Justice if this be just Again is it righteous to deny the Lord that bought thee to neglect that great salvation which he is the Authour of And whereas he came to bless thee in turning thee from thine iniquities wilfully to remain still in an accursed servitude to sin when he was made manifest to destroy the works of the Devil still to yield thy self a captive at his will whereas he died that thou might'st not any longer live to thy self but to him that died for thee and rose again and that he might redeem thee from thy vain conversation and that thou art so expresly told that such as still lead sensual lives mind earthly things have not their conversation in heaven are enemies to the Cross of Christ Is it no unrighteousness that in these respects thy whole life should be nothing else but a constant contradiction to the very design of his dying a perpetual Hostility a very Tilting at his Cross Is there no unrighteousness in thy obstinate infidelity that wickedly denies belief to his glorious Truths acceptance of his gracious Offers subjection to his holy Laws no unrighteousness in thy obstinate remorsless impenitency thy heart that cannot repent that melts not while a crucified Jesus amid'st his agonies and dying pangs cryes to thee from the Cross O sinner enough thy hard heart breaks mine yield at last and turn to God Is it righteous to live as no way under Law to Christ to persist in actual rebellion against his just Government which he died and revived and rose again to establish over the living and the dead yea and that while thou pretendest thy self a Christian In a word Is it righteous to tread under foot the Son of God to vilifie his Blood and despise his Spirit Is this the righteousness that thou talkest of are these thy qualifications for the everlast-blessedness If thou say thou confessest thou art in thy self in these several respects altogether unrighteous but thou hopest the righteousness of Christ will be sufficient to answer for all No doubt Christs Righteousness is abundantly available to all the ends for which it was intended by the Father and Him but it shall never answer all the ends that a foolish wicked heart will fondly imagine to it self In short it serves to excuse thy non performance of and stands instead of thy perfect sinless obedience to the Law of works but it serves not instead of thy performance of what is required of thee as the condition of the Gospel Covenant That is It shall never supply the room of Faith Repentance Regeneration Holiness the loving of Christ above all and God in him so as to render these unnecessary or salvation possible without them There is not one iota or tittle in the Bible that so much as intimates an unregenerate person an unbeliever an impenitent or unholy person shall be saved by Christs righteousness but enough to the contrary every one knows that hath the least acquaintance with the Scriptures Vain Man what is Christ devided and devided against himself Christ without against Christ within His suffering on the Cross and foregoing obedience against his Spirit and Government in the Soul Did Christ die to take away the necessity of our being Christians And must his death serve not to destroy sin out of the world but Christianity who hath taught thee so wickedly to misunderstand the design of Christs dying And when the Scripture so plainly tells thee That God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish but have everlasting life And That he became the Authour of eternal salvation to them that obey him yea and that he will come in flaming fire to take vengeance on them that know and obey him not What should induce thee to think thou mayst be saved by him whether thou believest and obeyest or no No if ever thou think to see God and be happy in him thou must have a righteousness in thee resembling his the very product the thing wrought in the work of regeneration If ye know that he is righteous ye know that every one that doth righteousness is born of him Whereupon follows the description of the blessedness of such righteous ones in the beginning of the next Chapter They are sons they shall be like c. So that in a word without some sight of God here there 's no seeing him hereafter without some likeness to him now none hereafter And such as are destitute of that heart-conformity to the Gospel wherein the Evangelical Righteousness stands are so far from it that we may say to them as our Saviour to the Jews Ye have neither heard his voice nor seen his shape i. e. you have never had right notion or any the least true glimpse of him your hearts are wholly destitute of all Divine Impressions whatsoever 8. We may further infer from this qualification of the subject of blessedness That righteousness is no vain thing That is not in vain that ends so well and hath so happy an issue at last Scripture tells us that the labour of the righteous tendeth to life and that we may understand it of their labour as they are righteous we are more plainly told that righteousness tendeth to life and that to them that sow righteousness shall be a sure reward That the righteous shall shine as the Sun in the Kingdom of the Father The righteous into eternal life And we here see that righteousness ends in the blessed sight of Gods glorious face in being satisfied with the Divine likeness Foolish sinners as justly upbraided that they spend their labour for that which satisfies not takes much pains to no purpose such are all the works of sin toilsome fruitless what fruit had ye of those things viz. which ye wrought when you were free from righteousness whereof ye are now ashamed for the end of thâ—se things is death But it follows being now made free from sin and becâ—me servants to God which is paraphrased above by servants to righteousness ye have your fruit unto holiness the end everlasting life The fruit is a continual increase of holiness a growing more and more like God till at last everlasting life satisfaction with his likeness do Crown and consummate all You have now what to answer to the Atheists profane Querie what profit is it to serve God to what purpose to lead so strict and precise a life you may now see to what purpose it is and whereunto godliness which righteousness here includes is profitable as having besides what it intitles to here the promise of that life which is to come There needs no more to discover any thing not to be vain in as much as nothing can be said to be but in reference to an end as being good for nothing then the eviction of these two things That it aims at a truly worthy and valuable end and
glory of God Your hearts being bent thitherward and made willing to run through whatsoever difficulties of life or death to attain it Do not think that Christ came into the world and dyed to procure the pardon of your sins and so translate you to heaven while your hearts should still remain cleaving to the earth He came and returned to prepare a way for you and then call not drag you thither That by his Precepts and Promises and Example and Spirit he might form and fashion your Souls to that glorious state And make you willing to abandon all things for it And low now the God of all grace is calling you by Jesus Christ unto his eternal Glory Direct then your eyes and hearts to that marke the Prise of the High calling of God in Christ Jesus 'T is ignominious by the common suffrage of the civiliz'd world not to intend the proper business of our Callings To your Calling to forsake this world and mind the other make hast then to quit your selves of your entanglements of all earthly dispositions and affections Learn to live in this world as those that are not of it that expect every day and wish to leave it whose hearts are gone already 'T is dreadful to dye with pain and regret To be forced out of the Body To dye a violent death and go away with an unwilling refluctant heart The wicked is driven away in his wickedness Fain he would stay longer but cannot He hath not power over the Spirit to retain the Spirit nor hath he power in death He must away whether he will or no. And indeed much against his will So it cannot but be where there is not a previous knowledge and love of a better state where the Soul understands it not and is not effectually attempered and framed to it O get then the lovely Image of the future glory into your minds keep it ever before your eyes Make it familiar to your thoughts Imprint daily there these words I shall behold thy face I shall be satisfied with thy likeness And see that your souls be inrich't with that righteousness Have inwrought into them that holy rectitude that may dispose them to that blessed state Then will you dye with your own consent and go away not driven but allur'd and drawn You will go as the redeemed of the Lord with everlasting joy upon their heads As those that know whether you go even to a state infinitely worthy of your desires and choice and where 't is best for you to be You will part with your souls not by a forcible separation but a joyful surrender and resignation They will dislodge from this earthly Tabernnacle rather as putting it off then having it rent and torn away Loosen your selves from this body by degrees as we do any thing we would remove from a place where it sticks fast Gather up your spirits into themselves Teach them to look upon themselves as distinct thing Inure them to the thoughts of a dissolution Be continually as taking leave Cross and disprove the common maxime and let your hearts which they use to say are wont to dye last dye first Prevent death and be mortifi'd towards every earthly thing beforehand that death mave have nothing to kill but your body And that you may not die a double death in one hour and suffer the death of your body and of your love to it both at once Much less that this should survive to your greater and even incurable misery Shake off your Bands and Fetters the terrene affections that so closely confine you to the house of your bondage And lift up your heads in expectation of the approaching Jubilee the day of your redemption when you are to go out free and enter into the glorious liberty of the Sons of God When you shall serve and groan and complain no longer Let it be your continual song and the matter of your daily praise that the time of your happy deliverance is hastening on that ete long you shall be absent from the body and present with the Lord. That he hath not doom'd you to an everlasting imprisonment within those closs and clayie walls wherein you have been so long shut up from the beholding of his sight and glory In the thoughts of this while the outward man is sensibly perishing let the inward revive and be renewed day by day What Prisoner would be sorry to see the walls of his Prison House so an Heathen speaks mouldering down and the hopes arriving to him of being delivered out of that darkness that had buried him of recovering his liberty and injoying the free air and light What Champion inur'd to hardship would stick to throw off rotten rags rather expose a naked placid free body to naked placid free air The truly generous soul to be a little above never leaves the body against its will Rejoyce that it is the gracious pleasure of thy good God thou shalt not always inhabit a Dungeon nor lie amid'st so impure and disconsolate darkness that he will shortly exchange thy filthy Garments for those of Salvation and Praise The end approaches As you turn over these leaves so are your days turned over And as you are now arrived to the end of this Book God will shortly write Finis to the Book of your Life on Earth and shew you your names written in Heaven in the Book of that Life which shall never end FINIS Senec. * Pruritus disputandi scobies Ecclesia * Ut ulcera quaedam nocituras manus apoetunt tactu gaudent faedam corporum scabiem delectat quicquid â—xâ—sperâ—t Non alitè◠dixerim his mâ—ntibus in quas voluptates velut mala ulcera crupê unt voluptati esse laborem vexâ—tionemque Sâ—n. de tranquillitate anâ—â—â— Sen de Brev. vit * Nihil est Deo similius aut gratius quam vir animo perfectè bonus c. Apul. de Deo Soâ—â—atis * Inter bonos viros ac Deum amicitia est conciliante virtute amicitiam dico etiam necessitudâ— similitudâ— c. Sca de prov * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Plato in Minâ—e 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 c. Dyonys Halicar Antiq. Rom. lib. 8. Rom. 2 6 7 8 9. * Rom. 16 18. Phil. 3. 19. * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Sept. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The vâ—lgar Latine Eâ—oautem 〈…〉 appaâ—câ—o â—oâ—spectui 〈◊〉 satiabo◠〈◊〉 â—â—pâ—â—uâ—riâ— gloâ—ia tua Exactly following the Seventy as doth the Ethiopique the Chaldee Paraphrase disagrees little the Arabique lesse the Syâ—iâ—ck mistook it seem◠〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and so read that word saith which we read likenesse Hieronymus juxta Hebr. reads the words exactly as we do Ego in justiâ—iâ viâ—â—bo faciâ—m tuam implebor cum evigilavero similitudine tua 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Seems best to be rendered here by or through righteousness as by the condition
by the former of these Laws the Righteousness thereof consisting in a perfect and sinless obedience The latter therefore is the onely measure and rule of this Righteousness viz. The Law of Faith or that part of the Gospel-revelation which contains and discovers our duty what we are to be and do in order to our Blessedness being as to the matter of it the whole Moral Law before appertaining to the Covenant of Works attempered to the state of faln sinners by evangelical mitigations and indulgency by the super-added precepts of repentance and faith in a Mediator with all the other duty respecting the Mediator as such and cloathed with a new form as it is now taken into the constitution of the Covenant of grace This Rule though it be in the whole of it capable of coming under one common Notion as being the standing obliging Law of Christs mediatory Kingdom yet according to the different matter of it its obligations and annexed sanctions are different As to its matter it must be understood to require 1. The meer being and sincerity of those gracious principles with their essential Acts as there is opportunity expressed therein in opposition to the nullity and insincerity of them 2. All the possible degrees and improvements of such principles and acts in opposition to any the least failure or defect In the former respect it measures the very effence of this Righteousness and enjons what concerns the being of the righteous man as such in the latter it measures all the super-added degrees of this righteousness which relations where they have a mutable foundation admit injoyning what concern's the perfection of the rightous man In the former respect righteousness is opposed to wickedness as in that of the Psalmist I have kept the wayes of the Lord and have not wickedly departed from my God therefore hath the Lord recompenced me according to my righteousness In the latter to sin with which the Apostle makes unrighteousness coextent in these words If we say we have no sin re deceive our selves c. if we confess our sins he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleansâ— us from all unrighteousness Accordingly are its sanctions divers For wherein it injoyns the former of these the essence of this righteousness in opposition to a total absence thereof it is constitutive of the terms of salvation and obligeth under the penalty of eternal death So are faith repentance lâ—ve subjection c. required If ye believe not that I am he ye shall dye in your sins He that believeth not is condemned already The wrath of God al ideth on him If ye repent not ye shall all likewise perish Repent that your sins may be blotted out Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour to give repentance and remission of sins If any man love not the Lord Jesus Christ let him be Anathema Maran-atha He that loveth Father or Mother more than me is not worthy of me c. If any man come to me and hate 〈◊〉 his Father and Mother and Wife and Children and Brethren and Sisters yea and his own life also that is as the former Scripture expounds this loves them not less than me he cannot be my Disciple i. e. While he remains in that temper of mind he now is of he must needs be wholly unrelated unto me and uncapable of benefit by me as well as he is indocible and not susceptible of my further instructions neither capable of the precepts or priviledges belonging to Discipleship He is the Author of eternal Salvation to all them that obey him and will come in flaming fire to take vengeance of those that know not God and obey not his Gospel who shall be punished with everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord c. Where it is onely the sincerity of those several requisites that is under so severe penalty exacted and called for in as much as he that is sincerely a Believer 〈◊〉 Penitent a lover of God or Christ an obedient Subject is not capable of the contrary denomination and therefore not liable according to the tenour of this Law to be punished as an Infidel an impenitent person an enemy a rebell When it enjoyns the latter viz. All the subsequent duty through the whole course whereof the already sincere soul must be tending towards perfection though it bind not thereto under pain of damnation further then as such neglects and miscarriages may be so gross and continued as not to consist with sincerity Yet such injunctions are not wholly without penalty but here it oblidges under less penalties the hiding of Gods face and other paternal severities and castigations They that thus only offend are chastened of the Lord that they may not be condemned with the world Their iniquity is visited with the Rod and their transgression with stripes though loving-kindnesse be not taken away Yea and while they are short of perfect holiness their blessedness is imperfect also which is to be acknowledged a very grievous penalty but unconceiveably short of what befalls them that are simply unrighteous That it obliges thus diversly is evident for it doth not adjudge unto eternal death for the least defect for then what other Law should relieve against the sentence of this or wherein were this a relieving Law Yet doth it require perfection that we â—erfect holiness in the fear of God that we be perfect as our Father in heaven is perfect And otherwise did it bind to no other duty than what it makes simply necessary to Salvation the defects and miscarriages that consist with sincerity were no sins not being provided against by any Law that is of present obligation For â—o suppose the Law of works in its own proper form and tenour to be still obliging is to suppose all under hopeless condemnation in as much as all have sinned And besides it should oblige to cast off all regard to Christ and to seek blessedness without him yea and it should oblige to a natural impossibility to a contradiction to make that not to have been which hath been a sinner to seek happiness by never having sinned Yet though it cannot â—n its own form be mans rule of Duty 't is nevertheless Gods rule of Judgment upon all whom the Law of faith relieves not as not coming up to the terms of it whom also this super-vening Law brings under a super-vening aggravated condemnation For where the obligation to obedience is violated the obligation to punishment naturally takes place The rule of this Righteousness therefore being evidently the Law of Faith the Gospel-revelation wherein it is preceptive of duty This Righteousness can be understood to be nothing but the impresse of the Gospel upon a mans heart and life A conformity in Spirit and Practice to the revelation of the Will of God in Jesus Christ a collection of graces exerting themselves in suitable actions
intermingled frowns the light of that pleasing countenance be obscured by no intervening cloud when goodness which is love issuing into benefaction or doing good grace which adds freeness unto goodness mercy which is grace towards the miserable shall conspire in their distinct and variegated appearances to set off each other and enhance the pleasure of the admiring soul when the wonted doubts shall all cease and the difficulty vanish of reconciling once necessary fatherly severity with Love When the full sense shall be unfolded to the life of that description of the divine nature God is Love and the soul be no longer put to read the love of God in his name as Moses was when the sight of his face could not yet be obtained shall not need to spell it by letters and syllables but behold it in His very nature it self and see how intimately Essential it is to the divine Being How glorious will this appearance of God be we now hear something of the glory of his grace and how satisfying the intuition of that glory Now is the proper season for the full exercise and discovery of Love This day hath been long expected and lo now 't is dawned upon the awaking soul It 's now called forth its senses unbound all its powers inspirited on purpose for love visions and enjoyments 't is now to take its fill of loves The Apostles extatical prayer is now answered to the highest degree possible with respect to such a one He is now according to the riches of divine glory strengthened with might by the Spirit in the inner man to comprehend with all Saints what is the breadth and length and depth and height to know the love that passeth knowledge c. He shall now no longer stand amazed spending his ghesses What manner of love this should be and expecting fuller discoveries further effects of it that did not yet appear but sees the utmost all that his soul can bear or wish to see He hath now traced home the rivulets to their fountain the beams to the very Sun of Love He hath got the prospect at last into that heart where where the great thoughts of love were lodg'd from everlasting where all its counsels and designs were formed He sees what made God become a man what cloathed a Deity with humane flesh what made Eternity become the birth of time when come to its parturient fulness what mov'd the heart of the Son of God to pitch his Tabernacle among men what ingaged him to the enterprize of redeeming sinners what mov'd him so earnestly to contest with a perishing world led him at last to the Cross made him content to become a sacrifice to God a spectacle to Angels and men in a bitter reproachful death inflicted by the Sacrilegious hands of those whom he was all this while designing to save The amazed soul now sees into the bottom of this design understands why it self was not made a prey to Divine revenge whence it was that it perish't not in its enmity against God that he was not provoked by the obstinacy of its disobedience and malice of its unbelief beyond the possibility of an atonement why he so long suffered its injurious neglects of him and unkind repulses of a merciful Saviour and perswaded till at last he overcame made the averse heart yield the careless disaffected soul cry out Where is my God now a Christ or I perish All this is now resolved into love And the adoring soul sees how well the effects agree to their cause and are owned by it Nothing but heaven it self that gives the sense can give the notion of this pleasure 4. Nor will the glory of holiness be less resplendent that great Attribute which even in a remote descent from its original is frequently mentioned with the adjunct of beauties What loveliness will those beauties add to this blessed face Not here to insist which is besides my purpose upon the various notions of holiness Real holiness Scripture states in purity an alienation from sin 't is set in opposition to all filthiness to all moral impurity and in that notion it best agrees to God and comprehends his righteousness and veracity and indeed whatever we can conceive in him under the notion of a moral excellency This may therefore be styl'd a transcendental attribute that as it were runs through the rest and casts a glory upon every one 'T is an attribute of attributes Those are fit predications holy power holy truth holy love c. And so it is the very lustre and glory of his other perfections He is glorious in holiness Hence in matters of greatest moment he is sometimes brought in Swearing by his holiness which he is not wont to do by any one single attribute as though it were a fuller expression of himself an adaequalior conceptus than any of the rest What is of so great account with him will not be of least account with his holy ones when they appear in his glorious presence Their own holiness is a conformity to his the likeness of it And as their beholding it forms them into that likeness so that likeness makes them capable of beholding it with pleasure Divine holiness doth now more ravish than affright This hath been the language of sinful dust Who can stand before this holy God when holiness hath appeared arm'd with terrors guarded with flames and the Divine Majesty been represented as a consuming fire Such apprehensions sin and guilt naturally beget The sinners of Sion were afraid But so far as the new man is put on created after God and they who were darkness are made light in the Lord he is not under any notion more acceptable to them than as he is the holy one They love his Law because holy and love each other because holy and hate themselves because they are no more so Holiness hath still a pleasing aspect when they find it in an Ordinance meet it in a Sabbath every glimpse of it is lovely But with what triumphs hath the holiness of God himself been celebrated even by Saints on earth Who is a God like unto thee glorious in holiness There is none holy as the Lord for there is none besides thee Sing unto the Lord all ye Saints of his and give thanks at the remembrance of his holiness What thoughts will they have of it when their eyes can behold that glory when they immediately look on the archetypal holiness of which their own is but the image and can view that glorious pattern they were so long in framing to How joyfully will they then fall in with the rest of the heavenly hoast and joyn in the same adoration and praise in the same acclamation and triumphant song holy holy holy Lord God of Sabaoth How unconceiveable is the pleasure of this sight when the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the first pulchritude the original beauty offers it self to view
here to be understood by it which indeed sleeping would more aptly signifie than awaking but what is co-incident therewith in the same period the exuscitation and revival of the soul. When the body falls asleep then doth the Spirit awake and the eye-lids of the morning even of an eternal day do now first open upon it 1. Therefore we shall not exclude from this season the introductive state of blessedness which takes its beginning from the blessed souls first entrance into the invisible state And the fitness of admitting it will appear by clearing these two things 1. That its condition in this life even at the best is in some sort but a sleep 2. That when it passes out of it into the invisible Regions 't is truly said to awake 1. It s abode in this mortal body is but a continual sleep its senses are bound up a drowsie slumber possesses and suspends all its faculties and powers Before the renovating change how frequently doth the Scripture speak of sinners as men a sleep Let not us sleep as do others Awake thou that sleepest and stand up from the dead c. They are in a dead sleep under the sleep of death They apprehend things as men asleep How slight obscure hovering notions have they of the most momentous things and which it most concerns them to have thorough real apprehensions of All their thoughts of God Christ Heaven Hell of Sin of Holiness are but uncertain wild guesses blind hallucinations incoherent phansies the absurdity and inconcinnity whereof they no more reflect upon then men asleep They know not these things but only dream of them They put darkness for light and light for darkness have no senses exercised to discern between good and evil The most substantial realities are with them meer shadowes and chemaera's Phansied and imagined dangers startle them as 't is wont to be with men in a dream real ones though never so near them they as little fear as they The creature of their own imagination the Lion in the way which they dream of in their slothful slumber affrights them but the real roaring Lion that is ready to devour them they are not afraid of And conversion doth but relax and intermit it doth not totally break of this sleep It as it were attenuates the consopiting fumes doth not utterly dispel them What a difficulty is it to watch but one hour There are some lucid and vivid intervals but of how short continuance how soon doth the awakened soul close its heavy eyes and fall asleep again how often do temptations surprize even such in their slumbring fits while no sense of their danger can prevail with them to watch and pray with due care and constancy least they enter thereinto Hither are most of the sins of our lives to be imputed and referr'd not to meer ignorance that we know not sin from duty or what will please God and what displease him but to a drowsie inadvertency that we keep not our spirits in a watchful considering posture Our eyes that should be ever towards the Lord will not be kept open and though we resolve we forget our selves before we are aware we find our selves overtaken Sleep comes on upon us like an armed man and we cannot avert it How often do we hear and read and pray and meditate as persons asleep as if we knew not what we were about How remarkable useful providences escape either our notice or due improvement amidst our secure slumbers How many Visits from heaven are lost to us when we are as it were between sleeping and waking I sleep but my heart waketh and hardly own the voice that calls upon us till our beloved hath withdrawn himself Indeed what is the whole of our life here but a dream The entire scene of this sensible world but a vision of the night where every man walks but in a vain shew where we are mockt with shadows our credulous sense abus'd by impostures and delusive appearances nor are we ever secure from the most destructive mischievous deception further than as our souls are possest with the apprehensions that this is the very truth of our case and thence instructed to consider and not to prefer the shadows of time before the great realities of eternity Nor is this sleep casual but even connatural to our present state the necessary result of so strict an union and commerce with the body which is to the in-dwelling Spirit as a dormitory or charnel-house rather than a mansion A soul drench't in sensuality a Leâ—â—e that hath too little of fiction in it and immur'd in a sloathful putid slesh sleeps as it were by fate not by chance and is only capable of full relief by suffering a Dissolution which it hath reason to welcome as a jubilee and in the instant of departure to sacrifice as he did with that easie and warrantable change to make a Heathen expression Scriptural Jehovae liberatori to adore and praise its great Deliverer At least accounts being once made up and a meetness in any measure attained for the heavenly inheritance c. hath no reason to regret or dread the approaches of the eternal day more than we do the return of the Sun after a dark and long-some night But as the sluggard doth nothing more unwillingly than forsake his bed nor bears any thing with more regret than to be awak't out of his sweet sleep though you should intice him with the pleasures of a Paradise to quit a smoky loathsome Cottage so fares it with the sluggish soul as if it were lodg'd in an inchanted Bed 't is so fast held by the charms of the body all the glory of the other world is little enough to tempt it out than which there is not a more deplorable Symptome of this sluggish slumbring state So deep an oblivion which you know is also naturally incident to sleep hath seiz'd it of its own Countrey of its alliances above its relation to the Father and world of Spirits It takes this earth for its home where 't is both in exile and captivity at once And as a Prince stoln away in his infancy and bred up in a beggers shed so little seeks that it declines a better state This is the degenerous torpid disposition of a soul lost in flesh and inwrapt in stupifying clay which hath been deeply resented by some Heathens So one brings in Socrates pathetically bewailing this oblivious dreaming temper of his soul which saith he had seen that pulchritude you must pardon him here the conceit of its pre-existence that neither humane voice could utter nor eye behold But that now in this life it had only some little remembrance thereof as in a dream being both in respect of place and condition far removed from so pleasant sights prest down into an earthly station and there encompast with all manner of dirt and filthiness c. And to the same purpose Plato often speaks
in the name of the same person and particularly of the winged stati of the good soul when apart from the body carried in its triumphant flying Chariot of which he gives a large description somewhat resembling Solomons rapturous Metaphor Before I was aware my soul made me as the Chariots of Aminnadib But being in the body 't is with it as with a Bird that hath lost its wings it falls a sluggish weight to the earth Which indeed is the state even of the best in a degree within this Tabernacle A sleepy torpose stops their flight They can fall but not ascend the remaines of such a drowsiness do still hang even about Saints themselves The Apostle therefore calls upon such to awake out of sleep from that consideration as we know men are not wont to sleep so intensely towards morning that now their salvation was nearer then when they believed i. e. as some judicious Interpreters understand that place for that they were nearer death and eternity than when they first became Christians though this passage be also otherwise and not improbably interpreted However 2. The holy souls release and dismission from its earthly body which is that we propounded next to be considered will excusse and shake off this drowsie sleep Now is the happy Season of its awaking into the heavenly vital light of God The blessed morning of that long desired day is now dawned upon it the cumbersome night-vail is laid aside and the garments of salvation and immortal glory are now put on It hath past through the trouble darkness of a wearisome night and now is joy arrived with the morning as we may be permitted to allude to those words of the Psalmist though that be not supposed to be the peculiar sense I conceive my self here not concern'd operously to insist in proving that the souls of Saints sleep not in the interval between death and the general resurrection but enjoy present blessedness It being besides the design of a practical discourse which rather intends the propounding and improvement of things acknowledg'd and agree'd for the advantage and benefit of them with whom they are so then the discussing of things dubious and controversible And what I here propound in order to a consequent improvement and application should methinks pass for an acknowledg'd truth among them that professedly believe and seriously read and consider the Bible For meer Philosophers that do not come into this account 't were impertinent to discourse with them from a Text of Scripture and where my design only obliges me to intend the handling of that and to deliver it from what may fitly be supposed to have its ground there unless their allegations did carry with them the Species of demonstrating the simple impossibility of what is asserted thence to the power of that God whose word we take it to be which I have not found any thing they say to amount to That we have reason to presume it an acknowledged thing among them that will be concluded by Scripture That the Soul doth not sleep when it ceases to animate its earthly body many plain Texts do evince which are amassed together by the reverend Mr. Baxter some of the principal whereof I would invite any that waver in this matter seriously to consider As the words of our Saviour to the Thief on the Cross. This day shalt thou be with me in Paradise That of the Apostle We are willing rather to be absent from the body and present with the Lord. And that I am in a straight having a desire to depart and to be with Christ. That passage The Spirits of just men made perfect c. Which are expressions so clear that it is hard for an industrious Caviller to find what to except to them and indeed the very exceptions that are put in are so frivolous that they carry a plain confession there is nothing colourable to be said Yea and most evident it is from those Texts not only that holy souls sleep not in that state of separation but that they are awaked by it as out of a former sleep into a much more lively and vigorous activity than they enjoyed before And translated into a state as much better then their former as the tortures of a Cross are more ungrateful then the pleasures of a Paradise these joyes fuller of vitalitie then those sickly dying faintings As the immediate presence and close imbraces of the Lord of life are more delectable then a mournful disconsolate absence from him which the Apostle therefore tells us he desired as far better and with an Emphasis which our English too faintly expresses for he uses a double comparative 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 by much more better and as a perfected i. e a crowned triumphant Spirit that hath attained the end of its race as the words import in the agonistical notion is now in a more vivid joyous state then when lately toyling in a tiresome way it languished under many imperfections And it is observable that in the three former Scriptures that phrase of being with Christ or being present with him is the same which is used by the Apostle 1 Thes. 4. 17. to express the state of blessedness after the resurrection intimating plainly the sameness of the blessedness before and after And though this phrase be also used to signiâ—ie the present injoyment saints have of Gods gracious presence in this life which is also in nature and kind the same yet it is plainly used in these Scriptures the two latter more especially to set out to us such a degree of that blessedness that in comparison thereof our present being with Christ is a not being with him our presence with him now an absence from him While we are at home in the body we are absent from the Lord and I am in a strait betwixt two desiring to depart or having a desire unto desolution and to be with Christ c. How strangely mistaken and disappointed had the blessed Apostle been had his absence from the body his dissolution his release set him further off from Christ or made him less capable of converse with him then before he was And how absurd would it be to say the spirits of the just are perfected by being cast into a stupifying sleep yea or being put into any state not better then they were in before But their state is evidently far better The body of death is now laid aside and the wights of sin that did so easily beset are shaken off flesh and sin are laid down together the soul is rid of its burdensome bands and shackles hath quitted its filthy darksome prison the usual place of lasiness and sloth is come forth of it's drowsie dormitory and the glory of God is risen upon it 'T is now come into the world of realities where things appear as they are no longer as in a drean or vision of the night
the Divine will and Law is that I mainly intend at present By such a necessity also they are excluded who by Gods rule according to which the supreme judgment must be managed shall be found unrighteous Those that come not up to the tearms of the Gospel Covenant never accepted the offers nor submitted to the commands of it And that hence consequently are unrelated to Christ and ununited to him no way capable of advantage by his most perfect and all-sufficient righteousness that alone fully answers all the exâ—ctions and demands of the Covenant of Works and so who are at last found unrighteous by the Old Law and the New the Law both of the Creatour and Redeemer too There is the same necessity these should be excluded as that God should be just and true The word is gone forth of his mouth in righteousness and cannot return He did not dâ—lly with sinners when he settled those constitutions whence this necessity results He is not a man that he should lye nor the Son of mâ—n that he should repent An Heathen understood so much of the nature of God I have thought sometimes with much wonder of the stupid folly of unsanctified hearts they are even confounded in their own wishes and would have in order to their security they know not what Were the question faithfully put to the very heart of such a one what wouldest thou have done in order to thy eternal safety from divine wrath and vengeance would not the answer be O that God would recall those severe constitutions he hath made and not insist â—o strictly on what be hath required in the Gospel in order to the salvation on of sinners But foolish wretch dost thou know what thou sayst wouldst thou have God repeal the Gospel that thou mayest be the more secure in what a case art thou then Hast thou no hope if the Gospel stand in force what hope wilt thou have if it do not Must the hopes of all the world be ruin'd to establish thine and yet leave them involv'd in the common ruine too What but the Gospel gives the least hope to Apostate sinners There is now hope for thee in the Gospel promise if thou return to God Let the wicked forsake his way and the unrighteous man his thoughts and let him turn to the Lord and he will have mercy upon him and to our God and he will abundantly pardon But take away the Gospel and where art thou Were it possible for thee to repent and become a new man what settles the connexion between Repentance and Salvation but the Gospel-promise Will the violated Law of works accept thy Repentance instead of Obedience Doth it not expresly preclude any such expectation Doth it give any ground to look for any thing but death after sin Thou must therefore flye to the Gospel or yield thy self lost and know it contains none but faithful and true sayings that have more stability in them than the foundations of heaven and earth Therefore expect nothing to be altered for thy sake The Gospel-constitution was settled long before thou wast born Thou com'st too late with thy Exceptions if thou hadst any against it Remember therefore this is one of the unalterable determinations of this Gospel without holiness thou shalt never see God or which amounts to the same thou canst not behold his face but in righteousness There is no word in all the Bible of more certain truth than this In this also how apt are sinners foolishly to intangle themselves The Gospel is true and to be believed till they meet with something that crosses them and goes against the hair and then they hope it is not so But vain man if once thou shake the truth of God what wilt thou stay thy self upon Is God true when he promises and is he not as true when he threatens if that be a true saying Sâ—y to the righteous it shall be well with him is not that as much to be regarded wo to the wicked it shall be ill with him The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon him and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon him Are not these of equal authority If thou hadst any reason to hope thou mayest be happy though thou never be righteous is there not as much reason to fear thou might'st be miserable though thou be since the one is as much against the slat express word of God as the other Let not thy love to sin betray thee out of all Religion and thy wits together Wherein wilt thou believe one upon the bare value of his word that will lie to thee in any thing Yea and as it is the same authority that is affronted in every command whence disobedience to one is a breach of all so is the same veracity denyed in every truth and the disbelief of one belies all and wilt thou believe him in any thing thou hast proclaimed a lier in every thing Therefore so little hast thou gained by disbelieving the divine revelation in this thing that thou hast brought thy self to this miserable Dilemma if the word of God be false thou hast no foundation of any Faith left thee if it be true it dooms thee to eternal banishment from his blessed face while thou remainest in thy unrighteousness It will not be thy advantage then to disbelieve this Gospel record but to consider it and take it to heart 't will prove never the lesse true at last for that thou wilt not believe it shall thy unbelief make the truth of God of none effect And if thou wouldest but reasonably consider the case methinks thou shouldest soon be convinc't Since thou acknowledgest as I suppose thee to do that there are two states of men in the other World a state of blessedness and a state of misery and two sorts of men in this World the righteous and the unrighteous Let thy reason and conscience now judge who shall be allotted to the one state and who to the other Sure if thou acknowledge a righteous Judge of all the world thou canst non think he will turn men promiscuously into Heaven or Hell at random without distinction Much less canst thou be so absurd and mad as to think all the unrighteous shall be saved and the righteous perish and then what is leâ—t thee to judge but that which I am now urging upon thee that when the righteous shall be admitted to the vision of Gods blessed face the unrighteous shall be driven forth into outer darkness It may be some here will be ready to say but to what purpose is all this they were of the same mind before and cannot think that any one would ever say the contrary Nor do I think so either but 't is one thing not to believe a conclusion to be true and another to prosess a contrary belief And one thing to believe a conclusion another to think we believe it Men often know not their own minds In practical matters 't is