clear up grace Blowing up sparks will best discover them A flame is sooner discerned then a spark in the embers Christians by stirring up the gift of God discover it 2 Tim. 1.6 Motion is a good evidence of life Activity for God and tendency Heaven-ward will put you out of doubt All duties tend to assurance or spring from it Striving running fighting will be crowned with clear evidence God loves to crown diligence To him that hath i. e. useth and improveth well what he hath shall be given and he shall have abundance i. e. more grace and the comfort of it as the collision of Flint and Steel begets light so the acting of grace produceth this fruit viz. Assurance For the work of righteousness is peace and the effect of righteousness quietness and assurance for ever Isa 32.17 Now now the Soul is ready for glory when he is in duty above duty with God in the lively actings of grace which is a part of and a prologue to glory The Christian is going from strength to strength till he appear before God in Zion Oh happy soul that is thus upon the wing 2. Reflection upon Heart and Life and comparing both with the word of God This is Gods way to get assurance Have I the conditions of Gospel-promises Faith and Repentance Do those graces within me answer the characters of such in the Scriptures Doth my Soul eccho to the experiences of Saints in the word of God Can I follow the Rules and prescriptions that my Lord hath laid down To deny my self take up his Cross and follow him Have I the essential characters of a Christian I dare not believe Satan and my own treacherous heart I will examine and prove my self 2 Cor. 13.5 I will not spare my self in any thing I will be impartial and deal faithfully by disquisitive tryal now as I would be found in the decisive tryal at the last day It s a matter of life and death I will lay judgment to the line I will go to the Law and to the Testimony The word must judge me at the great day it shall be my judge now No matter what the World saith of me nor must I be determined by the votes of the best Christians or Godly Ministers I must and will and do prove mine own work and then I shall have rejoycing in my self alone and not in another Gal. 6 4. 3. Appealing and approving the heart to God Alas the best Christian is too apt to be partial in his own case or blind at home our Minds are as ill set as our Eyes neither of them apt to look inwards and when we do look alas we are apt to look through a false or flattering glass or our Eye is vitiated with bad humours and therefore must we with Job appeal to God ch 10.7 Thou knowest that I am not wicked And ch 23.10 He knoweth the way that I take And though David had communed with his own heart and his spirit had made diligent search Psal 77.6 yet he challengeth God to a further privy search Psal 26.2 Ezamine me O Lord and prove me try my reins and my heart And again Psal 139.23 Search me O God and know my heart try me and know my thoughts Not as though God were ignorant of them till he searcht but it s spoken after the manner of Men And that God might further acquaint David with the secrets of his heart Thus the sincere Christian faith Lord I set my self before thee as a glass in the Sun look upon me look through me thou knowest all things see how my heart is affected towards thee discover to me the inmost working of my Soul if there be any secret guile in folding it self in the lurking-places of my heart bring it to light if there be any flaw in my evidences let me see it before it be too late I am too apt through self-love to judge the best but do thou declare my state and my frame as it is Thou that must be my judge shalt be my witness My witness is in Heaven and my record is on high Job 16.19 Here 's a Soul usually comforted in his integrity and such an one is meet for Heaven 4. Praying to God for the shinings and sealings of his Spirit For indeed let all these means be used yet evidence will not come unless God be pleased to shine upon his own grace in the Soul My Conscience saith Paul bearing me witness in the Holy Ghost Rom. 9.1 and Rom. 8.16 The Spirit it self beareth witness with our Spirit that we are the Children of God This indeed is the Sun-light assurance This alone scatters all mists answers all objections banisheth all doubts and fears and oh what an honour and satisfaction is it to a Child of God that the Third Person of the Sacred Trinity should come down and give in its infallibe Testimony at the Bar of a Believers Conscience This is like the Son of God coming down into our nature and dying for us Oh transcendent condescention Oh unparallell'd priviledge of Gods Children Yet this is purchased by Christ and promised to Believers not only to be a Witness but a Seal 2 Cor. 1.22 and 5.5 Eph. 1.13 This is often yea ordinarily given after believing and when it comes it brings its own evidence along with it So that the perplexed Child of God after many fore conflicts struglings ruggings sad thoughts of heart comes at last to some consistency as to expel fears cares doubts and now at last is brought to that that he no more questions Gods love then his faithfulness and this usually comes in after some notable wrestlings at the Throne of Grace in Prayer according to that Joh. 16.24 Hitherto ye have asked nothing in my name i. e. Very little comparatively and as you shall do Ask and ye shall receive that your joy may be full God will have his Child to beg when he designs to give to exercise our Obedience and to honour his own Ordinance Then he gives assurance and the joy of his Salvation and now the believing Soul is meet to be translated into the joy of his Lord. But you will say is none meet for Heaven but such as have assurance Then what shall a poor doubting Soul say of it self that is dark and much discouraged as many a good Soul is Answ 1. A title to this Inheritance is necessary but knowledge of this title is not absolutely necessary Many have dyed safely though under clouds Our Lord himself cryed dying My God my God why hast thou forsaken me There was Relation my God yet in some sense he was forsaken 2. There 's degrees of assurance as he that said Lord I believe help thou mine unbelief Few enjoy a full plerophory and those that have it yet have it not at all times Mr. Pauls Bains said dying Sustentation I have but suavities spiritual I do not feel 3. It s one thing what God doth in an arbitrary way of suspending the
Meetness FOR HEAVEN Promoted in some brief MEDITATIONS UPON COLOS. 1.12 Discovering the nature and necessity of habitual and actual Meetness for Heaven here in all that hope for Heaven hereafter Designed for a Funeral Legacy By O. H. an unworthy Minister of the Gospel of Christ Psal 73.24 Thou shalt guide me with thy Counsel and afterward received me to Glory Rev. 22.14 Blessed are they that do his Commandments that they may have right to the tree of life and may enter in through the gates into the City London Printed by J. R. for T. Parkhurst at the Bible and Three Crowns in Cheapside AN EPISTLE To my Dearly Beloved Hearers Friends and Neighbours and others that will be at the cost to buy or take the pains to read this small Treatise Dearly Beloved A Desire after Happiness is so ingraven in the Nature of Man that it was never put to the debate whether he would be happy or no This needs no choice all are agreed in this as the end of a rational Agent And therefore at last Felicity was accounted a Goddess among the Romans and St. Augustine tells us that Lucullus built her a Temple only he wonders that the Romans that were worshippers of so many Gods had not given Divine Honour to Felicity sooner which alone would have sufficed in stead of all the rest of their Deities which he reckons up and saith at last of Numa that having chosen so many Gods and Goddesses 't is strange he neglected this An eam forte in tanta turbâ videre non potuit but though they at last had got a notion of Felicity yet having no true Piety that veneration ended in the greatest misery and infelicity nothing but Wars ensued Vid. Aug. de civit Dei lib 4. cap. 23. This indeed is the case All men would be happy but few know the due object and true means leading to Happiness It is possible as the same Father saith there to find a man that is unwilling to be made King nullus autem invenitur qui se nolit esse foelicem that is loath to be made happy But indeed most men blunder in the dark and few find the thing they seek The same Father tells us de civ Dei lib 19. c. 1. that Varro in his Book of Philosophy that had diligently searched the various Opinions of men about the chiefest good reduceth them to two hundred eighty eight Sects or Sentences non quae jam essent sed quae esse possent and Augustine reduceth them to their several heads But I pass by Heathens that are bewildred in the dark and know no better Even professing or pretended Christians either do not understand or will not embrace the way of Peace and Rest The Lord looked down from Heaven upon the Children of Men to see if there were any that did understand and seek God They are all gone aside they are altogether become filthy there is none that doth good no not one Psal 14.2 3. All mankind is degenerate and few are regenerated We set out for Hell as soon as we are born and till converting Grace turn us Heaven-wards we go blindfold to the pit The whole World lyeth in ignorance and wickedness 1 Joh. 5.19 But no such ignorance as that which is wilful This is the condemnation that light is come into the world and men love darkness rather then light because their deeds are evil Joh. 3.19 No man perisheth but by his own will Men will sin and love death rather then life You will not come to me saith Christ that you may have life Joh. 5.40 He that rejecteth the means rejecteth the end All they that hate Christ love death Prov. 8.36 They do both not directly or designedly but interpretatively and consequentially Most men observe lying vanities and so forsake their own Mercies Jon. 2.8 as he leaves the East that goes to the West My people saith God have committed two evils Observe it it 's but one act yet there 's two evils in it what are they they have forsaken me the fountain of living waters and hewed them out cisterns broken cisterns that can hold no water Jer. 2.13 Oh what evil is in the bowels of one sin But especially in the sin of Vnbelief The evil of sin brings on the evil of punishment Miss of Heaven and you purchase Hell What mad man will refuse this gift that is better then Gold What beast will run into a pit or praecipice But some men make a jest of Heaven as that Bishop who when one said I hope to see you at your Diocess ere long replyed I fear I shall be in Heaven before that time come Others like Martha are so incumbred in the World that they are staked down to Terrene Objects and Answer as he that being asked if he saw the Eclipse answered No I have so much business on Earth that I have no leisure to look up to Heaven This is most mens ease Alas the World eats out many mens Religion as the Sun shining eats out the fire So that men are as dead to Religion as if Heaven were but a dream and as hot upon sin as if Hell had no fire or were all vanisht into smoke Nay it 's well if some look not on Heaven and Hell as if they were but a Fable or Romance a scar-crow to fright weak headed people or the meer invention of designing Priests to keep men in awe But they shall know one day to their cost that there is an Heaven by the loss of it and that there is an Hell by the torments of it Let these ask the rich man in torment whether there is an Hell or no Targum saith the dispute betwixt Cain and Abel was concerning a World to come And indeed this is the Controversie betwixt the faithful and unbelievers Though the wicked say the Creed wherein they profess a belief of the Resurrection Judgment and Eternal Life yet it s but notional not experimental practical They know nothing of it initially inchoatively by feeling the beginnings of it here and living to the rates of it It is to be feared that the greatest part of Mankind will fall to the Devils share How little are men concerned about a future state How many put away from them the evil day Some have a foolish imagination that Heaven is every where that there is neither Heaven nor Hell but in a mans own Conscience and then they can shift well enough for they can stop the mouth of a bawling Conscience and speak Peace to themselves But how long will either of these last When God arms a man against himself he shall be a Magormissabib a fear round about Witness Cain Saul Judas that thought Hell was easier then his own Conscience and therefore desperately leapt into it to the crushing of his Body and the damning of his Soul They shall find that there is an Heaven and Hell after this natural Life is ended It is recorded of Peter Martyr that he
the Life of Paul the aged within a few days and my Lord only knows how soon my sun may set though I cannot say my Natural Vigour either of Body or Mind is in the least abated but I am mortal and am loath to be surprized unawares 2. I see a great failure in my self and other Christians in this that terminate our studies and endeavours in getting a title and then think all is well we need no more but surely there is much behind we have abundance of work upon our hands for obtaining actual meetness without which we cannot evidence our habitual meetness 3. I never yet met with any Treatise upon this subject though it be of great importance for every Christian surely Heaven is worth minding and methinks Abrahams Query in another case should be ours Gen. 15.8 O Lord God whereby shall I know that I shall inherit it 4. I have observed a commendable practice of some Christians which is to order some Books to be distributed at their Funerals The first that I knew of that nature was Mr. R. A. his Vindiciae Pietatis and some other practical pieces which by Gods Blessing have done much good Such a Memorandum would I bequeath as my last Legacy to you my dear People amongst whom I have laboured above thirty nine years in publick and private serving the Lord in some measure of Integrity and Humility with many Tears and Temptations through variety of Dispensations Excommunications Banishments Confiscations and Imprisonments but out of all these the Lord hath delivered me and set my feet in a large place and God that searcheth the heart knows what hath been my design in studying preaching praying preparing you a place to meet in to Worship God and what are the agonies and jealousies of my Spirit to this day least I leave any of you unconverted and so cashiered from Gods presence at the great day and now at last I solemnly charge you before God and the Lord Jesus Christ and the elect Angels that you rest not in a graceless state another day lest that be the last day and you be found unready And I solemnly require you that have a principle of Grace gird up your Loins trim your Lamps and observe these few Rules and the dispositions mentioned in this small Treatise I only hint further Be much in the love of God Dayly act Faith on Christ Walk in the Spirit Design Gods Glory Intermit not holy duties Be not content therein without communion with God Mingle Religion with civil acts Increase every Grace Redeem time Profitably converse with Gods Children Aim at perfection Maintain tender Consciences Keep strict accounts Study the life of Heaven Be still doing or getting good Set God before your eyes Trample on worldly things Live in dayly view of death Be nothing in your own eyes Be much in heavenly praises Say O Lord who am I and what is my Fathers house that thou hast brought me hitherto What is man what am I the least and worst of the children of men that the heart of God should be working for me and towards me in infinite bowels of eternal love That the Lord Jesus should shed his heart-blood for me That the holy Spirit should take possession of me That God should provide such an inheritance for me Assure me of it by precious Promises seal it to me in his holy Supper That ever God should give me an heart to fear him Heal so many backslidings Prevent total Apostacy Pardon all my iniquities Vouchsafe me such large priviledges Supply my wants Hear my Prayers Help me over so many a foul place in my journey Brought me to the borders of Canaan Given me so many foretasts of the promised Land Tells me the Jordan of death shall be driven back and give me a safe passage to Heaven O Blessed blessed be God all this is from sovereign Grace God doth what he pleaseth I would not exchange this hope for the worlds possessions Eternity will be little enough to be taken up in the praises of rich grace Thus the gracious Soul may quickly lose it self in these Divine Praises and Contemplations as that zealous German Martyr Giles Titleman who in his Prayers was so ardent kneeling by himself in some secret place that he seemed to forget himself being called many times to meat he neither heard nor saw them that stood by him till he was lift up by the Arms and then gently he would speak to them as one waked out of a deep sleep Oh that there were such a spirit in Gods children That our hearts were so intent on things above as to pass through the world as unconcerned in it Then shall you be content to leave all and go to Christ Then will you not be afraid of the King of Terrors though armed with Halberts Racks Fires Gibbets then will you have a brighter Crown and higher degrees of Glory and shall shine as the brightness of the Firmament and as one Star differs from another in Glory so you will be set in the highest Orb and having had largest capacities on Earth shall have fullest joys in Heaven I will conclude with the blessed Apostles Prayer 1 Th. 3.12 13. The Lord make you to increase and abound in love one towards another and towards all men even as we do towards you to the end he may stablish your hearts unblameable in holiness before God even our Father at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all his Saints Amen and Amen Thus prayeth Your Servant in our dearest Lord Oliver Heywood COLOS. 1.12 Giving thanks unto the Father which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the Saints in light CHAP. I. The Text opened Doctrines raised and explained PRayer and Praise are the two wings upon which a devout Soul mounts Heavenwards Prayer fetcheth down occasions of Praise These two are as Chariots and Factors to maintain intercourse betwixt God and his Children Paul was a great man in both for after the Inscription Subscription and Benediction in this Epistle he falls to Praise ver 3. then to Prayer ver 9. and in the Text he falls again to Praise and Thanksgiving wherein observe 1. The Duty Praise 2. The Mercy for what In the former observe 1. The Act giving thanks 2. The Object the Father 1. The Act 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 It signifies a being of a good Grace having a very grateful Spirit and expressing it in words and actions Col. 3.15 Be ye thank ful or be ye amiable one to another or grateful both in conferring and receiving Benefits But here it referrs to God Obs 1. That thank fulness is the duty and property of a Christian Thankful retribution for Mercies is the study and enquiry of gracious Souls Psal 116.12 Prayer and Thanks are like the double motion of the Lungs the air of Mercy that is sucked in by Prayer is breathed out again by the duty of Praise O happy Christian that can and must in every
be above with God CHAP. XIII Some practical Inferences from this Doctrine USE of all this briefly is in four consectaries 1. That there is undoubtedly such a future state as bliss and blessedness for Gods ' Children after this life There remaineth a rest to the people of God Heb. 4.9 I need not go about to prove this it s sufficiently and abundantly confirmed by abler hands not only from Scripture but Nature Reason Divine Providence in the world and the grace of God in the hearts of his people Enough is said to silence Atheism in our Spirits and to stop the mouths of all Atheists on Earth Can any rationally imagine that God should endow Man with such a noble Soul and endue that Soul with such noble faculties of Mind Will and Conscience and Affections capable of knowing loving injoying God with fears and hopes of a future state and all this in vain Can we think the holy just good wise righteous God will always promote the wicked and punish the godly and not right these things in the next world Hath Christ come into the world to no purpose What would become of his Birth Life Doctrine Death Resurrection Ascention Intercession coming to Judgment if there were no life of future retribution What would become of the precepts promises threatnings motives means helps to an holy life here and to attain eternal life hereafter if there were no such thing Can we imagine that the great God governs the world by a lye Are Heaven and Hell bug-bears or meer imaginations of brain-sick fools Is there not a reality in Satans temptations to draw or drive us from God and future happiness Or are there no Devils or Spirits and so by consequence no God Away with these wild conceits contrary to the sentiments of all Mankind 2. Then it follows that assurance is attainable not only objective assurance that there is a glorious inheritance and that God will give it to some but subjective also that this is mine that its for me I have a title to it else how could persons thank God for making meet for this inheritance This assurance ariseth from actings of Faith and produceth rejoycing in hope of this glory of God Rom. 5.1 The gospel is a gospel of peace not of fears and doubts Assurance may be had not only by divine revelation but in the use of ordinary means I know in whom I have believed 2 Tim. 1.12 Read on and you 'l find not only his assurance of his present state but his perseverance and future felicity and it s not his peculiar priviledge but common to other Believers 2. Cor. 5.1 It s true God is a free Agent and may bestow it on whom and when he pleaseth Some have it most clearly at first Conversion as Bernard for a time after his Conversion remained as it were deprived of his Senses by the excessive consolations he had from God Cyprian saith He thought before his Conversion it was impossible to find such raptures and ravishments as now he found in a Christian course Many a close walking Christian can set his seal to this truth only it ordinarily comes in after hard conflicts with temptation wrestlings with God much experience and exact walking with God There is Salvation and there is the joy of Gods Salvation Psal 51.12 This saith Mr. Latimer is the sweet-meats of the feast of a good Conscience There are many other dainty dishes at the feast but this is the banquet This is better felt then expressed but must be endeavoured after prayed for Ask saith our Lord and ye shall receive that your joy may be full Joh. 16.24 3. That the work of thankfulness is the great duty of a Christian This this is the proper character and imployment of a Christian God commands it priviledges call for it gracious Souls have been much in it it is comprehensive of mans whole duty Vrsin entitles the practical part of his Carechism de Gratitudine of Gratitude Oh that Christians were more in it Praise is comely for the upright This is the Epitome of Religion the Emblem of Heaven the proper Air in which a Christian breaths It s most acceptable to God creditable to Religion and profitable to the Christian Mr. Fox tells us the City Zurick ingraved the Year of their deliverance from Popery upon Pillars in Letters of Gold for a lasting Memorial And have not Christians cause to thank God for grace and glory The Heathens could say Call a Man ingrateful and you cannot call him worse Hezekiah brought wrath on himself Judah and Jerusalem for not rendring to the Lord according to benefits done to him 2 Chron. 32.25 Oh Sirs you little know what an evil ingratitude is you fill your Souls with guilt you too much resemble wicked men whose character is unthankful 2 Tim. 3.2 That sin makes hard times yea it makes you like the worst of Heathen for which sin God gave them up Rom. 1.21 24. you act disingenuously as those that have served their turns of God and then disown him How can you own God in the next strait that are so much in arrears Will not your mouth be stopt and Conscience fly in your face Do you not daily depend on God for new Mercies And is not thankfulness a natural duty Is not gratitude for Spiritual Mercies a great evidence of your interest in them And is not every Mercy sweetened by thankfulness Nay is not this a mean to continue them The more thankful any have been the more eminent they have been Their graces have shined and glistered like Pearls and Diamonds Yea once more the more thankful you are and the more cause of thankfulness you will both have and see Thankfulness for what you are sure you have will produce a fuller evidence of that you are doubtful of The Lord humble us for our gross ingratitude which is as one saith a Monster in Nature a Solaecism in Manners a Paradox in Divinity and a parching Wind to damme up the Fountain of Divine Favours You 'l say Oh Sir I could be thankful with all my heart if I knew I were fit for Heaven and that my Soul shall at death enter into peace but alas as long as I am doubtful and at uncertainties how can I be thankful Conscience would check and condemn me and indeed I have more cause to be humbled and ashamed for my unmeetness then thankful for any meetness I find in me for Heaven Ans 1. There may be grounds both of humiliation and thankfulness in the same soul and subject Let the best Saints do the best they can and attain to the highest pitch imaginable they shall have cause of humiliation for their defects 2. Holy jealousie fears cares do well in Gods Children to keep them humble and indeed as grace increaseth fight of imperfections increaseth and sense of short-coming the more discoveries of Gods holiness the viler will the Christian be in his own eyes as Job and Isaiah Job 42. Isa 6.5