you could never obtain you might well in such case make light of it But when thus you have a Crown a Kingdom an eternal Wâ—â—ght of Glory set before you together with this Encouragement that in seeking you shall be sure to find them how inexcusable must you needs be if still you should go on in the careless neglect of them Because the Recompence of eternal Life is possible to be obtained therefore impossible will it be for those that seek it not that ever they should escape the Vengeance of eternal Death 3 CONSIDER how unable all your Creature-enjoyments will be to afford you any solid Comfort at Death and Judgment not having an Interest in the Recompence of eternal Life What the Holy Ghost saith of Riches may truly be affirmed of all Creature-enjoyments and worldly Accommodations they profit not in a Day of Wrath. The Night approaching we lose the benefit of the Sun for a time and can no longer we enjoy the Light of his beauteous Beams So the darksom Night of Death and Judgment approaching you can now no longer enjoy the Comfort of Riches Honours and the like worldly Accommodations but must lose them for ever You may cry Brethren to your Riches and cry to your Honours and cry to your Friends and cry bitterly to your dearest Relations but not having an Interest in the Recompence of Reward all these will then answer you as the King of Israel (e) Kings 6.26.27 sometime answered the poor Woman of Samaria if God do not help you whence shall we help you The good things of this Life they are only calculated for the Meridian of Time and do only shine with a borrowed light So that when Death shall seize upon you and Judgment overtake you they will then be gone and like a Shadow disappear for ever And will you not labour all this considered that you may not be comfortless when all your Creature-comforts fail you not without good ground of rejoycing when all your Enjoyments will avail you nothing Oh that you were but wise to consider this that you would but remember your latter end Will your Health and your Strength and your Life endure for ever or have you any thing in this present World that can deliver you from Death and the Jaws of Hell Boast you may for a while of your worldly Enjoyments without an Interest in heavenly Glory but when you come Sirs to look pale Death in the Face and must hold up thy Hand to be judged at the Bar of Christ the Righteous Judge of all the World though now you had the very Quintessence and most refined Spirits of all Creatures mingled in one Cup for your Comfort yet assuredly you would find them but a cold Cordial Though Sirs you were Cloathed in Scarlet faring deliciously every day though you were all bespangled with the Pearls of Heaven enjoying the whole Empire of the World as your own Yet what alas were all this against the fatal Stroak of impartial Death or against the Judgment of the great God now Sentencing your Soul and Body to the Vengeance of eternal Fire Never think that your Riches Honours and the like earthly Comforts will avail you any thing against the Thunder and Fire of Heaven in such a day An Interest in heavenly Glory this indeed will be able to comfort you But have all the Riches Honours and Pleasures that the World can afford and yet without this your condition is equally helpless with the Damned in Hell And shall not all this constrain you to seek the Kingdom of God endeavouring to get an Interest in eternal Glory Since Earth cannot relieve you why will you not resolve to look after Heaven 4 CONSIDER how small the number is of such as shall ever obtain the reward of Eternal Life and let that make you labour the more for an interest in it The Lord hath indeed prepared a Kingdom yet not for the reception of all promiscuously whatever good or bad (a) Luke 12.31 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 But only for the housing of that twice little diminutive Flock for whose sake the good Shepherd hath laid down his Life This glorious recompence of the reward will be given but to very few because so many refuse to work in God's Vineyard for it Of those many that are called (b) Matth. 20.16 there are but few that are chosen to obtain Salvation by Jesus Christ And yet how few are all those that are called in comparison of such as never yet had any call from Christ in the Gospel If the learned Brerewood compute right who divideth the whole World into thirty parts assigning nineteen of those thirty to idolatrous Pagans six to Mahumetans and but five to Christians within how narrow a compass will salvation be confined Salvation to be sure is no plant of India nor is it any commodity to be found in Turkey Such Goats and Swine as inhabit there whether Idolaters worshipping false Gods or Infidels worshipping the true God out of Christ they must never think to enter into Paradise nor to gather fruit from the Tree of Life So that if any where Salvation may be found 't is only amongst those that are Christians And yet even here such is the number of seduced erroneous Papists on the one hand and of profane formal Protestants on the other that undoubtedly there are not many of them that shall ever be saved (c) Luke 8. Of the four sorts of grounds that we read of in the Parable of the Sower there is not three good and one only bad nor two good and two bad but only one good and all the rest bad to teach us how small the number is of sincere Christians who receive the blessing of Eternal Life in comparison of those impenitent fruitless and ungodly Christians who are nigh unto cursing (d) Heb. 6.8 and whose end is to be burned Amongst all the inhabitants of the Earth there are but few to be found that will ever find the right way to Heaven and Glory (e) Matth. 7.14 For strait is the gate saith Christ and narrow is the way which leadeth unto Life and few there be that find it Though all Men desire and many seek yet few they be that find the Way to true Blessedness This is the mark that all Men aim at but so many take their aim amiss that but few hit it This is that wished Harbour for which all Men are bound but so many sail by a false Compass that small is the number of those who steer a right course thither There are multitudes of Men and Women that perish in the Broad Way which leadeth to Destruction But few that walk in the narrow Way which leadeth unto Happiness and blessed immortality in the Kingdom of God And what will make you cast off Presumption and offer violence to the Kingdom of Heaven if not this consideration that there is but a very few who have either part or lot in
a fiery Chariot Thus Holy Meditation it would carry us above the Clouds it would give us Possession of Heaven before we come there and set us in the midst of all the Glory and Royalties of Eternal Life as if they were already present Heavenly thoughts are as so many steps towards our Eternal Rest When by these therefore we Travel every day to the City of God and delightfully walk therein when every day we take as it were a turn or two in Paradise seriously Meditating Heaven together with the glory that shall shortly be revealed in us then we have Respect indeed to the Recompence of the Reward 4. EARNESTLY to desire and long for it When we see so much of the Excellency Worth and Glory of the World to come that we groan within ourselves desiring with all our hearts to get out of these Houses of Clay and to be cloathed upon with our House which is from Heaven then we have respect to the Recompence of the Reward 2. Cor. 5.2 When Paul had once been wrapt up into the Third Heaven and seen the Paradise of God his Note was ever after I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ Thus the Soul that hath a respect to the Recompence of the Reward he hath been in the Heavenly Paradise he hath tasted some Clusters of Canaan and therefore he cannot but long for more he can never be soon enough with Christ he can never soon enough get above the World and Sin and Temptations he can never be soon enough with God in Glory Oh! when shall it be They that have the first Fruits of the Spirit cannot chuse but have their eyes always fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward earnestly desiring the time of Harvest when they shall Reap a full Crop of Eternal Happiness and Glory in the Heavenly Canaan AS Noah's Dove was restless finding no place whereupon to set the sole of her foot till she came into the Ark so Christians if your eyes are rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward you will find your selves carried out after Heaven and Glory in a restless manner and will never sit down satisfyed till you come to rest in the Bosome of God's Eternal Love Never Christians did Rachel more long for Children nor David for the Waters of Bethlehem nor Absalom to see the King's Face than your Souls will long for the glorious Liberty of the Children of God to be drinking the Waters of Life in the Heavenly Paradise and to come to the Beatifical Vision of God in Glory where you shall see him Face to Face in case you have an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward THE Language of every Soul whose eye is rightly fixed upon Heaven and Glory it is like unto that of Job speaking forth his desires after God Oh that I knew where to find him that I might come even to his seat Job 23.3 Such a Soul is impregnated with holy desires and longings after God in Glory and with these the Soul travels all the day long crying out with the Church in the Revelations as in pain to be delivered from under the bondage of Sin and Corruption into Heavenly Glory GIVE the Soul Riches give it Honours give it all the Pleasures that can be thought of to ravish the heart of a Carnal Man yet having an eye rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward in vain shall you seek by these to bribe it out of its holy desires and longings after God in Glory For scorning and trampling upon them all as unworthy to come in competition with God it even breaketh through desire after him and can truly say of God with holy David Whom have I in Heaven but thee and there is none upon Earth that I desire besides thee Psal 73.25 'T IS just with the Soul as with some Women in the time of their Impregnature who if they see any thing when they are with Child that they have a mind to they must have it or else they will long and dye for it Thus the Soul that by Faith hath got a sight of Heavenly Enjoyments now the heart of such a Soul it is set upon Heaven and he must have Heaven upon a Crown of Life and he must have a Crown of Life upon God and Christ and Eternal Glory and he must have them all together or else give him what you can he will long and die unsatisfied THERE is so much of the Beauty Loveliness and Glory of Christ revealed to the Soul in looking upon the Recompence of Reward that now it grows impatient of living any longer without him crying out as she did in another case Why are his Chariots so long in coming and Why tarry the wheels of his Chariots When will my beloved make haste and be like a young Roe upon the Mountains of Spices When will the day break and the shadows fly away that I may see my beloved in his Glory When will he come to put an end to these days of Sin and Sorrow that I may rest for ever in the Bosome of his Eternal Love When will he take me by the hand and lead me out of the Wilderness of this World into the Heavenly Canaan When will he rebuke the Winds and the Seas that will give me no rest in this Troublesome World and set me safe on the Shoar of Eternal Happiness When will he deliver me from this Body of Death and gather my Soul to the Spirits of Just Men made perfect When will he take from me these Rags of Mortality and cause me to be cloathed upon with an House not made with hands Eternal in the Heavens When will he make me return and come to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon my head When will he cause me to obtain fulness of Joy and Gladness with him in Eternal Mansions of Glory that Sorrow and Sin and Sighing being done away I may be with the Lord for ever Oh when shall I once see that blessed day NOW What is it I beseech you after which your hearts do thus strongly breathe thus insatiably thirst thus impatiently long If Riches will not satisfy but you must have a Treasure in Heaven if Worldly Honour will not satisfy but you must have a Crown of Righteousness from Christ himself if Carnal Pleasures will not satisfy but you must have that fulness of Joy which is in God's Presence and those Pleasures which are at his Right Hand for evermore if in a word the Life that now is will not satisfy but you must though you dye for it go live for ever with Christ in Glory why then there is no doubt Christians but with Moses you have an eye to the Recompence of Reward For then our eye is rightly fixed upon the Recompence of Reward when our Souls are carried out in strong desires after God and Christ and Eternal Glory as our only Happiness 5. TO be by the consideration of it exceedingly encouraged to diligence and
'T is fictioned by the Poets in their Mythology of Prometheus that he did work and fashion the Bodies of Men out of Clay but he was fain to steal Fire from Heaven for the informing and quickning of them with living Souls (a) Psal 139.1 When the Body is curiously formed and admirably organized in the lower Parts of the Earth yet still it would remain a lifeless and unspirited piece of Clay did not God animate and quicken it with a living Soul with a celestial Spark lighted by his own Breath from Heaven THE Body of Man is but a Flower springing out of the Earth that will quickly wither and return to its Dust but his Soul hath Immortality written upon it it s a Bud of Eternity that can never be blasted nor wither away into nothing The Body indeed is nothing but a Compound of Death and Mortality it will quickly crumble away into dust and rottenness but the Soul having no Principles of Death and Corruption bound up in it will run a Line parallel to aâ—l Eternity it can never be confined by time but will for ever be launching forth in the boundless Ocean of an endless Duration †Matth. 10.28 The Body is obnoxious to the stroke of Death and by the Hand of Violence may before its time be matriculated amongst those that sleep in the Dust but the Soul being an immaterial Substance is above that fatal blow and hath from the spirituality of its own Nature everlasting impregnable security against every Hand of Violence written upon it so that Death itself is not able to touch the Life of the Soul THE Soul therefore being thus Divine in its Original and Eternal in its Being and Duration there is no Man unless he will renounce his own Understanding and apostatize from his own essence but must acknowledge it a point of the most important and masculine reason in all the World to consult the Salvation of our Immortal Souls providing above all things for their Eternal Welfare Should we prefer the Casket before the Jewel a frail Mansion of Mortality before an heavenly Inhabitant or the dark Lanthorn of the Body before the Soul that Divine Lamp which if fed by the Oyl of Grace would always shine forth with most radiant dazling beams of Brightness The excellency of our Souls is so transcendently Great and Glorious that it justly lays claim to our principal care and because they will never be raked up with our Bodies in the cold Embers of Death why therefore hath the Lord made it the great end of our Lives to work out Salvation for them giving diligence to make them meet through Grace for everlasting Mansions of Glory in the Kingdom of Heaven But how can we thus take care of them or design their Eternal Happiness as the great end of our Lives in case we may not have respect to the recompence of the reward seeking Life and Eternal Glory by patient continuance in well-doing to Crown them withal Can the Salvation of our Souls be the object of our principal care next to Gods own Glory when out of a pretended Zeal for that we would seem altogether careless and unsolicitous about the saving of our own Souls How can we say we make salvation the great end of our lives endeavouring that our Souls may be happy when we hold it unlawful to bend and level all our desires for the hitting of that fair mark Believe it Christians they that would perswade you 't is unlawful to have respect in our obedience to Heaven and Glory do in effect go about to argue your Souls into the careless neglect of their own everlasting welfare But can you be regardless of your own Salvation Can you sleight the great end of your lives and turn your back upon your own happiness Can you indeed neglect your immortal Souls that must either be happy or miserable either imparadised Souls in Heaven or damned Spirits in Hell to all eternity Do you know what Salvation is how everlastingly blessed those Souls will be that may approach the presence of their God that may see his Face that may rest in his eternal embraces that may enter into the joy of their Lord and drink freely of those Rivers of pleasure which are at his right hand for evermore Oh then make not light of so great Salvation but give all diligence to get an interest therein for your immortal Souls To make sure of eternal happiness was the great errand upon which God sent us into the World oh therefore take heed that you do not leave it upon uncertainties seeking after the Kingdom of God and the righteousness thereof as if you were loth to find it 10 WE may lawfully have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward because the very nature and proper genius of true Grace is to make a blessed divorce betwixt the world and the heart wherein it is resident and so to carry out the heart in strong desires and unsatisfiable breathings after Heaven and Glory True Grace is an Heaven-born Spark and therefore it doth naturally ascend upward aspiring after Heaven and Glory as its proper region As all the Lines meet in the Center and as all the Rivers do run into the Sea uniting themselves in the vast Ocean so all the desires of a gracious Soul they meet in Heaven uniting all their forces in one continued and insatiate anhâ—lation after fulness of Communion with God in Glory The Sun though seen in the Water yet hath his Tabernacle fixed in Heaven (a) Phil. 3.20 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 17. so though a Christian hath his commoration upon Earth yet his Conversation his Trade his Commerce is daily in Heaven the place of his Eternal Abode The Men of this World are ever inveloping themselves in thick Clay they are not soaring Eagles but crawling Muck-worms but now all those that are truly gracious they are Men of another Spirit they live in the highest Region and are compared to Eagles in regard of their Heavenly-mindedness (b) Isa 40.31 Life enables Men to lift up their Body from the Earth and to tread upon it with their Feet (c) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Homil. 16. Thus whoever have the Life of Grace begun in them they tread upon all earthly Enjoyments and are carried upon the Wing of desire quite above all sublunary Comforts into Heaven itself The heart that is seasoned with saving Grace is restless till it come to be fixed in a sure State of Glory and Happiness just like the Needle that is touched with a Load-stone upon which there is nothing but unquiet agitations and tremblings till it be firmly fixed and settle immovably in the North Point We read of Noah's Dove that she found no place whereupon to rest the sole of her Foot but only in the Ark so the People of God they find no place but in Heaven whereupon to rest themselves and therefore all their breathings
Carrion of bestial Delights you will thus renounce the Communion of Heavenly Joys Is this your Wisdom your Prudence to make Sin the object of your Joy the Theatre of your Delight the Centre of your Desires and the Element wherein you would continually chuse to live when God by a Miracle of rich Grace calls upon you to seek after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life in the Kingdom of Heaven Can you think to maintain the comfort of your Life by Sin which is nothing but the fuel of Death and Misery Will you make that the sole object of your Joy which alone is the inlet to an ocean of Sorrow and perplexing disquietments The truth is we have many amongst us who wear Christ's Livery and are called Christians but yet they live as Persons resolved to chuse Epicurus that grand Sensualist for the Master oâ— their licentious Faction making Pleasure with him the Alpha and Omega of all their Happiness Seneca though an Heathen had a far more noble â—â—d heroick Spirit than such esteeming it the greatest Pleasure to contemn all carnal Pleasures whilst these reckon it for the highest accent of â—â—licity to live in them Such voluptuous Wantons walk directly antipodes to the end of their own being living in nothing but carnal Delights as if God sent them into the World to be therein like the Leviathan sporting themselves and feasting their Souls in an Ocean of sensual Pleasures They begin to anticipate here that Paradise of swinish Delights which Mahomet promised his own naâ—â—y Herd at leastwise to take an earnest of it continually soaking themselves in their own intemperance and brutish luxury They look after no other Heaven than only to go singing to Hell and though you give them the greatest variety of delightful objects yet they cannot be Merry unless they may have Treason against Heaven it self for the game and the Devil for their playfellow But be ashamed oh carnal Gospellers thus to give up the strength of your Souls in the service of sensual Pleasures making light in the mean time of Heaven and Glory together with those unsullied Paradisical Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore Oh let not that be matter of Pleasure and Delight to you which lay so heavy upon the Soul of your blessed Redeemer Did Christ bleed and groan and die to save you from your Sins and yet will you live with delight in the Pleasures of Sin How ever can you have a good thought of Sin when you look upon it as that which brought down the Son of God from Heaven and that murthered the Lord of Life and Glory Must the beloved Son of God undergo the curse due to your Sins and must he also humble himself unto Death to purchase for you the reward of Life everlasting that after all this you should undervalue his Love and make light of so great Salvation preferring the Pleasures of Sin which are but for a season before it Will you see I beseech you your folly in the glass of these ensuing considerations 1 CONSIDER thus to delight in carnal Pleasures it argues your Souls to be utterly void of Grace and dead in sin Where ever Grace comes with power it mortifies all vile affections and quite alienates the Heart from all sinful delights so that whoever delights in the Pleasures of Sin to be sure he is yet in a state of Nature and was never brought under the Power of converting Grace (a) Quâ—madmodum impossibile est ut ignis flammam concipiat in aquâ ita 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 est voluptates mundi cum poenitentia Christiana manere Otho Casman A voluptuous Man cannot be a gracious Man Nor is it possible for the Dove of true Piety to find any place whereon to rest the sole of her foot in a deluge of carnal Pleasures Our first Parents by eating of the forbidden fruit they lost their right to the Tree of Life and were shut out of Paradise (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ait Xenophon By feeding with delight upon the forbidden fruit of Sin Men forfeit their right to all saving Grace and must need be shut out of Gods presence which is better than life it self as that alone which can quicken and revive a dead Soul T is the dead Fish only and not the living that are carried away with the stream Thus when Men are carried away with a deluge of Sin and swim willingly down the stream of carnal delights it s a sign they were never alive unto God but that still they are dead in trespasses and Sins Hence the Widow who indulges a sensual appetite living in Pleasure (c) 1 Tim. 5.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. Alexand Paedag. lib. 3. cap. 7. pag. 172. is said to be dead whilst she lives Who ever hath Pleasure in unrighteousness delighting in that as his proper element he hath no principle of Life and Grace abiding in him but is spiritually dead whilst he lives in the Body When Wickedness is sweet to our taste and we delight our selves in it here is the reigning power of Sin separating betwixt us and the God of Heaven and that indeed is not only the Death but the Hell of every graceless Soul A Life of sensuality speaks that Man to be spiritually dead who in such a manner lives after the Flesh (d) Rom. 8.13 For if you live after the Flesh saith St. Paul ye shall die When Men give their full consent to sinful desires not only committing iniquity but having Pleasure therein Not only esteeming a sinful Life to be happy but also counting it their Wisdom with profane Esau to sell their Eternal Birth-right for one mess of such pottage why this now is to live after the Flesh and whoever thus lives he is dead whilst he lives Doth then thy fancy run in a way of Sinful objects with delight taking thought for the Flesh to fulfil it in the lusts thereof Dost thou make thy self the standard and thy sensual appetite the rule of all thy actions Hast thou an Heart carried out continually after sinful objects if absent desiring and grieving for them but if present rejoicing and delighting in them How dreadful oh brutish Sinner is thy present condition If thus to enjoy the Pleasures of Sin be the Life of thy Soul it s estranged from the Life of God and thou art dead though thou livest (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Philo. Leg. Alleg. lib. There is a Death saith Philo of the Man and there is a Death of the Soul The first which he calls the Death of the Man that 's the separation of the Soul from the Body the second which he calls the Death of the Soul that stands in the want of Grace and the presence of Sin Tho then thy Soul be not separated from thy Body yet what will all this avail so long as thou livest in Sin which is the most dreadful Death and wantest the Grace of God
of God! If Sirs you think â—an Honour to appear Good (b) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Ignat epist ad Magnes pag. 52. Omnino enim nihil prodest nomen sanctum habere sine moribus quia vita à professione discordans abrogat illustris tituli honorem per indignorum actuum vilitatem Salvian de Gubern Dei lib. 3. pag. mihi 94. is it not much morâ—â—n Honour to be so indeed What alas is the Name of Christian worth if you will goâ— put on the Nature of a Christian To think I was well reputed of amongst God's People I was called a good and had the Name of a Christian can this be a Cordial when you come to die Or will it comfort your Hearts when appearing before the Judgment-seat of (c) Quid est in quo nobis de Christiano nomine blandiamur cum utique hoc ipso magis per nomen sacratissimum rei simus qui à sancto nomine discrepamus Nam ideo plus sub religionis titulo Deum ludimus quia positi in religione peccamus Idem paulo post the great God where all your Paint and Varnish being washed off you must now be punished as Hypocrites with everlasting Destruction from the Presence of God and from the Glory of his Power To be counted Rich and yet turn Bankrupt to be judged healthful and yet sick unto Death would but aggravate in such cases a Man's Misery So to be counted Holy and yet Profane to have a Name to live and yet after all be found dead in Trespasses and Sins oh this will most dreadfully aggravate the Hypocrites Misery another day this will sink them deeper in Hell than the notoriously ungodly this will prepare flaming Ingredients for the Cup of Wrath and put new Stiâ—gs into those fiery Scorpions that will vex and torment them for ever If then you love your Souls give diligence now to have the best side inward doing every thing from the Heart sâ—â—cerely as unto God! Strive you must to make clean the inside as well as the outside of the Platter and to have pure Hearts as well aâ—â—lean Hands would you ever (d) 2 Tim. 2.21 be Vessels of Honour 〈◊〉 for the Master's use The foolish Virgins they had Lamps in their Hands a Profession of Godliness (e) Mat. 25.3 adorned with many glorious Performances But these were not animated with an upright Heart they wanted the Oyl of Grace within and therefore depart from me saith Christ I never knew you Christ will know those well he will know them to be Men of pure Minds and upright Hearts whom he receives to dwell with himself in eternal Mansions of Glory Otherwise if a Work of Grace be wanting within if the Heart be unsound and not inwardly Holy they must look to depart accursed into everlasting burnings where the painted fire of all their pretended zeal shall most surely be punished with the true fire of God's heavy wrath and sore displeasure Thus you may possibly appear Holy before Men and have your Christian Profession adorned with many seemingly glorious Performances But in case your Hearts be not upright before God now he throws you down for ever into Hellish-torments now he punisheth your Souls with everlasting Destruction from his own Presence now he commands you to depart accursed into everlasting Fire prepared for the Devil and his Angels and you must obey him Oh then what a woful thing is a rotten Heart and how much doth it concern us all to be that indeed which we are in shew He that is seemingly good but really bad though die he may with seeming hopes for Heaven and Glory yet fall he must into a real Hell of Misery and eternal endless Torments 7 SEE that you mortify through the Spirit the Deeds of the Body That which thou sowest saith the Apostle (f) 1 Cor. 15.36 is not quickned except it die so except first you die to Sin you can never be quickned nor raised to enjoy the Reward of eternal Life The way to die hereafter is to live here And the way to live hereafter is to die here They that now live in Sin must hereafter expect Death and eternal Misery as the just Reward and Punishment of their Sins But they that now die to Sin crucifying the Flesh with the Affections and Lusts shall hereafter live with God in eternal Mansions of Glory For saith the Apostle if ye live after the (h) Rom. 8.13 Flesh ye shall die But if ye through the Spirit mortify the Deeds of the Body ye shall live Here you see are described two ways the one leading to Death the other to Life the one to Hell the other to Heaven the one to endless Torments the other to all fulness of Joy in God's own presence So then he that will save the Life of his Sins shall lose his Soul But he that will mortifie himself his beloved Lusts and Sins and dearest Corruptions he shall live for ever Though then you cannot totally kill (g) Gal. 5.24 your Corruptions in this Life yet see that you be daily mortifying them Though you cannot wholly cast them out from remaining yet be sure to keep them under from reigning in your mortal Bodies that you should obey them All Sins are meritoriously Mortal but none save those which are left unmortified do eventually prove so (i) Rom. 6. Though it be true that every Sin deserveth Death even the Motus primò primi concerning which the Schoolmen write the very first risings and ebullitions of Lust in the Soul which do prevent all use of Reason though standing in her highest Watch-tower of Vigilancy to descry and with all curiosity to make observation of every approaching Enemy Yet there is no Sin though aggravated by supervening Circumstances to an equality of Guilt and heinousness with the most prodigious and horrid â—mpieties that were ever yet perpetrated by any Offender that doth actually infer Death exposing a Man to the Vengeance of eternal Fire unless suffered to go unmortified The least Sin when allowed of is enough for thy Damnation and the greatest when mortified can by no means hinder thy eternal Salvation The Life of Sin and the Life of a Sinner are like two Buckets at a Well if the one go up the other must go down Thus if your Pride your Hypocrisie your Covetousness your Carnality your vile Affections live in you you must die eternally but if through the Spirit you mortify them you shall live for ever Behold then I now set before you Life and Death Mount Ebal and Mount Gerrizzim Blessings and Cursings the Pleasures of Heaven and the Torments of Hell and oh that you would choose not Death but Life not Ebal but Gerizzim not Cursings but Blessings not hellish intolerable Torments but heavenly Glory There are but two Estates of Men in this present Life and but two proportionate to them in the Life to come Some here live after the Flesh and they must die
no Thunder nor Storms To be sure all our Thunder-claps do proceed from our own malignant Vapours nor should we be troubled with any Storm of affliction were it not for these Sins and Corruptions that abide in us (l) Cum à nobis amota fuerit omnis iniquitas nulla remanebit infirmitas Fulgent ad Trasimund lib. 3. pag. 370. For when once we are perfectly freed from all the Reliques of indwelling Corruption we shall hear no more of any Affliction But shall quite be past and out of the reach of all suffering so soon as ever we are past a possibility of sinning Rejoice then and lift up your Heads all you that have found Sin an heavy Burden like a Gravel in your Bowels like Fire in your Bones and like Poyson drinking up your Spirits the reward of Eternal Life will infallibly Prove the death of all your Sins There is a fourfol◠state of Man which respecting the point in Hand is vastly different A state of innocency before the Fall a state of Nature in the Fall a state of Grace after the Fall a state of Glory above the Fall In the State of Innocency Man might but would not abstain from Sin in the State of Nature Man neither can nor will forbear sinning in the state of Grace Man would but cannot be wholly free from Sin but in the state of Glory Man neither will nor can have any the least Sin abiding in him And if any thing I am sure this is welcome news to you that know the bitterness of Sin that find whenever you would be good Evil is present with you that groan continually under that Body of Death which you carry about you that complain every Day of Sin as that which hinders your Communion with a precious Christ disturbs the quiet of your minds makes Duty a weariness to you cools the heat damps the vigour and blasteth the Comfort of all your Devotions turning your poor distressed Hearts into a very Dunghil of all unclean and noysom Lusts Sin in the Heart is like the Leprosy in the House that would not out till the House was pulled down Thus though Sin may cleave to you for the whole time of this Life when once your earthly Tabernacles are dissolved now Christ comes to reward you to set the Crown upon your Heads to receive you into Eternal Mansions of Glory so that Sin and your Souls shall be parted never to meet again to all Eternity (m) Jam. 3.2 Here in many things we offend all But in Heaven we shall none of us offend in any thing at all (n) 1 John 1.8 10. Here if we say we have no Sin we deceive our selves if with any Sin we enter into Heaven we must deceive the infinitely wise God who never admits of us there till perfectly cleansed from all our Sins (o) 1 King 8.46 On Earth there is no Man that sinneth not (p) Eccles 7.20 in Heaven there is no Man that either doth or can sin (q) 1 Chron. 6.36 That Sin which is now only so far mortified that it cannot reign over you Shall then be totally abolished that it may not remain in you God's People are now like the Moon-light in the Lord but yet as the Moon so they have their spots and blemishes But then they shall be as the Sun in its Noon-day brightness (r) Ephes 5.27 wholly light and unchangeably Glorious not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing Grace indeed doth weaken Sin in the Soul enabling it to resist the Temptations of Satan But the recompence of Eternal Glory will wholly abolish the former and deliver from the latter (a) Joshua 10.24.25 As Joshua took the five Kings and shut them up in the Cave at Makkedah till the Battel was over (b) Absorptâ ergo morte in victoriâ nulla erit animae carnisve corruptio Fulgent de pass pag. 370. So God restrains and shuts up Sin in the Cave of our Body till our Warfare be finished but then he will utterly destroy them all That Crown of Righteousness which shall now be set upon your Heads it will perfectly ease you of every weight and the Sin that doth so easily beset you dividing like Moses's Rod the Waters of indwelling Corruption and so making a free passage for you into the heavenly Canaan So that having got this Crown upon thy Head now thou shalt never more Christian have cause to complain oh my Pride oh my Hypocrisy oh my outsidedness oh my vile affections oh my carnal earthly deceitful Heart but standing upon the Shore of Blessed Eternity thou shalt see all these Egyptians lie dead on the red Sea of Christ's Blood never any more to perplex thee nor any more to trouble thee nor any more to grieve thy Heart and wound thy Spirit to all Eternity Oh this is the blessed time wherein the Garden of thy Soul shall no more be incumbred with any such noysom Weeds (c) Genus illud peccati quod toties conturbat nos concupiscentias loquor desideria mala reprimi quidem debet potest per gratiam Dei ut non regnet in nobis sed non ejicitur nisi in morte Bern. ser 6. de advent Dom. This is the Funeral of all thy Sins and therefore must needs be to thy Soul the Birth-day of Joy unspeakable and full of Glory What is it Christian that is now thy greatest Sorrow thy daily Burden thy continual Trouble but only the remainders of Sin and indwelling Corruption Well rejoyce Christian and be exceeding glad the time is at hand when all these Achans that trouble thy Peace shall be stoned to death all these Jonah's which cause so many Storms in thy Soul shall be thrown over-board And all those Egyptian Lusts that daily pursue thee as unwilling to let thee go free they shall all of them be drowned and everlastingly overwhelmed as Pharaoh and his Host in the Red-sea One touch of this glorious Reward it will quite dry up every bloody Issue of Sin in thy Soul and as perfectly cleanse thee from all Filthiness and Pollution as thy Heart can desire to be 3 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in all their Obedience it 's a suitable Reward This Reward doth so punctually hit the Condition of an immortal Soul the Miseries the Wants the Desires of it as nothing in the World besides can do Be your present Troubles never so many your Necessities never so urgent your Desires never so enlarged Yet the Recompence of eternal Glory it affords a proper supply to them all answering every Trouble with a suitable Comfort every Necessity with a suitable Mercy every Desire with a suitable Good to fill up and satisfie it Here is Bread of Life to feed the hungry and sincere Milk to nourish the Weak (a) Isa 55.1 and the Wine of divine Consolation to comfort the Disconsolate and white Robes to adorn the naked and Rivers of living
a Land all whose Rivers run heavenly Nectar and all whose Trees are ever laden with the sweet delicious Grapes of Paradise (o) Si tanta nobis tribuis in careere quid dabis in patria Aug. de civit Dei If here in the Land of your Pilgrimage so much of Heavens Glory be revealed to you what Tongue of Man or Angel can tell the Happiness the Glory to be revealed in you when at home in your own Country The Crown of Life if now so bright and orient to an Eye of Faith beholding it Oh then what a far more excâ—â—ding and Eternal Weight os Glory will be found in it when a glorious Christ shall set it upon your Head with his own remunerative Hands 12 AND lastly a due respect had to this glorious Reward will bring you safe to it never leaving you till your Souls be crowned with fulness of Glory The Loadstone will draw Iron to itself when intra Spheram activitatis suae within the reach of its own attractive influence Thus the Reward of Eternal Life as an heavenly Loadstone hath that magnetick Virtue in it that if you put yourselves by a due respect had thereto under it it will draw you home to itself The wise Men keeping their Eye upon the Star which went before them were at length brought to Christ Thus keeping your Eye Christians upon this Eternal Reward as a glorious Star it will bring you at length to Christ in Glory whom fully to enjoy is our Life our Comfort our Happiness yea the Heaven of Heavens 'T is true Christians we must be uncloathed of this Body of Death before we can enter into the Joy of our Lord and be cloathed upon with the white Robes of Blessed Immortality Death must break down the Prison Walls of a Mortal Body before our Souls can ever come to the glorious Liberty of God's Children (a) 2 Cor. 5.1 Till our earthly Tabernacle be dissolved there is no having of a Building of God an House not made with Hands Eternal in the Heavens And why should we not be willing that God should pull down these Cottages of Clay who hath promised to raise us up a more glorious Temple The Loadstone cannot draw Iron as some say whilst the Diamond is in Presence Doubtless were it not for a Body of Death that is still present with us an Eye fixed upon Heaven's Glory would immediately draw us into Heaven For besides the interposition of an earthly gross Body together with those corruptions whose Foundation is in that Dust there is nothing as one well observes that hinders a Christian from the full enjoyment of God in Glory So that Death's peculiar Office is to break down this Wall of separation that the Soul may the better come to her God her beloved Redeemer her Eternal Habitation in the Kingdom of Heaven The Soul when once loosed from this dying Body then she hath the Crown of Life set upon her Head then she sees God no longer through a Glass darkly but Face to Face then she is ravished with the unconceivable sweetness of the beatifical Vision (b) Mori plane timeat sed qui ex aqua spiritu non renatus Gehennae ignibus mancipatur mori timeat qui non Christi cruce passione censetur mori timeat qui ad secundam mortem de hac morte transibit quem de seculo recedentem perennibus poenis aeterna torquebit flamma Cyp. de Mortalit pag. 344. Let those therefore tremble at the knocking and approaches of Death who know not what will become of their immortal Souls who not being born again from above are every moment liable to infernal Flames who have no interest in the Glory purchased by Christ who must pass from Death to Death from short momentany Pleasures to everlasting hellish Torments Death to the Wicked is the Trap-door that opening lets them fall down irrecoverably into the dark vault of Eternal Misery But to the Gracious Soul there is no cause of Terrour in Death no Fear in the Grave no Sting to perplex in a bodily dissolution as that which only ushers in her everlastingly Blessed and Glorious Coronation Death comes to a Man dying the recompence of Reward like Moses to the Israelites to deliver him as the Angel to Peter in Prison to set him free as God's fiery Chariot to carry him like Elias into heavenly Glory And are you Christians afraid of entring upon your own Blessedness are you afraid to be cloathed upon with your House from Heaven Get a right notion of Death which as Bernard calls it is nothing but the Gate of Life the Portal of eternal security Though Death look upon thee with a grim Countenance yet it comes upon a good errand to God's People to fetch them out of their Wilderness-condition and to bring them to an everlasting estate of Happiness By Death we go from Earth to Heaven from conversing with Sinful Men to converse with Millions of glorious Angels and what makes us so loath to remove Who would not leave a Cottage to gain a Kingdom Who would not leave an Egypt to inherit Canaan Who would not leave gladly an oppressive Babylon to be made a Citizen of Sion of the heavenly Jerusalem OUR greatest Misery lies not in Death but in Life 'T is the Veil of Flesh that keeps us from entring into the holiest of all c Death gives us a pasport from corruptible Joys to an incorruptible Crown from a Mortal Life to a Life of blessed Immortality from a troublesome condition to a State of perfect tranquillity So that the name of Death should not offend us But the Happiness and Glory to which it leads should delight us The Moon never comes to the full til after her change Thus through the change of Death a Christian comes to all fulness of Joy and hath the white Robes of Glory given him Now the Bridegroom comes to meet the Soul in Happiness now all Tears are wiped away and Heaven Gates are set wide open to give her everlasting glorious entertainment Now the Reward of life everlasting now the Joy of Eternal Salvation now the full possession of the heavenly Paradise comes Now heavenly Mansions instead of earthly Tabernacles now greatest Glory instead of small and Eternal Happiness instead of poor temporal enjoyments are bestowed upon every Child of God What Man that is well in his Wits woâ—ld not part with Life and bid Death welcome upon terms of such everlasting blessed and glorious advantage (d) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost ad pop Ant. hom 7. Death in the true notion (c) Mors haec transitus universorum est transitur à corruptione ad incorruptionem à mortalitate ad immortalitatem à perturbatione ad tranquillitatem Non igitur nomen mortis te offendat sed boni transitûs beneficia delectent Ambros lib. de Bono mort cap. 4. Proemium vitae gaudium salutis aeternae perpetua laetitia possessio Paradisi
nuper amissa mundo transeunte jam veniunt jam terrenis caelestia magna parvis caducis aeterna succedunt Cyp. de mortal pag. 341. of it to a godly Man is nothing but a blessed removal from a Land of Darkness to a Land that flows with Milk and Hony from hard Labour to sweetest Rest from a Tempestuous Sea to a peaceful Harbour from a place of wrestling weeping groaning and fiery Tryals to that heavenly Kingdom where the Soul is crowned with a glorious Triumph Let me therefore charge you in this case as Moses the Man of God once charged Israel at the Red Sea when so violently pursued by Pharoah and his Host Fear not but stand ye still and see the Salvation of God The time of your great change when you must pass through the Red Sea of Death will ere long be at Hand But then the Enemies which you now see the sorrows you now feel the many pressing Troubles which now you undergo you shall see them feel them groan under them no more for ever (e) Quid est enim mors nisi sepulâ—uâ—a vitiorum virtutum â—â—â—â—â—â—tatio Amb. ubi suprà Go forth then oh blessed Soul out of the Prison of a vile Body not fearing but Death will be the Funeral of all thy Corruptions and turn all thy Graces into fulness and everlasting perfection Be it so that Death will break in pieces the Casket of a frail Body yet thy Soul Christian which is the Jewel thy better part shall be kept safe for ever in Abraham's Bosom Many a goodly Ship hath miscarried and been dashed in pieces whilst her Steers-man with greatest diligence and curiosity hath been eying the Stars But never did any precious Soul miscarry whose Eye was duly fixed upon the Pole-star the Cinosure of heavenly Glory but was landed safe at the wished Shoar of true Happiness That Faith which now brings down Heaven into thy Soul will be sure to carry thy Soul at length Christian up into the sweet Paradise of God The Lord may give a Man a Prospect of the earthly Canaan and yet suffer him with Moses to die in the Wilderness Bâ—t if ever he take the Soul up into the Mount of Transfiguration giving her such a clear sight of the heavenly Canaan as to make her think it best of all to be there he will never shut her out of that good Land he will never deny her a Portion in that heavenly Country God would never give the Soul such Visions of Glory did he not intend to bring her at length to the beatifical Fruition of himself in Glory When the Heart and Eye are both set upon Heaven it 's a sure sign that God hath laid up a Treasure for the Soul in Heaven which shall never be taken from her Christ when he went to Heaven he went thither as our fore-runner that we might have everlasting Consolation and good hope through him to be there also Thus when the Heart is set upon heaven's Glory and the Eye continually looking that way like Christ our fore-runner it gives the strongest ground of Hope assuring us that our Souls shall not be long out of Heaven nor long absent from the Lord. When once the Stone is let fall it never stoops till it comes to the Center Thus if once we let fall an Eye upon this glorious Reward our Souls they will never be stopped but be still in continual vigorous Motion till they come to rest in the Centre of perfect Blessedness Glorification in Heaven doth (z) Perseverantiam in terris immediatè sequitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in coelis quo fruuntur omnes qui semel credunt Parker de Traduct hom peccat ad vit pag. 34. infallibly follow Perseverance in Grace on Earth which all those are sure to enjoy for ever who do once fix aâ— Eye of true Faith upon that Crown of Life whâ—ch God sets before us Walk on in the strength of this divine Consolation waiting longing and breathing for that glorious time when Faith will be turned into a clear Vision of Glory and Hope shall be swallowed up in Fruition and your morning Light commence into a glorious Sun-shine and those smaller drops of heavenly Joy which you have to refresh you in this parched Wilderness shall become a River of Life sending out full Streams of purest Pleasures to delight and make glad your Hearts for ever O let every gracious Soul with most sublimate raised Affections keep an Eye fixed upon the Recompence of the Reward And o'erlong thou that art now a beholding (a) In patria plenissimè quiescit affectus in Deo appetitus inhiantis fit amor fruentis Aug. de Trin. l. ult shalt be an enjoying Christian thou that doest now look upon Heaven's Glory with unfeigned desire to it shall shortly be put with Joy unspeakable in full Possession of it If the hope of Glory be once rooted in thy Heart the Crown of Glory will not long be kept from thy Head As sure as thy Lord's Joy now enters into thee so sure shalt thou enter at length into the Joy of thy Lord. He can never lose his Reward nor fall short of Glory who is careful in all his Works to look as high as Heaven not seeking the Praise of Man but that Praise that Honour that Glory which comes from God Our earthly Enjoyments may deceive us making themselves Wings to fly away But an Eye of Faith fixed on this heavenly Reward it will never deceive us but will infallibly carry our Souls as on Eagles Wings into eternal heavenly Mansions of Glory Why then dear Christians will you be so formal so dead-hearted so disconsolate in a way of Duty not striving to serve the Lord with a willing chearful Frame of Soul Seemeth it a small thing to you that God hath given you the earnest of Glory the first Fruits of Heaven as a sure Pledge that a full Crop of Happiness shall follow after Must you shortly be transplanted our of this barren Wilderness into the Caelestial Canaan the Paradise of God the heavenly Jerusalem and shall not this make you steadfast unmovable always rejoycing in the Work of the Lord Oh Christians remember that you who are now reproached for God shall anon be advanced to greatest Honour You that are now weeping shall anon come to Zion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon your Heads That Glory which is now revealed to you by an Eye of Faith shall shortly be revealed in you if keeping your Eye stedfastly fixed upon it you go on still to seek it by patient continuance in well-doing The good Thief upon the Cross having the Kingdom and Glory of Christ in his Eye hath the promise to be that very day with Christ in Paradise Though now Christians you be upon the Cross and sorely distressed yet if your Eye be fixed upon heaven's Glory it cannot be much above one days journey betwixt your Souls and the Paradise of God where
or Field by Night where he would furrow his Cheaks with Tears solemnly vow and covenant with God and yet break through all again into his former course till at last he apprehended this covenanting and unfaithfulness in it did but bind a far more exceeding and eternal weight of wrath upon him with this he was so terrified that he durst covenant no more This course lasted from about seven to seventeen Years of Age in what manner Corruption acted before he remembers not After this time living an idle Life and being travelled with bad Company he cast off his allegiance to Parents and took a Wife before nineteen Years of Age for which his Father justly cast him off and he wonders the holy God did not also cast him into Hell But contrary to his demerit and to manifest that our heavenly Father can pardâ—n what earthly Parents cannot God took him in provided a comfortable subsistence for him and without any seeking of his fed this wretched Prodigal with Food convenient that was ready to perish upon a Dunghil This kindness of Divine Providence considered he could no longer resist this brake his Heart in pieces like a Potsheard dissolved him like Snow melted him like wax before the Sun Now his old Resolutions revived with more strength than ever and as a piece of pennance whereby to escape Hell and purchase Heaven he could be content to leave his Sins though still the remembrance of them was grateful to his Nature and he thought them a pleasant Morsel but that Hell stood at the farther end of them But he could have no admission upon these unworthy terms the Spirit of God falls to work with his Conscience as in a voice of Thunder and with terrors more dreadful than all that ever were solemnized upon Mount Sinai singles out his delicate darling corruption swallows him up into the confounding thoughts of it reads the Law charges Guilt and Wrath upon him and thereby slew him so that now he lies bleeding under reprobate astonishment dreading every moment when the Hand the avenging Hand of God would cast him into Hell And so violent was the Agony that he thinks that had not a gleam of Gospel Light come in offering relief and redemption through the free Grace of God in Christ that either Soul and Body had been torn asunder through the great violence of the storm or else he fears he should have destroyed himself to avoid it This notwithstanding he thinks he had some worse corruptions than what the Spirit of God now fastned upon his Conscience as many a bad Lord hath Slaves worse than himself though they all pay suit and service to him as his other Lusts did to this peccatum in deliciis Against this therefore he bent his whole strength little considering for some Years the state of his Soul as to other corruptions which lay dormant their General being so watcht that he could not command them out upon their devilish Service as he was wont Yet the great thing minded was Pardon for a long time with a resolution not to gratifie it though every denyal were a present Death Having thus in time obtained some rest from his hard bondage under it and guilty fears gendred by it he began to consider the great happiness of victory over corruption and to judge that what Poyson what Plague what Death and loathsome Ulcers are to the Body Sin is that to the Soul and infinitely worse which was all now set home upon him both by rational conviction and his own doleful experience This engaged him wholly to attend the business of mortification but chiefly of this Lust to cut off all provisions from it to deny its importunate cravings and to maintain a constant watch against it all which notwithstanding he often received wounds and bruises by it But having a little respite to examine himself as to other Corruptions Death comes upon him again he finds all manner of concupiscence working in him thinks himself a Babel a Sodom an Hell for all confounding and raging Lusts So that had he not by this time better understood whence to fetch Sanctifying Grace as them formerly he must have despaired But he had now learnt to go to the Lord Jesus not only as giving Remission of Sins through Faith in his Blood but likewise saving from Sin by the efficacy of his own Almighty Spirit Hither he never applied himself in believing manner but he obtained help from God through whose help â—he now saith that what was his darling Sin is dead to him and hath no power to command any entertainment in so much as one indulgent Thought though as for natural abilities he is as capable of Pleasure in it as ever His other Sins â—he finds daily to be dying and doth now find the like inclinations to spiritual things that he was wont to find to fleshly things and as strong aversations and eluctances against the lust of the Eyes c. as ever â—he found against the Holy ways of God so that were there no Hell to punish a Life of Flesh-pleasing but what is shut up in the very Nature of it he could not but hate it and fly from it as Men do from the Plague though there be no Law provided that Jesus is his Saviour that he hath saved him out of spiritual Darkness and out of Bondage under Sin given him a new Nature and made him to center wholly upon the blessed God to dwell with him to delight above all things in him and cleave to him as his Life Happiness and resting place Since brought thus far he hath found it with himself as followeth 1 He dare build his confidence for salvation upon nothing but the free Grace of God in Christ Jesus apprehended by Faith his Anchor is upon this Rock of Ages his Life is bound up with this Prince of Life and though through the Corruption of his own Heart and prepossessions of Errour about the Nature of Redeeming Grace he find it aâ— hard thing to believe yet his Heart is now possessed with Good and Honourable apprehensions of God He in good measure is freâ— from all imbittered thoughts of him hâ— believes that God hath given him Eternaâ— Life in his Son and that the Son is ablâ— to save to the utmost all that come to Goâ— through him in this and not in any workâ— of Righteousness which he hath done is hiâ— whole Hope Living and Dying and he believeâ— such Hope will not make him ashamed 2 He hath a regard to all Righteousness so far as his present imperfections will permit it to fulfil it and this from such â— Principle as he eats and drinks a new Nature within him which is not gratified with any thing more than Holy and Righteouâ— Actions In particular whereas when â— Boy he had injured several Persons in robbing their Orchards he hath confessed hiâ— Sin begged their Pardon with Shame anâ— Tears and made restitution this he waâ— often urged to before he performed it
fearing the Shame and not knowing well how to spare so much Mony as was needful in the case To all other Duties he finds mighty impulsions to close with any opportunity for them and against every Temptation to sin strong aversations and reluctances so that he feels the Law of the Spirit of Life within his own Bowels though too often alass too often he is disobedient to it 3 He measures all Persons Places Employments by their subserviency to the Divine Life in his Soul and still comes off with Shame and great Heaviness where he spends one Hour without some spritual advantage 4 He hath a real compassion for all Men making it his Heart's Desire to God that they may be saved but his delight lies in those that have most of the Image and likeness of God upon them those that are begotten by the same immortal seed formed into the same divine Nature acted and fed by the same Almighty Spirit of Life with himself these are his Beu'ah's his Hepthsibahs he thinks â—he could not live in the World without â—hem 5 This notwithstanding he still finds himself out of his Proper Center he is daily under powerful tendencies and restless desires after the full enjoyment of and the nearest conjunction with the blessed God in Christ Jesus which desires are mightily strengthned by a deep Sense of his present misery under hard bondage the impetuousness of in-dwelling Corruption and violent Temptations which make every Day of his Life a bloody Warfare so that his Soul almost chooseth Strangling and Death rather than Life he loaths it he would not live always at such distance from the blessed God in such incessant and dangerous conflicts with World Flesh and Devil for a thousand Worlds so far as he is willing under the Tears and tediousness the Conflicts and Dangers of this Mortal Life by way of pure Compliance with the Will of God he really judgeth the greatest act of Self-denial that he is capable of performing 6 To sweeten a Life so much in the Gall of Bitterness and Bonds of Iniquity he makes it his Business to be much with God through an Almighty Redeemer and much in the Fellowship of the Holy-Ghost and this not only at the stated times of publick private and secret Duties but especially of secret Duties where he sets himself no bounds but takes all opportunities which he finds his Heart fit to comply with many times in company and employment of another Nature he is weary of forbearing and his Heart restless till he find room for such retirement for he hath found that Life and Power that divine solace and sweetness in it with which all the Delights of Sense are no more worthy to be compared than a Dunghil with the Sun And oh when Heaven hath thus come down in Smiles to him and filled him with Righteousness Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost how often hath he been afraid to make an end of the Duty How often when rising off his Knees hath he fallen down again not willing to leave his sweetness and his Fatness so and so doubled the Time of his Duty Thus was his whole Sheet of Paper filled whether there was any thing more written of this kind we cannot find The preservation of this Sheet seems to be an intimation of Divine Providence that he shou'd be shewed to the World in those colours that he had lay'd on himself He lived till the Non-conformists had a little Smile from the Court after a Decad of Severity and Frowns And now having got a little Liberty by the Licences the King granted to those of his Station he took the Gale of Opportunity to be more abundant in the work of the Lord. And that in the Age of his full Vigour and Strength Yet even now see he is at leisure to think of Death and being Poetically given composed this Dialogue betwixt a Person dying and Death Thus prefacing it Oppress'd with Pain I groan'd as one unwise Death's horrid Aspect did my Soul surprize This frightful Picture ghastly to behold Did all his Terror on my Thoughts unfold At first confounded all amaz'd I stand But gaining confidence thus I demand Moriens or Person Dying Are you that King of Terrors which they say Doth conquer Empires and great Kings dismay Death The very same Sir Death both name and thing My Looks kill some all die that feel my Sting Person Dying Poor Death your looks speak not your strength but fear You cannot live I guess self-judg'd you are Death And would it not torment the greatest Powers My Empire large as Nature Grace devours Person Dynig What that 's the reason of your hollow Eyes Of all the paleness on your Cheeks that lies You have some secret Wound if I guess right Your vital Blood is gone you look so white Death My vital Blood was Poyson and my Sting Did give me Power and create me King Person Dying Your Poyson who destroy'd Christ on the Cross Your Sting great Jesus dying caus'd this loss How came this Palsie in your trembling Hand For fear of losing Scepter and Command Scepter Poor Death it is a Spade I judge No sign of Majesty but of a Drudge Go dig my Grave I would repose in Dust Death you must help to scower off my Rust This Mortal Life will kill me Welcome Grave My hidden Life in Christ is all I have Death do your Office Heaven calls away Dissolve my Bonds my Soul shall win the Day I cannot live indeed unless I die Such is Death's Triumph such his Victory Neither did he forget to think on Heaven upon which he hath bestowed a larger Poem as also others upon Faith Hope Repentance c. which shew the way thither Which possibly the Reader may find in some other place For he delighted to fetter his Thoughts in Verse And though he hath not such high flights as some may expect yet there is in his Poems the devout Breathings of a Divine Poet he wrote not for the Stage nor a King Arthur But that which speaks his Heart most to have been in Heaven is not a Poem but what his serious Reflections and Meditations wrote in Prose in the Treatise following God is pleased to exercise many of his Servants with thoughts of Heaven as it were to prepare them for it immediately before he call them to it Thus Mr. Bolton was writing de quatuor novissimis particularly of Heaven when he dyed Thus the late Reverend Dr. Bates had finished his last Treatise of spiritual Perfection not long before he had expired the last words of which Book are Enter thou into the Joy of thy Lord. Many more might be named But our own Author must not be forgotten who had taken much pains to transcribe what he had preached and fitted for the Press his Meditations upon this Subject It may be there are few Subjects more cultivated and none on which more is to be said God and Heaven fall under no Hyperbole A late Doctor
our might though we should give our Bodies to be burnt die ten thousand deaths and lye frying as Firebrands in Hell upon the Grid-iron of God's displeasure so many Millions of Imaginary Ages as there be Stars in the Firmament of Heaven Yet by all this we could not possibly oblige the God of Heaven to render us the Reward of Eternal Life nor bring forth any thing that by way of condign Merit could purchase that Crown of Righteousness that Kingdom of Eternal Glory that fulness of Joy and everlasting Happiness which abides us in the World to come So then though we may look at Heaven in our Obedience yet it 's utterly in vain to think of Meriting Heaven by our Obedience Though the Reward of Eternal Life may encourage us to Well-doing yet in vain shall we look to Purchase that glorious Reward by our well-doing Though we may assure ourselves of the Blessing of Eternal Life and Glory from God in keeping his Commandments Psal 19.11 yet if for keeping his Commandments we expect that God should bless us with so glorious a Reward we are sure everlastingly to fall short of it For if you think to Merit with God expecting upon Terms of Justice the Reward of Eternal Glory from him do but cast up your Reckonings aright and you will find that there is nothing but an Eternal (n) Quanto labore digna est requies quae non hâ—bet finem Si verum vis computare et verum judicare aeterna requies aeterno labore emituor Aug. in Ps 93. Travail which can Merit an Eternal Rest nothing but an everlasting Conflict that can deserve to be Crowned with an everlasting Triumph nothing but Infinite Labour that can Purchase that Infinitely Glorious and Soul-satisfying Reward which the Lord for our encouragement hath set before us Why then should we put ourselves upon such a Prince as we shall never be able to discharge seeking Glory Honour Immortality and Eternal Life by the Merit of our own scanty and imperfect Obedience when we know that the Glory Honour and comfort of Eternal Life can only be obtained through the Riches of God's free Grace and divine Indulgence LOOK you may Christians having fought the good fight having finished your course and kept the Faith to receive from Christ the Righteous Judge and Immarcessible Crown of Glory 2 Tim. 8. But take heed that you never think by your Fighting for God Running the Race he hath set before you and Believing him in all his Promises to Purchase that glorious Crown which is not the Wages of an hiâ—â—ling but an Inheritance prepared of God for all his Children If you think Christians to spin Salvation out of the Bowels of your own good Works and to raise up the Seed of Eternal Life to yourselves out of the dead and barren Womb of your own Righteousness why let me tell you then all your Hope 't is but as a Spider's Web which will quite be swept down by the Besome of Death You never think to live and Purchase Eternal Glory by your own Righteousness but you forfeit that Crown of Righteousness which Christ hath laid up with himself for all that love his appearance Col. 3.3.4 Whilst therefore you look at the Recompence of Eternal Life remember 't is the free gift of God and not the Purchase of your own Obedience (o) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Marcus Heremita For to be sure their life was never hid with Christ in God who think to find Life and Happiness amongst the rubbish of their own ruinous Performances Nor shall they ever appear with Christ in Glory who make a Christ of their own good Works thereby thinking to Merit at God's hands the Reward of Eternal Happiness For to put confidence in our Holiness will as certainly shut us out of God's Heavenly Kingdom as if we were altogether unholy 4. WE are to have respect in our Obedience to the Recompence of Reward not carnally looking for a Sensual Happiness but Spiritually as longing for an Happiness that shall consist in the adequate Perfection of all our Graces together with the full enjoyment of God in Glory We are not to look for a Turkish Paradise to gratify the Flesh but for a Sinless state of Holiness where Grace shall be perfected into Glory We may not think of bathing our Souls in Worldly Delights and Carnal Pleasures but of coming to the full injoyment of God himself whom to see without end love without loathing and praise without ever being weary is the only complement of all our Happiness There are multitudes of Men and Women in the world who having imbibed some gross Conceits and carnal Notions of Heaven would be glad when they can live no longer here to take up there as conceiting it to be a place accomodate to the desires of their own carnal Hearts But we never have any due respect to the recompence of the Reward till we look upon Heaven as a place where Sin shall be wholly abolished Grace perfectly glorified the World trampled upon and God over all blessed for ever enjoy'd as the Center of perfect Rest and everlasting Satisfaction As Balaam desired to dye the death of the righteous which he knew would be Crowned with Peace but had no care at all to conform himself to the life of the righteous so many there be who desire Heaven as a place of Happiness but not as a place of perfect Holiness Such is the Malignity of a carnal Heart that it will assimulate whatever it meets with and turn it into the likeness of it's own brutish Lusts So that whenever a carnal heart desires Heaven it 's not an Heaven of God's preparing but an Heaven of it's own fancying not an Heaven to make it perfectly Holy but an Heaven that will make it sensually Happy As a little Leaven turns the whole Lump into it's own Sourness or as the Salt Sea turns the Fresh Rivers and the Sweet Showers of Heaven into Salt Waters So the Heart which is Unsanctified it turns Bethel into Bethaven the holy City of Sion into a filthy Sodom and the heavenly Jerusalem it self into Babylon looking only for the Wages of Unrighteousness and for Heaven as a place of Sensual Pleasure but not as a place of Spiritual Injoyments As some Jews Acts 1.6 had carnal Notions of Christ and his Kingdom looking for a carnal Messiah who should come in Worldly Pomp and Splendour to restore the Kingdom to Israel So many that profess themselves to be Christians they have carnal Notions about the Recompence of the Reward looking after a Turkish Paradice after an Heaven that is wholly Carnal like their own hearts abounding with nothing but Fleshly Delights and Sensual Contentments They conceive indeed of Heaven as a place where there is Freedom from all Misery and as a place wherein all Fulness of Joy of Delights and everlasting Pleasures dwells But yet both these the Misery removed and the Pleasures indulged both Freedom
bear the holy Presence of God to see him face to face and to look fully upon the Brightness of his Glory in the heavenly Paradice where they shall not have the least Fig-leaf to hide the shame of their nakedness Believe it Sinners unless your sore-eyes be healed and your Natures Sanctified you may find as much comfort in Hell as you could in beholding the Face of God in Heaven That Heaven which is a Paradice of all delights to a gracious Soul you that are not Sanctified and made New Creatures you would find it a very Tophet a place of all hellish and intollerable Torments should you enter into it In Ireland they say is a Fountain whose Waters kill all those Beasts that drink of them but is pleasant to the People not hurting them though they usually drink of it Thus though that pure River of Water in the New Jerusalem proceeding out of the Throne of God and of the Lamb Rev. 22.1 be more pleasant than life it self to all God's People yet should any brutish Sinner be suffered to drink of those Waters he would find them more bitter than the stroke of death For the Soul must first be made a prepared subject for Heaven and the Joys thereof or Heaven it self would be an Hell to it and the Joys of Heaven they would fill it with the greatest and most exquisite Torments And truly would Ungodly Sinners but set Reason a-work they might easily satisfy themselves of their own unfitness for Heaven and what an hell it would be to them should they come there They that count it a weariness to serve the Lord a few hours together on Earth how can they think themselves fit for Heaven where they must serve him day and night without ceasing to all Eternity If they find it so tedious to be restrained from Vanity by the presence of a faithful Minister or a serious Christian for a little scantling of time How can they think themselves able to bear the presence of an infinitely holy God restraining them from all their Sins and pleasurable Vanities for ever When they cannot endure to spend a short Sabbath with seriousness in the worship of God but are presently tired out longing that the Sabbath were over What fitness have they to spend an Everlasting Sabbath in worshiping the God of Heaven which will never be over Grace dawning in God's People is now their burden their sore eyes cannot look upon the brightness of it Oh then How unable will they be to bear it when all it's imperfections being done away it shall break forth into a bright Sun-shine of eternal dazling glory Oh be convinced that you must first be made holy or you can never be made happy you must first be sanctified or you can never be saved you must first be cleansed from all unrighteousness and made New Creatures or you will never be fit to inhabit the New Jerusalem Esther might not come into the Kings Presence till first she was washed and purified So till first we be throughly washed in the Laver of Regeneration and purified thereby from all Filthiness of Flesh and Spirit we can never enjoy God's Presence in a state of Glory Holiness is that which becomes God's House and therefore except you follow after Holiness and pursue it you must never look to come to Heaven the place of God's holy habitation 'T is fabled of Hercules in the Flames of Oeta that he left the Garment sent him by Deianira which could not be got off without tearing his Flesh and so became Immortal If you have not already prevented me in the accommodation the Moral of the Apologue is this You must put off the Rags of your own Filthiness laying aside every weight Heb. 12.1 and the Sin which doth tenaciously cleave to you would you ever enter upon a state of blessed and glorious Immortality As the rising Sun must needs go before the perfect day So sanctifying Grace must needs go before and is that alone which can fit us for eternal Salvation God hath told you in his holy Word that nothing which defileth shall ever enter into the New Jerusalem And whomsoever the voice of God speaking in the Scriptures shuts out of Heaven in this Life they shall undoubtedly be shut out of Heaven in the Life to come So that in vain shall you look for happiness in the World to come if here you give not diligence to be holy walking in all dutiful Obedience before the God of Heaven Pharnaces being up in Arms against Caesar sent him a Crown thinking by such a Present to appease his Wrath but Caesar sending it back again returned him this answer Faceret imperata prius let him first lay down his Arms and return to his Obedience and then his Crown should be accepted of by way of Recognizance Thus as Caesar would not accept of a Crown so to be sure God will never give a Crown of Glory to those by way of Recompence whom he sees to be up in Rebellion against him not labouring to become holy and to walk in Obedience before him The Kingdom of Heaven is a place prepared for Children and not for Strangers for Friends and not for Enemies for such as are pure and undefiled in their way and not for the wicked and unrighteous 1 Cor. 6.9 who must never continuing such inherit the Kingdom of God The Ark of Noah was a Receptacle for Beasts that were unclean as well as for those that were clean But into Heaven there shall in no wise enter as was said any thing that defileth and is unclean Let then I beseech you the consideration of all this make you careful to seek after Heaven and Glory in a way of Grace and Holiness (x) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Justin Martyr Holiness is the Perspective through which we must see God 'T is as possible to see the Sun without Eyes as to see God and be saved without Holiness For without Holiness no Man can see the Lord Heb. 12.14 There is an (y) Negat quenquam posse deum videre sine Sanctimonia quoniam non aâ—ijs oculis videbimus deum quam qui reformati sunt ad ejus imaginem Calvin Inheritance laid up for Saints in light but in case you walk in darkness not labouring to make yourselves meet for it you must never look to enâ—oy it Colos 1.12 Oh that you would therefore be daily Mortifying your (z) Mutari nos oporet et novas creaturas effici priusquam participes esse possumus coelestium beneficiorum Nam in nobis nihil est aliud quam summa ineptitudo ad bonum spirituale sive intelligendum sive faciendum sive denique capiendum Davenant in Locum Corruptions breaking off your Sins by Repentance perfecting Holiness in the fear of God and so preparing your selves for Heaven that you may be counted meet to be partakers of that glorious Inheritance He that Soweth not his Field hath no hope to Reap it he that
to Skreen your Souls from the scorchings of unquenchable Fire and to make you appear with comfort before God's Tribunal it must be sealed with the precious Blood of Christ himself Betwixt Heaven and Mankind there is a great Gulf fixed which nothing but the Torrent of Christ's own Blood streaming down with an unresistible power could unfix and carry away Our first Parents in the Garden of Eden had no sooner sinned but God drove them forth thence setting an Angel to stand Centinel and to keep them out of Paradise with a flaming Sword but the Blood of Christ hath opened that passage at once blunting the Sword and quenching the flame that so his Elect might have a free entrance into Life and Glory No sooner did Christ give up the Ghost but the Veil which parted the holy place from the Holy of Holies was rent asunder the Lord thereby willing to let us know thus much that the Death of Christ had removed all obstructions that might interpose betwixt Believers and their eternal salvation in the Kingdom of Heaven As there fell a mighty storm upon the Red Sea whereby the passage was opened For Israel to go out of Egypt into Canaan So Jesus Christ was to undergo the most dreadful storm of a cursed Death that there might be a passage for us to eternal Glory through that sea of wrath which was betwixt our Egypt and our Canaan our Sins and the everlasting salvation of our immortal Souls Like Isaac upon the Altar we were all of us fast bound in the cords of our own iniquities and so ready to be offered up in Sacrifice to Divine Justice but so strong was the Love of Christ that immaculate Lamb of God that he comes in our stead interposeth betwixt us and the stroke of God's heavy displeasure suffering it to fall directly upon himself he takes the chastisement of our peace upon him and so offers up himself a Sacrifice unto God Bleeding groaning and dying for our sins †John 3.15 that we through faith in his Blood might not perish but have eternal life This is that I confess which the Socinian would fain evade and by all means labours as a Man made up of antipathies against the truth to contradict telling us that Christ died Bono nostro but not vice nostra for our good but not in our Room and stead but we have this truth confirmed with such a cloud of Witnesses and attested by so many Scripture evidences that one would wonder that ever Men should so far indulge the petulancy of their own carnal reason as to make the â—â—st oppositioâ—â— * Isa 53.6 The Lord saith the Prophet speaking of the Messias hath layed upon him the iniquities of us all Not the sins themselves not the fault of them nor the stain and pollution in them but the guilt and penalty belonging to us for them this was that which the Lord layed or more agreeably to the Original caused to meet upon Christ †〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Incurrere fecit in eum Buxtorf Dan. 9.26 even as many debts do all meet together upon one common Surety who is forced to pay them all in their stead for whom he stood bound The Messias shall be cut off saith another Prophet but not for himself or nothing to him as the Hebrew will bear it clearly implying that what ever the Lord Jesus suffered it was wholly upon our account and in our stead What else mean those many emphatical expressions in holy Writ where Christ is said to have â—â—â—â—red died and shed his Blood for us He * 1 Pet. 2.21 1 Pet. 3.18 suffâ—â—â—â—â—â— us saith the Apostle Peter in one place and in 〈◊〉 Christ also hath once suffered for sins the juâ—â— for the unjust But more emphatically our Blessâ—d Lord himself makes this to be the great end of his coming into the world (a) Mat. 20.28 Mark 10.45 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Particula 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quoties personis applicatur significat alterum successisse in alterius locum Grotius de satisfact Christi that he might give his Life a ransom for many Where the particle for in the Original is not 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which may some times signify no more than the final cause implying that which is only done for the good and profit of another but its 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which doth always signify a commutation and Subrogation an exchanging of one for another and a substituting of one in the place of another clearly implying that Christ gave his Life a ransom in our Room and stead The same thing doth St. Paul assure us of (b) 1 Tim. 2.6 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 significat propriè pretium quo redimuntur Captavi eamque commutationem quâ capite caput vita redimitur vitâ Hiperius in Loc. where he tells us that Christ gave himself a ransom for all meaning all not universally for then all should be saved but indefinitely of what rank or degree soever The word in the Original 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is of special Emphasis not barely signifying the price of Redemption as some have rendred it but a Counterprice when one doth or undergoes in the Room of another that which he should have undergone in his own Person in which sense Jesus Christ was our Counterprise giving his own Life for the saving of ours (c) Fatemur nos Christum bono nostro mortuum esse nos bono fratrum nostrorum mori si id necessitas requirat debere at verò modus quo hoc praestitum à Christo modus quo praestatur à nobis longe diversissimus est neque enim nos hoc praestamus reatum in nos fratrum derivando aut pro ipso irae Dei satisfaciendo quod Christus fecit Maccov Loc. Com. cap. 63. pag. 587. And truly the Peculiarity of Christ's Death and Sufferings doth sufficiently evince them to have been not only for our good as the Socinian would have it but also in our Room and stead Christ died so for us as no Man no Prophet no Apostle no Martyr ever did or can do T was not barely for the confirmation of our Faith and for the encouragement of us in our sufferings in which sense (d) 2 Tim. 2.10 Paul testifieth of himself that he endured all things for the Elects sake and many thousand Martyrs have died for us but it was by way of Substitution as our Surety Christ willingly suffering in our stead and redeeming our Life with his own Death in which sense Paul disclaims the arrogating of any such thing to himself with the greatest abhorrency and indignation where reproving the factiousness of the Corinthians he asketh them (e) 1 Cor. 1.13 was Paul crucified for you This Blessed Apostle St. Paul with all the holy Martyrs of Christ they suffered no doubt for our good that we seeing them seal the Doctrine of Christianity with their dearest Blood might believe it to the
saving of our (f) 1 Pet. 1.18 19. Acts 20.28 Souls but yet they were never said to give their Souls a ransom for their Brethren which is said of Christ nor to purchase the Church of God with their own Blood which is plainly affirmed of Christ to let us know that in his suffering and dying for his people there was something peculiar unto him that could not possibly be communicated to any other (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr Epist ad Diogenet pag. 386. Behold than a miracle of transcendent love Oh sweet exchange oh unsearchable artifice oh benefits surpassing all expectation that the iniquity of many should be hidden in one righteous person and that the obedience of one Christ should make many unjust persons righteous Oh what manner of love was this where the unjust sins and the just is punished the guilty transgresseth and the guiltless is beaten the impious offend and the pious is condemned what the evil deserves the good suffers what the servant perpetrates the Lord payeth and what Man commits the Son of God himself undergoes for our sakes All the Glory of the godly it wholly springs out of the shame of theit Lords sufferings and passion All the Rest of the godly it lies in the wounds of their Saviour by whose * Peccat iniquus punitur justus delinquit reus vapulat innocens offendit impius damnatur pius quod meretur malus patitur bonus quod perpetrat servus exolvit dominus quod committit homo sustinet Deus Aust Medit. 67. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Just Martyr ubi suprà stripes they are healed Jesus Christ was in a bitter agony sweating clods of Blood that a cold sweat in the agony of Death may not seize upon us He would wrestle with the Powers of Death that in our last conflict with Death our Faith might not fail us He would undergo most grievous anguish and have his Soul exceeding sorrowful unto Death that our Hearts might be filled in Heaven with joy unspeakable and full of Glory He would begin his Passion in the Garden that he might expiate Sin which was first committed in the Garden of Paradise He would be unjustly condemned on Earth that we being absolved in Heaven may at length have admittance into the glorious liberty of the Children of God He would have his Face covered that the Veil of Sin which hinders us from the beatifical Vision of God in Glory might be taken away He walked in heaviness towards Mount Calvary bearing the weight of his Cross that he might remove the burden of Eternal Punishment not suffering us to lie under the stroke of God's heavy displeasure for ever He cryed out in the bitterness of (a) Omnis piorum gloria est in Dominicae passionis ignominia Omnis piorum requies est in vulneribus salvatoris nostri Gerhard Medit. 6. Christus pro nobis sargâ—â—â—neum sudorem fudit ne frigidissimus in mortis agone sudor nos opprimeret Luctari voluit cum morte ne in agone mortis deficeremus Anxieâ—atem gravissimam tristitiam usque ad mortem sustinere voluit ut aeternae laetitiae in Caelis participes redderemur In horto fieri voluit passionis initium ut expiaret peccatum quod in horto Paradisi habuerat principium Condemnatus est in terris ut nos absolveremur in Coelis Facies ipsius tegitur ut a nobis removeret velum peccati quod in nobis aspectum Dei impedit damnabilem ignorantiam inducit Crucis pondus portavit ut onus aeternae poenae à nobis submoveret A Deo se derelictum clamavit ut aeternam Dei cohabitationem nobis pararet Sitivit in cruce ut rorem divinae gratiae nobis promereretur ac ne aeterna sitâ— perire cogeremur Lacrymas profudit ut nostras abstergeret lacrymas Coronâ spineâ coronatus est ut coelestem coronam nobis promereretur Gerhard Medit. 7. his Soul as forsaken of God that we might never be forsaken of God but have eternal Communion with him in Heaven He thirsted upon the Cross and would have Gall to drink that having merited for us the enlivening nectareous Dew of Divine Grace we might not pine with perpetual thirst but be satisfied with the sweet Wine of Eternal Consolation He would often weep and be filled with sorrow that coming to Sion with Songs and everlasting Joy upon our Heads we might obtain Joy and Gladness and have all tears wiped from our Eyes so that sorrow and sighing shall fly away He in a word would be crowned with Thorns that having laid aside the Rags of Mortality we at length might be crowned with Life and Eternal Glory in God's heavenly Kingdom Since then Christ was thus afflicted that we might be comforted since he drank of the Brook in the way that we might lift up our Heads with everlasting Joy since his Soul was sorrowful unto Death that we might receive the reward of Eternal Life since he came into the World for our sakes enduring the Cross and despising the Shame for this very end that we at length might be crowned with eternity of heavenly Glory what incongruity can you think it to have respect in our obedience to the recompence of the reward Had Christ our Redeemer a respect in all that he did and suffered to the meriting of Eternal Glory for us and may not we have respect in our obedience to the enjoyment of that Happiness and Glory which Christ hath so merited Did the beloved Son of God come down from the Bosom of the Father live such a miserable Life and die so painful execrable and ignominious a Death to purchase such a reward as a Christian cannot look at in his obedience but it will make him forfeit his ingenuity and transform him presently into a mercenary Indeed to fall in love with the Gift and forget the Giver highly to prize Redemption and to undervalue our Redeemer to have our Hearts more set upon Heaven and Glory than upon Christ himself who hath purchased it for us with his own Blood this were monstrously sordid and disingenuous but yet the respect which Christ had to the purchasing of Heaven and Glory for us in his Death and Sufferings doth sufficiently evince that we also in our obedience may have some respect thereunto I read of a certain Young Gallant that having received a Wound in the Wars whereof he came halt home his Mother told him Son this Wound will make you remember Virtue every step that you take To be sure Christian since Christ was wounded for our transgressions purchasing Life and Eternal Glory for us by the Price of his own Blood this may well make us think of Heaven every step that we take in the way of Gods Commandments Not frequently to make glad our Hearts with the sweet Meditation of Eternal Life not often to dwell upon it in our Thoughts taking encouragement therefrom to all holy and self-denying and
them tenders of a Crown of Life But they chose to deck themselves with Rose-buds preferring Earth before Heaven and troubling themselves about many things (c) Luke 10.42 whilst that better part is neglected which if chosen should never be taken from them Like Esau they sell their Birth-right for a mess of Pottage Like Judas they betray the Lord of Life who would save their Souls for thirty pieces of Silver Or like our first Parents to get the forbidden Fruit they let go their Happiness in Paradise preferring one deadly Apple from the Tree of Knowledge before all the delicious Apples on the Tree of Life What pains do we see Men take What hazards do they daily run to satisfie their unsatiate desires after Creature-enjoyments whilst Heaven with all the Glory and Royalties of it are neglected as the pleasing fictions of some devout Fancies rather than matters of reality With what wracking of Brain with what strength of endeavour with what Conflicts of Passions with what vehemency of desire and remorse of Consciences do Men resolving to be rich pursue their Earth-born vanities making that pitiful Religion they have serve turn and Christianity it self become Handmaid to wait upon their gain and secular advantage (d) Boni quippe ad hoc utuntur mundo ut fruantur Deo mali autem contra ut fruantur mundo uti volunt Deo Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 15. cap. 7. Whereas the truly gracious do improve their Earthly Treasures for high and Heavenly ends using them in a subserviency to their Christian devotion that they more freely enjoy God Why on the contrary carnal Hearts they subordinate every thing to their own sordid ends using God his Name his Worship his Ordinances that they may more plausibly prosecute and enjoy the World Doth not daily sad experience let us see how Men will hazard their own lives in desperate undertakings make themselves perpetual Drudges to the Times comply with every prevailing Faction throw away their own Mercies make shipwrack of Faith dissemble conscience and exchange their salvation together with all Hopes of Heaven and Glory for Earth and Earthly enjoyments Oh that I could but speak to the Heart of such amongst you who thus inordinately pursue the World grasping continually with adulterous embraces Was this the end of your being in the World to Idolize the Creature loving prizing and serving that above God your Creator Have you not things of greater consequence and that more nearly concern you to look after than the profits emoluments and perishable comforts of this present Life Is it not an immortal Soul more worthy your care than a sinful Body the Riches of Heaven and Glory than your Earthly Treasure and the recompence of Eternal Life is not that more worthy your care than the confluence of all Creature-enjoyments Your approaching Death your Eternal Judgment before Gods Tribunal your everlasting condition in the world to come should not these things be seriously minded and much rather regarded of you than the husky enjoyments of a dying Life What alass Poor brutish Muck-worm will thy full Garners thy Bags of Gold thy sumptuous Buildings thy long Leases thy gorgeous Apparel or thy dainty Dishes and sweet Morsels avail thee when the great God calls to Judgment when Death as God's inexorable Serjeant shall arrest thee and thou must now breath out thy Life and thy Hope together Will your Deeds and Leases be evidences for Heaven Will your Riches Honours and Pleasurable enjoyments be able to comfort your Hearts when now breaking through the bitter pangs and dying groans that will shortly take hold of you Will your Coffers or your Bags of Gold be accepted as a ransom for your lost Souls or can they purchase your pardon when now tryed for your Lives for your everlasting unchangable State before the righteous Judge of all the World To bring you off from the over eager pursuit of these perishable enjoyments and to beget in your cheeks an holy blush that ever you should neglect Heaven to seek them dwell a little on these things 1 (a) Vacuum quodcunque est si nullam nobis affert utilitatem CONSIDER all Creature-enjoyments they are vain and unprofitable The very choycest of your Worldly comforts they have nothing in them but that which is unprofitable and good for nothing There is always most vanity where there is the least profit And where there is no profit at all there is nothing at all but vanity And yet this is the Character which Solomon hath given us of all our Creature-enjoyments Every Creature in his Diary hath vanity written upon it and (b) Eccles 1.2 therefore since the whole cannot exceed the particulars when added together he gives us in this as the total Sum of all sublunary comforts Vanity of vanities all is vanity Add a thousand Cyphers together and yet without a figure they signify just nothing So though a Man had the whole confluence and universal aggregation of all Creature-comforts yet such is the vanity bound up in them that without the figure of Divine favour they are altogether insignificant and stand for just nothing in the Register of true profit And therefore (c) Prov. 23.5 Solomon endeavouring to call off Men from the too eager pursuit of Riches will not vouchsafe them any station amongst things really existing but thrusting them down into the bottomless Abyss of a non-entity he thus queries with the insatiate Mammonist Wilt thou set thine Eyes upon that which is not and make them to flie as 't is in the original upon a meer nothing The generality of Men they idolize Riches and look upon them as some great matters But the comfort the benefit the profit accrewing to us by them is so small that if you count them any thing at all you do quite over-prize them and do count them a great deal more than what they are ever like to amount unto We can hardly form up a conception of our Creature-enjoyments so diminutive and small as indeed they are Nor can we be able to reach so low in our thoughts as the bottom of that vanity and unprofitableness which is written upon them Most Men look upon their Riches Honours and Worldly accommodations through a Multiplying-glass which doth swell them up far above the proportion of their own magnitude and quite stretcheth them beyond the line of their proper dimensions But would they look upon these things as they are in themselves how would their tall gigantine stature shrink up into a Pygmey-dwarfishness and what a line of unprofitableness and vanity would they find stretched out upon them all * Psal 4.2 How long then ye Sons of Men will ye love vanity and go on to set your Hearts upon that which is not Oh turn not aside from seeking after Glory and Honour after Immortality and Eternal Life (d) 1 Sam. 12.20 21. For why as Samuel said in another case should you go after vain things after
mortis non est illic Aug. Confes lib. 4. cap. 12. What is this but as the Father saith to seek for Life in the Region of Death to seek for Heaven in the Hell of worldly distractions and for happiness in that that may prove our greatest misery Oh that you would once consult though not your Duty yet at least the real satisfaction of your own Souls no longer seeking after broken Cisterns but now coming to the Fountain of living Waters that you may be filled We cannot conceive so great a confluence of earthly enjoyments but still as more may be added so more will be desired But who ever obtains the enjoyment of God in Heaven Oh what fulness of joy what a Garden of soul-satisfying pleasures what a Paradise of all delights and spiritual contentments doth he find in him Now the Man hath as much joy as much comfort as much satisfaction as Heart can hold now like a stone in the Center he can go no further nor desire * Isai 55.2 any more Happiness than what he hath already now with holy David he can sing his Requiem Return to thy rest oh my (b) Psal 116.7 Soul for lo the Lord hath dealt bountifully with thee What enemies are you then that love the World to your own Souls preferring Trouble before Rest the boysterous Ocean before the serene Harbour emptiness before satisfaction and a famine of true contentment before that fulness of delight and Heavenly repast which you might find in God How vain is the shadow if compared with the substance a drop if compared with the vast ocean a broken Cistern if compared with the Fountain of living Water or the confluence of all Creature-enjoyments if compared with the full enjoyment of God himself If then you love your Souls come away from these unsatisfying Vanities and seek now after Heaven and Heavenly objects making God your ultimate end and the full enjoyment of him your only happiness What alas will your Riches avail you without this Pearl of great price Will the Shell without the Kernel will the Cistern without the Fountain will the Stars without the Sun give content and can they make a day of happiness and satisfaction in your immortal Souls When a Man my Brethren can sow Grace in the furrows of his field when he can fill his Barns with Glory when he can get Baggs full of Salvation when he can Plow up Heaven out of the Earth and extract God out of the Creatures then but not till then he may be able to find that in them which will satisfy the unbounded desires of his own Soul Be not then any longer so foolish as to look for satisfaction from your Creature-enjoyments preferring the taste of an Apple with our first Parents before all the happiness of the Celestial Paradise Your creature comforts they are all of them impertinent and must needs upon that account be altogether unsatisfying as having no due commensuration nor sutableness to the wants and exigencies of an immortal Soul What one sin is all the World able to expiate What one misery is it able to deliver you from What one corruption can it mortify for you What one Grace can it enrich your Hearts with What one glimpse from God's favourable countenance can it help you to What one word of comfort can it speak to your troubled Consciences when distressed with the sense of God's wrath and the dreadful pre-occupations of Eternal burnings in Hell Indeed the favour of God and the hope of Heaven An interest in Jesus Christ and assurance through him of Eternal Glory these can give satisfaction as being every way sutable to and commensurate with our spiritual wants But now the impertinency of earthly enjoyments is such that you can never make up a sutable Estate for your Souls out of them nor satisfy their unmeasurable desires at the dry and empty Breasts of any Creature-comfort Oh how foolish then and irrational is every covetous Muck-worm Thou hast possibly Riches and Honours and Lands for thy portion But what will all these avail thee what content and satisfaction can they give thee not having an interest in the Lord Jehovah * Gen. 22.7 Behold the Fire and the Wood but where is the Lamb for sacrifice said Isaac to Abraham Thus may I say to you here you have Houses and Lands here you have Friends and worldly dignities But where is your interest in the Lord Jesus where is the Grace of God to sanctify you where is the mercy of God to Pardon you where is the love of God to comfort you where is the favour of God to make glad your Souls as the strength of your Hearts and your portion for ever You have possibly the good things of this life but where are the good things of a better life And be it so that you should abound and be crowned with all variety of Creature-comforts Yet remember your Souls they will still be restless and for ever unsatisfied till you come to rest your selves in the downy Bosom of God's Eternal love and to have fulness of sweet communion with him in Glory 6 And lastly consider all creature enjoyments they are but moment any and only for a season Like a Jonahs Gourd such are the choicest of all our Earthly Comforts growing up in one Night and withering away into nothing the next night following Had we the longest lease of Worldly enjoyments it would soon be worn out our lives are but short of themselves and therefore such comforts as we only hold for term of Life at the utmost cannot possibly last long What the Apostle saith of miraculous Gifts may truly be said of all our worldly accomodations whether you have Riches they shall fail or Relations after the Flesh they shall cease or whether you have Honors in the World they shall vanish away neither shall any Man's Glory descend after him Men usually call their Riches and Worldly accommodations by the name of Substance when indeed they are but a shadow that will never be seen any more when once the Sun of our lives is gon down Death will seal a Lease of ejectment and turn us out of all our possessions so that though now our Creature comforts attend upon us whilst we live and enjoy prosperity yet when once we come to breath out our Souls into Eternity they will all forsake us (a) Ieus est subitò qui modo Craesus erat You know how the Apostle Paul was accompanied by the Disciples to the Shore but there they took their leave of him Thus your Honours Riches and Earthly enjoyments they may accompany you to the Shore of Eternity but there they will bid you farewel for ever WHY then will you set your Hearts upon such fading Vanities labouring more for the Meat that perisheth than for that which will endure to Eternal Life (b) 2 Cor. 4.17 What we see is Temporal But what we see not is truly Eternal *
which indeed is the Life of thy Soul Did the Body of thy dearest Relation lie dead upon the floor what a woful Spectacle would it be and how bitterly wouldst thou weep over it But O Sinner thy Immortal Soul which should be more preciously dâ—ar in thy sight than all thy Relations in the World that lies dead in Sin it 's estranged from God the Fountain of Life it hath no interest in Christ the Prince of Life it hath no Portion in the Holy Ghost the Spirit of Life it hath neither Part nor Lot in Eternal Glory the Crown of Life and is not this a far more sad and woful Spectacle such as may well turn thy Head into Water and thy Eyes into a Fountain of Tears Oh what should fill thy Heart with Groans thy Eyes with Tears and thy Mouth with doleful Complaints if not this to see thy Soul without Life without God and Christ and without all hope of Eternal Glory in the World Canst thou weep bitterly for a dead Relation and yet canst thou not weep for thy self hast thou no Tears to shed over a dead Soul For a Man to be killed by Sin and yet to live to Sin taking pleasure therein what a woful condition is this If yet Sinner thou hast pleasure in unrighteousness to be sure the Tokens of Death are upon thee thou hast neither Life nor yet any hope of Eternal Life abiding in thee A Soul taking delight in the pleasures of Sin it 's a dead Soul * John 3.36 and a Dead Soul it shall never see Life but the Wrath of God abides upon it 2 CONSIDER so long as you take delight in the pleasures of sin you remain uncapable of and can never enjoy communion with God If conformity be that which capacitates for a mutual communion then doubtless an unholy sinner that hath pleasure in unrighteousness is altogether unfit for communion with an holy God †Heb. 1.13 whose Eyes are so infinitely pure that he cannot behold the least iniquity (a) Fit nostra societas cum Deo per similitudinem Ferrar. There can be no fellowship where first there is not some similitude What fellowship can there then be betwixt the great God who is all light and profane ungodly sinners delighting themselves in the unfruitful works of darkness You may say there is fellowship betwixt you and the God of Heaven (b) 1 John 1.6 But then if you walk in darkness making sin your delight you lie saith the Apostle and do not the truth 'T is an exempt priviledge and that which is peculiar to the pure in Heart that they shall see God and have communion with him (c) 2 Cor. 6.14 15. Hence St. Paul puts the question intending thereby a more vehement negation what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness and what communion hath light with darkness and what concord hath Christ with Belial We see by experience the darkness cometh not till the light be gone and when the light cometh the darkness vanisheth they cannot dwell together it being the nature of things contrary mutually to take away each other Thus the infinitely holy God and a voluptuous sordid Sinner who hath pleasure in unrighteousness they are of such contrary natures that they can no more have fellowship together than the clearest Light and the thickest darkness Amongst all the creature there are none that can have communion with any that live not the same life with themselves as a Plant whose life is only vegetative can have no communion with a beast whose life is sensitive neither can a beast have communion with Men because they live a rational (d) Ephes 4.18 life Thus all sensual wicked Men they are estranged from the life of God they live a life of sensuality delighting in sin as their proper Element and therefore can have no communion at all with God whose life is a life of unchangably blessed and spotless Holiness Oh then how miserable is the condition of all voluptuous sensualists who render themselves uncapable through their brutish lusts of communion with an holy God! Michael and the Dragon could not agree in one Heaven nor the Ark and Dagon in one House no more can a wicked Man and an holy God agree to have communion together Your carnal pleasures they shut out from communion with God as the Plague of leprosy shut out of the Camp debarring a Man from all society with such as were clean (e) In his rebus quae inter se pugnant ita ut neutra ferat alterius consortium quotiens hanc amplectimur illam abdicavimus quotiens unam rejioimus alteram agnoscimus Cyprian de dupl Martyr pag. 600. And had you rather with the Prodigal be feeding upon Husks amongst Swine than to feed with delight upon this bread of life in your fathers House Will you still go on to preferr these Onyons and Garlick of Egypt your carnal delights and pleasurable vanities before all the delicious Clusters of Canaan before the hidden Manna of Sweet communion and fellowship of an holy God Poor brutish sinners did you but know by experience what it is to walk in the light of God's countenance what it is to enjoy his favour what it is to be under his smiles in the face of Christ to receive daily the fresh communications of his love and for ever to have the sweet influences of these heavenly Pleiades falling down like a Golden showr into your own bosoms oh how quickly would you nauseate all carnal delights how quickly would you come off with shame and self-abhorrency from your pleasurable vanities making choice of Communion with God as the only Paradise of true delight and Soul-satisfying pleasures in all the World (f) Psal 34.8 Oh therefore do but tast and see how good the Lord is and what fulness of joy you may have in communion with him You have long been sucking the Breast of carnal delights and tasting how good the pleasures of sin are though but for a season Come now in like manner and draw the sincere milk of comfort from the breasts of Divine promises lay your mouths to the Hony-Comb of Heavenly communion sit you down a little under the shadow of the most High ascend with God into the Mount of transfiguration take a turn or two with him in the Galleries of love and if you find not a day thus spent to be better more laden with Fruits of Paradise to refresh and make glad your Souls than a thousand else where then turn aside again to your carnal pleasures renounce this Heavenly Canaan as a barren Wilderness and go back to the flesh-pots of your sensual delights in Egypt and spare not But oh the fulness of joy and divine satisfaction of a Man walking close in communion with God! You may as well perswade the most pompous Monarch faring deliciously every day to lay aside his princely Robes to desert his Throne and go feed upon husks with the Prodigal as
way as thou dreamest of or if there be why yet in that very Lyon thou mayst find Hony The way to Heaven is not so dark and gloomy as most imagine though indeed it be strait and tedious to Flesh and Blood yet there stands a bright Crown of eternal Glory at the end which makes it comfortable Be ashamed then having such encouragement to walk disconsolate in Heavens way There are not so many Thorns to prick you as Roses to refresh you Nor half so much cause of Sorrow â—s there is of Comfort and rejoycing of Spirit Christians walking in Heaven's Way they may meet I confess with a fiery Tryal but then there is some Light for their Comfort as well as Heat to Torment them And let me tell you the more your Hearts are melted and softned in such a Flame the deeper will be the Impression of divine Love Consolation and Sweetness upon them A sight of Glory from Heaven is then most Cordial when we can see nothing but Bonds and Imprisonments and forest Afflictions to abide us on Earth (a) Acts 7.55 How sweetly did Stephen that blessed Proto-martyr fall asleep under a Shower of Stones as if he had gone to Heaven in a Bed of Down The Reason of all was this he saw Heaven open and Jesus standing at the right Hand of God ready to turn every Stone that was thrown at him into an orient Pearl and to Crown him so soon as ever he had passed the Straits of Death with eternal Life Thiâ— made him forget his Sorrow and walk on with Comfort through the Valley of Death that at length he might come to that Glory in Heaven which he found such a Cordial to his Soul when ready to leave her earthly Tabernacle And why is it that we having the same Recompence of Reward set before us cannot endure the like Hardships with the same Comfort Must there be so much ado to make us live upon those Cordials which Heaven it self hath provided for us Are the Consolations of God grown small with us that we resolve thus to walk with sorrowful Hearts whilst he shews us Heaven as in a Glass and sets Glory in our Eye Shall every light Affliction eat â—ut the Heart of our Comfort when we see there lies before us a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory Either Christian let thy Heart feel more or thy Eye see less of Heaven And do not go to bring up an ill Report upon the celestial Canaan by walking disconsolate in the way thither For you that have Heaven before you to come weeping after for you that have Glory in your Eye to be filled with Sorrow for you that may hope to live with God for ever in the Mount to go mourning from day to day like Doves of the Valley how unseemly were this If the World be bitter yet sweet is Paradise If the Earth cast you out yet Heaven will receive you If here you be tossed with Storms like a Ship at Sea yet arriving at the wished Shoar of Eternity you will find rest If in this (b) Mat. World Men Revile you and Persecute you saying all manner of Evil of you falsly for Christ's sake yet still you should walk rejoycing and be exceeding glad because great is your Reward in Heaven And what so great Matters are all our Afflictions on Earth that they should be able to imbitter Heaven Pray you (c) 2 Cor. 4.16 what is Affliction to Glory What is light Affliction to a weight of Glory What is a short momentary Affliction that like a little Cloud will soon be blown over to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a far more exceeding and eternal Weight of Glory beyond all possible Hyperbole that will never be over That Man sure never looked by Faith so far as Heaven whom any Affliction on earth can make to go weeping â—ike Rachel refusing to be Comforted 11 WALK purely endeavouring to cleanse your selves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit and to mortifie every Lust â—hat would spoyl you of your Reward It becomes not those that have the Recompence of eternal Life before them to love the Wages of Unrighteousness Nor those that have Glory in their Eye to make themselves by the Polâ—utions that are in the World through Lust like one of the base Fellows The Inheritance of the Saints in Light â—ts a pure and an undefiled Inheritance And therefore beholding it we must labour to be changed into the â—ame undefiled Purity and Holiness with it would we ever come to the full Enjoyment of it The Lord alows us a sight of Heaven in all our Obedience that beholding from day to day we might at length receive a Tincture of Purity and unspotted Holiness from it He gives us a prospect of our future Happiness that be (d) 2 Cor. 3.18 holding with open face the Glory of the Lord we might be changed into the same Image from Glory to Glory The difference betwixt Grace and Glory is not as some observe from these words specifical but gradual They differ not in Kind but only in Degree Grace is Glory inchoate and Glory is Grace consummate Grace is Glory Militant and Glory is Grace Triumphant Grace is Glory dawning and Glory is Grace shining forth in its noon-dayâ— brightness And I know no better way to ripen Grace into Glory than for Grace to behold and continually sun it self in the warm Beams of eternal Glory The Hope of future Happiness is the strongest Inducement to present Holiness Every Man (e) 1 John 3.3 that hath this Hope in him purifieth himself as he is pure Hope to be like Christ hereafter Glorious as he is Glorious and Blessed as he is Blessed will work in us a desire to be as like him as we can here Pure as he is Pure and Holy as he is Holy He that hath most hope of being saved will give most diligence of all others to be sanctified We never cleanse our Hands so much as when we have Glory in Hope Nor do we ever Purify our Hearts so throughly as when we have Heaven in our Eye When Moses had been with God upon the Mount he came down with his Face shining Thus if at any time God calls us up into the Mount with himself giving us a sight of that Glory which shall shortly be revealed in us we should be sure to come down having not only our Faces but our Hearts likewise shining with unspotted Purity It were the most unbecoming thing in the World for those to Dâ—file themselves with any Unrighteousness who have their Eye continually fixed upon an undefiled Inheritance expecting as the full Reward of all their Labours a Crown of Righteousness What shall not Heaven's Brightness expel the Darkness of Hell Shall not the Hope of eternal Happiness promote in our Hearts and Lives the Work of Holiness Is there a Crown of Glory at the end of our Christian Course and shall not that make us walk Pure
be their Eternal condition in another World whether it be upon Sin unto Death or upon Righteousness unto life everlasting Whatever the Church of Rome may dogmatize of their Limbus Infantum a Receptacle for the Souls of Infants dying without Baptism or of a Purgatory for such as die in venial Sins whose guilt was not fully expiated * Omnis homo aut est cum Christo regnaturus aut cum Diabolo cruciandns Aug. Ser. 85. de Temp. Aut Caesar aut nullus 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Gregor Naz. in Pentecost Rom. 2.7 8 9. Yet as the ways of Men in this life are but two either Holy or Unholy so the Divine Oracle acknowledgeth no more than two Final and Everlasting estates for Men in the Life to come the one of Happiness the other of Misery the one of all fulness of Joy in God's presence and the other of everlasting Destruction from his Presence and from the Glory of his Power Hence it is said of God that to those who by patient continuance in well-doing seek for Glory and Honour and Immortality he will render eternal Life But to every Soul that hath Pleasure in Unrighteousness not obeying the Gospel Indignation and Wrath Tribulation and Anguish (*) Mat 25.31.46 And Christ himself declaring the Process of that great Day as he only takes Cognizance of two sorts of Men the one Righteous the other Wicked the one as Sheep on his right Hand the other as Goats on his left So he only makes mention of a twofold Sentence the one of Absolution the other of Condemnation each assigning to its proper Objects their everlasting Condition so that the Wicked in the Execution of this Sentence must go away into everlasting Punishment and the Righteous into life Eternal They that have not the Happiness to stand amongst the Sheep of Christ on the right Hand they must stand amongst the Goats on his left They that are not pronounced Blessed are pronounced Accursed And whoever is not called to inherit the Kingdom of God to be sure he must have his Portion with Hypocrites in the Lake that bumeth with Fire and Brimstone for ever Every Man's Works when he once comes to be matriculated amongst the Dead will (†) Opera sequuntur bonos persequuntur malos illi secundum opera coronâ justitiae donantur hi propter opera injustitiae quae injusti perpetrârunt oeternâ plectuntur miseriâ be sure to follow him either for his Comfort if they have been Righteous or for his eternal Confusion if Unrighteous Never think then my Brethren falling short of Heaven and Glory to escape the Damnation of Hell For as when the Light is departed a gloomy Darkness immediately thereupon succeedeth and taketh place So whoever are not counted Meet to be partakers of the Inheritance b of the (a) Col. 1.12 Saints in Light for them is reserved the (c) Heb. 10.27 Blackness of Darkness for ever And who to avoid Misery would not choose Happiness Who to escape everlasting Shame and perpetual Contempt in the World to come would not now make Glory his Option Who to prevent the heaviest Stroak of God's eternal Displeasure the furious gnawings of that Worm which never dies and the most exquisite Torments of everlasting Burnings in Hell would not now give diligence to lay up for himself a Treasure in Heaven Believe it Sinner thou that art a Demas embracing this present World thou that art a Judas betraying thy Lord and Master for thirty pieces of Silver thou that art an ungodly Achan hugging thy self in any accursed thing which God hath devoted thou in a word that art a prophane Esau selling thy Birth-right for a Mess of Pottage I have received a Commission from God to write bitter things against thee and out of love to thy poor Soul let me tell thee that if thus thou go on to make light of Heaven and Glory there remaineth nothing but a fearful looking for of Judgment d and fiery Indignation from the Lord to devour to torment and to burn thee for ever Oh then consider this all ye that forget God left he tear you in pieces and there be none to deliver you What is there in all the Profits Honours and pleasurable Vanities of this World that for them you should run the hazard of everlasting hellish Torments What is not Life to be preferred before Death Happiness before an Eternity of Misery and the Joys of Heaven before the everlasting Pains Tortures and Burnings of Hell Oh remember it Sinner there is that in Hell which though thy Flesh were of Iron and thy Bones of Brass might make thee tremble and thy Knees to smite one against another And yet in case thou be a Drunkard a Swearer a Covetous or an unclean Person making light of Heaven to enjoy thy Lust this is the place whither shortly thou (b) Jude 13. must go and wherein thou must erelong receive for thy Portion the Vengeance of eternal Fire For the Mouth of Truth hath spoken it and will make it good (d) Psal 9.17 that the Wicked shall be turned into Hell with all the Nations that forget God But that what I have said may effectually influence your Souls to look after Heaven give me leave to Epitomize Hell and to shew you in some few Particulars the Horrors wherewith this place of Torment is filled up to the brim 1 CONSIDER the Purity of Hell Torments which are a Cup of the Wine of God's fiercest Wrath unmixed wherein there is not to be found any one Ingredient of his Love or Mercy Here the worst of Men do enjoy some Good But in Hell even they whose Condition is the best they have nothing but Evil. There is not any Grant of the least Comfort to the greatest Torment not one drop of Hony in all the Gall which is given them to drink of nor so much as the least glimpse of heavenly Light in all that Cimmerian Darkness But (e) Jam. 2.13 Sorrow without Joy Death without (f) Potest dici quod etiam in eis damnatis scil misericordia locum habet in quantum citra condignum puniuntur Aq. Sup. 3. part q. 99. art 2. 1. Life and Judgment without Mercy must for ever be their Portion 'T is I know the Opinion of the Schoolmen that the very Reprobates in Hell are punished oitra condignum Whence some would infer that there is no place wherein there is not some Impression of God's Mercy nor any Creature which doth not tast of his Goodness But however God should mitigate some part of that Torment which the Sinner justly deserved and which in the Rigour of his Justice he might rightly have inflicted Yet as for any positive Effect of God's Mercy and Goodness in Hell the Damned are altogether unacquainted with it 'T is true both the Devils and Reprobates in Hell they have a Physical Being which in it self is good But yet to them it is nothing so as being only
continued to render them capable of everlasting Destruction from the Presence of God and from the Glory of his Power They have a being but it 's only to fit them for an eternal Misery they have a Life but such that they would (h) Vellet damnatus potiùs non esse quà m talis esse qui miseriâ intensisimâ cáque aeternò duraturâ urgerentur Barl. Exercit. 1. conclus 3. pag. 7. give ten thousand Worlds to be eased of that heavy Burden as being made thereby obnoxious to the stroak of eternal Death So that whatever be the Goodness of a Physical Being which the Damned have yet sure it doth not preponderate the Vengeance of eternal Fire conjunct with it But still you may look upon Hell would you conceive aright thereof as a place of Torment wherein they shall never have the least ease as a place of Sorrow wherein they must never expect the least Joy as a place of Destruction from the blisful Presence of God wherein they may never tast the smallest of his Mercies nor expect one comfortable Smile from his Face to all Eternity And oh what Tophet is not a Paradise what Flames are not a Bed of Down to the loss of all our Comforts but especially to the loss of the God of our Comforts That which is privative taking away from the Sinner all Good is worse (i) Omnia vâ—ro Gehennae supplicia superabit Deum non videre bonis carere quaeâ—in potestate habuisset obtinere Bern de inter Dom. cap. 38. than that which is Positive in Damnation though hereby be brought in an universal Deluge of all Evil a whole Iliad of Miseries at once The Pain of Loss doth infinitely preponderate the Pain of Sense So that (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil de Ascenc cap. 2. the Reflexion of a Sinner upon the loss of God and Christ and eternal Glory will be the Sting of all his Sorrows the Head of that envenomed Arrow which will drink up his Spirits like Poyson for ever and this is that Worm of Conscience which never dies the furious gnawings whereof will be far more dreadful and intollerable than the Vengeance of eternal Fire it self If the departure of God from his own People though Partial and only for a Time be so dreadful that they usually cry out as Men undone thinking no Rhetorick sufficient to express it in but Sighs no Tongue but Shreeks and Groans no Ink but mournful Tears no Paper but that of a wounded and broken Heart oh then how unsufferable will the loss of God be to all the Damned in Hell who must be Punished with a full and everlasting Destruction from God and from the Glory of his Power Do they mourn so bitterly when for a small moment he forsakes them though with great Mercy he gathers them when in a little Wrath he hides his Face from them though with everlasting Kindness he will have Mercy upon them Oh then how bitterly wilt thou Mourn and with what heart-rending furious Reflexions wilt thou look back upon thy own prodigeous Folly when the Lord shall forsake thy Soul to all Eternity when he shall hide his Face from thee for ever commanding thee to depart from his Presence Accursed into eternal Fire Should you imagine ten thousand Hells (l) Si mille aliquis ponat Gehennas nihil tale dicturus est quale à beatae illius gloriae repelli honore Summa mors animae est alienatio à Dei vita in aeternitate supplicii Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 6. yet all this were not so much as to lose the beatifical Presence of God in Glory The full Enjoyment of God that is the Crown and the Glory of Heaven And so the total loss of God that is the greatest Emphasis of Hell and eternal Damnation Oh that is the Sting which enters into the Bowels that is the Worm of hellish Horror which will feed upon them for ever that is the heavy Milstone of God's sorest Wrath which will inevitably sink and drown them in eternal Perdition A Man who enjoyeth God can never want Comfort But whoever loseth God he loseth all his Comforts together with him How woful is then the Condition of all the Damned in Hell who must neither enjoy God nor the least Mercy from God to all Eternity Here possibly you have Riches and Honours many Friends and carnal Pleasures But losing God thou must leave them all behind thee nor shall any of them be able to bring thee Tidings of Comfort when shut up in Hell You (m) Luke 16.24 know how it fares with Rich Dives he denied the Crums to poor Lazarus and in Hell though he seek it with Tears of Blood yet the Comfort of one drop of Water to cool his Tongue when tormented with infernal Flames will not be granted him For that 's a Place of Judgment without Mercy there the Eye sees no Comfort the Tongue tasteth no Comfort the Ear heareth no Comfort But Punishment without Pity Sorrow without Succour Torment without Ease and the loss of God over all Blessed for ever is the Portion of all the Damned And what Sinner hast thou any Lust any Sin any Dalilah whose Love will be able to compensate the loss of God of his Kingdom and Glory for ever Can'st thou dwell Sinner in Misery without Mercy in continual Mourning without Mirth in Heart-killing-sorrow without any Solace in the Valley of the shadow of Death without the Favour and loving Kindness of God which is better than Life Why what reason hast thou poor self-destroying-Self-destroying-soul by thy careless neglect of Heaven and eternal Glory thus to run the hazard of being Punished for ever from the Presence of God of his Grace of his Mercy and Goodness in hellish Flames where are all things to fill with Terrour but nothing to excite Desire or to Minister the least Comfort Oh this this is the grand Aggravation of the Damned's Misery and that which makes it saddest of all that in Hell they must not only lose their Riches Honours and Relations which were all in themselves Good but the Presence of God himself who is best of all 2 CONSIDER the Society you are like to have in Hell-torments which is none other than that of Devils and that of damned Spirits whose Names were not Written in the Book of Life As in Heaven there are none but Saints and glorious Angels So in Hell there are none but Sinners and snaky Devils and these are they that for ever must be your cursed Associates in Wrath and Misery The Tares and the Wheat in this Life they grow both together But when Christ who is our Life shall appear having gathered home the Wheat into his own Garner he will bind up the Tares in Bundles and burn them together Here the (n) Mat. 25.4 32. Sheep and the Goats the Foolish and the wise Virgins are promiscuously mingled together being oftentimes not only of the same Nation but of the same
then by his Grace excite it that the Sinner may actually believe and repent to the saving of his Soul No Man did ever yet believe repent or come to God for Mercy but in the strength of God Nor did any ever yet obtain the Reward of Eternal Life but through the Grace of God effectually enabling to work in the Lord's Vineyard and making him faithful unto the Death Go then to God in Prayer you that love your Immortal Souls for Grace for Purity for Holiness but be sure that you pray fervently remembring you can never arrive at the Haven of true Happiness without the gentle gales of God's own Spirit to speed you thither By nature you are dead in Trespasses and Sins and if therefore God quicken you not you are lost for ever By nature you are mortally wounded and this your wound is uncurable you must die of it if God heal it not for you By nature you are a Reprobate to every good Word and Work unless therefore God work in you both to will and to do of his own good pleasure you can never work out your own Salvation By nature you are dreadfully polluted all over unclean as a Vessel in which there is no pleasure so that if you beg not the Spirit of God to cleanse you from all filthiness both of Flesh and Spirit you can never be Vessels of Honour sit for the Masters use Holy Jacob being in danger of his Brother Esau's Fury he wrestled with God all Night resolving not to let him go without a Blessing and his two Arms he used in this holy Wrestle (a) Hos 12.4 they were Prayers and Tears Thus Sirs you are in danger not of Man's Fury but of indignation of Wrath and Hell from the great God and will you not wrestle for a Blessing closing in with God by the Arms of Prayer and Tears Oh seek the Lord while he may be found and see that you call upon him whilst yet he is near Do not oh do not trifle away that Time about the Meat that perisheth which should be spent in labouring for the Meat which will endure to eternal Life What is it to gain Earth and lose Heaven to gain the World and lose your Souls What alass to fare deliciously every Day and at Death to be found despairing to be found dropping into Wrath into Tophet into Hell irrecoverably Oh how much better is it that now you should pray and mourn and weep bitterly before the Lord every Day to get prepared for Heaven for Glory for a Crown of Righteousness for the recompence of eternal Life than that you should then weep and howl without Hope for the Misery the Wrath the unsufferable Hellish Flames that must now seize upon you and burn you for ever torment you for ever Well that you may never forget seeking the Lord nor cease praying before him remember where your Strength where your Hope where all your Comfort lies 'T is the Lord alone that hath the Word of Eternal Life and therefore go to him resolving that you will pray and never give over praying that you will wrestle and never give over wrestling that you will weep and sigh and groan and never give over till you have the Blessing The same God who gives us the Crown when we have overcome he must give us strength whereby to overcome He that will cloath us upon with the Garments of Salvation when we come to Heaven he alone it is that must now give us Grace cloathing us first with the Garments of Righteousness that we may be fit for that glorious Inheritance CHAP. XIII The Doctrin improved by way of strong Consolation to God's People exhorting them to live upon a due respect to this eternal Reward as upon hidden Manna IV AND lastly though we have for a little while been leading you as through the Wilderness yet now we begin to draw nigh to the heavenly Canaan My Text is a Tree of Life and I would not willingly come from it till I have shaken some apples of Love some of its sweet and precious Fruit into your Bosoms 'T is the Mount of Transfiguration and I would not willingly come down till your Faces shine with the Oyl of Gladness 'T is a spiritual Eden a Garden full of all pleasant Flowers and I would not willingly come out of it till I have cropt here and there one and gathered you an heavenly Nosegay to revive and refresh with its Divine Fragancy your Spirits in a fainting Hour You have been with us a little upon the Ocean under all those Storms and rageful Tempests which will beat upon such for ever as have no right to the recompence of the Reward But supposing your claim to this Reward good your right unquestionable and evidences without flaw I shall now endeavour to lodge you in the peaceful and wished Harbour of Divine Consolation And truly here is a River the streams whereof if any thing will make glad the City of our God The Well I confess is deep but yet through the Comforters assistance you lending the Bucket of your Faith I doubt not but we may draw Water Water of Life nay the Wine of Eternal Consolation to refresh you to enliven and comfort your Hearts in every Condition What Wilderness need terrify thee having Canaan so plain before thee What Storms can disturb thy peace being come within Ken of thy Eternal Harbour Oh think with thy self dear Christian what Afflictions need discourage thee having always in thy Eye such a far more exceeding and Eternal weight of Glory This Doctrine drops Balm for the healing of wounded Souls 't is as so much spiritual Manna for God's People to feed upon in the Wilderness of this World till they are come to Canaan a Land that floweth with Milk and Hony Deny not then your selves the Comfort of that Reward which God sets before you The Lord for your better encouragement sets Heaven with all the Happiness and Glory thereof in your Eye and therefore let not your Eye upon a pretence of I know not what Modesty or Self-denial be turned away from the stedfast beholding it Oh see Christians that you dwell much in your thoughts in your serious Musings in your Divine Contemplations upon this Theam endeavouring with Moses in all that you do in all that you suffer for God to have a due respect to the recompence of the Reward Oh let the glimpses of Heavens Glory close up your Eyes when you go to Bed at Night and let the Light the bright irradiations and Heart-warming Sun-shine of the same Glory be sure to feast your Eyes when first you awake every Morning Whilst you live live in the Hope of Heaven and when you die oh strive that you may die in the full assurance of Heaven Get like Moses a prospect of Canaan before you leave this Wilderness and whether you pray whether you wrestle with Temptations whether you resist unto Blood striving against Sin or whatever you
Reward of those who having finished their Coursâ— are now gathered to the Spirits of just Men made perfect As God is light and in him there is no darkness at all So the Inheritance of (e) Col. 1.12 God's People is light and in that there is no darkness no night of Sorrow no Trouble at all There is all Joy and nothing but Joy all Comfort and nothing but Comfort all Glory and nothing but Glory there is all fulness of Pleasure a Cup of divine Consolation brimful and not any the least distastful Ingredient to imbitter it Here indeed Job hath his Botches and Hezekiah his Boyl David hath his ulcering Wound and Lazarus his noisom Sores this Man spends his Days in Pain and that Man in Sorrow in this Man the Keepers of the House tremble by reason of a Palsie and in that Man those that look out at the Windows are Darkness by reason of Blindness in one Man the Daughters of Musick are brought low through deafness and in every Man here Sin reigneth unto Death But the rewarded of God in Heaven they feel none of these things they groan under none of these Burdens no Sickness no Sorrow no Viper of Reproach of Persecution of stinging Grief and Heart-rending Vexation can fasten upon them As the upper Region of the Air hath no Meteors no Storms nor Tempests engendred in it So God's People dwelling in the highest Region of heavenly Glory they are quite above the reach of every Storm no Wind of Persecution Trouble or of any the â—east Grief shall ever blow upon them to disturb their rest When Christians you come to (f) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Macar Hom. 26. pag. 349. Heaven then look you may for solace without sighing for Comfort without Grief for Ease without any Pain for rest without ever being weary and for all fulness of Joy and Glory without any Devil to tempt you any Enemy to â—rouble you or any the least Disappointment to afflict and make sad your Spirits to all Eternity 2 The Reward whereunto God allows his People a respect in â—ll their Obedience it 's a sinless Reward cleansing them perfectly from all the reliquâ—s of indwelling Corruption When â—his Sun riseth all the Clouds of Sin will be scattered â—nd dissipated for ever When once you get this Crown upon your Heads you shall feel no more strugling of Sin and Corruption in your Hearts for ever And (g) Non erit concupiscentia in membris non ultrà ulla exâ—rget rebellio carnis sed totus hominis status pudicus â—acificus sana ex integro natura sine omni maculâ â—uga permanebit Cyprian de Ascent Christi §. 9. pag. mihi 526. b. is not â—his Christians a blessed Reward that brings with it a State of simple Perfection so that being once possessed of â—t now you shall never have cause to complain more of â— Body h of Death of an unbelieving Heart of an earthly Mind of a drowsy Spirit of a Law in your (i) Rom. 7.23 Members warring against the Law of your Mind of the Flesh lusting against the Spirit so that you cannot do the things that you would nor of an importunate croud of vain sinful and worldly Thoughts breaking in upon you to damp your Devotion to disquiet your Souls and to interrupt your Peace your Fellowship your sweetest Communion with God over all blessed for ever Here the best of God's People are troubled with Sin dogging them wherever they go and disturbing them in every Duty But in Heaven the whole Body of Corruption shall wholly be laid aside and their Sins never trouble them more Even in this Life God's People have the strength of indwelling Corruption broken that it cannot have any plenary and total Dominion over them But yet till they loose from the Shoar of Time and are landed safe at the Harbour of blessed Eternity like a combersome Inmate it will abide with them (k) Aliud est habere peccatum aliud non obedire desideriis ejus Aug. de Nat. grat c. 62. Habitat sed non regnat manet sed non dominatur aut praevalet evulsum quodammodo necdum tamen expulsum dejectum sed non prorsus ejectum tamen Bern. Is 90. Ser. 10. Yet one thing you must know it is to have Sin abiding in us and another thing not to obey it in the Lust thereof Sin cannot Reign over any of God's People But it will remain in them for the whole time of this mortal Life It is mortally wounded in the weakest yet not wholly slain in the strongest 'T is dejected and thrown down from the Throne of its Regency in the least Babe of Grace But yet not ejected or wholly cast out from the strong hold of its Inherency in those that have most Grace 'T is subdued in all yet not wholly abolished in any of God's People whilst cloathed with Mortality The whitest Swan hath her black feet the fairest Summers-day (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Clem. lib 2. Const cap. 18. hath some misty Clouds the purest Gold its Grains of Allowance the clearest Fire its smoaky Vapours So the holiest Saint hath the Reliques (m) Nemo esse sine delicto potest quamdiu indumento carnis oneratus est cujus infirmitas triplici modo subjacet dominio peccati factis dictis cogitationibus Lactant. lib. 6. cap. 13. 593. of Sin and indwelling Corruption during the whole interim of this mortal Life The Lord hath left these Canaanites and Perizites the Remainders I mean of Sin and indwelling Corruption in us to be as Thorns in our Sides and Pricks in our Eyes to keep us low that we may not be exalted above measure Hereby the Lord hides Pride from our Eyes and so keeps us humble in the sense of our own Vileness The Reliques of Indwelling Corruption are those stinging Corrosives which eat down that Pride of Heart and Self-admiration to which the best of God's People are here Obnoxious Our black Feet those are left that we may not be proud of our fair Feathers For as that holy Father well saith (n) Multum autem nobis in hac carne tribueremus nisi usque ad ejus de positionem sub vâ—niâ viverâ—mus Aug. de Civit. Dei lib. 10. cap. 11. p. 604. we should be apt to grow high ascribing overmuch to our selves whilst cloathed upon with this mortal Flesh did we not daily live under and accordingly stâ—nd in need of pardoning Mercy like the very time that this earthly Tabernacle shall be dissolved As therefore Gravel and Dirt is good to ballast a Ship making it go steadily and keeping it from being blown over with every Wind So the remainders of Sin and indwelling Corruption these keep the People of God from being overthrown through Pride and high towring Thoughts of themselves (o) 2 Sam. 24. David's miscarriage in the Matter of Uriah did more deeply abase him than all the Persecutions that ever he met
vitio est Aug. Epist 29. Why else are we every where called upon in holy Scripture to go on towards every perfection to grow in Grace and daily to be cleansing ourselves from all filthiness of Flesh and Spirit if the Work be already done If for the whole time of this Mortal Life God's People must be growing in Grace as I never yet met with the Man that durst deny it what a Solaecism is it to talk of a sinless Perfection Whatever is still in a growing condition that certainly is not come to its full Stature and utmost maturity (e) Nemo tam sanctus est ut non sanctior nemo tam devotus ut non debeat esse devotior Quis enim in hujus vitae constitutus incerto curriculo aut immunis à tentatione aut liber videatur à culpâ Quis est qui nihil virtutis sibi adjici aut qui nihil vitii sibi optet auferri Prosp Epig. 88. John 15.2 Why else doth every Branch in Christ stand in need of being purged by the Father so long as it bears Fruit unto God if here we can be perfectly free from Sin Every branch saith Christ in me that bringeth forth Fruit he purgeth it that it may bring forth more Fruit. What is it that God purgeth out of Believers but Sin And yet of every Believer bearing Fruit in Christ is it not said that God thus purgeth them There is no Man in the World no branch in Christ though never so fruitful and flourishing but this Text doth undenyably prove him to have many luxuriances to be lopped off and many superfluous Humours of Sin to be purged out Why else do the best of all God's People stand in need of Christ as a spiritual Physician for the whole Time of this Life if here perfectly cleansed from all their Sins and healed of all their spiritual Wounds Common Sense will tell you that as 't is needless to keep on a Plaister when the Wound is made whole every whit or to administer purgative medicines when the peccant Humour is wholly evacuated So 't were needless for God's People to make use of Christ as a spiritual Physician desiring him all their Life to exercise his healing Virtue upon them could they here be compleatly healed of all their spiritual distempers and made perfect in Holiness (f) Matth. 9.12 Tolle morbos tolle vulnera nulla est medicinae causa Aug. Ser. 9. de verb. Dom. For the whole need not the Physician but they that are sick So that either we must acknowledge ourselves to be sick or Christ tells us we have no need of him And indeed to preach up the Doctrine of an absolute perfection in this life is as much Antichristian as any thing I know being a most deadly blow at Christ our spiritual Physician and a Stratagem devised not only in Rome but in Hell it self to put the Lord Christ quite out of Office and his Blood out of Date for the healing of Sinners by making them believe they are perfectly whole and so neither need him to save them nor a Plaister of his precious Blood to heal them (g) Ubi omnis abest culpa ibi calamitates dolores morbi adeoque ipsa mors habere locum non possunt Maccov Nisi enim praecessisset in peccato mors animae nunquam corporis mors in supplicio sequeretur Homo in terram carne non iret si terra peccando non fieret Fulgent de Incarnat cap. 12. pag. 734. But in a word how come all God's People for this interim of Mortality to be daily obnoxious to many sad Pressures Afflictions Calamities and at last to Death itself if perfectly freed from all the Relicks of Sin and indwelling Corruption Whether God may not by his absolute Power and Sovereignity adjudge Man without any consideration of Sin to Eternal Misery is a Question much agitated nor would the affirmative decision of it at all invalidate the strength of this argument not only because such a thing would be per modum simplicis crucâ—atus and not per modum poenae which hath always a respect to vindicative Justice presupposing some guilt or demerit in the Person upon whom 't is inflicted but chiefly because whatever God may do by his absolute Power and Sovereignity yet there is nothing more evident in holy Writ than that God never afflicts any Man but he that is the subject of Sin Indeed whereever God pardoneth Sin there he doth also remove all punishment properly so called never afflicting the Righteous Man in order to the satisfying of his own Justice Nor always with respect to their Sins though for the most it is so as we may see in Job whose Calamities were rather exercises of his Grace than correctives of any vice in him (h) Quia sentio poenam recogito culpam Greg. But yet whereever we see afflictions rushing in upon any Person we must needs conclude that Sin was the Hand which made the breach whereever we see any Mans Teeth set an edge we must needs conclude that Sin was those sower Grapes which made Way for it it being a certain Truth that were we perfectly freed from Sin we should know no Sorrow Though some afflictions are not sent out directly against yet every affliction is a sad consequent and Testimony of indwelling Corruption (i) Jer. 2.17 The bundle of Rods at our back saith plainly there is yet Folly bound up in our Hearts And whatever Calamities we are here subject to do clearly evince us to be still the subjects in whom Sin abideth Let our Adversaries if they can give us but one instance whereever God afflicted an innocent Person or shew us the Man that was wholly free from Sin and yet liable to Sorrow (k) Lam. 3.39 Certainly as Afflictions do daily give birth to the Saints complaints So their Sins do daily give birth to such Afflictions What is it that makes all mankind rot like a Pomegranet shiver like a Pot-sherd splinter like a Venice Glass corrupt like a Standing-pool and molder away like Sodoms Apples into Ashes but Sin Sin it is that infects our purest Air that damps our richest Mines that poysons our sweetest Dainties that lays Thorns in our softest Beds of Down that undermines Palaces pulls down Crowns shakes Thrones and ruinates Kingdoms This is the Mother of all our Trouble the occasion of all our Grief the Gall in our sweetest Hony the Thorn that grows up with our most fragrant Roses the Wormwood that imbitters all our Comforts the inlet to Poverty in our Estates to Sickness in our Bodies and indeed to a whole Iliad of Heart-breaking Miseries 't is the engenderer of Tears in our Eyes the cause of all Sighs and deep fetcht Groans which make sad our Hearts every Day 't is the Harbinger of Death and that which doth inavoidably usher in our final dissolution The Naturalists will tell you that were it not for Vapours ascending there would be
And oh what a sumptuous Feast what glorious a Kingdom what a blessed Reward must that needs be upon which the infinitely wise God was spending from Eternity his Thoughts and providing for you If the Temple were thought so Glorious and Magnificent because as the Jews told Christ it was forty and six Years a building How glorious then how surpassingly Rich and Magnificent must the heavenly Jerusalem be the Temple of God in Zion that City whose Foundation was laid before Eternity in God's electing Love which was a framing from everlasting and whose builder and maker in time was God over all Blessed for ever Though this stately Building were reared up in time yet it was a Framing before all time yea from all Eternity This Tree of Life thought it only Bud and Blossom and bring forth Fruit in time yet it was planted from all Eternity in the Paradise of God's everlasting good Will towards his People And do not think that the great God would spend his Thoughts from Eternity upon Trifles or the Framing a poor pitiful Cottage from everlasting No you will find it answerable to the Preparations made for it such a City such a Feast such a glorious Reward as the great God will not be ashamed to own for the Fruit as well of his infinite Wisdom as of his eternal Love 11 THE Reward whereunto God allows his People a Respect in all their Obedience it 's a continued and an uninterruptible Reward In this present Life we have nothing constant no Comfort no Enjoyment no Priviledge whereof we can always have the actual Fruition and wherewith we can sensibly delight our selves every day But in the Reward of eternal Life there is no such Inconstancy whatever Glory whatever Joy whatever Comfort Happiness and Soul-satisfying Pleasures that carrieth in it we shall have the actual Perception the sweet tast and the sensible lively Fruition of it every moment without any the least intermission As the damned in Hell have fulness of Misery without one moments Respite one comfortable Divertisement from those hellish Torments under which they lie or one half Minutes ease to all Eternity So the Saints of God in Heaven they have fulness of Joy without any the least moments intermission of it without any interim of Disturbance without any unhappy Divertisement to suspend hinder or discontinue their Joy their Happiness their actual delight in God so much as one moment for ever Our Comforts in this Life are like the Sea that have their Fluxes and Refluxes their Ebbings and Flowings if this hour we have a full Tide yet the next it 's low Water and our Comforts are withdrawn But in Heaven it 's always high Water with God's People they have Rivers of purest Pleasures that will never pass away from them here they have a full spring Tide of Joy and sweetest Comforts that will never be over What the holy Ghost affirms of the four living Creatures praising God which is (f) Rev. 4.8 that they rest not day and night will hold true of all the Saints when they come to Heaven where they shall not rest day and night nor one moment of either rejoycing in God and warbling out his Praises for ever Nor doth this at all incommodate the Nature of the Saints Happiness which is (g) Heb. 4.9 said to be a Rest remaining for them Not yet evacuate that other Scripture where such as die in the Lord are pronounced Blessed (h) Rev. 14.13 because then they rest from their Labours For 't is not from the Exercise of such Graces as a State of Happiness will comport with that God's People rest in Heaven But from that Difficulty and those Weaknesses which attending our Graces here on Earth do keep us that we cannot always be in the actual exercise of them From enjoying God from delighting in him and from glorifying of him they rest not in Heaven But it is from enjoying him from delighting in him and glorifying of him with Perfection Deadness Heart-wounding Distractions and Weariness as now they do that they rest in Heaven For though Happiness be defined to be a perfect State of a reasonable Creature wherein it enjoys all Good that is due to it Yet you must (i) Cum beatitutio consâ—â—at in ultimo hominis actu necesse est ipsam esse aliquam hominis operationem Aq. 1. 2. q. 3. â— 2. not think this throws a Man into a dull unactive Lethargy obstructing like some mortal Apoplexy the Souls Operations Though the Happiness of God s People be called a Rest which is said to be the Perfection of Motion yet sure I am this Rest will never put an end to all Motion nor hinder the Soul from delighting in God from loving and praising him so much as one moment to all Eternity The Truth is the Rest which remains for the Saints in Heaven that eternal Sabbatism of Happiness it lies (k) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mainly in this that they shall never rest nor be taken off night nor day from beholding and loving from loving and praising from praising and enjoying God for ever without all weariness Whilst here we live in the croud of worldly Business and have our Souls clogged with a Body of Death why alas there are a thousand things step in to divert our Thoughts to damp our Devotion to interrupt our sweet Communion Fellowship and Peace with God But this Reward will no more endure any such Divertisements nor admit of such Soul-sadning Interruptions than the Sun in its noonday Brightness will endure the presence of a darksom Night Though here Christians your Condition be often cloudy and your Joy that shone bright yesterday is eclipsed to day Yet in Heaven your Joy your Comfort your Fellowship with God shall not be thus inconstant but there you shall have an uninterrupted Sun-shine of Glory and Happiness OH then Christians think what is the excellency exceeding greatness and Glory of your Reward in Heaven where you shall have the quick and accurate sense of all fulness of Joy where you shall not meet with any thing to distract you to divert your Thoughts to take you off no not for the least moment from your God your Redeemer your Comforter your Happiness to all Eternity Here you find God like a way-faring Man that turns into your Souls but for a Night and is gone in the Morning But in Heaven he will make his constant abode with you he will ever be letting out of his Love of his Goodness to you and will cause you not now and then but every moment to be drinking of the River of his Pleasures Like the sight of a Star through an Optick Glass when held by a Palsie-hand such is our sight of God and Heaven and Glory in this Life we are long ere we can fix the Eye of our Faith upon them and though the sight be very pleasant yet we soon lose it our Thoughts wavering through our Minds Weakness Sometime from
delight in Sin or take pleasure in it 10 A due respect had to this glorious Reward it will comfort your Hearts in all your Afflictions and make you greatly rejoice under them how many and grievous soever An Eye stedfastly fixed upon heavenly Glory this will bring down Heaven inro your Souls causing your consolations to abound by Christ (c) 2 Cor. 1. when ever your sufferings abound for him A bright prospect of the celestial Canaan as it bears up the Spirits of God's People with invincible patience under all their Pressures and Calamities which befal them in the Wilderness of this present World So it anoynts their Head with Oyl causeth their Cup to overflow with Gladness and makes their Hearts to rejoice with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory (d) 2 Cor. 7.4 Thus we find Paul professing of himself I am exceeding joyful in all our tribulation 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I do overflow saith he with Joy I have more than Heart can hold (e) Acts. 16.25 Nor is this profession of his any hyperbolical strain but an experimented Truth whereof we have full assurance from Paul and Silas his Prison vouches when in bonds together then brim full of Joy so full that their Hearts could not hold it from breaking out and running over at their Mouths into Psalms of Praise Like the Tree cast into the bitter Waters of Marah Faith eying the recompence of the Reward it sweetens all Afflictions enabling the Soul not only to stand it out in a fiery tryal but to glory for Gladness of Heart under the Cross at the Stake in the Flames of Martyrdom The Soul that can rejoice in hope of the Glory of God will easily glory in all the tribulations that it suffers for God (f) Rom. 5.3 So saith the Apostle we glory in tribulation also 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that word implieth the triumphant act of Joy a Joy expressed with holy Boasting and exultation of Spirit such a Joy as the Soul is not ashamed to own and make her boast of let Earth and Hell let the Devil and wicked Men do their worst This Truth I might give you subscribed by all the holy Martyrs and confessors of Christ who thought Famine dainty fare for Christ that complemented wild Beasts to devour them that snatcht at Torments as if they had been rich Treasures that laid down their Bodies as a Man would lay off an old Garment to put on a new that went as gladly to their Flames as a labouring Man to his Bed and embraced the most cruel Martyrdom as an holy stratagem to escape the stroak of Death (g) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to pass from Life to Life as Basil hath it (h) Euseb Eccles Hist lib. 5. cap. 1. Hence when Juliâ—n the Apostate had caused Marcus Bishop of Arethusa to be tormented one of his Nobles admiring that holy Man's Joy cries out we are ashamed oh Emperour the Christians laught at your Cruelty growing more resolute thereby so that these things are more fearful to the Tormentors than to the sufferers (i) Acts and Mon. vol. 3. pag. 177. Were it needful I might tell you of Dr. Tayler Martyr in the Marian persecution who drawing nigh to the place of Execution leapt for Joy as Men do in dancing professing himself never better in all his Life for now I know saith he I am almost at home I have but two Stiles to go over and then I am at my Father's House With like holy Joy was Cicely Ormes Martress filled (k) Acts and Mon. vol. 3. pag. 853. who when brought to the Stake came and kissed it saying Welcome the sweet Cross of Christ and when now the Flames were kindled upon her my Soul quoth she doth magnifie the Lord and my Spirit rejoiceth in God my Saviour (l) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Basil Orat. in 40. Martyr After the same manner we find certain Martyrs that were cast out naked in a Winters night and to suffer the next Day comforting one another from this Recompence of Reward in these Words sharp is the Cold but sweet is Paradise troublesome is the way but pleasant will be the end of our Journey let us endure cold a little and the Patriarchs Bosom shall refresh us for ever Nor is the story of Theodoret unworthy our remembrance who found so much sweetness in this even when he was upon the Rack in the midst of his grievous Torments that he found not the least anguish in his torture but a great deal of Pleasure Insomuch that when they took him off from the Rack he complained that they had done him much wrong in ceasing to torment him For said he all the while I was tortured upon the Rack me thought there was a young Man in white an Angel from the Lord stood by me who wiped off the sweat wherein I found much sweetness which now I have lost In these and many the like instances which might be given we see how an Eye fixed upon Heaven's Glory in our sufferings brings down much of that Glory into them making the cruel Tortures of God's People infinitely more sweet than their ease and more desirable to them Let Faith but reallize the Glory of Heaven behold the Reward of Eternal Life and observe the infinite Pleasures which are at God's right Hand for evermore and then the Soul cannot choose but rejoice taking Pleasure in Reproaches in Persecutions in Exile in Imprisonments in Death itself for the sake of Christ This good Mr. Glover found true who going to the stake though before he were a Man of Sorrows yet now he is a Man of Joys and so filled with divine Consolations that he can no longer contain but crieth out speaking of the Comforter making his Heart to rejoice in hope of this glorious Reward he is come he is come Oh little can you now conceive what Comfort what Gladness of Soul what Joy in the Holy Ghost God's People have in their sufferings when stedfastly eying the Glory that shall be revealed in them NOW they find an Hony-comb in the Lyon's Carcass they suck sweetness out of the bitterness of Herbs now they gather Grapes of Thorns and Figs of Thistles now they have a warm Sunshine of Comfort from God to make glad their Hearts Would you therefore have Comfort Christians and be able to smile when the World frowns upon you Would you have your Prison be turned into a Paradise Would you if banished into a strange Land find a spiritual Eden a Garden of all heavenly delights in every howling Wilderness through which you may wander When reproached when fawn asunder when cruelly scourged tormented and dying in the hottest Flames of Martyrdom would you then triumph rejoicing with Joy unspeakable and full of Glory Oh see then see that you look within the veil fixing your Eye upon that Crown of Life which is set before you This will turn your Sorrow into Joy this will give you the Oyl of
(b) Erimus Christiani cum Christo gloriosi de Deo patre beati de perpetua voluptate laetantes semper in conspectu Det agentes Deo gratias semper Cyprian ad Demetr pa. 331. you shall be glorious as Christ is glorious blessed of God replenished with all fulness of Joy and shall have an everlasting Sabbath of Rest taking up your sweetest Repose in the Bosom of your blessed Redeemer loving praising and enjoying him in one eternal Soul-entrancing Fruition HOW chearfully then may the People of God undergo their present Sufferings and entertain when it comes their approaching Dissolution The hope which Jacob had to enjoy the beautiful Rachel was to him a comfortable Hope under all his Hardships yet not worthy to make an Emblem of ours who hope within a few days more to enjoy the Light of God's Countenance and the Soul-ravishing Beauty of our blessed Redeemer's Face in Glory Affliction may attend God's People all their Life long but only as a Foil to set off their future Blessedness and make Heaven so much the sweeter Death it self that bold Pursuivant will erelong look in at the Windows of God's dearest Children but only as their Birth-day to an Eternity of Joy unspeakable and beyond imagination Lift up then your Heads with Joy amidst all your Afflictions to that Crown of Life that follows after And while the Thorn of Death is at your Breast ready to let out your Life-blood even then let your Souls break forth like so many heavenly Nightingales into singing as knowing that your bodily Dissolution will only make way for your Coronation in Glory You (c) Psal 126.5 6. may sow in Tears but shall reap in Joy You may go out weeping though you be such as bear precious Seed but shall doubtless come again rejoycing and bring your full Sheaves of Glory along with you Sorrow you may have over Night when you have the advantage of the Season to sleep it out and pass it over But your Joy will come in the Morning when you shall enter fresh upon it and have before you to enjoy it in the whole Day of a blessed Eternity that will never be over Your Joys are now mixt with Sorrows your Comforts with many Crosses and your Light with much Darkness But having finished your Course Death will put an end to all your Sorrows remove your Crosses and so compass you about with the Light of Glory When wicked Men die their Works follow them in eternal Hellish-torments But when the People of God die their Works follow them in the full Reward of everlasting heavenly Glory For Believers over Hell and Death Christ hath got the Victory and lets (d) 1 Cor. 15.57 them wear the Grown So that (e) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Chrysost now Death which to wicked Men is porta inserni the Gate of Hell to you that believe is become in tâ—â—itus coeli an entrance into Heaven Death which to the wicked is as God's Serjeant to drag them into the infernal fiery Dungeon is to you the Lord's Gentleman Usher to conduct you into the supernal Palace of heavenly Glory And who would not through Storms and Tempests to come to such a Harbour Who would not embrace a fiery Tryal Complement Death and come to the Grave with gladness knowing that to be the ready way to the coelestial Paradise They that come from (f) Chrysost hom de divit Laz. a City to a Country Village to transact Matters of Concern there when their Business is well accomplished they return into the City again with Joy Thus Christians you whose Souls came from the new Jerusalem to Negotiate the great Matters of Eternity here in this World having finished your Course and kept the Faith how joyful may you return like so many Royal Ships laden with the richest Merchandise to that heavenly City where the (g) Rev. 21.23 Lamb will be your Light and God your Glory Well may you be content to serve an hard Apprentiship here so you may come hereafter to be made free Denizens of this heavenly Jerusalem Well may you go on in the Work of the Lord having such a Crown in your Eye and so sure after all your Conflicts to be set upon your Heads Well may you Christians having that clear prospect of Glory which (h) At enim nos exequias adornamus eadem tranquillitate quâ vivimus Minut. Foel Oct. 125. erelong like a divine Load-stone will draw you to it self subscribe your selves upon all Occasions with that resolved Servant of Christ Ann Ayscough such as neither Fear Death nor dread his Might but as merry as those that are bound for Heaven Now unto the King Eternal Immortal Invisible the only Wise God be Honour and Glory for ever and ever Amen FINIS Mr. Joseph Cooper's Advice to his Wife and Children THE Regions of Eternal Love Which I approach my Soul doth move Something Divine with you to leave While Death of me doth you bereave When I in silent Dust do dwell These Lines to you my Love shall tell Your Widows Vail when you put on Your Fatherless when they make moan Accept these Words naught else I crave Do not despise your Husband 's Grave Know Life is short and Death most sure To dying thoughts yourself inure What I am now Dust and a Shade Your self must be your Life doth fade Let warm Repose nourish no Sin Old Age approaching courts Death in Of my cold Bed in Dust take part You must with or against your Heart This I suggest from silent urn That whilst I speak your Heart may burn And be inflam'd with heavenly Love Aspiring still to things above Your Children sweet in number many Resign to God reserve not any He is their Father and he will Their Souls with all his Goodness fill Doubt not his Love or tenderness To Widows and to Fatherless Can Love you hate can Life you kill Can evil spring from God's good will This is his will that Widows chast Should trust in God and not make hast This is his Goodness to their Seed He will them help in time of need Upon this Promise still depend It fills with joy makes God your Friend His heart is open and his hand Treasures of Love and Grace command To Widows that are pure in heart And Children he doth Life impart And let me whisper one thing more You and your Children have in store Treasures of Sighs Tears Groans and Prayers Of which you are the rightful Heirs He that in silent dust doth sleep For you to God did often weep Nay weeping was his easiest part He sigh'd he groan'd he broke his heart Strugling with God that he might give You Grace in Christ to make you live Hoping for this he did expire God will you save you shall admire Sweet Children and my Spouse most dear Live still by Faith and nothing fear But Sin which is the root of Strife The Seed of Death the Plague of Life Your