in the same judgment 1 Cor. 1. 10. The God of patience and consolation grant you to be like minded one towards another acording to Christ Jesus that ye may with one mind and one mouth glorifie God Rom. 15. 5 6. And I beseech you brethren to know them which labour among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you And esteem them very highly in love for their works sake and be at peace among your selves 1 Thes 5. 12 13. And mark those that cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned avoid them Rom. 16. 17. And if there be any consolaton in Christ if any comfort of love if any fellowship of the spirit if any bowels and mercies fulfil ye our joy that ye may be like minded having the same love being of one accord of one mind Let nothing be done through strife or vain glory but in lowliness of mind let each esteemother better then themselves Look not every man on his own things his own gifts and graces but every man also on the things the graces and gifts of others Let this mind be in you which was in Christ Jesus who being in the form of God thought it not robbery to be equal with God but made himself of no reputation or emptied himself of all worldly glory Isa 53. 2 3 4. As if he had had no form or comliness and no beauty to the eye for which we should desire him but was despised rejected of men not esteemed Phil. 2. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7. It is not as you imagine your extraordinary Knowledg Zeal and Holiness that inclineth you to divisions and to censuring of your brethren but it is Pride and Ignorance and want of Love and if you grow to any ripeness in Knowledg Humility Self-denial and Charity you will bewail your divideing inclinations and courses and reckon them among the greater and grievous of your sins and cry out against them as much as your more charitable and experienced brethren do 3. To the third sort the Papists I shall say nothing here because I cannot expect they should read it and consider it and because we are so far disagreed in our Principles that we cannot treat with them on those rational terms as we may do with the rest of the inhabitants of the world whether Christians Infidels or Heathens As long as they build their faith and salvation on this supposition that the eyes and taste and feeling of all the sound men in the world are deceived in judging of Bread and Wine and as long as they deny the certaine experience of true believers telling us that we are void of Charity and unjustified because we are not of their Church and as long as they fly from the judgment and Tradition of the ancient and present Church unless their small part may be taken for the whole or the major Vote and as long as they reject our appeal to the holy Scriptures I know not well what we can say to them which we can expect they should regard any more than musick is regarded by the deaf or light by the blind or argument by the distracted If they had the moderation and charity impartially to peruse our writings I durst confidently promise the recovery of multitudes of them by the three Writings which I have already published and the more that others have said against them 4. And for the fourth sort the Hiders and the Quakers I have said enough to them already in my Book against Infidelity and those against Popery and Quakers but in vain to those that have sinned unto death 5. It is the fifth sort therefore that I shall cheifly address my speech to who I fear are not the smallest part It is an astonishing consideration to men that are awake to observe the unreasonableness and stupidity of the ignorant careless sensual part of men How little they Love or Fear the God whom their tongues confess How little they value or mind or seek the everlasting glory which they take on them to believe How little they fear and shun those flames which must feed for ever on the impenitent and unholy How little they care or labour for their immortal soules as if they were of the Religion of their beasts How bitterly many of them hate the holy wayes commanded by the Lord while yet they pretend to be themselves his Servants and to take the Scriptures to be his word How sottishly and contemptuously they neglect and sleight the Holiness without which there is no salvation Heb. 12. 14. How eagerly they desire and seek the pleasing of their flesh and the matters of this transitory life while they call them vanity and vexation How madly they will fall out with their own salvation and from the errours and sins of Hypocrites or others will pick quarrels against the Doctrine and Ordinances and waies of God as if other mens faults should be exceeded by you while you pretend to loath them If it be a sin to crack our faith by some particular error what is it to dash it all to peices If it be odious in your eyes to denie some particular Ordinance of God what is it to neglect or Prophane them all If it be their sin that quarrel in the way to Heaven and walk not in companie as love requireth them what is it in you to run towards hell and turn your backs on the holie Laws and waies of God If it be so lamentable to the Nation and themselves that so many have faln into schism and disorder what is it then that so many are ungodlie sensual and worldlie and have no true Religion at all in sincerity and life and power Ungodliness is all Heresie transcendently in the lump and that in Practice A man that is so foolish as to plead that Arsnick is better then bread may yet live himself if he do not take it but so cannot he that eateth it instead of bread Hereticks only in speculation may be saved but practical hereticks cannot You think it hainous to denie with the mouth that there is a God who made us and is our only Lord and Happiness and so it is And is it not hainous then to denie him with the heart and life and to denie him the love and obedience that is Properly due to God It is odious idolatrie to bow to a creature as to God and is it not odious to love and honour and obey a creature before him and to seek it more eagerly and mind it more seriously then God If it be damnable Infidelity to denie Christ to be the Redeemer it is not much less to turn away from him and make light of him and refuse his grace while you seem to honour him If it be damnable blasphemy to deny the Holy Ghost what is it to resist and refuse him when he would sanctifie you and perhaps to make a scorn of holiness If it be Heresie to denie the holy
yet are distressed when they are at the dispose of the will of God But perhaps you will say It is the error of my own will that hath procured my Death if it had been meerly the fruit of the will of God I could be easily satisfied Answ Wo to us if we had not ground of comfort against the errors of our own wills When our destruction is of our selves our help is of God So much as is of our selves in it is evil but so much as is of God is good I do not say that you should rest in your own wills nor in your own wayes but in the will and wayes of God The rod is good though the fault that makes it necessary be bad The Chastising will is good though the sinning will be evil And it is good that is intended to us and shall be performed in the event Object But how can we rest in the angry afflicting will of God when it is this that we must be humbled under and it is the will of God that is the condemnation of the wicked Ans The effect being from a twofold cause the sinning will of man and the punishing will of God is accordingly good as from the latter and so far should be loved and consented to by all and evil as from the former and so may be abhorred But to the Saints there is yet greater Consolation Though affliction is their grief as it signifieth Gods displeasure and causeth the smart or destruction of the flesh yet it is their mercy as it proceedeth from the Love of God and prepareth them for the greatest mercies And therefore seeing God never bringeth evil on them that Love him but what is preparatory to a far greater good we may well take comfort in our Death that it is our Fathers will it should be so Use 8. IF Death shall be conquered as the last enemy from hence Christians may receive exceeding consolation as knowing that they have no enemy to their happiness but such as shall be conquered by Christ sooner or later he will overcome them all Let faith therefore foresee the conquest in the conflict and let us not with too much despondency hang down our heads before any enemy that we know shall be trodden down at last We have burdensome corruptions that exercise our graces and grieve the spirit and wrong our Lord but all these shall be overcome Though we have heard and read and prayed and meditated and yet our sins remain alive they shall be conquered at last Our Love and Joy and praise shall be everlasting but our ignorance and unbelief and pride and passion shall not be everlasting Our Holiness shall be perfected and have no end but our sin shall be abolished and have an end Our friends shall abide with us for ever and the holy love and communion of Saints shall be perfected in heaven But our enemies shall not abide with â—s for ever nor malice follow us to our Reâ—t The wicked have no comforts but what will have an end and the fore-thought of that is sufficient to imbitter even the present sweetness And the godly have no sorrows but such as are of short continuance And nethinks the fore-sight of their end should sweeten the present bitter Cup and make our sorrows next to none We sit weeâ—ing now in the midst of manifold afflictions But we fore-see the day when we shall weep no more but all tears shall be wiped from our eyes by the tender hand of our merciful Redeemer We are now afraid of love it self even of our dear and blessed Father lest he should hate us or be angry with us for ever But heaven will banish all these fears when the perfect fruition of the eternal Love hath perfected our love Our doubtings and perplexities of mind are many and grievous but they will be but short When we have full possession we shall be past our doubts Our work is now to pour out our grieved souls into the bosome of some faithful friend or ease our troubled minds by complaining of our miseries to our faithful Pastors that from them we may have some words of direction and consolation But O how different a work is it that we shall have in heaven where no more complainings shall be heard from our mouths nor no more sorrow shall possess our hearts and we shall have no need of men to comfort us but shall have comfort as naturally from the face of God as we have light and heat in the summer from the sun When we all make one celestial Chore to sing the praises of the King of Saints how unlike will that melody be to the broken musick of sighs and groans and lamentations which we now take to be almost our best We are now glad when we can find but words and groans and tears to lament our sin and misery But then our joy shall know no sorrow nor our voice any sad and mournful tune And may we not bear a while the sorrows that shall have so good an end We shall shortly have laid by the hard unprofitable barren hearts that are now our continual burden and disease Love not your corruptions Christians but yet be patient under the unavoidable relicts that offend you remembring that your conflict will end in conquest and your faith and watchfulness and patience will be put to it but a little while Who would not enter willingly into the fight when he may before hand be assured that the field shall be cleared of every enemy All this must be ascribed to our dear Redeemer Had not he wrought the conquest the enemies that vex us would have destroyed us and the Serpent that now doth but bruise our heel would have bruised our head and the sorrows that are wholesome sanctified and short would have been mortal venemous and endless What suffering then can be so great in which a believer should not rejoyce when he is before hand promised a gracious end What though at the present it be not joyous but greivous in it self We should bear it with patience when we know that at last it shall bring forth the peaceable fruits of righteousness to all them that are exercised thereby Heb. 12. 11. If we should be alwayes abused and alwayes unthankfully and unkindly dealth with or alwayes under the scorns or slanders or persecutions of unreasonable men or alwayes under our poverty and toilsome labours or alwayes under our pains and pining sicknesses we might then in deed dismiss our comforts But when we know that it will be but a little while and that all will end in Rest and Joy and that our sorrows are but preparing for those Joyes even Reason it self is taught by Faith to bid us rejoyce in all our tribulations and to lift up the hands that hang down and the feeble knees Heb. 12. 12. We make nothing to endure a sudden prick that by blood-letting we may prevent a long disease The short pain of pulling out a tooth
is ordinarily endured to prevent a longer A woman doth bear the pains of her travail because it is short and tends to the bringing of a child into the world Who would not submit to any labour or toyl for a day that he might win a life of plenty and delight by it who would not be spit upon and made the scorn of the world for a day if he might have his will for it as long as he liveth on earth And should we not then cheerfully submit to our momentany afflictions and the troubles of a few dayes which are light and mixt with a world of mercies when we know that they are working for us a far more exceeding eternal weight of glory 2 Cor. 4. 17. Our clamorous and malicious enemies our quarrelsome Brethren our peevish friends our burdensome corruptions and imperfections will shortly trouble us no more As our life is short and but a dream and shadow and therefore the pleasures of this world are no better so our troubles also will be no longer and are but sad dreams and dark shadows that quickly pass away Our Lord that hath begun and gone on so far will finish his victories and the last enemy shall shortly be destroyed And if the fearful doubting Soul shall say I know this is comfort to them that are in Christ but what is it to me that know not whether I have any part in him I answer 1. The foundation of God still standeth sure the Lord knoweth his own even when some of them know not that they are his own He knoweth his mark upon his sheep when they know it not themselves God doubteth not of his interest in thee though thou doubt of thy interest in him And thou art faster in the arms of his Love then by the arms of thy own faith as the child is surer in the Mothers arms then by its holding of the Mother And moreover your doubts and fears are part of the evil that shall be removed and your bitterest sorrows that hence proceed shall with the rest of the enemies be destroyed 2. But yet take heed that you unthankfully plead not against the mercies which you have received and be not friends to those doubts and fears which are your enemies and that you take not part with the enemy of your comforts Why dost thou doubt poor humbled soul of thy interest in Christ that must make the conquest Answer me but these few Questions from thy heart 1. Did Christ ever shew himself unkind to thee or unwilling to receive thee and have mercy on thee Did he ever give thee cause to think so poorly of his Love and grace as thy doubts do intimate thou dost Hast thou not found him kind when thou wast unkind and that he thought on thee when thou didst not think on him and will he now forget thee and end in wrath that begun in Love He desired thee when thou didst not desire him and gave thee all thy desires after him and will he now cross and deny the desires which he hath caused He was found of thee or rather found thee when thou soughtest not after him and can he reject thee now thou cryest and callest for his grace O think not hardly of his wonderous grace till he give thee cause Let thy sweet experiences be remembred to the shame of thy causless doubts and fears and let him that hath loved thee to the death be thought on as he is and not as the unbelieving flesh would misrepresent him Quest 2. If thou say that it is not his unkindness but thy own that feeds thy doubts I further ask thee Is he not kind to the unkind especially when they lament their own unkindness Thou art not so unkind to him as thou wast in thy unconverted state and yet he then exprest his Love in thy conversion He then sought thee when thou wentest astray and brought thee carefully home into his Fold and there he hath kept thee ever since And is he less kind now when thou art returned home Dost thou not know that all his children have their forwardness and are guilty of their unkindnesses to him And yet he doth not therefore disown them and turn them out of his family but is tender of them in their froward weakness because they are his own How dealt he with the peevish Prophet Jonah that was exceedingly displeased and very angry that God spared Nineveh lest it should be a dishonour to his Prophesie in so much that he wisht that he might die and not live and after repined at the withering of his gourd and the scorching of the Sun that beat upon him The Lord doth gently question with him Dost thou well to be angry and after hence convince him that the mercy which he valued to himself he should not envy to so many Jonah 4. How dealt he with the Disciples that fell a sleep when they should have watcht with Christ in the night of his great agony He doth not tell them You are none of mine because you could not watch with me one hour but tenderly excuseth that which they durst not excuse themselves The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak When he was on the Cross though they all forsook him and fled he was then so far from forsaking them that he was manifesting to admiration that exceeding love that never would forsake them And knowest thou not poor complaining soul that the kindness of Christ overcometh all the unkindness of his children and that his blood and grace is sufficient to save thee from greater sins then those that trouble thee If thou hadst no sin what use hadst thou of a Saviour Will thy Physitian therefore cast thee off because thou art sick Quest 3. Yea hath not Christ already subdued so many of thy enemies as may assure thee he will subdue the rest and begun that life in thee which may assure thee of eternal life Once thou wast a despiser of God and his holy wayes but now it is far otherwise with thee Hath he not broken the heart of thy pride and worldliness and sensuality and made thee a new Creature and is not this a pledge that he will do the rest Tell me plainly hadst thou rather keep thy sin or leave it Hadst thou rather have liberty to commit it or be delivered from it Dost thou not hate it and set thy self against it as thy enemy Art thou not delivered from the reign and tyranny of it which thou wast once under And will not he perfect the conquest which he hath begun He that hath thus far delivered thee from sin thy greatest enemy will deliver thee from all the sad effects of it The blessed work of the Spirit in thy Conversion did deliver thee from the bondage of the Devil from the power of darkness and translated thee into the Kingdom of Jesus Christ Then didst thou enter the holy warfare under his banners that was never overcome in the victorious Army that shall
promise and leave us in the dust for ever It cannot be Hath he conquered Death for himself alone and not for us Hath he taken our Nature into Heaven to be there alone and will he not have all his members with him Remember then Christian when thou lookest on thy grave that Christ was buried and hath made the grave a bed of rest that shall give up her trust when his Trumpet sounds And that his Resurrection is the pledge of ours Keep therefore thy rising and glorified Lord continually in thy eye If Christ were not risen our preaching were vain and your faith were vain and all men were miserable but we most miserable that suffer so much for a life which we had no ground to hope for 1 Cor. 15 14 17 19. But now we have an Argument that Infidelity it self is ashamed to encounter with that hath been the means of the conversion of the Nations unto Christ by which we may put even Death it self to a defiance as knowing it is now a conquered thing If it could have held Christ captive it might also have held us But he being risen we shall surely rise Write it therefore Christians upon your hearts mention it more in your conference for the encouragement of your faith Write it on the grave-stones of your friends that CHRIST IS RISEN and that BECAUSE HE LIVETH WE SHALL LIVE ALSO and that OUR LIFE IS HID WITH CHRIST IN GOD though we are dead and when he shall appear who is our Life we shall also appear with him in glory John 14. 19. Col. 3. 3 4. Though we must be sown in corruption in weakness and dishonour we shall be raised in incorruption strength and honour 1 Cor. 1. 15. 42 43. While our souls behold the Lord in glory we may bear with the winter that befalls our flesh till the sping of Resurrection come Knowing that he that raised up the Lord Jesus shall also raise us up by Jesus For which cause we faint not but though our outward man perish yet the inner man is renewed day by day while we look not at the things which are seen but at the things which are not seen For the things which are seen are temporal but the things which are not seen are eternal 2 Cor. 4. 14 15 16 17 18. As we are risen with Christ to newness of life so we shall rise with him to glory Use 10. LAstly If Death be the last Enemy to be destroyed at the Resurrection we may learn hence how earnestly believers should long and pray for the second coming of Christ when this full and final Conquest shall be made Death shall do much for us but the Resurrection shall do more Death sends the separated soul to Christ but at his coming both soul and body shall be glorified There is somewhat in Death that is penal even to believers but in the coming of Christ and their Resurrection there is nothing but glorifying grace Death is the effect of sin and of the first sentence passed upon sinners but the Resurrection of the Just is the final destruction of the effects of sin And therefore though the fears of Death may perplex us me-thinks we should long for the coming of Christ there being nothing in that but what tends to the deliverance and glory of the Saints Whether he will come before the general Resurrection and reign on earth a thousand years which some expect I shall not presume to pass my determination But sure I am it is the work of faith and Character of his people to love his appearance 2 Tim. 4. 8. and to wait for the Son of God from Heaven whom he raised from the dead even Jesus who delivered us from the wrath to come 1 Thes 1. 10. and to wait for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ 1 Cor. 1. 7. and to wait for the adoption the redemption of our bodies with inward groanings Rom. 8. 23. O therefore let us pray more earnestly for the coming of our Lord and that the Lord would direct our hearts into the love of God and into the patient waiting for Christ 2 Thes 3. 5. O blessed day when the glorious appearing of our Lord shall put away all his servants shame and shall communicate Glory to his members even to the bodies that had laid so long in dust that to the eye of flesh there seemed to be no hope Though the Majesty and glory will cause our Reverence yet it will not be our terrour to the diminution of our joy It is his enemies that would not have him rule over them whom he cometh to destroy Lu. 19. 27. Behold the Lord cometh with ten thousands of his Saints to execute judgement upon all to convince all that are ungodly among them of all their ungodly deeds which they have ungodlily committed and of all their hard speeches which ungodly sinners have spoken against him as Henoch the seventh from Noah prophesied Jud. 14. 15. But the precious faith of the Saints shall be found to praise and honour and glory at the appearing of Jesus Christ 1 Pet. 1. 7. When the chief Shepherd shall appear we shall receive a Crown of glory that fadeth not away 1 Pet. 5. 4. He that was once offered to bear the sins of many and now appeareth for us in the presence of God shall unto them that look for him appear the second time without sin to salvation Heb. 9. 24. 28. And When Christ who is our life shall appear then shall we also appear with him in Glory Col. 3. 4. The Lord shall then come to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that believe in that day 2 Thes 1. 10. This is the day that all believers should long and hope and wait for as being the accomplishment of all the work of their redemption and all the desires and endeavours of their souls It is the hope of this day that animateth the holy diligence of our lives and makes us turn from the carelesness and sensuality of the world For the grace of God that bringeth salvation hath appeared unto all men teaching us that denying ungodliness and worldly lusts we should live soberly righteously and godlily in this present world looking for that blessed hope and the glorious appearing of our great God and our Saviour Jesus Christ Tit. 2. 11 12 13. The heavens and the earth that are now are kept in store by the word of God reserved unto fire against the day of judgment and perdition of ungodly men And though the Lord seem to delay he is not slack of his promise as some men count slackness for a day is with him as a thousand years and a thousand years but as a day But the day of the Lord will come as a Thiefin the night in the which the Heavens shall pass away with a great noise and the elements shall melt with fervent heat the earth also and the works that are therein shall be burnt up Seeing then all