and Glory hereafter say now unto sin and Satan and all Temptations unto that which is Evil I will have nothing to do with you any more all whose designs are to render me unfit for that Blessed and Holy State I am continually waiting in expectation of Secondly As Purity and Holiness of Life are a deportment suitable unto a Christian's Heavenly Expectation So also is a Holy Chearfulness and Joy A Christian's Hope of Heaven should be matter of the greatest Joy and Delight to him that can be And indeed all true Joy and Delight is the Privilege and Portion only of a Godly Man It is his Priviledge to Enjoy it above others and it is his Portion that he enjoys it above others Sinners have no peace either with God or with themselves and how then is it possible that they should be Joyful What Joy and Delight they seem to have is only in outward appearance for in the midst of their mad laughter and the Joy of the Wicked is no more their hearts are sorrowful Prov. 14.13 In Esay 57.20 We read the Wicked are like the troubled Sea when it cannot rest whose waters cast up mire and dirt There is always filth and pollution in the Consciences of wicked men which makes them travail with pain all their days Job 15.21 And hence God tells us That there is no Peace unto the Wicked Esay 57.21 A wicked man's ways and courses will yield him no Peace because they are sinful and sin never was a ground of Peace because they are sinful and sin never was a ground of Peace unto any but of trouble unto all sometime or other And where there is no Peace how can there be any true Joy Alas a wicked man's fears of Hell and Wrath to come which his unrepented of sin deserve and call for mar all that Joy and Delight that otherwise he might take in the Hopes or Heaven But now a Godly man one that walks in the Integrity of his Heart he is one whose Peace is made with God through Jesus Christ the Prince of Peace and therefore he may yea he ought to rejoyce in hopes of the Glory of God And if the men of the World whose Portion is in this Life and whose Names are written in the Earth can rejoyce in their Riches and outward Greatness how much more may a Christian rejoyce whose Name is written in the Book of Life who hath God for his Portion and Heaven for his Inheritance Lift up therefore thine head and heart O Christian Earthy Bread with chearfulness and drink thy Wine yea thy Water if thou hast no better with a merry Heart Enjoy thy outward Comforts with Delight take a Holy Pleasure and Joy not only when thou art walking in the ways of Holiness and Obedience but also when thou art suffering under troubles and afflictions from the World Refresh thy Soul Recreate thy Spirits and let thy Heart solace it self with great Joy yea with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory in the hopes thou hast of Heaven and Happiness And indeed a Christian cannot do God more or better Service nor bring more Credit to Religion than by expressing a Holy Chearfulness and Joy of Soul in every State and Condition that befals him What Jonadab said unto Amnon Why art thou lean from day to day seeing thou art the King's Son The same may be said upon a much better account unto every Holy and Gracious Soul Why art thou so troubled Why walkest thou so dumpishly and dejectedly in the ways of God from day to day art not thou the King of Heaven's Son Shall not Heaven be thine Inheritance nay shall not the God of Heaven be thy Portion for ever Let me reason the case with thee a little O disconsolate Soul as Holy David when he was under some disquietment of mind doth with his Soul with a little variation of his words in Psalm 42.11 Why art thou cast down O my Soul why art thou disquieted within me Hope thou in God for I shall yet Praise him who is the Health of my Countenance and my God So say I unto every Gracious Soul why art thou cast down what is the reason of thy disquietness and trouble Is not thy hope in God Dost thou not expect to Bless and Praise him for ever in Heaven And hast thou received such everlasting Consolation and good hope through Grace as this to have God to be thy God O manifest it unto others in the chearfulness of thy Countenance and in the Joy of thy Soul even now before thou comest to the Enjoyment of him in Heaven A bare possibility of Heaven and the Enjoyment of God there is enough to take away the sting of every Affliction but the having such sure and certain grounds to build our hopes of Heaven and Happiness upon as the Scripture holds forth unto us this should take away even the sence and feeling of Afflictions at least so far forth as that they should be no way disturbing of that Peace and Joy that a Christians hopes of Heaven doth afford him whilst he is walking in the way thither Should but such a message be carried to the Damned as might give them any hope though never so little of Happiness and Salvation it were enough to make even Hell it self a lightsome place and cause those miserable Souls to rejoyce in the midst of their present exquisite Torments O what shame and blushing then should fill the Faces of poor drooping Saints that a few thin Clouds of some short Afflictions coming over their heads should wrap and swallow them up in darkness and so overwhelm their Spirits with sorrow that the hopes of Heaven whither they expect shortly to be brought should not be able to dissipate and scatter yea to turn their troubles and sorrows into ravishments of Joy and Comfort Fourthly Is there such a State of Glory and Happiness to be enjoyed by the People of God hereafter Let thy Thoughts and Meditations then O Christian be daily employed in Contemplating upon it Heaven in reference unto Man was made for these two ends Contemplation and Enjoyment Now the Enjoyment of Heaven is a Happiness too great for man in this state of Mortality it is therefore reserved as the peculiar Happiness of a Saint when he comes to die But to Contemplate of Heaven is mans Duty and Privilege while he lives and truly a sweeter and more delightful work Christians cannot exercise their Meditations about nor a more profitable and advantageous Subject can they let out their Thoughts upon for this is to live a life altogether made up of Pleasure and Advantage Now it being undoubtedly thus we may very well wonder Christians should no more acquaint themselves with this Heavenly Life Whoever thou art therefore that shalt peruse what is here written if thou professest thy self a Christian I charg thee as thou hopest for any part in this Glorious Inheritance that thou take thy Heart aside from the World and call it to
perfect Lineaments of Christ will then be drawn upon it A weak and small measure of Grace which is the highest attainment that any Saint reacheth to here compared with what we shall do hereafter and is also the Image of Christ upon the Soul of a Believer yet even this imperfect Grace and Holiness makes the Soul to shine gloriously here how much more then shall Glory that is the Perfection of Grace and the perfecting of the Image of Christ upon the Soul make the Soul of a believer to exceed in Glory Not that the Saints in Heaven shall be continually receiving new additions to their Grace or Glory and so be made more and more like unto Christ by the Vision they shall there have of him No this is a Saint's Work and Employment here on Earth whilst he beholds Christ only by an eye of Faith in the Glass of Duties and Ordinances thus to be changed into his Image from Glory to Glory But this Sight of Christ shall vanish away in Heaven and the Saints shall have an immediate Vision of God and Christ and their Souls shall thereby be changed into an exact and perfect conformity unto the Image of Christ It shall not then be from Glory to Glory from one degree of Grace to another as it is now but Grace and Holiness in Heaven shall be always in them in its height and perfection The Souls of Believers upon their entrance into that Holy Place become perfectly and compleatly glorious having the perfection of Grace and Holiness in them without the least remainders of Sin and Corruption which in this World the holiest Persons are not totally free'd from But to speak a little more particularly concerning the Happiness of the Souls of Believers in Heaven and here First In Heaven the Vnderstandings of the Saints shall be enlarged Knowledge is a necessary Engredient unto the Soul's Happiness in Heaven and the more enlarged the Vnderstanding of a Saint is the greater is his Happiness An ignorant Soul cannot be a happy Soul neither on Earth nor in Heaven Ignorant Persons are look'd upon with pity and contempt That the Soul be without knowledge says the Wise Man is not nor cannot be good Prov. 19.2 Knowledge is a great Ornament in any Man but much more in a Christian It is a great Commendation to have an insight into the Secrets of Nature to be skill'd in Arts and Sciences to understand Logick Philosophy Metaphysicks and the like but the Excellency of Knowledge lies not in these things but in the knowledge of the Highest and Chief Good of all and that is God and Christ This the Scripture calls the Excellency of Knowledge So says the Apostle Philip. 3.9 I count all things but Loss and Dung for the Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord and John 17.2 This is Life eternal to know thee the only true God and Jesus Christ whom thou hast sent This is excellent Knowledge indeed to know God to know the Lord Jesus Christ to understand the wonderful Work of Man's Redemption to be acquainted with the Mysteries of Divine Providence This is a knowledge wherein Angels may delightfully busie themselves in the contemplation of and not stoop below the Excellency and Dignity of their Natures Something of Light and Knowledge they have into these Objects now But alas it 's little we know of God of Christ of the Mysteries of Redemption and Providence to what shall be known in Heaven Some of these blessed Objects are far above out of our sight others are far above the reach of our Vnderstanding to comprehend the depth of those Mysteries of Wisdom Grace and Love that are contained in them But in Heaven our Capacities shall be enlarged to take in the Knowledge of these high and glorious Objects In Heaven God will take off the Vail from his Face that we may see him Face to Face and not only so but will strengthen us that we may be able to look upon and behold his Glory and Excellency which otherwise would astonish and confound us There shall we see the blessed Lord Jesus who for our sakes was for a little while made a little lower than the Angels crowned with Glory and Honour All the wonderful and astonishing Mysteries of our Redemption shall be there unfolded to us There it is that we shall see all the glorious Attributes of God Wisdom Justice Mercy Holiness Faithfulness and Truth sweetly reconciled and fully satisfied and contented in the contrivance of our Redemption by Jesus Christ There we shall with great satisfaction understand the deep and obscure Mysteries of Religion which here the most profound Scholars were never able fully to comprehend There shall the most dark and difficult Passages of that divine and heavenly Book the Scriptures be made clear and plain to our Understanding There it shall be given us to discern how exquisitely the several parts of Holy Writ were by the All wise and Fore seeing Author of them God fitted and adapted unto the several Times Places Persons and Occurrences for which they were intended chiefly to be used We shall then plainly see not only a Reconcileableness but a Friendship and perfect Harmony between those Sacred Texts in Holy Writ that seem'd most to jarr and be at greatest variance Yea there shall we discover not only the meaning of the most dark and obscure Passages of that Sacred Book but how fit it was that they should be so together with the infinite Wisdom of the great God that caused them to be written so obscurely There it is that those Riddles of Divine Providence shall be expounded and laid open before us which have made not only wicked Men to deny but tempted even good Men themselves sometimes to call in question the infinite and unerring Wisdom of the great God in his Government of the World when they behold wicked and ungodly Men to prosper grow rich and great having all their Hearts can wish whilst upright and righteous ones are continually exposed to Poverty Reproach and Contempt There shall we be fully convinced that all these seeming Irregularities are not only consistent with God's Justice and Goodness but are the wise productions of them And though the Belief hereof doth to wise and understanding Persons seem to be a piece of great Self-denial yet when we come to Heaven it will appear to be as highly rational as now we find it to be hard and difficult Man of himself is no fit Judge of the Providence of God at any time but especially not in this World because he cannot see the whole of his Providential Workings at once His Days as Job speaks are but as a shadow upon Earth and they fly away So that he can see but little of what God is doing But when we come to Heaven the whole Conduct of God's Providence in the Administration of Affairs in the World shall be laid open to our view Then shall all the Revolutions and Occurrences of Empires States
our Salvation Is it not there that we shall be for ever out of the reach of Satan's Temptations with which a Believer is so assaulted and harassed here as renders his Life not only uncomfortable but even burthensome to himself Is it not there that our frail Bodies which now are subject to Pains and Diseases because defiled with Sin shall be for ever loosed from all Weaknesses and Infirmities being made like unto the Glorious Body of Jesus Christ perfectly freed from Mortality and Corruption and from all Sin and Defilement Is it not there that all the People of God shall be of one Heart and of one Mind that being taken away both from within and from without which was the cause of all their Divisions and Contentions here on Earth and instead thereof there shall be a sweet union of Hearts and Affections all of them abundantly delighting and satisfying themselves in one God as the Object of their Happiness without the least jarring or discord among them to all Eternity While the People of God are in this Vail of Tears they labour under much Blindness and Ignorance about the Mysteries of Salvation as revealed in the Gospel but in Heaven these Mysteries shall all be fully and perfectly made known to us In this Life we take in our Knowledge of God of Heaven and of the Gospel by which we are savingly enlightned in either by little and little as a Man that desires to know what is contained in a Book before it is exposed to publick view reads it Sheet by Sheet from the Press and so understands a little and a little of it by Degrees And truly so do Christians concerning the Mysteries of the Kingdom of God now they hear a Sermon and by that they gain a little light and in some short time they hear another Sermon and by that they encrease their light a little more and thus their Stock of Divine Knowledge encreaseth a little and a little at time by the help of means and opportunities that they enjoy But now in Heaven all is done without travail or trouble for though it is true Glorified Saints there cease not from working yet is it as true that they cease from labour Here our Passions are strong and prevalent by reason whereof our minds are blinded and we easily mistake Error for Truth and Truth for Error but hereafter all these Clouds shall be blown away and we shall see things nakedly and truly as they are in themselves Here the weakness and smallness of many mens Natural Parts keeps them in the dark and renders them incapable of apprehending some Truths of God which others of greater abilities can search into with pleasure and delight But then as the Apostle speaking concerning the day of Judgment tells us They that are alive then shall not prevent those that are asleep So in Heaven they that are strong shall not prevent those that are weak but the Scholar shall there know as much as his Master and the People understand as much as their Minister In this World Contentions and Quarrellings among Holy and Learned Men leave the Weak and Ignorant at great uncertainties what to Judge concerning many Gospel Truths But in Heaven there shall be a perfect Reconciliation and Agreement among them all yea while we are here it often falls out that in our most diligent searching after Truth we meet with many hindrances and disturbances sometimes the necessary Affairs of this World cause us to lay aside our Enquiries at other times many Distempers that attend our infirm Bodies divert and hinder us in our most serious Inquisitions But in Heaven our Bodies will be above all these things we shall there no more be liable to nor annoy'd with any Weaknesses and Infirmities In that Glorious place we shall not need to provide either Raiment for the back or Food for the belly O what a Happiness have Believers by dying who are thereby at once eased of all the aches of their Bodies and of all the conflicts of their Souls how comfortably may they look Death in the Face who is the only Physician that cures them of all their Distempers at once O when that blessed hour comes how joyfully may they lift up their heads for as soon as they are passed through that dark and gloomy Valley they shall be brought into a place of unconceivable Bliss and Happiness where they shall behold him whom their Souls so much loved and longed to see even their Blessed Redeemer the Lord Jesus Christ not at a distance or afar off as they were wont to do by an Eye of Faith through the Glass of an Ordinance or Promise but with a Glorified Eye draw near to him and look upon his blessed Person the Glorious sight of whom they shall never more lose to all Eternity When a Believer shall not as here he hath now and then some little glimpses of his Face and some small tastes of his Love in a little Sacramental Bread and Wine but he shall lay his Mouth to the Fountain head and from his Bosom drink full and large draughts of those Rivers of the Waters of Life that proceed out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb for evermore He shall then no more have any descriptions of Heaven by fear say as he was wont to have it described to him here by the sorry Rhetorick of a Mortal Man either by Preaching or Writing of that which he himself had little Love to and less Knowledge and Acquaintance with but shall himself walk up and down and view the Streets of that Glorious City And O with what Wonder and Astonishment will a Believer bless himself there when he reflects back upon those poor and low thoughts that himself and the best of Preachers also had thereof when on Earth he did Meditate and they did Preach or Write upon that Subject One moment's sight of that Glory will give the Soul a thousand times better Information and Satisfaction what Heaven is than all the Discourses that it ever heard or all the Books it ever read here on Earth were ever able to do And canst thou O Believer hear all this concerning Heaven and thy Faith tell thee that all this is true and add also that Heaven is ten thousand times more and better than what all the Men in the World can imagine concerning it and yet not feel some springings up of Holy Joy and Delight in thee followed with earnest longings of Soul after the Enjoyment of it O whence doth this dulness and backwardness proceed this is not a temper of Soul suitable unto the Hopes of so great a Happiness as Heaven will be Why dost thou not O Believing Soul cry out with Holy Longings and Desires How long O Lord most Holy and True shall it be before thou bringest me into the Possession of this most Blissful State Every moment whilst thou art kept at a distance from it should seem to thee a Day and every Day a Month