the Joyes of God we continually fill them with perplexing fears For he that fears dying must be alwayes fearing because he hath alwayes cause to expect it And how can that mans life be comfortable who lives in continuul fear of loosing his comforts SECT XV. 5. MOreover all these are self-created sufferings As if it were not enough to be the deservers but we must also be the executioners of our own calamities As if God had not inflicted enough upon us but we must inflict more upon our selves Is not death bitter enough to the flesh of it self but we must double and treble and multiply its bitterness Do we complain so much of the burden of our troubles and yet daily add unto the weight Sure the state of poor mortals is sufficiently calamitous they need not make it so much worse The sufferings laid upon us by God do all lead to happy issues the progress is from suffering to patience from thence to experience and so to Hope and at last to Glory But the sufferings which we do make our selves have usually issues answerable to their causes The motion is Circular and endless from sin to suffering from suffering to sin and so to suffering again and so in infinitum And not onely so but they multiply in their course every sin is greater then the former and so every suffering also greater This is the natural progress of them which if mercy do intercept no thanks to us So that except we think that God hath made us to be our own tormentors we have small reason to nourish our fears of death SECT XVI 7. COnsider further they are all but useless unprofitable fears As all our care cannot make one hair white or black nor adde one cubit to our stature so neither can our fear prevent our sufferings nor delay our dying time an hour Willing or unwilling we must away Many a mans fears have hastened his end but no mans ever did avert it It s true a cauâ—eâ—one fear or care concerning the danger after death hath profited many and is very usefull to the preventing of that danger But for a member of Christ and an heir of Heaven to be afraid of entering his own inheritance this is a sinful useless fear SECT XVII 8. BUt though it be useless in respect of good yet to Sathan is it very serviceable Our â—ears of dying ensnare our souls and add strength to many temptations Nay when we are called to dye for Christ and put to it in a day of tryal it may draw us to deny the known truth and forsake the Lord God himself You look upon it now as a small sin a common frailty of humane nature But if you look to the dangerous consequents of it me thinks it should move you to other thoughts What made Peter deny his Lord what makes Apostates in suffering times forsake the truth and the green blade of unrooted faith to wither before the heat of persecution Fear of imprisoment and poverty may do much but fear of death will do much more When you see the Gibbet or hear the sentence if this fear of dying prevail in you you 'l strait begin to say as Peter I know not the man When you see the fagots set and fire ready you 'l say as that Apostate to the Martyr O the fire is hot and nature's frail forgeting that the fire of hell is hotter Sirs as light as you make of it you know not of what force these fears are to separate your souls from Jesus Christ. Have we not lately had frequent experience of it How many thousand have fled in fight and turned their back on a good cause where they knew the honour of God was concerned and their countreys welfare was the prize for which they fought and the hopes of their posterity did lye at the staâ—e and all through unworthy fear of dying Have we not known those who lying under a wounded conscience and living in the practice of some known sin durst scarce look the enemy in the face because they durst not look death in the face but have trembled and drawn back and cryed alas I dare not dye If I were in the case of such or such I durst dye He that dare not dye dare scarce fight valiantly Therefore we have seen in our late wars that there is none more valiant then these two sorts 1. Those who have conquered the fear of death by the power of Faith 2. And those who have extinguisht it by desperate prophanness and cast it away through stupid security So much fear as we have of death usually so much cowardize in the cause of God However its an evident temptation and snare Beside the multitude of unbelieving contrivances and discontents at the wise disposals of God and hard thoughts of most of his providences which this sin doth make us guilty of Besides also it looseth us much precious time and that for the most part neer our end When time should be most precious of all to us and when it should be imployed to better purpose then do we vainly and sinfully wast it in the fruitless issues of these distracting fears So that you see how dangerous a snare these fears are and how fruitful a parent of many evils SECT XVIII 9. COnsider what a competent time the most of us have had Some thirty some fourty some fifty or sixty yeers How many come to the grave younger for one that lives to the shortest of these Christ himself as is generally thought lived but thirty three yeers on earth If it were to come as it is past you would think thirty yeers a long time Did you not long ago in your threatning sickness think with your selves O if I might enjoy but one seven yeers more or ten yeers more And now you have enjoyed perhaps more then you then begged and are you nevertheless unwilling yet Except you would not die at all but desire an immortality here on Earth which is a sin inconsistent with the truth of Grace If your sorrow be meerly this That you are mortal you might as well have lamented it all your lives For sure you could never be ignorant of this Why should not a man that would dye at all be as well willing at thirty or fourty if God see it meet as at seventy or eighty nay usually when the longest day is come men are as loth to depart as ever He that looseth so many yeers hath more cause to bewail his own neglect then to complain of the shortness of his time and were better lament the wickedness of his life then the brevity Length of time doth not conquer corruption it never withers nor decayes through age Except we receive an addition of Grace as well as Time we naturally grow the older the worse Let us then be contented with our allotted proportion And as we are convinced that we should not murmure against our assigned degree of wealth
rising of the Sun excludes the darkness yet is not the negative part to be slighted even our freedom from so many and great Calamities Let us therefore look over these more punctually and see what it is that we shall there Rest from In general It is from all evil Particularly First from the evil of Sin secondly and of suffering First It excludeth nothing more directly then sin whether original and of Nature or actual and of Conversation For there entereth nothing that defileth nor that worketh abomination nor that maketh a lie when they are there the Saints are Saints indeed He that will wash them with his heart blood rather then suffer them to enter unclean will now perfectly see to that he who hath undertaken to present them to his Father not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing but perfectly holy and without blemish will now most certainly perform his undertaking What need Christ at all to have died if Heaven could have contained imperfect souls For to this end came he into the world that he might put away the works of the divel His Blood and Spirit have not done all this to leave us after all defiled For what communion hath light with darkness and what fellowship hath Christ with Belial He that hath prepared for sin the torments of Hell will never admit it into the Blessedness of Heaven Therefore Christian never fear this if thou be once in Heaven thou shalt sin no more Is not this glad news to thee who hast prayed and watched and labored against it so long I know if it were offered to thy choice thou wouldst rather chuse to be freed from sin then to be made heir of all the world VVhy wait till then and thou shalt have thy desire That hard heart those vile thoughts which did lie down and rise with thee which did accompany thee to every duty which thou couldst no more leave behinde thee then leave thy self behinde thee shall now be left behinde for ever They might accompany thee to death but they cannot proceed a step further Thy understanding shall never more be troubled with darkness Ignorance and Error are inconsistent with this Light Now thou walkest like a man in the twilight ever afraid of being out of the way Thou seest so many Religions in the VVorld that thou fearest thy one cannot be onely the right among all these Thou seest the Scripture so exceeding difficult and every one pleading it for his own cause and bringing such specious Arguments for so contrary Opinions that it intangleth thee in a Labarinth of perplexities Thou seest so many godly men on this side and so many on that and each zealous for his own way that thou art amazed not knowing which way to take And thus do doubtings and fears accompany darkness and we are ready to stumble at every thing in our way But then will all this darkness be dispelled and our blinde understandings fully opened and we shall have no more doubts of our way VVe shall know which was the right side and which the wrong which was the Truth and which the Error O what would we give to know cleerly all the profound Mysteries in the Doctrine of Decree of Redemption of Justification of the nature of Grace of the Covenants of the Divine Attributes c. VVhat would we not give to see all dark Scriptures made plain to see all seeming contradictions reconciled Why when Glory hath taken the vail from our eyes all this will be known in a moment we shall then see clearly into all the controversies about Doctrine or Discipline that now perplex us The poorest Christian is presently there a more perfect Divine then any is here We are now through our Ignorance subject to such mutability that in points not fundamental we change as the Moon that it is cast as a just reproach upon us that we profess our Religion with Reserves and resolvedly settle upon almost nothing that we are to day of one opinion and within this week or moneth or yeer of another and yet alas we cannot help it The reproach may fall upon all mankinde as long as we have need of daily growth Would they have us beleeve before we understand or say we beleeve when indeed we do not shall we profess our selves resolved before we ever throughly studied or say we are certain when we are conscious that we are not But when once our Ignorance is perfectly healed then shall we be setled resolved men then shall our reproach be taken from us and we shall never change our judgment more then shall we be clear and certain in all and cease to be Scepticks any more Our Ignorance now doth lead us into Error to the grief of our more knowing Brethren to the disturbing of the Churches quiet and interrupting her desireable harmonious consent to the scandalizing of others and weakning of our selves How many an humble faithful Soul is seduced into Error and little knows it Loath they are to erre God knows and therefore read and pray and confer and yet erre still and confirmed in it more and more And in lesser and more difficult points how should it be otherwise He that is acquainted amongst men and knows the quality of Professors in England must needs know the generality of them are no great Scholars nor have much read or studied Controversies nor are men of profoundest natural parts nor have the Ministers of England much preached Controversies to them but were glad if their hearers were brought to Christ and got so much knowledg as might help to Salvation as knowing that to be their great work And can it be expected That men voyd of Learning and strength of parts unstudied and untaught should at the first on set know those Truths which they are almost uncapable of knowing at all when the greatest Divines of clearest Judgment acknowledg so much difficulty That they could almost finde in their hearts sometimes to profess them quite beyond their reach Except we will allow them to lay aside their divine Faith and take up an humane and see with other mens eyes the weight and weakness of Arguments and not with their own It cannot be thought That the most of Christians no nor the most Divines should be free from erring in those difficult points where we know they have not Head-peeces able to reach Indeed if it were the way of the Spirit to teach us miraculously as the Apostles were taught the knowledg of Tongues without the intervening use of Reason or if the Spirit infused the acts of Knowledg as he doth the immediate knowing Power then he that had most of the Spirit would not onely know best but also know most but we have enough to convince us of the contrary to this But O that happy approaching day when Error shall vanish away for ever VVhen our understandings shall be filled with God himself whose light will leave no darkness in
therefore now it doth not much trouble you but alas they feel it though you feel it not May not many a Papist rise up in judgment against us and condemn us They will give their lands and estates to have so many Masses said for the souls of their deceased friends when it is too late to bring them out of a feigned Purgatory And we will not ply them with perswasions while we may to save them from real threatned condemnation Though this cheaper means may prove effectual when that dearer way of Papists will do no good Jeremy cryed out My bowels My bowels I cannot hold my peace because of a temporall destruction of his people And do not our bowels yearn and can we hold our peace at mens eternall destruction 2. Consider What a rate Christ did value souls at and what he hath done towards the saving of them He thought them worth his blood and sufferings and shall not we then think them worth the breath of our mouths VVill you not set in with Christ for so good a work Nor do a little where he hath done so much 3. Consider What fit objects of pity they are It is no small misery to be an enemy to God unpardoned unsanctified strangers to the Churches special priviledges without hope of salvation if they so live and dye And which is yet more they are dead in these their trespasses and miseries and have not hearts to feel them or to pity themselves If others do not pity them they will have no pity for it is the nature of their disease to make them pitiâ—less to their own souls yea to make them the most cruel destroyers of themselves 4. Consider It was once thy own case Thou wast once a slave of Satan thy self and confidently didst go on in the way to condemnation What if thou hadst been let alone in that way Whither hadst thou gone and what had become of thee It was Gods Argument to the Israelites to be kinde to strangers because themselves were sometime strangers in Egypt so may it perswade you to shew compassion to them that are strangers to Christ and to the hopes and comforts of the Saints because you were once as strange to them your selves 5. Consider The Relation that thou standest in toward them It is thy neighbor thy brother whom thou art bound to be tender of and to love as thy self He that loveth not his brother whom â—e seeth daily most certainly doth not love God whom he never saw And doth he love his brother that will stand by and see him go to hell and never hinder him 6. Consider What a deal of guilt this neglect doth lay upon thy soul. First Thou art guilty of the murder and damnation of all those souls whom thou dost thus neglect He that standeth by and seeth a man in a pit and will not pull him out if he can doth drown him And he that standeth by while theeves rob him or murderers kill him and will not help him if he can is accessory to the fact And so he that will silently suffer men to damn their souls or will let Satan and the world deceive them and not offer to help them will certainly be Judged guilty of damning them And is not this a most dreadful consideration O Sirs how many souls then have every one of us been guilty of damning What a number of our neighbors and acquaintance are dead in whom we discerned no signs of sanctification and we never did once plainly tell them of it or how to be recovered If you had been the cause but of burning a mans house through your negligence or of undoing him in the world or of destroying his body how would it trouble you as long as you lived If you had but killed a man unadvisedly it would much disquiet you We have known those that have been guilty of murder that could never sleep quietly after nor have one comfortable day their own consciences did so vex and torment them O then what a heart maist thou have that hast been guilty of murdering such a multitude of pretious souls Remember this when thou lookest thy friend or carnal neighbor in the face and think with thy self Can I finde in my heart through my silence and negligence to be guilty of his everlasting burning in Hell Me thinks such a thought should even untye the tongue of the dumb 2. And as you are guilty of their perishing so are you of every sin which in the mean time they do commit If they were converted they would break off their course of sinning and if you did your duty you know not but they might be converted As he that is guilty of a mans drunkenness is guilty of all the sins which that drunkenness doth cause him to commit So he that is guilty of a mans continuing unregenerate is also guilty of the sins of his unregeneracie How many curses and oathes and scornes at Gods wayes and other sins of most hanious nature are many of you guilty of that little think of it You that live godlily and take much pains for your own souls and seem fearful of sinning would take it ill of one that should tell you that you are guilty of weekly or daily whoredomes and drunkenness and swearing and lying c. And yet it is too true even beyond all denial by your neglect of helping those who do commit them 3. You are guilty also as of the sin so of all the dishonor that God hath thereby And how much is that And how tender should a Christian be of the Glory of God the least part whereof is to be valued before all our lives 4. You are guilty also of all those Judgments which those mens sins do bring upon the town or countrey where they live I know you are not such Atheists but you believe it is God that sendeth sickness and famine and war and also that it is only sin that moveth him to this indignation What doubt then is there but you are the cause of Judgments who do not strive against those sins which do cause them God hath stayed long in patience to see if any would deal plainly with the sinners of the times and so free their own souls from the guilt But when he seeth that there is almost none but all become guilty no wonder then if he lay the Judgment upon all We have all seen the drunkards and heard the swearers in our streets and we would not speak to them we have al lived in the midst of an Ignorant worldly unholy people and we have not spoke to them with earnestness plainness and love No wonder then if God speak in his wrath both to them and us Eli did not commit the sin himself and yet he speaketh so coldly against it that he also must bear the punishment Guns and Canons speak against sin in England because the inhabitants would not speak God pleadeth with us with fire and sword because
my Aphorisms of Justification shew which I wrote to cut the unobserved Sinews of Antinomianism and open the true Scripture Mean in that point and which I am more confirmed in the truth of now then ever by the weakness of all that I can yet hear against it and yet if I should zealously press my judgment on others and seek to make a partie for it and disturb the Peace of the Church and separate from my Brethren I should fear lest I should prove a fire-brand in Hell for being a fire-brand in the Church And for all the interest I have in your Judgments and Affections I here charge you That if God should give me up to any factious Church-rending course against which I daily pray that you forsake me and follow me not a step And for Peace with one another follow it with all your might If it be possible as much as in you lieth live peaceably with all men Rom. 12.18 mark this When you feel any sparks of discontent in your brest take them as kindled by the Divel from Hell and take heed you cherish them not If the flames begin to break forth in Censoriousness Reproaches and hard Speeches of others be as speedy and busie in quenching it as if it were fire in the Thatch of your houses For why should your houses be dearer to you then the Church which is the house of God or then your souls which are the Temples of the Holy Ghost If any heart-burnings arise do not keep strange but go together and lovingly debate it or pray together that God would reconcile you or refer the matter to your Minister or others and let not the Sun go down on your wrath Hath God spoke more against any sin then unpeaceableness If ye forgive not men their trespasses neither will your heavenly Father forgive you which made Endovicus Crocius say That this is the measure and essential propertie of the lest degree of true Faith Syntag. lib. 4. cap. 16. If you love not each other you are no Disciples of Christ nay if you love not your enemies and bless not them that curse you and pray not for them that hurt and persecute you you are no Children of God The Wisdom from above is first pure then peaceable gentle easie to be intreated c. Jam. 3.17 O remember that piercing example of Christ who washed his Disciples feet to teach us that we must stoop as low to one another Sure God doth not jest with you in all these plain Scriptures I charge you in the Name of Christ if you cannot have peace otherwise That you suffer wrongs and reproaches that you go and beg peace of those that should beg it of you yea that you beg it on your knees of the poorest beggar rather then lose it And remember Rom. 16.17 18. 7. Above all be sure you get down the pride of your hearts Forget not all the Sermons I preached to you against this sin No sin more natural more common or more deadly A proud man is his own Idol onely from pride cometh contention There is no Lâ—ving in peace with a proud person Every disrespect will cast them into a Feaver of discontent If once you grow wise in your own eyes and love to be valued and preferred and love those best that think highliest of you and have secret heart-risings against any that disregard you or have a low esteem of you and cannot endure to be flighted or spoke evil of never take your selves for Christians if this be your case To be a true Christian without Humilitie is as hard as to be a man without a Soul O poor England How low art thou brought by the Pride of Ignorant Zealots Dear Friends I can foretel you without the gift of prophecy That if any among you do fall from the Truth mark which are the proudest that cannot endure to be contradicted and that vilifie others and those will likely be they And if ever you be broke in pieces and ruined Pride will be the cause 8. Be sure you keep the mastery over your flesh and senses Few ever fall from God but flesh-pleasing is the cause Many think that by flesh the Scripture means onely our in-dwelling sin when alas it is this sensitive appetite that it chargeth us to subdue Nothing in the world damneth so many as flesh-pleasing while men generally chuse it as their Happiness in stead of God O remember who hath said If ye live after the flesh ye shall die and Make no provision for the flesh to satisfie its desires Rom 8.5 6 7. and 13.14 Think of this when you are tempted to drunkenness and gluttony and lustfulness and worldliness and when you would fain have your dwellings and states more delightful You little think what a sin it is even to please your flesh further then it tends to help you in the service of God 9. Make conscience of the great duty of reproving and exhorting those about you Make not your souls guilty of the oaths ignorance and ungodliness of others by your silence Admonish them lovingly and modestly but be sure you do it and that seriously This is the first step in Discipline Expect not that your Minister should put any from the Sacrament whom you have not thus admonished once and again Punish not before due process 10. Lastly Be sure to maintain a constant delight in God and a seriousness and spirituality in all his Worship Think it not enough to delight in Duties if you delight not in God Judg not of your duties by the bulk and number but by this sweetness You are never stable Christians till you reach this Never forget all those Sermons I preached to you on Psal 37.4 Give not way to a customary dulness in duty Do every duty with all thy might especially be not slight in secret Prayer and Meditation Lay not out the chief of your zeal upon externals and opinions and the smaller things of Religion Let must of your daily work be upon your hearts Be still suspicious of them understand their mortal wickedness and deceitfulness and trust them not too far Practise that great duty of daily watching pray earnestly That you be not lead into temptation Fear the beginings and appearances of sin Beware lest Conscience once lose its tenderness Make up every breach between God and your consciences betime Learn how to live the life of Faith and keep fresh the sense of the love of Christ and of your continual need of his Blood Spirit and Intercession And how much you are beholden and engaged to him Live in a constant readiness and expectation of death and be sure to get acquainted with this Heavenly Conversation which this Book is written to direct you in which I commend to your use hoping you will be at the pains to read it as for your sakes I have been to write it And I shall beg for you of the Lord while I live on this Earth That he will perswade
acquainted then in their own brests 3. Besides many come to the work with forestalling conclusions They are resolved what to judge before they Try They use the duty but to strengthen their present conceits of themselves and not to find out the truth of their condition Like a bribed Judge who examines each party as if he would Judge uprightly when he is resolved which way the cause shall go before hand Or as perverse disputers who argue only to maintain their present opinions rather then to try those opinions whether they are right or wrong Just so do men examine their hearts 4. Also men are partial in their own Cause They are ready to think their great sins small and their small sins to be none their gifts of nature to be the work of Grace and their gifts of common grace to be the special grace of the Saints They are straight ways ready to say All these have I kept from my youth And I am rich and increased c. Rev. 3.17 The first common excellency that they meet with in themselves doth so dazle their eyes that they are presently satisfied that all is well and look no further 5. Besides most men do search but by the halves If it will not easily quickly be done they are discouraged and leaveoff Few set to it and follow it as beseems them in a work of such moment He must give all diligence that means to make sure 6. Also men try themselves by false Marks and Rules not knowing wherein the truth of Christianity doth consist some looking beyond and some short of the Scripture standard 7. Moreover there is so great likeness betwixt the lowest degree of special grace and the highest degree of Common Grace that it is no wonder if the unskilful be mistaken It is a great Question whether the main difference between special grace and common be not rather gradual then specifical If it should be so as some think then the discovery will be much more difficult However to discern by what principle our affections are moved and to what ends and with what sincerity is not very easie there being so many wrong Ends and motives which may excite the like Acts. Every grace in the Saints hath its counterfeit in the Hypocrite 8. Also men use to Try themselves by unsafe Marks either looking for a high degree of grace instead of a lower degree in sincerity as many doubting Christians do or else enquiring only into their outward Actions or into their inward Affections without their ends motives and other qualifications The sure evidences are Faith Love c. that are Essential parts of our Christianity and that lie neerest to the heart 9. Lastly Men frequently miscarry in this work by setting on it in their own strength As some expect the Spirit should do it without them so others attempt it themselves without seeking or expecting the help of the Spirit both these will certainly miscarry in their Assurance How far the Spirits Assistance is necessary is shewed before and the several Acts which it must perform for us SECT X. FUrther Causes of doubting among Christians Because the Comfort of a Christians life doth so much consist in his Assurance of Gods Special Love and because the right way of obtaining it is so much controverted of late I will here proceed a little further in opening to you some other Hinderances which keep true Christians from Comfortable Certainty besides the forementioned Errors in the Work of Examination Though I would still have you remember and be sensiâ—le That the neglect or slighty performance of that great duty and not following on the seaâ—ch with Seriousness and Constancy is the most common Hinderance for ought I have yet found I shall add now these Ten more which I find very ordinary Impediments and therefore desire Christians more carefully to Consider and Beware of them 1. One Common and great Cause of doubting and uncertainty is The weakness and small measure of our Graces A little Grace is next to None Small things are hardly discerned He that will see a small needle a hair a mote or atome must have clear light and good eyes But houses and Towns and Mountains are easily discerned Most Christians content themselves with a small measure of Grace and do not follow on to spiritual strength and manhood They Believe so weakly and Love God so little that they can scarce find whether they Believe and Love at all Like a man in a swoun whose pulse and breathing is so weak and obscure that it can hardly be perceived whether they move at all and consequently whether the man be alive or dead The chief Remedy for such would be To follow on their duty till their Graces be increased Ply your work Wait upon God in the use of his prescribed means and he will undoubtedly bless you with Increase and Strength Oh that Christians would bestow most of that time in getting more Grace which they bestow in Anxious doubtings whether they have any or none And that they would lay out those Serious Affections in Praying and seeking to Christ for more Grace which they bestow in fruitless Complaints of their supposed Gracelesness I beseech thee Christian take this advice as from God And then when thou Believest strongly and Lovest fervently thou canst not doubt whether thou do Believe and Love or not No more then a man that is burning hot can doubt whether he be warm or a man that is strong and lusty can doubt whether he be alive Strong Affections will make you feel them Who loveth his friend or wife or child or any thing strongly and doth not know it A great measure of Grace is seldom doubted of Or if it be you may quickly find when you seek and try SECT XI 2. ANother Cause of uncomfortable living is That Christians look more at their present Cause of Comfort or Discomfort then they do at their Future Happiness and the way to attain it They look afâ—er Signs which may tell thâ—m what they are more then they do at Pâ—ecepts which tell them what they should do They are very desirous to know whether they are Justified and beloved or not but they do not think what course they should take to be Justified if they be not As if their present Case must needs be their Everlasting Case and if they be now unpardoned there were no Remedy Why I beseech thee consider this Oh doubting Soul What if all were as bâ—d as thou dost fear and none of thy sins were yet pardoned Is not the Remedy at hand May not all this be done in a moment Dost thou not know that thou mayst have Christ and pardon when ever thou wilt Call not this a loose or strange doctrine Christ is willing if thou be willing He offereth himself and all his benefits to thee He presseth them on thee and urgeth thee to accept them He will condemn thee and destroy thee if thou
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
Damnation is in Question and to be determined every mistake is insufferable and inexcusable which might have been prevented by any cost or pains Therefore men will chuse the most able Lawyers and Physicians because the mistakes of one may lose them their Estates and the mistakes of the other may lose them their lives But mistakes about their Souls are of a higher nature 5. If you should continue your mistakes till death there will be no time after to correct them for your recovery Mistake now and you are undone for ever Men think to see a man dye quietly or comfortably is to see him dye happily But if his comfort proceed from this mistake of his condition it is the most unhappy case and pittiful sight in the world To live mistaken in such a case is lamentable but to dye mistaken is desperate Seeing then that the case is so dangerous what wise man would not follow the search of his heart both night and day till he were assured of his safety SECT V. 4. COnsider how small the labour of this duty is in comparison of the sorrow which followeth its neglect A few hours or days work if it be closely followed and with good direction may do much to resolve the Question There is no such trouble in searching our hearts nor any such danger as may deter men from it what harm can it do to you to Try or to know It will take up no very long time Or if it did yet you have your time given you for that end One hour so spent will comfort you more then many otherwise If you cannot have while to make sure of heaven how can you have while to eat or drink or live You can endure to follow your callings at Plow and Cart and Shop to toil and sweat from day to day and year to year in the hardest labours And cannot you endure to spend a little time in inquiring what shall be your everlasting state What a deal of sorrow and after-complaining might this small labour prevent How many miles travel besides the vexation may a Traveller save by inquiring of the way Why what a sad case are you in while you live in such uncertainty You can have no true comfort in any thing you see or hear or possess You are not sure to be an hour out of Hell And if you come thither you will do nothing but bewail the folly of this neglect No excuse will then pervert Justice or quiet your Conscience If you say I little thought of this day and place God and Conscience may reply why did'st thou not think of it Wast thou not warned Had'st thou not time Therefore must thou perish because thou wouldest not think of it As the Commander answered his Souldier in Plutarch when he said non volens erravi I erred against my will he beat him and replied non volens poenas dato Thou shalt be punished also against thy will SECT VI. 5. THou canst scarce do Satan a greater pleasure nor thy self a greater injury It is the main scope of the Devil in all his Temptations to deceive thee and keep the ignorant of thy danger till thou feel the everlasting flames upon thy soul And wilt thou joyn with him to deceive thy self If it were not by this deceiving thee he could not destroy thee And if thou do this for him thou dost the greatest part of his work and art the chief destroyer and Devil to thy self And hath he deserved so well of thee and thy self so ill that thou shouldst assist him in such a design as thy damnation To deceive another is a grievous sin and such as perhaps thou wouldst scorn to be charged with And yet thou thinkest it nothing to deceive thy self Saith Solomon As a mad man who casteth fire-brands arrows and death So is the man that deceiveth his neighbour and saith Am not I in sport Surely then he that maketh but a sport or a matter of nothing to deceive his own soul may well be thought a mad man casting fire-brands and death at himself If any man think himself to be something when he is nothing he deceiveth himself saith Paul Gal. 6.3 Certainly among all the multitudes that perish this is the commonest cause of their undoing that they would not be brought to Try their state in time And is it not pity to think that so many thousands are merrily travelling to destruction and do not know it and all for want of this diligent search SECT VII 6. THE time is neer when God will search you And that will be another kind of Tryal then this If it be but in this life by the fiery tryal of affliction it will make you wish again and again that you had spared God that work and your selves the sorrow and that you had Tryed and Judged your selves that so you might have escaped the Tryal and Judgment of God He will Examine you then as officers do offenders with a word and a blow and as they would have done by Paul Examine him by scourging It was a terrible voyce to Adam when God calls to him Adam where art thou hast thou eaten c and to Cain when God asketh him Where is thy brother To have demanded this of himself had been easier Men think God mindeth their state and ways no more then they do their own They consider not in their hearts saith the Lord Hos. 7.2 that I remember all their wickedness now their own doings have beset them about they are before my face Oh what a happy preparation would it be to that last and great Tryal if men had but throughly Tryed themselves and made sure work before-hand When a man doth but soberly and believing think of that day especially when he shall see the Judgment set what a Joyful preparation is it if he can truly say I know the sentence shall pass on my side I have Examined my self by the same Law of Christ which now must Judg me and I have â—ound that I am quit from all my guilt and am a Justified person in Law already Oh Sirs if you knew but the comfort of such a preparation you would fall close to the work of Self-Examining yet before you slept SECT VIII 7. LAstly I desire thee to Consider What would be the sweet effects of this Examining If thou be upright and Godly it will lead thee straight toward Assurance of Gods Love If thou be not though it will trouble thee at the present yet doth it tend to thy happiness and will lead thee to Assurance of that happiness at length 1. The very Knowledg it self is naturally desireable Every man would fain know things to come especially concerning themselves If there were a book written which would tell every man his destiny what shall befall him to his last breath how desirous would people be to procure it and read it How did Nebuchadnezzars thoughts run on things that after should come
in my own words but in his that I know you dare not dis-regard 1 Thes. 5.11 12 13. Wherefore comfort your selves together and Edifie one another even as also ye do And we beseech you Brethren to know them which labour among you and are Over you in the Lord and admonish you And to esteem them very highly in Love for their Works sake and be at peace among your selves Obey them that have the Rule over you and submit your selves for they watch for your Souls as those that must give an account that they may do it with Joy and not with grief for that is unprofitable for you Heb. 13.17 Thus you see part of your duty for the Salvation of others SECT XVIII ANd now Christian Reader seeing it is a Duty that God hath laid upon every man according to his ability thus to exhort and reprove and with all possible diligence to labour after the Salvation of all about him judg then whether this work be conscionably performed Where shall we find the man almost among us that setteth himself to it with all his might and that hath set his heart upon the Souls of his brethren that they may be saved Let us here therefore a little enquire What may be the Causes of the gross neglect of this Duty that the Hinderances being discovered may the more easily be overcome 1. One Hinderance is Mens own Gracelesness and Guiltiness They have not been ravished themselves with the heavenly delights how then should they draw others so earnestly to seek them They have not felt the wickedness of their own natures nor their lost condition nor their need of Christ nor felt the transforming renewing work of the Spirit How then can they discover these to others Ah that this were not the case of many a learned Preacher in England and the causes why they preach so frozenly and generally Men also are guilty themselves of the sins they should Reprove and this stops their mouth and maketh them ashamed to reprove 2. Another Hinderance is A Secret Infidelity prevailing in mens hearts Whereof even the best have so great a measure that causeth this duty to be done by the halves Alas Sirs we do not sure believe mens Misery We do not believe sure that the threatnings of God are true Did we verily believe that all the unregenerate and unholy shall be eternally tormented as God hath said Oh how could we hold our tongues when we are among the unregenerate How could we chuse but burst out into tears when we look them in the face as the Prophet did when he looked upon Hazael Especially when they are our kindred or friends that are near and dear to us Thus doth secret unbelief of the truth of Scripture consume the vigour of each grace and duty Oh Christians if you did verily believe that your poor carnal ungodly neighbors or wife or husband or child should certainly lie for ever in the flames of Hell except they be throughly recovered and changed and that quickly before death do snatch them hence Would not this make you cast off all discouragements and lie at them day and night till they were perswaded and give them no rest in their carnal state How could you hold your tongue or let them alone another day if this were soundly believed If you were sure that any of your dear friends that are dead were now in Hell and perswading to repentance would get him out again would you not perswade him day and night if you were in hearing And why should you not do as much then to prevent it while he is in your hearing but that you do not believe Gods Word that speaks the danger Why did Noah prepare an Ark so long before and perswade the world to save themselves but because he believed God that the flood should come and therefore saith the Holy Ghost By faith Noah prepared the Ark. And why did not the world hearken to his perswasion and seek to save themselves as well as Noah but because they did not believe there would be any such deluge They see all fair and well and therefore they thought that threatenings were but wind The rich man in Hell cries out Send to my brethren to warn them that they come not to this place of torment He felt it and therefore being convinced of its truth would have them prevent it But his brethren on earth they did not see and feel as he and therefore they did not believe nor would have been perswaded though one had risen from the dead I am afraid most of us do believe the predictions of Scripture but as we believe the predictions of an Almanack which telleth you that such a day will be rain and such a day wind you think it may come to pass and it may be not and so you think of the predictions of the damnation of the wicked Oh were it not for this cursed Unbelief our own Souls and our neighbors would gain more by us then they do 3. This faithful dealing with men for their Salvation is much Hindered also by our want of Charity and Compassion to mens Souls We are hard-hearted and cruel towards the miserable and therefore as the Priest and the Levite did by the wounded man we look on them and pass by Oh what tender heart could endure to look upon a poor blind forlorn sinner wounded by sin and captivated by Satan and never once open our mouths for his recovery What though he be silent and do not desire thy help himself yet his very misery cries aloud Misery is the most effectually suitor to one that is compassionate If God had not heard the cry of our Miseries before he heard the cry of our prayers and been moved by his own pity before he was moved by our importunity we might have long enough continued the slaves of Satan Is it not the strongest way of arguing that a poor Lazare hath to unlap his sores and shew them the passengers all his words will not move them so much as such a pitiful sight Alas what pitiful sights do we dayly see The Ignorant the prophane the neglecters of Christ and their Souls their sores are open and visible to all that know them and yet do we not pity them You will pray to God for them in customary duties that God would open the eyes and turn the hearts of your ignorant carnal friends and neighbors And why do you not endeavor their conversion if you desire it And if you do not desire it why do you ask it Doth not your negligence convince you of hypocrisie in your prayers and of abusing the high God with your deceitful words Your neighbors are neer you your friends are in the house with you you eat and drink and work and walk and talk with them and yet you say little or nothing to them Why do you not pray them to consider and return as well as pray God to convert and turn them
known duties either publike private or secret Art thou a slave to thine appetite in eating or â—rinking or to any other commanding sense Art thou a proud Seeker of thine own esteem and a man that must needs have mens good opinion or else thy minde is all in a combustion Art thou a wilfully peevish and passionate person as if thou wert made of Tinder or Gun powder ready to take fire at every word or every wry look or every supposed sleighting of thee or every neglect of a complement or curtesie Art thou a knowing deceiver of others in thy dealing or one that hast set thy self to rise in the world not to speak of greater sins which all take notice of If this be thy case I dare say Heaven and thy Soul are very great strangers I dare say thou art seldom in Heart with God and there is little hope it should ever be better as long as thou continuest in these transgressions These beams in thine eyes will not suffer thee to look to Heaven these will be a cloud between thee and God When thou dost but attempt to study Eternity and to gather comforts from the life to come thy sin will presently look thee in the face and say These things belong not to thee How shouldst thou take comfort from Heaven who takest so much pleasure in the lusts of thy flesh O how this will damp thy joyes and make the thoughts of that day and state to become thy trouble and not thy delight Every wilful sin that thou livest in will be to thy comforts as water to the fire when thou thinkest to quicken them this will quench them when thy heart begins to draw neer to God this will presently come in thy minde and cover thee with shame and fill thee with doubting Besides which is most to the point in hand it doth utterly indispose thee and disable thee to this work When thou shouldst wind up thy heart to Heaven alas it s byassed another way it is intangled in the lusts of the flesh and can no more ascend in Divine Meditation then the bird can flie whose wings are clipt or that is intangled in the Lime-twigs or taken in the snare Sin doth cut the very sinews of the soul therefore I say of this heavenly life as Master Bolton saith of Prayer Either it will make thee leave sinning or sin will make thee leave it and that quickly too For these cannot continue together If thou be here guilty who readest this I require thee sadly to think of this folly O man what a life dost thou lose and what a life dost thou chuse what daily delights dost thou sell for the swinish pleasure of a stinking lust what a Christ what a glory dost thou turn thy back upon when thou art going to the embracements of thy hellish pleasures I have read of a Gallant addicted to uncleanness who at last meeting with a beautiful Dame and having enjoyed his fleshly desires of her found her in the morning to be the dead body of one that he had formerly sinned with which had been acted by the devil all night and left dead again in the morning Surely all thy sinful pleasures are suche The devil doth animate them in the darkness of the night but when God awakes thee at the farther at death the deceit is vanished and nothing left but a carkass to amaze thee and be a spectacle of horror before thine eyes Thou thinkest thou hast hold of some choice delight but it will turn in thy hand as Moses rod into a Serpent and then thou wouldst fain be rid of it if thou knewest how and wilt â—â—ie from the face of it as thou dost now embrace it And shall this now dream thee from the high delights of the Saints If Heaven and Hell can meet together and if God can become a lover of sin theâ—â— maist them live in thy sin and in the tastes of glory and maist have a conversation in Heaven though thou cherish thy corruption If therefore thou finde thy self guilty never doubt on it but this is the cause that estrangeth thee from Heaven And take heed least it keep out thee as it keeps out thy heart and do not say but thou wast bid Take heed Yea if thou be a man that hitherto hast escaped and knowest no raigning sin in thy soul yet let this warning move thee to prevention and stir up a dread of this danger in thy spirit As Huâ—nius writes of himself That hearing the mention of the unpardonable sin against the Holy Ghost it stirred up such fears in his spirit that made him cry out What if this should be my case and so rouzed him to prayer and tryal So think thou though thou yet be not guilty what a sad thing it were if ever this should prove thy case And therefore watch SECT II. 2. A Second hinderance carefully to be avoided is An Earthly minde For you may easily conceive that this cannot stand with an Heavenly minde God and Mammon Earth and Heaven cannot both have the delight of thy heart This makes thee like Anselmne's Bird with a stone tyed to the foot which as oft as she took flight did pluck her to the Earth again If thou be a man that hast fancied to thy self some content or happiness to be found on Earth and beginnest to taste a sweetness in gain and to aspire after a fuller and a higher estate and hast hatched some thriving projects in thy brain and art driving on thy rising design Beleeve it thou art marching with thy back upon Christ and art posting apace from this Heavenly life Why hath not the World that from thee which God hath from the Heavenly When he is blessing himself in his God and rejoycing in hope of the glory to come then thou art blessing thy self in thy prosperity and rejoycing in hope of thy thriving here When he is solacing his soul in the views of Christ of the Angels and Saints that he shall live with for ever then art thou comforting thy self with thy wealth in looking over thy Bills and Bonds in viewing thy Money thy Goods thy Cattel thy Buildings or large Possession and art recreating thy minde in thinking of thy hopes of the favor of some great ones on whom thou dependest of the pleasantness of a plentiful and commanding state of thy larger provision for thy children after thee of the rising of thy house or the obeisance of thine inferiors Are not these thy morning and evening thoughts when a gracious soul is above with Christ Dost thou not delight and please thy self with the daily rolling these thoughts in thy minde when a gracious soul should have higher delights If he were a fool by the sentence of Christ that said Soul take thy rest thou hast enough laid up for many yeers What a fool of fools art thou that knowing this yet takest not warning but in thy heart speakest the same words Look them over seriously and
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
is the Fathers good pleasure to give thee this Kingdom Seest thou this astonishing Glory above thee Why all this is thy own inheritance This Crown is thine these pleasures are thine this company this beauteous place is thine all things are thine because thou art Christs and Christ is thine when thou wast married to him thou hadstall this with him Thus take thy heart into the Land of Promise shew it the pleasant hills and fruitful valleys Shew it the clusters of Grapes which thou hast gathered and by those convince it that it is a blessed Land flowing with better then milk and honey enter the gates of the holy City walk through the streets of the New Jerusalem walk about Sion go round about her tell the towers thereof mark well her bulwarks consider her palaces that thou mayest tell it to thy soul Psal. 48.12 13. Hath it not the Glory of God and is not her light like to a stone most precious See the twelve foundations of her walls and the names of the twelve Apostles of the Lamb therein The building of the walls of it are of Jasper and the City is of pure gold as cleer as glass The foundation is garnished with pretious stones and the twelve gates are twelve pearls every several gate is of one Pearl and the street of the City is pure Gold as it were transparent glass There is no temple in it for the Lord God Almighty and the Lamb are the Temple of it It hath no need of Sun or Moon to shine in it for the Glory of God doth lighten it and the Lamb is the light thereof and the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it These sayings are faithful and true and the Lord God of the holy Prophets hath sent his Angels and his own Son to shew unto his servants the things that must shortly be done Rev. 21.11 12 13. c. to the end 22.6 What sayest thou now to all this This is thy Rest O my soul and this must be the place of thy Everlasting habitation Let all the sons of Sion then rejoyce and the daughters of Jerusalem be glad for great is the Lord and greatly is he praised in the City of our God Beautiful for scituation the Joy of the whole earth is Mount Sion God is known in her palaces for a refuge Psal. 48.11 1 2 3. Yet proceed on Anima quae amat ascendit c. The soul saith Austin that loves ascends frequently and runs familiarly through the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem visiting the Patriachs and Prophets saluting the Apostles admiring the Armies of Martyrs and Confessors c. So do thou lead on thy heart as from street to street bring it into the Palace of the Great King lead it as it were from chamber to chamber say to it Here must I lodge here must I live here must I praise here must I love and be beloved I must shortly be one of this Heavenly Quire I shall then be better skilled in the musick Among this blessed company must I take my place My voice must joyn to make up the Melody my teares will then be wiped away my groans are turned to another tune my cottage of clay will be changed to this Palace and my prison rags to these splendid robes my sordid nasty stinking flesh shall be put off and such a Sun-like spiritual body put on For the former things are done away Glorious things are spoken of thee O City of God There it is that trouble and lamentation ceaseth and the voice of sorrow is not heard O when I look upon this glorious place what a dunghil and dungeon me thinks is earth O what a difference betwixt a man feeble pained groaning dying rotting in the grave and one of these triumphant blessed shining Saints Here shall I drink of the river of pleasure the streams whereof make glad the City of our God For the Lord will create a New Jerusalem and a New Earth and the former shall not be remembred nor come into minde we shall be glad and rejoyce for ever in that which he creates for he will create Jerusalem a rejoycing and her people a joy And he will rejoyce in Jerusalem and joy in his people and the voice of weeping shall be no more heard in her nor the voice of crying there shall be no more thence an infant of days nor an old man that hath not filled his dayes Isa. 65.17 18 19 20. Must Israel on earth under the bondage of the Law serve the Lord with joyfulness and gladness of heart because of the abundance of all things which they possess sure then I shall serve him with joyfulness and gladness who shall have another kinde of service and of abundance in Glory Deut. 28.47 Did the Saints take joyfully the spoiling of their goods Heb. 11.34 and shall not I take joyfully the receiving of my good and such a full reparation of all my losses Was it such a remarkable celebrated day when the Jews rested from their enemies because it was turned to them from sorrow to joy and from mourning into a good day Est. 9.22 What a day then will that be to my soul whose Rest and change will be so much greater When the wise men saw but the Star of Christ they rejoyced with exceeding great Joy Mat. 2.10 But I shall shortly see the Star of Jacob even himself who is the bright and morning Star Numb 24.17 Rev. 22.16 If they returned from the Sepulchre with great Joy when they had but heard that he was risen from the dead Mat. 28.8 What Joy then will it be to me when I shall see him risen and reigning in his glory and my self raised to a blessed communion with him Then shall we have Beauty for ashes indeed and the oil of joy for mourning and the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness Isa. 61.3 When he hath made Sion an eternal excellency a joy of many generations Isa. 60.15 Why do I not then arise from the dust and lay aside my sad complaints and cease my doleful mourning note Why do I not trample down vain delights and feed upon the foreseen delights of Glory why is not my life a continual Joy and the favor of Heaven perpetually upon my spirit And thus Reader I have directed thee in Acting of thy Joy SECT X. HEre also when thou findest cause thou hast a singular advantage from thy Meditations of Heaven for the acting of the contrary and more mixed passions As 1. Of thy hatred and detestation of sin which would deprive thy soul of these immortal Joyes 2. Of thy godly and filial Fear least thou shouldest either abuse or hazard this mercy 3. Of thy necessary grief for such thy foolish abuse and hazard 4. Of thy godly shame which should cover thy face for the forementioned folly 5. Of thy unfeigned repentance for what thou hast done against thy Joyes 6. Of thy holy anger or