him when he promiseth and hear him before the worldly wise when he teacheth us the way to God Hear him for he knows what he saith Hear him for he is true and faithful and infallible Hear him for he is the Son of God the greatest Messenger that ever God sent Hear him for he purposly came down into Flesh that he might familiarly teach us Hear him for none else in the Word hath made known the things of God like him and none can do it Hear him for he meaneth us no hurt He is our dearest Friend and Love itself and saith nothing but for our Salvation and promiseth nothing but what he will perform Yea Hear him for every Soul that will not hear him shall be cut off Hear him therefore if he contradict thy fleshly Appetite Hear him if great or small if any or all shall be against it Hear him if he set thee on the hardest work or call thee to the greatest suffering Hear him if he bid thee take up the Cross and forsake all and follow him in hope of a reward in Heaven Hear him if he call thee to lay down thy Life for none can be a loser by him Hear him now in the Day of Grace and he will hear thee in the day of thy Extremity in the day of Danger Sickness Death and Judgment when the World forsaketh thee and no ones hearing else can help thee § 37. But I was not one that saw this Vision Had I seen it my self it would have satisfied me and confuted all my doubts Answ But it is the will of God that the Ministry and Testimony of Man shall be a means of our believing It 's Faith and not Sight that must be the ordinary way of our Salvation Else Christ must have shewed himself and his Miracles Resurrection and Ascension to every one in the World that must believe in him And then he must have been visible at once in every Kingdom Parish and Place on Earth and continued so to the end of the World and must have died risen and ascended many Millions of times and in every place They that will put such Laws on their Lawgiver before they will believe in him must be saved without him and against him if they can This is more unreasonable than to tell God that you will not believe that there is a Heaven or Hell unless you see them But God will have us live and be saved by believing and not by sight And he will use Man for the Instruction and Salvation of Man and not send Angels with every Message § 38. But Why did Christ shew this Vision but it Three of his Disciples Answ He is not bound to tell us why But we may know that a sight of heavenly Glory is not to be ordinarily expected on Earth Why did God shew the back parts of his Glory to none but Moses no not to his Brother Aaron Why did he speak to him only in the Bush and in the Mount Why did he translate none to Heaven without dying but Henoch and Elias Why did he save but Noah and Seven with him in the Ark These are not things ordinary nor to be common to many § 39. But by this it appeareth that even among his Twelve Apostles Christ made a difference and preferred some before the rest Though he set no one over the rest in any Governing Authority yet some of them were qualified above the rest and esteemed and used by him accordingly Peter is called the first and it seems was qualified above the rest by his more frequent speaking and familiarity with Christ and his Speeches and Miracles after the Resurrection Though yet the Faction that said I am of Cephas or I am of Paul was rebuked as Carnal so far was Christ from directing the Churches to end all difference by obeying Peter as their Supream Ruler James and John are called the Sons of Thunder They had some more eminent qualification than the rest So that James was the first Martyred Apostle and John the Disciple whom Jesus specially loved Ministers of the same Office and Order may much differ in Gifts and Grace in labour and success and in God's acceptance and reward and in the Churches just esteem and love All Pastors were not such as Cyprian Basil Gregory Nazianzene Chrysostome or Augustine And the rest must not envy at the preference of Peter James and John Andrew seems to be Peters Elder Brother and knew Christ before him as Aaron was Elder Brother to Moses and yet must give God leave to choose to give pre-eminence to whom he will § 40. But Why did not these Three Apostles tell any of this Vision till after Christ's Resurrection Ans Christ did forbid it them And it was according to the Method of his Revelation He would make himself known to the World by degrees and more by his Works than by bare Words And these works were to be finished and all set together to be his convincing Witness to the World And the chief of these were his Resurrection Ascension and sending down the Holy Ghost The Apostles could not say till then Jesus is risen ascended and hath given us the Seal of the Spirit therefore he is the Son of God Christ first preached Repentance like John Baptist And next he told them that the Kingdom of God by the Messiah was come and was among them And then he taught them to believe his Word to be sent from God and to be true And he taught them the Doctrines of Holiness Love and Righteousness towards men And he wrought those Miracles which might convince them that what he said or should say deserved their belief But yet before his Resurrection his Apostles themselves understood not many of the Articles of our Creed they knew not that Christ was to die for sin and so to redeem the World by his Sacrifice nor that he was to Rise Ascend and Reign and Intercede in Glory And yet they were then in a state of Grace and Life such as Believers were in before Christ's Incarnation And sure no more is required of the Nations that cannot hear the Gospel But the Resurrection was the beginning of the proper Gospel State and Kingdom to which all before was but preparatory then by the Spirit Christianity was formed to its setled Consistence and is a known unalterable thing And it is a great confirmation to our Faith that Christ's Kingdom was not settled by any advantage of his personal Presence Preaching and Persuasion so much as by the Holy Ghost in his Apostles and Disciples when he was gone from them into Heaven § 41. But how are we sure that these three men tell us nothing but the Truth Ans This is oft answered elsewhere The Spirit which they spake and work'◠by was Christ's Witness and theirs They healed the Sick raised the Dead spake various Languages which they never learnt and Preached and Recorded that Holy Doctrin committed to them by Christ which
all things And when God sends on a Land the Plagues of Famine Pestilence War Persecution especially a Famine of the Word of God it is a great sin to be insensible of it If any shall say while Heaven is sure we have no cause to accuse God or to cast away comfort hope or duty they say well But if they say Because Heaven is all we must make light of all that befalleth us on Earth They say amiss Good Princes Magistrates and publick Spirited men that promote the safety Peace and true Prosperity of the Common-wealth do thereby very much befriend Religion and mens Salvation and are greatly to be loved and honoured by all If the Civil State called the Common-wealth do miscarry or fall into ruine and calamity the Church will fare the worse for it as the Soul doth by the ruines of the Body The Turkish Muscovite and such other Empires tell us how the Church consumeth and dwindles away into contempt or withered Ceremony and Formality where Tyranny brings Slavery Beggary or long Persecution on the Subjects Doubtless divers passages in the Revelations contain the Churches glorifying of God for their Power and Prosperity on Earth when Emperors became Christians What else can be meant well by Rev. 9. 10. Hath made us Kings and Priests to God and we shall Reign on the Earth but that Christians shall be brought from under Heathen Persecution and have Rule and Sacred Honour in the World some of them being Princes some honoured Church Guides and all a peculiar honoured People And had not Satan found out that cursed way of getting wicked men that hate true godliness and peace into the Sacred places of Princes and Pastors to do his work against Christ as in Christ's Name surely no good Christians would have grudged at the Power of Rulers of State or Church Sure I am that many called Fifth Monarchy men seem to make this their great Hope that Rule shall be in the Hands of Righteous men And I think most Religious Parties would rejoice if those had very great Power whom they take to be the best and trustiest men Which shews that it is not the greatness of Power in most Princes or sound Bishops that they dislike but the badness real or supposed of those whose Power they mislike Who will blame Power to do good Sure the three first and great Petitions of the Lord's Prayer include some temporal welfare of the World and Church without which the Spiritual rarely prospereth extensively though intensively in a few it may since Miracles ceased 4. Be thankful therefore for all the Churches Mercies here on Earth For all the protection of Magistracy the Plenty of Preachers the perservation from Enemies the restraint of Persecution the Concord of Christians and increase of Godliness which in this Land it hath had in our Ages notwithstanding all Satan's malignant rage and all the bloody Wars that have interrupted our tranquillity How many Psalms of joyful thanksgiving be there for Israel's deliverances and the perservation of Zion and God's Worship in his Sanctuary Pray for the Peace of Jerusalem They shall prosper that love it specially that the Gospel is continued while so many rage against it is a Mercy not to be made light of Use IV. Be specially thankful O my Soul that God hath made any use of thee for the Service of his Church on Earth My God my Soul for this doth magnifie thee and my Spirit rejoiceth in the review of thy great undeserved Mercy O what am I whom thou took'st up from the Dunghil or low obscurity that I should live my self in the constant relish of thy Sweet and Sacred Truth and with such encoucouraging success communicate it to others That I must say now my publick work seems ended that these Forty three or Forty four years I have no reason to think that ever I laboured in vain O with what gratitude must I look upon all places where I lived and laboured but above all that place that had my strength I bless thee for the great numbers gone to Heaven and for the continuance of Piety Humiliation Concord and Peace among them And for all that by my Writings have received any saving Light and Grace O my God let not my own Heart be barren while I labour in thy Husbandry to bring others unto Holy fruit Let me not be a stranger to the Life and Power of that saving Truth which I have done so much to communicate to others O let not my own Words and Writings condemn me as void of that Divine and Heavenly Nature and Life which I have said so much for to the World Use V. Stir up then O my Soul thy sincere desires and all thy Faculties to do the remnant of the work of Christ appointed thee on Earth and then joyfully wait for the heavenly Perfection in God's own time Thou canst truly say To live to me is Christ It is his work for which thou livest Thou hast no other business in the World But thou dost his work with the mixture of many oversights and imperfections and too much troublest thy Thoughts distrustfully about God's part who never faileth If thy work be done be thankful for what is past and that thou art come so near the Port of rest If God will add any more to thy daies serve him with double alacrity now thou art so near the end The Prize is almost within sight Time is swift and short Thou hast told others that there is no working in the Grave and that it must be now or never Though the conceit of meriting of commutative Justice be no better than madness dream not that God will save the wicked no nor equally reward the slothful and the diligent because Christ's Righteousness was perfect Paternal Justice maketh difference according to that worthiness which is so denominated by the Law of Grace And as sin is its own punishment Holiness and Obedience is much of its own reward Whatever God appointeth thee to do see that thou do it sincerely and with all thy might If sin dispose men to be angry because it is detected disgraced and resisted if God be pleased their wrath should be patiently born who will shortly be far more angry with themselves If slander and obloquy survive so will the better effects on those that are converted And there is no comparison between these I shall not be hurt when I am with Christ by the Calumnies of men on Earth But the saving benefit will by converted Sinners be enjoyed everlastingly Words and actions are transient things and being once past are nothing But the effect of them on an immortal Soul may be endless All the Sermons that I have preached are nothing now But the Grace of God on Sanctified Souls is the beginning of Eternal life It is unspeakable Mercy to be sincerely thus employed with success therefore I had reason all this while to be in Pauls streight and make no hast in my desires to depart
This Nature and its faculties and powers are not made in vain II. Reason assureth me that all men are bound by Nature to prefer the least probability of a Life of Everlasting Joy before all the Prosperity of this World and to suffer the loss of all this short Vanity to escape the least possibility of endless misery And Nature hath such notices of Rewards and Punishments after Death that no Man can say that he is sure there is no such thing From whence it followeth that all men are bound by the very Law of Nature to be Religious and to seek first and most their Salvation in the Life to come And if so It 's certain that there is such a thing to be obtained Else God had made the very Nature of Man to be deceived by itself and to spend the chief part yea all his life through labour and suffering for that which is not and so made his greatest duty to be his greatest deceit and misery And the worst men should be least deceived But all this is not to be imputed to our wise and good Creator III. The universal sense of Moral Good and Evil in all Mankind is a great evidence of another life The vilest Atheist cannot abide to be accounted a Knave a Lyer a bad Man nor will equal a vicious Servant with another All would be thought good who will not be good And doth not God make a greater difference than Man And will he not shew it IV. The World is actually ruled much by the hopes and fears of another life and cannot well be ruled without it according to the Nature of Man But the Almighty most Wise and most Holy God needs not and will not rule the World by meer deceit V. The Gospel of Christ hath brought Life and Immortality into a clearer Light than that of Nature And it must be by believing in Christ that we must have our full satisfaction O what hath God done in the Wonders of Redemption to make us sure And against the doubts that are apt to rise from some hard particular Text of Scripture it must be considered I. That Christ and his Apostles did put the ascertaining Seal of the many uncontrolled Miracles to the Gospel Doctrin primarily which Doctrin 1. Was delivered and sealed Eight years before any of the New Testament was written and almost Seventy before the last 2. And Christ did not speak in the Language that the Gospel is written to us so that being but a Translation as to his own Words the Matter is the thing first sealed II. And that it was the two Legislator-Mediators Moses and Christ who came with the great stream of uncontrolled Miracles It being necessary that men should have full proof that a Law or Doctrin is of God before they believe it But the Priests and Prophets after Moses and the Preachers and Pastors of the Christian Church who were not Commissioned to bring men any New Laws or Gospel but to proclaim and teach that which they received needed no such New Testimony of Miracles III. The Belief of every particular Priest or Prophet after Moses or every Pastor after Christ and his Apostles was not of the same degree of necessity to Salvation as the belief of the Law and Gospel itself Therefore though all the Holy Scripture be true the Law and the Gospel must be much differenced from the rest IV. The History of the Law and Gospel have full ascertaining historical Evidence or else there is none such in the World Therefore the Doctrin must be true V. The Prophesies fulfilled prove the Gospel true VI. And the Divine Impress on the whole VII And the sanctifying work of the Spirit wrought by it in all Nations and Ages on serious Believers is a constant Divine attestation VIII And as my Faith hath so sure a Foundation it confirmeth my Faith and Hope that it hath been so long and great a work of God by his Word and Spirit on my Soul to raise it to believe and love and desire that Holy state of Perfection and Fruition which I hope for That which hath made me so much better than I else had been and turned my Heart and Life though imperfectly to things above the Pleasures of the Flesh must needs be of God And God would never send his Grace to work my Heart to Deceit and Lies and give me such Graces as shall all be frustrate His Spirit is the Earnest and first Fruits of Glory IX And all the course of Religious and Moral duty which he hath commanded me and in which he hath employed my life were never imposed to deceive me I am sure by Nature and Scripture that it is my Duty to love God and my Neighbour to desire Perfection and to serve God and do good with all my time and power and to trust God for my reward believing that all this shall not be in vain nor that which is best be made my loss O blessed be God for Commands and Holy Duty For they are equal to Promises Who can fear that he shall lose by seeking God X. As God hath sealed the Truth of his Word as aforesaid so he hath by an instituted Office and Ordinance sealed and delivered to my self his Covenant with the gift of Christ and Life in Baptism and the Lord's Supper XI He hath given me such a love to Holy Things and Persons that I greatly long to see his Church in perfect Light and Love and Concord Oh how sweet would it be to see all men Wise and Holy and Joyfully praising God Every Christian longs for this And therefore such a state will be XII I have found here the great benefit of the Love and Ministry of Angels such as is described in Psal 91. They have kept me Night and Day which confirmeth my hope that I shall dwell with them for I love them better than men because they love and serve God better XIII That low communion which I have here with God by Christ and the Spirit in his answer to my Prayers Supports Comforts Experiences tends to more XIV The pleasure which I have by Love in thinking of the happiness of my many many many holy departed Friends and of the Glory of Christ and the heavenly Jerusalem is sure some hopeful approach towards their state XV. When I see the Fire mount upward and think that Spirits are of a more sublime and excellent Nature than Fire And when I see that all that is done in this World is done by Spiritual unseen powers which move this gross and drossie Matter it puts me past doubt that my Soul being a Spirit hath a vast and glorious World of Spirits to ascend to God hath by Nature put into all things an aggregative uniting inclination Earth hath no other natural motion The ascent of Fire tells us its Element is above And Spiritâ— naturally incline to Spirits and holy Spirits peculiarly are inclined to the Holy XVI I am sure 1. By understanding