixt my state and theirs I am sighing and they are singing I am sinning and they are pleasing God I have an ulcerated cancrous soul like the lothsome bodyes of Job or Lazarus a spectacle of pitty to those that behold me But they are perfect and without blemish I am here intangled in the love of the world when they are taken up with the love of God I live indeed amongst the means of grace and I possess the fellowship of my fellow-believers But I have none of their immediate views of God nor none of that fellowship which they possess They have none of my cares and fears They weep not in secret They languish not in sorrows These tears are wiped away from their eyes O happy a thousand times happy souls Alas that I must dwell in dirty flesh when my Brethren and companions do dwell with God! Alas that I am lapt in earth and tyed as a mountain down to this inferior world when they are got above the Sun and have laid aside their lumpish bodyes Alas that I must lye and pray and wait and pray and wait as if my heart were in my knees when they do nothing but Love and Praise and Joy and Enjoy as if their hearts were got into the very breast of Christ and were closely conjoyned to his own heart How far out of sight and reach and hearing of their high enjoyments do I here live when they feel them and feed and live upon them What strange thoughts have I of God What strange conceivings What strange affections I am fain
to superscribe my best services as the blinde Athenians To the unknown God when they are as well acquainted with him as men that live continually in his house and as familiar in their holy praises as if they were all one with him What a little of that God that Christ that spirit that life that love that joy have I and how soon doth it depart and leave me in sadder darkness Now and then a spark doth fall upon my heart and while I gaze upon it it strait goes out or rather my cold resisting heart doth quench it But they have their light in his light and live continually at the spring of Joyes Here are we vexing each other with quarrels and troubling our peace with discontents when they are one in heart and voice and daily sound forth their Hallelujah's to God with full delightful Harmony and concent O what a Feast hath my faith beheld and O what a famine is yet in my spirit I have seen a glympse into the Court of God but alas I stand but as a begger at the doors when the souls of my companions are admitted in O blessed souls I may not I dare not envye your happiness I rather rejoyce in my brethrens prosperity and am glad to think of the day when I shall be admitted into your fellowship But I cannot but look upon you as a childe doth on his brother who sits in the mothers lap while himself stands by and wish that I were so happy as to be in your place not to displace you but to Rest there with you Why must I stay and groan and weep and wait My Lord is gone he hath left this earth and is entered into his Glory my Brethren are gone my friends are there my house my hope my All is there and must I stay behinde to sojourn here what precious Saints have left this earth of whom I am ready to say as Amerbachius when he heard of the death of Zuingerus Piget me vivere post tantum virum cujus magna fuit doctrina sed exigua si cum pietate conferatur It is irksome to me to live after such a man whose learning was so great and yet compared with his godliness very small If the Saints were all here if Christ were here then it were no grief for me to stay if the bridegroom were present who could mourn But when my soul is so far distant from my God wonder not what aileth we if I now complain An ignorant Micah will do so for his idol and shall not then my soul do so for God And yet if I had no hope of enjoying I would go and hide my self in the deserts and lye and howl in some obscure wilderness and spend my days in fruitles wishes But seeing it is the promised land of my Rest and the state that I must be advanced to my self and my soul draws neer and is almost at it I will love and long I will look and desire I will breathe out blessed Calvins Motto Vsquequo Domine How long Lord How long How long Lord Holy and True wilt thou suffer this soul to pant and groan and wilt not open and let him in who waits and longs to be with Thee Thus Christian Reader let thy thoughts aspire Thus whet the desires of thy soul by these Meditations Till thy soul long as Davids for the waters of Bethlehem and say O that one would give me to drink of the wells of salvation 2 Sam. 23.15 and till thou canst say as he Psal. 119.174 I have longed for thy salvation O Lord. And as the mother and brethren of Christ when they could not come at him because of the press sent to him saying Thy mother and brethren stand without desiring to see thee send thou up the same message tell him thou standest here without desiring to see him he will own thee 〈…〉 neer relations for he hath said They that hear 〈…〉 and do it are his mother and brethren And thus I have â—neâ—ted you in the acting of your desire after your Rest. SECT VII 3. THe next Affection to be acted is Hope This is of singular use to the soul. It helpeth exceedingly to support it in sufferings it encourageth to adventure upon the greatest difficulties it firmly establisheth it in the most shaking tryals and it mightily enlivens the soul in duties and is the very spring that sets all the wheels a going Who would Preach if it were not in hope to prevail with poor sinners for their Conversion and Confirmation who would pray but for his hope to prevail with God who would beleeve or obey or strive or suffer or do any thing for Heaven if it were not for the hope that he hath to obtain it Would the Marriner sail and the Merchant adventure if they had not hope of safety and success would the Husbandman plough and sow and take pains if he had not hope of increase at Harvest would the Souldier fight if he hoped not for victory Sureâ—io man doth adventure upon known impossibilities Therefore it is that they who pray meerly from custom or meerly from conscience considering it as a duty onely but looking for no great matters from God by their prayers are generally formal and heartless therein whereas the Christian that hath observed the wonderful success of prayer and as verily looks for benefit by it and thriving to his soul in the use of it as he looks for benefit by his labors and thriving to his body in the use of his food how faithfully doth he follow it and how cheerfully go through it O how willingly do we Ministers study how cheerfully do we Preach What life doth it put into our instructions and exhortations when we have but hope that our labor will succeed when we discern a people attend to the Word and regard the Message and hear them inquire what they shall do as men that are willing to be ruled by God and as men that would fain have their souls to be saved you would not think how it helpeth us both for invention and expression O who can chuse but pray heartily for and preach heartily to such a people As the sucking of the young one doth draw forth the milk so will the peoples desire and obedience draw forth the Word So that a dull people make dull Preachers and a lively people make a lively Preacher So great a force hath hope in all our duties As hope of speeding encreaseth so doth diligence in seeking encrease besides the great conducement of it to our joy Even the false hope of the wicked doth much support and maintain a kinde of comfort answerable to their hope though its true their hope and joy will both die with them How much more will the Saints hopes refresh and support them All this I have said to shew you the excellency and necessity of this Grace and so to provoke you to the more constant acting of it If
your hope dieth your duties die yours endevors die your joyes die and your souls die And if your hope be not acted but lie asleep its next to dead both in likeness and preparation Therefore Christian Reader when thou art winding up thy affections to Heaven do not forget to give one lift at thy Hope remember to winde up this peg also The object of Hope hath four qualifications First It must be good secondly Future thirdly Difficult fourthly yet Possible For the goodness of thy Rest there is somewhat said before which thou maist transfer hither as thou findest it useful so also of the difficulty and futurity Let Faith then shew thee the truth of the Promise and Judgment the goodness of the thing promised and what then is wanting for the raising of thy hope Shew thy soul from the Word and from the Mercies and from the Nature of God what possibility yea what probability yea what certainty thou hast of possessing the Crown Think thus and reason thus with thine own heart Why should I not confidently and comfortably hope when my soul is in the hands of so compassionate a Saviour and when the Kingdom is at the disposal of so bounteous a God Did he ever manifest any backwardness to my good or discover the least inclination to my ruine Hath he not sworn the contrary to me in his Word that he delights not in the death of him that dieth but rather that he should repent and live Have not all his dealings with me witnessed the same Did he not minde me of my danger when I never feared it and why was this if he would not have me to escape it Did he not minde me of my happiness when I had no thoughts of it and why was this but that he would have me to enjoy it How oft hath he drawn me to himself and his Christ when I have drawn backward and would have broken from him What restless importunity hath he used in his suit how hath he followed me from place to place and his Spirit incessantly sollicited my heart with winning suggestions and perswasions for my good And would he have done all this if he had been willing that I should perish If my soul were in the hands of my mortal foes then indeed there were small hopes of my salvation yea if it were wholly in my own hands my flesh and my folly would betray it to damnation But have I as much cause to distrust God as to distrust my foes or to distrust my self Sure I have not Have I not a sure Promise to build and rest on and the Truth of God engaged to fulfil it Would I not hope if an honest man had made me a promise of any thing in his power And shall I not hope when I have the Covenant and the Oath of God It s true the glory is out of sight we have not beheld the Mansions of the Saints Who hath ascended up to discover it and descended to tell us what he had seen why but the Word is neer me Have I not Moses and the Prophets Christ and his Apostles Is not the promise of God more certain then our sight it is not by sight but by hope that we must be saved and hope that is seen is not hope for if we see it why do we yet hope for it but if we hope for that we see not then do we with patience wait for it Rom. 8.24 25. I have been ashamed of my hope in the arm of flesh but hope in the promise of God maketh not ashamed Rom. 5.5 I will say therefore in my greatest sufferings with the Church Lam. 3.24 c. The Lord is my portion therefore will I hope in him The Lord is good to them that wait for him to the soul that seeketh him It is good that I both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord. It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth I will sit alone and keep silence because I have born it upon me I will put my mouth in the dust if so be there may be hope For the Lord will not cast off for ever But though he cause grief yet will he have compassion according to the multitude of his mercies Though I languish and die yet will I hope for he hath said The righteous hath hope in his death Prov. 14.32 Though I must lie down in dust and darkness yet there my flesh shall rest in hope Psal. 16.9 And when my flesh hath nothing in which it may rejoyce yet will I keep the rejoycing of hope firm to the end Heb. 3.6 For he hath said The hope of the righteous shall be gladness Prov. 10.28 Indeed if I had lived still under the Covenant of Works and been put my self to the satisfying of that Justice then there had been no hope But Christ hath taken down those impossibilities and hath brought in a better hope by which we may now draw nigh to God Heb. 7.19 Or if I had to do with a feeble Creature there were small hope for how could he raise this Body from the dust and lift me up above the Sun But what is this to the A mighty Power who made the Heavens and Earth of nothing Cannot that same power that raised Christ raise me and that hath glorified the Head also glorifie the Members Doubtless by the blood of Christs Covenant will God send forth his prisoners from the pit wherein is no water therefore will I turn to this strong hold as a prisoner of hope Zach. 9.11 12. And thus you see how Meditation may excite your Hope SECT VIII 4. THe next Affection to be acted is Courage or Boldness which leadeth to Resolution and concludeth in Action When you have thus mounted your Love and Desire and Hope go on and think further thus with your selves And will God indeed dwell with men And is there such a glory within the reach of hope O why do I not then lay hold upon it where is the cheerful vigor of my spirit why do I not gird up the loyns of my minde and play the man for such a prize why do I not run with speed the race before me and set upon mine enemies on every side and valiantly break through all resistance why do I not take this Kingdom by force and my fervent soul catch at the place do I yet sit still and Heaven before me If my Beast do but see his Provender if my greedy senses perceive but their delightful objects I have much ado to stave them off And should not my soul be as eager for such a blessed Rest why then do I not undauntedly fall to work what should stop me or what should dismay me Is God with me or against me in the work will Christ stand by me or will he not If it were a way of sin that leads to death then I might expect that God should resist me and stand in my way with
make use of discovering Signs drawn from the Nature Properties Effects Adjuncts c. 4. So far as this Trial hath discovered thy neglect and other sins against this Rest proceed to the reprehension and censuring of thy self chide thy heart for its Omissions and Commissions and do it sharply till it feel the smart as Peter Preached Reproof to his Hearers till they were pricked to the heart and cried out And as a Father or Master will chide the childe till it begin to cry and be sensible of the fault so do thou in chiding thy own heart This is called a use of Reproof Here also it will be very necessary that thou bring forth all the aggravating Circumstances of the sin that thy heart may feel it in its weight bitterness and if thy heart do evade or deny the sin convince it by producing the several Discoveries 5. So far as thou discoverest that thou hast been faithful in the duty turn it to Incouragement to thy self and to Thanks to God where thou maist consider of the several aggravatiors of the mercy of the Spirits enabling thee thereto 6. So as it respects thy duty for the future consider how thou maist improve this comfortable Doctrine which must be by strong and effectual perswasion with thy heart First By way of Dehortation from the forementioned sins Secondly By way of Exhortation to the severall duties And these are either first Internal or secondly External First Therefore admonish thy heart of its own inward neglects and contempts Secondly And then of the neglects and trespasses in thy practice against this blessed state of Rest. Set home these severall Admonitions to the quick Take thy heart as to the brink of the bottomless pit force it to look in threaten thy self with the theatnings of the Word tell it of the torments that it draweth upon it self tell it what joyes it is madly rejecting force it to promise thee to do so no more and that not with a cold and heartless promise but earnestly with most solemn asseverations and engagements Secondly The next and last is to drive on thy soul to those positive duties which are required of thee in relation this to Rest As first to the inward duties of thy heart and there first To be diligent in making sure of this Rest secondly To Rejoyce in the expectation of it This is called a use of Consolation It is to be furthered by first laying open the excellency of the State and secondly the certainty of it in it self and thirdly our own interest in it by clearing and proving all these and confuting all sadning objections that may be brought against them thirdly So also for the provoking of Love of Hope and all other the Affections in the way before more largely opened And secondly press on thy heart also to all outward duties that are to be performed in thy way to Rest whether in worship or in civil conversation whether publike or private ordinary or extraordinary This is commonly called A use of Exhortation Here bring in all quickning Considerations either those that may drive thee or those that may draw which work by Fear or which work by Desire These are commonly called Motives but above all be sure that thou follow them home Ask thy heart what it can say against them Is there weight in them or is there not and then what it can say against the duty Is it necessary is it comfortable or is it not when thou hast silenced thy heart and brought it to a stand then drive it further and urge it to a Promise As suppose it were to the duty of Meditation which we are speaking of Force thy self beyond these lazy purposes resolve on the duty before thou stir Enter into a solemn Covenant to be faithful let not thy heart go till it have without all halting and reservations flatly promised thee That it will fall to the work write down this promise shew it to thy heart the next time it loiters then study also the Helps and Means the Hinderances and the Directions that concern thy duty And this is in brief the exercise of this Soliloquy or the Preaching of Heaven to thy own Heart SECT III. BUt perhaps thou wilt say Every man cannot understand this Method this is for Ministers and learned men every man is not able to play the Preacher I Answer thee First There is not that ability required to this as is to the work of publike Preaching here thy thoughts may serve the turn but there must be also the decent Ornaments of Language here is needful but an honest understanding heart but there must be a good pronunciation and a voluble tongue here if thou miss of the Method thou maist make up that in one piece of Application which thou hast neglected in another but there thy failings are injurious to many and a scandal and disgrace to the Work of God thou knowest what will fit thy own heart and what Arguments take best with thy own Affections but thou art not so well acquainted with the dispositions of others Secondly I answer further Every man is bound to be skilful in the Scriptures as wel as Ministers Kings and Magistrates Deut. 17.18 19 20. Josh. 1.8 And the people also Deut. 6.6 7 8. Do you think if you did as is there commanded Write it upon thy heart lay them up in thy soul binde them upon thy hand and between thine eyes meditate in them day and night I say if you did thus would you not quickly understand as much as this See Psal. 1.3 Deut. 11.18 6.6 7. Doth not God command thee to teach them diligently to thy children and to talk of them when thou sittest in thy house when thou walkest by the way when thou lyest down and when thou risest up And if thou must be skilled to teach thy children much more to teach thy self and if thou canst talk of them to others why not also to thine own heart Certainly our unskilfulness and disability both in a Methodical and lively teaching of our Families and of our selves is for the most part meerly through our own negligence and a sin for which we have no excuse You that learn the skil of your Trades and Sciences might learn this also if you were but willing and painful And so I have done with this particular of Soliloquy SECT IV. 2. ANother step to arise by in our Contemplation is from this speaking to our selves to speak to God Prayer is not such a stranger to this duty but that ejaculatory requests may be intermixed or added and that as a very part of the duty it self How oft doth David intermix these in his Psalmes sometime pleading with his soul and sometime with God and that in the same Psalme and in the next verses The Apostle bids us speak to our selves in Psalms and Hymns and no doubt we may also speak to God in them this keeps the soul in minde of the Divine Presence
to conceive And doubtless as the Spirit doth speak so we must hear and if our necessity cause him to condescend in his expressions it must needs cause us to be low in our conceivings Those conceivings and expressions which we have of Spirits and things meerly Spiritual they are commonly but second Notions without the first but meer names that are put into our mouths without any true conceivings of the things which they signifie or our conceivings which we express by those notions or terms are meerly negative what things are not rather then what they are As when we mention Spirits we mean they are not corporeal substances but what they are we cannot tell no more then we know what is Aristotles Materia Prima It is one reason of Christs assuming and continuing our nature with the Godhead that we might know him the better when he is so much neerer to us and might have more positive conceivings of him and so our mindes might have familiarity with him who before was quite beyond their reach But what is my scope in all this is it that we might think Heaven to be made of Gold and Pearl or that we should Picture Christ as the Papists do in such a shape or that we should think Saints and Angels do indeed eat and drink No Not that we should take the Spirits figurative expressions to be meant according to strict propriety or have fleshly conceivings of Spiritual things so as to beleeve them to be such indeed But thus To think that to conceive or speak of them in strict propriety is utterly beyond our reach and capacity and therefore we must conceive of them as we are able and that the Spirit would not have represented them in these notions to us but that we have no better notions to apprehend them by and therefore that we make use of these phrases of the Spirit to quicken our apprehensions and affections but not to pervert them and use these low notions as a Glass in which we must see the things themselves though the representation be exceeding imperfect till we come to an immeditae and perfect sight yet still concluding That these phrases though useful are but borrowed and improper The like may be said of those expressions of God in Scripture wherein he represents himself in the imperfections of Creatures as anger repenting willing what shall not come to pass c. Though these be improper drawn from the maner of men yet there is somewhat in God which we can see no better yet then in this glass and which we can no better conceive of then in such notions or else the Holy Ghost would have given us better I would the Judicious Reader would on the by well weigh also how much this conduceth to reconcile us and the Arminians in those ancient and like-to-be continuing Controversies SECT II. 1. GO too then When thou settest thy self to meditate on the joyes above think on them boldly as Scripture hath expressed them Bring down thy conceivings to the reach of sense Excellency without familiarity doth more amaze then delight us Both Love and Joy are promoted by familiar acquaintance When we go about to think of God and Glory in proper conceivings without these Spectacles we are lost and have nothing to fix our thoughts upon We set God and Heaven so far from us that our thoughts are strange and we look at them as things beyond our reach and beyond our line and are ready to say That which is above us is nothing to us To conceive no more of God and Glory but that we cannot conceive them and to apprehend no more but that they are past our apprehension will produce no more love but this To acknowledg that they are so far above us that we cannot love them and no more joy but this That they are above our rejoycing And therefore put Christ no further from you then he hath put himself least the Divine Nature be again inaccessible Think of Christ as in our own nature glorified think of our fellow Saints as men there perfected think of the City and State as the Spirit hath expressed it onely with the Caution and Limitations before mentioned Suppose thou were now beholding this City of God and that thou hadst been companion with John in his Survey of its Glory and hadst seen the Thrones the Majesty the Heavenly Hosts the shining Splendor which he saw Draw as strong suppositions as may be from thy sense for the helping of thy affections It is lawful to suppose we did see for the present that which God hath in Prophecies revealed and which we must really see in more unspeakable brightness before long Suppose therefore with thy self thou hadst been that Apostles fellow-traveller into the Celestial Kingdom and that thou hadst seen all the Saints in their White Robes with Palms in their hands Suppose thou hadst heard those Songs of Moses and of the Lamb or didst even now hear them praising and glorifying the Living God If thou hadst seen these things indeed in what a rapture wouldst thou have been And the more seriously thou puttest this supposition to thy self the more will the Meditation elevate thy heart I would not have thee as the Papists draw them in Pictures nor use mysterious significant Ceremonies to represent them This as it is a course forbidden by God so it would but seduce and draw down thy heart But get the liveliest Picture of them in thy minde that possibly thou canst meditate of them as if thou were all the while beholding them and as if thou were even hearing the Hallelujahs while thou art thinking of them till thou canst say Methinks I see a glympse of the Glory methinks I hear the shouts of joy and praise methinks I even stand by Abraham and David Peter and Paul and many more of these triumphing souls methinks I even see the Son of God appearing in the clouds and the world standing at his bar to receive their doom methinks I even hear him say Come ye blessed of my Father and even see them go rejoycing into the Joy of their Lord My very dreams of these things have deeply affected me and should not these just suppositions affect me much more What if I had seen with Paul those unutterable things should I not have been exalted and that perhaps above measure as well as he What if I had stood in the room of Stephen and seen Heaven opened and Christ sitting at the right hand of God Surely that one sight was worth the suffering his storm of stones O that I might but see what he did see though I also suffered what he did suffer What if I had seen such a sight as Michaiah saw The Lord sitting upon his throne and all the hosts of Heaven standing on his right hand and on his left Why these men of God did see such things and I shall shortly see far more then ever they saw
till they were loosed from this flesh as I must be And thus you see how the familiar conceiving of the state of blessedness as the spirit hath in a condescending language expressed it and our strong raising of suppositions from our bodily senses will further our Affections in this Heavenly work SECT III. 2. THere is yet another way by which we may make our senses here serviceable to us and that is By comparing the objects of sense with the objects of faith and so forcing sense to afford us that Medium from whence we may conclude the transcendent worth of Glory By arguing from sensitive delights as from the less to the greater And here for your further assistance I shall furnish you with some of these comparative Arguments And first You must strongly argue with your hearts from the corrupt delights of sensual men Think then with your selves when you would be sensible of the joyes above Is it such a delight to a sinner to do wickedly and will it not be delightful indeed then to live with God Hath a very drunkard such delight in his cups and companions that the very fears of damnation will not make him forsake them Hath the bruitish whoremaster such delight in his whore that he will part with his credit and estate and salvation rather then he will part with her Sure then there are high delights with God! If the way to hell can afford such pleasure what are the pleasures of the Saints in Heaven If the coveteous man hath so much pleasure in his wealth and the ambitious man in his power and titles of honor what then have the Saints in the everlasting treasures and what plasure do the Heavenly honors afford where we shall be set above principalities and powers and be made the glorious spouse of Christ What pleasure do the voluptuous finde in their sensual courses how closely will they follow their hunting and hawking and other recreations from morning to night How delightfully will they sit at their Cards and Dice hours and dayes and nights together O the delight that mustneeds then be in beholding the face of the Living God and in singing forth praises to him and the Lamb which must be our recreation when we come to our Rest SECT IIII. 2. COmpare also the delights above with the lawfull delights of moderated senses Think with thy self how sweet is food to my taste when I am hungry especially as Isaac said that which my soul loveth that which my temperature and appetite do incline to What delight hath the taste in some pleasant fruits in some well relished meates and in divers junkets O what delight then must my soul needs have in feeding upon Christ the living bread and in eating with him at his table in his Kingdom VVas a mess of pottage so sweet to Esau in his hunger that he would buy them at so dear a rate as his birth-right How highly then should I value this never perishing food How pleasant is drink in the extremity of thirst The delight of it to a man in a feaver or other drought can scarcely be expressed It will make the strength of Sampson revive O then how delightful will it be to my soul to drink of that fountain of living water which who so drinks shall thirst no more So pleasant is wine and so refreshing to the spirits that it s said to make glad the heart of man How pleasant then will that wine of the great marriage be even that wine which our water was turned into that best wine which will be kept till then How delightful are pleasant odors to our smel how delightful is perfect musick to the ear how delightful are beauteous sights to the eye such as curious pictures sumptuous adorned well-contrived buildings handsome necessary rooms walks prospects Gardens stored with variety of beauteous and odoriferous flowers or pleasant Medows which are natural gardens O then think every time thou seest or remembrest these what a fragrant smell hath the pretious ointment which is poured on the head of our glorified Saviour and which must be poured on the heads of all his Saints which will fill all the room of heaven with its odor and perfume how delightful is the musick of the heavenly host how pleasing will be those real beauties above and how glorious the building not made with hands and the house that God himself doth dwell in and the walkes and prospects in the City of God and the beauties and delights in the Celestial Paradise Think seriously what these must needs be The like may be said of the delight of the sense of Feeling which the Philosopher saith is the greatest of all the rest SECT V. 3. COmpare also the delights above which the delights that are found in natural knowledg This is far beyond the delights of sense and the delights of heaven are further beyond it Think then can an Archimedes be so taken up with his Mathematical invention that the threats of death will not take him off but he will dye in the midst of these his natural contemplations Should I not much more be taken up with the delights of Glory and dye with these contemplations fresh upon my soul especially when my death will perfect my delights but those of Archimedes dye with him What a pleasure is it to dive into the secrets of nature to finde out the mystery of Arts and sciences to have a clear understanding in Logick Physicks Metaphysicks Musick Astronomy Geometry c. If we make but any new discovery in one of these or see a little more then we saw before what singular pleasure do we finde therein VVhy think then what high delights there are in the knowledg of God and Christ his Son If the face of humane learning be so beautifull that sensual pleasures are to it but base and bruitish how beautiful then is the face of God VVhen we light of some choice and learned book how are we taken with it we could read and study it day and night we can leave meat and drink and sleep to read it what delights then are there at Gods right hand where we shall know in a moment all that is to be known SECT VI. 4. COmpare also the delights above with the delights of Morality and of the natural affections VVhat delight had many sober Heathens in the rules and Practice of Moral duties so that they took him onely for an honest man who did well through the love of Vertue and not onely for fear of punishment yea so highly did they value this moral Vertue that they thought the chief happiness of man consisted in it VVhy think then what excellency there will be in that rare perfection which we shall be raised to in heaven and in that uncreated perfection of God which we shall behold what sweetness is there in the exercise of natural Love whether to Children to Parents to Yoakfellows or to Friends
is in the Face of God If the very feet of the Messengers of these tidings of Peace be beautiful how beautiful is the face of the Prince of Peace If the word in the mouth of a fellow servant be so pleasant what is the living Word himself If this Treasure be so pretious in earthen Vessels what is that Treasure laid up in Heaven Think with thy self If I had heard but such a Divine Prophet as Isaiah or such a perswading moving Prophet as Jeremy or such a worker of Miracles as Elijah or Elisha how delightful a hearing would this have been If I had heard but Peter or John or Paul I should rejoyce in it as long as I lived but what would I give that I had heard one Sermon from the mouth of Christ himself sure I should have felt the comfort of it in my very foul why but alas all this is nothing to what we shall have above O blessed are the eyes that see what there is seen and the ears that hear that things that there are heard There shall I hear Elias Isaiah Daniel Peter John not preaching to an obstinate people in imprisonment in persecution and reproach but triumphing in the praises of him that hath advanced them Austin was wont to wish these three wishes first That he might have seen Christ in the flesh secondly That he might have heard Paul Preach thirdly That he might have seen Rome in its glory Alas these are small matters all to that which Austin now beholds there we see not Christ in the form of a servant but Christ in his Kingdom in Majesty and Glory not Paul Preach in weakness and contempt but Paul with millions more rejoycing and triumphing not pesecuting Rome in a fading glory but Jerusalem which is above in perfect and lasting glory So also think what a joy it is to have access and acceptance in Prayer that when any thing aileth me I may go to God and open my case and unbosom my soul to him as to my most faithful friend especially knowing his sufficiency and willingness to relieve me O but it will be a more surpassing unspeakable joy when I shal receive all blessings without asking them and when all my necessities and miseries are removed and when God himself will be the portion and inheritance of my soul. What consolation also have we oft received in the Supper of the Lord what a priviledge is it to be admitted to sit at his Table to have his Covenant sealed to me by the outward Ordinance and his special Love sealed by his Spirit to my heart Why but all the life and comfort of these is their declaring and assuring me of the comforts hereafter their use is but darkly to signifie and seal those higher mercies when I shall indeed drink with him the fruit of the vine renewed it will then be a pleasant feast indeed O the difference between the last Supper of Christ on earth and the marriage Supper of the Lamb at the great day Here he is in an upper roome accompanied with twelve poor selected men feeding on no curious dainties but a Paschal Lamb with sowâ—e Herbs and a Judas at his table ready to betray him But then his room will be the Glorious Heavens his attendants all the host of Angels and Saints no Judas nor unfurnished guest comes there but the humble believers must sit down by him and the Feast will be their mutual Loving and Rejoycing Yet further think with thy self thus The communion of the Saints on earth is a most delectable mercy What a pleasure is it to live with understanding and heavenly Christians â— Even David saith they were all his delight O then what a delightful society shall I have above The Communion of Saints is there somewhat worth where their understandings are fully cleared and their affections so highly advanced If I had seen but Job in his sores upon the Dunghil it would have been an excellent sight to see such a mirror of patience what will it be then to see him in glory praising that power which did uphold and deliver him If I had heard but Paul and Sylas singing in the stocks it would have been a delightful hearing what will it be then to hear them sing praises in heaven If I had heard David sing praises on his Lute and Harp it would have been a pleasing Meloâ—dy and that which drove the evil spirit from Saul would sure have driven away the dulness and sadness of my spirit and have been to me as the Musick was to Elisha that the Spirit of Christ in joy would have come upon me why I shall shortly hear that sweet Singer in the heavenly Chore advancing the King of Saints and will not that be a far more melodious hearing If I had spoke with Paul when he was new come down from the third Heavens and he might have revealed to me the things which he had seen O what would I give for an hours such conference how far would I go to hear such an Narration why I must shortly see those very things my self yea and far more then Paul was then capable of seeing and yet shall I see no more then I shall possess If I had spoke but one hour with Lazarus when he was risen from the dead heard him describe the things which he had seen in another world if God would permit and enable him thereto what a joyful discourse would that have been How many thousand books may I read before I could know so much as he could have told me in that hour If God would have suffered him to tell what he had seen the Jews would have more thronged to hear him then they did to see him O but this would have been nothing to the sight it self and to the fruition of all that which Lazaâ—us saw Once again think with thy self what a soul raising imployment is the praising of God especially in consort with his affectionate Saints What if I had been in the place of those Shepherds and seen the Angels and heard the multitude of the heavenly Host praising God and saying Glory to God in the highest and on earth peace good will towards men Luke 2.13 14. what a glorious sight and hearing would this have been but I shall see and hear more glorious things then this If I had stood by Christ when he was thanking his Father Joh 17. I should have thought mine ears even blessed with his voyce how much more when I shall hear him pronounce me blessed If there were such great joy at the bringing back of the Ark 2 Sam. 6.15 and such great joy at the reedifying the material Temple Nehe. 12.43 what joy will there be in the New Jerusalem why If I could but see the Church here in Unity and Prosperity and the undoubted Order and Discipline of Christ established and his Ordinances purely and powerfully administred what an unspeakable joy to my soul it would
death the next day that they might not change their resolution lest he should miss of his expectation What thanks then shall I give my Lord for removing me from this loathsome prison to his Glory and how loth should I be to be deprived thereof When Luther thought he should dye of an Apoplexy it comforted him and made him more willing because the good Duke of Saxony and before him the Apostle John had died of that disease how much more should I be willing to pass the way that Christ hath passed and come to the glory where Christ is gone If Luther could thereupon say Feri Domine feri clementer ipse paratus sum quia verbo tuo a peccatis absolutus Strike Lord strike gently I am ready because by thy Word I am absolved from my sins how much more cheerfully should I cry come Lord and advance me to this glory and repose my weary soul in Rest SECT XII 10. COmpare also the Glory of the Heavenly Kingdom with the glory of the imperfect Church on earth and with the Glory of Christ in his state of Humiliation And you may easily conclude If Christ under his fathers wrath and Christ standing in the room of sinners were so wonderful in excellencies what then is Christ at the Fathers right hand And if the Church under her sins and enemies have so much beauty something it will have at the marriage of the Lamb. How wonderful was the Son of God in the forme of a servant When he is born the Heavens must proclaime him by miracles A new Star must appear in the firmament and fetch men from remote parts of the world to worship him in a manger The Angels and Heavenly host must declare his Nativity and solemnize it with praising and glorifying God When he is but a childe he must dispute with the Doctors and confute them VVhen he sets upon his office his whole life is a wonder Water turned into wine thousands fed with five loaves and two fishes multitudes following him to see his miracles The lepers cleansed the sick healed the lame restored the blinde receive their sight the dead raised if we had seen all this should we not have thought it wonderful The most desperate diseases cured with a touch with a word speaking the blinde eyes with a little clay and spittle the Devil departing by Legions at his command the windes and the seas obeying his VVord are not all these wonderful Think then How wonderful is his Celestial Glory If there be such cutting down of boughs and spreading of Garments and crying Hosanna to one that comes into Jerusalem riding on an Asse what will there be when he comes with his Angels in his Glory If they that heard him preach the Gospel of the Kingdom have their hearts turned within them that they returne and say Never man spake like this Man Then sure they that behold his Majesty in his Kingdom will say There was never glory like this Glory If when his enemies come to apprehend him the word of his mouth doth cast them all to the ground if when he is dying the earth must tremble the vail of the Temple rent the sun in the firmament must hide its face and deny its light to the sinful world and the dead bodies of the Saints arise and the standers by be forced to acknowledge Verely this was the Son of God O then what a day will it be when he will once more shake not the Earth only but the Heavens also and remove the things that are shaken when this Sun shall be taken out of the firmament and be everlastingly darkened with the brightness of his Glory when the dead must all arise and stand before him and all shall acknowledge him to be the Son of God and every tongue confess him to be Lord and King If when he riseth again the Grave and Death have lost their power and the Angels of Heaven must roll away the stone and astonish the watchmen till they are as dead men and send the tidings to his dejected Disciples If the bolted doors cannot keep him forth If the sea be as firme ground for him to walk on If he can asend to Heaven in the sight of his Disciples and send the Angels to forbid them gazing after him O what Power and Dominion and Glory then is he now possessed of and must we for ever possess with him Yet think further Are his very servants enabled to do such miracles when he is gone from them Can a few poor fishermen and tent-makers and the like Mechanicks cure the lame and blinde and sick open their prisons destroy the disobedient raise the dead and astonish their adversaries O then what a world will that be where every one can do greater works then these and shall be highlier honoured then by the doing of wonders It were much to have the Devils subject to us but more to have our names written in the book of Life If the very preaching of the gospel be accompanied with such power that it will pierce the heart and discover its secrets bring down the proud and make the stony sinner tremble If it can make men burne their books sel their lands bring in the price and lay it down at the Preachers feet If it can make the spirits of Princes stoop and the Kings of the Earth resigne their Crownes and do their homage to Jesus Christ If it can subdue Kingdome and convert thousands and turn the world thus upside down If the very mention of the Judgment and Life to come can make the Judge on the bench to tremble when the prisoner at the bar doth preach this Doctrine O what then is the Glory of the Kingdom it self What an absolute Dominion hath Christ and his Saints And if they have this Power and Honour in the day of their abasement and in the time appointed for their suffering and disgrace what then will they have in their full advancement SECT XIII 11. COmpare thy mercies thou shalt have above with the mercies which Christ hath here bestowed on thy soul and the glorious change which thou shalt have at last with the gracious change which the Spirit hath wrought on thy heart Compare the comforts of thy glorification with the comforts of thy sanctification There is not the smallest grace in thee which is genuine and sincere but is of greater worth then the riches of the Indies not a hearty desire and groan after Christ but is more to be valued then the Kingdoms of the VVorld A renewed nature is the very Image of God Scripture calleth it by the name of Christ dwelling in us and the Spirit of God abiding in us It is as a beam from the face of God himself it is the Seed of God remaining in us it is the onely inherent beauty of the rational soul it innobleth man above all nobility it fitteth him to understand his Makers pleasure to do his VVill and to receive his
Glory VVhy think then with thy self If this grain of Mustard seed be so precious what is the Tree of Life in the midst of the Paradise of God If a spark of life which will but strive against corruptions and flame out a few desires and groans be so much worth how glorious then is the Fountain and End of this life If we be said to be like God and to bear his Image and to be holy as he is holy when alas we are pressed down with a body of sin Sure we shall then be much liker God when we are perfectly holy and without blemish and have no such thing as sin within us Is the desire after Heaven so precious a thing what then is the thing it self which is desired Is the love so excellent what then is the beloved Is our joy in foreseeing and believing so sweet what will be the joy in the full possessing O the delight that a Christian hath in the lively exercise of some of these affections VVhat good do's it to his very heart when he can feelingly say He loves his Lord what sweetness is there in the very act of loving yea even those troubling Passions of Sorrow and Fear are yet delightful when they are rightly exercised How glad is a poor Christian when he feeleth his heart begin to melt and when the thoughts of sinful unkindness will dissolve it Even this Sorrow doth yield him matter of Joy O what will it then be when we shall do nothing but know God and love and rejoyce and praise and all this in the highest perfection what a comfort is it to my doubting soul when I have a little assurance of the sincerity of my graces when upon examination I can but trace the Spirit in his sanctifying works How much more will it comfort me to finde that this Spirit hath safely conducted me and left me in the arms of Jesus Christ what a change was it that the Spirit made upon my soul when he first turned me from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God To be taken from that horrid state of nature wherein my self and my actions were loathsom to God and the sentence of death was past upon me and the Almighty took me for his utter enemy and to be presently numbred among his Saints and called his Friend his Servant his Son and the sentence revoked which was gone forth O what a change was this To be taken from that state wherein I was born and had lived delightfully so many yeers and was rivetted in it by custom and engagements when thousands of sins did lie upon my score and if I had so died I had been damned for ever and to be justified from all these enormous crimes and freed from all these fearful plagues and put into the title of an Heir of Heaven O what an astonishing change was this Why then consider how much greater will that glorious change then be Beyond expressing beyond conceiving How oft when I have thought of this change in my Regeneration have I cryed out O blessed day and blessed be the Lord that I ever saw it why how then shall I cry out in Heaven O blessed Eternity and blessed be the Lord that brought me to it Was the mercy of my conversion so exceeding great that the Angels of God did rejoyce to see it Sure then the mercy of my salvation will be so great that the same Angels will congratulate my felicity This Grace is but a spark that is raked up in the ashes it is covered with flesh from the sight of the world and covered with corruption sometime from mine-own sight But my Everlasting glory will not so be clouded nor my light be under a bushel but upon a hill even upon Sion the Mount of God SECT XIIII 12. LAstly compare the joyes which thou shalt have above with those foretastes of it which the Spirit hath given thee here Judg of the Lyon by the Paw and of the Ocean of Joy by that drop which thou hast tasted Thou hast here thy strongest refreshing comforts but as that man in Hell would have had the water to cool him a little upon the tip of the finger for thy tongue to taste yet by this little thou maist conjecture at the quality of the whole Hath not God sometime revealed himself extraordinarily to thy soul and let a drop of glory fall upon it Hast thou not been ready to say O that it might be thus with my soul continually and that I might always feel what I feel sometimes Didst thou never cry out with the Martyr after thy long and doleful expectations He is come he is come Didst thou never in a lively Sermon of Heaven nor in thy retired contemplations on that blessed State perceive thy drooping spirits revive and thy dejected heart to lift up the head and the light of Heaven to break forth to thy soul as a morning Star or as the dawning of the day Didst thou never perceive thy heart in these duties to be as the childe that Elisha revived to wax warm within thee and to recover life VVhy think with thy self then what is this earnest to the full Inheritance Alas all this light that so amazeth and rejoyceth me is but a Candle lighted from Heaven to lead me thither through this world of darkness If the light of a Star in the night be such or the little glimmering at the break of the day what then is the light of the Sun at noontide If some godly men that we read of have been overwhelmed with joy till they have cryed out Hold Lord stay thy hand I can bear no more like weak eyes that cannot endure too great a light O what will then be my joyes in Heaven when as the object of my joy shall be the most glorious God so my soul shall be made capable of seeing and enjoying him and though the light be ten thousand times greater then the Suns yet my eyes shall be able for ever to behold it Or if thou be one that hast not felt yet these sweet foretastes for every beleever hath not felt them then make use of the former delights which thou hast felt that thou maist the better discern what hereafter thou shalt feel And thus I have done with the fifth part of this Directory and shewed you on what grounds to advance your Meditations and how to get them to quicken your affections by comparing the unseen delights of Heaven with those smaller which you have seen and felt in the flesh CHAP. XII How to manage and watch over the Heart through the whole Work SECT 1. SIxthly The sixt and last part of this Directory is To guide you in the managing of your hearts through this work and to shew you wherein you have need to be exceeding watchful I have shewed before what must be done with your hearts in your preparations to the work and in your setting upon it I shall now shew
it you in respect of the time of performance Our chief work will here be to discover to you the danger and that will direct you to the fittest remedy Let me therefore here acquaint you beforehand That when ever you set upon this Heavenly employment you shall finde your own hearts your greatest hinderer and they will prove false to you in one or all of these four degrees First They will hold off that you will hardly get them to the work secondly or else they will betray you by their idleness in the work pretending to do it when they do it not or thirdly they will interrupt the work by their frequent excursions and turning aside to every object or fourthly they will spoil the work by cutting it short and be gone before you have done any good on it Therefore I here forewarn you as you value the unvaluable comfort of this work that you faithfully resist these four dangerous evils or else all that I have said hitherto is in vain 1. Thou shalt finde thy heart as backward to this I think as to any work in the world O what excuses it will make what evasions it will finde out and what delays and demurs when it is never so much convinced Either it will question whether it be a duty or not or if it be so to others yet whether it be so to thee It will rake up any thing like reason to plead against it it will tell thee That this is a work for Ministers that have nothing else to study on or for Cloysterers or persons that have more leisure then thou hast If thou be a Minister it will tell thee This is the duty of the people it is enough for thee to meditate for the instructing of them and let them meditate on what they have heard as if it were thy duty onely to cook their meat and serve it up and perhaps a little to taste the sweetness by licking thy fingers while thou art dressing it for others but it is they onely that must eat it digest it and live upon it Indeed the smell may a little refresh thee but it must be digesting it that must maintain thy strength and life If all this will not serve thy heart will tell thee of other business thou hast this company stayes for thee or that business must be done It may be it will set thee upon some other duty and so make one duty shut out another for it had rather go to any duty then to this Perhaps it will tell thee that other duties are greater and therefore this must give place to them because thou hast not time for both Publike business is of more concernment to study to preach for the saving of souls must be preferred before these private contemplations As if thou hadst not time to see to the saving of thy own soul for looking after others or thy charity to others were so great that it draws thee to neglect thy comfort and salvation or as if there were any better way to fit us to be useful to others then to make this experience of our doctrine our selves Certainly Heaven where is the Father of Lights is the best fire to light our candle at and the best book for a Preacher to study and if they would be perswaded to study that more the Church would be provided of more heavenly lights And when their Studies are Divine and their Spirits Divine their preaching will then be also Divine and they may be fitly called Divines indeed Or if thy heart have nothing to say against the work then it will trifle away the time in delayes and promise this day and the next but still keep off from the doing of the business Or lastly If thou wilt not be so baffled with excuses or delayes thy heart will give thee a flat denial and oppose its own unwillingness to thy Reason Thou shalt finde it come to the work as a Bear to the stake and draw back with all the strength it hath I speak all this of the heart so far as it is carnal which in too great a measure is in the best for I know so far as the heart is Spiritual it will judg this work the sweetest in the world Well then what is to be done in the forementioned case wilt thou do it if I tell thee Why what wouldst thou do with a servant that were thus backward to his work or to thy beast that should draw back when thou wouldst have him go forward Wouldst thou not first perswade and then chide and then spur him and force him on and take no denial nor let him alone till thou hadst got him closely to fall to his work Wouldst thou not say Why what should I do with a servant that will not work or with an Ox or Horse that will not travel or labor Shall I keep them to look on Wilt thou then faithfully deal thus with thy heart If thou be not a lazie self deluding Hypocrite say I will by the help of God I will Set upon thy heart roundly perswade it to the work take no denial chide it for its backwardness use violence with it bring it to the service willing or not willing Art thou master of thy flesh or art thou a servant to it hast thou no command of thy own thoughts cannot thy will chuse the subject of thy Meditations especially when thy judgment thus directeth thy will I am sure God once gave thee mastery over thy flesh and some power to govern thy own thoughts Hast thou lost thy authority art thou become a slave to thy depraved nature Take up the authority again which God hath given thee command thy heart if it rebel use violence with it if thou be too weak call in the Spirit of Christ to thine assistance He is never backward to so good a work nor will deny his help in so just a cause God will be ready to help thee if thou be not unwilling to help thy self Say to him Why Lord thou gavest my Reason the command of my Thoughts and Affections the authority I have received over them is from thee and now behold they refuse to obey thine authority Thou commandest me to set them to the work of Heavenly Meditation but they rebel and stubbornly refuse the duty Wilt thou not assist me to execute that authority which thou hast given me O send me down thy Spirit and Power that I may enforce thy commands and effectually compel them to obey thy Will And thus doing thou shalt see thy heart will submit its resistance will be brought under and its backwardness will be turned to a yielding compliance SECT II. 2. WHen thou hast got thy heart to the work beware least it delude thee by a loitering formality Least it say I go and go not least it trifle out the time while it should be effectually meditating Certainly the heart is as likely to betray thee in this as in any one particular about
pride and peevishness and other sins that we could scarce oft-times discern their graces But now how glorious a thing is a Saint where is now their body of sin which wearyed themselves and those about them Where are now our different Judgments our reproachful titles our divided spirits our exasperated passions our strange looks our uncharitable censures Now we are all of one judgment of one name of one heart of one house and of one glory O sweet reconcilement O happy Union which makes us first to be one with Christ and then to be one among our selves Now our differences shall be dashed in our teeth no more nor the Gospel reproached through our folly or scandall O my soul thou shalt never more lament the sufferings of the Saints never more condole the Churches ruines never bewail thy suffering freinds nor lye wailing over their death-beds or their graves Thou shalt never suffer thy old temptations from Satan the vvorld or thy ovvn flesh Thy body vvill no more be such a burden to thee thy pains and sicknesses are all novv cured thou shalt be troubled vvith vveakness and vveariness no more Thy head is not novv an aking head nor thy heart novv an aking heart Thy hunger and thirst and cold and sleep thy labor and study are all gone O vvhat a mighty change is this From the dunghill to the throne from persecuting sinners to praising Saints from a body as vile as the carrion in the ditch to a body as bright as the Sun in the firmament from complainings under the displeasure of God to the perfect enjoyment of him in Love from all my doubts and fears of my condition to this possession vvhich hath put me out of doubt from all my fearful thoughts of death to this most blessed Joyful life O vvhat a blessed change is this Farevvell sin and suffering for ever Farevvell my hard and rocky heart farevvell my proud and unbelieving heart farewell atheistical idolatrous vvorldly heart farewell my sensual carnal heart And novv welcome most holy heavenly nature vvhich as it must be imployed in beholding the face of God so is it full of God alone and delighted in nothing else but him O vvho can question the love vvhich he doth so sweetly taste or doubt of that which with such joy he seeleth Farewell repentance confession and supplication farewel the most of hope and faith and welcome love and joy and praise I shall now have my harvest without plowing or sowing my wine without the labor of the vintage my joy without a Preacher or a promise even all from the face of God himself That 's the sight that 's worth the seeing that 's the book that 's worth the reading What ever mixture is in the streams there is nothing but pure joy in the fountain Here shall I be incircled with Eternity and come forth no more here shall I live and ever live and praise my Lord and ever ever ever praise him My face will not wrinkle nor my haire be gray but this mortal shall have put on immortality and this corruptible incorruption and death shall be swallowed up in victory O death where is now thy sting O grave where is thy victory The date of my lease will no more expire nor shall I trouble my self with thoughts of death nor loose my joyes through fear of losing them When millions of ages are past my glory is but beginning and when millions more are past it is no neerer ending Every day is all noontide and every moneth is May or harvest and every yeer is there a jubilee and every age is full manhood and all this is one Eternity O blessed Eternity the glory of my glory the perfection of my perfection Ah drowsie earthy blockish heart How coldly dost thou think of this reviving day Dost thou sleep when thou thinkest of eternal Rest Art thou hanging earthward when heaven is before thee Hadst thou rather sit thee down in dirt and dung then walk in the court of the Palace of God Dost thou now remember thy worldly business Art thou looking back to the Sodom of thy lusts Art thou thinking of thy delights and merry company wretched heart Is it better to be there then above with God is the company better are the pleasures greater Come away make no excuse make no delay God commands and I command thee come away gird up thy loines ascend the mount and look about thee with seriousness and with faith Look thou not back upon the way of the wilderness except it be when thine eyes are dazled with the glory or when thou wouldst compare the Kingdom with that howling desert that thou mayest more sensibly perceive the mighty difference Fix thine eye upon the Sun it self and look not down to Earth as long as thou art able to behold it except it be to discern more easily the brightness of the one by the darkness of the other Yonder far above yonder is thy Fathers glory yonder must thou dwell when thou leavest this Earth yonder must thou remove O my soul when thou departest from this body And when the power of thy Lord hath raised it again and joyned thee to it yonder must thou live with God for ever There is the glorious New Jerusalem the Gates of Pearl the foundations of Pearl the Streets and Pavements of transparent Gold Seest thou that Sun which lighteth all this world why it must be taken down as useless there or the glory of Heaven will darken it and put it out even thy self shall be as bright as yonder shining Sun God will be the Sun and Christ the Light and in his Light shalt thou have light What thinkest thou O my soul of this most blessed state What! Dost thou stagger at the Promise of God through unbelief Though thou say nothing or profess belief yet thou speakest so coldly and so customarily that I much suspect thee I know thy infidelity is thy natural vice Didst thou beleeve indeed thou wouldst be more affected with it Why hast thou not it under the hand and seal and oath of God Can God lie or he that is the Truth it self be false Foolish wretch What need hath God to flatter thee or deceive thee why should he promise thee more then he will perform Art thou not his Creature a little crum of dust a scrawling worm ten thousand times more below him then this flie or worm is below thee wouldst thou flatter a flea or a worm what need hast thou of them If they do not please thee thou wilt crush them dead and never accuse thy self of cruelty Why yet they are thy Fellow Creatures made of as good mettal as thy self and thou hast no Authority over them but what thou hast received How much less need hath God of thee or why should he care if thou perish in thy folly Cannot he govern thee without either flattery or falshood cannot he easily make thee obey his will and as easily make thee suffer
such a guide Can the Sun lead thee to a state of darkness or can he mislead thee that is the light of every man that cometh into the world will he lead thee to death who died to save thee from it or can he do thee any hurt who for thy sake did suffer so much follow him and he will shew thee the Paradise of God he will give thee a sight of the New Jerusalem he will give thee a taste of the Tree of Life Sit no longer then by the fire of earthly common comforts whether the cold of carnal fears and sorrows did drive thee thy Winter is past and wilt thou house thy self still in earthly thoughts and confine thy self to drooping and dulness even the silly Flies will leave their holes when the Winter is over and the Sun draws neer them the Ants will stir the Fishes rise the Birds will sing the earth look green and all with joyful note will tell thee the Spring is come Come forth then O my drooping soul and lay aside thy Winter mourning Robes let it be seen in thy believing Joyes and Praise that the day is appearing and the Spring is come and as now thou seest thy comforts green thou shalt shortly see them white and ripe for Harvest and then thou who art now called forth to see and taste shalt be called forth to reap and gather and take possession Shall I suspend and delay my joyes till then should not the joyes of the Spring go before the joyes of Harvest Is Title nothing before possession Is the heir in no better a state then the slave My Lord hath taught me to rejoyce in hope of his glory and to see it thorow the bars of a Prison and even when I am persecuted for righteousness sake when I am reviled and all manner of evil sayings are said against me falsly for his sake then hath he commanded me to rejoyce and be exceeding glad because of this my great reward in Heaven How justly is an unbelieving heart possessed by sorrow and made a prey to cares and fears when it self doth create them and thrust away its offered peace and joy I know it is the pleasure of my bounteous Lord that none of his family should want for Comfort nor live such a poor and miserable life nor look with such a famished dejected face I know he would have my joyes exceed my sorrowes And as much as he delighteth in the humble and contrite yet doth he more delight in the soul as it delighteth in him I know he taketh no pleasure in my self-procured sadness nor would he call on me to weep or mourn but that it is the only way to these delights Would I spread the Table before my guest and bring him forth my best provision and bid him sit down and eat and welcome if I did not unfeignedly desire he should do so Hath my Lord spread me a table in this Wilderness and furnished it with the promises of Everlasting Glory and set before me Angels food and broched for me the side of his beloved Son that I might have a better wine then the blood of the Grape Doth he so frequently and importunately invite me to sit down and draw forth my faith and feed and spare not Nay hath he furnished me to that end with reason and faith and a rejoycing disposition And yet is it possible that he should be unwilling of my joyes Never think it O my unbelieving soul nor dare to charge him with thy uncomfortable heaviness who offereth thee the foretaste of the highest delights that heaven doth afford and God bestow Doth he not bid thee delight thy self in the Lord and promise to give thee then the desires of thy heart Hath he not charged thee to rejoyce evermore Yea to sing aloud and shout for joy Psal. 47.1 Why should I then draw back discouraged My God is willing if I were but willing He is delighted in my delights He would faine have it my constant frame and daily business to be neer to him in my believing Meditations and to live in the sweetest thoughts of his goodness and to be always delighting my soul in himself O blessed work Employment fit for the sons of God! But ah my Lord thy feast is nothing to me without an appetite Thou must give me a stomack as well as meat Thou hast set the dainties of heaven before me but alas I am blinde and cannot see them I am sick and cannot relish them I am so benummed that I cannot put forth a hand to take them What is the glory of Sun and Moon to a clod of earth Thou knowest I need thy subjective grace as well as thine objective and that thy works upon mine own distempered soul is not the smallest part of my salvation I therefore humbly beg this grace that as thou hast opened heaven unto me in thy blessed word so thou wouldest open mine eyes to see it and my heart to affect it else heaven will be no heaven to me Awake therefore O thou Spirit of Life and breath upon thy Graces in me blow upon the garden of my heart that the spices thereof may flow out Let my beloved come into his garden and eat his pleasant fruits Cant. 4.16 And take me by the hand and lift me up from earth to thy self 〈◊〉 I may fetch one walk in the garden of glory and see by Faith what thou hast laid up for them that love thee and wait for thee Away then you soul-tormenting cares and fears Away you importune heart-vexing sorrows At least forbear me a little while stand by and trouble not my aspiring soul stay here below whilest I go up and see my Rest. The way is strange to me but not to Christ. There was the eternal dwelling of his glorious deitie And thither hath he also brought his assumed glorified flesh It was his work to purchase it it is his work to prepare it and to prepare me for it and to bring me to it The Eternal God of truth hath given me his promise his seal and his oath to assure me that believing in Christ I shall not perish but have everlasting life Thither shall my soul be speedily removed and my body very shortly follow It is not so far but he that is every where can bring me thither nor so difficult and unlikely but Omnipotencie can effect it And though this unbelief may diminish my delights and much abate my joyes in the way Yet shall it not abate the love of my Redeemer nor make the promise of none effect And can my tongue say that I shall shortly and surely live with God and yet my heart not leap within me Can I say it believingly and not rejoycingly Ah faith how sensibly now do I perceive thy weakness Ah unbelief if I had never heard or known it before yet how sensibly now do I perceive thy malicious tyranny But though thou darken my light and dull my life
delight in God and heavenly Things it would rectifie their judgments better then all the arguments in the world Lose this delight once and you will begin to quarrel with the Ordinances and Ways of God and to be more offended at the Preachers imperfections then profited by the Doctrine Sixthly And it is the want of these Heavenly Delights in God that makes men so entertain the delights of the flesh This is the cause of most mens voluptuousness and flesh-pleasing The Soul will not rest without some kinde of delights If it had nothing to delight in either in hand or in hope it would be in a kinde of Hell on Earth vexing it self with continual sorrow and despair If a Dog have lost his Master he will follow somebody else Men must have their sweet Cups or delicious Fare or gay Apparel or Cards or Dice or Fleshly Lasts to make up their want of delight in God How well these will serve in stead of God our fleshly youths will be better able to tell me when we meet at Judgment If men were acquainted with this Heavenly Life there would need no Laws against Sabbath breaking and riotousness nor would men need to go for mirth to an Alehouse or a Tavern They would have a far sweeter pastime and recreation neerer hand Seventhly also This want of Heavenly Delights will leave men under the power of every Affliction they will have nothing to comfort them and ease them in their sufferings but the empty uneffectual pleasures of the flesh and when that is gone where then is their delight Eighthly Also it will make men fearful and unwilling to die For who would go to a God or a place that he hath no delight in or who would leave his pleasure here except it were to go to better O if the people of God would learn once this Heavenly Life and take up their delights in God whilest they live they would not tremble and be disconsolate at the tidings of death Ninthly Yea this want of Heavenly Delight doth lay men open to the power of every Temptation A little thing will tice a man from that which he hath no pleasure in Tenthly Yea it is a dangerous preparative to total Apostacy A man will hardly long hold on in a way that he hath no delight in nor use the means if he have no delight in the end But as a Beast if you drive him a way that he would not go will be turning out at every gap If you be Religious in your actions and become over to God in your outward Conversaâ—ion and not in your delight you will shortly be gone if your trial be strong How many young people have we known who by good education or the perswasion of friends or for fear of Hell have been a while kept up among Prayers and Sermons and good company as a Bird in a Cage when if they durst they had rather have been in an Alehouse or at their sports and at last they have broke loose when their restraint was taken off and have forsaken the way that they never took pleasure in You see then that it is not a matter of indifferency whether you entertain these Heavenly Delights or not nor is the loss of your present comfort all the inconvenience that follows the neglect And now Christian Friends I have here lined you out a Heavenly precious Work would you but do it it would make you men indeed To delight in God is the work of Angels and the contrary is the work of devils If God would perswade you now to make conscience of this duty and help you in it by the blessed influence of his Spirit you would not change your lives with the greatest Prince on the Earth But I am afraid if I may judg of your hearts by the backwardness of my own that it will prove a hard thing to perswade you to the work and that much of this my labor will be lost Pardon my jealousie it is raised upon too many and sad experiments What say you Do you resolve on this Heavenly course or no Will you let go all your sinful fleshly pleasures and daily seek after these higher delights I pray thee hear shut the Book and consider of it and resolve on the duty before thou go further Let thy Family perceive let thy Neighbors perceive let thy Conscience perceive yea let God perceive it that thou art a man that hast thy daily Conversation in Heaven God hath now offered to be thy daily delight Thy neglect is thy refusal What Refuse delight and such a Delight If I had propounded you onely a course of Melancholy and Fear and Sorrow you might better have demur'd on it Take heed what thou dost Refuse this and refuse all Thou must have Heavenly Delights or none that are lasting God is willing that thou shouldst daily walk with him and fetch in consolations from the Everlasting Fountain if thou be unwilling even bear thy loss And one of these days when thou liest dying then seek for comfort where thou canst get it and make what shift for contentment thou canst Then see whether thy fleshly delights will stick to thee or give thee the slip and then Conscience in despight of thee shall make thee remember That thou wast once perswaded to a way for more excellent pleasures that would have followed thee through death and have lasted thee to Everlasting What man will go in rags that may be clothed with the best or feed on pulse that may feed of the best or accompany with the vilest that may be a companion to the best and admitted into the presence and favor of the greatest And shall we delight so much in our clothing of flesh and feed so much on the vain pleasures of Earth and accompany so much with sin and sinners When Heaven is set open as it were to our daily view and God doth offer us daily admittance into his presence O how is the unseen God neglected and the unseen Glory forgotten and made light of and all because they are unseen and for want of that Faith which is the Substance of things hoped for and the Evidence of things that are not seen But for you sincere Beleevers whose hearts God hath weaned from all things here below I hope you will value this Heavenly Life and fetch one walk daily in the New Jerusalem I know God is your Love and your desire and I know you would fain be more acquainted with your Saviour and I know it is your grief that your hearts are not more neer him and that they do no more feelingly and passionately love him and delight in him As ever you would have all this mended and enjoy your desires O try this Life of Meditation on your Everlasting Rest Here is the Mount Ararat where the fluctuated Ark of your Souls must Rest. O let the World see by your Heavenly Lives That Religion lieth in something more then Opinions and Disputes and a
potest qui sâ— moriturum esse sariò cogitat inq Chytraeus §. 9. § 10. §. 11. §. 12. Isai. 1.2 3. §. 13. §. 14. Tom. 1. Epist. pag 355. b. Mâ—lch Adam in vita Graseri § 15. §. 1. * Ad illam viaâ—â— requiritur 1. Quod homo per virtuosam assuefactionem gratam sit radicatus in virtutibus Quod nullam delectationem â—abeat in appetitu vanae gloriae in capiditate diviâ—iarum in concupiscentia oculorum gule 2. Requiritur internum silentium ut non occupet se circa exteriora Quid audicrit vel viderit for is nihil curando tanquam in somno occurrissent 3. Amorosa adhaesio cum Deo Vt onmia ejus judicia omnia facta â—mnes doctrinas cum veverentia amplectatur 4. Quod nibil aliud quaerat sedreputet sibi illum dilâ—ctum sufficientissimum superexcellentem illum in corde suo diligat super omne quod potest videri audiri vel cogitari vel imaginari Quia totus amabilis totus desiderabilis c. 5. Quod saepe reducat ad memorians perfectiones Dei illis intimè congratuletur Gerson 3. part in Alphabeto divini amoris cap 14. §. 2. The description of a Worldling 1 Sam 9.20 Sed amor Dei adhuc est valdè modieus debilus Mundanus verò sort potens repugnatque sortiter ne nidum suum seu hospitium quod habuit ab infantiâ in homine perdat Et quod plus molestat ipse amor mundi oculis cernitur corporis sentitur duleus esse ad retireidum amarus verò ad perdendum Amor autem Dei è contra non videtur sencitu dâ—r â—ad acquirendum dulcis ad dimittendum Gerson part 3. fol. 382. De monte contemplat cap. 21. §. 3. Rom. 14.1 Eph. 5.4 §. 4. It is a good saying of Picus Mirandula wherewith D. Estius concludeth his Oration De Certitudine Salutis Veritatem Philosophia querit Theologia invenit Religio possidet Study to obey not to dispute Turn not Conscience into questions and controversies lest while thou art resolving what to do thou do just nothing Draw not all to reason leave something to faith Where thou canst not sound the bottom admire the depth Kiss the book and lay it down weep over thy own ignorance and send one hearty wish to heaven O when shall I come to know as I am known The time is at hand when all must be accomplished and we accomptable When arts shall cease and tongues be abolished and knowledg vanish away Do but think now one thought what will be the Joy of thy heart when thou canst truly say Lord thou hast written to me the great things of thy Law and I have not accounted them as strange things c. Pemple in preface to Vindic. Gratiae * Yet still I doubt not but we should be still learning to know more As Dav. Chytraus said when he lay on his death bed Jucundiorem sibi discessum fore si moribundus etiam aliquid didicisset §. 5. Isa. 57.15 and 66.2 Psal. 34.18 and 51.17 James 4.6 Description of a proud man Nemo pluris aestâ—mavit virtutem quam qui boni viri famam perdidit ne conscientiam perderet ut Seneca admodum Theologicè * Optimè Chytraeus Amplum nomen claritatem popularem in his terris plaerique nescimus antequam paenitere caepit contemnere Vsibus denique edocti cum saevum praelustre fulmen ab arce ferit serò nobis Christo vivere optamus Matth. 11.28 29. Isai. 57.20 Scitum est illud Rabbi Levitae Maximè humili spiritu esto Expectatio â—â—im hominis sunt vermes Prov. 15.33 and 18.12 §. 6. Matth. 11.12 * Antinomists Many are hindered because they refuse to give themselves to Prayer or Meditation except they feel themselves brought to it by devotion and except it be when these duties delight them and go to their hearts otherwise all seems to them unprofitable But these kinde of men are like him that being vexed with cold will not go to the fire except he were first warm or like one that is ready to perish with famine and will not ask meat except he were first satisfied For why doth a man give himself to Prayer or Meditation but that he might be warmed with the fire of Divine Love or that he may be filled with the gifts and grace of God! These men are mistaken in thinking the time lost in Prayer or Meditation if they be not presently watered with a showre of devotion For I answer them That if they strive as much as in them lyeth for this and do their duty and are in war and in continual sight against their own thoughts with displeasure because they depart not nor suffer them to be quiet Such men for this time are more accepted then if the heat of devotion had come to them suddenly without any such conflict The reason is Because they go to warfare for God as it were at their own cost and charges and serve him with greater labor and pains c. Gerson part 3. fol. 386. De monte contemplationis cap. 43. Read this you Libertines and learn better the way of Devotion from a Papist In omni disciplina infirma est artis praeceptio sine summa assiduitate exercitationâ— Cicer. ad Heren Eras. Apotheg lib. 3. §. 7. Verissimum istud Senecae Apothegma Nullos pejus mercri de omnibus mortalibus judico quam qui aliter vivunt quaem vivendum praecipiuut * Who died as I understand since about the hour that I was preaching these words or very neer §. 1. §. 2. Matth. 17.11.12 Joh. 1.10 §. 2. 2 Tim. 2.19 §. 3. Luk. 12.17 18 19 20. 2 Cor. 1.8 9 10. 1 Sam 28.19 Luke 24.32 Actcts 24.25 Acts 10. Matth. 12.36 Psal. 137.5 6. Prov. 15.4 §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. Psal. 34.1 and 35.28 and 22.25 §. 8. 1 John 4.16 Isai. 27.4 Ezek. 18.32 33.11 §. 9. Ephes. 4.30 1 Thes. 5.19 I speak not of any drawing of Spirit above or contrary to the Word but its enforcing the precepts and prohibitions of the Word upon our hearts And that not perswading the will I think immediately by himself but exciting and so using our Reason and Conscience as his Instruments to perswade the Wil and affect the Heart §. 10. §. 1. Tamen haec via scientia non discitur ex libris sed de sursum est cui vult participat eam pater luminum his quidem clarius his verò obscurius Gerson part 3. in Alphabet divini amoris Cap. 14. §. 2. Description §. 3. §. 4. Rom. 8. §. 5. Contemplationis accessus duo sunt unus in intellectu alter in affectu unus in lumine alter in fervore unus in acquisitione alter in Devotione Bernard in Cant. Ser. 46. 1 Cor. 13.1 2. * Heb. Doctrine §. 6. §. 7. Matth 11.19 Luke 7.35 §. 1. §. 2. Psal. 1.2 and 119.97 and 148.99 * In the same sense as
Justin Martyr said He would not beleeve Christ himself if he had preached any other God besides him who is the Creator of all so may I say I would not beleeve the Spirit that should take me off my duty and obedience to God Vid. Nicephor Eccles histor tom 1. lib. 4. cap. 6. 1 Sam. 14.29 §. 3. ☜ §. 4. Rev. 1.10 §. 5. Joh. 15.5 As Gerson in the forecited place saith This Art or way of Meditation is not learned chiefly out of Books but the spirit of God bestoweth it as he pleaseth on some more plentifully on some more sparingly §. 6. Gen. 8.8 9. Joh. 16 21. §. 7. Deut. 32 49 50. Read Master Symmonds Deserted soul. p. 225 226 227. §. 8. Vide Gerson ubi infra cap. 24. * Dominus docet nos ut opera sua imitemur sicut ipse secit ita et nos saciamus Ecce oraturus erat asceâ—dit in montem Oportet etiam nos a negotijs otiosos orare non in medio multorum sed pernoctantes ne statim ut caeperimus cessemus The ophylact in Luc. c. 6. Yet the principal secrecie and silence must be in the soul within rather then without that is that the soul shut out of it self all humane worldly cares all vaine and hurtful thoughts and whatsoever may hinder it from reaching to the end which it doth intend For it oft falls out that a man is alone separated from the company of men and yet by fantasies thoughts and melancholies doth suffer the most grievous and burdensome company in himself Which fantasies do beget him various tumults and conferences and pratlings bringing before the eyes of his understanding sometime one thing sometime another leading him sometime into the Kitchin sometime into the Market bringing thence to him the unclean delights of the flesh shewing him dances and beauties and songs and such kinde of vanities drawing to sin As Saint Jerom humbly confesseth of himself That when he was in the wilderness without any company save wild beasts and Scorpions yet he was often in his thoughts in dances and in the company of the Ladyes at Rome So these fantasies will make the soul even when it is alone to be angry and quarrel with some one that is absent as if he were present To be counting money It will pass over the seas it will fly abroad the land sometime it will be in high dignities and so of innumerable fancies the like such a soul is not secret nor alone Nor is a devout soul in contemplation alone For it is never lesse alone It is in the best company even with God and Saints by holy desires and cogitations Gerson par 3. fol 382. De monte contemplationis cap. 23. §. 9. §. 10 Jer. 5.22 §. 1. Matth. 22.4 Luke 14.17 Luke 14.23 §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. §. 5. §. 6. §. 7. §. 8. §. 1. * For I am 〈…〉 I call them diâ—stinct faculties because it is the common Judgment and not my own §. 2. §. 3. §. 4. John 4.32 §. 5. * He that doubteth whether the Philosophers themselves did acknowledg these Divine Excellencies Let him read Fernel De abditis Rerum causis cap 9. Plato in Epinom Deos asserit scire videre audireque omnia nihil ipsos fugere quod aut sensu aut mente percipi posset Eos omnia posse quaecunque mortales immortalesve possunt Bonos illos immo optimos esse Quicquid mortale est quicquid vivit spirat quicquid usquam est coelum terram maria ab iis omnia facta esse possideri Et in Parmenide Nullum nisi Deum supremam habere rerum scientiam neque illarum cognitione privandum Et in Epinomide Ego assero Deum causam omnium esse nec aliter peri posse Lege etiam Aristotel de caelo lib. 1. Jum nona Psal. 23.4 5. Isai. 9.6 Luke 24.36 37 38 39. Joh. 7.27 Isai. 59.1 Joh. 20.19.21.26 Lam. 1.12 Ezek. 16.6 7 8.9 Luke 10 30. c. If the Love of God in us were but as the love of the world in others it would make us wholly despise this world and forget it as worldly love maketh men forget God and it would be so strong and ardent and rooted a in mans heart that he would not be able voluntarily and freely to think of any thing else He would not fear contempt nor care for disgrace or the reproaches of persecutions nor would he be afraid of death it self because of this Love of God and all the things of this world which he seeth and heareth would bring God to his memory and themselves would seem to him but as a dream or a fable and he would esteem them as nothing in respect of God and his Glory And to be short in the judgment of the world he would be taken for a fool or a drunken man because he so little careth for the things of this world This is that Love of God to which we should aim to attain by this contemplative life Gerson de monte Contemplationis in parte operum tertia fol. 382. Melanc Epist. 457. Memini cum infantula mihi lacrimas a genis detergeret suo indusiolo quo uno aerat induta mane Hic gestus penetravit in animum meum c. Gen. 21.15 16 17 18 19. 1 Kings 19.9 2 Kings 6.16 17. Matth. 14.37 Luke 22.45 46. Matth. 26.41 Luke 22.61 Cant. 2 3 4 5. John 21.15 16 17. §. 6. * 〈…〉 Si in Cor hominis non ascendit Cor hominis illuc ascendat Cor ibi habeamus surfum Corda levemus ne putrescant in terra quoniam placet nobis quod ibi aguct angeâ—â— August â— 3 de Symb. c 11. Melch Adam in vitâ Zuingeri inter vitas Medicorum Germanorum Judg. 18.24 Beza in tit Calvin Luk. 8.20 21. §. 7. Ezek. 18.32 33.11 §. 8. 1 Tim. 6.12 19. 1 Pet. 1.13 Heb. 12.1 1 Cor. 9.24 Matth. 11.12 Rom. 8.31 §. 9. Gal. 4.1 Psal. 87.3 Psal. 46.4 §. 10. §. 1. Gen 49.6 Judg. 5.21 Psalm 16.2 Jer. 4.19 §. 2. 1 Explication 2 Confirmation 3 Application 1 Vse of Information 2 Vse of Instruction 3 Of Examination 4 Of Reproof §. 3. Object §. 4. LXX Legunt 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad Ludendum se exercendum sed alienè inquit Paraeus §. 5. §. 1. 1 Fetch help from Sense * Quantalibet intentione se humana mens extenderit etiamsi phantasiaes imaginum corporalium a cognitione compescat si omnes circumscriptos spiritu ab oculis cordis admoveat adhuc tamen in carne mortali pasita videre gloriam Dei non valet sicut est Sed quicquid de illa quod in mente resplendet similitudo non ipsa est Greg. sup hom 8. * Aequum est meminisse mi qui disseram vos qui judicabitis homines esse ut si probabilia dicentur nihil ulterius requiratis Plato in Timaeo Idem in Epistola ad Dionys monet ut eos