clear in it self and much more clear how few do we prevail with Is not the Question Whether God or the Creature Holiness or Sin Earth or Heaven Short or Everlasting pleasures should be preferred as plain to a wise man as any of those that I mentioned before Is it not as plain a case to a man of judgement Whether Holiness with Everlasting joys be better then fleshly pleasures with damnation as whether a Kingdom be better then a Jayle or Gold then dirt or health then sickness Yet do your salvations lie upon this Question this easie Question I must again repeat it All your salvations lie upon the practical resolution of this easie Question Be but Resolved once that God is Best for you and Heaven is Best for you and accordingly make your Resolute Choice and faithfully Prosecute it and God will be Yours Heaven will be yours as sure as the Promise of God is true But if you will not Choose God and Glory as your Best but will Choose the world and simple pleasures as Better for you you shall have no better then you chose and shall suffer a double condemnation for neglecting and refusing so great salvation You hear now by mens talk and you see by their lives that the world is divided upon this Question What it is that is Best for a man and which is his Best and Wisest course One part and the greater think in their hearts that present prosperity is best because they think that the promised happiness of the life to come is a thing uncertain or iâ— there be such a thing they may have it after the pleasures of sin These are the Infidels Another part have a superficial dead Opinion that Heaven and Holiness are Best but the Love of the flesh and the world lyeth deeper at their hearts and beareth the greater sway in their lives and these are the Hypocrites that is Christians in Opinion and Profession and so much of their Practice as will stand with their fleshly interest but Infidels in their Practical estimation and at the Heart and in the reserves and secret bent of their lives Another part being illuminated and sanctified from above Believe the Certainty and Excellency of Glory and see the vanity and vexation of this life and taste the sweetness of the Love of God and perceive the Necessity and sweetness of that Holiness which others so abhor and hereupon give up themselves to God and set themselves to seek for the Immortal treasure and make it the principal care of their hearts and business of their lives to escape damnation and live with Christ in endless Glory All the world consisteth of these three sorts of men Infidels Hypocrites and true Believers Now the Question is Which of these three are in the right Both the other do condemn the Hypocrite that halteth between two opinions and One thinks that Baal is God that the World is Best and therefore he gives up himself to it and the other thinks that The Lord is God and Heaven is best and therefore he gives up himself to it And if it would do any thing with those that doubt towards the turning of the scales to tell you which side Christ is on it s told you here in my Text as plain as the tongue of man can speak One thing is Needful Mary hath chosen that Good part which shall not be taken away from her THe Doctrine which I am now to handle to you from the plain words of the Text is this Doct. That those that prefer the Learning of the word of Christ to guide them by Holiness to Everlasting Happiness before all the lower matters of this world are they that choose the Better part even that which shall never be taken from them If now the word of Christ alone would serve your turn I had done my work I needed not to go any further You would be now resolved that Heaven and Holiness is best and would set your hearts and lives to seek it and so it would be your own for ever But this Text hath long stood in the Gospel and men have heard and read it often and yet the most are not perswaded and therefore I must try to open it a little farther to you and plead it with you and work the Reason of it upon your minds Reader our business is but to enquire What it is that is Best for Man to set his heart on and seek after in his Life and Enjoy for ever I say it is the Everlasting Enjoyment of God in Heaven For Christ saith so If thou think otherwise let us debate the case If thou believe as I do Live as thou professest to believe If men did but deeply and soundly know what it is that is best for them it would set right their hearts and lives and make them happy But not knowing this is it that keepeth them from God and Holiness and everlastingly undoes them Though I have often opened this heretofore on other occasions yet my present subject now requireth 1. That I tell you What that is that here is called The Good part 2. What it is that is set against it and by fleshly minds preferred before it And having briefly opened these two things I shall come to the Comparison and shew you which is the better part 1. That which Christ calls here that good part is 1. Principally the end of man or our everlasting Happiness with God in Heaven 2. Subordinately the Means by which it is attained 3. That Happiness which is the end comprehendeth in it these particulars which if you distinctly apprehend you will much the better understand the nature and excellency of it 1. The true Believer hath the small beginnings and earnests and foretastes of the Everlasting Blessedness in this Life in his approaches to God and living upon him by Faith and Love and â—â— his believing apprehensions of the Favour of God the Grace â—â— Christ and the Happiness which in Heaven he shall enjoy for ever 2. At death the souls of true Believers do go to Christ and enter upon a state of Happiness 3. At the last day the body shall be raised and united to the soul and the Lord Jesus Christ will come in glory to judge the world where he will openly absolve and justifie the Righteous when he condemneth the ungodly and will be glorified in his Saints and admired in all them that do believe and the Saints shall also judge the world and be themselves adjudged to everlasting Glory 4. Their everlasting habitation shall be in the Heavens even near unto God and in the presence of his Glory 5. Their company will be only Blessed Spirits even the holy Angels and glorified Saints with whom we shall be One Body and constitute the New Jerusalem and be perfectly one in God for ever 6. Their Bodies shall be perfected and made immortal spiritual incorruptible and glorious bodies shining as the Stars in the Celestial Firmament No more subject
O for a few daies or hours more to make sure of this One thing which you should have spent your lives in making sure of Will you then think thus and yet can you now afford to cast away twenty or thirty years upon Nothing If Time be worth Nothing your Lives are worth Nothing And why should a man desire to Live for Nothing You Love your lives too much and yet will you so contemptuously cast them away He hath lost his life who hath lost the End of his life The loss of an hundred pound in money is not to your selves so great a loss as the loss of a dayes or hours time What then is the loss of so many years Did you ever well consider of this If you live a thousand years it is all lost if you have not spent it in making sure of the One thing Necessary For is not that lost and worse a thousand times then lost that is spent in crossing the End that it is given for and which is no comfort but terrour in the review and which leaveth no fruit but grief and disappointment Let me tell you if you hold on thus unto the end you will wish and wish a thousand times either that you had never had an hours time or else that you had had hearts to have better perceived the worth and use of it then to cast it away as you have done upon nothing It is but One thing that is worth your Time and Lives 2. Whatsoever else you have been doing you have lost all your Labour with your Time if this One thing Needful have been neglected No doubt you have been busie since you came into the world but to little purpose You might as well have been idle as so laboriously doing nothing No doubt many a journey you have rode and gone and many a hard daies labour you have taken and sharpened perhaps with care and grief But you have lost it all if it were an hundred times more if it have not been â—aid out upon the One thing necessary And is it not a pittiful thing that men of reason should vex themselves and coil their bodies and suffer hunger and thirst and weariness and make such a stir and pudder in the world and all for nothing and in a vain shew How many mornings have you risen to your labour and how many dayes and years have you spent in it and now it is all lost How many thoughts and fears and cares have possessed and pestred your minds and now they are all lost Some of you have followed your trades and some your husbandry and some have run up and down after recreations some of you have been scraping riches and some contriving to keep up their reputation and some to satisfie their appetites and live in pleasure and contentment to the flesh and now look back upon all that you have done and gotten and tell your selves whether all this be not lost yea alas much worse then lost If you be not ready to pass this conclusion at the very heart it is because your hearts are yet blinded and hardened in sin but God will soon bring that to your hearts that shall convince you of it If God have made use of any worldly sensual person of you for publick good of Church or state as men do of thorns for hedging to their lands or of bryars to stop a gap or of fire-wood to warm their family yet as to any durable benefit to your selves I may well say that all your Labour is lost And this is not all but the pains also that you have taken in your formal hypocritical Religion your hearing reading receiving Sacraments and pretended prayer all the thoughts that ever you had of death and judgement and the life to come and all that you have done with reservations and by halves for your own salvation this also is all lost Except as a less measure of misery may go for gain If you miss of the One thing necessary you do but lose your labour whatever else you seem to gain A great stir you make in seeking for preferment or dominion over others or about your lands your honours or your delights so great that your neighbours can scarce live quietly by you and the Kingdom cannot be quiet for some of you nor your own consciences be quiet within you for the desperate work that you engage them in which they know must be heard of another day And when all is done you will find you have been but hunting of a feather You would see this now if God would open your eyes by grace but if you miss of so seasonable an information you will see it too late in the land of darkness When death hath opened your eyes and your impenitent souls do suddenly awake in another world you will understand that you made all this stir but in your sleep As busily and seriously as you acted the parts of Lords and Ladies of Gentlemen Tradesmen or Husbandmen in the world if you did not seriously and first do the work of true Believers for the world to come you will then find too late that your labour is lost and all was acted but as in a dream Do you believe this now or do you not If you do will you yet go on If you do not believe it shew me now what you have gotten by all the stir that you have made in the world that will follow you one step further then the grave and that you can say shall be your own to morrow If you were to die this hour will it be any lasting comfort to you that you have laboured to be Rich or Honourable or that you have attained it or that you had your glut of sensual delights and a merry life as to the fleshly pleasure as long as it would last Will you dye the more comfortably for any of this or much the less That yet you are alive is the great mercy of God and not to be ascribed to any of these And when you cease to live then these will be your greif and torment Beloved Hearers I have no desire the Lord knows to discompose your minds or to disquiet you with any molesting unnecessary scruples nor causelesly to dishonour either you or your imployments But I must needs say that it is a dolefull case that men in their wits should spend a life of precious time and also a great deal of care and labour in doing Nothing and much worse then Nothing when they have a work of everlasting consequence to do and they know that the Devils chiefest hopes do consist in the success of these diversions I must seriously profess to you that I am constrained by the word and teachings of God and by undenyable reason it self to look upon all the labour of your lives the highest and the busiest but as the picking of straws or playing with a feather or riding upon a staff or a hobby-horse or such like actions as
wailing and gnashing of teeth Mat. 13. 42 50. You are treasuring up wrath against the day of wrath and the revelation of the righteous judgement of God who will give to every man according to his works Rom. 2. 5 6. You are sowing in pleasure to the flesh in eating and drinking and mirth and honour but you shall reap in corruption lamentation and woe Gal. 6. 7 8. For woe to you that now laugh for you shall mourn and weep Woe to you that are rich and have no better but want the everlasting riches for you have received your conselation Woe to you that are full and yet are empty of Christ and grace for you shall hunger Luke 6. 24 25. These are the words of Christ himself and therefore true if Christ be true Yea more then this let me have leave to tell you for why should I not tell you of your greatest folly and that which is necessary for you to know As long as you neglect the One thing necessary you are acting the part of the most deadly enemies against your selves No enemy that you have in all the world could do that against you as you do against your selves You abhorr the Devil and I blame you not for his malice and enmity deserveth it But you do much worse against your selves then the Devil himself could ever do To tempt you to sin is not so much as to Consent to it and commit it He can but entice you and not constrain you It is you that are the neglecters of your Maker and Redeemer and the wilful rejecters of your own felicity Satan doth bad enough against you by temptation but you do worse by yielding and sinning much worse then all the Devils in hell could do against you For God hath not given all of them so much power over you as he hath given you over your selves Lord what a distracted case is the ungodly world in They hate any man else that they do but imagine is their enemy Though he do but diminish their worldly wealth or honour they cannot forgive him If a man give one of them a box on the ear he cannot bear it And as for the Devil who is the common enemy they spit at his name and think they bless themselves from him And yet these same men do spend all their care and time and labour in doing more against themselves then all their enemies could do in earth or hell and are worse then Devils to themselves and yet they never fall out with themselves for it but can forgive themselves as easily as if they did themselves no harm This is true too true Sirs as harsh as it seemeth to your ears And if it displease you to hear of it bethink your selves what it is to do it and how God and all wise men must judge of you that have no more mercy on your selves Certainly it is much worse to do it then to tell you what you do God tells men of their sin and God doth nothing but what is good but it is themselves only that commit it I beseech you do but understand what you are doing as long as the One thing necessary is neglected by you 4. Consider also that whatsoever else you have been doing in the world if you have not done the One thing needful you have unman'd your selves and lived below your Reason and in plain English you have lived as be sides your wits I give you no harder language then God himself hath frequently given you in his Word and then you will shortly give your selves if you repent not yea and sooner if you do repent If you have in this the use of your Reason you must needs know what you have your Reason for And I beseech you tell me for what you have it if not to serve and please your Maker and prepare for your everlasting state Is it only that you may know how to plow and sow and follow your trades and pleasure in the world and satisfie your flesh a little while and then die as the beasts that perish None of you I suppose will say so that calls himself a Christian If God had made you for no higher things then beasts he would have given you no higher faculties and endowments As they be not made to enjoy God so they have no knowledge of him he sendeth not his Word to them and calleth them not to learn the knowledge of his will But you know or may know that there is a God and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him and are capable of Loving him intending him and serving him and therefore of enjoying him Beasts are not ruled by the hopes and fears of a life after this For their nature and end do not require it But men must be thus ruled or else there can be no sufficient ruling of them in an ordinary way Which shews that the Nature of man is capable of the things which are the matter of their hopes and fears Verily Sirs I think as to any good that cometh by it there is very little difference between having Reason and having none if we had nothing to do with it but cunningly to lay up our food and make provision for this corruptible flesh and had not another life to mind It were no such great difference in my opinion as it commonly goes for whether we were men or dogs if it were only for the matters of this transitory life For though I may not deny but yet man were the nobler creature yet alas the difference would be but graduall and small as an Ape or Dog excells a Swine And as to his Happiness it is doubtful whether Man would not have the worst of it For as brutes have not mans knowledge so they have not his toil and trouble of mind his care and fear and griefs and disappointments Nor have they so terrible fore-thoughts of death through all their lives as man must have much less such fears of what would follow after death And therefore I may boldly say that you have thrown away your wits and laid by your Reason as to the principal use of it if you have forgot or have not chiefly sought the One thing necessary Where were your wits when a lump of flesh was preferred before immortal souls and when the trouble and dung of a transitory world was more esteemed then God and endless Glory Where were your wits when you might have had Christ and Life in him and his pardoning healing sanctifying grace and you had no mind of him and were not sensible of your necessity and past him by with as much neglect as if you could have been saved without him When you might long ago have made sure of Heaven and now you are even ready to drop into Hell and stay but for a Feaver or Consumption or some other disease to cut the thred and turn the key unless a speedy sound conversion shall yet prevent it What have you done in
theirs Many a time hath he offered this mercy to them and many a time hath he urged them to accept â—…t He hath set before them life and death and given them their choice and directed and perswaded them to choose aright Impossibility of attainment is not their hinderance for Mercy beâ—eecheth and importuneth them to accept it and grace and salvation are brought unto their hands O wonderful What then â—s left to take off a reasonable creature from minding and preferring its own everlasting great concernments Is it because they have done their work already and having made sure of heaven have time to turn themselves to other matters Alas no the most are far from any such assurance and have done but little to procure it If they were to die this hour they know not where their souls shall be the next And if death even now should lay its terrible hands upon them they have no other comfort then to yield â—â—to necessity and leave their souls by a short security to 〈…〉 passage of their unavoidable change Unless they are comâ—… by such presumptuous self-deceit which the next moment after death will vanish and never return unto them more Job 8. 13 14. 11. 20. 27. 8. Prov. 11. 7. This is the case of the miserable world but they have not hearts to 〈…〉 themselves nor can we make them willing to be delivered â—…use we cannot make them know their case If a man fall in 〈…〉 pit we need not spend all the day to perswade him that he is there and to be willing to be helpt out of it But with these fleshlyâ—â—iserable souls the time that should be spent by themselves and us for their recovery must be spent to make them believe that they are lost and when all is done we leave them lost and have lost our labour because we cannot prevail with them to believe it Drown they will and perish everlastingly because the time that should be spent in saving them must be spent in making them know that they are sinking and after all they will not believe it and therefore will not â—ay hold on the hand that is stretched forth to pull them out The Narrative of the savage people of Soldania doth notably represent their state Those people live naked and feed upon the carrion-like carkasses of beasts and hang the stinking guts about their â—ecks for ornamentâ— and wear hats made of the dung and carve their skins and will not change these loathsom customs Some of them being drawn into our Ships were carried away for England when they came to Landon and saw our stately buildings and cloathing and provisions they were observed to sigh much which was thought to have been in compassion of their miserable Countrey which so much differed from ours When they had stayed long among us and got so much acquaintance with our civility and order and all that belongs to the life of man as that they were thought fit to communicate it to their Countrey-men the next Voyage they were brought back and set on shoare in their own Countrey to draw some of the rest to come into the Ships and see and enjoy what they had done who had purposely been used as might most content them But as soon as they were landed they lept for joy and cryed Soldania and cast away their cloathes and came again in the sight of our Ships with dung on their heads and guts hanging about their necks triumphing in their sordid nakedness Just so do worldly sensual men in the matters of salvation If against their wills they are carryed into cleaner wayes and company and the beauty of holiness and the joyes of heaven are opened to them they are aweary of it aâ— the while and when we expect they should delight themselves in the felicity that is opened to them and draw their old acquaintance to it and be utterly ashamed of their former base and sinful state they are gone when the next temptation comes and return with the dog unto their vomit and with the washed Swine to wallow in the mire 2 Pet. 2. 21 22. and glory in their filth and shame and only mind their earthly things Phil. 3. 18. Use 3. BY this time you may see your selves that the disease of sinners is in their own hearts and it is that that must be healed if they will be saved But what should we do to get into those hearts to search your sores and work the cure I come now to the principal part of my message to you but will you indeed entertain it if it prove it self to be from God How the case standeth with mankind you have heard in my Text from Christ himself How One thing is needful and how the busie-idle world is diverted from this One thing by many needless troublesom things to their own destruction If hence I warn you of your danger and tell you of your duty and exhort you to take another course then you have done I hope you will confess I do but what is needfull both for you and me and what you have no reason to contradict Come then for the Lords sake and let us treat practically and successfully about so great a business and make something of it before we leave it and end not till we amend what we find amiss What course then will you take for the time to come Will you go on to trouble your selves about Many things and neglect the One thing needful as you have done Dare you harbour such a purpose Or dare you stifle those thoughts and motions that would tend to better purposes Or may I not hope that the Light hath shamed your sleepiness and works of darkness and that you are grieved at the heart for the sinful negligence of heart and life and resolved now to be new men For Gods sake Resolve Sirs What will you do Waver not but Resolve It s more then a thousand lives that lyeth on your Resolution I come to you this day as the Minister of the great Pastor of the flock that spake these words not only to acquaint you if you know not or to remember you if you know that One thing is needful but also with authority to command you in his name to Value it to Love it to Choose it to seek it and labour for it as the One thing needful What say you will you or will you not This unspeakable mercy I offer you from the Lord He is willing to put up at your hands all that is past and to lay all your sins on the score of Christ and freely to forgive you through the vertue of his blood if you will now at last bethink you better and come to Christ and live as men that know what they have to do If you will but see your former folly and heartily bewail it and set your hearts on the One thing needful he will encourage you and help you and bid you welcome and number you with his
or by Policy they would rob you of your Portion they cannot do it For which way should they do it They cannot turn the heart of God against you nor make him break his Covenant with you nor repent him of his Gift and Calling which he hath extended to you For he is unchangeable and loveth you with an everlasting love Mal. 3. 6. Jer. 31. 3. Isa â—â—â— 8. Jer. 33. 20 21 23. 50. 5. Rom. 11. 29. They cannot undermine the rock that you are built upon nor batter the fortress of your souls nor overcome your great Preserver and Defence nor take you out of the hands of Christ Psal 73. 26. 31. 2 3. 62. 2. 59. 9 16. Joh. 10. 28. Cast not away the salvation that is offered you and then never fear least it be taken from you See that you chuse the better part and resolvedly chuse it and it will be certainly your own for ever For man cannot take it from you nor Devils cannot take it from you and God will not take it from you Rust and moths will not corrupt this Treasure nor can thieves break through and steal it from you Mat. 6. 19 20. But you cannot say so of worldly riches If you chuse to be Lords and Princes on the earth you cannot have your choice but if you could you cannot keep it If you chuse the wealth and credit of the world and were sure to get it you were as sure to leave it For naked you came into the world and naked you must go out Job 1. 21. If you chuse your ease and mirth and pleasure these will be taken from you If you chuse the satisfying of your fleshly desires and all the delight and prosperity that the world can afford you yet all must be taken from you Yea quickly and easily taken from you Alas one stroak of an Apoplexy or a few fits of a Fever or the breaking of a small vein or many hundred of the like effectual means are ready at the beck of God to take you from all that you have gathered for your flesh And then whose shall all these things be None of yours I am sure nor will they redeem your souls from death or hell Luke 12. 20. Psalm 49. 7. If you be in honour you abide not in it but are as to your body as the beasts that perish If you think to perpetuate your houses and your names this your way is but your â—olly though your posterity go on to approve your sayings and succeed you in your sins Psalm 49. 11 12 13. The worldly wise man doth perish with the fool as sheep they 〈◊〉 laid in the grave Death shall feed on them and the upright shall have Dominion over them in the morning ver 10 14. They shall soon be cut down like the grass and whether as the green herb Psal 37. 2. I have seen the wicked in great prosperity and spreading himself like a green bay-tree yet he passed away and loe he was not yea I sought him but he could not be found v. 35 36. You think it a fine thing to have the fulness of the creature to be esteemed with the highest and fed and cloathed with the best and fare deliciously every day as the rich man Luke 16. but hath he not paid dear think you for his riches and pleasure by this time His feeding and fulness was quickly at an end but his torment is not yet ended nor ever will be You think it a brave thing to clamber up to riches and that which you call greatness and honour in the world but how quickly how terribly must you come down Go into the Sanctuary of God and understand your end Surely God hath set them in slippery places and casteth them down into destruction How are they brought to desolation as in a moment They are utterly consumed with terrours As a dream when one awakeneth so at the awakening shall their Image or shadow of honour be despised Psalm 73. 17 18 19 20. How short is the pleasure and how long is the pain How short is the honour and how long is the shame What is it under the Sun that is everlasting You have friends but will they dwell with you here for ever You have houses but how long will you stay in them It is but as yesterday since your houses had other Inhabitants and your Towns and Countries other Inhabitants and where are they all now You have health but how soon will you consume in sickness You have life but how soon will it end in death You have the pleasure of sin you say unto your selves Eat drink and be merry but how soon will all the mirth be mar'd and turned into sadness everlasting sadness When you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and then whose shall these things be Luke 12. 20. Oh miserable wretch If thou hadst chosen God instead of thy sin and the everlasting Kingdom instead of this world thou wouldst not have been thus cast off in thy extremity God would have stuck better to thee Heaven would have proved a more durable Inheritance For it is a Kingdom that cannot be moved Heb. 12. 28. The day is near when thy despairing soul must take up this lamentation My dearest friends are now forsaking me I must part with all that I laboured for and delighted in I have drunk up all my part of pleasure and there is no more left My merry company and honours and recreations are past and gone I shall eat and drink and sport no more but God would not have used me thus if I had set my heart upon him and his Kingdom Oh that I had chosen him and made him my portion and spent these thoughts and cares and labours for the obtaining of his love and promised Glory which I spent for the pleasing and providing for my flesh Then I should have had a happiness that death could not deprive me of and a Crown that fadeth not away Neither life nor death nor any creature could have separated me from his love I need not then have gone out of the world as a prisoner out of the Gaol to the â—â—rr and to the place of execution My departing soul should not then need to have been afraid of falling into the hands of an unreconciled God and so into the hands of the Devils as his executioners nor of passing out of the flesh to hell Oh poor sinners for how short a pleasure do you sell your hopes of everlasting Blessedness and run your selves into endless pains O what comparison is there between the time of your pleasure and the everlastingness of your Punishment How short a while is the cup at your mouthes or the drink in your bellies or the harlot in your embracements or the wealth of the world in your Possession And how long a time must you pay for this in hell How quickly are your merry hours past but your torments will never be past
When your corpses are laid in the grave men can say Now he hath done his satisfying the flesh and following the world but never man can truly say Now he hath done suffering for it Your life of sin is passing as a dream and your honours as a shadow and all your business as a talc that is told but the life of Glory which you rejected for this would have endured for evermore Suppose as many thousand years as there are sands on the Sea or piles of grass on the whole earth or hairs on the heads of all men in the world yet when these many are past the Joy of Saints and the Torments of the wicked are as far from an end as ever they were The eternal God doth give them a duration and make them eternal When our joyes are at the sweetest this thought must needs be part of that sweetness that their sweetness shall never have an end If our short fore-taste be Joy unspeakable and full of glory what shall we call that Joy which flows from the most perfect fruition and perpetuation 1 Pet. 1. 7 8. We have Joy here but alas how seldom Alas how small in comparison of what we may there expect Some Joy we have but how oft do Melancholy or crosses or losses in the world or temptations or sins or desertions interrupt it Our sun is here most commonly under a cloud and too often in an Ecclipse and we have the night as often as the day Yea our state is usually a Winter Our dayes are cold and short and our nights are long But when the flourishing state of glory comes we shall have no Interscissioâ—s nor Ecclipses Tâ—â— path of the just is as the shining light that shineth more and more unto the perfect day Prov. 4. 18. And the perfect day is a perpetual day that knows no interruption by the darkness of the night For there shall be no night there nor need of candle or Sun for the Lord God giveth them light and they shall reign for ever and ever Rev. 22. 5. This is the life that fears no death and this is the feast that fears no want or future famine the pleasure that knows nor fears no pain the health that knows nor fears no sickness this is the treasure that fears no moth or rust or thief the building that fears no storm nor decay the Kingdom that fears no changes by Rebellion the friendship that fears no falling out the Love that fears no hatred or frustration the Glory that fears no envious eye the possessed Inheritance that fears no ejection by fraud or force or any failings the Joy that feels or fears no sorrow while God who is Life it self is our life and while God who is Love is the fountain and object of our Love we can never want either Life or Love And whiles he feeds our Love our Joyful praises will never be run dry nor ever go out for want of fewel This is the true perpetual motion the câ—rculation of the holy blood and spirit from God to man and from man to God Being prepared and brought near him we have the blessed Vision of his face by seeing him and by the blessed emanation of his love we are drawn out perpetually and unweariedly to Love him and Rejoyce in him and from hence uncessantly to praise and honour him In all which as his blessed Image and the shining reflections of his revealed glory he taketh complacency which is the highest end of God and man and the very term of all his works and wayes I Thought here to have ended this First Part of my Discourse but yet compassion calls me back I fear lest with the most I have not yet prevailed and lest I shall leave them behind me in the bonds of their iniquity I daily hear the voice of men possessed by a spirit of uncleanness speaking against this Necessity of a holy life which Christ himself so peremptorly asserteth I hear that voice which foretelleth a more dreadful voice if in time they be not prevailed with to prevent it One saith What need all this ado This strictness is more ado then needs Another saith You would make men mad by poring so much on matters that are above them Another saith Cannot you keep your Religion to your selfe and be Godly with moderation as your neighbours be Another saith I hope God is more merciful then to damn 〈…〉 that â—â— not so precise Another saith I shall never endure so strict a life and therefore I will venture as well as others The summe of allis They are so far in love with the world and sin and so much against a holy life that they will not be perswaded to it and therefore to quiet their consciences in their misery they make themselves believe that they may be saved without it and that it is a thing of no Necessity but their coming to Church and living like good neighbours may serve the turn without it for their salvation And thus doth the malicious Serpent in the hearts of those that he possesseth rise up against the words of Christ Christ saith that this is The One thing needful And the Serpent saith It is more ado then needs and What needs all this ado Though I have fully answered this ungodly objection already in my Treatise of Conversion sect 36. pag. 284. c. and more fully in my Treatise of Rest Part 3. Chap. 6. yet I shall once more fall upon it For death is coming while poor deluded souls are loytering and if Satan by such sensless reasonings as these can keep them unready in their sin till the â—atal stroak hath cut them down and cast them into endless easeless fire alas how great will be their fall and how unspeakably dreadful will be their misery Whoever thou be whether hâ—gh or low learned or unlearned that hast disliked opposed or reproached serious godly Christians as Puritanes and too precise and that thinkest the most diligent labour for salvation to be but more ado then needs and hast not thy self yet resolvedly set upon a holy life I require at thy hands so much impartiality and faithfulness to thy own immortal soul as seriously to peruse these following Questions and to go no further in thy careless negligent ungodly course till thou art able to give such a rational answer to them as thou darest stand to now at the Barr of thine own Conscience and hereafter at the Barr of Christ Quest 1. Canst thou possibly give God more then is his due Or love him more then he deserveth Or serve him more faithfully then thâ—â— art bound and he is worthy of Art thou not his creature made of nothing and hast thou not all that thou art and hast from him and if thou give him all dost thou give him any more then what is his own If thou give him all the affections of thy soul and all the most serious thoughts of thy heart and every hour of thy time and
say that this One thing is needless for which thou hast all things Thou mayest then say that God made the world in vain and preserveth and governeth it in vain For all this is but for his service which thou callest vain Quest 11. Doth not Reason tell thee that the place in which thou must live for ever should be more diligently minded and prepared for then this in which thou must continue but for a while Alas it is so short a time that we must be here that it makes all the matters of this world as such to be inconsiderable things as dreams and shadows What great matter is it for so short a time whether we be rich or poor well or sick in credit or in contempt whether we laugh or weep When our part will be so quickly acted and we must go naked out of the world as we came into it For so short a time a poor habitation may serve the turn as well as the most splendid Palace A painful obscure afflicted life may do as well as the most plentiful provisions and the greatest ease and worldly honours The purple and fine linnen the silks and bravery will be soon forgotten and the soul in Hell will be no more the better for them then the rotten carkase in the grave The taste of the delicious meats and drinks will quickly be forgotten and sportful youth will be turned into cold and languid age and the most confirmed health into dolorous sickness and mirth and laughter into mournful groans And is such a transitory life as this more worthy of your care and greatest diligence then life eternal O one would think that the world that you must be ever ever in should never never be forgotten There is the company that you must live with for ever There is the state that you shall never change There is the Joy or Torment that shall have no end and while you forget it you are posting to it and are almost there And can you be too careful for eternity Quest 12. Consider also but the infinite Joyes of Heaven and tell me Whether thou dost think they are not worthy the greatest cost or pains that thou canst be at to get them Dost thou think that Heaven is not worthy of the labour that is bestowed for it by the holyest Saints on earth Will it not requite them to the full Will any that comes thither repent that they obtained it at so dear a rate If now thou couldst speak with one of those Believers mentioned in Heb. 11. that lived as strangers and pilgrims on earth as seeking a better even a heavenly Countrey that preferred the reproach of Christ before the treasure of the world and chose affliction with the people of God before the pleasures of sin for a season that were tortured not accepting deliverance that they might receive a better resurrection that had tryal of cruel mâ—â—kings and scourgings and of bonds and imprisonments and were sâ—oned sawn asunder tempted slain with the sword wandred about in sheep-skins and goat-skins being destitute afflicted and tormented though men of whom the world was not worthy Would any one of these now tell you that they did or suffered too much for Heaven Or that it was not worth ten thousand times more If thy tongue dare say that Heaven is not worth the cost or trouble of a holy life or if thy life say so though thy tongue dare not thou judgest thy self unworthy of it and sentencest thy self unto damnation Quest 13. And are the torments of Hell so small and tolerable that thou thinkest a holy life too dear a means for to prevent them Dost thou believe the threatnings of the Lord that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know not God and obey not the Gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power 2 Thes 1. 8 9. and yet canst thou say What needs all this ado to scape such endless misery Thou wilt take any medicine to cure but the gowt or stone if once thou have felt them Thou wilt draw out a tooth to prevent the pain of it And is Holiness so hateful or grievous a thing to thee that thou wilt venture on Hell it self to avoid it If so much of Hell be in thy heart already blame none but thy self if thou have thy choice Quest 14. Why wast thou baptized into the Covenant of holiness to God the Father Son and Holy-Ghost if thou think it nâ—â—dless to perform thy Covenant A holy life is no more then in Baptism thou wast solemnly engaged too There didst thou renounce the flesh the world and the Devil and tookest God for thy portion and absolute Lord and gavest up thy self to be ruled by him and saved by Christ and sanctified by the holy Spirit and dost thou now say What needs all this ado Are we all by our Baptismal Vow engaged to a needless thing I tell thee there is not the holyest man on earth that doth any more then what he is bound to by the Covenant-Relations which he undertook in Baptism Quest 15. Moreover What an Hypocrite art thou to profess thy self a member of the Holy Catholick Church if Holiness which is the life of the Church seem needless to thee Why dost thou profess to believe and desire the Communion of Saints if the life of Saints seem needless to thee and thou wilt not have Communion with them in their sanctity Dost thou not plainly renounce thy Covenant and faith and duty when thou renouncest a holy life as a thing unnecessary Quest 16. Dost thou think or darest thou say that the bloody death and holy life of Jesus Christ were more then needs in order to thy salvation Unless thou be a prosessed Infidel I know thou darest not say so And if thy soul were worth the sufferings of the Lord of Life is it not worth all the cost and labour of thy duty Christ lived a life of perfect holiness he never sinned he fulfilled all righteousness he prayed all night and with greatest fervency preaching and doing good was his employment Though he hated Pharisaical superstition and the teaching for doctrines the Commandments of men and serving God according to mens traditions yet was there never so holy and pure and precise and strict and heavenly a life as Jesus Christ's And this was for our redemption and our example And darest thou say that this was needless Should we not endeavour to imitate our pattern Are they better that are likest Christ or they that are most unlike him And which dost thou think is liker Christ the holy or the unholy Sure we that fall so short of the example that Christ hath given us are far from being more diligent then needs when Christ went not too far nor was too strict that went so very far beyond us Quest 17. Look upon all the institutions of
the Lord On Magistracy and Ministry and the great works of their office On prayer and preaching and Sacraments and Discipline and all other Ordinances of God and also on all the frame of the holy Scripture and also on all the workings and graces of the Holy-Ghost and tell me whether thou darest say that all or any of these are in vain and whether that Holiness which all these are appointed for can be a vain and needless thing Quest 18. Darest thou say that Christ doth more then needs in his Intercession for us with the Father now in Heaven It is he that sendeth the spirit to sanctifie us It is he that prayeth that we may be sanctified by the truth We have no grace and holiness but what we have from him And darest thou say he doth too much It is he that sends his Ministers to call men to a holy life Look into his Word and see whether the doctrine which they preach be not there prescribed to them and the duties of holiness there commended If therefore it were erroneous or excessive it would be long of Christ and not of his Messengers or Disciples that speak and do no more for holiness then he bids them but fall exceeding short Quest 19. Art thou wiser in this and more to be believed then all the antient Prophets and Apostles and servants of God in former ages and then all that are now alive on earth that ever tryed a holy life The Scripture will tell thee that Abraham Isaac Jacob David and all the rest of the Saints that were then most dear to God were so far from thinking that a holy life was more then needs that they thought they could never be holy enough and blamed their defects when they excelled such as now thou blamest as too precise And if thou wilt preferr the words and example of a worldling or of a sottish sensual man before the judgement and example of these Saints the company that thou choosest and the deceivers whom thou followest shall be also thy companions in calamity where shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth when ye shall see the Saints from East and West from North and South sit down with Abraham Isaac Jacob and all the Prophets in the Kingdom of God and you and such as you thrust out Even when the last in time whom you here despised shall be equal to the first and antient Saints Luke 13. 27 28 29 30. Why do you hypocritically honour the names and memorials of the Prophets Apostles and other former Saints and keep Holy-dayes for them and yet reproach their holy course and preferr the judgement of a drunkard or a malignant enemy of godliness before theirs For so you do when you argue against a holy life Quest 20. Dost thou think that there is now one soul in Heaven or Hell that is of thy prophane opinion and would say that a diligent holy life is more ado then needs for mens salvation Certainly those in Heaven have more knowledge and experience and love to God and man and goodness then to be of so impious a mind or once to entertain such beastly thoughts And those in Hell though still â—â— holy have learned to their cost to know the great Necessity of â—…ss And would tell you if they could speak with you that the most strict and heavenly life for millions of ages were not too dear for the escaping of the everlasting misery Why else do we find one of them in Luke 16. described as so desirous that oâ—… the dead might be sent to his Brethren to warn them that they come not to that place of torment And what is it that he would have had them warned of but that they should live a holy self-denying life and with all their diligence lay up a treasure in the life to come instead of liying so sensual and voluptuous and ungodly a life as he had lived The scope of the story tells us that this would have been his message if he might have sent Quest 21. Dost thou think in thy Conscience that at the hour â—â— thy death or at least at Judgement thou shalt think thy self that Holiness was unnecessary Doth not thy heart tell thee that then thou shalt be of another mind and wish with the deepest desires of thy soul that thou hadst lived as strictly and prepared for everlasting life as seriously and served God as diligently as ever did any Saint on earth But alas those wishes will be then too late Now is thy day and now thou takest thy work to be needless And to see the Necessity when time is gone will be thy torment but not thy remedy Not one in this Congregation or Town or Countrey not one in England or in all the world but shall be forced at last whether he will or no to justifie the wisdom of the godly and the worst of you shall then with ten thousand fruitless groans desire that you had imitated the holyest persons that you knew Not a tongue then shall say What needs all this ado for heaven Not a man there dare call his neighbour Puritane nor take up a contemptuous jear against the diligent servants of the Lord. Quest 22. Is not that man at the heart against the Lord that reproacheth his serious diligent servants and counts his work a needless thing Men are more willing to please those that they love and more ready to do the works they love If your son or servant speak against your service but as you do against Gods what would you think of their affections Doubtless it is no better then a secret hatred to the holiness of God and a Serpentine eâ—â—ity to his holy wayes that causeth all these sensless cavils and impious speeches against the life that he hath commanded us to live Quest 23. Is it not most unreasonable impiety for that man â—â— speak against too strict exact obedience and against serving God â—â— much that hath served the world the flesh and the Devil in â—â— vigour and flower of his dayes and this with pleasure and never said It is too much When thou wast drinking and sporting thou wast not aweary When it comes to a matter of riches or honour or ease or pleasure to gratifie thy worldliness pride laziness and voluptuousness then thou never saist It is too much And is all too little for sin and the Devil and all too much for thy soul and God Let Conscience tell thee whether this be just Quest 24. Is it not a foolish wickedness for that man to cry out against making haste to heaven and going so fast in the wayes of God that hath loytered already till the evening of his dayes and lost so much time as thou hast done If thou hadst begun as soon as thou hadst the use of reason and remembred thy Creator in the dayes of thy youth and never lost an hour of thy time since then till now thou hadst done no more then what thy God thy soul
Consciences and the tormenting displeasure of Almighty God are satisfied by this time whether the Godly or ungodly were the Wiser men and whether sanctity or sensuality were the Better course They that are rejoycing with Christ in Glory are satiâ—fied perfectly of this question and are far from repenting of their choice Luk. 16. Christ tells you enough in the case of the Rich man and Lazarus how men judge in the life to come 12. But if all these witnesses will not serve you what shall we say to you Whom will you choose to be your Cousellor There is none left that I remember unless you will go the Devil for advice But against this I have told you enough before Will he speak for Holiness that is a spirit of uncleanness and will he shew thee Heaven that laboureth purposely to hide it from thee till thou have lost it Or will he let thee see the odiousness and danger of thy sin when it is the snare and bait by which he hopeth to undo thee But yet for all this let me tell thee that thou mayst learn even from the Tempting Enemy himself the Truth of that which I am now asserting For as the Devil himself believeth it when he perswadeth thee not to believe it so the very nature and manner of his Temptations may help thee to perceive that Heaven is attainable and Holiness is the only way Would he make so much ado about it to keep thee from the believing it and seeking it if there were not a Heaven for thee to find why is he so eager to draw thee unto sin if sin be not hurtful to thee Dost thou not feel the importunity of his Temptations It s easie to observe them Why is he so much much against a Holy doctrine and a Holy life and a Holy people if it were not that he knows the Necessity and worth of Holiness for thy good The actions of a Knowing Enemy may do very much to acquaint us with the truth Besides this he hath oft appeared in bodily shapes as I am able to prove by undenyable evidence sometime to entice men to sin and sometime to be Gods executioner to afflict them for it and sometime to make a Covenant with witches and Conjurers for their souls as many a hundred of them have confessed at their death And why should he be so desirous of thy soul if thou hadst none to lose or so desirous to deceive thee and deprive thee of salvation if there were none for thee to lose and if this were not the chief concernment of thy soul why should thy chief enemy so much regard it Thou seest that he is not so careful to deprive thee of thy fleshly pleasure He careth not how much thou hast of this The more the glutton is pleased with his chear and the more the drunkard delighteth in his cups and the more the fornicator is pleased in his filthiness and every voluptuous person in his voluptuousness the Devil is pleased so much the more He cares not if thou have all the Kingdoms of the world if he can deprive thee of the Everlasting Kingdom Nor will he grudge thee the glory and honour of the world if he can but keep thee from the heavenly Glory He will allow thee the Hypocrites Reward which is the applause of men if he can but keep thee from the Saints Reward which is the savour of God He cares not how much of thy Good things thou hast here if he can deprive thee of the Everlasting Good It is his desire that thou have thy Portion in this life that thou mayst miss of the Believers Portion in the next Certainly the Devil himself by his Temptations Apparitions and Contracts doth plainly tell us of a life to come and what it is that conduceth most to our Good or Hurt our Joy or Torment and consequently teacheth us what to choose by tempting us so palpably and eagerly to refuse it You see now what a Jury of Witnesses I have brought in to testifie which is the Better part The Devil and the wicked are added to the rest because you will hear no better witnesses If you will here are enow whose testimonies are unquestionable But when all is done it is the Lord that is and will be Judge All these are but witnesses to dispose thee to receive his sentence Thou art no Believer till the Authority of the Word of God will serve to satisfie and resolve thee CHAP. III. Full proof in twentie Queries from Reason it self that there is a Life to come and Holiness is the way to it and the Better Part And that the Gospel is the certain Word of God in fifteen Queries more with Answers to the Infidels Objections ANd by this time I come somewhat nearer to the Infidel and am ready to answer his fore-going Question Where shall I find the Judgement or Testimony of the Lord O saith the Unbeliever if I were but sure that there were a life hereafter where the godly and the wicked shall be differently Rewarded as the Scripture speaks then I must confess he were no better then a â—â—â— man that would prefer this world or wilfully live in sin and Would not seek Heaven with all his might and be as earnest iâ— Holiâ—… the strictest Saint But I am not sure that this is true and that there is any such difference after death to be expected Answ Alas poor wretch Art thou at that pass Hast thou so far lost the Knowledge of God and of thy self and of thy end and business here and of the word and works of God as to turn worse then Jew or Turk or Heathen even to think thy self a beast that hath no life nor happiness but this If this be thy case I cannot now stand to deal with thee according to thy necessity I am now dealing with them that confess a Life hereafter And because we cannot in all our writings repeat over the same things I desire thee to peruse what I have already written for such as thee in the Second Part of The Saints Rest and in a Treatise called The unreasonableness of Infidelity and at present take only some brief advertisments for thy conviction 1. And first whereas you say you are not sure of a Life hereafter I demand of you Whether you are sure that there is no such life I am sure you are not If you think you are which none but a debauched man can think that hath put out the eye of Natural Light let us hear your Proof and you shall soon be told the vanity of it But if you are not sure that there is no such life then I would know of you Whether a Possibility of such Everlasting things deserve not greater care and diligence then is used by the Holyest Saint on earth You say You are not sure that there is a Heaven for Saints But what if it prove true as nothing more true will you sit still and lose it for you know
these is certainly the case of the sanctified and the other of the unsanctified Gal. 3. 10 13. As many as are of the works of the Law are under the Curse for it is written Cursed is every one that continueth not in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the Law being made a Curse for us Rom. 3. 23. For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God And Mark 4. 12. shews that the unconverted have not their sins forgiven them Joh. 3. 18. He that believeth on him is not condemned but he that believeth not is condemned already And Act. 26. 18. To open their eyes and turn them from darkness to light and from the power of Satan unto God that they may receive forgiveness of sins and an inheritance among them that are sanctified by faith that is in me Rom. 8. 1. There is no Condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus that walk not after the flesh but after the spirit Abundance more such passages of holy Scripture do assure us that all the unsanctified are unpardoned and all the sanctified are Justified and delivered from the Curse And which of these are in the safer state Did one of you owe ten thousand pounds more then he were worth or had you committed twenty known selonies or murders would you think your selves safe without a pardon Would you not be looking behind you and afraid of allmost every man you see lest he came to apprehend you O what a case is that man in that hath so many thousands sins to answer for and hath such a load of guilt upon his soul and so many terrible threatnings of the Law in force against him Do you not fear every hour lest death arrest you and bring you to the prison of the bottomless pit But the sanctified is delivered from this danger A thousand sins indeed were against us but we have a pardon of them all to shew In Christ we have Redemption through his blood the forgiveness of sins Col. 1. 14. The law hath nothing now against us and therefore we are safe 4. Those are safer that are dearly beloved of the Lord and reconciled to him and taken for his Children then those that are his Enemies and hated by him and under his displeasure But most Certainly the former is the state of all the sanctified and the later is the state of the ungodly You shall see both in the words of God Psal 5. 4 5. Thou art not a God that hath pleasure in wickedness neither shall evil dwell with thee The foolish shall not stand in thy sight thou hatest all the workers of iniquity Psal 7. 10 11. My Defence is of God which saveth the upright in heart God judgeth the Righteous and God is angry with the wicked every day Psal 45. 7. Thou lovest righteousness and hatest wickedness Luk. 19. 27. Those mine enemies that would not I should raign over them bring them hither and stay them before me Ephes 2. 3. We were by nature the children of wrath A hundred more such places shew you the state of the unsanctified But how different is the case of the renewed upright soul 2 Cor. 6. 16 17 18. Yee are the Temple of the living God as God hath said I will dwell in them and walk in them and I will be their God and they shall be my people Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you and will be a Father unto you and ye shall be my sons and daughters saith the Lord Almighty Job 1. 12. But as many as received him to them gave he power to become the sons of God Rom. 8. 16 17. The spirit it self beareth witness with our spirit that we are the children of God And if Children then heirs heirs of God and joynt heirs with Christ Mal. 3. 17. And they shall be mine saith the Lord of hosts in that day when I make up my Jewels and I will spare them as a man spareth his own son that serveth him Heb. 8. 12. I will be merciful to their unrighteousness and their sins and their iniquities will I remember no more Col. 1. 21 22. And you that were sometime alienated and enemies in your minds by wicked works yet now hath he reconciled in the body of his flesh through death to present you holy and unblameable and unreproveable in his sight Psal 32. 1 2. Blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven whose sin is covered blessed is the man to whom the Lord imputeth not iniquity and in whose spirit there is no guile Zech. 2. 8. He that toucheth you toucheth the apple of mine eye Judge now by these plain expressions form the Lord who it is that is in the safer state the godly or the ungodly Is he the safer that is hated by the God of heaven or he that is most dearly loved by him He that is under his displeasure or he that is his delight Why man if God be against thee thou art no where safe not in the strongest Castle not in the greatest Army not in the highest dignity not in the merryest company Thou knowest not but a Commission is gone out for death to strike thee in thy next recreation or fit of mirth How knowest thou but death is ready to strike while thou art eating or drinking or talking or sleeping Thou hast no security from an angry God Till he be reconciled thou art nowhere safe This may be thy fatal day or night for ought thou knowest And if once the mortal blow be struck and thy soul be taken from thy body unrenewed O man where then wilt thou appear O wonderful stupidity that thou dost not eat thy bread in fear and do thy work in fear and sleep in fear and live in fear till thou be sanctified But to the soul that hath God for his security what can be dangerous or what condition while he keeps close to God can be unsafe The Father that gave us unto Christ is greater then all and no man can take us out of his hands Joh. 10. 28 29. Conquer Heaven and conquer the Saints There is their City their garrison their conversation Phil. 1. 20. Heb. 11. 10 16. what enemy what policie what power can endanger him that God will save and hath undertaken for We were never safe one day or hour till we were friends with God Deut. 33. 27. The Eternel God is thy refuge and underneath are the everlasting arms Psal 46. 1 2 5 7. God is our refuge and strength a very present helâ— in trouble therefore will not we fear though the earth be removed and though the mountains be carryed into the midst of the sea God is in the midst of her she shall not be moved God shall help her and that right early The Lord of hosts is with us the God of Jacob is
be grievous to them 6. The very Bodily informities of Believers are a constant help to keep them humble They have all this treasure but is earthen vessels 2 Cor. 4. 7. Their souls are here so poorly lodged in corruptible Tabernacles of earth and so meanly cloathed with frail diseased mortal flesh that it is madness to be proud 7. And the many and great afflictions of the godly are medicines that are purposely given them by their Physicion to cure Pride and keep them humble Why else must their sufferings be so many and why must they daily bear the Cross but that they may be conformed to the image of Christ 8. And to the same end it is that God doth let loose upon them so many enemies All Satans temptations and the worlds allurements and vexations and all their disappointments here and all the scorns and mocks of the ungodly and the censures and slanders of wicked tongues and often bitter persescutions what are they but the bitter medicines of God permitted and ordered by him though cansed by the Devil and wicked men to save the servants of the Lord from the sin and danger of being lifted up Do you say that their Honour will make them proud Why you that thus oppose them and despise them are â—uring them of their pride and do not know it as Scullions scoure the rust off the vessels for their Masters use and as Leeches draw out the blood that causeth the disease and as the Jews by their sin promoted the Redemption of the world by the death of Christ When God seeth his servants in danger of being lifted up above measure he oft sendeth a messenger of Satan who may be an Executioner of Gods chastisements to buffet them 2 Cor. 12. 7. Sometimes by slanders sometime by reproaches sometime by imprisonments or greater sufferings and sometimes by horrid troublesom temptations 9. The very foresight of death it self is a humbling means and the last enemy Death is yet unconquered and our Bodies must corrupt in dust and darkness and be kept in the grave as common earth till the Resurrection that the soul may not grow proud that hath such a body 11. And the Day of Judgement is so described to us in the Scripture as tends to keep the soul in awe and in Humility To think of such a day and such a reckoning before such a God me 〈…〉 should humble us 11. And our Absolution and Glorification at that day is promised us now but conditionally though God will see that the condition be performed by all that he will save And therefore the poor soul is oft so far to seek about the certain sincerity of his own Faith and Repentance that most of the godly are kept in fears and doubtings to the death Yea and Humility and Self-denyal are part of this Condition And all their Honour and Glory with Christ is promised to the Humble only Humility is commanded them in the Precept Humility is it that they are exhorted to by the Ministers And Pride is threatened with everlasting wrath and described as the Devils image So that Holiness hath all the advantages against Pride that can be here expected 12. To conclude the Godly know that as they have nothing but from God so they have nothing but for God so that their own Honour is for him more then for themselves and it is essential to their Holiness to make God their end and set him highest and referr all to his Pleasure and Glory So that you see now that we may Honour them that fear the Lord Psalm 15. 4. without being guilty of making them proud and that we must not deny them the Honour that God hath given them as their due for fear of their being proud of it Though this as all things else must be prudently managed to particular persons according to their various states And therefore let me here warn all you that profess the fear of God Take heed lest you be proud of any thing that God hath Honoured you with For if you be you see what an Army of Reasons and Means you sin against and consequently how great your sin will be And your consciences and the world shall be forced to justifie God and his Holy wayes and to prove against you that it was not long of them that you were proud and that none in the world was more against it then God and Holiness and that it was not because you were so Religious but because you were no more Religious And if Pride of Knowledge Gifts or whatsoever be unmortified in you it will certainly prove that you are none of the sanctified when your profession of Sanctity will never prove that Sanctity was a cause or confederate in your sin AND now I have shewed you the Honour of Godliness let us briefly and but briefly consider of your Honour that reject it and see then whether the godly or ungodly are more Honourable 1. Ungodly men have the Basest Master in the world Would you know who Let Christ be Judge John 8. 44. Ye are of your father the Devil and the lusts of your father you will do 2 Tim. 2. 26. They are taken captive by the Devil at his will that is to do his will It is he that stirreth you up to filthy talking to speak against Godliness to curse and swear and you do his will His will is that you should neglect a holy life and you do his will His will is that you live not after the spirit but after the flesh and you do his will O poor souls Do you think it is only Witches that expresly Covenant with him that are his miserable servants Alas it is you also if you do his will For if you will believe either God or common reason to whom you yield your selves servants to obey his servants you are to whom you obey whether of sin unto death or of obedience unto righteousness Rom. 6. 16. The godly themselves were the servants of sin till they obeyed from the heart the doctrine of the Lord v. 17. And are you not come to fair preferment to be the Devils drudges Though he should cloath your Bodies with Purple and fine linnen and feed you sumptuously every day yet indeed you are no better as the case of that miserable man may tell you Luke 16. It is the greatest Baseness to have so Base a Master 2. And it is but an ignoble Base de sign that the ungodly carry on in the world What is it but to provide for and please their flesh It aimeth at nothing beyond this life And a beast can eat and drink and sleep and play and satisfie his lust as much as they A swine can carry a mouth full of straw to his lodging and a bird can build a nest for her young ones And what do ungodly men more in the world whether Gentlemen or Beggars the flattered Gallants or the poor day-labourers if they be not such as first seek Heaven
the renewed state that grace hath brought them into For the Kingdom of God consisteth as in Righteousness so in Peace and Joy in the Holy Ghost Rom. 14. 17. Believers receive not the spirit of bondage again to fear that is they are not under the bondage of the Law nor have the spirit or state of mind which is suited to those Legal impositions and terrible comminations but they have received the spirit of Adoption by which they cry Abba father that is As they are brought under a more gracious dispensation and a better Covenant and promises and God is revealed to them in the Gospel as a Reconciled Father through his son so doth he treat them more gently as reconciled children and the spirit which answereth this gracious Covenant and is given us thereupon doth qualifie us with a child-like disposition and cause us with boldness Love and confidence to call God Father and fly to him for succour and supply in all ouâ— dangers and necessities And how Pleasant it must be to a believing soul to have this spirit of Adoption this childlike Love and confidence and freedom with the Lord methinks you might conjecture though its sensibly known by them only that enjoy it Gal. 5. 22. The fruit of the spirit is Love Joy Peace c. when the word is first received by Believers though it may be in much affliction through the persecutions and cross that attend the Gospel yet is it ordinarily in the Joy of the Holy Ghost 1 Thes 1. 6. The Holy Ghost is the Comforter of true Believers And if he have taken it upon him as his work he will surely do it in the degree and season fittest for them And if Joy it self be part of the state of Grace and Holiness you may see that it is the most delightful Pleasant course 7. Yea that we may have a Pleasant and comfortable life the Lord hath forbidden our distracting cares and fears and doubts and our inordinate sorrows and commanded us to cast our care on him and promised to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. and he hath bid us be careful for nothing but in all things make our wants known to him Phil. 4. 6. And can there be a course of life more Pleasant then that which dost consist in faith and Love and hope and Joy that 's built on God and animated by him and that excludeth inordinate cares and sorrows as health doth sickness where it is unlawful to be miserable and to grieve our selves and no sorrow is allowed us but that which tendeth to our joy where it is made our work to Rejoyce in the Lord yea always to Rejoyce Phil. 4. 4. A servant or tradesman will judge of the pleasure of his life by his work If his work be a drudgery his life is tedious and filled with grief If his work be Pleasant his life is Pleasant Judge then by this of a Holy life Is it care and fear and anguish of mind that God commandeth you no it is these that he forbiddeth Care not Fear not are his injunctions Isa 35. 4. 41. 10. Do you fear Reproach Why you do it contrary to the will of God who biddeth you Fear not the reproach of men Isa 51. 7. Do you fear the power and rage of enemies Why it is contrary to your Religion so to do God biddeth you Fear them not Isa 43. 5 13 14. 44. 2 8. Do you fear persecution or death from the hands of cruel violence why it is contrary to the will of God that you do so Matth. 10. 26 28 31. Fear not them which kill the body c. O blessed life where all that is against us is forbidden and all that is truly Joyous and delightful and necessary to make us happy is commanded us and made our duty which is contrary to misery as life to death and as light to darkness Come hither poor deluded sinners that fly from care and fear and sorrow If you will but give up your selves to Christ you shall be exempted from all these except such as is necessary to your joy You may do any thing if you will be the servants of the Lord except that which tendeth to your own and other mens calamity Come hither all you that call for pleasure and love no life but a life of mirth Let God be your master and Holiness your work and Pleasure then shall be your business and holy Mirth shall be your employment While you serve the flesh your pleasure is small and your trouble great vexation is your work and unspeakable vexation is your wages But if you will be the hearty servants of the Lord Rejoycing shall be your work and wages If you understand not this peruse your lesson Psal 33. 1. Rejoyce in the Lord O ye Righteous for Praise is comely for the upright Psal 97. 11 12. Light is sown for the righteous and gladness for the upright in heart Rejoyce in the Lord ye Righteous and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness Phil. 3. 1. Psal 5. 11. Let all those that trust in thee rejoyce let them ever shout for joy because thou defendest them let them also that Love thy name be joyful in thee Psal 32. 11. Be glad in the Lord and rejoyce ye righteous and shout for joy all ye that are upright in heart Psal 132. 9. 16. Let thy Priests be cloathed with Righteousness and let thy Saints shout for joy 16. I will also cloath her Priests with salvation and his Saints shall shout aloud for joy such precepts and promises abound in Scripture which tell you if you will be Saints indeed that Joy and gladness must be your life and work I know objections will be stirring in your minds But forbear them but a while and I shall fully answer them anon 2. I have told you wherein the Inward part of Holiness is Delightful I shall briefly shew you that the Outward part also is very Pleasant and fit to feed these inward joys And 1. let us view the Duties that are more directly to be performed unto God and 2. The works of charity and righteousness unto men 1. How sweet is it to be exercised in the word of God In hearing or reading it with serious meditation For the man that hath been revived by it renewed sanctified saved by it to hear that powerful heavenly truth by which his soul was thus made new For the soul that is in Love with God to hear or see his blessed name on every leaf to read his will and find the expressions of his Love his great eternal wonderous love how sweet this is experience tells the Saints that feel it If you that feel no sweetness in it believe not them that say they feel it at leaâ—â— believe the word of God and the professions of his ancient Saints Psal 119. 97. O how I love thy Law it is my meditation all the day v. 103. How sweet are thy words unto my tast yea sweeter then
our Comforter And if that be not a pleasant life that is managed by such a Guide and that be not likest to be a joyful soul that is possest by the Spirit of joy it self there is no joy then on earth to be expected Hath God promised his Spirit to comfort you that are wicked in your sin No it is the malicious deceiving spirit that is your Comforter that by his comforts he might keep you from solid spiritual everlasting comforts But the Repenting Believing soul that is united unto Christ and hath already had the spirit for his conversion it is he that hath the promise of the spirit for his consolation And if that be not the most comfortable life where the God of Heaven becomes the comforter we cannot then know the effect by the cause If Life it self will quicken if light it self will illuminate the comforting spirit will certainly comfort in the degree and season as God seeth meet and the soul is fitted to receive it 4. Moreover we have the whole treasurie of the Gospel to go to for our Delight And little doth the sensual unbelieving soul know what sweetness what supporting pleasures may be from thence derived I had rather have the holy word of God to go to for contents then the treasures of the rich or the pleasures of the sensual or the flatteries and vain glory of the ambitious man All that the world doth make such a pudder about which they ride and run for which they so much glory in will never afford them so much Content as one Scripture promise will do to a truly faithful soul I must profess before Angels and men that I had rather have one Promise of the Love of God and the life to come which is contained in the holy Scriptures then to have all the riches pleasures and honours of this world My God this was my Covenant with thee and to this I stand O blessed be the Lord that hath provided us such a Magazine of Delight as is this heavenly sacred Book The Precepts appoint us a pleasant work The strictest prohibitions do but restrain us from our own calamities and keep out of our hands the knife by which we would cut our fingers The severest threatnings do but deterre us from running into the consuming fire and hedge about the devouring gulf lest we should foolishly cast our selves therein And these are the bitterest parts of that holy word But when we read the promises of a Saviour and the wonderful history of his Incarnation and of his holy self-denying life his conquests miracles death resurrection ascension intercession and his promise to return when we read of the foundation which he hath laid and the building which he intends to finish of his rich abundant promises to his chosen what provision do we find for our abundant joys No strait can be so great no pressure so grievous no enemies so strong but we have full consolation offered us in the promises against them all We have promises of the pardon of all our sins and promises of heaven it self and what can we have more we have promises suited to every state both prosperity and adversity What do we need which we have not a promise of And the word of God is no deceit What but a promise can comfort them that are short of the possession May I not have more joy in sickness with a promise then the ungodly without a promise in their health A promise in prison sets a man as at liberty A promise in Poverty is more then riches A promise at death is better then life What I have a promise of I may be sure of but what you possess without a promise you may lose and your souls and hopes with it this night There is no condition on earth so hard to a man that hath interest in the promises in which he may not have plentiful relief We live by faith and not by sense And we reckon more on that as ours which we hope for then which we do possess We are sure that there is no true felicity on earth It then we have a promise of Heaven when Infidels lie down in the dust with desperation have we not a more comfortable life then they 5. Moreover we have Heaven it self to fetch our comfort from Not Heaven in sight or in Possession but Heaven in Promise and seen by faith And if Heaven will not afford us pleasure whence shall we expect it Even sensual men can rejoyce as well in what they see not if they are assured it is theirs as in what they see And why then may not Believers do so much more A worldling when he seeth not his money in his chest or at use or his lands and cattel that are far from him can yet rejoyce in them as if he saw them And should not we rejoyce in the certain Hopes of Heaven though yet we see it not when I am pained in sickness and role in restless weariness of my flesh if then I can say I shall be in Heaven may it not be the inward rejoycing of my soul You know where you are but you know not where you shall be The Believer knoweth where he shall be as truly as he knoweth where he is unless it be one that by his frailty hath not reacht unto assurance who yet hath reached unto Hope What great matter is it if I lay in greatest pain if I can say I shall have everlasting ease in Heaven Or if I lay in prison or in sordid poverty and can say I shall shortly be with Christ Or if I had lost the love of all men and could say that I shall everlastingly enjoy the Love of God Most of your comforts do come in by the way of your thoughts And what Thoughts should so rejoyce the soul as the thoughts of our abode with Christ for ever If a day in the Courts of God be so delightful what is ten thousand millions of ages in the Court of Glory and all then as fresh as at the first day There it is that our sin will be put off Our carnal enmity laid by our temptations will be over our enemies will all have done our fears and sorrows will be at an end Our desires will be accomplished Our differences be reconciled Our charity perfected and our expectations fully satisfied and Hope turned into full fruition O may I but be able with stronger faith and fuller confidence to say that Heaven is mine and when this tabernacle is dissolved I shall be with Christ my life and my death will be delightful and I need not complain for want of pleasure Let who will take the pleasures of the flesh may I but have this In prayer in meditation in holy conference in every duty it is the expectation of approaching blessedness that drops in sweetness into all No wonder if it can sweeten a course of duty when it can make light the greatest sufferings and turn pain into pleasure
the God of the whole earth For a small moment may he forsake us but with great mercy will he gather us In a little wrath he may hide his face from us for a moment but with everlasting kindness will he have mercy on us saith the Lord our Redeemer As he swore that the waters of Noah should no more goe over the earth so hath he sworn that he will not be wroth with his people nor rebuke them For the mountains shall depart and the hills shall be removed but his kindness shall not depart from us nor the covenant of his peace be removed saith the Lord that hath mercy on us Isa 54. 5 to 19. For his anger endureth but for a moment in his favour is life weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning Psal 30. 5. Storms may arise that may affright us but how quickly will they all be over Come my people saith the Lord Isa 26. 20. enter into thy chambers and shut thy doors about thee hide thy self as it were for a little moment untill the indignation be overpast And as the momentany sorrow of the Godly is forgotten in everlasting Joy so the Joy of the wicked is but for a moment and is drowned in everlasting sorrows Job 20. 4 5 6 7 8 9. Knowest thou not this of old since man was placed upon earth That the triumphing of the wicked is short and the Joy of the hypocrite is but for a moment Though his excellency mount up to the heavens and his head reach unto the clouds yet he shall perish for ever like his own dung They which have seen him shall say Where is he He shall flie away as a dream and shall not be found Yea he shall be chased away as a vision of the night the eye also which saw him shall see him no more neither shall his place any more behold him Job 21. 12 13. They take the Timbrell and Harp and rejoyce at the sound of the Organs they spend their daies in wealth and in a moment go down to the grave It would grieve a considerate believer to look on a worldly sensual gallant in the midst of his vain-glory or any unsanctified man in his mirth and pleasure and to think where that man will shortly be and how the case will be altered with him and where his sport and mirth will leave him As it would sadden our hearts to see one of them struck dead in the place or to see the Devil fetch them away and spoil the game so should it grieve us to fore-see the stroak of death and the condemnation of their souls to everlasting misery And can that man much value the pleasure of ungodly men that doth fore-see this end Would you not laugh at him that were a Prince but for a day and must be the scorn of the world to morrow or that would choose one day of mirth and pleasure though he knew it would fill the rest of his life with pain and misery If folly and stupidity were any wonder it were a wonder that ungodly men can be merry when their consciences tell them that they are not sure to stay one hour out of Hell nor to hold on their mirth till the end of the game But while they are saying Soul take thy ease eat drink and be merry they may suddenly be told from God Thou fool this night shall thy soul be required of thee and then whose is thy wealth and then where is thy sport and mirth Luke 12. 19 20. As the tender flowers and Roses of the Spring do fall before the nipping Frosts and will not live in Winter storms no more will your fading mirth endure the frowns of God the face of death nor scarce a serious fore-thought of the day that you are near And such matter of horrour is continually before you while you are under the wrath and curse of God in a carnal unregenerate state that you are beholden to folly security and stupidity for that ease which hindreth your everlasting ease So that all things considered I must seriously profess that however the ungodly have some pleasant dreams and may live a while in carelesness and stupidity or fleere in the face while the beginning of hell is in their consciences yet I must judge that a life of Faith and Holiness are unspeakably sweet if it were but for this that they save the Conscience from the gripes and fears and terrible thoughts that either sometime feed on the ungodly or are ready to devour their mirth and them So sad and frightful a thing it is to be unsanctified and in a state of sin that it is an high commendation of the delights of Holiness that they so much deliver us from those grievous terrours and are so powerful an Antidote to preserve the heart from the wickeds pangs and desperation Believe it when conscience death and judgement are the messengers to declare your endless sorrows you will then wish and ten thousand times wish that you had some of the Faith and Holiness of the Saints to be a Cordial to your sinking hearts and then you would take it as a matter of unspeakable joy to be found in such a state as you now count sad and melancholy Ask but a dying man whether fleshly pleasure or Godliness be the sweeter thing Now when the delusions of prosperity are gone which do men most relish and which is it that they would own By the consent of all the wise men in the world I may well conclude that a Holy life is incomparably the most pleasant BUT I know there are many things that seem to cross all this that I have spoken which will be the matter of the Objections of ungodly men and therefore must have an answer before we pass any further And the principal Objection is from the too common case of those that fear God who walk so sadly and doubt and complain and mourn so frequently and shew so little chearfulness and joy when many of the ungodly live in mirth that you will think I speak against experience when I say that a life of Holiness is so pleasant and therefore that it is not to be believed You will say Do we not see the contrary in the sadness of their faces and hear it in their sad lamenting words To this I must give many particulars in answer which when you have laid together you may see that all this makes nothing against the Pleasantness of the waies of God And 1. You must difference between the Entrance into holiness and the Progress and between a new beginner that is but lately turned from his ungodliness and one that hath had time to try and understand the wayes of God Those that are entering or but newly come in must needs have sorrow But what is the cause of it Not their Godliness but their ungodliness I mean It is their ungodliness which they lament though it be godliness that causeth them to
lament it Can you expect that an ingenuous man should see his sin and look back on so many years transgressions and not be grieved To see that he hath so long abused God and lost his time and neglected his salvation and that he hath lain so long in so miserable a state must needs cause remorse in the conscience that hath any feeling And will you say that Godliness is unpleasant because it makes a man sorrow for his ungodliness If a man that hath killed his dearest friend or his own Father be grieved for the fact when he cometh to repentance will you blame his Repentance or his Murder for his grief Will you say What a hurtful thing is this Repentance or rather What an odious crime was it that must be so repented of Would you wish a man that hath lived so long in sin and misery to have no sorrow for it at his return Especially when it is but a healing sorrow preparing for remission and not a sorrow joyned with despair as theirs will be that die impenitently Observe the complaints of penitent souls whether it be their present Godliness or their former ungodliness which they lament Will you hear a man lament his former sinful careless life and yet will you lay the blame on the contrary course of duty which now he hath undertaken You may as wisely accuse a man for landing in a safe harbour because he there lamenteth his loss by shipwrack while he was at Sea Or as wisely may you blame a man for rising that complaineth how he hurt himself by his fall And as honestly may you accuse the chastity of your wife because she lamenteth her former adultery or the fidelity of your friend or servant because he lamenteth his former unfaithfulness But though the pangs of the New birth be somewhat grievous and we come not into the world of Grace without some lamentation yet this is not the state of the Holy life into which we enter nor are those pangs to continue all our daies 2. You must distinguish between the weaker and the stronger sort of Christians and consider that children are apt to cry but it is not therefore better to be unborn Sickness is querulous and the weak are froward but it is not therefore better to be dead The godly are not perfectly godly They are sinners while they are Saints They have Holiness but they have corruption with it Their sin is conquered but yet not totally rooted out The relicks do remain though it do not raign And it is the remnant of their unholiness that they lament and not their holiness They grieve not that they are godly but that they are no more godly It troubleth them not that they are come home to Christ but that they have brought so much of their corruption with them Hearken whether they complain of their Humility or their Pride of their Faith or their unbelief their confidence or their distrust their repentance or their hardness of heart It is not their heavenly mindedness that troubleth them but their earthly-mindedness Nor is it their spirituality but their carnality Nor is it the Dâ—ties but the weakness and faultiness of their souls in duty Not that they do it but that they do it no better It is more holiness that they beg for and lament the want of And will you say that Holiness is unpleasant because men would so fain have more of it You would reason with more wisdom in another case If a man that hath tasted meat or drink complain because he hath no more you would not blame his food for that nor gather from thence that it is unpleasant or that famine is more delightful 3. You must distinguish between those Christians that have saln since their conversion into any great and wounding sin or â—â—urisâ— some vexatious distempers and those that walk more uprightly with God and maintain their integrity and peace No wonder if David after his sin complain of the breaking of his bones and heart and if Peter go out and weep bitterly The servants of Christ do know so much of the evil of sin that they cannot make so light of it as the blind and obdurate world that are past feeling That sin which hath cost them formerly so dear and hath cost Christ so much dearer on their behalf must needs cause some smâ—rt in the penitent soul Sickness is felt because it supposeth the subject to be alive but the dead feel not that they are dead and rotten And it doth not follow that therefore death is more desireable then sickness It is because they are so like to the ungodly that the servants of Christ do grieve and complain But so far as they feel the healthfulness of their souls and are conscious of their sincerity and upright conversations they have greater comfort then the world can afford them 4. You must distinguish between those Christians that by misapprehensions are unacquainted with their own felicity and those that better understand their state If a man be never so holy and know it not but by temptations is brought to doubt whether he be not yet in his unsanctified state no wonder if this man be grieved with these fears But his grief is not because he is sanctified but because he is afraid lest he be unsanctified And this shews that Holiness is most lovely in his eyes or else why should he be so much troubled when he doth but doubt whether he be Holy or not If a Rich man by a false report should believe that he is rob'd of his goods and treasure or that his houses are burnt when it is not so he will mourn or be troubled till he know the truth And will any be so foolish as to conclude from thence that Riches are more uncomfortable then beggery Had you not rather be rich though for a time you know it not then to live in certain continual want If a man that is in health be perswaded by mistake that he is in a Consumption he will be troubled by his mistake But will you thence conclude that sickness is more comfortable then health Is it not better to have health with those mistaken fears then to live in sickness Methinks you should rather argue on the contrary side How sweet is Health when the fear of losing it is so troublesom and how bitter is sickness and death when the very fear of them is so grievous And so you should say How sweet is Holiness when it is so troublesome to those that have it so much as to fear lest they have it not and How miserable a life is it to be ungodly when it is so grievous to the servants of Christ even once to fear lest they are ungodly But go to those Christians that know themselves and are truly acquainted with their sincerity and their priviledges and see whether they walk so uncomfortably as those mistaken doubting souls You will find them in another case and hear other kind of
is the highest and best condition on earth He is the best and happyest man that is likest to the glorified Saints and Angels And judge your selves whether a dejected or a rejoycing Christian be liker to these inhabitants of Heaven Object But you will say by that rule we should not mourn at all for they do not Whereas God delighteth in the contrite soul Christ blesseth mourners and weepers Answ 1. Your resemblance of the Saints in Heaven must be propertionable in all the parts You must labour first to be as like them as you can in Holiness and then in Joy If you could be as far from sin as they you need not mourn at all But because you cannot you must have moderate regular sorrows and humiliation while you have sin But yet withall you must endeavour to imitate the heavenly Joyes according to the measure of your Grace received 2. And it is such a regular contrition consisting in humble thoughts of our selves and tending to restore us from our falls and sorrows unto our integrity and joy which God delighteth in And it is such mourners as these and such as suffer for righteousness sake from men that Christ pronounceth blessed But the inordinate troubles of the soul that exclude a holy delight in God though he pardon yet he never doth encourage 6. Consider also that a great part of your Religion yea and the most high and excellent part doth consist in the causes form and effects of this holy joy and chearfulness 1. As to the causes of it they are such as in themselves are requisite to the very being of the new creature Faith and Love which are the Head and Heart of sanctifying grace are the causes of our spiritual joy An unwilling heavy forced obedience may proceed from meeâ— Fears and this will not prove an upright heart But when once we Believe Everlasting Glory and Love Christ as our Saviour and the Father as our Father and felicity and Love a holy frame of heart and life as the image of God and that which pleaseth him then our obedience will be chearful and delightful unless accidentally we trouble our selves by our own mistakes If you can truly make God and his will and service your Delight you may be sure you Love him and are beloved by him as being past the state of slavish fear 2. And I have shewed you that Joy in the Holy-Ghost is it self one part of that grace in which Gods Kingdom doth consist Though not such a part as a Christian cannot possibly be without yet such as is exceeding suitable to his state and necessary to his more happy being 3. And without this holy Delight and Joy you will deny God a principal part of his service How can you be thankful for the great mercies of your Justification Sanctification Adoption and all the special graces you have received or for your hopes of Heaven it self as long as you are still doubting whether any of these mercies are yours or not and almost ready to say that you never received them Nay you will be less thankful for your health and life and food and wealth and all common mercies as doubting leâ—t they will prove but aggravations of your sin and misery And for the great and excellent work of Praise which should be your daily sacrifice but specially the work of each Lords day how unfit is a doubting drooping distressed soul for the performance of it You stiffle holy Love within you and stop your mouthes when they should be speaking and singing the praises of the Lord and disable your selves from the most high and sweet and acceptable part of all Gods service by your unwarrantable doubts and self-vexations And when all these are laid aside how poor and lean a service is it that is left you to perform to him Even a few tears and complaints and prayers which I know God will mercifully accept because even in your desires after him there is Love but yet it is far short of the service which you might perform Nay your Heavenly-mindedness will be much supprest as long as you are sadly questioning whether ever you shall come thither and it will be yours or not 7. Are you not ashamed to see the servants of the Devil and the world so jocund and your selves so sad that serve the Lord Will you go mourning so inordinately to Heaven when others go so merrily to Hell Will you credit Satan and Sin so much as to perswade men by your practice that sin affordeth more pleasure and content then Holiness 8. You could live merrily your selves before your Conversion while you served sin And will you walk so dejectedly now you have repented of it As if you had changed for the worse or would make men think so I know you would not for all the world be what you were before your change Why then do you live as if you were more miserable then before 9. You would be loth so long to resist the sanctifying work of the Spirit And why should you not be loth to resist its comforting work It is the same Holy Ghost that you resist in both Nay you dare not so open your mouthes for wickedness and plead against Sanctification it self as you open them on the behalf of your sinful doubtings and plead for your immoderate dejections If you should how vile would you appear 10. Lastly consider that God will lay sufferings enow upon you for your sins and suffer wicked men to lay enow on you for well doing and you need not lay more upon your selves You have need to use all means for strength to bear the burdens that you must undergo and it is the joy of the Lord and the hopes of Glory that are your strength And will you cast away the only supports of your soul and sink when the day of suffering comes How will you bear poverty or reproach or injuries how will you meet approaching death if you feed your doubts of your salvation and of the Love of God in Christ which must corroborate you O weaken not your souls that are too weak already Weaken not your souls that have so much to do and suffer and that of so great necessity and importance While you complain of your weakness encrease it not by unbelieving uncomfortable complaints Gratifie not the Devil and wicked malicious men so far as to inflict on your selves a greater calamity then all their malice and power could inflict It is a madness in them that will please the Devil to the displeasing of God though the pleasing of their own flesh be it that moveth them to it But for a man to please the Devil and displease God even when he displeaseth his own flesh by it also and bringeth nothing but sorrow to himself by it this is in some respects more unreasonable then madness it self Many cast away their souls for Riches and Honours and carnal accommodations but who would do it for poverty sickness or disgrace So
honoured all rejoyce 1 Cor. 12. 25 26. As weak as Christians are and as worthless in your eyes one of their hearty spiritual prayers and one word of their holy savoury conference doth profit us more then all your Treasures will ever profit you While the Divine nature is in them somewhat Divine will proceed from their mouthes and be seen in their lives which is worth more then all the Riches of the world And O how fruitful are the holy Ordinances which we partake of both in the Churches Communion and alone in our retirements A poor Christian can get more in a Sermon which you sleep under or deride then you will get by your trades or livings while you live He findeth greater Treasures in one Chapter of the Bible or in one good Book then you can get out of all your lands or labours The best of your livings will not yield you so much commodity in seven years nor in seven thousand years if you could so long keep them as a believing soul can get from God in one hours prayer even in secret where he is not by man observed You do not believe this that are ungodly I know you do not heartily believe it for else you would try it and not continue in your ungodliness But they that try it know it to be true Or else what makes them continue in it and live upon their holy Communion with God and his servants more resolvedly then you do on your lands and labours Somewhat you may conjecture they find in holy duty that makes them so instant in it as they are 7. Another part of our commodity by Holiness is the Promise and Assurance of the Love of God and of our salvation and the Peace of Conscience that followeth hereupon All true Believers have objective certainty that is the thing is certain in itself whether they perceive it or not And they may have subjective or Actual certainty in themselves if they do their parts And is not a certain Title to a Lordship or a Kingdom a greater Treasure then the possession of a straw Much more is Gods Promise of Everlasting Glory a greater Treasure then all your wealth As Heaven is infinitely better then earth so the Promise of God is the best security Though we be not with Abraham Isaac and Jacob and do not yet see the face of God yet have we a Promise that speedily we shall be there and shall see that which they see and enjoy all that which they enjoy The poorest Christian hath all that in Promise under the hand of God himself which Angels and Glorified Saints have in possession They can shew you a better Title to Heaven though they are unworthy in themselves then any of you can shew to your lands or houses in your Deeds or Leases As poor and simple as that Godly man is whom you despise he is an Heir of Heaven and a fellow-Heir with Christ Rom. 8. 17. Gal. 3. 29. Heb. 1. 14. 11. 9. When we had the washing of Regeneration and the renewing of the Holy-Ghost and were justified by grace we were made the Heirs of eternal life according to the hope that is given us by the Gospel Tit. 3. 5 7. And God that hath given them those Better things that accompany salvation is not unrighteous to forget their work and labour of love if they do but shew the same diligence to the full assurance of hope unto the end and be not sloathful but followers of them who through faith and patience inherit the Promises Heb. 6. 9 10 11 12. For this cause was Christ the Mediator of the New Testament that by means of death for the redemption of the Transgressions under the first Testament they which are called may receive the Promise of the eternal inheritance Heb. 9. 15. And we know that he is faithful that hath promised And if your Bills and Bonds and Deeds and Leases be part of your Riches we shall much more take the Promise of God for our everlasting happiness in Heaven to be far greater Riches 8. And yet we may put this among our Riches or at least as the Over-plus given us by God that we have better advantage even for the matters of this world then the ungodly have For we have a Promise that we shall lack nothing that is good for us Psal 34. 10. and so have not they We have warrant to east all our care on God who by promise is engaged to care for us 1 Pet. 5. 7. We are commanded to be anxiously careful for nothing but in all things to make known our requests to God as little children that care not for themselves but go to their father for what they want Phil. 4. 6. It is enough for us whatever we want that our heavenly Father knoweth that we want it Matth. 6. 32. who hath charged us to disburden our minds of these vexatious cares and to seek first his Kingdom and the Righteousness thereof and promised us that other things shall be added to us Mat. 6. 33. We have also a promise that all things shall work together for our good Rom. 8. 28. And therefore we shall have more from the things of this life then the ungodly have Yea more by the want of them then they by the possession For if they do us good in our graces and communion with God and in the matter of our salvation they help us to that which is of far higher value then themselves Poverty to a true Believer is better then Riches to the ungodly that destroyeth himself by them when the Believer is helped by his poverty Imprisonment to Paul and Silas was better then liberty to their persecutors And thus in the fruits and saving benefits all things are ours 1 Cor. 3. 22. We have the Love of God with what we possess be it more or less when the wicked have his wrath with it And who would have their Riches on such terms 9. Another part of the Gain of Godliness is that it puts us into a Readiness to die and a fitness to appear before the Lord. Though all the Godly have not so great a readiness as to desire to be presently dissolved yet all of them are in a safe condition and are so far ready that death shall pass them into a blessed state For we know that if our earthly house of this Tabernaâ—le were dissolved we have a building of God an house not made with hâ—… eternal in the heavens And in this we groan earnestly desiring to be cloathed upon with our house which is from heaven And God that hath given 〈…〉 the earnest of his Spirit hath wrought in us to be alwayes confident or at least given us cause knowing that whilest we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord For we walk by faith and not by sight we are confident I say and willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord 2 Cor. 5. 1
2 8 9. Though the abode of the godly in the flesh is usually more needful to those about them yet to themselves their death is gain and therefore they have cause to desire to depart and be with Christ as being far better Phil. 1. 21 23 24. For sin which is the sting of death is mortified and the curse of the Law which is the strength of it is relaxed or null fied to us by the Gospel so that the Believer may triumph and say O death where is thy sting O grave where is thy victory 1 Cor. 15. 55 56. and to give thanks to God that giveth us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ vers 57. Verily I would not exchange my part though alas too small or dark a part in this one priviledge of true Believers for all the wealth and dominions on earth O the face of Death will soon make the Glory of all your greatness to vanish and the beauty of your flourishing estates to wither and all that you now glory in to appear as nothing And then how glad would you be to change Portions with the holy servants of the Lord whom you now despise When once you hear Thou fool this night shall they require thy soul and whose then are all those things that thou hast provided Luke 12. 20. then in a moment you will change your minds and cry out of the world as nothing worth and wish you had busied your hearts and hands in laying up a better treasure This is one difference O â—ngodly wretch between a holy servant of God and thee Death cannot undo him but it will undo thee It cannot take his Riches from him for his God his Christ his Holiness the Promises are his Riches but it will separate thee and thy wealth for ever It will put an end to all his troubles and fears and griefs and it will put an end to all thy prosperity and to all thy mirth and hope for ever A godly man dare die or if he ignorantly fear it yet shall it be the end of all his fears but thou darest not die and yet thou must or if thou ignorantly hope of a happiness after it yet will it nevertheless end all thy hopes O what a mercy is it to be ready to die 10. But the great unspeakable Riches of the Saints is in the Life to come We have here the Hope and the fore-taste but it is only there that we shall have our Portion You see what a poor Christian is according to his outward appearance But you see not what he will be to eternity There is the Kingdom for which we hope and for which we run and wait and suffer If God be true and his Gospel true then Heaven shall be the Portion of the sanctâ—fied But if it were otherwise then we would confess their hopes are vain Heaven is our Riches or we have none There have we laid up all our Hopes and in these Hopes we will live and die as knowing they will not make us ashamed Rom. 5. 5. 9. 33. 1 John 2. 28. We believe that we shall live with Christ in glory and shine as stars in the Firmament of our Father and be made like to the Angels of God and shall see his face and praise his name and live in his everlasting Love and Joy For all this he himself hath promised us 1 Thes 4. 17. 18. Daâ— 12. 3. Mat. 13. 43. Luk. 20 36. Rev. 22. 4. Mat. 25. 21. And now poor worldling what is all your Gain and Riches in comparison of the least of these Do you think in your judgements that there is any comparison Or rather doth not sin and the world even brutifie you and make you lay by the use of your reason and live as if you knew not what you know Your Treasure is all visible when ours is unseen and therefore I may bid you bring it forth and let us see it whether indeed it be better then the Treasure of the Saints Let us see what that is that is better then God and everlasting glory What! is a little fleshly ease or mirth a little meat and drink and pleasure a little more money or space of ground to use then your neighbours have are these the things that you will change for Heaven and preser before the Lord that made you O poor miserable sinners Are you not told that you have your good things here but what will you have hereafter when this is gone Luke 16. 25. When your wealth is gone and your mirth is gone your souls are immortal and therefore your misery and horrour will continue and never be gone As the wealth of the godly is within them and above the reach of their enemies and surer then yours so is it the more durable even everlasting When all your Riches are upon the wing even ready to be gone and leave you in sorrow when you are most highly valuing them you have it now but it is gone to morrow And what is the Hope of the Hypocrite though he hath gained when God taketh away his soul Will God hear his cry when trouble cometh upon him Job 27. 8 9. Let the words of Christ decide the Controversie if indeed you take him for your Judge Mat. 16. 2â— 25 26 27. If any man will come after we let him deny himself and take up his Cross and follow me For whosoever will save his life shall lose it and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it For what is a man profited if he shall gain the whole world and lose his own soul Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul For the Son of man shall come in the Glory of his Father with his Angels and then he shall reward every man according to his works Well sirs you that are all for Getting and for wealth judge now if you have not lost your Reason whether a Holy or unholy â— Heavenly or an Earthly life be the more Profitable way I would not draw you to any thing that you should lose by If I speak not for your Gain reject my words as contemptuously as you please But if I do then be not against your own commodity Will such silly Gain as the world affords you do so much with you as it doth and shall not the Heavenly inheritance do more shall all this stir be made in the world for that which you are ready to leave behind you and will you not lay up a Treasure in heaven where rust and moaths corrupt not and where you may live for ever Matth. 6. 20. What profit now have all those millions of souls that are gone from earth by all the wealth they here possessed Hear sinners and bethink you in the name of God You are leaving Earth and stepping into Eternity and where then should you lay up your Riches Would you rather have your Portion where you must stay but a few days then where you must