throw it away that thou maist the faster run to the heavenly Kingdom If you would be violent for Heaven take heed of despondency of spirit Be serious but chearfull He whose spirit is pressed down with sadness is unfit to go about his work An unchearful heart is unfit to pray or praise God When the strings of a Lute are wet it will not put forth any sweet harmony Such as go drooping under fears and discouragements cannot be violent in Religion When a souldier faints in the field he soon le ts fall his sword David chides himself out of his melancholy Psal. 43. 5. Why art thou cast down O my soul Why art thou disquieted within me hope yet in God A sad heart makes a dull action We use the Drum and Trumpet in Battel that the noise of the Trumpet may excite and quicken the souldiers spirits and make them fight more vigorously Chearfulness is like musick in battel it excites a Christian's spirits and makes him vegete and lively in duty What is done with cherfulness is done with delight and the soul flies most swiftly to Heaven upon the wing of delight If you would be violent for Heaven take heed of a supine lazy temper A slothful Christian is like a fearful souldier that hath a good mind to the plunder but is loth to storm the Castle So he would fain have Heaven but is loth to take it by storm enerves animos odisse virtus solet Sloth is the soul's sleep Many instead of wo king out of salvation sleep away salvation Such as will not labour must be put at last to beg they must beg as Dives for one drop of water An idle man saith Soâ—…omon putâ—… his hand in his bosom Prov. 19. 24. He should have his hand to the pâ—…ough and he puts it in his bosom God never made Heaven an hive for drones Sloth is a disease apâ—… to grow upon men shake it off A ship that is a slug is a prey to the Pirate A slugish soul is a prey to Satan When the Crocodile sleeps with his mouth open the Indian Rat gets into his belly and eats his entrails While men are asleep in sloth the Devil enters and devours them Take heed of consulting with flesh and blood As good consult with the Devil as the flesh The flesh is a bosomtraitor An enemy within the walls is worst The flesh cries out there is a Lion in the way The flesh will bid thee spare thy self as Peter did Christ Obe not so violent for Heaven spare thy self The flesh saith as Judas What needs all this waste So what needs all this praying and wrestling why dost thou waste thy strength what needs all this waste The flesh cries out for ease it is loth to put its neck under Christ's yoak The flesh is for pleasure it had rather be gaming than running the heavenly Race There is a description of fleshly pleasures Amos 6. 4 5 6. That lie upon beds of Ivory and stretch themselves upon their Couches that chaunt to the sound of the Viol that drink Wine in bowls and anoint themselves with the chief ointments These are the delights of the flâ—…sh Such an one was he spoken of in Beard 's Theatre that did strive to please all his five senses at once He did bespeak a room richly hung with fair Pictures he had the most delicious musick he had all the choise Aromaticks and Perfumes he had all the Candies and curious Preserves of the Confectioner he was lodged in the bed with a beautiful Curtisan Thus did he indulge the flesh and swore that he would spend all his estate to live one week like a God though he were sure to be damned in Hell the next day O take heed of holding intelligence with the flesh The flesh is a bad Counseller St. Paul would not confer with flesh and blood Gal. 1. 16. The flesh is a sworn enemy to this holy violence Rom 8. 13. If ye live after the flesh ye shall die You have taken an oath in Baptism to renounce the flesh Take heed of listning to the voice of such carnal friends as would call you off from this blessed violence Fire when in Snow will soon lose its heat and by degrees go out Among bad company you will soon lose your heat for Religion The company of the wicked will sooner cool you than your company will heat them Vinegar will sooner sowre the Wine than the Wine will sweeten the Vinegar How often do carnal friends the same to our souls as infected persons do to our bodies convey the Plague The wicked are still disswading us from this violence they will say it is preciseness and singularity As Christ's friends laid hold on him when he was going to preach Mark 3. 21. They went out to lay hold on him for they said he is beside himself Such as are unacquainted with the spirituality and sweetness of Religion judge all zeal phrensie and therefore will lay hold upon us to hinder us in this sacred violence When we are earnest suitors to Piety our carnal friends will raise some ill report of it and so endeavour to break the match Galeaciâ—…s Marquess of Vico being resolved for Heaven what a block in his way did he find his carnal Relations and what a do â—…ad he to break through that impediment Take heed of a soare in your bosom This is one of the Devil 's great subtilties to hinder us from Religion by our nearest Relations and so to shoot us with our own rib He tempted Adam by his wife Gen. 3. 6. Who would have suspected the Devil there He handed over a temptation to Job by his wife Job 2â—…9 Dost thou still retain thine integrity What notwithstanding all these disasters that have befallen thee dost thou still pray and serve God Throw osf his livery Curse God and die Thus would the Devil have cooled Job's violence for Heaven but the shield of his faith quenched this siery dart Spira's friends stood in his way to Heaven for advising with them about Luther's Doctrine they perswaded him to recant and so openly abjuring his former faith he felt an Hell in his conscience Take heed of such tempters resolve to hold on your violence for Heaven though your carnal friends disswade you 'T is better to go to Heaven with their haâ—…red than to Hell with their love It was a saying of St. Hierom If my Paâ—…ents should peâ—…swade me to deny Christ if my Mother should shew me her breasts that gave me suck if my wife should go to charme me with her embraces I would forsake all and fly to Christ. If our dearest friends alive would lie in our way to Heaven we must either leap over them or tread upon them Take heed of setting up your stay in the lowest pitch of grace He that hath the least grace may have motion but not violence It is a pitiful thing to be contented with just so much
think God will How will Heathens rise up in Judgement against slothful Christians What pains did they take in the Olympian games they ran but for a Garland of flowers and do we stand still who run for a Crown of Immortality Certainly if only the violent take Heaven the idle person will never come there God puts no difference between these two slothful and wicked Matth. 25. 26. Thou wicked and slothful servant 2. It reproves the Formalist who puts all his Religion in gestures and vestures emblems of devotion and thinks this will entitle him to Heaven Rev. 3. 1. Thou hast a name to live and art dead The form and outside of Christianity is judged necessary 1. It is a means to keep up menâ—… credit in the world Should they be visibly prophane such as are sober would not come near them they would be looked upon no better than baptized Heathens therefore they must make a â—…ew of devotion out of policy to gain some repute and esteem among others 2. A form serves to stop the mouth of conscience had not they some kind of outward devotion their conscience would fly in their face and they would be a terrour to themselves therefore they think it expedient to have a form of Godliness But alas what is all this The Text speaks of offering violence to Heaven What violence is there in a form Here is no taking pains with the heart a form but no power 2. Tim. 3. 5. Formalists are like the Tombs in the Church which have their eyes and hands lift up to Heaven but no soul. The Formalists devotion runs out most in punctilioes and niceties he neglects the weightier matters of the Law Faith and Mercy Matth. 23. 23. He scruples superstitious phancies but makes no reckoning of sin he is more afraid of an Hare crossing his way than of an Harlot in his bed He haâ—…es sanctity Christ had no such bitter enemies as the formal Pharisees The formalist is never violent but in persecuting the power of godliness 3. It reproves such as are violent in a bad sense they are violent for Hell they go thither in the sweat of their brows Jer 8. 6. Every one turned to his course as the horse rusheth into the battel A war-horse rusheth violently among the guns and pikes so did they rush into sin violently Men are violent 1. In opposing Good 2. In pursuing Evil. 1. In opposing Good Several waies 1. They offer violence to the Spirit of God The Spirit knocks at the door of sinners hearts he waits till his head be filled with dew and his locks with the drops of the night but sinners repulse and grieve the Spirit and send away this Dove from the Aâ—…k of their souls Acts 7. 51. Te do alwais resist the Holy Ghost The Spirit offers grace to the sinner and the sinner offers violence to the Spirit Isa 63. 10. They rebelled and vexed his holy Spirit and may not the Lord give over striving God who is willing to come in when we open to him hath not promised to come again if we unkindly repulse him 2. They offer violence to conscience Conscience is God's Preacher in the bosom and this Preacher cannot flatter it tells men of their pride coveâ—…ousness abuse of mercy but they instead of being violent against their sins offer violence to conscience they silence and imprison conscience But as the Prophet Zachary when he was dumb called for a table book and did write Luke 1. 63 So when conscience cannot be permitted to speak it will write it writes down mens sins and when at death they shall be forced to read the hand-writing it will make their hearts tremble and their knees smite This I fear is too common for men to offer violence to their conscience and what will be the issue They who will not hear the voice of conscience shall be sure to feel the worm of conscience 3 They offer violence to God's image The Saints who are God's lively picture are opposed and shot at This is a cursed violence Gal. 4 29 As he that was born after the flesh persecuted him who was born after the Spirit so it is now Christ himself is stricken at through Believers The Church hath been alwaies in the Torrid zone The Plowers have plowed upon her back The earth hath been sown with the bodies of the Saints and watered with their blood Persecutors I grant are of an antient Family The first man that was born in the world was a Persecutor namely Cain and he hath had a numerous off-spring Nero Trajan Domitian Dioclesian Maximinus Chrysostom saith that the apples of his eyes fell out Faelix Earl of Wartemburg being at supper at Auspurg did take an oath that before he died he would ride up to the spurs in the blood of the Lutherans but was afterwards choked in his own blood Persecutors are the curse of the Creation being some of those thorns and briars which the earâ—…h brings forth 2. Men are violent in pursuing Evil. 1. They are violent in their Opinions 2 Pet. 2. 1. Privily they shall bring in damnable heresies denying the Lord that bought them Arrius was such an one and afterwards his bowels gushed out And truly the spirit of Arrius is yet alive at this day while men dare deny the Deity of the blessed Son of God Many of the Hereticks of old were so violent that their Opinion was to them a Bible and some of them died in maintaining their heresies These were the Devil's Martyrs 2. They are violent in their Passions Anger is a short frenzy Jam. 3. 9. The tongue is a fire a world of iniquity In this little member there is a great world viz. a world of sin such as would be counted sober yet are drunk with passion Their prayers are cold but their anger hot They spit fire as the Serpent doth poison Fiery passions without Repentance bring men to the fiery furnace 3. They are violent for their lusts Tit. 3. 3. Serving divers lusts Lust is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 an inordinate desire or impulse provoking the soul to the gratifying its carnal desires Aristotle calls them brutish lusts because when lusts are violent they will not let reason or conscience be heard but a man is carried brutishly to the satisfying the flesh 1. Men are violent for their drunken lusts Though death be in the cup they will drink it off One having almost lost his eye-sight the Physitian told him there was no cure for him unless he would leave off his excessive drinking then saith he Farewell sweet light he would rather lose his eye-sight than leave his drinking 2. They are violent for their unclean lusts Men are said to burn in lusts Rom. 1. 27. The Apostle intimateth that lust is a kind of feavour Feavourish heats are not more pernicious to the body than lust is to the soul. O what folly is it for a drop of pleasure to drink
a Sea of wrath 3. They are violent for their oppressive lusts they wrong and defraud others and by violence take away their right Instead of cloathing the naked they make them who are cloathed naked These birds of prey live upon rapine They are cruel as if with Romulus they had been suckled with the milk of Wolves They smile at the curses of the poor and grow fat with their tears They have forgotten Christ's caveat Luk. 3. 14. Do violence to no man Ahab violently took away Naboth's Vineyard 2. King 21. 11. Hell is taken by this violence Prav 4. 17. Who drink the Wine of violence This wine will turn to poison at last Psal. 11. 5. Him that loveth violence God's soul hates 4. They are violent for their covetous lusts Covetousness is the soul's dropsy Amos 7. 2. Who pant after the dust of the earth They compass Sea and Land to make Mony their Proselyte Their god is made of gold and to it they bow down Those who bowed down on their knees to drink of the waters were accounted unfit Souldiers for Gideon Judg. 7. 6. So are those unfit for Christ that stoop immoderately to the love of earthly things They who are violent for the world what have they but the wind Eccles. 5. 16. What profit hath he who hath laboured for the wind The world câ—…nnot enrich the soul it cannot remove pain If pangs of conscience come the world can no more give comfort than a Crown of Gold can cure the head-ach 4. It reproves them who have in part left off that holy strictness and violence in Religion as once they had Their fâ—…rvour is cooled and abated What they do is so little that it cannot be called violence They serve God but are not â—…ervent in spirit They do not leave off duty but they grow dead in duty They have left their first love Rev. 2. 4. It is with them as fire when it is going out or as the Sun when it is going down Like aguish men before they were in a Paroxysm or hot fit of zeal but now the cold fit hath taken them they are formal and frozen in Religion Time was when they called the Sabbath a delight Isa. 58. 13. How were their hearts raised in duty how diligently did they seek him whom their soul loved but now the case is altered their Religion doth languish and even vanish Time was when they were in an Agony and did send forth strong cries in prayer Now the Chariot-wheels are pulled off and the spirit of prayer is much abated Their prayers do even freez between their lips a clear sign of the decay of grace These persons are grown both lethargical and consumptive 1. Lethargical Cant. 5. 2. I sleep but my heart wakes Though grace was alive in her her heart waked yet she was in a dull drowsie-temper I sleep When the heart burns in sin and cools in duty it is a sure sign of growing to a stupid lethargy 2. Consunptive There are two signs of persons in a spiritual consumption 1. When their desire after Christ and Heaven is not so strong as it was A consumptive man's stomach decaies Christians have not such violent affections to heavenly things they can desire Corn and Wine and the luscious delights of the earth but Christ is less precious they are not in pangs of desire after him a sad symptom their grace is in a consumption 2. When they are not so vigorous in motion A man that is lively and stiring at his work it is a sign he is in health but when he is listless and cares not to stir or put his hand to any thing a sign nature is a declining So when men have no heart to that which is good they care not to put themselves upon the exercises of Religion they have lost a spirit of activity for God they serve him in a faint sickly manner 't is a sign they are consumptive When the pulse can scarce be felt it beats so low men are near dying So when those who were once violent for Heaven but now we can scarce perceive any good in them the pulse beats low grace is ready to dye Rev. 3. 2. To you who have abated in your holy violence and are grown remiss in duty let me expostulate with you as the Lord did by the Prophet Jer. 2. 5. What iniquity have your Fathers found in me What evil have you found in God that you leave off your former strictness Hath not God fed you with Manna from above and given you his holy Spirit to be your guide and comforter Hath he not made you swim in a Sea of mercy What evil have you found in Prayer that you are less violent in it Have not you had sweet intercourse with God Have not you sometimes been melted and enlarged insomuch that you have thought your selves in the subbuâ—…bs of Heaven when you have been upon this Mount Hath not the Dove of Prayer brought an Olive-branch of peace in its mouth What evil have you found in the Word Time was when you did take this Book and eat it and it was hony in your mouth Hath the Word less vertue in it now Are the Promises like Aaron's dry Rod withered and sapless What iniquity have you found in the waies of God that you have abated your former violence in Religion O remember whence you are fallen and repent and do your first works Rev. 2. 5. Consider seriously 1. The less violence for Heaven the less peace Our consciences are never at peace in a drowsie state It is the lively acting of grace makes the heart calm and serene These two go together walking in the fear of God and in the comforts of the Holy Ghost Acts 9. 31. Christian if once thou growest remiss in Religion conscience will chide If thou belongest to God he will never let thee be quiet but will send some affliction or other to awaken thee out of thy security and make thee recover that active lively frame of heart as once thou hadst 2. You that grow more dead in God's service and leave your first love give great advantage to Satan The less violent you are the more violent he is the less you pray the more he tempts and what a case are you now in How can grace that is weak and sickly withstand violent temptations Hence it is God suffers his own people sometimes to fall into sin as a just punishment of their lukewarmness and to make them more zealous and violent for the future 3. Your remisness in Religion though it may not damn you it will dammage you You will lose that degree of glory which else you might have had Though your remisness may not lose your Crown it will lessen it and make it weigh lighter 4. The more lazy a Christian's desires are the more lively his corruptions The weaker the body grows the stronger the disease grows Oh therefore pray for quiâ—…kning grace Psal.
143. 11. Beg fresh gales of the Spirit to blow upon you Never leave till you have recovered that holy violence which once you had 2. It reproves those who have quite left off all violence they have left off reading and praying in their family There is not so much as a face of Religion to be seen they are fallen finally Such were Joash Jehu Julian The goodly building of their profession which others admired now hath not one stone left upon another But Why do men thus run retrograde in their motion and quite throw off that violence which they seem'd once to have 1. Because they never had a principle of spiritual life Things that move from a principle of life are constant as the motion of the pulse but things artificial are apt to be at a stand and their motion ceaseth As a clock when the weights are hung on goes but take off the weights and it stands So the Apostate never moves in Religion but for gain and applause and when these weights are taken off he is at a stand he goes no further That branch must needs wither that hath no root to grow upon 2. Men throw off all violence and degenerate into Apostasie because they never did duties of Religion with delight St. Paul delighted in the Law of God in the inward man Rom. 7. 22. It was his Heaven to serve God A man that delights in pleasure will never give over but the Apostate never had any true delight in the waies of God he was rather forced with fear than drawn with love he served a Master that he never cared for no wonder then he leaves his service 3. Men degenerate into Apostasie through unbelief Psal. 78. 22. They believed not in God vers 41. They turned back and tempted God Sinners have jealous thoughts of God they distrust his love therefore desert his service they think they may pray and hear and to no purpose Mal. 3. 14. What profit is it that we have kept his Ordinaâ—…nes We may draw near to God in duty but He will never draw near to us in mercy Thus Unbelief and Atheism prevailing the livery of Religion is presently thrown off and all former violence for Heaven ceaseth Infidelity is the Mother of Apostasie 4. Men leave off their former violence and prove Judasses and Devils be cause they love something else more than Religion There is some lust or other their heart is ingaged to and their violence for sin hath destroyed their violence for Religion Solyman the great Turk seeing many Christians go over to Turcism he asked them What moved them to turn Turks They replyed They did it to be eased of their Taxes They were drawn from God through the prevalency of covetousness If there be any lust in the heart predominant it will get head and destroy all former zeal for Religion Abimeleck a Bastard destroyed threescore and ten of his Brethren upon one stone Judg. 9. 15. If there be any lust the heart runs after this bastard-sin will destroy threescore and ten duties it will murder all that violence for Heaven which a man did once seem to have 5. Men leave off former violence out of pusillanimity if they are violent in Religion they fear they may lose their profits and preferments nay their lives The coward never yet won the field When carnal fear grows violent all violence for Heaven is at an end Incipit esse malus qui timet esse bonus Many of the Jews who were great followers of Christ when they saw the swords and staves left him Prov. 26. 25. In the fear of man there is a snare Carnal fear makes sin appear less than it is but danger greater 6. Men leave off violence for Heaven for want of patience Sensible feeling of joy is with-held and they have not patience to stay for the full recompence of reward Hypocrites are all for present pay and if they have not that suddenly which they desire they bid adieu to Religion and say as that wicked King 2 King 6. 33. Why should I wait for the Lord any longer They consider not that God is a free Agent and will dispense his blessings in the fittest season but they go to tye God up to their time They forget that joy is a part of the reward and would they have the reward and their work not yet finished Doth the servant use to receive his pay before his work is done Jam. 5. 7. The Husbandman waits for his precious fruits of the earth He doth not look to sow and reap in a day But Hypocrites are alwaies in haste they would reap joy before they have done sowing the seed of Repentance and because comfort is a while deferred they are offended they will serve God no longer their patience is at an end therefore their violence is at an end 7. Men leave off holy violence and degenerate into prophaneness out of a just judgement of God leaving them to themselves they oft resisted the Spirit and sent it away sad from them and now as a just judgement God saith My Spirit shall no longer strive and if this wind doth not blow upon their sails they cannot move If this Sun withdraw from their climate they must needs freeze in impenitency They before sinned against clear convictions they silenced conscience and God hath seared it And now if an Angel should preach to them from Heaven it would do them no good O how dismal is this the thoughts of it may strike us into an holy consternation Thus we see why men apostatize and leave off their violence for Heaven Well but what do they get by this let us see what a purchase Apostates make They proclaim their folly for all their former violence for Heaven is lost He who runs half the Race and then faints loseth the Garland Ezek. 18. 24. When the righteous turneth away from his righteousness all his righteousness that he hath done shall not be mentioned All mens prayers and tears are lost The Apostate unravels all that he hath been doing He is like a man that with a pensil draws a curious picture and then comes with his spunge and wipes it out again Gal. 3. 4. Have ye suffered so many things in vain Perhaps for Religion a man hath suffered many a reproach and affront and have ye suffered all this in vain Here is folly indeed It will be bitterness in the end Jer. 2. 19. Know therefore that it is an evil and bitter thing that thou hast forsaken the Lord. Men by leaving off their violence for Heaven get a thorn in their conscience a blot in their name a curse in their souls What got Judas by his Apostasie but an halter So that it will be bitterness in the end The Apostate when he dies drops as a wind-fall into the Devil's mouth 5. It reproves those who put off this violence for the Kingdom till old age When they are fit for no other work
still with thee This requires violence for motions upward are usually violent 11. Do we set our selves alwaies under God's eye Psal. 16. 8. I have set the Lord alwaies before me Do we live soberly and godlily remembring whatever we are doing our Judge looks on If it be thus with us we are happy persons This is the holy violence the text speaks of and is the right way of taking the Kingdom of God And surely never did Noah so willingly put forth his hand to receive the Dove into the Ark as Jesus Christ will put forth his hand to receive us into Heaven 4. It exhorts all Christians to this holy violence for Heaven But before I press the exhortation let me remove some Objections that may be made against this blessed violence 1. But we have no power of our selves to save our selves you bid us be violent as if you should bid a man tied fast in fetter â—…to walk 'T is true We cannot till grace come effectually operate to our own salvation Before conversion we are purely passive and when â—…od bids us convert and turn this is to shew us what we ought to do not what we can do Yet let us do quoad posse what we are able 1. We have power to avoid those Rocks which will certainly ruine our souls I mean gross sins A man needs not to bâ—… in bad company he needs not swear or tell alye nor would he do it if it were by Law death to swear an Oath 2. We have power to put our selves upon the use of means praying reading holy conference this will condemn men at the last day they do not act so vigorously in their sphere as they might they do not use the means and try whether God will give grace God will come with that silencing question at last Why didst not thou put my mony to the Exchangers Matth. 25. 17. Why didst not thou improve that power I gave thee 2. Though we have not power to save our selves yet we must pursue after salvation because God hath made a promise of grace as well as to grace He hath promiâ—…ed to circumcise our hearts to put his Spirit within us to inable us to walk in his statutes Ezek. 36. 27. So that by prayer we are to put the bond in suit and to press God with his own promise Though I will not say with the Arminians upon our endeavour God is bound to give grace yet he is not wanting to them that seek his grace Nâ—…y he denies his grace to none but them that wilfully refuse it Psal. 81. 11. Israel would none of me 2. But this offering violence is hard and I shall never be able to go thorow it Admit it be hard yet it is a duty and there is no disputing duty God hath made the way to Heaven hard To try our Obedience A child obeys his Father though he command him hard things Peter's obedience and love was tryed when Christ bade him come to him upon the water God doth it that he may raise the price of heavenly things Were the Kingdom of glory easily obtained we should not have valued it to its worth Such is our nature that we slight things which are easily come by If Pearls were common they would soon fall in their price If Christ and Heaven might be had without violence these blessings of the first magnitude would not have been had in such high veneration But let not the difficulty be objected What though salvation-work be hard 1. Is it not harder to lye in Hell Is not suffering vengeance worse than offering violence 2. We do not argue so in other things An estate is hard to come by therefore we will sit still No difficulty doth the more wheâ—… and sharpen our indeavour and if we take such pains for these infâ—…riour things how should we for that which is more noble and sublime The profit will abundantly countervail the labour 3. Though the business of Religion at first seems hard yet when once we are entred into it it is pleasant When the wheels of the soul are oiled with grace now a Christian moves in Religion with facility and delight Rom. 7. 22. I delight in the Law of God in the inward man Christ's yoke at the first putting on seems heavy but when once it is on it is easie To serve God to love God to enjoy God is the sweetest freedom in the world The Poets say the top of Olympus is alwaies quiet The first climbing up the rocky hill of Heaven is hard to flesh and blood but when we are gotten up towards the top there is peace and delight we see a pleasant prospect and are ready to cry out as Peter on the Mount of transfiguration It is good to be here What hidden Manna do we now find this is the anticipation or forâ—…tast of glory 3. But if I put my self upon this violent exercise in Religion then I shall lose that pleasure I have in my sin my mirth and melody and I shall exchange delight for labour and so I shall be no more Naomi but Marah Voluptuous persons speak as the Fig-tree in the Parable Judg. 9. Shall I leave my fatness and sweetness all my former pleasures and now offer violence to Heaven live a strict mortified life This crosseth the stream of corrupt nature Leave the pleasure in sin The Scripture doth so describe fin that one would think there should be little pleasure in it The Scripture calls it 1. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a debt Sin is compared to a debt of ten thousand talents Matth. 18. 24. A talent of gold among the Hebrews was valued at almost four thousand pounds Ten thousand talents is a figurative speech to express how great a debt sin is and do you call this a pleasure is it any pleasure for a man to be in debt 2. The Scripture calls sin a disease Isa. 1. 5. The whole head is sick Is it any pleasure to be sick Though all do not feel this sickness yet the less the distemper is felt the moremorta 3. The Scripture compares sin to Gall and Wormwood Deut. 29. 18. It breeds a bitter worm in the conscience What a worm did Spira feel Sin stings a man with wrath Joh. 3. 34. And do you call this a pleasure sure you put bitter for sweet Isa. 5. 20. The pleasures of sin do gratifie only the sensitive part of man not the rational Pleasures are called carnal because they delight only the body How absurd was that speech of the rich man in the Gospel when he was speaking of his store of goods and his barns being full Soul take thine ease Luke 12. 19. He might have said more properly Body take thine ease for his soul was never the better for his riches nor could it feel any delight in them Though his barns were full his soul was empty Therefore when Satan tells thee If thou usest violence
for Heaven thou wilt lose all thy pleasures ask him what pleasures are they Satan such as please only the senses they do not delight the mind they do not comfort the conscience they are such delights wherein the bruit creatures do exceed me 3. These sugred pleasures in sin the Scripture saith are but 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for a season Heb. 11. 25. Like fire in straw which makes a blaze but is presently out 1 Joh. 2. 17. The world passeth away and the lusts thereof It passeth away swiftly as a ship under sail Worldly pleasures perish in the using like a flying shadow or flash of lightning and are these to be preferred before an eternal weight of glory 4. The present sweetness which is in fin will turn to bitterness at last Like the Book the Prophet eat Ezek. 3. 3. Sweet in the mouth but bitter in the belly Hony is sweet but it turns to choler Sin is a sweet poison it delights the palate but torments the bowels When once the finner's eyes come to be opened at death and he feels some sparks of God's wrath in his conscience then he will cry out for horrour and be ready to lay violent hands upon himself We may say of the pleasures of sin as Solomon of wine Prov. 23. 32. Look not on the wine when it is red when it shews its colour in the glass afterwards it bites like a Serpent So look not on the smiling pleasures of sin be not delighted with its beauty but affrighted with its sting Do the damned in Hell feel any pleasure now in their sins Hath their cup of wrath one drop of hony in it Oh remember after the golden Crowns and womens hair come the Lions teeth Rev. 9. 8. Thus I have answered the first part of the Objection I shall lose all my pleasures in sin If I put forth this violence in Religion I shall exchange my delight for labour I must dig a way through the Rock and while I work I must weep Resp. Though you must use violence yet it is a sweet violence it is a labour turned into delight Psal. 138. 5. They shall sing in the waies of the Lord. To send out faith as a spy to view the heavenly Canaan and pluck a bunch of Grapes there what delight is here Rom. 15. 13. Joy in believing To love God in whom all excellencies are combined how sweet is it To love beauty is delightful To walk among the promises as among beds of spices and taste the fruit oh how pleasant The labour of a Christian brings peace of conscience and joy in the Holy Ghost Sed juvat ipse labor And whereas it is said that this holy violence takes away our joy and while we work we must weep I answer a Christian would not be without these tears The tears of a Saint saith Bernard have more true joy in them than all worldly delight The Oyl of joy is for mourners Isa. 61. 3. 4. I would use this violence for Heaven but I shall expose my self to the censure and scorn of others They will wonder to see me so altered and think it nothing but a religious phrensie Consider who reproach thee they are the wicked such as if Christ were alive on earth would reproach him They are blinded by the God of the world 2 Cor. 4. 4. It is as if a blind man should reproach a beautifull face 2. What do they reproach thee for 't is for offering violence for Heaven Is it a disgrace to be labouring for a Kingdom Tell them thou art doing the work that God hath set thee about Better they should reproach thee for working in the Vineyard than God damn thee for not working 3. Jesus Christ was reproached for thy sake Heb. 12. 2. He endured the shame of the Cross and wilt not thou be contented to bear reproaches for him These are but the chips of the Cross which are rather to be despised than laid to heart If I use this holy violence and turn religious then I shall lose such yearly profits which my sin hath brought in As Amaziah said What shall I do for the hundred Talents 2 Chron. 25. 9. Is there any profit in sin did ever any one thrive upon that Trade by that time you have cast up the reckoning you will find but little profit 1. By the incomes that sin brings in thou treasurest up vengeance Rom. 2. 5. While thou puttest unjust gain in thy bag God puts wrath in his viol and will you call this profit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Whatever mony a man gets in a sinful way he must pay interest for it in hell 2. That cannot be for thy profit which makes thee come off a loser at last Thou losest Heaven and thy soul and what can countervail this loss What is a man profited if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul Matth. 16. 26. God saith Chrysostom hath given a man two eyes if he lose one he hath another but he hath but one soul and if that be lost he is undone for ever But I have so much business in the world that I can find no time for this holy violence As the King of Macedon said when they presented him with a book treating of Happiness 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I am not at leisure See the folly of of this objection What is the main business of life but looking after the soul and for men to say they are so immersed in the world that they cannot mind their souls is most absurd and irrational This is to make the greater give way to the lesse As if an Husbandman should say he is so busie in angling or looking after his Bees that he hath no time to plow or sow What is his occupation but plowing Such a madness is it to hear men say they are so taken up about the world that they have no time for their souls Could God find time to think of thy salvation could Jesus Christ find time to come into the world and be here above thirty years in carrying on this great design of thy Redemption and canst thou find no time to look after it Is the getting a little mony that which obstructs this violence for Heaven Thy mony perish with thee Canst thou find time for thy body time to eat and sleep and not find time for thy soul canst thou find time to employ about thy recreation and no time to employ about thy salvation canst thou find time for idle visits and no time to visit the Throne of Grace Oh take heed thou goest not to Hell in the croud of worldly business Joshua who was a Commander of an Army yet his work as a Souldier was not to hinder his work as a Christian he must pray as well as fight and take the Book of the Law in his hand as well as the Sword Josh. 1. 8. Thou whosoever thou art that makest this
they be 〈◊〉 that wholly let loose the reins to the flesh and bathe themselves in the luscious streams of carnal pleasure 24. This sweating for Heaven is not to endure long 1 Pet. 5. 10. After â—…e have suffered a while So after ye have offered violence a while there shall be an end put to it Your labour shall expire with your life It is but a while and you shall have done weeping wrastling praying it is but a while and the Race will be over and you shall receive the end of your faith the salvation of your souls 1 Pet. 1. 9. It is but a while and you shall have done your weary marches you shall put off your Armour and put on white Robes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 How should this excite a spirit of holy violenceâ—… It is but a sew months or daies and you shall reap the sweet fruit of your obedience The winter will be past and the spring flowers of joy shall appear Doctor Tailor comforted himself when he was going to the stake I have but two stiles to go over and I shall be at my Father's house Christians you have but a little way to go a little more violence a few more tears shed a few more sabbaths kept and then your hopes â—…shall be crowned with the beatifical sight of God When the vapour is blown away then we may see the Sun clearly So when this short vapour of life is blown away then we shall behold Christ the Sun of Righteousness in all his glory 1 Joh. 3. 2. We shall see him as he is 25. If you are not violent for Hâ—…aven you walk antipodes to your own prayeâ—…s You pray that God's will may be done by you on earth â—…as it is done in Heaven Now how 〈◊〉 God's will done in Heaven 〈◊〉 are not the Angels swift in doing the will of God like the stars above the equinoctial that are moved many millions of miles in an hour The seraphints are described with wings to shew how velocious and winged they are in their obedience Isa. 6. 2. Now if you are not violent in your spiritual motion 〈◊〉 you live in a contradiction to your owâ—… prayers You are far from being as Angels you creep as Snails in the way to Heaven 26. This holy and blessed violence would makâ—… Christians willing to die What is it makes men so loth to die they are as a Tenant that is loth to go out of an house why so because their conscience accuseth them that they have taken litâ—…le or no pains for Heaven they have been sleeping when they should have been working and now death looks ghastly they are afraid death will carry them prisoners to Hell Whereas the Christian that hath been active in Religion and hath spent his time in the service of God he â—…an look deâ—…th in the face with comforâ—… He who hath been violent for Heaven in this life need not fear a violeâ—… death Death shall do him no hurt it shall not be a destruction but a deliverancâ—… it shall purge out slit and perfect glory What made St. Paul say 〈◊〉 dissolâ—… I desâ—…re to be dissoâ—…ved Phil. 1. 23. Surely the reason was he had been a mâ—…n of violence he did spend himself for Christ and laboured more than all the oâ—…her Apostâ—…es 1 Cor. 15. 10. And now he knew there was a Crown laid up for him Augustus the Emperour did desire that he might have an 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a quiet easie death If any thing make our pillow easie at death and we go out of the world quietly it will be this holy violence that we haâ—…e put forth in the business of Religion â—…7 If for all that hath been said you will either fit still or keep your sweat for something else than Heaven know there is a time shortly coming when you will wish you had used this violence When sickness sâ—…izeth on you and your disease begins to grow violent and you think God's Sergeant is at the door then what wishes will you make O that I had been more violent for Heaven O that I had been praying when I was dancing and making merry O that I had had a Bible in my hand when I had a pair of Cards how happy then might I have been but alas my case is miâ—…erable what shall I do I am so sick that I cannot live and so sinful that I dare not die O that God would respiâ—…e me a little longer that he would put a few years more in my lease that a littlâ—… space might be granted me to recover my lost hours As one said on her death-bed Call time again but time will not be called again At the hour of death sinners will awake out of their lethargy and fall into a phrensie of horrour and despair and shall not all these Arguments prevail with men to be violent for the Kingdom what an hardned plece is a sinner's heart We read that at Christ's passion the Rockâ—…rent Mat. 27. 51. But nothing will move a sinner The Rocks will sooner rend than his heart If all that I have said will not prevail it is a sign ruine is towards 1 Sam. 2. 25. They hearkned not to the voice of their father because the Lord would slâ—…y them Yet this Caution I must necessarily insert though we shall not obtain the Kingdom without violence yet not for our violence When we have done all look up to Christ and free grace Bellaâ—…mine saith we merit Heaven ex congruo No though we are saved in the use of means yet by grace too Ephes. 2. 5. By grace ye are saved Heaven is a donative â—…uke 12. 32. It is my Father's good pleasure to give you a Kingdom Why may one say I have used violence for it I have wrought for the Kingdom I but it is a gift that free-grace bestows We must look up to Christ for acceptance not our sweat but his blood saves our labouring qualifies us for Heaven but Christ's dying purchased Heaven Alas what is all that we can do in comparison of glory what is the shedding of a tear to a Crown therefore we must renounce all in point of Justification and let Christ and Free-grace carry away the glory of our salvation God must help us in our working Phil. 2. 12. It is God which worketh in you both to will and to do How then can we merit by our working when it is God that helps us in our working I shall in the next place lay down some Rules or Directions how to get this blessed violence 1. Take heed of those things which will hinder this violence for Heaven 1. Take heed of Unbelief Unbelief is a great remora as it is discouraging When a Christian is working for Heaven unbelief whispers thus To what purpose is all this pains I had as good sit still I may pray and not be heard I may work and have no reward I may come near