We see how bravely the Primitive Christians carried themselves in all their Sufferings by looking unto minding and thinking upon those invisible eternal things Oh could we keep them in our view and keep our Eye on them we should not faint nor sink under any of our Troubles We look too much on and mind too much those visible temporal things and look too little to the Invisible God to our Blessed Jesus and Eternal Glory Oh that God would encrease and strengthen our Faith and help us to live in the lively actings and exercise of it By it we stand Oh that we could live more by Faith and less by Sense 2 Cor. 5. 7. Fifth Vse for Instruction If we would set our Hearts and Minds on those invisible eternal things we must 1. Be much in Prayer Pray oh pray for new Hearts old Hearts will not hold heavenly things Pray for Saving Light and Knowledge Ephes 1. 17 18. Pray that ye may clearly apprehend and understand those things Pray for Faith that you may really believe them and may be fully perswaded of the Truth and Excellency of them Heb. 11. 1. Faith is the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen Pray for Love that your Hearts may be throughly and truly affected with them that you may relish and savour them and may feel taste and see the goodness of them Pray for strength of Faith and Love that you may act those and other Graces as Hope Joy Desire and Delight upon those heavenly things Pray without ceasing pray fervently for these things and never leave praying till you obtain Tell God that an earthly empty carnal Heart you have and how impossible it is for you your selves to make â—t heavenly Complain to the God of all Grace who can make all Grace to abound 2. Search the Scriptures diligently Read the Word of God conscientiously for there all those great and glorious things are discovered And labour to believe what you hear and read and to get the power and efficacy of God's Truths on â—â—our Spirits 2 Cor. 4. 4 6. 3. Be watchful against all Sin and against the World and the Lusts of the Flesh Be much in mortification of your inordinate Affections Col. 3. â—1 2 5. compared Watch against vain thoughts and strive in God's strength to draw up your â—earts to Heaven and hold them there 4. Seriously and often consider the great and â—â—al difference between visible and invisible things between temporal and eternal things uncertain and certain things transitory and permanent things between those things that respect the mortal Body and those that concern the immortal Soul between those things that are the Portion of Reprobates and those that are the Portion of God's Elect. Oh consider the great difference between those things which are the Effects of Common Providence and those that are the Fruits of God's everlasting Love and Christ's most precious Blood Surely a due and deep consideration of the vast difference which is between these things would help us to mind eternal things 5. Consider what taste these visible temporal things will have in a dying hour surely either none at all or a bitter one Oh then what will Honours Riches Pleasures signifie Oh then how much better and sweeter will those invisible eternal things be to a poor Soul Oh then an Interest in God and in Christ a Pardon a Title to Eternal Life Assurance of Salvation will be things of value And why should they not be so now 6. Converse much with heavenly-minded Christians but alas where shall we find them Let us all bewail our horrible Earthliness our Earthly Discourse all Earth in our Thoughts Earth in our Mouths and yet hope to go to Heaven at last and live in Heaven for ever O how unlikely Surely if I am not very much mistaken I think a great many of our Professors will be mistaken at last and that will be dreadful because irrecoverable O Lord give thy poor Servant an heavenly Heart Sixthly The Last Vse is for Comfort to those that do mind and look unto those invisible eternal things in good earnest For your Comfort consider 1. This is to you an Evidence of your Interest in all those great and glorious things That you do thus mind and converse with heavenly things with God and Christ and Glory it is a good sign that these are all your own that you have a good Title to them An heavenly Mind is a very good sign of one that belongs to Heaven 2. You shall shortly enjoy and possess them all Where Christ is there shortly shall his Servants be He will not always dwell in Heaven without you nor will he always be absent from you no but he will come again and receive you to himself that where he is there you may be also John 14. 1 2 3. And where is he but at the right hand of the Throne of his Father and there you shall be also when Christ who is our life shall appear we shall appear with him also in glory Col. 3. 3 4. Now you can see and think on those invisible eternal things but darkly and confusedly but then you shall see clearly yea possess and enjoy them for ever 3. This your minding of heavenly things will very much sweeten your present Sufferings And this brings me to the consideration of the last thing in the scope of the Text namely the help or benefit those Primitive Christians had by their looking unto those invisible eternal things which was that thereby they were supported under their present Sufferings Ver. 16. We faint not while we look not on things that are seen but on things that are not seen Hence may we observe this Doctrinal Conclusion Doct. That a believing sight and serious minding of unseen eternal things is a singular means of sweet support to poor Christians under all their Troubles This flows from the scope of the Text We faint not say they but rather we gather strength and courage and our inner man is renewed day by day while we look not at those things which are seen but at those c. Looking off from visible temporal things doth much help to support God's People under their Troubles but looking on upon invisible eternal things doth help more Crucifixion of our Affections to visible temporal things is very useful but the fixation of our Affections on invisible eternal things is more useful to our Support and Comfort Psal 27. 13. I had 〈…〉 believed to see the goodness of God in the land of 〈…〉 Ver. 14. So Heb. 11. 26 27. By Faith Moses endured as seeing him that is invisible Moses could never have endured all those hard things if he had looked only on those things which are seen but he looked on the invisible God and the unseen Jesus and on the Promises the Recompence of Reward he had a fixed Eye to those great things his mind was setled on these and that carried him through all
Words and Actions have reference to invisible eternal things If they be good and holy they have reference to eternal glory if bad and wicked they have reference to eternal Misery for such as is our Heart and Life here such shall be our eternal state hereafter 3 Direct Thirdly Be much in the Meditation of Heavenly Things if we firmly believe and are fully perswaded that there are indeed such great and glorious such excellent things in the other World as the God of Truth assures us of in the Word of Truth and if we believe or have good ground to hope that we have a title to them and shall shortly enjoy them why are they not more in our Thoughts why do we not more meditate on them Our frequent fixed Meditations on Heavenly things will so sweeten and delight our Souls and yield such satisfaction to us as to take off our Minds from Earthly things And to Meditation add Prayer That God would raise and lift up your Hearts to mind things above 4 Direct Fourthly Discourse frequently and feelingly of the vanity and emptiness of visible temporal things and of the reality and excellency of invisible eternal things If Heaven and Glory be in your Hearts they will be in your Mouths Consider also the shortness of the time you have to converse with visible temporal things 1 Cor. 7. 31. and study a crucified Christ more by that you will come to be crucified to the World and the World to you Gal. 6. 14. 5 Direct Fifthly Consider you that are Christians are not at home you are in a strange Country you are but on your Journey in your passage to your Father's house to your long home and therefore you should not much mind the things of this World 6 Direct Sixthly Consider what you lose all the while you are inordinately minding earthly things you lose not only your precious time but much inward joy and peace and much sweet communion with God which you might have in minding of and meditating upon Heavenly things Psal 63. 4 5. My soul shall be satisfied as with marâ—â—â— and fatness When I remember thee open my bed and meditate on thee in the night-watches 7 Direct Seventhly Let us work a few more serious Considerations into our Hearts and Minds to take them from Earthly things 1. That whatever any Man or Woman hath of visible temporal things Death will put a full end to them all and after Death they all shall partake of invisible and eternal things Matth. 25. 46. The wicked shall go away into everlasting punishment and the righteous into life eternal 2. That every Man and Woman in the World is either made for ever or undone for ever as they are related and entituled unto the invisible eternal good things or evil things of the other World they are made for ever if related and entituled to the invisible God and Glory and undone for ever if not So that our Eternal Happiness or Misery depends not on our relation or title to visible but to invisible things 3. Such as is our Title and Estate now to the one or other such it will be to all Eternity As the tree falls so it lies as death leaves us so will judgment find us 4. This looking off from earthly things is the way to grow and encrease in Grace for Worldly Cares do choak deaden and weaken Grace cloying the Affections entangling and encumbring the Thoughts much hindring the exercise of Faith and Love which are the principal Graces whereby holy Souls enjoy Communion with God 5. By this you will have more Communion with God for the less we look downward the more we shall look upward and the more we look upward to God and Christ in the actings of our Faith and Love the more will God and Christ manifest themselves and their love to our Souls 6. This will support us in Affliction and comfort us in a dying hour when our Affections are crucified to the World we shall not be unwilling to part with it Col. 3. 3. We are dead saith the Apostle that is to the World And this supported those in this Chapter they were crucified to all visible temporal things therefore they could easily part with them 3 Vse Thirdly by way of Examination By this gracious frame of Spirit we may know our spiritual state whether we be born of God or no whether in Christ or no to wit by this Whether our Hearts and Minds are more set on God Christ and Heaven or on the World Rom. 8. 1. There is no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus they are safe come Plague Sword Fire Faggot But who are in Christ Jesus He tells us They that walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit So Ver. 5 6. They that are spiritually minded they that have their conversation in Heaven Phil. 3. 20. Col. 3. 1 2. They are risen with Christ So Psal 73. 25 26. If we be born from Heaven we are bound for Heaven Heavenly-mindedness is as good an Evidence for Heaven as any is and Earthly-mindedness is as ill a Character as can be Let us now try our selves by this Where are our Hearts and Minds and Affections mostly set on Heaven or Earth on Christ or the Creature Let our Consciences speak Surely this one Rule of Tryal will help us to know in what state we are Lastly For Consolation to Believers in respect of outward Losses and Troubles that they are all visible and temporal things that we can lose and but temporal things that we can suffer which are but light and short as we have seen but our invisible eternal Mercies they are all sure and can never be lost If we had enjoyed our earthly Comforts a little longer it could have been but a little longer they and we must have parted All visible things are but temporal our fairest Flowers are fading our sweetest earthly Mercies are perishing And here is our Comfort that if we be in Christ we shall be delivered from Eternal Death from Everlasting Destruction from the Wrath to come If we have our part in the first Resurrection the Second Death shall have no power on us Let this comfort us that the Comforts we lose here are but temporal Comforts and the Troubles we suffer here are but temporal Troubles And this brings us to the second Point observed from the Text which was 2 Doct. That a right and true Judgment of earthly things will help to support the Lord's Services under their Afflictions Of which I shall speak but briefly because much of what hath been said in the former point 〈◊〉 confirm this Heb. 10. 34. They took joyfully the 〈…〉 their Goods And why but because 〈…〉 in themselves they had in Heaven 〈…〉 a more enduring substance They 〈…〉 Judgment both of Earth and Heaven 〈…〉 Earthly and of Heavenly Things and 〈…〉 infinite worth and value of 〈…〉 they knew that Heavenly things were 〈…〉 real the most substantial the most
contrary is true of wicked Persons they are curs'd in Soul when cross'd in Body their outward perishings prove inward perishings also for then usually they murmur and repine fret against God and Instruments then they think of sinful shifts and unlawful means to get out of trouble when their outward Man is hurt by affliction they hurt their Souls by sin by impatience and discontent as that wicked King who said what shall I wait upon God any longer but now we find the servants of the Lord as Eli David Job Micah Habakkuk and others when their outward comforts failed them then they submitted to the will of God fled to him for supplies trusted in him and so by the exercise of their Faith and Patience their Souls were supported and strengthned David expressly confesseth that it was good for him that is for his Soul his inner Man that he was afflicted Psal 119. 71. And in the Text we have the attestation of the Apostle and Primitive Christians And this is the comfort also of God's People that their greatest outward evils through the goodness and blessing of God turn to their greatest inward good and this makes them rejoyce in afflictions and glory in tribulations as Rom. 5. 2. to wit because of the Spiritual benefit they receive by afflictions and upon this very ground God gives that command Heb. 12. 12. Wherefore lift up the hands that hang down that is therefore be comforted and encouraged Therefore wherefore because of the great profit and sweet fruits of God's chastnings upon his People Therefore lift up the hands that hang down As it is a comfort to a Man that hath a Wound in his Body to have his Cloths torn off that so his wound may be healed so it is to have the diseases of our Souls cured tho' our outward comforts be rent and torn from us The Application I. For Information First Hence it appears that there is a great difference between the Godly and Ungodly in reference to afflictions between the upright and the hypocrite The godly are the better the wicked are the worse for affliction The godly Man gains in his inner Man by his losses in his outward Man but the wicked in their afflictions commit more wickedness and their Corruptions break out more to the ruine of their Souls The Righteous holdeth on his way altho' Briers and Thorns yea Lyons be in his way that tear and spoil all his outward Comforts and he that hath clean Hand and a clean Heart groweth stronger and stronger even when his outward Man grows weaker and weaker Job 17. 9. The wicked in affliction are like the troubled Sea that casts up nothing but miâ—â— and dirt Isa 57. 20. Secondly That an afflicted godly Person is in a far better case than an afflicted wicked Person thâ— the affliction be of the same kind measure and degree because an afflicted godly Person hath faâ— better grounds of Comfort than the other forth godly Man may be confident that his affliction oâ— his outward Man shall tend to the good of his Soul but the ungodly hath ground enough to fear that he shall be the worse for his affliction the wicked shall grow worse and worse Tho' all things may happen alike to all as to outward afflictions yet the godly have the best on 't upon this account that their outward afflictions shall tend to their Inward Spiritual and Eternal Good O happy are the People that are in such a case that no Winds can blow amiss to them but that all the cross and contrary winds that they meet with upon the Stormy Sea of this World shall but further them in their Passage and hasten them to their Harbour in Heaven Blessed be the Lord our God Amen Thirdly Then a gracious person hath more and better ground of Patience quietness and Contentation under all his afflictions than a wicked Person hath because every gracious Person hath good ground to hope believe and conclude that his good God is doing him good doing his Soul good by all the troubles on his outward Man and having ground to hope believe and conclude so he hath good ground of Patience and Contentation Now a Child of God hath good ground to hope believe and conclude so because he hath the faithful word of the true and faithful God for to ground his Hope and Faith upon who hath said that all things shall work together for good to his People if all things then afflictions Rom. 8. 28. And that all things are theirs 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. things present all their present sufferings and troubles are theirs that is shall work for their Spiritual good and God's word tells us expresly Hebr. 12. 10. that all our chastisements are for our profit our greatest profit namely to make us partakers of God's Holiness to purge away our Sins Isa 27. 9. to make us conformable to Christ and to fit and prepare us for that far more exceeding and eternal weight of Glory 2. Cor. 4. 17. Here we have a sure word of Promise the God of Truth who cannot Lye the Almighty God who is able to perform his promises which promises flow from his everlasting Love and unsearchable goodness mercy and are founded in the full satisfaction of Jesus Christ in whom they are made and through whom they shall be fulfilled to assure us of the truth of them I say the Almighty God hath engaged his word that all the sufferings of his Children shall work for the good of their Souls which is a most firm ground of Patience Contentation and Consolation to them When I can believe and be perswaded in my Soul that all my afflictions shall promote the welfare of my Soul I have all the reason in the World to be patient and content under them Our great care must be to look to this that we be the Heirs of the Promises and if we be in Christ really united to Christ grafted into him made partakers of his Spirit Life and Grace then are we the Heirs of the Promises Hebr. 6. 17 18. Gal. 3. last and we being the Heirs of the promises we have grounds of Patience because God hath promised all shall work for our good and then next that we may be able with patience to bear our afflictions we must labour to keep these promises still in our eyes looking to them and to the love goodness faithfulness and all-sufficiency of God in them and looking unto Jesus through whose satisfaction and mediation they come to us and labouring to keep our Eyes the Eyes of Faith and Hope fixed on those promises trusting in God and relying upon him and so shall we be able in our Patience to possess our Souls and Patience will do us great service in affliction for altho' it cannot keep us from misery it will keep us from being miserable for we can never be miserable so long as we have an interest in Christ and through him in the promises Now Faith in the
World to him one that looks not on the things which are seen that sets not his Heart and Affections upon them III. The Reasons of the Point why gracious Souls do not so much regard and mind visible things are those that follow Reason 1. One Reason is in the Text which is because they are temporal fading perishing transitory momentany things All flesh is grass and the glory thereof as the flower of the field All are dying things and therefore no suitable Objects for never-dying Souls to spend themselves upon All our Relations how dear and near soever our Health Estate Liberty yea our Life is but a Vapour that appears but a little time and then vanisheth away therefore not fit for immortal Souls to fix upon Reas 2. Because these visible temporal things the outward good things of this World are most times great Enemies to our Souls and have proved very hurtful and prejudicial to them that have had the greatest confluence of them but beneficial to very few Deut. 32. 15. Oh how few have been the better for Prosperity Now this damage and hurt to mens Souls cometh not from those good things themselves for they are good in themselves and are God's Blessings but this hurt comes partly from the Devil and partly from mens own Corruptions 1st From the Devil the god of this World 2 Cor. 4. 4. who causeth Mischief to the Souls of Men by the good things of this world these ways 1. He misrepresents the things of this world to Men the Riches Honours and Pleasures of it Liberty Health Ease Money Estates the Devil shews them in false glasses and not as the God of Truth in his Word declares them to be and indeed so they are and not otherwise but Satan represents them not as vain deceitful vexatious and uncertain things but as brave glorious satisfying things and thence men promise themselves so much Content in them 2. He lays Snares Baits and Temptations in all visible temporal things 1 Tim. 6. 9. There is not any visible Comfort but there is some Snare some Temptation attending it 3. He over-values all temporal things to us making them to be worth all our Affections Strength Time and Pains but undervalues Heaven Grace and Glory there he saith why so much ado time enough hereafter 4. He greatens present Evils as Shame Poverty Sickness Losses c. Oh! these must be avoided by any means but lesseneth eternal Evils God's Wrath and Vengeance and eternal Damnation Thus the Devil makes these visible temporal things hurtful to men 2dly This hurt comes to men through their own Lust and Corruptions within them without which the Devil could not hurt them if Men had 〈◊〉 the Spirit of this World within them 1 Cor. 2. 〈…〉 a worldly Spirit a vain Mind a foolish Mind an earthly Mind darkned and corrupted 〈…〉 earthly things which complieth with 〈…〉 unto Satan's Temptations without 〈…〉 their Hearts are carried our 〈…〉 these earthly things else Satan 〈…〉 Now the great Mischiefs 〈…〉 do to Mens-Souls through the 〈…〉 and Mens own Corruptions 〈…〉 First These Earthly thing◠〈…〉 coming to Christ as they 〈…〉 Matth. 19. 22. by darkning their 〈…〉 their Minds that they cannot see that transcendent Beauty and unspeakable Amiableness and Comeliness that is in Jesus Christ nor their own absolute necessity of him and their undone estate without him by filling their Hearts Heads Hands and Time and all so that there is no room for Christ nor time to mind Christ Profits and Pleasures take up all their time and carry away their Hearts Secondly They hinder men from following Christ Phil. 2. 21. All seek their own not the things of Christ at least they hinder men from following Christ fully and wheresoever he goes as Joshua and Caleb did and those in the Revelations 14. 4. Thirdly They hinder men from owning Christ and his Truths and Saints and from suffering for Christ when called thereunto as it hath millions of Professors in time of Persecution Now from the consideration of the danger we are in from visible temporal things we have good reason to draw off our Hearts and Affections from them and not much to mind or regard them And indeed our Souls are in danger on both hands both from the good and from the evil things of this World Prosperity and Adversity 1. From Prosperity we are in danger to have our Hearts divided and estranged from God and so to commit spiritual Idolatry setting up our Enjoyments for Idols in our Hearts taking more pleasure and delight in them than in God and his Service We are in danger of forgetting God and of falling into sinful security in danger of being lifted up with Pride and Vain-glory and thereby provoke God and in danger of growing careless and negligent in the Service of God And these are great Evils 2. From Adversity there is danger also as in case of loss of Friends Estate Liberty Health c. We are in danger of Impatience Discontent Despondency c. And therefore gracious Souls labour to get off their Hearts as much as they can from all visible temporal things and to be as indifferent and as unconcern'd to them as possibly and to be as dead to them as they can 3 Reas Because of the Vanity utter Insufficiency and Impotency of all earthly things without God either to preserve from the least Evil or to procure the least good All the Riches in the world cannot cure an aking Tooth Haman's Honour could not save him from the Gallows nor Herod from the Worms See Prov. 11. 4. Eccl. 1. 2. 5. 10. Isa 55. 2. There is no satisfaction to be had in them or from them 4 Reas Because there is not the least true happiness in having the greatest abundance of earthly things for if there were then Reprobates and Cast-aways should have the greatest share in Happiness for they have most of those things 5 Reas Because every gracious Soul is in Covenant with God united to Christ partaker of his Spirit and so made like unto God and like unto Christ The Great God is his and all the great things of the Covenant are his Christ and all his Benefits are his and alas what mean low base things are all the visible temporal things of this World in comparison of God of Christ and Glory Besides all gracious Souls are in measure made like God And we read what a low esteem God hath of these things Luke 16. 15. Those things that are highly esteemed amongst men are an abomination to the Lord. And our Lord Jesus had a very low esteem of them being contented to be without house or home or a penny in his Purse And every true Christian hath the Spirit of Christ in some measure and the same mind that He had Rom. 8. 9. Gal. 4. 6. 6 Reas Because gracious Souls are born of God and that unto far higher and better things than these visible temporal things are at their best 1 Pet.
This is but too manifest Isa 55. 2. labouring for that which is not bread not Bread for their Souls and for that which cannot satisfie their Souls God Christ Heaven is not in all scarce in any of their Thoughts Psal 10. 4. 49. 11. the god of this World blinds Mens Eyes 2 Cor. 4. 4. and the World bewitcheth Mens Minds and the Deceitfulness of Sin so strangely deludes 〈◊〉 that they become meer Slaves and Captives to the World Ask any Man or Woman what things are best Earth or Heaven God or the Creature their Souls or their Bodies Saving Grace of Worldly Goods and all will confess that God is best of all and Heaven better than Earth If it be so why then is this World minded more than God and why is Earth minded more than Heaven The Apostle tells us the true reason Rom. 8. 5. which is because Men are in the Flesh in a state of Nature under spiritual blindness and darkness This their way is their folly Psal 49. 12. It is a great Folly to chuse the worst things and refuse the best to mind Earth and forget Heaven to pursue the Creature and neglect God and Christ Folly indeed to mind day and night and follow hard after visible temporal things and neglect eternal The pleasures of sin are but for a season but a God's right hand are pleasures for evermore Psal 16. last O the bewitching nature of this World that it should so gain and hold the Affections of Men and Women that altho the World and the fashion of it passeth away and is but a shadow yet that Men should so drown themselves in it as to make them forget the World to come How unreasonable a thing is it to spend all our Thoughts Cares and Pains about visible temporal things seeing they are so transitory and perishing so much beneath our never-dying Souls so utterly unable to satisfie or content our Souls or to comfort us in our Troubles or to stand us in any stead in Death and Judgment Were not our Minds most strangely blinded it were impossible that having Reason and Understanding we should so waste our Time and Strength in pursuit of earthly things seeing the Great God and the Blessed Jesus offer themselves to become ours and seeing Heaven and Happiness and Glory is before us and offered to us and we may have them if we will and so be happy for ever O wonderful Folly and Blindness the Lord enlighten and convince us Inf. IV. Fourthly it follows that a true Christian lives by Faith and not by Sence for he that is a Captive to the World hath but little Faith if any 1 John 5. 4. For faith overcometh the world where Sence riseth Faith falleth Now saith the Apostle 2 Cor. 5. 7. We walk by faith not by sence This is our Practice and this is the very meaning of the Text We look not at those things that are seen that is we live not by Sense but by Faith Q. But what is it to live or walk by Sense Ans The great good or end or happines that a carnal Heart proposeth to it self in which it expecteth Content is some good that is the object of Sense something that may be sensibly enjoyed and this they pursue and labour after The Rule by which they judge things is Sense if things please Sense and seem good to Sense to the Eye to the Ear to the Taste to the Appetite they judge them to be good things if not pleasing to the sense they are counted evil things That which affects their Hearts is Sense Sensible Comforts or Sensible Crosses Sensible Gain or Sensible Loss wanting the light of God's Spirit to open their Understandings they live only by Sense and are but Sensual Jude 19. Eccl. 11. 9. and so they walk after the Flesh and mind the things of the Flesh chiefly and principally This Life of Sense is variously expressed Prov. 3. 5. A leaning to their own understanding Psal 81. 12. A walking after their own hearts lusts and in their own counsels Jer. 9. 14. Walking after the imaginations of their own hearts Isa 65. 2. After their own thoughts in a way that is not good Isa 5. 21. This is not the way of true Christians but they walk by Faith and not by Sense Q. What is it then to walk by Faith Ans The great Good or End or Happiness that a gracious Soul aims at and seeks content in is that which is presented to him by Faith out of the Word of God and that is twofold to wit the glorifying of God and the enjoyment of him these are things not seen these are not the Objects of Sense but of Faith To glorifie God in Christ and to enjoy God in Christ this is the end of the Saints walk and way and all this is by Faith This Life of Faith is demonstrated several ways 1. He that lives by Faith is guided by the Word of Faith and that is the whole Gospel and every Truth in it such a Soul gives up it self to the conduct of the whole Word of God it walks by no other Rule 2. It yields it self up to the government of the Spirit of Faith the Holy Ghost it is obedient to the motions stirrings counsels of the Holy Spirit harkning to that word behind him Isa 30 31. not willingly grieving nor quenching it 3. It walks in the way of Holiness for this Faith purifies the Heart Acts 15. 9. 26. 18. 4. It always leans upon Christ and draws strength from him to hold on and hold out in the way of Duty by it the Soul abides in Christ John 15. 3. and by drawing of strength from Christ it can do all things Phil. 4. 13. notwithstanding all opposition 5. By Faith the Soul commits himself to God in Christ in all his ways and trusts himself and all his concernments with God Psal 37. 3 5. Prov. 16. 3. 2 Pet. 5. 7. Psal 112. 7 8. Isa 26. 2 3. Such a Soul can satisfie himself with what he receives by Faith as really and truly as others can satisfie themselves with Sense the faithful Promises of God are as sweet to him as the sensible Possessions and Enjoyments are of others Heb. 11. 13. they saw the Promises afar off and embraced them Now when a Soul can depend upon God alone for All in the want of all outward means and make progress in the ways of God through all difficulties and not draw back and doth in his whole course of Life so walk work and act as becomes one that doth believe such glorious things in the other World as he doth believe when there is a suitableness in his Life to what he believes then oh then he may truly be said to live by Faith And this is the Life that in some degree every true Christian lives and desires to live and this living by Faith and not by Sense is that which is meant in the Text. 2 Vse The second Use is
〈…〉 and that Earthly things were temporal 〈…〉 and therefore not so â—e command 〈…〉 less to be valued or 〈…〉 Heavenly things Q. 1. But how 〈…〉 of Earthly things A. 1. We must judge of 〈…〉 only wise judgeth of them 〈…〉 judge truly and rightly of them Now God hath declared in his Word his Judgment of them Isa 4. 6 7. The mouth of the Lord hath spoken this The voice said Cry and he said What shall I cry All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as the flower of the field The grass withereth the flower fadeth Psal 39. 5 6. Verily every man at his best estate is altogether vanity Surely every man walketh in a vain shew Psal 103. 14 15. we are but Dust As for man his days are as grass as a flower of the field so he flourisheth For the wind passeth over it and it is gone and the place thereof shall know it no more Job 14. 1 2. Man that is born of a woman is of few days and full of trouble He cometh forth like a flower and is cut down he fleeth also as a shadow and continueth not So 1. Pet. 1. 24. Jam. 1. 10. 4. 14. What is our life It is but even a vapour that appeareth for a little time and then vanisheth away This is the Judgment of God concerning Man all Men They are but Dust but a Shadow but Grass and the Life of Man very short and full of trouble but even as a bubble but a vapour and we may be sure that the Judgment of God is according to Truth And then for all the things of this World Solomon by the Spirit of God hath declared what they all are Eccles 1. 2. Vanity of vanities saith the Preacher vanity of vanities all is vanity Vanity and Vexation Riches Honours Pleasures Relations Friends Liberty all pleasant Accommodations all is vanity and vexation of spirit This is the true and right Judgment we should have of all earthly things 2. We must judge of these earthly things by the experience of the best and wisest men that ever lived upon Earth they will tell us from their own experience that they are all vanity and vexation So Solomon Job David Moses Psal 90 4 5 6. Yea we all know this by our own Experiences every day that all flesh is as grass and as the flower of the field How soon do all our earthly Comforts wither and perish our dearest and nearest Relations wither and dye away our Health and Strength our Life and all still withering and perishing See largely of this in Dr. Reynold 's Three Treatises the first part concerning the vanity of the Creature 3. Once more judge of Earthly things by the evil use we make of them while we have them through Satan's Temptations and our own Corruptions as was shewed before and also what cloggs and hinderances they are to our Souls in our way to Heaven Altho' Life and all the Accommodations of Life as Health Strength Liberty Estate Friends are good things in themselves and given us to be helps to Holiness and to Heaven yet we must confess to our shame that all our Earthly Comforts yea and our animal Life it self doth very much most times hinder our Communion with God hinder us in the Service of God keep our Hearts at too great a distance from God and many more Evils they bring upon us all which considered we have but little reason so to value them as we do nor to let our Hearts and Affections so to run out after them Thus let us take a right judgment of all Earthly things It is true that so far forth as these Earthly things are useful to us in the Service of God and further the good of our Souls so far forth we ought to love and prize them and praise God for them and pray for the continuance of them but so far forth as they are hinderances to us in Holiness and bring Sin and Guilt on our Souls as too oft they do so far forth and in that respect we had better be without them than with them their Room would be better than their Company And when they prove Snares to us and like Solomon's Wives draw away our Hearts from God and like Dalilah to Sampson betray our Souls into the hands of our spiritual Enemies then surely it is the goodness of God to separate them from us and strip us of them and we shall have cause to bless God for so doing Sickness and Weakness improved is better for our Souls than Health and Strength abused Restraint and Confinement improved better than Liberty abused Solitariness improved is better than a Family and Company abused Poverty improved better than Riches abused c. Thus you may get a right Judgment of Earthly things Q. 2. But how will this right Judgment of Earthly things help us to bear our Troubles in this World A. 1. By acting our Faith upon the Word of God Believe and be fully perswaded of the truth which God the God of Truth hath spoken concerning all Earthly things Believe that all flesh is grass that life is but a vapour c. here lies the root of all our Impatience and Discontent under our Losses and Earthly Comforts even our Unbelief we do not fully and firmly believe they are such vain things that we are deprived of out grass but as the flowers of the field Just like a man that finds a Box or Bag of Counters and takes them to be all pure Gold and greatly rejoycech in what he hath found then after a short time he loseth his Counters and then he is exceedingly troubled for the loss of them because all this while he took them for Gold but if once he comes to believe that it was but a Box or Bag of Counters then he grieves no more So it is with us we believe not that all our Comforts are vanity and vexation we look not on them to be so but that there is much contentment and sweetness and satisfaction to be had in them And therefore we grieve immoderately when we lose our Counters but if we did firmly believe they are but Counters Shadows Grass Vapours we should not be so cast down 2. Meditation and Consideration of the true nature of all Earthly things as God hath shewed us in his Word often thinking pondering and meditating on their vanity uncertainty transitoriness and deceitsulness Without this due and serious Meditation a right Judgment of them will do us no good When God smites our Comforts maketh our fairest Flowers to wither blasteth our flourishing Grass then let us consider what God hath smitten and blasted nothing but grass but flowers What have we lost Nothing but Shadows but Counters This deep Consideration will support us under our Losses Consider also the Experience of the Saints who in all Ages have found these things to be but vanity and vexation 3. Add Prayer to God That He will throughly convince your Minds of the
glory that Everlasting Rest in the full and perfect enjoyment of the Blessed God for ever thought on minded and laboured after more but because these things are not fully believed O cursed Unbelief Men believe that Life Liberty Health Honour Estate c. are good things and therefore they mind them and labour after them and count no Pains too much to obtain them labouring as it were in the Fire to get those things Those that believed those better things in the other World counted those visible temporal things of this World but Toyls and Trifles Heb. 10. 34. 2 Cor. 5. 1 2 3 4. So Heb. 11. throughout It is our Unbelief is the cause why God and Christ and Heaven have so little of our hearts and minds so little of our thoughts and affections Oh let us all bitterly bewail our Unbelief Lord subdue and pardon it These are the Hinderances II. The Means to help us to this Work that we may most seriously and most heartily mind invisible eternal things 1. First We must labour clearly to know and understand the Truth and Reality the exceeding Greatness and Excellency of those invisible eternal things as was hinted before Our ignorance of them is much the cause why we mind them no more Ignoti nulla Cupido No man minds or loves what he knows not Let us set our Hearts in earnest to consider what it is to enjoy God who is All-fulness what it is to have Fellowship with the Father and the Son what it is to have Communion with the Holy Ghost to have the gracious Presence of the Holy Spirit to feel the Work the Witness the Sealing the Joy the Consolation of the Holy Spirit all which all true Christians know and feel in some measure and rejoice in them Consider also what it is to live in Christ and to have Christ to live in us to dwell in our Hearts to manifest his Love to us to come in to us to sup with us and we with him to take up his Abode with us what it is to know the Power of his Death and the Vertue of his Resurrection to be made one with him joyned married to him made one Spirit with him and what it is to be made like him here and what it is to be made like him hereafter both in Soul and Body â—ad to appear with him in Glory at last and to be for ever glorified with him what it is to see this Face and to dwell in his presence for ever Oh chese are the only things that are worthy of all our Hearts and Minds most worthy of all our Affections and Desires of all our Labourings Longings Pantings Breathings Hungrings and Thirstings of Soul Oh shame on us all that we spend our Affections on Toys and Trifles on Dreams Fancies and Shadows Oh that such Folly and Madness such Brutishness should possess us Let us lament and lament it And let us labour to know and understand those high and excellent things and let us be fully perswaded of them and of their infinite worth and value These things are worth glorying and rejoycing in Jer. â—â— 23 24. Let not the wise man glory in his wisdom But let him that glorieth glory in this that he understandeth and knoweth me that I am the Lord which exercise loving-kindness judgment and righteousness in the earth for in these things I delight saith the Lord. Let us consider also the exceeding-great and precious Promises and what our Blessed Jesus hath purchased and what God hath prepared for his People in the other World and let us ponder upon and by Meditation work these things into our Hearts and Minds Labour for a distinct knowledge of all those things Labour to prove your particular Right and Title to all those invisible eternal good things and then you will mind them indeed A bare Knowledge of them without an Interest in them will do you no good No wise man will much mind those things in which he hath no Interest let us then search and try whether we have any true Title to these things whether we have any good and solid ground to hope that we shall one day be possest of them and shall certainly enjoy them Then we shall think of them and speak of them with Joy and Comfort when we can say with Paul There is laid up for me a crown of righteousness And we know that when the earthly house of this tabernacle is dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hands eternal in the heavens We all hope to enjoy that promised purchased Inheritance all hope to see God in Glory and to be happy but let us try our Title by the Word of God by that Word which must judge us all at the last day We may easily deceive our selves as those in Matth. 7. 21 22. and as the foolish Virgins no Deceit so easie nor so common nor so dangerous for it is irrecoverable and a little serious tryal might prevent this Self-deceiving Self-searching may prevent Self-deceiving and Self-undoing Briefly then let us ask our selves Is Jesus Christ ours Then All is ours All depends on this If Christ be ours God is ours Pardon Life Salvation Heaven and Earth is ours 1 Cor. 3. 22 23. Are we Christ's really and sincerely his Then He is ours My beloved is mine and I am his Are we his all we are his Hearts Heads Tongues Time Talents are we all his Are we new Creatures 2 Cor. 5. 17. If any man be in Christ he is a new creature Mark it a new Creature all old things are pass'd away and behold all things are become new new Insides new Out-sides new Principles new Ends new Affections new Desires new Delights new Company new Language all new if new Creatures Have we the Spirit of Christ in us If any man have not the spirit of Christ the same is none of his Rom. 8. 9. Doth Christ live in us Is Christ most precious to us Do we believe in him Let us try the truth of our Faith doth it purifie our Hearts Doth it work by Love by Love to Christ to all that hath the Image of Christ on it Doth it overcome the World Doth it support under Trouble Let us see that it be Faith unfeigned the Faith of God's Elect. Have we with all our Hearts chosen the Lord for our Portion and placed our Happiness in him fixed our best Loves Desires and Delights in him and have we resigned up our whole selves cordially and unreservedly to him Have we broken our League with all Sin and with all the Idols of our Hearts Do we hate and detest all Sin and do we keep a continual watch and war against all Sin Have we an equal respect to all God's Commandments Can we deny our selves and part with all things for Christ Are we the Heirs of the Promises If we be really Christ's then are we Heirs of the Promises Gal. 3. 29. Are we the Children of God If Children
is the sum of the Gospel Acts 20. 21. Repentance towards God and Faith towards our Lord Jesus Christ Repentance in order to the obtaining of our Pardon Acts 3. 19. Repent and be converted that your sins may be blotted out when the time of refreshing shall come Acts 5. 31. Christ is exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins Job 22. 21. And by Faith in Christ we take hold of God's Strength Isa 27. 5. Which is the mercy of God in Christ this is the strength of God to save sinners Lay hold then on this Strength of God viz. the Mercy of God in Christ and so shall we make Peace with God Rom. 5. 1. Being justified by faith we have peace with God Make sure and sound work then in Repentance and Faith let us often try our Repentance and Faith dally not nor delay in this business we are all upon the Borders of Eternity we are all near those invisible eternal things This is the common Counsel we give every body on their Sick-beds You must make your peace with God we say but how this may be done few know or mind O let us mind those great matters Have we unfeignedly repented from dead Works unto Life Is all Sin hated and sought out Are we truly converted Acts 26. 18. 3. 19. Sound Conversion a thorow Change of Heart and Life is the surest sign of true Repentance Have we Faith in Jesus Christ the Faith of God's Elect Faith unfeigned that purifieth the Heart worketh by Love overcometh the World unites to Christ and draws Life from him to live as he lived and walk as he walked Let us try our Repentance by these Texts Jer. 31. 19. Joel 2. 14. Isa 55. 7. Matt. 3. 8. Heb. 6. 1. Thorow Examination of Heart and Life Clear Confession Hearty Humiliation Self-Abhorrency Thorow Reformation will prove our Repentance true and sound Q. How shall I know that I have truly believed A. Haft thou found it an hard Work to believe a Work altogether above thy own Power Haft thou seen and felt thy loft Estate by Nature Haft thou seen the Excellency of Christ and thy absolute necessity of him Is he most precious to thy Soul Hath thy Soul been drawn to Christ made heartily willing to close with Christ upon his own Terms to take him for your only Lord and Saviour hath all this been wrought in thee by the Word Dost thou value Faith as a Jewel Dost thou rely on Christ and trust him with all things and for all things Doth this bring Peace to thy Soul Dost thou draw Life and Strength from Christ Doth thy Faith in him support thee in Trouble What Service doth it do thee in time of Trouble It is the greatest Support the poor Saints have in all their Afflictions as Heb. 11. throughout Our great Business lies upon making sure and clear the Truth of our Repentance and Faith and we must go to God for both for they are his special gifts Also we must go to Christ he is the Author and Giver of them Acts 5. 31. Heb. 12. 1 2. And we should be often trying our Repentance and Faith for without these no Soul can ever attain unto Salvation and with them no Soul shall ever miss it The penitent Believers are the only heirs of the Promises all the great and glorious things of the other World which the faithful God who cannot lye hath promised and which our Blessed Jesus hath purchased with his most precious Blood they do ill belong to penitent Believers and to none else The exceeding great and precious Promises are those sweet Breasts of Consolation which they should lye upon and suck continually and by two immutable things to wit the Word and Oath of God wherein it is impossible that God should lye these Promises are confirmed that the heirs of the Promises might have not weak but strong Consolation Heb. 6. 17. Fourth Vse for Lamentation These things are to be lamented I. The great ignorance of those invisible eternal things Our Lord lamented and wept over Jerusalem for this Luke 19. 21 22. If thou hadst known at least in this thy day the things that belong to thy peace It is a lamentable thing that People living under the clearest Discoveries and brightest Displays of those invisible eternal things should yet be so grosly ignorant of them and so unacquainted with them as God complains of Israel Hos 4. 1 6. 8. 12. No knowledge of God in the Land though it was the only Land in all the World then that had the means of Knowledge Hos 8. 12. I have written to them the great things of my law but they have counted them strange things Look over those particulars afore-mentioned and we shall find that there is very little true distinct knowledge of them in the Land Obj. But we do know these things Ans If we do know God why do we not obey him Tit. 1. 16. To profess to know God and in works to deny him is the Character of a Reprobate Why do we not trust him Psal 9. 10. They that know his name will put their trust in him 1 John 2. 3 4. 4. 17. What likeness have most Men and Women to God and Christ What Fruits of the Spirit do appear Gil. 5. 22. but the Fruits of the Flesh are manifest What Power Sweetness and Comfort do Men find in the Word and Promises how little are most affected when they read or hear of all the great things purchased by Christ and prepared in Heaven for Believers What fixed delightful Thoughts and serious Meditations are spent upon these things Alas alas whose Conscience doth not accuse him Whose Heart that hath any tenderness doth not smite him for his neglect of this While I am writing this my Conscience flies in my Face and chargeth me with guilt O pardon me Lord through the Blood of Christ and give me true Repentance Let me be ashamed and even confounded for my woful neglect of minding invisible eternal things I am convinced of my guilt and blessed be God for that O give me an heavenly heart let in more of Heaven to my heart O shew thy self to me Or take me up to thee II. It is a Lamentable thing that those high glorious invisible eternal things should be so little believed by us They are little known but less believed They cannot but be known to us in some measure they have been so often preach'd to us and we have so often read of them Their sound hath gone out to the ends of the earth Rom. 10. 19. Did not Israel know Doth not England know Then we must be stark deaf and blind Some Knowledge in our heads we must needs have but certainly here is the Root-Sin the Spring of all Ungodliness even Unbelief whatever People profess these things are not believed People are not fully perswaded in their Hearts and Souls of the Truth of the Excellency and of