in the name of the same person and particularly of the winged stati of the good soul when apart from the body carried in its triumphant flying Chariot of which he gives a large description somewhat resembling Solomons rapturous Metaphor Before I was aware my soul made me as the Chariots of Aminnadib But being in the body 't is with it as with a Bird that hath lost its wings it falls a sluggish weight to the earth Which indeed is the state even of the best in a degree within this Tabernacle A sleepy torpose stops their flight They can fall but not ascend the remaines of such a drowsiness do still hang even about Saints themselves The Apostle therefore calls upon such to awake out of sleep from that consideration as we know men are not wont to sleep so intensely towards morning that now their salvation was nearer then when they believed i. e. as some judicious Interpreters understand that place for that they were nearer death and eternity than when they first became Christians though this passage be also otherwise and not improbably interpreted However 2. The holy souls release and dismission from its earthly body which is that we propounded next to be considered will excusse and shake off this drowsie sleep Now is the happy Season of its awaking into the heavenly vital light of God The blessed morning of that long desired day is now dawned upon it the cumbersome night-vail is laid aside and the garments of salvation and immortal glory are now put on It hath past through the trouble darkness of a wearisome night and now is joy arrived with the morning as we may be permitted to allude to those words of the Psalmist though that be not supposed to be the peculiar sense I conceive my self here not concern'd operously to insist in proving that the souls of Saints sleep not in the interval between death and the general resurrection but enjoy present blessedness It being besides the design of a practical discourse which rather intends the propounding and improvement of things acknowledg'd and agree'd for the advantage and benefit of them with whom they are so then the discussing of things dubious and controversible And what I here propound in order to a consequent improvement and application should methinks pass for an acknowledg'd truth among them that professedly believe and seriously read and consider the Bible For meer Philosophers that do not come into this account 't were impertinent to discourse with them from a Text of Scripture and where my design only obliges me to intend the handling of that and to deliver it from what may fitly be supposed to have its ground there unless their allegations did carry with them the Species of demonstrating the simple impossibility of what is asserted thence to the power of that God whose word we take it to be which I have not found any thing they say to amount to That we have reason to presume it an acknowledged thing among them that will be concluded by Scripture That the Soul doth not sleep when it ceases to animate its earthly body many plain Texts do evince which are amassed together by the reverend Mr. Baxter some of the principal whereof I would invite any that waver in this matter seriously to consider As the words of our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That of the Apostle We are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And that I am in a straight having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. That passage The Spirits of just men made perfect c. Which are expressions so clear that it is hard for an industrious Caviller to find what to except to them and indeed the very exceptions that are put in are so frivolous that they carry a plain confession there is nothing colourable to be said Yea and most evident it is from those Texts not only that holy souls sleep not in that state of separation but that they are awaked by it as out of a former sleep into a much more lively and vigorous activity than they enjoyed before And translated into a state as much better then their former as the tortures of a Cross are more ungrateful then the pleasures of a Paradise these joyes fuller of vitalitie then those sickly dying faintings As the immediate presence and close imbraces of the Lord of life are more delectable then a mournful disconsolate absence from him which the Apostle therefore tells us he desired as far better and with an Emphasis which our English too faintly expresses for he uses a double comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by much more better and as a perfected i. e a crowned triumphant Spirit that hath attained the end of its race as the words import in the agonistical notion is now in a more vivid joyous state then when lately toyling in a tiresome way it languished under many imperfections And it is observable that in the three former Scriptures that phrase of being with Christ or being present with him is the same which is used by the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 17. to express the state of blessedness after the resurrection intimating plainly the sameness of the blessedness before and after And though this phrase be also used to signiâ—ie the present injoyment saints have of Gods gracious presence in this life which is also in nature and kind the same yet it is plainly used in these Scriptures the two latter more especially to set out to us such a degree of that blessedness that in comparison thereof our present being with Christ is a not being with him our presence with him now an absence from him While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and I am in a strait betwixt two desiring to depart or having a desire unto desolution and to be with Christ c. How strangely mistaken and disappointed had the blessed Apostle been had his absence from the body his dissolution his release set him further off from Christ or made him less capable of converse with him then before he was And how absurd would it be to say the spirits of the just are perfected by being cast into a stupifying sleep yea or being put into any state not better then they were in before But their state is evidently far better The body of death is now laid aside and the wights of sin that did so easily beset are shaken off flesh and sin are laid down together the soul is rid of its burdensome bands and shackles hath quitted its filthy darksome prison the usual place of lasiness and sloth is come forth of it's drowsie dormitory and the glory of God is risen upon it 'T is now come into the world of realities where things appear as they are no longer as in a drean or vision of the night
satisfaction and blessedness of the expecting soul. And wherein it may do so is not altogether unapprehensible Admit that a Spirit had it never been imbodied might be as well without a body or that it might be as well provided of a body out of other materials 't is no unreasonable supposition that a connate aptitude to a body should render humane souls more happy in a body sufficiently attempered to their most noble operations And how much doth relation and propriety endear things otherwise mean and inconsiderable or why should it be thought strange that a soul connaturallized tâ— matter should be more particularly inclined to a particular portion thereof So as that it should appropriate such a part and say 't is mine And will it not be a pleasure to have a vitalitâ— diffused through what even more remotely appertains to me to have every thing belonging to the Supposition perfectly vindicated from the Tyrannous dominion of death The returnâ—ing of the Spirits into a benumb'd or sleeping toe or finger adds a contentment to a maâ— which he wanted before Nor is it hence neâ—cessary the Soul should covet a re-union wiâ—â— every effluvious particle of its former body A desire implanted by God in a reasonable soul will aim at what is convenient not whâ— shall be cumbersome or monstrous And how pleasant will it be to comtemplatâ— and admire the wisdom and power of thâ— great Creatour in this so glorious a change when I shall find a Clod of Earth an Heaâ— of Dâ—st refined into a Celestial purity anâ— brightness when what was sown in corruptiâ—â— shall be raised in incorruption what was sown 〈◊〉 dishonour is raised in glory what was sown in weakness is raised in power what was sown a natural body is raised a Spiritual body When this corruptible shall have put on incorruption and this mortal an immortality and death be wholly swallowed up in victory So that this awaking may well be understood to carry that in it which may bespeak it the proper season of the Saints consummate satisfaction and blessedness But besides what it carries in it self there are other more extrinsical concurrents that do further signalize this season and import a great increase of blessedness then to Gods holy ones The body of Christ is now compleated the fulness of him that filleth all in all and all the so nearly related parts cannot but partake in perfection and reflected glory of the whole There is joy in Heaven at the conversion of one sinner though he have a troublesome Scene yet to pass over afterwards in a tempting wicked unquiet world how much more when the many sons shall be all brought to glory together The designes are all now accomplished and wound up into the most glorious result and issue whereof the Divine Providence had been as in travel for so many thousand years 'T is now seen how exquisite wisdom govern'd the world and how steady a tendency the most intricate and perplexed Methods of Providence had to one stated and most worthy end Specially the constitution administration and ends of the Mediatours Kingdom are now beheld in the exact aptitudes order and conspicuous glory when so blessed an issue and success shall commend and crown the whole undertaking The Divine Authority is now universally acknowledged and adored his Justice is vindicated and satisfied his Grace demonstrated and magnified to the uttermost The whole assembly of Saints solemnly acquitted by publique sentence presented spotless and without blemish to God and adjudged to eternal blessedness 'T is the day of solemn triumph and jubilation upon the finishing of all Gods works from the creation of the world wherein the Lord Jesus appears to be glorified in his Saints and admired in all that believe Upon which ensues the resignation of the Mediatours Kingdome all the ends being now attained that the Father â—imself may be immediately all in all How aptly then are the fuller manifestations of God the more glorious display of all his Attributes the larger and more abundant Effusions of himself reserv'd as the best Wine to the last unto this joyful day Created perfections couldnot have been before so absolute but they might admit of improvement Their capacities not so large but they might be extended further and then who can doubt but that divine communications may also have a proportionable increase and that upon the concourse of so many great occasions they shall have so CHAP. XI An Introduction to the use of the Doctrine hitherto proposed The Use divided into Inferences of Truth Rules of Duty 1. Inference That Blessedness consists not in any sensual injoyment 2. Inference The Spirit of man since 't is capable of so high a Blessedness a Being of high excellency AND now is our greatest work yet behind the improvement of so momentous a truth to the affecting and transforming of hearts That if the Lord shall so far vouchsafe his assistance and blessing they may taste the sweetness feel the power and bear the impresse and image of it This is the work both of greatest necessity difficulty and excellency and unto which all that hath been done hitherto is but subservient and introductive Give me leave therefore Reader to stop thee here and demand of thee ere thou go further hast thou any design in turning over these leaves of bettering thy Spirit of getting a more refined heavenly temper of soul art thou weary of thy dross and earth and longing for the first fruits the beginnings of glory dost thou wish for a soul meet for the blessedness hitherto described What is here written is designed for thy help and furtherance But if thou art looking on these pages with a wanton rolling eye hunting for novelties or what may gratifie a prurient wit a coy and squeamish fancy Go read a Romance or some piece of Drollery know here 's nothing for thy turn and dread to meddle with matters of everlasting concernment without a serious Spirit read not another line till thou have sighed out this request Lord keep me from trifling with the things of Eternity Charge thy soul to consider that what thou art now reading must be added to thy account against the great day 'T is amazing to think with what vanity of mind the most weighty things of Religion are entertained amongst Christians Things that should swallow up our souls drink up our Spirits are heard as a tale that is told disregarded by most scorned by too many What can be spoken so important or of so tremendous consequence or of so confessed truth or with so awful solemnity and premised mention of the sacred name of the Lord as not to find either a very slight entertainment or contemptuous rejection and this by persons avowing themselves Christians We seem to have little or no advantage in urging men upon their own principles and with things they most readily and professedly assent to Their hearts are as much untouch't and void of impression by the
visions of this Makers face that chuses thus to entertain it self on earth rather then partake the effusions of Divine glory above That had rather creep with Worms then soar with Angels associate with Bruits then with the Spirits of just men made perfect who can solve the Phaenomenon or give a rational account why there should be such a Creature as man upon the Earth abstructing from the hopes of another world who can think it the effect of an infinite wisdom or account it a more worthy design then the representing of such a Scene of actions and affairs by Puppets on a Stage for my part upon the strictest enquiry I see nothing in the life of man upon earth that should render it for it self more the matter of a rational election supposing the free option given him in the first moment of his being then presently again to cease to be the next moment Yea and is there not enough obvious in every mans experience to incline him rather to the contrary choice and supposing a future blessedness in another world to make him passionately desirous with submission to the Divine pleasure of a speedy dismission into it Do not the burdens that press us in this earthly taâ—ernacle teach our very sense and urge opprest nature into involuntary groans while as yet our consideration doth intervene And if we do consider is not every thought a sting making a much deeper impression then what only toucheth our flesh and bones Who can reflect upon his present state and not presently be in pangs The troubles that follow humanity are many and great those that follow Christianity more numerous and grievous The sickness pains losses disappointments and whatsoever afflictions that are in the Apostles language humane or common to men as are all the external sufferings of Christians in nature and kind though they are liable to them upon an account peculiar to themselves which there the Apostle intimates are none of our greatest evils yet even upon the account of them have we any reason to be so much in love with so unkind â— world Is it not strange our very Bridewel should be such a Heaven to us But these things are little considerable in comparison of the more Spiritual grievances of Christians as such that is those that afflict our Souls while we are under the conduct of Christ designing for a blessed eternity if we indeed make that our business and do seriously intend our spirits in order thereto The darkness of our beclouded minds The glimmering ineffectual apprehension we have of the most important things the inconsistency of our shattered thoughts when we would apply them to Spiritual Objects The great difficulty of working off an ill frame of heart and the no less difficulty of retaining a good our being so frequently tost as between Heaven and Hell when we sometimes think our selves to have even attained and hope to descend no more and are all on a suddain plung'd in the Ditch so as that our own Clothes might abhor us fall so low into an earthly temper that we can like nothing Heavenly or Divine and because we cannot are enforced justly most of all to dislike our selves Are these things little with us How can we forbear to cry out of the depths to the Father of our Spirits that he would pity and relieve his own Off-spring yea are we not weary of our crying and yet more weary of holding in How do repell'd Temptations return again and vanquished Corruptions recover strength We know not when our work is done We are miserable that we need to be always watching and more miserable that we cannot watch but are so often surprized and overcome of evil We say sometimes with our selves we will seek relief in retirement but we cannot retire from our selves or in converse with Godly friends but they sometimes prove snares to us and we to them Or we hear but our own miseries repeated in their complaints would we pray How faint is the breath we utter How long is it ere we can get our Souls possest with any becoming apprehensions of God or lively sense of our own concernments Would we meditate We sometimes go about to compose our thoughts but we may as well assay to hold the Windes in our fist If we venture forth into the world how do our Senses betray us How are we mockt with their impostures Their neerer objects become with us the onely realities and eternal things are all vanisht into airie shadowes Reason and Faith are laid asleep and our Sense dictates to us what we are to believe and do as if it were our only guide and Lord. And what are we not yet wearie Is it reasonable to continue in this State of our own choice Is misery become so natural to us so much our element that we cannot affect to live out of it Is the darkness and dirt of a dungeon more grateful to us then a free open air and sun Is this Flesh of ours so lovely a thing that we had rather suffer so many deaths in it then one in putting it off and mortality with it While we carry it about us our Souls impart a kind of life to it and it gives them death in exchange Why do we not cry out more feelingly O wretched man that I am who shall deliver me from this Body of Death Is it not grievous to us to have so cumbersome a yoke-fellow to be tied as Mezentius is said to have done the living and the dead together Do not we find the Distempers of our Spirits are mostly from these bodies we are so in love with either as the proper Springs or as the occasion of them From what cause is our drowsy sloth our eager passions our aversion to Spiritual objects but from this impure Flesh or what else is the Subject about which our vexatious cares or torturing fears our bitter griefs are taken up day by day And why do we not consider that 't is onely our love to it that gives strength and vigour to the most of our temptations as wherein it is more immediately concern'd and which makes them so often victorious thence to become our after-afflictions He that hath learn'd to mortifie the inordinate love of the Body will he make it the business of his life to purvey for it Will he offer violence to his own Soul to secure it from violence will he comply with mens Lusts and humors for its advantage and accommodation or yeild himself to the tyranny of his own avarice for its future or of his more-sensual Lusts for it s present content Will it not rather be pleasing to him that his outward man be exposed to perish while his inward man is renewed day by day He to whom the thoughts are grateful of laying it down will not though he neglect not duty towards it spend his days in its continual Service and make his Soul an hell by a continual provision for the flesh and
glory of God Your hearts being bent thitherward and made willing to run through whatsoever difficulties of life or death to attain it Do not think that Christ came into the world and dyed to procure the pardon of your sins and so translate you to heaven while your hearts should still remain cleaving to the earth He came and returned to prepare a way for you and then call not drag you thither That by his Precepts and Promises and Example and Spirit he might form and fashion your Souls to that glorious state And make you willing to abandon all things for it And low now the God of all grace is calling you by Jesus Christ unto his eternal Glory Direct then your eyes and hearts to that marke the Prise of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus 'T is ignominious by the common suffrage of the civiliz'd world not to intend the proper business of our Callings To your Calling to forsake this world and mind the other make hast then to quit your selves of your entanglements of all earthly dispositions and affections Learn to live in this world as those that are not of it that expect every day and wish to leave it whose hearts are gone already 'T is dreadful to dye with pain and regret To be forced out of the Body To dye a violent death and go away with an unwilling refluctant heart The wicked is driven away in his wickedness Fain he would stay longer but cannot He hath not power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death He must away whether he will or no. And indeed much against his will So it cannot but be where there is not a previous knowledge and love of a better state where the Soul understands it not and is not effectually attempered and framed to it O get then the lovely Image of the future glory into your minds keep it ever before your eyes Make it familiar to your thoughts Imprint daily there these words I shall behold thy face I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And see that your souls be inrich't with that righteousness Have inwrought into them that holy rectitude that may dispose them to that blessed state Then will you dye with your own consent and go away not driven but allur'd and drawn You will go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon their heads As those that know whether you go even to a state infinitely worthy of your desires and choice and where 't is best for you to be You will part with your souls not by a forcible separation but a joyful surrender and resignation They will dislodge from this earthly Tabernnacle rather as putting it off then having it rent and torn away Loosen your selves from this body by degrees as we do any thing we would remove from a place where it sticks fast Gather up your spirits into themselves Teach them to look upon themselves as distinct thing Inure them to the thoughts of a dissolution Be continually as taking leave Cross and disprove the common maxime and let your hearts which they use to say are wont to dye last dye first Prevent death and be mortifi'd towards every earthly thing beforehand that death mave have nothing to kill but your body And that you may not die a double death in one hour and suffer the death of your body and of your love to it both at once Much less that this should survive to your greater and even incurable misery Shake off your Bands and Fetters the terrene affections that so closely confine you to the house of your bondage And lift up your heads in expectation of the approaching Jubilee the day of your redemption when you are to go out free and enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When you shall serve and groan and complain no longer Let it be your continual song and the matter of your daily praise that the time of your happy deliverance is hastening on that ete long you shall be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That he hath not doom'd you to an everlasting imprisonment within those closs and clayie walls wherein you have been so long shut up from the beholding of his sight and glory In the thoughts of this while the outward man is sensibly perishing let the inward revive and be renewed day by day What Prisoner would be sorry to see the walls of his Prison House so an Heathen speaks mouldering down and the hopes arriving to him of being delivered out of that darkness that had buried him of recovering his liberty and injoying the free air and light What Champion inur'd to hardship would stick to throw off rotten rags rather expose a naked placid free body to naked placid free air The truly generous soul to be a little above never leaves the body against its will Rejoyce that it is the gracious pleasure of thy good God thou shalt not always inhabit a Dungeon nor lie amid'st so impure and disconsolate darkness that he will shortly exchange thy filthy Garments for those of Salvation and Praise The end approaches As you turn over these leaves so are your days turned over And as you are now arrived to the end of this Book God will shortly write Finis to the Book of your Life on Earth and shew you your names written in Heaven in the Book of that Life which shall never end FINIS Senec. * Pruritus disputandi scobies Ecclesia * Ut ulcera quaedam nocituras manus apoetunt tactu gaudent faedam corporum scabiem delectat quicquid â—xâ—sperâ—t Non alitè◠dixerim his mâ—ntibus in quas voluptates velut mala ulcera crupê unt voluptati esse laborem vexâ—tionemque Sâ—n. de tranquillitate anâ—â—â— Sen de Brev. vit * Nihil est Deo similius aut gratius quam vir animo perfectè bonus c. Apul. de Deo Soâ—â—atis * Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est conciliante virtute amicitiam dico etiam necessitudâ— similitudâ— c. Sca de prov * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Minâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dyonys Halicar Antiq. Rom. lib. 8. Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. * Rom. 16 18. Phil. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vâ—lgar Latine Eâ—oautem 〈…〉 appaâ—câ—o â—oâ—spectui 〈◊〉 satiabo◠〈◊〉 â—â—pâ—â—uâ—riâ— gloâ—ia tua Exactly following the Seventy as doth the Ethiopique the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little the Arabique lesse the Syâ—iâ—ck mistook it seem◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so read that word saith which we read likenesse Hieronymus juxta Hebr. reads the words exactly as we do Ego in justiâ—iâ viâ—â—bo faciâ—m tuam implebor cum evigilavero similitudine tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seems best to be rendered here by or through righteousness as by the condition
by the former of these Laws the Righteousness thereof consisting in a perfect and sinless obedience The latter therefore is the onely measure and rule of this Righteousness viz. The Law of Faith or that part of the Gospel-revelation which contains and discovers our duty what we are to be and do in order to our Blessedness being as to the matter of it the whole Moral Law before appertaining to the Covenant of Works attempered to the state of faln sinners by evangelical mitigations and indulgency by the super-added precepts of repentance and faith in a Mediator with all the other duty respecting the Mediator as such and cloathed with a new form as it is now taken into the constitution of the Covenant of grace This Rule though it be in the whole of it capable of coming under one common Notion as being the standing obliging Law of Christs mediatory Kingdom yet according to the different matter of it its obligations and annexed sanctions are different As to its matter it must be understood to require 1. The meer being and sincerity of those gracious principles with their essential Acts as there is opportunity expressed therein in opposition to the nullity and insincerity of them 2. All the possible degrees and improvements of such principles and acts in opposition to any the least failure or defect In the former respect it measures the very effence of this Righteousness and enjons what concerns the being of the righteous man as such in the latter it measures all the super-added degrees of this righteousness which relations where they have a mutable foundation admit injoyning what concern's the perfection of the rightous man In the former respect righteousness is opposed to wickedness as in that of the Psalmist I have kept the wayes of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God therefore hath the Lord recompenced me according to my righteousness In the latter to sin with which the Apostle makes unrighteousness coextent in these words If we say we have no sin re deceive our selves c. if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleansâ— us from all unrighteousness Accordingly are its sanctions divers For wherein it injoyns the former of these the essence of this righteousness in opposition to a total absence thereof it is constitutive of the terms of salvation and obligeth under the penalty of eternal death So are faith repentance lâ—ve subjection c. required If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins He that believeth not is condemned already The wrath of God al ideth on him If ye repent not ye shall all likewise perish Repent that your sins may be blotted out Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me c. If any man come to me and hate 〈◊〉 his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also that is as the former Scripture expounds this loves them not less than me he cannot be my Disciple i. e. While he remains in that temper of mind he now is of he must needs be wholly unrelated unto me and uncapable of benefit by me as well as he is indocible and not susceptible of my further instructions neither capable of the precepts or priviledges belonging to Discipleship He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him and will come in flaming fire to take vengeance of those that know not God and obey not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. Where it is onely the sincerity of those several requisites that is under so severe penalty exacted and called for in as much as he that is sincerely a Believer 〈◊〉 Penitent a lover of God or Christ an obedient Subject is not capable of the contrary denomination and therefore not liable according to the tenour of this Law to be punished as an Infidel an impenitent person an enemy a rebell When it enjoyns the latter viz. All the subsequent duty through the whole course whereof the already sincere soul must be tending towards perfection though it bind not thereto under pain of damnation further then as such neglects and miscarriages may be so gross and continued as not to consist with sincerity Yet such injunctions are not wholly without penalty but here it oblidges under less penalties the hiding of Gods face and other paternal severities and castigations They that thus only offend are chastened of the Lord that they may not be condemned with the world Their iniquity is visited with the Rod and their transgression with stripes though loving-kindnesse be not taken away Yea and while they are short of perfect holiness their blessedness is imperfect also which is to be acknowledged a very grievous penalty but unconceiveably short of what befalls them that are simply unrighteous That it obliges thus diversly is evident for it doth not adjudge unto eternal death for the least defect for then what other Law should relieve against the sentence of this or wherein were this a relieving Law Yet doth it require perfection that we â—erfect holiness in the fear of God that we be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect And otherwise did it bind to no other duty than what it makes simply necessary to Salvation the defects and miscarriages that consist with sincerity were no sins not being provided against by any Law that is of present obligation For â—o suppose the Law of works in its own proper form and tenour to be still obliging is to suppose all under hopeless condemnation in as much as all have sinned And besides it should oblige to cast off all regard to Christ and to seek blessedness without him yea and it should oblige to a natural impossibility to a contradiction to make that not to have been which hath been a sinner to seek happiness by never having sinned Yet though it cannot â—n its own form be mans rule of Duty 't is nevertheless Gods rule of Judgment upon all whom the Law of faith relieves not as not coming up to the terms of it whom also this super-vening Law brings under a super-vening aggravated condemnation For where the obligation to obedience is violated the obligation to punishment naturally takes place The rule of this Righteousness therefore being evidently the Law of Faith the Gospel-revelation wherein it is preceptive of duty This Righteousness can be understood to be nothing but the impresse of the Gospel upon a mans heart and life A conformity in Spirit and Practice to the revelation of the Will of God in Jesus Christ a collection of graces exerting themselves in suitable actions
was I am all Spirit and life I feel my self disburthened and unclogg'd of all the heavy oppressive weights that hung upon me No body of death doth now incumber me no deadness of heart no coldness of love no drowsie sloth no aversness from God no earthly mind no sensual inclinations or affections no sinful devisions oâ— heart between God and Creatures He hath now the whole of me I injoy and delight in none but him O blessed change O happy day 2. If in contemplating it self cloathed with this likeness it respect the state of damned souls What transporâ—s must that occasion What ravishing resentments When it compares humane nature in its highest perfection with the same nature in its utmost depravation An unspeakably more unequal comparison than that would be of the most amiable lovely person flourishing in the prime of youthful strength and beauty with a putrified rotten carcasse deformed by the corruption of a loathsome grave When glorified Spirits shall make such a reflection as this Lo here we shine in the glorious brightness of the divine Image and behold yonder deformed accursed souls They were as capable of this glory as we Had the same nature with us the same reason the same intellectual faculties and powers but what monsters are they now become They eternally hate the eternal excellency Sin and death are finished upon them They have each of them an hell of horror and wickedness in it self Whence is this amazing difference Though this cannot but be an awful wonder it cannot also but be temper'd with pleasure and joy 3. We may suppose this likeness to be considered in reference to its pattern and in comparison therewith which will then be another way of heightning the pleasure that shall arise thence Such a frame and constitution of Spirit is full of delights in it self but when it shall be refer'd to its original and the correspondency between the one and the other be observ'd and view'd how exactly they accord and answer each other as face doth face in the water this cannot still but add pleasure to pleasure one delight to another When the blessed soul shall interchangeably turn its eye to God and it self and consider the agreement of glory to glory the several derived excellencies to the original He is wise and so am I holy and so am I. I am now made perfect as my heavenly Father is this gives a new relish to the former pleasure How will this likeness please under that notion as it is his a likeness to him O the accent that will be put upon those appropriative words to be made partakers of His holiness and of the divine nature Personal excellencies in themselves considered cannot be reflected on but with some pleasure but to the ingenuity of a child how especially grateful will it be to observe in it self such and such graceful deportments wherein it naturally imitates its father So he was wont to speak and act and demean himself how natural is it unto love to affect and aim at the imitation of the person loved So natural it must be to take complacency therein when we have hit our mark and atchiev'd our design The pursuits and attainments of love are proportionable and correspondent each to other And what heart can compass the greatness of this thought to be made like God! Lord was there no lower pattern than thy self thy glorious blessed self according to which to form a worm This cannot want its due resentments in a glorified state 4. This transformation of the blessed soul into the likeness of God may be viewed by it in reference to the way of accomplishment as an end brought about by so amazing stupendous means which will certainly be a pleasing contemplation When it reflects on the method and course insisted on for bringing this matter to pass views over the work of redemption in its tendency to this end The restoring Gods Image in souls Considers Christ manifested to us in order to his being revealed and formed in us That God was made in the likeness man to make men after the likeness of God That he partook with us of the humane nature that we might with him partake of the divine that he assumed our flesh in order to impart to us his Spirit When it shall be considered for this end had we so many great and precious promises for this end did the glory of the Lord shine upon us through the glass of the Gospel that we might be made partakers c. That we might be changed c. Yea when it shall be called to mind though it be far from following hence that this is the only or principal way wherein the life and death of Christ have influence in order to our eternal happiness that our Lord Jesus lived for this end that we might learn so to walk as he also walked that he dyed that we mught be conformed to his death that he rose again that we might with him attain the resurrection of the dead that he was in us the hope of glory that he might be in us that is that same Image that bears his Name our final consummate glory it self also With what pleasure will these harmonious congruities these apt correspondencies be look'd into at last Now may the glorified Saint say I here see the end the Lord Jesus came into the world for I see for what he was lift up made a spectacle that he might be a transforming one What the effusions of his Spirit were for why it so earnestly strove with my way-ward heart I now behold in my own soul the fruit of the travel of his Soul This was the project of redeeming love the design of all-powerful Gospel grace Glorious atchievement blessed end of that great and notable undertaking happy issue of that high desin 5. With reference to all their own expectations and indeavours When it shall be considered by a Saint in glory the attainment of this perfect likeness to God was the utmost mark of all my designs and aims the term of all my hopes and desires This is that I long'd and laboured for that which I pray'd and waited for which I so earnestly breath'd after and restlestly pursu'd It was but to recover the defaced image of God To be again made like him as once I was Now I have attained my end I have the fruit of all my labour and travels I see now the truth of those often incouraging words Blessed are they that hunger and thirst after righteousness for they shall be filled Be not weary of well doing for ye shall reap if ye faint not What would I once have given for a steady abiding frame of holiness for an heart constantly bent and biassed toward God constantly serious constantly tender lively watchful heavenly spiritual meek humble chearful self-denying How have I cryed and striven for this to get such an heart such a temper of spirit how have I pleaded with God and my own
hinder God and the holy soul of the most inward fruitions and injoyments no animosity no strangeness no unsutableness on either part Here the glorified Spirits of the just have liberty to soâ—â—ce themselves amidst the rivers of pleasure at Gods own right hand without check or restraint They are pure and these pure They touch nothing that can defile they defile nothing they can touch They are not now forbidden the nearest approaches to the once inaccessible Majesty there 's no Holy of Holies into which they may not enter no dore lockt up against them They may have free admission into the innermost secret of the divine presence and pour forth themselves in the most liberal effasions of love and joy as they must be the eternal subjects of those infinitely richer communications from God even of immense and boundless love and goodness Do not debase this pleasure by low thoughts nor frame too daring positive apprehensions of it 'T is yet a secret to us The eternal converses of the King of glory with glorified Spirits are onely known to himself and them That expression which we so often meet in our way It doth not yet appear what we shall be seems left on purpose to check a too curious and prying inquisitiveness into these unrevealed things The great God will have his reserves of glory of love of pleasure for that future state Let him alone a while with those who are already received into those mansions of glory those everlasting habitations He will find a time for those that are yet pilgrims and wandring exiles to ascend and enter too In the mean time what we know of this communion may be gathered up into this general account The reciprocation of loves the flowing and reflowing of everlasting love between the blessed soul and its infinitely blessed God Its egress towards him his illapses into it Unto such pleasure doth this likeness dispose and qualifie You can no way consider it but it appears a most pleasurable satisfying thing Thus far have we shewn the qualification for this blessedness and the nature of it What it prerequires and wherein it lyes and how highly congruous it is that the former of these should be made a prerequisite to the latter will sufficiently appear to any one that shall in his own thoughts compare this righteousness and this blessedness together He will indeed plainly see that the natural state of the case and habitude of these each to other makes this connexion unalterable and eternal so as that it must needs be simply impossible to be thus blessed without being thus righteous For what is this righteousness other than this blessedness begun the seed and principle of it And that with as exact proportion or rather sameness of Nature as is between the grain sown and reaped which is more than intimated in that of the Apostle Be not deceived God is not mocked for whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption there is the same proportion too but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting Which though it be spoken to a particular case is yet spoken from a general rule and reason applicable a great deal further And as some conceive and is undertaken to be demonstrated that the seeds of things are not vertually only but actually and formally the very things themselves so is it here also The very parts of this blessedness are discernable in this righteousness The future vision of God in present knowledge of him for this knowledge is a real initial part of righteousness The rectitude of the mind and apprehensions concerning God consisting in conformity to his revelation of himself Present holiness including also the future â—ssimilation to God And the contentment and peace that attends it the consequent satisfaction in glory But as in glory the impression of the divine likeness is that which vision subserves and whence satisfaction results so is it here visibly the main thing also The end and design of the Gospel revelation of whole Christianity I mean Systematically considered of all Evangelical Doctrines and knowledge is to restore Gods likeness and image from whence joy and peace result of course when once the Gospel is believed The Gospel is the instrument of impressing Gods likeness in order whereunto it must be understood and received into the mind Being so the impression upon the heart and life are Christianity haâ—itual and practical whereupon joy and pleasure the belief or thorough reception of the Gospel thus enterveining do necessarily ensue So Aptly is the only way or method of seeing Gods face so as to be satisfied with his likeness said to be in or thorow righteousness CHAP. X. The season of this satisfaction which is twofold at Death Resurrection The former spoken to wherein is shewn That this life is to the soul even of a Saint but as a sleep That at death it awakes As to the latter that there is a considerable accession to its happiness at the resurrection 3. THe season of this blessedness comes next to be considered which as the words when I awake have been concluded here to import must in the general be stated beyond the time of this present life Holy souls are here truly blessed not perfectly or their present blessedness is perfect only in nature and kind not in degree 'T is in this respect as far short of perfection as their holiness is Their hunger and thirst are present their being filled is yet future The experience of Saints in their best state on earth their desires their hopes their sighs and groans do sufficiently witness they are not satisfied or if they be in point of security they are not in point of enjoyment The completion of this blessedness is reserved to a better state as its being the end of their way their rest from their labours the reward of their work doth import and require Therefore many Scriptures that speak of their present rest peace repose satisfaction must be understood in a comparative not the absolute highest sense More particularly in that other state the season of their blessedness is twofold or there are two terms from whence in respect of some gradual or modal diversifications it may be said severally to commence or bear date Viz. The time Of their entrance upon a blessed immortality when they shall have laid down their earthly bodies in death Of their consummation therein when they receive their bodies glorified in the general resurrection Both these may not unfitly be signified by the Phrase in the Text when I awake For though Scripture doth more directly apply the term of awaking to the latter there will be no violence done to the Metaphor if we extend its signification to the former also To which purpose it is to be noted that it is not Death formally or the disanimating of the body we would have
here to be understood by it which indeed sleeping would more aptly signifie than awaking but what is co-incident therewith in the same period the exuscitation and revival of the soul. When the body falls asleep then doth the Spirit awake and the eye-lids of the morning even of an eternal day do now first open upon it 1. Therefore we shall not exclude from this season the introductive state of blessedness which takes its beginning from the blessed souls first entrance into the invisible state And the fitness of admitting it will appear by clearing these two things 1. That its condition in this life even at the best is in some sort but a sleep 2. That when it passes out of it into the invisible Regions 't is truly said to awake 1. It s abode in this mortal body is but a continual sleep its senses are bound up a drowsie slumber possesses and suspends all its faculties and powers Before the renovating change how frequently doth the Scripture speak of sinners as men a sleep Let not us sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead c. They are in a dead sleep under the sleep of death They apprehend things as men asleep How slight obscure hovering notions have they of the most momentous things and which it most concerns them to have thorough real apprehensions of All their thoughts of God Christ Heaven Hell of Sin of Holiness are but uncertain wild guesses blind hallucinations incoherent phansies the absurdity and inconcinnity whereof they no more reflect upon then men asleep They know not these things but only dream of them They put darkness for light and light for darkness have no senses exercised to discern between good and evil The most substantial realities are with them meer shadowes and chemaera's Phansied and imagined dangers startle them as 't is wont to be with men in a dream real ones though never so near them they as little fear as they The creature of their own imagination the Lion in the way which they dream of in their slothful slumber affrights them but the real roaring Lion that is ready to devour them they are not afraid of And conversion doth but relax and intermit it doth not totally break of this sleep It as it were attenuates the consopiting fumes doth not utterly dispel them What a difficulty is it to watch but one hour There are some lucid and vivid intervals but of how short continuance how soon doth the awakened soul close its heavy eyes and fall asleep again how often do temptations surprize even such in their slumbring fits while no sense of their danger can prevail with them to watch and pray with due care and constancy least they enter thereinto Hither are most of the sins of our lives to be imputed and referr'd not to meer ignorance that we know not sin from duty or what will please God and what displease him but to a drowsie inadvertency that we keep not our spirits in a watchful considering posture Our eyes that should be ever towards the Lord will not be kept open and though we resolve we forget our selves before we are aware we find our selves overtaken Sleep comes on upon us like an armed man and we cannot avert it How often do we hear and read and pray and meditate as persons asleep as if we knew not what we were about How remarkable useful providences escape either our notice or due improvement amidst our secure slumbers How many Visits from heaven are lost to us when we are as it were between sleeping and waking I sleep but my heart waketh and hardly own the voice that calls upon us till our beloved hath withdrawn himself Indeed what is the whole of our life here but a dream The entire scene of this sensible world but a vision of the night where every man walks but in a vain shew where we are mockt with shadows our credulous sense abus'd by impostures and delusive appearances nor are we ever secure from the most destructive mischievous deception further than as our souls are possest with the apprehensions that this is the very truth of our case and thence instructed to consider and not to prefer the shadows of time before the great realities of eternity Nor is this sleep casual but even connatural to our present state the necessary result of so strict an union and commerce with the body which is to the in-dwelling Spirit as a dormitory or charnel-house rather than a mansion A soul drench't in sensuality a Leâ—â—e that hath too little of fiction in it and immur'd in a sloathful putid slesh sleeps as it were by fate not by chance and is only capable of full relief by suffering a Dissolution which it hath reason to welcome as a jubilee and in the instant of departure to sacrifice as he did with that easie and warrantable change to make a Heathen expression Scriptural Jehovae liberatori to adore and praise its great Deliverer At least accounts being once made up and a meetness in any measure attained for the heavenly inheritance c. hath no reason to regret or dread the approaches of the eternal day more than we do the return of the Sun after a dark and long-some night But as the sluggard doth nothing more unwillingly than forsake his bed nor bears any thing with more regret than to be awak't out of his sweet sleep though you should intice him with the pleasures of a Paradise to quit a smoky loathsome Cottage so fares it with the sluggish soul as if it were lodg'd in an inchanted Bed 't is so fast held by the charms of the body all the glory of the other world is little enough to tempt it out than which there is not a more deplorable Symptome of this sluggish slumbring state So deep an oblivion which you know is also naturally incident to sleep hath seiz'd it of its own Countrey of its alliances above its relation to the Father and world of Spirits It takes this earth for its home where 't is both in exile and captivity at once And as a Prince stoln away in his infancy and bred up in a beggers shed so little seeks that it declines a better state This is the degenerous torpid disposition of a soul lost in flesh and inwrapt in stupifying clay which hath been deeply resented by some Heathens So one brings in Socrates pathetically bewailing this oblivious dreaming temper of his soul which saith he had seen that pulchritude you must pardon him here the conceit of its pre-existence that neither humane voice could utter nor eye behold But that now in this life it had only some little remembrance thereof as in a dream being both in respect of place and condition far removed from so pleasant sights prest down into an earthly station and there encompast with all manner of dirt and filthiness c. And to the same purpose Plato often speaks
the Divine will and Law is that I mainly intend at present By such a necessity also they are excluded who by Gods rule according to which the supreme judgment must be managed shall be found unrighteous Those that come not up to the tearms of the Gospel Covenant never accepted the offers nor submitted to the commands of it And that hence consequently are unrelated to Christ and ununited to him no way capable of advantage by his most perfect and all-sufficient righteousness that alone fully answers all the exâ—ctions and demands of the Covenant of Works and so who are at last found unrighteous by the Old Law and the New the Law both of the Creatour and Redeemer too There is the same necessity these should be excluded as that God should be just and true The word is gone forth of his mouth in righteousness and cannot return He did not dâ—lly with sinners when he settled those constitutions whence this necessity results He is not a man that he should lye nor the Son of mâ—n that he should repent An Heathen understood so much of the nature of God I have thought sometimes with much wonder of the stupid folly of unsanctified hearts they are even confounded in their own wishes and would have in order to their security they know not what Were the question faithfully put to the very heart of such a one what wouldest thou have done in order to thy eternal safety from divine wrath and vengeance would not the answer be O that God would recall those severe constitutions he hath made and not insist â—o strictly on what be hath required in the Gospel in order to the salvation on of sinners But foolish wretch dost thou know what thou sayst wouldst thou have God repeal the Gospel that thou mayest be the more secure in what a case art thou then Hast thou no hope if the Gospel stand in force what hope wilt thou have if it do not Must the hopes of all the world be ruin'd to establish thine and yet leave them involv'd in the common ruine too What but the Gospel gives the least hope to Apostate sinners There is now hope for thee in the Gospel promise if thou return to God Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon But take away the Gospel and where art thou Were it possible for thee to repent and become a new man what settles the connexion between Repentance and Salvation but the Gospel-promise Will the violated Law of works accept thy Repentance instead of Obedience Doth it not expresly preclude any such expectation Doth it give any ground to look for any thing but death after sin Thou must therefore flye to the Gospel or yield thy self lost and know it contains none but faithful and true sayings that have more stability in them than the foundations of heaven and earth Therefore expect nothing to be altered for thy sake The Gospel-constitution was settled long before thou wast born Thou com'st too late with thy Exceptions if thou hadst any against it Remember therefore this is one of the unalterable determinations of this Gospel without holiness thou shalt never see God or which amounts to the same thou canst not behold his face but in righteousness There is no word in all the Bible of more certain truth than this In this also how apt are sinners foolishly to intangle themselves The Gospel is true and to be believed till they meet with something that crosses them and goes against the hair and then they hope it is not so But vain man if once thou shake the truth of God what wilt thou stay thy self upon Is God true when he promises and is he not as true when he threatens if that be a true saying Sâ—y to the righteous it shall be well with him is not that as much to be regarded wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Are not these of equal authority If thou hadst any reason to hope thou mayest be happy though thou never be righteous is there not as much reason to fear thou might'st be miserable though thou be since the one is as much against the slat express word of God as the other Let not thy love to sin betray thee out of all Religion and thy wits together Wherein wilt thou believe one upon the bare value of his word that will lie to thee in any thing Yea and as it is the same authority that is affronted in every command whence disobedience to one is a breach of all so is the same veracity denyed in every truth and the disbelief of one belies all and wilt thou believe him in any thing thou hast proclaimed a lier in every thing Therefore so little hast thou gained by disbelieving the divine revelation in this thing that thou hast brought thy self to this miserable Dilemma if the word of God be false thou hast no foundation of any Faith left thee if it be true it dooms thee to eternal banishment from his blessed face while thou remainest in thy unrighteousness It will not be thy advantage then to disbelieve this Gospel record but to consider it and take it to heart 't will prove never the lesse true at last for that thou wilt not believe it shall thy unbelief make the truth of God of none effect And if thou wouldest but reasonably consider the case methinks thou shouldest soon be convinc't Since thou acknowledgest as I suppose thee to do that there are two states of men in the other World a state of blessedness and a state of misery and two sorts of men in this World the righteous and the unrighteous Let thy reason and conscience now judge who shall be allotted to the one state and who to the other Sure if thou acknowledge a righteous Judge of all the world thou canst non think he will turn men promiscuously into Heaven or Hell at random without distinction Much less canst thou be so absurd and mad as to think all the unrighteous shall be saved and the righteous perish and then what is leâ—t thee to judge but that which I am now urging upon thee that when the righteous shall be admitted to the vision of Gods blessed face the unrighteous shall be driven forth into outer darkness It may be some here will be ready to say but to what purpose is all this they were of the same mind before and cannot think that any one would ever say the contrary Nor do I think so either but 't is one thing not to believe a conclusion to be true and another to prosess a contrary belief And one thing to believe a conclusion another to think we believe it Men often know not their own minds In practical matters 't is
Justice if this be just Again is it righteous to deny the Lord that bought thee to neglect that great salvation which he is the Authour of And whereas he came to bless thee in turning thee from thine iniquities wilfully to remain still in an accursed servitude to sin when he was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil still to yield thy self a captive at his will whereas he died that thou might'st not any longer live to thy self but to him that died for thee and rose again and that he might redeem thee from thy vain conversation and that thou art so expresly told that such as still lead sensual lives mind earthly things have not their conversation in heaven are enemies to the Cross of Christ Is it no unrighteousness that in these respects thy whole life should be nothing else but a constant contradiction to the very design of his dying a perpetual Hostility a very Tilting at his Cross Is there no unrighteousness in thy obstinate infidelity that wickedly denies belief to his glorious Truths acceptance of his gracious Offers subjection to his holy Laws no unrighteousness in thy obstinate remorsless impenitency thy heart that cannot repent that melts not while a crucified Jesus amid'st his agonies and dying pangs cryes to thee from the Cross O sinner enough thy hard heart breaks mine yield at last and turn to God Is it righteous to live as no way under Law to Christ to persist in actual rebellion against his just Government which he died and revived and rose again to establish over the living and the dead yea and that while thou pretendest thy self a Christian In a word Is it righteous to tread under foot the Son of God to vilifie his Blood and despise his Spirit Is this the righteousness that thou talkest of are these thy qualifications for the everlast-blessedness If thou say thou confessest thou art in thy self in these several respects altogether unrighteous but thou hopest the righteousness of Christ will be sufficient to answer for all No doubt Christs Righteousness is abundantly available to all the ends for which it was intended by the Father and Him but it shall never answer all the ends that a foolish wicked heart will fondly imagine to it self In short it serves to excuse thy non performance of and stands instead of thy perfect sinless obedience to the Law of works but it serves not instead of thy performance of what is required of thee as the condition of the Gospel Covenant That is It shall never supply the room of Faith Repentance Regeneration Holiness the loving of Christ above all and God in him so as to render these unnecessary or salvation possible without them There is not one iota or tittle in the Bible that so much as intimates an unregenerate person an unbeliever an impenitent or unholy person shall be saved by Christs righteousness but enough to the contrary every one knows that hath the least acquaintance with the Scriptures Vain Man what is Christ devided and devided against himself Christ without against Christ within His suffering on the Cross and foregoing obedience against his Spirit and Government in the Soul Did Christ die to take away the necessity of our being Christians And must his death serve not to destroy sin out of the world but Christianity who hath taught thee so wickedly to misunderstand the design of Christs dying And when the Scripture so plainly tells thee That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And That he became the Authour of eternal salvation to them that obey him yea and that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know and obey him not What should induce thee to think thou mayst be saved by him whether thou believest and obeyest or no No if ever thou think to see God and be happy in him thou must have a righteousness in thee resembling his the very product the thing wrought in the work of regeneration If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him Whereupon follows the description of the blessedness of such righteous ones in the beginning of the next Chapter They are sons they shall be like c. So that in a word without some sight of God here there 's no seeing him hereafter without some likeness to him now none hereafter And such as are destitute of that heart-conformity to the Gospel wherein the Evangelical Righteousness stands are so far from it that we may say to them as our Saviour to the Jews Ye have neither heard his voice nor seen his shape i. e. you have never had right notion or any the least true glimpse of him your hearts are wholly destitute of all Divine Impressions whatsoever 8. We may further infer from this qualification of the subject of blessedness That righteousness is no vain thing That is not in vain that ends so well and hath so happy an issue at last Scripture tells us that the labour of the righteous tendeth to life and that we may understand it of their labour as they are righteous we are more plainly told that righteousness tendeth to life and that to them that sow righteousness shall be a sure reward That the righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father The righteous into eternal life And we here see that righteousness ends in the blessed sight of Gods glorious face in being satisfied with the Divine likeness Foolish sinners as justly upbraided that they spend their labour for that which satisfies not takes much pains to no purpose such are all the works of sin toilsome fruitless what fruit had ye of those things viz. which ye wrought when you were free from righteousness whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of thâ—se things is death But it follows being now made free from sin and becâ—me servants to God which is paraphrased above by servants to righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness the end everlasting life The fruit is a continual increase of holiness a growing more and more like God till at last everlasting life satisfaction with his likeness do Crown and consummate all You have now what to answer to the Atheists profane Querie what profit is it to serve God to what purpose to lead so strict and precise a life you may now see to what purpose it is and whereunto godliness which righteousness here includes is profitable as having besides what it intitles to here the promise of that life which is to come There needs no more to discover any thing not to be vain in as much as nothing can be said to be but in reference to an end as being good for nothing then the eviction of these two things That it aims at a truly worthy and valuable end and
he might still be debarr'd of the long expected fruit of the travail of his Soul that the name of God might be still subjected to the blasphemy and and reproach of an Atheistical world who have long ago said with derision where is the promise of his coming Would we have all his Designs to be still unfinisht and so mighty wheeles stand still for us while we sport our selves in the dust of the earth And indulge our sensual inclination which sure this bold desire must argue to be very predominant in us and take heed it argue not its habitual prevalency At least if it discover not our present sensuality it discovers our former Sloth and Idleness It may be we may excuse our aversness to dye by our unpreparedness that is one fault with another though that be besides the case I am speaking of what then have we been doing all this while What were the affairs of thy Soul not thought of till now Take then thy repro of from a Heathen that it may convince thee the more No one saith he divides away his money from himself but yet men divide away their very life but doth it not shame thee he after adds to reserve only the reliques of thy life to thy self and to devote that time only to a good mind which thou canst employ upon no other thing How late is it to begin to live when we should make an end and deser all good thoughts to such an Age as possible few do ever reach to The truth is as he speaks we have not little time but we lose much we have time enough were it well employ'd therefore we cannot say we receive a short life but we make it so we are not indigent of time but prodigal what a pretty contradiction is it to complain of the shortness of time and yet do what we can to precipitate its course to hasten it by that we call pastime If it have been so with thee art thou to be trusted with more time But as thy case is I cannot wonder that the thoughts of death be most unwellcome to thee who art thou that thou shouldst desire the day of the Lord I can onely say to thee hasten thy preparation have recourse to Rule 2. and 3d. and accordingly guide thy self till thou find thy Spirit made more suitable to this blessedness that it become savory and grateful to thy soul and thy heart be set upon it Hence thou may'st be reconciled to the grave and the thoughts of death may cease to be a terror to thee And when thou art attained so far consider thy great advantage in being willing and desirous to dye upon this further account that thy desire shall now be pitch't upon a thing so certain Thine other desires have met with many a disappointment Thou hast set thy heart upon other things and they have deceived thy most earnest thirsty expectations Death will not do so Thou wilt now have one certain hope One thing in reference whereto thou may'st say I am sure Wait a while this peaceful sleep will shortly seize thy body and awaken thy soul. It will calmly period all thy troubles and bring thee to a blessed rest But now if onely the meer terrour and gloominess of dying trouble thy thoughts this of all other seems the most inconsiderable pretence against a willing surrender of our selves to death Reason hath overcome it natural courage yea some mens Atheism shall not Faith Are we not ashamed to consider what confidence and desire of death some Heathens have exprest some that have had no preapprehension or belief of another state though there were very few of them and so no hope of a consequent blessedness to relieve them have yet thought it unreasonable to disgust the thoughts of death What would'st thou think if thou had'st nothing but the Sophisms of such to oppose to all thy dismal thoughts I have met with one arguing thus Death which is accounted the most dreadful of all evils is nothing to us saith he because while we are in being Death is not yet present and when Death is present we are not in being so that it neither concerns us as living nor dead for while we are alive it hath not touch't us when we are dead we are not Moreover saith he the exquisite knowledge of this that Death belongs not to us makes us injoy this mortal life with comfort not by adding any thing to our uncertain time but by taking away the desire of immortality Shall they comfort themselves upon so wretched a ground with a little Sophistry and the hope of extinguishing all desire of immortality and shall not we by cherishing the blessed hope of injoying shortly an immortal glory Others of them have spoken magnificently of a certain contempt of this bodily life and a not onely not fearing but desiring to dye upon a sixed apprehension of the distinct and purer and immortal nature of the soul and the preconcieved hope of a consequent felicity I shall set down some of their words added to what have been occasionally mentioned amongst that plentiful variety wherewith one might fill a volume purposely to shame the more terrene temper of many Christians The Soul saith one of them is an invisible thing and is going into another place suitable to it self that is noble and pure and invisible even into Hades indeed to the good and wise God whether also my Soul shall shortly go if he see good But this he saith in what follows belongs only to such a Soul as goes out of the body pure that draws nothing corporal along with it did not willingly communicate with the body in life but did even fly from it and gather up it self into it self always meditating this one thing A soul so affected shall it not go to something like it self divine and what is divine is immoâ—tal and wise whether when it comes it becomes blessed free from errour ignorance fears and wild or enormous loves and all other evils incident to men One writing the life of that rare person Plotinus sayes that he seemed as if he were in some sort ashamed that he was in body which however it would less become a Christian yet in one that knew nothing of an incarnate Redeemer it discovered a refined noble Spirit The same person speaks almost the language of the Apostle concerning his being rapt up into the third heaven and tells of such an alienation of the soul from the body That when once it finds God whom he had before been speaking of under the name of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the beauty shining in upon it it now no longer feels its body or takes notice of its being in the body but even forgets its own being that it is a man or a living creature or any thing else whatsoever for it is not at leisure to mind any thing else nor doth it desire to be Yea and having sought him out he
immediately meets it presenting its self to him It onely views him instead of it self and would not now change its state for any thing not if one could give it the whole heaven in exchange And else where discussing whether life in the body be good and desirable yea or no he concludes it to be good not as it is an union of the soul and body but as it may have that vertue annex't to it by which what is really evil may be kept off But yet that that death is a greater good That life in the body is in it self evil but the soul is by vertue stated in goodness not as enlivening the body with which it is compounded but as it severs and so joyns it self from it meaning so as to have as little communion as possible it can with it To which purpose is the expression of another That the soul of an happy man so collects and gathers up it self out from all things into it self that it hath as it were separated it self from the body while it is yet contained in it And that it was possest of that fortitude as not to dread its departure from it Another gives this character of a good man that as he liv'd in simplicity tranquility purity not being offended at any that they believed him not to live so he also comes to the end of his life pure quiet and easie to be dissolved disposing himself without any constraint to his lot Another is brought in speaking thus If God should grant me to become a Child again to send forth my renewed infant-cries from my Cradle and having even run out my race to begin it again I should most earnestly refuse it for what profit hath this life and how much toil Yet I do not repent that I have lived because I hope I have not liv'd in vain And I now go out of this life not as out of my dwelling house but my Inn. O blessed day when I shall enter into that Council and Assembly of souls and depart from this rude and disorderly rout and crew c. I shall adde another of a not much unlike strain and rank that discoursing who is the Heir of Divine things as being either not an open or no constant friend to Christianity Saith he cannot be who is in love with this animal sensitive life but only that purest mind that is inspired from above that partake of an Heavenly and Divine portion that onely despises the body c. with much more of like import Yea so have some been transported with the desire of immortality that being wholly ignorant of the sin of self-murder they could not forbear doing violence to themselves Among the Indians two thousand years ago were a sort of wise men as they were called that held it a reproach to dye of age or a disease and were wont to burn themselves alive thinking the flames were polluted if they came amidst them dead The story of Cleombrotus is famous who hearing Plato discourse of the immortality of the soul by the Sea side leapt from him into the Sea that he might presently be in that state And 't is storied that Nero refused to put Apollonius to death though he were very much incenst against him only upon the apprehension he had that he was very desirous to dye because he would not so far gratifie him I onely make this improvement of all this Christian Principles Rule do neither hurry nor misguide men but the end as we have it revealed should much more powerfully and constantly attract us Nothing is more unsuitable to Christianity our way nor to that blessedness the end of it then a terrene Spirit They have nothing of the true light and impress of the Gospel now nor are they ever like to attain the Vision of the blessed face of God and the impress of his likeness hereafter that desire it not above all things and are not willing to quit all things else for it And is it not a just exprobration of our earthliness and carnality if meer Philosophers and Pagans shall give better proof then we of a spirit erected above the world and alienated from what is temporary and terrene Shall their Gentilism outvy our Christianity Methinks a generous indignation of this reproach should inflame our souls and contribute somewhat to the refining of them to a better and more Spiritual temper Now therefore O all you that name your selves by that worthy name of Christians that profess the Religion taught by him that was not of the earth earthly but the Lord from heaven you that are partakers of the heavenly calling Consider the great Apostle and High-priest of your profession who only took our flesh that we might partake of his Spirit bare our earthly that we might bare his heavenly Image descended that he might cause us to ascend Seriously bethink your selves of the Scope and end of his Apostleship and Priesthood He was sent out from God to invite and conduct you to him to bring you into the Communion of his glory and blessedness He came upon a Message and Treaty of peace To discover his Fathers love and win yours To let you know how kind thoughts the God of love had conceived to you-wards And that however you had hated him without cause and were bent to do so without end he was not so affected towards you To settle a friendship and to admit you to the participation of his eternal glory Yea he came to give an instance and exemplifie to the world in his own Person how much of heaven he could make to dwell in mortal flesh how possible he could render it to live in this world as unrelated to it How gloriously the divine life could triumph over all the infirmities of frail humanity And so leave men a certain proof and pledge to what perfections humane nature should be improv'd by his grace and Spirit in all them that should resign themselves to his conduct and follow his steps That heaven and earth were not so far asunder but he knew how to settle a commerce and intercourse between them That an heavenly life was possible to be transacted here and certain to be gloriously rewarded hereafter And having testifi'd these things he seals the Testimony and opens the way for the accomplishment of all by his death Your heavenly Apostle becomes a Priest and a Sacrifice at once That no doubt might remain among men of his sincerity in what even dying he ceased not to profess and avow And that by his own propitiatory bloud a mutual reconciliation might be wrought between God and you that your hearts might be won to him and possest with an ingenuous shame of your ever having been his enemies And that his displeasure might for ever cease towards you and be turned into everlasting friendship and love That eternal redemption being obtained heaven might be opened to you and you finally be received to the